Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

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

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

When we show up, we win.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Come on, man.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

In after Baud. Damn.

The willow is too close to the house.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

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

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Point. Mock.

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Point. Mock.

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Yeah, but there’s always TFG’s Vice Presidential pick…

Reader Interactions

201Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffro

    hey whoa Whoa WHOA there, Aaron Blake!  Let’s not get the opposition fired up!!

    (but yes…we are dreaming of a trifecta this November =)

    What seemed largely out of reach less than a month ago deserves some consideration in the vastly changed political universe.

    The bottom line? A Democratic triple play remains tough, particularly when it comes to holding their narrow Senate majority, mostly because the map is so challenging for the party. But Harris’s candidacy has to tempt Democrats to start thinking bigger.

    such loser stink on the GOP side!

    ah well…I’m going to do my part to keep VA secure and help deliver NC too!  GO BLUE!!!

  8. 8.

    Yutsano

    Jeebus. I’m feeling so frisky about blue chances that I want Marsha Blackburn tears.

    Tay-Tay, go get her!

  9. 9.

    Joe Falco

    Why anyone would choose to go to a “rally” outside without any cover from the sun in the middle of summer is beyond this southern white guy.

  10. 10.

    gratuitous

    Oh, they have a ready-made bag of excuses when their rallies turn out to be not so well attended:

    That footage is from two hours before the start! We filled the arena (no pictures for some reason) and at least five times as many people were turned away.

    A car broke down in the parking lot entrance and nobody could get in.

    BLM and radical libs reserved all the online tickets, and then didn’t show up.

    And on and on.

    I think the overalls guy is Cole, preparing to unleash Steve.

  11. 11.

    VFX Lurker

    Six Star Trek folks, four astronauts, and Bill Nye the Science Guy will fundraise for Harris-Walz tomorrow at 8pm Eastern – Space Cadets for Harris. Click the link to see the speaker lineup.

    Folks who register must answer this question:

    Tell us why you are excited about the Harris/Walz campaign, and/or space exploration?

    I wrote:

    Harris/Walz AND space exploration represent our future.

  12. 12.

    Scout211

    Since we discussed all these fabulous point and mock things about Trump and Vance downstairs, I want to highlight this comment from  Barbara downstairs for the evening crew:

    Her mom was able to live with them for a year and take care of their firstborn because she had a job she knew she could go back to — she took a sabbatical from her job as a tenured professor at the University of California at San Diego.  Does JD Vance thank the great state of California for being willing, as an employer, to have employment policies that permit people to better integrate their personal and work lives?  No he does not.

    But let it sink in that statement — “the whole purpose of a postmenopausal female” — is said in context about a woman who is still a full-time professor of biology at the University of California.

    No wonder these two idiots are losing the wimmens.

  13. 13.

    MazeDancer

    Nicolle Wallace did a segment with the head of Media Matters about “Dawn’s Early Light”, the Project 2025 book to which Vance wrote the forward.

    Scary does not begin to describe it.

    JD and Friends want to make women, by law, have to have babies. No birth control. Just babies.

    Here is Media Matters report.

  16. 16.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Scout211: No wonder these two idiots are losing the wimmens.

    I can’t remember whether it was here or elsewhere that I read a comment about women asking if there was a way to vote and make sure there was no way their husbands could find out how they voted.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    @Poe Larity

    Wit a lunatic like Robinson on the R ticket for governor, you betcha. Incentive for sane people to come out en masse and vote D.

  25. 25.

    Scout211

    Trump back tracks when reporter confronts him about Harris rally AI lie.

    Trump’s accusation was ― spoiler alert ― completely bogus, which the Harris campaign proved in a post on X showing “a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan,” numbers that aligned with local news reports.

    . . .

    One reporter directly challenged Trump about his claim on Wednesday, right after he cast his primary ballot in West Palm Beach, Florida.

    She asked Trump, “You said Harris’ crowd sizes were AI and that there weren’t people there. There’s all kinds of video evidence from people who were there who have proven that false. Can you tell us about why you made that claim?”

    “Well, I can’t say what was there, who was there,” Trump admitted.

    He then immediately pivoted to one of his favorite subjects: the size of his own crowds. “I can only tell you about ours. We have the biggest crowds ever in the history of politics.”

    So did he really back track or avoid the question? My guess is that he gives his social media team free rein and he has no idea that they wrote that on his social.  Or maybe he did but can’t remember it.

    But he is correct.  He can’t say what was there or who was there.

    Idiot.

  26. 26.

    Steve in the ATL

    Trump rallies are sad, but do you know what’s sadder?  I have to go to Cedar Rapids soon.  Any must-see or must-do items?  Haha, kidding—of course there aren’t!  If I ask for farm to table type restaurants, will I be told, “well, there’s a Bob Evans off I-80 south of town!”?

  27. 27.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Since we are in point and mock mode (and because it is so damn true), sharing this from below/dead thread:

    (Magdi Jacobs again on Xitter):

    I don’t think that, in general, people realize just how horny conservative men are for liberal women.

    It’s weird. Like there’s these men who are legitimately intimidated by liberal women and they think they can “fuck” their way out of itl, but then liberal women are like, “Having a conversation with you makes me feel like a desert in Arizona,” & the men can’t stand it.

    Kamala Harris is bringing this out to some extent. The Republican Party seems steeped in a “deeply frustrated boner” aura.

    Liberal women are the “whore” in the conservative man’s Virgin/Whore paradigm except there are a few problems, the first of which is that liberal women have no respect for conservative men & the second of which is that liberal women won’t have sex with conservative men.

    The whole atmosphere turns into a type of “raging-blue-balls” situation wherein the frustrated conservative man cannot fuck his way into being respected, or talk or think his way into being respected, & so he then starts just sputtering random insults that make no damn sense.

    Anyway, that’s the process conservative men go through when speaking to liberal women on the internet and also in real life. It’s so predictable that it’s become somewhat sad. Or “Sad!” in terms conservative men might understand.

  29. 29.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    only holds 2,400 people

    “I am big, it’s the pictures that got small!”

  30. 30.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @MazeDancer: do we need a constitutional amendment so birth control is a human right, that can’t be taken away?

    Not even most Catholics are against birth control, not anymore.

    amy coney Barrett, mrs catholic cultist, isn’t pregnant all the time; it’s either the death Of sex, at her house, or they’re using something

  31. 31.

    Miki

    In the meantime, in the real world, juvenile orca males apparently like to play. https://wapo.st/3yIkUhB (gift link)

    If flipping boats loses its appeal, there’s always swimming around with dead fish on your head. There’s a Trump joke in there somewhere ….

  34. 34.

    Scout211

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: It was discussed downstairs and Amanda Marcotte has an article up at Salon today on that subject.

    The big question touching a nerve this election: “Can my husband find out who I am voting for?

    Can my husband find out who I am voting for in the Presidential Election?”

    Olivia Dreizen Howell, the founder of a website to help women get back on their feet after a breakup or divorce, tweeted last week, “We’ve been getting this question a lot,” so she followed up with some facts. As the Washington Post confirmed with experts, the answer is simple: “No; it will be public record that you voted, but not how you filled out your ballot.”

    It’s a useful reminder that secret ballots remain secret, even from nosy spouses. But that doesn’t explain why the original tweet from Howell went viral, racking up over 8.5 million views and 14,000 retweets. As the comments under the post suggest, most people were envisioning a specific scenario: Thousands, perhaps millions of women, saddled with Donald Trump-voting jerks for husbands, who yearn to give their vote to Vice President Kamala Harris this November. “I think ‘secret voting’ by MAGA partners is a more widespread issue than most people think,” one woman replied. Another man wrote, “As a poll worker, I have had to deal with husbands and fathers who want to join their wives or daughters in the voting booth to ‘make sure they vote the right way.'”

  35. 35.

    Steve in the ATL

    @UncleEbeneezer: isn’t it true that conservative men can attract liberal women by driving Cybertrucks?  Pretty sure I saw that confirmed on musks twitter feed.

  36. 36.

    Yutsano

    @VFX Lurker: ​ Oh wow. I’m glad they got Mike Okuda here. He’s Star Trek Royalty!

    For context, Okuda invented both the Klingon and Vulcan languages. He’s been active in just about every live action show since.

  37. 37.

    Lyrebird

    @Scout211:No wonder these two idiots are losing the wimmens.

    Yes yes yes yes!!!  We just need to keep playing this bilge from JV and all the quotes from those _sshat pundits saying reproductive health care is going to go away as an issue… except maybe with younger women…

  38. 38.

    JoyceH

    @NotMax: Yikes. I learned long ago that all you have to do is enter a Voyager discussion and say “Tuvix” to start the argument that never ends.

  39. 39.

    Omnes Omnibus

    If you run into that JV Vance audience situation, the thing to do is to make lemonade.  Acknowledge the numbers.  Move around to the front of the stage and sit down.  Invite the 12 or so people to come up close.  Then make it a conversation session.  If you have any charisma [ed. Vance doesn’t], you make a bunch of people’s day.  It works.

  42. 42.

    dmsilev

    Clearly, AI was used to *remove* people from those photos and videos. What other explanation could there possibly be?

  44. 44.

    4D*hiker

    @VFX Lurker:

    I love this! I want to be a Space Cadet for Harris when I grow up. Heh

    Seriously, I love all these different groups spotlighting support for the Democratic ticket. It really evokes a “fractal” sense of how complex and deep the democratic coalition is……yet mirrors the country as a whole (in a way that Trump’s base does not).

  46. 46.

    FelonyGovt

    This postmenopausal female has no grandchildren to help raise. I guess I’m useless and should be sent out on an ice floe.

  48. 48.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Scout211: husbands and fathers who want to join their wives or daughters in the voting booth to ‘make sure they vote the right way.

    Jesus.

    And you know those are not the kind of men who would take it peacefully when challenged.

  49. 49.

    Chet Murthy

    @Scout211: Back in 2020 I remember reading that one of the reasons conservatives liked mail-in ballots, was that the paterfamilias could “supervise” his female chattel as they filled out their ballots, in the comfort of their home.

  52. 52.

    Yutsano

    @schrodingers_cat: ​I’ve been seeing more Teslas dying around the Seattle area. I’ve also seen more than one Cybertruck. I kind of giggle because they actually look cheap and their current selling cost is well over $100,000. Elmu jacked up the prices.

  54. 54.

    Geminid

    I think former U.S. Representative and current Senate candidate Mike Rogers also spoke at Vance’s Byron Center, Michigan rally. Rogers is never going to beat Rep. Elissa Slotkin rallying with Vance!

    Vance: “So when do you want me back, Mike?”

    Rogers: “We’re good for now, JD. Why don’t you go help Bernie Moreno?”

  56. 56.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Cedar Rapids should have a special resonance for you, Steve in the CR, given your legal specialty and the fact that Cedar Rapids is the setting for the musical The Pajama Game, which is all about unions and strikes and fair wage negotiations!

  57. 57.

    Ksmiami

    Your daily reminder that go ahead and laugh etc, as long as you remember that the current GOP needs to be burnt to the fucking ground

  58. 58.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @FelonyGovt: nah. It pisses me off too. Let’s erect a yurt and grow a garden, sit around a fire pit telling stories and drumming and dancing.

    besides, what ice floes? Better hurry if that’s the plan. And you might have to share w polar bears who need a resting spot, or seals..

    meanwhile, I have been helping others raise their children, at least during the school day.

  62. 62.

    japa21

    @Omnes Omnibus: Mrs Japa and I saw our first Saturday evening.  My God that is one ugly vehicle.  We were on the tollway and it slowed down to exit and it was being driven by a young woman, which surprised us.  TX license plate, which didn’t surprise us.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    @Scout211:

    In the extended clip he goes into an explanation of “economic efficiency” and how it would have made more sense for his mother in law to just give them some money to hire help, but the mother in law wanted to help with the child and they both chuckle like “as is her proper place in life”. But it struck me that it never occurred to him he could have cared for the child. His wife had just gotten a prestigious clerkship but what was he doing? He wrote a book and he had some fake job “with” a VC. Why couldn’t he take a year off?

  70. 70.

    Kirk

    A bit of a diversion, I know, but it’s dawned on me that most of the GOP officials who know the rules are hoping T can hold it together for 84 more days. And that if he can’t, that they can keep everyone from realizing he hasn’t for 84 more days.

    For 33 states the rule is that if the candidate withdraws or is unable to take the position then the party selects a replacement according to its rules and things go forward as is. For the other 17 the rules vary, but in principle some group decides who the replacement is.  Well, except states like Louisiana which prohibit any replacement after August 23. Or Nebraska on September 8. Just for examples.

    So if you’re a Republican you’re looking at party infighting for a preferred candidate AND a bunch of states with the other guy still on the ballots, most with faithless elector laws.

    We should be so lucky, but still I dream.

  71. 71.

    VFX Lurker

    @Gloria DryGarden: I don’t know the Ellen Ripley approach. Got a link, or a quickie summary?

    On dealing with a xenomorph infestation on LV-426:

    “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” — Ellen Ripley, Aliens (1986).

    YouTube clip (nine seconds).

  72. 72.

    hueyplong

    @Omnes Omnibus: Saw my first one three weeks ago, also in Seattle. My daughter swore there was a local news item about racoons scratching them up trying to break in to what they assumed to be dumpsters.

    I so want that to be true.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought a meeting last week with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to discuss the possibility of serving in her administration, perhaps as a Cabinet secretary, if he throws his support behind her campaign and she wins, according to Kennedy campaign officials.

    Harris and her advisers have not responded with an offer to meet or shown interest in the proposal, say people familiar with the conversations.

  79. 79.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Gloria DryGarden: Others have said it, but there’s a scene where Ripley’s advice is “Take off and nuke the site from orbit.  It’s the only way to be sure.”

  81. 81.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @VFX Lurker: oh thank you. I love sigourney. That’s just beautiful.

    No wonder I didn’t get the reference; I can never see this movie. I have a horror of horror genre. It’s not for me.
    She is great!
    i think I need to see all the non scary scenes in this movie

    meanwhile, I agree. Best to sure

  84. 84.

    zhena gogolia

    @TF79: I love the idea that just any grandmother can “take a sabbatical” for a year. If she gives up her job for a year, she doesn’t have a job.

  88. 88.

    Scout211

    @Steve in the ATL: Yes, it is corn season in Iowa. The best corn on the cob anywhere.  I grew up in Iowa and do still miss the corn.

    For your upscale cuisine you could take a 30 minute drive to the Amana Colonies and feast on family style home cooked Midwestern white people food.  And then you could pick up some new wool fabric there.  You sew, right?

  90. 90.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    @gratuitous: ​
     

    I ran out of gas!
    I had a flat tyre!
    I didn’t have money for cab fare!
    My tux didn’t come back
    from the cleaners.
    And old friend came in
    from out oftown!
    Someone stole my car! There was
    an earthquake! A terrible flood!
    Locusts! It wasn’t my fault,
    I swear to God!

  92. 92.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: Or Secretary of Roadkill.

    We just read the Vanity Fair article about him. It ain’t pretty.

    My takeaway: Harris is running against two sexual predators.

  93. 93.

    Kirk

    @Steve in the ATL: Humor aside, there are some restaurants in Cedar Rapids claiming to be farm to market. I don’t live there and haven’t been through in decades so cannot judge, but the Cobble Hill and the Class Act get good local reviews. Apply grains of salt as appropriate.

  94. 94.

    Urza

    @UncleEbeneezer: There’s a corollary to this:  conservative women that are unmarried don’t particularly want to sleep with conservative men.  Unfortunately even the nice ones have issues that make it not particularly appealing to liberal men, long term at least.

  95. 95.

    NotMax

    @Yutsano

    Speaking of Tesla.

    Wheels? We don’t need no es-stinkin’ wheels.

    The US National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is recommending Tesla expand an existing service bulletin that aims to fix older Tesla Model S and X vehicles suffering suspension failures. The suggestion comes from the agency’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI), which just concluded its probe into the matter after finding 426 instances of the particular defect on Tesla vehicles.

    As reported by Ars Technica, the defect is known in the larger Tesla community as the “whompy wheel,” which is caused by fore links failing on either the right or left sides of the front suspension — often when traveling at low speeds. The affected models include Model S (2015–2017) and Model X (2016–2017) vehicles. Source

  96. 96.

    TS

    @Baud:

    Long term, the best method is divorce.

    By far the best solution – but I’m sure there is a JD plan underfoot to ensure women can be divorced but they cannot divorce.

  97. 97.

    dmsilev

    @Kay: I feel like the Harris campaign should route that phone call to the same social media team that’s doing such a great job trolling Trump and Vance. They’d give it the respect due.

  99. 99.

    dm

    @Kay: then he goes on to talk about how commoditizing family relationships is a “liberal” thing. Neoliberal, maybe. I halfway expected him to fulminate about the shortcomings of “late capitalism”.

  100. 100.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Kirk: thank you!

     

    @dm: thanks but no thanks!  Unless the bagels come with corn.

     

    @Scout211: @Marleedog: exactly!  “Sew” was a typo, right?  But I will check out the Amana Colonies.  Assuming it’s not Iowa speak for “the handmaid’s tale”

  101. 101.

    scav

    @Scout211: For the dumpling obsessed, there’s Czech Village.  Ok, maybe a distinct minority, but still . . . . kolaches as bonus . . .

  109. 109.

    BR

    I never anticipated that Vance could provide so much entertainment in such a dark timeline. Couldn’t happen to a better guy.

  110. 110.

    Princess

    @Gloria DryGarden: Amy Coathanger Barrett is 52 so very plausibly post menopausal right now. Which, according to the weird men she’ll vote for, for president and VP, means it’s high time she gave up her SCOTUS seat and started taking care of grandchildren, since she’s not good for anything else now.

  111. 111.

    Scout211

    @HumboldtBlue: I have reached out to Megan Thee Stallion and informed her she and I are going on three dates.

    I’m rooting for you Humboldt. However . . .

    Her advisers have not responded with an offer to meet or shown interest in the proposal, say people familiar with the conversations.

  113. 113.

    M31

    Vance is just the gift that keeps on giving: (from the KamalaHQ twitter feed)

    Q: What do you say to suburban women who are worried about abortion rights?

    Vance: I don’t buy that, I think suburban women care about normal things

    no that’s not weird at all

  117. 117.

    KatKapCC

    @M31: NORMAL THINGS. Because having control over our own bodies is NOT NORMAL to him.

    I hope he bangs his funny bone on a table corner every day for the rest of his life.

  120. 120.

    Nelle

    @Scout211: My neighbor’s father has a bumper crop of sweet corn this year.  His grandson rode his little pedal John Deere tractor around the neighborhood, giving away corn.  We’ve had three bags given to us already.

  123. 123.

    wjca

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: And you know those are not the kind of men who would take it peacefully when challenged.

    The one I challenged did.  Of course, it may help that, at 6’3″, I was significantly taller than him.  And apparently in good shape.**  He whined a little, but he moved.

    ** Plus, I have been around theater enough to know how to use body language.  Didn’t need it this time.  But I do know how to say, without words, “Get out of my way, or I’m walking over your corpse!”  [Directions available on request]  And, from the side, it just looks like I slumped a little.  Avoids discussions about assault.

  125. 125.

    Betty Cracker

    When is the Postmenopausal Females for Harris-Walz fundraiser?

    Jesus, these people are BAD at this…

  126. 126.

    Scout211

    @Nelle: I love that!

    One of our neighbors when I was growing up had a field of sweet corn right across the road from their house.  The kids sold the corn from their front porch and my mom had us walk over there to buy corn from them most days that it was in season. One year they grew Kandy Korn sweet corn and I thought I’d died and had gone to heaven.  I’ve never tasted sweet corn quite that sweet before.

  127. 127.

    Kay

     

    Vice President Kamala Harris (D): “Today, Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment to protect a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body. Voters turned out to safeguard reproductive rights and prevent extremists from enforcing an abortion ban that would harm women and criminalize doctors. The results in Ohio underscore what the vast majority of Americans believe: politicians should not interfere in decisions that should be between a woman and her doctor.

    Maybe the Senator from Ohio doesn’t know this happened.

  135. 135.

    VFX Lurker

    @schrodingers_cat: What’s your nym on Twitter are we mutuals?

    I stopped posting to Twitter after the terrible person bought it, but I still use my account to read Ragnarok Lobster every day.

    My account should still be following yours, though!

  139. 139.

    wjca

    @TS:  I’m sure there is a JD plan underfoot to ensure women can be divorced but they cannot divorce.

    Kind of hoping that, the day after he loses the election, she files for divorce.

  140. 140.

    Ken

    @Omnes Omnibus:  Has anyone considered that Vance may be a deep cover Democratic mole who has finally been moved into position and activated?

    I’m hoping it’s crossed Trump’s mind, or what passes for it these days.

  143. 143.

    CliosFanboy

    The precinct where I used to work as an election officer had a bunch of elderly Vietnamese voters. Several times I saw the husband check the wife’s ballot before letting her cast it.

  145. 145.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Seattle area jackals… As far as meet-up while I’m in town Aug. 22-23, CaseyL, Yutsano, and BeautifulPlumage have expressed interest. PaulB said he can’t make it, and I haven’t heard from Dan B (don’t think he was here on Tuesday). Did I miss anyone?

    I believe Yutsano said he’s only available Aug. 22, which is a Thursday.

    gwangung has his play at the Theatre Off Jackson both evenings, but there might be an opportunity to meet up beforehand (doors at 7, show at 7:30) if people are interested in an early dinner or pre-dinner drink.

    Thoughts?

  148. 148.

    Geminid

    @VFX Lurker: I see former NASA official George Whitesides is on the Space Cadets event roster. He is running for Congress in Southern California, trying to knock Mike Garcia out of Katie Hill’s old seat.

  149. 149.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Has anyone considered that Vance may be a deep cover Democratic mole who has finally been moved into position and activated?

    Nah. He’s just a typical aggrieved white male culture warrior who has both Mommy and Daddy issues to the nth degree, like Tuckums and Dreher.

  150. 150.

    Scout211

    @Omnes Omnibus: Has anyone considered that Vance may be a deep cover Democratic mole who has finally been moved into position and activated?

    Now there’s a “thought experiment” that would be fun to spread.  Make Vance and Trump disprove it. I bet they can’t.

  151. 151.

    VFX Lurker

    @Geminid: I see former NASA official George Whitesides is on the Space Cadets event roster. He is running for Congress in Southern California, trying to knock Mike Garcia out of Katie Hill’s old seat.

    Oh, good catch! I signed up to write the minimum (200) Postcards to Swing States for that district (CA-27). Looking forwards to helping George Whitesides win.

  152. 152.

    HumboldtBlue

    WASHINGTON — More than 1,000 veterans and military family members have signed an open letter saying they are “appalled at Donald Trump and JD Vance’s politically motivated attacks” on the military service of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz.

    The letter, circulated with help from the left-leaning veterans advocacy group VoteVets, comes as Walz’s 24-year record in the Army National Guard has become a target of the Trump campaign. Vance, Trump’s running-mate, a U.S. senator from Ohio and also a fellow veteran, has attacked Walz’s 2005 retirement from the military prior to his battalion’s deployment to Iraq.

  153. 153.

    Betty Cracker

    The Tampa Bay Times did one of those dumb check-ins on undecided voters the other day, and a woman they interviewed said she’d probably vote for Trump but maybe RFK Jr. because she “always liked the Kennedy family.” Idiot. His own family have been shouting from the rooftops not to vote for him!

    Something is seriously wrong with that dude. Saw a picture of him the other day, and he looked like King Théoden in LOTR when he was possessed by Saruman. Seriously, his skin was all chalky and his face looked like a bizarre mask. He’s not a well man. Trump will probably offer to put him in charge of HHS. All the weirdos can hang together.

  154. 154.

    sdhays

    @Betty Cracker: She is an idiot, but Florida has more than its fair share of idiots since they flock there from the rest of the country to retire. It would be so sweet if RFK Jr. on the ballot tipped the balance to Harris. A partial amend for Nader in 2000.

  156. 156.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
     

    astonishing in his ability to keep vomiting out different offensive comments

    Missed the first part of this. Were you referring to Omnes or me or both of us?

  159. 159.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Omnes Omnibus: Milwaukee music question: is there a decent quality recording of In a Hot Coma’s “I wanna stay up all night” or is it all 1970’s protopunk lo-fi?

  161. 161.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Scout211:

    @Omnes Omnibus: Has anyone considered that Vance may be a deep cover Democratic mole …

    That would be deep cover indeed.

    I doubt that, but what about the golf cart clip? Who leaked that one?

  164. 164.

    Captain C

    That JV Vance rally has a Jeb “Please clap!” vibe to it.  Come to think of it, JV is kind of like a Dollar Store Jeb with a beard and a mean streak (and no patrician family).

  165. 165.

    Chet Murthy

    @wjca: I have no sympathy for her (she’s a MAGAt just like hubs) but OTOH, sure, if she can make his life a misery, that’s great!  Root for injuries.  I just feel bad for the kids; maybe they can go live with their Ammamma (at least in Kannadiga, the word for grandmother).

  167. 167.

    SatanicPanic

    No one ever talks about liberal men and whether they would date conservative women.

    (Or whether liberal men would date conservative men)

    In case anyone’s curious my answer would have been no but I never really met any so I never got the chance to turn one down.

  168. 168.

    Captain C

    @Scout211:

    He then immediately pivoted to one of his favorite subjects: the size of his own crowds. “I can only tell you about ours. We have the biggest crowds ever in the history of politics.”

    At heart, he’s still a small-time lying, overhyping everything used car salesman who exaggerates everything and who lucked into an enormous inheritance that included a real estate empire and necessary connections.

  169. 169.

    wjca

    @Sister Golden Bear: “JV Vance is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”

    Wow! What a horrible life she must have had for any part of that to be true.

  178. 178.

    sab

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Weirdly tho’ in Ohio where I live,  almost every grandmother I know who can afford to and is allowed to is taking over daycare for grandchildren.

    My mother in Akron 40 years ago drove from Akron to Columbus every day (two hours) to take care of her first grandchild, and then back home to Akron (two hours) to throw dinner together for Dad. Five days a week for years.

    She always wondered why the rest of us never had children. We told her that only the firstborn had missed the memo that she would refuse to help with childcare.

    And she had been adamant that she would refuse to help with childcare.

    All of my sisters in law do help a lot with grandchild care. So I don’t think JD Vance was out of sync with a lot of older Ohio women, or their daughters and daughters-in-law.

  180. 180.

    VFX Lurker

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    oh thank you. I love sigourney. That’s just beautiful.

    No wonder I didn’t get the reference; I can never see this movie. I have a horror of horror genre. It’s not for me.
    She is great!
    i think I need to see all the non scary scenes in this movie

    meanwhile, I agree. Best to sure

    If it helps, James Cameron’s Aliens is an action movie with horror overtones, a female lead and a gender-balanced cast. I saw it when I very much needed to see it at age 11. It’s still one of my favorite films.

    Aliens does not require watching Ridley Scott’s Alien, which is one of the greatest horror films of all time. Aliens works as a standalone action movie.

    I also prefer the longer “special edition” of Aliens, which has more story, more character moments and the great sentry gun scenes.

  181. 181.

    Chet Murthy

    @VFX Lurker: I concur.  I also have difficulty watching horror movies.  I almost fainted in Alien III when [ok,  scene redacted — the first time Ripley encounters the xenomorph].  I almost fainted in a Grace Jones vampire flick when it looked like the sweet-faced guy was gonna get eaten in the first 10min.  But I was able to watch Aliens without problem.  Hell, we clapped at the final credits.  WWII in Outer Space.

  182. 182.

    allium

    @Yutsano: Slight correction – it was Mark Okrand who invented Klingon. Mike Okuda has as much, if not more, of an influence on Star Trek with the design language he developed for the post-TOS shows.

  185. 185.

    Chet Murthy

    @Captain C: I have heard even ostensibly liberal men say (about the 27-year-old girlfriend) that the trick is to get her pregnant, so she won’t wander off.  I shit you not.

  187. 187.

    jonas

    @MazeDancer: JD and Friends want to make women, by law, have to have babies. No birth control. Just babies

    The Handmaid’s Tale was supposed to be a dystopian horror story, not a masturbatory fantasy.

  192. 192.

    jonas

    @M31: Vance’s interior monologue: “Hah! I’ll flip that ‘weirdo’ meme back on them by suggesting that caring about reproductive rights is ‘weird’. Check and mate, libs!

    This guy went to Yale?

  194. 194.

    jonas

    @sab: Indeed, grandparents helping out with childcare and childrearing is the norm in a lot of cultures and in a lot of families across America. Folks should be careful before using Vance’s idiotic comment — and I’ll come to that in a moment — to rip on the idea that this is outrageous or stupid or something.

    What Vance suggests is that once a woman has passed her childbearing years, her only function is to assist her still-nubile and fertile daughter in the business of childcare, optimally 6 or 8 kids in homemade prairie dress being home-schooled. That’s bullshit. The non-asshole take is to recognize that this is common and ask, how can public policy support families where, say, a grandparent (and why does it have to be the mother?) takes time off from work to assist in childcare? Or even in retirement? Could Medicaid, for example, be reformed to reimburse family childcare givers the same way it pays for eldercare, e.g.?

  197. 197.

    Randal Sexton

    @Yutsano: I always wanna plug the Ford F150 Lightning – first electric vehicle that has liberated its battery ! You can use its battery to power ANYTHING!  ( I evangelize cuz I am a early adopter/sucker )

  200. 200.

    Dave

    @Captain C: It’s a contradictory group.

     

    You have on the extreme ends your Dreher’s who I’m not even going to try to parse except you know he absolutely doesn’t believe that women can enjoy sex and the other side you have the guys who’s self image is cigar smoking, whiskey drinking, brilliant, badass sex machines.

    It’s usually delusional but the second category are the ones that think they can screw the liberalism out of women. They also assume any liberal/leftish man is basically a women themselves or an over the top 80’s stereotype of a prancing primping gay man.

    Hence a lot of the rage when reality doesn’t like up.

    As for Vance’s comments well I’ve seen people like him that bought into our corporate culture or whatever you want to call it and think because that culture engages in green and pink washing and has a facade of polite social liberalism that it represents liberals and liberalism in general. It’s also gospel to them that we all fully buy into any green/pink washing that is presented to us.

    The irony is that the way he speaks shows he fully bought into it but instead of recognizing the BS line that those institutions push he did the classic true believer thing and went to crazy town when he rejected it.

    I have a friend like this came from much worse circumstances than Vance did a lot more war (we both did) and did the corporate ladder climbing for a lot longer.

    However when he realized how screwed up it and he was he rejected it but because he is inclined towards large gestures he ended up hanging out in the shallow end of the neo reactionaries and manosphere.

    It would bother me more but he retired is living a quiet hobby filled life in New Hampshire and vibing into that crazy and I figure that’s about the best of reasonable outcomes available for him.

    So I humor him and challenge the really toxic stuff.

  201. 201.

    andy

    @NotMax: you know, i had a Tesla sedan pull up beside me at a stop and i swore i could hear springs creaking like it was a thirty year old beater. i’m glad it wasn’t in my head!

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