Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

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

We still have time to mess this up!

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

White supremacy is terrorism.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

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

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

So many bastards, so little time.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Late Night Open Thread: Somewhere, LBJ Is Laughing

Late Night Open Thread: Somewhere, LBJ Is Laughing

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The tactic is now such a GOP staple that its origins have probably been forgotten, but here’s how Hunter S. Thompson described it in Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72:

“This is one of the oldest and most effective tricks in politics. Every hack in the business has used it in times of trouble, and it has even been elevated to the level of political mythology in a story about one of Lyndon Johnson’s early campaigns in Texas.

“The race was close and Johnson was getting worried. Finally he told his campaign manager to start a massive rumour campaign about his opponent’s life-long habit of enjoying carnal knowledge of his barnyard sows.

“Christ, we can’t get away with calling him a pig-f****r,” the campaign manager protested. “Nobody’s going to believe a thing like that.”

“I know,” Johnson replied. “But let’s make the sonofab****h deny it.”

Thing is, the rumor only takes flight when its target seems like a plausible pig (or couch) fvcker..


Reader Interactions

129Comments

  1. 1.

    SpaceUnit

    Love the new tone here on BJ.  This is how to blog.

     

    ETA:  Let’s stay on offense.

  2. 2.

    Martin

    I will say on this, there is a screenshot that could be legit showing a passage that tells the story with the explanation that it was in the book and then removed. I really suspect it’s not legit, but it would explain why there’s no pushback on this. You can’t really deny a true story. Would also explain why AP pulled their fact check piece.

  3. 3.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I can’t help but note how “coach fucker” is something that Trump the eternal school yard bully’s brain would latch onto. One can be forgiving if they think the Dems have learned how to gaslight the gaslighter.

  4. 4.

    Martin

    So, my dad has an anecdote. He lives in a coastal Oregon town, mostly white retirees, reasonably liberal but there’s a lot of open Trumpers there too (seen them with my own eyes).

    He got his haircut today and the woman who cuts his hair is someone who doesn’t mind talking politics. He asks her how things are going and she says pretty good. She says there’s been a palpable change in people coming in this week – people seem less burdened, they’re more upbeat, telling more upbeat stories, stuff like that. Clearly a reaction to the events of the week.

    But what’s important here is that these are generally old white people, and it’s a barber shop, so old white men. And they are relieved that Harris is the nominee. Just a little data point regarding concerns we need to have to shore up the white male vote.

    Don’t make safe choices here. Make bold ones. It’s what voters want.

  5. 5.

    Jay

    @Martin:

    You can’t prove a negative, more so in a digital age.

    Chapter 11 of Shillbilly Eulogy, Frist Edition is just utter filth and deviance.

  9. 9.

    frosty

    @Martin: Good story and this is how I feel. And I was 100% that Biden should hang on because of the country’s misogynoir. I’m beginning to think it can be beaten.

  12. 12.

    Martin

    @frosty: We got Obama over the line. Hillary won the popular vote. I know the intersection is harder, but I don’t think it’s insurmountable.

    In my conversation with my dad I think I convinced myself that the bottom line of this election is a simple cultural question: does electing Trump make you feel like you’ve moved the country to a better place, or does electing Harris make you feel like you’ve moved the country to a better place.

    I think Harris has two big advantages.

    1. In 2008, voters didn’t hate McCain. There wasn’t a big coalition of people that were desperate to keep him out of office. There is a big coalition of people desperate to keep Trump out of office. Say what you will about never Trumpers – they are 100% behind Harris and don’t give a shit what her policies are.
    2. But in 2008, there were a LOT of voters that saw the election of Obama as a reason to be proud to be an American in a whole new way that would be eternal. If we won, we’d have at least once, defeated one of the nations longstanding failings, which would make it a lot easier to do so in the future. We faced that same moment in 2016 and came up short, in large part because we underestimated the competition. We have another shot at it this year, and nobody is underestimating the competition now that the stakes have shifted from another white guy winning to possibly a woman, a black woman, an asian woman winning.
  13. 13.

    Martin

    I’m watching an argument being made against JD Vances proposal to give children a vote that their parents can cast on their behalf, and I have no idea why liberals would oppose this. Do you know what the demographics of young people and their kids looks like? That’s like 70% democratic votes. Take them.

  14. 14.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Martin: in effect, it’s not a proposal to give children the vote, it’s a proposal to increase the voting power of parents with more children. It’s effectively giving additional power to Quiverfulls and the like. It’s also like the argument back when the Constitution was being drafted over whether slaves should count towards a state’s representation in the House of Representatives.

  16. 16.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Martin: I think the counter arguments are 1) those votes would not be cast fairly 2) the larger families would generally vote Republican as most people having large families are doing so for religious reasons (Quiverfull movement and the Opus Dei/tradCaths)

  17. 17.

    Jay

    @Martin:

    Given “fetal personhood”, do embryo’s get a vote?

    Who casts it for them, Dad or Mom?

    That’s 1000+ additional votes for the IFV “crowd”.

  18. 18.

    Bobbo1

    Republicans can’t fight back. Like when they all started wearing diapers to show they love the Donald even if he wears diapers, as idiotic as that was, what are they gonna do now? Call themselves couch-fuckers? Wear mini-couches around their crotches?

  19. 19.

    ascap_scab

    I need a sign.

    Attention Republicans:

    Democrats won’t kinkshame you. Even couchfuckers. Welcome J.D. Vance.

  22. 22.

    Dangerman

    Nothing could be finer than to be boning my recliner in the morning.

    Nothing could be sweeter than to satisfy my peter …

  23. 23.

    Martin

    @Kayla Rudbek: No, the larger families wouldn’t largely vote Republican. How many Quiverfull families do you think there are?

    The US is 61% white. New births swung majority-minority back in 2011. As a nation we’ve been cranking out kids of color (from parents of color) WAY faster than a couple hundred Quiverfull families can keep pace.

    I’m not arguing the philosophical argument, but the practical argument is 100% wrong. Young parents are wildly more democratic than republican. Sure, maybe you fuck up a school board election in Missouri where these people live in favor of the GOP, but not any national or state election.

    If the GOP offer you a victory, learn to take it, because they aren’t offering it for philosophical reasons.

  24. 24.

    Martin

    You can try the couch thing on normies now – it’s reached the late night shows. It’s escaped the political social media space and hit broader society.

  26. 26.

    DAstronomer

    I am absolutely loving the memes. JD is a dumpster fire of a human being, and like most Catholic adult converts, he should be kept away from any seat (or couch) of power.

    That grasping, zealous, reaching baby-faced couchfcker is going to cost Trump dearly. Won’t it be fun to watch them twist in the wind through the next few weeks??? Getcher popcorn ready!

  28. 28.

    Tony Jay

     “Joining us on the couch this morning are celebrity chef Bosso Zizi Binballoe to talk about the Summer of Sizzle. And alongside him, fresh from their sell-out tour in Asia and South America, the Yodel Brothers – they only got off the plane from Buenos Aires an hour ago! You guys okay? Yeah? Outstanding. And over there on an uncomfortable high-stool is the beardie-weirdie author of ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ and Peter Thiel’s candidate for Republican Vice-President of the United States, Senator J.D. Vance. How you doing, J.D.?

    “Great to be here, great to be here.”

    “Bet you’d rather be over here though, huh? Woo-Hee, you gotta fee the weave on this beauty. Tactile. So, Bosso, you pioneered the Polynesian-Arabic fusion barbecue, but have you ever fucked a couch?”

    TV for the masses.

  29. 29.

    oldster

    It’s going to take a few weeks for the results to show in the polls, but my god the change in national mood is stunning.
    We Dems have got our mojo back.
    Of course, as a lifelong Dem, I am also terrified of my own shadow when it comes to presidential races. The awful sinking feeling of despair in 2016 was just a deeper, more desperate version of the despair I felt in 1980 when Reagan beat Carter, and in 1968 when Nixon beat Humphrey. In each case, I woke up to discover that my fellow Americans had voted for someone who was, in my eyes, a visible, palpable, conman and criminal. (The despair of 2000 was a variation on the theme. I was less upset at the time, even though in fact a greater parade of horribles flowed from that illegitimate judicial act than from any of the electoral disasters.)

    Thus is all just to say: I feel hope. And I’ll be sick with anxiety from now through November.

  30. 30.

    WereBear

    I think the meme spoke to what we instinctively understand about Vance.

    He doesn’t seem to have any human qualities in this VP incarnation. I don’t understand the Trump love but they seem to be highly influenced by his fake persona as the Brilliant Businessman.

    This guy can’t come up with any people like.

  31. 31.

    p.a.

    The Republican Party is really spiraling out of control; Eastwood only talked to a chair!

     

    spellcheck told me ‘spiraling’.  I think it should be spiralling.  Also for me travelling, cancelling…  Is that Brit-glish, or a change from my school days (quills & velum era)?

  34. 34.

    Martin

    So, I know that all billionaires are a policy failure, but I’m pretty pleased that Melinda French Gates and Mackensie Scott are out there right now.

  35. 35.

    lowtechcyclist

    @JWR: ​
     

    At the link, Vance endorsed Alex Jones’ view that a “transnational financial elite controls things in our country.”

    “Transnational financial elite”? Sure sounds like a fancy way of saying “Jews,” doesn’t it?

    I mean, it’s bad enough to endorse Alex Jones as a truth-teller, period, given that he’s most infamous for claiming the Sandy Hook massacre was faked. But that phrase definitely pinged my radar.

  36. 36.

    Martin

    Something else to take some possible comfort in – it’s difficult for the media to go against things that are popular. They are very inclined to jump on bandwagons, just as a product of their business model. Sure, there’s also a need to provide the contrarian view, but only to a certain degree.

    If this energy around Harris continues as we had in 2008 with Obama, it’s going to force the NYT off of their game.

  37. 37.

    Darkrose

    @frosty: I was in the same place. I was worried about the misogynoir, and especially about the bullshit from the left. I still remember arguing with one of my oldest friends, a Bernie supporter who was all-in on the David Sirota bullshit about how Harris targeted Black and Brown folks as a prosecutor.

    I’m cautiously, hesitantly hopeful now. There’s an energy that wasn’t around Harris in 2019. She’s got experience, and the contrast with Trump is huge. And unlike 2016, where I feel like some on the left shrugged and said, “How bad could Trump really be?” we know now exactly how bad he’ll be in a second term, and maybe this time, people will vote accordingly.

  38. 38.

    oldster

    @lowtechcyclist:

    ”“Transnational financial elite”? Sure sounds like a fancy way of saying “Jews,” doesn’t it?“

    Absolutely is. Especially since you know he does not include his own apartheid-worshipping transnational financial elite backers like Thiel, Sacks, and Musk.

  39. 39.

    Martin

    Ok, I don’t know why people didn’t think this was obviously coming.

    Barack Obama has endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic presidential nominee, ending days of speculation over whether he would support her.
    Former President Obama and ex-First Lady Michelle Obama said in a joint statement that they believe Ms Harris has the “vision, the character, and the strength that this critical moment demands”.
    …
    The Obamas said in Friday’s statement that they could not be “more thrilled to endorse” Ms Harris. They vowed to do “everything we can” to elect her.

    “We agree with President Biden,” said the couple’s statement, “choosing Kamala was one of the best decisions he’s made. She has the resume to prove it.”
    They cited her record as California’s attorney general, a US senator and then vice-president.
    “But Kamala has more than a resume,” the statement continued. “She has the vision, the character, and the strength that this critical moment demands.
    “There is no doubt in our mind that Kamala Harris has exactly what it takes to win this election and deliver for the American people.
    “At a time when the stakes have never been higher, she gives us all reason to hope.”

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Martin: ​ Let the rat fuckers vote again and again! Seriously, as one who lives in Redlandia I can’t see anything but trouble with that proposal.

  41. 41.

    Martin

    I’m going to take a victory lap here as one of the people way back in maybe 2015 or maybe before talking up our great attorney general, who should run for national office some day, and backed her as a candidate for Senate, and then for President, and like, yeah, this is what I thought was possible.

  42. 42.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Martin: I saw it suggested that they are spreading out the endorsements to keep it in the news cycle. Rather than one big splash and forgotten ( forgotten by the press)

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    Better comedic formation of an earlier quip.

    “It was a couch, now it’s a loveseat.”
    //

  47. 47.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @NotMax:

    “It was a couch, now it’s a loveseat.”

    Don’t make this tawdry. JD didn’t fuck a couch.

    He made sweet, sweet love to it.

  52. 52.

    Jeffro

    If picturing JD Vance being dumped from the GOP ticket makes you grin…just picture what he’ll do and say AFTER that happens.

  53. 53.

    Gvg

    @lowtechcyclist: it’s a fancy way of saying Jews.

    I happen to think a non denominational transnational financial elite try’s to control this country, definitely influences it, doesn’t always get what it wants, and has multiple selfish elements that work at cross purposes. Also has some stupid short sighted members, luckily for us.

    Jews are a scapegoat boogeyman which often keep us from seeing the real picture. Curing real problems takes complicated boring regulations and enforcement with budgets for sustained periods. Plus giving up favorite mass prejudices of losers for centuries. Then what would power hungry psychopaths use to manipulate masses with?

    As long as America is the world power, others will try to influence our actions. The financial elite have just gotten to powerful compared to others and their value to society. It’s happened before here. Time to rebalance. Use the anti monopoly rules. But apparently we need court reform first because this court is stupid, shortsighted, corrupt and nuts.

  57. 57.

    TS

    From down under it is interesting that the US will now have an election cycle about the same length as the rest of the world 3-4 months. I hope you all find you enjoy it & maybe won’t spend the next 4 years campaigning but enjoy doing lots of other things & keep the campaign trail shorter

  60. 60.

    Anyway

    I think his Ds are childless sad cat people comment is getting more traction and backlash. There was already a huge gender gap – look for it to get wider.

  62. 62.

    WereBear

    To be honest, at the deepest point in their tiny stricken Grinchy hearts, MAGAs don’t want to live in a bunker and eat from the Bakker buckets.

    Do they remember 2016 or to do they remember 2020? There is apparently a fierce longing to see Trump get what’s coming to him, just a background spring but now quenching Trump’s fires.

    Some commenter a few days ago complained that the sequels are becoming comedy at this point, which is a fine arc for a good, well-managed, series. At least in Aristotelian drama terms.

    In real life, we are ALL kind of sick from this 18th iteration of Devil Clown, and while it’s been a performance of a lifetime, something to scare children with for generations to come, MAGA is starting to show signs of fatigue.

    It’s all Cheetos on the couch until THEY get sick of the uncertainty and fear and how Armageddon never seems to get here. They get tired and stay home, I hope.

  64. 64.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @Bobbo1:

    Republicans can’t fight back. Like when they all started wearing diapers to show they love the Donald even if he wears diapers, as idiotic as that was, what are they gonna do now? … Wear mini-couches around their crotches?

    “Jim Bob, look! Check out my new cod-piece. It’s shaped like a couch.”

    “Why?”

    “Well, it has to do with Trump’s VP choice, JD Vance, and this story goin’ around about… You know what? Never mind. It’s a thing, okay? And anyway, check it out, it softens the blow when I get kicked in the balls!”

  65. 65.

    Sally

    @WereBear: I quite like that – We’re not sitting on the couch, we’re fired up and ready to go. Something like that. It keeps that couch thing there, just quietly simmering away, but moves to action. Yes, I like that, I am going to use that. In casual conversation – Democrats are not just sitting on their couches. Said with wide eyed innocence.

  66. 66.

    WereBear

    @Anyway: And it showed he is afraid of Mayor Pete.

    I put more quatloos on him after that. Walz should get a Cabinet post, at least, because he won the “name that queasy feeling” contents.

    Love Andy Beshear, he’s going places. He will do great expressing Appalachian Social Identity, and a region else will get their image rehabbed for the public.

    Vance just doesn’t get how repellent he comes off, I used to think, but now I realize he just doesn’t care, either.

    It is told that is takes a psychopath to fool a psychopath, but at that level, they also awaken our own Dark Brandon instincts.

  70. 70.

    WereBear

    Dagnab, my next video will have to be near an dis-assembled couch in our lobby, because I write on a lap desk from a mattress in my studio, and we are in the midst of revamping the whole living space since our stove needs to be replaced.

    This couch thing is so much fun. It taps into that bully comeuppance we all long for.

    I got to use a honed line the other day, when someone made a neutral kind of comment, in itself a bit of an advance, and I grinned and said, “It reminds me of Goldwater.” Low voice, bit of lean in, “In your guts you know he’s nuts.”

  71. 71.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @oldster:

    Thus is all just to say: I feel hope. And I’ll be sick with anxiety from now through November.

    I was all Stick with Joe, All the Way, but, I gotta admit, the Harris ascension has cut my anxiety in half.

    I mean, the anxiety is still pushing my blood pressure up about 25 points, but only every other day now instead of every day before.

  72. 72.

    Mousebumples

    I was talking with a Libertarian leaning friend last night (*note – she’s been a solid never Trump voter, but freedom stuff resonates with her), and she called Biden ➡️Harris the “plot twist America needed.”

    She was on Team Biden, but she’s in her late 20s/early 30s and is anxious/excited to vote for Harris. Though she said she just wanted it to be Final (eg officially nominated), and I tried to assure her that it’s locked up but…

    BTW, she has more gun/shooting range experience than I do, and she agreed that Trump didn’t get “grazed” by a bullet. That ammo (apparently) gets super hot when fired at car distance, so even if he was “grazed” with a minor injury, there would be burns on his ear.

  76. 76.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @Sally:

    I quite like that – We’re not sitting on the couch …

    At least not until they get thing steam-cleaned.

  78. 78.

    MagdaInBlack

    @WereBear: I don’t normally buy campaign merch, but I am totally getting a “childless cat ladies for Kamala” t-shirt.

    Because, I am one 🤗

  79. 79.

    sixthdoctor

    @Mai Naem mobile: Kamala’s last line in that video:

    ”And we’re going to have some fun, right?”

    That’s what this last week has been, watching Republicans melt down, jokes about furniture, etc. Fun.

    And I hope Joe, after that beautiful speech and the criminally under appreciated job he’s done, is watching this and having fun too.

  80. 80.

    Darkrose

    @Martin: The quote from Vance includes this:

    “When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power, you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic, than people who don’t have kids.”

    Sorry, but as someone who doesn’t have kids, this is complete bullshit, and the Democratic party absolutely should not be signing onto this.

  82. 82.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Martin:

    people seem less burdened, they’re more upbeat, telling more upbeat stories, stuff like that.

    It’s escape from abuse.  The abuser has been the national press this time.  When Harris took over from Biden the relief I felt simply knowing I wasn’t going to have to listen to another week of constant cable news discussions of when he’ll drop out was palpable.

  83. 83.

    MagdaInBlack

    @sixthdoctor: It’s a whole new positive energy. People needed this. The last 8 years of the trump freak-show doom and gloom and chaos have worn us out.

  85. 85.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @oldster: ​
     

    Hang in there. You’ve just dredged up the memories I had in 1980, 2000 and 2016, all equally crappy albeit in different ways.

    I’m less concerned about how we operated as a party and campaign(s) in 80/00 then in 2016, mainly cuz of swing states and the sea change in communication/propaganda ability.

    Regarding the material AL has in the post, that’s why one stays on twitter, it’s still built for that.

  87. 87.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    clap Jeb! D Vance

    Hah!  Hadn’t seen that one yet.  Another one that’ll I’ll reuse to death.

    Cleeks Law, ni-*CLANG* and now this.

  90. 90.

    Liminal Owl

    @Martin: Good for you! (Not sarcastic.) I wasn’t yet reading this blog in 2016. By 2020 I was certainly pro-Harris, though as second choice after Elizabeth Warren because I didn’t think America would elect a Black woman. (I was far from sure about a white woman but did think she’d have a better chance.). I will be so very glad to be proven wrong this year.

    Can’t remember where I saw this, but there was a nice fact-based rebuttal to the “imprisoned thousands of young Black men” meme that I’m seeing from the Horseshoe Left and their impersonators. Takeaway was that the total number of young Black men in whose cannabis-related sentencing Harris was involved was 45. Just FYI.

  91. 91.

    different-church-lady

    @Martin:

    Ok, I don’t know why people didn’t think this was obviously coming.

    Oh, I don’t know, could it possibly be because people SPENT AN ENTIRE FUCKIN’ WEEK WHISPERING “why hasn’t he done it already he’s not going to do it is he?” RUMORS ON THE INTERNET?!?

  92. 92.

    Hoodie

    @Darkrose: Agree, it’s a terrible idea. The fact that Vance puts forth juvenile ideas like this kind of dovetails with the couch fucker meme. They both suggest an ill-formed sense of self that you’d encounter in an early adolescent. For example, the child based voting idea belies an inability to respect the choices of other adults. That kind of cluelessness is harmless in a teenager but disturbing in a grown ass man.

  93. 93.

    Kay

    Had a little get together in MI for the “white women” call for Harris. Lots of issues with Zoom – apparently it was the largest Zoom call ever with 140k women and the call kept dropping but it got smoother as it went on.

    High point for me was Elissa Slotkin (D senate candidate in MI) because she spoke directly to people who might be newer to politics or in a conservative area in a really kind and welcoming way without some of the kind of “insider speak” that liberals sometimes use which can be off putting to new people. She’s very plain spoken. High point for the rest of the group was Glennon Doyle – she’s an author and former “mommy blogger” who is now a liberal activist. They just loved her.

    I have never been on a political call like this – it’s difficult to describe what was different about it. I’ll have to think about it.

  96. 96.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Martin: Remember when Choire Sicha wrote that long article about how people needed to give up the stupid hope that Barack Obama would ever support same-sex marriage, and then he announced it the day after the article came out?

    (maybe it was 2 days after, I forget)

  99. 99.

    raven

    @Kay: My wife was on it about an hour. She thought the excitement was there but a bit heavy on money pleas but liked the excitement but.

  100. 100.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Martin: Maybe that works on a national scale, but I wouldn’t like to live in a small town where this means the Christian fundamentalists with 10 homeschooled kids get 10 extra votes.

  101. 101.

    sab

    @Darkrose: As someone who doesn’t have kids but does have stepkids, I agree with you.

    Also too I used to do divorce law and now I do taxes. I can imagine the battles of divorced parents over who gets the little ones’ extra votes.

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @raven:

    Agree on the money pitch. I think it was annoying if you gave at the start of the call (as our group did) and then had to listen to the money pitch over and over. I actually muted the DNC chair after 5 minutes – we used her overly long segment as break time :)

    Mallory McMorrow (MI senate) was interesting – not what I expected – she is one tough cookie.

  103. 103.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Hoodie: I actually have seen leftists pitch the “parents get proxy votes for their children” idea. The number of children who get the fuck away from their abusive parents the instant they can is enough to make me think it’s not democratic.

    I suspect Vance’s preferred version would only have blood descent counting, too.

  104. 104.

    NotMax

    @sab

    “What’cha doing’, honey?”

    “Filling out this mail-in ballot. How many Gs in Wiggles?”

  105. 105.

    Ken

    @TS: From down under it is interesting that the US will now have an election cycle about the same length as the rest of the world 3-4 months. I hope you all find you enjoy it & maybe won’t spend the next 4 years campaigning

    I’d love it, and think 95%+ of the country would as well. But it’s one of the most reliable sources of media income, so we’re doomed to have these long cycles.

  106. 106.

    Spanish Moss

    @Martin: Because the principle of “one person, one vote” is important, and the ends don’t justify the means. Parents of minors are not more important or wiser than other people. This would be unfair in the same way that the electoral college is unfair.

  107. 107.

    Ken

    @sab: Also too I used to do divorce law and now I do taxes. I can imagine the battles of divorced parents over who gets the little ones’ extra votes.

    I haven’t heard much about the Alabama IVF ruling since it dropped. Maybe it will make the news next tax season, as people try to claim thirty or forty dependents.

  108. 108.

    Chris Johnson

    @Mousebumples: That’s underselling it, and yes that’s a serious thing to make up stuff about, among the gun crowd.

    I’m a Vermonter so I’ve always had gun nut friends (they end up in the recovery community just as much as anybody else), and I’ve also seen my share of Mythbusters (who love gun myths) and even a bit of Slow Mo Guys (who try to DO things on high-speed camera with guns, fairly often)

    The narrative here is impossible. If a high-velocity round, whether it tumbles like an AR15 round or not, strikes something like an ear, the transfer of energy turns whatever it hit into more projectiles. In this case, a spray of blood and ear that is itself violent enough to do more damage.

    Even the tiniest graze will do this, cause sort of a splatter. A ‘hole’ or ‘through’ or anything remotely like that? There won’t be an ear there.

    Compare with footage of a high velocity round hitting a watermelon. Mythbusters tested the myth that no matter how powerful your rifle you cannot fire through ten watermelons. I think their best try got through about three or four watermelons. When I say ‘through’ I mean there were no watermelons left from the first ones, because they exploded violently, because water (or blood) is incompressible so you don’t get a ‘hole’, the watermelon explodes.

    A graze won’t cause a cut, it will cause a progressively smaller explosion. It seems more like Trump had a cut, either from himself or from ‘flying glass from a teleprompter’ which they really should have stuck with even though you can see all prompters have intact silhouettes.

    That is assuming Trump DID have even a cut, because the alternative to ‘a cut, and an exceptionally good healing up from said wound’ is that there wasn’t even a cut, and I’m not prepared to assume anybody can go that far. To cut would be so easy, and wrestlers know how, and he had Hulk Hogan speak at the convention.

  109. 109.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Martin: I’m watching an argument being made against JD Vances proposal to give children a vote that their parents can cast on their behalf, and I have no idea why liberals would oppose thi

    Put the proposal in the context of Project 2025: How long before it’s the husband doing the same for their wives, and adult children?

  110. 110.

    Trivia Man

    @Wallis Lane: It is funny and thats why it has legs. Just like your comment- a single word dropped in just right can make people laugh.

    I know it’s not true and i have given the origin to people who ask. But almost nobody is SAYING the story now. But like the chestnut “thats what she said” a term “like JD’s couch” or anything with couch/ sofa/ davenport/ sectional/ ottoman… can be used as a punchline.

  111. 111.

    Llelldorin

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Given that his first instinct on finding out that Biden was stepping down was to blame it on Obama and George Soros…

    Yeah, it’s absolutely a fancy way of saying Jews.

    He’d better hope we all keep calling him a couch fucker, because “obvious Nazi” is honestly running a close second right now.

  112. 112.

    Chris Johnson

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Surely not adult MALE children.

    As for ‘get one vote for each minor child and a vote for your wife while she stays at home’, that’s very definitely what these people are escalating to, but I’m certain they would also settle for ‘take vote away from women’ just as they went for ‘take choice about pregnancy away from women’.

    They seem good at taking stuff away from their flesh-vessels, and as a man I really, really, REALLY want to kick them in the junk.

  113. 113.

    Trivia Man

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: And i am guessing he has very specific plans for non trad families. Gay people? Their kids dont count. Divorced? Dad gets the vote. Never married but separated and paying child support (even if you never actually send a dime)? Dad again! On food stamps or unemployment? Don’t qualify. Corporate welfare? No problem! Step right up!

  114. 114.

    Trivia Man

    @Martin: Even if it helps me (doubtful as I mentioned in another comment) i oppose the idea because its wrong.

    “Giving them a vote” but not allowing them to cast it is wrong. No different than counting slaves as residents for allocating electoral votes but not allowing them to vote. Today, prisoners count for population in the city of the prison but ate barred from voting there.

    I support lowering the voting age, maybe 15? 16? But only if it is theirs to exercise,

  115. 115.

    Trivia Man

    @p.a.: I think its like -ly. As tom lehrer’s brilliant song demonstrates, it is (word)-ly. Ill look for a clip of it, he did that and Silent E for the Electric Company.

  118. 118.

    Trivia Man

    @MagdaInBlack: With Obama i think it was to avoid the “Coronation! Stampeding the choice!” accusation. I am confident he knows what he’s doing.

  119. 119.

    Glidwrith

    @Martin: The only voting proposal I’ve seen from Vance has been couched as women having no value and therefore should not be allowed to vote, if they don’t have children. Hard pass.

  120. 120.

    Llelldorin

    @Trivia Man:

    I suspect they all did. Did you notice her rivals endorsed very early (to shut down “NO LET’S HAVE A FOOD FIGHT AT THE CONVENTION!”) and senior leadership endorsed very late (to deflect “OMG THIS IS ALL AN EVIL PLOT BY THE SENIOR DEMS”)?

    I think when all is said and done we may have “weirdly good OPSEC” to add to the Biden administration’s virtues.

  121. 121.

    Trivia Man

     

     

    @NotMax: “Used to” say? I will also add “every time that wheel goes round, bound to cover just a little more ground.”

    And leave with “All I want to know is, are you kind?”

  123. 123.

    Shalimar

    @Lacuna Synecdoche: Would be funny if someone asked him about it during his next press tour.

    “Where is the couch-fucking scene, Ron?  You could have doubled your box office if you had the free word-of-mouth for including one.”

  124. 124.

    jefft452

    “Whether it’s true or not that JD Vance fucked a couch, the fact that many people have questions regarding whether JD Vance fucked a couch should be concerning enough for him to address it.”

    It’s out there

  126. 126.

    Super Dave

    Is it irresponsible to speculate that Vance wants an extra vote for every couch you own? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

  127. 127.

    munira

    @Anyway: I have children and I don’t have a cat and the cat lady comment still offends me. Yes I think it’s getting a lot of traction.

  129. 129.

    Ksmiami

    @Kay: I think this is the first time it’s so completely obvious that the Republicans are running on a “we hate women” platform and they ain’t hiding it. As bad as Pence was, he knew how to couch his words in pseudo religious terms but Trump Vance sets women’s dark alley senses on fire.

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