Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

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

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: I’m Feeling A Little Hope

Late Night Open Thread: I’m Feeling A Little Hope

by | 181 Comments

This post is in: 

I stumbled on Bill Madden’s wonderful feed today, and it buoyed me. I’m not even going to apologize for the hellscape links.  Fuck musk for ruining it all.

This got me:

And this one got me right in the heart:

 

His entire feed right now is filled with these beautiful stories. I could have posted a dozen more.

What I love about all of this is it’s embeds of Tik-Toks – I don’t do a lot of Tik-Tok because I find I lose too much time in it, which I guess is the point, but it’s not good for my mental health. That being said, this is what’s being uploaded all over it, and it’s powerful and it’s reaching more people than the NYT could ever dream of.

That’s it for me tonight. As some of you already know, Scout and I were attacked by a JRT on our walk today, and I ended up pretty shaken and with a nasty bite on my hand. There is a long, and kind of humorous punchline to the story, but my hand hurts too much to tell you tonight. When I can type without wincing, it will give you a chuckle. Scout is fine, and the other dog needed several stitches (seriously, don’t come for a Dane’s person, they don’t like it) and the dog’s owner came over to our house to check on Scout and me late this afternoon, mortified.

Tomorrow, I am planning on giving us some respite with some nice things I’ve tucked away, since my other plans will probably be on hold for a few days.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

181Comments

  3. 3.

    bbleh

    More than anything, the reports of overwhelming early turnout in several states, and the high proportion of women among them, give me some (limited) optimism.

    The received wisdom has always been that high turnout boosts Dems, and since Dobbs high turnout among women has done likewise.

    Hope it ain’t all wrong this time.  Now get out the vote.

  5. 5.

    Raoul Paste

    We got a bag of Harris Blend coffee as part of a deal at Boston Stoker.  Very much looking forward to a celebratory cup.

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    @bbleh: The Post has a nice visualization of the early voting trends, both nationally and in the battleground states. In most of the latter, the early vote is on a par with or greater than 2020, where because COVID, something like 70 percent of the eventual total were cast early or by mail. So yeah, it’s going gangbusters.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    (seriously, don’t come for a Dane’s person, they don’t like it)

    A Scout is always prepared.
    ;)

  12. 12.

    West of the Rockies

    Great post, TaMara!  I am feeling very confident. I’m my rural-ish town in northern CA, I’ve counted less than a dozen Trump signs/banners.  In 2020, there multiple stupid Trump truck parades half a mile long.

    This heinous goblin is going down.

  13. 13.

    Trollhattan

    Billboard along an NC freeway shows Robinson and Trump heads, labeled “CREEPS.”

    MORE kamala signs than I’d have ever anticipated.

  15. 15.

    Bupalos

    That woman is eloquent and sincere about how much that vote for Kamala Harris means to her. It means a lot. And it might as well go in the trash because she’s in a state that doesn’t have any impact whatsoever on the electoral outcome. This is a huge part of the crisis of democracy in this country. An overwhelming majority of the people in this country have no functional democratic role whatsoever in deciding who holds the most powerful role in their governance..

  19. 19.

    J. Arthur Crank

    @Bupalos:

    That woman is eloquent and sincere about how much that vote for Kamala Harris means to her.

    Which video? Three of them featured eloquent women.

  22. 22.

    TaMara

    I’m off to put the ducks to bed. Just a reminder: don’t let the downer trolls hijack the thread. Pie is free and easy to use. Nite!

  24. 24.

    RaflW

    We drove through East Troy, WI this afternoon. It’s in Walworth Co., which as a county went almost 59% Trump last time. There were multiple houses with Harris signs, and several others with more handmade looking signs encouraging women to vote (using the ♀️ sign), often in the same yards. We weren’t really in East Troy 4 years ago, but our sense was still, wow, cool.

    I have no illusions that Wallworth Co. will flip. But if the margin here drops several points, that helps Harris statewide a good bit. Still, I’ll be glad to be back in Minneapolis by Monday. I don’t want to be in a red county on tabulation night. (Purely feels and being near friends, it’s not unsafe here.)

  25. 25.

    Chet Murthy

    @NoraLenderbee: Me too.  In 2021 I was really worried when I saw VA voters install the Fleece-Vest Nazi.  He got caught on videotape saying he couldn’t talk about restricting abortion during the campaign, but once he got in power, he’d get right on it.  And yet the voters installed him anyway.  On the back of “boys in girls bathrooms, bestiality, CRT, woke, trans panic, etc”.  Really disheartening.  To see that maybe women (and esp. white women) might have decided to actually vote their actual material interests ….. is moving.  I mean, at some level it shouldn’t be: it’s such a basic thing that you’d expect everybody to do, and yet so often they do not.  So to see it happening (ok, maybe) is pretty amazing.

  26. 26.

    Peale

    The reason why I think now it’s going to go our way on Tuesday is that I just don’t think there’s pockets of voters he can draw out of the woodworks. Those non-voters who didn’t come out in 2016 or 2020 weren’t attracted to him enough to bother to vote. Someone at another blog posted up a video of his speech tonight where he’s masturbating a microphone and simulating oral sex. It’s vulgar and gross and his theory of politics right now is that the people who stayed home did so because he wasn’t already vulgar enough. If they weren’t impressed by it then, it’s not going to drive them to the polls now. I’m putting a marker down on 85 million Harris, 69 million Trump, because that latter number is just the kind of thing Elon and the wankers would sit around the table laughing at because they drank too much hard seltzer spiked with ketamine and thought it would be funny to share that joke with children.

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    I can’t decide which TikTok I like the most.

    More importantly, I hope the dog attack wasn’t too brutal.  Please get any wounds looked at asap.

  28. 28.

    eclare

    I had not heard about the dog attack!  I hope you feel better!  Thank you for these videos, they are so inspiring.

  29. 29.

    Chet Murthy

    @Peale: “he’s masturbating a microphone and simulating oral sex”

    I saw the video (linked off Drudge among other places).  Is that what he was doing?  It wasn’t something else, taken out of context ?  B/c Jesus, if that’s what he was doing ….. that’s just amazing.  I mean, talk about “heighten the contradictions”!!!  His final argument is “I’m the Devil, no morals, no mores bind me!!  Bow down before me!”  Not even a hint, not even a smidgen of pretense of Christianity.  One might say he’s completely lost his social regulator.

  33. 33.

    MinuteMan

    I got a solid bite on the hand trying to break up a dog fight, sort of caught in the crossfire. Probably better to keep the hands away and use your feet or legs. Took a couple of weeks to get back to normal.
    Little dogs are psychotic and/or totally brainless.​ Not their fault since people bred them that way.

  34. 34.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I have to say, if there is this massive support for Trump, they are being amazingly low profile about it on line. For example, the amount of the wingnut trolling in places like Facebook this time around is nothing like 2016 or 2020. If anything, Facebook from what I’ve seen has been Liberals relentlessly trolling conservatives the last few months(maybe the Harris campaign bought up all the Russian Troll Farms? Shurg)

    I would think considering the history of this blog, we would be getting a wingnut troll or two by now.

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    First off: sorry to hear about the dog attack. I missed that part on the first read-through. I hope you got all the necessary shots, etc., and that you are back to full strength ASAP.

    and the other dog needed several stitches (seriously, don’t come for a Dane’s person, they don’t like it)

    My daughter’s dog is half Irish wolfhound. His “protect” instinct is VERY high. If a JRT — or a coyote, which is more likely where my daughter lives — were to threaten (to any degree) my daughter, that dog/coyote would be “pining for the fjords” pretty damn quick.

  36. 36.

    eclare

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I think I liked the first one the best because she is an election judge and young.  I am happy to see her in place for decades.

    And talking about voting for her daughter, everyone’s daughters…

    But that dog sure was cute!

  37. 37.

    Jess

    Thank you so much for posting these! I’m gonna make this the last thing I look at before I sign off and go to bed, with tears of joy and hope in my eyes.

  38. 38.

    bjacques

    @Bupalos: she’s a likely Democratic vote for her Congressional district, state, county, city, and precinct races, where her vote may well tip the balance. Even if her area is deep red, she’s a bellwether for voters in other, slightly less red, areas who clearly have the gumption that is the only antidote for believing democracy is in a crisis.

    Democracy is always in a crisis, if that’s how you want to see it, yet those who value it keep fighting for it, while those who don’t work pretty hard to maintain a sham of it.

  40. 40.

    Chet Murthy

    @bjacques: I would add that if the Dems overperform in MO, that’s a good sign they’ll be overperforming everywhere, and that will lead to …. an early and restful Election Night for us all.

  41. 41.

    dmsilev

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    For example, the amount of the wingnut trolling in places like Facebook this time around is nothing like 2016 or 2020. If anything, Facebook from what I’ve seen has been Liberals relentlessly trolling conservatives the last few months(maybe the Harris campaign bought up all the Russian Troll Farms? Shurg)

    Maybe they’re all on Twitter trolling each other and trying to get a rise out of all of the chatbots there.

  43. 43.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Chet Murthy: Not even a hint, not even a smidgen of pretense of Christianity. One might say he’s completely lost his social regulator.

    If Trump thinks he is going to lose, going full EVIL fits the whole narcissist thing.  That way he can tell himself, Harris didn’t defeat him, he chose to lose because the nation isn’t good enough for him.

  45. 45.

    JoyceH

    @Peale:

    I just don’t think there’s pockets of voters he can draw out of the woodworks.

    Bingo. My stress levels significantly abated when I heard about the Trump campaign’s Geenyus Plan to chase the ‘low propensity voter’. I literally laughed out loud, because they were making the exact same mistake the television producers made a couple decades ago.

    Maybe you remember that time? There just didn’t seem to be any television shows you wanted to watch. They were all violent, fast, noisy, and stupid. There were gobs of those shows and none of them lasted long. You didn’t like them because they weren’t designed for you – they were designed for the ‘target demo’, 18-30 year old males.

    THAT was the demographic that everybody wanted? Man, they must watch a lot of television. Well… no. Young men were actually the demographic that watched the least television of all the groups. So that made them the most valuable  – if a show could actually ‘score big in the demo’ and draw those young male eyeballs, the network could charge more for the ad spots. So everyone was after them. Which was a problem. Because young men just naturally weren’t staying at home and watching television. They were playing or watching sports, going to bars, looking for girls, and so on. And the market was so flooded with young male content that all of them were bound to bomb.

    Trump seems to retain more memory of his television career than anything else he’s done. I’m sure he remembered the coveted ‘target demo’, so when his campaign pitched him on this plan to get out the young male vote, he thought, yeah yeah, the target demo, that’s the ticket, let’s do that.

    But here’s the thing. Voting is not television. A young male vote is more difficult and expensive to catch, and once you’ve caught it, it’s worth no more than an old female vote.

    Add in the fact that the steps they are taking to appeal to the young men utterly repel the women! And women are the most high propensity voters!

    So yeah, Trump. Go ahead, chase that target demo. Have fun with that.

  46. 46.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    I have to say, if there is this massive support for Trump, they are being amazingly low profile about it on line.

    I don’t know from facebook, but MAGAts have completely taken over twitter. I only follow sports and music sources and I still see tons of MAGA hate & bigotry posts.

  48. 48.

    Bupalos

    @bjacques: She was very specific about the emotion behind her vote, she thinks she’s electing MVP. We need to fix it. The ec is a gun in the table in the 1st act, and we’re about to see which act we’re in.

    Interstate ec pact has to become a priority if we get past Tuesday.

  50. 50.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @dmsilev: Maybe they’re all on Twitter trolling each other and trying to get a rise out of all of the chatbots there.

    That really makes way to much sense.

  52. 52.

    dmsilev

    @JoyceH: Also, outsourcing the ground-level GOTV operation to noted mass organizer Elon Musk may not help with this issue. Musk likes to think of himself as the king of the aggrieved young men, except that he’s fifty-ish, so desperate to be seen as cool that it comes off as pathetic, and, um, is not exactly a people person.

  53. 53.

    JoyceH

    @dmsilev: And if this story about the GOTV deceiving and mistreating their hired door-knockers makes the mainstream media in the next few days, the whole effort could be a net negative for them!

  55. 55.

    Chet Murthy

    @JoyceH: i read some place that there is a class action suit against musk and his middleman doing the GOTV operation filed by some of the people on the ground who were misled and are not getting paid what they were promised.  Rooting for injuries.

  56. 56.

    Bupalos

    @J. Arthur Crank: nose ring lip stud lady, who is weeping about the awesome Harris turnout she feels in Missouri, how she’s protecting her daughters etc.

    the interstate electoral compact people need to get on this, there’s going to be backlash energy against the ec as people get more deeply invested in these outcomes. So toxic.

  57. 57.

    dmsilev

    @JoyceH: Even without that, it’s apparently been a huge waste of money and effort, with large numbers of reports of the hired doorknockers just faking their data and not actually doing anything.

    So sad.

  60. 60.

    Kelly

    Many years ago our neighbor’s german shepherd and our mutt got into it in our yard. They were the same size. Fur was flying. Mom heard the commotion rushed outside planning to grab a hose and spray them. The neighbor’s 4 year old daughter had a handful of her dog’s face fur and a handful of our dog’s face fur and was yelling “DOGS STOP”. The dogs stopped. She apologized to Mom and drug her dog home by a handful of fur.

  61. 61.

    Citizen Alan

    @Chet Murthy: If the majority of Evangelicals go for him again after all this, the moral authority  of American Christianity will be lost for generations.

  62. 62.

    Peale

    @dmsilev: musk has never delivered on any of his promises on time. Maybe eventually. But please find me the thing that he’s said is just months away or just a few years away that he’s ever delivered. It’s all hype.  Maybe if this election was in 2027 he’d have it running.

    im glad he’s pleading with his fanbois that they can’t let Harris win or she’ll destroy him. As if his fanbois aren’t already Trump supporters. It’s the online zeros who get really mad that the latest Joker movie is bad and hate that Taylor Swift is on TV at a Chiefs game. It’s all the same people.

  66. 66.

    JaySinWA

    @Chet Murthy: I’m surprised that the allegations don’t include sexual assault. IIRC the prototype for this indentured servitude, young black kids being imported from other states to sell bogus magazine subscriptions, included extorting sex to have their lodging paid for.

  67. 67.

    West of the Rockies

    @JoyceH:

    I’d sort of forgotten that era of mucho macho TV crapfest.  Was that The Man Show era?  God, I loathed that program.

  68. 68.

    JaySinWA

    @eclare: We can but hope for evangelical’s downfall. But if history is any guide, if T wins it will be “devil take the hindmost” and if he loses it will be another “lost cause” rewrite.

  69. 69.

    hitchhiker

    @Melancholy Jaques: the only way to use twitter is to make yourself a list of people whose tweets you want to see.

    you don’t have to follow them.

    you just create a list, and then use it all the time. no “for you” or any of that bullshit.

    presto, no slime, no bots, nothing.

    sometimes the comments will have thoughts from people who are interesting, and you just add them to your list.

    my list has 72 names; for me, these people ARE twitter. i don’t follow anybody, and have no followers. i don’t tweet or comment, but sometimes i repost things that are especially funny or original.

  70. 70.

    Citizen Alan

    @West of the Rockies: The Man Show was awful, but it’s interesting to think about it and compare the career trajectories of Jimmy Kimmell and Adam Carolla. And when they left, Joe Rogan was one of their replacements which gave an early preview of what sort of person he would be.

  71. 71.

    karen marie

    ALL THE FEELS!

     

    Thank you, TaMara, for the lovely gifts you posted.

    I hope your hand is better soon (and that you went and got antibiotics)!

  73. 73.

    Capri

    Very little Trump signage in Indiana too. I see lots of yards with signs for GOP senator and other state positions but no Trump.  Way way down from the last  2 times

  74. 74.

    karen marie

    @Peale: I am going to guess the nightly news isn’t going to run the porn star Trump clip. I hope it blows up everything tomorrow.

    Funny, you never hear Republicans ask “but what about the children” anymore.  What do parents do? It’s insane that kids have to be protected from listening to a foul-mouthed creep who they’re also being told to admire because he was president.

    How do parents/grandparents here handle it?

  76. 76.

    KatKapCC

    From the KamalaHQ account: (includes video clips if you want to click through and torture yourself)

    Tonight, Trump:

    —Complained about having to hold a microphone, threatening to “knock the hell out of” the staff and calling them “stupid”
    —Went on an unintelligible rant about “the weave” and said he has a “very fertile brain”
    —Acknowledged that more and more people are calling him “cognitively impaired”
    —Spoke to countless empty seats by the end of the rally as many supporters left early pic.twitter.com/D9pNmS6x52
    — Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) November 2, 2024

    This also gives me hope. This man is about five minutes away from a damn straitjacket.

  77. 77.

    karen marie

    @dmsilev: Did you read about the people caught up in Musk’s “GOTV”? Flown to Michigan, driven around in uhaul trucks, dropped off with nonfunctional equipment, forced to have their personal cell phones on at all times for the GPS,  were not told by the third party Musk’s PAC outsourced to that they were working for Musk and Trump until they arrived, given unrealistic minimums, and threatened with having to pay their own motel bill if they were found to have failed in some way.

    You kids are really cheering me up with all these stories.

    Yeah, I am hopeful. Thank you.

  78. 78.

    karen marie

    @Capri: Here in Mesa, AZ I don’t remember seeing a single Trump sign while out in my car. I don’t remember any Harris signs – only local races, and the popup Trump store hasn’t come back. Maybe the local Republicans hope everyone forgets about Trump if he’s not mentioned and just automatically votes R all the way down, like all good Mormons do.

  80. 80.

    ColoradoGuy

    Orange T’s frontal lobes are the first to deteriorate, followed by the rest of his brain. The frontal lobes are responsible for self-regulation of behavior, impulse control, and reality-testing. T’s frontal lobes have been under-developed all through his life, since his wealth and army of lawyers protected him from the consequences of his actions. For the rest of us, we don’t have that layer of insulation from the real world, and are forced at a young age to develop self-control and accurate reality testing … because we have no choice in the matter.

    Under the stress of campaigning and possible stimulant abuse, T’s frontal lobes are breaking down, and there isn’t much cognitive reserve to adjust and compensate for loss of function. So we can expect more and more transgressive actions and uncontrolled rage.

  81. 81.

    Chet Murthy

    @ColoradoGuy: I have to say, I’m coming around to your POV on this.  For the longest time, I’ve argued that his various outrageous utterances aren’t proof of dementia, but rather just him doing what a good salesman does.  But more and more these last couple of months, he’s losing control of his words in various really deleterious ways (for his campaign).  That’s not something he did in the past.

  82. 82.

    karen marie

    @JoyceH: See Peale at # 26. Later comments clarified it was a joke made from a clip of Trump out of context.

    I’m still curious how people talk to their young children about Trump or politics. It’s insane to think that new voters 10, 15 and 20 years from now will have a poorer understanding of civics and civic responsibility than people have now because their parents had to protect them from knowing about Trump and his threats of violence, and the fact the GOP has turned government and politics into an X rated subject matter.

    Who looks at Musk or Trump and thinks, “yeah, I want my kid to be just like him”?  Not anyone I’d like as a neighbor.

  83. 83.

    Chet Murthy

    @karen marie: Who looks at Musk or Trump and thinks, “yeah, I want my kid to be just like him”?  Not anyone I’d like as a neighbor.

    You’re right.  But lots and lots of angry young and not-so-young men look at him and say “Yeah, I wanna be just like him!  Fuck Yeaaaaaahhhh! [spittle flying]”  In peer groups of young men, I can see men outdoing each other trying to be like him.  It’s a story as old as time, and I certainly saw it, growing up, all around me.  And honestly, even though fathers don’t want their sons to be like him, they’re going to instill the attitudes (racism, misogyny, belligerent privilege) that end up producing him.

    He’s the product of an authoritarian environment.  There are a lot of such environments all over our country.

    Sigh.

  84. 84.

    ColoradoGuy

    The “Shrinking Trump” podcast has had a good technical analysis of his mental state for the last several months. His dominant symptom is a severe, untreatable Malignant Narcissism, and manifests in an insatiable desire to destroy everything and everyone. There is no empathy, compassion, or a range of other human emotions in a person with this (inborn) trait, but he does have a remarkable skill in manipulating crowds, and finding the emotional weak points of his opponents. But doing that shtick relies on feeling the crowd and demands a degree of self-control, which he is gradually losing (depending on stress level and time of day).

  85. 85.

    ColoradoGuy

    It is difficult for “normies” to fully appreciate how truly alien Malignant Narcissists, or Dark Triads, are from the usual norms of humanity. They are on the far edge of the bell curve and are fortunately quite rare. No compassion, and worse, they imagine everyone else is just faking it, as they do themselves. Other people and animals are just talking dolls to them, so the only thing stopping them from destroying the world would be a lack of servants.

  86. 86.

    Torrey

    Echoing karen marie and others: thank you, TaMara, for these selections, and wishing you quick healing of your hand.

    And now to my vent: Nicole Wallace decided to appeal directly to Dubya Bush to goddamit endorse Harris, already! Personally, I think Dubya was a pretty accurate predictor of Trump: he was and is a coward, doesn’t understand American democracy, and considered the presidency his personal playground. His flight suit “MIssion Accomplished” stunt was just a slightly less silly version of Trump’s playing truck driver (the big rig back when, not the garbage truck, which of course was also silly). Glad Wallace is calling him on it. So that’s my vent, nothing new or interesting, but I wanted to get it out of my system before I returned to joyful marveling at TikToks TaMara shared and the other good news that seems to be coming in.

  87. 87.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Torrey: ​ 

    I think Dubya was a pretty accurate predictor of Trump: he was and is a coward, doesn’t understand American democracy, and considered the presidency his personal playground. His flight suit “Mission Accomplished” stunt was just a slightly less silly version of Trump’s playing truck driver (the big rig back when, not the garbage truck, which of course was also silly)

    Yup.

  88. 88.

    Aussie Sheila

    Slightly OT but did anyone see the Michael Wolff ‘expose’ of the Epstein tapes regarding the trump WH shenanigans?

    Here’s my theory .

    That grub is close to Murdoch.

    This looks to me like Murdoch’s own ‘end of trump’ punch at him.

    That idiot has cost Murdoch money. Lots of it. Like north of 3/4 of a billion.  I think Rupe has decided trump is going overboard with an anchor tied to his legs.

    To my thinking Rupe has arrived at the ‘it’s him or me’ decision point, and the former guy is now in his cross hairs.

    My money’s on Rupe.

    tfg is finished imo.

    Go Dems!

  90. 90.

    Chet Murthy

    @Aussie Sheila: the thing I remember reading about Wolff’s Epstein tapes is that he has a lot of material, but he’s only released a tiny bit.  Makes you wonder what’s on the rest.  Needless to say, i’m very angry that all that material that Epstein collected Remains sealed.It pisses me off That God knows how many crimes are never going to be prosecutedBecauseThe perpetrators Are rich and well connected.

  91. 91.

    NobodySpecial

    I keep looking and looking and looking and I keep not finding any reasons to be terrified except empty polls.

    The GOP GOTV program is in shambles. They’ve spent the entire off election (their normal strength) getting absolutely pasted in almost every election during that time. COVID killed a decent amount of their most reliable voters. They’re desperate to purge as many voter rolls and cheat as they can get away with – that’s not a move you make from a strong position. The economy is solid. There was no October Surprise. I know LGM style doom and gloom is evergreen, but I put a higher likelihood on Kamala pulling 300 EVs than on Trump finding 270.

  92. 92.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Chet Murthy:

    Agree about the late release and all. But still, the whole thing ties trump to Epstein in ways that could still be damaging even in the last few days.
    I think the demented crim is toast at this point.

  93. 93.

    Chet Murthy

    @Aussie Sheila: I want to agree.  What seems clear, is that if he wins, that will say such frightful things about America and Americans, that we’ll never live it down.  His “final pitch” is so shit-smeared, so bloodthirsty, that all decent Americans must be disgusted by him.  So I guess we’re gonna find how many indecent Americans we’ve got.  Hopefully not as many as we have decent ones.

  94. 94.

    Aussie Sheila

    @NobodySpecial:

    You and me both. I can smell organising dysfunction a mile away, and even across the Pacific I can smell chaos and lack of unity. It’s a death march not a political campaign imo.

  95. 95.

    karen marie

    @Torrey: The less anyone hears from Bush the better, I think. It’s bad enough we’re being told to admire his grifting offspring.

  96. 96.

    Chet Murthy

    @karen marie: Many of us grind our teeth even thinking about C+ Augustus, the Chimperor.  And sure, if we don’t need his endorsement, I can see why one might want to ignore him.  But if we need it, well, we need it.  And we can’t know, can we?  His vast carelessness and brutality cost hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of Iraqis and Syrians their lives.  Cost many Americans their lives (I’m convinced that Gore would have nipped AQ’s plot in the bud: Richard Clarke was on the case after all) too.

    I don’t have to like him, or respect him, or ever think of him again, if he can just -endorse- and maybe help convince some on-the-fence Republicans to vote for Harris.

  98. 98.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @NobodySpecial: Point of order: there was an October Surprise, but it was self-inflicted (to wit: the Madison Square Garden Bund rally and the consequent endorsement of Harris by many influential Puerto Rican people).

    In other news, I was saddened to read on electoral-vote.com that Buzz Aldrin endorsed Trump. I imagine I now know how it felt for some people when Charles Lindbergh turned to the dark side during the rise of Nazi Germany (although to his credit, he did contribute to the US war effort during WW2).

  101. 101.

    LadySuzy

    @Chet Murthy: The gestures with the hand can be interpreted as trying to fix the microphone. HOWEVER, immediately after that his mouth gestures leave very little room for interpretation

  104. 104.

    Ruckus

    @ColoradoGuy:

    Besides he’s aging out rapidly.

    And he’s doing it at not well at all. But he wouldn’t be himself if he did anything anywhere near well.

  105. 105.

    hueyplong

    @Chet Murthy: There is an argument that everyone is correct about the simulated oral sex thing.  Something like, he didn’t mean it that way but his combo of stimulants and diminished impulse control led to his making an obscene gesture that people around him have seen him make many times in context.

    Think of the several recent cancelations, when it’s entirely possible that the Milton the Monster drug dosing and his condition may have combined to make him unpresentable as he was soiling himself and applying maroon to his face.

    Tuesday almost certainly can’t come soon enough for his handlers.

    A just deity would not deny him cognizance of his degradation and shame.

  106. 106.

    Gretchen

    My brother has been baiting me on Facebook for years about how stupid Democrats are, look at their silly policies, who would ever vote for them. He came out today urging votes for Harris. He lives in Texas. What? Something’s happening here.

    My son-in-law who was justifiably upset by the carnage in Gaza posted on Instagram today that we have to vote for Harris. I wasn’t worried about him since he lives in New York, but if he can look past his anger, something’s happening here.

    Ann Steltzer, the gold-standard Iowa pollster, has Harris up 1. In Iowa. Something’s happening here.

  107. 107.

    Gretchen

    @Chet Murthy: I think both can be true, that he was complaining about shitty mikes and nobody is nice enough to him, and being gross. Being gross is kind of his brand so it infests everything else he does.

  109. 109.

    Gloria DryGarden

    Give Me Hope Kamala
    by the Marsh family

    My antidote tonight for my tears over both

    1 the death threat violence suggestion against Liz Cheney by you know who, and

    2 the crazy float in the parade in mt pleasant PA, that depicted ms Harris in a seriously negative way, hinting at violence.

    Nicolle Wallace put together a short piece, about 1,  attending to the gravity of the moment, asking gw bush to step up and say something, and including a brief speech by ms Harris.

    This song was an unexpected find by the marsh family. So uplifting. The world is watching. These folks are in Britain, listen to their r sounds. But they created this song for us.

  110. 110.

    Gretchen

    @Baud: Thanks. My husband has been urging me to go to Texas and spend time with my brother and sister, since we’re all old and who knows how much time we have left. I have been unenthusiastic. But maybe it would be ok!

  111. 111.

    Mel

    @hueyplong: This is possible. Not saying that it is the case, but it is possible that his progressive  dementia is ripping the mask off much more completely in public now.

    My mother’s mother was a horrible woman,  sneaky, cunning and hateful. She was known for making a particularly awful sneering face and nasty hand gestures at whoever her current victim was, but only when their back was turned or right after they left a room.

    All her life, the behind the scenes backstabbing and mockery was part of the thrill for her. Same for the name-calling and gossiping to pit neighbors against one another.

    Once her dementia started progressing, the slyness and timing went downhill along with other executive functioning skills, and she would pull her faces right in front of family members /caregivers, and then say, “Why’s he so sour-pussed?”, etc. – completely unaware that she had made the face/gestures (or perhaps now unaware that it was offensive).
    Muscle memory outpaced the brain.

  113. 113.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Gretchen: he has one finger pointing out and three fingers pointing back at him, every time he says the things he says.

    Today I was astonished at him using words for Liz Cheney, and Kamala Harris like sleazebag, and stupid. Words that are so far from being applicable to these powerful outspoken women. He’s telling us all about himself…

  114. 114.

    Gloria DryGarden

    Joy Reid in her news show this evening spoke with barely concealed outrage, about the things CIFDJT had said, the extra violence he so casually suggested.

    am i numb? It seemed a lot like his proclamation that certain military generals should be executed.

    everyone one of these sorts of statements is a shock to the system.

  116. 116.

    hueyplong

    @Gloria DryGarden: “… sleazebag, and stupid.”  And yet you’ll scour the internet in vain for any reference to “incivility” for the use of such terms.  The issue of “incivility” is exclusively reserved for Democrats.

  117. 117.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Citizen Alan: can we use it to get them to stfu, and stay the f out of peoples lives? Those white Christian nationalists, got nothin to do w Christian teachings..

  118. 118.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @hueyplong: I’ve noticed that, too. Pisses me off.
    they joke about all the Puerto Rican folks,

    but one slip of Biden s speech referring to either the maga supporters or to the comedians demon izing of a whole group of people ( we’ll never know, unless Joe tells us) and they’re all over it.
    They can dish it out but can’t see the garbage they’re pouring out., won’t be called on it.

    i grew up in that dynamic. Pisses me off. When Sophie gets angry…..

  120. 120.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Gretchen: the danger is, getting desensitized to it, so many shocking things have been said.
    a friend reported the 9 barrels pointing at her face thing, and I said, didn’t he already say that before?
    i don’t like that Ive gotten numb and desensitized, or shut down, to the very triggering shocking violence he suggests all the ____time.

  121. 121.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Gretchen: it would be incredible to reclaim your connection with him. For something so insurmountable, to shift, is a wonderful blessing.  I know about family estrangement…
    holding hope for you.

  122. 122.

    Gloria DryGarden

    Gotta try to get to bed before 4 am, it’s destroying my life. Good night all. Enjoy the song by marsh family, I think it’s @#109

  123. 123.

    Gretchen

    @Gloria DryGarden: I worked night shift for 20 years and slept during the day. I keep saying I should try sleeping at night, and being up during the day. Husband says why, you don’t have to be anywhere, you can do what you want. I don’t have an answer for that, except Wed Thur Friday when I have to be at the grade school to pick up the grandson at 3:10. And he complains when I’m not near the front of the line.

  124. 124.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Gretchen: i need to be attending to yard work, administrative stuff and appointments during daylight office hours, and the jobs I work, or want to apply to, Have daytime hours. Need income, don’t know if I can ever retire.

    plus, im alone. Need to see people, call at reasonable hours, have connections.

  125. 125.

    Gretchen

    Yes, yard work and seeing other people has to happen during the daytime. That’s why I feel like I should try to move in that direction.

  126. 126.

    Tony Jay

    @Gretchen:

    Sounds right to me. Stench has presented traditional Republican voters with one of those famous tests of character magnified by 1000. They failed them through the reign of El Residente, failed again voting against Obama, and failed massively in 2016 when they put that slimy creature in the White House to spite Hillary. This time around the truth about Stench is so front and centre that they’ve got zero excuses left, and a lot of them seem to know it. They can’t just squeeze their eyes shut and tell themselves it doesn’t matter what the Republicans have to say to excite the MAGA fringes because it’s more important to keep the Democrats out. The modern GOP is MAGA to its core, and MAGA is out and proud fascism with an eliminationist plan for everyone who isn’t one of them.

    Most will fail it again, but a lot – like your brother – will pass it this time. Hopefully that becomes a habit.

    And as for people horrified by Gaza and American support for Israel’s horrific actions, I never had any doubts that the vast majority would vote Harris/Walz. Yes, the USA’s policy decisions have been appalling and shameful, yes being disgusted and angry is the right response, but the jump from that to “would rather elect Trump than vote Democrat” is such a wide leap into crazy it only really appeals to the kind of people who obsessively promote the opinions of the faux-Leftists on Russia’s payroll in order to justify their dislike of the Left in general.

  129. 129.

    Gretchen

    @Erin: I don’t. Someone on twitter said he’d spoken to Steltzer and that’s what she told him, and that we’d have to wait for the 6pm release for confirmation. So we’ll see then if that’s an accurate report. But it would be significant if that’s what she’s finding, because she’s usually plugged in.

  132. 132.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    @Princess: That is exactly what he was doing.  The mic stand didnt have a mic in it; there’s no reason to stroke it up and down and then open your mouth wide open and go down on it other than simulating oral copulation.

  133. 133.

    Gretchen

    @Gloria DryGarden: I just didn’t sleep much. I had 4 kids, so I was trying to cosplay a stay at home mom, taking them to school and picking them up, making dinner, taking them to soccer practice, and then staying up all night to work an 8, 9, 10 hour shift. So I just didn’t sleep for years and years. I’d leave for work at midnight thinking this is brutal, nobody should have to do this. I remember one piano lesson where the teacher said, play very quietly, mommy is asleep. I really enjoy sleeping now that I don’t have as many reasons to be awake. But maybe I should find reasons to be awake. I was just so very, very tired for such a very long time. It was hard. I love sleeping now.

  134. 134.

    Geoduck

    @karen marie: I agree, if there’s any one person who maybe should not endorse Harris, it’s Shrub. Does anyone actually care what he thinks about anything? Even Cheney’s endorsement might be more useful.

  136. 136.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Gretchen: omg. I’ve battled insomnia for years, but I usually got some sleep. This year I suddenly can’t push past it until I get 7-9 hrs. I ve done tons of days on 2-4 hrs, thought 5 was pretty good.
    but nothing like you describe.
    if you were a single mom, esp, but that’s pretty tough, takes a toll, not sleeping enough.

    you are apparently amazing

  140. 140.

    TBone

    Small dog story sent out with my best wishes for healing and strength:

    A friend had a long haired dachshund which, of course, she named Oskar Mein Wurst.  Oskar was our Officer in charge of Pest Control on our weekend trips upstate to the cabin.  One day, I was walking with Oskar along the shore of Penns Creek in a remote and deserted location in the backwoods.  All of a sudden, someone’s huge dog came along, on his way directly toward Oskar and I for a meet and greet.  Oskar took off toward that huge dog, pulling leash out of my hand.  The next thing I saw was a huge dog shrieking in agony as it turned and ran back from whence it came with Oskar firmly attached to its side, teeth sunk in and jostling and bouncing along as that poor, big dog loped away 😆 Stuck Like Chuck!

  144. 144.

    Betsy

    @Gretchen: Do you have a link?

    I just reviewed her Twitter feed, the Des Moines Register that sponsors her work, and did a google search for this news, but it appears that Ann Seltzer hasn’t done a poll for Iowa since September. 

  146. 146.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Citizen Alan: I was OK with the Man Show when Kimmel was on it. He was the only one of the hosts who understood that lampooning toxic masculinity was where the humor was. I’ve never found Adam Karala amusing in any way whatsoever. When Kimmel left and was replaced by Rogan it went downhill fast.

    Which just goes to show what good writing can do. News Radio was hilarious and while Rogan was far from the funniest person on the show he could be amusing. But on the Man Show he just fell flat.

  148. 148.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Capri: I was in Michigan over the summer. My parents live in Grand Rapids and near the suburb that was Gerry Ford’s home. It used to be full of country club type Republicans. Was a sea of Harris/Walz, Slotkin and Scholten signs with narry a Trump sign to be seen anywhere. The well educated Republicans may be lost to the Republican party forever. If that’s any indication we’re winning the suburbs big time.

  150. 150.

    catclub

    Make no mistake, REAL men are voting for Kamala Harris. Only incels and cowardly, insecure wimps with daddy issues are voting for the loathsome piece of shit.

    …. but as Adlai said, “I need a majority.”

  152. 152.

    catclub

    Did anyone else notice Jen Rubin has a youtube channel/podcast?
    I got the impression she started it the day bezos refused to make an endorsement.

    I don’t think she is quitting the WAPO

  153. 153.

    NorthLeft

    Along with defeating Deadbeat Donald, I hope this election convinces Americans in general that there are a lot more good and decent people in your country, than there are greedy and cruel bigots. That you can stop bad things from happening and show the rich and powerful that the people know what they are trying to do and will not stand for it.

    Thanks again to all of you Dems who are doing your best to help your candidates to succeed. As a Canadian, I prefer my neighbours to be sane. You guys are pretty much our only neighbours geographically, so this election is important to us too. Best wishes.

  154. 154.

    Ken

    @Chet Murthy: But more and more these last couple of months, he’s losing control of his words

    When he’s not just outright losing words.

    When that happens to me, it terrifies me.

  155. 155.

    Ken

    @Torrey: I think Dubya was a pretty accurate predictor of Trump

    Partway through the Trump term, I joked that he was some sort of anti-SHAZAM except instead of having the best features of heroes and gods, he had the worst features of his Republican predecessors.  The senility of Reagan, the criminality of Nixon, the stupidity of Bush II.

    I couldn’t make a decent acronym out of it, due to a shortage of vowels even if I went back to Eisenhower.

  157. 157.

    zhena gogolia

    Thanks for this! I will watch with pleasure later today! I hope your hand heals very fast.

  159. 159.

    Eolirin

    @Gloria DryGarden: Biden did clarify the he meant exactly what you would think he meant from the full context of his statement, taking into account his stutter, which is that the garbage comment wasn’t about a person at all, but about the rhetoric itself.

  161. 161.

    Starfish

    @Citizen Alan: The mention of “moral majority” instantly put the Green Day song Minority in my head.

    I used to think Green Day was so cool, but Green Day has ruined Green Day for me. All their songs sound the same.

  162. 162.

    Geminid

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I believe Grand Rapids is now represented by Democrat Hilary Scholten. It used to be a rock-solid Republican stronghold. Wikipedia tells that until Scholten won in 2022, Grand Rapids had been Represented by Republican for all but two of the past 112 years.

    The district was held by Republican Justin Amash until he left the party ~2019 to become an Independent. So in 2020, Republicans nominated Peter Meijer for the seat, and the 32 year-old grocery chain scion went on to beat Scholten in a fairly close election.

    Meijer’s first major vote as Congressman  did him in; he was one of the 10 House Republicans to vote for Trump’s impeachment. Meijer then became one of the four Impeachers who lost their primaries. Four others retired and two remain in Congress.

  163. 163.

    Starfish

    @Peale: Martin Shkreli (who went to jail for driving up drug prices) is encouraging people to vote for Harris because Don, Jr. cheated him on a memecoin deal, and this is hilarious because all the worst people are getting injured.

  164. 164.

    Starfish

    TaMara, I am sorry that you got bitten. It seems like some folks who got their first dogs during the pandemic didn’t bother to learn a thing about dogs and are out here letting their jack russell terrorists run wild off leash.

  166. 166.

    evodevo

    @MinuteMan: ​
      Yep…I lost an inch square piece of skin off the back of my hand when the son’s in-law’s yapper took umbrage at my being in their house. Aggressive little bastard – one of those cockayorkies or somesuch – size of a chihuahua, but sharp little teeth …

  167. 167.

    Betsy

    @Erin: as much as I would LOVE to believe that, I’m not seeing anything.

    I went looking for a rumor that Harris was up one in Iowa, and it appears to have come from this now deleted subReddit link.

    “Selzer” is even misspelled the exact way Gretchen misspelled it above, so I’m thinking her source is pretty obviously unreliable.

    *Please* prove me wrong at 6 pm Iowa time!!

  168. 168.

    Mousebumples

    @Betsy: I joked on bsky yesterday about, “What if Kamala is up 1 in Iowa??”

    But I’m interested to see what Seltzer’s latest poll says when it’s released later today.

    I don’t think Kamala will flip Iowa, but that would be crazy if she could…

  170. 170.

    AWOL

    @Torrey: Nicholle Wallace is a fascist apologist. MSNBC is where the GOP monsters who invaded Iraq and profited greatly from the chaos and division reside. They lost their positions to Trumpism, or in Wallace’s case, she began to feel afraid for her half-Jewish child when the GOP began playing footsie with actual neo-nazis.

    Bush Sr, Bush Jr, and Trump are/were sociopathic human shits. If a GW Bush endorsement helps Harris, cool, but then he can just go fuck off and die. Think of what we could have built with the money that ended up in Cheney and the other war-profiteers’ hands. Think of the lives lost. The blowback that continues.

    History didn’t begin on Election Night 2016; the rot began eons earlier. I hate the MSNBC is erasing history.

  171. 171.

    NutmegAgain

    Thank you for this. Great stuff!  And good luck with the hand healing up. (PS., Yay Scout, good dog!! Little dogs think they’re big dogs until the big dogs decide to show their Superman (superdog?) selves.)

  172. 172.

    Soprano2

    It’s the first presidential year we have no excuse early voting in Missouri. There’s an amendment to repeal the abortion ban on the ballot. They’ve been foolishly surprised by the heavy early turnout. I would have voted early, but Election Day is more convenient for me.

  173. 173.

    bookdragon

    {hugs}  A little JRT mix came at my greyhound – ran up under her belly and freaked her out.  Since her ‘brother’ was right there beside her, the JRT wound up needing stitches and my husband had to pull it away from two large dogs in fight mode (seriously, greyhounds are normally the sweetest friendliest dogs ever, do not attack them when they are on lead – when loose they will opt for ‘flee’ but when held that allll turns to fight).

  177. 177.

    Bill Arnold

    @Chet Murthy:
    I watched the whole 4m sequence, a long rant about microphones and incompetent staff. Whatever he was doing in mime (no microphone) had no relation to what normal people do when they have microphone problems. (Bedroom, OK whatever, on stage with large mixed audience, no.)
    Reddit removed the clip several times at least.

  178. 178.

    Ramona

    @Chet Murthy: I watched that clip from the point when he was talking about going backstage and punching the sound engineers while complaining about the pain futilely adjusting the mic was causing to his arms and shouting was hurting his throat. So I well caught the context and yet it sure looked to me like he was miming masturbating and fellating the microphone. I would speculate that in true liberal fair-minded fashion you are “steel-manning” (only recently have I learned this opposite of strawmanning) our opponent and overly revising your impression after rewatching in context. Take it from me that it is just as shocking on first watch when seeing his actions in context. Your modulated reaction on second watch was more likely because this time around you knew what was coming.

  180. 180.

    Glidwrith

    @karen marie: How did we handle shitforbrains with our kids?

    This fucking guy has been destroying our lives since they were 8 and 10 years old, respectively. I’ve never believed in protecting my children from understanding bad things happen and he was a very Bad Thing. They understand racism exists, they understand if good doesn’t fight, evil will win. They understand how policy connects to their way of life and they will never miss a vote or fail to intervene. They will be able to survive and thrive because we’ve given them all the tools we can think of, then gave them their freedom.

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