Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

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

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

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

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Tuesday Night Open Thread

Tuesday Night Open Thread

by | 253 Comments

This post is in: 

Wow, what a day. Got the news this morning, spent about five hours on the tractor, hit the gym, hit the farmer’s market, and listened to the rally on the ride home. I am so god damned excited. The rally was just electric and I watched it when I got home so I could get the whole feel that you don’t get from listening to it, and Kamala’s eyes really said it all. They are going to be so much fun on the campaign trail.

BTW when I am wrong again in the future and you hear me saying shit like “we can’t do anything rash Biden is our candidate and we should stick with him” please strap me to a chair clockwork orange style and read me my tweets from today. In all honesty I would probably do the same thing again because I am who I am but man if this is how shit is going to work out I am fine being wrong. Now let’s win this god damned thing.

And they were so happy! It was fun and the energy was great, as opposed to the mood at a Vance rally where it’s a funeral dirge on kazoo or a Trump rally when all I can hear is the Imperial March from Star Wars. I’m so excited. We can win this.

Reader Interactions

253Comments

  1. 1.

    Aimai

    Look John I too thought it was crazy to replace biden—especially the way some people were talking about it. The panic and the hysterical floating of the idea of a contested convention. No one could have predicted the superb way biden and Harris handled it. But god damn I’m happy too! Jus happy, happy, happy.

  2. 2.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I have a feeling the ketchup at MarALoco is under lock and key and can be poured out only by the waiters.

  3. 3.

    Shrillhouse

    At the rally, Walz says he’s ready to debate Vance if “he’ll get off the couch”… then pauses for applause/laughter and says: “See what I did there?”

    Heh.

  4. 4.

    Kelly

    I had no clue Democrats could do something this big, this contentious as a smooth well organized operation. Expected internal knife fight to last for weeks. So happy with this outcome.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    Biden was worth defending, and I make no apologies for doing do.

    It’s a credit to all involved how perfect the transition has been.

  6. 6.

    Drunkenhausfrau

    I want MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS Merch. It speaks to me. Plus, It makes Mr. Drunken happy.

  7. 7.

    Subsole

    Point of order, John:

    These clowns are nowhere near awesome enough for the Imperial March. Maybe if you played it on a whoopee cushion.

  11. 11.

    banditqueen

    @Baud: What he said, folks!

    Biden was worth defending, and I make no apologies for doing do.

    It’s a credit to all involved how perfect the transition has been.

  18. 18.

    West of the Rockies

    But what could be more fun than two supremely arrogant, enraged bigots? (Rump/Couch)

  19. 19.

    lamh47

    Oh, I 100% will defend Biden’s right to have been allowed to stay in.

    But also too, I will defend Biden, because it’s thx to Biden we even have KAMALA HARRIS at the top of the ticket.

    Let’s not rewrite history, Kamala Harris supporters had to PUSH against the “ditch Biden” folks because to a damn person…they kept mentioning White Dems to replace him, to a white man…barely nare a one of them had Kamala Harris on their list.  Even some of ya’ll fav stalwart Dems did not have Kamala Harris as even their first choice.

    It’s directly thx to Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr, endorsing Kamala Harris as his replacement at the SAME time of his announcement, that we are here today.  First for choosing Kamala Harris for VP (who Biden said he considered the future of the Dem party), 2nd for deciding to setp aside even though I truly believe he got a crappy deal on that and 3rd, endorsing Kamala Harris for his replacement at the top of the ticket.

    Joe Biden is always gonna get a defense from me!

  23. 23.

    zhena gogolia

    @Aimai: Yes, so many things had to break just right to bring it to this stage. It could have been a disaster.

  24. 24.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: I’m with you. I feel sad for him not even being mentioned today, but I understand why. Still there’s a tinge of sadness despite all the joy. Walz made me cry.

    How can we be tied with those assholes?

  25. 25.

    West of the Rockies

    @Kelly:

    Well, had we known the plan was for Biden to step aside, Harris to step in with radiance and grace, I would have been on board, too.

    But the plan was just Biden gets the boot, ???

  27. 27.

    banditqueen

    @lamh47:  and what she said!

    …It’s directly thx to Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr, endorsing Kamala Harris as his replacement at the SAME time of his announcement, that we are here today.  First for choosing Kamala Harris for VP (who Biden said he considered the future of the Dem party), 2nd for deciding to setp aside even though I truly believe he got a crappy deal on that and 3rd, endorsing Kamala Harris for his replacement at the top of the ticket…

  31. 31.

    Subsole

    @BR:

    No. They’re not like movie villains at all.

    Movie villains have to have some appeal. These people are just arrogant, thuggish, bugeyed weirdos. Absolute Martians. 

  32. 32.

    Baud

    @zhena gogolia: I feel sadness that Hillary will never get justice.  But she and Biden would put the US first. And so do I.

    How can we be tied with those assholes?

     
    It is the nature of the US population.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud:  Best way to sum that up.  Thank you.

    Glad to have had his back, because he has sure had ours.  It’s pleasing to think that Biden is happy with the transition, and maybe even starting to be relieved at not having to run a campaign while serving as President during turbulent times.  He handed off to an able and electable successor, on his terms.

    I hope the Harris-Walz administration calls on him frequently for advice and help behind the scenes, and perhaps he can take on some high profile assignments.

    The prisoner exchange, after being excoriated as too old and incompetent.  Chef’s kiss.

  37. 37.

    hrprogressive

    @Baud:

    This.

    I was legitimately worried that the campaign was going to collapse into chaos, infighting, pontificating, digital fighting, maybe IRL fighting, who knows.

    And that was going to look weak, feckless, and like normies wouldn’t want to vote for them, whoever took over from Biden.

    In the last 25 years, I’ve not really seen many examples of the Democratic Party pulling the type of deft political maneuvering that seems to have occurred here.

    Joe Biden waited until they had run their convention, spent tons of money on “Sleepy Joe” and “Crooked Joe” and “Joe’s Too Old”…

    Stepped aside on a Sunday Afternoon.

    Immediately endorsed his sitting VP.

    The Party, by and large, came out of the woodwork to say “President Biden is the best POTUS in our lifetimes, thanks for your service, Sir, and we wholeheartedly endorse VP Harris to take the torch”

    Nobody was able to ratfuck it, internally.

    Nobody was able to ratfuck it, externally.

    Voters enthusiastically said “Hell Yeah!” to Harris, and flooded her with cash and support.

    The media stood up and took notice.

    The GOP and the Trump Campaign stood, slack-jawed, unable to pivot.

    And now, with the VP pick of Tim Walz, I watched r/GenZ over on Reddit explode with enthusiasm about voting for Harris/Walz in a way that Biden/Harris was never going to get.

    I listened to Malcolm Kenyatta and David Hogg on MSNBC unable to contain their enthusiasm for this campaign.

    I’ve watched MSNBC by and large go from sounding like they were holding a funeral to trying not to laugh too much as Tim Walz makes couch-fucking jokes about JD Vance on live television.

    I was wrong too, and I also couldn’t be happier about it.

    I think Harris/Walz very well could crush Trump/Vance in a way Biden never would have.

    It’s only been two weeks.

    I think “who coulda known” is very apt here.

  38. 38.

    VFX Lurker

    @Baud:

    Biden was worth defending, and I make no apologies for doing do.

    It’s a credit to all involved how perfect the transition has been.

    This, this, this. So well-said.

    EDIT – ditto to what lamh47 wrote upthread, too.

  41. 41.

    lamh47

    Stephen Mille has the nerve to first accuse the Harris campaign of being anti-semites here:

    @StephenM

    Buzz growing that Biden regrets caving to the coup after Kamala seismically botched the VP pick by surrendering to the Jew-haters. She showed tremendous cowardice exiling Shapiro for a socialist and Biden is fuming that he let donors extort him out by freezing his campaign funds.

    2:05 PM · Aug 6, 2024

    To now after that rally going full on back to the racist dog whistles…tells you they got nothing…

    @Acyn

    Miller: Under the Harris Walz plan, they’re going to turn the entire Midwest into Mogadishu
    https://x.com/Acyn/status/1820965961878663278

  42. 42.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @BR:

    The current GOP crew is like the bad guys in the Star Wars knock off Rebel Moon that Netflix recently barfed out.

    Ah, good old Hack Snyder. So glad he’s not doing DC movies anymore. Great at visuals, but characters and writing, not so much

    I’ll never forget the one scene in MoS between young Clark and his father, Jonathan, where Clark asks him if he should’ve let the kids in the school bus he saved die and his dad replied, “Maybe”. That’s not Pa Kent

  43. 43.

    Leto

    @zhena gogolia:

    “Your Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while all the Company is true.”

    Galadriel from LotR; seems especially relevant.

  52. 52.

    Kay

     spent about five hours on the tractor

    What the hell are you mowing? Your little yard? I picture you just going around and around.

  53. 53.

    wmd

    I think we can get a decent majority in the house – over 230, and possibly pick up a seat or two in the Senate. There will be coat tails. I’d so love to see Florida have a Democratic senator and for its EC votes go against TFG. And with abortion and legal weed on the ballot the youth turnout can make that happen.

  55. 55.

    SpaceUnit

    I too was ready to murder the people negging on Biden.

    Joe took out the garbage for us and now he deserves to enjoy his retirement.  Great man.  Great president.  Kamala can take it from here.  Let’s win this.

  58. 58.

    Subsole

    @zhena gogolia:

    The Electoral College and 40 plus years of sustained Republican assault on the foundation stones of our democracy.

    Honestly, after 40-odd years of staggering through the wreckage of Ronnie Popgun’s Incorporated States of America, I think we’re doing pretty damn good. Seriously, look at the sheer weight these assholes are throwing on us to keep us underwater.

    And for whatever despair you feel, know this: they aren’t quite managing it.

    Ponder that.

    The tyrants of all the earth are at full fucking strain and they only manage to force us under briefly, when we relax our might.

  59. 59.

    Leto

    @Kay: he’s working for one of his friends who has a landscaping business over the summer here, for some extra money. He gets to sit on the riding mower, zone out, and just be in the moment.

  61. 61.

    eclare

    @lamh47:

    So on the one hand, they’re socialists who are going to ruin our way of life with big government.

    And on the other, they are going to take away all government so that we have no government at all.

    The usual Republican consistency.

  62. 62.

    UncleEbeneezer

    The great irony here is that Walz is now playing the same role Biden sort of invented as Obama’s sidekick.  And doing it superbly!  That couch line…fuuuu…

    Love Walz, love the energy, hate how we got here but I’m glad we are where we’re at.  Let’s win this for Kamala and The Coach!

  63. 63.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Drunkenhausfrau:

    I want MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS Merch. It speaks to me. Plus, It makes Mr. Drunken happy.

    And on the back of a tee shirt, WE’RE NOT GOING BACK. See what I did there? (H/T Vice President Tim Walz)

  64. 64.

    Darkrose

    @lamh47: All of this!

    From what I’ve heard, day one of the DNC will be about celebrating Biden. I’m expecting rain on my face–something I never, ever thought I’d say.

  66. 66.

    NotMax

    FYI. Soon to be laughed out of court.

    X is suing a group of major advertisers over accusations that they held an “illegal boycott” against the platform formerly known as Twitter. Source

  68. 68.

    Jackie

    I’m so excited. We can win this.

    YES WE CAN! And YES WE WILL! WE ARE NOT GOING BACK!!!

    TCFG and Vance should be 💩ing in their pants… if they haven’t already 😁

  70. 70.

    VFX Lurker

    @Darkrose: From what I’ve heard, day one of the DNC will be about celebrating Biden. I’m expecting rain on my face–something I never, ever thought I’d say.

    Oh, please let it be so. I’d like to see that.

  73. 73.

    Subsole

     

     

    @Uncle Cosmo: I actually liked that movie when I was a wee grasshopper.

    I loved MST3K’s send up of it.

     

    Exeter: “It’s a mutant. We’ve been breeding them.”

    Tom Servo: “Why?!”

  76. 76.

    Ken

    @NotMax: Soon to be laughed out of court.

    From what I’ve seen on Ken White’s Bluesky feed, they went to considerable trouble to get the case into a Kansas court with a judge who wouldn’t laugh.

  78. 78.

    Lyrebird

    @lamh47: Yes to all of what you said!

    Thanks to JRB also for making such a great choice and then involving her across the board, with TX, with Scholz, with youth and repro rights outreach.

    Excited to carry this forward, and appreciative of your laying out such important points of the history.

  81. 81.

    Caro!ina Dave

    Great rollout with Walz. MVP Kamala was great as an introduction speaker. She could have dropped the mike and it would have been great. But then Walz brought the heat. They’re going to want to run against his liberal record as governor ? How do these policies poll at large, Free school lunches , family leave, red flag gun laws and legal recreational marijuana. Protecting abortion access. All widely popular especially among the under 35 demographic OK so how’s Minnesota a state to live in? #3 on the happiness index, #5 for business, #1 in health care. Yeah, bring it on weirdos and your 1950s ideas about America

  82. 82.

    Matt McIrvin

    Nothing about the way this was handled could have been predicted from the political media speculation about brokered conventions and party infighting.

    Scott Lemieux linked to an old article of his recently and pointed out that the person who came closest to nailing the actual scenario was, of all people, Ezra Klein. But even he imagined Kamala Harris emerging as a delegate favorite at a contested convention, not Kamala Harris nailing down the necessary party support to be the presumptive nominee on the afternoon of the day Biden pulled out.

  84. 84.

    lamh47

    I saw Yamiche reporting on MSNBC about this LIVE.

    @Yamiche

    A source familiar with the vetting process said the things that ultimately made Gov Walz beat out Sen Mark Kelly were that Kelly was not seen as loyal enough to Pres Biden both after his dismal debate performance and throughout his presidency on issues like immigration policy.

    And I say good…no POTUS should feel they need to watch their backs for their own VP, not saying Kelly would have done anything like what happened with Joe Biden, but still LOYALTY means alot when it comes to a good working partnership, esp POTUS and VP

  90. 90.

    lamh47

    UGH…when you don’t have a car and you want FAST FOOD…ugh!!!

    One good bit of news, spoke to the insurance adjuster about my car and all I’ll say is I SERIOUSLY undervalued the value of my car!!!

  94. 94.

    Steve Crickmore

    @lamh47:  @West of the Rockies:  I thought  plan A was always for Harris to replace Biden.  Perhaps you weren’t looking? I wrote about this on July 8th, on Balloon Juice, nearly two weeks before Biden’s resignation announcement.  https://balloon-juice.com/2024/07/08/clearing-dawn-open-thread-too-late-to-turn-back-now/ I couched my words politely because so few were listening anyway and I had already been banned for voicing similar sentiments in the fall and I would be vilified again, because of those who felt Biden was suddenly going to discover the fountain of youth after showing conspicuously his 81 years.

    My words then, “I dislike, being a Cassandra, but I think this crisis does give Dems an opportinity. A fresh Kamala Harris candidacy has strong positives, and I believe, though not without risk of the unknown, (I suppose most of you would say enormous risk) it gives the Democrats a better chance of knocking off Trump, in November, the main goal. I recall the passionate debates we had on Balloon Juice about the wisdom of choosing either Hillary or Obama in 2007- 2008. A slight majority of the posters here led by the inimitable Scotian, sided with Hillary over Obama whom I supported, because she knew where ‘the bodies were buried’, but there was a real animated debate on these pages ….and no one was shunned or mocked…..

    The unintended  (positive) consequences, assuming the nomination falls to Harris, are that Trump and his scary alt-right surrogates will display and ooze their nasty sexism, bigotry and racism, at every turn, that they are incapable of disguising. which should fire up or scare the Democrats’ base, and independents more than the GOP attacks on ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ did. Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennslyvania must win swing states, surely won’t abide Trump and his re-energized George Wallace MAGA campaign that may work in Texas and the Deep South, but not too many places elsewhere. Or we could ignore all this and stay with Biden and the hand the Dems have been dealt? At this moment, the polling looks bad (for staying with Biden).”

  100. 100.

    Bill Arnold

    @Subsole:

    These clowns are nowhere near awesome enough for the Imperial March.

    Dick Cheney is said to have regularly gotten the Imperial March treatment, by activists with boom boxes. I’ve been told that the Secret Service would shoo them away. The storyteller said that Cheney was amused.

  101. 101.

    A Ghost to Most

    It’s worked out so well so far, part of me almost thinks this was planned.

  106. 106.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @zhena gogolia:

    OMG. What the hell does Kamabla mean?

    If I had to guess, it’s supposed to imply she rambles or something. “Bla bla”. It’s childish

  109. 109.

    TS

    I just watched the end of Chris Hayes – had someone from the NYT on – she looked extremely constipated  & tried without success to uphold the philosophy of the times.

  110. 110.

    Jay C

    @A Ghost to Most:

    the Biden-Harris “changeover” certainly had to be “planned” to some degree (it’s gone too smoothly IMO to have spontaneously popped up): but I’m of the opinion that it always WAS a “Plan B”: it’s just astonishing that it has worked out as well as it has (so far).

  115. 115.

    w_seattle

    Walz seems great, as has been the Harris campaign over the last 2 weeks. I think many of the takes on how the transition from Biden went so smoothly miss something: the ballast provided by the Dem party base. There was skillful political maneuvering (primary credit to Harris and Biden), but the grassroots excitement seen in donations and zoom calls was not prescripted or guaranteed. This ballast helped ensure success from whatever was done at the top levels of the party. On the bright side, this shows that there is a solid base of sanity in the country. On the down side, there likely were Dem leaders willing to welcome possible party chaos without clear plans for what would happen.

  116. 116.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    ActBlue has raised $31.5 million in the past 11 hours.​
     

    Walz are closing in on Dump

  117. 117.

    dm

    @Matt McIrvin:Fie on Extra Klein. The POD Bros were saying: “Biden withdraws, endorses Harris, Harris is free to campaign constantly in ways Biden’s duties (and health) won’t allow him to do. The sooner that happens, the better.”

  123. 123.

    Betty Cracker

    @Steve Crickmore: I didn’t read every thread here during the “replace or retain” brouhaha, but the vast majority (if not 100%) of the “replace” commenters here were for Harris, as was a plurality of Dems polled during that time. The brokered convention fantasy was on the pundits, not ordinary Dems.

    @Aimai: Good to see you! Hope you are well. 😊

  124. 124.

    zhena gogolia

    Ugh, I’m watching Sex and the City for the first time, and Trump just showed up in Season 2. Vomit.

  125. 125.

    West of the Rockies

    @Steve Crickmore:

    Can’t say I remember your comments, but I don’t read every thread, much less every comment.  Perhaps you were prescient.

    Anyway, I’m thrilled with Harris/Walz.

  131. 131.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: Gross! I turned off a 90s rom-com a while back when that grotesque pig-man showed up in a cameo. There should be warnings up front: smoking, nudity, violence, Trump.

  132. 132.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Could be. Then again, I’ve noticed he’s been sluring his words and having trouble speaking lately. Could be something wrong with him. It would be irresponsible to NOT speculate, right?

    “Why can’t Trump pronounce the Vice President’s first name right? Is he OK?”

  133. 133.

    sdhays

    @MisterForkbeard: Let him explain that. I assume he’s physically struggling to say her name, either because he’s so afraid of her he can’t speak correctly or his brain is glitching. Or both.

  136. 136.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betty Cracker:

    There should be warnings up front: smoking, nudity, violence, Trump. 

    Yes!  Like you were good enough to replace his Twitter face with a cartoon pig face.

  137. 137.

    3Sice

    Opening of Trump campaign office in Georgia descends into chaos with fist fight

    You hate to see it happen.

  138. 138.

    HumboldtBlue

    @MisterForkbeard: ​ 

    I think it’s even simpler than that.

    I’m pretty sure that Trump accidentally typed Kamabla once instead of Kamala and, when someone pointed it out, he insisted that he meant to do it because he can’t ever admit he made a mistake. Now he’s stuck calling her that forever so he doesn’t have to admit he made a typo.

  140. 140.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Steve Crickmore: No interest in how you “couched your words,” Crackwhore. Just adding you to my short list of fuckers who took inordinate glee in forcing the most consequent POTUS of my lifetime out of the race​. And along with the rest of that list, I will never, never, never take anything you post here as anything but a bad-faith attempt to corrupt the discussion – no matter how things turn out.

    Tl;dr: GFY.

  141. 141.

    NotMax

    Granted they won’t sell all that many but I hope someone is offering a Harpists For Harris shirt.
    ;)

  142. 142.

    Kathleen

    ETA: OT but fits right in with the high spirits:

    This piece by Alexandra Petri is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. This should be a Gift Link:

    https://wapo.st/3YuNqxL

    RFK Jr’s Brain Worm has deep thoughts.

  143. 143.

    SpaceUnit

    I’m listening to Walz’s speech now.  First time I’ve heard him.

     

    Sounds really solid.

  149. 149.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Unfortunately I’ve watched a lot of trump speeches and the slurring and having trouble speaking is not new.

    And seems everyone on the right makes a big deal of not being able to or mispronouncing her name. Its deliberate, just another way of pointing out shes “different.”

  152. 152.

    Leto

    OT: The unsung hero of the Olympic-champion US women’s gymnastics team is a very good boy

    Beacon, a golden retriever therapy dog, was a crucial part of the Americans’ preparations for the Olympics as he helped soothe athletes’ nerves

    The US women’s gymnastics team is back on top of the world. Three years after the Americans settled for a team silver at the Tokyo Olympics, a five-woman squad of Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera regained the title and finished with eight medals overall. Not bad for the oldest US Olympic squad in 72 years, which played no small part in their nickname: the Golden Girls.

    Their rock-star showing over the past week in Paris might have had something to do with the sugar rush from the French pastries that Biles has been raving about on social media. Or one could look to another hack: their time spent with Beacon, the four-year-old golden retriever who has been trotting around with America’s best and brightest gymnasts for the past year with the aim of helping keep their serotonin and stress levels in check.

    Cute pics at the link.

  153. 153.

    Starfish

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I don’t think that his flubs were as bad as that guy makes them out to be. I mean, it is Trump ramble but he said “marb” instead of “mob.” I didn’t really think this was so very bad. People do get tongue tied.

    I want to destroy the whole audience with lasers shooting from my eyeballs for them cheering about banning vaccine mandates in public schools.

  155. 155.

    lamh47

    @Baud: I trust Yamiche as a reporter and also something Symone Sanders said about the choice of Walz.  Symone being a former MVP Harris staffer she kinda said the same thing about loyalty before yamiche’s reporting and this morning after the pick was announced.

  156. 156.

    Starfish

    @zhena gogolia: I saw somewhere that Trump’s appearance in films and television shows is in the contracts. If they want to shoot a scene in a Trump building, Trump gets to make an appearance in the film.

  157. 157.

    Leto

    @BR: campaign reported that 14k people were in attendance. 2k over capacity, and I’m sure even more still outside.

  158. 158.

    libarbarian

    BTW when I am wrong again in the future

    This made me laugh.

    I first read BalloonJuice in 2002 when we both supported W and the Iraq war.

    We’re all idiots who are only ever lucky to be occasionally right.

  159. 159.

    Splitting Image

    @zhena gogolia:

    Ugh, I’m watching Sex and the City for the first time, and Drumpf just showed up in Season 2. Vomit.

    Once again I have reason to be thankful for my lack of attention to 1990s culture.

    On the other hand, if I want to get my fix of Dave Foley and Phil Hartman on Newsradio, I have to put up with Joe Rogan and Andy Dick, so it isn’t all wine and roses.

  161. 161.

    NotMax

    Creepy Don campaign announced a sit down interview with Musk for Monday.

    Wrestle Egomania.

  164. 164.

    Anoniminous

    @3Sice: ​

    Cite: Newsweek

    The conversation is then believed to have become increasingly heated. Brandon Phillips, a Republican operative and aide, is reported to have intervened and allegedly spat on Carnline.

    Phillips, a veteran Republican operative who currently works as an aide for Georgia Representative Mike Collins, has a history of criminal violence.

    In 2022, Phillips was arrested on charges of animal cruelty to a dog, and in 2016 he resigned as Trump’s Georgia state director after local television station WSB-TV reported that in 2008, he was convicted for battery and trespass in an incident involving two other people.

    Weirdos

  166. 166.

    M31

    lol this is awesome: The FTFNYT says this:

    “Gov. Tim Walz has succeeded in projecting an avuncular, affable, relentlessly normcore image to Minnesotans. But not all voters are convinced that he rose above partisanship or united the state.”

    and Popehat responds:

    “It’s okay to say you need help.”

    https://bsky.app/profile/nytimes.com/post/3kz3lpc744n2h

    (bluesky link, pretty sure comments are readable w/o and account, and man it’s brutal, the replies are like “I think you meant to post this on X” and “delete your account”)

  168. 168.

    SpaceUnit

    Completely off-topic but if I were a diver in the Olympics and I knew I wasn’t going to win a medal I would totally do a cannonball.

  172. 172.

    M31

    OK add this to the requests that Walz go on a high-school football radio tour (which I agree might very well win him Texas, lol) — apparently he’s now making sure to call him “JV Vance” which in certain circles is a pretty sick burn

    jesus, are democrats getting good at this?

  174. 174.

    Turgidson

    It was not his fault, but there was just no chance that a Biden-led campaign would be as much *fun* as Harris/Walz already is and promises to be.

    Fun and joy don’t win elections but they can’t hurt!  This is great.

  178. 178.

    TS

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Saw that – what an amazing speaker he is – never flustered – succinct – and always supportive of the democratic team. I’m sure he will have a role in the new administration.

  179. 179.

    RaflW

    @Drunkenhausfrau: I cheered in the car when Walz said “Mind your own damn business!” (A Tee shirt is a great idea.)

    I suspect that GOP heads are spinning like tops these days. For 40 years they threw the charge that liberals were intrusive killjoys.

    But we have flipped the script. And not in some calculated, triangulaty way that throws some progressive people or causes under the bus (lookin’ at you, Bill Clinton. Maybe he was the best we could do at that constrained point, but Democrats and pundits took way too much of a lesson from that and it fkd up our coalition politics for decades).

    I haven’t been this excited about voting since ’08.

  181. 181.

    Salty Sam

    I watched the rally on YouTube, and watching Kamala and “Coach” Walz, all I could think of was “Gooble gobble, one of us! One of us!”

  184. 184.

    HumboldtBlue

    Rep. Maxwell Frost just killed it with Jen Psaki on Walz and his shift on gun control and how important that is to Gen Z. Excellent input, that kid is going places.

  185. 185.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Lawrence O’Donnell just started his show, and he’s emphasizing that Joe Biden deserves a huge amount of credit for the fact that the Harris-Walz campaign is off to such a great start.

  189. 189.

    JWR

    Probably already mentioned, (damn you people for writin’ so fast!), but I just found out about this via a FB Friend’s feed. From Wikipedia’s re:power, formerly Wellstone Action page:

    … After Wellstone’s death, his surviving children and former campaign manager founded the group to carry on Wellstone’s populist approach to progressive politics.[2][3]

    Tim Walz, elected to represent Minnesota’s 1st congressional district in 2006, was the progressive training program’s first successful candidate at the federal level.[4] Mark Ritchie, Minnesota’s former Secretary of State, is a Wellstone Action alum.[1]

  190. 190.

    Jeffro

    @lamh47: man that is some psycho RWNJ shit, holy cow!

    there’s “inside the bubble “ and then there’s “INSIDE THE BUBBLE  BUNKER”

  192. 192.

    West of the Rockies

    I can picture some MAGA voters ditching Trump for Walz.  “He says, ‘Mind your own damn business!’  That’s all I ever wanted, but Trump seems to have forgotten that idea.”

    Walz may be the off-ramp some Magats need.

  195. 195.

    trnc

    @West of the Rockies: ​
     

    Well, had we known the plan was for Biden to step aside, Harris to step in with radiance and grace, I would have been on board, too.

    But the plan was just Biden gets the boot, ???

    No, that was not ever the plan. The only reason the transition went as smoothly as it did is because all of the big players signed on to it before Biden announced that he was dropping out. Pelosi made her reputation twisting arms and counting votes. I guarantee you that Kamala was the plan.

    This is one more example of democrats getting things done behind the scenes without a leak fest.

  197. 197.

    TBone

    @M31: my fave:

    “Have you ever been bothered to research a topic before you remix the Republican talking points about it or do you legitimately just throw your hands up in the air and yell “WHHEEEEE!” when you sit down to write?”

    FTFNYT!

  198. 198.

    Subsole

    @Baud:

    For all the railing against the vapidness of the Kardashians, Trump did it first. Famous for being famous and not a damn thing else.

  200. 200.

    trnc

    @Eunicecycle: ​
     

    this anti-semitism attack just didn’t make any sense to me. VP Harris’s husband is Jewish!

    If it weren’t for cognitive dissonance and double standards, what would repubs have left?

  203. 203.

    M31

    @JWR: ​
     

    Wellstone! what a tragedy when he died.

    And, OF COURSE, when Walz was coming up and trying to run for the House in a red district, guess who sneered and didn’t support him? that stupid fucker Rahm Emmanuel:

    McCollum recalled being met with exasperation by Rahm Emanuel, who as chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at that time, was in charge of overseeing the party’s efforts to take back control of the House.

    “I came back to Rahm, and I said, ‘I met this fabulous guy. He’s in a red district, and I think he’s going to win,’” McCollum recalled. “And Rahm looked at me like I was crazy. He said, ‘No, he has no money, no nothing.’”

    from here:

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/tim-walz-kamala-harris-vice-president-pick-congress-rcna164349

  204. 204.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Baud:

    A thousand times this.  Any of the usual suspects who say otherwise, are living down to their stereotype.

  205. 205.

    M31

    @TBone: lol the NYTers that get assigned bluesky duty, you almost feel sorry for them

    almost

    hahahaha, what a bunch of maroons

  208. 208.

    M31

    @NotMax: I so loathe the twisting of brat into something positive.

    Tim Walz, at the grill, clicks those tongs together and says “hot brat summer, who’s ready for it?”

    that’s what it means, donchaknow?

  211. 211.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @trnc:

    The only reason the transition went as smoothly as it did is because all of the big players signed on to it before Biden announced that he was dropping out.

    Unnecessary.  Kamala was the only viable option.  Pundit fart huffing doesn’t change that.

    Assume for a second that Biden told no one until the last second.  What would have happened?  He would endorse Harris.  His delegates already considered themselves also her delegates, and were primed to vote for her.  Major party figures who wanted Biden to quit to save the ticket would fall in rapidly behind Harris.  They want to win, and there was absolutely no way we would win if we ditched Harris.

    The unknowable thing where we got lucky is that the Democratic voters reacted to Harris with joy.  In retrospect I can see it.  We’d been beaten into thinking Biden was unlikely to win, and the chance to escape that cloud was wonderful.  Until it happened, it was an unknown.  We got lucky.

    But planned?  I mean, individuals had probably gamed out some details ahead, but it needed no planning.  It was all obvious, unless you’re a pundit.  I expected everything but the voter joy, which was a big question mark.

  212. 212.

    trnc

    @zhena gogolia: ​
     

    OMG. What the hell does Kamabla mean?

    It’s just a low rent attempt at some kind of slur. No point in trying to figure out precisely how he comes up with any lame nickname.

  215. 215.

    RaflW

    @SpaceUnit: Some low-level sounding GOP comms consultant was the right guest commenter on MN Public Radio during the special coverage package MPR did this afternoon (yes there was a decent Dem also).

    She tried twice to throw this line about how Biden lied to everyone that he was going to be the presidential candidate. It sounded so tin and hollow.

    A switcheroo like this will likely not happen again in a long time (if it gets tried again, it’ll be by Republicans and they’ll bungle it terribly – their efforts to mimic always suck).

    But it’s left the Republicans just gasping for air. And I love that.

  216. 216.

    HumboldtBlue

    This is why calling them creepy and weird is so effective. The GOP is nothing more than a 4Chan board and pointing out that they are creepy, off-putting, odd-smelling weirdos fucks them up from the floor to the ceiling.

    The psycho 4chan bathroom pervert shit is just not going to work against this. I think unforced positive energy might be kryptonitic to their whole experiment. They’re already flailing and it’s only going to get even funnier watching them drown.

  217. 217.

    RaflW

    @JWR: Not just that.

    When he went to Wellstone training, his trainer (one of em, anyway) was … Peggy Flanagan. Who is now his Lt. Governor.

    She told the story on MPR this afternoon. He came in, she glanced at him, and he said “I want to run for Congress.” She looked him over and said “As a Democrat?” (I LOL’ed! her delivery was lounge act perfect.) “Yes.” “OK, c’mon in.”

  219. 219.

    gratuitous

    Long, long ago in the beforetimes, when we were all quarantining from Covid and all the President could do was throw gasoline on the public health emergency fire. He had to be the smartest guy in every room, summoning the shade of his very annoyed uncle who had taught at MIT. He had to be on about everything, and demanded fawning obeisances from his flunkies and lackeys.

    As 2020 wore on, there was talk of a vaccine. Operation Warp Speed, and all the major pharmaceutical houses were working on it. Plunking his fat orange ass in the middle of it all, the soon-to-be convicted felon touted how he was going to be involved in the synthesizing of the vaccine. As fed up as I was with quarantined, I vowed that if Donald Trump had any input in a Covid vaccine, I’d wait three or six months to see how that worked out, because I knew it wouldn’t be good.

    Fast forward four years, and everyone’s baying for Joe Biden’s scalp. Too old, too this, too that. The media were on it 24-7 non-stop (side note: What happened to all that reporting?). But what would happen if Biden halted his campaign? Who would be the Democratic nominee? I got the same feeling with all the public speculation that I had when Trump was bragging about how he was going to create a Covid vaccine.

    Various names were put forward, each less palatable than the last one. There was some talk, of course, about Vice President Harris, but that didn’t seem to be the dominant choice. I didn’t want Biden to bow out if there wasn’t a definite way forward. Biden put up with the public calumny for weeks that must have seemed like years. Then he announced his decision on the very weekend a Republican took a pot shot at the convicted felon.

    And I found out (as I should have known all along) that Biden had it all wired and Harris was elevated to the nomination. The party leaders, along with the delegates and the campaign, all lined up with near-Republican unanimity behind Harris, and she secured commitments from a majority of the delegates within hours.

    I don’t apologize for my skepticism at all, and I’m beyond ecstatic that things have worked out the way they have. Considering how the political geniuses have screwed the pooch so many times before, skepticism is fully warranted anytime a crisis hits and someone jumps out front to proclaim The Answer before all the choices have been considered. Biden took a LOT of hits, and I strongly suspect that he was planning this outcome all the while. It just took that long to line up all the moving parts.

  220. 220.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @HumboldtBlue:

    This is why calling them creepy and weird is so effective.

    Somebody in a thread over the last 5 days talked about a college prof of modern Yurpean History saying that the best way to message back at fascists is to make fun of them, point out all their absurdities because they aren’t self-aware.  It drives em nuts.

    That point has really hit home with all the “wierdness” shit we’ve been pushing at them for the last 7-10 days.  Moreover, our Failed Corporate Media Corpse also can’t figure out how to deal with it.  It’s messaging outside their curated bullshit and hits home.

  221. 221.

    KatKapCC

    @M31: Has anyone ever NOT been met with exasperation by Rahm? I have a hard imagining Rahm actually liking anyone.

  224. 224.

    KatKapCC

    @Baud: Dang. That always makes me feel so bad for the person.

    In Matt Cain’s perfect game in 2012, the last out was a looooong throw from deep third, and it was so close. I remember thinking if Arias had effed that up, that would be something very very tough to get over.

  225. 225.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    @Baud: ghost of  Cookie Lavagetto

     

    The Dodgers won the 1947 NL pennant and again faced the Yankees in the World Series. In game four, played on October 3 at Ebbets Field, Yankees pitcher Bill Bevens had a no-hitter with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and was ahead 2–1. No one had ever pitched a no-hitter in a World Series before. However, two runners were on base from Bevens’ ninth and tenth walks of the game. Lavagetto was then summoned by Dodgers manager Burt Shotton to pinch-hit for Eddie Stanky. With no balls and one strike, Lavagetto cracked an opposite-field double off the right field wall to break up the no-hitter and score the two Dodger runners (pinch runners Al Gionfriddo and Eddie Miksis) to win the game for Brooklyn, 3–2.[6][7][8] Lavagetto was the first player to end a World Series game with a hit when his team was one out away from losing the game

  228. 228.

    RaflW

    @M31: I indelibly think of all the times Rahm sat at creepy Charlie Rose’s big oak table. And I listened to all that sh*t.

    Part of what I’m excited about is that with Harris and Walz, the many questionable people like Rahm, Mark Penn, etc. are far out of the way.

    The Democratic Party will be better for seeing the back of them.

  230. 230.

    trnc

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    @Steve Crickmore: No interest in how you “couched your words,” Crackwhore. Just adding you to my short list of fuckers who took inordinate glee in forcing the most consequent POTUS of my lifetime out of the race​.

    Some people seem to treat a recognition of Biden’s campaign trouble as slagging Biden as president. As someone who grudgingly came to hope that Joe would drop out so that Kamala could become the candidate, I have nothing but great things to say about Biden’s accomplishments and have seen almost nothing different in anyone’s comments, including people who believed he should drop out.

    The only complaints I’ve noticed from anyone here was about one particular issue, and those complaints far predated the campaign issues. Also, those comments often acknowledged his great work on other issues.

    Bottom line – I don’t know how much Crickmore comments here and don’t know his comment history the way I know yours, but I would implore you not to treat the view that Biden’s campaign was not doing well as if he (or I) were slagging Biden.

  233. 233.

    Dan B

    @eclare: To the GOP it’s just like business.  You take a product like second rate factory cupcakes and market them.  You link them to images of happy people or lovely scenery and fun music.  They have nothing to do with a second rate cupcake or chips or a pizza but… people feel good about the happy people / landscape / music and their logic is overridden.  The same with fearful images or scenes being linked to liberal politicians.  To Stephen Miller logic is of no use.  It doesn’t matter.  Branding matters.  Messaging matters.  Truth is for suckers who believe that people are motivated by facts.  Spreading propaganda is what works to shift the balance of power.

  240. 240.

    Geoduck

    No surprise that both the NYT and the Post feel it’s important to remind everyone about Walz’s 30 year old drunk driving conviction. At least they haven’t bitten yet at the “Tampon Tim” bait, that I’ve seen.

  241. 241.

    wjca

    @Kay: What the hell are you mowing? Your little yard? I picture you just going around and around.

    It seems clear that there isn’t an unmowed lawn within a mile (or two!) of Maison Cole.

  243. 243.

    Darkrose

    @KatKapCC: My wife and I went to a Giants game for our fifth anniversary in 2013. Yusmeiro Petit was pitching. Around the 5th inning, I looked up at the scoreboard and realized that the Dbacks had no runs, hits, or walks: a perfect game. He held it for 26 outs, and with two out in the top of the 9th, Eric Chavez hit a little bloop that Hunter Pence couldn’t quite get to. It was heartbreaking.

  248. 248.

    RaflW

    @Geoduck: The Harris-Walz campaign can absolutely use the 30 year old DUI as a differentiator. Walz did something dumb & bad. Got caught. Learned a tough lesson, and made big changes in his life.

    That other guy? Re-insulted the woman who had just won millions in defamation from him (after he’d sexually assaulted her). And has never, ever reconsidered the impact of his actions or made a course correction when caught.

  249. 249.

    Citizen Alan

    @lamh47: I draw the line at calling.Stephen miller weird. That word is simply and grossly inadequate for him. He is an absolute freak. A repulsive and diseased maniac who probably cries into his pillow every night at the fact that he was born too late to literally serve adolf hitler.

  250. 250.

    Citizen Alan

    @gratuitous:

    To be honest, biden stepping aside for Harris was always a possibility in my mind, and I always assumed that, if he did, he would do so at what he thought was the optimum time. My anger in the days leading up to his withdrawal was entirely due to the fact that It looked like he was being forced out involuntarily and by the absolute worst people in the Democratic Party: billionaire donors, who clearly wanted the democrats to be republican-lite, with a god-damned parasite talent agent from hollywood leading the charge. That and the fact that there were people on this very website who had bought in lock, stock and barrel and the idea that joe was clearly suffering from senile dementia, and that it was elder abuse to keep him in the race!

  251. 251.

    BigJimSlade

    @Baud: 2-time world series MVP Corey Seager is a tough out (he’s the only one to win it in each league!) I feel a little bit bad for the pitcher but he left that pitch out over the plate… and teams hate getting no-hit, so they’re usually going to fight to the last out.

  252. 252.

    NotMax

    @JCJ

    Able to differentiate between when it’s pronounced “braat” and when it’s pronounced “braht.”

    Besides, I prefer bockwurst.
    ;)

  253. 253.

    Steve Crickmore

    @trnc:  Thank you for your supportive words. I have the impression here that many think that Joe Biden was forced out by ungrateful Democrats, the liberal media or ertswhile supporters. He was given a nudge, after the calamitous debate but it was his decision ultimately. Joe after fighting hard, finally recognized the reality, not without anguish, that he had no meaningful path to victory to serving as  a full President from 2025-29, given how much the presidency had aged and exhausted him and divided the public, the same way LBJ realized he could not be a productive President from 1965-69 because the war in Vietnam had driven a stake through the  heart of the country. Both were patriots first and put their country’s well-being over their personal ambition, and chose not to contest, which would have likely ended in defeats and at best held only a slim chance for a phyrric victory. I can’t see how Biden even if he managed to pull off an implausible victory would have healed the country, where Harris has a much better chance to to both and after all, in 2020 Biden said he saw himself as “a bridge to a new generation of leaders.” We on the outside, “crackwhores” as one Biden ‘damn the torpedoes’ supporter, referred to me as, just reminded him of that promise. I know giving up the chance for more power is so hard to do, but sometimes it is the right thing. If that is what a ‘crackwhore’ wants for their increasing perceived superannuated President, I guess I am one.

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