Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

This fight is for everything.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

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

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

When we show up, we win.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Found liable for massive fraud, is required to post a massive bond, gets a break, then files a *fraudulent* bond!

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

People are weird.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: What A Year This Week Has Been!

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: What A Year This Week Has Been!

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Timing is everything, Rep. Mace…

Reader Interactions

230Comments

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Dark Brandon for the win. Again.

    eta: Love that KH played such a big role in this too.

  5. 5.

    E

    Bad news for me last night. My candidate lost by 200 votes. Well, it’s tough running a gay married man in semi-rural TN. Now I’m looking for work.

  6. 6.

    Scout211

    Thank you, AL. I really love your morning good news threads.  It’s such a positive way to start the day.

    This was an excellent compilation of good news, some bringing (happy) tears to my eyes.

    What a week!

  8. 8.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The internal polling in Trump campaign (which I assume Putin knows as he did in 2016) must be horrid.

    What makes only think someone as notoriously cheep as Mushroom dick is paying for polling since the internal polling is quite expensive. Bribing someone working for a Dem campaign for their data is more of Trump’s style.

  10. 10.

    PST

    Just understand, Putin must believe Trump is toast, his campaign dead, no way he would give Biden, and Kamala such a win, unless he felt Trump had no chance. The internal polling in Trump campaign (which I assume Putin knows as he did in 2016) must be horrid.

    That reads like purely wishful thinking, to me anyway. It contradicts all reporting about how confident the Trump campaign was until recently, and the exchange has been in the works too long to be attributed to a sudden realization by Putin that Trump can’t win in a post-Biden race. It also ignores reporting that Putin is treating this as a diplomatic triumph just as we are. And even though I expect Harris to win, it is objectively far from a sure thing. This is no time for dangerous overconfidence.

  13. 13.

    Dagaetch

    The fact that Biden got back a reporter, and one from an unfriendly outlet at that, is really going to make it hard for the press to find fault with this. I’m sure they’re going to try their best, but maybe their hearts won’t really be in it this time.​

  14. 14.

    Starfish

    So Blake Masters, a Peter Thiel funded candidate, lost the Republican Primary for Arizona’s 8th district to Abe Hamadeh. That man’s name made me wonder if he was Iranian, and when I went to look it up I learned that the most pro-Israel candidate to come out of the state of Arizona is the child of Syrian immigrants who grew up in Chicago. His parents were a mixed faith Druze-Muslim household. The people in Israel struck by the Hezbollah rockets were also Druze Arabs.

  15. 15.

    topclimber

    Mace knows about MIA, most recently going along with adjourning the House two days early when critical spending bills are not yet passed.

    Ace Mace strikes (out) again!

  17. 17.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    It’s strange, but Republicans, and Trump in particular, have been running on explicit racism for eight years now. And it used to feel threatening and scary. But Harris being the nominee now just makes it all look so…dumb. And weird.

    That’s because it was always dumb and weird.  Trump’s some dude who was born rich and who is jealous that some people can make enough money to pay the rent.

  18. 18.

    different-church-lady

    @OzarkHillbilly: Even if it weren’t for the prisoner exchange, the xeet is still nonsensical: Biden’s not running anymore, it makes no sense for him to overshadow Harris. Mace too dumb to realize that line of attack is now obsolete.

  19. 19.

    Another Scott

    @PST: Agreed.

    Marshall’s (downstairs) tweet that the election was (roughly) “TCFFG’s for the taking” as of a couple of weeks ago seems like a lazy, low quality, hot-take to me as well.

    These folks need to learn to take some time off to recharge, because their Twitter output is kinda sad right now.

    Everything in the world isn’t about TCFFG, no matter how much he tells everyone that it is.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  20. 20.

    Ken

    @rikyrah: And they sent that clown down to the border, yesterday.

    You’re going to have to be more specific. “Clown” could be almost anyone in the GQP.

    Admittedly this is my own fault for using Balloon Juice as my only source of news.

  21. 21.

    Scout211

    There’s a new grass roots group supporting Kanala Harris.

    Swifties for Kamala  — a grassroots group of Taylor Swift superfans working to get Harris elected — has quickly amassed a groundswell of support.

    The group got its start the same day President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, after Emerald Medrano, a 22-year-old fan from Texas, decided he and his fellow Swifties needed to jump into the action.

    I feel like us U.S. Swifties should mass organize and help campaign for Kamala Harris and spread how horrendous Project 2025 would be to help get people’s butts down to the polls in November,” Medrano wrote in a post on X that day. “Like if we don’t want democracy to end we really need to move and push blue votes.”

    Just a week and a half later, the group has a Discord server with more than 300 members and tens of thousands more followers on social media — and they’ve already heard from Harris’ campaign.

    “Having that support from the Harris campaign is really exciting and fun,” Medrano said. “I feel really honored that they acknowledge us as Swifties and what we’re doing as good.”

    Taylor Swift hasn’t endorsed anyone (yet).

    “It would obviously be great if Taylor did endorse because we’ve seen what kind of power she has to mobilize,” 25-year-old Carly Long, the group’s co-founder, told ABC News. “But I think that that’s not what we’re waiting for. We have a lot of autonomy as Swifties within our own community to empower ourselves to make action.”

  23. 23.

    sdhays

    @PST: Agreed. Assuming Putin abandoned Dump for this is foolish. If there’s any calculation at all, it’s that Germany and Slovenia would be less likely to do anything for Dumpy Dump.

  26. 26.

    Trivia Man

    @PST: Putin benefits when USA is in chaos. He would certainly like T again but keeping congress is a good consolation prize for him. And us screaming at each other, another disputed election, potential violence in the streets…   all helpful to Russia because it weakens and distracts us.

  27. 27.

    Kay

    MAGAS are turning on Kyle Rittenhouse because Rittenhouse isn’t voting for Trump. He should probably hire private security.

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    Olympics quickie.

    Do the French have a home field advantage in the javelin event because they get to use Brittany spears?
    ::rimshot::

  34. 34.

    WereBear

    Owens Fireside Chat is a YouTube channel which delves where I fear to go, which is the Q world.

    The news should still cover it, these are dangerously deluded people. Who just might heed Trump’s hysterical calls for some kind of political violence.

    They seemed to have a much higher percentage of both falling for scams and creating them.

    “Blue tie Trump is the happy clone, while red tie Trump is the real one.”

  36. 36.

    dmsilev

    @PST: Yeah. If Putin was really bailing on Trump, he has much more dramatic and definite ways of doing so. This was “I want my hitman back, for a variety of reasons”. If anything, Putin probably feels that President Trump wouldn’t have the sway with German to convince them to release his thug.

  38. 38.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: ​ He should probably hire private security.

    Nah, he’s got his trusty AR-15 at his side. What more could he possibly need?

  47. 47.

    JAFD

    With the beginning of August, Lughnasahd, and my birthday, ‘tis the beginning of a new apple season. For a couple of decades now, I’ve enlivened the winter by seeing how many different apple varieties I could eat in a year – the record is in the 40’s, set a couple of decades back, when my job took me past Reading Terminal Market a couple of times a week.

    Anyway, more or less chronologically, the record for the past year:
    Cortland
    Fiji
    Gala
    Empire
    Cripps Pink
    Honeycrisp
    Ginger Gold
    Snapdragon
    Autumn Glory
    SugarBee
    McIntosh
    Opal
    Lady Alice
    Ambrosia
    Jazz
    Lucy Rose
    Wild Twist

    (Rules are that you can include Red Delicious and Golden Delicious, even if you don’t eat them, but I haven’t here

    Saw Kanzis at Trader Joe’s once, but only in 5-bound bags, had a mile of walking ahead of me that day. Wondering what happened to Staymans and Winesaps ?

    Am aware that some of these are trade names, not actual botanical varieties, am not an expert on the subject and ‘twould be grateful for enlightenment.

    In other news, the pollen and/or wildfire smoke has been ghodawful this week. Feel like I’ve been spending half my time fishing strings of mucous out from under my eyelids.

    Have great weekend, everyone !

  49. 49.

    artem1s

    You know what? with all the Biden winning (no not tired of winning yet!) and Kamalamentum I totally forgot about the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day that is coming up on TCF’s calendar on 9/18. I was super pissed that all the JoeMustGo shit was taking attention away from the sentencing delay (and SCOTUS ratf*cking). The transition has been so weirdly (the good weird) smooth that it’s been tempting to attribute it to some 11 dimensional chess move by Joe or Kamala or Pelosi or whoever when really it’s been due to the old adage, “Luck Favors the Prepared”. And this administration and Democratic Congress and former statespeople have been, top to bottom, ultimately prepared for this moment.
    An on top of it all, lately it seems as if Karma has decided to come out of her slumber and pack 50 years of comeuppance for TCF into a couple of weeks. Even if SCOTUS decides to try to put their thumb onto the scales in the money laundering conviction, 9/18 will be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for the ticket that has Project 2025 nailed to their foreheads. And the day after the Democrats get to put their preparedness into practice as they remind the world for a week at their convention that the TCF racist and his couch fornicating, 25th in waiting VEEP intend to become god emperors for life if they get anywhere near the WH. And these terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days and preparedness opportunities are just going to keep coming from now until November.
    Oh yes, this is going to be delicious. Now and until the next sentencing date is set I will be referring to TCF not as the ‘former guy’ but as TCF-SD9/18 (the convicted felon-sentencing day 9/18).
    Don’t despair, have fun with this.

  50. 50.

    WereBear

    @NotMax: Mother lode. Goldwater country. Famous for warning the party about letting Birchers in.

    Buckley let them in, secretly, because fanatics work for nothing.

    And here we are.

    Different Trump clones can be distinguished by their ties. Reptilian chip influence. Trump Messiah. And whatever the Sam Hill Vance is.

  51. 51.

    Princess

    This is a small thing, not like bringing prisoners home from Russia, but I’ll never forget it : my kid was trapped in Peru at the start of Covid and unlike other countries, Trump’s state department was doing nothing — nothing — to contact them or get them out. There wasn’t even an ambassador. Eventually, because there was some evangelical missionary group in Peru trying to leave, they did start getting people out but it took enormous pressure. Biden’s state department would have been on the job on day one. People have no idea how much the ordinary functions of government were compromised and decayed under Trump.

  52. 52.

    Scout211

    This may already have been posted here, not sure.

    House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, R-Va., has lost his primary recount, a Virginia court certified Thursday, cementing his narrow defeat to GOP state Sen. John McGuire. 

    The recount results confirmed McGuire beat Good after McGuire initially led Good by just 374 votes in the June primary in Virginia’s 5th District.

    Good had said he would step down as chairman of the hard-right Freedom Caucus if he didn’t prevail in the recount. 
     
    The recount officially brings the race to an end, with Good becoming the first sitting House Republican to lose to a primary challenger this year. Good faced a broad coalition of GOP opposition, which included former President Donald Trump and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California.

    So GOP crazy caucus member loses to an even crazier crazy MAGA.

  56. 56.

    NotMax

    @JAFD

    No Granny Smiths?

    Hands down, best baked apples are Romes.

    Northern Spys are hard to find but sometimes can be spotted at farm markets.

  57. 57.

    BR

    Good morning. I don’t know if you all saw Harris and Biden meeting the rescued Americans last night. The moment Harris had with WSJ reporter (Evan ??) was priceless — the facial expressions, their body language, everything. Folks who are on social media should clip that and share it.

  59. 59.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Another Scott: Marshall is great and very well respected here (except when he dares to criticize Gaza protestors) but he still operates in an environment that constantly insists that Dems must be somehow doing it wrong, at all times.  So he’s not immune from some bad takes based on faulty assumptions.  The notion that this election is (or should be) an easy blow-out for either side is incredibly naive.

  61. 61.

    WereBear

    When I consider the reptilian obsession I am less surprised when I consider their two leaders are obviously not acting like functioning human beings.

    MAGA. Constantly sure something is wrong, and perpetually wrong about what.

  62. 62.

    Another Scott

    https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

    Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 114,000 in July, below the average monthly gain of 215,000 over the prior 12 months. In July, employment continued to trend up in health care, in construction, and in transportation and warehousing, while information lost jobs. (See table B-1.)

    Health care added 55,000 jobs in July, similar to the average monthly gain of 63,000 over the prior 12 months. In July, employment rose in home health care services (+22,000), hospitals (+20,000), and nursing and residential care facilities (+9,000).

    Employment continued to trend up in construction in July (+25,000), in line with the average monthly gain over the prior 12 months (+19,000). Employment in specialty trade contractors continued its upward trend in July (+19,000).

    In July, employment continued to trend up in transportation and warehousing (+14,000), with job gains in couriers and messengers (+11,000) and warehousing and storage (+11,000). These gains were partially offset by a job loss in transit and ground passenger transportation (-11,000). Transportation and warehousing has added 119,000 jobs since a recent low in January of this year.

    Employment in social assistance continued its upward trend in July (+9,000), but at a slower pace than the average monthly gain over the prior 12 months (+23,000).

    Information employment declined by 20,000 in July but has changed little over the year.

    Not a great report, but not a disaster either. IT is going through some things, not unexpectedly given the bubble from people with too much money chasing the latest fad. Most of the rest of the economy is chugging along pretty well.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  64. 64.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Two Cisgender Women, Olympic athletes (Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan) are being attacked online by Transphobes.  This is why TERFism must die.  This obsession with policing gender and the Trans Panic focussed on athletics, will inevitably harm Cisgender Women/Girls too.  Imagine working this hard, making it to the world’s biggest stage for your sport and having to put up with this bullshit.  Heartbreaking.  Guess I’ll be rooting for these two extraordinary women!

  65. 65.

    Salty Sam

    @Princess: People have no idea how much the ordinary functions of government were compromised and decayed under Trump.

    Let me explain about FEMA under Trump after Hurricane Harvey… no, it’s too much, let me summarize.  It sucked.

  66. 66.

    Eunicecycle

    @rikyrah: and the Border Patrol had one of the largest drug busts ever, arresting an American citizen at a border checkpoint.

  67. 67.

    Jeffro

    @topclimber:Mace knows about MIA, most recently going along with adjourning the House two days early when critical spending bills are not yet passed.

    maybe she has a new boyfriend who kept pulling her back into bed each morning?

    unless there was a prayer breakfast, of course

  68. 68.

    Joe Falco

    @different-church-lady: It’s not enough for them to force Biden to drop out of the race. Speaker Johnson has been using Biden’s decision as reasoning to call for Biden to leave office. Expect more of this from other elected Republicans looking to hound Biden from now until November.

  69. 69.

    Jeffro

    @TBone:we are gonna KICK SOME WEIRDO ASS this year!

    ever so slightly too long for a bumper sticker

    but would look great on a t-shirt!  =)

  70. 70.

    Jeffro

    @Scout211: I was LOLing about this in the earlier thread. =)

    I’m a proud, card-carrying member of the Fab 370 that kicked NoGood to the curb!

    (thank you Virginia for having open primaries!)

  71. 71.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Starfish: Ron Paul fandom (followed by “yes Trump is an idiot but only his chaos can smash the corrupt system”) was the gateway to all-out MAGA for one of my more peculiar former friends. I guess it can work in both directions.

  72. 72.

    Jeffro

    @Salty Sam: People have no idea how much the ordinary functions of government were compromised and decayed under Trump.

    One of the bigger/better slams that Ds could be making against Project 2025 is the sheer incompetence that would result from replacing tens of thousands of experienced civil servants with numbskull trump loyalists.

    I mean, we don’t want the federal government full of far-right loons, for sure.  But we don’t want it full of morons like trump, either.

  74. 74.

    Ken

    @WereBear: Different Trump clones can be distinguished by their ties. Reptilian chip influence. Trump Messiah. And whatever the Sam Hill Vance is.

    Vance is one of the things that should have been left in its jar, like the cloning chamber scene in Alien:Resurrection.

  75. 75.

    Bunter

    @Joe Falco: How does that make any sense? I mean, I get that sense isn’t something Rs have but why not running for reelection equates to stepping down is really (there is no other word) weird.

  78. 78.

    Ken

    @Eunicecycle: the Border Patrol had one of the largest drug busts ever, arresting an American citizen at a border checkpoint.

    Or, as Fox and Newsmax will put it, “BIDEN THUGS DETAIN AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN”.

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro: One of the bigger/better slams that Ds could be making against Project 2025 is the sheer incompetence that would result from replacing tens of thousands of experienced civil servants with numbskull trump loyalists.

    Feature, not a bug.

  82. 82.

    WereBear

    @Ken: We went too far with Misogyny Mixture, and he still can’t manage a sense of humor.

    What are you doing in the lab? Letting Trump hires take over? Haven’t I made it clear THEY get the busy boxes that look like iPads?

  83. 83.

    MomSense

    @JAFD:

    I planted Baldwin and Sweet Sixteen.  It’s going to be a while before I have apples but I’m excited to try them.

  85. 85.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott:

    Marshall’s (downstairs) tweet that the election was (roughly) “TCFFG’s for the taking” as of a couple of weeks ago seems like a lazy, low quality, hot-take to me as well.

    Yes, that jumped right out at me, as well, and I was both disappointed in him, and offended by the sentiment.

  89. 89.

    Ken

    @lowtechcyclist: Do you ever wonder if there’s someone on Trump’s staff with the hideous and impossible job of trying to keep him connected with reality?  “But sir, you are a felon.”

  90. 90.

    Matt McIrvin

    @artem1s: That we’re no longer anxiously hanging on the criminal justice system to deal with Trump for us is a good sign.

    (It also might make good outcomes from the criminal justice system more likely–we all know it’s not independent from politics. I keep thinking about Bret Deveraux’s observation from history that court cases generally won’t get rid of a political problem if the political will isn’t there.)

  91. 91.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ken: ​ No but I’m pretty sure they have someone on staff to change his diaper. Also to carry his security blanket and binkie.

  93. 93.

    Jeffro

    Jamie fucking Dimon has one heck of an irritating op-ed up in the WaPo.  He graced us with what he feels the country needs from its next president.  THANK YOU, Jamie, so helpful – NOT.

    3 things that Biden/Harris are already doing

    1 thing that the GOP is blocking at every turn.

    and OF COURSE

    1 call for a blessed “team of rivals” (aka, put people from the opposite party and people from the business world in the Cabinet).  HELL NO

  95. 95.

    Baud

    @Jeffro:

    1 call for a blessed “team of rivals” (aka, put people from the opposite party and people from the business world in the Cabinet).

    Oh, nice. He thinks Dems are going to win!

  98. 98.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Matt McIrvin: No one should have expected that the courts would save us.  The legal system moves at its own pace, one that is not necessarily in line with our political needs.  I continue to believe that Trump will be found guilty in these case, but it has always been on us to save ourselves.

  100. 100.

    WereBear

    I’m starting to think that the true purpose of all that small group focus in my education was misplaced.

    Because it’s pointless to learn how to get along with them when they shouldn’t be here.

    They contribute nothing, they whine the entire time, and then try to take all the credit.

  101. 101.

    Bupalos

    I don’t know what David Doak’s Russia expertise is, and I won’t say you never see this kind of thing from folks with some Russia exposure…  but in general this kind statement is an example of how American navel-gazing and tunnel vision can completely blind us to the complex reality of Putin’s situation. He isn’t sitting over there comfortable, invulnerable, and shirtless on his horse, all-knowing and all-seeing and solely focussed on the American election. He doesn’t know the outcome of that election, and he isn’t shaping his every move with the idea that he can create that outcome. He has vital interests in that election but doesn’t think of it in anything like the way we talk about it. Yes he definitely might give an American news cycle “win” to Biden in exchange for something that advances his own interests, the only way one ends up not even being able to process that idea is if one has no idea that Putin has interests outside the American election.

    A year ago he had the warlord that he fostered marching through Russia with a detachment of Russians to come shake him by the ears, while the population laughed and clapped, and the apparatus he commands had a very ambiguous response when he tried to pull levers to stop it. He’s in a grinding war that appears to have no achievable political or strategic goal, that is now biting more deeply into Russian finances and Russian society. The population isn’t really that interested in switching on a dime from a desensitized, demoralized, depoliticized blob into the rabid fascists he now needs. The guy has some other things to think about.

  103. 103.

    lowtechcyclist

    @WaterGirl:

    Yes, that jumped right out at me, as well, and I was both disappointed in him, and offended by the sentiment.

    The key phrase in that tweet is “he [Trump] realizes.” This is about how Trump would have perceived things, then and now.

  105. 105.

    rikyrah

    BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) posted at 11:53 PM on Thu, Aug 01, 2024:

    It needs to be acknowledged that, despite his undeniable heavy involvement in getting concessions from foreign partners to secure the release of American hostages from Russia, President Biden DID NOT make it about himself.

    He even gave Paul Whelan a pin from his lapel, quietly pinned it to him. Didn’t even mention it in the press briefing.

    Think about it: NOT ONCE, in either press briefing he attended today, not once did you hear him say “They couldn’t have done it without me. I’m so great. Nobody said it could be done, But I did it.” That’s a trumpian soundbite.

    You know the convicted felon would have made sure everyone knew how important he was, because that’s what that selfish buzzard does.

    Instead, Joe Biden talked about families.
    He talked about relationships.
    He touted the importance of our allies.
    He talked about America.

    THAT Is how a President is supposed to sound.

    Democrat or Republican, that is ALWAYS how Presidents have sounded my entire life. The standard has always been “the buck stops here,” not “I take no responsibility.”

    It’s always been “us” and “we,” not “ME, ME, ME.”

    Joe Biden is selfless.
    Don Old trump is selfish.

    The difference between the two is EVERYTHING. Make sure you remember in Roevember.

     https://t.co/PkwFDGsq8w
    (https://x.com/mmpadellan/status/1819235096165003368?t=YvpgnXwpxj9fMEY6t4HWMw&s=03)

  110. 110.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Ken:

    Do you ever wonder if there’s someone on Trump’s staff with the hideous and impossible job of trying to keep him connected with reality?  “But sir, you are a felon.”

    That would mean Trump had staffers with a solid grip on reality.  So I don’t think so.

  114. 114.

    different-church-lady

    @rikyrah: ​Silly rabbit, you just haven’t adjusted to our new post-virtue world. Selflessness is for suckers, fuck you is the coin of the realm.

  115. 115.

    WereBear

    Nothing demonstrates the air-headedness inherent in their system more than the way none of their conspiracy theories mesh with each other, and yet all are simultaneously true.

  116. 116.

    Geminid

    @Scout211: Bob Good became of 3 Republicans to knock out their party’s incumbent in 2020, when Denver Riggleman lost to him in a district convention. Lauren Boebert was one of the two others.

    Good was my Congressman from 2020 to 2022. I’d had 6th CD Bob Goodlatte and Ben Cline before that. They were pretty bad, but Goodlatte was much worse; a nasty man who makes my skin crawl.

    Good still lost by only 374 votes, which tells me he could have fended John McGuire off if he had put more more work into courting his constituents the last 6 years. But Good thought his seat was safe so he concentrated on Republican House politics instead. A lazy bum.

  117. 117.

    different-church-lady

    @WereBear: It’s Orwell again: erase the possibility of objective truth, and be able to hold multiple conflicting thoughts in your head as long as the state tells you to.

  118. 118.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    Good still lost by only 374 votes, which tells me he could have held John McGuire off if he had put more more work into courting his constituents the last 6 years. But Good thought his seat was safe so he concentrated on Republican House politics instead. A lazy bum.

    And now you can tell him GoodBye and Good Riddance.

  119. 119.

    Bupalos

    @Omnes Omnibus: “The American public thinking Joe Biden is old was the product of a media conspiracy” is a jarring reminder that the “both sides” backlash may have gone a little too far.

  121. 121.

    BR

    I have a weird gut sense that Harris is going to pick Kelly. He’s boring but will shore up support in Arizona, which seems to be the weakest of the swing states for her so far.

  122. 122.

    Mike E

    @rikyrah: did you watch Lester Holt’s broadcast last night? They did a segment on Turd’s NABJ disaster and subsequent campaign damage control attempts. But, of course, NBC gave JD Vantz the last word with him lying about how the southern border “invasion” is all MVP’s fault … the MSM are both-sidesing the fcuk out of this, per usual.

  125. 125.

    narya

    I am so very tired of Dems being told to put some Rs (or “businesspeople”) in their administrations; to quote EF Goldman, Fuck’em. I mean, seriously, why would you entrust someone who OPPOSES you to carry out your administration’s policies?

    Also: as many others have noted above, Joe deflecting praise and calling out the other partners in this massive deal is so Joe.

  127. 127.

    tam1MI

    @rikyrah: While certain slimy asshole so-called “Democrats” were sticking their face in front of every camera they could to backstab him, Joe Biden was finalizing the deal to bring Americans home.

    Let that sink in.

  128. 128.

    WereBear

    @different-church-lady: I think fundamentalist religions train you in all these impossible mental tasks.

    So all Trump had to do was come along, and replace their programming.

    Hardcore Catholics. Rabid Evangelicals. Together again in woman hating.

    Because everything they think about women is wrong.

    Then they blame us for not being something that only exists in their mind.

  129. 129.

    rikyrah

    Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) posted at 7:32 AM on Fri, Aug 02, 2024:
    Trump’s attack on “Border Czar” Kamala is not just false, it’s also stupid. It shows that Trump/MAGA have contempt for the very idea of addressing root causes of migrations.

    Crucial to remember: Trump canceled aid to the Northern Triangle as president.

    https://t.co/ZbNUAebF6O https://t.co/wig44g2hq1
    (https://x.com/GregTSargent/status/1819350508475175361?t=ryYzqyJXjfk5bOxC83TyfQ&s=03)

  130. 130.

    Bupalos

    @Omnes Omnibus: There’s no more “grass touch” issue for me than us not turning into inverted reflections of the decayed Republican party. Their gateway drug was “nothing is real, it’s all just creations of the liberal media conspiracy.” It’s how they got from banker’s suits to Jewish space lasers in record time. There’s a large segment of Democrats that are somewhere between curious about and envious of this Republican superpower.

    The media is largely composed of hyenas. They aren’t conspiracy hyenas, they’re just hyenas.

  131. 131.

    lowtechcyclist

    @narya:

    I am so very tired of Dems being told to put some Rs (or “businesspeople”) in their administrations; to quote EF Goldman, Fuck’em. I mean, seriously, why would you entrust someone who OPPOSES you to carry out your administration’s policies?

    Even if we added a businessperson to a Dem Administration who was 100% for all the things that Dems largely favor, that person just wouldn’t be used to how government works. It’s a very different world from the private sector.

  134. 134.

    Trivia Man

    I like the Don Old trend. Maybe i’m just an old who recognizes slang from the past but i wonder if “old man Trump” could resonate. Once upon a time that was a standard, neutral way to identify someone.
    At the least the Don Old is easy, simple, and true.

  136. 136.

    rikyrah

    Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) posted at 4:15 AM on Fri, Aug 02, 2024:
    BREAKING:

    The Harris campaign says it raised $310 million in July — the best fundraising month in presidential history and more than double what Trump raised ($137 million).

    Team Harris is reporting $377 million in cash on hand — the largest ever war chest at this point in the cycle.

    The campaign says it has already raised over $1 billion this cycle, the fastest a presidential campaign has crossed the $1 billion threshold.
    (https://x.com/kylegriffin1/status/1819301026446356621?t=90gVl3WRfdONIRi_p2fJzw&s=03)

  137. 137.

    lowtechcyclist

    @rikyrah:

    Crucial to remember: Trump canceled aid to the Northern Triangle as president.

    Even at the link, I didn’t see an explanation of what the Northern Triangle was.  Can you alleviate my ignorance?

  143. 143.

    different-church-lady

    @M31:

    I suppose
    Old Man Trump knows
    Just how much
    Racial Hate
    He stirred up
    In the bloodpot of human hearts
    When he drawed
    That color line
    Here at his Beach Haven family project

  145. 145.

    Belafon

    @UncleEbeneezer: Two facts in the Algerian case:

    1. Transgender is illegal in Algeria.
    2. The Italian boxer beat the Algerian in 2022.

    I’m lousy with names. I’m lucky to have remembered the countries.

  147. 147.

    different-church-lady

    @Bupalos:

    The media is largely composed of hyenas. They aren’t conspiracy hyenas, they’re just hyenas.

    Well now you’re making some kind of sense.

  150. 150.

    TBone

    I just found Dem events in my town hosted by PA Victory using the nifty map at the link (courtesy of wonkette).

    I don’t know if this has been posted already but it is so convenient to use I’m shouting it out

    https://events.democrats.org/

  153. 153.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly:No but I’m pretty sure they have someone on staff to change his diaper. Also to carry his security blanket and binkie.

    It’s a security printer, and the staff prints articles that say nice thing about him. We found that out during the trial.

  154. 154.

    Baud

    Re: FBI, Christopher Wray’s 10-year term expires in 2027, so the next president will appoint the replacment.

  156. 156.

    Belafon

    Someone needs to do a political cartoon where there’s a hole in Harris’s family tree where the slave ancestor was and declare her a miracle birth.

  157. 157.

    Trivia Man

    @Baud: Yes, all the appointed positions. To feed the narrative that “only republicans understand law and order.”

  158. 158.

    Suzanne

    @different-church-lady: I think of the media more like squirrels than anything else. Chasing dramatic, heart-stopping, action-packed narrative at any cost. Will attempt to create it if there isn’t a constant supply provided by pesky reality. Easily distractable.

  161. 161.

    SatanicPanic

    @different-church-lady: I mean sure maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think we can look around to the race as it stands today- Kamala Harrismania- vs. two weeks ago and say the overall vote count hasn’t changed. And pretty much everyone agrees it’s tight now so the only reasonable answer is we were losing before.

  162. 162.

    Matt McIrvin

    @UncleEbeneezer: The pattern of claiming with zero evidence that all sorts of people are secretly trans (particularly women in sports who they think are too butch-looking, and who may or may not have some kind of unusual developmental condition) has been going on for a while. Gender policing has huge splash damage beyond just trans people.

  163. 163.

    sdhays

    @artem1s: It seems viewership numbers were down for the RNC compared to 2020, except for the felon’s speech, which was up 7%.

    I expect the DNC numbers will be higher. Another thing for Dumpy to seethe about.

  164. 164.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ken: ​ One does not eliminate the possibility of the others. Also I thought of another: A dedicated wall washer to remove those stubborn ketchup stains.

  166. 166.

    different-church-lady

    @SatanicPanic: We were clearly losing, and trends were going in a very very wrong direction, but that doesn’t mean Trump had a lead-pipe cinch on the thing.

    Now, don’t get me wrong, I had nearly no faith that Biden was going to pull us out of the tailspin, but Trump did (and still does) have plenty of time to make huge mistakes.

  167. 167.

    different-church-lady

    @Matt McIrvin: cis female boxers are secretly men, but gay men are just pretending to be gay… I’m pretty sure the only strategy going on here is “Just say weird, inflammatory shit all the time.”

  168. 168.

    MomSense

    @SatanicPanic:

    When Biden was finally presented with the polling data he agreed and stepped aside.  And this is the crux of the matter, if you were rejecting the polls and decided to blame the media and panicked Dems, then what just happened looks completely different.

  171. 171.

    Captain C

    @Ken:

    Or, as Fox and Newsmax will put it, “BIDEN THUGS DETAIN AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN”

    Hopefully followed by a hot mike of their announcers complaining that this will raise the price of their party drugs.

  172. 172.

    Ken

    @Jeffro: 1 call for a blessed “team of rivals”

    “Truly remarkable bipartisanship, Tom, as President Harris appoints a cabinet composed entirely of Republican members of congress. This is unprecedented, and –”

    “Sorry to interrupt, Bill, but you’ve given me a great segue to another unprecedented event.  President Harris has dismissed her entire cabinet. This leaves the Republicans in an awkward position, as they’re down by ten Representatives until the next election.”

  173. 173.

    Dave

    @different-church-lady: Maybe 1/3rd of the people pushing that crap know that another 1/3rd were just always ridiculously gullible stumps rolling down the hill of life, the grifters basically view it as a moral imperative to grift those poor souls, and another 1/3rd started in category one but played themselves into category two.

    It has to be exhausting and if you listen to them trans people must make up at least 50% of the population and lord knows what’s going on with peoples sexual identity; apparently everyone is lying.

  174. 174.

    brantl

    @SatanicPanic: You’re persistently overlooking the margin or error, and willfully so, as far as I can tell. Keep salving your conscience with that crap.

  175. 175.

    SatanicPanic

    @different-church-lady: sure there could have been some black swan event, but that’s getting a little nitpicky you know? I agree with Josh that given what we knew it was basically in the bag.

    I think in the end we’ll find that Harris taking over actually was that thing that changed the race.

  176. 176.

    zhena gogolia

    @brantl: But the vibe is different!

    All kidding aside, I’m praying that they are right, as they are so sure they are.

  177. 177.

    Captain C

    @Jeffro:

    Jamie fucking Dimon has one heck of an irritating op-ed up in the WaPo.

    I’ll take his policy prescriptions seriously when he writes an op-ed which states that people like him should be giving up 90% of their net worth (and he’s going to do so as soon as he finishes writing the editorial) or otherwise sent to the guillotine.

  179. 179.

    catclub

    @WereBear:  Michael Lewis had a book out around the middle of 2017  called “the Fifth Risk”

    It was about all the things the government does that you don’t really know about, and how Trump fucked up the transition when he had won the election.

     

    … They never tell you what the Fifth risk was, it is too scary.

  180. 180.

    SatanicPanic

     

    @brantl: don’t need em, we’re winning now

    Edit- margin of error is doing a ton of work. We were stretching before, and sometimes outside of the margin of error. Now we’re comfortably tied.

  181. 181.

    Dave

    @SatanicPanic: There is a reason there was a palpable sense of dread (a lot of people had to step away for their own mental health) even if you thought Biden was being railroaded; he was enroute to lose and possibly badly despite the fact he absolutely deserved to win.

    Assuming Harris does win, and hopefully big with all the coat tails, then this is the best outcome for all of us including Joe Biden who will receive nothing but praise for how he handled a very hard decision.

  182. 182.

    KatKapCC

    I sadly stumbled upon a tweet from a Republican group with the video of Harris talking about understanding the power of diplomacy, and they typed out her quote and were like “what the hell does this mean it doesn’t make any sense she’s so stupid this is nonsense” blah blah blah. And all the replies were the same, “she’s an idiot, she can’t speak, this is word salad” and on and on. And I was like…wow, very brave of them to tell the internet how stupid they are, because a person with a functioning brain can absolutely understand what she was saying and would have no problem with how she worded it. I guess their tiny little gerbil brains just can’t handle anything beyond “person man woman camera tv”.

  184. 184.

    catclub

    That statement by Dark Brandon was great. My addition is:
    “Trump says a lot of things. Why didn’t he do it when he was in office.?”

  186. 186.

    Martin

    Today’s deal included the release of seven Russian political prisoners. They stood up for democracy and their own leaders threw them in prison.

    Democrats are so committed to flooding our borders with illegal immigrants, they’re making deals to break them out of foreign prisons and fly them here on private jets.

    Wait for it.

  187. 187.

    Dave

    @brantl: Well I think what Boebert has going for her is that she is authentically a mess (and to be fair inappropriate and uncomfortable horny divorcee energy is probably the most relatable thing about her).

    Whereas Mace reads as basically living in and benefitting from the cultural norms that her party wants to destroy. And has an almost Ted Cruz vibe of inauthentic striving. Though not quite as off-putting because it’s not easy to match that energy.

  190. 190.

    SatanicPanic

     

    @different-church-lady: I don’t understand what you’re trying to say here. I think we’re winning, but if you think we’re not, then why argue that we weren’t losing before? At best you’re claiming we moved from losing to being in a tie. Which is fine. That doesn’t conflict with what Marshall said before.

  193. 193.

    Martin

    @SatanicPanic: So, we have a still have a problem where we’re not allowed to objectively evaluate the Biden campaign to learn lessons from it. Eventually we’ll be able to.

  194. 194.

    Suzanne

    @brantl:

    Keep salving your conscience with that crap. 

    Why is this an issue of conscience? This is a mindset to which I just don’t relate.

  195. 195.

    different-church-lady

    @SatanicPanic: Electoral-vote-wise we’re losing less than we were before, but things are trending in the right direction.

    But the bigger point is: as of the moment nothing is certain.

  196. 196.

    Dave

    @Suzanne: I don’t get it either.  I like Biden and was wary of changing because I was worried it would turn into an even worse feeding frenzy (super happy I was too have not been the case) but I would throw any politician to the wolves if it actually meant better outcomes for society.

    It’s not personal and in this case thrown to the wolves means retire comfortably not literally thrown to the wolves; understand not being happy about it or the necessity but it’s not about my warm fuzzies.

  197. 197.

    Ken

    @WereBear: Private and public sector actually have opposite goals.

    Public sector: “We should work to make sure this country is still around in 200 years.”

    Private sector: “If I juggle the books this quarter, I can get a fat bonus and bail out before the whole thing collapses later this year.”

  198. 198.

    SatanicPanic

    @Suzanne: I respect and admire Joe Biden. But I don’t feel bad about wanting an outcome that to me seemed much more likely to avoiding a Trump dictatorship.

  199. 199.

    Ken

    @Ken: Writing “around in 200 years” made me think of yet another important reason to elect Harris — 2026 will be the 250th anniversary of the Declaration, and there’s no way I want Trump in office for that.

  200. 200.

    SatanicPanic

    @Dave: yeah exactly. Biden not getting a second term really isn’t the end of the world for him. He’ll be fine. He’s done so much more and gotten so many more accolades than most of us can imagine.

  202. 202.

    Suzanne

    @Dave: I concur.

    And I recognize that much of what has happened is really a vibe shift…. but vibes matter. A lot. They influence how people make a lot of important decisions. I often say at work, “It doesn’t matter how I feel about it,” and I keep thinking that here, too.

  203. 203.

    Matt McIrvin

    @brantl: If you compare margins in a bunch of polls to the margin of error, it both overestimates and underestimates the error you can expect in different ways. It’s a measure of the uncertainty arising entirely from random sampling error, assuming no other biases, and is purely a function of the sample size.

    You could effectively reduce it simply by aggregating many poll results, assuming they’re sampling from the same distribution. That’s the fundamental insight of poll aggregators like Nate Silver and Sam Wang. If you’ve got a large number of polls with an MoE of 3 points but when you average them you’re down by 2 points, that might not be within the MoE of the aggregate of all of them.

    On the other hand, MoE says nothing at all about systematic bias. 2016 was a stark reminder of that. Turnout models for polls in the Great Lakes region, based on previous election cycles, were consistently wrong in a direction that favored Hillary Clinton, so their results did not reflect Trump’s actual lead there.

    So I’d say that if a whole lot of polls were showing a candidate behind within the MoE, it doesn’t mean that candidate was definitely losing but the reason actually has nothing to do with the MoE. It’s that there could simply be some systematic error. But just as with random error, you don’t know whether the systematic error is in your favor or not. Things could just as easily be worse.

    That’s especially true if it’s a likely-voter result, but most of the polls haven’t switched over to LV screens yet.

  204. 204.

    TerryC

    @MomSense: I started learning to graft* three years ago and have more successes each year. So far I’ve done cherry onto wild plum, domestic apple varieties onto volunteer crabapples (one tree has 6 varieties on it), and domestic pear onto Callery pear (wild, invasive Bradford Pear).

    In a few more years I will be able to go out and pick one of many varieties. Too bad I don’t label things well and I will be guessing at what is what.

    I’ve only done spring grafting and am about to try summer bud grafting this week.

  205. 205.

    Ken

    @Trivia Man: My biggest concern with joe resigning for any reason is it puts pastor mike that much closer to the seat

    It’s possible that pastor Mike thinks he’d be in the seat. The Republicans seem a bit hazy on, well, all aspects of government, but were caught particularly flat-footed by the idea that the vice-president takes over for the president.

  206. 206.

    Soprano2

    @Eunicecycle: This is one thing that drives me nuts, reporters know that most of the fentanyl that comes into this country comes in through people who are U.S. citizens, yet they sometimes repeat the Republican attacks uncritically or let Republicans say it without any pushback.

  207. 207.

    artem1s

    @Ken: 

    Do you ever wonder if there’s someone on Trump’s staff with the hideous and impossible job of trying to keep him connected with reality? “But sir, you are a felon.”

    Sir, (with tears in his eyes) this is an Arby’s drivethrough!?

  211. 211.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Soprano2:  Come on, he was in the navy.  There’s even a Village People song about being in the navy.  I mean, how gay is that?

  212. 212.

    MomSense

    @TerryC:

    Thats so cool!  The person who owns Portersfield Cider teamed up with the Maine Heritage Orchard and they have been saving so many wonderful varieties of apples.  I hope to volunteer again next year at the orchard since it is much closer to where I live now and hopefully we will be enjoying life after the election.

    I also planted two Cresthaven Peach trees.  I’ve never tried growing peaches so I’m looking forward to this new challenge.

    They teach grafting courses at the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers farm in Unity.  Someday I would like to try it.

  214. 214.

    Bupalos

    @Omnes Omnibus: Maybe it’s “kidding on the square?” It’s the most prevalent sentiment among the folks that wanted to keep Biden, and is still being raised every day here.  His age was not a “real” issue that “real” people cared about, but one that the media simply hammered away at month after month and year after year until it became meta-real by brainwashing the masses. “They” got their scalp. And They did that because They hate Biden and want Donald Trump to win.

    In similar conspiratorial thinking, the movement to replace Biden (despite pretty clearly involving to various degrees the entire leadership of the party, the vast majority of members, and a lot of activists and donors and being supported by a likely majority of voters) was turned into a kind of treasonous revolt of a few shadowy mega donors, backstabbing politicians, and quislings, working a nefarious plan behind the scenes to sell us out, create chaos, and guarantee Trump would win. And the good outcome that we see was the genius of Biden turning the tables on them all at the last minute and foiling their wicked plan with a secret plan of his own.

  216. 216.

    Soprano2

    That video of all of them talking to their loved ones in the Oval Office – it made me tear up a little bit. To think that their loved one’s ordeal is finally over, or at least that part is over, must have been an amazing feeling.

  217. 217.

    Soprano2

    @lowtechcyclist: Boy that’s the truth, I’ve seen it happen here when someone who has been in the private sector comes in and is amazed that you can’t just do whatever you want, because there are rules and things you have to follow. You can’t just up and fire someone one day because you’re upset with them, you have to document things and follow the protocol, and sometimes you have to deal with the union too, these are all things they aren’t used to having to think about. Then there’s the idea that you don’t have to make a profit. Don’t get me wrong, some of the private sector thinking can be useful especially when it comes to not wasting money and time, but a lot of it is unnecessary in government.

  218. 218.

    Soprano2

    @rikyrah: And just think, none of that money has to pay an attorney’s bills for trying to keep the candidate from being convicted of even more felonies!

  219. 219.

    Ivan X

    @SatanicPanic: well, not only that, if Biden was still in, and lost, his very admirable legacy would be replaced with “the guy who fucked up the debate and handed our country to the forces of evil.”  This way, he gets to go out as a statesman and hero.

  220. 220.

    Bupalos

    @brantl: This is “there are no tanks anywhere near the airport” kind of stuff.

    It’s awesome that there were people so enamored of Biden’s record and him as a person that they were willing to turn that into a kind of personal moral crusade on his behalf. There’s a lot of positive in that.

    It’s awesome that the party retained enough capacity to muster itself to action and do what parties are supposed to do, actually try their hardest to win elections instead of basically giving up because everyone is afraid to stick their head up and get it chopped off by the first group. There’s a world of positives in that.

    It’s awesome that Joe Biden cared more about America than he did about holding on to power and was able to see through his own well-justified self-regard and belief in himself. That is frankly just unheard of. He is one of our best presidents and maybe the best human being to ever hold the office. And a large part of that was the incredibly tough decision he just made.

    If we can just digest all three of these together as things that should make us proud of being Democrats, we’ll be stronger for the experience just as we’re in a stronger position in this election.

  221. 221.

    stinger

    @JAFD: Now ripe on my own trees are Red Gravenstein and Red June. Soon, Arlet, Macoun, Paulared, D’Arcy Spice, Mother, Maiden Blush, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Wickson, and later Leatherjacket, Ashmead’s Kernel, Northern Spy, and Lady.

    I have a big yard and I love apples (and apple names)!

  224. 224.

    H-Bob

    @Belafon: No “honkies in the woodpile”, eh:

    @Ken: I always thought Obama should have appointed McCain as Homeland Security Secretary and Lieberman as Ambassador to Israel — they both probably would have accepted (and Obama would have gotten accolades about reaching across the aisle) and the Democrats could have gotten up to 2 more favorable Senators (the governor of Arizona was a Democrat but Obama instead appointed her as Homeland Security Secretary).

  226. 226.

    Jeffro

    @Captain C: ay-MEN to that!

    or even just

    ”I’m writing this op-ed to say: people like me have way, way too much money and should go back to paying our fair share of taxes.”

  227. 227.

    Aussie Sheila

    @E:

    Late to this as usual. But although you didn’t win, that is a damn fine result in the rural South.

    I hope you are able to do more campaigns in that area and I’m sure you will have great success in the future.

     

    Well done and I hope you find work soon.

    ✊✊✊✊

  229. 229.

    brantl

    @Bupalos: “supported by a likely majority of voters” really means that you’re sure thats true, but as far as real proof, you’re blowing smoke out your ass.

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