That is all.
Florida woman, still rocking a punk rock ethos in the 2020s, which is kind of sad. Betty Cracker has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2012.
Tuesday Afternoon Open Thread
Have we seen this one before?
Vet tech is trying to restrain a large dog (possibly a mastiff?) to trim its nails, and the dog bolts with the vet tech hanging on like a bronco buster. I love the woman who collapses with laughter after her colleague is carried off by the runaway beast.
My dogs are somewhat unruly at home but good as gold at the vet’s office. Go figure.
Open thread!
336 Hours
You know that handful of folks who show up at this here blog to taunt Clinton supporters when there’s a bad run of polling? Do not expect them today. Even this cycle’s outlier polls that Trump loves to tweet — Rasmussen, LAT/USC and IBD/TIPP — are showing Clinton leads.
Like Trump, I have my favorite polls, though unlike Trump, I don’t put too much stock in the snapshots but rather pay heed to averages. But as far as today’s crop goes, I like ABC’s daily tracking poll, which shows Clinton up by 12. I think this is my favorite part:
If it holds, that gap signifies a stunning repudiation of the Angry Circus Peanut from a group the GOP cannot write off if they ever hope to be competitive in a national election again.
On average, there’s an 8-point gender gap in US presidential elections that favors Democrats. Most of the credit goes to nonwhite women, who vote for Democrats by overwhelming percentages.
White women vote Democrat in larger numbers than white men do, but Republicans typically get the majority of their votes too. Doesn’t look like that’ll be the case this year.
Thanks for getting a clue, fellow college-educated white women! Now go talk some sense into the white dudes in your lives. (Though to their credit, even white dudes are abandoning Trump — the poll shows Trump 4 points behind Clinton with college-educated white men and losing altitude with non-college white men.)
Another interesting thing to note about the above chart, as someone on Twitter pointed out: Jill Stein has essentially ZERO support with this group, which means she’s sewn up the hardcore Dudebro bloc and pretty much nothing else.
And another thing: the Cook Report predicts that Team Donkey will pick up 5-7 seats to secure a majority in the US Senate. Life might be about to get more interesting for Judge Garland.
Just 14 days to go before our long national nightmare is over, my friends. A mere fortnight. Vote. Phonebank. Knock on doors. We can do this.
Obama Ices Issa
Some of y’all mentioned this in earlier threads, but additional details about the Obama-on-Issa smack-down make it all the more delicious. Via Jezebel:
California Rep. and wheezing obstructionist Rep. Darrell Issa (R), locked in the closest race of his congressional career thanks to the half-melted pile of candy corn from Halloween ‘83 that he endorsed for president, has proven himself rather immune to irony; most recently, Issa tried to praise President Obama, the man he’s spent 8 years demonizing, in a campaign mailer. Unfortunately for Issa, Obama is about to leave office and has nothing to lose.
Last week, Issa sent out a mailer that included, according to the Los Angeles Times, “a nice photo of Obama at his desk” and a quote from Issa saying he was “very pleased” that Obama signed the Survivors Bill of Rights into law. At a fundraiser on Sunday night for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Obama praised Issa’s opponent, retired Marine Col. Doug Applegate, and called Issa “shameless.”
“Let me just point out that as far as I can tell, Issa’s primary contribution to the United States Congress has been to obstruct and to waste taxpayer dollars on trumped up investigations that have led nowhere,” Obama said, referring to Issa’s use of his image as “the definition of chutzpah.”
THWACK! I hadn’t realized the smarmy car thief was trying to hide behind PBO’s coattails. Yeah, “chutzpah” is the word, alright.
Issa was reduced to bleating about Benghazi in a follow-up statement, a sure sign that President Obama’s haymaker floored the slimy congressman. It would be great to see that sanctimonious, hypocritical prick Issa hit the bricks. C’mon California!
One Vote in Florida Banked for Hillary Rodham Clinton
Today is the first day of early voting in Florida, and I was there within an hour of the polls opening. I was more moved and excited about the chance to vote for the first woman president than expected this morning. To mark the occasion, I decided to wear all white in honor of the suffragettes — as Hillary herself has done.
I was much less fancy, of course — decked out in white shorts, white t-shirt and white oxford button-down against the 70-degree morning chill. This being Florida, anyone who noticed my snowy ensemble probably assumed I’m a surprisingly Caucasian-looking Santeria initiate. But it meant something to me.
Anyhoo, our election day polling place is right around the corner at a church, but the early voting location is at a library several miles away and near a fairly sizable retirement community. There were no lines before 8 AM, but the polling place was doing a brisk business. There were signs for candidates lining the driveway and thickly planted in every grassy median in the parking lot, mostly for Republicans.
There were two electioneering ladies in the parking lot, one holding a conventional sign for the more conservative-leaning candidate running for a non-partisan circuit court seat, and the other holding a three-tiered tribute to Trump-Pence. The latter featured a standard yard sign plus two homemade signs fore and aft, all held aloft on a single yardstick.
I suspect the holder of the Trump-Pence sign compelled her grandchildren to construct the homemade components, given the quality of the penmanship and the volume of glitter and streamers. That lady was wearing Mickey Mouse ears; I shit you not.
So, I voted. And for the next 15 days, I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure other Democrats vote too. Let’s win this thing — bigly.
One Vote in Florida Banked for Hillary Rodham ClintonPost + Comments (157)
Pet Photo Pro-Tip
Genius idea:
It wouldn’t help with the quality of the photo, but it would keep the pet’s attention.
Where is everyone today? Getting out the vote, I hope. I was helping turn Florida blue this weekend. And tomorrow, I’m looking forward to voting early.
Open thread!
Saturday Afternoon Open Thread
I’m road-tripping today (local travel only — Deplorables Country if the signage is any indication), but it looks like we could use an open thread.
Here’s a photo I took the other day. That’s St. Pete on the horizon.
The Gators have a bye week, so I’m not paying enough attention to college football to even be sure who else is playing today. Any good matchups?
What else is going on?