Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

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

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

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

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

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

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Petty moves from a petty man.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Late Night Open Thread: That Eerie Creaking Sound…

Late Night Open Thread: That Eerie Creaking Sound…

by | 94 Comments

This post is in: , , ,


 
… Just might be an approaching iceberg.


Reader Interactions

94Comments

  4. 4.

    Aussie Sheila

    Imma thinking this could be a reset election, a la Reagan 1980.

    Looks like the era of batshit non government in favour of broligarchs might be over in favour of democratic governance in favour of ordinary working people.

    I’ve got money on it.

    Go grass roots rank and file!

    Fired up and ready to go will mow down any opposition, anytime.

  5. 5.

    ShadeTail

    There’s a saboteur in the Trump campaign? And the problem with that, Mr. Swalwell, is…what, exactly? Seems to me that’s a *GOOD* thing. They may not have the same goals as us, but if they intend to push Trump to self-destruct then that’s to our advantage.

  7. 7.

    mrmoshpotato

    What?  The orange shitstain’s enlarged, fascist, orange, dead heart will go on?

    No reputable hospital would accept that Kremlin crap as an organ donation!

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    Brought to mind.

    “The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.”
    – William Hazlitt
    .
    “He who slings mud generally loses ground.”
    – Adlai Stevenson

  10. 10.

    Aussie Sheila

    @NotMax:

    Well I wouldn’t put much store on Adlai Stevenson’s bon mot.

    Whoever slings the most mud successfully has often won elections. Here and abroad.

    I prefer ‘who listens closely need not speak much at all’.

  13. 13.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Goodfellas-style bust-out, maybe? Collapse things and grab what you can in the chaos?

  17. 17.

    Baud

    I think Trump using Dr. Ronnie to make Americans believe he’s going to give them free drugs is a brilliant move.

  21. 21.

    WereBear

    The thing about Dr. Ronnie is that he used to be well-respected. He was the White House doctor through both Obama administrations. Who were notoriously quick to dump anyone with a hint of scandal.

    What happened? The not yet Convicted Felon.

    He was this Mephistophelian influence on all kinds of people. Confidence can be the art of creating it in others. Or, to project one’s own confidence on others to get them to join you.

    Weak minds are susceptible to the Force. I learned that over my career in entertainment. I read Tarot cards for groups and gatherings, with a focus on humane fundraisers and New Year’s Eve.

    I was saddened and worried about the numbers of people who sat down and were ready for me to issue their marching orders from the Divine. Only, that’s not how it works, for ethical reasons I have a responsibility for.

    Instead, I used therapy redirectives to not let them use me to make up their mind. Instead, we would delve into what they really wanted.

    Which led to productive discussions about how to get there. And why it’s always a bad idea to change your life into what everyone wants that life to be. When it is yours, and this is how you can learn to listen to your best self.

    If they were facing big decisions, let at least this one person — even this one time — stick up for them.

  22. 22.

    Frankensteinbeck

    This isn’t the first time Trump’s music has been questionable.  Yes, there are people in his orbit who are not loyal.  After watching his administration that can’t be a surprise.

    And again, Trump has been coasting because the press handled the campaign for him.  He’s been this incompetent but it didn’t matter.  See the debate, where independents thought Trump’s Hitler impersonation was worse than Biden’s age – until the press smelled blood and launched a “Biden must drop out” frenzy.

    His Biden comeback fantasy is just pathetic.  I wonder if his syncophants are going “Yes, oh genius, it will happen!”?  It sounds like a narcissist’s standard spur of the moment bullshit he latches onto and forgets it was bullshit.

  24. 24.

    WereBear

    @VeniceRiley: Actually, I took her advice to mean we would not get down in the mud and wrestle with pigs. I took it as we should outsmart/outwit/outmaneuver these deeply dysfunctional people with too much money.

    But it is clear now that this actually is a work in progress. By all means, let’s showcase how we are better for the job.

    The Convicted Felon has dominated the conversation because that is what he does. But Our New Democrats might only be emergency votes because the dementia seems to have removed that Svengali superpower.

    Maybe we only have enough crossover because now their creature scares them. Not like they finally accepted the Enlightenment.

  25. 25.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @WereBear:

    for ethical reasons I have a responsibility for

    Are there fortune teller ethics codes?  That aren’t just personal?  I wouldn’t think so, but life is full of unexpected details.

  26. 26.

    Shalimar

    @TBone: I’m not sure what word he uses after “fucking”, but it doesn’t really sound like bitch.  What is most surprising to me is that he pronounces Kamala correctly.  That was unexpected.

  27. 27.

    TBone

    @Shalimar: I distinctly heard it, as did everyone reacting on Xitter.  It’s not a surprise, and I knew he could pronounce her name when he wants to.  He’s just such a schmuck!

    What else rhymes with “fucking bitch?”

    Ducking itch.  Lucky twitch.  Not likely 😆

    Also: “old, broken down pile of crap.” Always projecting!

  28. 28.

    WereBear

    @Frankensteinbeck: NY law states it is for “entertainment purposes only.” And those who come to Tarot as a spiritual quest should always keep ethics in mind.

    As a humanitarian, I was staggered by how easily someone had been swayed into something they really didn’t want.

    I felt the least I could do was share the anonymous people who — in private readings — sobbed out sad tales of how screwed up their life was because they couldn’t assert their true selves when needed.

    But yes, it’s personal. In all walks of life there are ethical practitioners, and otherwise.

  30. 30.

    Shalimar

    @TBone: maybe “she’s just a fucking bitch, so”.  but he mumbles the bitch part and there is an extra syllable on the end that makes it sound like a different word.

  31. 31.

    Craig

    @NotMax: I remember seeing that as a kid and thinking: WTF, this is not something I’ve ever seen before. Brilliant strange movie.

  32. 32.

    TBone

    @Frankensteinbeck: during. He brags about knocking Biden out of the race due to debate, saying he just announced he’s leaving.  “Now it’s Kamala” perfectly pronounced.

  34. 34.

    Princess

    Weird choice for Trump to bring his drug dealer with him to Montana (or maybe not…) I realize Trump was only there supporting Shelby whatshisname because he has a grudge against Tester for knocking out Jackson but I doubt even his base at the rally is going to be motivated by avenging Jackson.

  35. 35.

    Princess

    @TBone: I hear “fucking bitch”.

    The other thing I notice is that he tells them Biden is stepping down, then the slur against Harris, then on Russia and China, then he tells them again that Biden is stepping down, as if he hadn’t just told them that. That’s an Alzheimer’s thing.

  36. 36.

    Tony Jay

    The whole Stench/Couch ‘24 ‘We’ll F##k Anything’ campaign is clearly an absolute shamblewreck. Pretty much due to the fact that, up until a couple of weeks ago, it effectively didn’t exist. The RNC had been retasked into a funding mechanism for Mr Crime Time, the VP slot was up for auction and all the downballot races were exercises in seeing who could pander to the Base by being the most excruciatingly creepy in displaying loyalty to the Smell That Walks. The only campaigning was being done gratis by the corporate media and allied PACs, and most of that was anti-Democrat rather than pro-GOP.

    Biden swishing the red cloak and stepping aside so adroitly opened Felonious D’s throat to Kamala’s blade and now he’s thrashing around in the blood-dewed dust while it all drains away.

    It’s great to see.

  37. 37.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Princess:

    Petty grievance and revenge has been his lifelong code, and got him the presidency.  His base envies his open spite and it thrills them.  He’s lost the ability to consistently focus so his grievances seem like their grievances, but he’s following a long-established code.

  40. 40.

    Sid

    @Shalimar: I’m listening through a high quality set of headphones, and it sounded like “she’s a fucking bitch”.

    But even if it didn’t, that’s what I’d be going with, and you should too- you know that they fucking would.

  41. 41.

    Barry

    @ShadeTail: ​
     

    “There’s a saboteur in the Trump campaign? And the problem with that, Mr. Swalwell, is…what, exactly? Seems to me that’s a *GOOD* thing. They may not have the same goals as us, but if they intend to push Trump to self-destruct then that’s to our advantage.”

    Remember that 95%+ of the media *want* Trump to win. They hate boring competence, they feel immune from the consequences, and their billionaire owners are drooling over tax cuts.

  42. 42.

    MomSense

    If anyone is interested, Joshua Doss is a pollster who breaks down the meaning of the polls.  He goes by Doss.discourse

    Brilliant man.  Lots of campaign experience and knowledge on issues.  His videos are excellent.

  43. 43.

    Shalimar

    @Sid: Of course.  I have absolutely no trouble supporting all of the people who hear it.  I am sure he has said it many times, and just because it is fuzzy to me doesn’t mean everyone who does hear it is wrong.  And it doesn’t really sound like a word to me, so if he did say something else, he should at least have to say what it supposedly was.  If you’re explaining, you’re losing.

  46. 46.

    trnc

    @ShadeTail: There’s a saboteur in the Trump campaign? And the problem with that, Mr. Swalwell, is…what, exactly? Seems to me that’s a *GOOD* thing.

    Check your snark meter.

  49. 49.

    4D*hiker

    A positive secondary effect of Biden’s decision to step down is that it knocked all the photos off the front news pages of a bloody-faced Trump raising his fist above his huddling SS gaggle. Americans, well-marinated in the sentimental Hollywood clap trap of patriotic heroes, are stupidly susceptible to these kinds of visual propaganda. Trump knows that instinctively.

    Biden was the true patriot/ hero when he put country above his own ego and ambitions. Huge story, but no blood or fists in sight.

    But still much work to be done in this election….

  50. 50.

    trnc

    @Shalimar: ​
     

    maybe “she’s just a fucking bitch, so”. but he mumbles the bitch part and there is an extra syllable on the end that makes it sound like a different word.

    He trails off because part of his lizard brain realized he shouldn’t say that on camera. It’s ni-clang 2024.

  51. 51.

    jefft452

    @NotMax: ‘ “He who slings mud generally loses ground.”
    – Adlai Stevenson’

    He was able to lose big without sling mud

  52. 52.

    Ken

    @ShadeTail: Swalwell may be trying to mess with Trump’s mind, planting the idea that the people on his campaign staff are disloyal so he gets all paranoid and hides in his Mar-a-Lago leaderbunker.

    Then again, the release of the video (see TBone@19) suggests there’s someone who’s both close to him and despises him. I wonder where Melania was that day.

  53. 53.

    Sid

    @4D*hiker: I saw a yard sign yesterday with an image of Trump raising his fist and “Fight”.

    Of course, being fluent in MAGA due to living in an area where it’s commonly spoken, I immediately translated that to ‘I’m With Stupid’, with an arrow pointing at Trump.

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    I suspect Ronny Jackson was always a lying, abusive, hard-right douchebag. His workplace misconduct predates the association with Trump and indicates poor character that renders his later enthusiasm for the orange fart cloud totally predictable.

    Like many rank-and-file MAGA dopes, he got permission from the degenerate convicted felon to let his freak flag fly in public. The joke is on the Obama staffers who defended Jackson before his nature was revealed to all.

  55. 55.

    Sid

    @Ken: Along with the assassination attempt and the (alleged) email hack, if this shit keeps up maybe he’ll be in a bunker by election day.

  56. 56.

    Ken

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: Goodfellas-style bust-out, maybe?

    That was suggested in one of last night’s threads. Someone pointed out that the crypto bros, who are largely Trump supporters, have a habit of “rug-pulling” when one of their projects starts to founder. This is basically a bust-out under another name.

  57. 57.

    Ken

    @Baud: I realized too late on life how many people are week minded.

    Tell me about it. There’s someone at work who, every Thursday, posts in slack the same damn meme — an animated GIF of Drew Carey white-people dancing, with “You call it Thursday, I call it Friday eve!” Yes, very funny, though perhaps less so after 500 repetitions…

  58. 58.

    Ken

    @Shalimar: If you’re explaining, you’re losing.

    Exactly. It will be delightful if the Trump campaign has to waste a week or two on this, especially as that will bring it to the attention of more people.

  59. 59.

    TBone

    More proof that Medicare disAdvantage is a scam, as if we needed yet more proof:

    Millions of times each year, insurers send nurses into the homes of Medicare recipients to look them over, run tests and ask dozens of questions.
    The nurses aren’t there to treat anyone. They are gathering new diagnoses that entitle private Medicare Advantage insurers to collect extra money from the federal government.

    A Wall Street Journal investigation of insurer home visits found the companies pushed nurses to run screening tests and add unusual diagnoses, turning the roughly hourlong stops in patients’ homes into an extra $1,818 per visit, on average, from 2019 to 2021. Those payments added up to about $15 billion during that period, according to a Journal analysis of Medicare data.

    https://archive.ph/cp8Q4

  60. 60.

    Betty Cracker

    My “Mind Your Own Damn Business” t-shirt is on the way. Greatest campaign slogan ever!

  63. 63.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Tony Jay: YouTube served me up a Trump fundraising ad for some reason the other day–it was Donald leaning into the camera, looking awful and haggard and droning about how “we easily beat Crooked Joe Biden, the worst President in American history” and then snipping about how now we have to beat Harris, only I clicked away around that moment.

  64. 64.

    4D*hiker

    @Sid:

    Yep. Heh heh. If Trump continues to flounder, the negative social pressure on these dopes will grow. Good. Make America Embarrassed Again. The social value of shame and embarrassment has been markedly attenuated in the Age of Trumpism.

  65. 65.

    zhena gogolia

    @TBone: Okay, since there’s been some discussion about when this was taken — I saw it a day or two after the debate. Somebody posted it here. It was long before Biden actually dropped out.

  66. 66.

    TBone

    Expounding on crypto – A lot of good points made here.  If you can’t pay your taxes with it, it is not a “currency.”  What is it, then?  Another scam.

    So, my question is, why are there some people, most especially on the far right of American politics who are so desperately keen to promote crypto as if it is something of immense value? And, my answer is that I can only find one political explanation for crypto, and that is that it undermines the role of the state.

    https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/08/10/whatever-else-is-claimed-about-it-crypto-is-not-a-currency/

  69. 69.

    TBone

    @Matt McIrvin: We got a mailing from:

    “The Trump National Committee JFC”

    that enclosed a huge survey with a ton of loaded, lopsided questions to answer, wrapped in a four-paged moneybeg letter dated “Friday Morning.”

    I wanna know what the JFC stands for 😆

    JFC we’re out of money!

    Later I might list some of the survey questions from the huge cardstock survey enclosure.

  70. 70.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TBone:

    it undermines the role of the state.

    That is the explicitly stated virtue that crypto bros claimed was its primary purpose.  Of course, its primary purpose is a vehicle for con men, and probably was from the beginning, but they say it’s to destroy the government’s control over money.

  74. 74.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Frankensteinbeck: It’s the same basic scam as the gold salesmen, or the people telling you to HODL GameStop stock for the Mother of All Short Squeezes–some kind of apocalyptic crisis is going to happen that destroys the current world system, and afterward, if you’re holding this one weird asset you’ll be King of the World!!! Along with all the other Kings of the World!!! who listened I guess.

  75. 75.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: He’s trying to frame Biden dropping out of the race as him winning. Which, if you just think about the debate and ignore everything that happened afterward, makes a kind of sense, but the only problem is that everything about the guy’s expression and demeanor while he says this is saying the opposite.

  78. 78.

    Ken

    @Matt McIrvin: some kind of apocalyptic crisis is going to happen that destroys the current world system, and afterward, if you’re holding this one weird asset you’ll be King of the World!!!

    I cut the goldbugs some slack on this, since they have actual shiny metal and maybe someone will take an ounce or two of it for a few pounds of potatoes.

    But thinking crypto tokens will be worth anything in a societal-collapse scenario, where there’s a good chance both internet and electric grid will not be functional, is idiocy.

  79. 79.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Princess: I think that’s a reason but not the only reason. My guess is that after stiffing so many venues he’s running out of places willing to host his rallies unless the venue gets paid in advance and HE doesn’t want to pay, so his rallies will mostly be in places where he can find some other presumably rich schmuck to foot the bill. Which might be in a swing State sometimes but often not. Someone in Montana, probably that rich Senate candidate, paid for the venue so he went there.

  80. 80.

    bbleh

    @Tony Jay: love the metaphor, but I’d modify it slightly.  Joe stepped aside, Kamala and Tim threw a couple of banderillas that just maddened him further, and he charged headlong into a wall where he broke off a horn and stabbed it into his own eye.

    Which is a mangled way of saying, I don’t think they’re winning; I think he’s losing.  And I don’t think HE was winning before; I think Joe was losing.

    Apart from a few barbs like “weird,” Kamala and Tim haven’t really attacked the Felon frontally.  And it wasn’t like the Felon’s campaign went after Joe very hard except to pile on what the media had been doing for them for a year or more; they just coasted.

    Very odd election …

  81. 81.

    Percysowner

    @WereBear: ​
     Years ago, early in his Presidency, I decided that if I ever got a chance to meet The Orange One, I would pass. Apparently, he has in person charisma that pulls people into the black hole of his way of thinking. Maybe they are weak to begin with. Maybe he just pulls out their darker nature. In any case, I would avoid him at all costs, and not just because I can’t stand the sound of his voice.

    I never watched The Apprentice and kind of forgot that he appeared in movies. He never registered with me as a person. When he did become unavoidable, I decided I just can’t see why people like him so much. I have no intention of ever finding out why they do, but he does seem able to corrupt people that I would have thought weren’t likely to be corrupted.

  87. 87.

    Matt McIrvin

    @bbleh:

    Which is a mangled way of saying, I don’t think they’re winning; I think he’s losing.  And I don’t think HE was winning before; I think Joe was losing.

    I guess I slightly disagree–Harris and Walz have something right now that we haven’t seen in a while, which is a groundswell of actual positive future-oriented enthusiasm for the candidates, independent of the need to beat Trump.

    Even Biden in 2020 was more of a reassurance play in a frightening time of crisis with an idiot at the wheel.

    Hillary Clinton emphasized the historic nature of her candidacy and got some feminist support for that, but it wasn’t enough to overcome every asshole in the country seeing representation in Donald Trump, while normies told themselves he didn’t really mean it. And we’re seeing that again, somehow, so we need more.

    This feels a bit more like 2008. Except that the Democrats are walking this unusual tightrope, in that it’s clearly a “change” year and they’re the incumbent party, just running new candidates. Normally, on paper, that would be a fatal combination. But if people genuinely like the candidates and see them as a breath of fresh air, if they’re actually for these candidates rather than running on negative partisanship, maybe it’s not.

  88. 88.

    Trivia Man

    @Ken: or he thought it made him look good to tip $100 to a caddy and assumed that would be the important take away

  89. 89.

    Kathleen

    @WereBear: I’m a big fan of Tarot as a tool of self understanding vs “divination”. There are a few on You Tube I follow and yes, every single reader on You Tube has the blurb about “entertainment purposes only”. It supports ethics and the tarot reader IMHO.

  90. 90.

    artem1s

    @Ken: ​

    I cut the goldbugs some slack on this, since they have actual shiny metal and maybe someone will take an ounce or two of it for a few pounds of potatoes.

    They shouldn’t get cut any slack. Even if you thought you had a realistic chance of surviving a nuclear war or meteor strike, no one who has studied any history or the economics of supply and demand would believe you’d be able to trade gold for food or anything that was consumable or in short supply. And moving it around and securing it has always been a problem for nation states. It wouldn’t be any different in a post-apocalyptic world. They only latched onto gold because of that stupid bint Ayn Rand.The pandemic pretty much put all their alternate currency fantasies to rest. I challenge anyone to show me one individual who was able to obtain toilet paper or PPE during the pandemic based on their horded gold stash or balance in their bitcoin account. Supply chain is far more important to commerce than payment method. If you are 3000 miles away from the point of production, no way is your bitcoin balance going to get you that broken part for your tractor.*
    *Now picturing in my minds eye some bitcoin Edge Lord trying to plow a field with his Incel ClusterTruck.​

  91. 91.

    wjca

    @Princess:  I have think it’s “I drove him out of the race.”

    You guys are over-thinking this.  When he says “I beat Joe Biden” he’s merely reprising his 2020 stolen election theme.  Nothing to do with 2024 at all.

Comments are closed.