Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Infrastructure week. at last.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

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

No one could have predicted…

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

This really is a full service blog.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Let there be snark.

Republicans in disarray!

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

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / On This Election Day, Be Like Steve

On This Election Day, Be Like Steve

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On This Election Day, Be Like Steve

I love this cat so much. I also love his name, because it fits so perfectly and every now and then reminds me of the Tao of Steve, a very underrated movie, although it would probably be canceled today.

Speaking of things I love, I just got out of a very long, very hot shower, and I really can not say enough good things about Satby’s soaps. I am currently in love with the Gardenia. It just feels and smells so good. It’s so nice being able to do something for yourself that is so good for so cheap, and a good bar of soap, some solid lotion, and a nice pair of wool socks just does it for me.

Be good to yourself today, people.

Reader Interactions

271Comments

  7. 7.

    Miss Bianca

    Ah, yes, The Tao of Steve! I still remember that movie – mostly for the fact that the protagonist does bong hits for breakfast before going out to wrangle his kindergartners. After I started substitute teaching, I could totally grok the temptation!

  8. 8.

    MisterForkbeard

    Corrupt John Cole, shilling for Satby. What did Satby promise you, John?

    [all kidding. I’ve heard this from several people, and if my wife didn’t already have a dedicated soap person I’d have ordered a few pounds of the stuff :) ]

  9. 9.

    MisterForkbeard

    @jeffreyw: And now this image will never leave my head.

    Maybe one of our artists can make a portrait in the vein of “The Birth of Venus“, but with the dogs swarming around the sides, and Cole in the center wearing nothing but socks and an artfully placed Steve to keep our eyes from burning out.

    …I am tempted to commission this.

  10. 10.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Just walked the dogs. I’m trying not to think of John, socks only. And, as it’s the first week of the month, I have plenty of work to keep me busy today. Still won’t ease my mind, but should keep me out of trouble.

  11. 11.

    jonas

    Pretty much like our cat today. After being tuckered out from a long mid-morning snooze, it was time for a nap before heading into the hectic afternoon stretch-n-lounge period on the couch.

  12. 12.

    MomSense

    Uneventful – big turnout, but it’s chilly.  I’m thankful for wool socks, sweaters, mittens, and pants!  Definitely a pants day.

    Also too I got a call saying they wanted to deliver my dishwasher today after months of waiting.  I’m not home to receive it.  Need to see if the kid wants to manage that and the dog.

  13. 13.

    Yarrow

    I’m fielding texts and calls from freaked out friends and family. I am apparently the voice of optimism and they’re reaching out since I make them feel better, or so they tell me. I’m feeling nervous but also okay. Whatever happens will happen. I’ve got a fully stocked house and am prepared not to leave the house for at least a week if things get ugly.

  15. 15.

    catclub

    @debbie: The market’s up more than 600 points already. They must be rationally exuberant.

     

    Of course it was down last week, and they were not saying it was depressed about the upcoming election results. Headline writers for Daily stock market results are useless.

  17. 17.

    trollhattan

    @Yarrow:

    The paper has front-paged an article about local businesses covering shop windows with plywood. WTF? When did plywood ever stop a hurtling pickup truck?

  18. 18.

    Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    I second the love for Satby’s soaps.

    Working and spending time with the dogs — it’s the one-year anniversary of the home check that made Chauncey officially ours after he spent three years sharing a cage with 35 other dogs (backyard breeders suck).

    Also practicing the violin during my downtime in advance of tonight’s lesson. The screeching and wailing noises are oddly cathartic today — sometimes* there’s something to be said for playing a beautiful instrument poorly. Not sure if my teacher would agree.

    *Okay, just today.

  21. 21.

    Sab

    I promised spouse I would not talk politics at all today. His definition of politics is very broad. So when he gets up from nap we will be cleaning house, after I bash him on the head to help me send Watergirl pet pics.

  22. 22.

    burnspbesq

    I’m amusing myself by speculating about how Biden might staff the top jobs at DOJ. And listening to the new Jackie Venson album.

    ETA: I might go buy a guitar after lunch.

  23. 23.

    Amir Khalid

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Maybe one of our artists can make a portrait in the vein of “The Birth of Venus“, but with the dogs swarming around the sides, and Cole in the center wearing nothing but socks and an artfully placed Steve to keep our eyes from burning out.

    …I am tempted to commission this.

    Friends don’t let friends do this.

  24. 24.

    Yarrow

    I am going to the store to get more ice cream. I have some but not enough. Also need some grated cheese for nachos. I’m covering all the comfort food bases.

  25. 25.

    Sab

    @Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA): Since it’s winter I brung out her tea soap again. Smell is wonderful, but look is odd (cup of tea turned into soap.)

    ETA: my black granddaughter loves it. It smells wonderful, it works well as soap, and it is a lovely dark brown color same as her so she isn’t scrubbing off her color with white soap to be clean.

  26. 26.

    Aleta

    Tonight I request the precious gift of final perseverance
    shored up in my sheets

     

    -Fanny Howe (from Conclusively)

  27. 27.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Amir Khalid: You’re just jealous you didn’t think of it first.

    Maybe it goes on the back of the Balloon Juice pet calendar. Cole can have the original framed in his house, of course.

  29. 29.

    StringOnAStick

    If Kelly is around, thank you for the welcome to OR comment. There were 4 tRumpies waving flags and trying to sell merchandise on a Main Street yesterday , but this is a 100% mail in state so that’s just more R performance art. I also noticed they were getting zero takers too; ha!

    We don’t have internet yet and I won’t have my PC for another month, plus I’ve got a frantic amount of deep cleaning to do before we can use the kitchen or get the walls painted so I’m only checking in here occasionally.  Love, love, love our new home and our new town!

  32. 32.

    LeftCoastYankee

    Wow, I clicked into the comments to give props to having great comfortable wool socks, and then read the “just socks” comments.  I need some special soap for my brain now….

  33. 33.

    Sab

    @Yarrow: One thing I like about election day is we know absolutely nothing until it is over.

    Maybe I will chew the dog’s nails, since they are bigger than mine.

  34. 34.

    BR

    All I ask for is some way to block any mention of Glenn of the Walds who has now re-appeared and is spamming our world again with his nonsense on a greater level than before just so he can grab attention in time to make bank off of it.

  36. 36.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    DH was delighted to get an e-mail confirming his absentee ballot had been received and processed.   He is going to stay up and watch the results tonight, he is very anxious today.

  38. 38.

    trollhattan

    @Yarrow:

    The unspoken subtext is that “antifa!” will be amok tonight, when we know very well it’s the MAGAs who will be going apeshit, but not downtown. They’ll be out in the burbs.

  39. 39.

    piratedan

    JC, ty for the link to Satby’s Etsy site, just stocked up on some stocking stuff for the spouse

  42. 42.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    We just voted. Longest line I’ve ever seen here, but it only took about an hour. Most people were masked and keeping there distance, but there were way too many people inside the polling place. No way to maintain 6 feet in there. But we did our part and it feels good. This is historically a Republican precinct and turnout looks very good. We had about 1800 vote there in 2016. The total was about 600 when I voted just now , about 3.5 hours after they opened. More people have moved into the area in the past few years, but it didn’t look like a low turnout to me. Fingers crossed for Joe Biden and Doug Jones.

  43. 43.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    NE Ohio. Drove by my precinct polling places around 11 am. No visible lines outside and there were cars in the parking lots, coming and going. There’s 165,000 or so registered voters in the county and 67,533 of them had voted early as of yesterday, by mail and in-person. So roughly a 40% turnout already. It wouldn’t surprise me if some polling locations have a quiet night potentially. The county BOE was predicting 72-73% turnout on Sunday

  44. 44.

    BR

    @Baud:

    You can but I don’t log in to twitter and more than that, it’s the people who I want to read who are discussing his nonsense that gets annoying, because I don’t think you can block that.

  46. 46.

    JMG

    OK, Alice voted today, I voted two weeks ago. No more donations to be made (until Ga. runoffs, if any). Nothing to do but chew nerve ends, so I’ve tried to do chores to remind myself there will be a future no matter happens in the election and I must deal with it. Yesterday I got my flu shot. Today I hauled a metal bannister and metal fence-type railing we had replaced by a handyman and his crew last spring to the town recycling center. It’s just been sitting in the garage, but it made me feel virtuous. Also bought dinner. Lamb chops, baked potato, spinach. Something that won’t do much damage to a nervous stomach.

  48. 48.

    Splitting Image

    I spent most of the morning listening to Big Star. Now I’m headed out for lunch and afterward I shall rejoice in the mundanity of a chocolate-chip cookie.

  49. 49.

    Leto

    Watching Terminator: Dark Fate on Amazon Prime. Watched it in the theaters but wanted to watch it again. Going to read some later. Basically just trying to maintain a zen.

  50. 50.

    Sab

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): Gave you a suburban Akron report from 6 a.m.

    You and I live at opposite ends of a hugely gerrymandered district. The district itself is ridiculously large. Tim Ryan has been good to Akron although he lives 40 miles away.

    You are Mahoning Valley. We are Cuyahoga Valley. So they got some young thing from no valley at all.

    As gerrymandered as the district is, they had to get a R candidate from way south outside of the district. Nuts.

  51. 51.

    Villago Delenda Est

    This is probably not applicable to this crowd, but if you haven’t voted already, GET OUT THERE AND DO YOUR DUTY TO THIS COUNTRY AND VOTE FOR JOE!

  56. 56.

    germy

    Judge Sullivan is preparing to issue an order for OIG inspectors to sweep USPS processing facilities today that had low processing scores for ballots delivered yesterday — including in Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania — to make sure no mail-in ballots are left behind.

    — Megan Mineiro (@MMineiro_CNS) November 3, 2020

    DOJ shared concern that the order will place a burden on USPS personnel, getting in the way of them doing their jobs today. Judge Sullivan said he is "extremely sensitive" to imposing any unreasonable burden but the order for USPS to certify that sweeps take place is not that.

    — Megan Mineiro (@MMineiro_CNS) November 3, 2020

  59. 59.

    germy

    President Trump says he is "perhaps the most innocent man anywhere in the history of the United States."

    — Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) November 3, 2020

    Innocent people don’t really talk like that, do they?

  60. 60.

    mrmoshpotato

    I’m not rubbing my belly going “Mmmmmmm”. You’re rubbing your belly going “Mmmmmmm.”

    NEW: Deutsche Bank is trying to end all ties with Trump. They are exploring selling his loans, or, if he loses, demanding payment. Because the loans are personally guaranteed, the bank could attempt to seize all of Trump's assets if he does not pay. https://t.co/WoJQHkKouS— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) November 3, 2020

  61. 61.

    pluky

    Gardenia soap? Time for a tub full of steaming hot water, a nice glass of your beverage of choice, and Lady Day crooning on the sound system.

  69. 69.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    This is for TaMara. Or anyone else who wants to laugh at a duck story.

    Guess the name of the duck in question. Come on! Here’s a hint: its last name is Duck.

     

    So there I am the liquor store, contemplating my incipient recreational alcoholism, when I hear one of the clerks say to the other, “That duck is so mean.”— Kingfisher & Wombat (@UrsulaV) November 2, 2020

  73. 73.

    Jeffro

    I’m back from working a half-day shift as an outside poll observer for the Dems here in central VA.

    Eerily quiet this a.m. and then a steady trickle of voters all day long.  No one took more than 5 minutes to vote.

    Only one ‘Q’ nutter screaming at us on his way out, so that’s good.

    Now for a nap and then a quick hike before settling in to watch this epic Blue Tsunami come rolllllllling in!

  74. 74.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy: Mrs. Lovejoy: Fuck fair elections and counting everyone’s vote.  Oh won’t somebody pleeeeeease think of the postal workers!

  76. 76.

    Jinchi

    Am I the only one who finds it strange that Trump voted alone days ago and Melania is voting today?

    Security was heavy at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach, Fla., where just one person went inside barefaced, despite a mask mandate in this county

    Of course, you don’t really need a mask if you’re the only person in the room. The real takeaway is this.

    Voters had been cleared out

    Why did she vote in person at all?

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    satby sent me this picture of John naked mopping:

    On This Election Day, Be Like Steve 1

    satby also asked me to thank everyone for their kind words about her soap – she is at the market so she can’t jump in to the thread.

  80. 80.

    Aleta

    @germy:  “DOJ shared concern that the order will place a burden on USPS personnel, getting in the way of them doing their jobs today.”  Heaven forbid anything “get in the way of their jobs” except the PMG order to wreck their processing machines, and the lack of support after the court order to replace them.

  82. 82.

    Martin

    I am currently in love with the Gardenia. It just feels and smells so good. It’s so nice being able to do something for yourself that is so good for so cheap, and a good bar of soap, some solid lotion, and a nice pair of wool socks just does it for me.

    Seriously, how the fuck were you ever a republican.

  83. 83.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Sab: Sab, ask yourself WWBD; What would Baud Do? Do you think Baud let’s pants slow him down?  There is just a time to drop pants.

  86. 86.

    Miss Bianca

    Waiting for a Zoom meeting to start with the Governor’s Office on helping out performance venues here in CO. Just took a break from last-minute phone banking (see, I helped!). First call was answered by a lovely gentleman who just moved here from FL, who told me all about *his own* GOTV efforts. Really a nice start to the day!

  89. 89.

    Sab

    My husband wants to ignore election results and clean all day.

    So I am adamantly tucked in bed with several warm sleeping cats.

    None of us is talking politics at all.

    Weirdly, our only non-talking cat shrieked for breakfast today. I thought I recognized the shriek, but that cat ( Shadow) was out cold in  bed with me. So went downstairs and there was Mute Meg shrieking for breakfast. Cats are weird. I fed her breakfast and treats. Then went back to bed with other cats.

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin: I figured she is voting for Biden, against Trump, and doesn’t want Trump to see.  Remember the photo from the last election, where Trump is looking over to see how she marked her ballot?

  96. 96.

    Kent

    @Aleta:@germy:  “DOJ shared concern that the order will place a burden on USPS personnel, getting in the way of them doing their jobs today.”  Heaven forbid anything “get in the way of their jobs” except the PMG order to wreck their processing machines, and the lack of support after the court order to replace them.

    Is there no corner of the Federal government that has not been utterly corrupted by Trump?

    All of this bullshit leaves an electronic trail.  I hope people are keeping track of it all so they know who to fire or send to the basement for a 6-month paper-clip counting assignment.

  99. 99.

    Anoniminous

    I absolutely despise Politico for being a RW BS mill but when even they notice you know things are bad. (No link b/c Fuck Them):

    Trump’s suburban crash drags House GOP down with him

    “In only four years, a crescent of Atlanta’s northern suburbs has swung from a safe, iconic Republican House seat to a near-lock for Democrats — a startling shift illustrating how far President Donald Trump and his party have fallen in the suburbs before the 2020 election.

    Democrats poured money into a nationally watched special election for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District in 2017 and lost by 4 points a seat Republicans won handily for decades. Then, Democrat Lucy McBath eked out a win a year later. Now, as private polling showed McBath with a double-digit lead — and Joe Biden up by a similar margin — Republicans quietly chose not to spend money trying to win it back in the closing weeks of the election.”

    The fact it’s Newt Gingrich’s old seat makes it even more delicious.

    They go on to say

    “There are very few urban and suburban districts where Trump is not polling deeply below his 2016 vote share.”

    White suburban women were a key part of Trump’s 2016 luck-out win. They abandoned him and the GOP in 2018 and they are abandoning him and the GOP in 2020. To compensate for the loss the Rule of Thumb is: for every vote switcher you need to get two new votes. And there aren’t that many out there.

  100. 100.

    germy

    @Kent:

    It was a Greenwald parody by Doug J.

    Greenwald has become such a parody of himself that it has become impossible to satirize him.

  104. 104.

    Ivan X

    I wrote a voting themed one minute song. It was something to do. I’m gonna need a lot of things to do today.

  105. 105.

    West of the Rockies

    There is plenty of What If Trump Won’t Leave? porn online today that feels a lot like the Y2K stuff from two+ decades ago.

    I much prefer to ponder Trump being perp-walked down the front steps of the White House not to a waiting chopper but a black SUV with a bumper sticker that says “Rikers Or Bust!”

  106. 106.

    Cermet

    Did the mail in for me, my daughter and girlfriend. Sitting tight and will wake up some time past 11:00 EST to see if, in fact, it is a Biden landslide. If so, breakout the chocolate fudge icecreme and celibrate; otherwise, go back to sleep and see the results as they progress for a day or three. Biden wins, of that I’m sure.

  107. 107.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @West of the Rockies: Trump is going the leave, the only thing he cares about the Presidency is the Trump Worship Services.  He’s already planning on rallies for his 2024 run.

  108. 108.

    Ivan X

    I just can’t believe how long it has taken to get to today. I thought it would never come. Yet, lo and behold, here it is!

  109. 109.

    jonas

    @mrmoshpotato: Who the hell would buy a Trump loan? Unless you’re simply interested in the collateral when he defaults. But then who wants a bunch of “luxury” apartment buildings that probably aren’t up to code with a bunch of threadbare carpets and chipped gold paint?

  111. 111.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @jonas: Depend on what the loan was sold for. Cheep enough the buyer could do well since people still need places to live.

  112. 112.

    mali muso

    @Jeffro: Ain’t it great to be in a now-solid-blue state?  This being the first presidential election in which we had no-excuse needed early voting has made a HUGE difference, imo.  I know hardly anyone within my circle who has not already banked their vote.

  113. 113.

    Kent

    @West of the Rockies:

    There is plenty of What If Trump Won’t Leave? porn online today that feels a lot like the Y2K stuff from two+ decades ago.

    I much prefer to ponder Trump being perp-walked down the front steps of the White House not to a waiting chopper but a black SUV with a bumper sticker that says “Rikers Or Bust!”

    I had a neighbor in Juneau Alaska who spent a least $20 grand that he didn’t have building a Y2K bunker for the riots that never came.  Good times!  The local stores refused to take back any of the generators or other survivalist crap that they had sold in 1999.

  114. 114.

    Kent

    @mali muso:@Jeffro: Ain’t it great to be in a now-solid-blue state?  This being the first presidential election in which we had no-excuse needed early voting has made a HUGE difference, imo.  I know hardly anyone within my circle who has not already banked their vote.

    I can’t express how nice it is to live in a state (WA) that actually goes to great effort to make voting as easy and universal as possible.   Now we just need to get rid of the damn “jungle primary.”  Although it has worked to the benefit of Dems this election cycle in both the governor and lt. governor’s races.

  115. 115.

    sdhays

    @jonas: They’re not necessarily poor quality. The people who did the actual building still need follow the code to keep their licenses. You take the Trump name off those buildings, they probably become a lot more valuable.

    That’s definitely the case for the Chicago Trump Tower.

    I find it interesting that Deutsche Bank is saying this even before election day is over. They clearly don’t believe he’s going to be President in January.

  116. 116.

    raven

    No lines at any of the voting places I just drove by but Athens was off the hook with early voting.

  118. 118.

    germy

    I wonder if the GOP will quietly put an end to their “winner take all” system for the future round of republican presidential primaries?

  120. 120.

    sdhays

    @mali muso: My wife walked by our precinct in NoVA around 11am today and there was no line to be seen. Last week, she waited for an hour to vote early, and I waited about a half-hour on Saturday.

  122. 122.

    JMG

    @Kent: In the fall of 1999, my son the Boy Scout was working on his civics merit badge (he made Eagle in 2003). Part of the requirement was to attend a local government meeting. So he and I went to the board of selectman’s regular biweekly meeting. The highlight was the report of the Y2K advisory committee, which was two nice but kinda out there older women. The detailed report included an emergency set of locations where townsfolk were to go in case of catastrophe. It was good to know that in case of the collapse of civilization, we of Precinct 7 were to shelter in place at the Mobil station. I ruined a perfectly good sweater chewing on my sleeve to prevent hysterical laughter.

  124. 124.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @sdhays: No line outside my polling place.  OTOH the parking lot was nearly full and that never happens at a Methodist church on a Tuesday morning.   I also people going in and out.

  125. 125.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    I don’t remember all of the Tao of Steve, but I did think that the method for scoring was actually pretty good advice, especially for a horny guy who’s tempted to become an octopus. Be detached; if she ain’t into you, someone else will be. Be awesome; show off your skills, whatever they may be. And, remember, you’re showing clear interest – eye contact, flirting, compliments, but let *her* show some real interest/pursuit.

    Even if you try that sort of thing, and realize it’s not how you operate, if I was mentoring some hard-up young fellow, I’d recommend he try it once (though not on his current crush-object), just to get the idea, and recognize what’s good about it. Figure out how to be detached – not uninterested, but emphatically not afraid she might not be all that into you, because there *are* other women who will be.  Learn how to show yourself off in ways that are quietly impressive, and not all “LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!” And learn to recognize when she’s actually interested enough to pursue *you*, so when you start the more intensive cuddling, she’s all “Finally!” rather than “do I want this, from this man, at this time, in this context?”

    Please remember there could be some far more damning ideas in the movie than a fellow with CFS can remember at this time :-). I just thought that the method described was actually a good beginners thinking style for a fellow thinking about how to handle a few dates to maximize their chances of seeing if he and she have strong potential. (I’ll also note that CFS makes one *lousy* at dating, so my early 20s and 30s were quite lonesome, so I am perhaps more of a magnet for stuff that makes me go  “oooh, I bet that would have helped a fellow like me, if CFS wasn’t ruining my life in all ways.”)

  127. 127.

    raven

    Man, I ordered a set of large Buddhist prayer flags but I didn’t realize HOW large they would be!!!!

  130. 130.

    mali muso

    @Kent:

    We definitely need national voting rights/access reform.  It’s so ridiculous in this day and age that a so-called advanced democracy is so hostile to universal suffrage.

    @sdhays:

    Makes sense to me that NoVA voters would take advantage of early voting and that there may not be a lot of the Trumper crowd there to overwhelm the lines today. I wonder how the turnout looks down in the redder areas of VA.

  131. 131.

    sdhays

    @germy: The Republican Party is no longer a political party. It is a white supremacist fascist cult, and until that is no longer the case, there’s not going to be any meaningful institutional reforms.

  133. 133.

    dnfree

    @West of the Rockies: Y2K was real. I just have to jump in and say that one more time. It should be seen as a remarkable technological achievement and collaboration, but it went so well that people somehow seem to think it was fake news and overblown. I was one of the many who worked on it for more than two years.
    Maybe if people understood what the government, and companies, and the rest of the world working together managed to do, it could have been an example of how to handle Covid.

  134. 134.

    mrmoshpotato

    @sdhays:

    That’s definitely the case for the Chicago Trump Tower. 

    Ahhh no.  We’re ripping down that blight on our city.

  137. 137.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @Roger Moore: Hee! You remind me why I ditched IT to go into full time database support/engineering.

    If you’re losing a hundred grand an hour, and I jump in to try to help you, you’re going to be grateful as heck (especially because, in my case, I’ll at least give you some thoughts you almost certainly didn’t have earlier – if you had, you probably wouldn’t be down!); but heaven help the poor IT slob who can’t figure out why (generic example, and generic you/your)*your* version of Outlook, on *your* machine, running *your* OS, with *your* unique networking situation, can’t connect to the mail server, when you could do a (select all) (delete) on your messages, three days out of five, without it harming your job performance.

    Good luck to you, and blessings on all the competent, caring people in your IT department. (NB: I didn’t say the one(s) you were dealing with were competent/caring – I’m just assuming there must be some.)

  141. 141.

    Origuy

    I’m behind on reading today’s threads, so I don’t know if this has already been posted, but it’s worth sharing.

    Why plankton dying in the Cretaceous led to a band of Democratic counties in the South.

    The US election is tomorrow. If you, like me, are tired of horse-race-style reporting, and need to zoom out, I wanna tell you a story. It’s about an ancient force influencing the election. And, as a bonus, it’ll give you an Easter egg to watch for as the returns come in. THREAD pic.twitter.com/vfPp0f2s6X
    — Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) November 2, 2020

  142. 142.

    Immanentize

    @dnfree: Agree.  My father in law was one of the earlier programmers who created the Y2K program problems.  As he put it 1) we didn’t have space on cards to waste with “19__” and no one ever thought their programs would last 30-40 years.

  143. 143.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @jonas: Well, they’re a pittance if you’re Jeff Bezos, so a guy like him nursing a grudge might do it just to be particularly unforgiving when the loan comes due. He’s never going to get his money back but the, shall we say entertainment value? of watching the debtor squirm might be worth the loss he takes.

  146. 146.

    Geminid

    @raven: the flags might have been from Mahayana Buddhists.        My llama told me, “you’d better shop around, Oh yeah, you’d better shop around…”

  149. 149.

    laura

    The Spouse has asked me to wear my mohawk in extreme vertical today to calm his election day jitters. Can’t say no to that

    Also, Satby soap and lotion rocks!

  154. 154.

    Barbara

    I was over at DKOS and they were getting into the weeds on voting data out of Florida, and I couldn’t do it.  I don’t think I will ever recover from 2016.

  157. 157.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Barbara: I’m going to have to delete AmarndoNDK from my twitter list, but he is optimistic about today’s Dem turn out.

    I didn’t sleep well last night, and if it were rainy and overcast I’d go back to bed to try and kill an hour of pointless obsession. As it is I’m going to go for a stroll with a non-political podcast in my ears.

    I give it maybe half an hour till I dial up MSNBC on my Sirius app

  158. 158.

    Subsole

    @germy: That would require learning from a party whose masters have spent at least three decades systematically breeding the capacity for self-reflection out of their apparatchiks.

    TLDR: Magic 8 ball says “outlook not promising”

  159. 159.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @dnfree: Damn straight. I worked in IT at a community bank, and for Y2K we bought our way out of trouble: new computer, new banking software, and new OS (done in Feb of ’99 as I recall).  Ugh, the conversions were a lot of work, but Y2K was a non-event for us.

  164. 164.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @Omnes Omnibus: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It can be mistaken for depression, or inattentive ADHD. It’s sneaky, because you can have good days, where you’re full of energy, but other days you aren’t your full self, and (if you’re undiagnosed) you have no idea why – it’s like your brain is full of mush.

    That mush-full feeling can also make your brain less able to handle normal socializing, and less able to handle social interaction. Translation, in context: I was pretty lonely, and pretty desperate, because I didn’t have the energy to live a normal life, wherein I’d have plenty of opportunities to meet women, but I didn’t know… and I kept thinking I’d find the right way to beat the depression, or mitigate the ADHD, but that wasn’t going to happen.

    So (for example) I thought “Hey, (the Tao of Steve) would have been good advice for 25-year-old ‘weirdo; he was too fatigued in high school and college to figure out that whole dating game; it could really have helped him (well, “me”)… if he’d had the energy to date in the first place.”

  166. 166.

    lurkypants

    @MisterForkbeard: Maybe one of our artists can make a portrait in the vein of “The Birth of Venus“, but with the dogs swarming around the sides, and Cole in the center wearing nothing but socks and an artfully placed Steve to keep our eyes from burning out.

    No, not Steve.  The mustard.

  167. 167.

    MisterForkbeard

    @germy: I would love to see a headline of “Republicans publicly disgusted with Trump’s election threats”.

    Jesus you assholes, didn’t you think this might happen after he literally blackmailed a foreign country into faking investigations into his political opponents? After he threatened the same thing in 2016? Why wouldn’t you take action on this?

    They don’t care, but they just don’t want to look like they don’t care.

  168. 168.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Yarrow: Yeah, I spent Saturday wallowing in rugby.  The France/Ireland game was a great one.  Just high quality play all around.  And the French fly half is amazing – even if he does play for Toulouse.

  170. 170.

    dnfree

    @zzyzx: and where were those places?

    i worked for a major US-based corporation at the time. Multiple locations and divisions in the US and elsewhere in the world. It wasn’t just our internal computer systems. We had to communicate with the manufacturer of every single device and controller connected to our factory machinery, and the company had to either certify or upgrade it.
    For our plant systems (we ran on an AS/400 at the plant level), corporate set up a dedicated system and consultants at a separate location and brought in one plant at a time to test and remediate code. Testing dates were December 31, 1999; January 1, 2000; and leap day 2000, because the rules for leap day are different for the century unless the century is divisible by 400.

    We worked with the government and we worked with people all over the world and on all kinds of systems. And we were required to be home and on call and not drinking on December 31. I watched with apprehension and eventually pride as all around the globe midnight came and the lights stayed on. And then I lived to see it all called a hoax and an overreaction.

  171. 171.

    Karen S.

    Already feeling a bit anxious today and just learned that my older brother who lives in a group home (he’s an adult with special needs) started exhibiting Covid symptoms last night. I guess a couple of the other guys who also live in the home started exhibiting symptoms last night, too. I was trying to set up a date and time to visit him this week, as I haven’t seen him since January because of the pandemic. This just sucks. Even if he doesn’t have Covid and it’s a cold or flu, I can’t visit him until he’s well. Hopefully, they’ll have test results soon.

    I’m going to go watch some cute animal videos now.

  172. 172.

    Subsole

    @dnfree: Yeah, but, like, that’s just sooooo not supercool, man…

    I do agree, it would be nice to live in a country that wasn’t afflicted w/a near-terminal case of South Park Brain.

  173. 173.

    James E Powell

    @Barbara:

    I was over at DKOS and they were getting into the weeds on voting data out of Florida, and I couldn’t do it.  I don’t think I will ever recover from 2016.

    Since I never recovered from 2000, I feel you.

  182. 182.

    natem

    Folks, I’m here to tell you, the Times found some retirees in a county that voted heavy for Trump in 2016. You’ll never guess who they plan on voting for in 2020.

  183. 183.

    MisterForkbeard

    @LongHairedWeirdo: This is a thing.  I’m actually being evaluated for it now. It feels like low-level depression, but basically your mood is just shot most of the time and you (me?) feel exhausted.

    What twigged me onto it was the day I actually HAD energy, and I was happy as a result! Played with the kids, got a ton of work done, etc.

  191. 191.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @germy: Who cares what they think “privately”? What good does that do me?

    Also, just saw this on twitter from Cole.

     

    Got my test results in an hour. Not strep, influenza a or b. So basically I wait a couple days to determine whether it is covid or a man-cold— John Cole (@Johngcole) November 3, 2020

  193. 193.

    Omnes Omnibus

    My nephew who is a college freshman just texted me that he has voted blue.  His first general election.

  194. 194.

    Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    @mrmoshpotato: You should see me after I play pretty much anything at all during a lesson.  I finish, take a half-step back from the music stand, then look at my teacher with what’s probably the most apologetic cringing look on my face.  Can’t help it.  If I were good enough to solo at Carnegie Hall* I’d probably finish the last note with a powerful flourish, then hunch over in shame on the stage.

    *This will never happen.

  197. 197.

    Origuy

    I was in the office all night on December 30, 1999, waiting to see what would happen when the year rolled over in New Zealand and then Japan. The next day I carried a pager but didn’t have to be in the office. Nothing much happened, but we and our customers had spent a lot of time getting ready. There was a lot of concern because everyone knew what they had done to prepare, but didn’t know what the rest of the economy had done.

  198. 198.

    Jeffro

    @mali muso: we observers and greeters were kind of shocked at how slow it was

    PS the D side was four of us old/older/very old white guys…the lone R greeter was an Asian American female high school student(!) who was only there because she was being paid by the Rs(!!)

  199. 199.

    Kent

    @Subsole:@Kent: What did he do with it? Just abandon it, or what?

    Well no, it was a bunker dug under his house.  He tried to recoup some cash by trying to sell shit but in January 2000 no one wanted thousands of rounds of ammo, gas generators, or year-supplies of dehydrated foods.   Lesson learned.

    I remember Thanksgiving 1999 at a different friend’s house and this guy was invited.  He was telling us about all the prepping we needed to be doing to protect from the mobs in the streets who would be trying to get our stuff.  I looked at him and said, “Dude, these people in the street you are talking about are our neighbors.  The same ones who will drop everything to spend the day searching the woods for a lost neighbor kid?  These are the people who will turn into zombies on Y2K?”

  200. 200.

    bluefish

    I’m with you on what helps me get thru this life. Clean socks, clean hair, nice soap. My fav present: new socks, good soap. Thanks for the tip on the latter. Will qcheck it out.

    Steve has the right idea. I am grateful to be busy today. Either rest or work. Too much Kornacki, gifted as he is, results in big time anxiety attacks. May the best man win? No doubt about who that is.

  202. 202.

    Another Scott

    The U.S. economy has lost 4 million jobs since President Trump took office.

    He is the first president in modern history to have a negative jobs record.

    — Joint Economic Committee Democrats (@JECDems) November 3, 2020

    (via RepDonBeyer)

    VOTE VOTE VOTE!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  203. 203.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @MisterForkbeard: I’m sorry as hell that you need to be evaluated for it, but knowledge *is* power. Not as much as you might wish it could be, of course.

    Still: once you know that there are some things you just shouldn’t do *today*, unless it’s an emergency? That’s a huge help. Once you realize you’re about to scream at some minor annoyance, you can realize that it’s only hurting so bad because you’re fatigued. When your mood is crazy, and dredging up horrible memories, you can realize “I’m fatigued, and too fatigued to shove these ugly thoughts out of my brain” and try to ride them out, rather than feeling they’re pounding you into the ground.

    (I said it’s not enough power, and I meant it. But there’s a huge difference between “I’m a horrible person, and the woman who told me I was useless and harmful and a lousy companion was right!” and “I’m feeling like that stupid, horrible person was right, and that just shows how bad the fatigue is!”)

    Now, for me, I have what’s called a tilted pelvis. I think it’s almost fixed, and on my good hip days, I have a lot more energy. If I could go back in time, I’d have advised my younger self to research D.O.s, chiropractors, rolfing, and other stuff that might have straightened out my body and spine. I have evidence (but no proof) that it might have helped.

    Having had *too* many people offer *too* much advice, I’m not exactly recommending that to you – but I’m emphatically sharing the advice I’d have given my younger self, in case you think it’s worth a shot. See, I have some very clear evidence that, if one’s hip is in a certain position, it can block blood flow to the brain to the point of causing possible fainting.One day, it hit me: if it can cause that acutely, and severely, it might also cause it chronically, and less severely. The fatigue might be impaired blood flow. Unkinking the body might fix the impaired blood flow (assuming that’s what’s happening – I only have evidence of the acute, severe issue!).

  204. 204.

    JPL

    WTF

    Trump’s campaign asked at least three counties in Pennsylvania for a rundown of highly specific election security plans — including ballot storage locations and transportation details. The Pennsylvania Secretary of State has reached out to the FBI.

    https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1

  205. 205.

    Redshift

    Response to a GOTV text:

    Why would I vote for a pedophile and an ex prostitute to lead the country I spent a career defending?

    It took all of my willpower to follow campaign instructions and not engage, rather than replying “So you’re voting against Trump, then?” ?

  206. 206.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    From my cousin, a Methodist minister:

    Xxxx, I thought you might appreciate this from a retired Methodist Bishop, William Willimon. It sums things up quite accurately…

     

    Dear Fellow Evangelical Pastors:

    As increasing numbers of Trump’s buddies jump his sinking ship, I’m sure that his evangelical allies are afflicted with buyer’s remorse. Even though many of you are in churches that don’t have prayers of corporate confession, we all know that confession is good for the soul, that you are all busy people with mega congregations, and that it may be as hard for you as it is for Trump to admit to wrongdoing. I offer this efficient means of making your belated–but I’m sure still graciously welcomed by our Lord–admission of sin.

    Dear Lord:

    Even though, as you well know, The Donald has rarely attended a church, knows little of the Christian faith, and brags that he will never, ever confess or even apologize for his sin, I

    (check one or more)

    confess

    bewail

    decry

    regret

    am embarrassed by

    sort of feel guilty

    wish I hadn’t got caught

    I disregarded minimal standards of Christian belief and behavior and, in a four-year lapse of good judgment, and in reckless disregard for the spiritual health of my flock, supported and defended Donald Trump.

    There, I’ve said it. Please don’t make me say it twice.

    And Lord, though I’m sure you know there’s no excuse for me–a Bible-believing Evangelical — to consort with a lying, misogynistic, racist clown like Trump, I humbly submit for your gracious consideration my trumped-up excuses:

    I (check any that apply)

    have a bad drinking problem.

    was intimidated by all the Trumpers in my congregation

    did not attend a seminary where the Ten Commandments were stressed

    feel some of the same things Trump feels for Putin and Kim Jong Un

    possess an AK-47 (but only use it as self-defense from my congregation)

    believe that our Lord made too big a deal out of serial adultery

    feel the same way as Trump about tax collectors

    like Trump, made a few mistakes, assaulted a few women, and stiffed some creditors in my twenties ( ), thirties ( ), forties ( ), fifties ( ), sixties ( ), seventies ( )

    Would, like Franklyn Graham, say or do anything, and sacrifice any principle for an invite to a fancy dinner at the White House

    am on my third marriage too

    Therefore, I promise to cease making dumb statements like

    (check any that apply)

    “Lincoln lied too”

    “Bone spurs are no joke”

    “Our Lord had a soft heart for prostitutes too”

    “Though there’s no evidence for it, maybe he’s changed”

    “Abortion, while not mentioned in Scripture, is the only sin that’s actually a real sin”

    “My children are not the brightest candles in the box either.”

    “Lots of people in the military were suckers and losers.”

    “It’s not a lie if you think it’s not.”

    Lord, if you can forgive some of the stuff I did as a teenager (remember, that was before I got saved), if you could forgive a thief on the cross (who, for all I know, stole more than my former political hero), then surely you can forgive me for my political indiscretions. I’ll admit I’m not the best person in the world, and you know I have my faults, but, Lord, at least I’m not as bad as Trump. Please keep that in mind when separating sheep from goats.

    Your faithful servant,

    ___________________________________________________________

    Christian Name Date

  210. 210.

    gvg

    @dnfree: It was an over reaction, by the kooks and gullibles who came up with a lot of unconnected to reality scenarios of what would happen if things didn’t go well. Really.  A lot of people didn’t really understand the real problems but picked up on the urgency but then…made up their own stories. Those were also kinda attention seekers so they showed off in front of the rest of the ordinaries. The real experts were too busy to watch the fools. They may have also given up because the truth was too subtle anyway.

    Early  qanon minds

  211. 211.

    Subsole

    @Kent: Ouch. I mean, I wouldn’t refund the stuff either, but still…I wince at how much cash I saw some folks drop on ammo alone.

    At least he learned. I saw some folks sink their budget, then run out like 8 years later and do it AGAIN.

  212. 212.

    patroclus

    I just voted in sunny warm Chicago.  No lines, no waiting.  I thought hard about voting the way Glenn Greenwald might have wanted me to, but decided instead to go with Biden, Durbin and Quigley.

  216. 216.

    David ?Booooooo!? Koch

    The humiliation on Dump’s face is priceless (photo)

    Asked by a reporter if he had ended up contributing money to his own campaign, Mr Trump replied: “You’ll see that in the filings.”

  223. 223.

    Ken

    How can Steve be so calm?  Doesn’t he realize that it’s likely that within three months, there will be a dog in the White House?

  225. 225.

    LuciaMia

    Been a dog owner all my life. That pic of Steve suddenly brought up a question for the cat people here. Do cats seem to dream? Dogs will yip in their sleep, jerk and move their paws as if theyre running. Do cats visibly look like theyre dreaming?

  226. 226.

    Aleta

    A question:  Is there anything that prevents a president from altering the WH structure or taking pieces home?  They turned some of the outside into a cleared TV stage, and now comes this new wall: (photo) that we’ve  paid for.  They probably ordered some signatures on official  forms to do these things.   What are they not allowed to do?

  228. 228.

    Morzer

    “Look fluffy and carry a big paw” – the Way of Steve.

    Turnout everywhere is skyrocketing – and we are going to win bigly.

  230. 230.

    Mel

    @Amir Khalid: I think there should be an entire series of Renaissance re-dos.

    How about a revamp of “Lady with an Ermine”? Cole, clad in overalls, holding Thurston, and gazing wistfully over his shoulder at a distant Subaru abandoned in a field…

  231. 231.

    Aleta

    @LuciaMia: I have a cat who seemed to have nightmares her first few years here.  Or some kind of stress-related dream.  She’d had a bad early life.  Eventually they stopped.

  232. 232.

    Mallard Filmore

    @Mousebumples:

     

    The house value just went up, probably.

    They will have that wall delicately taken down and sent to a museum (on loan of course). This is similar in concept to saving any blackboard that Einstein wrote on in his late life.

  233. 233.

    Bill Arnold

    @JPL:
    Yeah, first stories a day or two ago. This is flat out stupid on the part of the Republicans. (Unless it’s setting up for a false flag operation, by some Trump Clown Team.) The various counties involved are now on guard and have probably set up additional informal security (e.g. cameras, guards), though probably a few obliged.
    Security info request from Trump campaign perturbs Cumberland County officials ahead of election (Zack Hoopes, Oct 30, 2020) (bold mine)
    The Trump campaign described the request as “standard election transparency details,” but local officials find the implication — that the President’s campaign staff is harvesting election security plans through what appears to be a personal web-based email account — to be extremely concerning.
    “It’s almost kind of chilling the sort of data they wanted us to provide,” Cumberland County Commissioner Gary Eichelberger said. “This is basically the whole security plan. We’ve never received a request of this detail and I find it troubling that one of the interested parties [in the election outcome] feels they have a right to information that obviously could jeopardize the security of the ballots.”

    This is especially amusing:
    But the details O’Shaughnessy asked for in her email do not concern ballot verification; rather, they are specific physical security details for ballots and voting machines.
    These include information on “the location(s) that ballots are immediately sent to when polls close (including address and room number)” as well as “the individuals who transport the ballots to the location(s).”
    The campaign is also asking for “the time(s) when are ballots are transported to canvass site,” information on any security provided, and “the best point of contact for each storage location(s) of the ballots.”

  234. 234.

    Mel

    @LuciaMia: Absolutely. They will flex their feet, make muted running motions, twitch their whiskers, etc.

    I’ve had two cats who must have dreamt of their kitten days with their mamas, because they would make nursing movements with their mouths while gently kneading with their front feet.

  235. 235.

    Gravenstone

    @LuciaMia: Yes. My smallest one loves being in my lap, and he’ll often have periods where he’ll do exactly that – twitch and jump and seem to be running/stalking.

  236. 236.

    MisterForkbeard

    I just had a discussion with my boss, a US citizen who was born in Mexico. She calls this the “sentencing day”.

    She’s done all she can, and now she gets to figure out what her next four years are going to be. Note: She has pre-approved me moving to our Toronto office after this election if I want to and if Canada allows anyone to migrate from Covidistan.

  237. 237.

    Eljai

    @dnfree:  Thank you for your contributions in preventing adverse Y2K outcomes!  I always felt like there was a media failure around that.  At the time, I just remember a lot of traditional media outlets hyping nightmare scenarios, but hardly any time reporting on the herculean efforts to prevent Y2K from affecting computer systems.  So when 2000 rolled around, I fear it gave many of their readers/viewers the impression that the millennium bug was overblown, when of course that far from the truth.

  238. 238.

    patrick II

    Fruedian slips can be so revealing (if it was one)

    Candace Owens (on Tucker Carlson tonight): You can be on the side of law and order or you can on the side of mob rule.  I am for mob rule, so tomorrow I will be casting my ballot for for Donald Trump.

    Tucker: (barely listening, evidently) Amen. Nicely put.

  239. 239.

    Kent

    Jennifer Rubin is sure shrill as hell today:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/03/lets-talk-about-forgiving-forgetting-post-election-america/

    We are told not to regard our political opponents as mendacious and malicious, but when one side really has behaved in politically and morally repugnant ways and does not change its behavior, I for one am not ready to forgive, let alone forget.

    Likewise, I am not willing to let Republican politicians and officeholders — whether they are silent go-alongers such as Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) or active accomplices such as Attorney General William P. Barr — off the hook. It is for this reason that I think every Republican on the ballot who has stuck by Trump and Trumpism should be forced out of power and never again trusted with political power.

    We do not, however, need to carry around the weight of the past four years indefinitely. There is a way to release anger and to conduct the business of the country.

    First, those officials, politicians, activists and media figures who have done wrong must admit their transgressions and renounce past behavior. Reconciliation is not possible unless both sides acknowledge what has occurred. Truth is a necessary element of reconciliation; otherwise, amnesia breeds injustice and evades accountability, a critical element in democracy. Those who have broken the law (e.g., by perjuring themselves) or violated professional standards must be held accountable. Dishonest media outlets should be repudiated or ignored.

    Pretty much yes.

  241. 241.

    Gravenstone

    @Bill Arnold: Yeah, the information they asked for was basically a road map for how best to interdict and steal those completed ballots. Absolutely this needs FBI attention.

  243. 243.

    gvg

    @LuciaMia: yes. Google “cats dreaming video” for examples.  They seem to do a lot of chewing and whisker movements. I only noticed the paws moving but evidently other people observed more.

  244. 244.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @LuciaMia:

    My Tervuren is a really active dreamer – that dog yips, barks, twitches and sleep runs. Of the three household cats, I only see one – Fiona – twitch at all. She’s an aggressive sleeper – total starfish in bed, and brings constant warnings of “don’t smash Fiona” between my wife and me (and sometimes a command to the dog).

  245. 245.

    mrmoshpotato

    @bluefish:

    Too much Kornacki, gifted as he is, results in big time anxiety attacks. 

    Who in their right mind would even think of watching Kornacki today?  Just the thought of it makes me happy I don’t have cable.

  246. 246.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Gosh, I really miss the wisdom of Chris Matthews, Mark Halperin and Matt Lauer  at this point in history…

  247. 247.

    mrmoshpotato

    @David ?Booooooo!? Koch: LOL

    The Soviet shitpile mobster manbaby is about to have a tremendous bigly SAD!

    “No, kids.  It’s ok to point and laugh at traitorous shitpiles who are going to die in prison.”

  249. 249.

    Miss Bianca

    @LuciaMia: Click on satby’s nym the next time you see her comment – it connects to her Etsy page.

    (Been looking at some of her products myself lately – may just have to treat myself and my sisters for Xmas!)

  250. 250.

    LuciaMia

    Read that Trumps ‘victory’ party has been downsized from 400 to 250 invitees. Jesus, even if I was a Trumpster that would be the last place I’d wanna be tonight.

  252. 252.

    Feathers

    On the Greenwald freak outs: someone in the techbro/Assange/Wikileaks corner recently found info about how a porn company Greenwald had said he did some legal work for was in fact Greenwald’s company. This was tracked down through the names of the parties in various lawsuits. Under US law, adult entertainment must certify that all models are 18 or older and must have the actual legal name and address of someone who can provide the forms if requested. Greenwald’s husband was the contact for several films. There were also films produced in Brazil which were not, um, racially sensitive. I’m guessing a journalist somewhere is chasing down the details on this. There was a lot of other stuff which looked pretty bad, but the certification contacts are something you face fairly stiff penalties for falsifying. I could give a shit if Greenwald was producing porn with his hot and then quite young now husband. But having followed Glen’s career since his early Iraq War blogging, I can’t imagine he’d be happy about it all coming to light. Especially since he seems to have very carefully hidden it.

    tldr; Glen Greenwald appears to have, for many years, run a company filming hot young stud gay porn in Brazil, with the involvement of his now husband.

  253. 253.

    James E Powell

    @Barbara:

    I was over at DKOS and they were getting into the weeds on voting data out of Florida, and I couldn’t do it.

    I made the mistake of diving in just to see. I learned nothing that was useful. B-J is the only comment thread I can handle.

  260. 260.

    Ken

    @LuciaMia: I’m thinking of the scene in Dave where Frank Langella’s supporters gradually sneak out as his political ambitions are torpedoed by Kevin Kline.

  261. 261.

    Ken

    @Gravenstone: the information they asked for was basically a road map for how best to interdict and steal those completed ballots

    The only way it could have been more suspicious would be if after asking “Who will transport the ballots” they’d added “and where do their children go to school?”

    Once again, I’m reminded that the truth is, these are not very bright guys.

  262. 262.

    Sab

    @Sab: Does this child even realize that in the unfortunate situation of her winning she will have to leave her kids and hubby and move to Warshington, or take them with her to Gomorrah?

  263. 263.

    J R in WV

    @dnfree:

    Y2K was real.

    This is a true fact~!!~

    My shop had started building a totally new system in the mid-1990s, changing out from an elderly COBOL / IMS DB/DC system to a Windows / Oracle DB system we were creating. We were on track to finish implementation by the middle of 1990.

    The state IT shop, which supported the Mainframe that the COBOL/IMS/DB/DC system operated on wanted us to participate in Y2K testing and emergency drills. We told them we weren’t interested, as we planned to DOA that system in just a month or two. They were hard to deal with, did not believe us.

    We had one hell of a New Years Eve party that night. We didn’t even go in to test anything, if Oracle or Microsoft had a problem, not our problem. I stopped every Friday for weeks at the wine and cheese shop to buy 2 or 3 bottles of bubbly, for a couple of months, and stashed the vino in a bottom drawer of the fridge.

    Everything worked when we went to work next. Total success in all regards! Will always be proud of that work. New system was totally date capable past 1999–>2000~!!~ Also new system worked properly in all other regards! Was implemented one sub-system at a time. As they were completed, we started another one, mostly never implemented in the old system.

  264. 264.

    J R in WV

    @Immanentize:

    @dnfree: Agree.  My father in law was one of the earlier programmers who created the Y2K program problems.  As he put it 1) we didn’t have space on cards to waste with “19__” and no one ever thought their programs would last 30-40 years.

    In the mid 1980s I worked on a system for business tax return processing, the state had 14 separate taxes of various businesses. We dealt with the 2-digit year issue by testing YY for > 50, then CC = 19 else if YY <  50 then CC = 20. So that system is good for 29 more years.

    But by 1995 we were into a new relational database with a date datatype. IIRC in the Unix operating system there was some issue where time would overflow at some point, probably already happened. I dunno if vendors made an invisible patch to the OS or if individual developers were going to have to cope somehow…

    Most Unix shops have converted to Linux of one flavor or another by now, I think.

  265. 265.

    misterpuff

    @catclub: Yeah the financial press is truly worthless. But The Market, yesterday, bid up pot stocks and today, bid up EV vehicles stocks, so, some part of Wall Street is thinking Biden win.

  266. 266.

    Origuy

    @J R in WV: We had an in-house application that turned out to have a year 2020 problem. They patched the date handling code to treat any two year date less than or equal to 20 as in being in the 21st century, figuring that the application would be replaced by then. Of course it wasn’t and the people who did that were long gone.

  267. 267.

    J R in WV

    @Origuy:

    That’s pretty funny. At least our system will last until 2049.

    I’m pretty sure we will all be dead long before that comes around. Catch me if you can?!!?!!!

  268. 268.

    artem1s

    @LuciaMia: 

    Read that Trumps ‘victory’ party has been downsized from 400 to 250 invitees

    I guess it’s hard to get people to RSVP to a Downfall cosplay party.

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