Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

I really should read my own blog.

When we show up, we win.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

The lights are all blinking red.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

People are weird.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Fight them, without becoming them!

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

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

You are here: Home / Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Open Thread: Biden! Obama! Wonder!

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    I love that, during the musical bits, the ASL guy is grooving with the beat. (Scroll to about thirty or so minutes in)

  3. 3.

    Patricia Kayden

    Journalists need to ask Republican apologists about this on Sunday talk shows.

    A late-campaign addition to Trump's rally speeches is that he or someone else could easily push Biden to the ground, like Biden would fall over quickly if they tried."A slight slap. You don't have to close…your fist," he just said in Pennsylvania.— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 31, 2020

  5. 5.

    Lapassionara

    @Patricia Kayden: How about asking why Trump approved of the thuggish behavior on the interstate highway near Austin, when Trump supporters nearly drove a Biden bus off the road?

  8. 8.

    Patricia Kayden

    When Trump came to #BTV in 2016 during his first campaign, he gave out 20,000 tickets to a venue with 1,700 seats. When I asked what would happen to the people left out in the cold who came to to see him, his campaign said, "That's not our problem, let your cops handle them." https://t.co/LE9hRNeZX3— Brandon del Pozo, PhD, MPA, MA (@BrandondelPozo) November 1, 2020

  10. 10.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Lapassionara: he’s cheering them on, so is Judge Jeanine and it looks like Newt Gingrich. I can’t bring myself to watch the clip

    — it is stunning. And what’s even more stunning is what was just trending and that is there’s a Biden bus and it’s surrounded by pickup trucks on a highway all with Trump signs. I mean, it is ordinary Americans just taking this election into their own hands and — and getting out there and being real clear on what they stand for.

    You take an election into your own hands by voting, you wet-brained boozebag, not by threatening a multi-car and possibly deadly traffic event on a public highway.

  11. 11.

    piratedan

    you know what I want to see?  I want to see our local leaders standing up in places like North Carolina and reviewing the video, and if found that this kind of treatment and response is excessive (and you know it likely is, but you give due process like you’re supposed to) and if you find out that they violated protocol and procedure you fire them.  If they didn’t violate protocol and procedure, you then demand that the protocols and procedures be rewritten.

    I would prefer assaulting them with a baseball bay, stripping them down to their skivvies and then pepper spraying them with their hands cuffed behind their backs, which is why I want the aforementioned to take place because all of this shit pisses me off and I hate the fact that this shit keeps happening and the like minded people are so busy beating back national fascism that this local shit continues to fly.  I sure as hell hope that people are keeping receipts because there are some past due bills that need to be collected on this shit.

    sorry to be so pissed off about this, I really don’t like feeling this way, to the point of doing something stupid and quite possibly life altering but I am tired of watching people being bullied just because some dipshit in a uniform feels its okay to do so.

  13. 13.

    sdhays

    @Patricia Kayden: One of the things I’m really looking forward to after the election (I’m not going to entertain negative possibilities) is that we can start to just not care about his goddamn shit-talking. We’ll still need to care to some degree for the next 2.5 months because he’ll still be The Occupant, but being a loser on his way out will reduce this potential of the threat.

  14. 14.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    if only there were some prominent Republican living in Texas who could speak up about the growing insanity there that very nearly turned lethal yesterday

    ETA: the trump presidency hasn’t just revealed who he is, to borrow Mrs O’s phrase, it’s done even more to show George W Bush for what he is than his own presidency did. He is once again AWOL in the face of a clear and present danger to the American people.

  19. 19.

    sdhays

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Indeed. We talk about “No More Fucks Left” Obama, but W is “No More Shits Left”.

    I was musing while waiting in line to vote this afternoon how my first vote was for John McCain in the 2000 Republican primary. By the time my state’s primary had come around, Bill Bradley had already dropped out so there wasn’t much going on in the Democratic primary, and I already detested W, so I voted for McCain (even though it was also pretty clear by that time that McCain also wasn’t going to win the Republican nomination). So I voted against W twice that year.

    He turned out to be pretty much exactly what 18 year old me thought he was.

  20. 20.

    Yutsano

    Guys guys guys.

    I found the most ingenious way to vote.

    So my mail ballot still hasn’t arrived. I checked on the SoS website for Washington. The instruction they give is to contact the county. So I go to the county website. Their process for requesting a replacement ballot…loops back to the state website. I’m all geared up to vote in person until I notice an option that says online ballot. Curious I click on it. It bring up a process where YOU CAN COMPLETE THE FULL BALLOT ONLINE!!! The ballot is even a fillable form! I voted straight D then printed the ballot off. Tomorrow it gets signed, stuck in an envelope, and dropped in a ballot box. I’m going through this process and I’m wondering why the heck did I not know of this option until just now? I may never wait on the mail ballot ever again.

    EDIT: just added to the I Voted thread. I’ll bug WaterGirl about it tomorrow as she is most likely asleep.

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    I hope, foolishly, that the next 3 days (and the interim between Election Day and President Biden’s inauguration) are filled with media types POUNDING the trumpov camp with one simple question:

    “will you denounce, discourage, forbid violence by your supporters, no matter how aggrieved you and/or they feel?”

    Get him and them on record.  Get GOP Senators (hopefully OUTGOING ones) on record.  Make them realize that their words and actions (and lack thereof) have consequences.

  26. 26.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Aleta:

    I bet you they got a half dozen plants hanging from macrame holders they got from grandma in ’89 and they’re odd friend who’s always in the back yard actually runs a small fruitful backyard garden.

    They haven’t paid for onions or herbs in a decade.

  28. 28.

    JaySinWA

    @Jeffro: I am afraid the answer will be no. There will be no consequence to T for that answer. The consequence to the country will be bad

    I was advised once that it can be better not to ask a question if the answer may well make things worse.

  29. 29.

    SectionH

    @Yutsano: Kewl! I so love living in a state that wants people to vote. CA here, but every single voter here got a mail ballot, and it’s encouraged  ;->

  31. 31.

    Intensive Porpoises

    Long-time lurker, first time commenter. Turned in my ballot yesterday and got confirmation that it had been accepted by the county for processing (Colorado).

  32. 32.

    Peale

    @oclib: tbh. Pretty lame. No one is in costume. I mean, if you’re going out on Halloween because you just want life to be normal, at least dress up. It might be your last time.

  34. 34.

    Zelma

    I watched Barack and Joe’s speeches – again.  I just need to hear someone speak coherently!  I cannot listen to Trump.  I usually turn the sound down when they do a clip of him talking.  I thought Joe was particularly passionate in Detroit.  Which is a good thing.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    @Aleta

    Happen to have a movie with Patinkin in it running in the background (to which I’m paying intermittent attention). Okay enough premise, but one of those flicks which should be so much better than as it actually turned out.

  38. 38.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Dave Weigel, Re-Animator @daveweigel
    Seen on TV here in MN: A 15-second Biden campaign ad telling voters to turn in their ballots in person instead of mailing them.
    At least 30% of liberal panic Twitter is begging Ds to do stuff they’re doing.

    that last sentence is damn near evergreen

  39. 39.

    smike

    So these yahoo trumpers know that the secret service now has their license plates on record, right? And their (probable) illegal actions recorded, as well, right?

  40. 40.

    SectionH

    Ok, this is too long, but the tl;dr is what I said to Yutsano – it is great to live in a state that wants ppl to vote.

    We finally dropped our ballots off today. And I won’t go into reasons why we didn’t get them done sooner, let’s just say this endless season fucks with people’s heads. I love being a “permanent California voter” but somehow beyond the obvious races, I just couldn’t do the research. It’s usually satisfying, Mr S and I sitting down with dueling computers fired up and voter info at hand. But he was dragging his feet even more than I was. As it turned out, Watergirl’s posts about the CA props helped get me going – and saved me time and energy on a several of them in various ways. So again thanks, WG.

    Anyway, I managed to screw up my ballot. Really stupidly. I was going back & forth checking which Prop I was working on against what I was reading, and somehow the paper had gotten turned funny, well, upside down, tbh. I was nearly finished filling in the YES oval when I saw that was a different Prop and I’d already voted NO… 

    Well, I didn’t know if that was enough to spoil the whole ballot, or if they’d just throw out the double vote. But not only didn’t I want to take any chances, the NO on that Prop was a really hard NO. So I worried I’d probably have to wait until Monday to get a new ballot, and all that entailed, but I did go ahead and call the 858-IFCKEDUP #. I wasn’t sure I’d get anything but a recorded message on Saturday afternoon. But this is California. Barely a phone tree, no wait to get someone live, and I said, “I’m an idiot” and the nice lady was nice, and when I told her what I’d done, she said, “Oh that’s easy!” She said “Draw an arrow to the mistake vote. Label that arrow NO. Draw an arrow to the vote you meant and label that one Yes.” I was croggled at how simple that was. So I did. And then we went over to the library and dropped our ballots off. 

    Yeah, I feel guilty that my ballot’s gonna have to be counted by hand, eventually, but it still seems the best solution. If it comes down to one vote, it’ll be there. It won’t of course*, but yeah.

    I’m also glad I didn’t get too weirded out about my real NO vote being labeled Yes, and vice versa. I reckon that’s because if you somehow screw up a vote for Jones to be a vote for Smith, Yes and No make sense. It’s the juxtaposition of Yes and No on the Props that I’m not gonna think about any more.

    And then we ordered some take out pizza and got some beer (some local IPA for him, I was a hophead a in the ’90s, I don’t drink that stuff anymore) and cider (2 Towns Bright, not Julian but oh well) and we are hanging on.

    *come down to one vote, I meant.

  42. 42.

    Yutsano

    @Jeffro:  I’ll take “Things the Media Will Never Do” for $2000 Alex.

    C’mon man. You and I and the electrons between us know that this ain’t gonna happen. The media does nothing that their corporate owners don’t want them to do. And they so so want another sweet sweet tax cut.

  43. 43.

    Patricia Kayden

    If trump wasn't already blocking me I'd be reporting him to Twitter for encouraging violence by posting a tweet praising footage of those racists stalking a Biden/Harris bus in Texas.— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) November 1, 2020

  44. 44.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Chef’s kiss!

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp might not be able to vote because he’s in quarantine after close contact with U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, who tested positive for the coronavirus Friday.

    Kemp, who tested negative for the virus, has requested an absentee ballot, his spokesman said.

    But an absentee ballot requested Friday is unlikely to arrive in the mail before polls close Tuesday. Georgia law and a court ruling required all absentee ballots to be received by county election officials before 7 p.m. on Election Day.

  45. 45.

    CaseyL

    Well, here’s what I did with the little bag of Halloween candy: a “reverse” Trick or Treat.

    I poured the candy into a couple of containers, put on two masks (one for Halloween, one for Covid-19), and took a container to each of the two units in our townhouse complex where small children live.

    The families in question were very surprised, and loved it.

    It was fun, and I don’t have a whole bunch of candy in the kitchen calling my name.

  47. 47.

    SoupCatcher

    @Winston:

    If you’re not going to stand up against the Confederacy, the Klan, the Nazis, and all the others supporting Trump, then you’ll never stand up.

  48. 48.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into a Friday incident in which a group of Trump supporters, driving trucks and waving Trump flags, surrounded and followed a Biden campaign bus as it drove up I-35 in Hays County, a law enforcement official confirmed to The Texas Tribune Saturday.

    looks like local law enforcement is working very hard to not see a problem there, except one guy who says it’s the Biden team’s fault

    According to Hays County Sheriff Gary Cutler, the Biden campaign did not notify his office that it would be passing through the county to allow law enforcement to prepare for any possible confrontations. “The planning of this was questionable,” said Cutler, a Republican running for reelection on Tuesday.

  49. 49.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Patricia Kayden: Yes. Joe is the feeble candidate.

    Wasn’t there one who could barely make it down the stairs just a month or two ago? Who also struggled to lift a glass of water? Who was that, anyway?

  50. 50.

    Winston

    Today started out great. I got up and for the first time in a long time felt no pain. So I made a list; clean the kitchen, clean the bathroom,  Make coffee and put on a big pot of spaghetti. Then the announcement came over the loudspeaker in the park. “Sorry, but we have to turn off the water for a few hours.”  So I went back to sleep. When the announcement came several hours later, I got up and could hardly move. So took a couple pain pills and read the news. Fucked up my whole day. Well, tomorrow is another one, and I still have the list. Happy Halloween everyone. ?

  51. 51.

    Kristine

    Checked the Lake County IL Voter Services site again.  The ballot I mailed back on the 19th was received on the 21st, has been reviewed, and will be counted.

  53. 53.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I dropped off my ballot to the downtown ballot drop off box(lemme tell you it was a pain – wrong instructions, construction, one way streets) because I am freaking paranoid that somebody will mess with it elsewhere. This ballot box was in front of the sheriff’s downtown station and it looked like they had a deputy physically  protecting it. I’ve got two ballot drop off boxes within 5 miles of my home but I felt better about this one. Anyhow, I swing from fantasy island where Biden gets >400 electoral votes, Gym Jordan and Kevin McCarthy lose theirs seats and Dems pick up 12 Senate seats and keep Alabama to Biden losing and the GOP holding on to the Senate. I cannot handle another 4 years of Orange Dbag.

  54. 54.

    West of the Rockies

    @Intensive Porpoises:

    Welcome aboard! I like your nym.  Is the expression “for all intents and purposes” or “for all intensive purposes”?  I never really know and have said both.

  55. 55.

    Redshift

    Just got done watching the Wisconsin Dems’ latest event, a Zoom-ish production of Rocky Horror. It was fun and bizarre. A couple of the original cast, and lots of other actors and singers. They switched off performers between the scripted bits (done live, I think) and the recorded song performances. Tim Curry gamely did what he could (since he had a stroke a few years ago), and I’m glad they included him.

  56. 56.

    Mary G

    Trump can make fun of Biden for holding rallies with cars all he wants, but at least Biden supporters have a ride home.— VoteVets (Text VOTEVETS to 88424) (@votevets) October 31, 2020

  58. 58.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Redshift:

    Tim Curry gamely did what he could (since he had a stroke a few years ago),

    I hadn’t heard that. Too bad. I heard Susan Sarandon wasn’t part of it. I suppose it’s too much to hope they voted her out ? Though now that I think of it somebody told me she’s announced she’s voting for Biden

  60. 60.

    Matt McIrvin

    @SectionH: I have many beefs with the current government of Massachusetts (their COVID-19 strategy in particular), but one thing I will say for them: they want people to vote and are now pretty good at making it easy. Which is why I was able to vote weeks ago with no real hassle. One thing that did concern me was that the interior envelope of my mail ballot was completely unglued and I had to tape it shut. In a state keen on vote suppression that might have been a major mistake. But this seems to have been no impediment to getting it accepted.

    Though many of the improvements are very recent–no-excuse mail/early voting has only existed since 2016 and has only been extended to all elections this year.

  66. 66.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Ksmiami: I think our plan is Canada. I suggested New Zealand or Australia, but my wife has nixed them due to global warming and climate concerns.

    Would set up residency/citizenry and form an outpost for my entire extended family to rally around. I think only a few of us would want to live in a country that could re-elect Trump.

  68. 68.

    Calouste

    @Mai Naem mobile: Not really a problem if you’re moving there permanently, of course there’s still the two weeks quarantine. But you can move to Europe if you have cash, a half a million euros investment in real estate gets you into Portugal.

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