Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

I can’t take this shit today. I just can’t.

This is all too absurd to be reality, right?

The revolution will be supervised.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Dinky Hocker shoots smack!

It’s not even safe to go out and pick up 2 days worth of poop anymore.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Shock troops for the Unitarian Jihad.

Militantly superior in their own minds…

Women: they get shit done

How has Obama failed you today?

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

No one could have predicted…

… makes me wish i had hoarded more linguine

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

We need fewer warriors in public service and more gardeners.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Deep State Coffee Girl

Deep State Coffee Girl

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Breaking from The Post:

President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic showed a “flat out disregard for human life” because his “main concern was the economy and his reelection,” according to a senior adviser on the White House coronavirus task force who left the White House in August.

Olivia Troye, who worked as homeland security, counterterrorism and coronavirus adviser to Vice President Pence for two years, said that the administration’s response cost lives and that she will vote for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden this fall because of her experience in the Trump White House.

“The president’s rhetoric and his own attacks against people in his administration trying to do the work, as well as the promulgation of false narratives and incorrect information of the virus have made this ongoing response a failure,” she said in an interview.

This is someone who was on the coronavirus task force just weeks ago. The White House is trying to dismiss her as a deep state coffee girl, but it sounds like she has the goods, including details about how Trump interfered with scientists who were trying to manage the pandemic and his inexcusable politicization of mask-wearing:

Trump rarely attended task force meetings and was briefed only on top-level discussions by Pence or the government’s public health officials. When Trump attended one meeting, Troye said, he spoke for 45 minutes about how poorly he was being treated by certain personalities on Fox News.

“He spent more time about who was going to call Fox and yell at them to set them straight than he did on the virus,” she said.

Troye is urging other Trump administration officials to speak out: “It took longer than it should have for every single one of us. All of us, myself included, should have spoken out sooner.”

Here’s hoping some of the courageous generals will profit from the deep state coffee girl’s example, step the fuck up already and spill all the goddamned tea.

 

Reader Interactions

205Comments

  2. 2.

    japa21

    I still remember 2012 when all those people were leaving the Obama WH and talking about how they were going to vote for Romney. Seemed like an endless stream of them.

    Oh wait, I may be misremembering.

  4. 4.

    JoyceH

    Oh, I was just posting about this on the Biden’s dog thread. Want to say to watch the video, because the Post left out the best quote. Troye heard Trump say that maybe the Coronavirus was a good thing because “I don’t have to shake hands with all these disgusting people.” He’s referring to the adoring fans who man the rope lines.

  6. 6.

    Mary G

    She’s already made a video in support of Republican voters against Trump:

    🚨🚨🚨NEW from @RVAT2020.Olivia Troye, VP Pence’s lead staffer on the COVID task force, resigned two months ago. Now she speaks out:”No matter how hard you worked…the president was going to do something detrimental to keeping Americans safe. It was awful. It was terrifying.” pic.twitter.com/nkz2WncE9i— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) September 17, 2020

    Twitler said Covid was maybe a good thing because he hates shaking hands with those disgusting people at his rallies. Ok, I exaggerate a bit, but not much.

    ETA: WG got there first

    ETA 2: Joyce as well.

  8. 8.

    the pollyanna from hell

    There will be heroes. Sheroes mostlyl

  9. 9.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JoyceH:

    He’s referring to the adoring fans who man the rope lines.

    that point needs to be hammered… trump was never gonna have the opportunity to shake my hand

  11. 11.

    Baud

    @JoyceH:

    He’s referring to the adoring fans who man the rope lines.

    That’s presumptuous.  He could have just as easily been talking about veterans.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    I’m glad our nominee is a white dude.

    ETA: Relatedly, I’m pleasantly surprised that the media hasn’t been biting on the attempt to portray Kamala as a scary person, at least not that I’ve seen.

  16. 16.

    Mary G

    President Trump signs an executive order to establish a ‘national commission to promote patriotic education’
    US President Donald Trump made the announcement about what he has dubbed “The 1776 Commission,” at the first White House Conference on American History. He said the commission will be aimed at establishing “patriotic” and “pro-America” education that will celebrate American history. In his remarks, Trump criticized the 1619 Project, a New York Times project that explores slavery’s legacy.

    "Our youth will be taught to love American with all of their heart and all of their souls," Trump said— Shannon Pettypiece (@spettypi) September 17, 2020

    The White House Conference on American History has not a single Black historian on it. Strange.— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) September 17, 2020

  17. 17.

    Baud

    @Mary G:

    President Trump signs an executive order to establish a ‘national commission to promote patriotic education’

    The Truth and Retribution Commission has to start somewhere.

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    This is someone who was on the coronavirus task force just weeks ago. The White House is trying to dismiss her as a deep state coffee girl

    Sounds like she’s got the beans, but no axes to grind.

    It is good to see people getting away from Trump and telling what they know.

    And yeah, Trump die-hards will, in fact, die hard. But I want them to see and have to look at what he has done, from people who used to work there and who have had enough.

    New lyrics for an old song…

    Everybody’s talking ’bout deep state, News fake, Algorithms,  Send me DMs

    All we are saying,

    Is give peace a chance.

    All we are saying…

  22. 22.

    debbie

    @JoyceH:

    I remember seeing a photo of a waiting crowd and a thick line drawn on the ground which the people were not allowed to cross. It was further away than arm’s length. Proof he believes in aerosols!

  23. 23.

    lowtechcyclist

    @WaterGirl: Just when we thought we couldn’t be shocked.

    Nope, still not shocked.  Everything she said about Trump was 100% in character for him.  His disdain for those who worship the ground he walks on doesn’t surprise me, let alone shock  me. Just one more piece of confirmation of what he very clearly is.

    I’m glad for her that she found the courage to leave and take a stand now, rather than next year when it won’t matter.  That took guts.  I’m sure that in her personal life, she is surrounded by loyal Trumpists, both family and friends.  It’s going to be tough going for her for quite some time.  But as Jesus said, what does it profit you to gain the whole world at the cost of your soul?  She will lose a great deal, but she has saved her self.  Maybe she should have done so earlier, but at least she’s done so now.

  27. 27.

    kindness

    I have no hope that anyone who works for this White House has any integrity at all.  They won’t quit.  They are ticks buried under the flesh and will have to be dug out by Uncle Joe’s people when they come in in January.

  30. 30.

    germy

    The new group Democrat Voters Against Joe Biden is run by a fmr GOP Senate candidate, a GOP activist who paid $1M to settle allegations of illicit politicking, and a self-described celebrity psychic. One thing it appears to be missing: any actual Democrats https://t.co/iDbgI8jN1a— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) September 16, 2020

    Your first hint is that actual Democrats would never call themselves “Democrat Voters” https://t.co/OWK1vw91c0— Julian Sanchez (@normative) September 16, 2020

  31. 31.

    germy

    @JoyceH:  Troye heard Trump say that maybe the Coronavirus was a good thing because “I don’t have to shake hands with all these disgusting people.” He’s referring to the adoring fans who man the rope lines.

    If we had it on tape it might be a real “A Face In The Crowd” moment.

    Then again, maybe not, knowing the depth of his base’s devotion.

     

    EDIT:  I see you commented on this before I got the idea.  I should read more comments before I try to weigh in.

  32. 32.

    Betty Cracker

    @debbie: Just saw a clip on CNN, and you’re right. He always sounds like he got tranqued when he gives a teleprompter speech, but yeah, this was extra.

  35. 35.

    The Moar You Know

    President Trump signs an executive order to establish a ‘national commission to promote patriotic education’

    @Mary G: I have noticed that a fair number of the “executive orders” that Trump announces on Twitter are not, in fact, executive orders. They don’t exist. The White House posts the ones that exist and are signed. This isn’t there.

  36. 36.

    WaterGirl

    @Immanentize: I’m pretty sure Elizabelle was not talking about front pagers, and was indeed talking about this person, and the one who resigned last week.

    My contact doesn’t allow me to disagree with Baud, though, so I am in a bit of a pickle. :-)

  38. 38.

    Betty Cracker

    JFC! NYT:

    C.D.C. Didn’t Write Testing Guidance Published on Its Website, Officials Say

    A controversial guideline saying people without Covid-19 symptoms didn’t need to get tested for the virus came from H.H.S. officials and skipped the C.D.C.’s scientific review process.

  39. 39.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: In my defense, that was my first thought when I read your original comment.  Almost asked if you had forgotten the snark tag.

    But that was like 30 comments ago, and I forgot. :-)

  42. 42.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker:

    JFC!

    Say it again, once more for me, Betty!  I grew up Catholic and that is exactly what I thought when I read what you wrote, but the nuns that sit on my shoulder will not allow me to say it myself.

  43. 43.

    germy

    Democrat Voters Against Joe Biden is a project of an existing nonprofit advocacy group called Americans for Responsible Government, meaning it can engage in limited politicking and is not required to disclose its donors. Curiously, though it is not explicitly political, the group’s online donation page includes disclaimer language required only of registered political committees advising donors that they can only donate $2,800 per election. No such donation limits exist for nonprofits.

    DVAJB set up a website in July and began running Facebook ads this month attacking Biden. The former vice president’s “mental state is slipping and we can’t let him become the most powerful man on Earth,” one of the ads declares.

    As part of its anti-Biden efforts, DVAJB is soliciting video testimonials from Democrats who say they won’t support Biden in November. So far, the group has posted just one video, from a man named Tracy in Phoenix, Arizona. Public records and social media postings reveal that his full name is Tracy Chavez, that his son is a field organizer for the Trump campaign, and that—per his son—he has been a Trump supporter since the 1980s.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/democrat-voters-against-joe-biden-group-has-trump-fanatics-a-psychic-but-no-actual-dems

  44. 44.

    Chris Johnson

    Trump trying to make a ‘1776’ project is a way of him invoking the number 17. QAnon people use 17 to stand in for Q (much like 88 for HH) when they don’t want to be seen talking directly about Q. Trump is signaling to QAnon again, which ain’t good, but which is predictable.

  51. 51.

    JMG

    NBC Network News (way larger audience than any cable show) leads with this woman’s charges. ABC leads with Barr’s speech last night. CBS with White House vs. CDC. These are not good stories for Trump. Let’s be real, all he has going for him is white racism (very very powerful) and the sunk cost fallacy (also powerful).

  54. 54.

    germy

    @JMG:  The networks and the beltway press smell blood.  They want a horserace, so they want to prop trump up.  But they also can’t resist biting him while he’s down.  Their jaws twitch while they report their “tightening” polls.

  56. 56.

    Barbara

    @Baud:  She exudes so much positive energy that it isn’t possible for reasonable people to see her as scary. It’s one reason I like her so much.

  57. 57.

    lowtechcyclist

    @WaterGirl: I think there may be something to that.  Especially because she’s known what Trump knew and how little he did about it just as long as Woodward’s known.

    The difference is that Woodward may have had one less book if he’d reported that interview at the time, but he wouldn’t have lost any friends, his life wouldn’t have noticeably changed.  Troye’s going to lose a lot of friends, and I bet her Thanksgiving will be extremely awkward this year, and quite possibly for many years to come.

    I don’t personally know any ex-evangelicals, but I’ve known quite a few online.  Their families are evangelicals, their friends and schoolmates were all evangelicals, etc. When they realize they can’t be that anymore (whether they remain Christian or not), they lose their whole world.  Someone who was in Pence’s inner circle is surely in the same situation.

    I think she should have jumped ship much earlier, but I know how hard it must have been.  I keep coming back to that, and the fact that it would have cost Woodward nothing other than one more best-seller.  I admire her, but Woodward is right down there with the shit in my septic tank.

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    Hey Imm and baud:   No, I really did mean “the women” because I was seeing Troye through the lens of Marie Yovanovich and Sally Yates and Fiona Hill.  Mary Trump.

    But especially, the lens today of Jennifer Rubin, who is busily sawing off the “I’m a conservative, but not Trump” branch.

    And:  it is a pleasure to think of Lt Col Vindman, his brother, Amb. Taylor, and everyone else who has stood for truth during this shitshow of a maladministration.

    Here’s Jennifer Rubin’s column.  She is having more of her John Cole moment, in public, although she’s not reconsidered St. Reagan yet.  Patience.

    WaPost:
    Why I dropped ‘conservative’ from my Twitter profile

    Let’s be honest: There is no conservative movement or party today. There is a Republican Party thoroughly infused with racism and intellectually corrupted by right-wing nationalism. But there is no party that believes in less or small government (though expect the GOP to hypocritically resume singing that tune as soon as a Democrat steps into the Oval Office).

     

    ….  If adherents cannot defend their position without resorting to conspiracy theories, factual misrepresentation and racism, perhaps what they are adhering to is fundamentally flawed. The need to invent a scary, socialist-possessed Joe Biden to justify reelecting President Trump (as my colleagues have delightfully parodied) strongly suggests there is no morally defensible reason for reelecting a man who thinks our covid-19 deaths wouldn’t look so bad if we just ignored blue states. (First, that’s monstrous, and second, the states with spiking infection and death rates are red states.)

    There is a healthy debate about whether Republicans were always racist frauds. My friend Stuart Stevens has a strong case to make that they were.  ….. While I continue to believe that decent, honorable conservatives such as George H.W. Bush, John McCain and, yes, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) were or are sincere patriots, I am forced to concede the racist, xenophobic and anti-intellectual element in the party was far more pronounced than I was willing to admit.
    So if “conservative” has no meaning and if many of the 1980 positions (e.g., infinitely reducing taxes for the wealthy, hostility to the New Deal) are entirely unsuited to our current challenges, what ideology properly fits ex-Republicans unwilling to swallow the lies or descend into intellectual dishonesty?

     

    [Rattles off a list which — surprise — is how Democrats actually legislate, and then gives them credit for doing so]

    There are very, very few self-identified Republicans on the national stage who meet that criteria (okay, maybe just Romney) and only a handful at the state or local level (e.g., Govs. Larry Hogan of Maryland and Charlie Baker of Massachusetts). Most are out of government (e.g., former governors John Kasich of Ohio, William F. Weld of Massachusetts and Jeb Bush of Florida).

    There are many (but not all) Democrats, including former vice president Joe Biden, I believe, who represent that world view. We will see how he does if elected. For now, the objective remains removal of Trump and obliteration of a party that has grievously betrayed democracy and abandoned simple decency and honesty. Whatever alternative to the toxic waste dump of the Trump GOP arises to replace it may be worth considering — but only if it embodies the most basic American creed (“We the people. . .”) and abandons veneration of authoritarianism.

    Sayonara, GOP fig leaf.

    Heading out for a while.  The botanical garden is having its “After 5” in pouring rain tonight because I think it’s just occurred to the bright minds running the place that (1) they’ve lost half of their summer Thursday nights to storms and canceling too early for storms that did not arrive [last week, for example] and (2)  maybe they’ve got a band that said “pay us, rain or shine.”  It really has been stupid management.  They should have rain date events, especially since they were closed half the year already, and this brings in food and alcohol sales …. anyway, catch you later.

    And yea, Olivia, Jennifer, Lt. Col V, everyone who is out there being a dissident (like us).

  63. 63.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Cheryl Rofer: The links, they is broken!

    That said, I have a minor crush on Kamala. Mostly of the political variety, but she’s got “it”, whatever it is.

  64. 64.

    japa21

    @lowtechcyclist:

     

    I think she should have jumped ship much earlier, but I know how hard it must have been. I keep coming back to that, and the fact that it would have cost Woodward nothing other than one more best-seller.

    Actually, if she had just jumped ship earlier and come out with this it would have been cast aside as just another embittered ex-employee (as the Pence team has already said). But it has more of a ring of truth to it simply because of Woodward’s book.

  69. 69.

    MattF

    @Elizabelle: Yes, Rubin’s an ex-conservative. Glad to see it. There’s always the question of lessons learned, and it’s necessary to think about what has changed here… but maybe right now isn’t the moment for that.

  72. 72.

    Butter Emails

    @JMG:

    And yet given all the shit over the last two weeks, nationally polls have tightened. It’s like people went, “Wow, Trump’s an even bigger piece of shit than I thought. I have to vote for him now.”

  78. 78.

    JMG

    @Butter Emails: No. that’s just Republicans coming home. Bound to happen. Also, the “tightening” is like from an 8 point Biden lead to 7. Obama won in 2008 between 7 and 8.

  81. 81.

    🐾BillinGlendaleCA

    @Jeffro:

    one man doesn’t have to admit that he lazily got it wrong?

    That’s much to innocent a characterization, he knew the facts(the tapes from Woodward show that), but ignored them for his own reasons that cost 200,000 American lives.

  83. 83.

    dmsilev

    The LA Times goes after Postmaster DeJoy:

    Empty trucks, falsified records: How Louis DeJoy’s changes at the Postal Service brought chaos

    For new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who wanted the U.S. Postal Service to operate more efficiently, it seemed like an obvious fix: Just run the trucks on time.

    So in July he ordered drivers to start leaving post offices and distribution centers exactly on schedule and curtailed extra trips to pick up any mail that missed earlier cutoffs.

    The stricter deadlines sparked far less public outcry than the removal of more than 700 high-speed sorting machines at mail processing facilities around the country — but they were far more disruptive to the U.S. mail system, according to a Times investigation.

     

    Workers who spoke to The Times described troubling details about how the rigid schedules have played out: Some trucks have traveled empty, and mail left behind has accumulated at massive processing centers, creating backlogs in a system that is not designed to store mail. Loading dock managers have falsified records so it appears that trucks are departing earlier, some mail has been sorted twice, and in at least one case, a large shipment from Amazon was turned away because facilities had no space to process it.

     

    The share of first-class mail that was delivered on time across the U.S. fell by more than 9 percentage points during the time that DeJoy made his changes, according to agency data analyzed and released Wednesday by the office of Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.). In the first full week of July, before the trucking policy change, 90.6% of first-class mail was on time; in the second week of August, that had dropped to 81.5%, the analysis said.

     

    Had DeJoy spent more time familiarizing himself with the Postal Service’s vast, complicated delivery operation before making the changes, the problems could have been avoided, critics say.

    “DeJoy is ignoring what an integrated network this is,” said Phil Rubio, a history professor at North Carolina A&T State University who worked as a distribution clerk and letter carrier for the Postal Service for two decades. “When you start to tinker with it in as many ways as he has, the system starts to break down.”

    Put another way, said Mark Jamison, a retired postmaster in North Carolina: “DeJoy worked in logistics and probably does know that end of it. But when it comes to the rest of the system, I don’t think he knows his eyeball from a hole in the ground.”

     

    Robert Bockman, a tractor-trailer operator and vice president of the Puget Sound-area union chapter in Washington state, said he’s also been made aware that managers are trying to scan trucks out early.

    He said the mandate to be punctual is so overplayed that he and other drivers are being told to leave the loading docks five minutes early, regardless of whether all the mail is on board.

    “I feel like I’m in a day care,” Bockman said, noting that someone has put signs up in Seattle and Tacoma processing facilities that feature clip art of a stopwatch and say “5 Minutes Early Is The New ON TIME!” with the phrase “NO EXCEPTIONS” in bold red type.

  87. 87.

    Subsole

    @Elizabelle:  Prehistoric hunter-gatherers depended on women gathering enough food for the tribe.

    I am beginning to get the sneaking suspicion that the ‘hunter’ part of that equation got bolted on just to get the men out of the camp for awhile.

     

    “You know what would be a big help guys? If you could go off into the woods and find us a nice, fat, juicy deer. Thanks…”

  96. 96.

    Mary G

    @Cheryl Rofer: I love that she’s by herself and not trailing a herd of aides or lugging a heavy briefcase. You can see the Secret Service guy joining her near the car, but otherwise it’s all in her head. Very powerful image.

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    @Immanentize: It’s the one swear word (3 words) that I just can’t bring myself to say.  Probably ’cause it was a commandment, and everything.  I’m not Catholic anymore, and I still can’t say it!

  98. 98.

    WaterGirl

    @Immanentize:  What’s your recipe?

    King Arthur’s Favorite Fudge Cake
    YIELD one 9″ x 13″ cake
    16 tablespoons (227g) unsalted butter, cold
    1/2 cup really good dutch cocoa
    1 cup (227g) hot water
    2 cups (241g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
    2 cups (397g) granulated sugar
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    1/2 teaspoon salt  (none if salted butter)
    1/2 cup (113g) buttermilk (at room temperature)
    2 large eggs, at room temperature
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    Preheat oven to 350°F.
    Grease a 9″ x 13″ pan.  (I use the butter wrapper)
    • Melt the butter; stir in the cocoa and hot water.
    • In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, soda, and salt.
    • Pour the cocoa mixture over the dry ingredients, stirring to blend. Beat in the buttermilk or yogurt, eggs, and vanilla.
    • Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
    • Bake the cake for 30 minutes, or until it tests done. You’ll smell the chocolate aroma, and the cake will begin to pull away from the edge of the pan.
    • Remove the cake from the oven and cool it on a rack.

    They suggest a frosting for it on their website, but I am not a frosting girl, so that’s not in my file.

  103. 103.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @debbie: I imagine when he freaks out over the polling and starts to cry like a baby his daughter-wife gives him a xanax or volume to calm him down.

  105. 105.

    Subsole

    @Jeffro:

    But it isn’t one man who got ut wrong.

    It is a political, social, economic and religious movement that gas gotten it disastrously wrong since at LEAST 1980.

    They are running from themselves and dragging the rest of us along with them. A fucking midlife crisis with hostages. Tarantino should make a movie…

  106. 106.

    Immanentize

    @Mary G: Fickin jerks. EEE has been around for decades!  Wear Cutters.  Don’t mow the lawn at dusk.  K?

    Sheesh

    ETA. THEY HAD one Case!  In MA I think we’ve had 4?  Bad yes!  But rare.  Empty standing water collectors near your home.  PSA over.

  110. 110.

    Subsole

    @germy:  I seriously hope Biden legalizes weed so everyone can stop pretending this fucking spongebrained polyp has something interesting to say.

  112. 112.

    Nutmeg again (formerly MoxieM)

    @Mary G: If he’s going to fixate on an AmRev date, wouldn’t it be April 19, 1775 (First Shot!). Or perhaps March 5, 1770 (Boston Massacre). Or, June 9, 1772 (burning of the Gaspee). Or, Or, Or…  Cheeze Whiz.

  113. 113.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie:  Yeah, that’s why I cut the recipe in half:

    Ingredients
    8 tablespoons (114g) unsalted butter, cold
    1/4 cup of really good dutch cocoa
    1/2 cup (114g) hot water
    1 cups (121g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
    1 cup (199g) granulated sugar
    1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    no salt needed because of the butter (otherwise, 1/4 teaspoon salt)
    1/4 cup (57g) buttermilk at room temperature
    1 large egg, at room temperature
    1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  114. 114.

    Redshift

    @WaterGirl:

    I wonder if some of these people coming forward are seeing the response to Bob Woodward – why the hell didn’t he come forward sooner – and realizing that they need to step up. 

    Could be. I also think that we’re seeing more of this (and will continue to see more) because it’s sunk in that Trump is probably going to lose, and it’s a lot better to be seen on the side of light before that happens than to hope to get lost in the crowd fleeing afterward and hope no one looks into what you did.

    And while I wish lots more of them would come forward, the fact is that most people aren’t that brave (including most of us, no matter what we tell ourselves we would do.) Some of the people in the administration are true horrors, but a lot are people who know this bad stuff but have been getting by telling themselves that they’re doing some good, and based on what they’ve seen, if they told all, they’d suffer a lot and probably not change anything.

    What’s different now is it looks like these accounts are having some effect, and the window where they can suffer retribution from Trump is closing (probably), so it takes less courage. And that’s a good thing, because new stories are what we need to keep things in the news.

  117. 117.

    Redshift

    @Nutmeg again (formerly MoxieM): No, he’s an ignoramus, so the date he latches onto is the one everyone knows (and the only one he knows.) Just like his list of “great Americans” in his acceptance speech, which read like someone googling “great Americans” for a third-grade school report.

  118. 118.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Elvis Lou

    , studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering

    Answered November 9, 2014

    It’s Japanese character TSU in Katakana.
    You can install a Japanese keyboard (IME) to type that but that’ll be quite troublesome if you don’t know Japanese which I think it’s the case in this question.

    It’s very easy to search for japanese tsu on google and copy it. But if you don’t want to copy paste too, then there are still many ways for you to get this character. It’s Unicode codepoint is 0x30C4 so you can use this value to type. In MS Word you can type 30C4 then press Alt+X. You can also enable hexadecimal numpad using the steps here and then press Alt–+30C4 to type it.

  119. 119.

    mrmoshpotato

    “He spent more time about who was going to call Fox and yell at them to set them straight than he did on the virus,” she said.

    Holy hell, what a WATB – Whiny Ass Traitorous Bitch.

  120. 120.

    Aleta

    Here’s hoping some of the courageous generals will profit from the deep state coffee girl’s example

     

    “Ms. Troye is … disgruntled that her detail was cut short because she was no longer capable of keeping up with her day-to-day duties,” retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Pence’s national security adviser, said in a statement. “Ms. Troye directly reported to me, and never once during her detail did she ever express any concern ….  By not expressing her concerns, she demonstrated an incredible lack of moral courage.”

    Situation is  all her fault for not going straight to the righteous general.   Next we’ll hear she was a rejected woman who was also loose.

  122. 122.

    Geminid

    Doggone! Rachel Bitecofer put off releasing the September update of her 2020 Election Model, pending last minute revisions.  “Maybe tomorrow… I’ll find what I’m after…”

  123. 123.

    Subsole

    @Danielx: The ones at his rallies? Yeah. He could piss on their teeth and they’d vote for him.

    Though I am seeing more folks in the DFW burbs that are just throwing in the towel. They have had enough. Not saying they won’t drift back after Trump is gone…but yeah, they are done with this shit.

  124. 124.

    dmsilev

    @Redshift: There’s also strength in numbers. Being the first person to walk away from the cult and denounce it is hard. But once that first person does so, it’s easier for the second person. And easier still for each subsequent. The escapees, as it were, can support each other and the attention of their enemies are split multiple ways, reducing the amount of abuse each ex-cultist has to bear.

  125. 125.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: I swear I saw the September update earlier this week.

    edit: I know I did, because I texted the link to my niece.  That link doesn’t work now.

    It looked crazy good for Joe.   Here’s a screen capture of the part that showed up in the text I sent.

    Deep State Coffee Girl

  126. 126.

    Redshift

    @Subsole:

    “You know what would be a big help guys? If you could go off into the woods and find us a nice, fat, juicy deer. Thanks…” 

    “And we know it’s hard, so if it takes a while and you don’t get one this time, that’s okay…”

  127. 127.

    Immanentize

    @Nutmeg again (formerly MoxieM):

    I think the best way to think about 1776 and the Declaration of Independence is as a marketing tool.  There is almost nothing in the Constitution (and certainly not in  it’s predecessor (the Articles of Confederation), that has any theoretical relationship to the 1776 Declaration.

    None

    Zero

    Zip

    Fight me

  129. 129.

    mrmoshpotato

    Dump’s supporters are disgusting people.  And so is the Soviet shitpile mobster mass murderer.

  131. 131.

    Redshift

    @MisterForkbeard:

    That said, I have a minor crush on Kamala. Mostly of the political variety, but she’s got “it”, whatever it is. 

    I got to be at a small campaign office last year where she made an appearance, and damn, does she!

  134. 134.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    ETA: Relatedly, I’m pleasantly surprised that the media hasn’t been biting on the attempt to portray Kamala as a scary person, at least not that I’ve seen. 

    You wanna see Senator Harris’s fans cave in Upchuck Todd’s face on live television?

  135. 135.

    JPL

    @Aleta: trump doesn’t know her and she doesn’t know trump… so there!

    Maybe now Dan Coats can actually stand up and say something besides that mealy mouth oped piece in the NYTimes calling for fairness in the elections and safeguarding democracy.   Maybe now Kelly and Mattis will find the courage to stand up to the fking tweet.  McMaster is going to be on Sixty Minutes.   Will he stand up to the tweet?   How about Gary Cohn or Tillerson?    Sometimes it just takes a female to kick some ass.

  140. 140.

    Subsole

    @Redshift: That always tickled me about MRAs. They make this huge deal out of their y chromosome doing battle with the mighty beasts of the forest and how that gives them inherent worth and a genetically-imbued command authority as the ordained providers of the tribe, and it’s like “Um, guys, you realize if we all had to rely on a bunch of skinny naked apes with pointy sticks to eat we would have starved out as a species halfway through the stone age, right?”

  143. 143.

    cain

    @lowtechcyclist: I don’t personally know any ex-evangelicals, but I’ve known quite a few online. Their families are evangelicals, their friends and schoolmates were all evangelicals, etc. When they realize they can’t be that anymore (whether they remain Christian or not), they lose their whole world. Someone who was in Pence’s inner circle is surely in the same situation.

    This is why it is so hard to change  – because giving up Trumpism also means giving up your circle of friends, conflicts with family, and so on. If you live in a town that is all Trump – it’ll get lonely real quick.

  144. 144.

    bluehill

    @Redshift: Whatever the reason, I hope they keep coming, preferably one or two week until November. Right after the Durham report is dropped and whatever Barr is planning, would be nice too. Please.

  145. 145.

    Zinsky

    I have been telling my wife since this POS got the most electoral college votes in 2016, that it was going to be women who would have to lead us out of this disaster.  I think it really has been women that have stood up to the narcissistic deviant in the White House the most forcefully.  From Sally Yates to Fiona Hill to Mary Trump to the black lady at the town hall the other night to Ms. Troye to the new former model who is accusing Trump of forced kissing in 1997, these women have stood up to this black-hearted blowhard while men cower before him.   I am damn proud of every one of them and I think they represent the real strength of America.

    At Balloon Juice, of course, Betty Cracker is consistently the most powerful voice and most caustic wit on the board.  Thanks for this post, as well.

    It’s going to be women who lead us out of this wasteland that this dumb fuck has created.

  147. 147.

    Subsole

    @Redshift:

    Between Clinton, Gore, Obama, Biden, Clinton and Harris our party really HAS been good at posting up the right people for the moment these last few decades. Even if people didn’t always see it in time… :/  It’s kind of uncanny.

  151. 151.

    JPL

    OT  Andrew Kaczynski of Kfile on CNN has done amazing work uncovering the ethical lapses of trump and company.   trumpettes at one point protested outside his home.   Anyway his daughter has a rare type of brain cancer and he is moving to Boston for treatment.   I just can’t imagine having a six month old diagnosed with a life threatening disease.     There’s a go fund me page for the little one https://www.gofundme.com/f/ndwxqb-team-beans  and his twitter feed is https://twitter.com/KFILE

    I don’t know him but appreciate his work and I personally think Francesca is a beauty that deserves a chance.

  152. 152.

    Redshift

    @Subsole: And that hunter-gatherer societies are very egalitarian, and there’s no permanent, much less “ordained” leader of the band. We didn’t get that crap until we developed agriculture (or at least horticulture.)

  153. 153.

    Fair Economist

    @Mary G:

    Shoulda listened to environmentalists. Mother Nature is not amused.

    Just got a google news on my phone yesterday that OC CA residents also need to take mosquito precautions after a death in Garden Grove due to West Nile. Certainly the past month has been the worst for skeeters here I have ever experienced. They’re even in the house!

  154. 154.

    Redshift

    @bluehill:

    Right after the Durham report is dropped and whatever Barr is planning, would be nice too. Please. 

    Wouldn’t that be a nice flipping of the script on the Wikileaks dump drowning out the Access Hollywood tape?

  156. 156.

    Chris Johnson

    @Subsole: Yeah, exactly. It’s like Trump throwing hand signs. I really think there’s no other significance to Trump wanting to do a ‘1776’ education initiative: didn’t it turn out to be one of the executive orders that doesn’t actually even exist? It is nothing but an improv, and I really think “17 = Q, and I get to say Q publically in this way to my supporters” is the whole point of the exercise.

    This is what counts for planning and coordination among this particular group of people. It’s a giant poorly-coordinated conspiracy theory built on nonsense, with everyone grasping for clues and hints, which is why Trump enjoys ‘leading’ it and pretending he’s very very powerful and in charge of a big important righteous force that will fix everything and rescue all the children, you wait and see.

    And he has nothing. And there aren’t even mass quantities of kidnapped trafficked children to be rescued, not like the Q people think.

    QAnon Anonymous podcast has covered this recently: QAnon is causing problems for real human trafficking experts with experience in the field. The Qs imagine a weird organized crime fantasy with slave children in cabinets or some demented shit like that. Trafficking is often exploiting of migrant labor, which these people don’t care about at all. Sex trafficked children are often homeless or running away from abusive birth families, and turn to sex work as they are homeless and totally without resources or support networks, but these people don’t care about any of that and won’t do anything to address the conditions on the streets that generate the problem.

    Instead, the Q people want to destroy anything that will support the homeless and anything that acts like welfare or social services, and they propose to find the Big Criminals who are putting kids in expensive cabinets, and go Rambo on what they see as giant murderous organized Bond-villain-like gangs.

    People who fight human trafficking for a living say there are NO cases of organized crime doing that or anything like it, and trafficking is largely either family court stuff (non-custodial parent kidnapping) or poverty stuff (if you have a gang of teenagers trying to turn tricks, half might fall under ‘trafficked’ and the other half, over the dividing age, count as ‘traffickers’ to the law)

    Sorry. I’ve learned a lot about what the Q thing is, and I find it really unpleasant.

  157. 157.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Well, now I am confused. Bitecofer tweeted about taking the model down so “Sam” could make revisions. May be a joint effort, and you (Watergirl) saw the first iteration.

  160. 160.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: @Geminid: I think 270towin grabbed the Bitecofer analysis (or at least the map) before it was withdrawn.  It says “as of September 15” and the link to Niskanen is a 404.

    And yes, it does look very good for Biden.  IIRC the Senate analysis was also encouraging, with about a 90% chance of the Democrats taking it.

  162. 162.

    Geminid

    @Ken: I checked out Bitecofer’s  Twitter feed. She and Sam Epstein produced the model, and took down the update to revise it for reasons she explained but I sure can’t. Sounds like it will be out tomorrow though.

  165. 165.

    Skepticat

    I wonder whether Christopher Wray hears the wheels of bus he’ll be under very shortly. Truth-telling isn’t popular with the game show Goering.

  166. 166.

    TS (the original)

    Here’s hoping some of the courageous generals will profit from the deep state coffee girl’s example, step the fuck up already and spill all the goddamned tea.

    It’s not going to be Gen Kellog

    Ms. Troye is a former detailee and a career Department of Homeland Security staff member, who is disgruntled that her detail was cut short because she was no longer capable of keeping up with her day-to-day duties,” retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Pence’s national security adviser, said in a statement.

  167. 167.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Immanentize: Vindeman, as great a person as he is, was never in the inner circle. This woman was. You know who else was? All those fucktard men who are, at best, anonymous sources. They ALL are in better situations financially and otherwise and can afford to let it all hang out, yet they have not stepped forward. Except for the Mooch.
    McMaster – barely.
    Tillerson – nope.
    Mattis – nope.
    Price – Nope
    Kelly – Nope
    Pruitt – Nope
    Zinke – Nope
    Sessions – Nope
    Perry – Nope
    Coats – Nope

  169. 169.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Interesting paragraph in that story:

    She [Becki Falwell] described being at church around 11 p.m. and receiving a call from her husband, who said he was bleeding after a fall down the stairs. Finding the doors locked when she got home, she used a chair to break through the back door.

    She was at church at 11:00 on Saturday night? And she didn’t have a key to let herself into her own house?

  172. 172.

    Immanentize

    @Chief Oshkosh: If only Olivia Troye had come forward sooner!  I mean she sat on this for YEARS! while people died.  She had a duty to tell us as soon as she knew this!  When was that meeting with Trump?  Damn! How many people died of COVID because she waited so long?

    Standards, man, we must keep up standards.

    [Personally, I welcome anyone of any gender, race, age, political leaning or sexual orientation who shares such information before the election.]

  175. 175.

    Alison Rose

    @Cheryl Rofer: Damn it, I feel like such a hypocrite because I always tell men off for commenting–even in a “positive” way–about women politicians’ looks, but………………….hot damn.

    I’M A QUEER IT’S DIFFERENT.

    And I swear…the boots and the skinny jeans and the jacket……………would not be surprised if she’s got a little non-hetero in her.

    I’m sorry, I’ll stop. I’ll just watch that clip 20 times.

  176. 176.

    zhena gogolia

    @Alison Rose:

    I’m hetero and I’m watching it over and over. She is so cool.

    I love that she is “normalizing” being a woman in comfortable shoes and looking incredibly hot.

  177. 177.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Immanentize: I don’t understand the first part of your comment. But agreed, I welcome anyone coming forward to testify or otherwise get truth out there.

  178. 178.

    Skepticat

    @Cheryl Rofer: She wears Timberland boots, which seems to be scary for some.

    Those boots indeed are made for walking, and they’re gonna walk all over him. (Yes, I’m dating myself.)

  180. 180.

    CaseyL

    @mrmoshpotato:

    You wanna see Senator Harris’s fans cave in Upchuck Todd’s face on live television?

    Is that a trick question? Because I would pay good money to see that.

  181. 181.

    WaterGirl

    @Morzer: I kind of remember it as 98.5, but I’m glad to see your number because i was afraid I was remembering too high!  If we are in the ballpark, that’s surely good news for all of us.

  184. 184.

    WaterGirl

    @Alison Rose: She’s got style, that’s for sure.

    edit: And she shares an important trait with Barack Obama – she is comfortable in her own skin.  I think that’s part of what makes her so attractive.

  186. 186.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Alison Rose:

    Damn it, I feel like such a hypocrite because I always tell men off for commenting–even in a “positive” way–about women politicians’ looks, but………………….hot damn.

    Yeah. I thought about whether it would be creepy (as a straight dude) to say that I had a little bit of a crush on her, but… yeah, honestly I do. And also Sean Bean, for what that’s worth. :)

    Really though, she has a joy and an energy to her that’s just magnetic. I saw some of the same with Obama, though he was more ‘cool’, I think.

  189. 189.

    MisterForkbeard

    @WaterGirl: General Kellog is going on The List. Of people that will get fired into the sun at the first opportunity.

    When you have a chance like this, and your decision is to cover for the evil fuck in office, you’ve abrogated any sense of morality. Off you go.

  191. 191.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    It was just running around in my head today, that the elephant in the room, that no one talks about, is, we *all* know Trump is completely incompetent, including people like this, and how the (expletive deleted – no particular expletive is sufficiently severe, and inclusion might cause a black hole on the page) we got to the point that denial of objective reality was ever acceptable.

    I mean, I know that Republicans now have “it’s not a crime to lie to reporters” tattooed on the inside of their eyelids, and I know there would always be spin, fibs, misdirection, etc., trying to make this little “oops” of a couple hundred thousand people dying look better than the absolute – I dunno, tragesty? Travedy? It’s a travesty, and a tragedy, and another (expletive deleted – ibid), to boot.

    And the thing that bugs me the most is, WE ALL KNOW THIS. Democrats, and competent Republicans, *KNOW* this. And one reason I can forgive Ms. Troye, or Bob Woodward, for waiting “too long” is, it wasn’t their job to tell people stuff that they already knew.

    If the Republican Party, as a general entity, was not aware that Covid-19 was a big deal – maybe not *as* bad as *some* alarmists, but a *big deal* – by the end of March, they can’t perceive and work with objective reality. But we know that’s not the case! You didn’t have to be a never-Trumper to recognize there was a total moron giving daily briefings. But they have their shared consensus reality, where there’s nothing really *important* that happened each day, i.e., their poll numbers still look stable (must-not-must-not-must-not pay attention to Covid-19 news…).

    And yet, we’re all wandering around like there’s something normal going on here. We know Trump is criminally incompetent, we know the Republicans know it, and we know people are *dying* because of this, but they’re putting the short term electoral prospects for their party over all of that.

  193. 193.

    NobodySpecial

    Fuck Olivia Troye and everyone else who were complicit then and are only now speaking out while boarding the liferafts. Bring back scourging.

  194. 194.

    WaterGirl

    @NobodySpecial: I’m gonna defend her here.

    This is not someone who is bailing because she sees which way the wind might be blowing.  She a little fish sticking her next WAY OUT which has to be terrifying.  Listen to what she says.

  196. 196.

    WaterGirl

    @zhena gogolia:

    I love that she is “normalizing” being a woman in comfortable shoes and looking incredibly hot.

    Love it.  Like she’s supposed to be tottering around on high heels and in a frumpy pantsuit.  Fuck that.  She’s got style and confidence and grace.  We hit the jackpot with Kamala.

    I was not crazy about the Kamala who was running for president, but I sure do love the Kamala that I see now.

  198. 198.

    The Moar You Know

    And the thing that bugs me the most is, WE ALL KNOW THIS. Democrats, and competent Republicans, *KNOW* this. And one reason I can forgive Ms. Troye, or Bob Woodward, for waiting “too long” is, it wasn’t their job to tell people stuff that they already knew.

    @LongHairedWeirdo: I gotta go with this too. Nobody in America has ever been under any illusions about what this admin is and does. They may want to deny it, as, well, let’s face it, Trumpism ain’t pretty and isn’t a good look on anyone, but we’ve all know since well before even the primaries concluded what these people were and what they were going to do. Nobody’s been fooled.

  199. 199.

    evodevo

    @Subsole: Yep.  Nothing has changed in a million years…if you study hunter-gatherer diets, you find that MOST of the daily calories come from food items gathered by the women….the men go off on a hunting trip, doing the male bonding thingy, and they may come back with some meat, or not, and dump it off for the wifey to cook.  The women are in charge of taking care of the food stock, cooking/preserving it, and parceling it out so it will cover all contingencies.  In addition, if they DO kill a large animal, it has to be eaten pretty quick, unless you have the resources to smoke/salt it.  Goes bad fast.

  200. 200.

    Bill Arnold

    @Betty Cracker:

    Just saw a clip on CNN, and you’re right. He always sounds like he got tranqued when he gives a teleprompter speech, but yeah, this was extra.

    He’s had a switch of drugs. Real slow now. But who the fuck wrote that speech? It makes me a big angry just to read it.
    Full speech. He’s talking so slowly, it’s perfectly clear at 2X.
    Most Controversial Trump Speech Yet! (1776 Commission Full Speech) 19:33

    Transcript:
    Donald Trump Speech Transcript September 17: White House History Conference (Sep 17, 2020)

  201. 201.

    Bill Arnold

    @Betty Cracker:

    C.D.C. Didn’t Write Testing Guidance Published on Its Website, Officials Say

    It was pretty obvious that it was at least in part to smooth the launch of back to school and back to work pushes; they’re hoping to hide the size of the outbreaks.
    Evil fucks.

  202. 202.

    James E Powell

    @japa21:

    But it has more of a ring of truth to it simply because of Woodward’s book.

    I believe you are exactly right about this. Look at the way Miles Taylor’s remarks just disappear into the fog.

  203. 203.

    James E Powell

    @JMG:

    No. that’s just Republicans coming home. Bound to happen. Also, the “tightening” is like from an 8 point Biden lead to 7. Obama won in 2008 between 7 and 8.

    Isn’t it also the switch from registered to likely voters? I haven’t looked closely at anything, but I thought that was what the pollsters usually do after Labor Day.

  205. 205.

    kjb1000

    @Elizabelle: 

    First you have to have a heart….. before you can show the way… Perhaps that is why the women are leading… Thank you for the observaion.

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