Airhead.https://t.co/RSiowmrVVr pic.twitter.com/INsov0vHES
— Tom Toles (@TomTolesToons) July 5, 2020
Across the world, people come to this country with unrelenting optimism and determination toward the future. They study here, innovate here, they make America who we are. Donald Trump doesn't get that — we need a president who does. https://t.co/0VK0MCXMVq
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 7, 2020
Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health. On my first day as President, I will rejoin the @WHO and restore our leadership on the world stage. https://t.co/8uazVIgPZB
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 7, 2020
The 2020 campaign so far:
Trump: I'm racist. Vote for me!
Voters: No thanks. Also, Biden might keep us from dying.
Trump: But I'm really, really racist! You have to vote for me!— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) July 6, 2020
Game of Thrones. Cynical, ugly, went on for way too long yet somehow still felt like it was cut short. https://t.co/L4KRUV1Iod
— Tentin Quarantino (@agraybee) July 5, 2020
if trump gets blown out, trumpism will be remembered as a luxury good for well-off white people and less a response to economic desperation
— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) July 6, 2020
(Where “economic desperation” = “socially embarrassed racism”, of course)
debbie
A meme on Facebook this morning: “Vote in numbers too large to manipulate.”
debbie
I also like Trump’s contradictory arguments that COVID-19 is harmless and that he has saved millions of lives. ?
trnc
@debbie: Ha! Yup.
trnc
When I first heard about this, I thought “Well, hell, why not. If they can do all classes from online, maybe this helps them avoid racist assholes in the US.” But then I realized they’ve already signed leases, paid moving expenses, etc, and they’re contributing to the local economies. Also, people have pointed out the problem with internet access in some countries, as well as time zone differences.
Apparently, DT thinks this and traitor statue protections are his path to reelection.
debbie
@trnc:
I figure by the end of the week, there will be another drive by Trump to be named Man of the Year.
trnc
@debbie: If they change it to “Man” Of The Year, I might be ok with that.
Walker
@trnc: There are lots of problems teaching students online overseas, as we discovered last spring. China blocks a lot of the websites used for online instruction — including all Google apps. And the time zones make synchronous discussion a mess.
trnc
Mick Mulvaney, Political Genius. If there were ever a RE-ELECTION campaign that was not a referendum on the person trying to be RE-ELECTED, I would like to hear about it.
cmorenc
At the take-out order window of a local seafood restaurant, after the guy immediately in front of me had placed his order and the waitress inside the window asked him: “what’s your name when your order is ready?” He said “Donald Trump”. So after I placed my order and the waitress at the order window asked me for my name, I said “Joe Biden”. All three waitresses / cooks inside laughed, shooting me a friendly grin and the one taking the order said “love it”!
While waiting for their order, MAGA-dude and his two like-minded buddies were talking about how they haven’t seen a single Biden sign or bumper sticker yet. They’re truly oblivious that folks like the staff in the restaurant might not be with them so much as they assume come Nov. The look on MAGA-dude “Donald Trump”‘s face was priceless when the waitress in the window called out my name “JOE BIDEN”.
Jeffro
@debbie: also that it’s a “Chinese virus” (or Navarro’s take, that they purposefully foisted this virus on us in an attack of sorts)…yet…we will “just have to learn to live with it”
Sort of like telling the fleet at Pearl Harbor, “eh…things happen”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Toles is brilliant but this one is absolute genius. He’s not satisfied with just the main thematic element (the balloon) but the rhetorical question and answer made me LOL. And the cherry on top is the little penis balloon.
Jeffro
That Zeitlin take is a good one…I think I saw something from Jamelle Bouie yesterday to that effect as well. It’s encouraging and it certainly speaks to why trumpov is way, way behind: nobody has the luxury of indulging themselves in a pandemic.
(yes…I know about 40% of voters will anyway…but not 46% ;)
JPL
Trump’s campaign is spending a lot of money in the Atlanta market. I have trouble though with back to back ads against Biden. Either I’m going to get arrested for jay walking, or won’t be able to depend on the police responding to a distress call, because of cut backs in funding. hmmm
Luciamia
GOP ‘s new moto: “We haven’t killed you yet, but we’ll keep on trying!”
debbie
@JPL:
“Wait times are 5 days.” Couldn’t be more racist if they tried.
cmorenc
@trnc:
The tactic the Trump campaign is trying at the moment is to make the election a referendum on “Joe Biden de=funding the police”, judging from the commercials along that theme I’ve seen the past couple of days featuring lots of scary black people rioting and looting, and what the answer tree options at the automated police voice-mail center will be (under a Biden presidency).
rikyrah
@debbie:
I know that’s right ??
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Baud
@Luciamia:
Wait. What was their old motto then?
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Jeffro
@cmorenc: I keep hearing/seeing two “arguments” from the trumpov camp against electing Uncle Joe.
The first is, as you noted, that Biden will somehow ‘defund’ police departments across the country, leaving helpless law-abiding citizens (wink wink) helpless before violent mobs.
The second is that Biden is a puppet of the ‘far radical violent American hating did I mention far far left woke also radical left’ faction of the Democratic Party – ie, AOC and The Squad will be the ones really pulling Joe’s strings. Not just to ‘defund the police’ but on a host of other issues.
This is how they think they’ll make it a “choice” election, and not a referendum on trumpov. I don’t think either attack resonates with anyone who wasn’t already pretty strongly inclined to vote for the Ill Douche, especially not with trumpov’s obvious and ongoing incompetence in handling the pandemic and his obvious and ongoing racist words/actions. But I have no doubt there are stalwarts in the media hitting Midwestern diners even as we speak…
rikyrah
@trnc:
He wants to force the schools to physically open.
Someone on MSNBC did a segment last night.
Students from overseas give $41 BILLION to the economy
Dorothy A. Winsor
@cmorenc:
Go you! LOL
ETA: Is Immanentize still commenting? I haven’t seen him in a while. I hope he’s ok.
Baud
@Jeffro:
I think Trump also wants the media to ask Joe about those things, so Joe can deny it, and then they and their allies can microtarget lefty voters about how uninspiring Joe is.
Still don’t think it’s going to work, but that’s part of they’re strategy.
SFAW
@debbie:
Excellent point. I’m embarrassed that it hadn’t occurred to me until you wrote it.
JPL
@Jeffro: I haven’t seen the puppet one yet. The other one here is that he’s going to jail you for jaywalking. (by you they are referring to blacks)
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Two days ago.
https://balloon-juice.com/2020/07/06/monday-morning-open-thread-brah-do-you-even-tiktok/#comment-7766485
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: “I saved millions from hoax!”
Baud
@cmorenc: haha.
narya
Kitchen update! Not much to report today; yesterday they applied a final coat to the floor and then left so the floor could dry properly (which was fine w/ me). Today they start the cabinets, I think. Meanwhile, however, WaterGirl kindly contacted me, and I am assembling the “before” photos, so you all will get to see what has happened up through today.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie:
@trnc: Soviet Shitpile Mobster Manbaby of the Year?
Cermet
@trnc: Change it to “Mass murderer of the year” to be accurate
JPL
@narya: Yeah!! So glad that we’ll be able to see the progress you made.
Joe Falco
@JPL:
Trump really wants to recapture the “magic” of 2016 and exploit the same kind of white fears that was a counter to the BLM movement that came into focus that year.
Trump and his cronies are cynical enough to believe this is what motivates white Americans to vote, and they’re going to be partially right if history is any clue. I think any presidential election is a fight to define what the soul of this country is.
satby
so, following up with the discussion yesterday, this is cool, right? So long as it’s not fraud or anything.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud:
Thanks.
rikyrah
I signed up for a Mail Ballot yesterday. My first time ordering one.
Anyone in Illinois, Mail Voting has been open since June 18th.
rikyrah
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Their old motto was: “You don’t want to go from a black man to a white woman!”
Baud
@satby: I mean, there’s no constitutional way to exclude “hate groups” from any government program. Which, I think, is good for liberal groups over the long run.
ETA: To clarify, it’s better because conservatives have no compunction designating liberal groups as hate groups. See Trump’s antifa order.
rikyrah
Betty Cracker
Kellyanne Conway tipped her bony hand about the referendum vs. choice strategy yesterday:
It’s telling that creepy-ass Kellyanne would so directly imply that her creepy-ass boss can’t win a referendum election when she spends all day lying about how great Trump is.
It’s minor in the scheme of things, but I’ve been boggled for years now at the sheer amateurishness of the Trump “strategists” in their communication campaign roll-outs and…everything else. I’ve been involved in a bunch of “branding exercises” and corporate identity retoolings, and even the smallest regional players in the most obscure industries know better than to just blurt out the unflattering market research findings. Jeebus.
Matt McIrvin
@cmorenc: Most of the liberals I know around here are super disappointed that Biden is the nominee and complain about it constantly.
I’m 100% sure they’ll turn out and vote for him. NOT TRUMP is a powerful motivator.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Not Trump is not on the ballot. See Betty C right above you.
Baud
I don’t know if Biden has a campaign slogan yet, but now I’m partial to “Joe Biden is Not Trump.”
zhena gogolia
I’m totally excited about Joe Biden. He’s a good man and he’s been handling the campaign beautifully. He will pull us back from the edge of destruction. Just as Obama did.
MagdaInBlack
@rikyrah:
Thank you! Done ☺
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Kellyanne can just go right on believing that.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Hmmm … I’ve never seen “dishonesty” spelled that way before.
Jeffro
@Baud: that works (and fits on a bumper sticker)
I like my “BYEDON” car magnet and have already gotten a couple of compliments on it. Same idea, really.
Betty Cracker
@SFAW: Yes, they’re liars, which is their most salient characteristic, but they’re also amateurish liars. They suck at their jobs. That’s the point I was making.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I had been predicting a final death toll of 400-500K here in the US. I’m upping it to 750-900K, based on the malign neglect of this regime.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: The actual dissatisfaction I hear about Biden (granted I’m in an unusual part of the country) is mostly from the left and is about how he’s too old and too centrist. The attempt to brand him as a left-wing radical is just ludicrous and I don’t think anyone who isn’t already a Trump supporter will buy it.
Kay
Mary Trump’s book doesn’t hang together. The dates don’t even work and from what I’ve seen she hasn’t produced anything to back up the few claims that are new.
Is there anything more perfect than the Trump Family “whistleblower” being a completely unreliable witness who advertised that she had the goods but in fact doesn’t have shit?
She’s a Trump all right. She’s got more in common with her shitty family than she knows. Every one of them is a con.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I got a call from the Sean Casten campaign yesterday. He’s my US Rep. I immediately told the caller not to waste her time talking to me or Mr DAW because we were voting straight D, but she persisted because what she really wanted to know was the means by which we were planning to vote. When I told her we’d already applied for absentee ballots, she was happy.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: I’ve got a “Literally Anyone Else 2020” sticker, which also makes that point.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
“Too old” is just pure hypocrisy.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
Those Lincoln Project guys could put together a good ad featuring all the bad stuff Kellyanne said about Trump during the republican primaries, before she joined his team.
It’s all out there, and she was making the same points about him that we make here
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker:
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m not sure that the trumpov campaign has really thought through what will happen if they keep trying to push “NOOO THIS IS A ‘CHOICE’ ELECTION!!!” on the American public.
‘Cause the choice between trumpov and Biden, especially as the pandemic is raging out of control, is a pretty clear one too.
What Kellyanne obviously means by ‘choice’ is ‘here, let me tell you a lot of lies about Joe Biden while I completely ignore trumpov’s history of being a Russian puppet, committing tax fraud and sexual assault, out-racisting George Wallace, and oh yeah doing ZIP about the coronavirus’.
“The Choice According to Kellyanne”, in other words. Not the actual choice before us.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Not sure I like that one now that we have a nominee. It could be interpreted to mean “Anyone else except these two.” There was a similar slogan in 2016 that had that meaning, IIRC.
MomSense
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Hey. I was just popping in to ask the same. I asked last night but I can’t remember which thread and I’m too brain dead to figure it out.
Imms, hope you are ok. Thinking of you.
Jeffro
Not really ‘data’, but what I hear from my kids (older teens) and their friends is that Biden is old, but he’s clearly on board with all their left-leaning/progressive positions* so they’re good with him.
*social justice/equal rights and dealing with climate change/environmental issues are HUGE with this group, fwiw
Jeffro
@Baud: Yup – good point. Same with “any functioning adult”, etc.
I’ll probably get a new magnet or a bumper sticker once the VP is picked and the new Dem gear rolls out. I know it’s geeky but I’m actually looking forward to it.
/poli sci nerd
rikyrah
Betty Cracker
@germy: Same with McEnany, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, etc. I believe LP already put a Graham supercut together. It would be awesome to see a supercut with all of Trump’s current fluffers denouncing him a few years ago, underscoring that HE is a scumbag and THEY are hypocrites.
trnc
True, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to send the foreigners back home. It doesn’t seem like part of an overall strategy in the pressure to reopen schools because the foreigners are still paying tuition regardless of physical or online classes, and as you point out, the economy takes a hit if all foreign students leave.
Amir Khalid
@trnc:
TIME has always maintained that it awards the Man Of The Year title to whom it considers the most influential person in a given year — without regard to whether their influence was positive or not. TIME caught a lot of grief and cancelled subscriptions for naming Adolf Hitler in 1938 and Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.
mrmoshpotato
@satby: Glad to see you weren’t raptured overnight. :)
satby
@Baud: oy. There is a Constitutional way to exclude religious groups. But I surrender. That discussion yesterday was one of the best displays of how Democrats lose elections I’ve ever seen here. Because Democrats can explain how it’s just fine, desirable even, for rich politically connected people and groups to hoover up all the money meant to support small businesses, while many of those small businesses got denied funds. Explaining is one of the things we do best, amirite?
kindness
When Trump gets defeated in November, Republicans and conservative media will forget he ever existed just like they did with Dubya after the economic collapse/election loss. No they’ll pivot the first day and start screaming some bullshit to get the rubes scared, angry and riled up because that is what they do. That is almost all they do.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: The Scriptkeeper
Jeffro
OT, but: I see that the dumb “Kanye says he’s running for president!” thing is re-trending on Twitter this morning because he’s “taking off the red cap” (ooooo, dissing trumpov, ooooo)…
…and I just realized that another side benefit of raising the requirements to run for president means that idiots like Kanye get ZERO press coverage for saying “I’m running for president!”. The whole world would respond, “Kanye, you haven’t already served a term or two in Congress, or as a state Governor, so zip it.”
Tell me THAT’S not worth amending the Constitution for, eh? =)
satby
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: It’s going to be damn close to a million deaths, if not over that.
mrmoshpotato
@kindness:
If Biden wins, Dump will be memory-holed before midnight.
Donald who? George W Who?
germy
@kindness:
Dubya cooperated by going silent. I wonder if the donald will launch his media empire and become the shadow president his base craves.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro: Official Monster Raving Loony Party
Jinchi
Yes, but only the day after Biden’s inauguration. These cowards will be too busy helping Trump shred the records of their crimes until then.
mrmoshpotato
@germy:
You misspelled “whining, baby bitchwaffle.”
mrmoshpotato
@Jinchi: Touché.
hueyplong
@Amir Khalid: If things keep getting worse, I’d guess Time will name as People of the Year the hospital workers who deal with COVID cases.
If we get incredibly lucky and there is talk of a vaccine that might work, its inventor(s) will be Person(s) of the Year.
And of course there is always Biden (if he is declared the winner).
Jinchi
You don’t remember all the press coverage Schwartzenegger got when he talked about running for president? Kanye is a celebrity. There’s no way the press wouldn’t cover this.
prostratedragon
@Jeffro:
Perhaps. Meanwhile there are always cast iron skillets.
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro:
Those kids are smart. Kudos.
Frankensteinbeck
@satby:
A large chunk of the Democratic voting base expects Democrats to be reasonable, polite, and have nuanced, results-oriented positions. Almost the entirety of the Republican base demand to be lied to by leaders who will focus on hurting everyone they don’t like in the most juvenile asshole way possible. Note that the angry leftist lost the primary in favor of the friendly technocrat.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
But Kellyanne’s husband is one of the LP guys, so they tend to leave her out, I think.
charluckles
@zhena gogolia:
Thank you! Agreed. Moreover, I am coming around to the terrifying recognition that this will be one of the worst fall/winters in our nation’s history. We are going to need a President who knows what has to be done to move forward after life takes a great big **** on you.
Jinchi
Her husband is one of the founding members of the Lincoln Project, so I’m guessing she’s safe.
Honestly, I’m amazed Trump hasn’t fired her for association with the enemy.
zhena gogolia
@charluckles:
Yes, I’m not looking forward to it.
Jinchi
There’s a reason Joe Biden is polling 10-12 points ahead of Trump and it’s not because he’s the most popular man in the country. Obama only won by 7% and that was after the collapse of the global economy.
prostratedragon
We have to make through ev-er-y one of the 6,696,001 seconds between 12:00am Nov 4 and 12:00:01pm Jan 20. The good news is that there are finally fewer than 17 million seconds between now and the Nov 4 date-time.
CindyH
@Jinchi: I see her as very shrewd and able to manipulate trump unlike the other incompetents surrounding him.
khead
The “Biden will defund the police” Trump ads are flooding the Philly market during the local news.
Jeffro
@Jinchi: True, they’d still cover it somehow. Sigh…
Jackie
@germy: @germy: Yes! Added bonus: Her hubby, George Conway, is one of them!?
Omnes Omnibus
@satby: You are nut-picking. And mischaracterizing yesterday’s discussion.
trnc
I was disappointed that my preferred candidate (Warren) didn’t win, but I haven’t been disappointed by the Biden campaign so far.
dexwood
@khead: Albuquerque, too. Remote! Where’s the fucking remote?
prostratedragon
@prostratedragon:
Whoops, read my script wrong. Fewer than 10.3 million seconds to Nov. 4.
Kay
@satby:
They didn’t hoover up all the money though. There’s 130 billion left. They extended the application deadline in April (when they replenished the funds) to August 8. I was fine with the media coverage of the release of information – they didn’t get names and addresses for recipients under 150k (only zip codes) so they didn’t mention them other than in passing, but since they didn’t cover the loans that were under 150k they didn’t cover the entire category of (genuinely) small businesses/nonprofits who benefited.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Got it.
I used to be better at picking up on stuff like that. I blame
ObamaHillaryBiden.Ken
@khead: And how much federal funding do the Philly police get?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@cmorenc:
They. Are. So. Fucking. Weird. It’s an step down from writing Dick Hertz on the nameplate of your biology book in 9th grade
Kay
@satby:
My complaint with the first round was people without a “relationship” to a large lender couldn’t take part because smaller lenders couldn’t get up and running fast enough to serve the need. They tweaked that in the 2nd round by designating that 60 billion had to go to local lenders.
People should apply now. The crush is past and they’ll shovel it out the door and the terms are better. They reduced the proportion that has to go to payroll and extended deadlines for compliance/forgiveness.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
They have. It’s pretty good.
jeffreyw
@Baud:
“Biden Bids No Trump”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia:
It’s not an issue I lie awake thinking about, but the little twitter game her daughter is playing, while assuring the reporter who talked to her that her mom is her best friend, put me back in the KAC is Anonymous camp. It will be depressing if not surprising if she succeeds in her plan to be relevant post-trump. But again, not the kind of thing I’ll lose sleep over.
Kay
I wouldn’t have any problem with a business or nonprofit taking it even as a low interest loan, accepting that they probably can’t spend it in the time allotted. Hedge, because this thing doesn’t seem to be getting BETTER, certainly. They set it up as grant or loan. Use the loan mechanism. It’s your money. Follow the rules, don’t commit fraud or steal, but use it to your advantage. That’s what it’s there for.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
As a fan of magic, i.e. illusion, I’ve noticed that when the performer tells you in their patter that X is not what is happening, then X is what is actually happening.
Another Scott
(Scott Surovell is my state senator.)
Yup.
That’s the (only?) sense in which “Slippery Slope!!” is accurate: Real progress is incremental. It’s (almost) never a full loaf. We have to keep working and fighting every day. The job is never done.
(via NotLarrySabato)
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
No one should rely on it and I think demographic change was exaggerated in 08 to 16 but this is wild:
He included turnout levels.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It never occurred to me that KAC is the NYT’s Anonymous — I assumed Anonymous is a man — but maybe it is her. She’s certainly arrogant enough to function as an unelected regent for an out-of-control moron she thinks she can control.
I kinda hope it is her and that she and George do a big reveal once Trump is defeated. That would chap Trump’s ass so hard!
Heidi Mom
@hueyplong: Or Dr. Fauci.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
There’s probably a Severus Snape analogy/parallel to be made, if that turned out to be true.
Betty Cracker
I heard George Conway on a podcast recently, and he explained that he voted for Trump because of judges, which is an excuse lots of wingnuts use, of course. Conway has since owned that he made a mistake because Trump is a nut, but I was thinking how could he not have realized the extent of Trump’s insanity and incompetence since he (Conway) had an inside view of the campaign via the wife? Well, that supports the KAC is Anonymous theory, doesn’t it? They knew Trump was nuts and thought KAC could control him from inside the White House.
SFAW
@Jinchi:
I remember various Rethugs talking about amending the Constitution to allow a foreign-born non-citizen* candidate, so that he could run. Their tolerance in that regard lasted until they thought a black man fell into that category.
* “Non-citizen” at birth, not at the time of his candidacy, of course.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker:
If she’s not a narcissist in the same camp as trump, her camp isn’t far away. Her career peaked as a regular on Bill Maher’s old show till she stumbled into the trump campaign and then White House.
The list of people who thought they could control trump is long– Mattis, Tillerson, Cohn, probably Ryan and McConnell…– I think KAC and Mnuchin are the only ones who didn’t give up or get pushed aside as they decided to ride tax cuts and judges all the way to Judgement Day.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
As I recall, McConnell’s price for allowing any stimulus at all was language allowing the rich first turn at the feeding trough. Democrats decided that as long as there was plenty left over for everyone else, that was an acceptable sacrifice. I wish we could have told him to fuck off, but McConnell has a stranglehold on legislation and like the virus, that doesn’t go away if we ignore it.
prostratedragon
Something to be aware of. On an individual basis, checking one’s signature and using a drop box if one is provided should help.
Baud
Trump subpoena decisions coming out tomorrow. Should be a hell of a day.
Kropacetic
He’d be great to have a beer with…
Betty Cracker
My phone just blew up with news alerts about the SCOTUS allowing employers to opt out of the ACA birth control mandate over religious/moral objections, and I’ve got déjà vu all over again.
dopey-o
I learned a lot from my college classmates. I have heard this from many other grads. But by all means, let’s send college students back to places where free discussion and exploration of thought is quashed.
This cuts their educational value in half, and guarantees America will not benefit from their smarts. MAGA means Death To America.
Putin hates America. Drump hates America. You do the math.
Tenar Arha
@narya: ooh, vicarious fun!
Frankensteinbeck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t think McConnell has ever cared enough to try and control Trump. He wishes Trump weren’t so embarrassingly stupid, sure, but Trump signs everything McConnell hands him, delivers Russian funding (and McConnell is said to treat campaign funding as his religion), is happy to conspire in that being ‘almost nothing’, is a hateful bigot, and is specifically punishing America for electing a black man president. Trump doesn’t need reining in from McConnell’s perspective. Like, with COVID the things that would help Republicans electorally would also help the general public, and McConnell loathes that and is dragging his feet. Trump is not his problem there.
@Baud:
Court watchers expect congress to be rejected because the reason to subpoena was too broad and vague, but New York prosecutors to get approval as it matches Roberts’ ‘Did you follow procedure?’ pattern. But as always, nobody knows for sure.
Dorothy A. Winsor
We just got a phone call telling us there’s a boil-water order because a water main broke. What a pain.
TS (the original)
@Betty Cracker:
I think they also stopped teachers working in catholic schools going to court because of discrimination.
The idea of separation of Church & State seems to work well in regard to the Church while disallowing the state to pass laws the church does not like.
Amir Khalid
@Kropacetic:
… if only he weren’t a teetotaler.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Betty Cracker:
He’d file something kind of a lawsuit. He wouldn’t win, but he’d find some willing idiot.
Another Scott
@Frankensteinbeck: +1
McConnell doesn’t have to care. He controls what comes to the floor. If he doesn’t like it, it doesn’t happen. He doesn’t have to make a big deal about it – he can just ignore it.
E.g. Even before January 2017, Moscow Mitch said that a “$1T Infrastructure Bill” wasn’t happening. And it hasn’t.
Cheers,
Scott.
Emma from FL
@Betty Cracker: My email at work did too. That’s our real uphill battle. Dammit.
Emma from FL
@Another Scott: I really wish Democrats had a Lincoln Project targeting McConnell. We still aren’t cutthroat enough, I guess.
Jinchi
@Kay: Remember Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were decided by vapor thin margins in 2016, so virtually anything could blow those 3 over the line. That’s why we had those ‘(obscure group of voters) decided the election for Trump’ hot takes after he won.
mali muso
So in my corner of the world where we are all scrambling to suss out how best to advise international students after ICE came down with their new guidance, it looks like Harvard and MIT are suing.
Another Scott
@TS (the original): These “religious” institutions are abusing the 1A. It needs to stop.
Why can’t “churches” and “religious institutions” opt out of any rule or law that they don’t like? Zoning, Slavery, Libel/Slander/RICO, Explosives, Food Safety, Age of Consent, etc., etc.
It’s madness.
Grrr….
Cheers,
Scott.
SFAW
@Emma from FL:
Actually, they had an anti-McConnell ad out a few weeks ago, “Rich Mitch.” It was so-so, in my estimation. Apparently he’s not as “target rich” a candidate as the Traitor-in-Chief. Either that, or they’re not as willing to push the boundaries as they are for the Murderer-in-Chief.
Jinchi
This is the opposite of separation of Church and State. The State is creating explicit carve outs for “religious” people.
Simply claim that your religious views prohibit contraception and you’re done. I don’t know why this precedent would stop at contraception. A mediocre lawyer could easily leverage this to conclude that employers no longer have to cover vaccinations, cancer treatments, coverage for same sex partners, coverage for atheists/jews/muslims, medicines invented by heretics ….
Uncle Cosmo
Dead thread, probably, but let me point out (for the 2 or 3 people who might read this) a nugget in those Eric Z tweets that IMO bears highlighting:
This is how I remember 2008. People were scared spitless of Great Depression 2.0 and when McCain insisted on a meeting in DC with Obama he proved to everyone watching (who hadn’t already been turned off when he grabbed the Wasilla Hillbilly for a running mate) that in the gathering crisis he couldn’t find his arse with both hands. By contrast, Obama looked like the only adult in the room – & anyone still on the fence tumbled his way.
And this leads to an important conclusion: In 2008 Obama was an aberration. Just like FDR, who was elected in 1932 in large part because Herbert Hoover had spent 3 years proving to the American electorate that he didn’t have a clue what to do about the Depression.
Election Night 2008 we all laughed & danced & high-fived, convinced that “post-racial America” had finally arrived. And then we went home & tended our own gardens. Turned on the NFL & NBA & NHL, got ready for The Great American Pig-Out & Christmas season, watched our kids grow up & our obscure foreign detective series at night. Hey, Obama’s got this!
Except he really didn’t. He held it together barely enough to get the Affordable Care Act through Congress and win re-election. In the teeth of the furious storm blowing up on the Far Right, we probably couldn’t have asked for much more (loudly though we bitched & moaned about everything we didn’t get). And then 2016 & the (s)election of an evil imbecile whose main aim was to tear down everything his dark-skinned predecessor had worked so hard to build (while shitting on immigrants and POCs).
Looking at the way the nation has responded to the protests over police violence directed at POCs, one might guess that Obama’s time – in “the fullness of time” – would’ve been about now, 12 years after the fact. That he “showed up early” was a function of adeptly securing the nomination (probably with a few lucky breaks to help out) & then being the only functioning adult on the ballot at a time of great anxiety.
On Election Night 2008, deliriously happy Democrats presumed that the “post racial society” was the new normal. The problem is that many – most – progressive types presume that still. Even after 7.5 years that have pretty much proved that presumption wrong.
There is a substantial “pleasegodmakeitdidn’thappen” vote this year, but it’s not by&large a movement for going back to when a black man was POTUS – rather one for going back to a time when a decent and competent and normal person was POTUS.
Biden fills the bill admirably – far better than anyone else who ran (including – face it! – every freakin’ one of your personal heart-throbs, Jackals). The brilliance – the necessity – of nominating him is that he can also win over white voters for whom a woman and/or a POC would be a bridge too far. That is, if the noisier & leftier part of the electorate can refrain from screaming BETRAYAL! whenever the campaign makes the slightest gesture toward collecting support Democrats wouldn’t customarily get (like the Lincoln Project & other neverTrumpers). We’re gonna need every vote we can get to steer the Ship of State out of the iceberg field – we ought to leave the arguments over compass heading until it’s within sight of open waters.
Jinchi
I always thought that “Anonymous” was a group of people, not an individual, but I doubt KAC is one of them. She has the perfect cover in her husband. If she wanted to, she could put his byline on any critique she cares to level at Trump and no-one would think twice about it.
Emma from FL
@SFAW: democrats seem to focus at the highest level (one person) and forget that downstream elections, down to town council, can be just as essential. It makes me nuts.
Kay
@Frankensteinbeck:
I was pretty happy with the stimulus. People discounted how good the 600 UI bump was. People loved it in a funny way- like they were afraid it was an error and someone would grab it back. They could not believe they actually got something from a bail out program :)
I’m a stimulus evangelical now. Next time I propose we give everyone 10k each so they can allocate it themselves. An experiment!
Kropacetic
Woohoo, racism and misogyny! We need that.
Emma from FL
@Kropacetic: Don’t be dense. At this point, the barn’s cinder, the kitchen is burning, and there isn’t enough water in the well to save the house. We MUST concentrate on that, from every direction. I was a Harris stan, but at this moment, Joe Biden is what I need. AA voters said so.
Kropacetic
@Emma from FL: It just seems like racism and misogyny are the only acceptable vector upon which we can chase voters. For everyone else it’s “you better vote for us if you know what’s good for you.”
Sorry, I’m not validating this bullshit.
J R in WV
@Uncle Cosmo:
Sometimes we disagree on fundamentals, but in this case, I believe you have this right. When things look scary, the scary candidate is working upstream, and in this case, Trump cannot reverse course at all, he is stuck with who he is, who we have seen for the past 4 years.
I just hope we (wife and I and all the Jackals) live to see election night, and the inauguration next January — with the results we are so desperately working towards!
patrick II
@trnc:
Not to mention students who stayed over the summer.
LongHairedWeirdo
Just my occasional reminder that Trump talks like a right wing media star, so he says the things that Republicans have been told are good, wonderful, things, unlike those horrible liberals who think it’s wrong to kill people.
While it’s true that the GOPreachers are frequently preaching that racism is good via dog whistle, not everyone is their bitch, so not everyone can hear those whistles.
If you’re constantly hearing Trump is doing just fine, except for those horrible liberals who want to tear him down, you aren’t a racist, and not too much of a fool, if you start to believe it.
You can’t expect people to suddenly realize “wow, this guy really is running a campaign rally[1] based on racial resentment” and decide they hate him now. This is why my real fury isn’t for Trump, because he’s exactly what he showed he’d be while campaigning. It’s for the constant gaslighting by every person in a position of responsibility to this nation that nothing strange, and especially nothing horrifyingly bad, is going on.
[1] I am referring to his presidency, of course
texasdoc
@Another Scott: Not to mention, health insurance is part of the employee’s reimbursement–the employer should have no right to limit what that “money” is spent for. If they paid the employee cash to buy their own health insurance, no one would say the employer could prevent the employee from choosing a plan which included coverage of contraception.