Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

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

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

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

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Bark louder, little dog.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

He really is that stupid.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

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

People are weird.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

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

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Once Again Trying to Work the Refs

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Once Again Trying to Work the Refs

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Our Failed Major Media, with the NYTimes at the forefront…


For the record, I don’t think Comey intended to stumble back into the limelight just in time to grease the skids on the GOP’s ‘clouds & shadows’ allegations. He just has a bottomless need to be The Most Sterling Public Servant EVER, and a genuine gift for running his yap at the worst possible moment…

Reader Interactions

133Comments

  2. 2.

    Steve LaBonne

    My “Elect More Women” T-shirt raises questions about my hypocrisy that are answered by the fact that I’m the one wearing it.

  6. 6.

    Jess

    Kleptocrats gonna kleptocrat. Meanwhile, I’m working on a new space laser for no particular reason…

  7. 7.

    The Audacity of Krope

    “Trump” is posting that voting starts September 6, but we all know Trump thinks the only real voting is in person on election day.

    So who killed Trump and is operating his meat suit?

  8. 8.

    HumboldtBlue

    CNN is pretending they and other trad media should be genuflected to before any candidate can be taken seriously and they believe that shit.

    Democrats increasingly think they can take their message directly to their voters, cutting out traditional media in the process. A feature of the Biden campaign. But there is no sub for independent, tough Qs, and most voters want to see leaders in those settings.

    Micheal Harriot has a few questions for the fart-huffing ballbags.

    2 Questions:

    What was the “mainstream, traditional interview” that you saw that convinced you to vote for a presidential candidate?

    Which current “mainstream, traditional outlet” would you like to see conduct a presidential interview?

  10. 10.

    rikyrah

    Go Jack Smith.

    Sure, Jack could have waited until day 61 to unseal the indictments, but,he was generous. …at day 70 :)

     

    LOL

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    That’s one endorsement that the Harris campaign should place in the “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Memorial Do Not Return This Message Circular Filing Cabinet”.

  12. 12.

    brendancalling

    James Comey can fuck off and die forever, like a character in some Greek tragedy. Every day, for eternity, he has to wake up, fuck off, and die by the end of the day—only to wake up in the morning to do it all over again. Sometimes he wakes up in a morgue, sometimes he wakes up in a sealed coffin, other times a shallow grave or a dumpster. But every day—wake up, fuck off, die—over and over and over again.

  13. 13.

    HumboldtBlue

    SAVANNAH — Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, kicked off a two-day swing on Wednesday through southeast Georgia that tests the limits of Democratic ambitions in the battleground state.

    Their first stop was at Liberty County High School, where they were introduced to explosive applause.

    “We wanted to come by to remind you our nation is counting on you,” Harris told the school’s football team and cheerleading squad who were assembled to meet them. “We are so proud of you and all that you’ve achieved.”

    “Sometimes you’re going to win the game. Sometimes you’re not. But you’re not going to let any circumstance knock you down or slow you down. You just keep going at it.”

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    @HumboldtBlue:

    CNN is pretending they and other trad media should be genuflected to before any candidate can be taken seriously and they believe that shit.

     

    I love how folks are just like..

     

    FOH

    and, we truly mean..

     

    GET.THEE.ENTIRE.PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.

  16. 16.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @HumboldtBlue: But there is no sub for independent, tough Qs, and most voters want to see leaders in those settings.

    If only such a thing were available.  CNN and the rest certainly aren’t offering it.

    ETA: As far as I can tell, they need these interviews as much as the candidates do and are the only ones who benefit from them being the specific ones to do the interview.

    So, no matter how badly I want to see Kamala shine, I will never watch. Someone respectable will be granted an interview at some point later, I’m sure.

  18. 18.

    Jay

    reposted from the previous thread,

    Indeed, the outrageous overinflation of the Walz story was nearly forgotten by Monday morning when the Times, which has bent over backwards to belittle the joy of Kamala Harris’ wildly successful Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week, published an op-ed from the editor of the conservative National Review, Rich Lowry, headlined simply: “Trump Can Win on Character.” Perhaps that’s true, as critics noted, if voters do what Lowry did in his piece and pretend that inconvenient facts like the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection or the fraud verdict had never happened. But while the column was ridiculed on social media, few people said they were giving up on the Times — because in this annus horribilis for the American media, many had already tuned out the NYT weeks or months ago.

    https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/media-elections-dnc-kamala-harris-military-20240827.html?utm_source=social&utm_campaign=gift_link&utm_medium=referral

    Will Buch rips the Media a new one.

  19. 19.

    dmsilev

    @The Audacity of Krope: Not that it really matters because Trump lies basically all the time, but where in the country does voting start on September 6th? The earliest deadline I know of is the “mail ballots to overseas military” which is like September 20, and most states wait until then (or later) to start mailing out ballots to the general population.

    Maybe someone told him about the sixty day rule, which is what September 6th would be, and he added another sixty days to that? Who the hell really knows.

  20. 20.

    hueyplong

    “… there is no sub for independent, tough Qs…”

    Which causes us to wonder why Trump hasn’t been called upon to give a straight answer to  one yet in any of his three presidential candidacies.

  21. 21.

    Trollhattan

    Todays Arlington hijinks have a local connection.

    The family of fallen U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee, a Roseville native who was killed in Afghanistan in August 2021, commemorated the third anniversary of her death with former President Donald Trump at the Arlington National Cemetery on Monday.

    The anniversary of Gee’s death “is always emotional and hectic,” said Gee’s mother in law, Christy Shamblin, on Wednesday morning. “We just try to take it as it comes every year.” Gee and 12 other U.S. Marine Corps service members were killed August 26, 2021 in a terrorist attack at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, which killed more than 170 people. The soldiers have since been called the “Fallen 13.”

    Shamblin said that the families of the Fallen 13 are close, and commemorate the anniversary at Arlington together. The Hoover family, whose son Taylor Hoover was killed in the attack, reached out to the Trump campaign and invited them to lay a wreath down on Taylor’s grave together.

    “The Trump team is very, very respectful and cognizant,” Shamblin said. “They wanted to be respectful to everyone there.”

    …On Tuesday afternoon, NPR reported that the Trump campaign forced its way into the cemetery on Monday, which led to a verbal and physical altercation with cemetery staff. Cemetery officials reportedly told the campaign that only cemetery staff members can photograph or film in the section where the wreath-laying ceremony was going to take place, which NPR said resulted in a Trump campaign staffer shoving the Arlington official aside. Shamblin denied any such conflict occurred. The Trump campaign has also denied the report.

    “We saw no altercations or disagreements whatsoever,” Shamblin said. “We were respectful. There were no problems there … I put this in the same category as the media that says we lied when we talked about (President Joe) Biden checking his watch at the dignified transfer.”

    [Wait for it]

    Shamblin, who spoke at the Republican National Convention last month, has thrown her support behind Trump’s campaign in large part because she feels the Biden-Harris administration has made the Gold Star Families feel “pushed aside.” Shamblin and Gee’s family also said they nearly had to shoulder the $60,000 cost of transferring Gee’s remains from California to Arlington, though the Pentagon denied this.

    A nonprofit organization, Honoring Our Fallen, paid for Gee’s remains to be transferred to Arlington on a private airline rather than a commercial flight. Shamblin confident that a second Trump presidency will be better for veterans and their families. The families of the Fallen 13 “have not heard one word” from Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, though they say they have reached out and requested to meet with her but not received any response.

    “At least Biden sent us a form letter,” she said.

    Who’s exploiting whom seems an open question.

  22. 22.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @dmsilev: I don’t know either. I certainly didn’t try to corroborate the date.

    That’s the problem with addressing Trump’s hypocrisy, it makes it hard to even get to the lies.  Consider the prior statement to be fully reversible.

  24. 24.

    Steve LaBonne

    @hueyplong: Shit, on every campaign flight Harris gives the press gaggle the chance to ask a few questions, and as far as we know they’re all stupid horserace and “respond to dumb shit Trump said” garbage. They’re not fooling anybody into thinking they’re intrepid journalists.

  25. 25.

    Betty Cracker

    The Fallows tweet that compares the front page treatment really says it all. The NYT political desk has been a disaster for America.

    I remember reading that after Trump was elected, Comey’s wife and daughters berated him for sticking his big fat thumb on the scale. I hope they’ve kept at it.

    What a world-historical fuck up James Comey is. But of course he’s oblivious to that. He had the balls to write a book on leadership afterward. The unmitigated fucking gall…

  26. 26.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Betty Cracker: What a world-historical fuck up James Comey is. But of course he’s oblivious to that. He had the balls to write a book on leadership afterward. The unmitigated fucking gall…

    We tried to get the EPA on mitigation efforts, but Trump era policies…you know the rest…

  27. 27.

    Jackie

    I was just thinking last night that Jack Smith could well be TCFG’s James Comey.

    Let this be just the tip of the iceberg of “Comey” drops between now and Nov 5.

    The Arlington snafu looks like it will also haunt TCFG. There’s millions of veterans and Gold Star families who are furious right now – and not all are Democrats.

  29. 29.

    BR

    Speaking of NYT’s thumb on the scale:

    I listened to part of The Daily podcast the other day about Trump v Harris economic policies and the New York Times writers were insistent that higher prices had nothing to do with corporate greed. Harris just didn’t understand the real causes, they said. It really is a garbage institution.

    A top Kroger executive admitted under questioning from a Federal Trade Commission attorney on Tuesday that the grocery chain raised its egg and milk prices above the rate of inflation

    https://bsky.app/profile/paleofuture.bsky.social/post/3l2sqmq4d7p2x

  30. 30.

    Trollhattan

    As of Jan 1 California’s population is believed to be 39.1 million, per the state Dept. of Finance.

    August 28, 2024 at 3:39 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

    “Donald Trump insisted in a meandering interview with television host Dr. Phil McGraw on Tuesday that he had actually won California, adding that all he needed was an ‘honest vote counter’—Jesus Christ, to be exact,” the Daily Beast reports.

    Said Trump: “If Jesus Christ came down and was the vote counter, I would win California, OK? In other words, if we had an honest vote counter, a really honest vote counter—I do great with Hispanics, great, I mean at a level no Republican has ever done—but if we had an honest vote counter, I would win California.”

    He added: “I see it. I go around California, they have Trumps signs all over the place…It’s a very dishonest state, everything is mail-in. They send out 38 million ballots, I think it is.”

    That’s a lot of ballots.

  31. 31.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @BR: New York Times writers were insistent that higher prices had nothing to do with corporate greed.

    This can only be understood as a reasonable position to take once you understand that the NYT’s financial incentives are tied in with those of the people who decide how much to charge for goods and services.

    And it is a position, so much for the objective media.

  32. 32.

    EarthWindFire

    @HumboldtBlue: But there is no sub for independent, tough Qs

    Independent tough Qs like, “Oh. My. God. Kamala. Did you hear what Trump said about yew?” I’d roll my eyes but I’d probably lose them from the sockets.

  33. 33.

    BR

    @Trollhattan: ​

    I take solace in the fact that the area of Palos Verdes next to where his LA golf club is is sliding into the sea and the whole area will probably be marked as a disaster zone soon enough. (Unfortunately his golf club itself is probably stable.)

  34. 34.

    eemom

    @Jay:

    Will Buch rips the Media a new one.

    No, not really. Bunch has written a lot of good substantive stuff but if you read that piece closely he’s still making excuses for his fuckscum media “colleagues”, and so is Mark Jacob in the piece he links to.

    The mainstream media is on the side of fucking evil, pure and simple. Fuck all of them and their bullshit excuses.

  41. 41.

    Gloria DryGarden

    I’m waiting for a whole thread on the voter suppression activities in the states. NE, felons

    TX attacks on folks registering LATINOS to vote, either the AG, or the KK  behind it, or both

    GA, Complaints about maga on an election body, planning ahead to not certify votes, and the gov pretending he can’t just fire them

    these voter suppression activities could be (are) a pretty big deal. We might need to keep our eyes on it. Perhaps a whole thread every week until November. I am proposing.

  42. 42.

    sukabi

    1. Shut up James Comey, go sit in the Chair of Shame for your not insignificant part in bringing trump to the Oval Office and shitting up the country.
  44. 44.

    KatKapCC

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Democrats increasingly think they can take their message directly to their voters, cutting out traditional media in the process.

    Worded like they think this is a ludicrous notion. “Democrats increasingly think they can solve climate change by aiming oscillating fans at the sun.”

  45. 45.

    cmorenc

    +1 good for Comey to strongly endorse Harris in 2024.  Too bad he earned -1000^2 for being a show-hog in 2016 tossing dirt at Clinton 8 days from election day 2016 when it really mattered, especially since the purported new trove of emails turned out to not amount to not even amount to a minuscule speck of lint.  And his has-been endorsement in 2024 adds but a pebble of weight to Harris in 2024 compared to the huge boulder he let loose agains Clinton iin 2016 when he still carried considerable weight as FBI director.

    And then once in office, Trump treated critical national secrets with less respect than the pages of last year’s Sears & Robuck catalogue in an outhouse.  And turned out there were only 3 relatively minor classified docs in the-original or Comey troves.

  46. 46.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    Dear New York Times, CNN, and everybody else in the media who thinks along similar lines:

    Go fuck yourselves, die in a fire, and writhe in agony in the flames of hell for all of eternity. If you need a little bit of help with accomplishing the first two steps in that simple 3 part agenda, I stand ready, willing and able to assist you at any time.

    That is all.

    Signed, a concerned voter.

  47. 47.

    eemom

    @eemom:

    E.g., Bunch: nah, the media shitshow has NOTHING to do with the profits of the oligarchs who control it.  Uh, ok.

  49. 49.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @BR: I have climbed down that steep hillside in palos verdes, as a kid, to go to the tide pools. They’re really great tide pools.
    if the land collapses there, I’d rather it was a golf course, than the residential areas.

  54. 54.

    VFX Lurker

    For the record, I don’t think Comey intended to stumble back into the limelight just in time to grease the skids on the GOP’s ‘clouds & shadows’ allegations. He just has a bottomless need to be The Most Sterling Public Servant EVER, and a genuine gift for running his yap at the worst possible moment…

    Comey can try, but he will never get his reputation back.

    Never.

  55. 55.

    Ishiyama

    If I subscribed to the New York Times, I could use it to line a birdcage, if I had a bird.

  57. 57.

    bbleh

    In this case, of course, the “refs” are MORE than willing to be “worked.”  Arguably they’re ALREADY putting their thumbs (and hands, and wrists, and shoulders) on the scale, and this is just reminding them to LEAN HARDER!  (And John Solomon has long since shown himself to be a credulous nitwit.)

  58. 58.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Jackie:

    I was just thinking last night that Jack Smith could well be TCFG’s James Comey.

    except comey was was full of it, throwing dirt and shade at a crucial moment on trumped up stuff,

    and jack smith has something real and huge he’s been bringing to actual court

  59. 59.

    Jackie

    This:

    “Donald Trump used his social-media website on Wednesday to amplify a crude remark about Vice President Kamala Harris that suggested Ms. Harris traded sexual favors to help her political career,” the New York Times reports.

    “The post, by another user on Truth Social, was an image of Ms. Harris and Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump’s opponent in 2016. The text read: ‘Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently.’”

    “Mr. Trump’s repost was the second time in 10 days that the former president shared content from his personal account making sexually oriented attacks on Ms. Harris.”

    This will flip suburban women to DonOLD…

  61. 61.

    KatKapCC

    @Jackie: I guess in his world, women only blow you if you’re going to pay them.

    G-d damn, that makes my blood boil. They take one brief relationship early in her career, during which, yes, she got a couple of board appointments, and extrapolate from that to say that her entire career, in law and politics, is solely due to her putting out for powerful men.

    Of course, even in a case where a woman did get a job or a raise or whatever after sleeping with a man, people only seem to have disdain for the woman and not the man who withheld a promotion or raise unless she put out.

  63. 63.

    danielx

    @HumboldtBlue: ​
     

    But there is no sub for independent, tough Qs, and most voters want to see leaders in those settings.

    Right.

    NYT/CNN: “What do you have to say regarding the controversy over Tim Walz’s dog?”

    Harris/Walz campaign: “That you can fuck right off with that line of questioning. By the way, have you noticed there’s a picture of you above the words ‘shallow’ and “vapid’ in the dictionary?”

  64. 64.

    KatKapCC

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Melber is obsessed with having right-wing assholes on his show so he can preen about how balanced he is. It would be fine if he always held their feet to the fire, but most of the time he lets them spew garbage while barely correcting a thing they say.

  65. 65.

    wjca

    @KatKapCC: Hey James Comey. Thanks for endorsing Harris. Now go eff yourself with a hot poker.

    Kudos for not requiring it to be rusty.  Any opponent of TCFG should get at least tiny bits of consideration, after all.

  68. 68.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @KatKapCC: Most of Harris’s positions were elected. If Trump were right, which he’s not; but if he were right, Harris left a lot of happy voters in CA.

    I just hope she showed some love for her female constituents as well.

  69. 69.

    matt

    Comey’s like a disgusting, slobbering dumb Republican golden retriever

    Apologies to the good golden retrievers out there.

  71. 71.

    Jeffro

    @brendancalling:James Comey can fuck off and die forever, like a character in some Greek tragedy. Every day, for eternity, he has to wake up, fuck off, and die by the end of the day—only to wake up in the morning to do it all over again. Sometimes he wakes up in a morgue, sometimes he wakes up in a sealed coffin, other times a shallow grave or a dumpster. But every day—wake up, fuck off, die—over and over and over again.

    this is excellent, and 150% agree

    Dumbetheus

  73. 73.

    KatKapCC

    @The Audacity of Krope: Exactly. EVEN IF there had been any bit of favoritism once upon a time (which there wasn’t), she was elected by the people to be DA, AG, Senator, and VP.

    Of course, to Trump, votes made by Democrats do not count. Or they’re RIGGED!!! His people tried to claim Newsom only won election and re-election and beat the dumb recall by “rigging” them. There are twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans in CA, and yet they think a Democrat cannot legitimately win an election here.

  76. 76.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @KatKapCC: to Trump, votes made by Democrats do not count.

    I wonder what he would make of my right to vote with my “unenrolled” status.

  77. 77.

    Darkrose

    @KatKapCC: You know who else Willie Brown mentored and helped get a seat on a state board? That would be Governor Gavin. Funny how no one ever suggests he blew Willie to advance his career.

  78. 78.

    Jeffro

    @The Audacity of Krope: This election could come back 98 to 2% and that would still be more votes than Trump deserves.

    True, but 27% is apparently the floor in this country, and that’s before the Fox News ‘prop-up’ effect kicks in.

    I still feel like we should have gotten louder, earlier, with the MAGAts: “what the fuck is wrong with you people?”

  79. 79.

    matt

    @Darkrose: Harris did actually date Brown. It is weird though how any relationship by a Democrat is some kind of unseemly whoring. Do they feel that way about the Kristi Noem-Corey Lewandowski affair? The Marge Greene let’s fuck the crossfit guy affairs? What about the spectacle of Kellyanne Conway splaying her legs on the couch at the Oval Office barefoot in a dress like something out of Fatal Attraction?

  80. 80.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Darkrose: Funny how no one ever suggests he blew Willie to advance his career.

    No one wants to put their hand in that hair might be one reason. Slick bastid’.

  82. 82.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @matt: It is weird though how any relationship by a Democrat is some kind of unseemly whoring.

    Our men don’t seek ownership over the women among us; so, clearly, something else must be motivating our relationships.

  83. 83.

    KatKapCC

    @Darkrose: Oh, give them the idea and they’ll run with it. There have been people claiming he’s secretly gay. Now, when it was gay boys in the Castro when he was Mayor, it was more of a hopeful yearning on their part. But from the right wing, it would just be another bit of their pedo freakouts.

  85. 85.

    BR

    Anyone know why they’re sending Doug Emhoff to do an event in Newport News, Virginia next week?

  87. 87.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @KatKapCC: I’m sorry, if rubbing up against a full length plastic doll is your thing, I shouldn’t judge. At least Newsom isn’t made of cushions.

  89. 89.

    SW

    So the oligarchs have figured out that Trump will butter their buns while a Democrat is more likely to bust their balls.  The large media companies are owned by oligarchs and over the past ten to fifteen years ownership has begun to use their assets to advance their interests.  It doesn’t matter what the sensibilities of the working stiffs in their organizations are.  That’s what editors and headline writers are for.

  91. 91.

    KatKapCC

    @The Audacity of Krope: What are you talking about? Are you implying he’s had plastic surgery or something? Also, I’m a lesbian, but I can recognize when a man is conventionally attractive, which he clearly is. You’re sounding pretty juvenile here.

  92. 92.

    Scout211

    @BR: Anyone know why they’re sending Doug Emhoff to do an event in Newport News, Virginia next week?

    Here’s  a local news story.  Maybe a campaign event in support of the local congressman?

    While details on Emhoff’s Newport News stop have not been released yet, Congressman Bobby Scott (D, VA-03) has meanwhile announced plans for his annual Labor Day Cookout which he said will host several “special guests” and elected officials, including U.S. Senator Tim Kaine.

    Scott has held the cookout almost every year 1977, when he was running for House of Delegates. The annual event has become for Virginia Democrats the unofficial start for the final stretch of political campaigns ahead of the November election.

    The cookout will be held Monday, Sept. 2 from 3 to 6 p.m. at 914 Shore Drive in Newport News.

    The event is open to the public and Scott has said, “It promises to be a fun-filled afternoon with food, conversation, and live entertainment.”

  96. 96.

    Geminid

    @BR: The Virginia 2nd CD is a potential Demicratic pickup this year. Democrat Elaine Luria flipped the 2nd CD in 2018 but lost to Republican Jen Kiggans in 2022. The district is centered on Virginia Beach.

    Missy Cotter Smazol is the Democratic candidate this year. Like Luria and Kiggans, Smazol is a retired Navy officer.

  97. 97.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I don’t think Comey intended to stumble back into the limelight just in time to grease the skids on the GOP’s ‘clouds & shadows’ allegations.

    I think he hated Hillary Clinton and wanted to show the woman who was running to be his boss that he can hurt her.

  99. 99.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @KatKapCC: Maybe “conventionally attractive” isn’t for everyone. And surgery ain’t the issue. The man glistens.

    There’s no real consequence to my lack of attraction to him. His general appearance is going to lead me to trust issues the day he inevitably shows up on a Presidential primary ballot, though.

    Man looks like he wants to buy the block and put up condos.

  101. 101.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker: +1

    Fallows was a speechwriter for Jimmy Carter.  I’m sure he remembers all the FTFNYT stories that went on for years about Carter’s peanut warehouse and Billy Beer and all the Clouds and Shadows about whether Carter and his brother were being corrupt by not having the blind trust be blind enough, and sullying the great history of the White House by a family member associating with a beer, and all the rest.

    Fallows is not the least bit surprised that FTFNYT has got their thumb on the scales to favor the GQP.  Not surprised at all.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  105. 105.

    Kathleen

    @sdhays: I can see Steve Bannon partnering with RFK Jr’s brain worm in a new media company. ETA: Brain worm attired in 6 layers of shirts would be cute.

  110. 110.

    WaterGirl

    @The Audacity of Krope: Are you guys still talking about Newsom?

    Newsom may be attractive in some classic sense, like Tom Cruise was supposed to be classically good-looking, but I don’t find either of them attractive.

    Newsom is doing a great job as governor, though!

  113. 113.

    lowtechcyclist

    @BR: ​
     

    I take solace in the fact that the area of Palos Verdes next to where his LA golf club is is sliding into the sea and the whole area will probably be marked as a disaster zone soon enough.

    That’ll be the day I go back to Annandale.

  114. 114.

    Geminid

    @Geminid:

     

    @Scout211: But now I see the event eill be accoss the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel from the 2nd CD, in Rep. Bobby Scott’s district.

    Scott was Virginia’s only Black Representative for many years until a Voting Rights Act lawsuit resulted in a redrawn 4th CD. The late Dan McEachin won that district in 2016 and Jennifer McClellan represents it now.

  117. 117.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @WaterGirl: Newsom is doing a great job as governor, though!

    Honestly, I question his commitment to labor and know for sure he supports the Supreme Court’s efforts to criminalize homelessness.  Doesn’t surprise me though.

    Man looks like your boss’s boss.

    Man looks like the Exxon Valdez spilled into his head and he’s been profiting from it ever since.

    Man looks like he was made from a Presidential candidate cookie cutter.

  119. 119.

    geg6

    @Old School:

    I’m expecting my mail-in ballot in the next few weeks here in PA.  Every year they send me a form to request mail-in for all elections that year.  I send it in or do it online and there’s nothing to it.  Generally, I’ll have it back in the mail in a day or two.  I check to make sure it’s recorded as received and then I’m done.  If you are registered to vote in PA, you can request the same.

  120. 120.

    geg6

    @The Audacity of Krope:

    I find him quite attractive, as does almost every normie woman I know.

  126. 126.

    beckya57

    @geg6: like his looks, don’t want him running.  The GOP and their stenographers would have a field day with the Chinese Laundry debacle.

  127. 127.

    artem1s

    @matt: ​ 

    I’d rather hear candidates field questions from voters than from the sick, corrupt, biased jerks of the political press.

    There was a town hall style debate between Poppy Bush and Bill Clinton. Audience members were allowed to submit questions and if chosen got to ask the candidates themselves. I can’t remember if it was a man or woman but I remember the question: do you know anyone personally who has been affected by the recession? Poppy literally said, “I don’t understand the question”. He did manage to burp something out after the question was repeated. Big Dog was wriggling and bouncing up and down like a puppy he was so eager to answer. He practically ran over Bush getting in front of the questioner. He rattled off the names of 5-6 examples right at the tip of his tongue of friends and constituents who’d lost their jobs, business, farms, homes, and life savings. Every detail. It was a master class in incinerating your debate opponent.
    I sat there in amazement knowing that I was looking at the next President. One question from a real voter and Poppy was done.
    I didn’t think about it at the time, but I’ll bet the moderator remembers that question too and is still seriously pissed he wasn’t the one who got to ask the gotcha question of that election.

  128. 128.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @artem1s: ‘Tis a thing of beauty.

    Anything else one might say about the Clintons, they talked to people and knew their stuff.

  129. 129.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @The Audacity of Krope: ​ETA: Left the typo. Comet, stellar. Works.

    The fuck it “works”. Only a scientific illiterate would even dream that, since stars and comets are about as different as two phenomena can be and still be considered part of the field of astronomy.

    Call yourself whatever you want, you’ll always be Krope The Dope to me,

  130. 130.

    Darkrose

    @geg6: I just realized that I don’t find him attractive because he reminds me of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street.

    I’ve had very mixed feelings on him as governor. He’s been very good on some issues I care about, but he’s also tried to tack right on others in ways that have ranged from annoying to infuriating, especially since I don’t think he could win a national election as the former Governor of California. He’s not actually a far-left progressive, but he’ll be painted that way, so doubling down on bullshit like sending the cops to clear out the homeless encampments isn’t going to help.

  131. 131.

    PatD

    @Darkrose: Newsom is an odious politician. I do wonder about the homeless crisis though.  Have we become inured to it? The homeless encampments just seem to getting bigger and more prevalent over time.

  132. 132.

    Darkrose

    @PatD: In California, it’s because there’s no affordable housing in urban areas. It’s pretty much impossible to live in San Francisco or LA. Even Sacramento has gotten insanely expensive in the 20 years I’ve been here. The removal of the post-COVID eviction pause hit hard as well, especially since a lot of landlords (like mine) took the opportunity to jack rents up. And forget about buying a place; that’s a pipe dream for most people.

    The problem is a combination of NIMBYism limiting stocks of affordable housing, and speculative bubbles and things like Air BnB prioritizing luxury housing over places people can actually live in. Instead of actually dealing with that, though, it’s easier to just bust up the encampments so people don’t have to actually see that there’s a problem.

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