Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

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

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

No one could have predicted…

I really should read my own blog.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

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

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

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

by | 184 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

A little wishcasting, as a holiday weekend treat:



Saturday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

Reader Interactions

184Comments

  2. 2.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    I know, right? Who do they think they are?

    And how would we know the answer to that question if they refuse to play identity politics?

  3. 3.

    Ken

    I assume Ragnarok Lobster calls it “mind blowing” because he’s imagining the exploding heads at NYT and WaPo if Harris does start one-on-one interviews with the content creators.

  4. 4.

    p.a.

    OK everyone out there, time to decide!  WHAT ARE YOU? Irish like your mom?  Polish like dad?  Let’s hear it.  Make it official!  DECIDE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!   For America.

    Un-fucking-real.

  5. 5.

    Chief Oshkosh

    As this is an open thread, and please don’t let this derail whatever the rest of the jackolariat want to talk about this AM, but could anyone direct me to substantive reports that one of the 5,000 Taliban terrorists that Trump released turned out to be the bomber at Abby Gates?

  8. 8.

    lowtechcyclist

    Mitch’s point is a good one: admitting DC and PR as states would help make possible a lot of other changes that he’d be unhappy about.  Which is why it needs to be near the top of the Dems’ to-do list if we hold the WH and Senate, and regain the House.

  9. 9.

    Chief Oshkosh

    MVP’s identity? Shit, everyone knows that. She’s the masked bandit who’s drinking Politico’s milkshake.

    Muthafuckah.

  11. 11.

    Another Scott

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    Defense.gov:

    “With access to analysis from across the intelligence community, we were able to identify the Abbey Gate person-borne IED bomber as Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an [ISIS-K] member since 2016,” said one Army official on the 12-person, joint supplemental review team.

    Al-Logari was one of thousands of ISIS-K members the Taliban released from a pair of detention centers in mid-August 2021, according to another Army team official.

    The same official also pointed out that the supplemental review team determined ISIS-K would have still been able to conduct the attack regardless of whether al-Logari had been released, because the terror organization already had multiple suicide bombers available.

    “This supports the conclusion that the attack at Abbey Gate was not preventable at the tactical level,” the official said.

    HTH!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    Tony Jay

    (Moved from downstairs because dead thread)

    Looks like painting Harris and Walz as untrustworthy liars is the Hail Mary the corporate media have landed on to help out Stench, and setting up fake pledges (like Harris ‘vowing’ to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet) they can be accused of breaking is part of that.

    Give it a few days and we’ll probably start seeing the first opinion pieces laying out The Narrative that a record of persistent lying and over-promising is a troubling drag on the Democratic ticket. This record will, of course, cast worrying ‘clouds and shadows’ over every single statement they make from now until November, and somehow they just won’t be able to shake the ‘perhaps unfair’ impression that nothing they say can be trusted.

    Will the corporate media be able to successfully project an entirely fictional version of Harris and Walz to the electorate in such a short period of time? With Stench and the Party of Stench misfiring in the background and Social Media providing an uncensorable version of reality?

    I haz me doots. They’ll try it. They have to try something

  13. 13.

    Mousebumples

    @lowtechcyclist: DC, 100%, yes. Puerto Rico – I’d defer to residents there if they want statehood. I’ve heard it’s not as much of a slam dunk.

    Good morning! I’m going to write more postcards today. What’s your GOTV plan to help run up the score and make McConnell sad?

  14. 14.

    p.a.

    @Another Scott: “the terror organization already had multiple suicide bombers available.”

     

     

    “… our HR department is the envy of the industry!”

     

    Sorry, very bad taste, but just couldn’t resist.

  15. 15.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Another Scott: Thanks, Scott. I’ll go read the article now. I assume that the mid-August release of prisoners/terrorists was the release that was part of Trump’s “deal?”

  16. 16.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Mousebumples: ​
     

    Good morning! I’m going to write more postcards today. What’s your GOTV plan to help run up the score and make McConnell sad?

    I’m supposed to get some postcards early next week. I’ll also be calling the local Democratic Party to see what they need volunteers for. Gotta make sure Alsobrooks keeps Hogan out of the Senate.

    I agree that PR statehood should be up to the people of Puerto Rico. But if they are in favor, PR statehood should be right up there with DC statehood on the Dems’ to-do list.

  18. 18.

    Ohio Mom

    I have a vague memory of the flag in my kindergarten classroom being replaced after Alaska and Hawaii became states. I guess it was the custodian who came in and switched the flags, it was in the middle of a lesson and a very unusual interruption, which is why I remember it.

    It was confusing to me because as far as I could tell, the flag looked the same. And why wouldn’t it, it was hanging above the blackboard in folds that obscured a clear view of all the stars. Also, I might not have really understood what a state is.

    Anyway, I would look forward to experiencing an updated flag again. I’m not sure about Puerto Rico but having once lived in the DC area, they definitely want to become a state.

  19. 19.

    Another Scott

    @Chief Oshkosh: Glad to help.

    It was a terrible event.  But it was another indication that there was no way for the US to “win” there given all the constraints (lack of support from the population and the political actors, lack of support from other countries in the region, lack of an actual clearly-stated strategy beyond “training” and sunk costs, etc., etc., lack of being honest about the actual cost to “win”, etc.)  But TCFFG’s actions made everything worse.  As he always did…

    Grrr…,
    Scott.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    Last repetition.

    NYC meet-up TODAY at 5 p.m. at Pershing Square Cafe.

    Reservation under my nom de meet-up, Jack Alworthy. (NOT my IRL name; say it aloud real fast.)

  23. 23.

    Geminid

    @Tony Jay: I saw a post by Briton James(?) Burge I thought you might appreciate:

       First they came for Esther McVey.

    So I held open the door and said, “That’s her, over there.”

    I had look up McVey to find that she’s an exceptionally obnoxious Tory politician.

  24. 24.

    oldgold

    National polls and state polls for contested states currently indicate Harris is in the same or better position than Trump was in July, when the media was writing Biden’s political obituary and the cable talking heads were giving Trump permission to begin measuring the Oval Office’s curtains.

    Now, the media seems to think these numbers reflect a “dead heat, toss up, tied, and that the election is on a knife’s edge.”

    What I think is important about this, beyond the maddening double standard, is that key to Trump’s power is the idea that when he returns to power he will seek severe vengeance on his opponents.  Cast serious doubt on the possibility of his winning and the whole wretched intimidation game that sustains this miscreant’s shit show will wither.

  25. 25.

    Nukular Biskits

    @p.a.:

    OK everyone out there, time to decide!  WHAT ARE YOU? Irish like your mom?  Polish like dad?  Let’s hear it.  Make it official!  DECIDE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!   For America.

    Un-fucking-real.

    With rare exceptions, we’re all mutts to a large extent.  Politico (doesn’t AL call them “Tigerbeat on the Potomac” or something like that?) editors know this so their headlines are nothing more that horserace shit-stirring.

    Related, and I may have shared this story previously, my mother and one of my aunts by marriage lived together for years (it’s complicated).  Both were absolutely convinced they had native American heritage and, admittedly, both fit the stereotypical physical image:  jet black hair, brown eyes, high cheek bones, darker skin, etc.

    My sister ordered a “23 & Me” test as a b’day present for both of them.  I don’t remember what the specific results were but neither of them had hardly any First Nations DNA in their genetic makeup.  This was information that neither of them would accept, claiming the test was obviously wrong. 😂

  26. 26.

    Eolirin

    @lowtechcyclist: DC yes, but he’s completely wrong about PR. There is zero guarantee those seats would be held by Democrats.

    We should still do it if they want us to, because it’s the right thing to do, but there’s not a clear partisan advantage to it.

  28. 28.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Open thread!

    I just wanted to brag that my next book, Skip School Make Dragons, is out in preorder!  I wanted to write some science fantasy, so it’s about a 13 year old prodigy bioengineer, who keeps getting into trouble because the magical creatures she makes are too good.  There’s the usual oddities, good friends, a snarky sphynx cat witch’s familiar, you know my writing style by now.

    Also I really like the cover on this one.

  30. 30.

    Steve LaBonne

    @oldgold: Tuesday begins the home stretch of the campaign. I’m hoping the cracks in Trump’s facade continue to widen. Unlike so many things in the past, the Arlington story is not going away. And the reality of his mental slide and inability to stop repeating his moldiest old rants is starting to seep, little by little, into the mainstream media. Meanwhile another vile past interview by JV Dunce seems to come out every day and his efforts to clean up after Trump are comically inept.

  31. 31.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Another Scott: This CNN piece seems to indicate that the bomber was released when the Taliban took over a prison, a few days prior to the attack at Abby Gate. The release didn’t seem to be part of the Trump deal, but rather a spoil of war. Please correct me if I’m misunderstanding. I want to get this straight prior to Labor Day cookouts where I’m sure I’ll have to hear from my wing nut family and acquaintances about how unfair the world is being to Trump.

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/06/politics/kabul-airport-attacker-prison/index.html

    Understood that Scott is not my person servant in finding this info, and I think him profusely for saving a a boatload of time already from having to dig through all the wacko sites my Google searches are returning.

  32. 32.

    JerseyBeard

    Does “I’m from Jersey, baby, and you’re not” count as an identity? Asking for a friend.

  35. 35.

    danielx

    The thought of Mitch McConnell seeing his miserable life’s work circling the drain is…delightful.

  36. 36.

    prostratedragon

    Daniel Miller thread:

    The incident at Arlington cemetery demonstrates a really profound and potentially underrated point.

    Trump intimidates people into not holding him accountable. Imagine how much worse this could get if he’s the president and controls the immense powers of the executive?

    Threadreader.

  37. 37.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Eolirin: Yeah. For many years (maybe still, I don’t know), Puerto Rico statehood was part of the Republican Party platform–the Democratic Party platform just said it was up to Puerto Ricans. That’s because the pro-statehood party in PR is more or less a right-wing party and loosely affiliated with the Republicans.

    The issue with Puerto Rico’s status is that there are at least three sides and they’ve never been able to agree even on the wording of a referendum–so every vote that’s happened has been denounced as tainted somehow by one of the parties, and sometimes it gets boycotted. That makes the actual “will of the people” difficult to ascertain. It seemed like support for statehood was slowly increasing for a while, but it’s hard to say even if that’s true.

  40. 40.

    Honus

    Lebanese German catholic here.  From a small town in West Virginia.  So ima native hillbilly three generations back on both sides too.  With three nephews named Jacob Aaron and Daniel.  You’ve never really experienced ethnic diversity until you’ve attended a bar mitzvah in a temple in West Virginia with half the congregation (minyan?) are German Lebanese catholics.  And the rabbi is a civil war reenactor.

    Fuck politico

  42. 42.

    trnc

    @Tony Jay: ​
     

    … setting up fake pledges (like Harris ‘vowing’ to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet) they can be accused of breaking is part of that.

    She’ll have won by then, so whatevs. I have no doubt that as she does more interviews, they’ll gin up some more things, but they rushed the gate early so I think some of it will be less effective than if they had waited.

  46. 46.

    Steve LaBonne

    @jackmac: 75% of my ancestry is Irish so clearly I’m trying to deceive everyone by having a surname that reflects the Québecois ancestry that constitutes the other 25%.

  49. 49.

    TBone

    @JerseyBeard: yes!

     

    @Steve LaBonne: the latest “speech” at Moms for Liberty is covered at the Grauniad and it’s a doozy.

    https://disq.us/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2Farticle%2F2024%2Faug%2F31%2Fdonald-trump-at-moms-for-liberty-says-ivanka-hired-millions-of-people%3ARA2V6g2r1ySVl2oDtIweJX955yc&cuid=3071

    Ludicrous.

    The Republican nominee went on to offer a lengthy and discursive defence of his recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery, which he has been criticised for turning into a campaign photo opportunity. Trump insisted that he was there at the invitation of the families of 13 US service members killed in Afghanistan and they asked to take pictures with him. A member of the audience shouted: “Thank you for respecting our veterans, Mr President!”

    Trump repeatedly and bitterly criticised Biden and Harris for the Afghanistan withdrawal. “These people were killed by Biden, as far as I’m concerned,” he said, while also railing against “wokeness” in the military.

  52. 52.

    Another Scott

    @Chief Oshkosh: Ok, sorry, I got the timeline messed up.

    Biden was obviously president in August 2021 (the date given in the DoD report). I was thinking of the 2020 release of 5000 Taliban from prisons under TCFFG’s agreement.

    CFR.org:

    In the summer of 2021, the Taliban continued its offensive, threatening government-controlled urban areas and seizing several border crossings. In early August, the Taliban began direct assaults on multiple urban areas, including Kandahar in the south and Herat in the west. On August 6, 2021, the Taliban captured the capital of southern Nimruz Province, the first provincial capital to fall. After that, provincial capitals began to fall in rapid succession. Within days, the Taliban captured more than ten other capitals, including Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad in the east, leaving Kabul the only major urban area under government control. On August 15, 2021, over two weeks before the official U.S. withdrawal deadline, Taliban fighters entered the capital. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani subsequently fled the country and the Afghan government collapsed. Later that same day, the Taliban announced they had entered the presidential palace, taken control of Kabul, and were establishing checkpoints to maintain security.

    The speed of the Taliban’s territorial gains and the collapse of both the ANDSF and Afghan government surprised U.S. officials and allies—as well as, reportedly, the Taliban itself—despite earlier intelligence assessments of the situation on the ground. Following the Taliban’s take-over on August 15, 2021, the Biden administration authorized the deployment of an additional five thousand troops to assist with the evacuation of U.S. and allied personnel, as well as thousands of Afghans who worked with the United States and were attempting to flee. On August 26, 2021, two suicide bombings outside the Kabul airport killed at least 169 Afghans and thirteen U.S. troops. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attacks. August 26, 2021, was the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since 2011. On August 31, 2021, the Pentagon announced the completion of the U.S. troop withdrawal, with remaining U.S. personnel and citizens having to rely on diplomatic channels to evacuate.

    Axios seems to indicate the prison release happened Sunday August 15, 2021.

    Sorry for my confusion. HTH!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  53. 53.

    Steve LaBonne

    @TBone: It’s a detail amidst all the sludge, but I think I’m going to start screaming (apologies in advance to my long-suffering wife) every time the MSM quotes a Trump rant about Afghanistan without mentioning who actually (and incompetently) negotiated the withdrawal.

  54. 54.

    Ken

    Meanwhile in non-nearly-top-10000-blog social media news, Brazil has banned X/Twitter. There’s quite* a lot of chatter on Bluesky about this, with two main themes:

    1.  Saying the company can’t operate in Brazil is one thing, but the government is also forbidding Brazilians to access it, which gets into worrisome civil rights territory.
    2.  OMG LOOK AT THE AMOUNT OF NEW TRAFFIC FROM BRAZIL CAN THE BLUESKY SERVERS HANDLE IT!!!!

    * US sense of “quite”, for our UK readers.

  56. 56.

    TBone

    @Steve LaBonne: I hope your lungpower holds, because this is still kinda “summer silly season” and things are really gonna heat up soon.  We go to Election Day with the press we have, not the press we wish we had, in other words…

    The Dem campaign bypassing most major media is a stroke of genius – talking directly to We the People is where it’s at.

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    @matt:

    Because he’s the type that thinks his shit doesn’t stink.

    It’s not necessarily his family or background, it’s him. He’s a shitty human being who seems to think the world owes him everything because he’s so special. But of course he’s about as special as an ingrown toenail.

    It’s humanity, it varies a lot in it’s range of reasonable to shitty beings. It’s just that he’s on the shitty end of the scale. He thinks he’s special, he just has no concept that his special is not the good, decent end of the scale, but the shitty, pompous, arrogant asshole end.

  59. 59.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @p.a.: OK everyone out there, time to decide! WHAT ARE YOU? Irish like your mom? Polish like dad?

    Confused, but there’s no check box for that on the forms.

    Currently I go with checking a “white” box for my Dad’s side (the Jewish side), and a “hispanic” box which represents my Mom’s side, though there are some other ethnicities on that side too. But I always feel like an imposter checking any Hispanic boxes since we were not exposed to any of that culture: not the food, not the language, not the traditions.

    I grew up feeling “white” by default, but I and my kids have all experienced being othered from time to time.

    So… where’s the “confused” box?

  62. 62.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Tony Jay: This seems eerily similar to the claim that Biden promised to step down after only one term.  Which of course, he never actually said.

  66. 66.

    Rocks

    @TBone:”Trump insisted that he was there at the invitation of the families of 13 US service members killed in Afghanistan and they asked to take pictures with him. A member of the audience shouted: “Thank you for respecting our veterans, Mr President!”

    But was that audience member crying while calling him Sir?  If not, it’s suspect.

  67. 67.

    p.a.

    Like E Warren, my GF’s family story had a Native American link somewhere in the past.  Her 23&me profile showed a small % West African descent.  Maybe mixup, maybe “genetics is comicated”, but maybe too: in the hierarchy of American racism, it was “better” for a family to have admitted to a Native link than an African one.

  68. 68.

    Hungry Joe

    POSTCARD UPDATE — SERIES 2

    Postcards to Swing States:

    Yesterday — 8

    Running total — 104

  71. 71.

    Nukular Biskits

    @p.a.:

     in the hierarchy of American racism, it was “better” for a family to have admitted to a Native link than an African one.

    I can identify.  My parents grew up in Kemper and Lauderdale Counties here in MS in the 50s-60s.  White supremacy and state-sanctioned racism were facts of life then and into their early adulthood, even up to the time I started school.

    So, yeah, I saw a lot of that growing up from their generation.  Given the melting pot that is America, I wouldn’t be surprised at all there was some African DNA in those 23&Me reports I mentioned earlier that set my mom & aunt off but I can’t remember the timeline.

    The last few years of their lives, though, they did a 180 on their racist views.  And I’m glad they did.

  73. 73.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Starfish: Yes, that’s what I’m finding. The Trump “deal” resulted in 5,000 prisoners/terrorists being released by the Afghan government, against its will, between March and September of 2020. Many of those released rejoined the Taliban in fighting against the Afghan government and US forces. The Abbey Gate bomber was apparently not part of that release, but rather was released in August 2021 when the Taliban took the prison that happened to hold the bomber.

  74. 74.

    Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog

    @Chief Oshkosh: I can’t help your search specifically, but after months of frustration with Google’s search results on many, many topics, I ran across an alternative.  Not perfect, but it’s been helpful more often than not:

     

    perplexity.ai

  76. 76.

    Ken

    @TBone: I can easily imagine the campaign managers’ thoughts: “Well, he shit the bed at Arlington and is getting obsessive about the bad reactions. Let’s get him in front of a small group of cultists that will cheer whatever he says and maybe he’ll drop it.”

  84. 84.

    Tony Jay

    @trnc:

      She’ll have won by then, so whatevs.

    “You vowed to honour your campaign’s commitment to diversity by appointing a Republican to your Cabinet, but there is a growing concern out there that you’ve so far failed to meet with any of the many experienced Republican figures whose presence in a hypothetical Harris Administration might calm fears of continued partisan warfare on Capitol Hill. When are you going to announce your pick, and do you think you’ve made a mistake by letting the suspicion that your promises aren’t binding fester for so long?”

  86. 86.

    Starfish

    @Chief Oshkosh: It is interesting that you mention this because I am seeing similar memes that say that Trump released the Taliban leader of Afghanistan, and that seems like it is probably not true either.

  90. 90.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Nukular Biskits:

    Politico (doesn’t AL call them “Tigerbeat on the Potomac” or something like that?)

    Charlie Pierce came up with that renaming, I believe.  I’m sure AL has also used it from time to time.

  92. 92.

    RevRick

    @Chief Oshkosh: Trump set a boobytrap for Biden when he did the following:

    1). Released all those Taliban prisoners over the protests of the Afghan government;

    2). Promised the Taliban that the US would exit by May 31, 2021, in exchange for no attacks on US forces;

    3). Never briefed Biden about this;

    4). Reduced US forces to 2,500 when the military said they’d need at least 4,000 to affect an orderly withdrawal ;

    5). Made no plans to affect that withdrawal.

    That 13 soldiers were killed by that suicide bomber is tragic and regrettable, but compared to what? Staying would have led to year-in, year-out losses in that no-win war. And the evaporation of the Afghan army and collapse of the government tells us that trying to leave piecemeal would only have made the result even more chaotic.

  93. 93.

    Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog

    @Starfish: It gives the sources (and links them).  I’ve been meaning to check out other similar “AI-based” (scare quotes because I’ve got no idea what that really means) search pages, but haven’t gotten the proverbial Round Tuit yet…

  94. 94.

    Eolirin

    @RevRick: The problem is it’s way easier to beat the drum about 13 dead American soldiers than to get people to understand anything about what lead to that. Especially because the electorate as a whole doesn’t care about Afghanistan.

  96. 96.

    Tony Jay

    @Geminid:

    McVey is one of those deeply embarrassing figures (like Edwina Currie and Nadine Dorries) who emerged from my home town with a fiery determination in the space where their souls should be to scrape off their Liverpool roots and be the worst kind of morally hollow Tory striver they could be.

    When Liverpudlians say “We’re Scouse, not British”, it’s creatures like McVey were rejecting.

  99. 99.

    Eolirin

    @Tony Jay: I don’t think that’ll work. Not that I don’t think it’ll get tried to some degree by some of them. But it’s really hard to make that stick when they’re running up against Trump who lies constantly. I don’t think Harris will struggle too much to point out the attempt at both sides hypocrisy in a way that’s likely to go viral. And then they’ll really be fucked.

    The left is already pissed at them. And their business models are failing. They don’t have any constituencies they can afford to further alienate.

  101. 101.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Tony Jay:

    “You vowed to honour your campaign’s commitment to diversity by appointing a Republican to your Cabinet, but there is a growing concern out there that you’ve so far failed to meet with any of the many experienced Republican figures whose presence in a hypothetical Harris Administration might calm fears of continued partisan warfare on Capitol Hill. When are you going to announce your pick, and do you think you’ve made a mistake by letting the suspicion that your promises aren’t binding fester for so long?”

    Ixnay on the opycay. JFC Tony, the Beltway Media Corpse is lazy enough as it is and now you’re writing their copy for them.

    //

  102. 102.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Tony Jay:

    “You vowed to honour your campaign’s commitment to diversity by appointing a Republican to your Cabinet, but there is a growing concern out there that you’ve so far failed to meet with any of the many experienced Republican figures whose presence in a hypothetical Harris Administration might calm fears of continued partisan warfare on Capitol Hill. When are you going to announce your pick, and do you think you’ve made a mistake by letting the suspicion that your promises aren’t binding fester for so long?”

    Ixnay on the opycay.  Jeez Tony, our Beltway Media Corpse is lazy enough and now you’re writing copy for them.

    //

  104. 104.

    gene108

    Only thing I want to know about Kamala’s identity are her skin care tips, because she’s almost 60 and looks like a 40-something in pictures and on TV.

    Gov. Walz is about six months older than VP Harris. They don’t look that close in age in pictures.

  108. 108.

    Another Scott

    @Tony Jay: Many people are saying that a single token affirmative action-like position in your Cabinet is more of the same, and not the new direction you promised.  Doesn’t bold leadership that the nation craves require more than that?  Doesn’t healing the nation require more than that?  Why not make a true break with the past, implement the bold new proposal that’s part of Project 2025, and commit to the nation Right Now that at least half of your cabinet positions will be Republicans vetted by the people that you shared the ballot with – namely Turmp and Vance?  Isn’t doing otherwise a slap in the face of Real Americans…??

    [ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    gene108

    @RevRick:

    And the evaporation of the Afghan army and collapse of the government tells us that trying to leave piecemeal would only have made the result even more chaotic.

    The collapse of the Afghan army caught the Biden administration by surprise.

    They thought we’d have a few more weeks for an orderly withdrawal.

    They thought they could take a bit more time to evacuate Afghan’s who helped us.

  115. 115.

    Tony Jay

    @Eolirin:

    I don’t think it’ll work either, but I think they’ll try it because they’re openly building that Narrative and there’s just nothing else for them to work with.

    Everyone needs to see it coming, expect it, and mock it accordingly rather than getting shocked and frothing mad at their failure to do their jobs – which does often happen.

    This is their job. They’re PR agents for conservatives. This is their product.

  119. 119.

    Lyrebird

    @Mousebumples: DC, 100%, yes. Puerto Rico – I’d defer to residents there if they want statehood. I’ve heard it’s not as much of a slam dunk.

    Of course, very good pt…  but hey I am still waiting on our taco truck here!

    (joking)

     

    ETA: I’ve made it to 35 postcards and then took a break for New Job Overwhelm, but I am going to ask for more addresses soon.  Did you see the link for some northern Arizona ones?  All just said to thank you for your perservering and inspiring so many others!

  120. 120.

    Greebe

    @Another Scott: @11
    Regarding the Arlington story, I’ve been surprised more attention has not been directed toward the family who requested Trump and the photographer to be there for their ceremony. Unless I’ve missed it or am off-base in having expected that to happen?

  123. 123.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Greebe:

    I’ve been surprised more attention has not been directed toward the family who requested Trump and the photographer to be there

    I wouldn’t want there to be.  Disgusting as I find their taste in presidents, they didn’t do anything wrong and it’s gross to make their and their dead child’s name public.

  124. 124.

    p.a.

    @Nukular Biskits: IIRC a historian of the American south noted that the  antebellum US south was one of the only conservative cultures NOT that into heredity & family history.  They didn’t want any digging into who-begot-who.

  128. 128.

    Tony Jay

    @Another Scott:

    Heh. Just think how many Savvy Dollars you could be scooping up if you’d made the ‘right’ choices, dude. You could get a book out for Christmas and everything. 😂

  130. 130.

    JAFD

    Greetings from a cloudy morning in New Jersey.  Getting ready to head across Hudson to this evening’s meetup.  Looks like it’s clearingup a bit (Famous last words ….)

    Got my new Covid shot Thursday, then proceeded to travel a mile-and-a-half running (actually walking) errands.  Really tired when I got home, asleep at 9.  Arm still a bit sore, but no other ill effects.  Need to get back in shape after heart attack.

    Hope all you jackals are getting better if you need to, staying healthy if you are, and having a happy Labor Day!

  134. 134.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Mandarama:

    I had cousins that went to West Lauderdale. My parents grew up went to school in Marion and Collinsville if I remember correctly.

    When I was growing up we lived in the Long Creek/ zero community and I went to Clarkdale right there on Highway 45 on the Lauderdale County Clark County Line

  135. 135.

    trnc

    @rikyrah: Quibbling and Monday morning QBing, I know, but I would have preferred a response of “I don’t have time to respond to every one of Donald Trump’s bits of nonsense.”

    OTOH, I’m sure there will be more opportunities.

  137. 137.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @lowtechcyclist: Nope. I’ve never had an apostrophe there, because for the longest time WP wouldn’t allow nyms with apostrophes.

    WaterGirl said it didn’t like something in one of my posts this morning and threw it in the spam filter, and after that decided I was a spam account and everything went there.

    The entire reason I post under the nym “this is not my nym” is that one day WP decided it didn’t like anything about me under my old nym and automatically deleted everything without even bothering to flag it. So I started posting under this “temporary”. But whatever it was that WP didn’t like about the old one was unfixable, so…

    The old one was boring anyway. This one borders on being almost as clever as the rest of the jackals, so I’ve grown quite fond of it.

  138. 138.

    trnc

    @Frankensteinbeck: ​
     

    I wouldn’t want there to be.

    Agreed.

    Disgusting as I find their taste in presidents, they didn’t do anything wrong

    Wellllll, not sure about that, but that’s a whole other thing.

  140. 140.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Tony Jay:

    “You vowed to honour your campaign’s commitment to diversity by appointing a Republican to your Cabinet, but there is a growing concern out there that you’ve so far failed to meet with any of the many experienced Republican figures whose presence in a hypothetical Harris Administration might calm fears of continued partisan warfare on Capitol Hill. When are you going to announce your pick, and do you think you’ve made a mistake by letting the suspicion that your promises aren’t binding fester for so long?”

    Ixnay on the opycay.  Jeez Tony, the Beltway Media Corpse is lazy enough as it it, now you’re writing their copy. /s

  143. 143.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @p.a.: It’s kind of fascinating that claiming Native/Indigenous ancestry became such a badge of honor/novelty but not so for claiming African/Black ancestry.  One could probably write a dissertation on the many reasons for that.  For a whole host of reasons, I think Blackness is still viewed as the much greater social/political threat to White Supremacy than Native/Indigenous-ness.

  144. 144.

    TBone

    @trnc: damn, I gave a click because I didn’t know it was the TFTFNYT.  I don’t like to give a click to those Nazis.  I dunno if you saw their “housing policy” article yesterday, comparing Kamala’s real policy proposals to Donold’s (P2025) deportation plan which it deemed “housing policy.”  Fucking Nazis.

  145. 145.

    Steve LaBonne

    @trnc: Now will they make it an every day front page story like shadows over the Clinton Foundation and buttery males? (Some questions answer themselves.)

  146. 146.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @trnc: It’s actually kind of strange (and satisfying) that lying about his abortion position isn’t working for him. As I recall, he used to be able to claim every position on every issue and his hard core voters would just shrug it off and say “we know he’s really going to support the white supremacist / Christian Taliban position and he just has to say that stuff so those people will vote for him.”

    It’s kind of weird that the result of tens of thousands of lies would be that they no longer are sure he’s lying about this position.

  148. 148.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @p.a.: Brings to mind the old “Racial Draft” sketch from Chapelle’s Show where they have an NBA like draft where various races get to definitively claim various mixed-race celebrities. E.g. Tiger Woods (Thai on one side and African American on the other) gets drafted by team African American. Politco seems to have taken that literally rather than as satire

  149. 149.

    trnc

    @TBone: ​
     Sorry, I should have included a warning. FWIW, if you hover over any link like that, the real URL should show up at the bottom of your browser window.

  150. 150.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @danielx: Would be even more delightful to see the Feds lead him away in handcuffs after the intel community lays bare his illegal use of Russian funds from Putin and Chinese funds through his former-Cabinet-member wife. That would be one hell of an October surprise for our side.​

  151. 151.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: In 2016 their big ask was SCOTUS Justices who would overturn Roe, and he was very clear that he would appoint them so there was no daylight between their demand and his promise. This time they want him to sign a nationwide abortion ban and they’re not at all sure he’s lying when he says he won’t.

  154. 154.

    Nukular Biskits

    @getsmartin:

    Yeah.  About 5 miles north of I-10 Exit 50.

    No flooding but definitely had wind damage to the roof, barn got destroyed.  Sweetgum trees in front yard fell over on the power line and ripped the meter base off the side of the house. We were without power for 2 weeks … we were lucky.

  156. 156.

    Nukular Biskits

    @p.a.:

    @Nukular Biskits: IIRC a historian of the American south noted that the  antebellum US south was one of the only conservative cultures NOT that into heredity & family history.  They didn’t want any digging into who-begot-who.

    I wouldn’t be surprised at all. And it would definitely explain a lot of “dead ends” when asking about distant family members.

  158. 158.

    Michael Bersin

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Arlington National Cemetary.

    My father and mother were interred together there in 2019.

    Even with one’s profound personal grief, one is acutely aware of the place and its meaning.

    The Army staff is empathetic, kind, gentle, and firm throughout all aspects of the process. We were thankful for that guidance. Arlington makes certain everyone is aware of all standards and protocols beforehand. In the honor for my parents and in our honoring them by being there we would have been deeply ashamed if we had committed any breach of any kind. An Arlington staffer (in addition to others) was there for every moment to guide us throughout.

    This incident is mystifying to me, if you take out that one part of the equation. It is upsetting, to put it mildly. Unfortunately, with that one part of the equation there it was another story.

    As a family we intend to visit their gravesite and see the headstone sometime next year. We will be very careful about every aspect of preserving the dignity of the place when we do so.

  159. 159.

    Geminid

    @Starfish: If you look the Pennsylvania rally up you will likely find articles by local, and state media sites, and national ones besides Politico.

  161. 161.

    cmorenc

    The photo of the Harris & Waltz dolls at the top of the thread bears a strong resemblance to Carl & Ellie in the wonderful 2009 Pixar animated film “UP”.  Some day, we’ll know the full backstory of how Harris ended up making the perfect choice of Waltz as her running mate, just as with the charming backstory of how Ellie picked Carl in UP.  Except of course, Harris & Waltz are political running mates, not marital mates, but nevertheless…

  162. 162.

    eclare

    @Nukular Biskits:

    I am going to wait til October to get the booster to be closer to family get togethers for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I can guarantee I’ll be the only one recently vaxxed at these events.

    And I’m a Moderna girl.

  163. 163.

    Ken

    @trnc: Well when he says he’s voting YES one day, then says he’s voting NO less than 24 hours later, even the reporters at the NYT will notice.

    If he’d waited four days, he might have gotten away with it.

  164. 164.

    japa21

    @Michael Bersin:

    Mrs. Japa and I were discussing the whole incident this morning for the umpteenth time.  I was mentioning that this story has had a lot longer life span than most of the Trump screw-ups.  She is upset about the family members that, for some reason still support Trump.

    The she said I line that I will use whenever appropriate.  “The ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ aren’t the people buried there, it’s the people like those family members that support Trump.  Those are the real ‘suckers and losers'”.

  165. 165.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Ken:

    Well when he says he’s voting YES one day, then says he’s voting NO less than 24 hours later, even the reporters at the NYT will notice.

    If he’d waited four days, he might have gotten away with it.
     

    NPR’s headline on this? “Trump Clarifies Abortion Stance”

    I shit you not.

  166. 166.

    Starfish

    @Chief Oshkosh: All you need to know about Trump’s abortion stance is that he appointed the three Supreme Court justices that overturned Roe.

    There is no need to ask him to engage in Trumpian double speak about it.

  167. 167.

    Dave

    @gene108: Basically I assume they had the same view I did that it would take a few months for the military and government to collapse.

    I’m incredibly cynical regarding Afghanistan and likely outcomes but was mildly surprised it was that fast.

    Not shocked mind you but somewhat surprised.

    I’ll likely never find out but I wonder what the formal assessments were.

    Information tended to be filtered in slightly positive ways as it worked it’s way up the chain that presented a much rosier miles above reality image of the state of things when I was deployed there and I’ve always wondered if the generals and intel agencies bought that or were more aware of the reality.

  168. 168.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @cmorenc: ​
    Shortly after Kamala was announced, my wife pointed out we had a Kamala Harris refrigerator magnet, a little doll called “Magnetic Personality” that was sold by the Unemployed Philosophers Guild. We bought a Ruth Bader Ginsburg magnet at the same time. I can’t remember the impulse, but clearly I thought she was someone to watch some years ago.​

    I can’t find a picture of those magnets anywhere online. I don’t think they’re sold any more. So glad I picked them up when I did.

  169. 169.

    TBone

    @trnc: I shouldn’t complain, it’s only one click after all (not gonna make or break anyone).  Subscriptions, however, should be canceled.  About that, I am adamant.

  171. 171.

    Nelle

    @Mousebumples: Very late to the thread, but I’m like a border collie to the 68 households with registered Dems in my neighborhood.  I will be taking the first round of information to them by Sept. 15.  The second round will be bags of candidate cards, delivered between Sept 15 and Oct 15.  At that time, I’ll be asking what their plan for voting is.  Then I follow up to make sure those with absentee ballots get them filled and turned in.

    If my health improves, I’ll take a couple of shifts of voter registration.

    This is the fifth year of me doing this.  The advantage is that people know who to call with questions.  One was from a snowbird who will leave before the election but was afraid that if his mailing address was in Arizona, they might void his Iowa registration.  I got the answer (no, not at all) back to him within the houw.

  174. 174.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: ​
     

    Nope. I’ve never had an apostrophe there, because for the longest time WP wouldn’t allow nyms with apostrophes.

    I guess my mind just always put the apostrophe there! This is the first time I’ve noticed its absence.

  175. 175.

    evodevo

    @Nukular Biskits: Yep…my husband’s German heritage aunt could easily pass as Italian, with black hair and Roman-adjacent nose.  In fact, she was walking through a park in Cincinnati one day, where an Italian festival was going on, and they all wanted her to participate because they were sure she was Italian LOL.  Looks are not necessarily an indication of heritage..

  177. 177.

    BritinChicago

    @Baud: In some contexts it’s a weakener rather than an intensifier. (Was dinner good? Well it was quite good. You have to lean on it in a certain way.) I think in US English it’s always an intensifier, no?

    ETA: It’s sort of like “pretty good”.

    I’ve been here 50 years and I’m almost a perfect bilingual, but language is hard!

  178. 178.

    getsmartin

    @Nukular Biskits: I have a similar story here. My home in Long Beach is far enough away from the beach to have avoided the storm surge devastation, but we had a little roof damage. We were also two weeks without power, but as a consolation, we never lost water. Not long afterward, we had a whole-house generator installed.

  180. 180.

    Mousebumples

    @Nelle: late to return to the thread, but thank you for your efforts! I’m hopeful Iowa will return to blue someday.

  181. 181.

    Suburban Mom

    @Nukular Biskits: my husband’s family is from Mississippi.  None of them fit the physical stereotype but in his father’s generation of the family there were a few folks who were similarly insistent about having “some Cherokee blood.”  Not sure where this idea comes from, but it seems popular.

  182. 182.

    SomeRandomGuy

    (Replying to an embedded xit quote)
    Well golly gee I hope the Democrats don’t go down this wish list while Mitch is still alive so he’s forced to watch all the efforts of his miserable fucking existence unwound and swept away as the last thing he sees on this Earth before Darkness envelopes him.

    I don’t want Darkness to envelop him. I want him to find out that the Christianity he abused was accurate enough that he’d be explaining himself eternally, trying to figure out why lawyerly equivocation doesn’t impress the omniscient, and demanding to know just who said that swearing to see impartial justice done was justiciable by this obvious kangaroo court (at which point, a bunch of animatronic kangas would play turtleball for a while – oh, come now, a shriveled husk of a soul, without a single drop of the milk of human kindness, will hardly be hurt by turning it into a turtleball to be kicked around during recess – just in case he wanted to understand that a “kangaroo court” could be arranged). Of course, this is my kinder, gentler version of Christianity, unlike McConnell’s which I’m sure includes scorching flames and screaming in torment for all of eternity, which is really quite a bit longer than most people think, unless they watched Alice go all pedantic on the matter in the SyFy series The Magicians, and remember, souls, being immortal, can scream until their throats crack, at which point they’ll probably be forced to swallow molten lava to cauterize the crack, or something equally outlandish, before screaming until the *next* crack, and so on, and so forth.

    I mean, seriously, living by the rules he insists he lives by, he’d be awfully lucky if mere Darkness enveloped him,

  183. 183.

    Badpenny

    I’ve joked about this on other blogs but I’m no longer joking.  I truly believe the old school media is paying a phalanx of McKinsey-esque consultants on how to most rapidly become entirely irrelevant.  I take that back because McKinsey consultants suck.

  184. 184.

    Another Scott

    @UncleEbeneezer: You and others in this thread made me look…

    NewScientist.com (from 2014):

    You grew up on a Sioux reservation in South Dakota. How did Native Americans view tribal membership back then?
    Before the second world war, most Native Americans lived on reservations. Biological children would be enrolled as tribal members, but so would adopted children and spouses, if you were legally married.

    But as people moved away to urban areas, tribes started to get more rigorous about documentation. That’s when they also started to move towards only enrolling biological relatives. They were trying to figure out how to maintain the tribal population when everybody was living so far away.

    How did they determine which people were legitimate biological relatives?
    They started to focus on what’s known as “blood quantum” as a way of counting ancestors who were enrolled as Native American. In most US tribes, you have a specific blood quantum needed for enrolment – often one-quarter. That means you have to be able to show with paper documentation that you have one out of four grandparents who is full blood. Or you might have two grandparents who are half blood – however you can make those fractions work.

    Has DNA testing changed things more recently?
    I think the root cause of recent changes isn’t DNA testing, but gaming. Because Native American reservations don’t necessarily have to adhere to all of the laws of the states in which they’re located – namely gambling laws – during the 1970s and 80s some tribes started building bingo halls and casinos on their land. In some of the more successful gaming tribes, individual members receive dividends on a monthly basis. In a very few tribes, I’ve heard of payments in excess of $1 million a year. With that kind of money, you are going to get very rigorous DNA testing.

    Also, people tend to think any tribe with a casino gives out huge per capita payments, so tribal enrolment directors all over the country are bombarded with applications.

    So how do tribes use DNA testing to determine membership?
    It depends. The tribe I’m enrolled in does DNA testing to trace parentage, but only on new applicants. However, some tribes will go back and test everybody. Of course, in any population where you do that you’re going to find misattributed paternity. And some tribes dis-enrol descendants: say your biological father is not who you think he is, then you can get dis-enrolled. This has happened in some tribes in the US.

    Is this dangerous for tribal identity?
    All a parentage test does is say whether your parent is your biological parent or not. I feel that’s dangerous in the long run because there is a conflation going on in people’s minds of parentage testing with genetic-ancestry testing. People think that there’s a DNA test that can prove if somebody is Native American or not. There isn’t.

    […]

    Dunno if that’s still the case, but I think it’s good to keep these cautions and caveats in mind.

    When I did a 23&Me test a decade or so ago, it claimed that I wasn’t 1/4 Greek as I know myself to be. The Southern European/Eastern Mediterranean fraction was gradually revised over time, but still wasn’t 25% last I looked… I ass-u-me they get these fractions by comparing genetic markers with “known good” examples, trusted self-reporting, etc., rather than having objective pure markers from pure Native American #1, etc.

    tl;dr – We’re (almost) all mutts of various kinds.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

Comments are closed.