Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Let there be snark.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Not all heroes wear capes.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

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

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: More of This, Please

Late Night Open Thread: More of This, Please

by | 81 Comments

This post is in: ,

‘Kilgore Trout‘ is an entertaining & informative twitter account, and I endorse his intent here:


Truth, repentance, reparations, *then* reconciliation, you toads.

Reader Interactions

81Comments

  1. 1.

    Allequash

    someday there should be a blogger hall of fame with highlight reels, biographies, the whole smear,

     

    Prolly should have a glossary.

  2. 2.

    Kent

    Since this is an open thread. I thought I’d give a shout out to the best podcast episode I have listened to in years. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/08/podcasts/the-daily/lost-in-the-deep.html

    It was the weekend long-read episode of the NYT Daily titled Lost in the Deep which is about the search for and discovery of the WW2 aircraft carrier the USS Wasp which was sunk by the Japanese during the Battle of Guadalcanal and recently discovered by the shipwreck exploration vessel Petrel, which was converted and outfitted by Paul Allen before he died. It is a beautifully produced story of WW2 heroism and 21st century badass exploration and technology. I was listening to it this afternoon while walking the dog and had to add a mile to my usual route because I couldn’t stop listening.

    If you have any interest in naval history or maritime exploration, give it a listen. You won’t be disappointed.  It’s also an inspiring diversion from all the the election chaos and the first podcast to ever bring me to tears.

  3. 3.

    Glyph2112

    I was totally wrong.  I didn’t think people would be willing to stick their necks out for t*. But I guess they must figure the incoming administration are wimps and there will be no consequences for their actions. They all must have great jobs already lined up.  Or they think the Hail Mary election overturn will work. I understand trying to move forward, but these asshats better pay a price or this shit will happen again.

  5. 5.

    mrmoshpotato

    Truth, repentance, reparations, *then*
     reconciliation, you toads crushing you, you un-American, traitorous, fascist shitstains.

    Fixed.  And umm…repentance?  Have you seen the Rethuglican party over the past 40 years?

    @Glyph2112: but these asshats better pay a price or this shit will happen again.

    Case in point – the Bush regime.  Dick, Donnie, and W never paid shit for their war crimes.

  7. 7.

    Kent

    @Glyph2112: I think the political appointees mostly will cave and acquiesce in private.  This is going to be a largely virtual and digital transition anyway.  Biden’s folks will be touching base and coordinating mostly with the top professional civil service staff at each agency anyway.  The assistant secretaries, assistant administrators and so forth.  Who will most definitely and eagerly take zoom calls from their future bosses.  And there will be nothing a few political hacks can do about it.  Most will probably send out stern public emails or memos for Trump’s consumption and then “wink wink” take the calls anyway.

    Biden and his transition team just need to rent some WeWork building in central DC, buy a bunch of laptops and email accounts from google, and get down to business.   All the venders can be reimbursed in 70 days by a stroke of the pen.

    Probably the biggest obstacle will be security clearances for classified information.  While immensely important, that’s probably 5% of the transition-related activities.

    I was working in DC for for NOAA during both the Bush I to Clinton and the Clinton to Bush 2 transitions.  It was mostly just meetings in conference rooms and briefings (the part that I observed).  I doubt the Biden people are going to give a shit about any briefings on any topics from any die hard Trumpers anyway.  They are mostly going to want to see budges, org charts, priority issue lists and such from the professional civil service staff the next level down.  This time it will all be zoom anyway.  Basically the department heads getting of different agencies getting into zoom meetings with their future bosses to give briefings.

    Trump can fuck things up, but he can’t really stop any of that from happening.  And Biden and his team are not outsiders like the Trump folks were in 2016.  They know what they want to do

    I fucking guarantee that the professional civil service staff at each agency are taking names and paying attention to which hacks are being especially obstructionist. And those lists will be circulated.  And to the extent possible, their future careers will be torpedoed when the look for recommendations and shit.

  8. 8.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kent:

    I was listening to it this afternoon while walking the dog and had to add a mile to my usual route because I couldn’t stop listening.

    Lucky dog. :)

    ETA – Take The Long Way Home by Supertramp just came on the radio.

    Hehe

  9. 9.

    Ruckus

    I sometimes like to watch shows over, get some nuance that I might have missed, or the show is so good that it’s still a pleasure to watch it again. I’ve been through the entire West Wing, twice. But a little over 4 yrs ago I had to stop watching it. The concept that we were going to be treated to the worst president of this country, ever, was looming and became reality. And it turned out that my fears were not even close to the truth. And yes, the West Wing is a fictional story, one that takes liberties with most everything about which it is written. It still has a drift to it that makes what it says appealing and gives one something to think positive about. I watched my first episode in over 4 yrs tonight. Now TV is supposed to be better than, larger than real life. But this show is so immeasurably better than what we have been and are still living through that it stuns me. And I’ve seen it before, I have a good idea what to expect. This 4 yr disaster, this almost destroyed country with an almost destroyed concept of governance, and 70 million people voting for it to continue is absolutely mind boggling. That people could think this level of incompetence and hate and destruction is within the confines of the concept of humanity, there are no words that can define, measure, explain, make understandable this insanity.

  10. 10.

    Winston

    Just made my donations to Ossoff and Warnock. $100 ea because for some reason I got my SSA a day early. Now I expect to get 5 or 6 emails a day wanting more because they think I’m and easy mark. If they only knew. Watched the act blue ticker go up $33k in 10 minutes. Not bad for 2 am I guess. Hope everyone is having a good day. I went to my new doctor and she’s a living doll.

  11. 11.

    Winston

    @Ruckus: I started watching west wing a couple weeks ago and couldn’t get thru the first episode. But.. Designated Survivor I watched a couple of times and If Biden doesn’t work out I think we should get Kiefer Sutherland in there.

  12. 12.

    Winston

    I was almost out of gas so I stopped on the way to the doctors office and filled it up for $1.83 per gallon. That is the third tank of gas this year. Mid March, mid July and today. All for less than $2.00/g.

  13. 13.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ruckus:

    That people could think this level of incompetence and hate and destruction is within the confines of the concept of humanity, there are no words that can define, measure, explain, make understandable this insanity. 

    Better than I could’ve put it.

    And it’s totally mind-boggling that 8 million+ more people voted for this fucking fascist this time around after 4 years of shit and an ongoing pandemic.

  14. 14.

    Winston

    Friend posted this on FB:

    We will see…I will be first in line when all that “free health care, food stamps, etc come out that was promised! ?
    #America#isgoing#
    toshit#

    My reply:

    That’s a problem, if you are expecting free stuff. Biden is going to tax the mega billionaires to start paying their fair share so you don’t have to cover their selfishness. Unless you support the billionaires so they don’t have to. Nothing is free, we all pay our fair share, even if it isn’t fair.


    No one but you is saying everything is going to be free. Medicare certainly isn’t even after I’ve payed into it for 50 years and couldn’t use it. I still have monthly premiums.

    The most constructive period in the history of our country occurred after WWII. The max tax rate was 90%. If you want to talk about MAGA, we go do that again. But it’s all a lie with Rebcons as you should see had you been paying attention. Instead you propagate the lie.

  15. 15.

    Winston

    @mrmoshpotato: And it’s totally mind-boggling that 8 million+ more people voted for this fucking fascist this time around after 4 years of shit and an ongoing pandemic.

    Yeah. I have thought the same thing. Fishy as hell. Like the contractor of the voting machines in Florida is a buddy of DiSantis and has control of programing for all the voting machines. But they couldn’t imagine the magnitude of the Dem turnout. Suck it Rebs. Except the polls told them what to expect.

    @mrmoshpotato:

  17. 17.

    Kent

    @Ruckus: My wife has been re-watching West Wing.  I can’t do it as long as Trump is in power.  I watched the whole series religiously when it was broadcast.  Maybe I’ll take it up again in a Biden Administration.  But I still can’t.  The pain of what we lost is just too great still.

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Winston: I wasn’t suggesting voting tally shenanigans, just that it’s mind-boggling that people would go, “I want 4 more of this madness and uncertainty.”

    (Yeah, I know Trump cult members definitely aren’t thinking straight.  And I’m not excusing their gleeful cruelty.)

  22. 22.

    Emma from FL

    After extricating myself from the thread below, I have been laying in bed wondering how we got here.

    If you’re interested, the answer seems to be that we’re decent people. We’re not ruthless enough to respond in kind to the avalanche of dirty tricks and depraved mendacity the other side employs. And we need to be.

    If I had the money I would create a group whose only job would be to lie convincingly and spread the lies globally. I would set them only one job: take them down by any means. Dirty? As all hell. But the truth doesn’t seem to matter. Wealthy conservatives have used their think tanks and so-called institutes to lie for thirty years and it has worked beautifully. So why not fight fire with fire?

    And don’t tell me “because we’re better”.  Better and dead is one hell of a proposition.

  24. 24.

    Sebastian

    @mrmoshpotato:

    @Winston:

    I am having the same spidey sense going bananas. He ran the most incompetent campaign ever, broke, no TV ads, the ads themselves were absolute trash, and yet such a close race?

    BULLSHIT

    Why don’t we do a no-stone-left unturned 50-state election investigation. Comprehensive, transparent, public, something like the 911 commission on steroids. It might be a good thing to level set the country because we can’t go on like this.

    I was reading up on voting machines and open source initiatives and found something very interesting. The OSET institute is working on open source election software which can be licensed by commercial device manufacturers. If this is what I think it is, then we need to lobby hard to get this adopted. Check it out:

    Trustthevote.org

    I want to dig deeper but if what they say is true, that 70% of all voting machines have to be replaced in a year or so then we might be looking at a unique opportunity to solve this problem once and forever.

  26. 26.

    206inKY

    @Sebastian: Couldn’t possibly agree more. Something was in the works. Mail voting saved us. That’s why Trump flipped his shit over absentee balloting—it messes up the plan.

  27. 27.

    HumboldtBlue

    @opiejeanne:

    I couldn’t be more of a goy if I was turning on the lights for Mr. and Mrs. Steinberg on a Friday night.

    As Irish Joe Biden would say: C’mon man, it’s a schmear.

  29. 29.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Winston: What kind of argument is that?

    I’ve heard people say something will happen when monkeys fly out of their butts.  And yet, no flying butt monkeys.  Explain that.

  30. 30.

    Emma from FL

    @Winston: Maybe. And it would work from a legal point of view. But it wouldn’t change anything because what is happening is not a legal thing. It’s a moral thing. They created monsters and unleashed them on the rest of us. We are helpless because we believe in truth and justice as the ultimate cures for a sick society. And I am not sure that will work anymore.

  31. 31.

    Winston

    @mrmoshpotato: I got 190 ballots. When they go thru the voting machine 97 come out voting for Rebs, 93 for Dems. It’s just an algorithm buried deep in the software. I have no evidence of that, but maybe the supreme court will allow me to develop some.

  32. 32.

    opiejeanne

    @HumboldtBlue: Heh heh.

    There was a nice little bagel shop in my town years ago, that served beautiful bagels and a multitude of schmears. It was across the parking lot from the dance studio where my girls took classes, and several of us moms went there on Saturdays. We were all disappointed when it closed.

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    @206inKY:

    Mail voting saved us. 

    Totally!  “Hack this, you Russkie bitches!”

    I hope a lot more Dems will embrace vote-by-mail, and I hope the DNC circus is dead.  The 2020 convention was awesome – especially the state-by-state roll call.

  36. 36.

    the pollyanna from hell

    @Emma from FL: Lincoln Project folks have made a good start. But even their level of hyperbole is not necessary to a good propaganda operation. Persistence, penetration, emotionalism, oversimplification balanced with entertaining snippets of sophistication… Sounds like the Colbert Report, which never tried to fool anyone. Yes, putting a lot of money in might help, but lying is not actually required.

  42. 42.

    Winston

    Well, now Hurricane/Tropical storm Eta is projected to slam into Mississippi and miss Florida by 300 miles. A new Tropical Storm Theta is projected to pivot back to Africa. Cool. I was thinking I need to do more preparation.

  43. 43.

    Brachiator

    @Winston:

    Just made my donations to Ossoff and Warnock. $100 ea because for some reason I got my SSA a day early.

    I wonder if the “day early” thing is because the Veterans’ Day holiday is Wednesday.

  46. 46.

    Brachiator

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I have recently discovered “Have I Got News For You,” and greatly enjoy it. And this week’s episode, and the take on the US election, was especially good.

    I didn’t think that other Balloon Juice folk were into this program.

     

    ETA: Also enjoy the hell out of “QI: Quite Interesting.”

  47. 47.

    mrmoshpotato

    Two-front war coming for Rethuglican Trump trash!

    Maybe the shitstains should give up their war on democracy. Because we libtards are about to start our annual fight against Christmas!

    there was a Starbucks ad on this youtube video just now and OH BOY I'M READY FOR THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS!— Chris Creamer? (@CCXIII) November 10, 2020

  48. 48.

    Mallard Filmore

    Maybe the Republicans don’t like mail-in ballots because there is automatically a paper trail.

  50. 50.

    Brachiator

    @Mallard Filmore:

    Maybe the Republicans don’t like mail-in ballots because there is automatically a paper trail.

    I am not saying that I believe this (I am just happy that Biden won), but is this how the conspiracy theory thing works? Don’t know if this is just my little fantasy or if others have suggested this:

    Trump and his buddy Putin hatched a scheme to rig voting machines so that they would over-count GOP votes and under-count Democratic votes in certain swing states.

    But this scheme depended on people coming out to vote. And so Trump dutifully made noise about mail-in ballots being the tool of the Devil, and also encouraging his base to come out and physically vote.

    But the scheme was foiled by so many people choosing to go the mail-in route. Indirectly, the pandemic actually helped save the country. And so now Trump has to fall back on Plan B to try to invalidate the vote and steal the election.

    An improbable tale. More likely, Trump is just an idiot who likes to stir shit up.

    And with that, I will go see what I can do to relieve my insomnia. It’s a little chilly, so maybe some hot chocolate will be relaxing.

  51. 51.

    Matt McIrvin

    Everything they’re trying now, they openly bragged about doing before the election. It’s not a plan B. This is the plan. But I do think they were banking on the vote being closer, and depending on late ballots, so they could make it more plausible.

  53. 53.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Matt McIrvin:

    But I do think they were banking on the vote being closer, and depending on late ballots, so they could make it more plausible. 

    Well, I hope they enjoy California continuing to beat them with fish.  Sad!

  54. 54.

    Mousebumples

    @Ruckus: We just rewatched the West Wing leading up to the election. (finished last week of October) The HBO cast reunion is great, if you haven’t seen it yet.

    @Winston: The show totally changed focus a few episodes in. It was originally planned to be about the staff of the West Wing, but the First Family ended up playing a much larger role by the middle of the first season. Not saying it’s a show you’ll definitely like, but the pilot isn’t really representative of the show as a whole.

  55. 55.

    Winston

    @Brachiator: Best explanation so far. The day of voting machines were programmed to cheat, the mail in ballot machines were not. There is no plausible explanation to explain how trumps base increased by 10 million votes. But he knew it would.

  58. 58.

    different-church-lady

    I’m seriously hoping the future holds one more circle on the diagram. A circle that Trump alone occupies. See if you can guess its label.

  59. 59.

    Tony Jay

    @Brachiator:

    HIGNFY used to be the most vicious and cutting political comedy show on TV, but those days are long, long past. I stopped watching it years ago, and even then Hislop and Merton (especially Merton) seemed to have grown bored with the concept. It’s also never quite got over being the vehicle by which a certain blustering fake introduced himself to the country and became a ‘different type of politician’. Then again, maybe it’s improved during my absence, but with the diktats coming down from BBC High Command about promoting more “right-wing comedy” I seriously doubt it.

    If you like QI (and you should, despite its tendency to book the same faces over and over again plus whoever is being pushed as the ‘next pretty face of TV comedy’) then you might also enjoy ‘Only Connect’. No celebrities (except for the odd seasonal special) just genuine quiz fans trying to find the fiendishly hard connections between obscure clues. It’s fronted by Ms Marmite Victoria Coren-Mitchell (You either love her clumsy attempts at being ‘funny’ or… not*) with a genuine big-sisterly fondness for the majority geek/nerd contestants.

    *I do, since I’m pretty sure her resolute unfunniness is a deliberate act. She’s married to David Mitchell, for Gawd’s sake, author of the seminal “Are We The Baddies?” sketch. Could he live with a woman devoid of a funny bone, I think not.

  60. 60.

    egorelick

    I remain skeptical regarding voter fraud. I think it is that Americans (and people in general) are often horrible, ignorant, greedy, mendacious, cruel f*cks.

  61. 61.

    TS (the original)

    @Winston:

     Like the contractor of the voting machines in Florida is a buddy of DiSantis and has control of programing for all the voting machines.

    Given everything they accuse democrats of doing is something the GOP has done – it sure gives one pause for thought as to who commits voter fraud.

  62. 62.

    JAFD

    Good morning, jackals !

    Was at doctor’s Thursday, got flu shot and covid test (negative) and medical check for cataract operation  (hoping the forms made it from Newark to West Orange, mail or fax or pony express) and prescriptions for four kinds of eyedrops.  So heading for operation later this morn.  Wish me luck.

    Have had four days of truly wonderful weather here, forecast to continue today, high in the 70’s.  Would send some to you if I could.

    The stans of politically-themed boardgames already know that Hollandspiele has just released The Vote, on the passage of the 17th and 19th Amendments

    https://hollandspiele.com/products/the-vote-suffrage-and-suppression-in-america

    There are videos thereon at:

    https://youtu.be/JEtQaVczD_s

    https://youtu.be/XCbwUlyV7K8

    (If you have a source of free printer ink cartridges and utility knife blades, a print-and-play edition may be coming from WargameVault.com)

    (am deciding: get copy now, or wait till I can get together with friends, actually play it…)

    Have great day, everyone !

    (Mr. JAFD goes off, grumbling because he can’t have morning cuppa, “No Food Or Drink After Midnight!”  Bah humbug.)

  63. 63.

    John S.

    For fuck sake people, it’s bad enough that 70% of Republicans think the election was rigged — we don’t need Democrats drinking that kool-aid.

    Occam’s razor tells me that a similar proportion of assholes turned out for Trump this time as last time, but we simply turned out more people. Turnout overall was high because people literally felt an existential threat. For Democrats that threat was Trump, the pandemic and democracy going down the drain. For Republicans that threat was Biden, the loss of white privilege and communist socialism boogeymen.

    We don’t need to invent a conspiracy for what is plainly in front of our faces.

  65. 65.

    satby

    @John S.: Agree, both teams worked hard to motivate their voters. Sadly, we found out that there’s less “more of us than them” than we all thought. Some of the conspiracy thinking is an attempt to cope with that heartbreaking realization.

  68. 68.

    phdesmond

    this was in the Guardian:

     
    Four Seasons Total Landscaping – a Philadelphia groundskeeping company situated between a crematorium and a sex shop where on Saturday Rudy Giuliani somehow held a press conference about baseless claims of voter fraud – has swiftly sought to cash in on its newfound fame, selling merchandise emblazoned with Trump-inspired puns.
    “MAKE AMERICA RAKE AGAIN”, read one sticker on sale on the company website on Monday. It also featured the phrase “LAWN AND ORDER!” The stickers were selling for $5 each.

  72. 72.

    frosty

    @John S.: Thank you! I agree completely! I was worried that the R GOTV would drag even more Trump voters to the polls than 2016 and it appears to have worked. We did the same and it worked better. For the record, PA replaced all its touchscreens with paper ballots and scanners for the 2018 election.

    Plus I don’t think this gang could pull off a voting machine hack. Or keep the news from leaking.

  73. 73.

    Omnes Omnibus

    If you want to argue that votes were rigged, I am going to need some proof.  Voter suppression has happened; there is evidence.  Changing the count?  Let’s see the evidence.  Otherwise we sound just like GOP whiners.

  75. 75.

    Kattails

    @Kent: Just wanted to say that I always find these comments by you, talking about the basic running of the government, extremely informative and helpful, so thank you for posting!

  76. 76.

    piratedan

    @Luciamia: I believe he’s targeting the Media, print, online, network, radio and it’s GOP Courtier divisions… who have an “understanding” with the subject matter and framing of all “work” they pollute on the various “bandwidths”.

  77. 77.

    Bill Arnold

    I’m still struggling for an explanation of why polling in some states, e.g. NJ, MN, CO was accurate, but wildly inaccurate in neighboring states. For me, these discrepancies leave open the possibility of massive vote rigging in some states, and this needs to be seriously investigated by specialists. Rigging need not be machines; it could be anywhere in the aggregation chain between the voting machines/scanners and the state Secretary of State. For instance, certain Republican-dominated counties could be thoroughly and securely corrupt and report fraudulent results skewed Republican. E.g. Florida 2018, Rick Scott in particular was disturbingly confident that he would win even though it was close.

    This sort of thing can fall apart easily, though people can be bought off or otherwise silenced, which is a prior that reduces the probability of it being done.

    Anyway, probably worth writing up as a detailed, technical accurate academic hypothetical. The larger consequences of reducing confidence in elections is a serious risk, though. I’d be very happy and relieved if investigations turned up alternative explanations and no evidence of rigging.

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    @Winston: A lot of new Trump republicans registered to vote.  People who never vote, but were motivated to vote for Trump because of his racism, putting kids in cages, letting people die.

    Those people saw all that and thought “that’s worth voting for!”

  80. 80.

    Miss Bianca

    @John S.:

    We don’t need to invent a conspiracy for what is plainly in front of our faces.

    I tend to agree. I am always reminded of Jane telling Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, when Lizzie is fuming about some sort of conspiracy to harm her new friend Wickham, “I have no idea of there being so much design in the world as some persons imagine.”

  81. 81.

    Captain C

    @Glyph2112: At least some of them are probably more scared of Trump’s deranged, armed followers, who are the bulk of their votes.  As in, physically scared.  I would imagine at least a few also have some really bad kompromat on them.

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