Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

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

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

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

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

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

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

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: The (R)Evolution Continues

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: The (R)Evolution Continues

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Excellent, if not overly dainty, ad. (And from a preacher, no less!)

Reader Interactions

236Comments

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    That Warnock ad is terrific!

    Here’s my fave clip from yesterday’s cabinet announcements:

    Gumbo diplomacy!

  8. 8.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Put this in the COVID thread below:

    RWNJ mom (who, along with dad benefits from SS, his teacher’s pension and a 401K through nonprofit employment, along with Medicare) was complaining about a new round of Kentucky closures.

    She referred to Beshear as King Andy and said he’s too scared to keep things open, that he doesn’t have “the guts” to make a  decision to keep things running.

    We also talked of potential travel to St Lucia (population 180,000), which has had only 164 diagnosed cases and two deaths since March. They achieve this result with significant mask use, negative COVID testing within a week of the date of arrival, frequent temperature checks, rigid contact tracing data and limited mixing. As a result, they’re able to keep a number of things going. Her response, as always centered around the sainted white working class “well, they don’t have big factories”.

    Her idealized myth of America sucks.

    I begged off the call, deciding to walk the dog instead.

  13. 13.

    debbie

    I really like Thomas-Greenfield’s strategy. Suck ’em in with food. It always worked for my Mamaw.

  15. 15.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @Betty Cracker: Gumbo diplomacy. Kamala’s cornbread dressing. Gonna be a tasty four (or eight!) years! It’ll be nice to eat out of enjoyment instead of stress.

  17. 17.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Bruuuuce: Sweet!

    The reading in my church last Sunday was the parable about welcoming the stranger and how you treat the least is how you treat Jesus. Seems like those messages would be a lot harder for a Republican to claim than a Democrat.

    It is ridiculous how the media latched onto the Jerry Falwell’s and Pat Robertson’s as representing Christianity, and not the thousands of liberal pastors who try to actually preach and live the Gospels.

  18. 18.

    Joe Falco

    Georgia state senators call for special session to address “voting issues”.

    Four Republican state senators are calling for a special session of the General Assembly to address voting concerns before the January runoff — an idea that top Georgia leaders have already rejected

    I knew it wasn’t going to be long before some yahoos were going to just loudly say they want to steal the run-off election. At least it’s being publicly rejected by R leadership, but it’s not surprising Republicans want to reject democracy altogether.

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Dealing with wingnut parents is such a trial. My Trump-voting father usually avoids the topic of politics when we talk, but the other day, when discussing the pandemic, he did make a dumb comment about how now that the media used COVID-19 to “get rid of Trump,” we’ll probably hear nothing more about it.

  21. 21.

    debbie

    @Joe Falco:

    If there is a problem, it’s that no one is loudly pointing out that all those mail-in ballots that suddenly showed up were the same ballots Trump tried to “get lost” when he fucked with the post office. Sadly for him, nothing will delay the post office from its appointed rounds, not even a fat, cheating, asshole.

  22. 22.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Betty Cracker: Is Fox avoiding the “The Hospitals are Full” screaming headlines I’m seeing every day? I feel like there’s a lot of Covid reality that it’s going to be hard for your dad to avoid seeing.

  23. 23.

    prostratedragon

    Joy Reid last night had a history lesson to give some background to Giuliani’s eulogizing of David Dinkins, first and so far only Black mayor of NYC and maybe the last one who actually loved the city. (Not sure about DiBlasio. Maybe he’s proving that love is not enough, especially with little understanding.)

  24. 24.

    Bruuuuce

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: There’s no doubt that there’s a liberal vein in mainstream religion. It’s just that the loudmouthed hatemongers and prosperity gospel con men have hogged the mic for so long, it’s sometimes hard to see it.

    Time for the spotlight to move to people doing good for and well by other people in the name of faith.

  25. 25.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    Well, at least they’re not vaccine-averse, although RWNJ mom probably  will resent any of you know, them getting vaccinated for cheap or for free.

    The stuff coming from dad’s mouth, since he’s been deprived of most of his beloved sports and fed a steady diet of Fox by mom is just plain awful. He never was THAT guy, and now he is.

  26. 26.

    patrick II

    There has been quite a bit of column space dedicated to whether Donald Trump can self-pardon or not, and if he can’t whether he should be investigated, indicted, and tried.  He leaves us little choice because he is not going to stop. Self pardons are ridiculous to begin with, no constitutional right is absolute, and pardon for fellow conspirators should be found not legal either. A President able to self-pardon is a president totally above the law, and if that happens serious criminals will continue to seek that office. Power with no boundaries will attract the worst of us.  It already has. If Trump shoots someone on Fifth avenue he should be tried.  If Trump gives a gun to someone and tells him to shoot someone on Fifth avenue, that person should be tried.

    Other presidents commit crimes, but non so serious as the continuing sedition of the U.S. by Donald Trump and his gang of merry fascists. The counterargument is that real democracies don’t throw their former presidents in jail.  Real democracies don’t have Donald Trump for a president, or as a seditious ex-president either.

  27. 27.

    Joe Falco

    @debbie:

    Sadly for him, nothing will delay the post office from its appointed rounds, not even a fat, cheating, asshole.

    Nor the hemorrhoids appointed to run the post office.

  28. 28.

    mali muso

    Inspired by WaterGirl’s thread a few days back about a book discussion on A Promised Land, I went ahead and used up an Audible credit to get it and spent almost the entire day yesterday with Obama’s warm baritone keeping me company as I went about my Thanksgiving day prep.  Just getting to the part where he chose Biden as his running mate this morning. Hearing him describe Joe’s character and intelligence makes this transition even sweeter.

  32. 32.

    TS (the original)

    @patrick II:

    The counterargument is that real democracies don’t throw their former presidents in jail.

    Is France a real democracy?

    Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is set to go on trial on charges of corruption and influence peddling in a phone-tapping scandal, a first for the 65-year-old politician who has faced several other judicial investigations since leaving office in 2012.

    Mr Sarkozy is accused of trying to illegally obtain information from a magistrate about an investigation involving him in 2014.

    He will stand trial in a Paris court along with his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, 65, and the magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, 73.

    They face up to 10 years’ prison and a maximum fine of 1 million euros ($1.6 million).

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor the Kremlin’s fat orange fascist shitstain stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    Warnock and Ossoff winning would be the perfect Christmas gift!

    On the 12th Day of Christmas, right? I’m hoping we have an epiphany then.

  37. 37.

    J R in WV

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    The reading in my church last Sunday was the parable about welcoming the stranger and how you treat the least is how you treat Jesus. Seems like those messages would be a lot harder for a Republican to claim than a Democrat.

    Next door neighbor, really nice guy, has always been conservative politically. Has helped me with a stuck 4×4 truck in a snowstorm at 5 am, offered to help other neighbor with pouring a concrete floor in his garage, which is back breaking hard work. So a real good neighbor, not just talk the talk.

    He resigned from the Republican party 5 or 8 weeks ago, because their attitude towards poverty was “un-Christian”!!!

    It was the thought that counts….

    ETA:  My truck was an F-350 hitched to a trailer full of tools and a backhoe, I was leaving for Arizona with 3 friends to continue work on that little camp we built, the tons of trailer is why it was stuck.  He facilitated a timely departure on a years long project!

    Neighbor also has a heavy-duty 4×4 truck, is a farmer and wood worker with a sawmill. Work trucks aren’t for blowing coal, they are for work!

  38. 38.

    Geminid

    I think that if Loeffler still debates Warnock December 6 she will be sorry she ever agreed to. Raphael Warnock is a professional communicator; Loeffler is not. She is especially vulnerable on her stock trades, and I expect Warnock to pound this issue early and often. Loefflers best defense is to assert that her trades were not illegal, and as a political argument, that’s a loser.

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Probably. The weird thing is we had just been talking about the precautions we are taking, then he shifted gears to that BS about Trump. Dad thinks I’m a fanatic about pandemic precautions, but he knows people who’ve had it, so he knows it’s real, and he wants to avoid it himself. 

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: My dad has always been That Guy. I think it would be way worse if he hadn’t been a RWNJ all along, so you have my sympathies.

  41. 41.

    PST

    My dog just goes nuts every time she hears Rev. Warnock’s dog bark. I have often heard her react to dogs on TV, but usually it’s a kind of mild acknowledgment. Something about that beagle bark sends her to the window in a frenzy.

  43. 43.

    rikyrah

    I remember when Black and brown women told everybody Trump would be a terrible and dangerous President and journalists said “he’ll pivot!” “he’ll learn the job” “nothing is at risk” “he and Hillary are the same!” “Look—he’s acting Presidential!”… so we can ignore you guys now. https://t.co/TQ6sWc8Iql— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) November 25, 2020

  51. 51.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @patrick II:

    Other presidents commit crimes, but non so serious as the continuing sedition of the U.S. by Donald Trump and his gang of merry fascists.

    That makes me wonder:  What actions of Trump as president count as on-the-books crimes?  He certainly has committed financial crimes in his New York life, but the stuff I can bring to mind as president is disgusting corruption or freakishly evil policies that should be criminal, but have no criminal law attached I can think of.  I doubt he can be gotten for bribery (incredibly hard to prosecute successfully) or putting children in cages, say.  Ditto pressuring other countries for political assistance.  And yet there’s no way the stupid fuck has kept his hands clean enough to say ‘Just interpreting the law differently’ like Bush/Cheney could.  Also, he’s pulled so much ghastly shit I can’t remember 1/20th of it.  Can anyone think of actual on-the-books crimes?

    He’s fucked in New York State.  The man committed financial crimes as a way of life.

  52. 52.

    germy

    @rikyrah:

    Democrats swiftly criticized the move, with Bharat Ramamurti, a member of the congressionally appointed watchdog panel overseeing Fed and Treasury Covid-19 relief funds, saying “the good news is that it’s illegal and can be reversed next year.”

    (Bloomberg News)

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    Alfred fan? TCM showing 12 Hitchcock movies in a row, beginning 8 p.m (Eastern) Thursday and running through 8 p.m. Friday.

  58. 58.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: The “Old Tyme Religion” tent revivalist bullshit has been a trans-media carny show going way back. Even when we were kids in the country, my siblings and cousins just could not believe that adults could be so gullible.

    Like the conmen that they are, the Jesus carnival barkers figured out the power of radio pretty damned early. It’s not like Limbaugh and his ilk had a new idea back in the 80s. They are a very natural development of what started in the 20s.

    So, if one religious group is out actually helping the poor in “urban” neighborhoods or way out in Podunk trailer parks or in some “shithole country,” and the other “religious” group is nothing more than entertainment that makes the barkers fabulously wealthy, letting them lead outrageous lifestyles, and making them very practiced in the ways of media, which one will the press cover?

  59. 59.

    germy

    @NotMax:

    I saw Rear Window several times on TV, but it wasn’t until I saw it on a big screen at our local movie theater that I really SAW it and fully appreciated it.  Same thing with Rope.

    We have a regular 30 inch TV.  I miss the movie theater experience.

  60. 60.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy: Is that pile of Trump trash looking at a beatdown from Lady Justice?  It would improve Steve’s smug face for sure.

  61. 61.

    Matt McIrvin

    @rikyrah: There does seem to be a whole Very Clever People movement right now devoted to arguing that because Trump lost in the end, all the warnings about him were overblown.

    Like Nate Silver, I’m divided between emphasizing how ramshackle and pathetic Trump’s coup strategy was, and warning people that the fact that he had one at all–and that most of the Republican Party signed on, or at least signaled that they were perfectly OK with it as long as it worked–constitutes a serious and ongoing threat. If more of the breaks had gone his way, it could have worked. (And he’s not done trying, though his chances are relatively remote now.)

    Anyone could have predicted, and just about everyone did predict, that Trump would refuse to accept a loss and do his best to get it overturned even if he’d lost in a landslide. The terrifying thing is that the rest of the Republicans, apart from a few outliers, revealed themselves to have no commitment to democracy. I don’t think the United States can survive in its current form for that long if this continues. We’ll have civil war or dictatorship or just break up.

  65. 65.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Matt McIrvin:

    There does seem to be a whole Very Clever People movement right now devoted to arguing that because Trump lost in the end, all the warnings about him were overblown. 

    Slap them all with the past four years of atrocities.

  71. 71.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: They come by it “honestly” — their parents are snake-oil peddling radio ministry grifters who are probably proud that their offspring pulled off a nationwide scam.

  72. 72.

    Starfish

    Here is a thread where Nate Silver gets flayed alive for being too cool for school and claiming that fears of a stolen election were overblown.

  73. 73.

    germy

    City of El Paso hires legal counsel to help collect Trump campaign’s outstanding debt

    EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The City of El Paso is taking further steps in attempts of collecting over half a million dollars that’s owed by the Trump campaign from a rally that took place almost two years ago.

    It’s almost the end of November and with obstacles throughout the year due to COVID-19, the City has been waiting since February of last year on money that’s been owed from the Trump campaign.

    “We all are seeing firsthand the struggles that everyday El Paso families have in addition to the challenges that we have in our own budget,” City Rep. Peter Svarzbein said during Tuesday’s council meeting, “So this amount of money is not inconsequential and also the message that we send that nobody is above the law is also an important one for our community to understand as well.”

  75. 75.

    SFAW

    @Matt McIrvin:

    There does seem to be a whole Very Clever People movement right now devoted to arguing that because Trump lost in the end, all the warnings about him were overblown.

    Are they the same people who, after the first post-Citizens United election did not completely destroy democracy, determined that CU* had no effect? As Shakespeare or someone else once said: Fuckem

     

    *No, not Consumers Union, NotMax

  79. 79.

    Spanky

    Hey, wait a minute. Doesn’t this mean the GA election is on Epiphany? AKA the 12th day of Christmas? Hadn’t occurred to me before.

  84. 84.

    SFAW

    @Starfish:

    Here is a thread where Nate Silver gets flayed alive for being too cool for school and claiming that fears of a stolen election were overblown.

    One set of data I’d like to see is: how did the swing-state polling “discrepancies” compare to “discrepancies” in deep Red states? Did the polling-to-actual-vote swings only occur in states where Dems were thought to be competitive? Asking because: Rethug projection being what it is, I’d like to see an investigation into whether there was some diddling of the votes cast on election day. Probably nothing there, but better to “make them deny it.”

  85. 85.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    OT – I plan to smoke a turkey in the morning.  All the literature suggests brining first (I haven’t brined turkeys before out of fear of wrecking the drippings for gravy).  Before I left, I boiled up rosemary, sage, thyme, garlic, peppercorns bay leaves and salt to leave out and cool until I get home.  I did a taste of the brine, and to me, everything else is lost in the salt.  I plan on adding those spices to a rub before putting the bird on the smoker.

    Should I whip up some more purely spiced boil when I get home, or is this normal?

  88. 88.

    SFAW

    @Spanky:

    I think it’s on the 5th, yes? And I think Epiphany is the 6th?

    Some maybe there will be the epiphany of a Dem-controlled Senate on 1/6/21?

  90. 90.

    germy

    SCOOP: Trump has told confidants he plans to pardon Michael Flynn, per two sources with direct knowledge. https://t.co/GyHvWcn6NO

    — Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) November 25, 2020

    Dear the Press: If you're going to report on a potential Flynn pardon, probably important to note Flynn's facing at least 3 crimes, not 1:

    False statements he pled to
    Secretly acting as an Agent of Turkey, which DOJ can charge now that he has disavowed plea
    Lies he told in Court

    — emptywheel (@emptywheel) November 25, 2020

  92. 92.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin: 

    “Overblown” is inherently subjective, so neither provable not disprovable. But it seems like a waste of pundit time to spend time criticizing the pessimists, given everything the Republicans have tried to pull.

  93. 93.

    NotMax

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    FYI.

    Only brine turkeys that have not been pre-salted, which should be clearly stated on the label. Do not use turkeys labeled “kosher,” “enhanced,” or “self-basting.” Brining these would result in an over-salted turkey. If your label doesn’t give any indication that it has been pre-treated, then it’s safe to assume you’re clear to proceed. Source

  94. 94.

    germy

    Even a nation hooked on drama does not want to see a US president dragged out the front door of the White House on Jan. 20, so we asked experts in the art of persuasion how they go about dislodging the reluctant. https://t.co/5ERR3bbvlH

    — The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) November 24, 2020

    I’d enjoy seeing him dragged, and I usually hate drama.

  99. 99.

    germy

    @Baud:

    Fortunately, Anthony has a lot more impressions he can do.  A talented guy who imitates everyone from Gorka to Sanders to Tweety (the pundit, not the bird)

  100. 100.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    Shit! I wish I had known that yesterday, before I started dry-brining ours. The label (which I just pulled out of the trash) says it was pre-brined, didn’t know to look for that. [We’ve gotten ours from a farm the last N years.]

    So now I need to decide whether to wash off the salt. Shit.

  102. 102.

    JPL

    Earlier I went by Fresh Market to pick up a few items, and I did wish the clerk a Happy Easter.   My sense of time is now totally gone.    ???

  103. 103.

    NotMax

    Slowly getting there day by day now, being able to tune in the news without overpowering trepidation.

  109. 109.

    germy

    @NotMax:  Slowly getting there day by day now, being able to tune in the news without overpowering trepidation.

    If Trump had won, I would have needed overpowering trepanation.

  112. 112.

    lee

    That ad is great.

    My Dad & I rarely talk politics. To be honest, I’m not sure when the last election he voted was. The one thing that I have noticed he is taking the pandemic very seriously (he is 88). We skipped the funeral of his sister-in-law 2 months ago. He told me that his attendance at Thanksgiving is totally my decision (he knows I’m taking it seriously as well).

    I was unsure of who all was going to be in attendance on Thanksgiving. My youngest and I have been 100% work from home since March. Neither of us goes out much at all. My wife is a veterinarian and they have been doing drop-off only since April. My oldest is…well…not doing very well when it comes to quarantine. My sister-in-law works at Costco.  I was not sure if both are planning on being here. It turns out they are. So my Dad will not be attending. I set up his laptop to use Zoom so we’ll probably either have a Zoom call or a quick phone call.

  113. 113.

    NotMax

    @SFAW

    Hardly an expert in the process but offhand would guess that if you brine it and after that rinse it very, very well in fresh water you should be A-OK.

    Happy to defer to any with more experience.

  114. 114.

    Matt McIrvin

    @mrmoshpotato: Before the election, I recall Greenwald wondering aloud whether Democrats would admit the whole Resistance thing was a farce when the next duly-elected, “judicially-approved” President peacefully took office. It was not lost on readers that he’d specified that phrase in quotes.

  117. 117.

    The Pale Scot

    @NotMax:

    TCM showing 12 Hitchcock movies in a row,

    Fargin’ Comcast put TCM in to a different tier the bastards. We pay an ungodly amount of money for service. Which is why have no qualms about bitorrenting.

  118. 118.

    germy

    @JPL:

    I’ve got a Price Chopper (now called “Market 32”) where the folks stocking shelves often wear bandanas down over their necks rather than over their faces.  Every day I see TV commercials from corporate about “your safety is important to us” etc., but I guess supplying their employees with proper masks would cut too deeply into profits.

  121. 121.

    NotMax

    @germy

    Sort of wonder if in private she’s taken to calling him whatever the Slovenian word for loser is and he thinks it’s a term of endearment.

  122. 122.

    natem

    @Matt McIrvin: Someone made a mock GG tweet that said something to the effect of “Nobody starts a fascist movement in a beer hall LOL” and I thought it was the most perfect encapsulation of him.

  123. 123.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @NotMax: I suspect that started when she arrived at the White House in the summer of ’17, after the revised pre-nup was signed, filed with the necessary courts and the original placed in a vault in a bank in Bern owned by Slovenian mobsters

  125. 125.

    Aleta

    @Matt McIrvin:

    b-boy bouiebaisse  @jbouie

    “the earnest attempt to subvert and overturn the election didn’t pan out so the people who urged vigilance were being hysterical” is the probably going to be conventional wisdom for the professional contrarian set

  128. 128.

    germy

    @Kathleen:

    I have a book that reprints some letters Robert Benchley wrote to his wife during the filming.  He said the script was being revised all through the shooting schedule.

    I had always been under the impression that Hitchcock never filmed an inch of footage until the script was locked down.  I guess I was wrong.

  129. 129.

    JanieM

    @mrmoshpotato:, @Matt McIrvin: Reminds me of when I was on a jury, and most of the other jurors argued that because the victim didn’t actually die of the vicious beating he got, which required multiple surgeries and the reconstruction of half his face, his life had never been in danger and therefore it couldn’t have been aggravated assault.

    I was dismayed at the time, but having lived through the last four years and especially the last eight months, I have had to realize that my fellow jurors were not particularly less capable of actual logic than … a gazillion (70mm plus?) other Americans..

  131. 131.

    BC in Illinois

    Totally off topic, but an indication of how much there is to un-do.

    And how wonderful it will be to seen this man gone.

    From the Daily Beast

    Trump Is Racing to Bring Back Firing-Squad Executions

    Before He Leaves Office, Says Report

    It won’t have any effect — the executions that he is racing to have performed under his watch will be by lethal injection — but again, the posture of cruelty is the point of it all.

    The Inauguration is eight weeks from today. It needs to come quickly.

  132. 132.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Matt McIrvin: There were those among us who were vigilant (and worked hard in every small way we could to get the Ds elected) but didn’t melt into a puddle of hyperbolic hopelessness as a reaction to everything the Orange clown did or said like Mr. Bouie, opinion writer at the Vichy Times did.

  134. 134.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @JPL: IIRC, the Italian version of Sanity Clause, La Befana, the Christmas Witch, shows up with gifts on the night of 5-6 January. Two Senate seats would be nice to have under the tree in the morning…

  135. 135.

    germy

    @BC in Illinois:

    Each method of execution is supposed to be more humane than the one it replaced.  The guillotine was supposed to be more humane than hanging. The firing squad was supposed to be more humane than the guillotine.  Lethal injection was supposed to be a kinder, gentler method than the gas chamber.

  136. 136.

    Kathleen

    @germy: Thank you for that tidbit! I enjoy reading about the process of the making of a movie, TV show or any artistic endeavor. I guess Casablanca was a hot mess for awhile but it all came together beautifully.

  138. 138.

    schrodingers_cat

    Now that we are in good hands, the focus of my worries is shifted to India which worries me a lot. If the BJP continues on its current course, India is going to make what happened in Bosnia in the 90s look like a picnic.

  139. 139.

    germy

    @Kathleen:  I wonder how the course of history would changed if Ronald Reagan had been cast as Rick.  The studio apparently considered it before settling on Bogart.

  140. 140.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I thought that was dumbo non diplomacy.

    Seeing as how what he does is see how much he can get out of any transaction. Of course he always takes far less than what pretty much anyone else would take for what he gives up, because he’s actually a cheap, ignorant MF who can’t do anything properly, including cheat and steal.

  145. 145.

    catclub

    @Geminid: Loefflers best defense is to assert that her trades were not illegal, and as a political argument, that’s a loser.

     

    The best defense of the trades is that they were a trifling percentage of her wealth, so the claim that she was using insider knowledge to get out of the market ahead of a crash, is absurd.

    Unfortunately for her, it emphasizes that she is a half billionaire.

  148. 148.

    catclub

    @germy: Lethal injection was supposed to be a kinder, gentler method than the gas chamber.

     

    My understanding is that poison gas is not necessary, just replace all the oxygen with nitrogen.  I think if you added nitrous oxide – laughing gas – as well, it would be painless drift into unconsciousness. I think the expression in the hemlock crowd is ‘exit bag’.

  150. 150.

    Geminid

    @Kathleen: Have you seen Ride the High Country (1962), with Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott? Worth checking out if you haven’t. McCrea and Scott play aging westerners, and it might have been the last movie for both.

  156. 156.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    Different situation but if you end up with a sauce, gravy or soup that’s too salty, drop in some chunks of peeled raw potato and let it simmer for a while, then remove them. They will pull out a decent amount of the excess saltiness.

  157. 157.

    laura

    @catclub: when he’s done beating her about the head and neck over her corrupt investment practices. Warnock can bust her knees on the tax payer purchased private jet and the fact that if she really needed one her hubby could have bought her one with the change found in the couch cushions. But no, she’ll use other people’s money. Just wail away on the lack of accountability.

  158. 158.

    Kathleen

    @catclub: Maybe he just wants to sell Rethugs admission to live execution the grislier the better to raise money for legal fees. There’s always an innocent explanation.

  160. 160.

    WaterGirl

    @NotMax:

    After I posted the comment, I immediately considered specifically referencing meat that is too salty, because it can’t be diluted in any way, but I was too lazy to go back and edit the comment.

  161. 161.

    Geminid

    @catclub: Yeah. A million bucks here, 3 million bucks there sounds like real money to most people.

    And Martha Stewart also did not need the money she made on the stock trades she went to prison for. Rich people like a “steal” as much as the rest of us, maybe more so.

  163. 163.

    Kathleen

    @Geminid: I heard he focused on making Westerns and ended up having a nice long career in the movie biz. I also read he was beloved by co workers, crews, and friends because he was such a decent person. I have not seen that movie but will def check it out. Thx for the rec!

  166. 166.

    Ruckus

    @Geminid:

    The bigger the haul the easier the justification for doing it. And it goes both ways for those easily confused by shinny objects. At least one of them anyway….

  167. 167.

    zhena gogolia

    @WaterGirl:

    I left you a message on the Zoom thread. Repeating it here:

    WaterGirl, in case you’re the organizer, I think that more important than a password would be to make the settings so that no one but the host can Share Screen. That’s where interlopers can be really obnoxious, when they grab the screen and show naughty videos, etc.

    I’ve been using Zoom since March and have never had a Zoom-bomber, but it seems to me that from the stories I hear, it’s pretty easy to knock them out of the meeting, but if they share the screen it can be unpleasant. So the simple step of eliminating that possibility in advance can really help.

  170. 170.

    snoey

    @catclub: No nitrous or special equipment required.

    Pure nitrogen atmospheres are common enough in industrial settings that accidental deaths happen regularly.  People who have been rescued report nothing more than a fainting sensation before they went down.

    I was talking to a doctor once who said “or they could just …” and then she decided to not even say it.

    Once again, the cruelty is the point.

  171. 171.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    Zoom recently initiated some changes/updates to address Zoom bombers, which seem to be pretty effective. They have come a long way and made a concerted effort to have Zoom not be the security Swiss cheese it once was.

  173. 173.

    The Pale Scot

    @germy:

    I’d enjoy seeing him dragged, and I usually hate drama.

    “Officer, I suggest you use your nightstick”

    Billy Ray Valentine

  176. 176.

    The Pale Scot

    @SFAW:

    I’ll watch the whole thing later, I need to be mellower than I am now after reading about all the twits traveling.

  177. 177.

    Ken

    All those proposing replacement of Bogart and Bacall, be careful you don’t get your wish.  We have the technology….

  178. 178.

    BC in Illinois

    @Ruckus:

    Funny that it’s never struck so many that a more humane way of execution would be not to do it……

    I should have included this line from the article:

    . . . and President-elect Joe Biden opposes the death penalty.

  182. 182.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    genuinely surprised at this

    Jennifer Jacobs @JenniferJJacob · 15m
    Trump’s Gettyburg visit apparently canceled. “The traveling pool was getting ready to leave for Pennsylvania but was told at the last minute that their trip has been canceled,” per today’s print pooler @matthewchoi2018 at the White House.

    This was some kind of faux-hearing in a hotel event room (the Eisenhower-themed Wyndham Gettysburg, apparently) where a couple of state legislators and Rudi would pretend to lay out evidence of… something. I’d bet trump was planning on sitting there in the middle of the table doing that arms-folded, torso-swiveling thing he apparently thinks looks like Churchill in the War Cabinet Room, or something. Either he’s in a narcissistic depression spiral, or somebody got through to him that sitting there in a third-rate conference room with a dentist from Scranton, a Chevy dealer from Allentown and an old grifter with shoe polish in his hair would not boost his image

  184. 184.

    catclub

    @Geminid: And Martha Stewart also did not need the money she made on the stock trades she went to prison for.

     

    She did not go to prison for the trades. She went to prison for lying to the FBI.

  185. 185.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @NotMax: WC Fields and Mae West. Ralph Bellamy as Lazlo. Edward Everett Horton as Captain Reynaud. William Demarest as Major Strasser. Eugene Pallette as Signor Ferrari. I can imagine the airport scene.

  186. 186.

    tokyokie

    @zhena gogolia: And watching Vertigo is greatly enhanced if you can watch it from the first row of the balcony. I did that once, and it was one of the best movie-going experiences of my life.

  189. 189.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    some of my fellow MSNBC junkies may remember Chuck Rosenberg, your earnest, slightly nerdy and endlessly patient high school history teacher who wasn’t dynamic but made you care about the subject? He’s back with a new season of his podcast that includes an interview with Robert Mueller. I’m curious, but I could also see Rectitude Personified making the trump investigation off-limits. I’d like to hear him knife Rosenstein and Barr, but that would be extremely out of character.

  190. 190.

    schrodingers_cat

    @raven: Agreed okra is awesome as is cilantro. The people who complain are not using it correctly for the most part. And unlike marshmallow fluff, jello and Velveeta they are actual food products not something that is a food like substance made in a factory.

  192. 192.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Trump might be upset Palm Beach is coming after him for Mara-Largo over the helicopter pad and him using it as a residence, both of which is against the agreement he made with the city when bought it.

  195. 195.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I know he doubled membership fees in Nov of ’16, and not just lobbyists but the “old money” crowd he’d been chasing and being snubbed by for years actually joined. I’m wondering what will happen to membership now.

  200. 200.

    tokyokie

    @schrodingers_cat: I saw Vertigo from the balcony of this theater in Dallas. Sadly, the Lakewood is being converted into a bowling alley. But I love old movie theaters. Does Mumbai still have a lot of them? I made it to most of the old cinemas in London when my parents lived there in the early ’70s and loved them, even if the movies weren’t necessarily any good. (I saw a terrible movie, Something to Hide, at the 4,000-seat Odeon Marble Arch with like four other people.)

  201. 201.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    Provide the access code and password inside the comment thread and we’ll be fine. Any noxious interlopers willing to track down that info in order to get their jollies being disruptive can be dealt with in real time.

    Hoping, frankly, to see lurkers outnumber the more regularly seen nyms. Have no particular expectations as to what people look like. Do however internally hear each person’s voice in a specific timbre and have been surprised at the match or mismatch during live meet-ups.

  202. 202.

    WaterGirl

    @catclub: The point still stands.  Martha Stewart made the trades, even though she had plenty of money and therefore didn’t need the money she made on the trades.

    That’s how it’s the same.  That’s a lame argument in support of having made trades based on information like that – whether you are Martha Stewart or Kelly Loeffler.

  205. 205.

    Citizen Alan

    @Geminid:  In her defence, Martha Stewart went to prison for lying to the feds, not for anything pertaining to her actual stock market activities. Also, she probably could have beaten the rap on appeal, but as I understand it, she made the personal decision that serving a few months in jail was better for the value of her stocks thann trying to fight it for another few years.

  206. 206.

    Geminid

    @Kathleen: I like Joel, McCrea, and I also like Randolph Scott, who said “I can’t act and I have 35 movies to prove it.”     Scott’s good in The Tall T, made from an Elmore Leonard story. Richard Boone plays the heavy.

  207. 207.

    SFAW

    @WaterGirl:

    I would wash it off. There’s not much you can do to fix something that is too salty.

    Ironically, last week, I was reminding Mrs. SFAW of the All in the Family where Edith, after tasting some soup/stew that Gloria made, said “It needs less salt.”
    So I’m off to the anti-salt mines, I guess.

  210. 210.

    Kathleen

    @zhena gogolia: Thank you! When I watch TCM I see all the books they sell and I want to buy them all. Casablanca is special though. My grandson gave me a gift card to BooksAMillion last Christmas. That would be nice gift to myself!

  211. 211.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Axios @axios · 16m
    Trump today canceled his trip to PA, where he was scheduled to join Rudy Giuliani for a GOP-led state senate hearing on alleged election irregularities.
    The cancellation comes after Giuliani was exposed to a second person who tested positive for COVID-19.

  212. 212.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    Why, pray tell?

    That was what is known in vernacular as “a joke.” Unless there’s some subroutine, of which I am unaware, which requires lurkers to have a nym

    ETA: Salt rinsed off turkey, let’s hope I was in time.

  218. 218.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    When it comes to cilantro there’s a valid scientific reason some of us turn up our noses at it.

    Me being one of those persons who has that pesky gene. Wish I could taste it the way it’s supposed to, but unfortunately …

  219. 219.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    Suppose someone has to point out Bacall wasn’t in Casablanca.

    Actually, she was, and did one of the all-time great acting jobs — or did you think that was REALLY Ingmar Ingrid Bergman?

  221. 221.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  Probably just drift away now, not like Trump has any real connections in the GOP. But does sound like Palm Beach is just filled with Alpha Douchnozzles like Trump so they are all pissy that Trump place is more special than theirs’.

    To a point, leaving Trump stuck in Palm Beach is probably a fitting punishment.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Really, so maybe theory that Trump’s Covid miracle was merely a false positive test result combine with a dotard panic attack is true if they want to keep Trump away from the infected.

  227. 227.

    schrodingers_cat

    @NotMax: True about raw cilantro as a garnish but if you use minced cilantro and chilies  as an aromatic (like ginger, garlic, whole spices) and cook it, the taste transforms completely.

    I use cilantro, chili, ginger and garlic paste (with and without other spices) as a marinade for fish, poultry and meat and that gives the marinade a fresh and robust flavor.

    I have seen some people use cilantro in the quantities that they would use say lettuce or even basil and that’s too much. Less is more, it a potent herb.

  228. 228.

    Geminid

    @Kathleen: I was watching the closing credits for a Have Gun Will Travel episode and was interested to see that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was listed as writer. It made sense in that Paladin was sometimes beaten up by bad guys trying to coerce him to betray someone, and he would toss off a stirring soliloquy about the indomitabilty of Man before cleverly turning the tables. The same thing would happen with Captain Kirk, except it was aliens who tormented him.

    I heard an interview with Christopher Plummer one time. He talked about a 50’s  Shakespeare production on Broadway that he starred in. William Shatner was his understudy.

  231. 231.

    cain

    @Betty Cracker: 

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Dealing with wingnut parents is such a trial. My Trump-voting father usually avoids the topic of politics when we talk, but the other day, when discussing the pandemic, he did make a dumb comment about how now that the media used COVID-19 to “get rid of Trump,” we’ll probably hear nothing more about it.

    Boy, he has no idea – this is just a beginning of that coverage – it is going to be story after story of emergency rooms crowded, how other people are dying because the staff is completely overwhelmed.
    It will be a story of American healthcare system completely utterly overwhelmed to capacity and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Helpless death that could have been preventable with good leadership.

    I think we’re going to be reaching 500,000 by the time January begins.

  236. 236.

    cain

    @schrodingers_cat:

    @natem: I am so old that I remember when he had fans who hung on to his every word among the front pagers of this esteemed blog.

    Yeah, that was during the Bush years. Our blog host was also somewhat enamored of the man. I thought he was a dick. He’s still a dick, and he’s come in here and acted like a dick.

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