Remember Nathan, the Romney-Gary Johnson-Bloomberg libertarian-leaning voter who swept the streets of DC during the protests earlier this summer? He updated his truck. https://t.co/M26JRE12Mk pic.twitter.com/4to8F1V3rj
— Jane Coaston (@cjane87) August 18, 2020
Well, considering the alternative…
The RNC still doesn't even have a schedule for its conference on its website.
It looks very much like they are completely unprepared for a virtual convention.
— Kaili Joy Gray (@KailiJoy) August 18, 2020
Lawyers, Guns, and Money https://t.co/lXBX11OvTe
— Elizabeth Spiers (@espiers) August 18, 2020
At this rate the RNC is going to run a primetime in memoriam to Jeffrey Epstein. pic.twitter.com/5by7yA4kPh
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) August 18, 2020
Of course, they will. When does Derek Chauvin speak? https://t.co/efvBSzcWGN
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) August 18, 2020
"I want YOU to vote for Trump!"
(brought to you by the RNC) pic.twitter.com/qqLzOxnnsN
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) August 18, 2020
The RNC is basically a Cancel Culture Telethon. https://t.co/uQgar3oNF7
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) August 18, 2020
Was always gonna happen pic.twitter.com/k4fmeQoznH
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) August 17, 2020
Insult to injury, from the media to the Squatter-in-Chief:
EXCLUSIVE: Network execs tell DNC officials they won’t air their event in full… because they’d also have to air two hours of Trump’s convention, too. https://t.co/MoVvZKqcPK
— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) August 18, 2020
The gaffes, lies, and general chaos just aren’t ‘news’ any more:
… While the Democrats decided months ago that their national convention would be a virtual event, it wasn’t until July 23—when Trump decided that the COVID-19 pandemic would make his plans for a gathering in Jacksonville unworkable—that the GOP followed suit. The result was that the Democrats provided the networks with a detailed schedule of speakers and videos while the Republicans’ convention schedule is still a moving target.
Executives at multiple networks told The Daily Beast privately that they were still almost completely in the dark about basic details of next week’s RNC, including its format and its roster of speakers…
Baud
The media will turn around and air the RNC in full.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Most normal people will run away from the inmates of the asylum and the clown and his acolytes will see their electoral fortunes collapse.
Amir Khalid
Blago left the governorship of Illinois in disgrace. Does he still get to be called Governor?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m guessing the My Pillow guy will introduce trump. I made it through half of this, he’s definitely trying to follow the trump model, first with media, tomorrow…
Patricia Kayden
lamh36
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: I made the mistake of watching the Republican National Convention in 2016 in its entirety because I was stupid enough to believe that Americans would never elect someone as odious as Trump. Hard pass this year.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: Yes, even Tricky Dick was called President after he resigned.
Ken
@schrodingers_cat: Worse for Trump, he’ll see the ratings collapse.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden: I skipped the 2016 RNC, I think it was the first major party convention I’d skipped since 1968.
Kropacetic
@Patricia Kayden: Yeah, the cut to unemployment has been a big hit. I’m working, but hours are scarce.
Ken
Is anyone surprised? I’m still half-expecting that Jared is planning to use a free Zoom account.
SiubhanDuinne
In that Jonathan Swan tweet showing the speaker lineup, honest to dog Blago is the only one of them I’ve ever heard of. Am I just that out of it, or are these D-list celebrities?
Kropacetic
Give them a break. They’ve only had six months to prepare. Less if you factor in abject denial.
HumboldtBlue
This awesome.
Baud
Is no one curious to see what products they’ll be selling
on QVCat the RNC?Kropacetic
@SiubhanDuinne: Ooh, I wonder what it would be like to get an “intimate address by Governor Blagojevic.”
Amir Khalid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I watched to the end. It was just more of the same. My Pillow guy had no response to getting pantsed on TV, beyond repeating his bullshit claims and trying to shout Anderson Cooper down.
lamh36
How much do I love this!!!
It’s behind a WashPo paywall…UGH!!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kropacetic:
Yeah, that left them 3 weeks.
Kropacetic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: So you think they’ve gotten over it?
HumboldtBlue
@lamh36:
Beat ya!
RepubAnon
Oh, the Republicans have a complete schedule for their convention. They’re just having trouble converting it from Cyrillic…
(/snark)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Trump steaks and Goya beens.
lamh36
@lamh36:
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
Ist it true the Republican convention will kick off with Ted Nugent playing Wang Dang Poontang? Because, y’know, that would be sooo fitting.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kropacetic: Not really, but they seem to have given up on the in-person convention plans.
dmsilev
The Democrats spent three months preparing for a virtual convention, lining up all of the speakers, making sure everyone had the right tech gear well ahead of time, writing and rehearsing speeches and infrastructure. The Republicans, thanks mostly to Trump, will have something like three weeks to do the same.
Im tempted to tune in just to see all of the tech and logistical trainwrecks, which will dovetail well with the rhetorical trainwrecks that define the GOP.
Ken
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Last I heard,
Miss DesmondTrump was still dithering about where he was going to make his bigentrancespeech. I wonder if it’s gotten worse now that he’s speaking each night?And I’m sure after his criticism of Michelle Obama that he’s going to insist all of his speeches be live, which will give both the tech people and his political handlers ulcers.
Falling Diphthong
@schrodingers_cat: I imagine most Senators in competitive races would pay off the media to accidentally cover golf instead.
Kropacetic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Probably realized they couldn’t fill some MAGAt’s living room if they tried.
WaterGirl
@lamh36: Part of the story from your link. :-)
dmsilev
@Ken: Didn’t they decide to say ‘fuck the Hatch Act’ and will be using the White House lawn? Or is that still ‘under consideration’ and they’re still dithering?
Ruckus
@Ken:
I’m thinking jarid will tell Zoom that they need 4 hrs a night for 60 million participants and Zoom has to do all that for free.
I don’t expect it to go well.
PAM Dirac
@Ken:
And when it shuts down at 45 minutes there will be much shouting that the DOJ needs to investigate this horrible bias against conservatives.
lamh36
@WaterGirl: oooh…yes! thx
lamh36
Cindy McCain on her endorsement of Biden
Kropacetic
I’m surprised they aren’t having everyone do their bit in one of Trump’s shithole hotels (at an exorbitant rate).
RSA
@dmsilev:
I predict that technical glitches will run rampant, due to the hiring of the cheapest fly-by-night companies (alternatively, the most skilled grifters without the necessary expertise) available to put on the event.
I predict that these problems will be attributed to SABOTAGE by Crooked Online Media, a message conveyed by the President himself.
catclub
@Kropacetic: I cannot believe that is not a joke set up by the Onion.
ETA: It probably IS massive grifting by somebody.
Frankensteinbeck
@dmsilev:
Unfortunately, the Hatch Act specifically in the language of the bill excepts the President and Vince President. It does not apply to them.
HumboldtBlue
OK, job interview by Zoom in nine minutes.
40 minutes ago, “don’t cut your lip shaving, don’t cut your lip shaving, DON’T CUT YOUR LIP SHAVING! FFFFFFFUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKK”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ken: There’s always Yo Semite.
Kropacetic
@catclub: The satire virus has infected the entire timeline, catching comedians flat-footed.
catclub
Now there is a wonderful understatement.
WaterGirl
@HumboldtBlue: best of luck!
Kropacetic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That’s how I like to catch the attention of my Jewish friends; “Yo, Semite!”
I find myself increasingly estranged from my friends these days. I blame the pandemic.
HumboldtBlue
@WaterGirl:
Thanks, and I’m off!
Falling Diphthong
@dmsilev:
I think this could be how it will pan out. A metaphor for both parties’ response to the realities of a pandemic.
TS (the original)
@Patricia Kayden:
I’m also waiting for an investigation into the markets. Why are they reaching all time highs when there are so many unemployed & so many businesses almost shut down (eg airlines)? What is the fed doing to feed this frenzy of riches for the rich? Is it all going to stop on the day Biden is elected? Is that the date the fed stop printing money to feed the markets?
The only reason I miss the nyt is because I see little of Paul Krugman’s economic analysis
Betty Cracker
@lamh36: Maybe she can have a word with her whiny-ass daughter.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: Any dangerous Covid-19 remedy will do. Just ask Pillow Man.
Baud
@lamh36:
That. Is. Awesome.
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I happened upon General Flynn’s “speech.” Man, was that ever a mistake.
Betty Cracker
@TS (the original): I recently glommed onto someone’s digital NYT account, and I’ve been reading the hell out of it. I feel kinda guilty to admit I’d missed it, but Krugman and Goldberg exhausted my free clicks so fast! And believe it or not, Frank Bruni had an absolutely stellar column about Michelle Obama’s speech today.
zhena gogolia
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
Aww, that’s sweet. Good on everyone involved.
SFAW
@Kropacetic:
“Hey, honey, if you come back to my room for a nightcap, I can make you a Senator.”
Baud
Ari Melber is asking James Carville dumb questions.
Kropacetic
@SFAW: I tried for a few minutes to find a serviceable version of that joke before dropping it. I commend you.
SFAW
@Ruckus:
“And if you don’t, you’ll be responsible for the UAE/Israel ‘agreement’ falling apart!”
SFAW
@Kropacetic:
Either you’re off your game, or you have higher standards than I.
Suzanne
So we moved into our new house, the permanent one, this weekend, and of course it is hard to find stuff as it is all in boxes. So I am wearing a bra with an underwire. FUUUUUUUUCCCCCK why did I do this for so long. This is hell. I don’t wanna go back to an office.
Never fear, I ordered some more soft ones.
bluehill
@Betty Cracker: Must be a struggle for Meghan between the memory of her father and the reality of her dumbass husband.
MisterForkbeard
@Kropacetic: Interestingly enough, I think the legal theory is that Trump is exempt from the Hatch Act as president. But that no one else is.
So if anyone else participates in that, or there’s other speeches there by other people, the Democrats in Congress should literally ask for immediate suspensions and punishments. Biden should talk about how Trump regularly breaks the law whenever he feels like it and when he thinks he can get away with it, and note this, his obstruction, his past lawsuits for racial discrimination, etc.
Dems can make it work for us.
Ken
Does it allow for them to campaign for other candidates?
Though I expect that if Trump told Lindsey Graham (to pick one) that he was going to put in an endorsement, Graham would desperately try to find some way to decline the honor.
Kropacetic
@SFAW: I think my head was too bogged down in details of Blago’s crime.
MisterForkbeard
@HumboldtBlue: Wear a mask to your interview, man. Tell them you’re just being exceedingly careful due to personal reasons you can’t explain but that it won’t extend into your work there. :)
Alternately, use it as a humanizing story about how happy you are to have the interview. Actually, yeah. Do that.
Kropacetic
If the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.
So are we talking about consequences for campaign workers asked to work on government property? Or do you expect government employees to participate in Trump’s half-assed* shit show?
*The most ass he’s ever put into anything that isn’t a golf cart.
MisterForkbeard
@bluehill: Meghan has repeatedly talked about how good and decent Biden was to her.
She’s also a Trump-voter who knows she can’t cross him without losing her job. You know, someone who really values her “principles” of money making and media access.
MisterForkbeard
@Kropacetic: In the Hatch Act, it’s literal: It’s main provisions govern everyone in the Executive except the President and VP. :/
JPL
@MisterForkbeard: Does it really matter? Kellyanne is still working for him. The law is unenforceable.
MisterForkbeard
Right. It depended on shame and/or people willing to enforce it, and unfortunately Trump and Republicans have none of either.
trollhattan
@Suzanne:
Bet you’re also glad to be rid of Arizona. Article I read said that Phoenix this week will hit and then surpass 44 days over 110 degrees in 2020. The previous annual record: 33 days. I am bitter about just one.
It’s not only sea level rise that will cause abandonment of cities.
piratedan
@SFAW: no way, these assholes will only use the Free Zoom trial run and be limited to 40 minutes for their meeting….
Kropacetic
@MisterForkbeard: Fucking great. … … …
TS (the original)
@Betty Cracker:
I gave them my exit speech in 2016 – being Krugman is the only person worth reading in your paper. There are times I think to do the same at the Washington Post – like now when they are searching for disaffected democrats to fill the front page – but I scored a super cheap subscription years ago – it was supposed to be an intro rate (I thought) but it gets renewed every year.
I tend to waste my nyt free reads by clinking on a news link before checking if it is the nyt.
Kay
Betsy DeVos lied at her confirmation hearing:
Congress should start enforcing perjury. The Trump people use the lack of accountability as permission to lie their asses off.
These people have no self control, character or internal monitor. They need to be policed constantly. Enforce the rules. Law n Order.
catclub
I feel no need to investigate. Investors have decided that even if they don;t know exactly when the covid reaction will end. It WILL end.
So might as well have your money already in the stocks that will benefit, or the giants that win no matter what [ the FAANG stocks]
I would not be surprised at a pullback any time, but as long as everyone is expecting that, it might not happen. The market can make the maximum number of people look foolish for a long time.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@JPL:
Says who?
Baud
@TS (the original):
Anticipating a Biden win.
zhena gogolia
So funny.
Patricia Kayden
Another Scott
ICYMI, https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw has a good rundown on what reporters are finding in the Senate Intelligence Committee report on Russia’s collusion with Trump’s campaign.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
When ordinary people lie under oath in a government forum or proceeding, they’re given between 30 and 90 days, suspended, as a lever to get them to quit lying. If they do it again judges here will send them to jail for at least a Friday thru Sunday stretch. Why doesn’t that apply to wealthy people?
I want laws and rules enforced. I insist that these people stop getting special, privileged treatment.
Suzanne
@trollhattan: Oh shit. I am really sad about having to move away from basically my entire life during the pandemic and basically having to bug out, not get to say goodbye to so many people and places we love. But FUCK if ever there was a year to leave Phoenix, this is it. What a shitshow. They are obliterating heat records, and fucking up Covid really bad, and it’s really nice to be here in my new living room with the window open and my ex-husband 2000 miles away.
Jay
@SFAW:
how you make a ReThug Senator, ( the drink),
one part Russian Vodka,
one part Dark Money,
one part Bananna Republic,
one part MAGA,
stir until thoroughly corrupted,
Try the veal, tip your waitress, I’ll be here all week.
divF
@TS (the original): First time I saw this was from a commentor in Brad DeLong’s blog in 2006:
Mike in NC
The RNC shitshow should be billed as “Fat Bastard Unfiltered” since he’ll be ranting and droning on for three hours each night. Repeating himself, contradicting himself, spewing horseshit without stopping to take a break, etc. Hannity will step up as needed to help him drink a glass of water.
Suzanne
@trollhattan: ALSO they are about to start a massive widening project for an eleven-mile stretch of the I-10, and that construction will go on for three and a half YEARS. And it happens to be the stretch that I drove every workday, both to work and back, for over a decade. The project is very much needed but will be an inhumane TWENTY LANES WIDE at one point, including collector-distributor roads.
The three things that pushed me out of AZ are, in no particular order: heat, driving, and Republicans. This year has been a disaster on all three fronts.
LongHairedWeirdo
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I hope the Democrats impeach him as soon as a Senate conviction is a possibility. Strip him of the office, and render him unable to hold any position of trust in the future.
Then, it would be appropriate to call him “Donny-boy “Loser” Trump”.
@Kropacetic: Um. In some states, if you’re not earning as much as your unemployment check, you can file to get the remainder.
So if unemployment would pay you $500 a week in benefits, but you’re working and earning $350, in some states, you can file for the $150. Check with your state; please don’t leave money on the table, because a big part of combating a recession is maintaining consumer spending. Remember, every dollar *someone* spends means more cash that can make its way to paychecks.
Ken
Terry Pratchett’s version (from Making Money):
“But, in truth, it had not exactly been gold, or even the promise of gold, but more like the fantasy of gold, the fairy dream that the gold is there, at the end of the rainbow, and will continue to be there forever – provided, naturally, that you don’t go and look. This is known as finance.”
Kropacetic
@LongHairedWeirdo: Yeah, I’m doing that. But the pandemic bonus made a huge difference.
geg6
@Suzanne:
Oh lord. Wait until you experience a Pittsburgh rush hour like in the Before Times. You’re in the South Hills, right? Oh god.
bluehill
@divF: Plus $6 trillion in fed liquidity helps.
mrmoshpotato
OH BLAGO! GO! FUCK! YOURSELF!
I can’t believe this Senate-seat-selling motherfucker was our Democratic governor! Jibbers Fucking Christ!
TS (the original)
@Baud:
I would have thought the opposite. The GOP, the media will scream deficits the day Biden wins, the fed will stop printing money so trump can blame the corresponding market fall on the democrats.
Or maybe I best go check what Krugman thinks. While I’m also a Keynes fan, Krugman’s economics is usually spot on while mine has its good & bad moments.
Kropacetic
The financial sector knows what’s good for them, the prosperity of Democratic administrations and resisting Democratic attempts to legitimately constrain their abuses.
TS (the original)
@divF: Thanks. That sounds right. i studied Keynes so long ago I have obviously forgotten parts thereof. He still comes up with the right answers.
TS (the original)
@Mike in NC: And this is why the networks only want to show 1 hour – so they can find the sanest part to broadcast. If they showed any more the reality of trump might even have a few deplorables wondering what they are voting for.
mrmoshpotato
McCain, McCain, Mittens, Johnson.
And dude believes black people’s lives matter? Where’d I put my LMAO couch?
surfk9
@TS (the original): Read New Deal Democrat’s post about this on the Bondad blog site. He shows the market gain is all about six companies.
mrmoshpotato
Just borrow 2 hours of CNN’s Empty Trump Podium Show! You know the bastards still have all of the footage – and definitely more than 2 hours!
Jay
@TS (the original):
Wall Street has not had a real relationship with Main Street and the Economy, in decades.
In the days of yore, Money would chase stocks on the basis of the Company, using metrics like growth, profitability, products, dividends, etc based on short term or long term goals.
In the ‘80s, money started to chase Company stock based on how profitable it would be to liquidate a Company and loot it’s assets, how profitable it would be to offshore the jobs, or how profitable it would be to assemble a monopoly.
In the 90’s, money started bubble chasing “underpants gnomes” business models, aided by the tech that freed money from being less mobile.
In the ‘aughts, it’s looting and rent seeking all the time often by algorithms chasing penny increments and no human involvement.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
@Amir Khalid: To add to Bill’s response – yes, given the American penchant for deifying our elected officials.
I’ll forever call him Fuck Blago! however. Along with To Hell With Bruce Rauner!
mrmoshpotato
@Ken:
Or have their mob enforcer (Bill Barr) threaten Zoom for a refund.
LongHairedWeirdo
@TS (the original): One thing to keep in mind is, the stock market is a strange entity. For example, Amazon stock has risen a lot; talk about a business model that’s great for customers fearing a pandemic! (Yes, I know, just like Wal-Mart had a great business model for tough times, by squeezing every nickel out of wholesalers that they could, leading to widespread offshoring, which makes for more frequent, and more difficult, hard times.)
Theaters and movie studios are taking it up the proverbial tailpipe (did you know a potato up the tailpipe will prevent a car’s normal operation?) but Netflix and Hulu are probably raking in the green.
And, for example, if it’s known that GM will weather the pandemic, and can easily perform temporary layoffs – note, I’m not saying both those are *true*; I’m building a hypothetical case – then their stock price wouldn’t go down much. Sure, a few quarters of substandard sales due to the pandemic, but they can lay off workers and idle a lot of production, and spin back up as demand returns. Their stock price might not fall – or might not fall much.
The overall economy has taken a brutal hit; we’ve lost 8% of normal spending the past quarter. (for anyone who’s confused, that’s what a -32% annualized rate means – if it happened 4 in a row, it’d be -32, but it only happened once so far.) That’s roughly the same as no one spending any money for an entire month. And *that* was with the higher unemployment payout (though to be fair, there wasn’t nearly as much to spend it *on*, either).
When, where, and how, that will show up in the stock market is something we’ll learn later. Some stocks might be coasting on fumes, reputation, and hope.
Miss Bianca
@Amir Khalid: In the interest of… *ahem*…*complete* truth, this ex-Detroiter is forced to correct you: it’s “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang”.
Aaannddd….I can’t believe I just typed that.
Even more to the point, I can’t believe that song ever got played on the radio when I was growing up.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: Spice – eeeeeeee!!!!!
And also Spice – eeeewwww, autoincorrect.
mrmoshpotato
@Jay: Russthuglican pigs would try the waitress and tip the veal.
Ken
And then there’s Kodak…
Marcopolo
@Kropacetic: This sounds like the Mom & Dad who are worried for their kid who wears a MAGA hat. They relate that the kid is constantly mocked, insulted, spit upon, and occasionally subject to physical assaults. And they add, “We can only imagine how much worse it will be once the kid goes outside of the house after the pandemic is over.”
Roger Moore
@Ken:
I am big. It’s the Conventions that got small.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato:
Only if she’s hawt.
JR
RNC will just be a Nugent-Busey-Rick Derringer-Meatloaf festival.
lowtechcyclist
Damned if I know who would trust the GOP to organize a two-car funeral at this point.
And that’s even with the tremendous surplus of GOP-caused funerals in need of organization.