“He’s jealous of COVID’s coverage.”
— Barack Obama, unlimbering the sarcasm again.— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) October 27, 2020
I say this with all possible respect: Barack Obama has some formidable natural blogging skills. https://t.co/o7TXDWZNmG
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) October 27, 2020
Due credit from a master — “President Obama Has Set Up Light Housekeeping in Donald Trump’s Cerebellum”:
… We all know Inspirational Obama, and Devotional Obama, and Better Angels Obama, but Snarkmaster Obama is having a ball out there setting up light housekeeping in the president*’s cerebellum. If you’re going to shoot the dozens with this guy, bring your A-game. On Tuesday, he was in Orlando, and he took El Caudillo Del Mar-a-Lago downtown…
The obvious joy Obama is taking in trolling the president* makes these appearances appointment television, especially in a country subjected to two or three of the White House wankfests a day. It is excellent TV, and nobody knows that better than our favorite reality-TV president*…
Meanwhile, his predecessor shows every intention of cracking wise at his expense throughout the last week of the campaign. This, of course, violates the first rule of The Ex-Presidents Club: Thou shalt not harsh thy successor’s mellow. And one more traditional norm goes into the woodchipper. But hey, the current president* spent four years trying to erase the Obama presidency from the statute books and from the country’s historical memory. Obama is getting his own back magnificently and, hell, we all deserve a laugh.
Obama slams Trump over coronavirus: 'He turned the White House into a hotzone' — also says Trump is jealous of Covid's media coverage https://t.co/BnBHG4NZvY
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) October 28, 2020
… Obama, an important surrogate for Biden, campaigned for his former vice president for the second time in four days in Florida. The key battleground state could play a decisive role in the outcome of the election, and recent polls show a tight race between Trump and Biden.
Obama’s Orlando speech built on a blistering rebuke of Trump he delivered last week in Pennsylvania, his first foray onto the campaign trail since a speech to the Democratic National Convention earlier in the year, and over the weekend in Florida.
Obama’s speeches have shown how he is keeping tabs on the day-to-day news about Trump, and how the Biden campaign is deploying him to deliver some of its harshest attacks on the current President and his administration.
Former presidents usually avoid directly attacking their successor in the White House, but Obama has delivered full-throated criticisms of Trump while campaigning for Biden. But Trump, with the way he has continually attacked Obama, even suggesting he should be indicted, has changed the calculus, thrusting the former president onto the campaign trail.
Democrats hope Obama can help gin up enthusiasm among the Democratic base and encourage Black men, Latinos and younger voters in battleground states to turn out and vote…The former President also criticized senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, for recent comments he made about Black Americans. Kushner said Monday on Fox News, “One thing we’ve seen in a lot of the Black community, which is mostly Democrat, is that President Trump’s policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they’re complaining about. But he can’t want them to be successful more than they want to be successful.”
Obama seized on the comments, saying, “(Trump’s) son-in-law says Black folks have to want to be successful. That’s the problem.” After a short pause, an incredulous-sounding Obama continued, “Who are these folks? What history books do they read? Who do they talk to?”…
Obama praised his former vice president, describing Biden as a man of “principle and character” and highlighting his empathy and decency.
“He made me a better president, and he’s got the character and the experience to make us a better country,” Obama said.
Obama laid out the ways Biden has said he would get the pandemic under control, including making coronavirus tests free and widely available, distributing a vaccine to every American at no cost and providing enough personal protective equipment to all front-line workers…
“Last week, Trump flat out said he hopes the Supreme Court takes your health insurance away. Said it out loud,” Obama said. “Don’t boo, vote,” he said, repeating a favorite line of his when the crowd booed. The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on the future of the ACA, also known as Obamacare, next month.
Obama said if elected, Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris of California would “protect your health care, they will expand Medicare, they’ll make insurance more affordable for everybody, because Joe knows that a president’s first job is to keep us safe from all threats, foreign, domestic, and microscopic.”
Barack Obama slammed Jared Kushner after the White House senior adviser suggested that Black people had to 'want' to succeed for policies to change, saying ‘Who are these folks? What history books do they read?' https://t.co/RD99JGQYnq pic.twitter.com/dRIteQBvkX
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 28, 2020
Baud
He has dogs, so he is qualified to be a BJ front pager.
Baud
All of them, Katie.
mad citizen
@Baud:“He’s jealous of COVID’s coverage.”
PBO may already be reading here. Jackal Nelle made this exact comment a couple of days ago. Quite insightful, I saved it in a google doc.
Scout211
https://infogram.com/california-vote-by-mail-returns-1hdw2jnqwkoe4l0
California voters have returned 33.9% of all ballots mailed out so far.
7,576,529 ballots returned so far!
Don’t boo, vote!
Kay
Cook political. Might be a fun election night :)
Obama loves politics. There’s a documentary out there where he’s watching the returns come in in 2006 and he’s just really enjoying himself. He was watching Ohio results come in and it was a wave year.
Maybe he was thinking “well, maybe…”
MattF
Jen Rubin agrees. One can’t ever say that Obama is unfiltered, but now it’s closer to the surface.
Nina
He’s only 59. I hope they have a nice solid role for him in the next administration.
jimmiraybob
If, in the next couple of months, Donald John Trump were to be informed by Putin that Russia was about to launch a massive military invasion against America, Trump would insist on a licensing agreement. And before the ink dried he would declare victory. That would make a whopping victory on par with having already defeated the COVID-19 pandemic.
Obama never did that.
danielx
Well calculated to drive Cheeto Benito into a paroxysm of frothing at the mouth rage.
Let us savor.
Benw
I can boo AND vote
BruceFromOhio
Texas moves to toss-up? Be still my beating heart.
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
dmsilev
@Kay: Cook said that? Wow. That’s a pretty cautious operation, and they don’t go out on a limb without good reason.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
“El Caudillo Del Mar-a-Lago “
Now that is a nice one.
Geminid
@BruceFromOhio: and Kamala Harris will campaign in Texas Friday. Should be good. She is a dynamic presence.
narya
@Nina: SCOTUS? That would be kinda awesome . . .
I alternate between being absolutely moved by the determined efforts that so many folks are making to vote, even as the whole right wing is trying to stand in the way, and being terrified that the right wing will succeed. They are desperate–they have no ideas other than grift, tax cuts for the wealthy, and cheating–and desperate people do desperate things.
dmsilev
Post-ABC polls: Biden leads Trump narrowly in Michigan, significantly in Wisconsin
And when they say “narrow”, it’s only in comparison to that “significant”:
An outlier poll, most likely, but the ABC/Post operation is an A+ pollster in 538’s ratings so I wouldn’t discard it immediately.
waspuppet
I’m glad to see Obama back out there, if for no other reason than I predicted Trump wouldn’t be able to get through four years without dropping an N-bomb and I started to lose faith, but now I have new hope.
Edmund Dantes
The abandoning of Trump supporters in the cold and rain at his Omaha rally was insane to watch unfold on Twitter last night. Hypothermia and other things happening to elderly supporters and people stranded from their cars, etc.
It was also sad in some ways because my sympathetic muscles didn’t even twitch one bit.
MattF
@Edmund Dantes: Twitter theory is that the Trump campaign stiffed the bus company.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dmsilev: since when is seven points a narrow lead? five used to be a solid lead back when I sported an onion on my belt! as was the style at the time.
and I say that as someone who wonders, in my bed-wetting moments, whether polls have been sufficiently re-weighted for “education”, which means non-college white guys who are thrilled to have their resentments confirmed by the Oaf in the Oval Office
ETA: and Jared Kushner isn’t getting nearly enough blowback for his comments
germy
@Edmund Dantes:
According to the WaPo, the busses were delayed by airport traffic
I don’t know if that’s true, or something the campaign told the WaPo reporter.
WereBear
@Edmund Dantes:
I save my strongest sympathetic muscles for the innocent.
Danielx
Right. Like Trump won’t be pissing on Biden from day fucking one if he loses.
WereBear
Per a local reporter: the campaign only paid for the busses to get them to the venue. Not to take them back to their cars.
JaneE
It looks like Trump’s trashing of presidential norms has caught up to him, freeing Obama to return the favor. Even talking trash Obama makes Trump look like a poor facsimile of a real president.
chopper
@Scout211:
in PA dems have returned 2/3 of their mail-in ballots already. get em in soon, get em counted.
Jeffro
It’s going to be very weird, shifting back into a normal timeline. Everyone please remain seated until the ride has come to a complete stop.
germy
This thread is not accessible if a reader attempts the “next” arrows in previous threads.
Raoul Paste
Wouldn’t it be great if Devin Nunes lost his seat?
I am reading that its possible
Al Z.
@chopper: Word on the street. If you haven’t mailed your ballot yet, don’t. At this point plan on voting in person or drop off your ballot in person.
germy
@Raoul Paste:
I imagine him tumbling out of a cab in front of his old family farm if that happens.
dmsilev
@Raoul Paste: The lesson there: Don’t fuck with the cow.
Woodrow/asim
Got up in the early AM to go vote here in South Carolina. Massive (for this area) line by the time the doors opened; rain only saw a few people step away, and many of us were prepared with umbrellas. People are determined to vote, in ways I’ve not seen here since the 2016 cycle.
Vast majority of folx wore masks and tried to keep 6 ft, although the setup didn’t help. :(
The Moar You Know
Just want to point out Obama did not initiate the “pissing on the predecessor”, that was one Donald J. Trump, who wasn’t ten minutes into office before he whipped out his miniature disease-ridden excuse for manhood and started in on both Obama AND Bush.
Fuck that loser. He is such garbage. I hope that we can get him loose from the body of the Republic without too much damage. You know. LIKE A TICK.
gene108
@Nina:
I want Obama to move to a small town, and run for mayor, city council, or the school board.
I think it has sit-com potential to have a city council meeting, with a former President as a member. Think “Parks & Recs”, but with President Obama.
germy
@dmsilev:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/28/devin-nunes-california-congress-election
The Moar You Know
@Edmund Dantes: I have a bad habit of texting such stories to my wife with the one word tagline of “GOOD”. The last one was about some COVID denier in Texas who threw a party and killed his whole family, and only now has seen the light.
Don’t care, no sympathy from me buddy. Or my wife.
TS (the original)
@dmsilev: Some consensus in the idea that the level of covid-19 in Wisconsin is leading a surge against trump.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
as several tweeters have pointed out, it doesn’t even occur to Hogan Gidley that there is a threat to trump’s own supporters, much less the spread in the community. According to the latest NYT map, eastern Wisconsin is a big hotspot.
TS (the original)
@gene108:
I think he has earned a rest away from politics, doing whatever he wants to do.
Thus said, he would be ideal working on the international scene. There are so many bridges to be repaired between the US and the rest of the world. Ambassador at large, rather than Sec of State would be ideal.
patrick II
About the only good thing about the White House correspondent’s dinner was getting a chance to see snark side of President Obama. He was very funny and often biting, but with a smile on his face, using humor to avoid playing Jackie Robinson for one night. One of my favorite lines was when he introduced John Boehner as “another man of color — just not one found in nature”.
High points were his Trump desication, which had very bad results, and when he brought out his anger translator, Keegan Michael-Key, to help him vent but got so angry himself the anger translator thought it was a bit much.
I thought it gave Obama his one opportunity to say what he thought.
gene108
@Edmund Dantes:
Were the people with hypothermia, at the Omaha rally, deep state operatives?
Otherwise you can easily avoid hypothermia by dressing adequately for the weather. If they truly are Trump supporters, they owe President Trump an apology for their poor choices in not dressing adequately for the weather. They have unnecessarily made President Trump’s campaign look bad.
The Moar You Know
@waspuppet: I suspect by November 6th, Trump will have said it publicly more often than George Wallace ever did. You know that fucker is going to let his freak flag fly.
JCJ
@germy: Yeah, those traffic jams around the Omaha airport are legendary. They make L.A. traffic look smooth. Heck, the traffic in Omaha is even worse than Bangkok!
Marcopolo
Vanity Fair has a new cover piece featuring AOC. It’s a long, great read. Here’s the lede:
One of the most important bits for me (way down in the article), however, which sheds light on how AOC thinks about politics/governance, is why I will happily work my ass off for her if she runs for higher office:
Everyone have a good hump day & hang in there for another week. Remember, even little things can help. Example, I just moved into a new house Monday. Yesterday I helped the young AA guy installing my cable, who didn’t know if he was going to vote, to create his plan for voting.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy: Maybe “airport traffic” is a euphemism for Trump’s motorcade. Or the shutdowns the secret service requires in an area where Trump is traveling.
The Moar You Know
@germy: Not true, campaign bullshit. Read the local coverage last night, couldn’t sleep worth a shit. A reporter actually overheard one of the shuttle drivers confirming with dispatch that they were not going to come back and get these people. Guy said “ARE YOU SURE?” “Yep”
They went home. The cops had to call in city buses from what I understand.
Gin & Tonic
@WereBear: Old, possibly apocryphal story about some campaign, don’t recall which, in NH, candidate and staff get on a helicopter to go from Point A to Point B, pilot says he wants payment now. In cash. Otherwise the bird sits on the ground.
Pilot was obviously experienced.
Gin & Tonic
@germy: It is now.
This kind of thing has happened before. I’m sure WaterGirl has a lot of fun attempting to debug intermittent transient UI issues.
mad citizen
@gene108: Only if Amy Poehler also moves to the small town and is on the Council. The other day I saw a “Re-Elect Knope City Council” sign. I’m in central Indiana, though. Some of us love our Pawnee stories.
marcopolo
@Kay: Well, if anyone BJers know folks who live in the Rio Grande Valley (Cameron & Hildalgo counties) give them a call & make sure they are going to vote & get everyone they know out to vote. That’s about the only area in TX right now that isn’t showing massive turnout & is the place where the demographics imply there are a lot of potential Biden voters. I know one woman from there, though she is currently in MI in grad school, and asked her to spend some time GoTVing with folks back home.
Gravenstone
@germy: Still attributable to Trump, because that traffic would have likely come from the security measures required for his visit.
TS (the original)
Dow is down 800 points. Good news for donald trump
Gravenstone
@WereBear: Oh that is entirely on brand!
marcopolo
@MattF: Or the Trump campaign which appears to be broke, in order to save money, only hired the buses/shuttles to drop folks off at the rally & not to pick them up at the end.
Gravenstone
@TS (the original): Unfortunately it’s partially exacerbated by the local Trumpists and their defiance of Gov. Evers’ mask mandate. They’re easy to spot by their “My Governor is an Idiot” signs. May the plague take them all.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so am I, and I’m often frustrated by the slow pace of it, but that’s the only kind we’re going to get in this country, and if she’s selling her followers, especially the young ones, on “REVOLUTION!”, then she’s doing a long-term disservice to them. Incremental change brought health care coverage to 20 million people in this country, and that’s just Medicaid expansion, and with right-wingers at the state level fighting it tooth and nail.
According to her wing of the party, Biden’s health care plan is more of that ookie old “incremental change”, and it’s gonna be a helluva fight, and I’ll be very surprised if, once it’s passed, the people she’s pointing at don’t “feel” better about their lives knowing there’s a stronger safety net even if it’s not the blessed and sacrosanct Single Payer
That’s why I was so annoyed by her childish rhetoric about “stones” yesterday. That may feel good and get her a lot of plaudits on twitter, and even a front page posting here, but it doesn’t make it more likely we’ll take the Senate. And if we don’t take the Senate, with the help of a lot of Senators who don’t agree with AOC and Bernie!, we won’t even get that “incremental change” that will improve the lives of millions more people in this country. Including me. And yeah, that’s why I find her tiresome almost as often as I admire her guts and skill. Cause this is fucking personal to me. I may not be able to afford four more years of trumpism because John Hickenlooper and Theresa Greenfield are judged testosterone-deficient by people who seem to think they’re curated twitter feeds are representative of this country, and who think “Look out the window, Mitch” is a legislative strategy that can’t fail, and who would be confused by the that Schoolhouse Rock video of how a bill becomes a law.
mad citizen
Just now reading about this shitshow last night ”
Hundreds of Trump supporters stuck on freezing cold Omaha airfield after rally”
As you all are saying, so on brand for trump. I think Tom Joseph (twitter) is right, things are just taking longer, but trump has dementia, can’t walk or do too much, so can only do the airport rallies. And it’s so f-ing lazy too. Make it as easy and convenient for trump, and as inconvenient as possible for his “fans”. No sympathy for ANY of them. Sorry. Been done with sympathy for more than 4 years. No quarter.
Litlebritdifrnt
@The Moar You Know: According to Twitter the campaign couldn’t pay for the return trip because it’s credit card was declined.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Either way, I call bullshit. Somebody was incompetent, that’s all.
ETA: Or cruel and unfeeling, of course. That’s always a strong possibility.
Leto
@chopper: Just a note to all PA residents: it’s too late to get your mail-in ballots back via mail. Use drop boxes, turn it in at your county board of election office, or do it at the polls via a provisional ballot.
If you mail it back it now, your shit won’t be counted.
chopper
@dmsilev:
51 to 44 is a “narrow” lead. god, i love the horse race media.
Ken
Plus no other venues are available, either because of mask mandates or because they’re demanding cash in advance.
germy
Baud
@germy:
At least she won’t be faithless!
H.E.Wolf
I hope someday to become as awesome a GOTV-er as you are! :)
marcopolo
@mad citizen: The point of the airport rallies is 1) they are cheap as fuck compared to a regular venue; 2) Trump can fly in, deplane, rant, and reboard to the next super spreader event ASAP–no hassles about driving anywhere, leave it to his chump supporters to come out to wherever the hell he is. It’s another sign his campaign is broke, desperate, and catering to his ego fulfillment needs as much as the campaign’s needs to win EVs.
Baud
@Marcopolo:
I’m just happy the cable guy showed up.
WaterGirl
@germy: It is now, though, correct? Was that just for a minute?
WaterGirl
@patrick II: Obam has impecable comedic timing.
Barbara
@chopper: Seriously, in what universe is 7 percentage points a narrow victory? 51-44 means that there are fewer “undecided” or third party voters than the current difference between the two contenders. That takes “narrow” off the table as a way to describe the current contest.
Barbara
@marcopolo: Right, and most likely when it’s said and done, the Trump campaign doesn’t reimburse for the cost of using AF 1. Fuckers.
marcopolo
@H.E.Wolf: Dude, you are already there. I haven’t written a scintilla of the postcards you’ve sent out this year. And since I am still holding to strict quarantine rules, aside from folks I see while out walking, the cable installer & movers have been the only people who I’ve spent any time around since March. I used to have political chats at the grocery store if I ran into neighbors but not this year.
marcopolo
@Barbara: I think that was in comparison to the 15 pt margin in WI.
Barbara
@marcopolo: Then the word is “narrower” or “closer” not “narrow” or “close.” Seriously, “narrow” is an absolute, “narrower” is comparative.
MattF
@SiubhanDuinne: The reason for airport rallies is to get Trump feeling pumped up. Because then, he will be easier to handle and require less medication. People attending the rally are no longer in the field-of-view once the rally is over. They’re lucky duckies for getting to see the Leader.
I suspect that reality peeks through the curtain, though, once in a while. But who knows?
TS (the original)
@marcopolo:
Nah – it was the media trying to make it a horse race. The heading was
Biden leads Trump narrowly in Michigan, significantly in Wisconsin
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Edmund Dantes: While his supporters dying in the cold and dark would be Peak Trump, it really shouldn’t be happening.
And, has anything like this ever happened before?
fourmorewars
It would be Trump’s cerebrum. Not cerebellum. Cerebrum’s the cogitative thought part. Petty to bring up, it’s just I remember when I first heard, as a ten year old, the word cerebellum. It was in the news reports of where the bullet had lodged in RFK’s brain.
germy
@WaterGirl: It works now.
It didn’t for a while, but it’s okay now.
marcopolo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: A few things: 1) maybe read the article first before ranting; 2) do you remember the 2010 midterms? if you want your supporters to stay energized you need to give them a reason–those senators you worry about getting elected won’t hold their seats if regular folks don’t see things change in their lives in response to who they elect; 3) we have a responsibility to push our electeds to do bigger & bolder things than they are comfortable with–it was Obama who repeatedly told us that we needed to keep the pressure on him to bring about change; 4) the last aside about “how many other Trumps are out there” pretty much sums all of that up; 5) if you don’t think what McConnell has done vis a vis tax law & the Federal judiciary isn’t an example of change that isn’t incremental that has happened in front of your eyes, I don’t know what to say to you–we need to make chang/do stuff like this…except that it helps makes average folks lives better in ways that they can see/feel.
fourmorewars
@TS (the original): He WOULD be an ideal ad hoc ambassador.
Plus, of course, decent people are dying to see the Trump-repudiating joy of foreign crowds flocking to shout his name to the skies. Post-covid.
Baud
@marcopolo:
I don’t see how the tax cuts are any more or less incremental than Obamacare. What is incremental is apparently in the eye of the beholder.
MisterForkbeard
@Baud: Don’t you understand that this is the first step towards Hillary ousting Biden and taking over?
Ksmiami
@MattF: especially when an attendee loses a toe to gangrenous hypothermia but what’s losing a body pArt or two in service of Dear Leader
Baud
@MisterForkbeard:
Haha. I love it when a plan comes together.
germy
germy
WaterGirl
@Leto: Thanks for the reminder!
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This.
germy
I think this is not a rare occurrence.
James E Powell
@germy:
Trump could dump the porta-johns on his supporters and they would claim they enjoyed it. They are ruled by their hatred & bigotry.
Baud
@James E Powell:
“Thank you, sir, may I have another.”
Nelle
@The Moar You Know: So the city has to pick up the tab???
MattF
Sounds like Anonymous is about to be unmasked.
Leto
@WaterGirl: Just doing my part, ma’am. *cowboy hat tip
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@marcopolo:
I don’t have as much time for her as you do. I just went by the excerpts that you, as a fan, chose as evidence of how awesome she is, and her own recent public statement about politics.
how does telling people democrats are weak and full of bullshit and corrupt motivate our voters? how is dismissing Democrats’ hard-fought achievements encourage voters?
our electeds have to get elected first, again, how does talking about their weakness, cowardice and corruption help?
McConnell’s Senate and SC are the result of fifty years of pushing rocks up hill and keeping their eyes on larger prizes, of telling their followers that voting for a pro-life dogcatcher was advancing the will of god. And they were helped along in that effort by the man Herself supported in the 2020 primary telling millions of people in 2016 that TPP was more important than RBG, even as McConnell was holding the Garland seat hostage. Mona Charen spoke for a lot of conservatives in ’92 when she said the campaign for Bush’s reelection should be “Only Four More Years”; Susan Sarandon spoke for most of Rose Twitter when she told them and us that four years of trump would bring the Revolution. Who won the long game?
again, point out what has been done, how many of the most vulnerable people’s lives have been made better, how many more people’s lives could be better if Republicans didn’t block the efforts of Democrats, don’t loudly and publicly dismiss them as half-assed failures by incrementalist pussies (again, I really don’t like that kind of gendered language about courage and strength, just following Herself’s example.) Fight the real enemy, as Sinead O’Connor told us. Don’t send the Sunrise Movement to stage a sit-in in Nancy Pelosi’s office, send them to McConnell’s, or to the trump EPA offices. If I had more time, and I don’t, as I have to remind myself, I could go on.
And I don’t hate her, but I think she has a lot of growing up to do as person and a politician. I honestly try to think back to when I was thirty, and did I have such a willfully naive understanding of the American political system– “Look out the window, Mitch”– I really don’t think I did.
Steeplejack
Report from the Omaha Trump rally:
WaterGirl
I was watching an episode of Longmire while I was walking on the treadmill. Words of wisdom, from that episode:
That’s what they have done – Trump, McConnell, Barr, all of them.
They couldn’t quit while they were ahead, they had to grind our faces into the dirt, and then spit on us, the constitution, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
I hope these fuckers go down hard, every single one of them. And hopefully for their troubles, their actions will have brought us an expanded Supreme Court, which will no longer be packed and unbalanced.
Kent
My guess? SOMEONE didn’t want to pay all the drivers overtime or extra time to sit around through the whole rally waiting. That decision would have been made either by the campaign, or the charter bus company. Probably the campaign because only the Trump campaign would be that venal and stupid.
Steeplejack
Another Trump campaign highlight:
WaterGirl
@Kent: Somewhere in the previous thread was a link or a report that the drivers were overheard confirming that they were only hired for ONE WAY. Not the return trip.
Kent
@Baud:
All change in this country has either been incremental or violent. Those are the two options. And the only successful example of violent change was the Civil War. And even that horrific event only resulted in incremental change that took over 140 years to bring to fruition. In fact, we are still working on it.
rp
@MattF: Could be a big deal if it’s someone still in the admin. and they trash Trump publicly in the last couple days. That would be a nice October surprise.
Kent
So it was the campaign then. They didn’t want to pay double (or triple) to have all the drivers sit around in their vehicles waiting for the event to be over.
Baud
@Kent:
Fair enough. I understand the line between incremental and violent, more or less. I’m less clear on the line between incremental and transformative as used by the people who think the distinction is an important one.
germy
@Steeplejack: She does good comedy, imitating various conservatives and trumpists.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: They care only for themselves, which we have known for a very long time.
But can’t they even hear themselves? Do they not know they sound like monsters? That they are monsters?
Bluegirlfromwyo
@Steeplejack: What’s so awful about that is I’m not sure if it’s satire or not. I swear, I’m going to have to go through deprogramming along with the cult.
germy
@MattF:
Not Conway’s wife, I hope.
Wait… he said he had a “long conversation.” So that rules out his wife.
Kent
Can you point to an example of “transformative” legislation that was not incremental?
MattF
@germy: Funny, that simply didn’t occur to me.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: That is so not for real. I have no idea who she is, but I am tired of “comedy” like this. When people are spoofing, they need to make that clear.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: Rick Wilson, Conway’s fellow LPer, has hinted that he knows who anonymous but can’t say more. Then again, one of his more annoying tics is hinting at valuable knowledge he can’t reveal.
I’ve seen speculation that it’s Kirstjen Nielson, and that former aide of hers who’s now making anti-trump commercials– Miles Taylor? Taylor Miles?– is her cat’s paw.
taumaturgo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Incremental change is for center-right status quo defenders democrats, for others that are actually living the shit life, there is little time or patient for bipartisan commissions, stern warnings, or empty quivers. All Democrats should demand that the leadership of the party clearly define their stance vis a vis the working class and stop cowering to the GOP.
Baud
@Kent:
I’m not one to use those terms so no. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was certainly more transformative than the Springfield Post Office Renaming Act of 2012. But I’m not aware of a piece of legislation that was considered transformative (from a progressive point of view) at the time it was passed, as opposed to in hindsight.
taumaturgo
@Kent: Ask Moscow Mitch. He has shown by words and deeds how to yield power to get the results they wish. BTW, as far as I can tell the GOP style doesn’t include bipartisan commissions.
Baud
@taumaturgo:
Trump’s voter suppression commission was bipartisan. Which is what helped us defeat it.
Ocotillo
The horse race is getting to me. I am worried I am in a bubble and wrong thinking Biden walks away with this thing. I see things like GOP turnout in Florida is strong. I read stuff about the GOP ground game is better in PA and WI. Add to the mix foreign interference, voter suppression, COVID, a 6-3 court just salivating at the chance to help Trump and stories of AA men and Latino men going more for Trump this cycle and Nov 4 can’t get here quick enough.
Someone reassure me.
Ken
@MattF: @rp: @germy: Let’s start a pool. I’m going to go out on a limb and say Pence. No, wait, Mrs. Pence.
Gravenstone
@Steeplejack: And that lesson is, “can’t fix stupid!”.
patroclus
@Kent: The Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, the Motor Carrier Act of 1935, Glass-Steagall, the Bretton Woods Agreements Act, the creation of the Selective Service and its extension, the Lend-Lease Act, the War Powers Act, the Defense Production Act, the creation of NATO, the Social Security Act, the National Housing Act, the Federal Reserve Act, the Federal trade Commission Act, the Clayton Act, the Esch-Cummings Act, the Wagner Act, the Fair Labor Relations Act, the Natural Gas Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. All transformative; not incremental. And I could go on…
Chyron HR
@taumaturgo:
You know the only bill Mighty Mitch actually passed in the last 4 years was a budget reconciliation, right?
Baud
@patroclus:
The argument is, I believe, that laws like Obamacare and Dodd-Frank don’t rise to that level. The question I have is why?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@taumaturgo: thank you, Bernie Pudding, for proving my point
@Baud: did Rose Telegraph call FDR a secret Hooverite?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
IIRC Huey Long was making some waves.
Chyron HR
@Steeplejack:
I agree–but did his supporters learn it?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@taumaturgo: no, it involves winning seats in the House and Senate
I know you, or the role you play, are incapable of grasping that, the trouble is so are some people who are taken far more seriously than they should be
Geminid
One week into the delayed Big Ten football season, this Saturday’s Wisconsin/Nebraska game is cancelled, due to a Covid-19 outbreak among the Wisconsin team.
LurkerNoLonger
@Ocotillo: Someone reassure me.
Ask yourself this, would you rather be in Biden’s or Trump’s position 6 days from the election? Try to put all of that other noise out of your mind. Feel better?
taumaturgo
@Baud: Impartial observers would be hard press to take comfort in the commissions’ defeat giving current election circumstances. I’ll hate to think about what would the election and voting conditions be if they had “won.”
Baud
@taumaturgo:
Irrelevant to the point, which was your assertion that the GOP never cares about looking bipartisan. They traditionally have cared about it.
JustRuss
@WaterGirl: It’s a parody, although damn, it’s hard to tell sometimes.
patroclus
@Baud: The ACA qualifies in some ways (the protection for pre-existing conditions) but not in others (expanding Medicare/Medicaid were re-writes of those laws, which do qualify). On its own, Dodd-Frank was a re-write of Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the CFTC Modernization Act, FDICIA and FIRREA and some of the earlier banking statutes, so it doesn’t qualify, but viewed in tandem with the FMA, the CFTC Modernization Act, FIRREA and FDICIA, it would qualify. It regularized capital regulation, the push-out requirements and re-imposed Glass-Steagall-like provisions with the Volcker Rule etc…; the creation of the CFPB might in time be regarded as transformational, but it’s too weak to conclude that now.
taumaturgo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s the dog chasing its tail. Vote for the lesser of two evils, and wait for center-right changes which historically have given the GOP advantage of winning elections in which they lose the popular vote and has given the same GOP a 6-3 majority in the Supreme Court. Vote and you get a billionaire tax cut, a corporate Covid bailout, and zero extension of unemployment or rent assistance. In a sane world, any party that produces results like these should have dumped their center-right leadership long ago unless they believe the status quo is supreme, shit life for the majority non withstanding.
Baud
@patroclus:
I appreciate your point of view, but all other statutes that you mentioned, which all have been amended over the years, are also incomplete and imperfect. The whole thing seems subjective to me, which is why I try to avoid those labels.
patroclus
@Baud: Yeah, legislation is a process – it often takes multiple bites at the apple for transformation to really take place. The Securities laws are a collection of 9 statutes which, at the time, were not regarded as transformational, but became so only after much time elapsed and they were upheld by the Courts (Electric Bond and Share; Wickard v. Filburn). And they became generally acceptable to (virtually) all. The Motor Carrier Act, for example, which outlawed “undue discrimination” in interstate bus traffic, just sat there for 25 years and wasn’t enforced, and then along came Boynton v. Virginia in 1960, which then inspired the Freedom Rides (with John Lewis) and the statute was given life and breadth and became transformational. Only with some history and retrospective judgment can these views really be ascertained – over time, the ACA (if confirmed by the courts) and Dodd-Frank might rise to that level. We don’t know that quite yet.
taumaturgo
@Chyron HR: Right. While Democrats fiddle with bills, Mitch yields power to produce the results they aimed at and to increase said power by weakening the opposition which is by all measures is weak, to begin with.
geg6
@taumaturgo:
I think you need to go back to school and take PoliSci 101 and get a tutor to teach you the actual meaning of the terminology of the field. Because you’re doing it wrong.
Ohio Mom
Germy @ 91: We had one of those incognito Republicans for a while in my congressional district, OH-2.
William Smith. Put in his name up as a Democrat in the primary to pull votes away from the legit candidate. Always succeeded and always lost to the Republican in the general.
Did that for a few cycles, then he apparently decided his work was done. Haven’t heard about him for at least two elections now,
My District is heavily gerrymandered. Ages ago, the Republicans in Columbus split the Cincinnati metro area on two, attaching each half to a large rural area. My district snakes next to the Ohio River, and Smith lived/s in the hinterlands.
I don’t know who he got to sign the petitions to get him on the ballot but after getting his name into the primary race, he was famous for never leaving the rocking chair on his porch. Reporters had to visit him there for their stories.
Might make an interesting book, all these ringers.
Steeplejack
@JustRuss:
The Hogan Gidley quote is real. I assume you mean the Blaire Erskine clip.
Steeplejack
@taumaturgo:
McConnell wields power, not yields. Once is a typo; twice means you should shoot your autocorrect.
Anoniminous
@Barbara:
oh, c’mon
In Infotainment Medium’s Propaganda Land a Democratic 7 point lead is “narrow, endangered, and will collapse when Real People vote” and a Republican 7 point lead is “massive, unbeatable, giving the candidate certainty of victory.”
Saw this extact type of crap in Representatives Omar and Ocasio-Cortez’s primary elections this summer.
KenK
@Geminid: Saved Huskers from getting their asses handed to them.
Bex
@germy: What kind of airport traffic is going on while AF1 is parked there?
marcopolo
@patroclus: Thank you.
Geminid
@KenK: Yeah, and the game is not to be rescheduled, just cancelled.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@patroclus: I’ll admit I don’t know what some of those bills are, much less their history, but… I think we have very different notions of what incrementalism is, both between you and me, and between both of us and AOC, her political mentor and their most fervent followers.
MisterForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Haven’t you learned not to argue with people who start screaming “Biden is center-right!” into their pillows each night?
Bill Arnold
@taumaturgo:
Go do something useful like enhance contradictions in Russia. (Actually sort of serious about that; Russia need a good political … cleansing, and the current government is more vulnerable than it realizes.)
Uncle Cosmo
Reminiscent of the old joke about the doctor confronting his patient with one even worse diagnosis/prognosis after another. Each time the patient cries out That’s terrible the doc replies Could be worse.
Finally the patient shouts How the hell could it possibly be worse? and the doc replies, Could be happening to me.
(Most MDs are not this insensitive to their patients’ feelings – but it’s probably common enough to strike a nerve. Particularly in a charge-humongous-med-school-tuition-&-let-them-make-big-bucks-once-in-practice system like ours.)
Uncle Cosmo
@traumaturdo: Go fuck yourself, Stalinist arsehole. Better yet, drop dead, yesterday if possible.
Uncle Cosmo
@Steeplejack: Autocorrect fixes spelling. It doesn’t fix syntax. Or stupidity. Case in point.