Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

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

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

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

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

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

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

“Alexa, change the president.”

This really is a full service blog.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: ‘We’ Versus ‘MeMeMe… ‘

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: ‘We’ Versus ‘MeMeMe… ‘

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Mark your schedules:

… The Democratic presidential nominee will be joined by her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in an interview with CNN anchor Dana Bash in Savannah, Georgia. The interview will air Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern time...

During her three-plus years as vice president, she has done on-camera and print interviews with The Associated Press and many other outlets, often at a pace more frequent than Biden…

Earlier this month, Harris had told reporters that she wanted to do her first formal interview before the end of August.

Harris travels with members of the media on Air Force Two for all trips and nearly always comes to the back of the plane to speak to them for a few minutes before takeoff. Her office insists that those conversations are off the record, though, so what she says can’t be used publicly.

She will rally voters in Savannah on Thursday as part of a bus tour that kicks off on Wednesday.

Not my usual upbeat morning material, but I wanted to be sure the following news didn’t get lost in the usual spate…


Nothing is finished until it is finished correctly… Politico reports “‘He’s got to pay a price’: Unaired footage reveals Nancy Pelosi’s Jan. 6 fury”:

Nancy Pelosi spent the duration of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack focused on ensuring Joe Biden would be certified president as soon as possible. Then she turned her attention to Donald Trump.

“I just feel sick about what he did to the Capitol and the country today,” Pelosi said as she slumped, visibly exhausted, in the back of her SUV in the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 7. “He’s got to pay a price for that.”

Pelosi’s comment was included in about 50 minutes of unaired footage captured by her daughter, filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, who was at the former speaker’s side at key moments on Jan. 5, 6 and 7 in 2021. POLITICO has reviewed the footage, which HBO turned over this week to the Republican-led House Committee on Administration.

The panel is conducting an investigation aimed at undermining the findings of the Jan. 6 select committee, which found Trump singularly responsible for the havoc his supporters unleashed on the Capitol, and spotlighting the security failures that exacerbated the violence. The panel has reviewed video from various sources, including security footage and the clips from HBO.

It’s the most detailed glimpse yet of Pelosi’s rushed evacuation from the Capitol, showcasing her deep discomfort at being forced to flee from the rioters — who she feared would see the evacuation as a twisted victory — and her insistence that Congress return to finish certifying the election. It also showed how her focus quickly shifted to impeaching Trump for a second time, an effort that was ultimately successful, as well as preparing to fire Capitol security officials who she believed mismanaged the threats to the building…

As Pelosi huddled with congressional leaders at Fort McNair, waiting for authorities to quell the riot and secure the Capitol, visibly shocked lawmakers offered play-by-play commentary while watching news footage.

“How quick can Trump pardon them?” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) asked while watching video of the rioters. Nearby, Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and other House leaders Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and James Clyburn (D-S.C.) did not offer a response.

Trump did not take any steps in the final two weeks of his presidency to pardon Jan. 6 rioters but has indicated in recent months that he would do so in a second term…

Reader Interactions

401Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    We should have a pool on the first question that CNN will ask them.

    Probably something along the line of “Respond to this thing Trump said.”

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    It’s ridiculous that the radical supermajority on the Supreme Court has made holding Trump accountable so much more difficult.

    I think Biden should do something about that.  After Election Day.  Use those powers!

  5. 5.

    Elizabelle

    Dana Bash is a tool.  But even she can see the sea change in how the Democratic ticket is regarded.

    And both Prosecutor Kamala and Coach/Teacher Tim are way smarter and better people than she is.

  6. 6.

    Scout211

    I don’t remember any jackal suggesting Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA” as a celebration song for the Harris-Walz campaign in the Sunday Medium Cool thread.  But the chorus is definitely upbeat and joyful, which fits the campaign theme.

  7. 7.

    schrodingers_cat

    Nancy Pelosi was great in the Jan 6 aftermath. Not so great in the Biden debate debacle aftermath. The open primary BS that she and her minions were pushing would have been a disaster. Biden handled the change of guard to his VP flawlessly. No thanks to NP who wanted to get rid of the ticket not just Biden.

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    WHAT DID HE SAY AND WHEN DID HE SAY IT????

    House Republicans begin to dig into coverup of Nancy Pelosi’s grandson’s incitement of the J-6 violence!

    NOT the NYT Pitchbot.

  13. 13.

    Kay

    I saw a clip of an interview with Tim Walz where Walz sings the “Save big money at Menards” jingle

    very funny. I did not know he was funny.

    Menards is a Great Lakes home inprovement store and wingnutty as hell. If they’re smart they’ll be glad Walz is promoting them but they’d probably rather own the libs than be smart :)

  16. 16.

    Rusty

    @Baud: Also a pool for how long it takes them to ask a meaningful policy question, and number of questions.   I’ll start, 24 minutes into the interview,  and 3 in total.  After all the whining from the press about a supposed lack of policies, there will be almost no questions.

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

     

    Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) posted at 7:46 AM on Wed, Aug 28, 2024:

    JD Vance’s obsession with childless women needs to be looked into by professionals. It’s simply creepy at this point.

    Newly resurfaced comments from a Center for Christian Virtue leadership forum in October 2021 show Vance criticizing the teachers’ union president, Randi Weingarten, for not having her own children.

    “So many of the leaders of the left—and I hate to be so personal about this—but they’re people without kids, trying to brainwash the minds of our children.”

    t.co/e7shzgyXjN
    (x.com/cwebbonline/status/1828776124639547812?t=oJo0DCLYTpD20g8MQZH66g&s=03)

  22. 22.

    BR

    I see that DougJ is writing CNN headlines now too:

    Indictment rattles race

    ANALYSIS The return of Trump’s legal issues to center stage presents new challenges for Harris

  23. 23.

    Kay

    @BR:

    I love it. His accent is really important. He sounds like he’s from western Pennsylvania/Eastern Ohio.

  24. 24.

    BR

    @Kay:

    Great to hear. I couldn’t tell whether when watching it he was just speaking to me, a coastal elite who doesn’t know the heartland (or whatever). But those three points that he hits in that video are exactly the ones I’ve been thinking need to be part of the message to young men. (And add in cannabis legalization as part of the message and it’s perfect.)

  26. 26.

    Kay

    @BR:

    Trump and Vance did a joint interview

    WASHINGTON, DC – Former President Donald Trump and his new running mate Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance will have their first joint television interview next week, which will also be Trump’s debut television interview since the assassination attempt last week.

    The new pair will be interviewed by Fox News’ Jesse Watters on Monday night, at 8 p.m. Eastern as part of “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @BR: ​

    “Common Hilarious”??? Too funny.

    I am assuming everyone else gets the same closing CC.

  29. 29.

    Betty

    I receive my absentee ballot electronically and was surprised to see it has already arrived. What a feeling of responsibility to make sure I get it right. Such an important election!

  35. 35.

    Another Scott

    @BR: “There’s only one possible choice.  And that’s common hilarious.”

    He’s good!

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  36. 36.

    BR

    @Kay: ​

    Yeah, I just mean recently it seems like Trump has sent Vance off to do low budget events in Pennsylvania and Michigan while Trump basically never mentions him and is off doing his own thing.

  40. 40.

    Another Scott

    @hueyplong: EVERYONE – LITERALLY EVERYONE – EVERYWHERE  – LITERALLY EVERYWHERE – WANTED ROE GONE.  WHY WON’T KAMALA ADMIT THAT AND PRAISE TURMP FOR GETTING IT DONE??!

    [ sigh ]

    Forward!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    @BR:

    He sounds like my son in law, who grew up in Pittsburgh and then suburban Cleveland.

    It’s important. I think an underplayed part of Whitmer’s success is she sounds like a Michigander. Mitt Romney, for example, doesn’t sound like a Michigander. Obama had a Chicago accent – it’s very familiar in the midwest. Even Obama’s clipped way of speaking, where he terminates a word, sounds like Chicago. John Kerry had an eastern accent.

    I guess the contrary example would be Trump who sounds to me very NY but obviously Ohians love him (sadly).

  43. 43.

    cain

    @Kay: aren’t they all ? I have not heard bad things about Lowe’s or Ace though. But home Depot and Menards for sure.

  44. 44.

    Msb

    “Nothing is finished until it is finished correctly…”

    Damn right.

    love the We/Me cartoon!

  45. 45.

    cain

    @Kay: they love the white supremacy stuff in whatever accent that comes out of his mouth. Even if it is completely incoherent.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @BR: AI rears it’s ugly head again! A while back my wife and I were watching some stupid B- movie that was absolutely horrible. BUT, we… just… couldn’t… turn… it… off. The AI generated CC was hilariously wrong about everything every actor said. We watched it all the way thru for that reason alone.

  49. 49.

    Belafon

    @Baud: “Why did you want Walz to appear with you?”

    I do remember that Trump had Pence at at lease one interview back in 2016. That was here he declared that while Clinton should be held accountable for her vote on Iraq, it didn’t apply to Pence.

  54. 54.

    Weftage

    @BR: Ye gods.

    Trump’s new indictment rocks his newly reshaped race against Kamala Harris

    From the third to last paragraph of the article, in a section with the bolded subhead of “A new challenge for Harris:”

    Still, her campaign must have some concerns that some moderate, swing voters might view yet another indictment of the former president as overkill.

    That’s it, the single sentence in the entire article that addresses the alleged New Challenge to Harris. Not even, “campaign spokespeople expressed concerns.” Just a speculation that they “must” have some concerns. OK.

  56. 56.

    Elizabelle

    @rikyrah:  Yes.  Dana Bash pulls the MSM gaslighting “gotcha” crap, and Harris-Walz stick with professional and principled local and regional journalists.  I think they should sit for college and high school journalists too.  It’s their future.

    And influencers!  The good ones.

  57. 57.

    rikyrah

     

    Democrat, Environmentalist, & the establishment (@BlueSteelDC) posted at 8:20 AM on Wed, Aug 28, 2024:

    A woman with over 20 years of elected experience is being portrayed by the right as unprepared or unqualified.

    A woman with a book (mostly about policy), a mountain of legal and legislative writings, and decades of policy positions that became law—yet they’re hinting she’s “light on policy” while her opponent, who’s never faced a follow-up question, gets a free pass.

    This is all code speak. ” You don’t fit our model of leadership. You don’t belong.
    (x.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1828784703458947176?t=6uivHmnHsRJs0Gq0UG7-Gw&s=03)

  58. 58.

    Belafon

    @Weftage: I bet more people are concerned that she might lose some of the ice cream eating vote by pushing Biden aside than this.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @cain:

    Menards is a big employer. We have their regional distribution center where I live. They use a bonus system rather than wage increases that I think is just brutal for ordinary people, because it’s not reliable income. It fluctuates according to Menard’s profits. That system is fine for high income people like Wall Streeters because they have a very high base salary, but Menards workers barely make it on their base and then they have this “bonus” that they cannot count on which makes planning their finances impossible.

    It’s a rip off and I’m sure it came directly out of Wall Street/finance industry. Fuckers. They’re so bad for US business. 100% of their ideas are just bad and make the country worse.

  62. 62.

    jonas

    @Weftage:

    swing voters might view yet another indictment of the former president as overkill.

    Oh just fucking shoot me. Where do networks find these wankers?

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: We have a Menard’s regional distribution center outside of our town too. For some reason or other they are always “NOW HIRING”. Gee… I wonder why?

  67. 67.

    hueyplong

    Pretty easy answer to the “overkill” question:

    These are not additional charges. They are the same charges pared down to comply with a recent Supreme Court opinion. I say this not as Jack Smith’s boss, which I am not, but as someone who can read.

    Why do you think the case should be dismissed?

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Right?

    It’s hard though, because if I do their annual income it’s ok and so they take the job but then you essentially wait a year to get paid – which is great for the company- they’re keeping your pay for all those months and either earning interest on it or reinvesting it but it’s not a great deal for you- they’re essentially holding onto your pay after you’ve earned it.

    They would be better off receiving the pay raise in small amounts weekly – with this system they’re essentially loaning Menard’s money at zero interest beginning with a small loan in Month One and then a larger loan every month thereafter, so at the end of the year the employee has lent them 7 to 10k interest free for an entire year, every year, multiplied by X number of low wage employees.

    This diabolical nightmare for the working class could only have been invented by Wall Street. Fuckers. They ruin everything. Go for a stepped wage rather than a bonus. Better deal every single time.

  71. 71.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Weftage: It’s not “overkill” at all.  It’s Jack Smith showing that even despite the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, a new grand jury still believes that Trump committed Federal crimes on Jan 6, as a private citizen.  It’s like resubmitting your homework after making corrections from your teacher.

    Jack Smith: Trump broke laws X, Y, Z

    SCOTUS: A President is immune on X

    Jack Smith: Ok, but Trump still broke laws  Y, Z

    Superseding Indictments are not uncommon in our system of justice.  Calling this “overkill” is really just the media telling us: why can’t you just leave Trump alone and pretend Jan 6th didn’t happen?

  73. 73.

    BR

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    What I think is amazing (as a non-lawyer) is that Smith got a whole new grand jury together, showed them the evidence without the bits the supreme court said aren’t allowed, and the new grand jury indicted Trump again. That seems pretty robust to me.

  76. 76.

    cain

    @Baud:

    I wonder why they went with CNN? I would have thought MSNBC would have been better? Hell, they should have just started with TalkingPointsMemo. :D

  77. 77.

    bbleh

    @Baud: @schrodingers_cat: @Rusty: or they’ll just flat-out do the Felon’s campaign work for him.

    “Why hasn’t the border been secure under your administration, and what do you intend to do to fix it?”

    “Why has inflation been so terrible under your administration?  Don’t you think your economic policies will make it worse?”

  78. 78.

    Starfish

    Will Bunch agrees with all of you about the downfall of political journalism.

    It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The NYU professor and media critic Jay Rosen urged journalists to cover “the stakes, not the odds” of the 2024 election while Margaret Sullivan — who writes for the Guardian and her Substack after stints at the Times and the Washington Post — was more blunt in beseeching the press to ignore the pull of both-sides journalism and take seriously the threat to democracy posed by Trump, who tried to override his 2020 election loss and has made no comforting assurances that he won’t try to do the same after Nov. 5, 2024.

    Few journalists — if any — have listened. Much of the righteous fury during the Chicago DNC was directed at fact–checkers from the Times, Post, and independent organizations like PolitiFact. These organizations or practices were mostly established after the endemic political lying of the 2000s — remember the Iraq War? But while no one would argue with their stated approach of tough, unbiased scrutiny of all sides, the fact-checking industrial complex can’t handle the truth when one party’s platform is based on a firehouse of lies and the other party is trying to be serious, if not always literal, about reality.

  79. 79.

    cain

    @yellowdog:

    Oddly, “Happy Days are Here Again” – reminds me of a Thumbs Up commercial jingle back in the 80s.

    With a brand like Thumbs Up, I would expect they could do some great commercials today. I mean literally it’s an emoji soda.

  80. 80.

    jonas

    @hueyplong: Not only that, the comment casually implies that Harris and/or Biden (or even Garland) are somehow directing Smith’s decisions, which is a deeply irresponsible and misleading claim.

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @jonas: I have no idea, I just thought it was as clear and succinct a way to state what to me is so obvious but isn’t to the busybody, stay at home, Mom’s against Liberty running for school boards.

    He certainly said it far better than I ever could.

  84. 84.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @jonas: which is a deeply irresponsible and misleading claim.

    Which is why they make it. If they told the truth they’d be screaming at the top of their lungs, “HE’S A WITCH!!! HE’S A WITCH!!!”

  85. 85.

    TBone

    Today’s Heather Cox Richardson is so uplifting! So glad to see *waves hand* all of this in print:

    heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-27-2024

    Highly recommend!

    “For those counting,” legal analyst Andrew Weismann wrote, “FIVE separate grand juries (scores of citizens) have now found probable cause that Trump committed multiple felonies.”

  86. 86.

    cain

    @Weftage:

    So, the entire thing is once again centering white male trump voters. Like somehow more indictment would suddenly change those who are no the fence to go back to Trump because there are more crimes.

    This phenomena is only logically feasible for GOP voters. I i mean, normal voters would not vote for a guy who is shown to be committing more crimes after already been convicted of crimes. I mean, Hillary lost because it seemed like there was more investigation. Moronic.

  87. 87.

    Leto

    @Elizabelle: hey, I’ve been meaning to catch you since you asked me the other day what I’m studying: History! Classes this semester: His112, His 308, His 303, Lit 320, and Phil 298 Transnational Feminism.

    if someone sees Ramona, she asked about this as well, can you point them here? Ty! Off to class.

  88. 88.

    trnc

    @Rusty: ​
     

    Also a pool for how long it takes them to ask a meaningful policy question, and number of questions. I’ll start, 24 minutes into the interview, and 3 in total. After all the whining from the press about a supposed lack of policies, there will be almost no questions.

    Yes! In fact, it would be great for her to say so at the end of the interview and challenge future interviewers for both herself and DT to do better.

  89. 89.

    Leto

    @Elizabelle: hey, I’ve been meaning to catch you since you asked me the other day what I’m studying: History! Classes this semester: His 112, His 308, His 303, Lit 320, and Phil 298 Transnational Feminism.

    if someone sees Ramona, she asked about this as well, can you point them here? Ty! Off to class.

  90. 90.

    cain

    @Kay:

    It’s a rip off and I’m sure it came directly out of Wall Street/finance industry. Fuckers. They’re so bad for US business. 100% of their ideas are just bad and make the country worse.

    A clear reason why a strong union is needed. Wall Streeters are some of the dumbest people around who have their asses so up their nostrils that the only thing know is the smell of ass which clearly infers their decision making.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    Republicans where I live were genuinely rattled by Trump’s disrespecting Medal of Honor recipients. That’s why his low quality hires waddled off to Arlington, hurry up quick. But that was a disaster too, because they genuinely have no respect for veterans, so it shows over and over.

    Media has basically ignored it or excused it, as they always for their guy Donald, but I thought it was interesting some of it was finally, finally getting thru to the base despite media’s burying it.

    We always say “nothing matters” with Trump and the base but I think this thing where they despise veterans and have contempt for them DOES matter. It could be exploited, politically.

    I know it’s unfair and if Kamala Harris had told veterans to fuck off twice in a month media would screech until she resigned but given the complete collapse of media maybe Democratic campaigns can use this against Republicans. My sense it’s pretty potent with GOP voters. We have to do the work a functioning media would ordinarily do in a democracy. That’s bad. But it also forces us to do better than Republicans on just about every metric, including acting as a “media entity”.

  92. 92.

    mrmoshpotato

    Miley Cyrus has given Kamala Harris permission to use her song Party in the USA during her campaign!!!

    🎵Shaking our bones and singing this song…🎵

  93. 93.

    cain

    @zhena gogolia:

    @Baud: I’m putting my money on “Where’s Hunter?”

    A while ago, there was a very popular zombie apocalypse game called “Left 4 Dead”, and you had normal zombies and “super zombies”. One of those was called ‘Hunter’ which was basically a zombie that would hide and do surprise attacks.  You can tell a hunter is around because one of the characters would say “There’s a hunter around!” Attack happens, “Hunter! Hunter! Hunter!” :D

    So the question is where is hunter? Hiding and ready to attack! Let’s go Brandon!

  95. 95.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Katie Phang on the superseding indictment for Jan 6 (from Twitter, deal with it):

    Straight out of the gate, you can note the new allegations in the Superseding Indictment (SI):

    – Smith makes it clear that Trump’s co-conspirators were all acting in a “private capacity” or they were “not government officials during the conspiracies.”

    This is important because if they were acting in private capacities or weren’t government officials during the relevant times, then there is no immunity.

    – Trump’s co-conspirators were all “private” individuals: attorneys or a political consultant who assisted Trump in perpetrating his election interference and fraud.

    – When it comes to Trump being on notice that his claims of election fraud were false, the SI alleges that Trump was told by “those most invested in his re-election, including his own running mate and his campaign staff.”

    So Trump as the CANDIDATE not as the president is being put on notice that there was no election fraud.

    – The SI alleges that although Trump may have used his Twitter account as president, “he also regularly used it for personal purposes — including to spread knowingly false claims of election fraud, exhort his supporters to travel to Washington, DC on January 6, pressure the Vice President to misuse his ceremonial role in the certification proceeding, and leverage the events at the Capitol on January 6 to unlawfully retain power.”

    Again, Smith here is making it clear that there was a clear break between Trump as president and Trump as a private candidate for re-election.

    – On January 6, Trump spoke at the Ellipse in Washington, DC, at a “privately-funded, privately-organized political rally” where he “continued his lies through the day of the certification proceeding.”

  97. 97.

    BR

    It’s still looking like there wasn’t much or any convention bounce out of the DNC. The YouGov poll that just came out shows 47-46. We’ll have to see if swing state polling looks better.

  98. 98.

    trnc

    @trnc: ​
     

    Also a pool for how long it takes them to ask a meaningful policy question, and number of questions. I’ll start, 24 minutes into the interview, and 3 in total. After all the whining from the press about a supposed lack of policies, there will be almost no questions.

    Yes! In fact, it would be great for her to say so at the end of the interview and challenge future interviewers for both herself and DT to do better.

    On second thought, she should make the challenge at the beginning of the interview. Either Bash is prepared to carry out the kind of interview the media have been insisting, or she can fumble around trying to adapt, or she can just look stupid as Kamala keeps asking for policy questions.

  99. 99.

    Kay

    Every Democratic debate with every Republican – ask “do you agree with Donald Trump and JD Vance that Medal of Honor recipients are “less than” billionaire GOP donors?”

    This reached the GOP base. It punched thru the denial and cultisim. They’re uncomfortable with disrespecting veterans. We can use that against them. And it’s the right thing to do. They DO have contempt for veterans. It’s true, so therefore fair game. Every single Democrat can use it, not just Harris.

  100. 100.

    kindness

    ‘Leftys’ who didn’t like Nancy?  I do not recall a whole lot of carping from the left.  No doubt some saying they represent something Left complained, but those folk weren’t actual Democrats.

  101. 101.

    Leto

    @Kay: it should be exploited. We saw a glimpse of it in 2016 with his remarks about McCain, which he’d already made a few years earlier, but which fully came to light during his administration. It’s also abundantly clear via how he currently talks about us, but also in every section of Project 2025 which has anything to do with the military and veterans.

    But as we all know, this is how they’ve viewed us for decades. Shitheels.

  102. 102.

    BR

    @Kay: ​

    I’ve seen some videos of veterans pissed about it. So I agree, it does seem to be reaching beyond the usual stories do.

    The question is: how to get your message to them? It’s a target rich environment — Trump and Vance have said so many crazy and weird and terrible things — that it’s probably hard for Dems to decide which attack to even use.

    Edit: I’m going to send your comment to Josh Marshall. (Not sure who else would pay attention.)

  104. 104.

    Baud

    @kindness:

    No doubt some saying they represent something Left complained, but those folk weren’t actual Democrats.

     

    The “leftists” that complained about the ice cream in her freezer.

  105. 105.

    Belafon

    @kindness: Well I complained about Nancy pushing to get Biden out, and the idea that there should be some sort of contest this close to the election, and I’ve voted Democrats since my first vote for Dukakis.

  106. 106.

    trnc

    @Kay: ​
     

    I saw a clip of an interview with Tim Walz where Walz sings the “Save big money at Menards” jingle
    …
    Menards is a Great Lakes home inprovement store and wingnutty as hell.

    “Did Harris Choose A Sleeper Republican VP?”
    – NYT

  108. 108.

    jonas

    @Kay:

    That’s why his low quality hires waddled off to Arlington, hurry up quick.

    And then proceeded to get into an actual physical scuffle with park employees when they were told they weren’t allowed to use dead troops as a photo op. *Then* the execrable Steven Cheung tells reporters later that the employee was clearly having a mental health episode and so needed a beatdown or something.

    These people do not have enough orifices for the number of rusty farm implements I wish them to fornicate with.

  109. 109.

    trnc

    @rikyrah: ​
     

    The idea of pretending a BW is mysterious or her positions are somehow unknown who is the current vice president of the United States & has been a DA, AG & senator of the 2nd largest economy is racist at its core & an attempt to otherize her.

    That could pretty much be her answer when the first question is “Why did you wait so long to take questions from the media?”

  111. 111.

    trnc

    @rikyrah: ​
     I like how hard DT and JV are explicitly pushing Project 2025 policies while claiming they don’t know anything about it.

  114. 114.

    jonas

    @trnc:  Menards is a Great Lakes home inprovement store and wingnutty as hell.

    What is it with home improvement chains and MAGA? The founder of Home Depot was also a major wingnut, iirc.

  123. 123.

    Elizabelle

    @Belafon: What I think is funny is that the crypto scam techbros/choads’ scheme ensured elevating a prosecutor to the top of the ticket.

    I hope the Harris-Walz administration goes after the crypto scammers with both barrels.

  125. 125.

    Baud

    @Elizabelle:

    Sadly, probably not. Biden was pretty tough on crypto and they’re spending oodles of money in this election. I think there’s going to be a slight retrenchment. Although not full tech bro.

  128. 128.

    TBone

    Comment of the Day (so far):

    It was a good theoretical question from Sotomayor about whether the president had the power to order Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival. But it would’ve been even better, imo, if she had asked if the president had the power to order Seal Team 6 to assassinate Clarence Thomas.

  129. 129.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I’m sure we both remember when Menards first expanded into Central Misery.  In Jeff City, they actually carved away a massive hillside in order to build the place.

    It sucks because from a product-offering standpoint, they have stuff you can’t find elsewhere. The nearest one to us in Denver is up in Cheyenne which is good cuz I’m not tempted to go in given it’s not literally down the street from my office like the one in Jeff City was.

    As people have noted yesterday, okay, the Home Despot CEO is also another shitstain for a human being so what’s a person to do?  We buy as much as we can from our local hardware stores and when we were renovating/restoring our kitchen during the Plague Years, we did everything thru Lowes.

    Links that talk about the billionaire Menard (just another example of how Every Billionaire Is A Policy Failure):
    wisdc.org/follow-the-money/46-influence-peddler/5401-influence-peddler-of-the-month-john-menard-jr

    There are some stories from former employees at HQ in Eau Claire that the political agenda of the founder is pretty overt in terms of the everyday work environment but that’s not been reported on by any conventional media outlet.

    And of course now Menard is trying to buy academic presence like all the hip billionaires do:

    csld.wisc.edu/menard-family-open-letter/

  130. 130.

    SatanicPanic

    Guys I know I could look up scores and find out what it is but in my entire life I’ve never heard anyone use it in a conversation unless they’re referencing The Gettysburg Address. Just saying it sounds pretentious.

  132. 132.

    trnc

    @zhena gogolia: ​
     

    I’m putting my money on “Where’s Hunter?”

    That would be a gift question, since the answer is “Currently awaiting sentencing after being tried by the Biden DOJ.”

  133. 133.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SatanicPanic: Using pretentious sounds pretentious too.  Just say fancy.  We can get rid of lots of words this way.  Soon we’ll all talk like Trump.  Woohoo!

  138. 138.

    catclub

    @rikyrah: “So many of the leaders of the left—and I hate to be so personal about this—but they’re people without kids, trying to brainwash the minds of our children.”

     

    Nuns!  Nuns teaching in Catholic schools.  Do the Opus Dei crowd know about this from JD?

  139. 139.

    Danielx

    @BR:

    Had to look for myself, didn’t I?

    It’s all in the phrasing. Why the fuck does this pose new challenges for Harris?

  143. 143.

    trnc

    @bbleh: ​
     I would fully expect some version of those questions, and I expect her to have good answers. Re: inflation, I would love to see that turned around to “If you believe inflation was caused by a large amount of govt spending early in our administration, a large part of that spending was for infrastructure that Donald falsely promised. Have you asked him why he didn’t fulfill that promise and why he doesn’t deserve blame for kicking that spending to the next administration?”

  144. 144.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @trnc:

    I’m not worried either.  I think the campaign’s choice of media outlet, given Bash The Tool’s role in the debate, was very deliberate.

    And having it as a joint appearance is a great reinforcer of the image they both projected together during the convention.

    What would be nice is if Bash asks some predictably dumbass questions that one of them gets all Barney Frank in reply.  Won’t happen but at least they’ll get to put on display how to handle such ‘events’.

  147. 147.

    Kay

    @jonas:

    @MikieSherrill

    12h

    Arlington National Cemetery isn’t a place for campaign photo-ops. It’s a sacred resting place for American patriots. But for Donald Trump, disrespecting military veterans is just par for the course. It’s an absolute disgrace. We’re not going back.

     

    This is the way. College educated Republicans – my neighbors and people I work with every day- are ashamed that Trump has disdain for veterans. Just fucking hammer that. They’ll wince every time they hear it and they deserve to wince.

    Every single Dem in any race – state or federal- can use it. “Suckers and losers”, Medal of Honor, Arlington photo op. Make it a mantra. Do the job media won’t.

  148. 148.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @schrodingers_cat: The last name on her birth cert. is Harris.  She didn’t marry Emhoff until she was almost 50 and kind of established in her career.  I am giving this too much attention.  Fuck ’em.

  151. 151.

    TBone

    Comment of the Day runner up (life in a college town during plague):

    What a time for 48,000 people aged 18-25-ish to come back to my general area after being away for four months.

  153. 153.

    SatanicPanic

    I imagine there will be some annoying questions but they’ll do fine. I hope this makes Trump decide he has to do a prime time interview so his dementia can be fully on display.

  154. 154.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @BR: I guarantee that the rightwing morans will try to start a meme that Harris “isn’t ready” for the presidency since she still needs an old(ish) white man to prop her up.

  158. 158.

    BR

    @Chief Oshkosh: ​

    They’ve already started. Members of the press are even complaining despite pushback that literally every president has done a joint interview with their VP candidate.

  164. 164.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Republicans where I live were genuinely rattled by Trump’s disrespecting Medal of Honor recipients. That’s why his low quality hires waddled off to Arlington, hurry up quick. But that was a disaster too, because they genuinely have no respect for veterans, so it shows over and over.

     

    They wouldn’t have said anything about Arlington, if he hadn’t of made the rounds on Social Media.

  165. 165.

    TBone

    Democratic strategists are launching a new super PAC focused on supporting the party’s legal efforts around election protection and potential battles that could come after Election Day.

    The new group, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money, is called Democracy Defenders and will be chaired by Jim Messina, who served as campaign manager for President Barack Obama’s successful 2012 reelection campaign.

    crooksandliars.com/2024/08/new-dem-pac-fight-republican-election

    Good, and not a moment too soon.

  167. 167.

    SatanicPanic

    RFK JR is apparently stuck on MI and WI ballots. That’s got to amount to a few thousand dummies in both states voting for him instead of Trump

  170. 170.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    My

    HARRIS FOR PRESIDENT

    Lawn sign came yesterday.

    All put up 😊😊😊😊

    Mine are up too!  ‘Virginia for Harris’, ‘Harris/Walz’, ‘Kaine 2024’, and one for our candidate for Representative (who’s up against Bob (No)Good’s temporary replacement, Psycho McGuire), Gloria Witt.

    I’m also helping distribute signs in our district.  When I stopped by the local HQ to pick them up, the place was just nuts.  =)

  172. 172.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: the media has basically ignored [the Arlington cemetery incident] or excused it, as they always for their guy Donald, but I thought it was interesting some of it was finally, finally getting thru to the base despite media’s burying it.

    His base saw the photo-op and nothing else – not a peep about the rest on RW media, and barely anything in the mainstream/snooze media.

    Complete and total North Korea-style unreality in the FoxBubble

  173. 173.

    HumboldtBlue

    @BR:

    You’ve posted a few of those links, and they don’t work, it looks as if it’s a malware site. Just a heads-up.

  174. 174.

    OId Man Shadow

    But he’s not going to pay. SCOTUS legalized the coup and he’s evaded consequences long enough to try again in two more months with SCOTUS and the House backing him.

  175. 175.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @schrodingers_cat: ​
     
    My eldest sister kept her family name when she got married and I insisted on my wife’s keeping her family name. I couldn’t imagine doing otherwise.

  176. 176.

    TBone

    OMFG just received a mailer from Donold, his GD orange face is used in place of a proper Uncle Sam. (Hubby is registered rethug for camouflage purposes.)

    “I want YOU to make your plan to vote absentee or early, or on election day!” Hand with pointing finger is, of course, too bigly rendered.

    The first of my cats who needs to vomit (my cats usually vocalize a warning) will be vomiting on this piece of shit paper.

  177. 177.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:They wouldn’t have said anything about Arlington, if he hadn’t of made the rounds on Social Media.

    And he & his campaign are trying to pretend that it was all fine because some of these families said it was ok.  Is that how it works now?  If trumpov’s supporters want to worship him badly enough that they’ll dishonor their own dead family members and pretend to waive a law, the law just gets waived for him?

    NOPE

    I hope they charge whomever can be charged for this.

  179. 179.

    UncleEbeneezer

    James Fallows on Twitter:

    On left: Oct 29 2016. James Comey discovers some emails, revives inquiry into HRC email. (Later dismissed.)

    On right: Aug 28 2024. A new grand jury re-indicts Trump on criminal charges of plotting to overturn 2020 election. (Look closely at bottom of page.)

  181. 181.

    Another Scott

    @SatanicPanic: @OzarkHillbilly:

    From that well-known pretentious guy, Ike (190 page .pdf):

    From the seed of that letter has grown our huge highway program. In most states we have already built hundreds of miles of magnificent roads. Scores of hundreds of lives have been saved. Secretary Mitchell’s identity with the road program is one evidence of his practical vision.

    Now for my part I can well understand that I might look far less than youthful. After spending 7 score years in life’s battles and a half century in America’s service, I am sure that I carry numbers of scars and marks of the struggle.

    So, to me at least – and I would guess to scores of others here tonight – this Union League Centennial seems more a recall of a recent yesterday than a memorial to a long distant past.

    […]

    Etc.

    Score is a perfectly fine word.

    Great gross is more than a bit more obscure and use of it might be more than a bit pretentious.

    ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  182. 182.

    BR

    @HumboldtBlue: ​

    Weird it’s not working for you — it’s working for me. It’s a site that lets you view twitter without going to twitter. Another option is nitter.poast.org.

  183. 183.

    Another Scott

    @HumboldtBlue: XCancel works fine for me.  Some of the links here were mangled with extra %x.. strings at the end – stripping those off got the links working.

    XCancel just seems to be another nitter (or nitter-like) instance.  I haven’t looked to see if there are any dangers in using it, but I haven’t noticed anything nefarious (I use UBlock Origin on all my browsers).

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  186. 186.

    Kay

    Brandon Friedman

    @BFriedmanDC

    15m

    But when you click on the New York Times story, the word has now been corrected to “hallowed” without a “[sic]” or any other indication that a change has been made. You’d never know the Times does copy editing for the Trump campaign.

    I noticed this about a year ago- the NYTimes literally changes Trump’s words to make Trump and the low quality hires sound better. They ADD WORDS sometimes, which would seem to me to be wrong by definition –  Journalism 101.
    So here the Trump statement said “hollowed” instead of “hallowed” and the NYTimes changed the word – corrected Trump’s statement without telling readers. CNN did the same thing. Other media outlets treated it correctly. Only the NYTimes and CNN failed this very simple competency test. They can no longer do even stenography. They change and add words. It’s pure propaganda.

  187. 187.

    sdhays

    @Kay: My company had that set up with for a bunch of (highly skilled) workers (not me!). There was a riot when we missed our numbers (almost entirely due to mismanagement by our famous CEO) and they were forced to pay out anyway “this one time”. They’ve worked to move people off that, but it’s just a ridiculous setup. Absurd.

  188. 188.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Harrison Wesley: About that Fox News “interview:” are Trump and Vance going to share a couch?

    Poor couch; and seems a little extreme to air such an act, even for Fux.

  190. 190.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I listened to a “Hidden Brain” podcast about habituation the other day that I think explains the press’ attitude toward TCFG and his outrages. They have become so habituated to his outrageous speeches and behavior that they don’t feel they’re worth making a fuss about anymore, so they won’t make a fuss unless Democrats make a fuss and continue to make a fuss. That’s why we can say “but if a Democrat did this they would be outraged and it would be a weeks-long story”, because they aren’t habituated to Democrats doing things like that. I heard a “Morning Edition” story about the incident at Arlington where it was the same old crap from TCFG’s people, it didn’t happen and there’s a tape showing it didn’t happen, but of course they refuse to provide this tape to the reporters, while the Arlington officials say it did happen and there was a report filed. “Both sides”!!

  191. 191.

    Kay

    @sdhays:

    People are like “why can’t these people manage a budget?”

    Because they no longer know what they make every year?

    Working and middle class people need steady gains over time to survive. Over time is the essential piece. Don’t give your employer a no interest loan every year! It’s your money! They’re making money off it instead of you.

    If Menards pays 12k in December that means you lent them 1k in January, 2k in February, etc and you’re doing that every year X how many employees are on bonus. They may make more money off no interest loans from their employees than they do on profit on a screwdriver or a pair of work gloves.

  193. 193.

    Geminid

    @rikyrah: I wonder if Trump will prolong the Arlington story by complaining about the response. He can’t undo the damage caused, but he can aggravate it if he tries to vindicate himself abd his team, and turns this matter into another grievance to gripe about.

    Trump would do better to downplay the matter– “that’s not how we remember it”– or ignore it altogether, but he might not be able to because at this point he is barely a rational actor.

  194. 194.

    hueyplong

    @Another Scott:  “After spending 7 score years in life’s battles …”

    So how many years do you think Ike thought a score was?

    A pedant might argue that’s the danger when a common man attempts to use a pretentious term.

  195. 195.

    Soprano2

    @Kay:  Every Democratic debate with every Republican – ask “do you agree with Donald Trump and JD Vance that Medal of Honor recipients are “less than” billionaire GOP donors?”

    I agree. The Republicans claim to be the most patriotic Americans there are, so let them prove it by repudiating this or else disprove it by being weaselly about it. I’m betting most of them would try to deny he said it, even if you played them a tape of it! They’re so used to lying now and getting away with it that I don’t think they’d have any compunction at all about lying about this.

  196. 196.

    HumboldtBlue

    @BR:

    I assumed that, but it just spools and spools, never loads. That’s ok, I am sure I have seen elsewhere what you’ve posted.

  197. 197.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Soprano2: “habituated”. THANK YOU!

    That is exactly the right word and I have been trying to think of it for some time. It has been the deliberate strategy of the GOP for years and it has been effective. The press and the electorate have become habituated to GOP malfeasance.

  198. 198.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I just think it’s another failed institution. It’s also a shitty for profit business that rewards bad work but for our purposes it’s another failed institution.

    A lot of institutions failed The Trump Test. Media is one of them. They were weak, Trump stressed the system, and they failed. Kaput.

    So Democrats have to essentially pay people to duplicate what a functioning press corps would do. It sucks and it’s not fair but it is very much “not our fault, but is our problem”. So we have to deal. Because the Democratic Party is one of the very few US institutions that still functions and performs its intended purpose.

    I wouldn’t have predicted it either! Who knew the fractious, herding cats, incredibly diverse and cobbled together coalition would be more resilient than most other institutions in the US, but here we are. Still standing, surrounded by failure on all sides. So we have to pick up more and more slack.

  201. 201.

    jonas

    @Kay:  This is the way. College educated Republicans – my neighbors and people I work with every day- are ashamed that Trump has disdain for veterans. Just fucking hammer that.

    What’s even more mindboggling is the number of vets who are still MAGA despite all the shit Trump has said about them. They just shrug it off. I’ve heard of cognitive dissonance, but damn….

  202. 202.

    The Pale Scot

    @Elizabelle:

    After Election Day.  Use those powers!

    My fantasy, take the Scotus Unsavory Six, chain them together, and sell them to an illegal Congolese uranium to work with a shovel and no respirator.

    “Shovel well and live”

    Or

    Walk them out the back door and put .22 in the back of their heads. Maybe Joe would have to pull the trigger to protect the facilitators

  204. 204.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @BR:

     

    What I think is amazing (as a non-lawyer) is that Smith got a whole new grand jury together, showed them the evidence without the bits the supreme court said aren’t allowed, and the new grand jury indicted Trump again. That seems pretty robust to me.

    I think that this is what needs to be HAMMERED on. It is actually NEWS.

    So, of course, the press ignores it.

  205. 205.

    The Pale Scot

    @Scout211:

    Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA”

     

    She has a great voice, this didn’t need auto tune. Producer getting in the way of the product

  208. 208.

    FastEdD

    I dunno, but I suspect Harris/Walz are doing an interview with CNN this week because they are on a bus tour of Georgia and CNN Center is located in Atlanta.

  210. 210.

    tam1MI

    @Starfish: Will Bunch agrees with all of you about the downfall of political journalism.

    From the article:

    Fifty years ago this summer, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency because people believed what they read about him in the Washington Post. Today, Harris feels she doesn’t need journalists at all, and a lot of the public is cheering her on. And a vainglorious elite news media with severe tunnel vision has no one to blame but themselves.

    Damn, I may need a cigarette. And I don’t smoke!

  211. 211.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Steve LaBonne: When I checked, the FTFNYT did actually have the story of the new indictments prominently featured.

    The headline featured mitigating terms to describe the Trump case, like “sputtered.” Still, baby steps.

  214. 214.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @rikyrah: The Patent and Trademark Office already has enough problems with the examination backlog and process as it is, and these idiots want to get rid of the unions (which would include the entire patent and trademark examination corps)? Are they going to replace all of them (trained scientists, engineers, and/or lawyers) with Liberty University “graduates” and flat-earthers?

  216. 216.

    Jackie

    @Jeffro: Both CNN and MSNBC have been covering BoneSpur’s Arlington National Cemetery visit accompanied with his campaign entourage quite extensively this morning. That, coupled with Jack Smith’s altered to-be-SC-approved J6 filing have been The Stories.

  217. 217.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    What would be nice is if Bash asks some predictably dumbass questions that one of them gets all Barney Frank in reply.  Won’t happen but at least they’ll get to put on display how to handle such ‘events’.

    I’d like Harris to “answer” some predictably dumbass question with “hey, that Republican your network passed off as an undecided voter at the DNC…what was that about?” because it’s way past time someone made the worthless media face up to their dishonesty.

    Maybe we’ll both get ponies.

  218. 218.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Kayla Rudbek: Maybe the corporate types whose businesses would be disrupted should think about things like that before they support Repub- ooh, look, squirrel tax cuts!

  220. 220.

    Geminid

    @Jackie: The Arlington story made the CBS hourly radio news this morning. They described the controversy, but they could not show the picture of the graveside celebration.

    That picture is all over social media though, and I think it is damaging.

  221. 221.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    You do know the meaning of MBA – don’t you?

    Think about it. It’s about a part of anatomy that all mammals have, and mostly use in private – hopefully…..

  227. 227.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    This has been pretty much the same for my entire 75 yrs. They seem to like what was accomplished by said veterans being in our military, but not that they had to pay, shelter, feed them. And as I was in our military, during a war, I feel I can say this with some experience.

  232. 232.

    Geminid

    @Steve in the ATL: Hey now! The Democratic candidate in the Oregon 5th CD,* Oregon State Rep. Janelle Bynum, earned an MBA from the University of Michigan. Bynum already had a degree in Electical Engineering and was working for GM at the time, so she might not be a typical MBA.

    * Oregon’s 5th CD runs from the eastern Portland suburbs into the Willamette Valley. It was represented by Blue Dog Curt “F#cking” Schrader until the last cycle, when he lost his primary and Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer squeaked by in November. It’s a top-tier target for Democrats this year.

  236. 236.

    piratedan

    I fully expect that the 1st question out of the gate to be:  “Why have you been so reluctant to speak to the press?”

    we have a national election, with national issues and I have little to no doubt that the press wants to make this interview about the relationship that Dems have with the press (as if that’s a “winning” issue).

  239. 239.

    cain

    @Kay: This is exactly why we need to divest from these assholes.

    If you’re still holding a subscription – this is what they are doing with your money.

    It’s enemy action.

  242. 242.

    cain

    @Soprano2:

    Yeah, but when we say ‘weird’ – they have a visceral reaction to that as it is counter to that mentality. Forcing them to look at it. It’s damning because they are also part of the weird.

  243. 243.

    rikyrah

    @schrodingers_cat:

    @Baud: @Omnes Omnibus: Apparently using Harris as her last name is being politically calculating

     

    Her Daddy was MARRIED to her Mama, so she was born Kamala Devi Harris.

    She was frigging Attorney General of the State of California when she married Doug. Of course, she wasn’t changing her name.

  245. 245.

    cain

    @Geminid:

    They keep giving him multiple chances to walk it back, his disdain of veterans and he won’t. In fact, it keeps it front page news.

    His supporters are increasingly getting uncomfortable.

  248. 248.

    HumboldtBlue

    @catclub:

    And even with that small token, ask black WW2, Korea and Vietnam veterans how that GI Bill worked out for them, because they got absolutely fucked over.

  251. 251.

    suzanne

    @Soprano2:

    I listened to a “Hidden Brain” podcast about habituation the other day that I think explains the press’ attitude toward TCFG and his outrages. They have become so habituated to his outrageous speeches and behavior that they don’t feel they’re worth making a fuss about anymore, so they won’t make a fuss unless Democrats make a fuss and continue to make a fuss. 

    This is exactly right.

    I have said before, and I really believe, the biggest bias the press has isn’t left vs right, it’s a desire for D R A M A! An exciting narrative arc! Trump being crazy isn’t dramatic, because it isn’t novel, and it isn’t narrative. There’s no storyline. It’s just more crazy shit. On top of the crazy shit he said last time.

    I always come back to the utter nonsense that filled CNN for hours after than plane went missing. Like…. this terrible thing happened, but there was no conclusion, no new information. Just this random tragic event. And they tried to make it newsworthy for weeks!

    But a responsible press wouldn’t think of themselves as writing any sort of story arc. They would recognize that crazy-ass rants are indeed in the public interest when they come from the guy who wants to be the president!

  253. 253.

    Anyway

    @rikyrah:

    Her Daddy was MARRIED to her Mama, so she was born Kamala Devi Harris.

    She was frigging Attorney General of the State of California when she married Doug. Of course, she wasn’t changing her name.

    Yep, who are the galaxy brains dinging her for using Harris? Don’t have much use for them.

  254. 254.

    Anyway

    @cain: Ds up and down the ticket should hammer Dotard for his Medal of Honor comments – don’t expect the media to do it. Put it in a couple of ads and air it near mil bases.

  255. 255.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Trollhattan:

    Good lord, how could I forget those latter two?  Which we could probably lump into the “Vulture Capitalism” category.

    This exercise could turn into another episode of “What Have The Romans Ever Done For Us?” only in reverse.

  256. 256.

    cain

    @rikyrah:

    It’s such a dumb attack but it also is showing their asses to all the women who keep their names as part of their professional lives.

    My ex-wife is married but keeps my last name because she’s a dentist and her name has name recognition. She’s not going to change her name.

  258. 258.

    cckids

    @Anyway:

    Yep, who are the galaxy brains dinging her for using Harris? Don’t have much use for them.

    I haven’t seen this anywhere; but I don’t haunt the fevered swamps of RW-landia.

  260. 260.

    jefft452

    “Harris will sit down with CNN for her first interview since launching presidential bid”

    This is risky

    If Bash makes a gaffe CNNs reputation will sink even further

  263. 263.

    Msb

    @schrodingers_cat: yeah, like “Why does Agatha Christie use her first husband’s surname, and not that of her second (Mallowan), on her books?”
    Gee, guys, maybe because “Agatha Christie” was an established brand?

  264. 264.

    wjca

    @OzarkHillbilly: My eldest sister kept her family name when she got married and I insisted on my wife’s keeping her family name. I couldn’t imagine doing otherwise.

    I asked my then fiancee which she preferred. (Note that this was in the 1980s.  Things were different then.)

    I could imagine doing otherwise.  But only as a totally unrealistic thought exercise.

  265. 265.

    scav

    @rikyrah: Horrors!  Yet another democrat overtly and publicly (!?!??!) maintaining a good relationship with a known father! What IS it with these people that have easy, cordial and supportive relationships with family members?

  269. 269.

    JaySinWA

    The NYT has published 21 questions they claim they want answers to. Many of them loaded and poorly framed IMHO. It doesn’t bode well for an expectation of quality policy questions from media in general. OTOH it is the NYT, so maybe it is a low bar.

    I haven’t seen any critique of these questions.

  271. 271.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: A fancy word!

    I recall a day I was on Xbox Live with some friends.  I forget exactly what I said, but a friend objected to my use of “five dollar words.”

    I duly informed them that libraries are full of words and those are free. The response came that libraries are full of shit.

    SMDH.

  274. 274.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @hueyplong:I prefer Charles Pierce’s “bobble-throated slapdick” for Cotton.

    Offensive to people whose throats bobble or who like…

    You know what? Me. I’m offended, I won’t have my hobbies disparaged.

  276. 276.

    Doc Sardonic

    One good reason she is using Harris and not Emhoff is licensing. I know a number of women who have professional licenses, some in a number of different states because many do not recognize out of state licenses, and changing their names on them is a monumental pain in the ass.

  279. 279.

    wjca

    @Trollhattan: Yep, my vote’s a tie among tech bros, venture capitalists and LBO mavens.

    I’d also put them way above MBAs as a class.  Even though most of them do have MBA degrees, they are scum whether or not they do.

    Whereas some people legitimately got an MBA to understand various facets of running their business — which they proceed to run as ethically as one could ask.

  280. 280.

    BR

    @JaySinWA: ​

    The framing of the NYT’s questions is lousy and gives away their Wall Street orientation, but I think the topics they picked aren’t bad. Those are reasonable things to ask about — better than asking about nonsense Trump invented stuff.

  283. 283.

    SatanicPanic

    Did Marla Maples ever change her name after marrying Trump? I don’t remember that

  287. 287.

    scav

    @JaySinWA: We could easily come up with our own.

    • Have you no shame?
    • Why are you still here?
    • No really, why are you still here?
    • How much chaos and destruction is enough for you?
    • Show me on the doll where the Republicans bring you the most pleasure
    • . . .
  288. 288.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @BR: That interview happened a month ago.

    Damn, it took that long to edit Trump’s statements to appear coherent?

  290. 290.

    Jackie

    I was waiting for a new thread to post this, but we’ve been abandoned…

    William Kristol: “Last night I watched the new and terrific video takedown by Tim Miller and Sam Stein of Donald Trump’s latest grift. Those of you who aren’t avid followers of all of Trump’s enterprises may not be aware that he’s selling a new series of digital trading cards. To sweeten the offer, if you buy enough of them, Trump offers an additional reward: Snippets from the suit he wore during his debate with Joe Biden. What an incentive! You can own a relic of the holy garment that adorned his body on that majestic occasion.”

    “It’s one of Trump’s most tasteless and shameless ever grifts—which is saying something. It’s ludicrous. It’s farcical. Tim and Sam brilliantly deconstruct Trump’s video sales pitch, and have a great time doing so. I laughed out loud several times, and I’m not a big laugh-out-loud guy.”

    “But of course it’s creepy as well as funny, as Tim and Sam point out. And the creepiness isn’t confined to Trump. It’s pervasive. MAGA world is a creepy world.”

    The embedded video is 14 mins long, but so worth it. I double dog dare you not to LOL through its entirety!😂

  291. 291.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Doc Sardonic: it’s also an annoyance for background checks as well. Probably less of an annoyance for the background checks than for professional licenses, as the background check forms will have an item for previous names.

  292. 292.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I agree that the press as an institution has failed in their attempts to cover TCFG; I think the phenomenon of habituation explains part of the reason for that. It could also help us, if Democrats are aware of that they know they need to pound on these messages relentlessly in order to get the press to cover them, because they’ve become so numb to it that I don’t think it even registers for them anymore.

  294. 294.

    cmorenc

    @Kay: Watters’ leadoff question will probably be: “how do you think Kamala has managed so far to conceal leaving the communist party to disguise herself as a member of the democrat party??”

  297. 297.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @cmorenc: conceal leaving the communist party to disguise herself as a member of the democrat party??

    Anyone with a passing familiarity with Faux News knows that they do not distinguish between these two entities.

  299. 299.

    tam1MI

    @JaySinWA:

    The NYT has published 21 questions they claim they want answers to. Many of them loaded and poorly framed IMHO. It doesn’t bode well for an expectation of quality policy questions from media in general. OTOH it is the NYT, so maybe it is a low bar.

     

    And in an amazing display of self control, they wait all the way until question 2 to ask the “how are you going to pay for it” question that always gets flung at Democratic politicians trying to make life a little better for people who work for a living and never at Republican politicians advocating massive tax cuts for Nepo Baby Billionaires.

  300. 300.

    cmorenc

    @Doc Sardonic: My older daughter is a physician who went to high school, college, and med school in NC and decided to take her husband’s last name when they moved to Colorado.  And shortly thereafter, needed to update her passport for a trip to Europe.  Getting all the name / professional license / passport issues timely done was a PITA.  Doable, but then so is crawling a quarter-mile through gravel.

  303. 303.

    SatanicPanic

    @tam1MI: Trump literally sent out checks with his own name on it and I don’t remember anyone asking where that money came from.

  305. 305.

    CaseyL

    @Jackie: His handlers have convinced SFB to cast himself as a Christian martyr – which of course his followers are eating up.

    This is exactly like the medieval grift of selling holy relics (bones of saints, bits of Jesus’ robe, etc.)

    The next step will be charging people for the chance to touch clothing he is currently wearing.

    Or maybe he’ll go full Royal Touch and claim he can heal others by a laying on of hands.  For a price.

  306. 306.

    catclub

    @cain:

    I saw what he did there. :

    maybe it would behoove us to really consider a wider role for cows at the Centers for Disease Control.

  307. 307.

    TBone

    Mood music.  Watching Ossie Davis day on TCM yesterday (especially Get On the Bus) reinforced my confidence 1,000%

    Explicity warning 😎🎶❤️

    m.youtube.com/watch?v=6IJCFc_qkHw

    When they bodily threw the Black rethuglican off the bus it was *chef’s kiss

  309. 309.

    Trollhattan

    @cmorenc: I’d give anything for somebody to ask Watters and his ilk, live on camera, “what is a communist?” right after they accuse somebody of being one, and see how they respond.

    Guessing “they hate America and puppies” is part of the answer.

  312. 312.

    hueyplong

    @cmorenc: FoxNews is always going to have someone awful in that role. I’m starting to think they’d struggle to find someone more stupid than Watters, so maybe we should be ok with him being a permanent fixture.

    ETA. This is probably an argument in favor of Gutfeld as well.

  314. 314.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @BR: J.D. Vance Blames Staff for Disastrous Doughnut-Shop Visit

    Makes sense.  They should have never allowed him to interact with humans before a briefing with anthropologists and interspecies cultural contact specialists.

  315. 315.

    Jackie

    @Soprano2:

    Yeah, doing a “thumbs up” over a tombstone in Arlington isn’t the look most politicians would go for.

    TCFG says he’s not a real politician – so MAGA vets probably don’t care.

    BUT, I’m pretty sure non-MAGA veterans/families of veterans who are buried there DO CARE. A LOT.

  316. 316.

    Soprano2

    @BR: He’s a match for TCFG, because he never takes responsibility for anything either. It’s always someone else’s fault.

  317. 317.

    BR

    Meanwhile on our side:

    Q: I heard you say that your daughter was discovered to have lice the day after the 2018 election. Can you share how the newly elected Walz-Flanagan ticket handled that early crisis?

    A: My first instinct was to call Congressman Tim Walz, also governor-elect Tim Walz, to say, “Help, my child has lice, and I don’t know what to do.” So that was interesting. But he was amazing. I was super freaked out. We’d never dealt with it before. Siobhan was a total trooper.

    He said, “Go to Target, and then FaceTime me from the aisle.” And so I did. He had me show all the different shampoos and stuff. He was like, “This is the one that you get.” And then he’s like, “Once you get home, FaceTime me again.” So I FaceTimed him again from the bathroom, as I’m picking nits out of my child’s hair. And he was amazing and coached me through the whole thing, and that is who Tim Walz is.

    politico.com/news/2024/08/28/peggy-flanagan-minnesota-lt-governor-interview-00176425

  318. 318.

    Feckless

    Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want to lose, she is a great legislator, but as a party leader she just sucks.

    1. Nepo baby captures it on film?

    2. Congress trading stocks, how did her family make their money?

    3. I learned that Fox News was intimately involved with trying to overthrow our democracy through a civil suit not through any federal investigation and there has been absolutely no repercussion for this treason.

    4. SHE NEEDS TO TAKE HER OWN ADVICE SHE IS TOO OLD AND NEEDS TO RETIRE.

    5. Diane Feinstein, crypt keeper (D-CA) 100% Nancy

    see you in hell!

  319. 319.

    sdhays

    @Steve LaBonne: I hate autotune. Just hate it. It ruins voices that are great on their own and then it’s another knob producers can play with to make something more noticeable, yet awful.

    Harumph!

  321. 321.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Kamala should NEVER give an interview to the nepopublisher’s Vichy Times. Ever. Let him stew in his own rancid juices.

  323. 323.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jackie: This non-MAGAt vet is beyond appalled.  The family members of that fallen warrior have taken a dump on her grave.

  325. 325.

    Doc Sardonic

    @cmorenc: My younger sister is a PhD pharmacist, when she got married she was going to take her husbands name but when checking into the name change procedures one of the states(can’t remember which) said the name on the license had to match the name on her PharmD diploma. She asked the university about changing the name on the diploma and it would be easier to climb Mount Sinai and get God to reprint the Ten Commandments.

  327. 327.

    rikyrah

    @Jackie:

    I was waiting for a new thread to post this, but we’ve been abandoned…

     

    BWA HA HA HA HA HAH A

     

    290 is nothing..

     

    gotta hang on until we get into the 400s

  328. 328.

    The Audacity of Krope

    I’m glad Kamala was able to schedule an interview. Of course, since it is CNN, I will have to wait until she schedules one with a real journalistic outfit if I personally want to watch her give an interview. Maybe, with a little effort, I can find something in someone’s archives.

  329. 329.

    hueyplong

    @TBone: “Fuckless can’t read a room.”

    Might be part of why he’s “fuckless,” which I now take to mean his* lifetime scorecard and not how many he has to give.

     

     

    * Don’t think I’m going out on a limb about the pronoun.

  333. 333.

    Jackie

    @CaseyL: Funny you mentioned that; Mormons aren’t all that into his pseudo-religion:

    While Mormons have long been some of the most loyal Republican voters, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign believes their distaste for former President Donald Trump gives them an opening in several states.

    Appearing on CNN Wednesday, Rob Taber of the organization Latter-day Saints for Harris-Walz broke down exactly why some Mormon voters are rethinking their partisan loyalties this year, as Trump sits on the top of the Republican ticket for a third consecutive election cycle.

    In particular, Taber expressed revulsion at a recent Trump interview in which he told Dr. Phil that “an incredible power up there” would be responsible for his victory in the 2024 presidential election.

    “We turned the page on the divine right of kings about 250 years ago,” he said. “I believe in miracles, I certainly believe in God… But we also believe, especially as Latter-day Saints, in moral agency, that we make the decisions. We believe that the Constitution was divinely inspired… this idea of establishing a small-r republican government where we make the decisions, where we have a balance of powers, where we have checks on power.”

    “In Donald Trump we have someone with strong authoritarian tendencies, and that repels a lot of Latter-day Saints,” he said.

    rawstory.com/mormons-for-harris-walz/

  334. 334.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @columbusqueen: I was an academic who created a scholarly reputation (in my small field, granted) under my married name. At one point, it occurred to me that if I was divorced or Mr DAW died, I’d have to keep that name, so if I had it to do over, I’d keep my birth name. OTOH, a friend kept her birth name and it worked fine until the kids came along. Then you can get some complications.

  335. 335.

    cain

    @cmorenc:

    I tried to tell my wife that she could keep her older last name or go back to her maiden name. She decided to take mine, but boy so much work. She finally got her passport updated after 3 years, but she still has to deal with the Indian govt.

  337. 337.

    cain

    @tam1MI:

    Same old playbook. Nobody ever asks the GOP how they plan to pay for their tax cuts. They’ve internalized the untrue truism that tax cuts pay for themselves. Yet somehow, we have a huge national debt that needs to pay off.

  342. 342.

    Jackie

    Read the Axios link for the reason TCFG pitched a pathetic RANT OF RANTS posted in the RawStory link! 😂

    Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has dominated social media with an influx of viral memes and cutting taunts of the opposition — and behind the keyboard is a team of Gen Zers,” Axios reports.

    “The ‘mobilization team,’ made up of the generation that encompasses 12-27 year olds, is leveraging talked about moments from the campaign trail and reacting with humor while capitalizing on viral TikTok trends to force a contrast between Harris and former President Trump.”

    rawstory.com/trump-truth-social-2669091815/

  343. 343.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Geminid: Three of the four most liberal people I know have MBAs. I will say, though, that none of them currently “use” those degrees. :)

  345. 345.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @BR: “Weird” has given me a lot more latitude to not react to right-wing assholery with anger, but to laugh instead.

  346. 346.

    hueyplong

    @Jackie: “12-27” kind of makes me think the team includes the 12-year-old who told the pillow guy that the “source” for his claim of missing GA votes was “trust me bro.”

  348. 348.

    Baud

    @TBone:

    What if the national debt and progressive taxation are really important to me but I’m desparately looking for an excuse for allowing Trump to win without revealing that I’m a monster?

  349. 349.

    hueyplong

    @brantl: We may be only days away from JV (and RFKjr) puffing out their chests as they tell us they correctly recognized crudely drawn giraffes.

  350. 350.

    sdhays

    @TBone: My god, that’s the first I actually saw a picture from the cemetery. These are the American versions of the Russian mothers thrilled that their sons died in Ukraine so that they can buy a new iPhone with the piddling government compensation.

    It’s a tragedy that the woman is dead, but there’s clearly no loss to be sorry for with those ghouls.

  351. 351.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    Brilliant.
    Have the “first” interview on the weekend of one of the busiest holidays weekends of the year, during the literal kickoff off of college football season (21 televised games Thursday night). that way when they twist her words (“the Vice President struggled to explain what came first the chicken or the egg”) everyone will have their attention elsewhere.​

  352. 352.

    Jackie

    I don’t remember if I read an article or heard it on the news that the reason TCFG is so gung-ho about RKJ Jr’s endorsement is he’s after QAnon voters. Aren’t QAnon and MAGAts basically from the same basket of Deplorables?

  354. 354.

    TBone

    @Baud: isn’t there a prescription for that malady?  Oh yeah, it’s called “You can’t hide anymore.  You’re either sitting at the Nazi table, in which case you are a Nazi who needs punched, or you’re sitting with the majority. You know, the cool kids!”

  355. 355.

    Manyakitty

    @Baud: nah. It will be something about how long did she know Biden was old. Fuck. Why on EARTH give an interview to CNN???

  357. 357.

    There go two miscreants

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, that Gettysburg Address always cornfused me.

    I’ll say! Not only does it include “scores”, you have to multiply, and then add 7!

  361. 361.

    TBone

    @The Audacity of Krope: like magic!

    My mom taught me the power, the absolute magic, of words.  Voila!  Pronounced correctly by a 4 y.o. who never saw a French word before.

    She was a true genius in some ways.  A master.

    She taped the word on a flashcard on my kindergarten classroom door.

  362. 362.

    BR

    I see DougJ has moved from CNN to writing for AP:

    Republicans want voters to think Tim Walz lied about his dog. Such claims could cause real damage.

  364. 364.

    Baud

    @There go two miscreants:

    Little know fact: After Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, Edward Everett, who had just given an hour long oratory to the crowd, was heard whispering “I was told there wouldn’t be any math.”

  368. 368.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Baud:

    Lord Mayor : Four scores and 32 bars ago, our four fathers

    Old Fred : A quartet?

    Lord Mayor : And four mothers

    Old Fred : Another quartet?

    Lord Mayor : Made their way in this yellow submarine.

    Old Fred : What, that little thing?

    Lord Mayor : To Pepperland.

    [tsk, tsk, s.b. “forefathers” &c. Can’t trust the Internet]

  370. 370.

    divF

    @K-Mo: I would like an answer along the lines of, “I was busy introducing myself as a candidate to the American people, and, let’s face it, the national political media simply doesn’t have the size audience that it used to.”
    If she really wanted to twist the knife, she could say “you, and the rest of the national political media”.

  371. 371.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Jackie: Maybe Trump senses a drop in support from the Q-Anon people. They could have been questioning whether Trump was weird enough, and RFK Jr. definitely brings weird-cred to the campaign.

    But there just aren’t that many of these Q-Anon types, and I wonder how many of them vote. They liked Trump last time though, and maybe that makes him think they’re important. Plus, he’s desperate.

  372. 372.

    Citizen Alan

    @OzarkHillbilly:  I’ve been saying that too! If the little freak thinks that only people with children should fucking vote, then let him prove that those children are his and that he’s not shooting blanks. Because, frankly, JD Vance is exactly the sort of person who I think would pay another man to have sex with his wife while he sat in a corner jerking off while wearing a gimp suit.

  374. 374.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Geminid: They could have been questioning whether Trump was weird enough, and RFK Jr. definitely brings weird-cred to the campaign.

    Is weird cred a net plus? I have my doubts but I’m no expert.

  375. 375.

    divF

    @cain: Madame divF kept her name, so that UC would not lose her academic records. OTOH, my SIL, who is named after her mother, with a last name that is somewhat unusual, was advised to switch everything to her married name since they both attended the same colleges at around the same time (my MIL went back to school after her kids got old enough), and there was a risk that their academic records would get hopelessly snarled.

    These were all things that really used to happen back in the days of paper record-keeping.

  376. 376.

    Geoduck

    @Kay: The Dems could probably make a pretty effective ad out of the Shaitgibbon standing in Arlington Cemetery and giving a grinning thumb’s-up over a dead Marine’s grave.

  377. 377.

    Harrison Wesley

    If I’m in need of a Mar-a-Lago Miracle Relic, I don’t want  a strip taken (allegedly) from his suit.  Nothing less than Donald’s Divine Debate Diaper will do.  And, no, the scent isn’t from a burnt offering.

  378. 378.

    Old School

    @BR:

    Republicans want voters to think Tim Walz lied about his dog. Such claims could cause real damage.

    Was that the original headline? Currently it reads:

    Republicans want voters to think Walz lied about his dog. False GOP claims could cause real damage

  379. 379.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @TBone: like magic!

    My mom taught me the power, the absolute magic, of words.

    It’s so freeing! No wonder there is such joy on our side right now.

  380. 380.

    hueyplong

    @Old School: ” False GOP claims could cause real damage.”

    True, because the AP and others refuse to note that they’re false at the time they are reported on.  So kind of a weird and awkward admission.

  381. 381.

    Citizen Alan

    @Ruckus: Since the Iraq War began, I have said that as far as the GOP is concerned, the purpose of a soldier is to provide good photo ops for GOP politicians and to die without complaint.

  383. 383.

    The Undying Gaul

    @Scout211: I don’t think my suggestion that Neil Diamond give Kamala the rights to “Sweet Caroline” (🎵Good times never seem so good!🎵) has received the applause it so obviously deserves…😂

  386. 386.

    Citizen Alan

    @wjca:  Once, long ago, in one of my few forays into Mississippi Chancery Court, I had to do a name change for a married couple who wanted to use both their names hyphenated. When I explained that to the chancellor, he looked utterly appalled at both the wife not happily taking her husband’s name and the husband adopting his wife’s name. He signed the paper, but I honestly thought he was going to deny it and I was going to have to take that stupid case for which I got paid $200 to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

  387. 387.

    jonas

    @BR: I agree that not all the subject areas there are unreasonable, particularly on Ukraine, e.g. The stupidest one is “why do you think so many people still like Trump?” It’s a question designed so she can’t really answer it honestly (“because there are a lot of ignorant bigots out there who hate liberals and immigrants and gays more than they love America”) and to force her try to come up with some version of “economic anxiety” or whatever. They’re angling for another “basket of deplorables” gotcha moment.

  388. 388.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @jonas: Prezactly.  This is why mass deportations of Villagers to the Rura Penthe mining colony are appropriate.

  389. 389.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @jonas: @Villago Delenda Est:

    OK, here’s my response:

    That’s an impossible question to answer. There are millions of those people, each with his or her own reasons. But I’m working on it.

    [This is why I will never be elected to any office.]

  393. 393.

    frosty

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I had a friend with one kid and a second husband. They had three last names in one family! She kept her maiden name, 2nd hubby had his, and her son had the 1st husband’s last name.

    Families are all different. Deal with it, Repubs!!

  394. 394.

    The Lodger

    @cain: This opinion writer has the same name as the former cartoonist for the Oregonian. I don’t know if he is the same guy.

  395. 395.

    No One You Know

    September 10th may be the only time since 2016 that Trump meets a world leader on stage who he knows he’s not qualified to talk to and couldn’t ever outperform. I’m looking forward to all the preliminary flip flops. I half- expect Kamala to show up to talk to a chair.

  396. 396.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @No One You Know:  I half- expect Kamala to show up to talk to a chair.

    She better be careful. It wasn’t a good look for Clint Eastwood when he lost his debate versus a chair.

  398. 398.

    Ruckus

    @trnc:

    I used to live in OH for a decade and Menards was, while not the same as say Lowes, it was there and maybe not as bad as today, which I have no idea about, better/worse/same. It was still better than Home Depot. Really back then/there it was about the only choice within reasonable distance.

    And just so there is understanding, I now use Lowes, not HD, and I occasionally purchase wood to build furniture. Basic stuff, nothing fancy but useable. Others have mentioned Ace Hardware and it isn’t bad either.

  400. 400.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @The Undying Gaul: …has received the applause constant ridicule it so obviously deserves…

    FFS, its only claim to fame is as the goddamn 7th-inning-stretch music at Fenway Park (who the heck knows why) and arguably the most mediocre song Neil Diamond ever wrote. And last I saw MA wasn’t a swing state anyway, so screw all you chowdaheads. :^p

  401. 401.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    Who knew the fractious, herding cats, incredibly diverse and cobbled together coalition would be more resilient than most other institutions in the US, but here we are. Still standing, surrounded by failure on all sides. So we have to pick up more and more slack.

    That fractious, herding cats, incredibly diverse and cobbled together coalition is what makes it work. It allows change, thought, independence that extreme structure does not.

    But.

    It’s always humans that make it better – or worse. And it often has to go through a process of some sort to do either. And that takes time.

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