Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

You cannot shame the shameless.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

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

No one could have predicted…

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Afternoon Open Thread: Who Wants To Debate? (Dark Brandon Does)

Afternoon Open Thread: Who Wants To Debate? (Dark Brandon Does)

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Afternoon Open Thread: Who Wants To Debate? (Dark Brandon Does) 1

 

Auto Draft 101

 

Love when the President channels Dark Brandon

Auto Draft 102

 

 

My current view while working:

Afternoon Open Thread: Who Wants To Debate? (Dark Brandon Does) 2

 

Those are 2 plastic bins, stacked on my table, waiting for me to put away. Technically, he’s not “on” the table

Open Thread

Reader Interactions

196Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    The consensus seems to be Trump will back out.  There should be a pool on when and with what excuse.

  4. 4.

    TBone

    I adore Dark Brandon.  Rump may be unavailable by June 27, but I’m sure he will be able to get out on “work release” furlough.  Or can participate via phone 😆

  6. 6.

    Jackie

    That first photo makes me hope Joe grows a beard! Quite debonair! (IF it resembles as dispicted)

  7. 7.

    Scout211

    CNN   Later Wednesday morning, both men said they had accepted an invitation from ABC to hold a second debate on September 10.

    That’s a lot of debates proposed.  I agree that Trump will back out of most if not all.

    Trump’s team also called for the candidates to participate in four total debates – twice the number requested by Biden. The Biden campaign sidestepped questions about that request on Wednesday.

    . . .

    Informal conversations between the Biden and Trump campaigns about debates have taken place in recent weeks and were largely focused on a mutual disdain for the Commission on Presidential Debates and potential scenarios to work around the commission, three sources familiar with the discussions told CNN. The Washington Post was first to report on those conversations.

    LOL.  No love for the Commission?

  8. 8.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Baud:

    The presidential debates – which everyone agrees are not really debates – are stupid and I wish we never had them to begin with. Our presidential election campaigns are not issue-oriented. Every campaign this century has been a contest of whether Democrats can convince Democratic leaning voters to show up and vote for the Democratic candidate.  When we do that, we win. Nothing in those TV gotcha shows helps make that happen better than a vigorous, well-funded GOTV campaign.

  14. 14.

    smith

    I wonder how much awareness the Defendant has of his own cognitive deterioration. For months now, at least, every rally he holds has episodes when his brain obviously checks out. Even corporate media is starting to feel obliged to report on it. If he were aware, how would that affect his willingness to debate? Or for that matter, his willingness to testify in his current trial? And if he can be goaded into debating, how much obvious dementia will the audience be able to overlook?

  15. 15.

    JWR

    @Baud:

    There should be a pool on when and with what excuse.

    Don’t know about the when, but for the excuse, I wouldn’t be surprised if he whips out that stupid gag order routine. Seems to work on his Followers.

  16. 16.

    StringOnAStick

    By proposing the debates on social media with plenty of smack talk, Biden is goading tRump.  Perfect!  He’s also being first to get the terms out there and that’s both excellent and a dominance move that has to have tRump fuming.

  17. 17.

    Scout211

    Trump said on his social that he accepted an invitation from Fox News to debate on Oct. 2.

  18. 18.

    Jackie

    CNN is reporting Biden and TIFG agree to debate June 27th – on CNN.

    Let’s see if Biden’s proposed July VP debate happens.

    Seems so far, President Biden is in control of the debate(s) schedule 👍🏻

  19. 19.

    Kay

    “Shield laws” are laws that blue states have passed to protect providers and patients from red state laws banning modern, best practices health care for women, including access to abortion medication :

    Most recently, a legal fellow from Americans United for Life—one of the nation’s most powerful anti-abortion groups—argues at The Federalist that shield laws are unconstitutional. Guzi He writes that the laws violate the Constitution’s extradition clause and “put the commercial interests of abortionists ahead of the safety of women and girls, not to mention the damage done to long-standing traditions of interstate cooperation.”

    The column comes just a few days after Kristi Hamrick, vice president of Students for Life Action, told NBC News, “The attempt by some states to create a little safe haven for abortion will not be successful. I think we will end up in court.” And in Amy Littlefield’s terrific piece about “the abortion pill underground” , law professor Mary Ziegler predicts that anti-choice groups might just pull it off. “I think there’s a real possibility a court is going to say, ‘Well, actually, the banned state can come for you,’” she said.

    Conservative lawyers and lobbyists once again pretending they are physicians and dictating delivery of health care to women.

  20. 20.

    rikyrah

     

    Candidly Tiff

    @tify330

    While flawed the problem isn’t POLLS per-say in my opinion. The issue is how the media weaponizes them against candidates, builds narratives and calls races months in advance before any ballots are cast. They are depressing the vote! We have a MEDIA problem. Let’s start there.

    9:26 AM · May 15, 2024

     

    meta

    @metaquest

    I think since MSM are now running their own polls, these two are co-mingling and inseparable. MSM shapes the poll questions to elicit certain biases & then they run the stories that serve those same biases. They’ve built a cottage industry to validate their own self-serving bias.

    9:47 AM · May 15, 2024

  21. 21.

    Scout211

    LOL, RFK, jr!

    NBC   Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump were “colluding” to exclude him from the debates they agreed to participate in on Wednesday.

    Biden and Trump said Wednesday that they accepted invitations for presidential debates hosted by CNN on June 27 and ABC News on Sept. 10.

    Kennedy would not currently qualify for the CNN debate in Atlanta based on the criteria the network laid out.

  22. 22.

    CaseyL

    Technically, he’s not “on” the table

    Cats are the best lawyers… when it comes to their own interests.

    (I really like that graphic of Biden looking all Boss Tweed-y, and wish he really was that ruthless, tbh. Wouldn’t mind a campaign button with that image.)

  24. 24.

    Anonymous At Work

    @Scout211: It’s been acting like an abused spouse under TFG.  It sets rules after long and protracted negotiations and then TFG breaks the rules, daring the Commission or moderators to do something, asserting his ‘manliness’ in acting like the abuser.

    And the Commission backs down and allows TFG to do whatever, cuz the alternative is he won’t participate anymore.

    And TFG hates the Commission for trying to impose rules and picking moderators that aren’t from Russian TV, or their US surrogates.

  27. 27.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Scout211: ​

    Kennedy would not currently qualify for the CNN debate in Atlanta

    because he is nuttier than a fruitcake.​

  28. 28.

    Anonymous At Work

    @Jackie: Gonna depend on when the VP is picked.  IRONICALLY, the previous post was about the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the closest present analog to TFG’s VP selection process.

  30. 30.

    JWR

    @rikyrah: I hear there’s another one of those ftfNYT affiliated polls out. They have Trump up 3% in one state, 7% in another, 10% in NY and 12% in GA. I think it’s a NYT/Siena (hit) job.

  32. 32.

    Scout211

    @Anonymous At Work: Yes, the debate won’t happen until the VP is crowned chosen. And now Trump has given Noem some wiggle room so she may think she’s back in the beauty contest.

    CNNFormer President Donald Trump praised South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as a “terrific person” when asked in an interview about the backlash she received over revelations in her new book that she shot and killed her 14-month-old dog.

    “She had a bad week. We all have bad weeks,” Trump told radio hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton in an interview that aired Tuesday.

    “Couple of rough stories, there’s no question about it,” the former president said. “Until this week, she was doing incredibly well. And she got hit hard and sometimes you do books and you have some guy writing a book and you maybe don’t read it as carefully, you know. You have ghost writers do it, they help you, and they, in this case, didn’t help too much.”

    She had a bad week.  🙄

  34. 34.

    MomSense

    @HumboldtBlue:

    One of the best blogs was the one where the awl live blogged the Biden v Ryan VP debate with the volume turned off.  So hilarious because Biden’s facial expressions were over the top.

    I honestly think this age thing would have been much less an issue if Biden hadn’t had the face lift and all the Botox and fillers.  It gives him a blanked out expression and I think it makes him look older.

  35. 35.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Melancholy Jaques:

    Yup.  I’m convinced the only people that want them are the teevee people.  They accomplish nothing.

    Last one I watched was, not surprisingly, Biden’s VP debate with Ryan.  Gotta admit, it was vastly entertaining.

  37. 37.

    Tony Jay

    And how is the FTF Guardian, that ever trustworthy scion of journalistic integrity covering this?

     Trump accepts invitations for two debates with Biden – live

     Ex-president says on Truth Social he accepted invitations for two presidential debates – the first on 27 June and the second on 10 September

     Because they love them some Trumpy clicketty-outragebait headlines as much as they love them some Flobalob clicketty-outragebait headlines, and they’ll always shit all over any Democratic Administration (ostensibly from the Left) as a convenient way of tricking their readership into thinking that they’re not a bunch of centre-right gaslighters, even though they do, so are.

  38. 38.

    smith

    @Jackie: TIFG will have chosen his VP pageant winner.

    It just occurred to me that the scene in court yesterday where the minions all showed up in Trump costume was the equivalent of the swimsuit competition.

  39. 39.

    Scout211

    Speaking of Noem’s  “bad week.”  Another tribe banned her  from their reservation.  That leaves two out of nine tribes in the state that still allow her to enter their reservations, for now.

  40. 40.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Scout211:

    I commented yesterday about the visceral racism of Dakota whites toward the native tribes and how it’s great to see them pushing back like this.

    Of course Noem’s probably never set foot on a reservation so is probably shrugging her tan shoulders and thinking “no big deal”.

    What would be great if electorally, the tribes there could affect a statewide election outcome, ie., toss her sorry ass out of office.  Or if the Orange Fart Cloud picks her for VP (he won’t), it’ll galvanize them to the extent that it might put SD in play.

    A boy can dream.

  41. 41.

    Soprano2

    @smith: If it’s dementia, not much. I mentioned to my husband the other day that I bought a ceiling fan for the room where the new daybed is, and I need someone to put it up. He said to me something like “Don’t you think I can do that?” My husband sleeps about 12-16 hours a day, walks incredibly slowly, and has balance issues, yet he thinks he can climb onto a ladder and install a ceiling fan! Five years ago, he could have. One of the nurses we had come to our house after he got out of the hospital told me they tend to think they still do things they used to do, so if they were the cook they think they still do the cooking, and so on.

  42. 42.

    Soprano2

    I predict that TFG won’t find any of the moderators acceptable, because he wants someone like Sean Hannity who will be on his side, so he’ll back out saying the debates are unfair because he can’t rig the questions.

  43. 43.

    JanieM

    @MomSense: If you’re still reading this thread, I’m waving from the north end of the lake….

    Would love to get together while you’re staying nearby. If you’re interested and have time, WaterGirl has my permission to give you my email address.

  44. 44.

    TeezySkeezy

    @Soprano2: Trump can be goaded so easily and he’s just as cartoonishly consistent as Khan being goaded by Kirk.  If he tries to back out, Biden’s team simply has to call him a coward and laugh at him.  He will follow.

  45. 45.

    laura

    @rikyrah: Candidly Tiff deserves a flatbed truck full of roses for her efforts on behalf of Angela Alsobrooks. Potty mouth Kenny of 2rawtooreal deserves his flowers too. Excellence in the primary candidate plus ground game gets the goods!

  46. 46.

    waspuppet

    I’ll send Biden another $100 if he says “You still awake over there?” at some point during one of the debates.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @Scout211:

    Kennedy would not currently qualify for the CNN debate in Atlanta based on the criteria the network laid out

     

    Worm free brain is a criteria?

  48. 48.

    oldgold

    Trump claims he wants to debate. He also has been claiming he wants to testify in his in his current criminal trial.  Will he testify?

  49. 49.

    Anonymous At Work

    @Scout211: I think Noem not being able to handle the media pressure was her problem with TFG.  Her stories were about lying, willingness to murder, and sociopathic compulsions.  Necessary traits for deploying the US military to arrest people, including small children, door-to-door, transport them to desert concentration camps, and attempt to force them into Mexico (despite most not being from there).

  50. 50.

    Jackie

    Re the NYT, Ron Klain is taking a work hiatus to help with Biden’s debate prep.

    Not a subscriber, so no link.

  52. 52.

    TeezySkeezy

    @oldgold: Easier to goad him into debating than testifying, I think.  Testifying has serious legal implications, and it’s less about facing an opponent.  Much easier to bruise his ego over being too cowardly to face Biden, I think.  I think even if he wants to back out, Biden’s team can keep goading him into it.

  54. 54.

    Anonymous At Work

    @TeezySkeezy: Miller or Bannon or someone will manufacture a problem.  June 27th is a Thursday, so he’ll beg off for trial in Manhattan.  He’ll request a continuance to work on interlocutory appeals, a raft of motions for which he’ll demand hearings, and probably request that SCOTUS release their ‘post-Presidential immunity’ opinion, to request hearings and appeals on that.  Etc. Etc.

  56. 56.

    Baud

    June is pretty early, but I get the impression that a lot of people aren’t paying attention to Trump as Biden’s opponent for the next president, so Biden wants to make that clear as early as possible.

  57. 57.

    Trollhattan

    @Baud:

    The party conventions will be duds on account of no meaningful primary season, so maybe these debates can substitute for them WRT viewer interest? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  58. 58.

    Jackie

    @waspuppet: LOL! I’ll send Joe money if/when we see TIFG’s face turning blotchy orangier and his mouth screeching soundlessly because of cut mic requirements while the other is speaking!

  65. 65.

    Trollhattan

    @Betty Cracker:
    Oh god, excellent!

    I just found this regrettable “article” title:
    Costco selling out of viral (and cheap) kitchen appliance
    Remember editors? Me either.

  67. 67.

    Eyeroller

    @JWR: This was dissected in a previous post.  Long story short, they greatly oversampled Republicans and conservatives and did not disclose how they weighted to try to correct for that. They also used “registered voters” instead of “likely voters,” even though it’s well-known that the latter is much more predictive. Biden was ahead or tied in likely voters.

    I don’t think the poll was intentionally biased; I think that FTFNYT is not interested in paying for a quality poll (they are expensive) and their coverage was what was biased.

    Trump up 10 in NY? Seriously?

  68. 68.

    Jackie

    Was Donny the pilot? HA! I kid!

    “Donald Trump’s private plane clipped a parked corporate jet while taxiing at a Florida airport over the weekend, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and public records,” the Washington Post reports.

    “A public FAA database shows a Boeing 757 with the tail number matching Trump’s plane was involved in an incident in West Palm Beach, Fla.”

    I assume this happened on the way to his NJ rally. Hit and fly?

  69. 69.

    Scout211

    @SiubhanDuinne: Only two, yes? What am I missing?

     

    Trump proposed four.  Biden proposed two.  I thought four was a lot for Trump.  Sorry, I wasn’t clear.

  70. 70.

    Brachiator

    Woke up late this morning in Southern California and this was one of the first items I ran across here.

    I’ve also received and accepted an invitation to a debate hosted by ABC on Tuesday, September 10th.

    Trump says he’ll arrange his own transportation. I’ll bring my plane, too. I plan on keeping it for another four years.

    I love it! Absolutely love it.

    Mockery, with a touch of disdain.

  71. 71.

    Trollhattan

    @HumboldtBlue: Cringe thinking how much we loved that show–Friday night watch parties.

    But, a Michael Mann project so the veneer of  respectability. Pal.

    (We literally called it “Pal” and not Miami Vice.)

  73. 73.

    Captain C

    @JWR: It’s almost like they’re hoping for a Trumpist uprising when Biden wins comfortably.  They probably see it as increased eyeballs, and figure that they’ll be welcomed into the fold as junior collaborators, rather than imprisoned (or worse) as liberal media types.  Besides, Pinch, Jr.’s taxes would probably go down under a TIFG Presidency, so who cares about things like democracy, freedom of the press, or anyone who can’t afford the diamonds and other luxuries which advertise heavily in the FTFNYT.

  75. 75.

    zhena gogolia

    @Captain C: I always love it when they have a big story about poor people in the Sunday magazine, surrounded by ads for yachts and luxury resorts.

  80. 80.

    Captain C

    @JWR: Loud farts would ensue, followed by a 5-minute TIFG ramble on how Dark Brandon stole all his Adderall.  The FTFNYT would report this as TIFG boldly accusing Biden of corruption and drug use, while editing the rant such that it appears coherent and unlike whatever nonsense TIFG actually belched out.

  81. 81.

    gene108

    @TBone:

    Rump may be unavailable by June 27, but I’m sure he will be able to get out on “work release” furlough. Or can participate via phone 😆

    Trump’s not going to jail, especially from the NYC case.

    Cannon will push the documents case off till after the election. Trump’s defense team, if Trump loses, will file a motion to dismiss because reasons and Cannon will agree.

    The SCOTUS will find a way for Trump wriggle out from under the D.C. charges.

    Lord knows what the GA Republican judges are thinking in entertaining the appeal about Willis staying on as prosecutor.

    Trump’s getting his money’s worth from the $100 million he’s paid in legal fees, with respect to the criminal cases.

  83. 83.

    gene108

    @Scout211:

    Trump’s team also called for the candidates to participate in four total debates – twice the number requested by Biden.

    LOL! 😂

    Trump “raised” twice as much as Biden did at Trump’s big fundraiser.

    It’s always double what Biden does to one up him by Trump.

  85. 85.

    KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))

    @Josie:

    Also, the stipulation that the mike is cut on the person not speaking,

    That should be non-negotiable.

  88. 88.

    Eyeroller

    @JMG: That’s slightly more realistic but now I recall reading that it had Trump winning Clark County (Las Vegas) by 8, which people who apparently really do know Nevada said was basically never going to happen.

  90. 90.

    JWR

    @Eyeroller: Yep, Trump up 10 in NY. Seriously. But I’ve been in and out all week and so I’m a bit more behind than usual, so thanks for the info!

  92. 92.

    JMG

    @Trollhattan: Like all Michael Mann projects, Miami Vice was a meditation on men’s clothes and cars. Good for that, though. Also among its guest stars was Bill Russell for some reason.

  93. 93.

    KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    Biden’s VP debate with Ryan.  Gotta admit, it was vastly entertaining.

    I watched it at the Obama/Biden campaign office in Centreville, VA. It was such a morale booster for all of us campaign workers! Joe was at his arrogant, snarky best that night, and he just stomped Ryan. It was glorious to behold.

  94. 94.

    Ohio Mom

    @smith: After Trump stalked Hillary at that debate, I decided that there is no behavior Trump can exhibit at a debate that will discourage (let alone sway) his fans.

  95. 95.

    Melancholy Jaques

    The idea that any voter needs a TV debate to decide whether to vote or which person to vote for is so ridiculous that I just do not know what to say.

    Memo to political media: If you all were doing your jobs, no “debates” would be necessary. The public would be fully informed.

  96. 96.

    Layer8Problem

    @Betty Cracker: ​

    Had an embarrassing incident with my toddler screaming POL! POT! one time though.

    Whatever the explanation of that is, you’re leading the right kind of life, parentingwise and otherwise.

  98. 98.

    Jeffro

    Dark Brandon, 5 minutes into the first debate: “you’re an idiot and you’re corrupt as hell, but mostly, people voted you out of office because you’re such a dick, Donald”

  99. 99.

    Jeffro

    I still can’t believe trumpov’s primary challengers couldn’t tough it out and troll the orange menace mercilessly the way HRC did and Biden does (although I think Biden/Harris 2024 is taking it to a whole new level).

    It’s an authoritarian cult/Neanderthal tribe*, GOP candidates: you were never going to win unless you went right at the tribal leader and bested him.

    *with apologies to Neanderthals, of course.

  102. 102.

    Captain C

    @Betty Cracker: That sounds like the time when I was a toddler and had just learned the word “sit” and was loudly repeating it, but mispronouncing the “s” as “sh.”  My mother had to keep saying “Yes, Captain, “sit”…”

  103. 103.

    Belafon

    @Melancholy Jaques: You’re assuming that people always watch the news or read the papers. The debates are an event, and generally the first time a lot of people pay attention.

  105. 105.

    JWR

    @Captain C:

    while editing the rant such that it appears coherent and unlike whatever nonsense TIFG actually belched out.

    No sh*t! I heard one TV station cut off the end of one of his stupid rants, this one ending in a derogatory statement about his criminal travails. The only way I knew it happened was because either Stephen Colbert or Seth Meyers played it in it’s entirety for it’s comedic punch. But our Serious Media is having a nervous breakdown trying to cover him this time around.

  106. 106.

    emjayay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Since Trump supporters consider everything the same as a WWE event where they cheer and boo the participants according to their concocted theatrical personas and rehearsed moves, there should definitely not be any audience. If Biden insists then Conald will probably come up with some excuse to not debate.

  108. 108.

    emjayay

    @JWR:

    I heard one TV station cut off the end of one of his stupid rants

    That was Fox News covering one of his outdoor standup shows.

  109. 109.

    Mj_Oregon

    Dark Brandon wins the day.  Every. Single. Time.

    OMG!  That kitten’s face is adorable.  I think he’s saying “I’m NOT on the table.  Change my mind.”

  112. 112.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @JWR:

    But our Serious Media is having a nervous breakdown trying to cover him make him look sane this time around.

    Just a teensy fix.

  114. 114.

    cain

    @Trollhattan: I used to watch that fairly often. I think the only thing that I remember from it is the little banner when the show starts: “In Stereo” – like whoa bro, stereo!

  116. 116.

    cain

    @JWR: I suspect when those debates show up and Trump goes off into the weeds and doesn’t answer any questions that is going to be much harder.

    Also, he’s not going to be showing up for any of those debates much less four. I think Biden knows it and is why he’s using aggressive language. He needs to really be even more aggressive because Trump is losing it fast.

  117. 117.

    JWR

    @emjayay:

    concocted theatrical personas and rehearsed moves

    “Bullshit” always gets him big applause. The bored looking people behind him wake up from their comas any time he drops the old “S” bomb. Real crowd pleaser, that one.

  118. 118.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Scout211: ​
     The commission is an MSM joke. The debates had substance when the League of Women Voters ran them. Then the assclowns of the networks got involved, and they turned to shit.

  120. 120.

    Kay

    WASHINGTON — An Interior Department staffer on Wednesday became the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign in protest of U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
    Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the Interior Department, accused President Joe Biden of using Jews to justify U.S. policy in the conflict.
    Call had worked for the presidential campaigns of both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and was a longtime activist and advocate for Israel in Washington and elsewhere before joining the government.
    She is at least the fifth mid- or senior-level administration staffer to make public their resignation in protest of the Biden administration’s military and diplomatic support of the now seven-month Israeli war against Hamas.

  121. 121.

    JWR

    @emjayay: I don’t watch Fox even for the Comedy Gold therein, so this must’ve been a new one. Actually, I think it was NBC. Oy vey! Buckle in, folks, there’s no telling where we might end up!

  123. 123.

    Brachiator

    @Trollhattan:

    The party conventions will be duds on account of no meaningful primary season, so maybe these debates can substitute for them WRT viewer interest?

    Who Trump picks for his running mate as the VP candidate might spark some voter interest, but otherwise the average voter will not pay attention to presidential politics until September at the earliest.

    The Summer Olympics will eat up news coverage from mid July until August 11. And the Democratic Party convention won’t happen until after this. It may be a bland affair unless there are Gaza protests.

    ETA. Note that I am personally interested to see Biden and Harris kick off the campaign season and I know they will energize the base. But we will see how the wider public reacts.

  124. 124.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    Can’t wait!  Also a documentary about a tiktok dance cult also drops.  When we first found out about the cult I did a little sleuthing and sent one of the investigators some information.  I have been watching this whole thing blow apart.  Wild.

  125. 125.

    Jeffro

    VA 05 primary update: I simply could not resist, and selected the GOP primary ballot!  (In VA, you can vote in either primary)

    It was truly a pleasure to vote against Bob (No)Good and as a bonus, I also got to vote against lying* GOP Senate candidate Hung Cao!

    *redundant, I know

    Both will probably hang in there to win their respective nominations, but…and I know this is shallow and dumb…it just feels right, and it’ll feel even better when I vote against them both AGAIN in November!

  128. 128.

    hueyplong

    @artem1s: Don’t think I have to click on that one to know that Paul Newman is getting after Robert Shaw.  Ya follow?

  129. 129.

    Jay

    Szabolcs Panyi
    @panyiszabolcs
    3h
    ‼️🇷🇺Wow. Looks like Slovak PM Robert Fico’s reported assailant, writer Juraj Cintula, was associated with pro-Russian paramilitary group Slovenskí Branci (SB). Their leader was even trained by Russian ex-Spetsnaz soldiers. Read more on @VSquare_Project 👇vsquare.org/slovenski-branci…

    nitter.poast.org/panyiszabolcs/status/1790789652078526939#m

  132. 132.

    artem1s

    @hueyplong: ​
    To be fair, I always hear Paul Newman when Joe says pal that way – I wouldn’t be surprised if Joe hears Paul Newman in his head when he says it too.

  134. 134.

    2liberal

    @Gin & Tonic:  The only TV show I’m aware of that ever had Frank Zappa as a guest star.

     

    and also bill russell – because he was an outspoken black man during the turbulent 1960s

  135. 135.

    hueyplong

    I don’t think there will be any debates.

    The immediate future will feature theater in which Trump makes demands to which no one would agree and finds his excuse not to expose his declining cognitive abilities.

    Pretty soon he won’t even be able to do rallies live.

  138. 138.

    artem1s

    @hueyplong: 

    I don’t think there will be any debates.

    TIFG can’t possibly expect a more friendly setting that he had in 2020 at the Cleveland Clinic Plague debate and he lost that bigly.
    I don’t see him agreeing to any setting this year. There’s no possible way for him to rig it so he gets to pull the shit he pulled on Hillary. And frankly he can’t pull that off anymore – he’s too sickly. So he’ll chicken out if jail or a dirt nap doesn’t let him off the hook first.

  140. 140.

    Jay

    @JWR:

    Late on April 30, Sean Tabibian called 911 to say police were needed urgently at the University of California at Los Angeles. “All hell had broken loose,” Tabibian recalled in an interview. Masked agitators were attacking pro-Palestinian protesters on a campus quad, video footage shows, and a team of hired security guards had retreated.

    The call at 11:09 p.m. was the first of 11 that Tabibian made to police that night as the violence escalated, according to his cellphone’s call log. Other witnesses called 911 as well, records show.

    “They said they were responding,” said Tabibian, a local business executive and UCLA alumnus who was near campus around the time commotion erupted at the encampment, and who said he was concerned that protesters had been discriminating against Jewish students. “They kept saying they’re responding, they’re responding.”

    While a small UCLA patrol could be seen in footage briefly early on, law enforcement agencies did not move in to stop the violence until 3 hours and 34 minutes after Tabibian’s first 911 call, a Washington Post examination has found — a delay that prolonged one of the most violent altercations since pro-Palestinian protesters began setting up encampments on college campuses across the country this spring.

    The examination — based on evidence including more than 200 videos, emergency radio transmissions, text messages and interviews with more than a dozen witnesses — illuminates the stakes for university and local officials as they decide if and when to call police to deal with pro-Palestinian encampments. Elsewhere police have been accused of using heavy-handed tactics, but at UCLA, where university policy discourages calling police preemptively, campus police as well as the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol are facing scrutiny for their hands-off approach that night.

    It’s not clear why police waited so long to respond. But in the hours before they took action, at least 16 people were visibly injured, the majority of them pro-Palestinian, including two protesters who could be seen with blood streaking across their faces and soaking into their clothes, videos and images show. The counterprotesters ignited at least six fireworks; struck protesters at least 20 times with wooden planks, metal poles and other objects; and punched or kicked at least eight protesters.

    lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/05/wilhoits-law-and-campus-protests

  143. 143.

    Baud

    @Jay:

    Looks like Slovak PM Robert Fico’s reported assailant, writer Juraj Cintula, was associated with pro-Russian paramilitary group Slovenskí Branci (SB). Their leader was even trained by Russian ex-Spetsnaz soldiers

     
    Why would Ukraine do this?

  145. 145.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Kay: On a related note, Republicans are now talking about a nationwide ban on no-fault divorce.

    Ben Carson, who is often named as a potential running mate for Donald Trump, is out with a new book in which he calls for an end to no-fault divorce laws in the United States. “For the sake of families, we should enact legislation to remove or radically reduce incidences of no-fault divorce,” Carson writes in “The Perilous Fight,” released Tuesday.

    Research has shown that no-fault divorce correlates with reductions in domestic violence and suicide rates among women. A 2015 study found that women are more likely than men to initiate divorces. In a 2016 sermon, now-House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., listed no-fault divorce laws as one of the causes turning the US into a “completely amoral society.”

  146. 146.

    Brachiator

    @JWR:

    Speaking of Gaza, I heard an interview this past Sunday with one of the faculty arrested at the UCLA campus, and he talks about the violent “counter-prottesters” that night, none of whom have been arrested.

    The reactions to the protests have been a mess, but I am not sure that anyone has clearly identified who the counter protestors were, based on the news reports I have read about and heard. Some on scene reporters I mostly trust noted that counter protestors refused to identify themselves when interviewed.

  149. 149.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Kay: Also too, I wanted to thank you for the answer to my question yesterday. I was busy and didn’t get to participate in the thread, but I read the whole thing last night.

  151. 151.

    bbleh

    @Baud: (or anybody else) been busy today so haven’t followed closely.  Why does the Hive Mind think TIFG will back out?  I’m kinda with @TeezySkeezy: here; I don’t know that his ego would allow him to back out, especially if Biden is mocking him publicly.

    (Could make it only about halfway thru the NYT “why” article in which the Deep Politics Knowers explain the campaigns’ “thinking.”  Serious blargage.)

  152. 152.

    cmorenc

    @Kay:

    If reproductive-freedom states shield laws for providers who do abortions on women who have traveled there from states where abortions are prohibited are unconstitutional because of the extradition clause of the US constitution,  then states where marijuana is illegal could prosecute colorado dispensary owners/employees who serve customers from those states who travel to colorado where they buy and consume it entirely while in colorado without bringing any back to their home state.  Or Nevada casinos could be prosecuted for allowing customers from any remaining state where commercial gambling is illegal to play at Vegas blackjack tables, going home after losing some if the money they brought with them from their home state.

    That is a completely back-ass-wards misinterpretation of the meaning of the extradition clause, which instead is intended to apply to a person who commits an act in state A which is criminal in state A and then travels to state B where it is legal.  But state A cannot prohibit its residents from traveling to B and conducting activities that are perfectly legal in B.

  153. 153.

    Jay

    @bbleh:

    a) He’s not going to get a “safe” venue

    b) No Audience

    c) The Debate questions won’t be “fluff”

    d) He won’t be allowed to “stunt”

    e) He won’t be allowed to set “conditions”

    f) He won’t drop out of the debate, his Staff will “pull” him because of his decline and will create some BS excuse about the Debate not being “fair”.

    Watching President Joe Biden debate an empty chair will be so, so, so, so much better than Eastwood.

  154. 154.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: So you pulled a Republican primary ballot again. Next thing, you’ll be eating ham biscuits instead of avocado toast at brunch.

  155. 155.

    JWR

    @Ironcity:

    So did Cricket

    One of the Light Night comics did a “joke” about one of those close ups of Kristi Noem’s teeth, saying, “that was the last thing Cricket ever saw”. It was either Colbert or Meyers, and it was done so as not to cast aspersions on the puppy dog.

  156. 156.

    Jeffro

    @Sister Golden Bear: Carson…a running mate with trump??!?

    Even though that piece is dated 2024, Carson is (obvs) yesterday’s news.  (And Mrs. Carson wouldn’t let him do it anyway ;)

  159. 159.

    Warblewarble

    @Kay: Lily Greenberg Call is one of those who in Blinken’s words should not “disrupt Israels narrative of the war in Gaza” and should look away like a good (german) American as the case may be.

  160. 160.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Soprano2: Let me bookend your post: If Mango Mussolini doesn’t back out, it’s a lock that someone on the network​ is in the tank for him – either they’ll slip him the questions in advance or fail to cut his mike when he’s supposed to shut his pie-hole.

  161. 161.

    JWR

    @Brachiator:

    counter protestors refused to identify themselves when interviewed.

    That’s why it would be nice to haul them in for questioning. Determine their motives.

  162. 162.

    Tony Jay

    @AWOL:

    Then the Guardian US is an entirely different animal to the Guardian UK, which is all-in on How Daft Old Biden Will Lose To Trump, Democrat Disarray Over Gaza = 1968, Heeerrrrrrre’s Bernie, and Have We Mentioned Biden Is Old And Losing To Trump?

    Sure, that’s a major improvement over mainstream US News Media, but twelve over-caffeinated weightlifters pounding their balls flat with cast-iron skillet pans while shrieking Land Of Our Fathers in the original Elvish would qualify as better too, so it’s hardly a bloody compliment.

    The Guardian is a shit rag that always wants the conservatives to win because that drives their traffic and makes their owners’ taxes go all fun-twitchy. They just do it differently in each media market.

  163. 163.

    Brachiator

    @JWR:

    RE: counter protestors refused to identify themselves when interviewed.

    That’s why it would be nice to haul them in for questioning. Determine their motives.

    I’m not an Internet lawyer, but I don’t think that is how the justice system is supposed to work.

  165. 165.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @TaMara: Sam the beagle is not allowed on the sofa (seat). Didn’t take him long to figure out the loophole, which is that I don’t mind him on top of the sofa, behind my head, and I also don’t mind him climbing over me to get there.

  166. 166.

    Wilson Heath

    I think there’s a very high chance that if Shitshow the Clown agrees he will deliberately try to push contempt so far that he might get Merchan to jail him so he doesn’t have to debate.

  167. 167.

    rikyrah

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    @Kay: On a related note, Republicans are now talking about a nationwide ban on no-fault divorce.

    Ben Carson, who is often named as a potential running mate for Donald Trump, is out with a new book in which he calls for an end to no-fault divorce laws in the United States. “For the sake of families, we should enact legislation to remove or radically reduce incidences of no-fault divorce,” Carson writes in “The Perilous Fight,” released Tuesday.

    Research has shown that no-fault divorce correlates with reductions in domestic violence and suicide rates among women. A 2015 study found that women are more likely than men to initiate divorces. In a 2016 sermon, now-House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., listed no-fault divorce laws as one of the causes turning the US into a “completely amoral society

    Uh huh

    Uh huh

    Hope that Suzanne sees this too.

  169. 169.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Conservative lawyers and lobbyists once again pretending they are physicians and dictating delivery of health care to women.

     

    Commercial interests?

    No. Medical privacy. None of your phucking business.

  170. 170.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Uncle Cosmo: That wouldn’t be enough. He no longer has enough command of the English language to get through a debate. They’d have to allow pre-recorded, heavily edited video responses. Or a voice double dubbing him while they cut his own mike.

  173. 173.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Is there a particular reference for that top pic? I racked my brains trying to figure out who he reminded me of, and all I came up with was Hades from the Broadway production of Hadestown I saw a year or two ago. Which I don’t think would be a recognizable cultural reference.

  175. 175.

    smith

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I remember back when Bush the Lesser was debating Kerry, there were strong suspicions that he wore an earpiece and someone was feeding answers to him. I could easily see the Defendant doing that.

  178. 178.

    bbleh

    @Jay: excuses aside — they can always manufacture those — my thinking is that (1) he knows — viscerally — how bad it would look to back out, or to have an empty chair or something like that, and how it would damage his Alpha Man image, and (2) he’s gonna “stunt” and blather off-topic and Gish-gallop and all the rest of it, rules or no — in fact, better if it’s against the rules, cuz Alpha Man recognizes nobody’s rules — so that’s no reason to back out.

    It’d be the best thing in the world if he did, of course (well, other than croaking), but color me very skeptical.

  180. 180.

    karen marie

    @Gin & Tonic: If “nuttier than a fruitcake” were the standard for elimination, Individual-1 wouldn’t be invited

    @Scout211:   It’s always someone else’s fault.  Amazing.

  182. 182.

    pat

    @MomSense: if Biden hadn’t had the face lift and all the Botox and fillers.

     

    He really had those?  Where did  you learn that?

  183. 183.

    pat

    @Soprano2:

    Ceiling fans in bedrooms:  I had one put in the new house and do not use it overnight because it gives me vertigo.  So be careful….

  184. 184.

    smith

    @pat: Don’t know about a facelift, but I remember way back in the day he was ribbed mercilessly for his hair plugs.

  185. 185.

    pat

    @smith:

    Yes I remember that.  They seem to have worked out OK, so far…..

    eta, just wondering how sfb manages that “hair” every day…

  187. 187.

    Jinchi

    I think there is literally no point in a debate between TFG and Biden. Anyone likely to vote knows exactly who these guys are. We’ve seen them both in the office as president and we pretty much know exactly how each will behave if they win the election.

    And the last time they debated, Trump’s family tried to expose Biden to Covid, undoubtedly hoping to kill him off before the election.

  188. 188.

    Jinchi

    @Brachiator: Some on scene reporters I mostly trust noted that counter protestors refused to identify themselves when interviewed.

    Right, but they weren’t arrested either. Probably would have learned a few names if they had been.

  189. 189.

    Jay

    @Jinchi:

    Some of the counter protestors have been loud, but peaceful.

    Some of the counter protestors have been loud and racist.

    Some of the counter protestors have initiated violence, but for some strange reason, the Police are not interested.

  190. 190.

    Jinchi

    @Jay: They weren’t interested in Kyle Rittenhouse, either, and he was walking down the street openly carrying an AR-15 after a deadly shooting.

  191. 191.

    Eyeroller

    @smith: I also have no information, but he has the look of a facelift that has aged, particularly around the eyes.  So I wouldn’t be surprised.

  194. 194.

    Ruckus

    @Soprano2:

    I’m an old fart and am seeing the very early minor effects of belonging to that age group. It is better to get to the stage of not being able to do whatever you want but then I say, remember childhood – where one couldn’t do whatever one wanted. Too young, too old, not actually a bad situation on either end, for the simple reason that not everyone gets to see both ends of the spectrum.

  196. 196.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Belafon:

    No, I’m assuming people who vote have been at least mostly awake and sentient for the last eight years. You don’t need to follow things closely to realize who and what Trump is.

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