Some weeks back, shortly after Trump first began bellowing like a ruptured water buffalo about vote-by-mail FRAUD, I was listening to a podcast featuring Never Trump scamp* Rick Wilson where he marveled, with equal parts disbelief and glee, that vote-by-mail is the Republicans’ “secret sauce,” so a Trump push to discredit it would almost certainly boomerang back to hit Republicans on the noggin.
What Wilson said about vote-by-mail is common knowledge, at least among people who understand how campaigns work, which excludes Trump. That’s one reason state-level Democratic Party organizations have put a ton of time and effort into persuading Democrats to vote by mail. They’ve stepped up those efforts because of the pandemic, for obvious reasons.
To offset the damage Trump is doing to his (and their) electoral prospects without hurting Trump’s extra-dainty feelings, Republicans are trying to explain to voters that there is a difference between absentee ballots and mail-in ballots — a distinction that literally does not exist in some swing states, including Florida. But what’s that saying — “if you’re explaining, you’re losing”?
They’re losing, according to this report in The Post:
One recent Facebook sponsored post from the Johnston County, N.C., Republican Party exhorted voters not to dismiss a GOP mail piece coming their way: “ATTENTION!!! If you receive an ABSENTEE BALLOT MAILER like shown in this picture, please know that it is legitimate!!!”
“Please don’t confuse North Carolina’s absentee system with other states’ all-mail elections,” read the message from party chairman. “NCGOP and JoCo GOP agrees with the President that our current absentee ballot request system is safe and secure.”
The assurance was met with skepticism from many commenters. “Burned it! I will go in person to vote straight Republican,” wrote one.
“Why is the GOP sending this out,” wrote another, adding: “You know damn well that we are arguing against this, and here it is our own damn party sending this horse dung out?!!! Whoever is in charge of this should be fired. I am going to the polls, Don’t send me one.”
The same thing is happening in Florida, where Republicans used to dominate vote-by-mail (thanks in part to Wilson’s machinations) but now believe mail-in ballots are the work of Satan. Trump tells them to request an absentee ballot instead, but if you Google “request absentee ballot Florida,” you’ll get links to the state website for…vote-by-mail. Because they’re the same thing.
Anyhoo, we don’t know what the pandemic situation will be on election day, though perhaps we can infer from the incandescent stupidity of Trump and his cult that we’ll still be floundering around with an uncontrolled spread. Trump and his gang of sycophants are fucking with the postal service, and that’s awfully worrisome.
But from a strategic GOTV point of view, all this screeching from Trump about vote-by-mail fraud is looking like yet another example of Trump stepping on his own pee-pee while wearing golf spikes. Please proceed, Lumpy!
Open thread!
*As I’ve explained in comments, I know who and what Wilson is, but he and I are both Floridians of similar vintage who despise Donald Trump with every fiber of our beings and had sassy, quotable Southern grandmas, so I feel a kinship. At least for the duration of this nightmare of an administration.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Repeating from below for the Chuck Todd haters among us:
Todd is moving to 1pm daily, and Nicole Wallace will have two hours instead of one.
Did she change parties? Does she count as a Never Trumper?
kl
What kind of hamberders do they have in Frorida?
ThresherK
I’m getting a good “Henry Fonda at the end of 12 Angry Men” vibe from you here.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wilson is eminently quotable, and makes good ads. If he’s sincere about his repeated pledges to remain on the warpath against trumpism and trump’s enablers (say, one whose name rhymes with Larko Nubio) even under a Biden administration, I for one would be willing to forgive a lot
@Dorothy A. Winsor: that’s wonderful news about Chuck Todd. If the word dullard did not exist, it would have to have been invented for Chuck Todd. I remember him bringing MSNBC coverage of one of the 16 debates to a halt to assure us, in the most syrupy simper, that Kellyanne Conway wasn’t just good at her job, but she’s a good person…. probably the one where she brought the Clinton accusers to sit in the front row
And Wallace is a hard-core never-trumper and very much an ex-republican. And the way she talks about choice and the climate and BLM, I get the impression she’s never going back.
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Happy to see Todd moved down the food chain. He’s not always insufferable, but he often is.
I don’t usually catch Wallace’s show since I’m working when she’s on, but the few times I’ve seen it, I was impressed with her. She seems like a sincere convert, and she’s a pretty good host, IMO.
Benw
“Frorida”
Ruh roh, Raggy!
NotMax
@kl
As you asked.
Verbatim from the video: “Kind of like a fishy chicken.”
;)
CaseyL
I didn’t want to derail the Houston thread, so I will post here my reaction to the Anthony Bourdain clip that raven linked to down there, showing a Dance Party at a Houston Indian-Pakistani grocery store.
The clip almost made me cry, because it showed what the US used to be really good at: people coming here from all over the world, at times from countries at war with one another, and leaving their enmity behind. The grocery store in Houston has Indians and Pakistanis dancing, eating, and celebrating life together.
I hope that can continue for the folks already here. I hope that some day we can again be that kind of place.
dmsilev
Sadly, I doubt he has the flexibility required to perform said maneuver.
germy
They’re cheering in Frorida but his numbers are slipping in Florida.
Ken
So were there thousands of people lining the roads? The only picture I’ve seen is the one from the Frorida airport visit, and that was… fewer. Two orders of magnitude fewer.
I also wouldn’t put it past his team to hire people to line one block and have the motorcade circle it a few times. No, I would put it past them; they’re not that bright.
Matt McIrvin
Saddest of sad trombones.
There actually IS a distinction between absentee and mail-in early ballots here in Massachusetts; the two systems exist side by side and it is very confusing.
It used to be that absentee ballots were available in all elections whereas mail-in early voting was not, but absentee ballots require an excuse whereas mail-in early voting does not. Only this year, emergency legislation extended the mail-in ballots to all elections, and the Secretary of State announced that “I’m scared of COVID” was a valid excuse for everyone for absentee ballots. So the two systems are now functionally identical, accessible to the same people in all the same elections, but they still both exist separately, side by side.
germy
@Ken: Will you believe your eyes or trump’s tweet
Uncle Cosmo
I need to see Choke Toad in past tense, i.e.. as a Choked Toad. Fucker was incompetent when he was just a data gofer.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Dorothy A. Winsor: She changed parties. She hates the gop more than us (zeal of a convert).
Ruckus
@dmsilev:
I’d bet 10 cents that he has neither the flexibility nor the reach for the job, but he’s such an idiot that he’d probably manage somehow anyway.
oatler.
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
NBC preempted Todd with a Republican. Knock me out with a feather.
Roger Moore
I’ve already started to get information from my county registrar about vote by mail in November. California has already decided to mail ballots to every registered voter, but LA County produces their informational pamphlet in 12 languages other than English and the ballots themselves in an additional 6, so they need to know my preferred language. I’m glad to see they’re getting ahead of things rather than waiting until the last minute. It’s also reassuring to know they still believe I’m a registered voter.
Matt McIrvin
Anyway, I suspect that for Trump this isn’t a strategy to swing the election his way at all; it’s a strategy to try to delegitimize the vote when he loses, so that he has a shot at getting the result nullified somehow. It probably won’t work but he can create a lot of trouble in the meantime.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
thread on the latest move by Cyrus Vance, Jr, whose name always reminds me of the Doonesbury strips when Zonker’s uncle Duke was Ambassador to China. Would the Feds be able to stop the state of NY from turning over trump’s state returns, at the very least? I’m assuming a Federal judge could, in theory, block the IRS from releasing what they have?
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wilson’s home has been repeatedly attacked, his home has been repeatedly SWATed, his wife and daughter have been attacked, he’s been attacked in public, because of this shit he’s been forced to carry a concealed gun for protection. When you go through that, you’re never going back.
CaseyL
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: @Dorothy A. Winsor:
It’s been fascinating watching some of the formerly-GOP Never Trumpers moving leftward in the political things they approve of. Jen Rubin is another one; a few more months, she’ll be advocating for UBI. (I think she’s practically done so already, though only for the duration of the pandemic-fueled economic crash.)
Some of the Never-Trumpers will remain GOP-minded assholes, or revert back to that the instant Trump is gone; but a few have done a Heel Turn for Good.
Lacuna Synechdoche
Betty Cracker @ Top:
Okay. So I was reading Josh this morning and this:
… got me thinking: If the election still isn’t decided by the time the new House is seated in January, perhaps Democrats should make Joe Biden Speaker of the House until the election is resolved.
Once it gets resolved, assuming Biden wins, then he resigns the Speakership (can’t work for both the House and the executive branch) and becomes President. And a new Speaker election puts Pelosi back in charge of the House.
If, FSM forbid, the election gets resolved in Trump’s favor, then Biden resigns and a new Speaker election puts Pelosi back in charge of the House.
But if Trump somehow manages to keep the 2020 Presidential Election unresolved until January 20th, 2021, then having Biden in the Speaker’s seat automatically makes Biden the President on January 20th anyway.
Good idea? Idiotic? What do you think?
laura
Betty, you go on ahead and work your sass-bone with frenemy Rick Wilson and let Driftglass continue to drag him for blocking any reminders of his role in getting us into the fine mess we’re stuck in until after the election.
Anyhoo, we don’t know what the pandemic situation will be on election day – I’m guessing that late summer and fall is going to be a killing season for CV if current trends continue unabated and I hope to be proven wrong. If the trump numpties want to risk in person voting, who are we to infringe upon their freedoms.
To kl and your Frorida hamberder query – if you ever find yourself in or near the pointy end of the state, go here: http://www.theletub.com one of the best hamburgers I ever ate and if I didnt have a severe shellfish allergy, I’d have had the crab salad. I’d totes take OO and Suburu Diane there for birthday burgers and birbs.
Ken
There… are… four… lights!
germy
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Would be tempted to respond “Klingon.”
:)
germy
@Ken:
I’m surprised trump’s team hasn’t photoshopped more people into his airport gathering. Hell, trump could do it himself with just a sharpie.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
CA used to be sort of like that a long time ago but has gone full fledged voting is good, how can we make this the easiest thing to do? Polls open early, anyone can vote by mail and be listed a permanent vote by mailer. And there are drop off ballot boxes in many places other than polling places so you don’t even have to mail it in, libraries, senior centers, city rec centers, etc.
MattF
Rick Wilson understands that the never-Trump demographic may be influential on social media but is microscopic in electoral terms. He has to appeal to liberals for influence and for money– there’s really no other choice for him. So, that pretty much determines his path and his policies at the present. And he certainly gives the impression that he’s OK with that.
germy
Neither side really likes Chuck Todd:
CaseyL
@Lacuna Synechdoche: I
Some writers taking deep dives into Constitutional Law on what happens when there’s no successor, and some suggest that Chuck Grassley, not Nancy Pelosi, would become President in that situation.
There’s apparently a difference in succession between “lack of a clearly elected successor” and “something that kills or disables both the President and the Vice President at once. ”
IANAL, much less a Constitutional lawyer, but I do NOT WANT Grassley to get the prize.
Matt McIrvin
@Lacuna Synechdoche: It’s actually not the Constitution that specifies that the House Speaker is next in line after the President and VP. The Constitution just says that Congress has the power to determine who it is by statute, and the list is in that law.
So if the Democrats have a majority that’s capable of passing laws, and Acting President Pelosi doesn’t want to continue acting in that role, they could change it. Though designating a specific person by name might not pass constitutional muster; it’s kind of against the spirit of the whole bill-of-attainder prohibition, if not the letter.
germy
mad citizen
Trump 2020: Don’t believe what you see. Don’t believe what you hear. Vote for me!
To paraphrase Bob Dylan: “Idiot Wind. It’s a wonder they can even vote themselves.”
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@CaseyL: In Rubin’s case, that’s not surprising. The Neo Cons started out as Trotskyites who became radicalized over Black September terrorism, Soviets crushing Prague Spring, and Soviet Jewry (Jackson-Vanik). Now exposed to the rise and horror of domestic fascism, it’s easy to return to the comfort of their roots.
Puddinhead
@CaseyL:
The thing is, everybody who is up for reelection has their term end on January 20th. So what happens? If you take that to its logical conclusion, there would be no House members at all and since there are 23 R and 12 D senators up for reelection, the Senate would be 35 D, 30 R. The Senate then chooses a president pro tempore, who assumes the presidency. Then they choose another. Not sure about Senate parliamentary rules, because they could certainly screw up the above logic. We need the Senate parliamentarian (present or former) to resolve this. Surely they read this blog, no?
Matt McIrvin
@Ruckus: Massachusetts is actually kind of a laggard in making voting easier: the no-excuse early-voting system has only existed since 2016. And readers in other states keep dinging me for not knowing about ballot drop boxes, but they don’t have a widespread existence here. The state website just suggests that they might exist in your town. There is in-person early voting, which is basically filling out a mail ballot in person at City Hall and dropping the envelope in the box–I did that in 2016 and 2018.
japa21
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: True that. She was a true moderate Republican. But once you get out of that fog and start relating to the real world, perspectives change. She would now be considered a little left of center Democrat.
Hildebrand
I will buy some of these political conversions only after the election. Wilson, Wallace, Rubin, all of the other never-Trumpers – I will reserve judgment. I’m glad they are whacking away at Trump, but I don’t trust them. I think Rubin’s pearl-clutching column about the VP pick has a distinct ‘Democrats is Disarray’ glee to it that presages her turn back to the dark-side.
Matt McIrvin
@mad citizen: The last Trump ad I saw seemed to be ripping off the proto-video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues.”
NotMax
@Puddinhead
The new Congress begins January 3rd.
MattF
@Hildebrand: Disagree. She’s basically made the same observations that were made here– e.g., Ed Rendell doesn’t like ambitious women.
ETA: And she surprised me by giving Larry Hogan a kick in the balls for not disavowing Trump.
Gin & Tonic
@Puddinhead: IIRC, the new Congress is sworn in on Jan 3.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Repeating from below, because it’s worth saying again:
Chuck Todd should move – to the Sun.
LuciaMia
@Ken: Saw a photo of his Texas visit. Nearly empty. And ‘thousands cheering by the roads’ and ‘bigger than 2016?’ Are his toadies filling his head with these fantasies? Its like the opposite of the servant who would stand behind the Emperor on his triumphal chariot and whisper in his ear, “Remember, you are mortal.”
germy
@Hildebrand: I’m not sure why they’re making a big thing out of Biden “taking time” to choose a VP. Obama didn’t pick Biden until late in August. It’s usually done around the convention.
But the pundits are getting impatient, so they’ve decided that Biden needs to choose now!!
I’m getting tired of pundits accelerating everything to suit their 24 hour news cycle.
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: Yes, new Congress and Senate are sworn in (Fuck you McTurtle!) on January 3rd.
Puddinhead
@Gin & Tonic:
Whoopsie, but the numbers still shake out the same way, right? Just happens two weeks earlier. Or am I crazy? If there’s no election the House doesn’t just roll over like a continuing resolution, right? Same with the Senate.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
I like the hours he’s getting some shut-eye.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Is Fishy Chicken the new Baby Shark?
Elizabelle
@laura: Your link does not work. What is the name and city for the marvelous hamburger and crab salad place? Inquiring minds. Thank you.
NotMax
@Puddinhead
Moot point as there will be elections in November.
dmsilev
@germy: Yeah, a week or less before the convention is utterly normal. Biden’s campaign did at one point say ‘by August 1st’, so that might explain a bit of the pundit impatience, but it’s hardly worth a giant freak out.
phdesmond
@Dorothy A. Winsor: oh, happy day!
Brachiator
Apparently, Republicans live in an alternate universe where there is no pandemic and no Russian efforts to interfere with the election.
A rational Trump administration would work with the leadership of both parties to ensure that every citizen can safely cast a ballot. But that’s not the world we live in.
I would love for some reporters to produce the smoking gun memo or email where GOP strategists admit that they want a low voter turnout and are working to make sure that voters, especially Democrats, stay home or have their votes suppressed. Even better would be the acknowledgement that the GOP is willing to disenfranchise some of their own base if necessary.
Otherwise, the hoopla over voter fraud is just nonsense, and the GOP strategy of trying to distinguish between absentee and mail in ballots is laughable. But hey, something like this worked for dopes who accepted Obamacare when it was labeled something else.
Shit. I would not be surprised if the GOP sends out phony ballots or ballots with an incorrect return address in some districts this November.
Real voter fraud is more likely to come from government officials, and unfortunately mail in ballots provide a number of places where this might occur.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: I’ve already received two mailers from them, checking if my address is correct and if I need a ballot in a language other than English.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Veal shark?
Puddinhead
@NotMax:
Ouch, I felt that on the back of my head!
I was just trying to work through the thought experiment because of the differing answers to the question. I found it to be an interesting scenario in the abstract. We voted through a civil war, two world wars, so I know we will vote.
Hildebrand
@germy: Yep. Of course, Biden’s team said ‘first week’, and didn’t clarify if that meant they would settle on their pick or announce their pick by said ‘first week’ – which gives them plenty of wiggle room.
Betty Cracker
@dmsilev: Agreed — they probably shouldn’t have said the first week of August if they really meant the second, AND it’s not worth the giant freak-out. If it was just pundits getting the vapors, that would be one thing, but it’s also inspiring a lot of intramural sniping on Twitter, and that’s a shame.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: Look at my African-American stick figures!
(Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
germy
@Hildebrand: I’m glad he’s taking his time and choosing carefully.
I remember when McCain made his snap decision.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hildebrand: also, what I’m hearing is the delay is due to the difficulty in meeting due to Covid– Biden really wanted to do some kind of face-to-face meetings, I’m not sure if he’s given up on that or not– which I think Normies get even if Politco writers don’t
misterpuff
Trump says U.S. government should get a cut of any deal for Chinese-owned TikTok
I’m sure he put his personal snout into the equation also.
MattF
@misterpuff: So… Microsoft should have to pay the US government for policy decisions? Um, what?
Elizabelle
@MattF: I so enjoy Jennifer Rubin’s columns these days. And she is prolific.
This hour’s offering, WaPost: It’s time for Senate Republicans to answer for their toadyism
She notes that the Democrats have many opportunities for Senate pickups and only one endangered incumbent (Doug Jones of Alabama). And that McConnell has signaled that GOP senators can distance themselves from Trump.
(And you know she wanted to replace fanciful with “bullshit.”)
Jen Rubin poses a bunch of excellent questions that would never occur to Chuck Todd or any other leading both-sides purveyor (looking at you, NBC News corporate and FTF NY Times, and too many of our fine media buckrakers).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: The Senate is a continuing body, current Senators do not need to be sworn in.
Hildebrand
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That makes a lot of sense. If you are going to be working side-by-side with someone for 4-8 years, even if you already know them, you would want to sit down with them to have that conversation – zoom won’t cut it.
And the people losing their shit about ‘what this all means for Biden’ can go bugger off.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Looks like they’re going to get
Al Caponetrumpov for tax evasion and fraud…imagine that…Hey GOP, y’all should have asked him to resign a million crimes ago, or impeached him when you had the chance. I’ve never heard the sound of a toilet flushing for three straight months, but you’re about to…
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
I also received this information packet. It was well done and answered a couple of very important questions. It noted that the mail in ballot must be postmarked by Election Day, and that the ballot must be signed.
In addition to drop off boxes, I hope that there is early voting. There were few people present when I did early voting during the primary.
Jeffro
@Lacuna Synechdoche: It works.
randy khan
@CaseyL:
Some writers taking deep dives into Constitutional Law on what happens when there’s no successor, and some suggest that Chuck Grassley, not Nancy Pelosi, would become President in that situation.
There’s apparently a difference in succession between “lack of a clearly elected successor” and “something that kills or disables both the President and the Vice President at once. ”
IANAL, much less a Constitutional lawyer, but I do NOT WANT Grassley to get the prize.
I presume they’re saying Grassley because he’s President Pro Tempore of the Senate, but most of the scenarios that get to the PPT (gotta shorten it) involve there being no elections at all, which would mean no House of Representatives and no Speaker.
oatler.
https://relevantmagazine.com/current/jerry-falwell-jr-posted-then-deleted-a-bizarre-vacation-photo-from-instagram/
Brachiator
@misterpuff:
Wait. What?
Trump can’t help thinking like a third rate mobster.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@randy khan: Yup.
randy khan
@misterpuff:
As usual, this is insane. This literally has never happened in any review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Now, Microsoft doesn’t care, but you can be sure that TikTok’s owners will care.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: She’s the bomb.
I’d pay big bucks just to hear a GOP Senator up for re-election answer any three of those questions on live TV. Their choice – they can pick the 3 Qs.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Since some of my plans for trips to J Tree involve staying for sunrise and getting there before sunset, I decided to get an American the Beautiful pass(three trips to J Tree would pay for it). It arrived today!
ETA: I usually don’t pay the entrance fee when I go to J Tree since I get there and leave when the entrance booths are closed.
CaseyL
@randy khan: Good god, if things get that bad, we’re gonna see about a dozen legal teams headed to SCOTUS so fast they blue-shift.
Even if specified by the Constitution, you KNOW the GOP will be there with bells on, saying it’s “unfair” to let the Democrats who are still seated Senators make the call. And SCOTUS is very deferential to “fairness” arguments when doing so benefits the GOP.
It will be a clusterfuck visible from space.
Hoodie
Trump’s attack on mail-in voting suggests to me that he already knows he is going to lose and he’s just trying to set up a rationale for the loss, i.e., voting by mail was fraudulent. If that’s the reason, it doesn’t have to make any sense from a campaign point of view. It also doesn’t necessarily mean he will contest the results because he may just want an excuse so he feels better and/or he can keep the marks on the hook when he transitions to his media operation after leaving office. What better way to launch a new grift as aggrieved president in absentia who wuz robbed of his rightful office? If he really thought he had a chance of winning a campaign that relies on the base, he would want them to have as many avenues as possible to vote, as you’re starting with a smaller pool of potential voters, e.g., I think if you removed their likely voter screens, the polls might shown him 15 points or more down. We saw from WI that Dems will brave COVID to take out a hated GOP candidate, but it’s a pretty safe bet that a lot of older Trump-leaning voters will not brave the polls if it looks like he’s losing. As indicated, what he’s really doing here is screwing other GOP candidates.
J.
@kl: The Be Best kind.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@randy khan: so we’re gonna cut taxes on corporations and fund the government by auctioning off policy?
also, too:
I hate to say it but… pull the plug.
jc
Re: vote-by-mail FRAUD! Why can’t some journalist like Chris Wallace hold Trump’s feet to the fire? Any journalist can say: Mr. President, these claims you keep making about vote-by-mail fraud — show us the evidence. Genuine, proper citations, like an adult. College level verification. No more BS, please. Put up or shut up.
cwmoss
@Puddinhead: On the back of your… puddinhead?!?
Thank you, ladies and germs. I’ll be here all week. Try the veal, and don’t forget to tip your server.
OGLiberal
When I was a kid – early teens – I used to help out with Board of Ed elections. (mom was pretty heavily involved but not as a candidate) Back then almost everybody in town was a registered Dem but the dividing lines were pretty much the same as they are today. The people who would be (are) Trump voters today were always against the proposed school budget because “grrrr!…taxes!” while the candidates I helped were for it. We knew to never trust the initial results because things almost always changed away from our direction when the absentees counts started. (and the budget almost never passed) The anti-school folks would go after all the folks living in the several nursing/assisted living facilities in our town and get them to vote “No” via absentee. That’s why I found it so strange that the Trumpers were so anti-vote by mail – that’s their sweet spot!
NJ – where I vote – isn’t vote by mail by default but starting two years ago, if you voted by mail in the previous election you’d automatically get a vote by mail ballot until you told them to stop. The whole “absentee is different” is such a crock. You never had to prove that you needed one – it’s not like anybody checked if you were actually out of town or infirm or wouldn’t be home from work on time, etc.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Was it Wilson’s The New Abnormal podcast with Molly Jong-Fast? That’s a can’t-miss for me – it’s hilarious and they get good guests. Mary Trump’s interview with them was terrific. Rick Wilson frequently acknowledges his past, although he doesn’t necessarily own up to all the shit he pulled. I still think he’s done far more harm than good but at least he’s pulling for the good side for now.
laura
@Elizabelle: Le Tub in Hollywood Fla. along the intercoastal waterway. It is “interesting” in a flotsam and jetsom sort of way and the menu is both limited and so very good.
laura
@laura: here’s the GQ 2006 review in which it was #1:
The menu is big, and the food isn’t bad, except for the Sirloin Burger, which is magnificent. It’s slowly seared on an indoor grill, crusty on the outside, juicy inside, always perfectly cooked. At eight to ten ounces, it’s ideal big-burger size, and it’s shaped like a pincushion, with sloping sides, which means you get a nice gradient of doneness. The bun has a few poppy seeds and looks like a kaiser roll, but it’s smaller and softer. It’s just right for enveloping the meat, which is judiciously seasoned and spiced, mostly with salt and pepper, I suspect. That’s all it needs. No cheese or condiments required.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
First Chris Coons suggests he’d support getting rid of the filibuster, now this:
IMO, Coons is
far more conservativemore likely to be a traditionalist (edited) than Kaine, but I think “institutionalist” is a good way to describe both.SiubhanDuinne
@laura: I would snap that invitation up in a hot second! Sounds yum.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I would believe it, thousands of Floridian conservatives congregating in mass to infect each other and risking death over something as trivial as waving at Trump sounds about right.
oldgold
Good Lord!
https://twitter.com/RobDownenChron/status/1290134409757130754
The Moar You Know
@oatler.: Shorter link: he’s a swinger, and he gets off on publicly showing it while denying it. And that post leaves zero to the imagination; if you see that and don’t acknowledge what he is you’re willfully denying it.
He and his foul spouse are disgusting pieces of shit if you ask me, which you didn’t.
zhena gogolia
@oldgold:
What the hell is that?
Calouste
Btw, the same thing with Republicans going nuts (more than usual anyway) over their party trying to make the distinction between vote-by-mail and absentee voting, is going to repeat itself in October. That’s when the shitgibbon is going to pull what he thinks is a surprise by announcing there is a vaccine for Covid-19. Of course no one who isn’t going to vote for him is going to believe him, but a significant portion of Republicans believe a Covid-19 vaccine is a concoction made by Bill Gates and George Soros to inject microchips that are activated by 5G that will mind-control you and show the mark of the beast on your forehead. Or something like that.
Immanentize
@NotMax:
Ken
@zhena gogolia: I think it’s a Deep One. Some sort of marine horror, anyway.
Hoodie
@oldgold: looks photoshopped. Look at the color transition of the beard, the front is jet black, and then immediately turns while behind the chin. Looks like a front view of Falwell’s face pasted onto the head of another white-bearded dude with his pants unzipped. Maybe a hack or a lame attempt at a joke by Falwell?
zhena gogolia
So is nobody but me freaking out about Isaias coming to blow everything in the NE down tomorrow?
oldgold
@zhena gogolia: What the hell is that?
Jerry Falbad, Jr. trying to put the fun in damental.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I want those additional Supreme Court seats, whether Trump gets another appointment or not. The Roberts/Alito 5 are too dangerous to democracy. Reduce their voting power. Plus, we are still owed a seat, a la Merrick Garland’s stolen appointment. (May I add: Fuck Mitch McConnell. I hope someone is going through his taxes with a magnifying glass.)
@laura: Thank you. Le Tub sounds wonderful, and on the list for next trip to Florida/Fort Lauderdale.
Once the Sunshine State is no longer hopping with COVID.
Elizabelle
@Hoodie: Yeah. I wondered immediately if it was a fraud. How do we know the twitter account was not hacked?
If it is true, we already knew Falwell Jr. was a hypocrite.
oldgold
@Hoodie:
Doesn’t seem so.
Betty Cracker
@oldgold: Holy hell — posting the tweet for people who don’t want to visit the dreaded Twitter.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
Sadly, there are not enough Klingon speakers in LA County to legally require it on ballots. If you spoke Armenian, Chinese, Farsi, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, or Vietnamese you’d be in luck. IIRC the ballots, but not the ballot pamphlet, are available in a few additional languages, including Arabic, Punjabi, Gujarati, and French.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Good for them both and for Dems in general. Seems like most of the party has finally woken up to what they’re dealing with when it comes to Mitch and the GOP.
If wielding power is all that they respect (and it is) then let’s do it, in spades.
MattF
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s a reasonable threat. Also, I’ve read that Murkowsky has said she would not vote to confirm a SCOTUS justice before the election. Time has run out, and it may be too late now for Thomas and Alito to resign.
bluehill
@Hoodie: Norm Ornstein floated an idea that Trump/team was trying to drive up in-person repub voting in red/purple states, hoping that he would win the in-person vote and then try to invalidate the mail-in vote or claim the country can’t wait until all the votes are counted. IANAwanna be fascist so no idea if plausible at all.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: among other questions….
What is black water? wouldn’t a normal human who wanted to suggest sobriety say “coke”, or maybe a Tab?
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: pants unzipped and all…pass the eye AND brain bleach, please
bluehill
@Betty Cracker: Who took the picture?
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: I agree. We are already owed/owe it to democracy to add 2 seats due to Gorsuch (should have been Garland) and Kavanaugh (totally unacceptable).
And let’s double the size of the federal judiciary while we’re at it, to reduce each judge’s workload and to dilute the impact of all these unqualified trumpov/McConnell judges
Jeffro
@bluehill: the pool boy LOL
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: A quick google suggests it’s water with electrolytes. So the 2020 writers team is stealing from Idiocracy again.
catclub
oh, you people in your states where voting is encouraged.
Mississippi has NO vote by mail. Only absentee with a valid reason
(the only one they like is military deployed). We also vote for governor in odd numbered off years.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
If the cult theory of the GOP is true these people likely end up rabid Republican haters like John Cole. Bit like how the most confrontational atheists are former hard core fundamentalist who escaped the mind control.
catclub
That could be tricky when you tell us all the overseas military voters don’t get counted.
James E Powell
@Elizabelle:
Those questions should be a 30 second ad in every state where a Republican senator is arguably vulnerable. None of them are ever going to answer any of those questions.
Litlebritdifrnt
Had a really perfect day. Sis, BIL, Niece and greats came over to visit. DH had a brilliant idea to get a toy box and fill it with toys for the greats to play with when they came over. It was like Christmas morning. Nancy got to work on the legos and Rosie got to work on the Play Doh on the kitchen table. It was a bit difficult to convince them that they had to leave the toys here for them to play with next time (Rosie “see you Friday!”) Amy said when she said they were going to see Auntie Dawn Rosie wanted to wear her “pretty skirt dress for Auntie Dawn” Waited 20 odd years for a day like this.
Elizabelle
Moar WaPost columns with headlines, from this Jennifer Rubin fangrrrl. And these are just her columns since July 31. That’s four days, folks. In addition to her questions for GOP senators column, excerpted above.
Republicans don’t seem to grasp cause and effect
There is a reason Trump critics keep getting it right.
A stench of sexism in the VP search
Forget the rumors. Focus on the criteria.
How white supremacy infected Christianity and the Republican Party
A conversation with Robert P. Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute.
The media still hasn’t learned to corner Trump’s lackeys
Can reporters learn to ask a decent follow-up, for goodness’ sake?
Obama reminds us what it’s like to have a president who understands America
At services for John Lewis, the former president challenged the country to pick up the baton.
Distinguished pols of the week: John Lewis’s funeral becomes a moment for inspiration
Who stood tall?
Joe Biden’s ‘simpatico’ trap
Biden should really think about what it means to be “simpatico” with his running mate.
Time to challenge Republicans’ economic illiteracy
Their talking points are vapid.
James E Powell
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I bet you bring your own snacks to the movies, or you did when there were movies to go to.
Elizabelle
In moderation. I put up too many links to Jennifer Rubin columns. Pointing out she has written nine on-point ones in the past four days. Since July 31.
Most of them walloping Republicans, for their economic illiteracy and refusal to understand cause and effect, etc.
Two about John Lewis’s funeral.
MomSense
@Litlebritdifrnt:
So happy for you! I’ll wait for a less perfect day to ask your opinion on the palace intrigue.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: I think it’s funny that photo is up with a caption apologizing for …
whatever is or is not in the glass. Huh??
Mary G
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Tom Nichols tweeted once that he had fought with liberals for years, but it wasn’t until he became a never-Trumper that he started getting death threats.
Betty Cracker
This lady nailed it.
germy
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN CAN FUCK OFF INTO THE SUN, OR: THE 2020 HUGO AWARDS CEREMONY (RAGEBLOG EDITION)
frosty
@Elizabelle: JRub has been on fire. Reading all of her columns is now on my daily to-do list.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The Beast announced a five pm press conference a few hours ago. Judging by twitter, it hasn’t happened, yet?
Mary G
@Litlebritdifrnt: Aw. Makes going through all the drama to get DH admitted worth it. I’m happy for you.
Eunicecycle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: just started. I changed the channel.
JPL
haha The local NBC station showed trump head down reading and said if you want to watch go to our web site.
joel hanes
@oatler.:
Reminder that NBC strenuously attempted to mainstream Hugh Hewitt.
Elizabelle
Of more concern than Falwell Jr. photo. Fucking Facebook, at it again.
WaPost, story posted 2 hours ago.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro:
Haha
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Eunicecycle: thanks, I like to follow a couple of people on twitter
how long do y’all figure he’ll last today? till the first question about the Manhattan DA?
Ben Cisco
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Dunno, but it keeps on rolling while you wonder if the Mississippi moon will keep on shining on you.
MattF
@germy: So, fuckem. There’s a lot of good stuff out there– I just read ‘The Android’s Dream’ by John Scalzi. In which many very strange and funny things happen, including a very large alien eating a human, regretfully. And it starts out with a human mortally insulting another alien via a very unusual mechanism.
germy
here he is, today’s press conference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhPPbNk7XSU
“the vaccines are coming along incredibly well.”
mrmoshpotato
The latest Thoughts of Cole (Twitter) – haha
JPL
So I just channeled surfed, which is a stretch since I don’t have cable, the local abc station is showing the trump hunched over reading notes. CBS and NBC has moved on.
Ben Cisco
@germy: DollarTree Don Corleone is so full of shit.
Chyron HR
@Betty Cracker:
NO IT’S JUST HEAVY WATER
The Pale Scot
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
Where’d ya see that? I couldn’t find anything
Litlebritdifrnt
@Mary G: Yup, greats absolutely love uncle Nick, they think he is so cool. It has been a long time coming but the wait was worth it.
joel hanes
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I regard the money I pay for entrance to National Parks as the best-spent money that I give to the federal government, and have gone out of my way to pay such fees that I could have avoided.
Elizabelle
More from the WaPost article about the latest faked out video of Nancy Pelosi, which Fuckbook is leaving up:
Another fake video of Pelosi goes viral on Facebook
The social media giant attached a ‘partly false’ label to a clip manipulated to make the House speaker look drunk
[The WaPost puts up some of the video, with clear information and a chyron that it is manipulated video. Why can’t Zuckerfuck and his millionaire employees figure out how to do that?]
Richard Grant
Let the Frorida Man meme be forwarded throughout the land.
Patricia Kayden
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m almost intrigued enough to turn it on. I think I’ll just wait for Aaron Rupar to tweet the video
joel hanes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
We owe 2020 professional sports much gratitude:
First for the way that shutting down basketball in the spring signalled to the nation that immediate action must be taken
And now for the way that the failed attempts to continue play during the pandemic, with expensive mitigation measures in place, have demonstrated the utter folly of the delusion that face-to-face schooling and university campus life can be carried out safely.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Cole…?
also seen on twitter, he missed the filing deadline in PA
japa21
@Patricia Kayden: The difference, of course, is that those countries that are have a resurgence are locking down those areas where they are occurring and doing inconsequential things like testing and contact tracing.
KayInMd (formerly (not the front-pager))
I went to the supermarket this morning to pick up a prescription and try to get enough food for a month. While I was there I bought 6 boxes of individually wrapped packets of cookies. Then I took them to the post office. I told the lady at the window that I know they are having a hard time right now. I can’t make their workload sane, and I can’t get their paychecks to them on time, but I can bring them cookies, so that’s what I’m doing. It’s not much, but I feel a lot better this afternoon.
The Pale Scot
@CaseyL:
I’m on it
Kent
The are wrong for three reasons:
First, there is no statutory length to the speaker’s tenure. Pelosi is speaker until the House elects a new speaker. It in’t like the presidential term which is specified. If a new Congress doesn’t form, or doesn’t elect a new speaker then Pelosi remains Speaker. It is only by custom that they hold a speaker’s election at the start of every term of Congress. There is nothing about that in the Constitution.
Second, the speaker does not even need to be an elected member of the House. If Nancy lost her election the House could still vote her Speaker. Or they could vote anyone else Speaker that they wanted to.
Third, the new Congress swears in on January 2nd or 3rd. So there will be a new Congress by January 20 and also a newly elected Speaker (presumably Pelosi if the Dems hold the House. If some red states decide to delay or cancel elections and some blue states like CA and NY go ahead and hold theirs then the House would convene with whichever duly elected representatives show up just like it did during the Civil War without the southern states. There is absolutely nothing the President can do to force CA to postpone elections.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@James E Powell: The last time I was in a movie theater was 2005 and that was only because the kid wanted to see a movie after her Air Force BMT. The last time I went on my own volition was probably 1993. I didn’t bring my own snacks either time. The reason I’ve never paid to enter J Tree is that I’m usually there to shoot the night sky.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Is he on any swing state ballot? Don’t care about the others.
bucachon
Admittedly I just listen to npr and read the guardian (I’m in a bubble)* BUT
The spin on negotiations over the relief bill is that it’s all about the 600. That is vitally important obviously BUT
The demos need to broaden the argument. The funds to keep states and cities afloat is what may stand between us and full on Depression. And that’s money going to Texas and Arkansas and Ohio and California. The public doesn’t want their local government to collapse. The money for schools offered by the repubs is laughable. The public wants their school to be safe. That takes money no matter how they do it. The bonus pay for front line workers is a fucking moral imperative. A nurse I know makes less now than before along with her whole hospital. And like the 600 unemployment, the demos need to keep hitting that That money keeps the economy alive. People spend it at their local business and pay the damned rent.
Its 1929 again and again the incumbent republican and his senate is saying that we can get by on Happy Talk ?
ok thanks had to get that off my chest. * oh and here of course!
Baud
@Elizabelle: Didn’t they do that to her last year too?
joel hanes
@oatler.:
Reminder that MSNBC tried strenuously to make Tucker Carlson a thing.
NotMax
FYI.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@joel hanes: Can’t pay if there’s no one to take it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: he’s trying to get signatures in WI and OH
he needs five thousand signature in Ohio, by Wed at 5 pm.
James E Powell
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Just kidding, man! I was thinking back to my childhood and all the ways my mom would cut corners to save money so she & her seven kids could afford to do stuff. Everywhere we went, it would be on the free or discount day. Smuggling in the snacks was one that still makes me laugh when I remember that we’d each have a bag of something under our jackets. Were we bad people?
geg6
@Mary G:
Josh Marshall has a video of an interview with him at TPM. Really interesting and entertaining guy. He will be the loyal opposition when this is all over, which is fine with me. We need two sane parties and if he’s an influencer with whatever party besides the Dems is left, he would be a worthy adversary.
J R in WV
@Puddinhead:
This beginning statement upon which your whole comment is based is totally incorrect. The only federal officers whose term of office ends on noon January 20th is the President and his Vice President.
All the federal legislative people have terms that begin (IIRC) on January 3rd. So that well before the toll of noon January 20th, there is a new seated congress, with newly appointed Speaker of the House and Majority and MInority leaders of the Senate.
bucachon
@James E Powell: we always brought our own popcorn to the movies when I was a kid hidden under coats in a giant paper shopping bag
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ugh. Not that I’ll think this will be like 2016, but even a few votes could make a difference in a close state.
evodevo
@Hoodie: An acquaintance of his admitted it was him…
NotMax
Next head on the White House chopping block?
sgrAstar
@Lacuna Synechdoche: Nancy would make a better preznit than Joe. Imo.
?
A Ghost to Most
Rick Wilson has more guts than a thousand purity ponies. He’s also far more interested in preserving American democracy.
Patricia Kayden
Patricia Kayden
@Dorothy A. Winsor: She’s a strong Never Trumper and no longer a Republican. I actually love her show.
sgrAstar
@Puddinhead: don’t think that’s true. The new Congress is sworn in on January 3.
?
Omnes Omnibus
@A Ghost to Most: Ah, the plaintive call of the on-line mountain man. So very brave. So misunderstood by the squishes at Balloon Juice.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Yep. I thought it was more recent than May 2019, but that was last episode (that we know of …)
Seems like it was just six months ago.
Brachiator
@joel hanes:
Hewitt has spent his entire career trying to become a kind of second tier David Brooks on panel shows and news programs.
He used to regularly appear on PBS public affairs programs in the Los Angeles area.
He was always a weasel.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@The Pale Scot:
(1) https://youtu.be/ad6zCfShyR0?t=773
+
(2) “When I live in cities other than New York and Washington, I have a concealed carry permit,” Wilson told Observer. “I carry for a reason. It’s not a trivial macho posture thing. I carry because I’ve had people approach me in public and threaten to kill me.”
Ladyraxterinok
@Immanentize:
Did you see Rice wants to hold classes in tents this fall?
I read it, but just can’t believe it!
Ian
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
When you go through that you should have the self awareness that the monster you fed for years has finally caught up with you.
I wouldn’t wish being swatted or harassed in public on my worst enemy, but I have much better victims of the Orange Julius’ reign of error to shed tears for.
Miss Bianca
Oh, God, Betty, your graphic additions to DT’s Twitter mug just crack me the fuck UP, which I desperately need after the shitshow that was our local Board of Health meeting. Thank you, ma’am!
Puddinhead
@J R in WV:
How can you have a speaker of the house when no elections are held? They are all up for reelection, so no election = no house. It was an abstract thought experiment but I screwed up the date, leading to more comments than it was worth. The main thrust was that, were this to occur, the presidency would change parties and the first selection of president pro tem in the Senate effectively elects an interim president. So, do they go by tradition, or would there be wheeling and dealing, etc.?
James E Powell
@A Ghost to Most:
How did you come to know this?
Calouste
With the whole business around TikTok, the shitgibbon is literally moving to “nice business you got there, shame if something happened to it” mobster-dom, and no mainstream person seems to be calling him out on that.
My advice: if you plan on leaving the US if Joe Biden doesn’t become President, move fast. I know I will. The mafioso will strip assets from emigrants as well when he gets the chance.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Someone said a couple of weeks ago that the White House staff was down to the immediate family and kool-ade drinkers. I can’t believe they’re not actually doing worse in the polls
Yes, a gimmick starring America’s favorite trophy wife! that’ll win over Our Great American Housewives of Our Beautiful Suburbs
Elizabelle
@joel hanes: Reminder also that Megyn Kelly punked NBC for millions upon millions of dollars when her contract’s provisions greatly exceeded her appeal to non-Fox audiences.
NBC. There is a real problem over there with corporate culture.
Brachiator
@Lacuna Synechdoche:
There are provisions in the Constitution for resolving ties.
I am not sure what it means to talk about Trump keeping an election unresolved.
The Constitution seems to tilt in favor of having someone elected president. So, I suppose, the House and Senate could vote for president and vice president, selecting the candidates who were on the November ballot.
But who knows.
All this may lead to another amendment dealing with unresolved and contested elections.
TS (the original)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I can’t either – yet trump seems to be improving in some polls. Not to mention the virus is raging completely out of control & the share market jumps because someone in the US is going to buy tik toc. My brain hurts.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: she’s clearly taking her vitamins and staying hydrated =)
Jeffro
@joel hanes: pro sports AND the nation’s K-12 teachers, por favor ;)
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: so weird that Kanye doesn’t want to run in California, New York, Illinois, etc.
Jinchi
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: A speech from Melania?
At the time I thought her speech writers were trolling her, but after four years of watching the D-listers try to run the government, I’m not so sure.
joel hanes
Been a while since I commented “what digby said”, but …
what digby said
Jeffro
@geg6: I’ll take him as an ally and as a bit of a curmudgeonly ‘professor’.
He is teaching us Dems some useful things, after all.
joel hanes
@Jeffro:
I wish I thought the nation cared enough about K-12 teachers to pay attention and learn from their plight, but I don’t think that.
Full disclosure: my sister is a high-school special ed teacher.
Jeffro
Truth and it boggles the mind. I can’t even imagine trying to live with that kind of shame and self-loathing. “A ‘second tier David Brooks’, that’s what they call me…(sob)…”
Jeffro
@joel hanes: So…they’ll be going with Tucker, Don Jr., Tom Cotton, or Josh Hawley, then. Good!
Omnes Omnibus
@TS (the original): Don’t track the day to day fluctuations of the polls. That way madness lies. The polls will tighten. It will always be closer than we think it should be.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jeffro: he’s on the ballot in Illinois, I believe, and he got the signatures to get on in New Jersey, but the petitions have been challenged, according to that NY Mag article
Jeffro
@joel hanes: the teachers are the ones who hit the brakes on all these crazy-ass “sure, let’s re-open!” plans across the country…and superintendents and school boards knew what would happen if they proceeded. A huge % of those teachers were going to opt into being online-only instructors, take a leave of absence, or flat-out resign knowing full well that school divisions would hire them right back. (Maybe not their own division, but the one next door would). It’s not like there’s millions of folks standing around just waiting to pounce on those jobs.
(to be fair, a majority of the nation’s preK-12 school parents weren’t going to go along with those plans either)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jeffro: a Don Jr campaign would be a weeks-long version of this Sarah Cooper bit, which I think so painfully and accurately captured their relationship I almost, almost felt sorry for Fredo
Bill Arnold
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Not rabid; quite rational. They seen the cult from the inside, thought its counterfactual dogma. They Know, from first-person experience.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
man, Joy Reid is concern-trolling Biden hard on this alleged VP ‘mess’, for a second segment
Second surprise: I just got a fund-raising email from Adam Schiff for whichever Kennedy is running a primary against Ed Markey. I wouldn’t have thought of him as the type to get involved in a primary, at least not against Markey.
Just One More Canuck
@Brachiator: You and your friends should show me some respect. You should let me wet my beak a little… Tell your friends I don’t want a lot. Just enough to wet my beak.
Gelfling 545
@Matt McIrvin: NY really lags in this regard. We just got early voting last fall & could only vote by mail using CV19 as an excuse. We can do it again for November but who knows where we’ll go from there.
Kay
Ugh don’t watch the new Trump campaign manager with the sound off – his face is all contorted with anger.
theyre all just so horrible – hard to imagine how one assembles that many awful people in one presidency – it’s like 100 per cent bad.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Falwell!! ?????????
Brachiator
@joel hanes:
But it also is about trade and taxes and Jesus.
Trump is all about pettiness and resentment. He is promising a restoration of government by and for the benefit of patriotic white heterosexual Christian men, leading their patriotic white Christian women.
Everyone else is hated so that they can be marginalized, oppressed and controlled.
And the further fantasy is that low taxes and hard trade policies will guarantee prosperity at home and dominance abroad, all for the perpetual benefit of the right people.
You see a variation of this in the fantasy of BREXIT, which currently ignores almost every promise except the end of free movement of people, and the foolish belief that the empire will rise again if foreigners and immigrants are kept out of the country.
Frankensteinbeck
@joel hanes:
Digby nailed it. Trump will disappear as a political figure when he loses the election, of public interest only for his legal troubles. His followers don’t worship him. They worship having a white supremacist president. When he ceases to be that, he will have no value to them.
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Three weeks out is the usual time to start planning a convention, right?
Immanentize
@Ladyraxterinok: I can believe it because I am (and more importantly, the Immp is) living it. Off to Texas on Sunday.
Ken
And who’s going to do all the work?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
shockingly enough, Chad Wolf appears to be unpopular with his neighbors….
Brachiator
@Ken:
The Brits are allowing immigration laws to take effect even though it is resulting in labor shortages. And of course, exceptions are being carved out.
The fallback position, of course, is exploitation of foreign labor. Bring people in, use them, and ship them back out.
Import of food is making up for some of the shortfall from British agriculture, but full implementation of BREXIT will see major shortages.
It is insane and unworkable, but the Conservatives have convinced a chunk of citizens that all their problems are because of immigrants.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
that picture of Jerry Failwell Jr on the yacht is from a “trailer park themed” costume party on the yacht of a billionaire pal of America’s favorite Christian college president
artem1s
@Lacuna Synechdoche:
Nope. If the line of succession puts Nancy in the WH, she has to resign her seat in the House. You can’t hold office in two branches of the government at the same time. She would have to wait and be reelected at the next election and then be re-elected by Congress as Speaker.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Frankensteinbeck: I wish that were true, but he’ll continue to troll the public on twitter with inflammatory comments and the press will cover that because they love freak shows.
Frankensteinbeck
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
He will.
I doubt it. Yes, they love freak shows, but he’ll be old news. He’ll have no power and the Republicans will be going “Trump who?” If they cover him, it will be “Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on money laundering…” If Trump’s tweets can’t be made policy, the news won’t care. They have more important Democrats to harass.
James E Powell
@Brachiator:
This is exactly what Reagan promised. It’s been the core of every Republican campaign narrative since 1980. The racism and hatred for foreigners varies from coded language in the background to blatant hysteria at the center, but it is always there.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Ruckus: I live in a rural county in N CA and my husband and I were informed more than a decade ago by the county that we were, going forward, to be permanent absentee voters. Poof! Not something we asked for – we were just told. I used to like the ceremony involved in voting in person, (and never had to wait very long), but we have gotten to like the convenience (and now safety) of mail-in voting. I usually hand deliver our ballots and have the signatures checked to be sure they will be counted.
Palindrome
@CaseyL: The only way Pelosi wouldn’t take over is if she weren’t re-elected which is pretty hard to envision. Contested results for the presidential election shouldn’t nullify any congressional district results. If her seat is still open in January, I think Pat Leahy will get it if the Democrats take the Senate
Central Planning
@James E Powell: We brought in vodka or rum, but we were also dumb teenagers.
randy khan
@Kent:
Most of these scenarios assume that no election is held. If there’s no election, there’s no House, and so far as I can tell, no Speaker. I couldn’t find any authority to say that the Speaker continues in office – in fact, everything I found says the Speaker does not – and in general everything that happened in one Congress ends when it’s over. (This is why, among other things, each new Congress adopts its own rules and why bills have to be reintroduced if they didn’t pass in the previous Congress.)
randy khan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I got that one, too. I am scratching my head. All I can think of is that Schiff doesn’t like Markey for some reason.
dopey-o
@Matt McIrvin:
Sowing chaos and discord in America is one of Alexandr Dugin’s (and therefore Putin’s) stated goals. Preznit Toadglans can bequeath the smoking ruins to Biden, and Putin will settle for the new administration being hamstrung for years.
Two important questions are:
What will Putin do between Nov 4 and Jan 20 while his stooge sits on his hands at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave?
What will Putin do once a Democratic Senate, House and Administration hold power? Expect Russian adventurism to test a Biden admin still getting their sea legs.
Brachiator
@James E Powell:
I disagree to some degree. But Trump’s base is more explicit in their desires, and Trump is more explicit in fulfilling their desires.