Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

It’s a doggy dog world.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Books are my comfort food!

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

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

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Come on, man.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "Stories from the Road" / Friday Night Open Thread

Friday Night Open Thread

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Oh noes, an elderly Republican has a sad:

Despite all the talk that Joe Biden killed the Commission on Presidential Debates this week, there’s at least one objection.

“We ain’t dead yet,” says Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr.

He’s the co-founder and co-chair of the commission, and he sat down for an interview with the Playbook Deep Dive podcast this week to discuss whether this really is the end of his organization’s 36-year run producing 33 general election debates.

Fahrenkopf had harsh words for senior members of the Biden campaign, which stunned the commission on Wednesday morning with a letter declaring the president would not participate in the commission’s fall debates. The Biden team described the commission’s debates as “noisy spectacles” that occur too late in the process to accommodate early voting, and which were too easy for Donald Trump to hijack in 2020 by breaking rules that went unenforced.

Fahrenkopf called the Biden campaign’s allegations “false” and said the campaign “didn’t do their homework” on early voting. He blamed the blowup on Biden advisers Anita Dunn and Ron Klain’s hostility to the commission.

Some quick background- Fahrenkopf is the former head of the RNC from 83-89, during the Reagan years, before most voters today were even able to vote, and according to his wikipedia entry, he is 84 years old. So no, he and the Presidential Debate Commission are not technically dead, but if you look at the actuarial tables he’s got one foot in the grave the other on a banana peel and the commission is in the same boat.

Having said that, thank FUCKING GOD Biden’s team managed to secure the debates outside this shitshow. Here’s the deal- it’s not 1988 anymore and we are long past pretending that the old rules of genteel debate still hold. In fact, the biggest impediment to Democratic success in the last twenty years or so are the idiots in the Democratic party, now mostly gone, who believed in the old way and treating Republicans as serious people who should be given the benefit of the doubt. The stupid centrist fuckers who think they can negotiate with terrorists because in their mind Tip O’Neill is still smoking cigars and having drinks with Reagan.

Those days are long gone, and the simple fact of the matter is the institutions we relied on for decades and centuries are crumbling in this new era, because much of government and civil life requires people acting in good faith. Republicans tossed that aside in the Gingrich era and have become worse with every passing years, and have in many instances either fully co-opted institutions or simply ignore them and do what they want because they realized there are no repercussions.

The same thing happened to the Sunday shows and much of the media- Republicans realized that there is no down side to just flat out lying, and they did that until they just stopped showing up. In addition, the media bent over backwards to be “fair and balanced,” so we were then and now treated to the grotesque spectacle of treating things like Obama agreeing with Henry Louis Gates as a scandal on par with Donald Trump blackmailing Ukraine. Biden’s dentures slip and he mispronounces a name while Trump shouts out “MAGNETS DON’T WORK UNDERWATER AND HANNIBAL LECTOR WAS A GREAT GUY” and the headline the next day is “both Presidents have issues with their age.”

This serves no one, of course, except Republicans. It doesn’t help the country, it doesn’t help inform the public, and it certainly doesn’t build faith in institutions.

So Mr Fahrenkopf can fuck off into the wilderness for all I care. After the deceits and abuses they let Trump get away with the last few times around, I see no need to include the commission this time around.

***

In other news, this happened in Congress:

Two thoughts- Raskin deserves credit for not breaking out into a full laugh, and I hope that Crockett is around for a long time.

***

My legs are very sunburned and ouchie, so I am going to do nothing but watch Caprica tonight and stay out of any sun tomorrow. I guess I have nothing else to say, really.

Reader Interactions

76Comments

  1. 1.

    Luther Siler

    Debates have been a joke for several elections in a row now.

    I don’t want debates to be a joke.

    Therefore, sacking the people who have been responsible for the debates seems pretty damn reasonable.

  6. 6.

    AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue Team

    Crockett for AG !!!!!!

    Ty all who was so kind in the comments last night, I only saw the replies this morning but I’m grateful to you all.

    John I’m glad sunburn is the worst of these days, here’s to good health for all of us.

  9. 9.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    submarines dont work underwater and Charles Manson was a great guy

  10. 10.

    Anne Laurie

    Vitamin E actually works really well on sunburned skin, in my experience.  You don’t need the fancy organique kind, just plain drugstore stuff (I like Palmers) works fine & ships fast…

  11. 11.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I was gonna say. I’m old enough to remember when the Commission on Presidential Debates was the newfangled organization that made everything go to shit.

  13. 13.

    Suzanne

    Raskin deserves credit for not breaking out into a full laugh

    Next time, I hope he does. It’s been my favorite part of the whole interlude.

  14. 14.

    dmsilev

    Fahrenkopf called the Biden campaign’s allegations “false” and said the campaign “didn’t do their homework” on early voting. He blamed the blowup on Biden advisers Anita Dunn and Ron Klain’s hostility to the commission.

    That’s arrant bullshit, as anyone who took even the most cursory of glances at the 2020 campaign’s voter outreach strategy would understand. The debates were in September and October because they always were in September and October, and the Commission wanted them that way, even though the voting patterns have changed just a tad in the last forty or so years.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @Harrison Wesley: The individual campaigns wanted more control over format and things like that, so the LoWV was pushed aside in favor of a commission that (in theory) would come up with a better format. A few decades later, I think we have enough data points to say “experiment failed”.

  16. 16.

    Redshift

    @cain:

    Can we bring back the League of Women Voters?

    If I recall correctly, they stopped being in charge because Republicans proclaimed they were a pro-Democrat partisan organization or something. You know, like they do with everything that isn’t explicitly pro-conservative.

    So no. (But maybe they could organize some town halls that only Biden would get to hold after the Goopers refuse.)

  19. 19.

    Ishiyama

    The last thing the Republican Party wanted was to have women in charge of anything related to voting! Keep ’em in the kitchen!

  22. 22.

    Scout211

    @Harrison Wesley: Why were they replaced?

    lwv.org   Some history.

    After a 16 year period in which there were no public presidential debates, the League of Women Voters Education Fund (LWVEF) sponsored three presidential debates in 1976. These debates between Jimmy Carter (D), former governor of Georgia and Gerald Ford (R), President of the United States, were the first to be held since 1960. In 1976 the League also sponsored one vice presidential debate between Senator Walter Mondale (D-MN) and Senator Bob Dole (R-KS).

    The League continued to sponsor the presidential and vice presidential debates every four years through the 1984 elections. Following that election cycle, the Democratic and Republican national parties came together in a decision to move sponsorship of the debates under the purview of the parties.

    Between 1985 and 1987 the League challenged this move and sparked widespread public debate on the matter. The LWVEF argued that a change in sponsorship that put control of the debate format in the hands of the two dominant parties would deprive voters of one of the only chances they have to see the candidates outside of their controlled campaign environment.

    In 1987 the parties announced the creation of the Commission on Presidential Debates. The Commission chose LWVEF to sponsor the last presidential debate of 1988, but placed so many rules and restrictions on the possible format of the debate that the LWVEF was finally unable to agree to participate. In a press release at the time, Nancy Neuman, then LWVUS President, stated that the League had “no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.”

    They did not want to involved once the two political parties wanted more control. The  statement by the League President at the time included this:

    On the threshold of a new millenium, this country remains the brightest hope for all who cherish free speech and open debate,” Neuman said. “Americans deserve to see and hear the men who would be president face each other in a debate on the hard and complex issues critical to our progress into the next century.”

    Neuman issued a final challenge to both Vice President Bush and Governor Dukakis to “rise above your handlers and agree to join us in presenting the fair and full discussion the American public expects of a League of Women Voters debate.”

    I’m sure she meant the “people” who would be president, but it was 1988.

  23. 23.

    Splitting Image

    Fahrenkopf called the Biden campaign’s allegations “false” and said the campaign “didn’t do their homework” on early voting.

    Let me see if I understand this. Fahrenkopf is saying the Biden campaign, which won the election partly because it banked millions of early votes in the weeks before election day, didn’t do its homework on early voting?

  24. 24.

    Scout211

    If any or all of these presidential debates happen this year (I have my doubts) I still don’t understand how they will get Trump to shut up when he talks over President Biden and the moderators.  I won’t watch for that reason.

  25. 25.

    zhena gogolia

    Why is it that when John G. Cole describes the current shit show, it calms me down?

  26. 26.

    Another Scott

    @cain: + eleventy billion.

    The Commission was a “solution” to a non-existent problem.  It was a power-grab by the big parties, and they made a hash of it (as they inevitably would).

    Most objectionable to the League, Neuman said, were conditions in the agreement that gave the campaigns unprecedented control over the proceedings. Neuman called “outrageous” the campaigns’ demands that they control the selection of questioners, the composition of the audience, hall access for the press and other issues.

    “The campaigns’ agreement is a closed-door masterpiece,” Neuman said. “Never in the history of the League of Women Voters have two candidates’ organizations come to us with such stringent, unyielding and self-serving demands.”

    Neuman said she and the League regretted that the American people have had no real opportunities to judge the presidential nominees outside of campaign-controlled environments.

    After letting Turnip hijack the last one, they have no credibility at all. None. Good riddance.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  28. 28.

    bbleh

    A third thought: Comer is really dumb as a box of rocks.  I mean, Raskin’s got it easy.

    To this have Republicans brought the House.  And that really takes some doing!

    Also as to sunburn, as a redhead brought up in the Caribbean, may I suggest just a regular moisturizer, like Cetaphil or Lubriderm, slathered on in generous quantities?  Like, get the big pump bottle.  Also yer scalp and forearms and the back of yer neck. Ain’t gonna hurt ya.

  29. 29.

    Steeplejack

    @Luther Siler:

    Seconded. They let Trump run roughshod over everything and didn’t do squat.

    I have started rewatching Grimm from Season 1 (on Prime) and find that it is holding up very well. I lost the thread somewhere around late Season 3 or early Season 4 when it was first out and want to see how it winds up. A friend told me it’s worth it to go to the end.

  30. 30.

    Matt McIrvin

    Apparently there are white liberals pearl-clutching over the Crockett thing? I only know because I see other people complaining about how all the white liberals are pearl-clutching over the Crockett thing. Whatever.

  34. 34.

    Chet Murthy

    @prostratedragon: I still remember TIFG interrupting Hillary with “no puppet, no puppet, you’re the puppet!”  Stick the Shitbird in a glass tank, only turn on his mic when he’s allowed to speak, and let’s see how long before he goes berzerk.

  35. 35.

    Villago Delenda Est

    You’re absolutely right about Farenkopf, Cole. No doubts here. Wooden and silver stakes need to be driven through the heart of the Presidential Debate Commission. Worthless from the getgo. Bring back the League of Women Voters to run them if we have them any more, which is unlikely because the fascist scum of the MSM like the old format.

  36. 36.

    Mike in NC

    Got released from the ICU today after a “minor” heart attack issue. The physical therapists wanted to keep me until Thursday but I found a sympathetic young doctor willing to cut me loose.

  38. 38.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Matt McIrvin: Said “white liberals” can go fuck off.  I fully support Crockett going for MTG’s throat.  This is fucking war.  No quarter for the enemy.

  40. 40.

    HumboldtBlue

    @dmsilev: ​ 

    arrant

    That’s a great word.

    On another note, Tom Nicols was tone-policing and tut-tutting Rep. Crockett for getting down in the mud with Greene and said Dems still don’t know how to handle the GOP and that by engaging her they just give her more ammo for her base. As if Greene is any danger of losing her seat.

  42. 42.

    Suzanne

    @Matt McIrvin: John Fetterman was an asshole about it today. Made some comment about how the House is like the Jerry Springer Show, but now he has to apologize to the Springer Show. AOC called him out for not supporting a colleague.

    Seriously, the amount of shit that guy talked, and now he objects?!

  43. 43.

    dexwood

    Turned 73 recently, but my mind is still 12 sometimes. Read that as the Playboy Deep Dive at first.

  47. 47.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Anne Laurie: yes to vitamin e. I just bite the end of a capsule, and squirt it on the burn.

    Once I leaked acid down my leg at a jab job, ran to the bathroom stripping. A coworker told me about the vitamin e. I don’t even have a scar.

    If the sunburn is really bad, John Cole, there’s always sleeping on wet towels.

    OT:

    Auraria campus is closed for weekend and likely next week, due to protesters, 100 tent encampment, high costs and losses to the schools on campus ($290k.)
    If you’re not in Denver, that’s our 3 school campus right next to downtown. Community college, metro state and ucd.
    Jeepers

  50. 50.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Scout211: As I recall, the 1988 debate was the one where Bernard Shaw led it off with the most fucked up question ever to Dukakis.  I’ve never forgiven Shaw for that.  No tears when he died.

  51. 51.

    Splitting Image

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    You’re absolutely right about Farenkopf, Cole. No doubts here. Wooden and silver stakes need to be driven through the heart of the Presidential Debate Commission. Worthless from the getgo. Bring back the League of Women Voters to run them if we have them any more, which is unlikely because the fascist scum of the MSM like the old format.

    In hindsight, it should have been a warning sign that the parties took over the debates and picked the “journalists” who were going to moderate them. Any “journalist” who took the job under those conditions was invariably going to be a lickspittle. It was thirty years of inevitable decline after that, all the way down to Chuck Todd and Maggie Haberman.

  53. 53.

    cmorenc

    Trump blunderingly admitted the NDA with Stormy Daniels while speaking extemporaeously on the courthouse steps yesterday – holy crap, without even taking the stand inside the trial, Trump gratuitously torpedoed his own defense.  I don’t recall this coming up in threads yesterday about the trial.  Since even though the prosedution had not planned to call any further witnesses after Cohen, technically they had not rested their case until they waived any redirect of Cohen.  Surely they can introduce the video of Trump making the admission on the courthouse steps before resting.

  56. 56.

    Jackie

    @Redshift:

    If I recall correctly, they stopped being in charge because Republicans proclaimed they were a pro-Democrat partisan organization or something.

    The Woman’s League of Voters held neutral debates. Which eventually translated into anti Republican. I noticed this shift against the WLofVs around Dubya’s time.

  57. 57.

    geg6

    Jamie Raskin was killing me, too.  Loved Crockett trolling Frog Face, too.  A two for one!

  61. 61.

    Jackie

    @Scout211: He’ll still screech, but the microphone will be off. So he’ll REALLY have to screech. I foresee Biden laughing at him like one does when trying not to in front of a toddler throwing a tantrum.

  62. 62.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jackie: in front of a toddler throwing a tantrum.

    Or in front of the assembled group of toddlers that make up the White House Press Corpse.

  63. 63.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jackie: The Rethuglicans CANNOT WIN in a fair system.  Which is why they’ve been desperately trying to monkey with the thing from Reagan on.

  65. 65.

    Jackie

    @Villago Delenda Est: It’s funny; whenever I have a doubt about which way to vote on referendums, my first go to for research is the WLVs.

    So maybe they ARE pro democratic and anti anti-woke.🤔

  66. 66.

    Chet Murthy

    @Matt McIrvin: First, I agree  with you on Nichols *for the foreseeable future*.  But just like David Brock, if he continues to work for our side, eventually he’ll redeem himself and can even become a stalwart member of our big coalition.  Jennifer Rubin is on that path of redemption: again, she’s no David Brock, but she’s walking the path, and hey, I see her every now and then doing her neocon foreign policy schtick, and I just remind myself that she’s not a member of our coalition *yet* — just an ally, and someday she’ll complete the journey.

    But yeah: Nichols has no business upbraiding Rep. Crockett: she *needed* to get in Marge Three Toes’ face, b/c the G(r)OPers (including that spineless jellyfish Comer) need to know that we will not take violation of the norms lying down.  Good on her!  Bra-VO!

  67. 67.

    Scout211

    President Biden rejected additional debates. Good for him.  I guess Trump will just have to debate his own self on October 2nd on Fox News.

    President Joe Biden’s campaign rejected two additional debates on Friday that former President Donald Trump’s campaign says it agreed to do.

    One was a proposal for a presidential debate hosted by NBC News and Telemundo. The other was for a vice presidential debate hosted by Fox News at Virginia State University, a historically Black college.

    “I have accepted a fourth Presidential Debate against Crooked Joe Biden, this time with NBC & Telemundo,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday afternoon. “It is important as Republicans that we WIN with our Great Hispanic Community, who Biden has devastated with Crippling Inflation, High Gas Prices, Crime in our Streets, and Border Chaos. … This is all in addition to our accepting an invitation from Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum of Fox News to host the Vice Presidential Debate at Virginia State University, or another venue, in Virginia, to be named later.”

    . . .

    “The debate about debates is over,” a Biden campaign official said. “No more games.”

    Again, good for him.

  69. 69.

    Gloria DryGarden

    I read that mitt Romney thinks that orange man in NY should be pardoned. I didn’t know what to make if it,  but it pisses me off.

    I love Jasmine Crockett. Who cares if she wears makeup and looks good in it? Women are under pressure to look very professional, and well dressed, in Congress, and for some that power dressing includes makeup and heels.  Since people object to the word butch as harmful to our trans friends and family, im trying to rework this fabulous alliteration from MS Crockett. Perhaps:

    Bleach blond brazen, bossy voiced, bullying bodybuilder…

    I’ve seen comments from white women in her district, who like that she talks back, speaks out sharply, stands up to people. Somehow that’s a hit, and I wonder about those women’s  filters, and their values. Because the content matters.

  70. 70.

    Chet Murthy

    @Gloria DryGarden: Marge Three Toes is allowed to bully people, bully people like David Hogg (Marjorie Stoneman Douglas massacre survivor), and she gets *acclaim* for it.  Rep. Crockett slaps back when Marge HGH Basket Case tries to bully her, and she’s admonished for it?  Gosh, I think I know what that’s about ….

  74. 74.

    I gotta get out of this place

    A lot of the lawn guys/gals in Florida wear wide brim hats with a neck flap that hangs down (I haven’t a clue what they’re called). Also drink LOTS and LOTS of water. Sunburns can cause dehydration which can lead to some wicked headaches, exhaustion and nausea. John was in the military, he should know that you don’t wait till you’re thirsty before drinking water (you’re already dehydrated by then).

  76. 76.

    AM in NC

    @Mike in NC:  Hope you are recovering well.  Do you have a good support network around you?  Depending where you are in NC, I am happy to help with anything you might need.  Please reach out by email if I can bring you meals or help in another way!!

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