Gary Leglum at Wonkette has a post about a recent op-ed in the NYT by Republican consultant Juliana Glover, who’s losing sleep over the possibility that Trump might, just maybe, perhaps steal/grift from the campaign like he does from every other goddam thing he’s ever been involved in:
Glover is big concerned because the Trump campaign seems to be repeating its actions in 2020 when many of the donations it brought in “went into a legal and financial black hole reportedly controlled by Trump family members and close associates.”
One of the many grifts that Glover names is that the biggest spend of the Trump 2020 campaign was with a media consulting firm whose ownership is secret, but is probably run by Lara Trump.
Gary’s post is worth reading, but I’m not even going to pretend to put on my shocked face when it comes to this. Though I will share an anecdote that might explain just a little bit about why Republicans aren’t up in arms about this (yet).
I was talking politics with a family member who’s a hardcore Republican, but not the kind that flies Trump flags. He’s an intelligent guy, and our conversation was mostly about nuts-and-bolts, common-ground stuff like our shared concern that an uninformed slice of the population is going to decide the election. I mentioned that the one thing I’d be worrying about if I were in his shoes would be fundraising — Trump isn’t doing enough, PACs can’t spend money in the directed ways that a campaign can, etc. If you read this blog you know the issue, and it’s the same one consultant Glover is concerned about.
Anyway, I contrasted Trump’s fundraising with Act Blue and the Democrats’ small-dollar donations, and he just gave me a blank stare. He had never heard of Act Blue or how Democratic campaigns up and down the ballot leverage small-dollar donors. He lives in a Fox bubble, and apparently they don’t even talk about the big difference between Republican and Democratic fundraising. So, at least part of the answer as to why Republicans aren’t pissed about the way Trump grifts from them is that Fox doesn’t tell them about it. No big shock, but worth noting.
Also, note that I’m traveling and in a time zone 6 hours earlier than Eastern so no more early posts from me.
Edit: This just popped up on Bluesky.
Chris
She’s getting too old for this shit!
A Ghost to Most
So, he’s a greedo Republican, not a christian supremacist Republican? Still a domestic enemy.
Baud
It’s always interesting to hear about what people don’t know.
Chris
After all, Everybody Knows that They’re All Crooks!
I think my favorite moment of “Republican acquaintance didn’t know a very well-known fact” was the person I was talking to in 2009 or 2010 who’d never realized that we hadn’t found WMDs in Iraq.
Which you can write off as the Fox News Bubble Effect, but this was a person who’d just graduated with a degree in international relations and national security studies, and from a pretty good university. The fact that she could still be that unaware is terrifying. So is the fact that she found a job as an analyst at Homeland Security soon thereafter. I don’t even want to know what her analyses read like once filtered through a Fox Newsified brain, or how many other people like her are staffing the various jobs of the intelligence and security community.
Baud
Trump Relics, exclusively from Ivanka Trump.
Chris
@A Ghost to Most:
Doesn’t even get to shoot first!
Mr. Bemused Senior
[In the voice of “Spocko”] a miniscule… er … a very small piece.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
From the Wonkette piece:
Classic leopards eating faces scenario.
Good. Oh, and boo fucking hoo to the “corporate consultant” who, another no-shocker here, had access to a major media outlet to write such an op-ed. Reason #3,285.39 why no one should subscribe or read FTFNYT.
scav
Ignorant happy sheep are all the easier for repeated fleecing. Trust the grownup Shepherd little ones, he’s all about your best interests! Plus, isn’t the meat better if the about-to-be slaughtered animals don’t flood it with adrenalin?
rikyrah
I am sorry.
He has been a crook his entire life.
He been told you that the RNC was about filling his pockets.
What part of that didn’t you understand?😒😒
hueyplong
If a cash-starved GOPer candidate, in desperation, sues Trump to get at some $$$ and the judge rules that he failed to exhaust his administrative remedies through the now-toothless FEC, I may not recover from the consequences of my Schadenfreude attack.
dmsilev
The GOP tried something similar. WinRed I think it was called. As I recall, there were a few problems. One was that there are so many independent grifting operations aimed at the target audience that it didn’t get the sort of critical mass that ActBlue has. The other is that it was itself (surprise!) something of a grift, skimming off a lot from the top of all donations. ActBlue does charge overhead on donations (above and beyond the “tips” that they encourage people to leave), but it’s only a few percentage points.
Geminid
@dmsilev: Republican WinRed grifters probably called it “WinkRed” in private.
Scout211
Various news sources today are reporting that Trump is putting Kennedy and Gabbard on his transition team.
Should we let them know how that worked out for Chris Christie? 🤣
Dangerman
I can get a piece of the suit?! Hot damn. How about the undies?
Falling Diphthong
I expect that Trump’s unwillingness to spend the RNC’s money on downballot races will be good for Dems in November.
I picture his staff earnestly trying to explain to him that he needs to control everything to make the fascism actually take hold, and it rolling right off his back while he thinks “But I’m the main character” and “But I could keep all that money for me.”
Fingers crossed for him to decide to preemptively flee the country, taking the RNC’s money with him.
Gretchen
Act Blue is a nonprofit. Win Red is a for-profit started by Jared Kushner, with opaque finances, that requires that most Republican campaigns use it. What are the chances that a secretive outfit run by Trump and Kushner isn’t skimming donations off the top rather than giving them to their intended recipients?
Raoul Paste
@Dangerman: Is there any DNA on that suit? Send a piece to E. Jean Carrol.
dmsilev
@Scout211: “Honorary co-chairs” of the transition team.
Brings to mind a line from Inherit the Wind: “Well gentlemen, I am honored. It is not every day one becomes a ‘temporary honorary colonel'”.
Trollhattan
“Here kid, have all this money.”
“Okay dad, now what do I do?”
“Go out and get the rest—all of it.”
And thus did little Donny enter grownup life.
Hoodie
@Scout211: Sometimes I wonder if the Trump people know they’re going to lose and Trump is just trying to grab as many bucks as he can for himself (e.g., when he flees to Dubai) and his disgusting family before the jig is up. Might be behind the signing up of RFKjr and Tulsi as “transition co-chairs,” as it expands the pool of idiots to grift from to include chemtrailers and other assorted wackos. There probably aren’t that many votes there, but there could be a few dollars to pick up. Otherwise, it just adds to the weirdness, as swing voters generally aren’t into severed whale heads or whatever Putin-inspired thing Tulsi is doing these days.
Gretchen
@Falling Diphthong: Trump isn’t even willing to spend money for an advance team for Vance’s appearances. I don’t know whether he enjoys humiliating Vance or just is too cheap, or both. But something as simple as a visit to a small business: find one where they know who he is, are willing to be on camera, and aren’t too busy to talk to him. Get a venue for a speech that isn’t 20 people on folding chairs in a parking lot.
Trollhattan
We already have our camping tent.
Another Scott
@dmsilev:
WinRed is a for-profit PAC. They’ve been accused of hiding their expenses and in-kind donations.
ActBlue is a non-profit PAC that does not endorse candidates and AFAIK is extremely transparent about their bookkeeping.
[eta:] – Gretchen got there first.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
I read that NYT piece yesterday about all of the GOP’s money essentially disappearing into a giant trumpian black hole.
And you know what? I didn’t forward it to a soul, post about it, or even gab about it at the water cooler in the office. Mum’s the word here. Let them all find out next year.
sukabi
@Scout211: nope. Let them be surprised. It’s the only chance they might learn something valuable.
Jeffro
LOL
just reading this gave me a hefty dose of Schadenfreude in advance…an inoculation of it, if you will… ;)
(I hope, anyway!)
Soprano2
Here’s a link to an interesting article from TPM:
How MAGA Is Already Justifying The Use Of Military Force At Home If Trump Wins
As you can imagine, it’s mostly the crazy fever dreams of far right MAGAs who believe that if TCFG wins the election liberals will start rioting and burning everything down.
Trollhattan
@Jeffro:
“But, I got a cool hat.”
“That was extra.”
prostratedragon
Mush!!
prostratedragon
@Jeffro: 😈😈
Trollhattan
@Soprano2: This popped up today, not that it will leave a mark on Trump.
Bear
@Baud: I am waiting for the “Ivana Trump relics.”
Dagaetch
This is where I get stuck. I truly do not understand how both of those things can be true for anyone. Today’s Republican party is a party of one. To declare yourself a Republican is to declare yourself in support of Trump and everything he “stands” for. How can someone be intelligent and do that? I know I live in a liberal bubble, I’m well aware that I don’t have exposure to lots of other ways of living. But it’s just…incomprehensible to me that an intelligent person would support the Republican party/Trump. Is it because they have so limited their information intake to the right wing bubble that they aren’t truly aware of how bonkers it is? And if so, isn’t limiting their information intake kind of a sign of…not intelligence?
Sorry, screaming into the void here. I’m just tired of pretending that these people are anything other than morons, a la Blazing Saddles.
West of the Rockies
@Dangerman:
Ewwwww.
Jeffro
btw I saw this in the earlier thread, from rikyrah:
and I just have to say…YUP! 100%
it sums up what we’re talking about here, too: the GOP has never held trumpov accountable for one single thing, so why should he stop?
they haven’t even held him accountable for losing his own election! forget the insurrection for a second…they’re perfectly fine with letting the guy who lost last time be their candidate all over again!! they just set him right back up at the gravy train and let him – as hard as this is to imagine – drag the party even further down the spiral
it’s what happens when you have no principles except power: you draw no bright lines, enforce no standards, identify no bridges you won’t cross
until you end up losing elections once again, and wonder where all your party’s money went, along with your soul
too bad, so sad, GOP!
Belafon
@Another Scott: Yes, but did you know that ActBlue MAY HAVE dine something?
https://www.rawstory.com/sc-attorney-general-says-democratic-donor-platform-actblue-may-have-broken-rules/?utm_source=push_notifications
waspuppet
@Chris: Someone (pretty sure it was Matt Yglesias) asked Mitch McConnell in 2009 or 2010 how a Republican Obamacare alternative would deal with the free rider problem. McConnell clearly had no idea what it was, and despite his bluster clearly had never given it half a second’s thought.
These people are really not smart.
VeniceRiley
@Trollhattan: How does he explain the Flynn brothers then?
3Sice
Trump assumes that anyone trying to steer spend is steering it away from his, and into their, sugar bowl(s).
This seems a safe assumption on his part.
Antonius
This is going to be like fragments of the True Cross.
They’re going to miraculously multiply.
The Audacity of Krope
Lack of empathy? Failure to connect logically with politics specifically as subject matter? Greed? Hatred?
TBone
Win for the good guys! fElon Skum, read for filth again.
Deets (per Ars Technica):
https://crooksandliars.com/2024/08/federal-judge-tells-ag-drop-media-matters
3Sice
@Belafon:
File under: Every accusation is a confession.
Geoduck
If/when the Shaitgibbon loses, I fully expect the GOP to be still unable to get rid of him. Assuming he is upright and breathing, he could easily be their candidate again in four years.
Matt McIrvin
@Hoodie: Trump was probably planning to lose in 2016, but he won. Basically “The Producers” except he decided he liked the idea after all.
hueyplong
@Geoduck: I can think of few things more rude than expressing aloud the possibility of Trump being upright and breathing four years from now.
Trollhattan
More time than Trump will get, taking out the trash edition. Buh-bye.
Fake Irishman
@waspuppet:
I think that was Mike Pence Big Media Matt talked to about free riders.
Stacy
My dad is a fairly intelligent guy. We were talking about EVs the other day, and he said “I would never bet against Elon Musk. He really does seem to see the future.” So IDK. Intelligent people can certainly have blind spots that seem inexplicable.
TBone
@Jeffro: 😎
Attempted Chemistry
@Matt McIrvin: “The Producers”, except none of the Nazi stuff was jokes.
JPL
@Stacy: Does he know that Musk bought an existing company with government funds. Granted the company needed leadership and he provided that.
FYI In case it hasn’t been mentioned a retired 4 star general, Larry Ellis just endorsed Kamala. That’s how it done Kelly and McMaster.
hueyplong
@Stacy: Show him a picture of a cybertruck.
Urza
@Falling Diphthong: Thats the thing, they don’t consider themselves fascist. They think of themselves as patriots saving America from the fascist Democrats destroying their way of life.
TBone
@Trollhattan: 😊
Trollhattan
@VeniceRiley:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
“Oh, they just really both love the Bolshoi.”
BellaPea
@The Audacity of Krope: I’m not sure why supposedly intelligent people would support Trump, but I’ve seen his effects on former Republicans who are family and friends. My husband has voted for Repubs his entire adult life, and he is donating to Kamala and planning to vote for her. We have friends who were lifelong Republicans who we sat with at a wedding, and they are appalled at Trump and refuse to vote for him. My sister-in-law, who subscribes to the Wall Street Journal (Murdoch paper) does not support Trump and will not vote for him. So maybe some people can have a change of heart. Hope so, anyway.
TBone
Today’s Tiedrich, for all who celebrate. He does his thing so very well! “the Leaning Tower of Treason” 😆
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/five-time-draft-dodger-gives-thumbs
See if you can spot the white power hand signals…
But do read to the end, it’s about so much more.
ColoradoGuy
Pieces of the True Cloth. Pretty soon (within the month) they’ll believe he is the Risen Christ, rolling aside the rock with his he-man muscles while wearing his suit and red tie.
Time travel, causality, logic, even common sense … none of it matters when you are a true believer. In fact, little matters like this are a Test of Faith, which screen out doubters (heathens).
Honus
@rikyrah: “you knew I was a snake when you took me in”
Seonachan
@Attempted Chemistry: The Producers, except Max Bialystok and Franz Liebkind are the same person.
Old School
@TBone:
I wondered about that when I saw the picture yesterday, but she only has two fingers up, so I’m not sure what she’s doing.
CaseyL
@Urza:
What is it about their way of life they believe Democrats will “destroy”?
It’s not like a particular “way of life” is sacred and must never be challenged.
…though, on reflection, that could be exactly what these ostensibly intelligent people really want is a “way of life” that is no longer legal.
Like, owning slaves.
Or lynching people.
Or, essentially “owning” one’s wife and children.
Or even, no longer having to pay an income tax.
Betcha that’s what they’re really on about.
Chris
@waspuppet:
They don’t have to be. Everything they say out loud is either cleaned up or swept under the rug by the media, nothing they do is so dumb that they can’t find a billionaire to fund it, and even when their enemies end up in power their being prosecuted for anything is the exception not the rule.
bbleh
@Baud: and also interesting how their ignorance, being the flip side of their lock-step belief system, starts to bite them at a certain point.
I am starting to see what looks like signs of real panic among Republicans whose heads are not always in a nice warm dark place.
JPL
trump said he is debating and mics will be off.
bbleh
@Mr. Bemused Senior: and if you join the SELECT club of donors who send more than $10,000, you will receive a piece of the TRUE CROSS upon which Our Savior died! Fer realz! Pinky swear!
matt
Seems to me Trump’s campaign would get the biggest bang for the buck spending its money on ads on Truth Social.
Geoduck
@Old School: One meaning of that gesture is the University of Texas’s “Hook ‘Em Horns”.
burritoboy
People still seem not to understand that the national parties (DNC, RNC) are in fact very small operations and, indeed, don’t have a huge existence outside of the Presidential election years. They do exist, but they are – most of the time – tiny in terms of employees and the resources they directly control, especially for a polity with 330 million+ people in it. For most of American history, the national parties would truly only exist during the few days of the national conventions (happening only at 4 year intervals), which were mostly composed of the delegations that each state-level party would send. (note: even in polities we are historically very close to like the UK, political parties will typically have at least one nation-wide convention every year.) There was so little nationwide existence of the parties that such things happening as life-long political enemies on opposite sides of every issue would not unusually both confront each other at the party conventions (often, continuously so for their entire lifetimes.) I.e. liberals or moderates could be found in either the Democratic or Republican delegation from Massachusetts or similar states, and hardcore racists / authoritarians could ALSO be found in either the Democratic or Republican delegations from other states, (say, Alabama). In general, most of the infrastructure does not come from the national parties at all, but is usually designed, selected and built by the candidates (and it is by no means unusual that the candidates do not share their data or infrastructure with the party when the campaign is over.)
JPL
@Urza: Ask them when they think America was great.. There’s a chart giving the marginal tax rate at mastedon. It won’t let me copy it or I would. The upper limit was 84 in the fifties and 70 in the eighties.
matt
@Dangerman: If you could get a piece with some flop sweat, conceivably you could analyze the drug cocktail he’s working with.
hueyplong
@TBone: I very much appreciate your links to Tiedrich pieces.
OId Man Shadow
If you’re still writing checks to a convicted felon with a history of ripping off employees, contractors, and customers, you deserve whatever the fuck you get.
Check that… you deserve to have your fortune taxed so fucking highly that you’re forced to do basic fucking research before you write a check because you can’t afford to throw money away.
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
Dump is 78, yet he’s so desperate for money to service his debts he’s selling his
bloodcloths.Trollhattan
This fuckin’ guy.
“They were mean to me!”
OId Man Shadow
@JPL: We’d have to modify how the law sees “income” to get that to work today since so many of the motherfuckers legally get very little “income”.
matt
@Belafon: Sounds like baseless speculation.
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
@JPL: Funny how that 84% tax rate in the 1950s didn’t seem to bother Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney
prostratedragon
@TBone: Small note about the photo: whose arm is that around the waist of the woman on the left?
Old School
@Geoduck:
I was looking at the woman in the blue dress next to Trump. She has the pinkie and ring fingers raised.
Chris
@CaseyL:
Was reading an old thriller a couple of years ago set against the backdrop of 1940s Sicilian politics, where all the political arguments of the era are rehashed, first among them the idea that you can’t support the Communists, because they want to “destroy the family.”
… and after a few times, it’s like, WTF does that even mean? There are all kinds of reasons why voting for the commies is a bad idea, but no, they don’t actually make it illegal for people to get married, or take away everybody’s children to be raised in some vast collective creche. The USSR right now is populated by millions and millions of family units just like yours. If that’s all you care about, you’d be fine under communist rule.
… Unless, of course, “destroy the family unit” here is being used as a euphemism. And what you actually mean is “the commies might make it easier for women to divorce their husbands.” Or “the commies might make it easier for women to get jobs that’ve previously been reserved for men.” Or “the commies might allow women to have abortions.” Oh dear, that’s exactly what it means, isn’t it? No wonder you’re hiding behind a disingenuous slogan.
JPL
@OId Man Shadow: They will report even less if trump wins and let them claim their salary a tip.
West of the Rockies
@Geoduck:
He really is slurring a lot lately and sounding ever weaker. Honestly, I did not hear the pronounced slurring people were mentioning a few weeks ago. I absolutely do now.
He is a rapidly-aging 78 year old man with a crap diet and quantum stress. He will age out. And it will be rapid. No way he is a viable candidate in four years.
Same platform, Same delivery of grievances and lies… it won’t stand, man.
sixthdoctor
Someone else may have posted it but I saw on Twitter that the Nebraska Senate race is surprisingly close according to polls.
As, surprisingly, is my home state of Maryland but I expect that to break normally. Still disconcerting.
bbleh
@CaseyL: @JPL: @Urza: it’s about STATUS and SECURITY. As to status, see Lyndon Johnson’s quote about a poor white man emptying his pockets for you. They want to feel superior to someone. Race is an easy differentiator, but in earlier times it was religion (Catholics were inferior, in part because many of them were immigrants and then often poor) or national origin (Germans were suspect foreigners even before WWI). It’s what was really behind “economic anxiety,” because of course wealth is a marker of status: they didn’t want Those People “catching up.”
And as to security, I think a lot of them are just overwhelmed by the volume of information now available to them or thrust upon them — very much including that there are people who are very different in many ways — and much of which is ambiguous. Ambiguity and uncertainty disturb them; they don’t know how to process it or how to form or adjust their beliefs in the face of it. I think this is why a lot of fundamentalists gravitate naturally to the Republicans: they offer simple certainties (aka “truths”), and that’s comforting.
They want a world that’s simple and certain and in which they have status. They had (or thought they had) that before, and they want to return to it.
JPL
@Trollhattan: haha trump said he lost because in 2020 the White House blocked info about Hunter. Hunter’s infor was released and btw the asshole blames himself.
Ryan
It’s ironic that his laziness might be potentially bringing him closer to jail. As to your friend, has he/she ever heard of WinRed? Same basic idea.
Old School
@prostratedragon:
There’s a mostly obscured woman wearing a blue dress in the back row next to the guy holding the baby.
Geminid
@West of the Rockies: Yeah, I also think this is Trump’s last campaign. That’s hard for some people to believe; they think he’s like the Terminator, relentless and indestructable. This is an artifact of PTSD, in my opinion.
JPL
BTW During a text with brother, he sorta defended retired Generals from openly endorsing Harris. I had told him about General Ellis coming out and endorsing. Anyway, he thinks that McMasters’ book is a quiet endorsement.
just curious does anyone agree with that? Brother is retired military.
BR
@JPL:
I don’t think endorsements move votes that much, so if he thinks the generals are damning Trump with faint praise and that is good for Harris, I’m all for it.
Old School
@Old School:
@Geoduck:
I saw a bigger version of the photo. It is the index finger and pinkie. I was mistaken.
Ksmiami
@A Ghost to Most: I hope they lose everything
Geoduck
@Old School: Looked up the woman in the grave, and her memorial picture has her making that sign while wearing her uniform. (Index and pinkie, not ring.) What it meant to her I don’t know, but the write-up makes no mention of living in Texas, so I guess that’s out.
Kristine
@Raoul Paste: Betting they’re using a suit that not even the really strong dry cleaning chemicals could clean.
So, maybe.
hueyplong
@Geminid: With luck, Trump will say his “triumph” over Biden in the debate was his last campaign, refusing to recognize as legitimate the whuppin’ he took from Harris. Or, at least, that’s how one of his remaining hangers-on will interpret his inaudible mumbles as he opens his maw for another spoon of tapioca next February.
Manyakitty
@Geminid: whatever it takes, man.
JPL
@BR: thanks
Geminid
@Old School: If the index and pinkie fingers are raised, it could have been the Grey Wolf sign. That could get you in trouble in Austria, or if you’re playing in the Euro football tournament.
Gotta put the thumb and middle fingers together, though, to imitate a wolf’s head.
Kyle
I’ve stepped in dog shit before, but I’ve never stepped in the same pile again.
catclub
I think all of the election laws on 501c4 superpacs not being allowed to coordinate with a campaign are getting ignored by the GOP. So even if Trump GOP fundraising is poor, there are closely aligned superpacs just happening to buy ads in the states targeted by the GOP.
prostratedragon
@Old School: Ok.
Chris
@hueyplong:
In a perfect world, not only would they both fail to show up to their assigned debates, but this would set a new precedent that actually, we don’t want debates in our presidential election cycles at all. But that’s too much to hope for.
jonas
Good grief. That’s like a recent graduate with a chemistry degree holding forth on the significance of phlogiston.
Redshift
@Dagaetch:
Liberals have lost a lot of arguments and elections believing that the only way people could believe the other side is if they’re morons. Intelligence isn’t that simple, and rational thought has to older thought processes that existed for good reasons. Research shows being intelligent doesn’t save you from getting conned, and especially doesn’t make you immune to believing people who tell you what you want to hear. Information bubbles don’t just work on people too dumb to escape them.
Falling Diphthong
@Dagaetch: How can someone be intelligent and do that?
Nate Silver is very intelligent, and yet he seems to be following the path of Ada Byron Lovelace of “I’m good at math…. I bet I could figure out how to make a fortune gambling, using math and logic and my sheer raw intelligence.” And popped to my notice during the convention by stridently insisting that putting Biden in the last spot was an attempt to hide him (apparently he has never been to a concert?) and further that anyone who disagreed with his take was utterly deluded. (The DNC went on to conceal Obama, Finz, and Harris in this last spot, all finishing up around the same time.)
Nate isn’t dumb. He’s a poignant warning that you can be very smart in one area, and that doesn’t map to all areas for all time.
BR
@Falling Diphthong:
There’s an xkcd just for Nate Silver:
https://www.xkcd.com/1570/
SatanicPanic
@Chris: Amen. Debates are stupid.
jonas
During the interview on (iirc) 60 Minutes promoting his book, the interviewer asks him straight up, if Trump is as uninformed, mercurial, and impetuous as he describes in the book, does he deserve another term? and all McMaster could muster was that “he wasn’t telling people how to vote or anything.”
What a dickless coward.
Baud
@Falling Diphthong:
We only wanted to hide him for the East Coast. We wanted to highlight him for folks on the West Coast.
Kristine
@prostratedragon: If you enlarge you can see a dress and part of a chest. A woman whose head is hidden behind white-shirt woman
And I see Old School already answered.
Steve in the ATL
@Belafon: “may” is doing a lot of work there
catclub
@Redshift: The extremely perceptive answer of Adlai Stevenson to the fan who said: “All thinking people are with you senator!”
“yes, But I need a majority.”
Manyakitty
@jonas: yeah. I’m over these big strong heroes who can’t come out and endorse Harris. (Looking at you, Kelly and Marris, among many others). Say what needs to be said or go back to hiding in the shrubbery with all the other cowards.
catclub
@JPL:
Trump says lots of things.
thruppence
If this thread is open to unjustified complaining, I want someone to get me a contract like late night talk show hosts have. Get paid lots and lots and lots of money to work four days a week and take lots and lots of weeks off
Of course, I have no skills that anyone would pay to watch, but that’s why it’s unjustified complaining.
matt
@Falling Diphthong: He’s not dumb, but he is an obstinate contrarian fuckhead who doesn’t listen to anybody.
NutmegAgain
@Dangerman: Biohazard, no?
Tim C.
@Redshift: Indeed! Ask any D&D nerd about the difference between Wisdom and Intellegence.
Geminid
@jonas: That McMaster interview got a lot of attention from foreign journalists. Istanbul-based security analyst Levent Kemal excerpted and commented on the parts relating to Israeli/Russian relations. So did some Israeli journalists.
Chris
@SatanicPanic:
Haven’t watched one since 2008. It’s pro wrestling for nerds. What’s exhausting is the number of people who tell me I should watch it because it’s my civic duty and it’s how I stay an informed citizen, when so many of them are clearly just looking for another version of these YouTube videos with titles like “Watch [insert name here] DESTROY [insert name here] using FACTS and LOGIC!!!” that’ll convince no one but the people who already agree.
Chris
@thruppence:
I would also like additional seasons of Firefly and The Finder. But that’s justified complaining, so maybe this isn’t the right place.
JPL
@jonas: That’s what I think but I also think his comments might sway some. I did tell my brother that I think Kelly will cross over and endorse. We’ll see.
Baud
@sixthdoctor:
Maryland still hasn’t made up for Spiro Agnew. They better not blow this.
prostratedragon
@BR: There’s always an xkcd.
lollipopguild
@thruppence: Game show hosts make a mint without working very hard. Shows like these tend to make a lot of money for the owners.
JWR
A news brief late last night ran a clip of Trump bitching and moaning about the upcoming debate, specifically the mics on / mics off business, and he said he thinks the Harris team is just trying to weasel its way out of taking part. As the saying goes, with these guys it’s projection all the way down.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@matt: Years of teaching high IQ grad students taught me that at some point, the ability to learn becomes less a factor of intelligence than of personality. They were used to being the smartest people in the room (or to other people telling them they were the smartest), and they couldn’t take in a new way of looking at things.
Chris
@Baud:
Hogan was a fairly popular governor, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. It’s not going to be easy. I heard way too many people when canvassing in 2016 going “well I’m voting for the Democrats, but Hogan’s been a really good governor!”
scav
see below
Baud
@Chris:
That sucks, but that’s also different because it’s state vs. federal.
BR
This random dude’s video is hitting all the points I have been thinking need to be hit when speaking to young (white) men. Though not fitting the demographic myself I dunno if it hits the mark, but I hope so:
https://www.tiktok.com/@ohhthatsrich/video/7407877316812197166
TBone
Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment!!!
J6 case !!!
WOO HOO GO JACK GO
JoyceH
Superseding indictment!
scav
Intelligent ≠ Sane
moreover
Intelligent ≠ Kind
Besides, there’s a fair bit of so-called intelligence wandering about that is no more than a proficiency in taking tests, the possessors of which can’t get piss out of a boot.
prostratedragon
@thruppence: [Assuming I had the afore-mentioned talent] I’d have to be paid a whole lot to be witty and entertaining 180 nights a year, regardless of company or anything else. A whole lot.
Baud
@TBone:
@JoyceH:
Supercede that mofo!!!
JPL
@TBone: so will anything happen before the election
Another Scott
@TBone: @JoyceH:
Thanks for the heads-up:
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@JPL:
No.
TBone
@Baud: even if late, better than never AND will be in the before-election headlines often, one hopes. I’m chuffed.
It is a speaking indictment this time!
In DC.
prostratedragon
@Baud: You remember yoo!
Dorothy A. Winsor
According to CNN, Jack Smith has filed a superseding indictment. Thoughts?
ETA: I see several people beat me to it. Sometimes life comes at you fast.
danielx
Has Juleanna Glover been asleep for the last ten years? Upset because Trump is using his donors’ dollars as he sees fit, i.e. for his own benefit, rather than using them for the election-related purposes for which they were donated? And this comes as a shock?
Juleanna, you hapless helpless and hopeless mook. When has he ever done anything money-related that wasn’t for his personal benefit? Like, ever? What the fuck did you think was going to happen?
Geminid
@Baud: Trump ain’t gonna like this. I wonder if he can even pronounce “superceding” now.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Elizabelle
@BR: I laughed. Thank you.
@Old School: Curious what that does signal. Anything from Star Trek?
Ms. Gee was bilingual with Spanish, FWIW. Excellent high school GPA; guess she was planning to use GI Benefits for further education.
Her family suffered a terrible loss, which is still no reason for them to act like jackasses, posing with the orange jackass in chief, In a military cemetery, yet.
I am so proud President Biden got us out of Afghanistan.
JPL
@Baud: Harris needs to win
BethanyAnne
Ren – Money Game Part 3
Uncle Cosmo
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Y’know what this brings to mind?
When I was oh, I dunno, 5 or 6 or thereabouts, one of the cereal companies had a promotion in cahoots with the TV show “Sergeant Preson of the Mounties.” IIRC it was an absolutely FREE offer – Send in your name and address and the company would send you a land title to ONE SQUARE INCH in the Yukon! For all I know this was completely legitimate. I doubt it would’ve cost the compahy more than a small percentage of what they spent to advertise it.
And sonofabitch, Google is your friend~ Klondike, not Yukon, Quaker cereals, Sgt Preston – Ladies and germs, I present for your viewing pleasure The Klondike Big Inch Land Promotion of 1955!
prostratedragon
@TBone:
@Another Scott:
💥💥
BR
New Vance audio dropped. This guy could be a top 10 manosphere podcaster.
https://xcancel.com/KamalaHQ/status/1828524227508453492
hueyplong
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’d argue it ups the stakes for Trump in terms of his post-election life if he loses, but the only real pre-election “event” for Trump would involve his health, not his civil and criminal legal matters.
Would say that seeing him melt down on camera would hurt, but he’s been doing that and it never seems to be a story.
lollipopguild
@Urza: These are people who would welcome a one party police state to run America because it would get rid of all of “those people” that they do not like. The idea that the state might turn on them never occurs to them.
Elizabelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That insane SCOTUS immunity ruling is indefensible. I hope it comes back to bite the radicals in the a$$. And is eventually overturned.
satby
@Geoduck: sign language shorthand for “I love you” but incongruous in the context of that photo. Probably why the service woman made it.
Baud
@JPL:
That would be desireable.
scav
@BR: But then, how can we go back to the glory days when women were forced out of employment when they had children?!
hueyplong
@Elizabelle: For today, it’s good that Smith thinks these rewritten counts are good to go under the SCOTUS ruling.
prostratedragon
@BR: “disorient” and “disturb?!” Calling him weird is not mere juvenile name-calling.
Elizabelle
@hueyplong: Yes. Jack Smith is a shrewd prosecutor.
Elizabelle
@satby: Thank you.
TBone
@hueyplong: 😊
JaySinWA
Here’s a Bluesky link to the Trump card shown in the post.
Rebuttal to the Emperor had no close claim.
Per media matters it’s a booby prize for suckers that buy his NFT virtual cards.
Apparently he did the same thing with the suit from when he got arrested in Georgia.
Omnes Omnibus
@JPL: Yes, this has always been the case.
The Audacity of Krope
Shouldn’t they be sending Tapper’s suit? Or Schiff’s?
Spanky
@Baud: Your concern, coming from a state that gave us both Nixon and Reagan, is duly noted.
BR
LA Times did an interesting story breaking down the geography of new donors to Harris’s campaign:
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-08-27/where-kamala-harris-most-new-donors-july-2024-election
Baud
@Elizabelle:
patrick Ii
My fear is that George Conway’s ploy works and he drives Trump completely insane — and then Trump wins the election.
TBone
@Baud: 😊
JaySinWA
@Uncle Cosmo: Laphroaig scotch gives you a square foot of land on Islay now.
I’m not sure what are the potential future tax consequences of these sort of land grants.
https://www.scoopwhoop.com/life/laphroaig-whisky-free-land-in-scotland/
TBone
@patrick Ii: 😆
Baud
@Spanky:
But California was a Republican state at the time. Maryland is solidly blue. This would be like when MA sent Scott Brown to the Senate and threw a monkey wrench into the Obama administration.
Fleeting Expletive
@CaseyL: I think it’s also some sense that liberals judge them and find them repulsive and crude, etc., and they can’t stand that.
Also related to the politically lethal use of ridicule that points out republican deficiencies in compassion, logic, ethics, etc. There’s a lot to make fun of, because there are so many clowns in their circus, JV Vance, perhaps? I think that is their true Achilles Heel. Their attacks are of the deplorable variety: racist, sexist, full of hate.
SatanicPanic
@Chris: agreed. I never understood why the ability to deliver zingers is a necessary ability for a president.
BR
I don’t want to mentally jinx anything, but I just had for the first time a mental image of Harris as President and Walz as VP getting a briefing in the Oval Office. Just popped into my mind.
TBone
@Kyle: 🤣 unlike every single rethuglican on the Rump Express.
The Audacity of Krope
We just had to go and nominate someone who had just lost for governor, didn’t like interacting with voters, and didn’t seek to achieve anything with the offices she sought.
Trollhattan
@JaySinWA: Given it’s the peatiest peatbomb among peatbombs, isn’t the land already inside the Laphroaig bottle?
Twofer!
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
I don’t care if Dems nominate a toad. I’m still voting amphibian over Republican.
Princess
@BR: Weird in a conservative Opus Dei Catholic for Vance to hate nuns as much as he does.
The Audacity of Krope
Because humans, as a species, are shallow. Too many of us need to see our candidates preen and bluster next to each other so our lizard brain can say “him strong.”
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: I voted for Coakley. I didn’t feel great about it. I was thoroughly unsurprised both times she lost. Also, has she been screened for toad DNA?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@sixthdoctor:
The same state that sent Barbara Mikulski to the Senate sure as hell better not send Hogan.
I have a high school friend who’s been involved in every (R) gubernatorial and Senate campaign in MD for 25 years.
I should say former high school friend cuz he’s living down to every stereotype of wingnutty high school friends.
The Audacity of Krope
So when did the death threats start for you?
Trollhattan
On/off/on/off/on/off man on again.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@The Audacity of Krope:
Okay, maybe not *that* wingnutty.
JaySinWA
@Princess:
He converted late in life. OTOH people with experience in Catholic schools have mixed reactions to the nuns.
jonas
@danielx: Before you overreact, you should read Glover’s next piece: “Donald Trump may — now hear me out here — occasionally bend the truth, but his supporters don’t seem to be aware of it.”
FFS, this guy had his family charity and eponymous “university” shut down because they were massive self-dealing scams and it’s just now dawning on these people that anything he does is just a huge grift and nothing more?
The Audacity of Krope
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I guess I win, then. Unless someone here is in protective custody.
The Audacity of Krope
@jonas: Is she trying the soft sell to get Republicans to attend to facts? Well, explicitly stating facts doesn’t work, so I’m willing to give it a shot.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I think he can throw a pretty good icy stare too. We love us some Jack Smith.
Humming the tune now.
Uncle Cosmo
Then you’re a fool. There are more DINOs in MD than ever make the ground shake in Jurassic Park. Larry Hogan became a 2-term GOP governor of MD by defeating two African-American males, one the outgoing lieutenant-governor; what do you think’s going to happen when he faces off against Alsobrooks, an AA woman nearly unknown outside of Prince Georges County, where she’s the AG? I am afeared that we will lose the Senate by losing this race to Hogan.
Spanky
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
The same state that sent Barb to the Senate also sent Hogan to the Governors Mansion.
This state is kinda solidly blue, but also still very racist in a Confederate sort of way.
We’re doing the work. We’ll get Alsobrooks to the Senate, but it’s no slam dunk.
sdhays
Sorry if this has already been said, but how much do you want to bet that you get a piece of random suit cloth that has never touched Stench, as Tony Jay likes to call him?
chrome agnomen
@bbleh: yes, they want to feel superior to someone, but without having to do any of the actual work involved in developing superior skills, thought processes, social interaction props. they just want the participation trophy part of it.
HumboldtBlue
Will Bunch:
Uncle Cosmo
@JaySinWA: Raised Catholic here. My only encounter with a “penguin” was when I missed a cue during rehearsal for 1st Holy Communion ceremony. One of them came up behind me and belted me as hard as she could in the back of my head, snarling Stoopeed!**
Any wonder why I left the Church a few weeks after Confirmation?
** Ours was a Polish-American parish, and I think she was a refugee from the Commies.
Orange is the New Red
@The Audacity of Krope: i did telephone canvassing for her, and it was very clear that she had very limited enthusiastic support even from active Dems. When I reported my concerns, I was basically told to shut up and dial.
HumboldtBlue
Will Bunch:
BR
@Uncle Cosmo:
Might be why Harris did a campaign event in MD a few weeks ago — maybe they realized they needed to bump up the local voter reg numbers.
The Audacity of Krope
@Orange is the New Red: I love volunteering for statewide campaigns. Yet I managed to sit that one out.
Jeffro
@BR: that is some psycho shit
Duane
How much for a piece of Trump’s ear?
Jeffro
Any zinger-impaired presidential candidate who uses that in his/her opening debate statement automatically wins the election, Electoral College be damned.*
(*EC be damned anyway, of course)
The Audacity of Krope
This position might be of interest to my cousin who became a teacher immediately after she finished university. I went to the same school and I don’t remember childbirth being among the graduation requirements.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Spanky:
Having spent time in Southern MD and Western MD, yeah, it’s not exactly a hotbed of blueness.
I have a ton of friends in the greater metro DC area, we go back to the mid-to-late-80s, and the ones on the MD side always know that (R) pols like Hogan get a lot of traction that people who aren’t familiar with the region don’t seem to realize is possible.
JaySinWA
@Uncle Cosmo: Not at all.
My wife went to a Catholic school as a non-Catholic. She definitely had mixed experiences with the nuns. One of the priests that taught at both the boys and girls schools left an impression on her with how he carried himself. He was later one of the first priests convicted for sex with a male student that she knew from the boys school
She later became a teacher. One of those women without children teachers that JD just attacked.
cckids
Late to the topic, but WinRed has also been found to have kept re-charging donor’s accounts – some for thousands of dollars, when they made a $20 donation. A typical Trump/Kushner op.
Trollhattan
Oooh, Slow Horses returns next Wednesday. Apple TV+
Delk
Superseding indictment filed.
frosty
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Don’t forget “that shithouse of an Eastern Shore”* for another hotbed of non-Blue Maryland.
*Courtesy of William Donald Schaefer’s second campaign for Governor when the Eastern Shore counties didn’t go for him.
Ruckus
@Baud:
That list is ALWAYS too long for anyone to read in any one
dayyear.And that is because that list is made up of people that don’t and then a much larger slice is people that refuse to learn.
Uncle Cosmo
@BR: MD is deep blue along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway but bleeds out into purple and then deep red on the peripheries.
When I was active in MD politics, there was a tendency for non-AA districts that routinely sent Democrats to the Legislature by large majorities to be much less donkey-adjacent in statewide and national races. This IMO was a function of closed primaries without same-day registration plus an underdeveloped Republican presence in many white working-class districts: Anyone who wanted a say in who would represent them in the Legislature had to vote in the Democratic primary. So although my home legislative delegation was 100% Democrat it went for Nixon and Reagan.
Anoniminous
@JPL:
No shit, Sherlock
:-)
Uncle Cosmo
@JaySinWA: A box of cereal (Puffed Rice? Puffed Wheat? Do they still make those??) might run one $4 today (remember half the contents is air!), which puts a square foot (= 144 sq inches) for a 25-year-old single malt at ~$400 within an order of magnitude.
You could stand on your square foot, but I’d guess there’d be some issues with access…
Greg
The sign language one has the thumb extended, which she isn’t doing in this photo. (The sign is the combination of the finger spellings of “I” “L” and “Y”.)
Uncle Cosmo
@frosty:
Or Cecil (pron. See-sill) County in the far northeast, with PA to the north and DE to the east, which in its time was one of the prime hotbeds of KKK activity outside of the old Confederacy (or Indiana). And once you’re west of Hagerstown you might as well be in WV.
Shana
@Dagaetch: I live in a wealthy area of Fairfax County Va which is suburban DC. Houses sell for $1,000,000 plus. You don’t live here if you’re stupid, you can’t make that kind of money. We have a neighbor who put up a hand-made sign about a month ago reading I’m voting for the Felon 2024. I do not understand.
Elizabelle
@Greg: Maybe Nicole forgot the thumb? It makes sense she might have intended this photo for her family and friends.
Elizabelle
@Shana: Maybe it’s the equivalent of getting TP’d?? Yikes.
The Audacity of Krope
@Shana: I’m becoming convinced that you can earn a lot of money being intelligent, think educated professionals; but to be rich, like your money works for you instead of the opposite, you must have some severe mental shortcoming somewhere.
My working theory is once you’re smart enough to develop a code of ethics, that limits your opportunities.
Elizabelle
One odd thing about the Nicole Leanne Gee obit (23 year old Marine killed by suicide bomber at Kabul airport; one of 13 Marines killed): Gee is her married name.
Neither obit nor a CBS item ever identifies her maiden name, or any of her immediate family. An aunt, Cheryl Juels, is quoted. But nothing in the Dignity obit. I don’t think I’ve seen that before.
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/roseville-ca/nicole-gee-10358275
PAM Dirac
@Uncle Cosmo:
We shall see, but there are a lot of pluses Hogan had in 2014 and 2018 that he won’t have this time.
1) in 2014 he was running against a Lt Governor that was given responsibility for a ObamaCare rollout that went poorly. Fairly or unfairly, the Lt. Gov. was blamed for the problems and was called incompetent. He didn’t help matters by running a lackluster campaign.
2) The current gov is an AA male who won 64-32. Being AA is not an absolute barrier to win statewide election and winning by a large margin.
2) The D registration advantage is such that to win the Rs need high R turnout with very low crossover to D and mediocre D turnout with fairly substantial crossover to R. He got those in 2014 and 2018, but there are a number of factors that suggest it will be very difficult to repeat that in 2024:
a) 2014 and 2018 were not presidential election years, so
turnout is lower than what we are likely to see in this
election
b) MAGA got smoked in the 2022 elections and Hogan said
a bunch of stuff that did not endear himself to the MAGAs.
I don’t think many of the MAGAs are going to vote for
Alsobrooks, but I don’t think many are going to drag
themselves out to vote for Hogan either. I suspect we will
see a relatively weak R turnout. There was some evidence
in the primary that MAGA have tuned out.
c) in both 2014 and 2018 voters gave the Ds a veto proof
majority in the legislature. Part of the reason Hogan is
fairly well liked is that a number of his vetos and other
actions got overridden by the legislature, especially on
abortion. These didn’t get much notice when they
happened, but Alsobrooks will hammer on these and I am
very skeptical that D voters will buy Hogan’s wishy washy
explanations of why voters should ignore those and
even if some of those get a bit of traction, he’s likely to
lose as many or more R voters as D voters he gains.
d) as mentioned above, the D to R crossover only happens
in significant numbers when the R going to be limited by
the legislature. I think it will be very clear to D voters what
is a stake in this Senate race and they will vote
accordingly.
PAM Dirac
@Uncle Cosmo:
Right, but in the R Senate primary Hogan lost Allegany and Garret Counties to Robin Ficker, a complete joke of a candidate. I don’t think he can count on enthusiastic support from the deep red parts of MD.
Ruckus
@Falling Diphthong:
He’s not smart enough to flee the country. And that was before his aging out started and which is going along in what my experience shows is a fairly rapid progress, seeing as I am an old fart and know quite a few even older old farts than me.
His mental capacity and structure may actually make him a scaredy cat but his experience and ego has gotten him to the point that he can never admit he’s anything less than an uncrowned king. Or more realistic, a king that has had his crown stolen. He is and has been his entire “adult” life, the guy who thinks the world owes him everything. And his explanation is either Because!, or he would be speechless. And can you imagine him speechless?
Ruckus
@Trollhattan:
Sorry, shitforbrains has never grown up. He may have a 78 yr old body but his brain is 5 yrs old – at best.
Baud
@PAM Dirac:
Also seems unlikely that a lot of voters will vote for a black woman for president and then get cold feet when it comes to a black woman Senator.
Ruckus
@sukabi:
That chance is far slimmer than me winning the Olympic marathon. And I’m an OLD fart, who couldn’t run far when I was 1/10th my age.
Ruckus
@Dagaetch:
You seem to be forgetting that money talks louder than anything else to some people. And of course shitforbrains has money. Not anywhere near what he says or would like to have but still, he ain’t poor or living on social security.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@PAM Dirac: I live in MD too and yeah, Eastern Shore and West of Hagerstown are definitely red. But…for reasons I can’t really explain the electorate seems to treat Governor’s races differently than Senate races. Like when was the last time KY, KS, or LA sent a Democrat to the Senate? All three States have or have recently had Democrats as Governor. Two of Kentucky’s last three governors have been Democrats. Two counter examples that prove the point are Hogan and the guy in Massachusetts. Blue States, Republican Governors.
Not saying Alsobrooks is a shoe in but the race is basically tied from the last poll I saw and Hogan is a known quantity…his support may be baked in. Alsobrooks may have room to grow still (or if she screws up turn people off, it’s a double edged sword). So hopefully she’s savvy and can pull out the W down the stretch.
Ruckus
@waspuppet:
Some of them are. But their focus is not the same and that is as important as being smart. Generally their focus is pure selfishness, which is one reason they support shitforbrains. Some of them are rather wealthy and while some of that may be inherited many of the older wealthy rethuglicans got that way by not being stupid. What they are is very often, very self centered. In their worlds the earth often rotates around the pole they have stuffed up their a _ _ _ _ _ e.
Ruckus
@Geoduck:
As an old fart my own self, I’ve seen old. shitforbrains is older than I am and the rest of my family are all gone, some well into their 80s and 90s, or very close to it. I’ve seen aging out – in person. All my grandparents were gone by 1972 and the last one was in his early 90s. I’m the oldest in my extended family, and all the prior generation of the extended family is long gone as well. I’m well versed in old and getting older. For humans like shitforbrains, they have one issue in their heads and it’s ME. They care not one crap about anyone else. They wouldn’t be the shitty humans they are if they did. Even if it was only one small crap.
brantl
@Dangerman: Trust me, you don’t want those, if they display the evidence required to be “genuine”.
Bupalos
Well see we’re probably both wrong then. I would have said an intelligent person can’t spend a lot of time in the wealthy class and still believe that wealth correlates with intelligence.
brantl
@West of the Rockies: They cleaned up the audio, from 1st post to second, in the originals, he’s slurring like a St. Bernard with a steak waved in front of him.
Another Scott
@PAM Dirac: Thanks.
I’ve seen one teevee ad for Hogan, trying to say he supports abortion rights. I can’t see that anyone sentient will accept that post-Dobbs. I expect he will lose to Alsobrooks.
Fingers crossed!
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
evodevo
@BR:
Obviously, JD is ignorant of that huge length of time back in the late 1800’s- 1940’s when schoolmarms were single women and had to quit when they got married LOL
brantl
@Princess: A massive number of Catholics hate nuns, as well as a whole host of ex-Catholics, and ex-nuns. Nuns are (or at least used to be), with a pretty fair frequency, the biggest douchebags you’ll ever meet.
Ruckus
@Stacy:
The premise of electric vehicles is that we have more than one way to create electricity, and some of it doesn’t burn stuff. Also look at the history of the automobile and you will see that electric vehicles were not uncommon over 100 yrs ago. They lost the race because the then current battery technology was basically crap. So was petroleum production but that improved much faster than batteries, which really didn’t change a lot till not all that long ago. It takes far less time to fuel up a vehicle than it does to charge one, and we are used to doing this. Now the downside, which of course is that the supply of petroleum is going away far faster than sunshine comes around and we can use sunshine to make electricity. (And of course there are other ways as well…) The point is that petroleum won the contest of a reasonable fuel and electricity lost. But times change. Now Elon may not be the smartest tool in the box, but he recognized a need and has filled it reasonably well. He showed that electric cars can be build that work rather well. And pushed the rest of the automotive world to see the writing of the future.
lowtechcyclist
I’m sure my fellow Marylanders have noticed that the Hogan posters just say “Hogan for Maryland,” without mentioning his party affiliation. I think he’s aware that he needs to get people to not think about that to get enough support to win.
There’s a part of me that wants to order a bunch of bumper stickers that just say “REPUBLICAN” and plaster one on each Hogan poster I see. I would find it rather amusing if someone had me arrested for defacing their sign by making it say Hogan is a Republican.
Kayla Rudbek
@Princess: he wasn’t raised Catholic and it shows. Andrew Greeley wrote a book about this: https://www.amazon.com/Catholic-Imagination-Andrew-Greeley/dp/0520232046. Although I will admit that some nuns can be mean, nasty, and burnt out, and I would be very suspicious of younger nuns and certain religious orders.
Elizabelle
@brantl: Except the bishops were worse!
Geoduck
Re: the graveside idiocy. There are now reports that officials at the cemetery did try to stop Shaitgibbon and Co. from pulling their stunt, and there was some sort of physical altercation.
Ruckus
@BellaPea:
Humans can easily fall into ruts, hell they often make the ruts they fall into. My point is that people that grew up with republican parents/grandparents often did not change that when they grew up. And let’s face it, while I may not think much of republicans, they likely have the same concept of dems. But some of them are paying attention and seeing that their party has decided to keep their heads buried in their nether regions and that isn’t really them. The republican party has become less and less a political party and more and more an old, old farts hiding place. It’s not that the rethuglican party wants to go backwards in time, it’s that they seemingly haven’t joined this century.
Ruckus
@TBone:
Wanna bet he didn’t ask anyone if it was OK?
He is a pompous, arrogant ass, who thinks he doesn’t have to ask anyone’s permission to do anything. A citizen? Surely you jest. OK he was born here, but he doesn’t think, he believes he is above everyone else on the planet. But he’s the animal crap that humans scrap off their shoes. How many felony counts does he have currently? Yeah, I’m impressed – NOT.
Ruckus
@CaseyL:
Not opposing you in that bet…..
Gloria DryGarden
@Dagaetch: I relate.
I know several people, former close friends and respected acquaintances, who although usually reasonable and intelligent-seeming, are drinking the kool-aid. Spewing talking points, believing very weird things, not ever stating their news sources.
One friend posts about it on Facebook. I made one clear comment to her, why I I’m voting for Harris and will not back her guy (nameless one), and later said I thought she was hypnotized; she ignored my reasons, but replied that she thinks we’re hypnotized, that dems are the ones going towards dictatorship. She totally believes it. They all seem to believe that, and there’s no talking to them.
it boggles the mind, and when it’s people you love or respect, it hurts a lot.
Late Saturday, early Sunday am, I brought this up, many people replied and have had similar experiences. You might find value in reading all our discussion there. I did.
I even went to listen to a few minutes of mr. orange. He’s very good, smooth voiced, hypnotic. “I took a bullet for democracy” (what a ridiculous thing to say.) I really can’t stand him, I didn’t throw up, but here’s what I noticed:
He’s very good at smoothly getting around people’s bullshit detectors, and his lying ways have carried him pretty far, so obviously he’s good at his con. I found him momentarily hypnotic. Which appalled me, but gave me a brief understanding. It’s just I’m aware of the facts, the evidence, and how ridiculous his self centered statements are.
it was eye-opening, to feel his hypnotic style and his smooth, golden voice, start to weave a spell around me. But I was able to notice it, my bullshit detector started notifying me, and I stuporously reached to my screen to click away.
Imagine, if one listened longer.. I mean, gross, we mostly can’t stand him. But I see how one might fall under his sway.
I think it’s an unethical use of his hypnotic speaking skills, to lie, and get money, and try to sway crowds, and do his cult things.
His constant lying, his statements we’ve heard about where he maintains the importance of his strategy: to lie so long that they believe you.
I find it morally, spirituality appalling. It’s so disallowed, in my world, that I can’t understand how he doesn’t know karma will return for him, nor how, in the face of such relentless self centered lying….
how his skin doesn’t split open, his organs disintegrate, the ground open up and swallow him. Because he so disavows reality, and is so willing to roll out rivers of great harm, flooding the minds of a large percentage of a nation.
it’s not even worthy of poetic writing, I’m just deeply disgusted, and I’m trying to say.
and I’m privately crying, wilting, over the loss of a dear friend, and the distance with others.
[if there are any English majors present, and skilled writers, yes, I know about those sentence fragments. If some creep can squirt lies up and down the minds of so many, like processed velveeta cheese whip, and concoct stupid words like coveffe, then I can write terrible emphatic sentence fragments on a blog full of literate people. It’s not worth my time to clean it up]
back to the deep breath procedures.
Gloria DryGarden
@Gloria DryGarden: sweet pea, do you suppose they just dont have good working bullshit detectors?
do you think maybe they are at some black and white stage of world view, and can’t handle nuances, grey areas, and other mysteries?
do you imagine they are so aligned with denial, and are surrounded by alcoholism, religious addiction, or other addictive control circumstances, and it’s unbearable to look at certain parts of truth?
we none of us know. Understanding is the booby prize, remember that. We’re just going to hold the line where our boundary is, to not be overtaken by all that twisted mess.
we really need cult deprogrammers to go on national tv, or something.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: what is a speaking indictment?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I’ve met some really wonderful nuns who devoted their lives to service. I know there are some crappy ones out there, but that was not my experience.
Ruckus
@Gloria DryGarden:
A speaking indictment goes beyond the legally required statement of the elements of the charged crime(s) and also includes a narrative of the alleged underlying acts in more detail.
Ruckus
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
I was enrolled in an all boys technical HS that was run by Catholic priests – against my will, and went one year. The personalities of the fathers and brothers was mostly OK, with the exception of the vice principal. Vice being the operative word there. Now I was in the USN for a bit and between that and a few other life experiences I’ve met some fine individuals. Fine being a word with many sides. The side in this comment that you should consider is lying, obnoxious sack of shit. That Catholic priest was one of the worst human beings I’ve encountered in my 3/4 of a century. I possibly consider that one of to be doing a hell of a lot of work there. It’s only been almost 65 yrs ago and I remember his face, his name and that I’ve never met a worse human being in my life. I’ve been in the USN – as stated here before and worked over 3 decades in professional sports, 10 of them full time and I’ve met some shitty human beings. Father Schaffer is my #1 example of what not to be like as a human being. At least I learned at a young age, that being a complete and total asshole really didn’t make one anywhere near the top of the heap of humanity, but more like someone else’s used toilet paper. I’ve never met anyone who came anywhere near as shitty a human as he did. And I used to be friends with someone who did 50 yrs for murder.
TBone
@Gloria DryGarden: I am sorry I missed your lovely comments here until now. You are eloquent – no cleanup necessary.
Gloria DryGarden
@Ruckus: ooh, so it’s more thorough, detailed, and had more information in it. I like that. Thank you.
Paul in KY
@Dagaetch: He might be rich enough to have sound, selfish, tax reasons to vote GQP.