Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

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

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

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

The words do not have to be perfect.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

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

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Kamala Harris Will Leave *Nothing* On the Table

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Kamala Harris Will Leave *Nothing* On the Table

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jake tapper is critiquing Kamala for doing too many interviews instead of events
i'm getting the feeling the legacy media just doesn't like it when Kamala does something

— Sharon Kuruvilla (@sharonk.bsky.social) October 10, 2024 at 5:40 PM

The sane conservative argument:

Reader Interactions

188Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    If you’ve never seen it, no time like the present. Z airs on TCM tonight at 11 p.m. Eastern time.

  3. 3.

    New Deal democrat

    Reading the tea leaves, Trump’s *behavior* continues to be most consistent with a take that he thinks he is losing.

    In particular, his scheduling of a campaign rally in Madison Square Garden – in deep blue NYC – seems more like a swan song than an attempt to win the election. It‘s not about competing with Kamala Harris; it’s more about competing with Elton John and Billy Joel, and more importantly Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift, both of whom have endorsed Harris. It says, “See, I can fill Madison Square Garden with adoring fans just like you can!”

    Also, yesterday Trump Xitted an internal poll showing he is up by an identical 1 point margin in PA, MI, WI, and NC. Presumably this was his best poll; if there were others, he would have been publicizing them as well. In other words, “is this the best you can do???”

    But perhaps more importantly, if he really is up by only 1% in NC, does anyone really believe that PA, and even moreso MI and WI are the same? In other words, his own polling actually suggests that he is losing in those three States.

    As an aside, it appears that the slew of garbage RW poll reporting, attempting to show a late “red wave” a la 2022, has begun. Don’t be discouraged

    E.T.A.: Expect Trump to focus on his most popular issue, immigration, from now till Election Day. And he is excellent at getting the daily narrative focused on him. But the TV ads I’ve started to see are over the top. For that reason I’m not sure they are effective at all.

  4. 4.

    unrelatedwaffle

    I can’t imagine why Harris isn’t breaking down the door at the NYT to give them an interview!

  5. 5.

    Scout211

    The Democratic governorsof the states making up what is known as the Blue Wall launched a bus tour on Friday aimed at ginning up support for Vice President Harris in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

    The Driving Forward blue wall bus tour is set to kick off in partnership with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and her Fight Like Hell PAC, along with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D).

    . . .

    “There’s only one ticket in this race with an economic plan that puts middle class families first: Vice President Harris and Governor Tim Walz,” Whitmer said in a statement. “And I’m hitting the road with my friends Tony Evers, Josh Shapiro, and others to make sure every midwestern voter hears it.”

    The tour will start on Monday in Wisconsin and feature vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.). The tour will continue through Michigan and feature Whitmer and Shapiro before concluding in Pennsylvania.

    That’s a terrific trio and really great surrogates.

  7. 7.

    Scout211

    For the first time , the Democratic National Committee will invest in an advertising campaign dedicated entirely to LGBTQ publications in large metropolitan areas and several key battleground states.

    The DNC will roll out the ad campaign, worth at least $100,000, on Friday morning in 16 publications across eight states, and it is estimated to reach more than 1 million voters in the first week. Those publications include the Washington Blade and Metro Weekly in the Washington, D.C., area; Out South Florida; Qnotes in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Las Vegas Spectrum; Georgia Voice; GoGuide Voter’s Guide in Iowa; Dallas Voice; Philadelphia Gay News; Ambush Magazine in New Orleans; ION Arizona; and SWERV Magazine, a national Black LGBTQ periodical.

    The campaign will be featured in the Georgia Voice during Atlanta’s Pride weekend and in Philadelphia Gay News during OurFest, a festival to celebrate National Coming Out Day in Pennsylvania.
    . . .
    The ads feature the message “Freedom is on the Ballot. Make a Plan to Vote,” and they urge voters to visit Iwillvote.com, a DNC-run platform that helps eligible voters register and check their registration status, check the status of cast ballots and learn more about voting. The ads use a simple red, white and blue  scheme, and some feature the progress Pride flag, which also includes the transgender flag colors and colors to represent LGBTQ communities of color.

    The DNC worked on the ads with Rivendell, the oldest LGBTQ marketing and media company in the country.

    The ads will roll out just a day after the Harris-Walz campaign and the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, launched 10 Days of Action, a series of events aimed at mobilizing LGBTQ and allied voters.

  10. 10.

    lowtechcyclist

    @NotMax: ​
     

    If you’ve never seen it, no time like the present. Z airs on TCM tonight at 11 p.m. Eastern time.

    By that time of night, I’ve already strung an hour’s worth of Z’s together.

    Yeah, I’m old. I don’t even stay up to midnight on NYE anymore.

  13. 13.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @New Deal democrat:

    But the TV ads I’ve started to see are over the top. For that reason I’m not sure they are effective at all.

    Are they into Demon Sheep territory yet?

  14. 14.

    Tinare

    I heard something – GMA, maybe — this morning about an interview with Tim Waltz and being asked explain misstatements about his past and why should voters believe anything he says. I nearly blew a gasket. The media is sick if they are wasting time on that when the opposition can’t not lie.  This is why I don’t normally watch network TV and all I do is stream.

  16. 16.

    MazeDancer

    This weekend and next are the last two PostCard Weekends.

    Every one of these candidates, on the PostCardPatriots.com website, is fighting hard.

    So look over the list and choose a few.

    PostCards increase GOTV results. Writing them is a great way to “Do Something” impactful while just sitting on your sofa.

    PostCardPatriots.com or click on my nym.

  20. 20.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Tapper’s not the only one criticizing Harris along those lines:

    Is there anything Harris is not doing? She’s not campaigning. She is not holding many rallies and not doing many interviews. She is playing it safe and hoping the air war does the job. That works when you are 10 points ahead with a month to go. Many Democrats think that running Hillary Clinton’s 2016 playbook is not a good idea when the race is tied everywhere. They want her to be out on the trail doing rallies, town halls, and interviews day and night in all seven swing states. Trump is everywhere and she is not. On Sept. 28, Trump gave a speech in Wisconsin and then went to the Georgia-Alabama football game. Harris went to a fundraiser in San Francisco. At this point, she needs to be getting more votes, not more dollars.

    David Axelrod said: “There’s a time at which you just have to barnstorm these battlegrounds. These races are decathlons, and there are a lot of events, and you have to do all of them because people want to test you.” He doesn’t think she is doing enough. If you are the underdog, you can’t just pretend you are the overdog and sit on your lead.

    Harris is getting plenty of advice. One Democratic operative said: “Do not go to Georgia one more time. You gotta get to Michigan. You need to live in Pennsylvania [because] the challenge is still Black voters in Philadelphia, Black voters in Detroit.”

    Harris does interact with the media, but not in a substantive way. She gives off-the-record briefings to reporters on her campaign plane during flights. She needs to do live interviews with local media in swing states, and she hasn’t been doing that. That said, in the coming week, Harris is going to do a national media blitz. She will be on Howard Stern’s radio show, Stephen Colbert’s TV show, and The View. A taped interview with her will air on 60 Minutes today. Yesterday she was on the popular Call Her Daddy podcast. So she has apparently taken to heart all the criticism that she is avoiding the media.

    Some Democratic strategists say that doing retail politics is worthless, and stopping at a couple of diners every day is pointless. The people she needs won’t be there. The only way to reach them is by massive advertising, which she is doing. And this week, the media blitz.

    https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2024/Items/Oct07-1.html

    The above basically offered fwiw.

    I read that after having been out of the country and deliberately not following *any* US news for almost 3 weeks.  Imagine my disappointment when I get back, go to electoral vote dot com and see that the race has tightened and then read stuff like the above.

    Of course, it’s impossible to really gauge the astuteness of anybody commenting on “What Is Harris Doing Wrong/Right?” at this stage of the game.

    Boy it was nice not tracking this for 3 weeks.

  21. 21.

    lowtechcyclist

    @NotMax: ​
     

    Record it for later consumption?

    First I’d have to have cable. :D

    I can probably borrow the DVD from the library, though. [Just checked, they’ve got it and it’s currently available. I love our library system. :-) ]

  23. 23.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @New Deal democrat:

    E.T.A.: Expect Trump to focus on his most popular issue, immigration, from now till Election Day.

    It’s really the only thing he has to run on, ie., one massive racist dog whistle about ALL THOSE SCARY BROWN PEOPLE COMING TO TAKE UR JOBZZZZ AND GET FREE GUBMINT BENFITZ!!!!!!!

    Or to put it in an historical context, just another variation of the Southern Strategy.

  25. 25.

    Steve LaBonne

    Harris is not Obama class but who is? By any reasonable standard she is a very strong candidate running an excellent campaign. If she can’t win this it’s hard to imagine who could.

  27. 27.

    Steve LaBonne

    The mediots really give the game away by trying to drive a wedge between her and Biden. We see you, assholes.

  28. 28.

    frosty

    @TBone: I like the suggestions for a new state motto:
    “Pennsylvania: America’s Battleground.”
    “Pennsylvania: We’re Thinking About It.”
    “Pennsylvania: We’ll Get Back to You.”
    “Pennsylvania: What’s It to You?”
    And the kicker: “Do you want to wind up ignored like New Jersey?”

  32. 32.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @TBone:

    Today’s electoral vote dot com pieces are decidedly less doomy and more descriptive of what’s going on.  I like the piece on colleges and how national Dems always seem to focus on “name” schools forgetting that the great majority of us didn’t go to Yale, Harvard, etc.  A great quote from Walz:

    When Walz was in Erie, PA, he said: “You go off to Yale, you get a philosophy major, write a best-selling book, trash the very people you grew up with, just don’t come back to Erie and tell us how to run our lives.” What he is trying to do is attract voters who have a bachelors degree, but from a far-from-famous university. They haven’t all switched to the Democrats yet, but Walz thinks they could.

    Then there’s the piece about just how much friggin’ money the Harris campaign has hoovered up.  Infuckingcredible.  Let’s hope that translates into a landslide.

    And finally how Hair Furor is gonna do a rally here in Colorado, then California, Illinois and New York.  That’s brilliant campaign strategery going on there.  //

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    @frosty

    Bon mot from way back.

    “Philadelphia only seems boring because it’s directly across the river from exciting Camden, New jersey.”
    :)

  39. 39.

    TBone

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: 👍 my response was solely directed to

    Imagine my disappointment when I get back, go to electoral vote dot com and see that the race has tightened…

    (PA says “stuff that” to put it in the most polite terms my mind is NOT thinking regarding polling).

  44. 44.

    Mousebumples

    Postcards to Swing States for Wisconsin update –

    300* messages written
    200 addressed
    0 stamped

    * – I had 2 “extras” in the last night’s 100 count pack. We’ll see if I have 2 extra postcards that need an address or if they got shuffled from the 3rd 100 count set.

    2016 PTSD is a big part of why I’m still doing the work..

    Also – confirmed our absentee ballots have been marked received!

  45. 45.

    Aziz, light!

    Trump is holding big events in New York, Illinois, and California not to flip those states (yeah, nah) but to use their big populations to get big crowd sizes. That’s all he cares about. Also he knows the media will play along.

  46. 46.

    Sharon Hurley

    Hi David

    I ended up in the wrong thread. Please move me over!
    I’m struggling over here in Medicate land. Can you do another blog on Medicare?  Aetna just raised its D deductible from about 250 to 550. Where do they think retired people are going to get any extra 300?  This affects people who are sick and need certain drugs.

    Don’t even get me started b about my 2000 a month drug  – luckily I got in a program. However I can’t pick up extra work due to income restrictions

    Sharon

  49. 49.

    Soprano2

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: One thing they don’t seem to address (I didn’t read the whole article) is that Harris has a lot of powerful surrogates campaigning for her. She’s got her husband, Tim Walz and his wife, Obama and other Democrats out there. Who has TCFG got except himself? I think she’s doing plenty of rallies and interviews. People get a lot of stuff from the internet after the fact, so for example clips from that town hall she did yesterday will be viewed by a lot more people than those who were able to attend. I wonder what those authors think about TCFG mostly avoiding the swing states for the next couple of weeks?

  52. 52.

    BC in Illinois

    Steven Beschloss on Threads:

    Donald Trump is running against a world that doesn’t exist:

    • rising crime rates,
    • cratering stock market,
    • high unemployment & inflation,
    • millions of undocumented immigrants who are stealing jobs and voting,
    • an unintelligent, untalented rival.

    Is it any wonder this pathological liar is lying and lying?

    He left out immigrants eating pets.

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    @Sharon Hurley:

    Hi Sharon, I think maybe you intended to comment in David Anderson’s post one thread over?

    I doubt that David will see your comment here, so I copied your comment over there.

    Good luck!

    edit: I think you must have added the “please move me over” after I had already done that. win-win.

  54. 54.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Soprano2: There’s grading on a curve, and then there’s giving the highest grades to the students with the worst scores on the exam.

  55. 55.

    geg6

    @…now I try to be amused:

    I don’t know what channel my John was watching, but there was a commercial aimed at PA voters that was anti-Harris starring Brett Favre.  I was scratching my head trying to figure out exactly who in PA gives a shit about anything Brett Favre had to say.  Not only that but the production values were sub what my 2 yo great nephew would produce.  It was absurd.

  58. 58.

    Almost Retired

    @Aziz, light!:   At least the Madison Square Garden rally is in an urban area (as were the Nuremburg rallies).  His appearance at Coachella tomorrow is middle-of-nowhere adjacent.  And very hot.  Fewer glow sticks and trip hop like the original Coachella festival; more hateful elderly  conservatives passing out in the heat.

  59. 59.

    JML

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: This was one of the dumbest bits of “analysis” I’ve ever seen. the idea that Harris “isn’t campaigning” is literally Bee Ess of the highest order. I will also guarantee that every “democratic strategist” that’s offering up a criticism here is one that isn’t getting any of that sweet, sweet DNC consulting money, so they’re sniping from the sidelines.

    Which is of course what Axelrod is doing: he’s a professional “if you’re not paying me/following my instructions, you’re doing it wrong” guy now and he can get fucked forever. He’s Carville, part II: one big win and now he’s just a media whore dining out on his boss’s win for the rest of his miserable life.

    yes, you have to keep going to PA, but who actually thinks that Harris is ignoring it? Liars, fools, and grifters mad that they’re not getting paid off. The same clowns who will be ranting and raving if we lose Georgia by a point that if they’d only been in charge we would have won it. (even if they were feeding the political media lines about “don’t go back to Georgia” for weeks leading up to the election.

    We are indeed in the silly season.

  64. 64.

    geg6

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    I read that when it ran and laughed.  That same day KDKA TV in Pittsburgh ran an interview their political reporter did with her that was long and substantive enough that they ran it in pieces across their afternoon, evening and 11 pm newscasts, along with unaired pieces on their website.  They lie just as much as Cheetolini.

  65. 65.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Steve LaBonne: Altering the facts to fit their views, it appears to me. Which brings to mind the famous quote from Doctor Who:

    “The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views … which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.”

    I could go on a tangent about a multiplayer video game I was once involved in, where one group arranged sparring matches with another, but if it looked like the second group was in danger of winning, the first group would bring in overwhelming force to win the sparring match. Sort of like: “let’s have a kendo match, but if it looks like you’re winning, I’m going to pull out a gun and shoot you.”

  66. 66.

    Trivia Man

    My theory: Don Old considers the raw total vote number as most important of all. If he can shout that his count increased from 2016 to 2020 AND ALSO INCREASED 2020 to 2024 that is all the proof he needs he is the rightful winner. And he will be justified in calling on his flying monkeys start the civil war  with literal blood in the streets.

  69. 69.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @JML:

    Axelrod as Carville v2.0 is spot on.

    Places like GA will come down to GOTV, particularly as it pertains to getting around all the new versions of voter suppression that go on.  Clowns like Axelrod never tend to mention that.

    For almost 3 weeks in Italy, when people would figure out we were Americans, To. A. Person (these are Italians) would say “please don’t elect Trump again”.

  73. 73.

    SFAW

    @Ken:

    She needs to wait until after January 20, so it qualifies as “presidenting stuff” making her immune from any prosecution or questioning.

    I think you need to read the ISCOTUS decision more closely; you apparently missed the footnote stating “Offer not valid for Demoncrap ‘presidents.’ “

  74. 74.

    JML

    @geg6: bet ol’ Favre might still be facing some criminal liability and wants one of those sweet sweet pardons that TFG will be selling if he gets back in. he’s a terrible person: a lying, cheating, harrassing, thieving scumbag…but he sure threw the football good down south, so to some assholes nothing else matters.

    I hope a federal prosecutor fries him. bet there’s some delightful tax evasion he could get strung up for!

  76. 76.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Another Scott:

    That photo of Harris and Cheney is powerful on a lot of levels.  Just seeing two women in that setting, each with their own backgrounds, being at the center of US politics, is a great thing.

    It reminds me a tiny bit of when Finland’s previous coalition was led by women.  The photos of them as a group were equally powerful.

  77. 77.

    Nelle

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: vetter than a monastery, if t ou can, go out and talk an a listen to people.  Last night’s walk ended up with some requests for Harris Walz signs..from disgusted Republicans.  I’ll keep talking to them..hope to get them to be former Republicans.

  79. 79.

    wjca

    @unrelatedwaffle: I can’t imagine why Harris isn’t breaking down the door at the NYT to give them an interview!

    Why would the NYT political reporters take valuable time away from the important work of trashing her?  Well, maybe some junior staffer could be made available to talk to her.  Might be good training for him on asking gotcha questions.  (Do the still have “cubs” these days?)

  80. 80.

    New Deal democrat

    @…now I try to be amused:

    Are they into Demon Sheep territory yet?

    “Ugly darker skinned stone cold tatted up Central American gang members will be set loose by Kamala Harris in your suburb to rape your daughters, and maybe you too.”

    And no, I’m not exaggerating.

  81. 81.

    Trivia Man

    @BC in Illinois: “unintelligent And untalented rival”

    That is what i hear on every wingnut radio show. “Word salad” has replaced “lawfare” as the new buzzword. Every caller mentions “she’s just dumb” or “dumbest ticket in history”. Its the new “cadillac driving, fur coat wearing welfare queen” or “young bucks buying T bone steak with food stamps” trope.

    They got nothin’

  82. 82.

    SatanicPanic

    Digby was suggesting today in Salon that Trump isn’t in Coachella because of the crowds, but because he’s trying to get Republicans re-elected in that district so that Republicans keep the House. And if they keep the House they can reject certification. This seems plausible. The 41st district is a swing seat currently represented by a Republican who won 52-48.

  83. 83.

    Eolirin

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Uh. Harris is doing more events and interviews than Trump though, so what the actual fuck?

    Cherry picking specific dates is a dumb ass way to look at how much activity is going on

    I really don’t think we can long survive as a country, at least not when one of our two political parties are actively trying to kill us, when the people whose job it is to inform the electorate are this bad at basic reasoning skills.

  84. 84.

    wjca

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Let’s just fucking do this. No armchair quarterbacking for a few weeks, pls.

    Just think about how much easier it will be after you know the results.  Even the winner can be critiqued on how a little different approach could have made a difference in some state or another.

  85. 85.

    BretH

    I for one am just dying to read all the upcoming juicy books and watch the salicious interviews where people who worked with TFG spill the beans about all the absolute loonycrackers things he said and did in staff meetings, etc.

    Not until a few months after the election, of course.

  86. 86.

    Eolirin

    @SatanicPanic: God, yeah, that’s a real threat, though as long as there’s still some Republicans willing to vote with Democrats to not overturn the election, and there were in 2020, they’d need a very large majority to pull it off, and I don’t think they’re going to get that, even in the worst case.

  87. 87.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Scout211:

    aimed at ginning up support
     

    “ginning up” ???

    They just cannot bring themselves to do ANY straight-up reporting any more.

  88. 88.

    JML

    We always have to keep reminding ourselves that TFG made political reporter’s jobs very very easy. they always had something simple to write about, they had staff leaking all over the place, they never had to research issues or try to write about things they didn’t understand, and it gave them plenty of opportunities to go on other media outlets to promote their own careers and brands. The Biden team has been buttoned up and professional, and there’s every reason to believe the Harris team functions the exact same way. The last thing these assholes in the political media want to have to do is WORK for a living.

  89. 89.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    For almost 3 weeks in Italy, when people would figure out we were Americans, To. A. Person (these are Italians) would say “please don’t elect Trump again”.

    Don’t they have their own home grown far right demagogue Meloni to worry about?

  91. 91.

    Percysowner

     

    Turnout for first day of early voting surpasses 2016 numbers, [Franklin County, Ohio] Board of Election says I know turnout is really important for us to win. Now, this is Ohio, so I don’t think Harris has a chance, but hopefully this type of turnout will continue and keep Brown in the Senate. Also, passing Amendment 1 against gerrymandering would be nice, although the Republicans have done everything they can to make sure that doesn’t happen i.e. having the ballot summary say that Amendment 1 will force gerrymandering in stead of stopping it.

  92. 92.

    SatanicPanic

    @Eolirin: Yeah hopefully we win the House, but barring that Republicans aren’t able to bully the House into refusing to certify. I think there are plenty of Republicans who would rather watch Trump hauled off to prison than have to live under another one of his presidencies, but we’ll see.

  93. 93.

    H.E.Wolf

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: ​Today’s electoral vote dot com pieces are decidedly less doomy and more descriptive of what’s going on.

     Electoral vote dot com is almost always more doomy on Mondays and Thursdays, because co-blogger V is a more pessimistic person – or is more focused on doomy news items – than co-blogger Z.

    V writes the Monday and Thursday entries. Z writes Tues/Wed/Fri. I prefer the Z days. :)

  95. 95.

    ETtheLibrarian

    Seen that Al Cardenas is voting Harris (by absentee no less). He was with CPAC and was a Florida delegate to the RNC for decades. But I guess he is a RINO…..

  97. 97.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    Yes but, they will tell you that Italy electing a clown or far-right demagogue (or one who combines both ingredients) is different because, again as they will tell you, Italy is Italy while the USA is…powerful.

    We were in Venice the morning after the 2016 election.  We spent the day on a classic Venetian Bacari Crawl for obvious reasons and every place we went, it was the same thing “We can elect a Berlosconi because we don’t have nuclear weapons” or variations of that.

  98. 98.

    SatanicPanic

    @Steve LaBonne: That doesn’t seem like a very high bar. 87 House members and 20 senators.

    I’m not trying to be a doomer, just suggesting that Digby seems to have a plausible case.

  99. 99.

    Percysowner

     

    @Steve LaBonne: I voted Wednesday, early around 9:30. It wasn’t hugely busy, no big lines, but there were people there at a lot of booths. I was going to take my ex, but he’s sick. Once he’s better I’ll get him over to vote as well.

  100. 100.

    ArchTeryx

    Late to the party, but I do notice that while any positive Kamala Harris post on Xhitter is swarmed with blue-check fascist trololols, more and more people on Xhitter are also coming to her defense, making it seem more like a battle than just a typical pile-on. It’s an interesting observation that even there, the fascist trolls, Russian bots, and so on are not going unchallenged any more. That’s how you win elections – you fight them everywhere.

  103. 103.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Eolirin: ​I really don’t think we can long survive as a country, at least not when one of our two political parties are actively trying to kill us, when the people whose job it is to inform the electorate are this bad at basic reasoning skills.

     This is why we all join in on the work to achieve a Democratic victory this November. No need to leave it up to faceless strangers in a niche profession.

  106. 106.

    ArchTeryx

    @SatanicPanic: 87 house members may be a lift. It’s mostly the MAGAts that are all hot to trot to refuse certification, and their caucus isn’t that big even now, let alone if we take the house.

    Sadly, 20 MAGAt Senators is a far, far easier lift. But it alone is not sufficient.

  107. 107.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Almost Retired:

    more hateful elderly conservatives passing out in the heat.

    Hey, it’s a start. And I appreciate them making the ultimate sacrifice prior to the start of early voting.

  109. 109.

    tam1MI

    @New Deal democrat: But the TV ads I’ve started to see are over the top. For that reason I’m not sure they are effective at all.

    When I was watching Hurricane Milton live streaming coverage earlier this week, every commercial break they had a hysterical screechy ad about how Harris and Walz were OMG DUH EVIL. (The tag line was YOU CAN’T LET THEM WIN!!!!). But directly after each and every one of those ads was a Harris ad, the one with the recording of Trump saying, “You’re rich as hell” to a bunch of oligarchs he was sucking up to. The message I took from that was that Harris was not letting any attack on her go unanswered or unchallenged.

  110. 110.

    SomeRandomGuy

    In terms of vibes, the most consistent truth of modern American politics is that whoever is the most unreasonably overconfident will underperform on election day Irrational, nonstop Democratic anxiety caused by electoral PTSD is why they’ve won so consistently since 2016

    I’m glad there’s someone to tell me that the most UNREASONABLY, OVERconfident will “underperform” – their unreasonable overconfidence, I imagine – on election day. I never would have thought unreasonable, overconfident expectations led to disappointment. Who knew?

  111. 111.

    wjca

    @SatanicPanic: That doesn’t seem like a very high bar. 87 House members and 20 senators.

    It’s a heck of a lot higher that one.  Which would allow a Matt Gaetz or MTG, or Tuberville or Cruz (unless he loses**) to gum up the works unassisted.

    ** Got a text, here in California, from Cruz yesterday.  Pleading for money because, he says, he’s in danger of losing.  Which, he says, would imperil a Republican majority in the Senate.  Here’s hoping the danger is very, very real.

  112. 112.

    Baud

    @wjca:

    Pleading for money because, he says, he’s in danger of losing.

    The polls are tight, but as I’ve said with scary Harris emails, email marketers believe, likely based on data, that scary emails are effective in raising money.

  113. 113.

    catclub

    @geg6: anti-Harris starring Brett Favre. I was scratching my head trying to figure out exactly who in PA gives a shit about anything Brett Favre had to say.

     

    The same people in PA that fly Confederate flags would know that Favre is classic white southern ==GOP,  athlete.

  114. 114.

    catclub

    @Baud: Yeah, the ones that say “everything is fine, but send money just in case we need more hookers and blow” are just not bringing in the donations.

  117. 117.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Wish I could have a dollar for every “Kamala Harris is doing it wrong” blah-de-blah I’ve read. And that’s just during last night’s bout of insomnia.

    As for the “legacy” media, their business model is irrevocably broken and thus their primary mission, to inform the public and serve as the “4th rail” has been thrown into the crapper. As we know, too few ever took their responsibility very seriously and the best muckrakers were outsiders. The next big true populist push will be to consign them to irrelevancy and reinvent that wheel.

  118. 118.

    catclub

    @Sure Lurkalot: When I was thinking in 2016 that Berlusconi would win in Italy while trump would lose here,  the difference was that Berlusconi was  a billionaire with a shitload of media outlets that dominated Italy.

    Good try at analysis! Did not reckon enough on the fucked up Electoral Congress setup.

  122. 122.

    Betty Cracker

    @SatanicPanic: I’m unpersuaded by that theory because I don’t think Trump has that level of strategic acumen. He just wants to hold forth in packed, prestigious venues because adulation is the only balm for the howling void at his core.

  127. 127.

    Ken

    @Eolirin: Cherry picking specific dates is a dumb ass way to look at how much activity is going on

    “Between 2 and 4 AM Eastern time on October 3, Donald Trump posted 64 messages to Truth Social, and Harris posted none. Can we trust Harris to be awake when that phone rings at 3 AM?” — not the Pitchbot

  128. 128.

    Hoodie

    @Betty Cracker: His staff knows he’s crazy and electoral toast, so now they’re just indulging his various fantasies.    They seem to be left with just immigration and crime now.  I was driving through town yesterday and they had put up a fresh array of roadside signs that consisted of “Kamala = open borders” and “Kamala = crime.”   Whatever edge they might have had on the economy has vanished in the tide of solid jobs and inflation numbers.  That fart-punctuated speech he gave in Detroit was absolute bonkers, I can’t imagine anyone came away from that thinking he wasn’t insane.

  129. 129.

    narya

    @HumboldtBlue: Nice. I don’t think it could BE any more “just folks.” And, honestly, I think that is playing well this year, not least because it’s lighthearted AND serious.

  130. 130.

    wjca

    @Baud:

    Yeah.  But while I get a steady stream of text appeals for money from TCFG, the RNC, and various PACs, and even one from Steve Garvey, something from a candidate for Congress in another state is new.  At minimum, it suggests that more local appeals have hit diminishing returns.

  131. 131.

    BlueGuitarist

    @wjca:

    cruz lies all the time, but certainly deserves to lose.
    one advantage Beto pointed out he had in 2018: reverse coattails from a lot of good down-ballot candidates; but TX gerrymandered again after census.
    on the other hand Allred being a football player in TX college and NFL probably gets him more votes than Beto got from being a cool skateboard punk rocker who looked great in a dress.
    Plus the most Ted Cruz thing of all – Cancun – was after the last time Cruz faced voters.

  132. 132.

    Baud

    @wjca:

    I always had the feeling that the Republicans raise most of their money from conservatives living in blue states. Never researched it though.

  133. 133.

    Geminid

    @SatanicPanic: Maybe Trump is making the Coachella appearance as a favor to Kraven McCarthy.

    I think the local Republican would be Rep. Ken Calvert. He faces former U.S. prosecutor Will Rollins in a rematch of the 2022 race.

  134. 134.

    cmorenc

    @New Deal democrat:

    In particular, his scheduling of a campaign rally in Madison Square Garden – in deep blue NYC – seems more like a swan song than an attempt to win the election.

    An alternate theory of his planned end-stage appearances in solidly blue urban areas is to use them as props to dramatize his theme of the degeneracy and crime-ridden immigrant infestation of solidly blue, more urban areas.  For example, in a speech yesterday in Michigan, (paraphrasing here) he spoke of what a hell-hole Detroit is as an example of what all of America would look like under a Harris Administration.  His campaign strategly is to use these visits as publicity to broadcast to drive red turnout elsewhere.

    Good strategy or foolish diversion of time?  I lean toward the latter, but the proof is Nov 5 and however long the vote-count takes to decisively determine the winner.

  135. 135.

    Hoodie

    @wjca: I saw one report that said his small dollar donations have dropped something like 40%.  He’s increasingly relying on a few big nutjob donors like Musk.

  136. 136.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @JML:

    Which is of course what Axelrod is doing: he’s a professional “if you’re not paying me/following my instructions, you’re doing it wrong” guy now

    It’s not just that, it is also that for the entire cable news era, the best way for a Democratic pundit to get high profile & high paying positions on cable is to regularly criticize Democrats.

  137. 137.

    Hoodie

    @cmorenc: Haberman tried out that explanation after the Detroit speech but it makes little or no sense.  While that room was full of white businessman types who might be Trump sympathetic, a bunch are probably local CoC types who are boosters of Detroit.  He shit all over their advertising pitch of a renewed Detroit.  The Tigers are in the fucking MLB playoffs, for chrissakes.

  151. 151.

    Salty Sam

    @BretH: I for one am just dying to read all the upcoming juicy books and watch the salicious interviews where people who worked with TFG spill the beans about all the absolute loonycrackers things he said and did in staff meetings, etc.

    NO!  Just…no.  I don’t even care whether or not he goes to prison anymore- I just want him to go away and never be heard from again.

    I’ve had to take another break from media-  I can’t take any more right now.

  153. 153.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Geminid:

    I think the local Republican would be Rep. Ken Calvert. He faces former U.S. prosecutor Will Rollins in a rematch of the 2022 race.

    That’s my district. Calvert is an election denier with a long history of corruption. He’s also spent a lot of time and money taking credit for the infrastructure projects he voted against. An asshole from the word go.

    But a large part of this district – sadly, the part I live in – is extreme Trump country. Huge signs that have been up since 2020. Multiple flags on pickup trucks and houses.

  154. 154.

    Jackie

     

    Donald Trump has not played golf since an apparent assassination attempt near one of his courses on Sept. 15, and he will not do so until after the election, NBC News reports.

    Trump was told that federal agents could not ensure his safety to a degree that they were comfortable with if he were to play.

    This helps explain his increasingly foul mood! He could probably golf on a military base, but then he’d have to PAY to Play!!!😂

  158. 158.

    Bupalos

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: It actually appears to be having it’s greatest effect for him with “brown” voters.

    Anti-immigration is a “preserve your relative privilege” play. And that has legs far beyond the ethnic identity frames within which we’re used to talking about it.

  159. 159.

    Ken

    @Hoodie: Haberman tried out that explanation after the Detroit speech but it makes little or no sense.

    So on-point for both Haberman and Trump.

    Besides, Trump has a long history of going to these events and trash-talking the city, the venue, and any local Republicans sharing the stage with him.

  162. 162.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Salty Sam:

    I don’t even care whether or not he goes to prison anymore- I just want him to go away and never be heard from again.

    I care deeply that he goes to prison as a warning to the wannabe Trumpy fraudsters that follow. He did the crimes. He needs to do the time.

  163. 163.

    Ken

    @HumboldtBlue: I don’t know how to rebuild a carburetor, if we’re being honest

    I think nowadays they’re like toasters, or blenders, or big-screen TVs; when a part breaks you just throw it out and buy a new one since it’s cheaper than repairing it.

    Er, I mean throw out the carburetor, not the whole car, though that might be the cheaper option for some models.

  165. 165.

    Chris

    @Baud:

    I always had the feeling that the Republicans raise most of their money from conservatives living in blue states. Never researched it though.

    Any conservative with enough money to be a megadonor is going to be the kind of conservative with the means to choose to live anywhere he wants.  Most people who have that kind of choice don’t tend to choose living in the boonies over living on the San Francisco Bay.

  166. 166.

    Piety, keep me strong

    My WI absentee ballot is showing rcvd as of yesterday. Chalk up a D for every race that had one. Not much hope for county govt without even candidates, and state reps and senate are a long shot in this red rural area, just S of the home turf of Ron “Bolshevik” Johnson, the Senator from Oshkosh.

  167. 167.

    SomeRandomGuy

    @Baud: Geez, dude, no wonder. *You* wanted “hookers-and-blow-fund-me”.

    Gofundme is for charitable projects and shit.

    @Sure Lurkalot: I actually saw an interesting bit about how the 60 Minutes interview was crap, not because of the journalist, but because of the expectations of journalism. For some stupid-as-rotted-shit reason, journalists think people want to hear gotcha questions and oppo research responded to, not, you know, information.

    Hence “call her daddy” had a good interview, because they weren’t thinking about *any* of that batshit-bullshit. They wanted to inform podcast listeners. Fun fact: traditional journalists used to do the same thing!

    (Also: if you think earworms are bad, try finding the right emphasis for three words that *do not* unambiguously make sense, like “”call her daddy” or “megan thee stallion” or other crazy stuff like that, when your brain is buzzing with constant neurological pain. To say nothing of that musical chick no one names, because they go all preverbal.)

     

    @Hoodie:That fart-punctuated(…)

    Wow! The activated charcoal caps must be REALLY helping, if flatus was merely the punctuation.

  168. 168.

    Another Scott

    @SatanicPanic: TCFFG’s “help” has to be graded on a curve, I think.

    He campaigned in NoVA at a Vietnamese restaurant (2:19) (maybe 2 dozen people are there, some very loud) for the GQP candidate for Senate (running against Sen. Tim Kaine).

    He was like a drunk, racist, Abe Simpson.  But not as funny or charming.  And it’s all about hisownself, not the candidate, of course.  “The Vietnamese love me!!”

    :-/

    As Harris says, undecided people need to watch his rallies and what he says when he’s campaigning.  He’s got serious issues, and he is, of course, a dangerous fascist.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  169. 169.

    StringOnAStick

    @Baud: He tore a biceps tendon in addition to badly fracturing his wrist during his personal “landing”; that he held on that long is amazing and sure shows what adrenaline will do for you!

    Those are the kinds of injuries that he’ll feel the rest of his life unfortunately.  He’s young enough to get the tendon reattached but it’s a long hard road back to full function.  Wrists are complicated, and that level of damage is pretty rough.

  170. 170.

    prostratedragon

    @NotMax:
    “Break his halo! Does he get along with his wife?”

    Meanwhile, what in the utter fuck are we supposed to make of this? Why is this person treated like he even might have something to say?

    Trump: These things were coming cylinders, no wings, no nothing, and they’re coming down very slowly, landing on a raft in the middle of the ocean someplace with a circle, reminded me of the Biden circles that he used to have.. then I heard we lost

  171. 171.

    frosty

    @HumboldtBlue: I’ve rebuilt SUs (Triumph and Sprite), Webers (Alfa) and Amal (Triumph motorcycle). Everything’s been fuel injected for years now.

    The last time I tried to do anything automotive it was to replace a headlight bulb in a Mazda. There was so little space I couldn’t get my hand in to grab it. I paid our mechanic for a half hour of labor TO CHANGE A FRICKIN’ LIGHT BULB!!!

  172. 172.

    Another Scott

    @HumboldtBlue: @Ken:

    [ dissect-the-frog ]

    You take it apart, clean it, replace the gaskets and seals, put it back together in the reverse order.

    [ /d-t-f ]

    Fortunately, other than lawnmowers, chain saws, and similar things, one doesn’t have to think about carburetors any more.  Emissions rules eliminated them from cars and trucks (fuel injection is necessary to accurately control the air/fuel ratio for minimized emissions).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  173. 173.

    Another Scott

    @prostratedragon: I haven’t watched the clip, but I feel like a TCFFG whisperer when I keep seeing this excerpt.

    He’s talking about SpaceX rockets first stages (the cylinder) coming back to land on a barge (with a bull’s eye painted on it) in the ocean.  And some other stuff (I don’t know what the “Biden circles” are).

    Why he’s talking about that, I don’t know.  I have no interest in seeing whatever he was rambling on about there.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  174. 174.

    prostratedragon

    @NotMax:

    ●A club? Why did the doctors do an autopsy?
    ■It’s the legal procedure.
    ●Yesterday it was all settled. Now you’ll foul us up!

  175. 175.

    frosty

    @Another Scott: Right. Plus take it to a machine shop to have the worn out pivot for the throttle fixed so air doesn’t leak in where it shouldn’t and make the mixture too lean. I learned that one the second time I rebuilt the same SU.

  176. 176.

    SomeRandomGuy

    @cmorenc: The callback to the nazi rally in MSG might also be part of his plan, in hopes of rallying the actual deplorables.

     

    @MagdaInBlack: You know, they call you out for having a dependency issue if you go over 100mg of THC per day. But a gram of 20% flower has 200mg of THC, and, smoking a gram in a night isn’t much more than a drinking a six pack. You can find a cheap, $35 ounce if you look for it long enough – 28 grams, okay? So, 28 grams, at 20%, is 5600mg of THC, and, I can’t say this with certainty, but, with my right hand on my medical marijuana card, I swear to you: there isn’t enough cannabis therapy out there to numb the pain, so, recommending just a LITTLE? Pour out the tincture made with the 190 proof, dilute so you don’t strip your mucous membranes, add enough flavoring to cover the taste (roughly the entire Florida orange crop… for the past two years), and imbibe.

    At that point, your brain won’t expect anything to make sense, so, it’s safe. You know, like, a flogging is safe if they know to avoid the kidneys and… I’m not helping matters, am I?

  178. 178.

    Another Scott

    @frosty: My Jetta wagon used to regularly need a rear tail light bulb whenever it was time for the annual inspection.  And I too had to replace headlight bulbs a few times on it, so I feel your pain.

    One of the reasons I got the fancier SX Touring version of my Kia Niro PHEV was that it has all-LED lights (the lower-level option had bulbs for at least a few indicator lights).  Not having to worry about changing bulbs on a car again is very, very nice!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  180. 180.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Steve LaBonne:

    Line way out the door on day 4 of early voting. Never seen anything like it.

    Location? Apologize if this is something everyone here already knows.

  181. 181.

    frosty

    @Steve LaBonne: ​ I’m torn. I want to avoid a line on Election Day and vote early at the BoE, but … PA doesn’t start counting those ballots until 7AM Election Day and it goes on past that, so my vote might not get counted for a couple of days.

    If I vote in person on ED, it gets counted that night. If there are enough and PA gets called right then, we won’t might not get all the whining and pissing and moaning to “Stop the count! I won!!”

    So I think I’ll be standing in a line.

  182. 182.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    That guy should be barred for life from ever taking anyone else up with him. That passenger could’ve easily been killed.  One fuckup like that, you shouldn’t get any second chance.

  183. 183.

    Geminid

    @SomeRandomGuy: A friend makes gummies from alcohol tincture of cannabis. She just made a batch to take to her brother up north, and estimated each gummy at 75mg. That’s a lot but he needs it.

    Debbie used jello for the gummies, but I don’t know the process except one step was pouring the alcohol/cannabis mix through a paper filter.

    She showed me a recipe for caramels using the butter extraction method. The extraction is easy with a quarter ounce of weed to a quarter pound of butter,* but the next steps were harder so I just poured the infused butter into a coffee cup with brown sugar and call it good. And it is.

    * Bake the weed at a low heat for a 2-3 hours at a low heat to remove the water, then crumble it into a small frying pan and cook it at a low heat for 2-3 hours more.

  185. 185.

    Scout211

    I regret to inform all of you that, as The Federalist has declared,

    Kamala Harris Is Too Stupid To Be President

    LOLOLOL!

    I thought that The Federalist was leading the Republican party deep thinkers.  But apparently, Trump is leading all Republicans to become just like him!  No deep thoughts anywhere, just school yard taunts and insults.  Please proceed, Republicans.  

  188. 188.

    SomeRandomGuy

    @Geminid: The slow cooking of the weed is probably part of decarboxylation, which breaks the carboxyl ion free, turning THCA to THC (and CBDA to CBD). It’s a process that requires heat, but not air, as far as I can tell. I do my decarboxylation in, of all things, an Instant Pot.  The Internet, which is, of course, never wrong, says high pressure, 30-40 minutes, and you can stuff an entire ounce into a 2 cup mason jar, and to my inexpert eye, it looks good.  Grind it to a powder, and, nominally, you should be able to sprinkle it on a peanut butter sandwich and it should kick in, eventually. Or grind it up with some psillium fiber (to form a bit of gel, because tiny weed granules can trigger a gag reflex), and something fatty – a chocolate bar might work.

    For tinctures, the final step is usually concentration – carefully evaporating off the alcohol used to make the tincture. Now, normally, if you had 6 oz ethanol in solution, and evaporated off half, you’d have halved the proof/alcohol content. Here, if you have 6 oz ethanol, and evaporate off half, you’ll have close to 3 oz ethanol, still *very* high proof. Ideally, you can evaporate it down until 1ml is a significant, meaningful, dose, because in my experience, it’s called “green dragon” because it’s green, and you think someone lit a blowtorch inside your mouth for a couple-three minutes, hence, fire-breath.

    So making it into gummies meets with *my* approval. My first attempt was so *awful* that I had to be in a lot of pain before I could bear using it.

    Fun fact: if you infuse liquid oils, and don’t have lecithin, protein powders tend to include emulsifiers – 1-2 tbl oil, a spoon-to-scoop of protein powder, shake vigorously, and drink quickly, to quote Will Smith, in Men in Black, “…because, damn”.

    If you fear blood sugar, you could live off that with vitamin pills.

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