So, remember yesterday afternoon when Trump cut off COVID-19 relief talks until after the election (via Twitter), essentially telling people/businesses who are hanging on by a thread to go ahead and die, and instructed Republicans to focus on ramming through an extremist SCOTUS pick instead? The stock market predictably tanked, but I’m guessing blowback came in from other quarters as well because Trump walked it back hours later. The Post:
“The president [has] already been on the phone this morning talking to Secretary Mnuchin,” Meadows said Wednesday. “The secretary and I have been talking about what we could do with stand-alone bills to help airlines, small businesses and the American people, with stimulus checks. So, hopefully, we can convince Speaker Pelosi to do something on a stand-alone basis…”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi had proposed at least $2.4 trillion in stimulus, but Trump said he would not agree to a deal of more than $1.6 trillion. “I am rejecting their … request, and looking to the future of our Country,” he tweeted Tuesday afternoon after a phone call with Mnuchin and Republican congressional leaders.
But later Tuesday night, Trump reversed course and seemingly sought to restart relief talks, tweeting that he would approve a stimulus measure to send Americans $1,200 checks “IMMEDIATELY” amid the pandemic. “I am ready to sign right now. Are you listening Nancy?” he wrote.
Mnuchin was listening, and he called Pelosi this morning to see if she’d support a standalone bill:
Pelosi reminded Mnuchin on the call that Republicans had blocked a stand-alone bill that would have provided more airline aid last week, and she asked him to review House Democrats’ airline bill “so that they could have an informed conversation,” according to Hammill. An administration official, granted anonymity to describe internal policymaking, confirmed that the White House is supportive of moving a bill solely to help the airlines.
In other words, Nancy told Mnuchin to do his fucking homework before he calls her again. I love that. Also:
Pelosi, speaking on The View on Wednesday, also suggested that Trump may have realized the political downside to halting negotiations, though “it’s hard to see any clear, sane path in anything that he’s doing.”
Yep. That too. When the history of this flaming shitbag of an administration is written, let it show that Speaker of the House Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro Pelosi was one of the few powerful people in DC who fully understood that Trump and his people were lunatics and/or arrogant dumbasses and acted accordingly.
Unlike the parade of self-important generals who’d rather cut book deals or stay silent to reserve their power base for future Republican administrations, Pelosi treats Trump and company like the clowns and knaves they are and calls them out to their faces. Good for her.
Open thread!
germy
White House Throws Best Murder Mystery Party of All Time
Gin & Tonic
Way more women on the good side of the ledger the last couple of years than men.
J.
I was hoping Trump and Pence would be incapacitated so Pelosi would be declared President. (A woman can dream, can’t she?)
Also, can the American people sue Trump for mental whiplash, reckless endangerment, and irreconcilable differences? And what’s going to happen when he goes off steroids? I just hope someone hid the nuclear codes.
misterpuff
Where are the the Pelosi kibitzers today?
The Lady knows how to get things done, if they can get done and how to maximize for her side.
I’d hate to play poker with her, she’d take your shirt.
J.
@germy: Somewhere a mystery writer is gnashing her teeth. (“This plot is too crazy! No one would buy it!” or “Why did I abandon that manuscript, the one where all the President’s men — and women — are struck down by a virus due to their own hubris?”)
A Ghost to Most
@germy: I fully expected that to be The Onion.
West of the Cascades
“I don’t see any method at all, sir.”
...now I try to be amused
@Gin & Tonic:
Yep. Male politicians have jumped the shark. Women (and immigrants!) get shit done.
Citizen Alan
@…now I try to be amused:
Democratic women. Let’s not forget that we’re presently trying to figure out how to keep Sister Serena Joy from her SCOTUS seat. And my own Senator — Confederate apologist Cindy Hyde-Smith — seems set to cruise to reelection against Mike Espy. Honestly, I really think conservative women are worse than conservative men. They have to work harder to prove that they’re True Believers.
Mai Naem mobile
I can’t stand Steven Mnuchin and I think he is a corrupt POS but he’s the adult in the room for the GOP. Reminds me of Hank Paulson in 08 saying that the GOP were cray cray and useless to deal with and the Dems were the normal constructive legislators.
Brachiator
Strange how there has been nothing much from McConnell, who is usually deeply involved as a gatekeeper regarding the stimulus bill.
dmsilev
Huh, when I saw the title I thought the post was going to be about the FDA yesterday telling the White House to go piss up a rope re: short-circuiting the vaccine trial procedure so that Trump could have a Shiny Object before Election Day.
Trump and his crew have been having a pretty shitty time of it recently. Sad.
leeleeFL
@misterpuff: and drink your f–king milkshake!
iluvs me some Speaker Pelosi. She will get another donation tonight!
Ken
@Brachiator: Has he been heard from since he met with Patients 0 through 10?
MattF
Pelosi is also the one who has been clearest on Trump’s Russia connection.
Kay
We know the Trump Administration employees don’t actually care about anyone else, but imagine the great political minds who have spent the last week talking exclusively about the President while this is going on in a US state. A crucial US state for them- one they need to remain in power.
We’ve become inured to it but read that Tweet- Wisconsin needs a field hospital in case their existing hospitals can’t handle all the sick people. No one in the Trump Administration even mentions it.
The Vice President is supposedly running the corona response and he’s spent the last 3 days bitching about debate rules. Snark. His low quality hires spend their days composing snarky replies.
Just completely non-responsive to the reality of what’s happening in the country.
SiubhanDuinne
O/T, but I thought I just saw a Medium Cool with BGinCHI post, but when I look for it, there it isn’t! Did anyone else see it flash past, or am I hallucinating?
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: Josh Marshall theorizes that it was McConnell who goaded Trump into cutting off negotiations yesterday. The theory is that McConnell knows Trump is going to lose and the senate is going to flip, so he is intent on getting Amy Covid Barrett on the SCOTUS and leaving the Dems in the deepest possible economic hole come January. McConnell really is that ruthless and cynical, so it wouldn’t surprise me.
Mike G
He walked it back because the stock market dropped after his first announcement. Outside of greedy self-interest, that’s the only metric Trump’s lizard-brain pays attention to.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
I hope this comes to Kamala’s attention before the debate, and I hope she confronts Pence with it.
cope
When this president* is finally ushered off the stage, I fully expect to see a stampede of various Republican office holders, toadies, appointees, pundits, lackeys, enablers, assistants and ass kissers as they rush to distance themselves from the past four years. Books, articles, “thought” pieces, TV appearances, tweets and editorials will flood the marketplace as they all explain how they knew all along what was happening but that their own specific, special circumstances prevented them from speaking up at the time.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: No, that was me. I needed to move it from 6pm to 7pm because BG has to pick the pup up from the vet.
7pm = 19:00 in WP time, and when I rescheduled awhile ago, I apparently hit a 0 instead of the 9, so it thought it was supposed to go up at 10:00, and immediately posted itself!
Short answer: typo.
dmsilev
Another thing to note from that Post article:
He hasn’t been heard live either, no phone calls to Hannity or the Fox morning idiots. It’s fair to wonder how sick he really is.
JoyceH
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think Harris’ first remark to Pence ought to be ‘sir, why aren’t you in quarantine?’
Betty Cracker
Regarding the debate, I read somewhere that Pence is going to focus on terrorism. Not white supremacist terrorism, since they can’t offend the base, but rather Pence will harp on the Obama admin for not doing enough about ISIS. If true, that’s going to sound really in touch with what’s happening in America today.
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: At least Pence is consistent. Remember how outbreaks of HIV blew up on his watch when he was governor of Indiana?
Kay
@SiubhanDuinne:
Here’s the plan:
They just desperately look around for people they can use to promote whatever their frantic ass covering needs are that day. Non responsive.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
“Donald Trump has defeated foreign terrorists by proving that only he can bring real Death to America.”
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: Thankfully, most of the people in the United States realize that we’re trapped in a horror movie and the call is coming from inside the White House.
Calouste
@Kay: The two ISIS terrorists they charged today have only killed two people. Pence and the other terrorist have killed more than 200,000 people.
HumboldtBlue
Like all the other Cali folks I got my ballot in the mail yesterday and it’s been dropped off at the elections office.
Unlike states headed by GOP fuckwads we’re fortunate to have several places to drop off ballots so here’s to a resounding win in November.
hueyplong
@dmsilev:
If Trump were feeling up to a live appearance on TV, he’d make one just to show off that fact. He hasn’t because he can’t, not without a bunch of telltale wheezing and coughing.
Trump’s doctor essentially admitted he said some things at one of the press conferences so as to keep Trump from panicking. [The line about not wanting to steer his condition in the wrong direction]
Today’s “Trump now has antibodies” disclosure (right after getting an antibodies cocktail) is so obviously bullshit (the pharma mfgr has already called B.S.), that it can’t be characterized as anything other than spin. Why is spin needed?
A rational conclusion is that Trump is in a bad way. I’ll go with a post NYSE-closing Friday announcement of some scary treatment applied hours before.
mad citizen
@cope: I think about the complicity often. As McCartney once wrote, only we should make sure this is in the negative way, “you’re gonna carry that weight a long time”.
If we ever get back to in-person town halls, etc., where one can ask questions of these fools, we all need to ask them what the hell they were thinking during the long Trump con. Make them all own it forever. Ideally this should make them want to change the name of their party, like airlines used to after too many crashes.
Pence talking terrorism? WTF? No one gives a shit about that in shutdown depressed America. Most want the shitstain to leave ASAP
dmsilev
@Betty Cracker: Terrorism is Very Important to The GOP base, but ranks much lower for the rest of the country. So, the people who are already planning on voting for Trump will like that, but it won’t exactly attract new support. Perfect strategy for a campaign down by nine or ten points nationwide.
Kay
@Baud:
Excuse me, Mr. Vice President? They’re setting up a field hospital in Wisconsin and you’re the virus czar.
Boston isn’t going to open schools. That happened today too. A US city has all their public schools closed due to infectious disease.
Arne Duncan once personally visited a public high school site in Oklahoma that was destroyed in a tornado. One school closed. He went there.
Anya
http://american-ledger.com/accountability/thom-tillis-ex-wife-cites-cruel-and-inhuman-treatment-in-divorce-documents/
Baud
@Anya: Oh good. That’s much worse than what Cal did.
Sure Lurkalot
@Mai Naem mobile: He may be the adult but Nancy, I and myriads of other people have been in meetings and conference calls with the Mnuchins of the world who don’t prepare and expect everyone in the room to catch them up. Screw that.
dmsilev
@hueyplong: Seems plausible. I hate hate hate that Trump has so corrupted everything around him that we can’t trust ordinarily trustworthy groups but instead have to do this weird Kremlinology/tea leaf reading to try to guess what the situation actually is.
MisterForkbeard
@Kay: …who is Kayla Mueller?
Maybe Harris should just drop a dead body in the audience and say “This person died from covid on your watch, Mr. Head Of The Coronavirus Taskforce”.
Anya
@Mai Naem mobile: I think Hank Paulson is more honorable than Mnuchin. Paulson is a garden variety old republican. Mnuchin is a cartoon character greedy asshole. He’s amoral but he sounds reasonable among the Trump crowd.
dmsilev
@Kay:
Yes, but in fairness I doubt any public school would want a visit from Betsy DeVos.
Joe Falco
@mad citizen:
That’s assuming they won’t change to call-in town halls like my Rep. Jody Hice had done before the pandemic. They know they can avoid any confrontation and the conversation can easily be controlled from their end. Yellow-bellied snakes, the whole lot of them!
A Ghost to Most
@cope:
That “When” is doing a lot of work.
Ken
Take heart, at least your typo didn’t blow up a rocket, bankrupt a company, cause a $600 billion loss, or break the internet. Others have not been so lucky.
Aziz, light!
Is he dead yet? Wake me when he’s dead.
craigie
@HumboldtBlue:
I beg to differ. I got my ballot on Saturday. Bwa ha ha!
dmsilev
Plague Rat Trump.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I don’t know about that — sending sexy-time texts to other women probably falls under the heading of “emotional abuse” from Cunningham’s wife’s perspective. But from a purely political (as opposed to human) standpoint, yes, it’s good that a skeleton has tumbled out of Tillis’s closet. Maybe voters will figure it’s a wash, and we need that goddamned seat.
Anya
@Baud: In the Trump age people seem to discount criminality and sexual assault so I am not sure how much this oppo dumb will actually have an impact but at the very least, in light of these revelations, they can’t use the extramarital sexting scandal against Cal Cunningham.
Ken
Nonsense. Cunningham’s adultery violated the sanctity of the marriage. Tillis was exercising a husband’s sacred duty to discipline his wife in accord with God’s will.
Gag. How do people think like that without wanting to scrub their brains with bleach?
gratuitous
As for the “piecemeal” legislation the administration is stumping for (right this second, subject to complete reversal at any time), Pelosi should tell Mnuchin to go Cheney himself. Trump will get one or two pelts most advantageous to himself, then walk away. Insist on nothing less than the whole ball of wax, up or down, yes or no. When it fails because the Senate doesn’t pass the legislation, the American people will get yet another lesson on where, precisely, the system is broken.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Not until she knew about it. She may feel that way now though.
sdhays
@Anya: He really is cartoonish, even more so than many of the other Dump henchpersons.
It’s petty, but I love Stephen Colbert’s Mnuchin impression. It’s so “toady”. Just perfect.
Bruce K
@Ken: I couldn’t understand it either, until the last few years when it became clear to me that some people are just utterly evil. Factor that in, and a lot of incomprehensible behavior suddenly makes sense.
Bill Arnold
@dmsilev:
Sad that CNN didn’t ask whether it was a paid quarantine, or if they asked and no answer was given, didn’t say so. Some other outlet should ask.
Jeffro
I’m trying to remember what I picked in the office pool. I think I had “wheeled out on a stretcher, already hooked up to oxygen, by Saturday afternoon”.
...now I try to be amused
@Citizen Alan:
Good point, but then conservative women in politics weren’t always like that. All conservatives flipped out in the time of Newt Gingrich’s rise, as best I can tell.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I haven’t clicked through, but I’ve seen headlines that indicate it wasn’t just texts. Ugh. People are so goddamned dumb.
Anya
I feel so sorry for the permanent White House staff. Trump is spreading his virus all over the White House. Why aren’t these people dead or incapacitated? They seem to recover quite quickly. I bet Chris Christie will have a harder time than Trump.
Anya
@Betty Cracker: Tillis is twice divorced. If he was cruel to his first wife, chances are the second wife didn’t escape his cruelty but Cunningham sucks.
HumboldtBlue
@MisterForkbeard:
That would be perfect. Just hammer him and Trump on their inaction and incompetence as the economy shudders to a halt and schols remain closed and those of us without work can’t find a job.
Betty Cracker
Poll pron:
I don’t believe for a second Biden is up 11 points in Florida, but damn!
sdhays
@Anya: There have been so many, the chances of someone dying directly because of the President* continues to rise, even though treatment has gotten much better than back in March and April. Don’t forget that he probably infected a bunch of 70+ mega-donors at his shitty NJ golf course hours before he announced he was positive. I’m really curious if we’re going to hear back about infections from that event.
The bodies could literally start dropping days before the election. I don’t want people to die (even Dump himself), but if people are going to die, I sure hope they’re from the friends and minions category rather than “the help”.
AnotherBruce
@Baud: North Carolina Senators are shitty human beings. It’s just that Tillis is even shittier. Thank dog.
Sloane Ranger
Trump has returned to the Oval Office. Ye Gods, he’s probably not wearing a mask and he’s wandering around spewing out virus everywhere he goes.
I know a lot of West Wing staff are working remotely but how long before he insists they return? And I really feel for the cleaners, marines, Secret Service agents who have no option but to breathe the air in the space he’s just passed through! At one time anyone behaving this irresponsibly would have been arrested and forcibly isolated.
MattF
Trump is demanding that lots of people be arrested and tossed in jail. Right now!
HumboldtBlue
@craigie:
So did my sister, stop being mean!
Still not sure who to vote for President and VP though.
HumboldtBlue
@Betty Cracker:
If he’s up five points in Iowa this will be a landslide.
Mai Naem mobile
@MisterForkbeard: Kayla Mueller was the volunteer worker who was working in Syria and got kidnapped by IIRC some level leader of ISIS who ended up getting killed in a bombing. Anyhow her family blame the Obama people for not doing enough to get their daughter out etc etc. Her family is from rural Arizona. Kind of a repeat of Otto Warmbier. I can’t be bothered to look it up but the parents were in an ad for the GOP in AZ I thought in 2018.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: No argument there.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I hope FL numbers are true. If FL can be called early, it’ll be a more relaxing election night.
Mai Naem mobile
@Betty Cracker: I like that all these recent polls have been LVs. RV polls I am wary of because who knows if they’re going to show up.
Also in NC maybe Roy Cooper can appoint John Edwards temporarily if Cunningham wins and decides to resign bad j/k.
Kent
What is it with North Carolina men?
gag.
catclub
Which is a bit peculiar because trump owns about zero stocks. if there were a commercial real estate ticker, he would REALLY be on that!
trnc
I really wish any agreement on a bill would have to include an explicit acknowledgement of when the democrats passed the bill and exclude DT’s credit grabbing signature.
catclub
@Kent: I can never remember the name of the one called ‘helms on wheels’
HumboldtBlue
Bed quality inspector is not a real job
Ken
@Betty Cracker: My favorite part is seeing Biden over 50%. Yes, polls, but it means that Trump can’t win even by picking up all the “undecided” voters. He has to do something to get people who’ve already decided for Biden.
Benw
Pvt. Hudson: “Why don’t you put her in charge!?”
catclub
@MattF: Politico:
department of understatement department.
...now I try to be amused
@HumboldtBlue: Harris could say, at intervals, “One.” “Two.” “Three.” during the debate. Then at the end, “This is how many Americans died of COVID-19 during this debate.” (For reference, there were 721 reported deaths yesterday.)
She won’t do that, but it would help drive the point home.
Kent
Geez…. What kind of lame-ass move is that? Do they really think they are going to get undecided voters on the argument that Obama was too weak on ISIS?
That is some seriously “desperate to change the subject” flop sweat right there.
trnc
@Baud: It’s bad, but it’s also 40 years old. If nothing relatively recent comes out, I doubt this will move the needle. Hopefully, enough people want Tillis the hell out of the senate anyway to make it a moot point.
HumboldtBlue
@Ken:
And we’ve already had 4 million people vote. Those votes aren’t changing.
Mai Naem mobile
@Anya: I cannot stand Mnuchin. I mean I think he’s a total piece of garbage. He’s a silver spooned POS whose family is supposedly not talking to him because he went to work for Donnie. My point was that Mnuchin is the adult in the room for the GOP because he knows his Wall Street pals are dead if there isn’t relief delivered to this economy.
Ken
@MattF: There’s an outside chance dex-Trump will fire Barr for not making the arrests.
MattF
@Ken: Well, I’d say there’s been a major increase in people on the margin— people who are changing their minds or can’t make up their minds. Which is very bad news for Trump, but leaves room for variation. Still, Trump support breaking through the 40% floor is a big deal.
trnc
@…now I try to be amused:
That approach might seem a bit over the top, but it would be completely appropriate for her to say at the beginning that several Americans will likely die from Covid before the debate ends.
MattF
@Ken: Who knows? We’re deep into WTF territory.
Kent
He needs the Justice Department to help with any election stealing schemes they have afoot. That won’t be easier with some unconfirmed acting lackey trying to run the place
HumboldtBlue
@…now I try to be amused:
That would be an attention grabber for sure.
Ken
@Kent: There’s a chance Trump would take that into account. But dex-Trump? Who knows.
dmsilev
@Betty Cracker: If those turn out to be accurate, we’re beyond landslide and into ‘make the rubble bounce’ territory. Here’s hoping…
MattF
@dmsilev: I’m trying to avoid large mood swings, myself.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Ha! I’m almost sorry I asked, but I enjoyed that explanation too much!
Kropacetic
You sure? Far as I can tell, this is the year of the white male Democrat.
Bill Arnold
Political, this is:
HumboldtBlue
Anya
Looks like Patient Zero might’ve exposed gold star families to COVID.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-quietly-told-vets-group-it-might-have-exposed-them-to-covid
Ken
Have you tried dex? It’ll keep you happy, even if your leg is torn off and your life-blood is pumping out of your body.
sdhays
@Ken: We don’t even know if Barr is infected with COVID-19. For all we know, ol’ Bill might need to make his own trip to the hospital in the next few days.
Speaking of nasty people in the hospital, Chris “Trip Up the Stutterer” Christy is still there after checking himself in on Saturday. I wonder what he’s thinking to himself as he struggles to breathe and faces the idea that he very well might not leave that hospital alive. He didn’t have to be Dump’s buddy. He could have done almost anything else. A washed up, hated Republican governor will always still land on his feet. But he needed more.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: You could have received a “Because fuck you. That’s why,” response. Those are my favorite.
hueyplong
@catclub: I think Sen East was Helms on Wheels.
Geminid
@Kent: The republicans will grab any straw. The Muellars are bitter, and they are being used. Their complaint is that the Obama administration did not do enough to rescue their daughter. I think the CIA and the military would have if they could. But if Pence throws this at Harris, she can throw his boss’s inaction on the Russian bounties right back.Not to mention trump’s pusillanimous retreat in Syria that disgusted Mattis so much he resigned. The story ISIS put out is that a Jordanian air raid killed Kaylee Muellar. I read some BBC reporting, based on accounts of two escaped Yazidi woman captives, that suggests she was executed by ISIS.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: In early 2016 I bought a really nice bottle of Scotch in anticipation of opening it on election night. Needless to say, it’s been sitting unopened.
I sure hope this is the year for opening it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes, I enjoy those responses when they’re directed at other people.
JPL
New England Journal of Medicine wrote an editorial against trump’s handling of the virus, and they want him voted out of office This is not normal, but I’m glad to see it.
link
SiubhanDuinne
@JoyceH:
Attempted fix.
Kropacetic
I’m fine with this as long as they use each bill as an opportunity to help American citizens. And we better make damn sure people know which party is pushing to help and which is belatedly coming to the table when they realized there were consequences to their actions and their inaction.
It’s disgusting that he’s trying to play this like he’s doing anything to help. He’s just disgusting in general.
White & Gold Purgatorian
@Kent: You may be confusing Trump with someone capable of clear-headed, rational thought. He seems to be operating on emotion, grievance and made up shit at the moment.
Ken
@JPL: There have been several “We normally don’t do this, but…” endorsements this year. Scientific American also endorsed Biden.
Marcopolo
Hey, thanks to everyone here who gave to Al Gross’ AK senate campaign. Looks like he’ll have the money to run ads so everyone knows who he is (a month ago ~40-50% of voters polled said they knew nada about him).
HumboldtBlue
Fattest bear has been named.
VeniceRiley
brutal!
Cheryl Rofer
Yay, I voted!
According to the machines, about 1000 people have voted at the Santa Fe Convention Center since voting started yesterday morning. The wait for me was about 45 minutes, but more people were arriving, and those arriving when I voted probably had somewhat more than an hour wait.
Steeplejack (phone)
Chris Christie still in the hospital after four days. That “important precautionary measure” must be taking a really long time.
A Ghost to Most
@Omnes Omnibus:
Because fuck you. That’s why.
Enjoy.
JPL
@VeniceRiley: I can’t think of anyone more deserving than trump.
geg6
@Steeplejack (phone):
Tots and pears!
SiubhanDuinne
@HumboldtBlue:
I occasionally watch a live cam feed from Katmai National Park. Checked it this morning, and boy howdy was it active! At one point there were seven or eight adult brown bears, and at least half a dozen cubs, all wading in the water. None of them seemed abnormally fat, though.
scav
Speaking of brains, at least some were found here: Well preserved 2,000-year-old brain cells found in Vesuvius victim
Ken
@scav: That never ends well in horror movies.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Might consider laying off the Dexamowhatchamacallit for a bit.
:)
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack (phone):
Also the famous “abundance of caution.”
WaterGirl
@White & Gold Purgatorian:
Fixed that for you!
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
A girl takes her fun where she finds it.
catclub
@hueyplong: Thanks!
SiubhanDuinne
@scav:
Even in his condition, he’d be a better president than the one we have.
Ian
@sdhays:
Is it bad I wish his trip to the hospital had been delayed because of unexplained road construction?
HumboldtBlue
@SiubhanDuinne:
That’s cuz 747 ate all the damn salmon!
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
“Feel free to browse. I’m sure you’ll find something which meets and exceeds your needs.”
– John Wellington Wells
.
:)
JoyceH
I’ll say we are! I just saw a television commercial for the DEMOCRAT in my Congressional district. This district is RUBY red and the incumbent is pretty much a shoo-in, but the fact that the challenger can even AFFORD a TV COMMERCIAL in this district means that our side is AWASH in money.
@MattF:
mrmoshpotato
@Ian:
Christy’s trip? No. A tornado needs to drop a bridge on him.
Martin
In addition to that Ras national poll showing Biden +12, Quinnipiac has 3 post-diagnosis polls out – +5 in Iowa, +11 in Florida, +13 in PA. Those are all notably higher than they were pre-diagnosis.
Latest poll seems to show Nunes leading at MOE, and in 2018 Dems won a lot of races like that in CA.
MomSense
@Gin & Tonic:
I’ve got some Veuve Cliquot waiting for a celebratory occasion.
jl
Adlai Stevenson, there’s you real commmie. Barr should open investigations into Deep State plotting of losing Democratic presidential candidates all the way back to Stevenson. Trump can take them all on single handed, in a display of might and strength.
Edit: QAnon should take on Grover Cleveland.
J R in WV
@dmsilev:
Needs moar Sick; SICK; SICK !!!!!!
‘Cause that’s how sick the MFer is. Let’s kill more Americans in Blue states, or wherever they are.
Wisconsin? Hell yeah… kill ’em all! In other words, really, really sick!
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue:
A raise and a bottle of champagne for Yereth Rosen.
Quinerly
@hueyplong: Yes, indeed he was. He was one of my Political Science profs in undergrad at East Carolina University. Additionally, I interned for him in DC summer of 1982. Long story.
Martin
@JoyceH: Biden just made a big ad buy in Texas. Cornyn will be lucky to keep his seat if this keeps up.
hueyplong
@Quinerly: Aaargh
NotMax
@HumboldtBlue
“Who ya calling ‘fat?’ I’m big boned.”
//
catclub
@Ken: common as anything else that is done once every 175 years.
HumboldtBlue
Greg Sargent provides us a list of Trump’s top moments of stepping on his own dick and fucking over the country.
NotMax
OT. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it department.
TCM, your new format and layout for the monthly schedule page is awful. If user UNfriendly was the goal you have succeeded wildly beyond expectations.
Chyron HR
@Mai Naem mobile:
Well the obvious response from Harris would be, “Just because Mike Pence thinks Blacks all look the same doesn’t make me President Obama.”
HumboldtBlue
@NotMax:
I think the term “fat” in this instance is one of respect and honor.
@mrmoshpotato:
When’s the last time you used the word jetliner?
The only times I have ever used that word was singing along with Steve Miller.
White & Gold Purgatorian
@WaterGirl: Always, indeed. Thanks.
mrmoshpotato
@jl: Shouldn’t it be J. Edgar Hoover who investigates Stevenson?
jl
@Martin: How many upcoming congressional election debates are coming up? How many House and Senate candidates will have the golden opportunity and privilege of answering the ‘Do you stand by Trump’ question on live TV that McSally got last night?
Would be nice to keep track and build a library of clips.
Maybe a fun group BJ learning activity? Commenters can post clips from their districts and then BJFPs can gather them into posts.
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue: I use “jet” or “jet airliner,” you YouTube-stalking commie!
jl
@mrmoshpotato: Not sure Jed Garoover would approve of Barr’s methods. Which is saying a lot, I admit. Hoover has the sense to keep the lawbreaking within certain bounds to avoid spoiling his racket over the long term.
HumboldtBlue
I don’t think she’s a shot at winning but MJ Hegar has an interesting backstory.
jl
Heard the history of remote political debates on a news interview this morning. If I heard correctly, they go back to at least the early 1970s. Really stupid, or really corrupt, that we can’t do them now for both VP and pres. I hate to think how stupid and corrupt this country has become. Sad to see an older adult like me get so radicalized, when I should be honing my savvy.
trollhattan
@HumboldtBlue:
Also to be used when there’s funky shit goin’ down in the city.
Quinerly
@hueyplong: he always had interns from Liberty University and one from where he had taught, ECU. I didn’t apply for it but was asked. He said he liked to argue with me in his class I had taken. My parents were pretty prominent Dems in the area. With that said, my dad felt it was an honor I couldn’t pass up. Look good on resume kind of thing; I was starting law school in the Fall. No chance of my interning for a NC Dem Senator.. … These were the Reagan years. Morgan had been defeated and Helms was there to stay. East was not a NC native. Had contracted polio while in the service. He was a one termer. Health later was failing, from a medical condition that I think Walter Reed failed to diagnose (I seem to recall his wife suing after his death). He committed suicide at his NC home. Tipped his wheelchair over, in the enclosed garage, with his head right at the exhaust.
jl
Barr seems to be OK, but apparently gone into deep seclusion in the deepest DOJ isolation bunker (assuming they have bunkers), to more effectively direct criming on the down low.
MomSense
@NotMax:
You stumble across anything interesting lately? I finally caught The Peanut Butter Falcon. It’s got some issues but I found the scenery and the acting chemistry between Shia LaBeouf and Zach Gottsagen worth the viewing.
HumboldtBlue
@trollhattan:
Yes, or when you really really really love peaches and do some tree shaking.
I once used Reallyloveyourpeaches as an online handle back when I was still dialing up tom log on.
Barbara
@SiubhanDuinne: I think she should read aloud the WSJ editorial he wrote back in June about how it was going away, no second wave, etc. “You sir have no clue what you are doing.”
mrmoshpotato
@jl: So fun that these times would make Hoover, and possibly that son of a bitch McCarthy say, “Tone it down a bit, guys!”
Princess Leia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Such great cams – If you donate to the Otis Fund, there is a donor match!
@HumboldtBlue: 747 is truly deserving, even if my heart was with Otis!
HumboldtBlue
@Princess Leia:
He’s a big ol’ jet airliner that’s for sure.
Wyatt Salamanca
Best headline I saw today –
Biden Campaign Resumes Negative Ads Against Trump
h/t https://www.mediaite.com/election-2020/breaking-biden-campaign-resumes-negative-ads-against-trump/
Trump is a selfish rat fucking bastard willing to put all American lives at risk so Biden’s campaign must show him no mercy at all.
Fuck Trump and all his enablers in Congress and in the media. Also too, fuck the NY Yankees.
hueyplong
@Quinerly: Damn, that is a sad story (about him, not you).
WaterGirl
@jl: He may well have it if he is isolating, but he would never admit it.
jl
@mrmoshpotato: I thought I typo’d ‘Hoover has’, but will keep it since the GOP seems to think that their past opponents and, maybe, heroes like JEH, and the voters, are frozen in time or immortal.
Josh Marshall brought up the ‘cadaver synod’, which is another reason to politically crush the Trumpsters, since it looks like they think doing another one is a good political tactic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaver_Synod
hueyplong
@WaterGirl: Been wondering all week whether maybe Barr, not Trump, is the actual Prince Prospero in The Masque of the Red Death 2.0
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue: Someone say peaches?
Wish those guys were President…
jl
@Wyatt Salamanca: They can restart the negative ads on Trump’s personal say so that being sick with covid has made him stronger than ever. Maybe they could adapt a Trump ‘I approve this message’ that would pass election law muster.
James E Powell
@Gin & Tonic:
I had three fingers of Johnnie Walker Blue I saved in anticipation of drinking it to toast the election of our first woman president. I poured it down the sink and went to bed.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Betty Cracker: I could see Mcconnell doing that but I wish he’d learn a new trick. It’s the same thing he did to Obama, ostensibly to make him a one termer, but it didn’t work. The theory is put Biden in the biggest economic hole possible, and then pivot to concern trolling over the deficit to prevent the Dems from doing anything to help. So inflict pain on the country in a cynical play for short term partisan advantage.
I don’t know why he would do that again when it didn’t work the first time and given this is the second time around it will be even more transparent. Plus we have yet another example of Republicans blowing up the deficit with him in charge of the Senate, which makes it that much more hypocritical. Honestly if he’s dumb enough to do that again he’s not as smart as he’s made out to be.
If I were him I might try working with the opposition for a change so the Republicans would have more than scorched earth to list on their election resumes. Seems like that might work out better for them, but they don’t seem to have an agenda other than ever more tax cuts for the rich.
Geminid
@HumboldtBlue: Hegar’s total back story is much more interesting than that. Check it out on Wikipedia. She is a very accomplished and experienced person for her age. Her election will depend on how big the blue wave is in Texas this year, but Hegar may even run a couple points ahead of Biden. John Cornyn is somewhat of a cypher to Texans. Last fall, a poll of Texans gave Cornyn a 33% positive rating, 33% negative, and 33% no opinion. Not good for a senator trying to win a forth term.
Sloane Ranger
According to Scott Walker (yes, I know), Pence is going to attack Kamala for Joe’s opposition to stopping travel from China and elsewhere early on in the pandemic, paint her as a dangerous socialist for supporting MfA and try to create a breach between her and Joe based on their exchanges during the Primary debates.
He’s apparently a smooth operator. I hope Kamala has prepared thoroughly and has studied his technique and brings her A game.
JPL
trump has a new video and everyone can have the same treatment as him for free. Also he’d have a vaccine but politics is getting in the way.
JPL
@Sloane Ranger: He’s a snake oil salesman.
mrmoshpotato
@jl: THE TRIAL OF THE CORPSE POPE!
jl
BTW, by current public health criteria that I’ve seen the WH outbreak is an official superspreader event. more and more evidence that what makes covid control really difficult, beside asymptomatic spread, is superspreader events. And like a lot of non-retail workplace outbreaks, you get into the 20-30-40 sometimes 100 case range. Those 20 percent of the outbreaks are responsible for 80 percent of the cases. New study from Hong Kong (where they can trace almost all outbreaks), they got 19 percent of outbreaks creating > 80 percent of the cases.
That WH party trick is that kind of outbreak that the US just cannot control well, and what keeps us with high costs of shut down and high cost of disease, the US lose-lose situation that is almost unique in the high income industrial economy developed world (maybe Russia is with us, but I’m not sure).
IMHO, we can’t control those kinds of outbreaks because US institutions have developed so that protecting lower income essential workers is one thing that we just cannot, will not, do.
sdhays
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I hope the Senate Democrats are prepared to be ruthless in shitting on the new Republican minority, at least as long as McConnell is their leader. They should treat the relationship with him as salted earth from which nothing can grow. If the Republicans want to put up someone else, anyone else, they can get a (short) second chance.
But they still shouldn’t be able to get back the filibuster. May it be well and truly dead.
NotMax
@MomSense
Found the fifth (and final) season of Rita on Netflix worthwhile although it lost its footing now and again along the way, unlike the previous seasons. Other than that and the 13-part documentary series on Prime mentioned the other day it’s been a dry spell. Not for lack of sampling and vigorous finger crossing.
New Tricks (on Prime) is okay, if repetitious, as run in the background time filler. The fetching Amanda Redman in a series generally is enough to give it a tryout.
You found anything of note recently?
jl
@mrmoshpotato: That person, recording the story in 2017, clairvoyant?
“What must it have been like to wake up every morning and find that your leaders have engaged in yet another tasteless, self-serving, act?”
Don’t have time to watch the whole thing, but apparently the good people of Rome even back then found the antics of the cadaver synod crowd odd and unacceptable.
mrmoshpotato
@sdhays:
Fuck that. Shit on them all, including Mittens!
jl
@WaterGirl: Barr’s the kind of high risk person who should probably go to the hospital, like Christie.
2liberal
It is a blip. I think it will revert to the mean.
Quinerly
@hueyplong: Spending that summer in DC was a great experience for a small town chick. Interns had tickets, passes to get in pretty much anywhere. Tours of everywhere. I also had the honor of having Sen Teddy Kennedy stop me on the steps to compliment my vintage summer sundress. It had been my mother’s in the ’40’s and I had it on one day going in to get a pass for something, not wearing it to work. He stopped me to chat. I was 21 and star struck. My mom got the biggest kick out of the story. Fun summer. I don’t remember a lot of actual work. I was in what essentially was East’s mail room. No one really kept track of me, though. ?
HumboldtBlue
@MomSense:
I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy the lead character in the British series “Our Girl” about an East end London girl who joins the army to escape from the drudgery of poverty and a mess of a family.
Lucy Dawes is excellent as the lead and the first season was very good, sad to say Dawes left the show and it went downhill immediately.
HumboldtBlue
@2liberal:
And here I was… dreaming…
H-Bob
@JPL: Who wants an unlubricated snake?
Aleta
@hueyplong: Here’s a quote from the company:
Yet Conley made it out to be a main announcement in his letter to Kayl. for public distribution.
MomSense
@HumboldtBlue:
That sounds like something I will definitely like. I’m also planning to rewatch The Detectorists because it is just a lovely story about human beings.
MomSense
@NotMax:
True confession: I enjoyed Emily In Paris. Full of all the usual stereotypes about the French, but still a nice escape.
I was disappointed in the second season of The Boys. I liked the first season a lot – sort of the dark side of the superhero genre.
I also liked Enola Holmes. I’m a sucker for all things Sherlock related.
Aleta
@HumboldtBlue: Thanks for the link.
MomSense
@NotMax:
I rewatched the Keira Knightly Matthew McFayden Pride and Prejudice on Netflix. I really enjoy that version. East Side Sushi is also on Netflix and that is one of my favorite flicks. Just a feel good story about interesting and realistic characters. Since you are a foodie and a filmie I think you will really like it. The family relationship is so beautiful.
Omnes Omnibus
@A Ghost to Most: Shouldn’t you be sharpening your bullets or something?
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: Minnie Bobbie Brown is a talented young actor.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@MomSense: I haven’t watched The Boys but loved The Tick (the made for Amazon version, not the Fox network version from years ago). Was bummed when Amazon cancelled it after 2 seasons.
Always Be My Maybe (starring Ali Wong and Randall Park) is a decent, maybe slightly above average, romantic comedy, except…the scene with Keanu Reeves is so bonkers and hilarious it kicks the whole movie up a notch.
NotMax
@MomSense
Will admit to giving a hard pass on the new season of The Boys. The initial season managed to cram in everything gone wrong in comics since Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns.” Watching it left a bad taste in the mouth.
HumboldtBlue
@MomSense:
I hope you enjoy, I really like Dawes’ character.
@Aleta:
You’re welcome, I was pleasantly surprised.
Sally
@MomSense: The Detectorists is even better, more poignant and funny second time around. Try Made in Italy, set in Milan, with many of the original clothes sourced from all over the world, in many original locations.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
She was so so so good in Stranger Things. I loved everything about that series.
MomSense
@Sally:
Ooh, I’ll check that out.