I’ve had this set aside for a few days…finally got back to it. Glad I waited because of the bonus video at the bottom (please don’t be eating or drinking while watching it, nausea could be a side effect).
First up, our Republican candidate:
Next, our current Governor (my favorite part is gaymer):
I’m a dad 👨. I’m a proud parent of two awesome kids. Raising them here in Colorado, it is especially important to me that our children can grow up to enjoy this beautiful state we’re lucky enough to call home. pic.twitter.com/fDOu7UwOJH
— Jared Polis (@PolisForCO) September 30, 2022
Bonus, this came across my feed last night:
This is not a parody. Actual ad put out by the Republican Party in Michigan in support of their Republican candidate for governor, Trump-backed Tudor Dixon. pic.twitter.com/dMktiVUGDO
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) October 4, 2022
Seems pretty simple. Please don’t vote for stupid.
I’ll try for a kindness post tonight. It’s a pretty light day, so I should be able to get to it.
This is an open thread
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
John Fetterman giving his dogs Levi and Artie hugs.
Baud
The furry thing must be making the rounds on the conservative dark web.
Nicole
“Graham died alone.”
Am I a terrible person because I laughed? I think whoever edited this together for the Gratiot County Republicans must be a secret Democrat. The comedic timing on that cut was (chef’s kiss).
NotMax
Have we reached peak DeSantis? Rumblings of Youngkin being the next shiny object in R-land beginning to appear.
Baud
@NotMax: Probably by Youngkin.
Jerry
That Dixon ad is a hilarious waste of money. The people they are trying to reach with that ad will already vote for her (or whatever Trumpie that got trotted out for governor).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I listened to a Bulwark podcast about a focus group of WI Republicans who were Biden>trump voters. They were all more or less gettable for Evers– they like him because he’s no drama– and to a lesser extent Mandela– they were skeptical but really seemed to dislike Johnson.
At the end one of the group, a teacher, claimed she had seen students, I think high school, claim they “identified” as cats. She had seen it with her very own eyes! I could just picture those kids at Starbucks with their friends. “No, dude! I swear! We totally had Mrs Grundy believing we think we’re cats! Kaylee started purring and I thought Grundy was gonna pass out man!
ETA: As a Normie-curious observer, I don’t think the ad starring Roseanne Barr’s less-talented cousin and her cosplay Sons of Anarchy Group is gonna win over a lot of voters for Dixon.
MelissaM
Well, at least they didn’t pay for real actors for the Dixon ad! That really would have cost them!
frosty
Furries. Litter boxes. All I can say is don’t they step back and look at what they’re reading and say “Wha?” But clearly they don’t. Boggles the mind, right?
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Gasp! They cut out the middleman and groom themselves!
:)
zhena gogolia
@Nicole: The replies are great.
Kristine
In 1st and 2nd grade, some of us girls played ‘horses’ during recess. We galloped around the schoolyard, split into two herds led by the two cool girls. Never tried to eat grass.
This was at a Catholic grade school in the mid-60s. I can only imagine what some parent might have made of this today.
zhena gogolia
@Nicole: Comedy gold!
NotMax
Just wait until they find out about bronies.
//
Baud
I’ll be honest, I get a little apprehensive laughing at Republican content. Part of me feels like they get off on the attention.
If I were certain it would increase turnout on our side, I’d feel differently. But I don’t know if it does.
ETA: I do recognize the importance of mockery however. It’s a difficult complex issue for me.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: It serves no purpose other than getting a laugh in the morning. What’s the harm?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I don’t want to spoil anyone’s good time by getting into it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I’m more nervous about content I haven’t seen, my understanding is Dixon is that meme of a rolling dumpster fire in polling, but Heather Cox Richardson said in her latest newsletter that in response to the Walker news, the Club For Growth has sent $2M to Nevada for Spanish-language advertising. I gather Laxalt is, like Kari Lake and Joe Kent, a loon who doesn’t look like one on TV.
Nicole
@zhena gogolia: And the outfits! I know they were going for “biker,” but… as a Gen-X latchkey kid, I really, really expected, at any moment, that they would turn to the screen and tell me that, for 4 easy payments of $9.99, I too could have “Rockin’ the Oldies” sent to me in my choice of LP, cassette, or 8-track. Check or credit card accepted, no COD.
Josie
Yesterday was my 79th birthday. In another year I’ll be 80. That seems like something unreal that could not be happening to me. I’m stuck feeling 20 years younger than that. Am I being weird or does anyone else feel that way? There is still so much I want to accomplish.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Baud
@Josie:
Yay you. Feel as young as you feel.
Teezy Skeezy
The logical conclusion is for Republicans to end all dress up and pretend play for children, because it’s a gateway to drag, and imagination is a gateway to challenging their authority.
topclimber
@zhena gogolia: Laugh all you want. The next thing you know kids will be leading others around on leashes, claiming they are service animals.
And what about wise-ass kids claiming they are animals so they can exploit the ban on pets at school? Class cutter’s dream!
Huh, huh?
Geminid
@Baud: Last week Foungkin Youngkin hosted a select group of donors and politicians at a “Red Vest Retreat,” at the Keswick Hall Country Club near Charlottesville. The purpose, as one participant put it, was to let donors “kick the tires.”
TaMara
@Josie: Well, I sure don’t feel my age, and I hope to feel young and vibrant at 79, so no, you’re not weird! Happy birthday and do whatever makes you happy. Age is just a number (joint pain, on the other hand is very real, LOL). Cheers!
Delk
Must be some pretty damn big litter boxes.
Betty Cracker
Wingnut donors must be making it rain everywhere because DeSantis got a check for $10M this week from some billionaire douchebag, and he already had more than 10 times as much money as Crist and is leading in the polls.
Josie
@TaMara:
So true about the joint pain. I do find that regular exercise keeps it minimal, whereas not exercising makes it worse.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: Ugh.
Raoul Paste
@Josie: “I’m stuck feeling 20 years younger”
You go, girl
The Moar You Know
@Baud: they absolutely do, but i feel it presents other dangers as well. I share your apprehension about even passing that shit around.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Josie: Happy Birthday! At 55, I could still pass for 35 in my own head until the rest of my body reminds me otherwise.
gene108p
@frosty:
The godless commie socialist secular humanist feminazi woke liberal pro-baby-murder crowd is capable of doing anything to further degrade society from traditional family values and faith.
Look what they’ve already done to the fabric of society!!!!
Litter boxes in schools aren’t a big step from what they’ve done!!!!
TaMara
Hey guys, it looks like comments are once again ending up in moderation. I’ll be around for awhile, but if you find yourself stuck in moderation – let WaterGirl know the site is acting up, she may need to give our tech a jingle.
<3
VOR
The Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota made the same furry – litter box claim recently. Someone on twitter commented that we would have to keep him off email as governor lest he send the entire state budget to a Nigerian prince. He was supposed to speak at an anti-vax conference last weekend, but claimed that was a mistake because he had a family wedding that weekend. Then he posted pictures from the University of Minnesota football game on Saturday, obviously not at a wedding.
gene108
@frosty:
The godless commie socialist secular humanist feminazi woke liberal pro-baby-murder crowd is capable of doing anything to further degrade society from traditional family values and faith.
Look what they’ve already done to the fabric of society!!!!
Litter boxes in schools aren’t a big step from what they’ve done!!!!
gene108
@Josie:
I’m forever 25 in my mind.
emmyelle
It seems like scaring the crap (LOL) out of people by bring up how these varies identities will interact with toilets and toilet-like devices is their go-to.
gene108
@TaMara:
There was an added ‘p’ in my nym for some reason. Probably why it got kicked into moderation.
Heidi Mom
@Josie: Happy (belated) birthday! I’m 71 and feel the same way. My maternal grandmother lived to be 91, so I’m taking that as my goal. I remember her saying “When you get old . . . (sigh)” –no more needed to be said about how unpleasant that was. That was our model of aging, but we have so many more choices and so much better medical care today that it’s no longer like that. And it feels weird.
frosty
@Josie: Not weird at all. The 20 year anniversaries have all been hard for me. And I still feel like I’m 26.
20: I’m not a kid any more!
40: I’m not young any more!
60: I’m old!!!!!
Heidi Mom
@Josie: Happy (belated) birthday! I’m 71 and feel the same way. My maternal grandmother lived to be 91, so I’m taking that as my goal. I remember her saying “When you get old . . . (sigh)” –no more needed to be said about how unpleasant that was. That was our model of aging, but we have so many more choices and so much better medical care today that it’s no longer like that. And it feels weird.
SiubhanDuinne
@Nicole:
Interesting that you and I both heard that as “Graham died alone.” Colbert used it in his monologue last night and I was sure they were talking about some biker friend of theirs named Graham Bellybunion or something. But I watched again this morning and the closed captions had it as “Gram died alone,” meaning someone’s grandmother, which probably makes more sense.
Not that anything in that ad actually makes sense.
Josie
Thanks everyone. You make me feel so much better.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: and if that guy’s grandmother died alone during a pandemic, I’m guessing it was the Spanish Flu
SiubhanDuinne
@Josie:
I turned 80 a couple of months ago, and it is a pretty surreal, even preposterous, thing to wrap one’s head around.
Yes, there’s a lot I still mean to accomplish in however many years are left to me.
.
I should probably start taking better care of myself :-)
SiubhanDuinne
@frosty:
🎵 Litter boxes in the classroom,
Litter boxes for the kitty-katties,
Litter boxes in the classroom
For the furries in the schools…. 🎶
—Malvina Reynolds, maybe
Geminid
@SiubhanDuinne: Will you climb Stone Mountain? My Atlanta friend used to.
He says the path up is pretty steep. Now he likes to do his hiking along the Chattahoochee, at the Powers Island unit of the National Recreation Area.
Gin & Tonic
Worth watching [although inexplicably the captioning takes a clear “incontrovertible fact” and turns it into “in controversial effect.”]
cain
@Josie: Naw – my dad is 83 and he looks like he’s in his 60s and has the energy of someone in his 50s. He’s writing his 4th book at the moment. He’s a prof so he’s really into his research If he didn’t have that I think he would have not have lasted this long. He has no plans to retire.
dave319
@Geminid: I think I’d prefer kick the candidate. I’d be a donor if I could pay by the whack.
RSA
The “biker” ad shows that Republicans are just as much into cosplay as the furries.
Nicole
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s hilarious that we heard it the same way! I didn’t even catch that it could be, “Gram” as in “Grandma.” (Probably because the people in the ad look too old to me to still have living grandparents. How old was Gram? 108?)
RSA
@Nicole: It’s notable that the ad did not speak out against teenage pregnancy.
patrick II
@NotMax:
I just moved from Va. Younkin is worth worrying about. MAGA with a more voter friendly veneer.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@patrick II: also an affable affect and, I’m not joking, tall?
DeSantis is short and peevish, I don’t know if he can carry off the bully as well as trump does, if he even measures up to Christie on that score
cain
@The Moar You Know: They do, and influencers turn around and use that to amp up the feeling of victimhood – it helps fuel their hatred of everyone else and force them more into safe spaces. Probably a playbook for cults. Make sure cult members are always isolated.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Josie: My range is 10 years younger rather than 20, but yeah, I feel the same way.
Mentally anyway. Physically, not so much..
eta: Dammit Jim!
eta2: Also TaMara!
Tony Jay
The thing that always baffles me about the litter-box genre stories conservatives tell themselves is the payoff they’re hoping for. It appears that the whole point of these fantasies are to get ‘normies’ and even some dirty libs to admit that allowing something like that in schools would be, obviously, too bonkers even for them.
Which means that even Liberals agree there should be limits on the degree schools have to accommodate personal identification.
Which means that even Liberals agree that someone has to decide what those limits are.
Which means that even Liberals agree that elected Republican politicians at the federal, state and county/metropolitan level should be allowed to set limits.
Which means that even Liberals agree that any non-Republicans complaining about the limits these Republicans set are either hypocrites, extremists, partisan operators or a mix of all three.
Whatever helps them sleep at night, I suppose, but frankly it just makes them look like dicks.
Baud
@Tony Jay:
Also, to rile up their base. Although Republican voters are more reliable than our voters, not all of them are reliable voters. The GOP is always looking for or inventing new outrages to get more Republicans motivated to vote.
Denali
@Josie,
Will be 76 in December. Don’t feel old except occasional brain freezes, knee pain, and oh yes, someone sped up time. I don’t know how. I never got physics.
louc
This litter box theme is confounding. I know reporters who are flummoxed on what to do about it. If you cover, you give credence. If you don’t, then these rumors circulate unchecked. I’ve seen people who say “my middle school kid swears it’s happening!”
Middle schoolers are great at lying. When I was in middle school, at a school that had a large Black population, some white kids would go around claiming the Black kids were going to riot on the last day and attack white girls with Nair. Half the white kids wouldn’t show up on the last day and surprise, surprise, nothing ever happened.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: DeSantis has the demeanor of a power-drunk vice principal at a crappy evangelical middle school — the kind of angry, bossy, defensive dick who’s strutting around the cafeteria and pickup zone yelling at the kids all the time. The MAGA dopes here in FL eat it up but I don’t know if it will play nationally.
Christie is a bully, but he has a sarcastic wit DeSantis lacks. Even Trump has more of a sense of humor than DeSantis, and all Trump has is meanness masquerading as humor. DeSantis is just mean and can’t even muster catty humor.
His team peddles beer coozies featuring a quote: “How am I supposed to drink a beer with a mask on?” Sadly, that was the most witty thing he’d ever said, so they had to go with that.
Paul in KY
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They were probably just trolling her too-credulous ass.
Hoodie
@Baud: It does risk playing into their sense of victimization, e.g., “all you smartass liberals making fun of regular folks who aren’t as slick as you.” This can have the effect of shielding the utter nonsense put forth in the ad from criticism, i.e., you’re too busy laughing at the silly geriatric cosplay bikers in the ad to focus on the lies they’re telling. You see this with the Jordan Klepper stuff at the Trump rallies, which focus on a bunch of weirdo Trump groupies. This is one of Trump’s ploys, hide an ocean of lies behind a cultural wall that his followers will reflexively defend.
Geminid
@patrick II: Youngkin is a very plausible guy, and was an attractive candidate I thought. I would not underestimate Youngkin. McAuliffe might have.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@Geminid:
@Geminid: The purpose, as one participant put it, was to let donors “kick the tires.”
Is this some new GQP kink I’m happier not knowing about?
Princess
I drove through Michigan twice this summer and I can promise you, given the miles of construction I drove through. Whitmer fixed those roads. But these people look like they would have problems finding an on-ramp to a highway.
Tony Jay
@Baud:
Serves the same end, though. It doesn’t matter whether the wingnut actually believes the fantasy as long as they can use its ridiculousness as a foot in the door.
Also, too, that Taking It Easy Rider ad has to be a mock-up, doesn’t it? I was waiting for the camera to land on an obviously alien one in a false beard who’d turn to the others and state
“I am also furious in mood, fellow mammalian sentients. Why, I could almost definitely display my anger by shouting out all of Earth’s Space Defence secrets. Could you not also do so – urgently?”
Paul in KY
@Teezy Skeezy: That is the logical conclusion…
Paul in KY
@The Moar You Know: I do think laughing at them works with voters who are ‘reachable’. For those who will never vote for you, it really pisses them off & may energize them a bit more.
Paul in KY
@Heidi Mom: If you are lucky enough to live into your late 90s, there will be ‘ughs’. Can’t get around that. You will have to take the good of it: At least I’m not dead!
CaseyL
@Josie:
Happy (belated) birthday!
@frosty: Oh, man. I feel that one. I’m 66, and it’s just like the late, and much beloved, Terry Pratchett said: “Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened.”
(I would add some emphatic swearage to that, as in “…wondering WTF happened?”
Ruckus
@Josie:
I’m 73 and feeling a bit older than 15 but still I’m active and the people in the seniors complex where I live all tell me that I seem a lot younger than 73. They all seem to think I’m not a day over 68. Age is two things, how old you see yourself and how old others see you as. All the rest is medicine and how old your doctor sees you as.
79 is pretty cool, enjoy life every day, laugh at life, be glad you still feel young and can be active. I have a neighbor my age who lives in a chair, she had polio as an infant. The middle 40 yrs or so years of her life she was active and walked and no one knew she had had polio. She had a great grandchild she watches, he’s 5. All of this is to say, we are as old as we feel and as old as we wish we weren’t. I stay active, take a 2 mile walk every morning or evening and that helps a lot.
Miss Bianca
@Kristine: I did this too,.except I was never lucky enough to find a bunch of other girls to be a herd with! Man, if Heidi had seen me galloping around on all fours, she probably would have called the cops on my parents!
Matt McIrvin
@Tony Jay: It’s very similar to the puffing about how liberals can’t answer the simple question “What is a woman?”
Of course, we can answer the question, it’s just that our answer–“someone who identifies as a woman is a woman” leads to them asking “well, what if I identify as an attack helicopter?” “what if I (white guy) identify as black?” etc., etc., and once you start formulating answers to all those questions you’re playing their stupid game on their turf. The correct answer is “shut up, go away” but then they can act like you couldn’t answer their innocent question.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Matt McIrvin:
IMO, the correct answer is always, “Why are you so obsessed with people’s genitals?”
Ruckus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
The answer to your answer is because their genitals are defective.
Or at least they perceive them to be.
Ruckus
@frosty:
I didn’t feel old until I retired.
OK I couldn’t admit out loud I felt old until I retired.
Even though I was starting to admit that internally.
Ruckus
@Heidi Mom:
I’m going with the 96 yr old woman in the complex that rides around on her electric geezer chair (old fart go cart). She is a hoot, someone gave her an iPhone the other day to replace her flip phone and she had no idea how to use it and not good enough close up eyesight to learn. Without Siri she’d be totally lost so she was sent over to me to set her iPhone up and teach her to use Siri. I appear to be the Apple expert in this 140 unit complex. What in the hell is this world coming to?
Cliosfanboy
@Geminid: Where’s a jet loaded with napalm when you really need it???
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ruckus:
And then I would reply, “And who are you to decide that? I thought you guys were supposed to be all about freedom and the rights of the individual? Against the evil big government?”
Bill Hicks
I thought that was a reasonably good ad to attract repubs/independents in Michigan. The bitching about covid, killing grams, and fix the damn roads will probably do its job in getting people to vote and reminding people why they should (incorrectly) hate dems. I know it would work in WV where I live. It would be thought of as hilarious, but in a good way. I wish I lived somewhere that I did not know this. WV (the people not the mountains and forests) is hell.
Ruckus
As a side note.
Gas in CA has been going up a lot. Regular is well over $6/gal at some stations. Cheapest around me is $5.55/gal Other states have gas for over $2/gal cheaper.
I’d bet that is because we have a lot of votes and vote dem pretty solid. The presidential choice of the money grubbers is not Joe Biden. It is some rube that they can control so that they can charge a lot and run their businesses without oversight and safety controls that a dem government demands. OK that and there are a lot of us and we normally seem to drive a lot. If I had an alternative I would absolutely use it. Oh wait I do when I can, the electric commuter train. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper, and sometimes actually faster than driving. I can ride for about 50 miles across LA (and back) for less than $3. The same drive in traffic costs approx $16 or more by car right now.
Gravenstone
@Delk: The kids probably still don’t bury their own shit, either…
Central Planning
@Ruckus: I was in England last week. Gas is over $7/gallon over there, but I think that’s also because the British Pound crashed with their stupid tax plan (which they revised for high earners)
Gravenstone
Enthusiastically ask anyone advocating the litter box bullshit, “do you know what kind of litter they use? I’m always looking for something my boys might like better than clay.” Might force them t jumpstart the two or three neurons they have left as they try to further rationalize the bullshit.
Miss Bianca
@Tony Jay:
You’re gonna kill me laughing one of these days, TJ, but at least I’ll die happy!
Soprano2
@Josie: Happy birthday! I think in your mind you’re as young as you feel, but your body knows every year old you are. Ask me how I know that. LOL I’m 61, but can pass for around 40, but my body knows each and every year.
Soprano2
@Ruckus: Gas here went up $0.20/gal literally overnight, and suddenly all the stations have it the same price, which hasn’t happened since before Covid. Then I heard this morning that the Saudis were advocating for a 1,000,000 barrel/day cutback, and I understood why suddenly the price of gas was going up.
Ruckus
@Central Planning:
Most of Europe charges high taxes to pay for the road use. We hide some of our tax concepts here in the US so that a lot of people don’t know how stuff is paid for. Here in the most populated state of CA we have been raising fuel tax a bit to do the same. The gas companies are taking advantage of people to make huge profits and I believe to screw us because we overwhelmingly vote dem. Could also be because we use a hell of a lot of fuel here and google tells me 15 transportation refineries in CA with some of the most restrictive eco laws in the country. IOW there are possibly more reasons than greed for our high gasoline prices. Still that one human rational of greed is most likely the reason.
Ruckus
@Tony Jay:
“Whatever helps them sleep at night, I suppose, but frankly it just makes them look like dicks.”
They look like dicks because they ARE dicks. Any other benefit they possibly derive is at best second to that. Possibly 3rd or 4th.
Ruckus
@Denali:
Right there with you.
Yesterday I promised to help my wheelchair bound neighbor pick up her great grandson from school. Taking my shower in the morning I was trying to remember his name. Of course the harder I tried to remember, the dumber I got. About 2 seconds after I gave up his name popped into some semblance of something and bingo, we have name liftoff. Awww the joys of getting accepted into the glory of old fartitious.
Josie
Thanks to all who chimed in. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one with these thoughts. I’ve been very lucky to be healthy and strong up until I injured my right knee this year. I refused to listen to my sons and started walking again before I should have and that set me back. Now I am going at it very slowly, building up to my prior ability. I’ve had to learn about making adjustments to my injury (and my age). It has given me a new understanding of those who are not as fortunate physically as I am. Live and learn.
Chris T.
@Nicole: That guy is 26. Meth ages a man.
(do I need the sarcasm mark?)
StringOnAStick
@Ruckus: Gas in OR has gone back up suddenly to similar to your prices, and all 3 West coast state never got down to what the rest of the country was paying. The local news claims it’s a refinery issue. I think greed and election timing is a huge part of it.
ColoradoGuy
@Ruckus: Weird that it’s so high in California. Just filled up the Prius with semi-premium and it was $3.99/gal. Like California, we have oil and gas wells and refineries right here in Colorado, so no issues with charges from long-distance shipping.
Surprised that enterprising tanker truckers aren’t ferrying gas from Colorado to California and making a tidy profit … a $2/gal differential is a substantial difference.