Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

After roe, women are no longer free.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Peak wingnut was a lie.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

This blog will pay for itself.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

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

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Trump Bunker Open Thread: He *Thinks* He Can Barricade Himself In

Trump Bunker Open Thread: He *Thinks* He Can Barricade Himself In

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No counting chickens, etc etc, but take some consolation in the fact that the Squatter-in-Chief and all his grubby minions are currently running themselves ragged in pure pants-wetting terror…


Gracious Murphy the Trickster God, give us two months of Trump sulking & tweeting from his Marred-A-Largo retreat, followed by a resumption of his Travelling Grift Rallies to keep the remaining MAGAts busy and out of our hair!

Reader Interactions

248Comments

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    his is kind of an underrated part of all of trump’s bullshit. he very legitimately thinks he’s winning, and he’s too narcissistic and stupid to hire anyone who will tell him otherwise.

    Hard to say what the bundle of pathologies and delusions actually “knows”, but he spends all day watching TV and hate-scrolling on twitter. Someone asked him about the campaign yesterday, and he said they had all their lawyers ready to go to court. On some level, he knows he’s losing

  5. 5.

    CaseyL

    If he’s got himself, 400 people, plus his “loving” family all locked in there… two things come to mind:

    1. How soon before they start killing each other?
    2. At least having the WH impenetrable from the outside will cut down on his ability to sneak out everything inside to sell at Sotheby’s
  6. 6.

    LuciaMia

    . They’re discussing inviting roughly 400 people, a huge amount for an indoors e

    What if they gave a party and nobody came?

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    anybody have any insight into Montana? From what I understand, both the governor and senate races are neck-and-neck, with maybe a slight R lean, in a state that’s really hard to poll, and with Native communities mobilizing, including the Crow community in the eastern part of that state that owns a big coal mine and so trump has a lot of support. So…. shrug punctuation-emoji…

    ETA: And one of Gianforte’s top campaign officials just had some kind of road rage incident

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    I’m envisioning a White House version of the famous stateroom scene in A Night at the Opera.

  9. 9.

    Ken

    Drezner: I’m sure this will go splendidly.

    Vote for your favorite ending:

    1. Game of Thrones “Red Wedding”
    2. Downfall
    3. “Masque of the Red Death”
    4. Night at the Opera (thanks, dmsilev)
    5. Watchmen “You’re locked in here with me!”
    6. Write-in: ___________________________
  12. 12.

    Immanentize

    I bet Joe knows where the alternate command centers are and Trump does not.  Pentagon, various presidential retreats.  Places north south east and west.  If this happens like that, how heartily shall I laugh!

  18. 18.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Biden can set up shop elsewhere in DC while the water, power, internet, and heat is shut off at the White House, which will be surrounded with cell phone and wifi jammers.

    Should be fun.

  19. 19.

    Jinchi

    it seems equally possible he just gives up and quits.

    I’m extremely optimistic about the election, but Trump will do as much damage as possible before he leaves and he won’t leave an hour before they come to drag him off the premises.

  20. 20.

    Joe Falco

    Gracious Murphy the Trickster God, give us two months of Trump sulking & tweeting from his Marred-A-Largo retreat, followed by a resumption of his Travelling Grift Rallies to keep the remaining MAGAts busy and out of our hair!

    Between his supporters risking exposure to the elements and unwillingness to follow steps to avoid COVID-19, it’s a problem that solves itself! If only they could keep their germs and stupidity to themselves…

  21. 21.

    sdhays

    I think somewhere inside that ugly orange noggin of his, he knows he’s facing a deeply humiliating election night. As others have noted, his most recent campaign appearances have seemed like someone coming to grips with the fact that he’s really going to lose in spectacular fashion. He doesn’t think it’s close. He’s desperately hoping that the polls are wrong and things will be close enough to try a fascist gambit.

    But he knows he’s probably going to lose.

  27. 27.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: He knows he might lose.

    He also believes he should win – in the moral sense. And he’s doing what he can to weight it heavily in his direction. So he’s preparing to do whatever he needs to in order to steal it or ruin things for the people who’ve wrongfully taken from him.

    That said, a landslide would just be fantastic, if not just for Trump then for all the Trumpkins I see all over facebook.

  28. 28.

    HumboldtBlue

    frankly it would be funny as shit if biden just ran the country out of his basement for a while after ordering the marines to just cut the white house off from the outside world until trump staggers out

    That would be rather funny.

  29. 29.

    Calouste

    Ok, I kind of understand the need for the National Guard, but I’m not sure if 250 of them is enough to keep all those 400 criminals inside from escaping, and wouldn’t that normally be the duty of the police anyway?

  31. 31.

    Kent

    Trump can’t run the government even if he has the White House.

    What happens when say…Bill Barr tries to report to the Justice Department on January 21 and his key card doesn’t work anymore, his email accounts are canceled, and his cell phones are bricked?  And that of all his political appointee minions?  The civil service tech folks can do all of that from their laptops.

    Multiply that across the entire Federal government.  Their terms all expire on January 20.

  32. 32.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I’m hopeful, but I will still spend time tomorrow night exploring the idea of emigrating to Capetown.

  34. 34.

    cain

    Use eminent domain and just move into one of Trump’s properties. Demolish Mar-A-Lago unless he moves out – all kinds of fun things to do. :)

  35. 35.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Joe Falco: Once it’s no longer connected to an ongoing campaign right now I would expect lots of local governors and mayors to put the kibosh on any further rallies while the pandemic is on.

    They can cite prior bad behavior, not following through on promises to ameliorate risk, and stranding the elderly there late at night.

  37. 37.

    MisterForkbeard

    @cain: I fully support this. The Federal Government really has need for housing for unaccompanied children and refugees, right? Mar A Lago would be perfect for it.

  39. 39.

    Calouste

    @cain: The hotel in DC is more convenient, and might have fewer bugs in it, both of the electronic and the organic variety.

  41. 41.

    Joe Falco

    @cain:

    I’m a fan of transforming all Trump Towers into public housing and all his golf courses into cemeteries for those killed by COVID.

  42. 42.

    low-tech cyclist

    The White House on lockdown: A federal law enforcement source tells NBC that beginning tomorrow, crews will build a “non-scalable” fence to secure the WH complex, Ellipse and Lafayette Square.

    OK, I get why one might want to secure the White House complex, but Lafayette Square and the Ellipse are parks. Grass and trees, y’know?  Back in another lifetime, I used to take my lunch down to Lafayette Park and eat it there, watching people play chess on the tables with built-in boards.

    Why in heaven’s name would one need to ‘secure’ a frickin’ park??

  43. 43.

    Yarrow

    @CaseyL:

    plus his “loving” family all locked in there…

    Maybe Uday, Qusay and Javanka will stick around but Melania will take Barron and run. I really expect the traitor tots to be on private planes out of D.C. on Wednesday.

  44. 44.

    Calouste

    @cain: Just realized there might be a minor issue with using eminent domain, as he actually doesn’t own much of all that has his name on it. Oh well, that will teach some banks, or it’s probably laundered Russian money anyway.

  45. 45.

    Immanentize

    The thing I never understood about gated communities — or Trump’s bunker plan:

    Although people do those things to keep people out, It just makes it so easy to keep people in.

  47. 47.

    JPL

    trump is talking about cheating in PA and high level cheating.   Why not ask him what the hell he’s talking about.

  49. 49.

    dmsilev

    @HumboldtBlue: Well, they would certainly cover the ‘poorly singing Nazis’ contingent, but who steps up and cues up La Marseillaise? I guess that’s all of us collectively.

  50. 50.

    chopper

    There’s like a 50-50 chance that Trump starts straight up selling attempted coup memorabilia

    screw that, he’s gonna be auctioning off the WH china and silver.

  52. 52.

    jl

    ” it seems equally possible he just gives up and quits. ”

    Trump doesn’t like hard work, and even if the election is close, trying to overturn in court looks more and more like hard work. Partly due to early evidence that the GOP lawsuits are so ridiculous that even crooked judges find them a pain in the neck. If the election is not close it will be even harder.

    So, important for everyone to oppose Trumpster funny business vigorously, since he may well just fold.

  53. 53.

    cain

    @Joe Falco:

    That’s really evil especially if it is the first version and not the second.

    I’d like the ending of any scooby doo cartoons – when you know the guy gets carted off to jail and everybody gets a scooby snack.

  54. 54.

    low-tech cyclist

    @dmsilev:I’m envisioning a White House version of the famous stateroom scene in A Night at the Opera.

    [honk-honk] “And two hard-boiled eggs!”

  57. 57.

    cain

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Just turn off the water and electricity – allow tours into the white house. Point and laugh at the ex-president in hiding.

    Bunker boy is going to be fucked tomorrow. He’s gonna be crying in a bunker for the rest of his term.

  58. 58.

    steppy

    Joe can certainly run things from Camp David. We know the president* hasn’t been there because he hasn’t renamed it Camp Trump. Cut the power to the White House and treat it like a barricaded suspect situation.

  59. 59.

    jl

    If Trumpsters barricade themselves in the WH, US executive branch could just go back to NYC, where the first US capitol was.

    Maybe can rent some rooms in a Trump property, if we want it to be a super classy place.

  61. 61.

    Ken

    @MisterForkbeard: They can cite prior bad behavior, not following through on promises to ameliorate risk, and stranding the elderly there late at night.

    Also – if past behavior is any predictor, and I think in this case it is – failure to pay the bills.

  63. 63.

    Roger Moore

    @low-tech cyclist:

    It isn’t about wanting the parks inside the perimeter for security reasons.  It’s about wanting to close them off to the public.  If Trump loses, this would protect his fragile ego from crowds of Democrats partying and playing “Kiss Him Goodbye” at maximum volume.  If he succeeds in stealing the election, it would close those spaces off from protesters.  Parks and squares right outside the seat of government have been major rallying points in people-power revolutions, so Trump wants to preemptively seize the area so the same thing doesn’t happen to him.

  66. 66.

    counterfactual

    @Jinchi: In my dreams, Trump focusses his ire on the Republican establishment that wasn’t “loyal” enough to steal the election for him. It wouldn’t be the first time he “hurt the wrong people.”

  70. 70.

    leeleeFL

    @Jinchi: I had a vision of the Occupant getting on Air Force One and flying to Moscow, begging for asylum.  He and Snowden can be roommates.  Bastards

  72. 72.

    jl

    @Roger Moore: Good point. Only way to avoid big crowds of non-Trumpsters from going to WH to issue interesting observations and comments directed in the general direction of the president is if Trump wins big, or if the election is close and Trump doesn’t try to steal it. But probability of either of those is low.

  74. 74.

    dmsilev

    @Roger Moore: If Trump loses decisively tomorrow, every celebratory song ever written is going to get blasted at the White House at volumes more usually associated with rocket launches.

  76. 76.

    scav

    We’ll just install the locks on this side of the wall.  Hide the keys, come back in a few months after the infections have run their course — January should be good — and go from there.

  77. 77.

    dmsilev

    @leeleeFL: I still think he’ll order the flight crew to ‘take me to Moscow’ and then be very surprised to discover that Idaho is in fact subject to US jurisdiction.

  78. 78.

    Ken

    @leeleeFL: I vacillate. He really needs to be tried for whatever charges NY has queued up, but that will enrage his supporters.  If he flees to Moscow, he doesn’t suffer as much, but all but the most insane of his supporters will sheepishly deny they ever liked him.

  79. 79.

    jl

    @Immanentize: Is the Apprentice set still around? That would be super classy, and demonstrate authority of the new administration (at least by Trump standards).  Could run the executive branch out of that.

  82. 82.

    Joe Falco

    @cain:

    It’s evil, I know, but I don’t know how much more of these truly evil people in positions of power I can take.

  84. 84.

    Roger Moore

    @NotMax:

    Seriously.  Trump doesn’t want Lafayette Park to turn into the DC version of Euromaidan, Tahrir Square, or what have you.  He knows that if he tries to steal the election, people will be out in the streets protesting, and he wants to seize the advantage while he can.

  86. 86.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I was thinking of all the things trump won’t do, probably. The traditional meeting with the president-elect in the Oval Office, the tea with the spouses before inauguration (IIRC)

    exceptionally dangerous in the lame duck, though it seems equally possible he just gives up and quits.

    I hope he just goes down to Mar-A-Lago to sulk or hold a rally on Inauguration day

  88. 88.

    Roger Moore

    @Ken:

    If he flees to Moscow, he doesn’t suffer as much, but all but the most insane of his supporters will sheepishly deny they ever liked him.

    I disagree.  If he flees to Moscow, he will play the role of legitimate POTUS in exile, and Putin will happily use every propaganda organ he has to broadcast that message.  It’s one more way of sowing chaos in the US.

  91. 91.

    trnc

    @Ken: “Now yous can’t leave.” – Chazz Palmienterri in A Bronx Tale

    Spoiler alert: they leave, but not under their own power.

  98. 98.

    trnc

    @Joe Falco: I’m a fan of transforming all Trump Towers into public housing and all his golf courses into cemeteries for those killed by COVID.

    Robert E Lee, The Sequel

  99. 99.

    JoyceH

    You know, in the normal course of events, on January 20, the movers swarm around and move out the former first family and move in the incoming first family. I hope that this time they modify that; get everyone out of the WH complex and spend at least several days performing a deep cleaning and disinfecting. I’m serious. We used to talk about fumigation just as an insult to the Trumps, but now we really NEED that place disinfected.

  101. 101.

    TS (the original)

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Come to Australia. We had a ho hum election on Saturday. The good guys won. Sky News just couldn’t believe it & everyone else quietly went on with doing what they have been doing.

    Mind you – counting of postal votes not yet completed. They have 10 days after the election to be received.

  102. 102.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @CaseyL:

    Fun fact. The other day, Princess Ivanka held an outdoor rally near where I live. Around 400 people showed up. I have no frame of reference if that’s a good turnout for her. I guess Donny jr showed up last week too. I suppose Trump didn’t deem it important enough to visit the Mahoning Valley himself. I personally think he’s going to lose Mahoning AND Trumbull this time. It was the anti-Hillary vote.

  104. 104.

    RSA

    @Ken:

    Write-in: George Romero’s Day of the Dead.

    But to be honest any cannibal movie will do, given the inclinations of those who accept such an invitation.

  108. 108.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Immanentize:

    Putin is an idiot if he thought it was a brilliant idea to help put a maniac in charge of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal

  109. 109.

    Kent

    @252man: @Kent: I have a feeling that if Trump loses, Barr resigns and tries to put as much distance from Trump as possible.

    I expect the whole cabinet and most of the political appointees across the Federal government will also resign and flee.  That basically leaves nothing for him to govern.  Who do you give orders to when there is no one there except Javanka to listen to you?

    I don’t think any of it will actually happen.  I think he will go on some sort of wounded MAGA farewell tour or something and figure out new ways to grift.

    It will be “trump unshackled” or something.  He already has the McMahons to produce the whole thing.

  111. 111.

    Ken

    @FlyingToaster: Given the relationship Trump has built with the mayor and city of Washington, the city may provide the fleet of sound trucks and waive all permits and fees.

  113. 113.

    JoyceH

    @Ken: good point. A lot needs to be done, will take more than a day. The Bidens can stay at Blair House for a while.

    And BTW, unscalable wall?  Remember when Trump bragged about his unscalable border wall, and it was a fad for a while to see how quickly you could scale the wall? As I recall, they were making it in under a minute, and that sucker was thirty feet high!

  115. 115.

    Glyph2112

    I am picturing the storming the castle scene in princess bride.  Trump keeps telling them to double the guards at the gate.

  116. 116.

    Jay

    @low-tech cyclist:

    the Dumph Trash are going to trash everything they can, Immigration, the Economy, the Pandemic, the Rule of Law in the “Lame Duck Season”,

    the “Wall” is to isolate the White House from Public Protest and provide them with the Park’s amenities.

  119. 119.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Roger Moore:

    At the very least, it looks as if some of his propaganda tools are still working for Trump.

    Really? I don’t see it. I thought I read from G&T that troll activity from Russia in support of Trump was way down.

    But honestly, Putin needs to wake up and see the bigger picture; that human civilization as we know it is potentially doomed if we don’t take action to address climate change. Fucking around with some of the world’s most advanced economies isn’t going to solve that problem

  120. 120.

    Geoduck

    @steppy:  Just to get all pedantic, while he’s made no secret of the fact he hates the place, the Shiatgibbon has in fact been dragged kicking and screaming to Camp David a couple of times.

  123. 123.

    Ken

    @JoyceH: And BTW, unscalable wall?

    Yeah, it did seem like a dare.  Maybe they could leave up a section near the part for recreation, and as a memorial (“lest we forget”).  I suppose it would be an insurance nightmare.

  127. 127.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Immanentize: wow, those are some impressive numbers

    I gather Ossoff is considered the stronger D candidate, but seeing the pastor of Ebeneezer Baptist in the Senate, in a seat held by at least one passionate segregationist, would be a remarkable moment in American history.

    and the spawn of Joe Lieberman is helping slow him down

    once again, the writers have gone too far

    ETA:

    @Ken: those crack me up, I admit

    “What are you talking about?”

  128. 128.

    Jinchi

    @MisterForkbeard: Once it’s no longer connected to an ongoing campaign right now I would expect lots of local governors and mayors to put the kibosh on any further rallies while the pandemic is on.

    I thought the Republicans would push back on Trump a long time ago. They’ll ride all the way to the bottom with this guy. Mitch wants a few dozen more judges before January 20th.

  130. 130.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @TS (the original):

    We’ve missed out of a couple of trips there this year (was to be SYD and WA), and have one tentative for next.

    We’re supposed to hit Dark MoFo in Hobart in June, but that’s apparently scotched. We’ll keep SYD and Melbourne before moving on to Fiji for dives (I hope). Otherwise, it’s just Fiji.

    I love SYD, but the prices…..

  131. 131.

    David ?Booooooo!? Koch

    I’m sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the results from Dixville Notch to come in.

    You can cut the tension with a knife.

  134. 134.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @HumboldtBlue: where are you watching? MSNBC has its usual programming, with occasional shots. The musical performances look a little livelier than Springsteen’s low-key acoustic set four years ago

  135. 135.

    Ken

    @Jinchi: Mitch wants a few dozen more judges before January 20th.

    He’s assuming Trump will have any interest in nominating anyone. I think it’s more likely he gets angry at McConnell, especially since it’s likely McConnell wins his election.  Or goes and sulks in Mar-a-Lago, making it a little difficult to keep up the pretense that he’s been making these nominations.

  137. 137.

    Mallard Filmore

    @Immanentize:

     

    I am beginning to think that Putin wants Trump gone as much as we do. Russia is not advancing in the Trump world.

    While it is true that Russia did not get much with Trump as President, they could certainly stir up much trouble with Trump as an exiled “true” President. It depends on how much Putin thinks he can work with Biden.

  138. 138.

    David ?Booooooo!? Koch

    Act Blue dropped another money bomb today – $22 million dollars.   Just amazing.

  141. 141.

    jl

    @Immanentize: “Not Biden’s style.  Pits at the brickyard (Indy 500) would be more likely.  And cool too.”

    Biden could run it from a couple of contractor’s style pick-up trucks, with clipboards scattered around and pile of paperwork on the dashboard, some boxes full of reports, and some shrinkpacks of bottled water in the back. Biden would be the big boss and do his work from an old refurbished corvette.

  144. 144.

    Elizabelle

    Joe Biden:  “Folks, I have a feeling we are coming together for a big win tomorrow.”

    “Unions built the middle class.”

  145. 145.

    Miss Bianca

    @Winston: Gosh, it’s almost like getting the ecstasy of Election Night without getting the agony!//

    May it fall out exactly as the Drunken Irishman prognosticates!

  150. 150.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    ABC News @ABC ·6h
    Barack Obama criticizes GA Sens. Loeffler, Perdue: “They downplayed the pandemic in public, and in private, they’re trying to see if they can profit from it…I promise you, Georgia was definitely not on their mind.”

    Good on him

  157. 157.

    sdhays

    There was some note of how some rural counties in Pennsylvania were not even going to open their mail-in ballots until November 4. That’s not going to be good for Dumpy Dump:

    JUST IN:
    Montgomery County –one of PA’s largest — says it will begin counting mail-in ballots at 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning and continue counting 24/7 until all votes are tallied. pic.twitter.com/o3vPWLHT3P

    — Avi Wolfman-Arent (@Avi_WA) November 2, 2020

     

    Also of note, MontCo says it will begin to release mail-in ballot results at 8:30 pm on election night.

    MontCo voters requested 274k mail-in ballots…so far about 80% have been returned
    — Avi Wolfman-Arent (@Avi_WA) November 2, 2020

    Seems pretty unlikely that Dump is going to be leading in Pennsylvania by the end of November 3rd. There’s goes the “STOP COUNTING! STOP COUNTING!!111!1!” plan…

  159. 159.

    Jinchi

    @Immanentize: Remember after the blue wave in 2018,  when Trump had a fit and shut down the government trying to get Democrats to pay for his wall? McConnell, Ryan and the rest of the Republican party were happy to go along, even though Trump had been a disaster for them politically.

    The US has a lot of hostages that they think are worth ransoming.

  163. 163.

    Roger Moore

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Putin is an idiot if he thought it was a brilliant idea to help put a maniac in charge of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal

    Putin seems like he is smart at tactics but lacks any real guiding strategy.  I don’t think he really had any idea of what would happen if Trump won.  He was able to exploit Trump quite a bit, but he didn’t really think through the bigger implications of putting someone like Trump in charge of the US.  In particular, I don’t think he really thought through what would happen if Trump was voted out in 2020; he’s made us much, much angrier at him that we would be if he had limited his attempts to influence other countries to his near neighbors.

  164. 164.

    Jeffro

    so much energy on the Democratic side!  it’s amazing

    If Biden manages to grab Ohio and/or Texas I swear, I’m going to flip the eff out (and email my dad and bro every 15 minutes until they cry ‘uncle’…actually wait, I’m going to make them cry ‘Hunter’)

    LOL

    Here we go, peeps!

  167. 167.

    kindness

    Funny that Trump thinks people are going to scale the walls and invade the White House or something.  The man is certifiable.

  171. 171.

    Obvious Russian Troll

    @Jinchi:

    Putin has also put himself in a position where (if Trump does not win) the US and other countries are more likely to add sanctions than to lift existing sanctions.

    Yeah, he can laugh over how he suckered us but he hasn’t been able to do all that much with it.

  172. 172.

    Gravenstone

    @low-tech cyclist: Never know when he might be moved to need another pointless and fucked up photo op. Better if he doesn’t have to tear gas innocents out of the way first.

  176. 176.

    VOR

    @sdhays: I wonder if they will flip to “keep the count going so we can get late arriving military votes” or some other group perceived to be leaning Republican. It would be amusing to see the 180 degree turn.

    Trump’s superpower is his complete lack of shame.

  177. 177.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Hamill one is… kinda weird.

    Actually it’s hilariously ironic, absently balloting was started by the Republicans during The Civil War so the military vote could be counted.

  178. 178.

    Comrade Colette

    @Ken: Huh, I thought it was usually about 20 old white (mostly) guys, 18 of whom would always vote R. I could update my data set, or I could decide it’s already gotten a century’s more attention than it ever deserved and memory-hole it again.

  179. 179.

    Gravenstone

    @252man: Rottsa ruck there, fat man. Billy boy is long overdue his comeuppance, starting with his guiding the strategic pardons that kept Bush the Elder out of prison.

  180. 180.

    Steeplejack

    @schrodingers_cat:

    No Twitter account. I’m voting tomorrow. Boxed myself in because the early-voting lines never got short in my area and I couldn’t motivate myself to get in line. But nothing motivates like a last-minute deadline!

    My usual voting place is only two blocks from my rooms in Threadkill Lane, and I’ll try to hit it early in the morning.

  183. 183.

    sdhays

    @VOR: I could see them arguing one thing in one state and the exact opposite in another. But I also expect things to be so clearly not going their way in far too many states that they decide the work would be too hard and give up fast.

    Follow through is not one of Dump’ (or his shitty hires’) strengths.

  184. 184.

    geg6

    @Comrade Colette:

    Me too.  Some hickville New England town with about three people in it pulls a stunt for attention every presidential election and media dutifully run up there and give them all of it they could possibly wish.  It’s beyond a joke now and I am beyond viewing politics as a joke at this point.

  185. 185.

    Ken

    @Comrade Colette: You’re right about the demographics, but the population’s been declining.  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.

    So if I understand that correctly, they now have 5 people, all of whom are election officials.

  186. 186.

    opiejeanne

    @CaseyL: The first thing that came to mind when I heard about the party moving to the White was that he would serve everyone poison in some form,  maybe in the wine, if it’s obvious that he has lost tomorrow night. A Borgia-like taking care of people who were not loyal enough.

  190. 190.

    Luciamia

    At 10 SNL will air some of their classic political skits. Hope they include the Clinton/Bush/Perot debate. One for the ages.

  192. 192.

    J R in WV

    @schrodingers_cat:

    @Baud: It sad, pathetic and enraging all at the same time.

    BTW have you guys taken my poll?

    So, I took a swing at it, but evidently you have to be a member of Twit, and logged in. I voted early in person with  my wife early last week. We actually had to wait in line for 15 or 20 minutes, which was a first in our rural county.

    We went to the county seat, as i had some business to doat the court house anyway.

    Obviously I voted a straight Democratic ticket, although I had to mark each race individually, unlike the “good ol’ days” when you could check the top of the ballot for your party and be done. Still, only took a few minutes to finish.

    I am a yellow dog Democrat!

  194. 194.

    cain

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    What a great anecdote. This man deserves to be President. But more than that – I can now understand why there was such a great friendship between Obama and Biden. Biden is a real, living, loving person. The two of them are probably the most perfect pair.

  197. 197.

    different-church-lady

    Mentally steeling myself in case the worst happens tomorrow. I guess I’ll just be more astonished than despondent, because the shock of knowing so many more of my fellow country-people are horrible than I believed four years ago has worn off.

  198. 198.

    The Moar You Know

     

    Vote for your favorite ending:

    1. Game of Thrones “Red Wedding”

    2. Downfall

    3. “Masque of the Red Death”

    4. Night at the Opera (thanks, dmsilev)

    5. Watchmen “You’re locked in here with me!”

    6. Write-in: ___________________________

    @Ken: “Red Wedding” was the most brutal thing I ever saw on TV.  Or movies, for that matter.  It was so hard to watch I thought I was going to get sick.

    So.  Let’s go with that one.

  203. 203.

    RobertB

    @J R in WV: When I was  in school in WV I saw a scale model of a mechanical voting machine.  I seem to recall big switches you could use to vote a straight party ticket.

    Fast forward to now, and none of the digital machines I’ve been voting on here for 30 years have had the option to vote a straight party ticket.

  204. 204.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Steeplejack: I hope your wait is short. You should join Twitter its pretty cool. I became a part of a cool project via Twitter, I translated and transcribed a part of a short documentary about Dr. Ambedkar embracing Buddhism along with thousands of his followers on the banks of river Nag.

  206. 206.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Like Maureen Dowd, I sometimes forget that Tom Friedman exists

    Nicholas Miller @Nick_L_Miller · 26m
    Tom Friedman is on CNN right now saying the best case scenario is Biden winning and Republicans holding the senate so both will be forced to compromise.
    LOL.

    Ali Zaslav @alizaslav 10h
    McConnell at his final campaign rally in KY: “You might have missed that I picked last Monday night for a special reason. For a special reason. It was Hillary Clinton’s birthday,” he said to crowd cheers. “It was the least we could do for her on her birthday.”

    Biden doesn’t drink! How can he have McConnell over for a bourbon like TipandRonnie!

  207. 207.

    Kent

    @RobertB:

    @J R in WV: When I was  in school in WV I saw a scale model of a mechanical voting machine.  I seem to recall big switches you could use to vote a straight party ticket.

    Fast forward to now, and none of the digital machines I’ve been voting on here for 30 years have had the option to vote a straight party ticket.

    They still had that option in Texas the last time I voted there.  Dems wanted to get rid of it because it made it hard for Dems lower on the ballot to ever win on their own merits.

  208. 208.

    Mary G

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m like you. I follow a lot of people on twitter, half political and half art, archeologists, historians, scientists, and many animal accounts. I don’t get into long back and forths, and I block everyone who even looks at me sideways. It’s a pleasant experience.

  209. 209.

    Ken

    @RobertB: none of the digital machines I’ve been voting on here for 30 years have had the option to vote a straight party ticket.

    As I understand it, that’s often because of state election law.  Certain people don’t want to make it easy to vote a straight ticket, and it slows down the whole process.

    Besides, in a few special cases – the Georgia special election, and anywhere with a jungle primary – there may be multiple candidates from each party.

  210. 210.

    prostratedragon

    @The Moar You Know: I’m familiar only with “Masque of the Red Death” and A NIght at the Opera, but recall that Ran was kind of an all-is-lost mess at the end, like its model King Lear. And of course the current occupant is determined to make the White House into Dunsinane, as if the fence could keep out Birnham Wood.

  211. 211.

    ballerat

    @low-tech cyclist: He’s going to go full banana republic and is anticipating there will be massive protests so he’s denying them protest spaces nearest the White House.

    I know, that won’t stop the protests but it’s all about optics. If Fox news can’t show those spaces packed with protestors with the White House in the background, then it doesn’t exist for him. Or his followers. The White House is not beleaguered. He is not surrounded by protesters. His claim is therefore not being contested and is therefore legit.

    All reports of massive protests elsewhere will be dismissed as fake news. They will show us instead a serene normal looking White House in a long shot from inside the fence. No one is protesting Trump, see? America loves Trump!

    It’s pitched to his followers, as is everthing this president has done.

    It’s moronically stupid with the unsophistication of the immature and childlike, but that’s right in his followers’ wheelhouse. They want to believe.

    His followers will absolutely believe it. And his base is what he will use to try to remain president.

  212. 212.

    Kent

    @Ken: When I lived in Waco we had some good very centrist and competent local officials who were Dems.  People like the local DA and Clerks.

    During the tea party red wave in 2010 or 2012 they were all swept aside by lizard brain Republicans voting straight part ticket without even looking at the lower spots on the ballot.  Some insanely stupid and incompetent GOP idiots rode into office as a result.

    The insanely stupid local DA who was swept into office by straight party voting over a popular Dem incumbent was the one who utterly and completely botched the prosecution of all those Motorcycle gangs that shot up a suburban Waco restaurant a couple years later and made the national news:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Waco_shootou

    Since then I haven’t been a fan of straight-party voting.

  214. 214.

    Yarrow

    @Kent:  Voting straight ticket is no longer an option in Texas starting this year. Well, you can do it, but you have to select each candidate individually. No straight ticket option.

  216. 216.

    Ken

    @Kent: I stand corrected. My assumption was because the last couple of times I heard of a party removing straight-ticket voting, it was the Republicans and comments said it was to make voting more difficult.

  217. 217.

    Ken

    @Mary G: Anxiety index: the entire Ben and Jerry’s freezer at the grocery store is empty.

    That could just be from the breakdown of supply chains and the end of civil society.

  220. 220.

    Kristine

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Ali Zaslav @alizaslav 10h
    McConnell at his final campaign rally in KY: “You might have missed that I picked last Monday night for a special reason. For a special reason. It was Hillary Clinton’s birthday,” he said to crowd cheers. “It was the least we could do for her on her birthday.”

    I want Biden to rebalance the SC just to stuff that remark down that rancid bastard’s throat.

  221. 221.

    LeftCoastYankee

    Last night I dreamt Trump burned the WH down.  I was very agitated that I woke up before I could see if he ran first or was still inside.

    In in “post-dream” mode I was very annoyed at the show-runners for such a lame cliff-hanger….

    Stupid Brain.

  223. 223.

    artem1s

    @cain:

    Demolish Mar-A-Lago unless he moves out –

    Biden should seize every Trump property the Secret Service had to pay to stay in and turn them all into memorials for COVID dead.  Kind of like when Lincoln seized Lee’s home for Arlington Cemetery.

  229. 229.

    Kay

    Will Jordan
    @williamjordann
    · 13m
    the RCP average for PA now entirely excludes this weekend’s 1800 interview NYT/Siena poll, for some reason.
    (Trafalgar finished fieldwork the same day or earlier and is included, along with Insider Advantage and Susquehanna, two other GOP-aligned pollsters)

    I think people know RCP is Right-leaning but they’ve been ridiculous the last 2 weeks. Another casualty of Donald Trump. Just put them on the trash heap with the rest.

  232. 232.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: it’s getting a lot of pushback on twitter, FWIW

    Daniel W. Drezner @dandrezner
    Trump could squeak by Biden tomorrow night, and certainly he has a chance, but a lot of the polls in the simple RCP average are total crap and Biden’s lead is being underestimated by those who rely on it.

  237. 237.

    Tehanu

    Ronald Reagan, that creep, tore out the solar panels that Jimmy Carter had put in as soon as he moved into the White House.  If Biden wins and doesn’t tear down all the extra* fencing and barricades that Dump has erected this year, I’ll be deeply disappointed in him.

    *A reasonable fence is fine; heck, they had one 50 years ago when I used to walk past every day on my way to work (summer intern). But this bunker crap is, um, crap.

    @piratedan: wondering when the Ents will show up to redirect the Potomac to clean the place out…..

    Can’t happen soon enough!

  240. 240.

    Dan B

    @Ken: A woman I met has built low income housing.  She’s having trouble with supply chain issues for her current projects.

  243. 243.

    Torrey

    @schrodingers_cat: Good music is good music. Speaking for myself, I enjoy it whether or not I understand the words. (And I really enjoyed that song. A mood lifter in a tense time.)

  245. 245.

    Richard

    @Baud: idaho is partly under jurisdiction of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, id est the Mormons. I go to the weddings, i go to the funerals, i shop at the stores.

    I don’t expect them to believe as i do, and i expect the same courtesy.

    Whether they like it or not , Idaho is part of the United States of America.

  247. 247.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @David ?Booooooo!? Koch: Hereunder, just for the hell of it, a “Road to Mandalay” parody, from Mad magazine, ca. 1960:

     By the old Two-Dollar Window
    Looking eastward to the track,
    There’s a strong arm goon a-waiting
    In the hope that I’ll be back,
    For I owe him quite a bundle
    And he cried out loud and shrill,
    “Man, if you don’t want a fracture,
    Stay away from Louisville!”

    Stay away from Louisville,
    Home of horse and moonshine still –
    Hop a freight to Butte or Pittsburgh,
    Anyplace but Louisville!
    On the Road to Louisville,
    Where the gangsters shoot to kill
    And the thugs come up like thunder
    When you owe the Mob a bill!

    (Google tells me it’s from Mad #51, Dec 1959. Couldn’t find a copy of the actual verse though, so paraphrased from memory after 60 years…!)

    We now return you to your irregular deprogramming…

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