We all know a girl who aspires to Kamala's heights. Now is the time to stand up for her. pic.twitter.com/eXGQvgLwFh
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) September 17, 2024
Harris soars to record 6-point lead over Trump in post-debate poll https://t.co/8lsaUCBeDo
— Axios (@axios) September 17, 2024
Kamala Harris won the debate. pic.twitter.com/wXpF5s6ceX https://t.co/ZXlvzBoHFD
— greg (@mistergeezy) September 17, 2024
VP also taped a 4th that will air today at 10AM EST (Spanish radio) and is sitting for a 5th live one today (NABJ), but I imagine for similar reasons, they'll discount both as well.
Meanwhile, while Trump does "press", 90% of it is Fox News or white nationalist podcasts. https://t.co/e577i2SFGt
— The Biden Accomplishments Guy (@What46HasDone) September 17, 2024
@VP y @chiquibabyLA airing today on Nueva Network stations. Andddd there’s a podcast: https://t.co/bD8w3NgnvS pic.twitter.com/h555YX77ES
— Jess Morales Rocketto (@JessLivMo) September 17, 2024
Great News: The Biden-Harris Administration just announced another $1.3 billion in HBCU funding, which will help support students and increase research and development capacity.
That brings the total invested in HBCUs by this Administration to a record $17 billion. #PromisesKept
— James E. Clyburn (@RepJamesClyburn) September 16, 2024
Take it from these guys: talk to the undecided voters in your life. pic.twitter.com/0oM9N340dU
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) September 16, 2024
Republican ‘rebuttal’:
Peter Thiel is paying Nate Silver to lie to you because part of their plan is fall back on rigged polls when Trump gets destroyed on Nov 5th as proof the election was "stolen."
This will be taken to Trump's illegitimate SCOTUS, which was the plan in 2020 but they weren't ready. https://t.co/XZzLjhAlHD
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) September 17, 2024
Uncle Jeffy
That Clay Bennett cartoon says it all…..
BR
My barometer for Bernie lefty kids who wear their hearts on their sleeve started sending me Jill Stein nonsense plus anti Harris stuff, citing the GOPers who endorsed her and Gaza as reasons to vote for Jill Stein. I was expecting this. My reply to him:
NotMax
Midweek media interlude.
Exploring Schindler’s lift.
TBone
A song dedicated to BR and the Harris Walz campaign. I never get tired of it 💙
https://youtu.be/tbKjMVcB7No
West of the Cascades
FiveThirtyEight this morning: Harris win probability 61-38
The Economist this morning: Harris win probability 57-43
Let’s get this over 70% probability!
Steve LaBonne
@Uncle Jeffy: Trump is doing his level best to remind voters outside his cult how much they hated the constant exhausting chaos of his time in the White House. Remember that part of why he won in 2016 is that his handlers managed to keep him largely under wraps the last couple of months of the campaign (leaving the field wide open for Comey’s ratfucking). Vance helps us in this regard- he will never STFU.
BR
@TBone:
Hah, thanks.
hrprogressive
Fuck Nate Silver and Fuck Peter Thiel.
That is all.
Mousebumples
Reupping from last night’s threads –
I’ve been talking with WaterGirl, and we’re wondering if there’s interest in regularly scheduled postcard threads. I know we have a lot of people postcarding, but would it be fun to have a dedicated thread every week (*or however often) to do it as a collective?
If yes, when works for you?
Any suggestions for associated topics? Eg postcarding/music thread? Or cooking/recipe thread?
For me… I’m postcarding most nights, but Tuesdays are usually reliably free. Or maybe weekends? Those are less consistently available for me, but at least I don’t need to work the next day. XD And, of course, this doesn’t need to fit my schedule either!
P.S. Might be posting this around a bit the next few days so apologies in advance if you see this multiple times… Just want to try to catch all potentially interested postcarders.
Happy Wednesday!
Baud
@BR:
Probably a better approach than I would have taken.
Matt McIrvin
The normie media headlines are all still mentioning the “apparent assassination attempt”–I don’t think we’ve seen polls covering that yet. He didn’t get much of a bounce from the last one but it was mixed in with other things, happening just before the convention and Vance.
Quinerly
I guess we all know Ben Domenech’s wife is the daughter of a famous Vietnam POW.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The wording of that Axios headline is eye opening.
Mainly because it’s from Axios.
SFAW
@Steve LaBonne:
I think it would be good fun if a rumor were to spread that Vance is already planning to “25th Amendment” Donold the Donvict, should they win.
As the saying goes: make him deny it.
BR
@Matt McIrvin:
I just checked CNN and LA Times and (thankfully) don’t see anything about Trump in the headlines. CNN has one negative JD Vance story, but other than that there are no political headlines.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Don’t know if he’s helped by reminding people that Vance will be president if he dies in office.
Matt McIrvin
@hrprogressive: just remember, when Silver pumps up Trump’s chances, Harris fundraises off it. These things have their uses.
BritinChicago
The first ad in the OP is terrific, almost brought tears to my eyes. Watch it! Send it to your friends!
Other MJS
@BR: Bernie endorsed Kamala, FFS.
Quinerly
@Baud:
I am convinced if Trump is elected we end up with Vance within 2 years of inauguration.
But, then again, I was convinced that Trump wouldn’t stick with being president and we were going to end up within 2 years of inauguration with Pres Pence. I’m so old that I barely remember when I was terrified of a Pres Pence.
TBone
R.I.P. JD Souther 🎶
https://youtu.be/cIIfn8C2y8g
Scout211
I’m not sure if this has been posted yet, but I hope it goes viral. A new ad from Harris-Walz: “Monster”
BR
@Other MJS:
It’s another sign that endorsements don’t matter. Many lefties of his type were only supporting Bernie as a stance. I knew far more about Bernie’s votes and policies than he did. Now that supporting Bernie isn’t the “right” lefty stance, they’ve moved on to a new one.
TBone
@hrprogressive: also
Fuck John Roberts!
https://www.salon.com/2024/08/30/how-john-roberts-reshaped-the-law–and-gutted-the-voting-rights-act/
BR
@Baud:
I sometimes want to be snarky when people say they’re voting third party, and say “Oh good, well I’m glad you were able to make the tough decision to not help choose the next president, but the rest of us will take care of it for you.”
NotMax
@SFAW
25th amendment is a toothless gumless, arthritic tiger. Not only nearly impossible to put into practice but also reversible almost immediately.
TBone
@BR: that’s a good response imo. Not too much overtly obvious snark (since they’re obvs not the sharpest tools in the shed to begin with). When all else fails…drop a snark and disengage.
Baud
@BR:
They are who they are. I don’t get upset about losing the MAGA vote, so I don’t have a reason to get upset about losing the MAGA Ally vote.
Shalimar
@Quinerly: Ben Domenech’s wife is the daughter of Jeremiah Denton? Denton was a notorious womanizer, so I guess it’s possible.
Frankensteinbeck
@NotMax:
True, but I like the idea of the rumor. Trump would have yet another insane public shit fit if word trickled to him that Vance was planning to oust him.
New Deal democrat
I realize that nobody wants to put their guard down, but as of this morning I have seen evidence from three separate sources (Dan Guild, Kevin Drum, and the WaPo via Philip Bump)(I’m not including links so I don’t get caught in the spam filter) that Harris is continuing to slowly pull away from Trump.
The poll aggregators now have her more than 4% ahead in the popular vote, and the indication is that this begins to pass the threshold of nail-biters in the swing States and the Electoral College. And Bump points out that Trump has never run against a candidate with a net positive approval rate – a threshold Harris is just crossing.
Josh Marshall concludes, based on similar evidence, that while “ we should [not] be confident of a Harris victory or that a decisive win, which Rothenberg believes is possible, is the likely outcome. It’s a bit different than that. It’s that there are a number of data points which are consistent with those outcomes which for a variety of reasons — some good, others less so — we’re deciding not to look at.”
Also worth noting that if the “bandwagon effect” starts, some marginal voters are going to get discouraged from voting for Trump, and others will want to be on the winning team by voting for the likely winner.
Crossing fingers very heavily and noting that there is no unctuous James Comey this year.
waspuppet
“Kamala Harris interviews don’t count unless they’re with someone actively trying to keep her from being elected president—you know, someone unbiased.”
Baud
OT funny, via reddit.
Other MJS
@Baud: “MAGA Ally” is a keeper.
Booger
I have a question. Will MVP be the first President in (recent) history to not have serious Daddy issues? That seems to have been a requirement, like being over 35, for most of our presidents that I can recall.
Baud
@Booger:
What do you mean by Daddy issues?
TBone
@BR: Wonkette:
“It’s Pumpkin Spice and Be Mean to Jill Stein Season”
😂 for all who celebrate!
Leto
The full NPR WHYY National Association of Black Journalists interview MVP did yesterday. 1:13:49 long.
BR
@New Deal democrat:
Yeah, I’ve been cautiously watching such polling. I want to be banking votes in NC starting next week so we can make it an early election night when NC results come in.
BR
@Booger:
I get the impression Biden had a pretty healthy and supportive relationship with his parents.
Baud
@BR:
No matter how good the polling, the task is the same. No harm in (and much benefit to) piling on.
Quinerly
“Only consequential presidents get shot at.”
Trump yesterday
Matt McIrvin
@Other MJS: Bernie endorsed Harris. AOC endorsed Harris. A bunch of the Jill Stein pseudo-left went full MAGA ages ago. What’s left is a real remnant.
Baud
@BR:
And I thought Harris doesn’t have a close relationship with her father. I don’t think she has any issues over that, however.
Jackie
@New Deal democrat:
This year it’s the SC😡
Bupalos
Might Nate Silver be financially involved in managing perceptions of Trump’s odds? Sure. Especially when public pronouncement of specific odds has no actual meaning beyond meta effects on political mood. That’s true.
It’s also pretty close to meaningless. There is no practical difference between this guy looking at his tea leaves and saying it’s 60-40 or 70-30 or even 80-20 one way or the other. The right wing authoritarian folks looking to destabilize elections are going to do so one way or the other, and that’s not going to be assisted or refuted by the kinds of marginal odds-shaving that could be going on here.
Also don’t kid yourself. Trump’s odds if the election were held right now are not meaningfully quantifiable beyond a general “somewhere in the ballpark of a coin-flip.” Which is a vast improvement for us over the last couple months, and which may further improve or degrade over the next 2. But this growing thing where we talk about a specific estimation of odds as if it has some reality… not good I don’t think.
TomB
Sarah Huckabee is a terrible person.
Booger
@Shalimar: IIRC, Jeremiah was a bullfrog. Was a good friend of mine.
TBone
Eric Adams had 18 subway platform protesters arrested.
https://gothamist.com/news/protesters-converge-on-brooklyn-subway-station-days-after-police-shoot-alleged-fare-evader
BR
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, what was great was Mehdi Hasan asking Jill Stein if Putin is a war criminal and poor Jill didn’t know what the Kremlin approved talking points were so she refused to say it. Apparently everyone in the world is a war criminal except Putin and Assad.
Jeffg166
@New Deal democrat:
I am cautiously optimistic, 2016 is still too fresh in my mind.
Hopefully Philadelphia will turn out bigly for Harris winning her the state.
Quiltingfool
@Frankensteinbeck: I agree. I doubt Trump even comprehends the nuances of the 25th Amendment. He’ll glom on the part of “get rid of Trump” and not realize how difficult that would be.
I’m sure someone would eventually explain it to him, using pictures and sentences at a 4th grade reading level.
satby
@SFAW: he’s absolutely planning it, it’s why he was placed in that position. Only person dumber and more easily manipulated than the convict is the convict’s namesake son.
Baud
@BR:
Hmm. On one hand, he gave her a platform. On the other, good question to ask her.
TBone
@Quinerly: he is always such a putz
Booger
@Baud: I mean like Fred Trump being abusive, Obama’s father being absent, Shrub living in the shadow of GHWB, Clinton’s father being absent, etc…I thought there was a long history of American presidents being shaped by traumatic father issues. I could be wrong…
TBone
@Jackie: 🎯
frosty
@BR: His dad gave him a Corvette Stingray! Obviously he had a healthy relationship.
Baud
@Jeffg166:
🤞 that the correct historical parallel is 2008, when McCain destroyed any chance he had by (1) picking Sarah Palin and (2) reacting poorly to the financial crisis.
Frankensteinbeck
@BR:
Biden has huge daddy issues. They’re issues about being a daddy, about the tragedies with his sons. Theses issues seem to be a deep part of why he is so dedicated to compassion and making the lives of Americans better.
cmorenc
Trump/Vance’s post-debate racist antics about Springfield and the unsuccessful assassination attempt have the unfortunate side effect of taking the oxygen out of the news cycles for Harris for awhile, even though the Springfield media coverage of Trump/Vance has been mostly very negative. Hogging the news cycles is a deliberate tactic by Trump, even with coverage often negative, because his core MAGA voter base is stubbornly resistant to negative coverage, but the lack of media oxygen tends to stifle Harris from gaining further momentum. She definitely benefits the more voters are exposed to her, but if the news cycles become all Trump all the time, she gets starved for further impactful positive media exposure. That’s a very perverse dynamic, but that’s a core part of the Trump campaign’s strategy.
Baud
@Booger:
You should look up how many recent presidents have been left handed.
Baud
@cmorenc:
I thought we thought the mainstream media was irrelevant to the voters we need to get.
Matt McIrvin
@BR: I was worried when Cornel West got into the race early on and one of my leftier relatives immediately endorsed him. But he fell out with the Greens and has dropped back into obscurity. Harris got a lot of the “not enthused about Biden” liberal vote but Gaza is still a wedge.
frosty
@Jeffg166: And hopefully the Pennsylvania “T” will turn out bigly for Harris, getting swamped by Trump voters, but not getting buried. That’s the key in the Keystone State.
Philly and Pittsburgh are nice, but we need Allentown, Easton, State College, Scranton, Wilkes Barre, Lancaster, Harrisburg, York, Gettysburg, Chambersburg, and all the other small towns, boroughs, and townships to do their part.
Frankensteinbeck
@cmorenc:
There is absolutely no fucking way that the public debacle over ‘Haitians eat pets’ is a deliberate tactic. It started when Trump was totally out of control from Harris goading him, it has been absolutely disastrous for his poll numbers, and his advisors hate it and want him to shut up about it.
satby
OT, but I’m hugely stressing about my cat delivery week to come and my trip to Seattle the next one. My cat sitter may be out of commission, the daughter is a nervous wreck about the cats going anywhere, Buddy will have to be boarded so he gets his medication on schedule and it’s all building up.
Good thoughts appreciated.
Bupalos
@cmorenc: This is absolutely true. And it is deliberate strategy- as we all kind of know. As Pete Buttigiege does a nice job of stating. As JD Vance openly talks about.
We aren’t very good at dealing with this strategy or taking it seriously as intentional and effective.
Sure Lurkalot
Pardon me for being too lazy to look but someone downstairs asked for this Forbes article on how Trump made millions off his presidency.
https://archive.ph/E8eKA
I’m still waking up but the main gist seems that genius Trump transformed the basis of his net worth from real estate to social media and his net worth has increased by some $2B as a result.
The article does state that he has made money from his tacky club in Florida and golf courses as well as selling Bibles and the like but most of the rise is the valuation of Truth Social’s parent company which outsized stake Trump got for free.
Which value the author concedes has no basis in the metrics…it has no net revenue to speak of…
I guess we’ll have to stay tuned to what happens in the next week or so when Trump can sell his shares and tank the real investors. But all and all, the article seems most ridiculous in its premise, body and conclusion.
Sasha
@Uncle Jeffy: Clay Bennett has been on fire forever.
Matt McIrvin
@Frankensteinbeck: *Vance* seems to be driving that one to a large degree– he seems to see his role as an alt-right, very online hatemonger, not as the sane foil.
frosty
@satby: I can understand the stress but it’s for a good cause. Try taking a deep breath and imagine yourself on the plane with all the other details behind you.
Other than that, make lists! Better yet, put them in a spreadsheet!
ETA: Or just board them all and hit us up for funding help.
BR
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, I was worried about Jill Stein, but I’m less worried than I was. She’s been making a fool of herself in interviews, far worse than I thought possible — I mean she doesn’t know how many members of congress there are and can’t be bothered to call Putin a war criminal but uses the term freely with everyone else and tells women of color that they are tools of white supremacy. We’re lucky that RFK Jr is both a nut and also to the right of Harris on Gaza, because he had the name recognition to potentially pull some votes but he won’t now.
The way I sometimes put it to those who care about Gaza is that either Harris or Trump is going to be president. Who will be better? Harris — someone whose formative years were spent with grandparents who were part of anti-colonial independence movements — or Trump — who has his son in law working with the far right to prep permanent ethnic cleansing of Gaza to build beachfront hotels.
Booger
@Baud: I’M LEFT HANDED. AND I’M NOT A PRESIDENT. QED!
Frankensteinbeck
@Matt McIrvin:
I think he has a Mini-Me obsession. Since he got the job he’s been amplifying and trying to validate all the stupidest shit that comes out of Trump’s mouth.
cmorenc
@Frankensteinbeck: I’m not saying Trump is deliberately choosing to do things that generate bad news cycles, but rather that he perversely benefits from sucking all the oxygen out of the room when the media focus is predominately all about him, and hogging the media limelight is indeed a core strategy that meshes with and helps feed his malignant narcissism. If only the implicit huge positive contrast for Harris was enough to counteract that, she’d win in a landslide, but she benefits more from actual voter exposure to her. If a relentless flow of negative stories about Trump was enough to insure his defeat, he would be 20+ pts underwater, not only just slightly outside the margin of error.
scribbler
@satby: Well I for one think you’re wonderful, and am sending all the good thoughts possible. You do so much to help animals in need. Hang in there!
ETA: And (as frosty says) if you need additional funds to help with all the cat ferrying let us at BJ help out!
Bupalos
I’m not going to claim to know what specific effect the immigrants-eat-pets coverage has had on polls, that would be impossible to extract. But I definitely think that deploying it was a strategic choice that Trump made. Possibly in response to a feeling that he was getting drubbed and couldn’t fight on conventional ground, but something that he had tucked in his pocket deliberately.
And it has moved a lot of the conversation onto ground that Trump and Vance want it on. Vance says this very openly, because he can’t stand for people to think he’s stupid… which… I wonder what Trump thinks about vance saying “I make stuff up to get the conversation where I want it to be…”
Trump is very happy for lots of people to think he’s one of the stupidest people on the planet and never tries to explain in their terms how they’re missing the intent behind his latest shockingly simple-minded blather. He just says “I’m a genius. They’re eating the dogs.”
narya
@satby: I so admire you for the work you do! Here’s my wish/hope that everything goes smoothly, for all of the beings (human and otherwise) involved!
Steve LaBonne
@cmorenc: This is a fallacy. Nothing will ever drive his vote much below 45% (a devastating indictment of our country). Meanwhile, historically, the more he reminds normie voters what a thoroughly exhausting asshole he is, the more he alienates them. Harris is getting her attention in the local media in swing states, where it actually matters.
matt
If you count Laura Loomer as a journalist, you could say Trump is giving 100% access to press.
Frankensteinbeck
@cmorenc:
But it’s not helping him. The more people directly hear what Trump says, the more they hate him and are pushed to Harris. The Haiti thing and his defense of Jan 6th are the things undecideds said they were repulsed by. We want this stuff dominating the news. It’s certainly not deliberate, unless you think Trump somehow outsmarted Harris in the debate.
WaterGirl
@Booger: I am always happy to see your nym here.
Barbara
@cmorenc: I feel like each of the last three presidential elections has been a “black swan” event — 2020 because of Covid, and now because of the unprecedented way Harris became the nominee. Because of the propensity for “ahistorical” events to escape prediction, it seems useless to try to predict how a given development will affect the outcome.
Salty Sam
Matt, I’ve seen you explain your anxiety in these comments, and I honestly don’t mean this as an insult or criticism- just good natured ribbing from a fellow jackal… but I’d love to get a nickel for every time I’ve seen a comment of yours start out “I was worried when…”
😁
matt
@BR: People who are going to not vote for the Democrat because of Republican endorsements fundamentally don’t understand politics at all. These are ignorant, uninformed, stupid people who don’t deserve any time or attention.
Dave
@Frankensteinbeck: Vance does come across as genuinely online in the Yarvinite vein but he is also nothing if not an enthusiastic toady/suck-up to those above him. I agree this wasn’t a strategy that they wanted but now it’s when your decompensating nutjob of a candidate hands you lemons you do your damned toadying best (and it helps that this is particularly cruel and hateful version) to make lemonade.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Steve LaBonne:
This!
catclub
But NOT mentioning “Secret Service told trump not to do outdoor rallies. Secret service told Trump not to use unsecured golf courses – like his. ” Obama golfed on military bases.
Frankensteinbeck
@Bupalos:
So you don’t think Harris goaded Trump into losing control in the debate? For it to be a strategic choice, he would have to have been thinking strategically at that time.
Soprano2
@waspuppet: Oh man, I saw on the bird site that Politico is whining because she stays on message in her interviews. Heads we win, tails you lose seems to be their attitude.
Anoniminous
@Jeffg166:
Biden won Pennsylvania by 80,555 votes. We know there has been a wave of new voter registration in Democratic voting demographics:
Note these new voters are almost certain to be ‘filtered’ from Likely Voter polls because they didn’t vote in the last two elections.
There’s every reason to believe Harris will take Pennsylvania.
matt
@BR: Connor Roy voters…
lowtechcyclist
@Quinerly:
Like Gerald Ford.
Dave
@Anoniminous: I’m fairly confident that Harris wins though won’t be shocked albeit horrified if Trump manages to eke a victory; that said I think it’s about as likely Harris manages something close to 2008 as it is Trump ekes out a victory at all.
This isn’t exactly comforting because in a semi-reasonable world he should have been in prison after running scams at his used car dealership but what can you do?
matt
@Quinerly: Squeaky Fromme has entered the chat.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
SW
Voters to Trump, “Get out of our lives”
Mike E
@Barbara: 3rd time is the charm, not only for a truly historic outcome with the 1st madam president but also showing the way in which our untenable year-round electioneering must be cut down to a manageable time period… obvious priorities like restoring Roe and voting rights, and reforming SCOTUS aside, a maximum 100 day federal election window must become US law (along with overturning Citizens United).
TBone
@satby: you are doing the Lort’s work, may your efforts result in joyful success at every turn!
catclub
On the other hand Trump went very quiet in the last two weeks of october 2016. And NOT having exposure was great for him. That might not be repeated this year.
Anoniminous
Again I say ….
Poll shows Kansans closely divided on constitutional amendment on abortion
“As things stand in the Co/efficient poll shared with FiveThirtyEight, 47% of the more than 1,500 voters sampled support the so-called “Value Them Both” amendment, and 43% are against it. The remaining 10% are undecided.”
The Abortion Vote In Kansas Looks Like It’s Going To Be Close
“On Aug. 2, Kansans will vote on a state constitutional amendment that would clarify that the state’s bill of rights does not protect Kansans’ right to an abortion. And even though the state leans Republican, new polling and fundraising numbers suggest it’s a close race.”
Kansas voters defeat abortion amendment in unexpected landslide
“Kansas voters in a landslide Tuesday defeated a constitutional amendment that would have stripped residents of abortion rights, defying polling and political observers who expected a close result.
The ballot measure was failing by a 60-40 margin late Tuesday after voters responded to an intense and costly campaign marked by dubious claims by amendment supporters and the unraveling of protections by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
geg6
@Quinerly:
And only Jerry Ford and Cheetolini got shot at twice. You know, two of the few modern era presidents who didn’t win a second term.
TBone
@frosty: here is a window into T Town
https://www.uniondemocrats.org/union-county-democratic-committee/meet-the-committee/
Shiny Happy Valley People holding hands 😊🎶
https://youtu.be/YYOKMUTTDdA
Dave
@catclub: This is actually part of why I’m optimistic; this worked in 2016 when he still had some self control and because the media was in an absolute feeding frenzy over HRC thanks to quite a few factors almost of all of which were some mix of stupid and malignant.
Maybe they’ll find something crazy about Harris but it’s unlikely and it lacks the decades of prepping the ground they did for HRC.
If he goes quiet the focus is on the quite charming and optimistic duo of Harris and Walz and if him and Vance instead center themselves it reminds the average voter of how utterly exhausted they are by the dude.
Not complacent but fairly optimistic and the dynamic that currently exists is much different than the dynamic in 2016.
Soprano2
This morning I heard Ron Johnson being interviewed about the Secret Service on “Morning Edition”. When the interviewer asked what could be done to help prevent these situations (the guy trying to shoot TCFG), he immediately replied with something about closing the border! I think R’s know that this is the only issue now where they might have an edge over Democrats, so they’re going to try to turn everything into a border issue. I tuned it out once I heard him say that, because I knew the rest of the interview was going to be ridiculous. Funny how this time they aren’t all howling for the head of the SS to step down.
OT, they’re doing construction in my building, it’s so much fun to listen to sawing and drilling all morning – not.
Jackie
@Bupalos:
I’m curious if there are Ohio presidential polls pre Springfield and post Springfield?
I don’t expect Ohio to flip Blue, but even republicans must be fed up and disgusted that their own senator is fueling and doubling down on this bullshit.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@rikyrah: good morning.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
oldgold
Today Melania has released a short video defending her nude modeling photo shoots from years ago. On many levels it is a laugher.
geg6
@Jeffg166:
I have no qualms about Philly (or Pittsburgh for that matter) turning out. Those cities are where the base lives and I think we’ll do great in both. We need to concentrate on smaller cities/suburbs/exurbs like Erie and Harrisburg.
Soprano2
@satby: I’ll have good thoughts for you. Usually things turn out all right in the end, but I understand the stress.
Xantar
@Bupalos: This is one of the things that bugs me about election forecast models. People say Nate Silver got it right in 2016 because he gave Trump a 23% chance of winning as opposed to others who gave Trump only a 5% chance. But that’s completely unfalsifiable. We can’t run the 2016 election 1000 times and see if Trump wins 230 times or 50 times.
RevRick
@Jeffg166: The key to PA lies in the Philly suburbs. AUSA Today/ Suffolk University Poll has Harris leading in the bellwether counties of Erie and Northampton, which is a good sign.
Mike E
@Jackie: his comfortable polling margins in dark red states are tightening, hence Harris Walz goading his campaign to run pointless ads in places like Florida which depletes his war chest in swing states.
Quinerly
@lowtechcyclist:
Yes! Both have scored 2 in the contest.
(Although, I really think “attempt” should include the actual firing of the weapon.)
TBone
@oldgold: holy shit is that snark?
Quinerly
@matt: and don’t forget Sara Jane Moore.
TBone
@RevRick: DelCo will represent! Went blue in 2018 and 2022 and NOT GOING BACK! 💙
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/election-day-philadelphia-mayor-pennsylvania-new-jersey-delaware-county-district-attorney/2120917/
Quinerly
@geg6:
😁
Steve in the ATL
@Quinerly:
maybe just a “plan” then rather than an “attempt.”
Haven’t followed it closely because don’t care and don’t trust media reports to be reliable, but did the dude actually violate any laws?
oldgold
@TBone: It is not. Read it and laugh. https://www.rawstory.com/nude-melania-trump-photos/
Quinerly
@Steve in the ATL:
I haven’t followed closely either. I think he has only been charged re gun possession.
He never fired a shot.
Jess
@Mike E:
Thought you were referring to something else there for a minute…
TBone
@oldgold: 😆 👀 💀
New book also for sale
RaflW
@West of the Cascades: The gambling debt laden founder of 538 is still predicting 60/40 Trump/Harris chances. But that’s what Peter Theil, who owns his ass, tells him to say.
What a disgrace.
That said, I do think the Harris-Walz message that we’re in a tight race and cannot let up for a moment holds absolutely true. I do think the vulgarian is lashing out as severely as he is because he, too sees the aggregate polls (even if his staff try to protect him from the truth) and he’s wild with anxiety. Well, fuck him. Let’s GO.
Layer8Problem
“Trump says hateful stupid stuff and the media eats it up! It’s the most diabolically clever ploy ever! All the oxygen’s sucked out of the room! We can’t win against such authentic frontier gibberish so artfully deployed!”
Nah, he says stupid stuff and his base says “he’s smart because real estate geenyus with teevee show and he hates who we hate” so they vote for him. I suppose it’s possible he’s happy for libs to think he’s a narcissist who cheats at golf and bankrupts casinos and is compelled to pathetically proclaim his own brilliance, because it’s part of his cunning plan to lure us into complacency y’see which cannot fail.
He’s a black swan. He’s sui generis. He’s a dope. He won one election and lost the next. He’s not magic. If he’s thinking strategically he’s doing a terrific imitation of stream of consciousness. Harris and Walz are doing well against his base’s tribal faith.
Jackie
@oldgold: Melania’s voice drives me as crazy as TCFG’s does. Maybe more so.
Another Scott
@Steve in the ATL: As I understand it, he’s a felon who (apparently) legally shouldn’t have a gun. The gun also had its serial number removed, another violation of the law.
But other than that, dunno.
Cheers,
Scott.
RaflW
@TBone: Seems to be true. The outreach to evangelicals is going great!
Jess
@Steve in the ATL:
A concept of an attempt?
rikyrah
Read No Shortcuts (@JoshuaPHilll) posted at 9:52 AM on Tue, Sep 17, 2024:
New video has emerged of NYPD cops brutally beating a man working at a homeless shelter.
The cops didn’t have a warrant to enter the facility, and the workers’ boss told him not to let them in.
So they attacked him. Trigger warning for the video.
https://t.co/raY7ieYrX4
(https://x.com/JoshuaPHilll/status/1836055555284128055?t=uXI9pUO8-2YLIvWS487fIA&s=03)
Jess
@TBone: Pop-up picture book?
geg6
@RevRick:
Was listening to a podcast this morning that had Amy Walter on and she also focused on the numbers out of Erie (which is in no way a suburb of Philly) and Northampton counties. But her message from what she was seeing in the numbers was that Pittsburgh and Philly and their metro areas are going to come in strong. She, like me, says the focus in PA should be in those smaller cities and their close suburbs–Erie, Easton, Scranton, State College and Harrisburg. She believes that’s where Harris share of the vote could expand.
Barbara
@Steve in the ATL: It sounds like he might have been trespassing, but they don’t seem willing to disclose whether he made it over the line and was actually standing on Trump’s property. He might have stayed on the side of the road. Given prior convictions he might not have had the legal right to possess or own a gun.
TBone
@RaflW: 😆
If I don’t sin, Jaysus died for nothing!
TBone
@Jess: 😆 her kidney implants pop right off the page!
SFAW
@NotMax:
Immaterial. The point is to sow even-more distrust and dissension in that campaign. When they’re fighting each other, they have less time to attack us.
Baud
@oldgold:
Why did they bring that up?
rikyrah
David Darmofal (@david_darmofal) posted at 9:13 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
I saw a headline that said JD Vance is the first Senator to ever terrorize his own state. Actually, Vance is very reflective of the equally racist Jim
Crow-era Senators who terrorized their states for their own personal gain. JD Vance is a modern-day Jim Crow politician.
(https://x.com/david_darmofal/status/1836408209394769941?t=5sxFWVmEL6llxWOFSK8j3g&s=03)
rikyrah
John W. Miller (@jwmjournalist) posted at 7:23 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
Why we need professional journalists: @JDVance rep tells @wsj about Anna Kilgore, a Springfield OH woman whose cat went missing in August, so @Kris_Maher drives to her house. She found the cat in her basement and apologized to her Haitian neighbors.
Candidly Tiff 🪷💛 (@tify330) posted at 9:05 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
This is the plot twist I have been waiting for. REPORTERS do your jobs cause this was an entire Op meant to harm Haitian immigrants, cause division and perpetuate anti-blackness and use xenophobia by the Trump campaign.
Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) posted at 9:28 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
Somehow, the racist Trump lady who immediately jumped to the conclusion that Haitians had taken her cat that was in her basement still has more BASIC HUMAN DECENCY than JD Vance… because she, at least, apologized.
(https://x.com/ElieNYC/status/1836411909110669453?t=EgcSqUhqoeaFF9i_pjVq_Q&s=03)
Barbara
@RaflW: It irks me no end that people like Nate Silver can coast for so GD long without actually ever doing ANYTHING that they have to account for when they are wrong. I got an email from Vox “explaining” what happened to Nate Silver in terms that basically blamed others for not being okay with Nate’s “contrarian” side and his “new willingness” to be opinionated.
For me Vox is like The Guardian — every time I think that they provide valuable insight they go and do something like apologize for Nate Silver being a complete fraud and sell-out, or — as the Guardian does — letting David Sirota be the voice for so-called liberal America.
TBone
Here’s to Melanoma’s entrepreneurial success 😆
🎶
https://youtu.be/S4Ah2dxTcWw
rikyrah
Bad Faith![]()
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(@Jeffdc5) posted at 9:07 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:![]()
. Why isn’t this a story, the news media is just straight garbage.
It’s still hilarious to me that Kerstin Emhoff is more publicly supportive of Kamala Harris, than Melania is publicly supportive of Trump
(https://x.com/Jeffdc5/status/1836406645909266904?t=y7ZkjVfZOICgXLtv2p5OIA&s=03)
HinTN
@Matt McIrvin:
FTFY
TBone
@Baud: she’s hawking a book
Baud
It just occurred to me that Speaker Johnson can’t look at photos of Melania without his son getting an alert on his phone.
rikyrah
Donate to Downballot Democrats (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 8:57 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
white leftist men are literally the patriarchy, and don’t let them tell you otherwise
just as with their conservative counterparts, everything they do and everything they are is result of some ancestor who stole something and then gave it to them
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1836404226416668690?t=tZEFRGWBH8BIRmvT7XXZsw&s=03)
rikyrah
DFW Sports 4Life (@Kennymack1971) posted at 9:38 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
Vance was fully aware that the eating pets story had no basis in fact. He ran with it anyway and so did Trump. And they doubled down. That’s the damn game. They have no substance to provide. Just racist white grievance bullshit.
(https://x.com/Kennymack1971/status/1836414430499701160?t=yIQfiex9b22XPoa1x1kDPA&s=03)
Baud
@TBone:
Is the title “I still don’t care”?
Eolirin
@Mike E: Winning Florida may be a reach, but it’s also a place where a win could knock out Rick Scott, and boy do we need that senate seat
Baud
@Eolirin:
Probably right. But abortion is on the ballot and there are a lot of Haitians there. 🤞
rikyrah
Veronica McDonald🗣 (@Purify_toast17) posted at 9:13 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
The Asian Americans who have been here for a few generations tried to tell these folks how it was going to go down but these 1st Gen people didn’t want to listen
1/
Veronica McDonald🗣 (@Purify_toast17) posted at 9:13 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
They believed the WS lie that Blacks are stupid, unqualified and stealing Asian spots and if only the Blacks were barred from going to these schools, more of them would be able to get in.
Veronica McDonald🗣 (@Purify_toast17) posted at 9:13 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
The 2nd+ generation Asian Americans tried to tell them, that’s not how it works. All that’s going to happen is more WHITE students will be admitted if the Black students are barred from admittance. Asian student population will not increase, but they didn’t want to listen.
Veronica McDonald🗣 (@Purify_toast17) posted at 9:13 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
In believing the fallacy of removing Black students, they told on themselves: they know it’s WHITE people that are capping Asian student acceptance & enrollment but know they could only increase their numbers by removing Black students.
Veronica McDonald🗣 (@Purify_toast17) posted at 9:13 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
Except the joke is on them: even though Black student enrollment declined, so did the Asian student enrollment but the White student enrollments increased, which was the WS backers’ end game all along.
Veronica McDonald🗣 (@Purify_toast17) posted at 9:13 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
Now this Asian student group is looking stupid and feeling played and I love that song for them because *everyone* tried to tell them what was going to happen.
Don’t be mad, get glad! The most qualified students were admitted and that was your goal, right?🤔😂
(https://x.com/Purify_toast17/status/1836408303804403914?t=liER7VSHI6s682Ff0TdP7g&s=03)
Geminid
So I checked out security reporter Levent Kemal for more info on yesterday’s pager bombings and found that there’s been another rash of explosions in Lebanon. Evidently, Hezbollah went to a back-up comnunication system utilizing walkie-talkie radios in response to the pager bombings, but it turned out some of the radios were booby-trapped also.
rikyrah
@Baud:
And Scott just took another vote BLOCKING IVF PROTECTIONS.
Baud
@Geminid:
Damn.
Baud
@rikyrah:
That’s one of those things I hope gets noticed but I’m not confident about whether it will.
rikyrah
Art Candee![]()
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(@ArtCandee) posted at 3:54 PM on Tue, Sep 17, 2024:
Here is the entire full interview of VP Kamala Harris at the NABJ (National Association of Black Journalists) in Philadelphia today.
It is a stark contrast to Donald Trump’s campaign-wrecking racist meltdown.
Worth the watch. https://t.co/F8AlQbuHqZ
(https://x.com/ArtCandee/status/1836146691747254640?t=us3y-ufno5Wq3xDFfHhyYQ&s=03)
Mr. Bemused Senior
Ah, a Frequentist. 😁
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah. At this point, I question identifying them either as “pseudo-left.” They’re just right wingers.
It’s increasingly how I feel about the entire college-kid-in-a-Che-Guevara-T-shirt phenomenon. The movement as a whole has gone through a slowed-down version of the same phenomenon you see in so many of its individual members: yes, it may have been identifiably left-wing during its younger years, but it’s well past middle age now, it’s as comfortably well off as it ever was, and it’s got the Republican voter ID to go with it.
rikyrah
Someone did a video on TikTok that Dick Wolf has been working around the clock ever since Puffy’s arrest was revealed.
A two week , spanning all three shows extravaganza
Organized Crime
SVU
And the mother ship original Law and Order
LOL!
trollhattan
@Baud: Heh-heh, you said “Johnson” heh-heh.
Talk about weirdos, that family. Hoo-boy.
tom
@TBone: Oh no.
Leto
Ukraine did it again. Weapon depot in Toropets gone earthquake 2.8-boom (Volume icon top right of gif)
rikyrah
Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) posted at 8:07 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
Donald Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans in the House enacted the GOP Tax Scam in 2017.
They hurt middle class Americans by shredding the State and Local Tax deduction.
And now they are lying about it.
Again.
(https://x.com/RepJeffries/status/1836391707023139200?t=1XOIQ_DWGVg5XLp8bZte5Q&s=03)
narya
@rikyrah: I want to see Jeffries as Speaker sooooo much.
Falling Diphthong
@Matt McIrvin: We may be pushing through into the territory: “So having a gun in the vicinity of Trump is terrible and you cannot believe it isn’t a crime, but having that same gun the same distance from anyone else in Florida is just a second amendment enthusiast taking his gun for a walk in the sunshine and you libs need to chill.”
TBone
@tom: one of the greats down 😔 he wrote for Ronstadt, the Eagles, so much talent.
SFAW
@Baud:
Well, do U?
TBone
@Leto: the tankie website I check in on is all over this, Pooty must haz a sad
frosty
I see this one is joining “All of them, Katie” as a keeper!
Bupalos
@Frankensteinbeck: I guess I don’t think that has to be an either-or necessarily. She definitely got him talking about things that don’t help him win an election, which is the definition of her winning and him losing. I think it’s basically in reaction to that reality that he deployed “eating dogs,” a kind of nuclear weapon guaranteed to change the conversational landscape. His reaching for that particular weapon had some obvious immediate blowback. At the same time, it has brought the election conversation overall onto more friendly territory for Trump. I don’t know whether the later was worth the former, though I suspect in total it probably was.
TBone
@Falling Diphthong: 🎯
Jackie
👏🏻👏🏻 👏🏻👏🏻 👏🏻👏🏻
Mike E
@Baud: @Eolirin: I can only send my hopes to the good voters in FL that they see fit in electing a Dem to the Senate. NC needs similar help in getting down ballot energy to mitigate our gerrymandered losses in the US House.
TBone
Go Melanie! 😆 🎶
https://youtu.be/OU38Dpjl8k8
Chris
@BR:
I think the extent to which Stein and RFKJ have both thrown away the mask and given up on even pretending to be anything other than Republican operators goes some way towards blunting the traditional third party ticket appeal. That could be over-optimistic on my part.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Jackie:
Hooray!🎉
rikyrah
@Jackie:
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
Mike E
Do tell, I’m a bit slow this AM… Beetlejuice?
Tim C.
@geg6: Ford didn’t even win one term. Agnew resigned and he got into the VP, then Watergate. Only president who basically “Stumbled” into the White House.
TBone
Another classic for the ages!
Trump Learns of Taylor Swift’s Endorsement:
https://youtu.be/bpws74MsI9E?si=P3WT_oGYHGVO0i6d
😆💀
Falling Diphthong
@Chris: At this point, I question identifying them either as “pseudo-left.” They’re just right wingers.
From Sarah Vowell: Once you’ve gone far enough left or right that your sentiments can be condensed down to a bumper sticker, it’s hard to tell which side you started on.
rikyrah
Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) posted at 6:38 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
“It’s so patently obvious that it’s just to be hateful. They just do this to be hateful.”
— @JoeNBC reacts to Gov. Huckabee Sanders slamming VP Harris for not having biological children https://t.co/WvU5xahfCC
(https://x.com/Morning_Joe/status/1836369244717449350?t=n5SMS9jx2yg7UMyZntC-QQ&s=03)
rikyrah
ProPublica (@propublica) posted at 7:00 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
Doctors warned Candi Miller that another pregnancy could kill her. Under Georgia’s abortion ban, she died trying to navigate the process alone. “She was trying to terminate the pregnancy, not terminate herself,” Miller’s sister said.
https://t.co/VY6jKhTwJY
(https://x.com/propublica/status/1836374668359463319?t=roQ9rrMteZZQJ9pGJmfTZg&s=03)
rikyrah
Kamala’s Wins (@harris_wins) posted at 9:11 PM on Tue, Sep 17, 2024:
BREAKING: After Donald Trump and JD Vance asked Democrats to lower their rhetoric, CNN made a montage of all the inflammatory things Donald Trump and JD Vance have said. Retweet to make sure all Americans know it’s Trump and Vance who are the problem.https://t.co/mzFsvUO0pV
(https://x.com/harris_wins/status/1836226469439164614?t=7ZNIsE4dnA-Hqlly166MpA&s=03)
lowtechcyclist
@Quinerly:
Squeaky Fromme must’ve pulled the trigger, because she was surprised when the gun didn’t fire. Since she aimed the gun at Ford and pulled the trigger, I’d call that an attempt.
rikyrah
Donate to Downballot Democrats (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 4:43 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
The way white Millennials will lie for their conservative parents and describe them as Trump voters without actually saying that they voted for Trump
Person #1: my parents are Evangelicals from East Tennessee
Person 2#: my dad doesn’t vote; my mom watches Fox News all day
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1836340210046587348?t=gfgOkYe2zuNpygRcXjbpCg&s=03)
Quinerly
I am really encouraging everyone to watch this segment from LOD last night.
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-on-trump-s-deadly-abortion-ban-women-are-dying-they-got-what-they-wanted-219579973725
rikyrah
Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) (@HC_Richardson) posted at 11:51 AM on Tue, Sep 17, 2024:
Tuberville is holding up the confirmation of the officer in line to replace Mike Flynn’s brother, General Charles Flynn at US Army, Pacific. Don’t know why this isn’t bigger news: https://t.co/MTgJWxk1CQ
(https://x.com/HC_Richardson/status/1836085517303312719?t=Gl9UN0DO9Cc-UmxnjUSkuA&s=03)
Citizen Alan
@BR: You were too kind. Jill Stein is a tankie Fifth Columnist working for Putin to help Putin’s Puppet get reelected. You know how I know? Because everything Jill Stein claims to want for America has been put out of reach for generations because she helped Putin’s Puppet win the first time.
rikyrah
Donate to Downballot Democrats (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 5:05 AM on Wed, Sep 18, 2024:
the conversation that needs to be had about Turning Point USA and is recruitment of younger Millennials & elder Zoomers into the continuous, intergenerational white supremacist pipeline
if the kids do not go on to save us, this would be one reason why
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1836345915545690241?t=5j7zBqkGeSM7JZGh1DXmjA&s=03)
TBone
Ding dong 🔔, it’s me again with your reminder that John Boy is a piece of shit to be scraped off of our collective shoe:
https://angrybearblog.com/2024/09/roberts-well-played-act-as-centrist-on-the-court
Leto
Lawrence O’Donnell covered this on his show last night:
ProPublica: Afraid to Seek Care Amid Georgia’s Abortion Ban, She Stayed at Home and Died
Edit: Quinerly links the video at #189
tam1MI
Gerald Ford was consequential?
tom
@lowtechcyclist: or William Henry Harrison
ETA: crap, I confused with James Garfield. Anyway …
Bex
@satby: Good thoughts that everything falls into place.
BR
Apparently Harris is speaking at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s conference today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsEOJ5IJ5A4
Chris
@Falling Diphthong:
Meh. This isn’t something caused by or limited to being on the fringes of the spectrum. If nothing else, the centrist motto “both sides do it” is just as shallow, bumper-stickery, and functionally indistinguishable from Trumpism as anything that ever came from the fringes. Even if you don’t add the all-important corollary, “but liberals are worse.”
rikyrah
Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) posted at 9:15 PM on Tue, Sep 17, 2024:
RFK Jr: “I’m going to be deeply involved in helping to choose the people who run FDA, NIH, and CDC.”
This should scare you. Vote!
https://t.co/wX62aXUFOu
(https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1836227468945998142?t=GmDA40mM1phBs5DAnjT7VQ&s=03)
JML
@rikyrah: is this where we find out that the entire Flynn family is batshit crazy?
Belafon
@Frankensteinbeck: It was supposed to have been something that Harris would have to defend against. The fact that the local leaders and deWine pushed back caused it to turn into a Trump problem, which he wasn’t expecting.
Mike E
@tam1MI: he fancies himself a Bull Mooser like Teddy R, I suppose
Kelly
@TBone: I have a copy of JD souther’s first album. It’s with Glen Frey performing as Longbranch/Pennywhistle. Another fine one gone.
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@RevRick: For those not familiar with PA city populations.*
Source:
City/Twp. Rank 2024 Pop
Philadelphia #1 1,533,828
Pittsburgh #2 303,413
Allentown #3 124,597
Reading #4 94,878
Erie #5 92,371
Upper Darby township #6 84,894 (Philly suburb)
Bethlehem #7 79,167
Scranton #8 75,682
Lower Merion township #9 64,115 P (Philly Suburb)
Bensalem township #10 62,931 (Philly Suburb)
Abington township #11 58,394 (Philly Suburb)
Lancaster #12 56,887
Lower Paxton township #13 54,943 (Harrisburg Suburb)
Bristol township #14 53,774 (Philly Suburb)
Millcreek township #15 52,805 (Erie Suburb)
Haverford township #16 50,511 (Philly Suburb)
Harrisburg #17 49,984
Middletown township #18 45,577 (Harrisburg Suburb)
York #19 44,893
Manheim township #20 44,374 (Lancaster Suburb)
Wilkes-Barre #21 44,254
Altoona #22 42,418
Hempfield township #23 41,408 (Lancaster Suburb)
State College #24 40,779
Northampton township #25 39,951 (Philly/Allentown Suburb)
*Peopple always forget Reading exists, but it’s #4
BR
@JML:
They are. From what I remember, the Flynn brother who is general right now was involved on Jan 6th to prevent the national guard from being deployed in DC.
UncleEbeneezer
Yesterday I had to fill in for a tennis class of several teenage boys. They asked the other Coach, Stefan about the upcoming election and who he’d vote for etc. I didn’t hear him answer but I was silently petrified that they would ask me. I try not to bring up politics because I’m not confident that I’d blurt something out like calling Trump a racist piece of shit or a fucking Nazi. Anyways, even though they aren’t old enough to vote yet, some of them joked about voting for RFK. This scared me even more because if they asked me about RFK I would probably end up telling them that RFK is a fucking idiot and vaccines work. Both things that might get back to their parents and my boss. Thankfully I was able to just stay out of the conversation altogether because they don’t know me yet and vice versa. I know they’re just kids and all, but Jesus-freakin’-christ does it bother me to hear them, or ANYONE, joke around about voting for RFK or Trump.
kindness
@catclub: Trump has to use his own golf courses to wet his beak. That way the Secret Service is on the line for the golf cart rentals. Don’t for a second think Trump isn’t squeezing every penny out of our government’s largess.
Citizen Alan
@Chris: My recollection from living in a college town for over twenty years is that 90% of the boys wearing Che! t-shirts were doing it to attract hippie proto-feminist chicks who they thought would be freaky in the sheets. Meanwhile, they were working on their Business degrees so that they could go back after graduation and run dad’s used car dealership.
BR
New Harris ad is gut wrenching:
https://www.tiktok.com/@kamalahq/video/7416002981658742047
mrmoshpotato
@UncleEbeneezer: Hopefully they come to their political senses by the time they turn 18.
SatanicPanic
Silver is sounding more and more like Alan Lichtman. Watch for him to suddenly start adjusting in her favor right before the election if Harris seems likely to win.
gvg
@Frankensteinbeck: Are ya’ll being sarcastic? Pretending you haven’t already heard this? That’s already out there and being revealed in journalism articles online plus multiple rumors. I can be kind of clueless on humor sometimes. Sorry.
Falling Diphthong
@New Deal democrat:
Re polling, I want everyone to remember:
• Polls have become less reliable. Assume a single standard deviation of at least ±5, and do not get hung up on smaller shifts.
• Polls have reliably underestimated Dem turnout since ’20.
I would view them as useful for figuring out what might be in play–a race with a 4 point spread would be better served by your political donation than one with a 20 point spread. Though you only drop from 18 to 4 (Iowa) if people put in the work despite the polls.
Geminid
@Leto: Happy Birthday to the United States Air Force! It turned 77 today.
rikyrah
Ragnarok Lobster![]()
@eclecticbrotha
Caught a bit of WIND radio aka “560 The Answer” this morning. They were HOT about Kamala Harris’ NABJ appearance. Conservatives are praying for someone – ANYONE – to do an ambush gotcha interview to validate their manufactured belief Harris is an intellectual lightweight.
8:23 AM · Sep 18, 2024
https://x.com/eclecticbrotha/status/1836395633256575000
Belafon
@gvg: We’re wondering if Trump has. Just like someone should ask Trump if the people who recommended Vance might be encouraging people to make Trump a martyr.
BR
Thanks Joe Biden:
https://timculpan.substack.com/p/apple-mobile-processors-are-now-made
Layer8Problem
@Falling Diphthong: Agreed.
There are people right here on this almost top 10,000 blog that put great stock in polls. Whatever. If they’re starting to move in our favor or if they’re neck and neck, we have to fight just as hard either way.
Chris
@Falling Diphthong:
The fact that I never answer calls or text messages trying to poll me is definitely on my mind when I look at poll results.
BC in Illinois
@Geminid:
My father, all his life, referred to it as the Army Air Corps. They changed the name after he left.
Captain C
@Chris: One of my Facebook friends who I haven’t had cause to block quite yet has come out loudly in favor of Stein (or West, or RFK, because, you know, both [edit-major] parties are Exactly the Same except Democrats are Worse), but most of the former Usual Lefty Suspects are either silent or actually doing right this year. Said friend is fond of taking profile pictures with her fist in the air, in front of various revolutionary flags and slogans. She’s not white, but comes from a very affluent background.
Geoduck
@NotMax: The 25th Amendment was never intended to be a way to remove a bad president. It specifically was created to deal with a president becoming medically incapacitated.
BR
Polls are all over the place. The new Q poll has Harris leading by more in PA and MI than WI. Who knows what reality is.
Captain C
@rikyrah: Maybe Governor Possum Queen would arrange her whole reproductive life to be hateful, but for most women I know, that’s too big a decision to be made out of spite.
Heidi Mom
@satby: Probably too late to this thread, but sending good thoughts anyway! I know how an upcoming event that will be in any way challenging can loom very large on the horizon. If any of these problems, like finding a reliable catsitter, can be alleviated by an influx of cash, please let us know–we want to help, both for the good cause and for you!
Trollhattan
@Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!):
Did not realize Pittsburgh was so dinky. Was it larger during the steel boom?
My takeaway: PA comprises Philly and a lot of towns.
catclub
@Falling Diphthong: yeah, he did not fire shots.
so how do they charge him with an assassination attempt?
frosty
@BC in Illinois: My dad was in the Army Air Force, left before the USAF.
Changed from AAC to AAF in 1941.
BR
Harris is live at the Congressional Hispanic event in Houston:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsEOJ5IJ5A4
artem1s
You can’t discount the possibility that Thiel and Silver are spinning the betting odds as poll numbers. The gambling sites like polymarket are not doing voter polling. They are reporting on what gamblers are betting on. A lot of gamblers are likely betting the popular vote spread. They may be betting that Trump will be within a certain margin – if they bet for him within the right spread they still win money even if he loses. Or they are betting on the number of EC votes a certain candidate will get, not whether they will win or lose. A bet ‘for’ Trump isn’t necessarily a bet that he will win. Gambling odds don’t reflect actual performance as much as they reflect the payout if the better beats the spread.
For Silver and Nate and the bookies they win no matter what if they are also betting the spread in the right way. But they really win big if either candidate loses or wins just outside the posted spread. The more the gamblers think they can win against the spread, the more they will continue to bet. If it looks like a blowout, they will stop betting and the cash stops flowing. And then you have the gamblers that believe they can affect the outcome by betting more. Sunk cost fallacy has a huge influence on betting.
So this is another reason to ignore whatever Silver is spewing. He’s selling hope to addicts and betting he can rope them into sinking more money into a losing hand.
Bill Arnold
JD Vance on scapegoating.
The piece is mostly about JD Vances relationship (explicit) with the work of French literary theorist René Girard, its relationship with right wing discourse, and more recent (since 2020) justifications of its use by arguing that the broader society is amoral and that it is therefore OK to use scapegoating to improve social order.
JD Vance’s Scapegoating Theory Is Playing Out in Real Time – The Republican vice-presidential nominee has written about scapegoating before. Now he’s putting ideas into practice in Springfield, Ohio. (Ian Ward, 09/18/2024)
TBone
@Kelly: 😍😔
Quinerly
@Citizen Alan:
Now, now…my Che hat bought in Cuba in the 1990’s is one of my prized possessions. Black beret with the red star. I even dressed as Che’s sexy girlfriend one year for a Halloween street party.
My hat made the move with the rest of my many lives and is prominently displayed in a bookcase here.
catclub
@SatanicPanic: I think he is doing it to get attention and volatility at the polymarket betting site.
Attention and volatility mean money for the owners.
Manyakitty
@Leto: that brought a smile to my face and warmed my tiny, shriveled heart.
Falling Diphthong
@Chris: I used to have a vague “I should contribute as a civic duty so my concerns are reflected” and now it’s “No, I do not have a friggin’ 20 minutes to answer your poll. Particularly as I’m not even sure it’s a legit poll rather than a push poll.”
Put together cell phones with caller ID, people never picking up from strangers, people who do pick up (because it could be re a child or elderly parent) immediately hanging up when it isn’t about that: Polls are of people who have nothing more pressing or interesting to do at the moment than answer this poll.
Today most people have digital entertainment immediately available, that would provide them with something to do more rewarding than answering poll questions. And that isn’t likely to shift back unless Project 2025 manages to take away all the big screen TVs. (Literally, they have identified gaming and watching sports and such as things that people are doing in lieu of making babies.)
Geoduck
@Frankensteinbeck: Yeah, even after all these years, people just can’t accept that the Shaitgibbon really is that stupid. “X has to be a deliberate tactic!” No it doesn’t!
TBone
@BR: thanks!
Anoniminous
@Leto:
Nice to have some unalloyed Good News
Steve LaBonne
@Geoduck: “Everyone says he is crazy – which maybe he is – but the scarier thing about him is that he is stupid. You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.” – Fran Lebowitz
Falling Diphthong
Someone described polls as self-priming betting markets, and watching this current version of Nate Silver (who works for a site where you can bet on election outcomes) really brings that home. They need a constant flow of new polls to drive new bets.
You get more bets when it seems like a contest–any contest, it could be hermit crab races–feels close.
catclub
@artem1s: your explanation is better than mine.
TBone
Waggin’ my tail Wednesday 🎶 LOVE the VP’s baby blue suit
https://youtu.be/ZZQqteC-E6U?si=c_jcm-00MRQgf7Jl
Barbara
@Trollhattan: I can’t tell how he came up with the numbers, but the most recent Census data shows that Allegheny County, encompassing the city of Pittsburgh, has a population of 1.2 million. There are five or six additional counties that are considered to be part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area but they are much redder than Allegheny County/City of Pittsburgh.
Link
Philadelphia is its own county and has around 1.6 million people, but its metropolitan area also includes Bucks and some other counties. It is most definitely larger than Pittsburgh.
And yes, Pittsburgh lost a lot of population after 1980.
Falling Diphthong
@Geoduck: It’s why I allow a 50% chance that “she put out” at the debate really was unintentional–because nothing else about that debate performance reflected someone remembering the points he was supposed to make and communicate via subtleties of pauses and phrasing.
The other 50%, I can totally see him and Loomer practicing that one until he had the line reading. And everyone else tearing their hair out that this, THIS, was the only thing he managed to get off.
catclub
@Steve LaBonne:
However, closely followed by anyone who votes for him since he, ‘knows business’.
TBone
@Steve LaBonne: evergreen
Geminid
@catclub: Investigators are going through Routh’s computer, phone etc. for evidence of intent. But the guy hung out in that patch of woods from 2 am on, so personally I am satisfied that this was an assasination attempt. Prosecutors will need something more to charge him, but I don’t think they’ll need much.
frosty
@Trollhattan: If you include Allegheny County, PGH is much bigger. Philly is it’s own county.
BC in Illinois
@frosty:
Yeah, that would have been my father’s years as well. (Persian Gulf Command) But he never stopped calling it the Air Corps.
Quinerly
@BC in Illinois:
Same with my dad. Army Air Force. He got better with calling it the Air Force in later years. But I can remember him calling it Army Air Corps still in the 1970’s. He was born in 1922. Served in the Western Pacific Theater, WW2. Flew C46s, (The “Commando”) not to be confused with the C47s.
divF
@frosty: @Jess: @Steve in the ATL:
TBone
@Barbara: DelCo population is 576,830 as of 2020, borders Philly. It’s kinda “Lower Philadelphia.”
Manyakitty
@TBone: please stop defiling The Waltons by abusing the name of John Boy.
I keep looking for a reference to Richard Thomas.
steve g
Trump’s first and only win was a 30% chance according to the Nate Silver model at the time. That means at 40% Harris has a better chance this time than Trump had in 2016.
rikyrah
Acyn (@Acyn) posted at 5:15 PM on Tue, Sep 17, 2024:
Reporter: A woman who is behind a Facebook post about the Haitian migrants in Springfield has now apologized for spreading false rumors. You say you have a responsibility to share what your constituents tell you, don’t you have a responsibility to fact check them first?
JD Vance: I think the media has a responsibility to fact check the residents of Springfield.. not lie about them
https://t.co/YP8w0iKPNK
(https://x.com/Acyn/status/1836167081395655065?t=vru9XQ1SaLHf7L81R3l8iQ&s=03)
TBone
@Manyakitty: 😆 I was waiting for someone to say that.
Scout211
@Quinerly: @BC in Illinois:
My dad was in the Army Air Corps toward the end of WWII training to be a navigator. He never made it to combat duty as the war ended and his whole training class was sent home. Yep, Army Air Corps in his mind for life, as well.
Manyakitty
@TBone: ☹️
There’s got to be a better name for John the lesser.
catclub
@Quinerly: One of the LGM front pagers has a book on abolishing the Air Force. I liked the idea.
That or make it so the Army air corps is still around for better coordinating with the Army for close air support.
Barbara
@TBone: Philadelphia metropolitan area includes five counties in Pennsylvania (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia) and six additional counties in New Jersey and Delaware. It’s in the top 10 largest metro areas in the country but it’s not all in Pennsylvania.
Sister Golden Bear
@Quinerly: Pretty common to charge people with slam-dunk charges — in this case being a felon in a procession of a firearm, has a gun with the serial number erased — to ensure they’re held in custody while other charges are investigated. Haven’t heard of additional charges yet, but that doesn’t mean there will/won’t be more.
pabadger
@Mousebumples: I think it is a great idea. I might not do it live but would def read and respond the next day. It would fire me up!
Mike E
@Barbara: Greensboro NC has the same population as Pittsburgh, 303k… Durham is not far behind
pabadger
@Jeffg166: My hope as well but we may not know for a few days due to mail in ballots.
now in my dreams we win FL outright, then we can all go to sleep early. It get wasted fir a good reason.
Chris
@Captain C:
The bolded part is the one that I increasingly see in this subset of people that just wasn’t there before, and is one of the big reasons I just categorize them as “right wing.”
Maybe I was just hanging out with all the right people in the 2000s, but I just do not remember this level of “I only care if there’s a Democrat I can bitch about” crap for the antiwar crowd back then. Sure, people were pissed at Hillary Clinton and John Kerry for voting for the Iraq War and why wouldn’t they be (it almost certainly cost Clinton the primary), but they were never the primary target. There was a genuine rage at George W. Bush and his entire party back then that’s just been totally missing with Donald Trump.
Sometime shortly after 2008 they hit on “Obama is worse than Bush he sold us out” and they’ve basically been stuck in that mode ever since.
Barbara
@Mike E: If you lived in the Pittsburgh area you would know that the relevant jurisdiction to look at is Allegheny County, which includes 100% of the City of Pittsburgh. That population is 1.2 million, of which 300,000 is in the city.
ascap_scab
In light of the Hezbollah pager / walkie-talkie explosions, I’m looking for the great Obamaphone scare of 2024.
Captain C
@Chris:
This is how I remember it too
ETA: With regards to this:
I feel like there’s some heighten the contradictions-adjacent thought here, as Democrats are actually competent and have been good for incremental improvements for the last 20 years (and really more), whereas Republicans are likely to do more damage, which will of course lead to the Glorious Revolution afterwards and not either Russia-West (best case) or Somalia/Libya-West (close to worst case). Note how these folks, even if sincere (which I doubt in many cases) are fine with heightening the contradictions on someone else if it gets them what they think they want.
TBone
@Barbara: yes indeed! I’m from there, at my last job my boss represented the FOPs of all those surrounding counties except Philly. As well as some further afield.
(I was trying to back you up in the #s dept., that’s why I called it Lower Philly.)
Leto
@Geminid: yay! Seeing others talking about how their dads would call it the AAC brings to mind the fact I’ll never stop calling the Space Force the 14th AF. Again, the Coast Guard is eternally glad to finally be out of step-child status. :)
TBone
@Leto: semper paratus!
Mike E
@Barbara: yah here in Raleigh we’re pushing half a million with a metro area population of 1.6M…the Piedmont Triad (G’boro Winston-Salem and High Point) is over 1.7M
Ironcity
@rBill Arnold: Okay. I nominate TCFG and JDVance for scappegoats.
Barbara
@Mike E: At one point my job required me to do a lot of metropolitan level analysis. I have census data on the Internet equivalent of speed dial.
The Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area comprises Wake, Franklin, and Johnston Counties; the Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area comprises Durham, Orange, Chatham, Granville, and Person Counties; and the Henderson micropolitan area comprises Vance County.
Raleigh is around 1.5 million. Durham et al. includes around another 600,000.
Charlotte is still larger.
The entire Pittsburgh MSA has population of 2.4 million.
But once you start adding the “non-core” counties the political outlook tends to get diluted. This is true even in Northern Virginia, where you can count on the lower population areas of Arlington and Alexandria to report 75-80% Democratic voting, but Fairfax, vastly larger, usually doesn’t top 55-60% Democratic.
Mike E
@Barbara: yes the demographics are constantly shifting these days…I hope NC’s trend in becoming North Fla. gets dealt a big setback by the recent influx of voters moving from all parts of the map, and a national blue wave washes out some of our redder districts
Quinerly
@Sister Golden Bear:
Yep. My point is a lot of people keep saying a shot was fired…or shooting at the ex president. Even Dem Former Rep Tim Ryan (who didn’t do his oppo research on Vance) left the impression the other night that a shot was fired.
Quinerly
@Barbara:
Ah….Johnston County….very, very Red. Whereas, Franklin County less Red and Wake very Blue.
Manyakitty
@Quinerly: as you pointed out in your comment, Ryan is lazy. He’d have been light years better than Peter Thiel’s special boy, but otherwise, meh on his best day.
Msb
@Frankensteinbeck: among other things, his father was an alcoholic, no? So interesting that neither Biden nor trump drinks alcohol because of alcoholism in their families.
Geminid
@Shalimar: Jeremiah Denton’s grandson ran for Congress as a Democrat this year, in the Virginia 2nd CD. “Jake” Denton lost in the primary to Missy Smazol. Smazol faces freshman Rep. Jen Kiggans in an R+2 district. Both women are retired Navy officers, as was Kiggans’ predecessor Elaine Luria.
different-church-lady
@BR: Savvier-than-thous gotta Savvier-than-thou.
different-church-lady
@West of the Cascades: Fuck it, let’s get this over 100% probability.
different-church-lady
@Other MJS: Just makes Bernie a traitor to the cause. /s
different-church-lady
@New Deal democrat: Slow and steady is what we want. It might fry our nerves, but as long as the trend line keeps going up it’s a good thing.
different-church-lady
@Quinerly:
The Ghost of Gerald Ford smiles with satisfaction.
different-church-lady
@geg6: Jerry didn’t even win his first term.
Quinerly
@Geminid:
I am really surprised no one caught my reference. Ben Domenech is married to Megan McCain.
Quinerly
@Manyakitty:
I was pissed Ryan was given airtime the other night. He took a jab at the DNC…said Dems didn’t put enough money in his race. That’s why he lost to Vance.
Gravenstone
@lowtechcyclist: I was going to make the same joke on Reddit. Until I reflected that Ford’s pardon of Nixon has been incredibly consequential in the decades following. It basically gave Republicans the green light for every bit of their rat fuckery that has followed.
Manyakitty
@Quinerly: yeah, he’s not great. No idea what he’s even doing now, other than acting like a crank on teevee.
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Barbara: @Barbara
Late to come back, but havinmg grown up in the Pittsburgh suburbs before moving to the Reading/Lancaster area. The outer parts of the Pittsburgh metro area switch to magaland fairly rapidly. The liberal core of the philly suburbs are much bigger and extend out farther, but tthey too turn to Pensyltucky at far reaches of the metro area. Some areas like Reading in Berks County and Lancaster City may be more Democratic, but the republican surrounding sunurbs/rural part of each county make each county repub on balance. Although the Philly suburbs have expanded into the eastern part of Berks so I have hope.
satby
@frosty: ok, went and got stuff handled, just mostly needed to vent. I’ve gotten previous contributions for gas and the airline pet fee and my cat sitter will be available. And eclare pointed out I can bring Buddy so he gets his meds on schedule. It’s all good. Thanks so much 🥲
Manyakitty
@satby: 💗
satby
@scribbler: nope, very kind folks have covered much of the costs. It was the time and maybe no cat sitter that made me freak. It’s all good now.
satby
@narya: @TBone: thanks!
@Soprano2: and you were right! Whew!
@Bex: Gracias!
satby
@Heidi Mom: I’m back even later, stuff is sorted and the good wishes from everyone made the day that much better. Thanks!!
Bill Arnold
@Ironcity:
The Son of Satan, and his disciple.
Works for me! Very much in the spirit of Girard”s work; just swap out Son of God with Son of Satan.
Fake Irishman
@Barbara:
Pittsburgh’s population is in line with other similar rust belt cities that have lost population since the 1970s and have large suburban circles around them: Cleveland and St Louis are slightly bigger but both under 400,000. Detroit lost more than 60 percent of its peak population of 1.8 million.
allegheny county where Pittsburgh is located has a population of slightly more the 1 million.
rikyrah
@BR:
this was smart and sweet.
Betty
@frosty: Of your list, I would expect decent results for Harris Walz everywhere except York and Chambersburg. Not necessarily winning but getting some solid support. Hoping Janelle Stelson can take out Scott Perry too.
rikyrah
@hrprogressive:
Bought.And.Paid.For.
rikyrah
@Mousebumples:
I will not postcard, anymore than I garden.
But, I lurk in every garden thread.
And, I know I would lurk in postcard threads…
Geminid
@Quinerly: I caught it, just wanted to put Missy Smazol’s name out there. And it did interest me that Jake Denton was a Democrat.
I was a little disappointed that Elaine Luria didn’t go for a rematch with Ken Kiggans. But Luria had stayed busy ever since she entered the Naval Academy at age 17. She jumped into the 2018 2nd CD race right after she left the Navy, so I’m glad she can finally kick back. Luria has a couple kids in public schools, and they’re probably happy to have her around all week.
Elaine Luria and her husband developed one of the neatest small businesses I ever heard of. They set up a shop in called the The Mermaid Factory Norfolk’s artsy Ghent neighborhood. Patrons could buy clay mermaids and decorate them with paint, shells, glitter etc. provided along with tables to work at.
Then they set up another Mermaid Factory in Virginia Beach. That’s a great location because a lot families spend a week at the beach, and after a few days they look like lobsters and need indoor activities. Luria and husband eventually sold their thriving business.
The idea came about when Luria’s stepdaughter was visiting from Nashville. Norfolk has a lot of mermaid statues including a big one at the Mariner’s Museum, but the stepdaughter could not find a mermaid souvenir to take back to Nashville. So someone got a block of clay and they carved one for her at the kitchen table.
Elaine Luria’s husband had retired by then and he started making more mermaids. Then they came up with the idea for the Mermaid Factory and took it to an Old Domimion University marketing professor for evaluation. The professor told them she wasn’t sure if there’d be enough of a market…but she wanted seven!
🧜♀️ 🧜 🧜♀️ 🧜 🧜♀️ 🧜 🧜♀️
prostratedragon
@Manyakitty: Sonny John.
rikyrah
@satby:
good thoughts being sent.
frosty
@Betty: It’s sad, but York County only has to get to 35% to win the Commonwealth. We’ve done it before, we’ll do it again.
Soprano2
@satby: I’m glad it all worked out.
Kayla Rudbek
@Geminid: I might buy some mermaid stuff if she sets up a store in Ocean City (it would make a nice change from all of the t-shirt shops – I swear that at least some of those must be doing money laundering because there’s too many of them to all be doing honest business)
Geminid
@Kayla Rudbek: The Mermaid Factory has new owners. Maybe they’ll expand up the coast. It seems like a good prospect for franchising.
You are right about the all the souvenir wear that beachgoers buy. A customized mermaid would have more value.
TBone
Twitler got X going again in Brazil contrary to the judge’s Order.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/18/elon-musks-x-brazil-block?CMP=edit_2221#Echobox=1726694483
Matt McIrvin
@gvg: I’ve certainly heard that rumor going around–it’s just that it’s a rumor that doesn’t actually makes sense, if you look up what the 25th Amendment says.
It’s kind of like the rumor that Trump could win even if he’s behind by just getting enough electoral votes decertified that “nobody gets to 270,” throwing it to the House in a contingent election that the Republicans would win by dominating more states. The articles about this always concentrate on the horrifying “voting by states” aspect that would guarantee a Trump win, and not the fact that the “nobody gets to 270” part of the scenario is wrong (if votes get decertified, the threshold for a majority goes down).
m.j.
I will never forget or forgive NPR or Morning Edition for the political, “analysts,” Ben Domenech and Jonah Golberg during Hillary Clinton’s presidential attempt. They were sitting alongside Steve Inskeep who clearly doesn’t know his head from his ass, but that might be understandable when there are so many asses in the studio. Good God, Jonah Goldberg was the voice of reason in this setup. This is a guy who wrote a book called, “Liberal Fascism.”
I won’t forget.
pabadger
@Chris: My experience at UW-Madison in the late 90s was that there was a lot of they are both the same but the Dems are worse energy. The New Party had some local elected and I always got the impression they wanted more than anything else to destroy the Democratic Party, which I was told lost its way after McGovern and betrayed itself in the 90s.
Brian
@BC in Illinois
Chris T.
@NotMax:
Yep. Junior Varsity Vance is more likely to slip poison into Dumbo’s Diet Coke.