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You are here: Home / Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Scrapping for Every Vote

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Scrapping for Every Vote

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254Comments

  1. 1.

    TS (the original)

    MJ has decided the race is very close. He doesn’t believe any polls. Watch him next week say

    I told you this would be a trump wipeout

  3. 3.

    Anne Laurie

    @Baud: From the article:

    … The fundamental problem for Trump is that the states where he has had a consistent lead — Alaska, Montana, Utah — generally offer fewer electoral votes than the ones where Biden has consistently led. States where Trump has consistently led have an average of 6.9 electoral votes. States where Biden’s consistently led average 12 electoral votes. Now multiply those values by the number of states, and you see the situation.
    Or, if you don’t, let’s be explicit. The states that are solid for Biden offer 182 electoral votes. Those where Biden has always led — call them the ceiling states — offer another 152. That’s 334 electoral votes alone, more than the 270 needed to win…

    Mr. Bump is saying that Biden has better odds than some Democrats fear / Trump cultists want to believe.  Because MATH! (which, TBH, I don’t pretend to understand, myself.)

  4. 4.

    JPL

    @Baud: Yesterday Bump tweeted that a former VP was going to endorse Biden, and indicated it was Cheney.   He was joking, so I lost faith in his tweets..

  5. 5.

    AJ

    I love you all* (mostly).

    Continuing to wrestle with depression, this place and all of you give me so much solace.

    I know I don’t comment much or keep track and reply if people reply to my comments, but in case anyone needs to hear that, I’m really glad you’re here.

  6. 6.

    gkoutnik

    @Baud: I’m glad I wasn’t the only one.  Read yesterday that Trump’s path includes winning states where he has never led, but this may be different.

    Man, we twist ourselves into knots these last few days!

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Non blech duty for this early AM: I have to head into STL and go to the hall where I will sign up for a 2nd pension. I had no idea this would happen. When I switched from inside to outside I saw my first 3 or 4 years of pension contributions disappear.

    Shrugged my shoulders and said, “Oh well. I’m making more money now.” and forgot about it.

    Then a couple weeks ago I got a 2nd set of papers for a different pension. It ain’t much but every little bit helps.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    Not that it is indicative of anything but am mildly curious to see whether Dixville Notch results are a shutout.

  9. 9.

    WereBear

    Just when I started to feel a little better about the freakin’ Electoral College, the prospect of them stealing it in the courts surfaced.

    And we still have the Holiday Season from Heck to get through…

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @AJ: I love you all* (mostly).

    Awww shucks, you didn’t forget me. ;-)

    Depression sucks, I’ve been dealing with it all my life. Sorry you are too.

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    So, the way I figure it, blacksmith, you owe me five dollars for the whiskey and $75 for the horse.

    That’s the $80.

  20. 20.

    Steeplejack

    @AJ:

    Keep the faith! Not going to tell you to buck up, because that is maddening to someone coping with depression. This is a very stressful time. Do what you can to take care of yourself, take time out, and also just breathe.

  32. 32.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    Since this is an open thread…

    If anybody is working on a book, I’ve found three good ways to edit.  One is to go through and change the perspective.  If you’re writing in the third person, go through and change it to the first.  If you wrote in the first, go through and change it to the third.  The next is to change the tense.  If you wrote it in the past tense, change it to the present, and vercy visa.  The last is to load your story into one of those online readers and listen to it.

    You’ll pick up a lot of niggling little mistakes doing any one of those.

  34. 34.

    TS (the original)

    @Baud:

    My own thoughts about MJ – but I’m fairly sure he said that some time ago. Be happy to be wrong. Every vote counts.

  36. 36.

    JPL

    There are trees down on some of the highways in the Atlanta area.   Oh joy!    I don’t have high hopes that my power will be restored soon, with so many outages in the area.  The freezer is full and my son brought over a bag of ice yesterday for my cooler, so I should be able to save my fridge items also.  Tropical Storm in Atlanta and possible snow storm in the Boston area.   Global warming sucks.

  38. 38.

    Quinerly

    @Baud: MJ/Joe S is very much voting for Biden. I actually think he has already voted.

    He is fretting over the polls this AM.

  39. 39.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    There have been more than a few photos on my FB feed of elderly people standing in line to vote. That’s my parents’ generation, and I know they’d both be in line too if they were still alive. My Trump-supporting family members seem to have forgotten how they were raised. It’s probably wrong to want to beat anyone over the head with dead people, but I would like to anyway.

  41. 41.

    TS (the original)

    @mrmoshpotato:

    No argument from me – I only recently tuned in again & don’t manage to stay the distance most days.

    Joe resigned from congress almost 20 years ago & still talks about the wonderful things he did when there. Another reason I tune out.

  43. 43.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    I think he is really, really a Republican at heart, and the thought of a bona fide Democratic landslide scares him. But he is aware enough that it kills him to see what the Republican Party has become. (He probably fantasizes about the genteel, patrician Republicans from the 1960s.) This morning he sounds like he can’t resist sour-grapes-ing the coming Dem victory.

  44. 44.

    JPL

    @rikyrah: The AJC said their debate yesterday was quite something   All Perdue has is that Ossoff is a communist or something like that.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    Politico has an article up that Biden is likely to lose Florida because Trump is doing better with the Latino vote.  They have the same right to vote for Trump as anyone else, of course, but it’s disappointing given Trump’s racism.

    I hope enough seniors show up for Biden to compensate.

  47. 47.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie:

    It’s probably wrong to want to beat anyone over the head with dead people 

    Really one of those things you can’t know until you try it.

  48. 48.

    Quinerly

    @rikyrah: we are good. JoJo las Orejas is celebrating his one year birthday today. Hard to believe we have been back from NM over 7 months. He’s a very sweet puppy and a big bed hog now that it’s colder… Teething was tough but that’s been behind us for months now. Thanks for asking. Have a good day.

  49. 49.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    I wouldn’t be so sure. It’s sounded to me like Trump has the Cuban vote, but hasn’t necessarily locked up the others.

  50. 50.

    JPL

    @debbie: Yup.   The ground is already saturated, and pines tend to have shallow roots, so it’s not unusual for strong winds to cause them to fall.

  54. 54.

    TS (the original)

    @Quinerly:  Not sure I believe what he says about voting – (I don’t doubt you heard him say it).  I would need to see the ballot. With all that carry on this am about  not believing the polls – he wants it to be close.

  55. 55.

    debbie

    @Steeplejack:

    My youngest brother was like that during Schiavo (“I am a man without a party”), but he’s all in for Trump now. It’s money over principles now, sadly.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    Morning Joe doesn’t really have many “guests,” unless it’s someone promoting a book or an event. They have a mostly unchanging stable of commenters, of whom even the Republican ones are somewhat palatable, e.g., Susan Del Percio, Michael Steele, some other guy whose name I can never remember because his opinions are immediately forgettable. You’ll never see any foaming-at-the-mouth conservatives on there.

  57. 57.

    Baud

    @debbie:

    Reading further, the article is based on a single poll, and other polls show Biden doing better, although not as well as Hillary.

  61. 61.

    Mousebumples

    Evan Scrimshaw (@EScrimshaw) tweeted at 6:53 AM on Wed, Oct 28, 2020:

    For @LeanTossup: “my god, you can quibble between a 17% and a 10%, but the proper analogy is either Nero as Rome burned or the band continuing to play as the Titanic sank. Whatever the metaphor, the GOP are fucked.” https://t.co/IVQQY5oIdX

    (https://twitter.com/EScrimshaw/status/1321419832781344771?s=03)

    This includes a link to a poll based analysis column. (i actually went looking for his recent one on Florida but haven’t found it yet.)

    Of course, as I’ve seen all over Twitter, polls don’t vote, so make sure you do what you can to make these polls reality.

    I know most of us are hard at work doing GOTV, but I’m not taking anything for granted this time around.

  62. 62.

    JPL

    Ossoff     “It’s not just that you’re a crook, senator. It’s that you’re attacking the health of the people that you represent. You did say Covid-19 was no deadlier than the flu. You did say there would be no significant uptick in cases.

    Sounds like it was a great debate..

  64. 64.

    Ohio Mom

    AJ @5:

    May I suggest you do what I did, many years ago, and tell your primary-care doc you need help?

    Modern antidepressants are effective and safe — well, as safe as any medicine can be, and much safer than being depressed all the time; depressed people generally do not take good care of themselves or manage daily activities optimally. These things have their own dangers.

    You deserve your best life. Make it possible for yourself! And keep us posted.

  67. 67.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Steeplejack:

    But he is aware enough that it kills him to see what the Republican Party has become. 

    ??????

    So you’re saying Joey Joe Joe Scarborough has pulled his head out of his ass after 40 years and is shocked that the Republican party is full of Republicans? (h/t Driftglass)

  69. 69.

    Quinerly

    @rikyrah: I caught that on TV after it happened. Morning Joe just replayed it (I’m listening so don’t know if he played the awkward tape) Joe said he would have 2 words for Trump if he did that to him. Second word is “off.”

  70. 70.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    Do you think using 2016 as a yardstick is really even relevant? I’m not sure it is, but I’m just a schlub reading stuff.

  72. 72.

    hueyplong

    I must have been away when we decided that we give a shit what Morning Joe Scarborough thinks about, well, anything.

  74. 74.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @rikyrah: Married for 82 years. At my Uncle Tony and Aunt Betty’s 50th somebody asked Tony if he’d ever thought of divorce.

    “Divorce? Nah, murder on the other hand…”

  76. 76.

    Baud

    @debbie:

    Ultimately state polls are what they are and how the demographics shake out is irrelevant in the election.  But if we’ve tapped out on the Latino vote, that tells us something about where we need to put our efforts in the future. We’ll see how it shakes out.

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    @Baud
    Reports from Miami-Dade are inconclusive at this point.

    With one week to go before Nov. 3, Florida has already surpassed its pre-Election Day voting totals from 2016.

    On Tuesday, as voters continued streaming into early voting sites and elections officials tallied new mail ballots, the state blew past the 2016 total of about 6.6 million votes cast before Election Day, thanks in large part to a record 3.9 million mail ballots processed so far. A total of almost 6.8 million ballots had been cast in Florida by late Tuesday.

    But while statewide turnout has been impressive, turnout in Miami-Dade County — among Democrats in particular — has been lagging somewhat. Entering Tuesday, about 45% of all registered voters in Florida had cast ballots, including 51% of Democrats, 46% of Republicans and 34% of independents, according to the U.S. Elections Project.

    In Miami-Dade, where mail ballots went out on the last possible day, the turnout was less than 46% of registered voters Tuesday, state data shows. That includes 52% of Republicans, 47% of Democrats and 37% of independents.

    Democrats still had about an 80,000-vote advantage over Republicans in Florida’s largest county, where about 41% of all registered voters are Democrats versus 27% Republicans. But experts say Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will need a substantial margin of victory in Miami-Dade to ultimately win Florida and potentially sink President Trump’s chances at reelection. Source

    Also, interesting precis of military absentee voting.

  80. 80.

    Mousebumples

    southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) tweeted at 0:33 AM on Thu, Oct 29, 2020:

    Justice Kavanaugh quietly concedes one error (of the many that exist) in his Wisconsin election opinion after getting publicly owned by the State of Vermont. https://t.co/vKadsQSa9U

    (https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1321686454062514176?s=03)

    southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) tweeted at 0:40 AM on Thu, Oct 29, 2020:

    Kavanaugh did that thing where he tried simply to make the change look minimal in the document rather than reflecting on and reworking his language to actually account for the screw up—even though everyone watching could see clearly he messed up in a big way. https://t.co/FQcq4mcAAb

    It’s a 3 Tweet thread but I only posted 2 abd tried to cut down on the links to not get in trouble with the spam filter. ?

  84. 84.

    Quinerly

    @JPL: he is spoiled rotten. Knows no other life. Sometimes I look at him like, “where did you come from?” I have always had these older rescue dogs that had a “history”… Life on the streets background. JoJo has only known luxury since he left the Puppy Patch at the spa in Santa Fe. I may have created a monster. ?

  85. 85.

    TS (the original)

    @NotMax:

    In Miami-Dade, where mail ballots went out on the last possible day,

    Presumably this was by design not accident.

  86. 86.

    Morzer

    @AJ: You hang in there, AJ. We are going to win this thing – bigly. Take care of yourself and be ready to enjoy the fall of the Orange Abomination.

  87. 87.

    trnc

    Rebuild and expand the defenses that Trump has dismantled to predict, prevent, and mitigate pandemic threats, including those coming from China.

    • Immediately restore the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, which was established by the Obama-Biden Administration and eliminated by the Trump Administration in 2018.

    I found this pretty easily on the Biden Harris covid page. I wish stories about their covid plan would feature this more prominently.

  88. 88.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Quinerly: Are the polls saying anything different than they’ve said for weeks? I don’t see any dramatic shift.

    At this point, Trump winning requires either the polls being far further off than they were in 2016, or a 2016-sized miss combined with judicial/executive fuckery in multiple states at the same time, or judicial/executive fuckery so extreme that even people paying very little attention to politics will recognize it as a naked coup. I’m not ruling any of these out. But we’re not looking at a squeaker right now.

  89. 89.

    Anne Laurie

    @NotMax: Not that it is indicative of anything but am mildly curious to see whether Dixville Notch results are a shutout.

    Too zonked to look it up now, but I thought Dixville Notch had lost its coveted ‘first in the nation’ status after too many of the last remaining dozen voters moved away?

  93. 93.

    mrmoshpotato

    @rikyrah: “The President has been impeached. That’s a pretty big lesson.”

    May Mainers send a lesson in pack-up-your-office to Suzy.

  94. 94.

    Quinerly

    @mrmoshpotato: that’s all they have got. Screaming Communist. (Yes, I get out of the boat once in awhile and look at on line comments in various local newspapers). The other big thing is conspiracy based articles from that crazy Association of American Physicians and Surgery….and articles advocating for herd immunity from the AAPS.

  95. 95.

    Baud

    I’ll also be interested in seeing whether there will be a significant number of Republican cross over votes for Joe after all the efforts at outreach.

  96. 96.

    VOR

    @hueyplong:  Morning Joe gave Trump a huge amount of airtime in 2015-16. He let Trump call in regularly, didn’t even require an in-person appearance.

  97. 97.

    NotMax

    @Anne Laurie

    Wikipedia:

    In 2019, the community was at risk of losing its ability to conduct its own election and having to combine with another municipality for voting, as its population had been reduced to four people, one too few to hold all the positions needed to conduct an election in New Hampshire. However, Dixville Notch received a reprieve before the primary when a fifth person (Les Otten, developer of The Balsams) agreed to move there in time for the election.

    They performed the whole ‘first’ shtick for the primary earlier this year.

  99. 99.

    Steeplejack

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I think Scarborough’s vision is blurred by a bit of golden nostalgia. He regularly brings up his glory days in the House (big deal—three terms from 1997 to 2001) and sort of glosses over how the GOP got from there (already infected but not ragingly symptomatic) to now (full zombie apocalypse).

  100. 100.

    raven

    I’m having mobility issues and prolonged sitting makes it worse. When I retired I had a veridesk from work that I gave to a colleague because they wouldn’t get one for her. Last week I was thinking how I’d like to have one to help with my issues. There was no way I would have asked for it back but we were chatting yesterday and out of the blue she said “do you want the desk back, it doesn’t work for me?”  Eureka !

  101. 101.

    Kay

    The Trump appointee who steered a $300 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign to “defeat despair” about the coronavirus privately pitched a different theme last month: “Helping the President will Help the Country.”
    That proposal, which came in a meeting between Trump administration officials and campaign contractors, is among documents obtained by the House Oversight Committee that further illustrate how political considerations shaped the massive campaign as officials rushed to get public service announcements on the air before Election Day. The committee shared the documents with POLITICO, which first detailed the campaign in a series of reports last month.
    For instance, contractors vetted at least 274 potential celebrity contributors for their stances on gay rights, gun control and the 2016 election before allowing them to participate in the campaign. One promised public service announcement, which would have also featured infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, was nixed because the celebrity who was set to participate with Fauci had been critical of President Donald Trump, according to documents.

    We were spared a lot of horrible things because they’re all incompetent and never met deadlines. A lot of times the career employees could just wait them out.

  103. 103.

    trnc

    @Mousebumples: Bart’s opinion now: “One state has changed it’s election rules based on the pandemic. By contrast, another state changed it’s election rules based on the pandemic. This supports my solid reasoning that states should not make any changes that might lead to more democratic votes.”

    “Fuck, that was a lot of work. It’s Miller time.”

  104. 104.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    For instance, contractors vetted at least 274 potential celebrity contributors for their stances on gay rights, gun control and the 2016 election before allowing them to participate in the campaign

    I want this information.

     

    ETA: It’s in the article.

    For instance, actor Zach Galifianakis was flagged because he “refused to host President Trump on talk show.” Director and performer Judd Apatow “believes Trump does not have the intellectual capacity to run as President, want[s] him to be removed out of office in 2020,” read another line item.
    At least 22 other performers were flagged for their previous support of former President Barack Obama. Singer Adam Levine was labeled a “liberal democrat who supported Obama and fights for gay rights”; singer Christina Aguilera “is an Obama-supporting Democrat and a gay-rights supporting liberal.”
    Some celebrities were flagged for policy stances unrelated to the president. The document lists actress “Julianna Moore [sic.]” as a “Liberal Democrat, pro-choicer, LGBT rights supporter, gun control campaigner.”

  108. 108.

    Quinerly

    @Matt McIrvin: I think MJ is on edge. He truly hates Trump. (Please understand I’m not a fan but I started listening to parts of the show about a year ago. Still can’t stand to actually look at him).

    I started having a funny feeling about the election yesterday. All the problems with the mail in ballots, plus people not returning them. Fortunatel,  I haven’t had the feeling that overwhelmed me in 2016 around noon election day that Trump was going to win. I am a bit worried, though. More so this week than a month ago.

  112. 112.

    TS (the original)

    From ElectoralVote

    Biden also spent time in Georgia this week campaigning for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, who are contesting Senate seats there. Of course, just appearing in Georgia helps him as well, in this new swing state. Meanwhile, his wife was off in Maine stumping for Sara Gideon.

    Compare that to trump not campaigning for Martha McSally – linked by  @rikyrah:

  115. 115.

    Kay

    @Quinerly:

    Both the House district polling and the generic ballot polling support the Presidential polling. They’re going to need more than the 6 Trump votes on the supreme court.

  117. 117.

    Quinerly

    @mrmoshpotato: he even buries his head under pillows and snorts. (most cold natured dog I have ever had and we have only been in low 40’s, no hard frost yet)

  118. 118.

    mrmoshpotato

    @VOR: Morning Joe and Mika tried to out verbal-tongue-bath each other on the phone with Dump.

    (Not sorry at all.)

  120. 120.

    JPL

    @Baud: In Arizona, Flake’s endorsement might convince some to crossover and vote for Joe.   McSally could be toast after being mocked by trump.

  122. 122.

    Baud

    @Quinerly:

    The consequences are bigger for us than the other side, and we have the memory of 2016.  It’s human to feel nervous.  Plus, the media will play it up for eyeballs, so that compounds the problem.

  126. 126.

    Kay

    I would be in favor of packing the court based just on their actions the last 2 weeks. Imagine putting up with this nonsense every four years- it won’t end with Trump. Every four years these 6 Republican justices are going to try to throw elections to the Republicans.

    The public shouldn’t have to put up with that. They’ve already massively over-reached and they barely have the newest Trump justice.

  127. 127.

    David ?Booooooo!? Koch

    @Baud: it read like Tricky Dick’s enemies list, where Groucho Marx, Steve McQueen and Joe Namath were persona non grata.

  128. 128.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: The Latino vote is notoriously difficult to poll in Florida. It’ll be a lot closer than it ought to be, but I believe we’re going to win the state and probably a majority of Latino votes too.

  129. 129.

    TS (the original)

    @Quinerly:

    Read some of the posts from Kay. She explains the legality of what can/cannot be done. It’s calmed me down in regard to what is happening.

    Postal votes are what they are. Fortunately enough people realised what trump has done to the post & are returning their votes early, or in other ways than the post – or voting in person.

  130. 130.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I think it’s genuinely difficult to poll Latinos because of the various ways they self-identify. That’s then compounded because they try to split them up into sub-groups, which means smaller samples w/in an already unreliable sample. That this is the only polling they now use to keep Trump in it is telling, I think. It’s the only group they have left- the maybe Latino group-  and it’s the least reliable polling.

  131. 131.

    Quinerly

    @Baud: I felt so confident when I voted in 2016. Left the neighborhood and went to Trader Joe’s. As I was pushing the cart out, I kid you not.  Had this overwhelming feeling that seemed to come out of the blue that Trump was going to win. I can be superstitious. Certainly ain’t going to TJ’s Tues.

  132. 132.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I don’t think anyone questions we’ll win a “majority.” Like with the black vote, it’s a question  of how high the turnout is to offset the white Republican vote.   But I’m happy to hear your optimistic assessment.

  134. 134.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: I don’t understand that last tweet.

    My takeaway was, “never have Philip Bump write a word problem for you.”

    A state where one candidate has always been under 45% is obviously a state where the other candidate has always been leading in the polls.

    So the 20 states are a subset of the 27 states.

    But that’s not what Bump meant; he meant that they’re two *different* and presumably non-overlapping groups of states, even though that’s not what he *said*.  But that only becomes clear after you’ve read it three times, and you realize there’s no other way it makes sense.

  135. 135.

    Matt McIrvin

    I personally think the situation in Florida is too rigged, messed-up and generally weird for us to count on it. But a lot of the talk lately has been acting as if the election will hinge on Florida, and there’s no indication of that.

    Part of the effect of the Supreme Court behaving alarmingly and Trump openly talking about stealing the election is that it raises the bar: everyone gets used to the idea that just winning isn’t enough; the Democrats have to be ahead on election night with most of the votes not even counted yet, or they have to win without multiple states where they are actually well ahead in all polling, or whatever. So every single state feels like the crack of doom. We get all these articles like the one in 538, “is Biden toast if he loses Pennsylvania?” when Biden is 5-6 points ahead in Pennsylvania.

  137. 137.

    Quinerly

    @TS (the original): I get it. But I did watch Rachel last night and was alarmed.

    I still can’t understand how this is even a contest. But, then again, I know no Trump supporters personally.

  140. 140.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I also think they’re comparing polling for Biden with exit polling for Clinton.  But with both Florida and Texas, the consensus seems to be that the Latino vote is softer for Biden than it was for Clinton, but Biden is doing better among whites.

    If that ends up being true, it’s just remarkable because of Trump’s immense vitriol toward Latinos.

  141. 141.

    JoyceH

    On Morning Joe they talked about Trump “mocking” California’s mask mandate, but I saw that clip and I didn’t think he was kidding. Sounded to me like he actually believes that CA requires you to wear a mask all the time, even while eating. I wondered if someone had shown him that comic video of the guy wearing two masks and thought it was a real thing.

  146. 146.

    NotMax

    @TS (the original)

    And true to form they effed up effing up the Post Office to the point that people became abundantly aware of what was happening (and pushed back/adjusted planning accordingly).

    Had DeJoy held off until September we’d really be in deep doo-doo.

  147. 147.

    Steeplejack

    @Quinerly:

    Better check to see if it’s open. The Penzeys near me was closed for a while, then “reopened” but with curbside pickup only.

  148. 148.

    Mary G

    @Kay: Yep, they have earned a monster smackdown for enabling Trump, along with all the autocratic anti-democracy stunts they are trying to pull. If we just slap their hands, they’ll find a better candidate like Josh Hawley, who you know has been taking notes.

  150. 150.

    Baud

    @JoyceH:

    One thing Trump is legitimately good at is that he has a sort of comedic timing to his speech when he’s in front of a crowd.  It can make it difficult to assess whether he’s “joking.” It also ends up making the horrific stuff he says somewhat disarming to people are aren’t paying attention.

  155. 155.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kay: If a Democratically controlled Senate does not expand and then pack SCOTUS, we’re screwed. This must be a priority for Democrats.

  157. 157.

    TS (the original)

    @Quinerly:

    I still can’t understand how this is even a contest.

    I am with you there. Thousands of people are left to freeze in the middle of an airport with no transport to their cars – half of them probably had no idea where their cars were …

    230,000+ people have died in a pandemic, the numbers are getting worse every day because trump found it all too hard to get a team together than knew about such things and could contain a virus …

    Senate republicans refuse to pass a bill to provide financial help to people living in pauper conditions because of covid-19 …

    and they still vote for trump. It is a cult, that hopefully will fade away when enough of them get sick, die or face the reality of what he has done.

  158. 158.

    John S.

    @Baud: Older Cubans still vote straight Republican. Younger Cubans do not. Many of the folks from South America (e.g. Colombia and Venezuela) will likely go for Trump, which is bitterly ironic since many of them left strongman regimes. Brazilians here in Florida typically break strongly for the Democrats. But there’s a whole bunch of displaced Puerto Ricans here in the Orlando area, and they are definitely not voting for Trump.

    The problem with the polls on this is there is no such thing as a “latino” which has a common cultural or ideological identity.

    ETA: What @Kay: said.

  159. 159.

    JPL

    It’s a mess outside.    From what I can tell though, no trees are down, but several small limbs in the road.   I just cleaned up the ones near me.  I’m shocked that the backup battery for the internet is still connected.  It’s over three hours now.

  160. 160.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @rikyrah: What a guy. He’s all party loyalty, that Trump.

    One of the funnier parts of that is that if McSally loses, Mark Kelly is in the Senate as of Nov 30 because that’s a special election. So one less Senate vote for anything Trump wants.

  161. 161.

    Kay

    @Mary G:

    I think they’ve already shown that there’s not going to be any attempt to moderate in response to a loss that indicates their views are minority views. This push to throw out votes is really aggressive. The “humility” we were promised is not there.

    I’d still prefer 18 year terms to expansion because I think the 18 year term will address the issue where they believe they own the seat, personally, but term limits aren’t as popular as expansion.

  163. 163.

    mali muso

    Good morning, jackals!  Watched that video of Ossof just laying out Perdue’s bigotry without any holds barred.  You can almost see the shriveled up remains of a soul leaving Perdue’s body. lol

    That’s worth another sheckel to the Ossof fund!

  165. 165.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    One thing Trump is legitimately good at is that he has a sort of comedic timing to his speech when he’s in front of a crowd. 

    What?  His speech patterns are like he doesn’t understand English-language sentence structure and has never heard English spoken before.  And that’s not just when’s he’s being a shouty shitstain at his fascist trash rallies.

  166. 166.

    JPL

    @Kay: What surprised even more than McBath’s win, was that Betty Price lost her seat as state representative.   She’s running again so one can only hope she loses again.    She’s Tom Price’s wife and her views are homophobic to say it kindly.

  167. 167.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): I’ve done the POV switch for a chapter, usually because I’m having a hard time getting into a character’s head, and I’ve done it for the whole book because I intended to leave it the second way. But for a whole book edit? Wow. That’s a lot of work.

    I spoke to a community college class about writing last night. I had a good time. I have no idea if they did. It was via Blackboard, and they all left their cameras off, so for all I know, most of them left.

  172. 172.

    Baud

    @John S.:

    The problem with the polls on this is there is no such thing as a “latino” which has a common cultural or ideological identity

    Yet Dem and progressive Latinos talk about the Latinos vote as a group all the time.  Something has to change if that’s the wrong way to look at things.

  173. 173.

    mali muso

    @Kay: Yeah, I’m trying to temper my expectations, but hoping that GA voters are mobilizing in force to confront the ridiculous suppression machine.  It would be pretty sweet to pull off the win there, not only for Biden but for the Senate races.

  176. 176.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Term limits are a long term solution. Expansion is an immediate solution.  Immediate solutions are always more popular.

  178. 178.

    Kathleen

    @Steeplejack: My opinion FWIW is that most TV pundits are hacks who repeat CW to be seen as cool and savvy or willingly support Rethug fascism. How accurate was he in predicting 2018? I don’t watch him for reasons listed above  so I don’t know. I don’t trust most of them.

  180. 180.

    Geminid

    @JPL: I think McSally was toast already, but the gratuitous humiliation inflicted by trump probably stung some. But I doubt if it surprised her. McSally may be hanging out with the wrong crowd, but she’s not stupid, and knows trump is a misogynist whose loyalty is to himself only.      The night before in Omaha, trump gave a perfunctory shout out to Joni Ernst, sitting in the audience. He did not invite her onto the stage, even though there was a (male) Iowa congressional candidate up there, with a speaking role.

  183. 183.

    rp

    I keep thinking about the vote totals. 130 million people voted in 2016, and I’ve seen estimates that 150 million are expected to vote this year. What percentage of those extra 20 million votes will go to Trump? Maybe I’m being pollyannaish, but I just can’t see a scenario where he gets more than a 15-20%.

    66 million votes for Clinton + 16 million additional votes = 82 million votes for Biden.

    63 million votes for Trump + 3 million additional = 66 million votes for Trump.

    2 million third party

    Biden wins  55-44

  184. 184.

    Quinerly

    @Betty Cracker: I have cocooned myself. Live in a city, plus a historic district that originally was brought back by urban pioneering hippies.? Have yet to see a Trump sign (the two from 2016 stayed up until Trump’s reported remarks about the military… Both signs came down that day). I haven’t been back to NC since Jan. Knew plenty of Trump supporters there but had the great fortune of  selling my family’s beach place in March just as getting back from NM and when things were shutting down. I was in a fight sided with 2 older couples I have known since I was 17 against the HOA. Both couples were strong Trump supporters but the fight kept us bonded and off politics. One couple dumped Trump early on over Covid, around April. I don’t know where the other couple stands now. She sent me a picture of him with his new MAGA hat Memorial Day weekend. I went off. Told her exactly how I felt and blocked her emails, texts, FB. Fuck them. I am pretty sure she wasn’t expecting such a volatile response. To me this has become a values and morality issue. I guess I’m lucky that I can burn bridges. Got that trait from my mother.

  185. 185.

    Gin & Tonic

    @lowtechcyclist:

    A state where one candidate has always been under 45% is obviously a state where the other candidate has always been leading in the polls.

    No, they could both be at 44% with 12% undecided or unwilling to state a preference.

  186. 186.

    Betty Cracker

    @Quinerly: I don’t voluntarily socialize with any Cult 45 members, but my family is unfortunately about half and half. It sucks. Oh well, at least Thanksgiving won’t be an issue since there won’t BE a proper Thanksgiving.

  187. 187.

    MazeDancer

    @JPL: 

    Such an amazing debate.

    Who knew Jon Ossoff had those same knife skills as Mayor Pete. Someone on Twitter said it was like a West Wing script come life. It was.

    Purdue came across like a white guy stuffed human replicant, funeral director, golf hound.

    Ossoff felt like someone who cared about his fellow Georgians so much he would kill for them. And did, repeatedly, on Live TV.

    ICYMI (sorry, linking doesn’t work) :https://twitter.com/fifthhousesun/status/1321698636905009152?s=21

  188. 188.

    Nicole

    My sister-in-law, a self-identified conservative, emailed last night to let her 3 Democratic-voting sisters-in-law (I have 3 brothers, so 3 sisters-in-law), that she’s voting for the Democrat for President for the first time ever.  AND she’s in Pennsylvania, so it actually matters a lot more than mine and my two other sisters-in-law, as none of us live in swing states (two blue, one red).

    That was a nice email to get.

  189. 189.

    Ohio Mom

    Raven:

    My contrarian experiences with plantar fasciitis and a trigger finger is that they both got better on their own, slowly, when I stopped trying to stretch so hard every day. I was aggravating the injuries.

    After things on the soles of my feet subsided, I took up leg stretches again and that has been a good preventative. When I slack off, I can tell I’m heading for trouble.

    I gave up on the finger exercises completely though, mainly because I was tired of finding theraputty stains all over the place, and also, the cortisone shots seemed to work. I’ve learned to live with the sporadic finger locks, but of course they are not overwhelmingly painful as those burning soles.

  190. 190.

    Geminid

    Republican cheerleader Hugh Hewitt on his morning radio show: “David Perdue crushed Jon Ossoff last night!”         He went on to say that the latest Trafalgar national poll had Biden up by 3 points, whereas last week they had trump up by two.  “So clearly we have a lot of volatility.”  I am more detached than many, and I get some good laughs out of Hewitt.

  191. 191.

    Peale

    @mali muso: One of the important things is that a really high vote turnout in GA this cycle means that its going to be more difficult for Kemp to purge the voter rolls right before the election again.  One of the things that the GOP has been able to do rather successfully in many states is purge from the rolls the voters who registered in 2004-2008, who voted for Obama 1 time then dropped out of voting. Its far easier to purge a voter roll of “inactive” voters and claim that they’ve moved or died or whatever, because most of those voters don’t even know or care that they’ve been purged. They haven’t voted in 6 years. Much harder to make the claim that these people aren’t around when they’ve voted recently.  Don’t get me wrong. The party still needs to track down and register and reregister anyone they think might be a potential voter for them. But if we win GA this cycle, we have a better chance of throwing out Kemp.

  192. 192.

    Betty Cracker

    @Peale: That’s a great point. I’m sure Republican cheaters in other states (including mine) will be similarly hampered by high turnout in 2020.

  193. 193.

    John S.

    @Baud: Yes, and they do need to change their approach. The same is true of Asians. As that demographic continues to grow, they cannot think of them as a monolithic group either. Indians, Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. are all very distinct from one another.

    I think they tend to oversimplify demographics, or assume that other non-white voters are as easy to categorize as African Americans. And even there, they need to be cautious because there are definitely major differences to consider.

    I’m a product manager by trade, so I totally get the concept of understanding your “customer” (or in this case voter) by creating personas that help you understand how to connect with them. But that exercise should always be done at a granular level, because if you go too broad, you completely miss the mark.

  194. 194.

    davecb

    From up in Toronto, it looks rather like an extreme version of the traditional “get people to vote” contest,  with Mr Trump trying to get his voters to come out, get infected and die. Plus prevent Mr Biden’s voters from getting their votes counted.

    From over in the UK, their recent experience with the politics of brexit seems to have increased their expectation of “shenanigans” on our side of the pond (;-))

    For example, http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2020/10/countdown-to-crazy.html#comment-2105579

  197. 197.

    Mousebumples

    @Immanentize: thanks, i knew it was there somewhere. Just have a 1 year old demanding my attention from time to time. ?

    Regarding Supreme Court reform – ¿por que no los dos? (why not both?)

    I’ve also seen the suggestion that since Garland’s nomination was never withdrawn, a new Dem Senate should begin their advise and consent role on his nomination, come January.

  198. 198.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud:

    It can make it difficult to assess whether he’s “joking.”

    This is a central characteristic of modern fascists (and Sartre was famously analyzing it in the middle of last century). On YouTube they call it Schrödinger’s Asshole. Just keep saying outrageous stuff that creeps right up to the edge of being an actionable death threat, and whenever you’re called on it, back off and complain that somebody can’t take a joke.

  200. 200.

    raven

    @Ohio Mom: Yea I’m torn. The podiatrist said he may put me in a boot if nothing else works. It’s weird, it started with quad problems and then I’d struggle after walking a mile. It morphed into PF and that has stuck.

  201. 201.

    germy

    We disagree with Tucker Carlson on the issues, but no one should ever lose their mail. Joe will make sure the USPS receives the funding it needs to prevent this from happening, and end Trump and DeJoy's efforts to sabotage it so that people like Tucker can get their mail on time.

    — Biden | Harris War Room (Text JOE to 30330) (@BidenWarRoom) October 29, 2020

  204. 204.

    John S.

    @Geminid: Sure, but you can only do that AFTER you win the votes. Or do you honestly think that a person can get elected with a single message that generically appeals to a majority of people without regard for who those people actually are?

    A singular theme is fine. Going broad with your messaging fails. Every time.

  205. 205.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: I once got into an argument with a white nationalist where he started going “oh yeah, the new SA is coming to kill you and your whole family, ha ha ha.”

  208. 208.

    John S.

    @Peale: Triangulation is definitely not the same thing as segmentation. Good politicians know who they are talking to, and tailor their message to resonate with them.

    The product the voter is buying is the politician. The product itself doesn’t change even if the message calls out specific features or benefits that appeal to certain voters.

  209. 209.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I don’t have those sorts of people in my life (real or online), but if I did, I’m not sure my response would accurately be viewed as “an argument.”

  210. 210.

    Quinerly

    @Betty Cracker: I guess I’m lucky in times like this. No family. An only born of two only children. I have the luxury of cutting off people but will probably die alone. ? Hang in there. Love your posts. Thanks for such a great space.

  211. 211.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @mrmoshpotato: Gotta wonder how golden nostalgia gets into one’s bowels. ?

    Via The Enema Of The People, natch. (SATSQ)

    Do you solemnly swear to preserve and protect the Constipation Of The United States against all enemas foreign and domestic?

  212. 212.

    mrmoshpotato

    Voter’s Ballot Return Envelope was received and approved. Ballot will be counted.

    Boo to the yah!

  213. 213.

    narya

    @AJ: @OzarkHillbilly: I have had a couple of bouts of it. But I also have a very close friend who has struggled all her life with it, and that has helped me understand that there are so many manifestations of this beast. Glad you find good company here; it’s one of the very few sites I can even visit these days.

    OH–how were your tests? everything okay? If you want to share, of course.

  214. 214.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Steeplejack:  Scarborough is an infotainment personality, once sided ass beatings don’t get the ratings to sell advertisements, not to mention, Biden is famously drama free. That should be terrifying to someone like Scarborough.

  215. 215.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Betty Cracker: The Latino vote is notoriously difficult to poll in Florida everywhere.

    I’m not an expert on this by any means, but IIUC “the Latino vote” is very much not a monolith – a lot depends on where & when one’s family came to the US, and how “European” (Spanish vs Indian or mestizo) its ancestry. Generally (again IIUC) the “whiter” (i.e., more European) the forbears, the farther right the politics. (Kinda like Italian-Americans, who I do know someting about, being one: The whiter we were treated, the righter we behaved.)

    It concerns me that Democrats automatically assume that Latinos will align with them. It’s not a given – the Bushes (W and Jeb) came all too close to seducing a significant fraction into the GOP before Trumplthinskin came on the scene.

  216. 216.

    Nicole

    @Baud: Yeah, although I am VERY curious how my stepbrother (her husband) is planning to vote. I know she and my other stepbrother voted for McMullin in 2016, so Trump was a bridge too far for them even then, but holy cow, the whole idea of being “conservative” is very tied up in their sense of self-identity.

    I tried to grease the wheels a bit by commenting to her that the Democratic Party is a big tent, as any party that has room for both Joe Manchin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would have to be.

  217. 217.

    Sab

    @Betty Cracker:

     

    @Peale:

    My 96 year old dad, a registered Republican with dementia, who hasn’t voted in 10 years, is still on the voting rolls.

    He was moved into a nursing home about three years ago. We sold his house and the new owner knocked it down. I put in a change of address to my house in a different precinct, possibly a different congressional district.

    He got one of those post cards from the SoS or board of elections to confirm his new address. I ignored it.

    He is still registered to vote in an address he never registered at to begin with. If he was a Democrat they would have purged him years ago.

  218. 218.

    Baud

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    There was a time when “Asians” were more in play for the GOP also.  I agree Dems can’t assume that any group of voters will stick with us over long term (or, for that matter, that any group of voters will always be against us).

  219. 219.

    JPL

    Well I met neighbors that live behind me, since one of my trees took out their fence.    A neighbor down the street lost a big oak which fortunately didn’t hit their house

  220. 220.

    Geminid

    @John S.: Yes.  “Those people actually” are people. Most people I see want good jobs with good pay, access to good health care, the means for upward mobility and education for themselves and their children.  Regardless of skin color or the language they speak at home.  And while “Latinos” truly are a diverse group, they do have a language in common, and there are many spanish language newspapers, tv and radio outlets, and internet forums by which they can be reached. I would guess that representatives of the particular communities make the most effective pitches to these folks, but I don’t think they would mind being addressed as Americans, because that’s what they are, and they are proud of it.

  222. 222.

    Baud

    @Nicole: I’m not expert at persuading Republicans, but maybe tell them the truth: the Dems are probably not going to be as satisfying to you as a sane Republican party would be, but we’re have a lot of moderate voices and we won’t be as bad as Fox News makes us out to be. The fastest way to reform the GOP is to show them that there are consequences to embracing a person like Trump.

  225. 225.

    Aziz, light!

    @John S.: But there’s a whole bunch of displaced Puerto Ricans here in the Orlando area, and they are definitely not voting for Trump.

    From what I’ve heard, they aren’t going to turn out. Do you think that’s true?

  226. 226.

    John S.

    @Baud: Exactly, as I said up above.

    Democrats have to get better at building brand loyalty, which the GOP has done a much better job of doing.

    We need to define our addressable market, understand who our voters are and find the best way to connect with them on a personal level. And then make sure we deliver on the brand promise that got them to vote Democratic in the first place.

    The GOP can keep being successful even without having the most market share of voters as long as they can keep their fierce brand loyalty. And that’s the problem they now have on their hands, because they made Trump their brand — and that isn’t going to work in the long term.

  227. 227.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Oh my god.  First, I had to check the heading on the video to make sure that was real life and not a remake of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.

    Second, I had never seen Jon Ossoff before, very impressive.

    Third, is Jon Ossoff twelve years old?  He looks so young!

  228. 228.

    PAM Dirac

    @Matt McIrvin:

     

    Part of the effect of the Supreme Court behaving alarmingly and Trump openly talking about stealing the election is that it raises the bar: everyone gets used to the idea that just winning isn’t enough

    I think a lot of it is, just like the NYT reporting on the Clinton Foundation, just there to create a cloud of illegitimacy. They don’t want to ever have to provide solid details, they just want the cloud to hang around and make it as difficult as possible for the Ds to govern. I still say that the bigwig Rs are perfectly happy getting rid of drumpf in a way that can in no way be pinned on them, but at the same time can cloud things up for the Ds to be effective.

  229. 229.

    John S.

    @Aziz, light!: Well, it doesn’t really matter what I think — what matters is if they actually vote or not.

    But given their circumstances, I honestly cannot fathom why they wouldn’t given what a disaster Trump has been for Puerto Rico and how poorly he has treated them. I also know there are major grassroots efforts to turn them out to vote. If I were a Puerto Rican living in Orlando, I would be extremely motivated to vote. And I know quite a few who are.

    I guess we will know in a week.

  230. 230.

    Ken

    @germy: I think Carlson’s story is that they sent it FedEx, not USPS.  I’ve only heard the story second-hand, but I’m pretty sure that part wasn’t snark. Also that he claimed this was the only copy of the highly important documents.

    OTOH, I think someone was snarking when they said the documents were printed copies of photos of a cell-phone display showing emails.

  232. 232.

    Humanities Prof

    @Baud: It’s up.

    He’s been bouncing between 88 and 86 for about a week (mostly hovering at 87).

    I don’t think that reflects polling change so much as a shortening in the time horizon left before the election is over.

  233. 233.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Baud: What I’m seeing in New Mexico is that some older Hispanic traditionally Catholic males support Trump. They do not like the newer Latino arrivistes and they like the macho male bluster. Plus the precious fetuses. There’s no identification with Trump’s anti-Mexican rhetoric and policies, because they’re not Mexicans themselves. So they’re more or less low-education white men with Spanish surnames.

  234. 234.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Soprano2: Fucking Duval County … Duval was a PITA in 2000, too.

    Yeah, I remember that from when it was briefly in the news, before the focus became overwhelmingly on Palm Beach County.

    The ballot instructions said to vote on every page, but the Presidential ballot ran two pages.  So an unknown number of Presidential votes were disqualified because people voted for one party on the first page, and one party on the second page.

    And Duval destroyed the ballots right after counting them, so nobody will ever know how many votes Bush or Gore lost on account of that.

  235. 235.

    Redshift

    @Baud:

    Term limits are a long term solution. Expansion is an immediate solution.  Immediate solutions are always more popular. 

    It’s not just that term limits would take longer, it’s that we may never be able to get a constitutional amendment no matter how big we win. A solution we can actually do is better than the untold damage we’d suffer for decades while trying (and maybe not succeeding) to fix it the “right” way.

  237. 237.

    Redshift

    @Ken:

    OTOH, I think someone was snarking when they said the documents were printed copies of photos of a cell-phone display showing emails. 

    You’d think that would have to be snark, if it weren’t for the fact that their previous “smoking gun” email was exactly that…

  239. 239.

    piratedan

    @JPL: McSally was already toast, in fact, you need a knife to scrape off the burnt parts….  Although of late, she’s attempted to paint Kelly as some glamour boy (son of a law enforcement officers, yes plural) as if they give astronaut gigs to the most popular pilot.  Unsure if that tactic is taking hold, but all of the polling I’ve seen out of AZ says its not.

  240. 240.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Comprehensive Immigration Reform would seem to be an issue that focuses on “Latinos,” as a large group of the undocumented are Spanish  speakers. “DACA” would be part of this, except there would be nothing “Deferred” about granting green cards and a path to citizenship.    But when this cohort of younger workers is added to the legal work force, the resulting improvement in Social Security financing will benefit all of us.    Comprehensive Immigration Reform has passed the Senate before, only to be killed by a republican House. I hope it’s some  of the first legislation pushed through the next Congress.

  242. 242.

    Fair Economist

    @Kay:

    I would be in favor of packing the court based just on their actions the last 2 weeks. Imagine putting up with this nonsense every four years- it won’t end with Trump. Every four years these 6 Republican justices are going to try to throw elections to the Republicans.

    Totally agree, plus think about these hacks ruling on any Republican crimes, like Trump’s tax fraud.

  244. 244.

    RedDirtGirl

    @TS (the original): I think some not insignificant percentage of these folks know on some level that he is fucking things up, but cannot admit it to themselves. It would make them have to acknowledge that they are suckers.

  245. 245.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Sab: Their problem is they sent the goods by Federalist Express – and the package still hasn’t arrived because, being stuck in the 1790s, they’re still transferring the contents with quill pens onto vellum.

  246. 246.

    Fair Economist

    @Sab: Yes, Fedex loses stuff. Once I was driving along the freeway and suddenly there was a slowdown. Then I started to see all these papers flying around (the reason for the slowdown) and a couple of pieces of cardboard from packages.

    Then I passed a Fedex truck pulled over on the shoulder with its back cargo door open and a frustrated Fedex driver looking at the mess.

  247. 247.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Then a couple weeks ago I got a 2nd set of papers for a different pension. It ain’t much but every little bit helps.

    Congratulations!

    I was in the Navy briefly, got GI Bill benefits, then when I went to retire from my state IT career, those years counted in computing my pension.

    After I got out of the Navy, I worked for what was then Educational TV for 2 years. Those years also counted for my state pension. All those extra years added up to a pretty early retirement for me…

  248. 248.

    Mel

    @AJ: So glad to see your comment. Keep on keeping on, and remember that you matter tremendously , and that people here and elsewhere are in your corner.

  249. 249.

    Zelma

    @raven:

    Re the plantar fascitis, I had it bad and my doctor finally just operated and cut the damn thing.  It took a few months for my foot to adjust (it started hurting other places), but I haven’t had any foot pain since. (15 years.). Or rather, I have other kinds of foot pains but nothing as bad as when I could hardly walk.

  252. 252.

    misterpuff

    @Baud:

    One thing Trump is legitimately good at is that he has a sort of comedic timing to his speech when he’s in front of a crowd.  It can make it difficult to assess whether he’s “joking.”

    Consistantly, when I’ve had to listen to a Trump rally, I think of 60’s comedians, somewhere between a Buddy Hackett and a Bob Hope (although Hope was too smooth). I think Trump is trying for a Frank Sinatra type of effect but he needs applause lines so he goes to one liners and crowd pleasers to get the energy up. His pacing is so 60’s standup (or at least, what standup was allowed on the many variety shows that use to litter network television).

  253. 253.

    Geminid

    @Redshift: It may be that it’s loser woman stink that trump objects to. If he campaigns in North Carolina, we’ll see how trump treats Tom Tillis. Better than he treated McSally and Ernst, I’d guess.

  254. 254.

    J R in WV

    @Sab:

    @Ken: Does FedEx ever lose stuff? My former BIL is a jeweller and he sends diamonds via FedEx.

    He’s lucky then. While I was collecting minerals actively, I bought many nice rocks on the Internet, and they were most always sent via the Post Office.

    I read an article in Mineralogical Record wherein a dealer sent a high-value mineral via either UPS or FedEx, paid for a large value to be insured, and they refused to pay up when the specimen was destroyed in shipment. He settled for a fraction of his declared value just as his civil trial for damages was about to begin.

    On the other hand, the Post Office is well known to pay for damaged valuables if you declared the value before shipping.

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