Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The lights are all blinking red.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Republicans do not trust women.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

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

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Trump should be leading, not lying.

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

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

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

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Late Night Open Thread: Confusion to Our Enemies!

Late Night Open Thread: Confusion to Our Enemies!

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They’re pretty confused already…


Quietly: Always putting substance(s) first:


Just totally normal foreign espionage, nothing dirty about it!


 
Meanwhile, back in the center ring:

one of the basic problems with the Trump campaign at the present moment is that it does not appear to exist. there are very few ad buys. there are very few field offices. there are very few staffers. trump himself isn't out campaigning. what is even going on?

[image or embed]

— rev. howard arson (@theophite.bsky.social) Aug 7, 2024 at 5:37 PM


But surely *this* will fix it!


Nope, it’s (as of this moment) an actually scheduled event, not just another sundowning phantasy:

ETA: (Thank you HumboldtBlue)

Reader Interactions

188Comments

  3. 3.

    KatKapCC

    People thought RFKJr would appeal to Democrats simply because of his last name, even though basically every other living member of his family thinks he’s a loser piece of crap.

  4. 4.

    Citizen Alan

    Kevin sorbo gave the world lucy lawless. That’s it. Other than his tangential role in bringing the world’s attention to a really cool person whose career has utterly eclipsed his, Kevin sorbo has lived a life utterly without meaning or value.

  7. 7.

    matt

    Sorbo’s gross and pathetically stupid, but not as gross as Don Trump Junior’s ‘Horse Cum’ meme about Walz.

  9. 9.

    KatKapCC

    @matt: I do not know what that is and I do not want to and I kinda wish I did not even know merely about its existence.

  11. 11.

    matt

    @Omnes Omnibus: Since I’m a terrible person, let me just say it’s a take off on the old ‘Got Milk’ ad campaign. Apologies in advance

    I think it is actually a new low for Don Jr, which is kind of impressive that can still happen.

  12. 12.

    dmsilev

    Trump and Musk in one place is more concentrated ego than is allowed by any environmental or occupational safety regulation. Keep a safe distance!

  14. 14.

    dmsilev

    @matt: Is it related to the joke that Laura Bush told one time about how George W gave a handjob to a horse? Because that actually happened. Her telling the joke, that is.

  15. 15.

    matt

    @Omnes Omnibus: Sorry about that. When my political enemies wallow in filth and debase themselves I feel like it’s important that the knowledge of it travels around a bit. I’m not directing this at you at all, you’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Please don’t take offense.

  18. 18.

    Wave Function Collapse

    @BR:

    There’s this funny thing that Walz does — when he gets excited, he kicks out a leg.

    Does he have any dogs? They could have taught him that mannerism.

  19. 19.

    Tony Jay

    @dmsilev:

    Is that the one that ends with –

    ‘… and after all that the horse looked over its shoulder at George and said, “Thanks pal, but I’m still voting for Gore.”?’

    – If not, it should be.

  20. 20.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    I don’t know what’s more frightening, the thought that they’re so high on their own supply that they think those attacks against Walz will work, or the thought that the country’s so far gone that those attacks against Walz might actually work. What’s maddening is that it’s so goddamned obvious that the right-wingers are being given a pass in the media over stuff a hundred times worse or more than the justifications for the media’s blitzkrieg against Biden.

  21. 21.

    Tony Jay

    It always surprised me a little that the Republicans have never tried to get Sorbo to run for anything. In theory he’s got the whole package. Tall, good-looking in a weathered way, mellow voice, mediocre level of celebrity, superficially charming when called for, dumb as a cork stopper and stuffed to overflowing and beyond with all the bubblememe illogic and resentment-fueled barkery the every-so-base Base loves in a candidate.

    There must be pictures out there of him Richard Gere-ing with a baby octupus. It’s the only possibility that makes sense to me.

  28. 28.

    Jay

    @Tony Jay:

    Are you working on a write up of the latest happenings in Lesser Brexittania so us Colonials, Loyalist or Rebels can get up to speed or are things moving too fast?

    I understand that today, Nigel had a sad,……

  29. 29.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Tony Jay: The bubblememe quality means he doesn’t have Schwarzenegger’s or Reagan’s crossover appeal. He could only win in a deep red district firmly in the grip of the evangelical subculture that actually watches his recent movies, and they’ve already got guys for that.

  30. 30.

    Mike in Pasadena

    @HumboldtBlue: I have not seen Walz counter this BS smear by the Swift Boat Liars. Has he made an indignant speech about the allegation he retired knowing his Guard unit was going to be activated to a war zone? Kerry failed to denounce his Swift Liars and that was a mistake.

  32. 32.

    wjca

    @Mike in Pasadena: I just can’t see him making an indignant speech.  Maybe something along the lines of a one-liner.  Say “The ignorance they display of how the military actually works is simply stunning.  2nd Lieutenants know better than that!”

    (Having been a 2nd Lieutenant, I can attest to that.  And I was dumb as a post at the time.  Fortunately, I at least knew I was.)

  33. 33.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Mike in Pasadena: ​

    So… what you’re saying is… you don’t understand the infield fly rule?​
     

    I will add, this isn’t the first time Walz has dealt with this bullshit. It goes back years. He’s used to it.

  37. 37.

    piratedan

    @Mike in Pasadena: VoteVets has been all over this.

    They’ve even dumped a graphic indicating Walz had submitted his retirement papers before the assignment came down and that per command, they were staffed well enough that they didn’t need to extend him.

    the MN National Guard command backed that up and stated that he had earned the CMD designation but retired as Staff Sgt because he wasn’t in the grade long enough, but still merits the level when speaking to his service.

    Somehow, that “official” statement from the MN National Guard still wasn’t “enough” for CNN who says that they will continue to “investigate”.

     

    Funny that they have cycles for that but not enough to fact check fat bastards latest diatribe.

  38. 38.

    Jay

    From what I understand, there is some digging starting to go on into JV Vance’s service records, because, at a time of manpower shortages, when he should have been automatically promoted up to Spec. Corporal, he was instead, discharged.

    He basically, for some reason, failed a “no brainer”.

  39. 39.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Mike in Pasadena: Context maters; 2004 was about the War of Terror and everyone was flashing back to Vietnam.  Kerry’s basic message “I was one of the idiots who fell for the Vietnam War  (because I wanted to be a war hero like JFK)” isn’t exactly the most inspiring thing (for one thing, how is Kerry’s desire to be a second JFK any different from GW Bush’s frantic desire to be a do-over of GH Bush? The both of them were stuck in the past)  The Swift boating simply underscored what was wrong with that in the same way “John McCain, NVA Ace” pointed out that McCain was only a war hero because of his reckless behavior, even by fighter pilot standards.

    Walz references his military experience as that’s were he learned to be a good leader and administrator. He didn’t get involved in combat, so what?

    And the fact that JD Vance saw Full Metal Jacket and decided he wanted to be Joker is just, well that was so couch fucker of him.

  42. 42.

    ArchTeryx

    Reminder: The Trump campaign effectively didn’t exist in 2016 or 2020, either. Dark (i.e. oligarch) money did almost all the work for him, and his cult did the rest. He always thinks the fix is in. He was right in 2016. Dead wrong in 2020. Let’s hope 2024, he’s wrong for the last time in his political career.

  44. 44.

    SectionH

    @TBone: TY! That’s brilliant! Luckovich is great. Pay attention to Joel Pett, if you run into his political cartoons. He’s really good too.

  45. 45.

    Tony Jay

    @Jay:

    All I can think of is the singing. That god damned earworm is monstrous.

    I’d like to splurge a great big multi-paragraph rant about the recent election and the even more recent Frogger Riots, but I simply haven’t found the time. Too busy with work, etc. I’m just about to go on holiday, though, so the solitude of the Hebrides might allow for a few hours of unhinged scattology.

  46. 46.

    Tony Jay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    He’s (technically) an actor, and you can guarantee the corporate media would bend themselves into deep-baked pretzel shapes to spin the narrative that every single crazy thing he’s ever said was done ’under cover of a role’. Before you know it Democrats would be fielding aggressive questions about their inability to differentiate between fantasy and reality and he’d be smirking his way through interviews with Bill Maher.

    He must have done something really bad. Or else he’s just a lazy arsehole. Or Both.

  48. 48.

    Tony Jay

    @Geoduck:

    We’ve had Far-Right anti-immigrant riots recently, encouraged by the rhetoric out of Nigel ‘Frog Face’ Farage and the online shitfunnelers who tend to have Pepe the Frog memes in their bios.

    So I call them Fascist Froggers.

  50. 50.

    SectionH

    @Tony Jay: good name. Better today? I hope so.

    California here. But I have lived in Engla – well Yorkshire before. Sadly the asshole riots don’t surprise me. Hope it’s over for you guys. For a while. (And yeah, I never could figure out what was wrong with Corbyn). I was in London when the obvious attack ad stuff started. It just I didn’t – WITAF territory to me, he seemed to me good leader of Labour.

    Good morning to you..

  55. 55.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Tony Jay: He may simply not have had enough good will in the industry to overcome his boorishness. Some people act like louts before they develop enough good will to counteract it, and others just burn through their good will far faster than they can replenish it.

  57. 57.

    Tony Jay

    @SectionH:

    Morning.

    They – may – be dying out now. The prosecutions have started, decent people have started taking to the streets with ‘F##k off Fascists’ placards, and the overwhelmingly bad press the Froggers have received may be chilling the blind rage fuelled fires of resentment and grievance they require to keep their fractured personalities functioning.

    We’ll see what happens this weekend. This may just be a lull. What they – really – want is a response from minority groups that they and their media allies can spin as a Race War. If the Police can’t/wont protect minority communities, and the scumbags keep upping the ante to inspire racial assaults on non-whites, they might well get what they want.

  58. 58.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @dmsilev:

    Our best friends are a vet and a prison educator. We cackle about him giving hand jobs to dogs, bulls and horses all the time, because it’s just part of the job….

  61. 61.

    WereBear

    @Jay: He basically, for some reason, failed a “no brainer”.

    While I find this utterly believable, he did graduate from Yale Law School. As a conniver, it’s more likely to mean he wanted out. All he had to do was let his freak flag fly, maybe.

    Perhaps he drank — not the super solider serum — but the uber-toady serum, and now he can’t communicate with anyone who hasn’t had their nervous system anesthetized with money.

  62. 62.

    Jay

    @Tony Jay:

    If the Police can’t/wont protect minority communities,

    They seem to have done a great job so far,

    And the 3 days from riot to 3 years in jail efficiency loop in arrest, charges, jury trial, conviction, sentencing seems to have had an effect,

    exposing it as a ruZZian op has had an effect,

    and now Antifa is out in force,

    It would seem that the Nazi’s only have individual random attacks on POC left in the tool bag.

    Hopefully, it’s spent.

  64. 64.

    WereBear

    I never thought the Leopards Eating Faces Party would eat its own face.

    Look at how much went into NOT showing anyone the truth about Trump — in a way the weak of mind can be swayed by the Force of simply never admitting the emperor was both naked and crazy.

    I guess we needed THAT MUCH contrast. Okay, we can do that.

    Twas Joy that killed the beast.

  66. 66.

    WereBear

    @JWR: With decent people fleeing from the curtain of illusion coming down, we know extreme right wingers tend to be criminals, with a criminal mind.

    The death threats, gun fetish, and immature behavior that breaks out when they are thwarted tends to be the only way they get their way. Because people feel forced to give in to it, or be thrown out of the group.

    And what you are told constantly is that the other side is worse. If you have trouble making your own decisions, you are not only stuck, you come to love Big Brother.

  67. 67.

    Jay

    @WereBear:

    once you have done your enlistment, which he had done, you can walk anytime, or re-enlist, which he tried to do.

    Given his rank, job and responsibilities, they basically “kicked him to the curb”, at a time when they were desperate for manpower.

    So there is something there.

    As for Yale, well. we know they don’t have much for “best” left.

    I was an absolute PITA to Command, still made Master SGNT. Abilities outweighed my “resistance to authority”.

    As my Lt. Col said to a “brown bar” who was “whinging”,  yeah, he’s an asshole, but he’s our asshole.

  71. 71.

    brantl

    When did Qevin Sorbo get his craniotomy, and why weren’t we told? Good dog, what a tool.

  72. 72.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    Rogan spent years saying the moon landing was fake. didn’t stop until one of his sponsors got mad. now he’s on to UFO and vax conspiracies. so yeah, he would be naturally attracted to worm brain and his various conspiracies.

  73. 73.

    Princess

    @matt: Lordy. Reinforcing how damned weird they all are once again. Does Don jr think this is going to get them even one of the votes they need right now?

    Also, since every accusation is projection with those guys…

  75. 75.

    brantl

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    The Swift boating simply underscored what was wrong with that in the same way “John McCain, NVA Ace” pointed out that McCain was only a war hero because of his reckless behavior, even by fighter pilot standards.

    Kerry did his service, got no special privileges for having dad and granddad being high ranking, and came back saying the pointless, bestial  war was pointless and bestial. Comparing him to McSame is condemnation by damning praise.

  76. 76.

    Jay

    @raven:

    Yeah, in US parlance, “dismissed from service” as an E-3, when the US military was desperate for troops.

    Not a dishonorable discharge, but more of a “Bro, we arn’t really into you”,……. at all.

  77. 77.

    WereBear

    @brantl: They attack where they are weakest.

    Perhaps the best thing about Walz at this stage is his long career as politician… under anything but local wingnut radar. They have already tried it all.

    And it failed. Now, he has a record and fans.

  78. 78.

    WereBear

    @Jay: I get it now. He made them feel the way he makes us feel… and that’s not good unit cohesion, I would guess.

    Look what he did to the R ticket, for instance.

  79. 79.

    Jay

    @WereBear:

    The stupid thing is, given his job and his responsibilities,

    he would have really had to sucked ass at that job, at that time to be kicked to the curb.

    It’s a job a labradoodle could do. All they would need is a GoPro.

  80. 80.

    Mousebumples

    @TBone: that’s not today’s. It’s from a few years ago. Still good, though. I’ve got that one saved on my phone.

  89. 89.

    3Sice

    GOP candidates and proxies don’t want to be anywhere near them, so yea, money might be drying up, with some feelers out about a retirement number, but his ego is gonna ride or die.

  90. 90.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Quinerly: That’s the top headline on WaPo’s digital front page – Willie Brown Denies Trump claim they went down in helicopter together”

    At least maybe they’re starting to occasionally point out his issues with memory and cognitive function. I despair of them ever managing to adapt effectively to the constant lying. 9 years on they’re still just writing think pieces about how to do that and after a decade thinking about it you’d think they’d have come up with an effective approach but they seem to lack the competence or will.

  95. 95.

    brantl

    I think about both every day. a bullet literally skimmed his ear. he is going to be fucked up for life.

    Too late, he already was.

  96. 96.

    Geminid

    KTAR, a Phoenix TV station, reported on recent state polling:

    New poll for Arizona shows Democrats Kamala Harris, Ruben Gallego leading races

    The results released Thursday by HighGround Public Affairs show Vice President Kamala Harris with a 2.8 percentage lead over former President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego up on Kari Lake by a whopping 11 points.

    The poll was conducted between July 31, the day after Arizona’s primary, and August 5. HighGround Public Affairs said the margin of error was +/-4.38%. Among other comments, HighGround head Chuck Coughlin said:

       For the past three cycles Democrats have consistently performed better with the independent and unaffiliated voter audience. Harris continues that trend in our latest polling….

  97. 97.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    I dismiss getting names wrong, and anything that’s the verbal equivalent of a typo.  In Trump’s case, he has so many actual flubs that do not get attention that I’m okay with anything that does.

    I am told that he actually did mix up Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi, not just get the name wrong, but I haven’t seen the sequence and don’t know if it’s true.

  98. 98.

    Baud

    @Quinerly:

    You could spend a lifetime playing the “Imagine if…” game. The big problem is so many Dems refuse to acknowledge the double standard and continue to think the media is fair.

  99. 99.

    3Sice

    Vance’s political career is over. The goal was to get him within a rage stroke. His value to the South African nazis goes to zero if Trump takes another L.

  100. 100.

    TBone

    @SectionH: 👍

    Thanks for the heads up.

    I just read Joyce Vance’s substack newsletter about Jack Smith and Judge Chutkan and the Supremacists immunity decision, and now I’m sputtering my coffee in anger.

  101. 101.

    Ken

    @KatKapCC: basically every other living member of his family thinks he’s a loser piece of crap.

    I suppose it will always be too soon for a Rosemary Kennedy joke.

  102. 102.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @brantl:

    a bullet literally skimmed his ear. he is going to be fucked up for life.

    Rallies are what Trump lives for.  If he has way, way cut back on them, it means something big.  A completely viable explanation would be that he’s afraid of another shooter.

  106. 106.

    p.a.

    I know covid is still here, but thank FSM we’re no longer at the refrigerated-tractor-trailer-morgue,  worldwide economic crash, stage like Joe’s early admin, where he didn’t have the free resources to de-tRumpify the fed departments (where he legally could), but if Harris/Walz continue on-trend through November, I hope this is part of the admin’s early effort.  The judiciary is another beast, but the rest of the executive departments should provide “targets of opportunity.”  Especially the security services.

  109. 109.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I have no idea who this Bobby person is, nor do I know Kevin S. And I have been happy in my ignorance. So I think I’ll just mosy along

    ETA: I do feel enlightened knowing it was Jerry Brown, not Willie Brown, on that copter with Trump, and that (according to Gavin Newsom, who was also aboard) it was Trump, not Brown, who talked about crashing.

  110. 110.

    Quinerly

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I tend to agree about getting names wrong.

    As for this Brown mix up, one thing that is odd about it is you would think Trump would be ready to jump on anything Willie/Kamala to sling dirt and gossip. Instead this weird helicopter story about Jerry Brown.

  111. 111.

    3Sice

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    They could do what the Secret Service recommended, and move them indoors, but he’s burnt so many event facilities with non-payment…

    I think it is likely he’s getting treatment for something, but the press is co-dependent, so good luck finding out what it is unless he collapses on stage.

  112. 112.

    TBone

    @p.a.: I woke with a raging sore throat today.

    Just want to remind everyone to be careful out there!  Masks up!

  113. 113.

    Ken

    @Frankensteinbeck: I’ve seen other theories, such as that he’s “quiet quitting”, and/or stepping back so that he can blame Vance for a loss. Those require that he thinks he’s losing, though, and I find it hard to imagine him ever allowing that thought to cross his mind.

  115. 115.

    p.a.

    @WereBear: I never thought the Leopards Eating Faces Party would eat its own face.

     

     

    It’s more like the Leopard Eating Faces Party opened its collar and invited an orange vampire to dinner.  Now it’s shriveling and (apparently) even its usual blood donors are holding off.  The vampire ain’t goin’ nowhere until the Party is a dried husk.

  118. 118.

    TS

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    viable explanation would be that he’s afraid of another shooter.

    Until this event, the reactions to his fascist, anti-women, anti-American hate speech has impacted other people, either physically or with legal consequences. Now it is starting to impact him. Wonder if he fully realises he is his own worst enemy.

  120. 120.

    Jay

    @p.a.:

    BC CDC has decided  ( a while ago) that you can go back to work 5 days after you test positive for Covid,

    because 99% of employee’s have only 5 days sick leave.

    I am on day 9 of T bringing it back from Alberta.

  123. 123.

    bbleh

    So as to the Felon being “sidelined in his own party,” I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there IS some of that going on, not as part of some conspiracy to replace him — as a demigod, he is literally irreplaceable — but more the rats keeping him sidelined while they smash-and-grab in advance of deserting what may be a sinking ship (to mangle a metaphor).

    HE has to hang on for his life — both his psychic life and his life off probation — but a lot of them haven’t drunk the Flavor-Aid and are in it for the connections and the cash, and they typically can assess the situation more clearly than the cultists.  I can see where it would be in their interests to keep him quietly entertained — I wonder what’s happened to the tapes from all those ads they’ve been shooting at Mag-a-Lardo — slow the decay, and make sure money keeps coming in that they can skim, all while they’re readying the lifeboats.

    Maybe there really is a bit of Truman Show going on down there.

    And then a hurricane will pop up, intensify rapidly to a Major, and smash into Mag-a-Lardo, and when he digs himself out of the rubble he’ll discover that they all fled in advance and didn’t tell him.

  124. 124.

    3Sice

    Eric is the heir apparent, so unless he’s willing to knife the old man for whatever cash is on the table, they’ll keep kiting bad checks until the locks get changed and their stuff is out on the curb. I figure early next year.

  125. 125.

    Princess

    @Frankensteinbeck: This seems plausible. He won’t leave Mar-a-lago where it’s safe. People say he didn’t campaign much in 2016! Or 29 but he did do a ton of rallies. Maybe he’s just completely lost his nerve. And he thinks Scotus has protected him from jail (as they have) so the pressure to win is diminished too. The down ballot republicans must be shitting bricks. This is our time to double down on any race in single digits. Florida senate for sure. Texas senate too?

  126. 126.

    Ken

    @catclub: Any attack on Walz  that is not an attack  aimed at Harris can be ignored.

    Except the media is ready with their big “Republican attacks on Walz raise questions about Harris’s judgement” stories.

  127. 127.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Ken: That you tube commercial Trump did, he really came across like someone had just punched him in the stomach, so might be his heath.

  129. 129.

    MomSense

    @Jay:

    No that is not why.  I have spoken with public health officials, physicians and epidemiologists about it and five days is supported by data.  Also it is five days if you are symptom free.
    Please, the other side ignores the advice of experts in favor of conspiracies.  We don’t need to do the same.

  130. 130.

    Princess

    @TBone: An actual lawyer can correct me but post SCOTUS I don’t see any way that he could be put in prison. He’s safe and he knows it.

  132. 132.

    MomSense

    @Quinerly:

    We are having fun and that’s a very good thing.

    Heard my first negative ad on immigration.  Of course it is misleading but that’s all the other side has to work with in the absence of any policies that help ordinary people.

  134. 134.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Ken:

    he’s “quiet quitting”, and/or stepping back so that he can blame Vance for a loss.

    No way.  He thinks his fortune and his freedom are on the line.  He has staked everything on winning this election, and the courts have told him the same thing.

  135. 135.

    Princess

    @TBone: But no testimony from anyone who worked for him in an official capacity can be admitted as evidence. So that’s the end of it.

  136. 136.

    Betty Cracker

    Still looking for an explanation of why Trump is holed up at Disgraceland in Palm Beach over the summer. In past years (before and after his accursed presidency) he closed the club and fled north around Memorial Day and returned around Labor Day. This year he opted to endure the misery of a South Florida summer, and I feel sure there’s a nefarious explanation, possibly related to past or ongoing crimes.

    @Ken: True or not, I love the “quiet quitting” explanation. LOL!

  137. 137.

    lowtechcyclist

    @TBone:

    he’s running to try to avoid prison, so I’d be very surprised if he steps down voluntarily.

    Yeah, that’s simply not happening.

    I could see him having a plane ready to take him to Russia or Hungary the moment the polls closed in whichever is later of NV and AZ, though.

  140. 140.

    Quinerly

    @MomSense:

    Good Morning! I’m loving our party’s reset. The convention is going to be a blast.

    I am convinced our Kamala will go all the way. We will win.

  141. 141.

    Booger

    @Ken: People just don’t want to work these days. Can’t even put in the effort to go through the application process.

  144. 144.

    p.a.

    And another thing… with a former prosecutor as president, maybe we can avoid the “look forward not back” bullshit that has avoided prosecutions in the past and helped get us to this point with the Face-Eating Leopard Teflon Party.

  147. 147.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @TBone: That would be hilariously on brand for Trump to wreck himself by abusing  a diabetes medication.

  149. 149.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @lowtechcyclist: I could see him having a plane ready to take him to Russia or Hungary

    Puerto Rico, I could see Trump trying to take sanctuary in Puerto Rico.

  150. 150.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Quinerly:

    I believe she is the only one of that generation, whether Kennedy by blood or marriage, who is still alive.

    ETA: Whoops, I’m forgetting Teddy’s second wife. Sorry, Victoria Teggie. But apart from her and Ethel, I can’t think of any others of old Joe and Rose’s kids or their spouses who are still here.

  151. 151.

    TBone

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    This case regained significance after Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, stated that the state of Florida will not cooperate with any extradition of Trump to New York…

    Extradition is something that hasn’t been teed up for the Supremacists in time to wreck it, I think. I may be wrong.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico_v._Branstad

    Interstate extradition law would appear radically altered by the 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Puerto Rico v. Branstad, overturning a precedent established in Kentucky v. Dennison 126 years earlier that extradition could not be legally compelled by the federal government. Dennison, however, is more complex than is commonly believed, and the demise of one of Dennison’s conclusions does not signal a major overhaul of the Supreme Court’s treatment of extradition. Rather, the Court’s decisions have adhered closely to the original intent of the Constitution’s extradition clause. The part of Dennison overturned was therefore noteworthy as an exception to the general thrust of the Court’s treatment of extradition. How then did Dennison’s bar of legally compelled extradition survive so long when the theory of federalism supporting the decision had been repudiated long before it was reversed? This article explores this question and directs attention to the consequences of Branstad for extradition. Despite the apparent clarity of Branstad, a survey of state extradition officers reveals lingering confusion over extradition law.

    https://www.jstor.org/stable/3330532

  152. 152.

    Anne Laurie

    @Betty Cracker: My totally wild-arse guess is that he feels safer in Florida — or his handlers do.  Fewer big-media hopefuls trolling for stories, and more rabid MAGAt cultists in case worse comes to worst and he needs to sacrifice a few (more) Ashli Babbitts.

    Don’t think Wiles or LaCivita are gonna go down with the ship, but they’re not leaving Dear Leader’s side until the last possible dollar has been hoovered up, either.  Especially if it’s true that they’ve got him doing ‘many [ad] tapes, every day’… ads for commemorative Trump kitch and gold bars are a pure money-spinner, but they need King Pitchman to really hook the rubes in.

  153. 153.

    jonas

    @Princess: The J6 case is definitely imperiled by the SCOTUS immunity decision, I think, but we’re still waiting to see if Cannon will be overruled and/or dismissed from the stolen docs case, which involves crimes he committed after he was out of office.

  154. 154.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Princess: ​
     

    An actual lawyer can correct me but post SCOTUS I don’t see any way that he could be put in prison.

    I agree that it’s a long shot, but I’m not giving up hope until it’s over.

    He’s safe and he knows it.

    I bet he’s stalked and assailed by fears of prison, no matter how safe he thinks he is. Especially now that the momentum of this campaign has done a 180 degree turn from where it was three weeks ago.

  155. 155.

    Matt McIrvin

    @p.a.: The Supreme Court preempted that, with regard to Trump himself–as long as he did it while he was President, he’s immune.

    I doubt even they are going to rule that he gets to rob 7-11s with impunity as a former President but you never know.

  158. 158.

    Anne Laurie

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Puerto Rico, I could see Trump trying to take sanctuary in Puerto Rico.

    Or Venezuela… didn’t he recently announce that Venezuela was ‘doing so well’, between crypto and the death squads?

  161. 161.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker:

    This year he opted to endure the misery of a South Florida summer

    I’m sure he’s rarely venturing out of air-conditioned environments.  I bet he isn’t playing any golf these days.  But that is one thing he’s giving up by not moving up to Bedminster.  So it does make one wonder.

  164. 164.

    jonas

    @Betty Cracker: Still looking for an explanation of why Trump is holed up at Disgraceland in Palm Beach over the summer

    Applying Trump’s Razor, I think he’s simply high on his own supply, thinks he has the election in the bag (or can just steal it if it turns out he doesn’t) and just doesn’t feel like doin’ shit. The billionaires and the PACs do all the heavy lifting and he gets eight hours of “executive time” a day. What’s not to like?

  167. 167.

    jonas

    All things being equal, campaigning from his bedroom in Mar-A-Lago shouldn’t be a problem for Trump. After all, as others have pointed out, his campaign in 2016 was assembled from duct tape and bailing wire (supplied by Russia) and he won then, right? Plus, his dead-eyed cultist base is locked in no matter what he does. The problem of course is that a lot of Republican representatives and senators are running right now on Trump’s greasy coattails and if SFB and a hard-charging GOTV operation aren’t out there with them, they’re in trouble. I’m sure some intrepid reporters out there would have no problem getting some expletive-laden quotes from any number of pants-shitting Republican consultants out there right now about Trump and the RNC leaving them high and dry.

  169. 169.

    Matt McIrvin

    @jonas: It feels like Harris is running way harder than Hillary Clinton in 2016, let alone Biden in 2020 or 2024. Maybe that’s just vibes. But I think we’re going to see a ground game that’s bigger than we’ve had in either party for a long time.

  170. 170.

    Quinerly

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Technically, I guess Teddy’s last wife is a different generation. I think she’s RFK Jr’s age. Biden appointed her as ambassador to Austria, I think.

    I remember when I looked up Ethel a few months back, I was thinking Eunice was still alive. But learned she’s been dead a number of years.

  173. 173.

    WereBear

    @Anne Laurie:  Especially if it’s true that they’ve got him doing ‘many [ad] tapes, every day’… ads for commemorative Trump kitch and gold bars are a pure money-spinner, but they need King Pitchman to really hook the rubes in.

    Every time I see a clip from Fox or their wanna-bes, there’s usually a Trump ad in it.

  175. 175.

    evodevo

    @dmsilev: yeah…I do not know who talked her into telling this “joke” – which, I suppose, was to make the Bushes more accessible to the pre-MAGAt masses, but I was really embarrassed for her.  it was just such an inversion of who she was – a normal person married to a dry drunk Repub B-lister…AND really wasn’t a good rendering of the actual joke, that involves a bull, not a horse…

  176. 176.

    WereBear

    @NotMax: Love it.

    I picture the castle all draped in gilt, with a golf cart parked at the bottom of the stairs.

    Over the fireplace, a painting of Trump as Elvis on black velvet.

  177. 177.

    SomeRandomGuy

    trump is not just old, he is an old man who was shot and very nearly killed. I have had two semi close calls in combat, one from a sniper the other from a mortar/drone team. I think about both every day. a bullet literally skimmed his ear. he is going to be fucked up for life.

    It’s true. With all the cameras all around, it’s true.

    Everyone saw the little wimpy coward wears shoe lifts. He’ll never recover.

  179. 179.

    artem1s

    @lowtechcyclist:so I’d be very surprised if he steps down voluntarily.

    exactly the point. Jr got his guy in the VEEP spot. The couch fornicator has been stalking Harris all over the country. His little Incel Entourage sauntered up to AF2 and declared it was going to be his ride in the near future. Let’s face it. The Traitor Tots are as famously stupid as their father (if not dumber) only with less social and flimflam skills. Everyone they have grown up with are mobsters and conmen. It’s no surprise JV figured out the easiest way into the ‘inner’ circle was with money and by hooking up with the coke addled Prodigal Son. And let’s face it the remaining sycophants and courtiers down at MAL aren’t what they used to be. They can keep Boo Radley in the basement and out of sight only because he’s decompensating so quickly now that he’s not capable of that level of willpower that got him out the door in the previous campaigns. He’s back to the point where his schedule is  ‘executive time’ all the time. I think we misread that as laziness or not caring about the actual job of POTUS when he was in the WH but it was probably a deep depression. And now doesn’t even have golf to motivate him.  There’s no one courting him and begging to be on his staff. He’s got no one important begging for his attention. Every opportunity to prop up his tiny ego has become a humiliation. I doubt even this ‘interview’ with Melon Husk will be satisfying for more than a few minutes.

    I think there is a real possibility that certain donors and heavy hitting GOPers are looking for an opportunity to get rid of TCF now and not later. They probably thought they had a good chance of beating Joe and could wait until after the election to 25th his ass. But the game is slipping away from them now. Their whole game plan was centered around Biden and low voter turn out and now they are facing the real possibility that the Dems will not only take the WH but retake Congress the way they did in 2006. There is clearly panic over how TCF racists rants and his weirdo Nazi VEEP and P25 are affecting down ticket races. There’s no money for the state campaigns. I think dumbass Jr. was promised JV’s VP seat when TCF got ousted. And the whole gang of rake steppers are now seriously thinking about moving up the time table and just looking for a reason to send DonOld out to a farm somewhere in the country. And in their minds they are just the right Soooooper Geeeen-iuses to pull it off.

    If the Demon-crats can do it how hard can it be?

  180. 180.

    Old School

    @Betty Cracker:

    Still looking for an explanation of why Trump is holed up at Disgraceland in Palm Beach over the summer.

    My assumption is that Melania got custody of the northern properties and that Trump has agreed to remain in Florida.

  181. 181.

    TerryC

    I thought TFG was able to look remarkably physically healthy throughout the evening. Was amazing to me. Didn’t change the shit spewing from his mouth anus, though.

  183. 183.

    wjca

    @Anne Laurie: Especially if it’s true that they’ve got him doing ‘many [ad] tapes, every day’… ads for commemorative Trump kitch and gold bars are a pure money-spinner, but they need King Pitchman to really hook the rubes in.

    And those ads are why he thinks he’s campaigning hard,

  185. 185.

    moops

    Vance attacking Walz for military cowardice is pretty much a loaded gun on the nightstand for any decent journalist.  This is standard GOP practice to accuse your opponent of the thing the GOP pol is actually guilty of.  Used heavily by Rove’s operations.  Vance going there quickly, and the media enabling it, is smoke.  They need the voters to declare it a push when his own crummy service record gets looked into.

  186. 186.

    Quaker in a Basement

    You heard it here first: Trump isn’t out campaigning or buying ads because he intends to take the money and run. He wants to keep all the campaign money.

  187. 187.

    Dmbeaster

    @Frankensteinbeck: I think this is very likely.  Trump is a physical coward.  He knew the value of bravado when it first happened and faked it.  But as time passes, that fear takes over.  He is quiet quitting.

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