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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Wet Phhaaaarrt Open Thread: But His Kid’s Emailz!!!…

Wet Phhaaaarrt Open Thread: But His Kid’s Emailz!!!…

by Anne Laurie|  October 19, 20204:18 pm| 325 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel, Our Failed Media Experiment

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Apparently even most reporters at the @nypost refused to add their bylines to the story. They had to settle for a former hannity booker on staff who’d never bylined a piece before. The other byline they added without the reporter knowing apparently. https://t.co/BpZ0YhtLPK

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 18, 2020

New York Post source tells me that inside the outlet, “All this Hunter Biden shit is being done in its own bubble. It's happening on an island within an island.” Person calls situation “gross” but is happy others are applying scrutiny and “see the grift.” https://t.co/GFsIo2dNu4

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 19, 2020



The actual reporters at the NYTimes still have some self respect… unlike the highly-paid Access Journalists:

Rudy Giuliani – someone with well known ties to corrupt foreign actors opposed to Biden – didn’t give his bullshit hit piece to The NY Times because he knew they wouldn’t print it.

But then the NYT’s Maggie Haberman immediately circulated it.

Proud moment, @nytimes. https://t.co/p4GMKRhDh7

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) October 18, 2020

Wow, the “sources” for the NY post story were Rudy and Steve “out on bail” Bannon.https://t.co/OyQs1UbPNz pic.twitter.com/9WAkREuZQc

— Molly Jong-Fast?? (@MollyJongFast) October 18, 2020

CAN WE INTEREST YOU IN A STORY pic.twitter.com/0MVBtiSeUK

— kilgore trout, kiss me mr. president (@KT_So_It_Goes) October 18, 2020

Bannon is desperately trying to pull off a disinformation stunt because:

1) He is facing a likely slam dunk conviction on multiple felonies carrying a 10+ year sentence

2) He needs a pardon

3) Trump has long since cooled on him

4) He needs to change that

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) October 19, 2020

yep. the story is trash–essentially incoherent (what is being "revealed," exactly?) and on top of that is being pushed by people who have lit their credibility on fire during the last few years https://t.co/gh93jSxmEZ

— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) October 18, 2020

Wingnut Twitter still yammering about the NY Post faceplant so I went back and started reading it again, and started chuckling and then stopped. The astounding thing about it is that _anyone_ ever took it seriously. I mean, come on.

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) October 18, 2020

If they follow the usual half-assed right wing hit job script, they probably have a few more releases of equal dumbassitude, spaced over several days to try to keep the bullshit in the news as long as possible.

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) October 18, 2020

Maxwell Smart voiceover: Would you believe… three Young Pioneers with recycled chromebooks?

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Reader Interactions

325Comments

  1. 1.

    Ken

    October 19, 2020 at 4:25 pm

    I misread the Josh Marshall tweet as “former hannity hooker on staff”, which seemed totally plausible.

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    October 19, 2020 at 4:26 pm

    Even my can’t-evens have run out of can’t-evens.

    Who’s the living(?) fossil in the lower right of the Bannon Giuliani screenshot. Is he there to make Rudy look young?

  3. 3.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 19, 2020 at 4:26 pm

    AL @top

    The actual reporters at the NYTimes still have some self respect

    Really? I offer Ken Vogel, for instance….

  4. 4.

    BruceFromOhio

    October 19, 2020 at 4:26 pm

    One enduring takeaway from Stephen King was a line from who-knows-which book. “And the whole thing was about as welcome as a wet fart in church.”

    //cringe

    @Ken:  They asked her if she would put her name on it, and she said, “no way, you assholes don’t pay me enough for that.”

  5. 5.

    trollhattan

    October 19, 2020 at 4:27 pm

    @Ken:

    “On staff” or independent contractor? Big battleground right now.

  6. 6.

    debbie

    October 19, 2020 at 4:27 pm

    Rudy looks like he’s wearing a Snuggy.

  7. 7.

    RandomMonster

    October 19, 2020 at 4:27 pm

    Kudos for the Get Smart reference.

  8. 8.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 19, 2020 at 4:28 pm

    @trollhattan: Looks like it could be Pat Leahy on a presumably unrelated story (I don’t know what warroom.org is and don’t intend to find out.)

  9. 9.

    japa21

    October 19, 2020 at 4:29 pm

    Unfortunately, there are a couple regular commenters here who are afraid this is going to sink Biden. Not only am I not one of them, I think it could actually help Biden.

  10. 10.

    debbie

    October 19, 2020 at 4:29 pm

    Asked and answered.

  11. 11.

    yellowdog

    October 19, 2020 at 4:30 pm

    They’ve moved on now to child porn on the laptop. Endless possibilities.

  12. 12.

    trollhattan

    October 19, 2020 at 4:30 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Yeah, so not googling pandemicwarroom.org. I’m sure they’re totally legit and all.

  13. 13.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 19, 2020 at 4:31 pm

    @trollhattan: That’s Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT). That was him questioning Amy Coney Barrett during her committee hearings last week.

  14. 14.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 19, 2020 at 4:31 pm

    I'd Like To Introduce Ryan Grim and Glenn Greenwald To Reporting At a Publication Called The Intercept 1

  15. 15.

    sherparick

    October 19, 2020 at 4:32 pm

    John Ratcliffe, the stooge Trump put in charge of the Directorate of National Intelligence is entering the story to boost the “but Hunter’s emails story” as saying it is not “Russian Disinformation.” Also, for those in Wisconsin who need more proof that Trump, Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, and entire Wisconsin Republican Party needs to be burned to the ground, read this story. https://www.theverge.com/21507966/foxconn-empty-factories-wisconsin-jobs-loophole-trump

  16. 16.

    BruceFromOhio

    October 19, 2020 at 4:32 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    War Room: 2020 is a news site and podcast with former Trump campaign CEO and White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon, former chief of staff to Nigel Farage, Raheem Kassam, and WarRoom’s own Jack Maxey.

    The pop-up on the About section refers to “get all your impeachment updates here.” You betcha!

    I will now go bathe so you don’t have to.

  17. 17.

    danielx

    October 19, 2020 at 4:33 pm

    Be it noted that desperation flop sweat has a worse odor than a wet fart.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 19, 2020 at 4:33 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Warroom.org is Bannon’s YouTube and podcasting channel. Bannon’s War Room. I’ve been in actual war rooms, Bannon has not.

  19. 19.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 19, 2020 at 4:35 pm

    @japa21: So far, the effect of this story on popular opinion has been nil.

  20. 20.

    BruceFromOhio

    October 19, 2020 at 4:35 pm

    @japa21:

    Same as with the whole ‘court-packing’ episode, it gives B-H campaign another opportunity to point back at the talking heads and ask, there’s a pandemic with no Senate, and a POS ideologue on track for SKOTUS. News too slow for you?

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 19, 2020 at 4:36 pm

    Fuck everyone. That’s my assessment.

  22. 22.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 19, 2020 at 4:38 pm

    @yellowdog: That’s a Russian intelligence trick.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/world/europe/vladimir-putin-russia-fake-news-hacking-cybersecurity.html

    Foes of Russia Say Child Pornography Is Planted to Ruin Them

    By Andrew Higgins

    Dec. 9, 2016

  23. 23.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 19, 2020 at 4:38 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:  Thanks, I’ll update my filter list. Wouldn’t want an accidental click to send me there..

  24. 24.

    Zzyzx

    October 19, 2020 at 4:39 pm

    Never mind. I watched the clip and Trump didn’t actually say what the summary implied.

  25. 25.

    BruceFromOhio

    October 19, 2020 at 4:39 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’ll wager your war room didn’t have Nigel Farage in it, either.

    ‘Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the war room!’

  26. 26.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 19, 2020 at 4:40 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: I’d rather be sent to the cornfield.

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    October 19, 2020 at 4:40 pm

    Somebody call the waaahmbulance, Trump’s campaign manager is bitching to the debate commission (which he cleverly dubs the “Biden Debate Commission”) that they’re being treated…wait for it…unfairly.

    They REALLY don’t want anybody cutting the mic. I wonder why?

  28. 28.

    Bill Arnold

    October 19, 2020 at 4:42 pm

    @sherparick:

    John Ratcliffe, the stooge Trump put in charge of the Directorate of National Intelligence is entering the story to boost the “but Hunter’s emails story” as saying it is not “Russian Disinformation.”

    Since there is no way he actually KNOWS this, unless this is Trump administration/campaign disinformation, the future ex-DNI Ratcliffe will need a thorough deep investigative scan.

  29. 29.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 19, 2020 at 4:43 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: 

    I’ve been in actual war rooms

    Calmest rooms in the world, naturally. No fighting allowed.

  30. 30.

    PPCLI

    October 19, 2020 at 4:45 pm

    @yellowdog:
    If there is any such thing on the laptop, it is almost surely a GRU plant. That is part of their playbook.

    But it would mean that Rudy has been knowingly in possession of child pornography for (by his own admission) a year or so.
    That is a very serious crime. Rudy is in big trouble if he is telling the truth.

  31. 31.

    Bill Arnold

    October 19, 2020 at 4:45 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    That’s a Russian intelligence trick.

    Also, QAnon has primed 10s of millions of Americans (and others!) to be Insanely Concerned about such things.

  32. 32.

    cain

    October 19, 2020 at 4:48 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: Calmest rooms in the world, naturally. No fighting allowed.

    Ah yes, the Dr. Strangelove reference – :D – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAeqVGP-GPM

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 19, 2020 at 4:49 pm

    This is all you need to know:

    https://www.mediaite.com/tv/exclusive-fox-news-passed-on-hunter-biden-laptop-story-over-credibility-concerns/

    Thus far, the Fox’s News division has only been able to verify one email from the tranche leaked.

    The structure, if you will, of this type of operation is to hack for actual documents and photos and video and audio files, remove them, doctor some, fabricate others completely, and then dump them all together. This makes it impossible for someone, especially if they didn’t realize they were hacked, to assert that they are all forgeries. Because the forgeries and doctored materials are shuffled in with the legit materials. This was attempted by the Russians against Macron in 2017. This was done against AG Lynch in 2016. One of the main drivers for Comey being stupid in the most Comey way ever is that one of the things his investigators in 2016 had determined is that an email from AG Lynch had been taken by the hackers, modified, and then included in one of the Wikileaks data dumps. They had the original email directly off of the DOJ servers, so they could see what was and was not changed. But the counterintelligence concern is that you 1) couldn’t put that out there because it could compromise sources and methods and 2) that it would only feed the disinformation as Wikileaks and those leveraging them like the President, would then pivot to accusing the DOJ and FBI of trying to cover up for AG Lynch to keep him from getting elected. So Comey decided that this had compromised AG Lynch vis a vis the HRC email investigation and she’d need to recuse. That was valid. What wasn’t valid was that Comey then decided he’d step in to replace her for oversight of this while she was recused. This was both stupid and unnecessary, as we had a perfectly good and not compromised on this issue Deputy AG: Sally Yates.

    One of the main differences right now is the progression in the ability to create deep fake videos.

  34. 34.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 19, 2020 at 4:49 pm

    @cain: BruceFromOhio beat me to it by quoting the actual lines.

  35. 35.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 19, 2020 at 4:50 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: From an appropriate social distance.

  36. 36.

    Ken

    October 19, 2020 at 4:50 pm

    @trollhattan: They REALLY don’t want anybody cutting the mic.

    An electric shock collar is also acceptable.

  37. 37.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 19, 2020 at 4:50 pm

    @BruceFromOhio: It did not.

  38. 38.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 19, 2020 at 4:51 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: You’d be surprised.

  39. 39.

    jonas

    October 19, 2020 at 4:52 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: 

    Lol. Reminds me of the “War for the White House” graphics the Onion News Network used to run back in the day, with fighter jets and explosions. The correspondent reported from the “Election Analysis Bunker.”

  40. 40.

    pamelabrown53

    October 19, 2020 at 4:53 pm

    @debbie:

    …a soggy, stinky snuggie!

    The only real story is how Rudy is being investigated as a Russian “dupe”? I’m more inclined to believe “asset”.

    Is he still “America’s Mayor”? How weren’t his crackpot tendencies detected earlier?

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 19, 2020 at 4:54 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: And wearing well-fitting face coverings.

  42. 42.

    dmsilev

    October 19, 2020 at 4:56 pm

    @trollhattan: That letter reads like the Trump campaign doesn’t want him on the debate stage and they’re looking for a fig-leaf excuse to pull out.

  43. 43.

    MattF

    October 19, 2020 at 4:57 pm

    @trollhattan: Someone on the campaign staff has noticed that Trump’s approval declines after every ‘debate’.

  44. 44.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 19, 2020 at 5:02 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: That’s just SCIENCE!

  45. 45.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 19, 2020 at 5:03 pm

    @dmsilev: This is also just SCIENCE!

  46. 46.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 5:03 pm

    boy you can almost hear the suburban housewives running back to trump, can’t you?

    Aaron [email protected] · 1h
    “Biden wants to listen to Dr. Fauci,” Trump says, prompting boos and yells of “lock him up!”

  47. 47.

    different-church-lady

    October 19, 2020 at 5:05 pm

    “YOU PUT YOUR DAUGHTER AND FUCKIN’ SON-IN-LAW IN CHARGE OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY AND YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE OTHER GUY’S FAMILY?”

  48. 48.

    Betty Cracker

    October 19, 2020 at 5:07 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m glad you clarified this:

    The structure, if you will, of this type of operation is to hack for actual documents and photos and video and audio files, remove them, doctor some, fabricate others completely, and then dump them all together.

    …because it appears some of the content the NYP barfed up is real. I don’t think that’s clear to everybody who’s discussing the incident (not here, I mean in general).

  49. 49.

    LuciaMia

    October 19, 2020 at 5:07 pm

    @Ken: I prefer Mr. Burns trap door.

  50. 50.

    different-church-lady

    October 19, 2020 at 5:09 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Have any of them noticed it’s been four years and he still hasn’t locked up Hillary?

  51. 51.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 19, 2020 at 5:11 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: And just being courteous during a global pandemic.

    And, yes, SCIENCE is so nice, you can say it twice.

  52. 52.

    Mike in Pasadena

    October 19, 2020 at 5:11 pm

    A friend commented to me that the polls in 2016 and again in 2020 were and are getting it wrong because people don’t like to admit to pollsters they are voting for tRump. It’s like admitting to being a racist. Anybody else hear this theory?

  53. 53.

    topclimber

    October 19, 2020 at 5:12 pm

    @Bill Arnold: This particular form of BS is as follows: Ratcliffe says there is “no evidence” that this is disinformation. Nor is their “evidence” that is not, which he fails to add.

    He made his remark before the FBI impounded the laptop. So he was speaking out of his Trump approved ass.

    I am sure he will be equally diligent when the story moves onto child porn on the laptop. Which QAnon could have told you would be on any Democrat’s computer.

    Of course, we don’t expect QAnon to have any evidentiary standards. Our director of National Intelligence is another story.

  54. 54.

    LuciaMia

    October 19, 2020 at 5:12 pm

     Trump says, prompting boos and yells of “lock him up!”

    Jeebus, do these Pavlov’s dogs have anything else in their teeny minds they can shout?

  55. 55.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 19, 2020 at 5:12 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: And just being courteous and protective of others during a global pandemic.

  56. 56.

    debbie

    October 19, 2020 at 5:12 pm

    Hahahaha. The Cleveland company printing mail-in ballots photographed with a Trump flag proudly waving just below the American flag has now announced they will be taking it down. Apparently, they got a lot of complaints about it.

  57. 57.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 19, 2020 at 5:13 pm

    @Betty Cracker: You’re welcome.

  58. 58.

    Jamie

    October 19, 2020 at 5:14 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena: 

    Lots of people like to say this, but there’s no evidence supporting it. As somebody on Twitter pointed out, those shy Trump voters are also apparently pretty shy about donating, given that the Trump campaign is getting crushed in terms of fundraising.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    October 19, 2020 at 5:14 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Hunter can’t authenticate the real docs, even if they’re exonerating (not damaging) because the moment he authenticates any they can produce anything they want and he will then be in the position of saying “that one is mine, the rest are forgeries/planted”

    Which he seems to know.

    It may be Russian but ordinary criminals do the same thing to one another with texts and social media. Claim one as yours, the rest become yours too. So they never willingly claim any.

  60. 60.

    debbie

    October 19, 2020 at 5:15 pm

    @trollhattan:

    I’m going break custom and watch the debate just to see what happens after the microphone is cut. Should be fun!

  61. 61.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 19, 2020 at 5:15 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    and yells of “lock him up!” 

    “Get new chants, you Nazi shitstains!”

    Seriously, fucking Nazi shitstains.

  62. 62.

    Zzyzx

    October 19, 2020 at 5:16 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena: 

    Every 4 years that theory comes up. So far, it hasn’t showed up in a noticeable way. Polls have been within normal range and the errors have not always gone in the way that that theory would predict.

  63. 63.

    JPL

    October 19, 2020 at 5:17 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena: The race started to tighten thanks to Comey opening an investigation because of Weiner’s computer. That was ten or eleven days before the election. He didn’t announce that they didn’t find anything until two days before the election

    The national polls closer to the actual election accurate.

  64. 64.

    debbie

    October 19, 2020 at 5:18 pm

    @pamelabrown53:

    NYC is filled with crackpots. He fit right in.

  65. 65.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 19, 2020 at 5:18 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    “YOU PUT YOUR DAUGHTER AND FUCKIN’ SON-IN-LAW IN CHARGE OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY AND YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE OTHER GUY’S FAMILY?”

    Well, yes.  This Soviet shitpile mobster crime family would have no attack plan if projection didn’t exist.  A step up from And I’m Eric! just yelling “I know you are, but what am I?”

  66. 66.

    MattF

    October 19, 2020 at 5:19 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena: I think the big unknown in polling these days is the effect of low response rates. However, the small proportion who do respond to calls from pollsters aren’t likely to be shy about their opinions.

  67. 67.

    debbie

    October 19, 2020 at 5:20 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Would a normal campaign manager write a letter to the debate commission that sounded more like a campaign stump speech?

  68. 68.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 19, 2020 at 5:22 pm

    @LuciaMia: I’m partial to the robotic Richard Simmons myself.

  69. 69.

    A Ghost to Most

    October 19, 2020 at 5:22 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: That’s a corollary of my theory that everyone is an asshole about something.

  70. 70.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 19, 2020 at 5:24 pm

    @different-church-lady: Oh, “LOCK HER UP!” came with a timeframe, did it? 😁

  71. 71.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 19, 2020 at 5:27 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena: Yes.  Even if waiting to vote wearing an SS uniform, no one’s gonna go, “I’m voting for Trump because I’m a racist pile of shit!”

  72. 72.

    Roger Moore

    October 19, 2020 at 5:27 pm

    @sherparick:

    John Ratcliffe, the stooge Trump put in charge of the Directorate of National Intelligence is entering the story to boost the “but Hunter’s emails story” as saying it is not “Russian Disinformation.”

    I’m provisionally prepared to believe that.  It seems more likely to me that this was thrown together by some of Trump’s less competent lackeys trying to follow the Russian playbook.  I think Russian intelligence would have done a better job of it.

  73. 73.

    John S.

    October 19, 2020 at 5:29 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena: That’s a nice theory, but MAGAts aren’t shy. They are out and proud in 2020, and frankly, the majority of Americans are tired of them and their bullshit.

  74. 74.

    Kent

    October 19, 2020 at 5:29 pm

    From Today’s Washington Post:

    In a year of political anger, undecided voters inspire a special kind of scorn

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/undecided-voters-are-driving-people-crazy-they-might-decide-the-election/2020/10/16/53ebb3bc-0cac-11eb-b1e8-16b59b92b36d_story.html

    “To be undecided in 2020, to me, you literally would have to be on an ice floe,” says Tom Nichols, a national security professor and senior adviser for the Lincoln Project. “If you’re just coming back from an Antarctic research station, I would understand.”

    Undecided voters are the butt of jokes. But they also tend to be venerated — by media, by campaigns — as freethinkers, tough customers, keepers of a rarefied common sense that exists above the partisan tug-of-war. They are granted special audiences with candidates, who must persuade them personally while other Undecideds look on. They are, says Nichols says, “the prized unicorn in the political menagerie.”

    In 2020, they’re the “mentally impaired unicorns,” Stephen Colbert said on a recent episode of “The Late Show.”

    With so much on the line, the Undecideds have become more mystifying — and frustrating — than ever.

    Nobody believes they are real.

    Oh, and everyone hates them.

    Ha, it’s about fucking time.

  75. 75.

    Humanities Prof

    October 19, 2020 at 5:35 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena: Evidence for this is pretty sketchy.

    The most that can be said is that there may have been a small number of “shy Trump” voters in live polling, but at most it amounted to maybe 1% of the votes.  And a lot of polls are now done automatically (robo-polls), and there was no shy Trump vote detected there at all.

    Might Trump be running a little ahead of his current polling numbers?  Maybe.  He’s not running ten points better, though.  Nowhere near that.

  76. 76.

    Betty Cracker

    October 19, 2020 at 5:37 pm

    @Kay: One thing in this tawdry tale I’m truly curious about is the origin of that laptop. From what I’ve been able to piece together, it sounds like the FBI really did take possession of a hard drive?

    But the MAGA computer store guy’s story isn’t believable. If Russian agents and/or some of Giuliani’s other shady minions planted stuff on a laptop that didn’t belong to H. Biden and contrived this whole tale, I think a forensic investigation would reveal that, but I don’t really know how all of this works…

  77. 77.

    SFBayAreaGal

    October 19, 2020 at 5:40 pm

    @Kent: If people believe there are undecided voters, I would like to sell them a beautiful bridge that crosses from San Francisco to Marin.

  78. 78.

    Kent

    October 19, 2020 at 5:40 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena:A friend commented to me that the polls in 2016 and again in 2020 were and are getting it wrong because people don’t like to admit to pollsters they are voting for tRump. It’s like admitting to being a racist. Anybody else hear this theory?

    It’s the same bullshit as the Romney Camp wanting to “unskew” the polls in 2012.

    Yes, the 2016 pollsters fucked up in the upper midwest because they under-polled white working class non-college educated voters, who turned out to be a larger percentage of the electorate than their models predicted.  But they have had 4 years to adjust their polling models to achieve better accuracy this time around.  One hopes they are doing better.  The Pod Save America guys talked about this in their last podcast. Basically there was very little serious upper midwest polling done in 2016 because it wasn’t seen as a battleground.  Now they are doing massive polling of those states.  And it is pretty consistent.

    Yea, it ain’t over until it’s over.  But personally I’m not worried about polling bias.  I think the new battlegrounds will be something different this time.  It is always something different.  Like maybe this time it will be something to do with Arizona or Iowa or North Carolina that no one has on their radar.

  79. 79.

    Patricia Kayden

    October 19, 2020 at 5:41 pm

    "I call the head of Exxon. I'll use a company. 'How, how are you doing, how's energy coming? When are doing the exploration? Oh, you need a couple of permits, huh?' But I call the head of Exxon, I say, 'you know, I'd love you to send me $25m for the campaign'" – Trump #QuidProQuo pic.twitter.com/Tr1ccpyMzw— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 19, 2020

  80. 80.

    sdhays

    October 19, 2020 at 5:42 pm

    Very small point, but I really wish people (on Twitter, mostly) would not refer to the NY Post as “The Post”. “The Post” is the Washington Post. They’ve earned that. The NY Post is the NY Post, and it’s apparently trash. When I see “The Post” refer to the NY Trash, my brain has to translate from stupid and it’s getting tired of it.

    /rant

  81. 81.

    zhena gogolia

    October 19, 2020 at 5:42 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    This is misleading. He says he doesn’t do this. (I don’t believe him, but it is an out-of-context quotation.)

  82. 82.

    Kent

    October 19, 2020 at 5:43 pm

    @SFBayAreaGal:@Kent: If people believe there are undecided voters, I would like to sell them a beautiful bridge that crosses from San Francisco to Marin.

    There are actual undecided voters.  I’m related to them.  But they aren’t “independents”  They are loyal Republicans who are sick of Trump and are likely to vote straight ticket GOP except for maybe not Trump.  Here in WA they are the ones who are putting up Loren Culp signs for governor (our crazy GOP “constitutional sheriff” candidate) instead of Trump signs because they still want to let their GOP flag fly but are done with Trump.

  83. 83.

    zhena gogolia

    October 19, 2020 at 5:43 pm

    @sdhays:

    I think British people feel this way when we say “the Times” meaning NYT.

  84. 84.

    JPL

    October 19, 2020 at 5:44 pm

    @sdhays:  A friend who was raised in Brooklyn, talks about the days of yore, when the NYPost was the paper the middle class would read because of their support for unions.

  85. 85.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 5:44 pm

    @Kent:

    In 2020, they’re the “mentally impaired unicorns,” Stephen Colbert said on a recent episode of “The Late Show.”

    Ha! I love the way they gather them together for debates and then they all complain that they didn’t hear enough about Issue X. I just want to scream through the ether: GO FUCKING GOOGLE IT YOU FUCKING MORON! Joe Biden dot com!

  86. 86.

    Zzyzx

    October 19, 2020 at 5:45 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: Watch the clip. I deleted my post because Trump keeps talking and that’s just what he says they would do if he asked but he didn’t, not admitting to a crime.

  87. 87.

    Sab

    October 19, 2020 at 5:46 pm

    @SFBayAreaGal: Nobody is stupid enough to know Golden Gate is for sale.

    Did you know that all the bridges from Michigan to/ from Ontario are privately owned and potentially for sale?

  88. 88.

    Kent

    October 19, 2020 at 5:46 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:Ha! I love the way they gather them together for debates and then they all complain that they didn’t hear enough about Issue X. I just want to scream through the ether: GO FUCKING GOOGLE IT YOU FUCKING MORON! Joe Biden dot com!

    They think that sort of pose makes them look smart when it really just makes them look breathtakingly stupid.  Which, of course, they are.  Or they won’t be doing that sort of silly posing in the first place.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    October 19, 2020 at 5:47 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s really an impossible situation for the target. Hunter, right now, knows what’s authentic and what’s not. But he can’t say. Because the moment he does, it’s trap, sprung and they dump whatever they want in this basket marked “Hunter” he handed them and he doesn’t know what they have invented to put in there.
    No one would do it. It would be insane to authenticate any of it, not knowing what “it” is. They’ll have to authenticate without the target, which should have been the standard anyway, for exactly that reason.

  90. 90.

    Baud

    October 19, 2020 at 5:50 pm

    @Kay: 

    Agreed. And any reporter that refuses to understand that is playing for the other side.

  91. 91.

    Kent

    October 19, 2020 at 5:51 pm

    @Kay:

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s really an impossible situation for the target. Hunter, right now, knows what’s authentic and what’s not. But he can’t say. Because the moment he does, it’s trap, sprung and they dump whatever they want in this basket marked “Hunter” he handed them and he doesn’t know what they have invented to put in there.
    No one would do it. It would be insane to authenticate any of it, not knowing what “it” is. They’ll have to authenticate without the target, which should have been the standard anyway, for exactly that reason.

    He’s not under subpoena.  He doesn’t have to say anything.  He can just say the whole thing is a giant pack of lies and he’s not going to dignify it with an answer and leave it at that.

  92. 92.

    Ruckus

    October 19, 2020 at 5:51 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Difficult to tell, is it mitch?

  93. 93.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 5:54 pm

    @Kent: I was shocked to hear that non-college whites make up such a huge percentage of the eligible electorate– I wanna say 40%?

    I took my own advice and made a fucking google:

    In 2016, Trump was helped to victory by winning a record margin among white voters without a college degree. But in the last four years, they have declined as a share of the voting-eligible population across the U.S. and in states critical to the presidential election. Nationally, the group has gone from 45% of eligible voters to 41%. […]

    There are seven battleground states where whites without a college degree are a majority of eligible voters. All of them, except New Hampshire, have areas included in the Rust Belt. And in each of them, whites without a degree have declined.

    those six other states: PA, IA, OH, MN, MI and WI

  94. 94.

    Betty Cracker

    October 19, 2020 at 5:58 pm

    @Kay: True; HB has no choice, and as a lawyer, he must understand that better than most. But I do hope the rest of us get an accounting of this absurdity someday. It beggars belief that HB just coincidentally abandoned a laptop with lots of private info on it at a MAGA computer repair shop, etc. I just hope Rudy goes down hard when the true story comes out — if it comes out.

  95. 95.

    dmsilev

    October 19, 2020 at 5:58 pm

    LA Times:

    The New Yorker has suspended journalist Jeffrey Toobin after a Zoom incident the staff writer claims happened by “mistake.”

    The publication took action after the lawyer and author, who is also CNN’s chief legal analyst, exposed his genitals during a virtual meeting last week with staffers from the New Yorker and WNYC radio, according to a Monday report from Vice.

    “I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera,” Toobin said in a statement to Vice. “I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers.

    “I believed I was not visible on Zoom,” he added. “I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video.”

    So many questions. Let’s start with ‘why was he exposing himself to a muted (sic) camera?’.

  96. 96.

    Kent

    October 19, 2020 at 5:58 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: As long as they are being accurately polled then it doesn’t really matter.  Apparently what went wrong with the polling in WI, MI, and PA in 2016 was that this group wasn’t adequately represented in the few polling samples that were done in those states

    Those states are mostly white.  And have a lot of rural and blue collar areas.  So it’s not surprising that there are large percentages of non-college educated whites.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    October 19, 2020 at 5:59 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    If the FBI really has the hard drive and Biden actually did anything illegal the FBI has a really big problem charging him with anything related to that hard drive or lap top, now that we’re told some sleazy friend of Rudy Giuliani had possession of it, took things off it and disseminated them to various people, and did God knows what else. They can’t just drop evidence off with various GOP operatives and pick it back up later. They’re going to have a hard time explaining the whole private sector portion of this fake crime investigation.

  98. 98.

    Baud

    October 19, 2020 at 6:00 pm

    @dmsilev: 

    According to updated info in the last thread, he didn’t just expose himself. He was masturbating during the call.

  99. 99.

    Kent

    October 19, 2020 at 6:02 pm

    @Kay:

    @Betty Cracker:

    If the FBI really has the hard drive and Biden actually did anything illegal the FBI has a really big problem charging him with anything related to that hard drive or lap top, now that we’re told some sleazy friend of Rudy Giuliani had possession of it, took things off it and disseminated them to various people, and did God knows what else. They can’t just drop evidence off with various GOP operatives and pick it back up later. They’re going to have a hard time explaining the whole private sector portion of this fake crime investigation.

    Even you take everything at face value, there’s still nothing illegal.  Just the allegation that maybe Biden took a meeting with someone that he didn’t admit to.  None of that it remotely illegal.

    This is a giant nothing-burger and it will mysteriously disappear on November 4, just like the caravans of death mysteriously disappeared around the same exact time 4 years ago.

  100. 100.

    Aleta

    October 19, 2020 at 6:03 pm

    Late November 2017  Trump got Haeberman and Martin to write about the Access Hollywood tape (and even birtherism! )  again.  Nov 2017 !  (NYT:   Trump Once Said the ‘Access Hollywood’ Tape Was Real. Now He’s Not Sure. )  Major outlets  (MSNBC, CNN + many others like Vox, Daily Beast)  immediately repeated it.  Easy for them cause the source was the NYT.

    At the time, the Russia investigation and related revelations were peaking in the news, along with stories that the Republican tax package would hurt the middle class.  The administration was lobbying heavily to pass the tax cut, which happened at the end of December.

    Distraction efforts (the smears and also the outrageous things T purposely says and does)  do more than crowd out negative Trump stories.   (Including the stories about him losing, which must be hurting their grifting of campaign contribution $.)   The distracting stories consume media space that could be used to rebut other Republicans  claims.    Especially stories about how Democrats will cost voters more money.  Repub   claims in fall 2016  about health care costs  if HRC were elected were persuasive to some middle class voters who “didn’t like Trump but.”

    An attack on Biden happening right now (W. Examiner, IBT, etc.) consists of Trump’s promise to lower the corporate tax rate to 20%  set alongside other stories that claim a Biden increase in the corporate rate to 28% will decrease after-tax earnings for the middle class and make 82% of taxpayers pay more.    Attacks on Biden based on money could be dangerous  in decreasing the vote margins, IMO.   Turning off or away from the msm stories about Hunter in favor of solid journalism against Trump might help (I wish).

  101. 101.

    JPL

    October 19, 2020 at 6:03 pm

    @dmsilev: He apparently was doing more than just not wearing pants

     

    I guess Jane Mayer was on the zoom call also

    Or what Baud said at 99

  102. 102.

    Kay

    October 19, 2020 at 6:04 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    It beggars belief that HB just coincidentally abandoned a laptop

    That part I actually could believe. Do you know any addicts? :)

    The problem with this scandal so far is there’s nothing scandalous related to Joe Biden in the emails. That’s why they’re screaming and pounding the table so much and why we spent 3 days on the sacred constitutional right to pass links on Twitter. There isn’t shit there. They don’t have anything.

  103. 103.

    Danielx

    October 19, 2020 at 6:05 pm

    @Baud:

    could have happily lived the rest of my life without that information.

  104. 104.

    Danielx

    October 19, 2020 at 6:07 pm

    @JPL:

    I hear the Baud!2024 campaign will feature debates without pants…

  105. 105.

    MattF

    October 19, 2020 at 6:08 pm

    @dmsilev: The Zoom call in question was an election simulation— and Trump was played by Masha Gessen. Which is hilarious, and, if true, a much better story than the Toobin masturbation saga.

  106. 106.

    Baud

    October 19, 2020 at 6:09 pm

    @Danielx:

    I’m concerned Toobin has tarnished the reputation of the proudly pantless. It’ll take work to restore our good name.

  107. 107.

    frosty

    October 19, 2020 at 6:11 pm

    @different-church-lady:  Thanks for shouting this out because I don’t think the news media has understood this yet.

    It may require all caps and bold next. Keep that in reserve!

  108. 108.

    Baud

    October 19, 2020 at 6:12 pm

    I’m also deleting all video calling apps from my computer and mobile devices. Before it’s too late.

  109. 109.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 6:12 pm

    It boils down to Dolt 45 being pissed that Hunter is a cooler name than Donald or Eric.

    :) //

  110. 110.

    Suburban Mom

    October 19, 2020 at 6:12 pm

    The NJ branch of the Suburban Family have now all voted. My 86 year-old mom couldn’t wait to do it and has been chasing the rest of us mercilessly. There were three other people dropping off ballots at the county office when I went, which pleased me. All were masked although the drop box is outdoors. I hope it’s a positive sign.

  111. 111.

    BC in Illinois

    October 19, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    @sdhays: 

    I get my news from the Post and the Times.

    The New York Post and the Washington Times.

    I forget where I first heard this.

  112. 112.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 6:15 pm

    @Baud

    Having dual monitors can be … tricky.

    :)

  113. 113.

    MisterForkbeard

    October 19, 2020 at 6:16 pm

    @MattF: Oh, I don’t know. If Toobin was wanking during an election simulation, I think that’s a pitch-perfect simulation of the press. Someone give that man a promotion for method-acting the shit out of this.

  114. 114.

    artem1soo

    October 19, 2020 at 6:18 pm

    @Kay:

    The problem with this scandal so far is there’s nothing scandalous related to Joe Biden in the emails.

    just like in 2015/16 it’s an elaborate phishing expedition.  the point is to get access to Joe’s emails/hard drives so they can find some evidence of something that may or may not drive away voters.  For Hillary they had their eye on multiple potential targets.  Mostly I think they wanted a Monica redo – Hillary and Huma in the bedroom getting it on while Bill watched and Americans were being slaughtered in Benghazi. Remember that ridiculous line of questioning that Hillz openly laughed at during that 11 hour marathon? They believe in their hearts that everyone has some sex scandal in their closet they can exploit – projection.

  115. 115.

    chopper

    October 19, 2020 at 6:19 pm

    @MisterForkbeard:

    like most of the members of our media, he was jerking off to googled images of a horse race.

  116. 116.

    WaterGirl

    October 19, 2020 at 6:21 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena: That would be a lovely theory to promote if you were, say, Donald Trump and you were planning to steal the vote through any means possible, and you want a way to prepare people for the election outcome to be nothing like the polls.

  117. 117.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 6:21 pm

    @Baud

    has tarnished the reputation of the proudly pantless

    It will be but a brief stain.

  118. 118.

    BC in Illinois

    October 19, 2020 at 6:21 pm

    @Kent: 

    With so much on the line, the Undecideds have become more mystifying — and frustrating — than ever.
    Nobody believes they are real.
    Oh, and everyone hates them.

    My unchanging picture of the undecided voter:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAG37Kw1-aw

    [“Low Information Voters of America is responsible for the content of this advertisement.”]

  119. 119.

    Brachiator

    October 19, 2020 at 6:22 pm

    @MattF:

    @dmsilev: The Zoom call in question was an election simulation— and Trump was played by Masha Gessen. Which is hilarious, and, if true, a much better story than the Toobin masturbation saga.

    I mentioned in another thread that Toobin thought it was an erection stimulation.

  120. 120.

    Chyron HR

    October 19, 2020 at 6:23 pm

    @artem1soo: 

    Mostly I think they wanted a Monica redo – Hillary and Huma in the bedroom getting it on

    That would improve my opinion of Secretary Clinton, though.

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    October 19, 2020 at 6:23 pm

    @Baud: Oh my gosh, is that for real?  Ouch.

  122. 122.

    BruceFromOhio

    October 19, 2020 at 6:24 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: 

    And in each of them, whites without a degree have declined.

    ‘declined’ means ‘died.’ Or ‘moved to one of the other states.’
    Either conclusion is welcome, because I am sick and fucking tired of the fucking bullshit they have wrought on us all.

  123. 123.

    WaterGirl

    October 19, 2020 at 6:25 pm

    @MisterForkbeard: I was just thinking that’s quite a statement about how uninteresting the meeting is.

  124. 124.

    Roger Moore

    October 19, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    @Kay:

    Hunter, right now, knows what’s authentic and what’s not.

    I’m not confident that he does.  I don’t remember everything that’s in my emails; I count on having an archive to remember the details for me.  If you presented me with a bunch of my emails from last year with a handful of clever forgeries thrown in, I doubt I could pick out the fakes.

    More to the point, nobody would, or should, trust Hunter Biden even if he said a particular email is a fake.  He has too much reason to lie about a genuine but incriminating-looking email.  It’s much better to turn this kind of thing over to forensic investigators.

  125. 125.

    Ivan X

    October 19, 2020 at 6:30 pm

    My NYC absentee ballot hadn’t shown after 3+ weeks, and it was showing as “reviewing” on their web site, so I was starting to get panicky. No one at the election office could help me. I overnighted them a new paper application and a letter explaining what happened. But then I got no response to that, and it dawned on me that I could just register to vote here in CA, where I now actually live. So I did that, and I voted, hooray.

    Yesterday, I got an absentee ballot from NY (perhaps the first one). Then today, I got another one (perhaps in response to my letter).

    Needless to say, I am not filling those out, but I have to say, it seems like a less scrupulously minded person who didn’t mind breaking federal law wouldn’t actually have a whole lot of difficulty registering and voting in more than one state. Or is there some national database tied to the credit bureaus or govt agencies or who knows what to prevent it? All they asked me for in CA was the last four of my SSN and didn’t even ask for ID, but maybe that was enough. Or maybe it’s an easy system to game after all.

  126. 126.

    BruceFromOhio

    October 19, 2020 at 6:33 pm

    @BC in Illinois: 

    When I clicked on the Youtube link, up came Tom Patton, an Ohio State legislator. I was taken aback at first, like, yeah, I can see how undecideds might vote for him. Idiots.

    Then I realized it was just an ad.

  127. 127.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 6:35 pm

    @dmsilev: This guy speaks for me:

    James Poniewozik @poniewozik· 4h
    Am exactly split between wanting to know more about the situation and wishing I knew far less

  128. 128.

    trollhattan

    October 19, 2020 at 6:36 pm

    @Baud:

    Something, something, really putting the tube back in Toobin.

  129. 129.

    BC in Illinois

    October 19, 2020 at 6:37 pm

    @BruceFromOhio:

    I just clicked on the link myself, and I got an ad attacking my own Congresswoman Ann Wagner (R – safe Republican vote).

    YouTube apparently knows my zip code.

  130. 130.

    Calouste

    October 19, 2020 at 6:39 pm

    @trollhattan: I get the impression that Toobin is a bit of a wanker.

  131. 131.

    zhena gogolia

    October 19, 2020 at 6:43 pm

    @dmsilev: 
    OMG.
    This is not a mistake that any professional person could possibly make.
    Eating Pringles, yeah, I’ve done that.
    But this?

  132. 132.

    Ruckus

    October 19, 2020 at 6:44 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I managed to zoom it in a bit and I think you are right.

    At first, quick glance I thought it might be mitch.

  133. 133.

    dmsilev

    October 19, 2020 at 6:44 pm

    With regards to that ballot drop box that apparently was torched in Baldwin Park CA last night,

    County staff last picked up ballots at the affected drop box location on Saturday, October 17th at 10:10 AM. We encourage those who utilized this drop box location after the above time period to call 562-503-2445 or email [email protected] https://t.co/zydhRZDnCr— Hilda Solis (@HildaSolis) October 19, 2020

  134. 134.

    debbie

    October 19, 2020 at 6:46 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Was this one of those Republican “official” drop boxes?

  135. 135.

    jl

    October 19, 2020 at 6:46 pm

    @trollhattan: 
    “Something, something, really putting the tube back in Toobin.”

    He’s been doing the same thing on TV for years, just in a more socially accepted way.

    Other than that, I will pay no more attention to this story. I think my current, limited, understanding is more than sufficient.

  136. 136.

    dmsilev

    October 19, 2020 at 6:48 pm

    @debbie: No, this was a for-real official county drop-box.

    Ballot box fire in Baldwin Park may be arson, officials say

  137. 137.

    debbie

    October 19, 2020 at 6:51 pm

    @dmsilev:

    This reply to the tweet you posted tells me this could be a major mess:

    The County staff told me over phone last week that they pick up the ballots twice week, and not every day @HildaSolis
    — Monesha07 (@monesha30) October 19, 2020

    ETA: Maybe???

  138. 138.

    James E Powell

    October 19, 2020 at 6:52 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena: 

    A friend commented to me that the polls in 2016 and again in 2020 were and are getting it wrong because people don’t like to admit to pollsters they are voting for tRump. It’s like admitting to being a racist. Anybody else hear this theory?

    I’ve seen variations of it on twitter every other day or so ever since the first debate. They’re usually accompanied by guarantees that Trump will bury Biden in the popular vote, we libtards aren’t going to know what hit us, etc.

  139. 139.

    jl

    October 19, 2020 at 6:52 pm

    I am not an expert at electoral politics and campaigning, but I’ll venture an opinion.

    It’s a good sign when candidates like Biden, Harrison, Hegar, etc., want to spread most of their opponents attacks far and wide, and make sure everyone knows that they agree with them. Right?

     

    @JoeBiden

    … yes

    https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1318286327721480194

    Found at Paul Krugman’s twitter

  140. 140.

    terry chay

    October 19, 2020 at 6:53 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena: Small problem. The pollsters in 2016 were right. The time the pollsters were wrong was in 2018 when they hard missed the blue wave.

  141. 141.

    jl

    October 19, 2020 at 6:55 pm

    @James E Powell: There are some interesting articles and podcasts on polling methodology at 538 blog. At one of them, a pollster said they think they’ve figured out clever (or underhanded, YMMV) techniques to track the ‘Trump shame’ effect. They haven’t detected any of the 2016 shame this cycle.

  142. 142.

    Delk

    October 19, 2020 at 6:55 pm

    Wasn’t Hunter making millions of dollars because of his father’s name? Do millionaires take their computers to strip mall repair shops?

  143. 143.

    Ian

    October 19, 2020 at 6:56 pm

    href=”#comment-7912225″>@LuciaMia: 
    Lock him up for listening to Dr. Fauci?

  144. 144.

    James E Powell

    October 19, 2020 at 6:57 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Anyone who doesn’t take out the hard drive and smash it to pieces like the Bush/Cheney people did is an idiot. If Huma Abedin had done that to her husband’s laptop, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

  145. 145.

    Ken

    October 19, 2020 at 6:59 pm

    @Baud: I’m also deleting all video calling apps from my computer and mobile devices. Before it’s too late.

    Narrator: It was too late.

  146. 146.

    Roger Moore

    October 19, 2020 at 7:01 pm

    @James E Powell: 
    These days you should probably use whole-drive encryption with a strong password. It makes life a bit more annoying since you have to enter a password every time you reboot the computer, but it’s worth it for the data protection. Protect your data by keeping good backups and you won’t need to take it to a shady data recovery place.

  147. 147.

    jl

    October 19, 2020 at 7:03 pm

    @James E Powell: Thought I would add that there is a long research history and experience in polling and survey research on how to detect and correct for reluctance to honestly respond, or respond at all, to sensitive questions. Need it for health research when asking about STDs, bad health habits and risky behavior. So the pollsters aren’t doing the research on the fly.

  148. 148.

    Ian

    October 19, 2020 at 7:03 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Well if we lived in a sane world, with a sane government, led by a sane political party, I would want the FBI(once again the sane qualifier…) picking up the laptop.  There has been an accusation of wrongdoing, and a pretty obvious indication that there is foreign interference in our electoral process.

    Law enforcement picks up pieces of evidence all the time, does not mean that go on to charge the person who owned it originally with a crime.

  149. 149.

    JPL

    October 19, 2020 at 7:06 pm

    @Delk: Don’t forget that he just flew across country drunk, and then brought the laptop in.

  150. 150.

    Roger Moore

    October 19, 2020 at 7:07 pm

    @Ian: 
    Kay is right, though; the laptop is essentially useless if the goal is to prove anything against Hunter Biden. The chain of custody is garbage. None of the data on that computer can be trusted.

  151. 151.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 19, 2020 at 7:07 pm

    @zhena gogolia: He should blame gravity. It puts the hands and the crotch at the same level.

  152. 152.

    CaseyL

    October 19, 2020 at 7:10 pm

    The Toobin thing is just… insane.

    Why would anyone beat off while they’re in a Zoom meeting?? How was he positioned in front of the computer that it was even visible??

    What is wrong with men that they do these incredibly dumbass things??

  153. 153.

    dmsilev

    October 19, 2020 at 7:10 pm

    @debbie: The LA Times story I linked says that the County had been picking up ballots every 72 hours, so ‘twice a week’ is roughly right. The current estimate is that there were around 100 ballots damaged or destroyed in the fire. Not good. There really need to be cameras covering these boxes, and apparently they should be emptied daily or even more often to limit the potential risk.
    Sigh. The world we live in.

  154. 154.

    Danielx

    October 19, 2020 at 7:13 pm

    @Baud:

    You shall overcome!

  155. 155.

    Kathleen

    October 19, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    @BruceFromOhio:  I don’t need a bath after reading that. I need an exorcism.

  156. 156.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 7:19 pm

    Couple of items of note which haven’t yet seen mentioned.

    1)

    A federal judge on Sunday formally struck down a Trump administration attempt to end food stamp benefits for nearly 700,000 unemployed people, blocking as “arbitrary and capricious” the first of three such planned measures to restrict the federal food safety net.

    In a scathing 67-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of D.C. condemned the Agriculture Department for failing to justify or even address the impact of the sweeping change on states, saying its shortcomings had been placed in stark relief amid the coronavirus pandemic, during which unemployment has quadrupled and rosters of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have grown by more than 17 percent, with more than 6 million new enrollees. Source

    2)

    The Trump administration has undercut democracy activists in Belarus and Hong Kong by abruptly ending funding to a U.S. internet freedom organization that provides technological tools to evade censorship and surveillance, according to cyber experts and lawmakers.

    The organization, a nonprofit called the Open Technology Fund, said the sudden disappearance of $20 million has forced it to cancel plans to deliver emergency aid to journalists and civil society groups facing authoritarian clampdowns in Belarus and Hong Kong.
    [snip]
    The $20 million represented the bulk of the Open Technology Fund’s 2020 budget. The freeze was ordered by the new CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Michael Pack, a conservative documentary filmmaker and ally of Steve Bannon, the former adviser to President Donald Trump. Source

  157. 157.

    Mary G

    October 19, 2020 at 7:21 pm

    @debbie: Wait, whut?

  158. 158.

    chopper

    October 19, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    @Delk: 

    do they also take them to strip mall repair shops three thousand miles from their house? like they fly across the country to drop their box off at some low-rent shop run by a trumper?

  159. 159.

    PsiFighter37

    October 19, 2020 at 7:25 pm

    @CaseyL:  It’s utterly mind-blowing. Honestly, he couldn’t have waited to beat off after his call? Was the porn he was watching really that good that he just couldn’t wait? Now his career is done and he will have a reputation as being that guy who yanked it and cranked it on Zoom.

  160. 160.

    Kay

    October 19, 2020 at 7:26 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    if the goal is to prove anything against Hunter Biden

    Or anyone else. That’s why I don’t think it’s a real investigation. There can’t be this middle part where Rudy Guiliani and Bannon are intermediaries. If it ever was a real investigation it’s all fucked up now.

  161. 161.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 19, 2020 at 7:27 pm

    @Roger Moore: Like TrueCrypt? 😏

  162. 162.

    Delk

    October 19, 2020 at 7:30 pm

    The guy is 60. Mistimed the Cialis.

  163. 163.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    October 19, 2020 at 7:32 pm

    @Kay:

    What do you mean by it’s not a “real” investigation? Are you talking about an FBI investigation?

  164. 164.

    Gvg

    October 19, 2020 at 7:33 pm

    I have not seen valid information that the lap top even really exists. Only Giuliani seems to be the source of the stories. I don’t think the NY Post even says they saw a laptop. They have been shown (maybe) some purported emails G claims came from a laptop he says someone else claims came from Hunter Biden. G is a wild liar and a fool who is either gullible or thinks everyone else is or is losing his marbles. We know nothing of the repair shop guy, but his story has changed supposedly. Has anyone even shown he really exists and owns a real repair shop?

    if this is Russian disinformation, it’s a really poor quality effort.

    i just don’t even believe it really exists and think the FBI doesn’t have anything in their custody. They may be not commenting because this time they are trying to follow the rules….

  165. 165.

    Jim Appleton

    October 19, 2020 at 7:34 pm

    @Kay:

     

    Yeah, but it all sounded better in the original Russian …

  166. 166.

    lamh36

    October 19, 2020 at 7:35 pm

    Kamala Harris dancing in the rain in Chucks!

    Mary J Blige has GOT to perform at the inauguration or at least one of the inaugural balls!

    https://twitter.com/meenaharris/status/1318334170498674688?s=20

  167. 167.

    Mary G

    October 19, 2020 at 7:38 pm

    😝😝😝

    Anthony Weiner apparently felt like popping up again at the end of an election, for old time’s sake: https://t.co/7JshI01NNw— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) October 19, 2020

  168. 168.

    Brachiator

    October 19, 2020 at 7:42 pm

    @NotMax: 

    Couple of items of note which haven’t yet seen mentioned.

    Just more evidence of Trump’s cruelty and stupidity. I’m sure that Trump would say that if everyone ignored the pandemic there would be zero percent unemployment and no one would need food stamps.

    But I would love it if a debate moderator would question Trump about why he is undermining efforts to support democracy in Belarus and Hong Kong.

  169. 169.

    Kropacetic

    October 19, 2020 at 7:43 pm

    I, for one, am glad the Republicans accept that the children of politicians trading their name for influence is wrong. I look forward to their cooperation in strong legislation to prevent it in next year’s unified Democratic Congress. Unless, of course, their sole focus on Joe Biden indicates that this is all about swinging one election and not a sincere concern about a problem in our political system.

  170. 170.

    JPL

    October 19, 2020 at 7:47 pm

    Yes   We can go to bed early

    Debate commission adopts new rules to mute microphones to allow Trump, Biden 2 minutes of uninterrupted time per segment.

     

    No way does trump show up

  171. 171.

    Calouste

    October 19, 2020 at 7:48 pm

    @Brachiator: 

    Belarus because Putin told him to, I assume Hong Kong is just collateral damage. It would have been rather obvious if they said “You can help these people in Hong Kong but not in Belarus”, right?

  172. 172.

    Baud

    October 19, 2020 at 7:49 pm

    @JPL:

    Haha. They gave the president of the United States a time out in advance.

  173. 173.

    A Ghost to Most

    October 19, 2020 at 7:50 pm

    @Kent: 

    The comments section was fun.

  174. 174.

    Kropacetic

    October 19, 2020 at 7:50 pm

    @Calouste:Belarus because Putin told him to, I assume Hong Kong is just collateral damage. It would have been rather obvious if they said “You can help these people in Hong Kong but not in Belarus”, right?

    Trump would otherwise love to support pro-democracy movements across the globe…

  175. 175.

    Aleta

    October 19, 2020 at 7:51 pm

    @PsiFighter37: @CaseyL:  A legal and political writer  who forgets  that “nothing is private on the internet” ?  And he’s familiar with political take-downs of men who used a phone or computer for gratification.    Suggests he couldn’t stop himself despite the risk, like A. Weiner.  Or that he prefers slightly risky sex acts or almost-public ones.

  176. 176.

    MomSense

    October 19, 2020 at 7:53 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: 
    I endorse that statement.

    BTW I had a brief exchange with some asshole trump supporters, who were also tourists, on Saturday. I was with my son who said as soon as he saw them engage with me he knew it was going to go down.

  177. 177.

    Baud

    October 19, 2020 at 7:55 pm

    @MomSense:

    Oh my, for the first time, I felt sorry for Trump supporters

  178. 178.

    jl

    October 19, 2020 at 7:56 pm

    @CaseyL: “What is wrong with men that they do these incredibly dumbass things??”

    I read that the meeting was supposed to be some kind of election simulation. Maybe I got that wrong. If the meeting was about erection stimulation, it would make more sense.

    Could someone check what the meeting was?  No never mind, i pledged to never think about it again, and am already going down the wrong path.

  179. 179.

    MomSense

    October 19, 2020 at 7:56 pm

    @Baud:

    heh

  180. 180.

    Kropacetic

    October 19, 2020 at 7:57 pm

    @Aleta: If our culture tolerated people being more open about their sexuality, we wouldn’t have a bunch of sneaks in positions of power.

    Down with Larry Craig tapping his foot in men’s rooms. Give me a Senator who has made a porno, is happy to openly talk about it, and is nonetheless professional

    ETA: They’re trying to tell me it’s OK for people to be racist on camera, but not suck d.  I don’t think so.

  181. 181.

    Brachiator

    October 19, 2020 at 7:58 pm

    @Calouste:

    Belarus because Putin told him to, I assume Hong Kong is just collateral damage. It would have been rather obvious if they said “You can help these people in Hong Kong but not in Belarus”, right?

    Ha! You’re probably right.

    No matter what it undermines the lie that Biden is a tool of China, but Trump is a crusader for democracy everywhere.

  182. 182.

    jl

    October 19, 2020 at 7:58 pm

    @Baud: “Oh my, for the first time, I felt sorry for Trump supporters”

    I’m concerned about the impact of this incident on the evolution of he Baud 2040!! pantsless policy.

  183. 183.

    different-church-lady

    October 19, 2020 at 7:59 pm

    Confirmation bias and all that, but I just took a glance at the Daily KOS front page, and it was a tonic for all the gloom I’ve seen here and other places while doom-scrolling today

  184. 184.

    zhena gogolia

    October 19, 2020 at 8:00 pm

    @MomSense:

    I’ve had three people today (in blue CT) tell me that they’ve been verbally attacked for wearing masks.

  185. 185.

    JPL

    October 19, 2020 at 8:00 pm

    @Baud: I would watch that, because if trump can’t bullshit, he’s got nothing.

  186. 186.

    MomSense

    October 19, 2020 at 8:01 pm

    @lamh36:

    I love her so much.

  187. 187.

    WaterGirl

    October 19, 2020 at 8:01 pm

    Unless he was intentionally flashing people, which would be beyond wrong, I could give a flying fuck about what Jeff Toobin did or did not do with his dick on a zoom call.

    Every day we spend talking about Toobin’s dick is a day that Trump gets a pass for being the liar/cheat/sociopath that he is.

  188. 188.

    Aleta

    October 19, 2020 at 8:02 pm

    @Kropacetic: I believe that’s going to change fairly soon, but I could be wrong.

  189. 189.

    MomSense

    October 19, 2020 at 8:03 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    My son told me today he won’t be able to attend his fiancée’s recital.  If people would wear fucking masks, we could get our lives back.

    His fiancée is a doctoral candidate at UConn Storrs.

  190. 190.

    lamh36

    October 19, 2020 at 8:04 pm

    Welp…the debate commission agreed to mute the mics…wonder if Chump is gonna pull out of the debates…

    https://twitter.com/MikeBalsamo1/status/1318337004220915713

  191. 191.

    Nora Lenderbee

    October 19, 2020 at 8:05 pm

    @Kropacetic: Give me a Senator who has made a porno, is happy to openly talk about it

    No. Thanks.

  192. 192.

    L85NJGT

    October 19, 2020 at 8:05 pm

    @different-church-lady: 

    Naive optimists. Toilet flow was today’s Trump talking point, and shitters vote.

  193. 193.

    different-church-lady

    October 19, 2020 at 8:06 pm

    Pssst, people: “Hide Self View”

    A large percentage of my freelance work now involves manipulating Zoom* to attempt some kind of professional video look for larger on-line meetings substituting for cancelled meatspace conferences. So I know a bit more about how to arrange those windows than I used to. Toobin possibly had his own window hidden on his (but only his) computer screen using “Hide Self View” and then forgot about it.

    In the studio I freelance at, it’s mind-twisting how many computers they have dialed into a single Zoom meeting, just to do all the convoluted routings and isolations for the various participants who aren’t even in the same building as us.

    (*”PHRASING!”)

  194. 194.

    Kropacetic

    October 19, 2020 at 8:07 pm

    @Nora Lenderbee: I tried penis once, but I didn’t inhale.

  195. 195.

    debbie

    October 19, 2020 at 8:09 pm

    @JPL: 

    I believe Adam shared a tweet in the previous thread of a letter from Stepian complaining about the debate set-up.

  196. 196.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 8:09 pm

    @lamh36

    Crash course in how to sign “He’s a senile crook” in Ameslan at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

    //

  197. 197.

    Baud

    October 19, 2020 at 8:10 pm

    @debbie:

    They keep complaining, the debate commission will force Trump to wear one of those Hannibal Lector masks.

  198. 198.

    Ken

    October 19, 2020 at 8:11 pm

    @jl: I’m concerned about the impact of this incident on the evolution of he Baud 2040!! pantsless policy.

    I’m concerned that the Baud campaign keeps receding into the future.  Or is the plan to run every four years like Pat Paulsen?

  199. 199.

    JPL

    October 19, 2020 at 8:11 pm

    @debbie:  Apparently they did not agree with him.

  200. 200.

    debbie

    October 19, 2020 at 8:11 pm

    @Mary G:

    Yep. Owner was surprised at getting so many complaints.  😒

  201. 201.

    Baud

    October 19, 2020 at 8:12 pm

    @Ken:

    Baud! keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping
    Into the future.

  202. 202.

    MisterForkbeard

    October 19, 2020 at 8:12 pm

    @PsiFighter37: I have a friend who used to give her SO blowjobs during remote calls when they were at home. Apparently the added ‘danger’ made it much better for both of them.

    I still feel like this should have ended badly, but apparently it didn’t. She told me that he actually started attending MORE trainings and meetings from home, which… doesn’t surprise me at all.

  203. 203.

    jonas

    October 19, 2020 at 8:15 pm

    @NotMax: 
    The freeze was ordered by the new CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Michael Pack, a conservative documentary filmmaker and ally of Steve Bannon, the former adviser to President Donald Trump

    These fucking people. There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this treachery.

  204. 204.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 8:15 pm

    @Ken

    Baud! = Harold Stassen 2.0.

    Oh, and by 2040 fashion will dictate all pants be transparent anyway.

    :)

  205. 205.

    debbie

    October 19, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I seem to recall a scene from The World According to Garp…

  206. 206.

    dmsilev

    October 19, 2020 at 8:18 pm

    @lamh36: Huh, so the Trump campaign’s Sternly Worded Letter to the Commission ended up being just a fart in the breeze? I’m shocked.

    Anyway, the Trumpies are probably going to use this as an excuse for chickening out of the third debate as well as the second.

  207. 207.

    WaterGirl

    October 19, 2020 at 8:21 pm

    @lamh36: I was thinking about you last night, wondering how the job is.  You must be at the start of week 3?

  208. 208.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 8:22 pm

    @NotMax

    Of course, Dolt 45 being Dolt 45 he’d end up signing something like “dancing umbrella melons.”

    :)

  209. 209.

    LuciaMia

    October 19, 2020 at 8:24 pm

    On TCM, the 1959 version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Its always fun to see Christopher Lee playing a non-villain (or monster.) ;-)

  210. 210.

    Roger Moore

    October 19, 2020 at 8:26 pm

    @Kropacetic:

    Give me a Senator who has made a porno, is happy to openly talk about it, and is nonetheless professional

    Stormy Daniels for US Senate!

  211. 211.

    A Ghost to Most

    October 19, 2020 at 8:27 pm

    @debbie: 

    No shit? Good for him.

  212. 212.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 8:27 pm

    @LuciaMia

    Who let the dogs out?

    :)

  213. 213.

    Hungry Joe

    October 19, 2020 at 8:28 pm

    Re Toobin:

    Wide angles. They’ll kill ya.

  214. 214.

    MisterForkbeard

    October 19, 2020 at 8:30 pm

    @A Ghost to Most:  Cant find anything about it yet. Not sure Debbie got it right.

  215. 215.

    Kropacetic

    October 19, 2020 at 8:31 pm

    @Roger Moore: Tell me Stormy’s platform.

  216. 216.

    A Ghost to Most

    October 19, 2020 at 8:31 pm

    @jonas: 

    I didn’t know Treebeard was a commenter here.

  217. 217.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 8:32 pm

    @Kropacetic

    Well padded.

  218. 218.

    TS (the original)

    October 19, 2020 at 8:32 pm

    Just catching up on the news – Reading the WaPo online – cannot find a mention of Biden or Harris on the front page.

    Seems to be an election between trump and the political press.

  219. 219.

    Nutmeg again

    October 19, 2020 at 8:33 pm

    @zhena gogolia: 
    Interesting! In my part of CT, everyone wears a mask, even ugly lawn statuary. And the lawn signs in my tiny town seem to trend Repub, even. But I’ve never seen a non-masker, and never seen any kind of kerfuffle about it. Which is a relief.

  220. 220.

    frosty

    October 19, 2020 at 8:34 pm

    @NotMax: It won’t be fashion that dictates transparent pants. It’ll be gun safety… or should that be weapon safety.

  221. 221.

    Geoduck

    October 19, 2020 at 8:34 pm

    @lamh36:  We are in the middle of a pandemic. Biden and Harris should not be holding any inaugural balls, at all.

  222. 222.

    Roger Moore

    October 19, 2020 at 8:37 pm

    @Kropacetic: 

    Tell me Stormy’s platform.

    She’ll promise to tell all.

  223. 223.

    different-church-lady

    October 19, 2020 at 8:38 pm

    @Geoduck: 

    BIDEN: [cancels in-person inaugural attendance]

    TRUMP: “So many more people were at my inauguration!”

  224. 224.

    JPL

    October 19, 2020 at 8:39 pm

    @debbie: Not sure what scene, but maybe I don’t want to know.

  225. 225.

    Baud

    October 19, 2020 at 8:41 pm

    @Geoduck:

    Yeah. Especially with what just happened to Too in, holding amy balls is risky behavior.

  226. 226.

    Baud

    October 19, 2020 at 8:42 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    He promised American Carnage.

  227. 227.

    Aleta

    October 19, 2020 at 8:42 pm

    The U.S. Supreme Court will allow Pennsylvania to count ballots received up to three days after the election, rejecting a Republican plea.  The justices divided 4-4 Monday, an outcome that upholds a state Supreme Court ruling that allowed election officials to receive and count ballots until Nov. 6, even if they don’t have a clear postmark.

    Chief Justice John Roberts joined with the three liberal justices to reject Pennsylvania Republicans’ call for the court to block the state court ruling.  Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas would have required the state to stop accepting absentee ballots when the polls close on Nov. 3.

  228. 228.

    Geoduck

    October 19, 2020 at 8:42 pm

    @different-church-lady: I can live with that. If it was up to me, it would be Biden, Mrs. Biden, Roberts, a camera team and the Secret Service at the swearing in ceremony.

  229. 229.

    lamh36

    October 19, 2020 at 8:42 pm

    @Geoduck: Well duh.  I know that.  Doesn’t mean a girl couldn’t hope and dream…

  230. 230.

    zhena gogolia

    October 19, 2020 at 8:44 pm

    @MomSense:

    Oh, but don’t let Covid dominate your life!

  231. 231.

    lamh36

    October 19, 2020 at 8:45 pm

    @WaterGirl: Job is going well.  Yep this is the beginninf of my 3rd week.  Still learning the ropes, but I’ve so far had 2 assignments assigned to me, one of which went pretty well.  The next one is ongoing.  So that’s cool.

    Even just 3 weeks, I can tell that this job will be 75% personnel management and babysitting…with some QC/QA.

    But that is what I expected.  I’d say I may need another 3 weeks and I should be able to start my regulare 10 am scheule instead of this early 7am one.

  232. 232.

    zhena gogolia

    October 19, 2020 at 8:47 pm

    @LuciaMia:

    It’s a lot of fun. I love his tweed suits.

  233. 233.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 19, 2020 at 8:48 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Every day we spend talking about Toobin’s dick

    For three easy installments of $29.95 (plus handling) I’ll sell you the secret to not talking about Toobin’s dick.

  234. 234.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 19, 2020 at 8:48 pm

    @Aleta: Shit, they better count those ballots fast before Barrett gets in and has all the rest of them dumped in the shredder.

  235. 235.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 8:52 pm

    @Gin & Tonic

    Um, isn’t the handling problematic?

    :)

  236. 236.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 19, 2020 at 8:54 pm

    @NotMax: That’s why I charge extra.

  237. 237.

    Jeffro

    October 19, 2020 at 8:54 pm

    So sad…despite signs of sanity as recently as two weeks ago, my trumpov cult nut job (TCNJ) dad actually asked me about this today, as if it was something that really bears looking into.

    The actual exchange was something like:

    TCNJ dad: What do you think about those Hunter/Joe emails?

    Jeffro: What I think is that the president* is holding Covid super-spreader events all throughout the swing states, is keeping busy insulting Dr. Fauci who is WAY more popular with the public than he is, and the GOP’s going to lose the Senate, is what I think.

    TCNJ dad: but seriously…how did the Bidens make all that money?

    Oh and he also pretended not to understand why I kept asking him where the 2020 “CARAVAN!!!” is, and still thinks there’s a ‘there’ there with the Clinton Foundation.  I mean, for real.  It’s the kind of trolling I almost wish he was doing to try and get my goat, except he actually means it.

    Oh well – 14 days to go peeps!  Let’s G-O-T-V!!

  238. 238.

    Kropacetic

    October 19, 2020 at 8:55 pm

    @WaterGirl: Unless he was intentionally flashing people, which would be beyond wrong, I could give a flying fuck about what Jeff Toobin did or did not do with his dick on a zoom call.

    He just pulled a technical boner.

  239. 239.

    Ken

    October 19, 2020 at 8:55 pm

    @Aleta: I wonder if Roberts is looking forward to being on the short side of a lot of 5-4 decisions.

  240. 240.

    JPL

    October 19, 2020 at 8:55 pm

    @Mary G: Didn’t he lose all custody rights?    Maybe he just wants to keep digging that hole.  sa

    geez  google says they were seen together.

  241. 241.

    brantl

    October 19, 2020 at 8:55 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:  You might be surprised……

  242. 242.

    debbie

    October 19, 2020 at 8:58 pm

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I fell for a parody account. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

  243. 243.

    Ken

    October 19, 2020 at 8:58 pm

    @Geoduck: If it was up to me, it would be Biden, Mrs. Biden, Roberts, a camera team and the Secret Service at the swearing in ceremony.

    Technically they don’t need Roberts there.  Dr. Biden can administer the oath to her husband.  Also it doesn’t have to be on the mall, so they could zoom it from their home.  Harris could similarly be sworn in by her husband.

  244. 244.

    danielx

    October 19, 2020 at 9:00 pm

    @NotMax:

    Considering some of the appalling images involving stretch pants worn by people at Walmart that I’ve tried to erase from my memory, I really hope to have passed to a better world by then.

  245. 245.

    Kropacetic

    October 19, 2020 at 9:00 pm

    @Ken: They should be sworn in by Merrick Garland.

  246. 246.

    danielx

    October 19, 2020 at 9:01 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Is this another Trump Organization deal?

  247. 247.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 9:02 pm

    I’ve always liked Jeff Bridges. Good, solid actor and he seems like a good guy. So this is sad news, but admirably expressed

    Jeff Bridges @TheJeffBridges ·59m
    As the Dude would say.. New S**T has come to light.
    I have been diagnosed with Lymphoma. Although it is a serious disease, I feel fortunate that I have a great team of doctors and the prognosis is good.
    I’m starting treatment and will keep you posted on my recovery.

    I’m profoundly grateful for the love and support from my family and friends.
    Thank you for your prayers and well wishes. And, while I have you, please remember to go vote. Because we are all in this together. http://Vote.org
    Love, Jeff

  248. 248.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 9:04 pm

    and Rachel Maddow just opened her show by thanking Chris Hayes for his collegial advice about what constitutes news worth covering on shows like theirs on a day like this.
    Hayes lost it.
    I wonder whatever she might have been referring to…

    and Rachel usually blushes about any story that involves bathing-suit-areas

  249. 249.

    MisterForkbeard

    October 19, 2020 at 9:05 pm

    @Jeffro: “How did the Biden’s make all WHAT money?”

    Seriously. Joe Biden was the poorest Senator when he left. When he left the VP position, he wasn’t that rich either. And in the meantime his income has all been public and we know where it came from… because his tax returns are public.

    Hunter made some money being a reputable face for a disreputable company. There you go. All explained.

  250. 250.

    Jeffro

    October 19, 2020 at 9:05 pm

    @Kent: I forwarded that article to 3 college buddies who I thought would find it funny.

    The one who has always prided himself on what I’d call “both sides on steroids” lost his shit within 5 minutes, responding with all kinds of weird culture-war, “latte-sipping liberals look down on people who are undecided and hate both parties for betraying people who are trying to pay the bills”, etc.  (Also, I don’t sip lattes...I gulp my morning home-brewed coffee, thanks!!  Grr…)

    I was like, “so you going Bernista or ‘Q’, which is it homes?”  ;)

    (I have a gift for calming people down that way.)

    But it seemed to register a few exchanges later when I got across to him that voting for a third party is *technically* principled, while being undecided between Biden and trumpov is just fucking idiotic attention-seeking and/or indulgent.

    And then I blew it by telling him that in our current system, third party voters are also morons, but you know, there’s only so much I can take…

  251. 251.

    cain

    October 19, 2020 at 9:05 pm

    @James E Powell: 

    Anyone who doesn’t take out the hard drive and smash it to pieces like the Bush/Cheney people did is an idiot. If Huma Abedin had done that to her husband’s laptop, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

    Fixed.

  252. 252.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    October 19, 2020 at 9:08 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    The stupidity galls me, considering his pay and connections.

    On the other hand, when my wealthy, famous,  well-connected and respected betters fuck up like this, I look stellar by comparison.

  253. 253.

    cain

    October 19, 2020 at 9:10 pm

    @lamh36:

    Damn I love her. She’s bringing it.. all the otherside got is a set of hateful old men.

  254. 254.

    Jeffro

    October 19, 2020 at 9:11 pm

    @MisterForkbeard: Any straw at all to grasp at, literally anything at all…

    Lesson learned: a certain type of human being will do ANYTHING to avoid admitting they were wrong, duped, suckered, much less that they were led to do so because their values were corrupt to begin with.  And that their subservience is going to earn them and their blessed ’cause’ absolutely…nothing.

    (which is why hell yeah we have to pack the fuck out of the courts, raise taxes on the rich, all of it.  It’s not only the right thing to do for the country…it’s the only thing that might register with some of them: next time, have some fucking principles)

  255. 255.

    James E Powell

    October 19, 2020 at 9:12 pm

    @cain: 

    That too! If she had choked the slimy perv in the middle of the night, who would convict her? And if convicted, who would sentence her to more than the minimum?

  256. 256.

    Geoduck

    October 19, 2020 at 9:13 pm

    @Ken:
    Kropacetic’s Merrick Garland idea is tempting, but no point in handing FoxEtc a talking point literally on the first day of their terms. “He didn’t use the Chief Justice! He’s not really President!!”

    And on a different subject, the debate commission is going to mute microphones at the next debate. The reaction to that is going be delicious.

  257. 257.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 9:13 pm

    Anyone mention that the latest incarnation of The Beach Boys played at Dolt 45’s California hatefest?

    (For the record, Brain Wilson is not involved with this iteration of the band.)

  258. 258.

    cain

    October 19, 2020 at 9:14 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Here in OR, I have yet to have a single person accost me – people quite diligent in wearing a mask and appreciate social distancing – everyone I’ve met – we’ve been social distancing.

    Ironally the only place that didn’t quite happen is at a gathering of health care people!

  259. 259.

    Jeffro

    October 19, 2020 at 9:15 pm

    @Kent:

    Even you take everything at face value, there’s still nothing illegal.

    This is a giant nothing-burger and it will mysteriously disappear on November 4, just like the caravans of death mysteriously disappeared around the same exact time 4 years ago.

    See also:

    • Clinton Foundation
    • “Uranium One”
    • ‘Pizzagate’
    • Butter emails!!!

    And on and on and on and on…

  260. 260.

    jl

    October 19, 2020 at 9:16 pm

    @Ken:
    ” I’m concerned that the Baud campaign keeps receding into the future. Or is the plan to run every four years like Pat Paulsen? ”

    Baud XXXX!! campaign staff have been moving the date of total victory over everything between 2032 and 2520, depending on his recent trends in torpor and sloth.

  261. 261.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 9:17 pm

    @NotMax:(For the record, Brain Wilson is not involved with this iteration of the band.)
    and was not happy about what Mike Love did with his band, nor was Al Jardine

    “We have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump benefit today in Newport Beach. Zero,” Wilson and Jardine said to Variety through a spokesperson. “We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it in the Los Angeles Times.”

  262. 262.

    James E Powell

    October 19, 2020 at 9:18 pm

    @Jeffro:

    Right-wingers still talk about all those things and more. Remember, everyone in Benghazi could have been rescued, but Hillary gave an order not to try. In their world, they were proved fucking right and there’s no more argument to be had on any of those subjects

    There are also quite a few tote-baggers and non-right-wingers who believe there is some substance to all of those things. They might have voted for her, but they still believed she was a corrupt person. I’ve been appalled at the number I know who are like this. You can prove to them conclusively that the Benghazi thing is BS and they will respond with, “Yeah, but you gotta admit that using the foundation as her private slush fund was bad.” And I just give up.

  263. 263.

    Puddinhead

    October 19, 2020 at 9:20 pm

    @Jeffro: simple reply: Biden released his tax returns. Why don’t you look at them and then tell me? Puts the onus on him to deal with facts rather than spinning conspiracies out of thin air.

  264. 264.

    Amir Khalid

    October 19, 2020 at 9:21 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Back in the day, I was a tech journalist at a Malaysian newspaper called The Star. Whenever I introduced myself to an American tech executive, there was always an awkward moment while they processed the idea that a supermarket tabloid reporter had questions for them.

    Another thing was seeing how news media in other countries referred to The Star. They would always call it The Malaysian Star, to distinguish it from the American supermarket tabloid and the even more wretched British newspaper; I found that jarring, because that’s not our name and nobody here calls us that.

  265. 265.

    Jeffro

    October 19, 2020 at 9:22 pm

    @Geoduck:We are in the middle of a pandemic. Biden and Harris should not be holding any inaugural balls, at all.

    Have to agree.  Think of the message it would send with a minimal, socially-distanced inauguration.

    I’m picturing some great post-inaugural PSAs (sun rising, Americans working hard and going about most of their business, just with masks on) that would help remind everyone that we’re going to get through this, but…now’s not the time to take off the masks.  Not yet.  Also hearing some ‘Avengers’ soundtrack music in my head but that’s a little much.

  266. 266.

    Kay

    October 19, 2020 at 9:24 pm

    Arizona Democratic Party
    @azdemparty
    Trump today on
    @MarthaMcSally’s 2020 chances: “I could do fantastically well in this state and we could have a Senate candidate that does unbelievably badly”

  267. 267.

    Kay

    October 19, 2020 at 9:25 pm

    “Fantastically well”. I just hate, hate, hate how he talks.

  268. 268.

    Jeffro

    October 19, 2020 at 9:26 pm

    @James E Powell: I usually just ask them, “Then where are the charges?  The GOP had complete control of the government for two years, and has had DOJ all along…where are the charges?  Why isn’t Hillz in jail?”  And they never have a response, they just move on to the next thing…

  269. 269.

    cain

    October 19, 2020 at 9:26 pm

    @James E Powell: That too! If she had choked the slimy perv in the middle of the night, who would convict her? And if convicted, who would sentence her to more than the minimum?

    He reminds me of the tool of a Republican president in Scandal – he seems just like the whiner fuck who would do shit like this. What a dick.

  270. 270.

    MisterForkbeard

    October 19, 2020 at 9:26 pm

    @debbie: Happens. I’ve done it once or twice.

    I figured it was really unlikely (though would have been very understandable). Fauci has been professional and bent over backwards to not endorse Biden or even denigrate Trump, going so far as to be mealymouthed when it comes to criticizing the government response.

  271. 271.

    piratedan

    October 19, 2020 at 9:26 pm

    when it comes to the 3rd party stuff, I always wonder why they bother, it’s like are you working for all of their candidates up and down the ballot? Say they were elected, how do you expect them to govern without any base in either house? Doesn’t that simply make them still beholden to either the Dems of the GOP?

    Creating a political party is hard work and these folks going 3rd party NEVER appear to be interested in doing any of it. It’s just their way of trying to signal that they believe themselves to be above it all.

  272. 272.

    Amir Khalid

    October 19, 2020 at 9:26 pm

    @dmsilev:

    I’m surprised that a grown man like Jeffrey Toobin was that impatient to have a wank. A boy of 12 has better self-control.

  273. 273.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 9:27 pm

    @Kay: as bad as things are, I sometimes take grim pleasure when trump expresses his contempt for his most loyal supporters. I can’t think of an occasion when he’s expressed it so clearly. Few deserve it more than Martha.

  274. 274.

    mad citizen

    October 19, 2020 at 9:28 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  I have to say given the main ongoing topic here and what I read on twitter, and discovering celebs who support trump, I expected the story to be that Bridges came out for trump. So in a weird way was relieved it was just about a medical issue. Positive thoughts to the Dude. Always worth watching, and a good dude.

    Early voting passed 30 million votes. (electproject)

  275. 275.

    brantl

    October 19, 2020 at 9:29 pm

    @CaseyL:  Unfortunately, some of my gender have mistaken Mr. Johnson for some sort of divining rod.

  276. 276.

    Miss Bianca

    October 19, 2020 at 9:30 pm

    @cain: Well, we had an anti-masker idiot walk into the grocery store today while I was in the check-out line and start shouting about “FREEDUMB!!” Literally shouting. Fortunately, the lady in front of me (masked) started giving him shit, and telling him to shut the fuck up, basically (she may have left out the “fuck” part), and I happily jumped in to back her up. He did, actually. Of course he then went into the store unmasked, but at least he wasn’t yelling anymore.

  277. 277.

    BruceFromOhio

    October 19, 2020 at 9:32 pm

    @Ken: 

    He’s a contemporary Lyndon LaRouche!

  278. 278.

    Kay

    October 19, 2020 at 9:32 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    That sentence is actually one of the better ones. He thinks they’re “untied”

    Separate, separate, separate. He barely knows her, really.

  279. 279.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 9:32 pm

    @Amir Khalid

    Well, there’s also a fairly well-know Star in Toronto. Am so old can remember when the Washington Star was the D.C. newspaper of record and the Post an also ran.

    Not at all related but still chuckle that the area paper published near where I once resided took great pride in announcing itself on the masthead banner as “The Nation’s Largest Tri-Weekly.” Really, how intense is the competition for that title?

  280. 280.

    Jeffro

    October 19, 2020 at 9:33 pm

    @Puddinhead: Yeah, well I’ll give it a shot but I have a feeling he’d rather Fox News just tell him what to believe about how that nefarious Biden Crime Family made its filthy lucre.

    Like, I could waste a LOT of time on that and it’d be wiped out by 30 seconds of Hannity and a Cavuto Mark.

    So…pass.  ;)

  281. 281.

    jl

    October 19, 2020 at 9:34 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  There is some truth to Trump’s statement, though I doubt he meant it in that way.
    In analyses of election polling, I’ve read repeatedly that other GOP politicians are much less popular, have less support, than Trump among Trumpster voters.
    They need to mainline the highest quality, loudest, crudest crazy conman, nothing else will do.
    Trump should have started a Warp Speed research program back in 2017 to get himself cloned so he could run for every Senate seat.

  282. 282.

    BruceFromOhio

    October 19, 2020 at 9:34 pm

    @Roger Moore: So I just wrote a nice paragraph in response to that, and it was all double entendre. Sorry, nope.

  283. 283.

    PsiFighter37

    October 19, 2020 at 9:35 pm

    @MisterForkbeard:  Wouldn’t we all, though?

  284. 284.

    Jeffro

    October 19, 2020 at 9:38 pm

    Btw, Biden & Co are just running ad after ad of trumpov saying with a sneer, “Joe Biden will listen to scientists…he’ll listen to Dr. Fauci…”

    It takes a certain kind of mind-set to think, “I will say stupid shit to my base, and it will not bite me in the ass with the much larger electorate”

    It also takes a certain kind of dumb-set to think, “I will knock my opponent for respecting knowledge and HAVING A PLAN DURING A GLOBAL PANDEMIC”

    But what do I know?  Maybe this is genius.

  285. 285.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 9:38 pm

    @Kay: that tied/untied thing reminds me of his claim, when confronted with his “downplaying” quote from Woodward, he said, “I up-played it!”. Olivia Nuzzi reported last week that when he was diagnosed with Covid, he started calling friends– “friends”– whining that he might be “one of the diers”. As Nuzzi put it, at once childlike (I’d say infantile) and sinister
    I find the paucity of his vocabulary fascinating

  286. 286.

    A Ghost to Most

    October 19, 2020 at 9:39 pm

    Jeff Bridges announced he has lymphoma.

    The Dude abides.

  287. 287.

    Amir Khalid

    October 19, 2020 at 9:41 pm

    @NotMax:

    They’ve really been Mike Love’s Beach Boys for decades now, and he’s a Republican. Also, at this point, a better name for them would be The Beach Granddads.

  288. 288.

    jonas

    October 19, 2020 at 9:44 pm

    @Kay: Wait, is an incumbent POTUS literally telling downballot candidates from his own party to go fuck themselves? That is, well, a first..or something…as far as I know. Wow.

    ETA: #ETTD, Martha. You bought the ticket. Enjoy the ride!

  289. 289.

    MisterForkbeard

    October 19, 2020 at 9:45 pm

    @Jeffro: Apparently the NEW rumor is that the laptop has video of Hunter Biden clearly sexually assaulting young chinese children and the chinese have proof of it, which explains all the (nonexistent) corruption from China and why Biden is owned by them.

    I’ve seen this pop up in comment sections all over facebook. The most hilarious part of it is that the guys frequently say “I have a friend who is HIGH UP in government who’s seen the videos”. And they’re serious, too. I bet they all have girlfriends in Canada or something and we’ll just have to accept it.

  290. 290.

    Yutsano

    October 19, 2020 at 9:46 pm

    TBogg Monday?

    I wonder if the Lincoln Project smells blood in the water in Mississippi. It’s not the strongest ad, but a shiv is a shiv.

  291. 291.

    raven

    October 19, 2020 at 9:46 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Kansas City star, that’s what I are
    Yodel-deedle ay-hee, you oughta see my car
    I drive a big old Cadillac with wire wheels, got rhinestones on the spokes
    I got credit down at the grocery store
    And my barber tells me jokes
    I’m the number one attraction every supermarket parkin’ lot
    I’m the king of Kansas City, no thanks, Omaha, thanks a lot

  292. 292.

    MisterForkbeard

    October 19, 2020 at 9:46 pm

    @A Ghost to Most: I have close relatives who had (and still have) lymphoma. Most lymphomas are very survivable, especially if you catch them early.

  293. 293.

    Miss Bianca

    October 19, 2020 at 9:47 pm

    @Amir Khalid: 

    Beach Geezers.

  294. 294.

    Amir Khalid

    October 19, 2020 at 9:47 pm

    @Jeffro:

    This is the kind of Trump campaign tactic that makes me suspect Trump is secretly working for the Biden campaign.

  295. 295.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 9:49 pm

    @Yutsano: IIRC, Rick Wilson said in a recent podcast that if Espy can boost African-American turn-out (to what level, I don’t know) and hold Cindy Hyde-Smith (who if she were better known would be a career opportunity for Amy Sedaris, who I bet would make it funny) to less than 75% of white voters, he can win. Again, IIRC, around 40% of MS’s voting-age population is AA

  296. 296.

    brantl

    October 19, 2020 at 9:49 pm

    @Kropacetic:  THAT’S A WINNER! SEND IT TO THE BIDEN CAMPAIGN!

  297. 297.

    brantl

    October 19, 2020 at 9:53 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:  I don’t know, I’ve thought Toobin was a stupid jerkoff for a long, long time. It’s just more literal than I thought.

  298. 298.

    Melusine

    October 19, 2020 at 9:54 pm

    @BruceFromOhio: 😂😂 king certainly has a way with homespun-sounding phrases

  299. 299.

    Ivan X

    October 19, 2020 at 9:55 pm

    @Ken:  I wonder whether he’ll start making some of those votes 6-3 if the conclusion is foregone, so as to make them appear less contested, and to give ACB cover to not be the “deciding vote.”

  300. 300.

    topclimber

    October 19, 2020 at 9:55 pm

    @Amir Khalid: At a certain age one must seize the member when it arises.

  301. 301.

    Melusine

    October 19, 2020 at 9:56 pm

    @danielx: but not nearly as sonorous on a wooden pew

  302. 302.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 9:56 pm

    @brantl: if you had told me a TV lawyer was gonna find himself in this kind of imbroglio I would’ve bet money on Turley. Much more of a wanker. IMHO

  303. 303.

    Bill Arnold

    October 19, 2020 at 9:56 pm

    @Jeffro:

    It takes a certain kind of mind-set to think, “I will say stupid shit to my base, and it will not bite me in the ass with the much larger electorate”

    He literally has a hard time fully believing that that larger electorate exists.

  304. 304.

    Jeffro

    October 19, 2020 at 10:00 pm

    @Bill Arnold: “I HAZ LARGE RALL-EES!!!” says the moron who seems not to understand that a crowd of a few thousand does not translate into dominance in a nation of 340M.

    Math, science, civics, statistics…this nation’s whole curriculum has to be re-written, people!

  305. 305.

    danielx

    October 19, 2020 at 10:00 pm

    @Kay:

    Variation on Russian proverb: you said you were a mushroom, Martha, now jump into the basket.

  306. 306.

    Bill Arnold

    October 19, 2020 at 10:01 pm

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Apparently the NEW rumor is that the laptop has video of Hunter Biden clearly sexually assaulting young chinese children and the chinese have proof of it, which explains all the (nonexistent) corruption from China and why Biden is owned by them.

    Haven’t checked out the existence of this rumor, but if so, it’s exploiting the QAnon-driven mass hysteria about child-eating pedophiles.

  307. 307.

    NotMax

    October 19, 2020 at 10:01 pm

    @topclimber

    Carpe dickem?

    :)

  308. 308.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 10:02 pm

    Michelle Obama @MichelleObama 10
    15 days. That’s all we’ve got. If you or someone you know is still deciding how or if you’re going to vote, I hope you’ll take a minute to watch and share my message. We’ve got to get everyone we know to vote for @JoeBiden in numbers that can’t be denied. http://iwillvote.com

    I don’t know anyone who I know to be undecided.

  309. 309.

    Jeffro

    October 19, 2020 at 10:03 pm

    @Amir Khalid: trumpov…and police everywhere…are oh-so-slowly catching on to the fact that video cameras are everywhere.  Every.  Where.

    Wait ’til Josh Hawley seems himself supporting the overturning of the ACA and also speechifying that he will protect the health care coverage of those with pre-existing conditions.

    Oh wait…that was just a dream I had a couple of years ago…never mind…

  310. 310.

    James E Powell

    October 19, 2020 at 10:03 pm

    @Yutsano:

    I wonder if the Lincoln Project smells blood in the water in Mississippi. It’s not the strongest ad, but a shiv is a shiv.

    It’s the kind of ad that might appeal to the reachables, though they be few. Say what you will about the LP gang, they are doing more than Bloomberg.

  311. 311.

    topclimber

    October 19, 2020 at 10:04 pm

    @NotMax: True in any language.

  312. 312.

    WaterGirl

    October 19, 2020 at 10:06 pm

    @lamh36: Glad to know it’s going well.  What is QC/QA

    10am will be better than 7am!

  313. 313.

    brantl

    October 19, 2020 at 10:07 pm

    @WaterGirl:  Quality Control / Quality Assurance.

  314. 314.

    WaterGirl

    October 19, 2020 at 10:07 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    plus handling

    !!!!!

  315. 315.

    danielx

    October 19, 2020 at 10:08 pm

    Fuck Covid unbelievers with rusty farm tools.

    “I’ve been a doctor for 34 years and I have never seen the amount of suffering I have seen in a short period of time. I have never seen in my career a time where an entire ward … is filled up with patients with the same disease.’ -Dr. Paul Casey, Bellin Hospital, Wisconsin pic.twitter.com/7Le0PYFWuI
    — Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) October 20, 2020

  316. 316.

    WaterGirl

    October 19, 2020 at 10:10 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fuck.

  317. 317.

    Yutsano

    October 19, 2020 at 10:12 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: All I know is that if Jeff Bridges dies before Rush…I’mma gonna burn my Baha’i card.

  318. 318.

    TS (the original)

    October 19, 2020 at 10:14 pm

    @dmsilev:

    The world we live in.

    The world of the GOP and trump disciples. Trump encourages this every time he opens his mouth.

  319. 319.

    Ivan X

    October 19, 2020 at 10:19 pm

    @James E Powell: There are also quite a few tote-baggers and non-right-wingers who believe there is some substance to all of those things. They might have voted for her, but they still believed she was a corrupt person.

     

    I have a Bernie Bro friend who is not a Trumper, but who is conspiracy minded, chauvinist, hates political correctness because it’s someone trying to control him, etc. He has this fantasy that Biden will somehow be influenceable by the same sort of neocons who led us into Iraq, but I think he’s just mad at liberals, sees Democrats as not doing enough about protest violence, and he’s afraid of BLM in Portland, and he’s looking for an excuse to vote Trump. When he told me he hadn’t made up his mind, I told him I was appalled, and he went to the “I know, Trump has no decorum, he’s mean” and was about to continue in this vein I’ve heard from other Trump apologists as though the problem is the style and not the substance.

    I cut him off and started ticking off the reasons Trump is vastly worse than Biden could ever be, and when I got to “he’s corrupt,” he responded: “MORE CORRUPT THAN THE CLINTONS??” Yes. This is real. To some people, they are just the most corrupt people in the history of corruption, so you’ve got to hand it to their enemies in ginning that shit up so effectively.

    I just responded that multiple people in Trump’s immediate orbit have been indicted. He conceded the point, and after the debate and Trump getting COVID, he sighed and said he guesses he’s voting for Biden. But he continues to send me insane videos about socialist democrats and various conspiracies. Some people just live in those YouTube swamps and I think COVID, with its yawning chasms of time and isolation, has worsened it.

  320. 320.

    dww44

    October 19, 2020 at 10:20 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  I missed that. Please explain. How did Hayes “lose it”?

  321. 321.

    Ken

    October 19, 2020 at 10:25 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I find the paucity of his vocabulary fascinating

    I find it diagnostic, but I’ve had relatives with dementia.

  322. 322.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 19, 2020 at 10:34 pm

    @dww44: burst out laughing and dropped his head on his desk

  323. 323.

    ballerat

    October 19, 2020 at 11:11 pm

    @Mary G: 
    On first read I thought it said “Weiner apparently felt like popping up again at the end of an erection”.

  324. 324.

    Amir Khalid

    October 20, 2020 at 3:01 am

    @NotMax:

    True story: many decades ago, a popular magazine down under changed its frequency of publication from every week to every month. But its publisher decided it was best not to change the name of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

  325. 325.

    yellowdog

    October 20, 2020 at 6:11 am

    @dmsilev: The GOP will use this as an excuse to

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