This one brought tears to my eyes. #onlytheyoung
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) October 30, 2020
Stevie Wonder will be at the Biden-Obama rally tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/Uv1oI6GNpa
— United for the People ?? (@people4kam) October 30, 2020
Breaking: Texas just surpassed its 2016 total votes cast w/ one day of early voting & Election Day left to go.
The state is reporting 9,009,850 votes already cast, vs. the all-time record of 8,969,226 in 2016. This is massive.
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) October 30, 2020
Christen — tell your grandmother I’m incredibly grateful to have her support, and thank you for helping her cast her ballot. https://t.co/zRKbAPvqgF
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 29, 2020
What we do in these next four days will not just decide the next four years, but the future of this country. Let’s choose hope over fear. I’m counting on you. pic.twitter.com/vqV8csNVI9
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 30, 2020
We are lost. We've lost so much in so short a time.
On November 3rd, vote them out.Hear more: https://t.co/ZacuLReNRu pic.twitter.com/jEbT0wP3Ee
— Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) October 28, 2020
germy
OzarkHillbilly
Listen to the bit Springsteen posted. Skip the comments.
Sunny and 66 here on election day.
OzarkHillbilly
Nice photo essay: ‘I hope it makes a difference’: voters on remote Maine island cast their ballot
Interesting that of the people they talked to, only 2 alluded to which way they were voting and it’s a pretty safe bet it wasn’t for trump.
raven
I didn’t realize I had recorded two “This Old House” episodes about Paradise. I didn’t see my friends but it was still good to see the rebuilding.
germy
Thread:
germy
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
Stevie Wonder ???
Baud
@germy:
Jade Helm should have taken care of these assholes.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
JPL
@germy: ugh Maybe life was better without power. Truly could be the death of democracy.
Steeplejack
@OzarkHillbilly:
Supposed to be 56° and mostly sunny on Election Day here in NoVA. Currently 38° and not so sunny, although, to be fair, it’s just sunrise now.
germy
MazeDancer
Texas likely to be called early.
They refused to expand mail-in. Dems have voted. The GOP are going to vote on Election Day.
Texas Tribune:
OzarkHillbilly
The last thing I would do is make any kind of prediction about an election that has already recorded a record turnout before election day. Whatever else this may be, it’s not going to be like previous elections.
rikyrah
John S.
@germy: Same shit happened at the polling place here last week. A bunch of Trump thugs started attacking Biden supporters. The police were called, but predictably did nothing as in so many other instances. They make it quite obvious who they are supporting (some were photographed wearing Blue Lives Matter gear).
It’s not stopping or slowing down the constant influx of voters. And in the bluest county of Florida (Broward), high turnout is bad news for Trump.
OzarkHillbilly
John S.
@MazeDancer: More votes have been cast in Texas before Election Day than were cast in 2016 on Election Day.
As OzarkHillbilly said, this is not like any other election year and nobody can really predict what will happen.
But to be honest, nothing we are seeing portends good things for Trump.
WorkingOnIt
Bruuuce!
He speaks the truth.
No joy, fun, arts, music, love, pets … in this WH.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly: I was attacked about ten years ago by a bunch of hornets, after I disturbed their nest on the side of my house.
They swarmed aggressively. One of them got me on the side of my nose, and I still have a tiny mark there
These were the regular variety, not the murdering kind.
Steeplejack
I had a good respite yesterday. My brother was off work and we hadn’t seen each other much lately, so we motored out I-66 and then onto the rural roads past Manassas and Front Royal (Virginia). Beautiful country, and the weather turned out to be very nice. It was gray and rainy when I left my house, but by the time we got out of the D.C. area it was in the low 50s and sunny.
Lots of farms, horse farms and “farmettes.” (You know you’re in high cotton when that picturesque place for sale is being handled by Sotheby’s.) Lots of autumn colors and, unfortunately, lots of Trump signs, although there were some Biden signs, too, especially in the occasional small towns.
We ended up in Strasburg, in Shenandoah County, and had a late lunch at El Jalapeño. Very good food, hardly anybody in the place, so social distancing was not a problem. (That was my first sit-down restaurant meal since mid-March.) We got on 66 again where it meets I-81 and came home, with a stop at a Walmart supercenter outside Front Royal so that Bro’ Man could pick up a few things. Mask use was very good there, which surprised me a bit, given the rural, Trumpian area. Big signs posted at the door saying masks required. The store was pretty busy, but I saw only three or four people with their masks under their noses and (of course) one asshole who had his mask slung down on his chin.
I felt remarkably good when I got home, and the feeling persisted last night. Mental note to get out of the bunker more often.
germy
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@John S.: The frustrating thing is that RWNJs are far more likely to open fire on police officers than pretty much any other politically motivated group. Yet the police constantly seem to think those guys are on their side. Tells you how racist most cops are…they would rather jawbone with the guys most likely to kill them if it means they get to keep abusing people of color.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Does anyone know how polling works wrt people who have already voted? If a pollster calls someone who already voted do they ask who they voted for and include the results in the poll? Or do they ignore “already voted” and just poll people who have yet to vote? I think it’s the latter?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
So the Kentucky State Police had a little training material problem revealed that undoubtedly afflicts thousands of departments across the country. This problem is magnified by the other national problem – our shitty, overpaid 24/7 national broadcast and print media never, ever caught an inkling of it, because they were too busy simply amplifying the voices of police press spokesmen and serving as mimeograph machines.
It took a high school newspaper to catch it, much to the shame of the overpaid fuckheads that have infested newsrooms and airtime for the past 30 years.
KSP training slideshow quotes Hitler, advocates ‘ruthless’ violence
The usual weasel words came from the press flack.
The governor is understandably incandescent with rage that anything along these lines was ever included.
Frankly, I think that this training attitude is pervasive across police departments. I want to know who developed it, why it was developed along these lines, who insisted that it be included in curricula and where it is still employed. I’d want every current officer trained with this or similar material identified and either decertified and retrained or terminated. That commission can also identify where the “bellow” voice is being advocated, why all the flexing, why the cursing and violence toward people, pets and household objects on dynamic entries, why the insistence on midnight raids.
I also want the national media to look at its abject failure to catch this for the past 30 years.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: I was 5 years old the first time I got stung. My brother was 3 when he first got hit. Those incidents engendered a life long hatred of the MFers, to the point where we would go out hunting for nests to destroy. I outgrew that behavior and now go by a more “live and let live” path, but if I come across a nest in my daily chores, I am more likely to eradicate it just as a matter of self preservation.
I’ve become more and more sensitive over the years. Not long ago I got stung on my hand. Within a half hour I had my hand in a bucket of ice to stop the swelling. My worst incident was climbing out a dormer window onto a 9/12 pitched roof. There was an unseen nest under the dormer eave and as I put my arm up to grab the eave I got hit 7 times on my side. Between trying to get away and trying not to fall off the roof, it’s a miracle it wasn’t worse.
ETA: the worst ones for my money are the big red paper wasps with black wings, tho I hear bald faced hornets are by far the worst. So far I have been lucky and not had an incident with them, tho I have found 2 nests on the property in the past 5 years or so.
debbie
@raven:
It was a good series (four programs total, as I recall). Watching the footage of people making their escapes, I can’t imagine wanting to stay and rebuild.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I thank you in advance for my next nightmare. ?
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m the same way about hornets. I’ll say this, though. Their nests are fascinating.
After I was attacked I returned with bug spray and soaked them. Then I could examine their home, and I had to admire their building skills.
OzarkHillbilly
@Steeplejack: Nice.
Eolirin
@debbie: The already burned out areas may be the only safe places in the entire region the way things are going ><
John S.
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: And a lot of that sentiment is directly fueled by the police unions and FOP organizations.
There’s a black woman running for city council here, and the FOP sent me a postcard that said I shouldn’t vote for her because she wanted to “defund police” and was fueled by “outside money”, so I should support someone who “represents us”.
I’m sure it had nothing to do with her being a liberal black woman.
germy
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
They only read Mein Kampf for the articles.
debbie
@John S.:
Here, there haven’t been physical attacks, only noisy, loud, and obnoxious ones. Totally unsurprising.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh my ….
NotMax
Item the first.
✌ V minus 3 ✌
All systems go!
Item the second.
The traditional Happy Halloween.
Item the third.
On edge? Distraught? In a funk, fretting over current events?
An hour and a half of perk you up, well suited for this tense weekend: Most Valuable Players, available on Prime. (Trailer link, however by necessity it gives away a lot so might instead consider going in cold rather than clicking on it.)
The kids are more than all right. 98.6% guarantee even those who don’t care for musical theater will receive a vicarious emotional boost.
John S.
@debbie: Here it devolved into a lot of pushing and shoving, with some minor destruction of property. Nothing too serious, but still.
These people are just plain angry, and fueled by fear and hate. Their giant sign in front of the polling place says “Save America. Vote Trump.”
rikyrah
RIP Sean Connery :(
He was my favorite Bond
JPL
Sean Connery died. He’ll always be Bond, James Bond to me.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Mine too. Definitely the cutest.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: I live to serve. (most humbly bows)
@germy: Bald faced hornet nests are especially fascinating, and strikingly beautiful. A couple years ago I got excited when I discovered a nest being built on a bedroom window. I thought I was gonna get to watch my own personal Nat Geo special every day. Sadly, they abandoned it after just a few weeks, probably because of some damned peeping Tom who kept pulling back the curtain.
raven
@debbie: You know the story of my friends?
JPL
After being without power since whenever, today I clean out the fridge. I assume garlic, onion, and butternut squash is safe to keep. Everything else goes. Tomorrow Publix will be happy.
germy
@John S.:
Who will be the next candidate they get behind, I wonder?
debbie
@John S.:
Hopefully, they won’t be that bold here. When I voted two weeks ago, in the middle of a bunch of GOP signs, there was a sign saying “George Floyd 2020.” Not sure how long it lasted there, but it was good to see.
NotMax
@MazeDancer
The other, mutilated side of the Texas coin.
(Goku, do not read this, please. You’ll never get any sleep.)
debbie
@raven:
No, if you posted, I missed it. Gotta link?
germy
@OzarkHillbilly: I find the inner chambers fascinating.
Last summer I saw the beginnings of a nest and sprayed it. They didn’t return.
NotMax
@JPL
Zardoz.
;)
raven
@rikyrah: I’ll always think of him in A Fine Madness first.
germy
@NotMax:
There was a good movie where he discovers the cure for cancer in a rainforest, but then loses it. I don’t remember the title.
He was a great Bond, in my opinion.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
“Hey, you know what will be cool and edgy in the PowerPoint deck that will get laughs and attention? Some Mein Kampf quotes.
Lemme review my copy for some of the better ones.”
Steeplejack
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
It has seemed for quite a while that there are big problems with the way the police are trained, but the whole system is remarkably opaque. We get occasional glimpses through revelations like the one you describe, and usually they’re horrifying.
I can’t remember his name, but isn’t there some guy who is famous/notorious for his “use of deadly force” police seminars, the theme of which seems to be “shoot ’em all and let God sort them out”?
raven
@debbie: It’s not a link. They were escaping in two cars and when it looked like they were trapped they got into one so they could die together. They didn’t.
JPL
@NotMax: IMO He became better looking as he aged. I didn’t realize he was that old.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I don’t.
Jeffro
Fox headline this morning: “Fox News Poll: Biden’s Lead Narrows”
…”to Eight Points”. LOL.
Subhead: “Pollsters say that despite Biden’s lead, the race is not a foregone conclusion”.
Oh, ok.
Ken
@germy: Medicine Man.
raven
@germy: Medicine Man and also had Lorraine Bracco from the Sopranos.
Dorothy A. Winsor
This thread is narrated by a guy who was in Texas with the Biden campaign when the Trump supporters went after them.
MagdaInBlack
deleted, raven and kent beat me to it
Wag
Sean Connery has died. RIP Mr Bond
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: This guy was in the 101st ABN so he’d seen some shit. We talked on the phone a week later and his full description was one of the most harrowing things I’ve ever heard.
raven
Connery was also great in The Man Who Would be King.
germy
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
See comment #6 for CBS Austin story.
Robert Sneddon
Essex Man strikes again…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-54760265
TL: don’t laugh — the Fire Brigade was called out to extract three teenage Essex lads from an industrial tumble dryer when they got stuck.
NotMax
@germy
He was the Bond. Fortunate for all concerned that the producers’ first choice, Cary Grant, turned it down flat.
Lawdy, Dr. No premiered 58 years ago.
germy
Connery was excellent in Finding Forrester
“You’re the man now, dog!”
Spanky
@NotMax: On the “Freddys” website I see that the Bangor (PA) Area HS was going to do “Carrie the Musical” this year. A rather bold choice, given that play’s history.
They don’t produce school plays like they did in my day, though the plays are the same in a lot of cases.
debbie
@raven:
Remembering the clips I’ve seen, I can’t imagine what that must have been like for them. Those cars were totally surrounded by flames.
I’ve read the mayor still refuses to widen the roads.
PST
@OzarkHillbilly:
It looks like the whole country may enjoy nice weather on election day. Good for turnout, and especially good for people who may have to wait in lines outside. I hope I’m not jinxing anything by saying so, but it should be a great day in most of the swing states.
JPL
@germy: After I read that, I realized that there is no way to put the thugs back into the hole they climbed out of. It’s going to be rocky for a long time to come, starting next week after trump loses big time.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I read of one recently where a guy went out to borrow a trailer so they could save more stuff. When he returned they wouldn’t let him back thru the checkpoint because it was too dangerous. He crashed it and went back anyway. Driving down the road he spotted a naked woman with burns all over her body walking along the road. He stopped to help her and after she got in his truck he said he had to go get his wife still.
She said, “I am your wife.”
I just can’t imagine.
NotMax
@Spanky
“Another bake sale to raise money for stage blood? That’s the third one this month.”
:)
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
I just saw a BBC news story about this. Very sad.
Also, my favorite Bond, and “From Russia, With Love” is still probably my favorite Bond movie.
But I also remember Connery from the old Disney movie, “Darby O’Gill and the Little People.”
Splitting Image
Sad to hear about Sean Connery, but 90 is a good vintage.
My favourite Bond scene is the “last cigarette” sequence from the end of From Russia With Love.
hueyplong
@Baud: “Jade Helm should have taken care of these assholes.”
Maybe next time it will.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Pritzker has shut down indoor dining in my part of Illinois again. Good.
We get a weekly newsletter from bldg management which always includes COVID news. Yesterday, we heard there’s another resident who tested positive (the third overall), and 9 other residents who are quarantined because they were in close contact with that person. Five staff members tested positive last week, all of them asymptomatic, and 6 other staff members are quarantined at home because of being in close contact.
We moved here to be closer to our son. We haven’t seen him in 8 months.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
I can’t believe they went to Matinicus. I’ve boated out there and it is so beautiful. This is also where some of the most cutthroat, vicious lobster wars go down. Like cut your traps, burn your wharf, stab and shoot you shit goes down.
MomSense
@raven:
My favorite Connery role was in Finding Forrester. Such a great movie.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
Their kid burned to death with his grandma.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Steeplejack:
He’s undoubtedly on the “respected lecturer” circuit.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@raven:
He’ll always be in the bondage wear in Zardoz for me…
OzarkHillbilly
God is a standup comedian playing to an audience afraid to laugh. Hopefully soon.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: As I recall they found him alive with the dead grandparent.
ETA: according to this, I remember wrong.
ETA 2: I probably didn’t want to remember it correctly. It’s all just too horrifying.
NotMax
@spanky
Quick check to confirm what the high school theater department put on stage during my senior year, lo these many decades past.
“The Caucasian Chalk Circle”
A holiday production for touring to elementary schools of “Winnie the Pooh”
An evening of scenes from opera, including the one-act “Gianni Schicchi”
.
There must have been a full-blown musical also but that would have happened after the deadline to wrap up the yearbook so recollection hazy.
MazeDancer
My assumption was that the Texas Tribune knows more about Texas than any of us. But could be wrong, of course.
But TX counts mail-ins ahead of Election Day. And big amount of votes already voted, so we are likely to know about Texas before dawn on the 4th.
In further attempt to ease my anxiety, after hearing Eric Holder tell Rachel Maddow that he, personally, had been on the phone to Governors about Trump stealing plans, I wondered, how many Govs is that?
How many states have Dem Govs or are likely to not be close enough to steal?
Possibly, 283 Electoral Votes worth.
Here is a 270 to Win map.
Turns out NC may be more important than PA. Because NC reports on Election Night.
And if WI state leg helps with the theft, 283 doesn’t include AZ.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
When I read that story I lost it. I don’t know how you go on after that.
TS (the original)
We had a state election in Australia today. Campaigning lasted 4 weeks. 75% of voters voted before the election – in person and by mail. Mail votes have to be completed by election day (signed to verify) and received within 10 days of the election. Voting is compulsory and the voting method is preferential (called ranked choice in the US)
The LW (centalist) labor party that is in power won relatively easily against the LNP (Liberal National Party which is RW centralist). Most of the election campaign related to covid (the state did extremely well in this regard with the only contentious issue – locking the border to other Australians) and economic recovery. Seems the majority want the current government to continue what they are doing.
The RWNJ small parties (2) lost most of their support (which means they also lose out on government election funding) and the Green Party (that tends to support labour in the parliament) won a couple of seats.
Cities moved towards labor, some of the country areas moved in the other direction. It was all very sedate with the RW media suitably upset that their team did not win. Everyone congratulated everyone & life moves on tomorrow.
OzarkHillbilly
I’m sure they do, I still wouldn’t accept any predictions about an election unlike anything I have seen in my lifetime. Time will tell.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: I’m pretty sure I couldn’t.
catclub
I am somewhat pleased to have not heard of cases where people are silently dropped from the election rolls, so they are turned away when they try to vote. I think that was part of the MO in 2016 voter suppression.
Maybe they are not getting reported? maybe that only works on election day.
Chief Oshkosh
@John S.:
Right at the polling place? That’s against the law in most states…
dmsilev
@rikyrah:
It took a bit longer than planned, but Auric Goldfinger finally got what he expected.
catclub
@MazeDancer: I think Pa, WI and MI all had GOP governors in 2016, and none do now. PA has changed the most. WI the least away from GOP rule.
Feathers
@debbie: The problem with widening the road is that people immediately have the mental picture of a wider road and the traffic burden very quickly becomes greater than it was originally. My understanding is that the high cost of widening the road means that the money would be better spent on fire proofing the town. Also, you have to be able to widen everything. If the mountains mean there will be one point where it has to be two lanes, better to not widen at all.
My dad was a highway planner, so I grew up on a lot of discussions on best ways to avoid congestion while we were stuck in traffic ourselves.
Chief Oshkosh
@germy:
Didn’t one of the semi-reformed Republican assholes call them “reprogrammable meat bags”? They will vote for whoever Fox and their pastor tells them to vote for.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s crazy, though. Gatherings are now limited to 25 people instead of 50. Who the hell is going to gatherings of 25, let alone 50?
No indoor dining. Who the hell thinks eating in a restaurant or going to a bar is even remotely safe? (besides my sister!!?!)
This makes me want to bang my head against the wall. So much stupidity!
NotMax
The somewhat under reported further ballot f*ckery by DeJoy.
hueyplong
@dmsilev: Ol’ Auric checked out in 1988, so Connery outlived him by a fairly wide margin.
NotMax
Still recovering from watching a movie yesterday which featured Terry-Thomas, Sharon Tate and Orson Welles all dubbed in Italian.
:)
Omnes Omnibus
@OzarkHillbilly: I got swarmed by them on Isle Royale when I was eight or nine. Their beauty somehow escapes me.
germy
@Omnes Omnibus:
Their nests are beautiful, not the critters themselves.
NotMax
@germy
Same could be said regarding the WASPs of Newport, RI in its heyday.
:)
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: Which part of ” I got swarmed by them on Isle Royale when I was eight or nine” did you miss?
O. Felix Culpa
@NotMax: We did Li’l Abner, Fiddler on the Roof, and Carousel over three years. I left high school after that (but not because of the musicals), so don’t know what came in the fourth year.
Eolirin
@WaterGirl: Enough people that we’re having uncontrollable disease spread; the country is full of insane people.
WASF.
LurkerNoLonger
@John S.: Save America. Vote Trump? Remind me, who is the president again? These people aren’t ruled by fear, they’re ruled by idiocy.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WaterGirl: I know. I haven’t been in a restaurant since this started. I know people who have though.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: Buncha brownshirt Nazi trash.
mrmoshpotato
@raven: Good, but not as good as This Fucking Old House.
MagdaInBlack
My ballot has been received at the Cook County Clerks office. (Chicago) Yay!
japa21
On a positive note, 538 has Biden at 90% likelihood of winning. Of course, in a sane world it would be 100%. I think he had Clinton at 75% in 2016.
Immanentize
@NotMax: The USPS issues are so obvious that swift action can hardly be opposed. And one reform I would love to see is the once- unicorn thought now pushed by Sen. Warren and many others of Post Office Banking.
My God how that would change both rural and urban access to money for poor people.
Which is why it is so heartily opposed…. Wi/would Biden still be Delaware’s Banker in Chief?
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
I wouldn’t risk a trip to the emergency room these days. (Or in the before times either.)
Eolirin
@LurkerNoLonger: Save White Christianist America is what they mean. They’re not wrong that Trump advances that cause and Biden is a threat to it.
They’re willing to burn the country down in pursuit of white supremacy and Christian theocracy.
We need to stop acting like they don’t know what they want and are acting irrationally, or that they’re too stupid to understand what’s going on. They’re voting rationally in support of their priorities. Those are just different than ours.
Baud
@Eolirin: Agreed.
NotMax
@Immanentize
In the town where I reside the banks business hours are longer than the local branch Post Office’s.
germy
Same tactics and mentality.
Kay
Ha! Now Trump will respond, because he must :)
Immanentize
@NotMax: Ahh, that is why they call it paradise?
But imagine a different world, not the one currently trying to kill the post office.
Baud
Paul Campos’s prediction on LGM isn’t worth amy more than anyone else’s, but if you’re looking for reassurance, here it is.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Happy Halloween to you too.
germy
WASHINGTON — Progressives are pushing hard to see Elizabeth Warren lead the Treasury Department in an opening salvo of an ideological struggle for control of key government posts if Joe Biden wins the presidency.
Donors, activists and leaders on the left want Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, as Treasury secretary, more than a half-dozen of them said. And people Warren has spoken to are under the impression that she wants the job if she is offered it.
Baud
@germy:
Unfortunately, we might need her vote in the Senate during the first 100 days.
Immanentize
I am so thankful for my friends, even though we only text and haven’t seen each other since March. We are texting clown themed voting haiku:
Clowns will come and go
Stare down orange haired grimace
Kick the bastard out
Snow hanging on trees
Cold and silent Halloween
The clowns still scare me
Fuck this fucking shit
Everything is so fucked up
My head is hurting
Clearly the last one by my friend, I., won the chicken dinner.
germy
By a dog’s leash, if how he treated her is any indication.
NotMax
@germy
No, no, no. A fresh Dem majority in the Senate will be slim enough without chipping away at it by moving senators to cabinet positions.
germy
@NotMax: She has signaled that she wants it, so I don’t know what their thinking is. Maybe she wants to see if we take the senate by large numbers? I don’t know.
Immanentize
@germy: I really don’t see that happening, but let the prog rock fans get their Warren on! There are actually more finance -attuned folks (yes, even women and PoC) who might be needed in that role during the big push to increase taxes. Everything is not an exercise in raw power, contrary the Republican thinking.
VOR
@Eolirin: I have a colleague at work who drank all the Trump Kool-Aid. He is convinced COVID is a hoax. There are 100s of studies proving Hydroxychloroquine is a cure. (no I can’t reconcile those two beliefs either) COVID will be gone November 4th. The 220k dead are just mislabeled, all a conspiracy by greedy, unethical liberal doctors. There was no flu season last year, they just labeled the flu dead as COVID. (Actually, CDC has an estimate on their website for 2019-20 flu season deaths) Only old people die from COVID. Doesn’t believe in lingering issues from COVID.
The other day he took pity on me because I don’t watch Fox and hence are so un-informed about Hunter Biden’s corruption. He is frustrated the non-Fox media isn’t talking about this 24/7. Why don’t liberals care about this? I replied “Because Hunter Biden isn’t on the ballot”. I didn’t say “and we think it’s all bullshit”.
Kay
@germy:
He started demeaning her earlier in the week, in interviews. Used the word “separate” over and over and over. I think that’s what they’re responding to.
Jeffro
@raven: or his role in “Darby O’Gill and The Little People”
ETA: I see Brachiator got there first…
Spanky
@O. Felix Culpa: I think Fiddler on the Roof is still a staple because they like to get the parents crying at Sunrise, Sunset.
germy
@Immanentize:
You’re right, I’m just curious how Warren would respond if asked about losing her vote in the senate. I’d like to hear how she’d answer that question.
Kristine
@MagdaInBlack: In Lake County IL, they’re confirming receipt of ballots in one group and reviewing them in another. Right now, they’re confirming ballots received by their office via drop box and mail on or before 27 Oct, and judges are reviewing those received on or before 20 Oct.
I emailed the BoE earlier this week to see if they’d received my ballot–it had been a week since I mailed it–and they responded within hours stating essentially that they were slammed with mail-ins.
Anyway, my ballot has been officially received and in currently in the To Be Reviewed group.
VOR
@Immanentize: I never thought I would see a day where delivering the mail, voting, and basic public health measures would be partisan issues.
Immanentize
@germy: There has been some complicated machinations about that issue here in Mass. If she resigned immediately after the election, there could be a special before the end of her term. OR, she could wait until confirmed to resign, then the Governor can appoint someone, but must call a special in, I think?, 120 days. It would all depend, of course, on how many seats the Dems have after the election(s including runoffs in GA).
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kristine: That’s where mine is too. I put it in the dropbox on Oct. 21.
Immanentize
@VOR: It must have happened in the past? But history burried the shame?
Kay
@Baud:
I also think people forget we don’t win Pennsylvania by a ton. Obama’s polling average there was about +4 in 2012 and he won it by 5.5.
MagdaInBlack
@Kristine: Our site doesn’t appear to be that detailed. Great, now I can stress some more ;-)
Ken
@Immanentize: I don’t see why Warren has to resign. Oh, sure, people will mutter something about “the Constitution”. But since we’ve now established that “advice and consent of the Senate” doesn’t apply if you stick the word “acting” in front of a title, I’m sure there’s an equally-simple workaround for a sitting Senator to serve. “Honorary Treasury Secretary with Full Administrative Authority”, maybe.
FelonyGovt
Good morning! So nervous and trying really hard not to read “Latino voters are supporting Trump” nonsense. I will be happy when this is over.
Kay
And, CLINTON’S polling lead in PA (average) was only 2 and Trump won it by .7, so if Biden is +5 to 7, looking at both 2012 and 2016 he’s in good shape.
Immanentize
@Kay: I am feeling good about PA and its Dem Gov. 2016 was a freak storm.
Yutsano
@Kay: We could win Pennsylvania by one vote. That doesn’t matter to me. Getting the horrifically unqualified and destructive orange menace out of the White House does. Inasmuch as I would like a solid score in his repudiation, the numbers matter less than the final results.
Nora
And don’t forget Connery’s wonderful performance as Agamemnon in Time Bandits. He was one of my mother’s favorite actors, especially as he got older.
Immanentize
@Ken: Actually, there may be a clause in the Constitution prohibiting that, I seem to recall. I’ll look it up…
I can’t believe how much essoterica these times are requiring me to relearn.
Ken
@Immanentize: I think it’s somewhere near the emoluments clause. Or maybe the one requiring the Congress to establish a postal service.
mrmoshpotato
@VOR: Wow. Fifty pounds of crackpottery in a five-pound paragraph. Does he think we libtards are hiding the aliens too?
gwangung
Speaking of singing out…a Broadway tune, written by my college pal…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxS961O39ms&list=RDYxS961O39ms&start_radio=1
With solo by the lead character Hilary Clinton….
Immanentize
@Ken: Creaky brain still has pathways:
MagdaInBlack
@Nora: And the fireman at the end =-)
Sab
@Nora: My dad, age 96, has never been culturally aware. He never watched television. Hardly ever saw movies. Never read fiction. Hated most music. Only liked fine art, history, and of course science.
My mother and I took him to see The Untouchables movie. He liked it a lot. He came out of it wondering who was that really good actor who played the Irish cop
ETA Mom and I were gobsmacked.
MoCA Ace
I know a good number of nutter-adjacent folks. After the initial weeping and wailing I suspect most will crawl back into their holes and grumble about their fate. They know that Dump has been a failure. A lot of them will give up, secure in the fact that all politicians are indeed all the same. A few who still retain a few functioning brain cells may eventually jump on the bandwagon and
turn againstconveniently forget the mango menace.It’s the true believers that scare me. They will double down, expand their bunkers and fortify their ammunition stockpiles. If they ever manage to stop circle jerking each others AK’s long enough, and find a competent Hitler to follow, we will be in for a very bad decade.
Ken
@Immanentize: See, the “Honorary Acting Secretary of Treasury” gets completely around that. Warren wouldn’t hold the office because it’s only an honorary appointment.
Amir Khalid
@germy:
As I recall, the Biden campaign said weeks ago* not to take seriously any touting of prospective appointees for this or that cabinet post. I think there was a hint that such touting might even hurt a prospect’s chances of getting that post.
*I think it was weeks ago, but lately it’s been hard to judge the passage of time.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken:
“Fuck you Republicans. How you like this ‘acting’ shit now? Treasury Secretary with Full Administrative Authority”
oatler.
Here’s why we need to stay on top of voting to the very end:
https://www.joemygod.com/2020/10/proud-boy-charged-in-polling-station-bomb-threat/
OzarkHillbilly
@Yutsano: Winning Pennsylvania by one vote will invite lawsuits that will not end for a long time. Winning PA by 25,000 votes however…
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Being restrained by the constitution is just so pre trumpian…
Gin & Tonic
Driving around rural Sullivan County (NY) I’ve seen a bunch of Trump signs with the not-at-all racist slogan “An American / FOR Americans”
SiubhanDuinne
@Nora:
And did anyone ever look better in a kilt?
germy
They’re all such liars.
RaflW
via the indefatigable and indispensable @Taniel
TX early voting ended at 108% of total number cast in 2016, and 116% of the 2018 total. And turnout rose a bit more in bluer counties.
> It’s at 109% of 2016 turnout in “Clinton counties,” & 107% in “Trump counties.”
> It’s at 110% in “Beto counties” & 105% in “Cruz counties.”
—
The long-anticipated Texas realignment is well under way. It may not tip this year, but the Cruz n Corynyn style is not gonna have the traction it has for the past decade or two.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I thought we wanted to get back to that place?
I know you are snarking, but I have been surprised? dismayed? by all the people on the “left” who are just so willing to themselves throw out the rule of law. I get the impulse, emotionally. But that emotion is fleeting for me.
catclub
@SiubhanDuinne: John Wayne?
Oh, that was ireland.
Kristine
@MagdaInBlack: They have it. That’s the important part.
catclub
It seems to me that this could be applied only to newly created offices.
different-church-lady
@Kay: At what point in the race was Clinton’s lead 2? As I recall, PA was looking pretty safe for her until the very end.
Humanities Prof
@catclub: Lot harder to do that when so many people voted in the midterms. If you’ve actively voted in the most recent election, it’s really hard to manufacture a justification for purging that passes the sniff test.
This is also why high turnout this year, no matter the results, will bear fruit going forward.
debbie
@raven:
Also my favorite. I was just trying to describe it to a guy while standing in line at the grocery store. I’ll have to get it at the library and watch it again.
OzarkHillbilly
@SiubhanDuinne: Well, now that you mention it… The Scotsman.
ETA: as performed by Brian Bowers, who was always so much fun to see.
debbie
@MomSense:
It makes it all the more astounding that people are staying and rebuilding.
Aleta
@debbie: That was a wild movie.
A Bridge Too Far is on Netflix. The cast is something: Besides Connery, there’s Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Hardy Krüger, Laurence Olivier, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Redford, Maximilian Schell,, Liv Ullmann.
Kay
@different-church-lady:
At the end :)
There’s an overstatement of the usual Dem performance in PA. Biden “should be” + 5 to 7, and he is.
debbie
@NotMax:
I think the real October surprise is on DeJoy and Co., and it’s that lots of people who requested ballots are now instead standing in line to vote early in person.
WereBear
@rikyrah: My favorite Bond, too.
patroclus
Sean Connery’s best movie, by far, is The Man Who Would be King.
narya
@JPL: You can keep the butter, too, most likely, and possibly cheese and/or eggs. When my eggs are really old, I crack them into a separate dish, one at a time, to make sure they’re not off, before adding them to anything. Sauerkraut, too.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: They want to make Republicans know how it feels to have the shoe on the other foot, a sentiment I am sympathetic to. I just want us to go all scorched earth within the bounds of the Constitution.
Humanities Prof
@oatler.: This guy was threatening to blow up a polling place in North Fucking Dakota!?
Why?
Ken
@Humanities Prof: “The truth is, these are not very bright guys.”
debbie
@germy:
That post office/bank/insurance idea comes up about every 20 years or so. I edited an international report on the possibilities back in the late 90s. Great idea, but little chance of ever happening. The banks will fight to the death over this.
Kay
@different-church-lady:
Here’s 2012 Wisconsin. Average 4.2, won 6.9
Obama won so no one talks about it but they consistently underestimated his support in state polling and at the time the election was held it looked weak in the Great Lakes states yet the Obama campaign were really confident they would win, including Ohio. They said it was because the race was stable. They were never way ahead but they were always ahead.
TomatoQueen
One ping for Captain Ramius. RIP.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Immanentize: those are awesome Thanks for making me smile and giving me an idea for cheering my brother up.
KenK
@germy: @#5/#6
While this act of terrorism & intimidation were going on – what was Biden’s secret service detail doing?
Geminid
@Ken: Elizabeth Warren is a perceptive person, and she no doubt has good reasons to want the Treasury job. But I still think she can do more writing consequential legislation and effectively advocating for it. The example I used the other day was John Sherman. He authored the Anti-trust Act enacted in 1890, and it is still law. But does anyone remember who was Treasury Secretary in 1890?
zhena gogolia
@WereBear:
Definitely my favorite Bond. I had a crush on him the minute I saw him in Dr. No.
debbie
Mike Murphy (GOP “strategist”) was on NPR’s ‘”Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” just now and predicts that Biden will not only win Florida, but win it early. He also thinks Biden will beat Trump (paraphrasing to spare the animal lovers here) very soundly.
Kay
I understand why the GOP Senators and their campaign arm are saying this, but the GOP Senators also sucked. These are the people who jammed thru a SCOTUS justice rather than getting covid relief done, at a time when the covid explosion is taking off. Most people don’t give a shit about judges. That may be bad that they don’t care about judges, but they don’t.
They’re bad senators. They don’t get anything accomplished for people.
JPL
@narya: what about pickles
JPL
@MoCA Ace: The true believers will probably try to attend the Biden/Obama rally today in Michigan. I worry about Obama coming to GA Monday, but info about the location hasn’t been released yet.
Kay
@debbie:
Do you trust the Never Trumpers, though? Not “trust” as in good people, but trust as in understanding Democrats? I get that they’re useful in that they understand Republicans but Biden is a Democrat.
Democratic voters are under-analyzed, IMO and it goes back to the belief that Republicans are somehow “America” and Democrats are an interest group.
You see it with the analysis of the post election too. While it is true that the Trumpsters will be very upset a larger group of people will be very happy. They count for something.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: Your high school did Caucasian Chalk Circle? Man, that’s ambitious.
Yarrow
I had the pleasure of meeting a candidate going door to door doing a lit drop today. I was out for a run and I saw her with her stack of door hangers and studying her phone. I stopped and asked if she was campaigning and she said yes and introduced herself. I got to tell her I had already voted for her (early voting) and had voted Dems all the way down the ticket! She gave me a big “Yes!” and fist pump. I hope I made her morning. Being able to do that certainly made mine!
evodevo
@OzarkHillbilly: Yep…those red ones are Carolina wasps, and much more aggressive and hard to kill than my usual brown and yellow striped paper wasps (who I have a live and let live agreement with)…I go after them whenever I encounter them…even more sneaky are yellow jackets…they are smaller, thinner, and ground-nesting, so you often don’t know they are there until you run over a nest entrance with the lawn mower or weed eater. THEY can really lay into you before you even know they are there. Mr. Evodevo is allergic, so we watch out for them especially. An exterminator friend of ours gave us a heads up that Fantastic Spray Cleaner will drop them out of the air, or at least keep them at bay. Works great, and less toxic than wasp spray…
laura
@Chief Oshkosh: that’s a Driftglass quote – he’s always been on our side and is definitely worth your time to check out his blog.
Yarrow
@germy: The future of the Republican party is QAnon.
Kay
Look at that – amazing.
mrmoshpotato
Time for a ball to be footed at the Big House!
Go Blue!
Yarrow
@Kay: Texas and Georgia are swing states. It’s been a long time coming but here we are.
different-church-lady
@Kay:
That, hopefully is the key to it all this year. In 2016 Nate Silver got it less wrong than everyone else (moved Trump’s probabilities up in the last week or so) because he said he was seeing a great deal of “uncertainty” in the race. (And everyone responded by saying Nate was off his rocker and just pay attention to Sam Wang.)
I don’t know what that term “uncertainty” means technically to a statistician. But I’m not getting any sense something like that is going on this year. (And I’m too scared to look at what Nate is saying this time out.)
Kay
A lot of you know this but you’re going to be hearing a lot about the Trump poll observers, because they’re rude and horrible so will therefore be in the news, but be aware that Dems have a very robust poll observer program and ours will be out there too. You won’t hear about them (hopefully) because they’ll just do the job without, you know, breaking laws and screaming and yelling and getting ejected.
This is Ohio which isn’t even really a swing state and it’s been going on for weeks:
So don’t feel outnumbered.
Yarrow
@different-church-lady: All the stats people I follow are saying the race is stable and Biden is ahead and nothing they are seeing is showing that changing.
And here’s something good to see!
Old Dan and Little Ann
No love for The Rock? Sad.
UncleEbeneezer
But when will Obama DO SOMETHING?!! (Sarcasm)
West of the Rockies
Maybe a dead thread, but I hope the huge turnout in Texas is indicative of Democrat enthusiasm. It just seems unlikely that Trump created an extra million fans in one state with his rampant assholery.
evodevo
@Geminid: Yes…I don’t want her vacating her Senate seat…who knows what would happen then? We need every Senator. On the other hand, why could she not be available in an informal advisory capacity on economic issues for whatever cabinet officer required it? Don’t even have to pay her…just consult…then you would have the benefit of her knowledge without having to endanger a seat…
Yarrow
Texas is showing up to vote! All this just in early voting. Still election day to go.
PsiFighter37
@Yarrow: Feeling good. If Texas is over 11 million votes, I have to think we have won the state. If the trend from 2016 GE to 2018 Senate race continues at even the same pace, Biden will win. This looks like Biden will get Beto’s turnout model but turbocharged for a presidential race.
Somewhere suggested that maybe Beto as head of the next DNC would be a better place for him, so that he could implement his organizing practices and skills nationally. I actually think that would be a great idea.
Sab
@Kay: I think Never Trumpers are quite clueless about Democrats. I have been a Democrat most of my life, half of it in the MidWest. The Democrats they talk about are nothing like the ones I know. Sherrod Brown understands us. Stu Stevens and Steve Schmidt not so much.
Yarrow
@PsiFighter37: 12 million voters in Texas is my line for being confident of a Biden vicotry.
UncleEbeneezer
I kind of wish Biden would publically say “Voter intimidation of any sort is illegal and if I am elected, I will instruct the DOJ to investigate and prosecute any voter intimidation efforts In this election, to the full extent of the law, with maximum sentencing guidelines. You’ve been warned and your actions WILL HAVE CONSEQUENCES.”
I know he won’t but I wish he would.
patroclus
@Geminid: William Windom was Treasury Secretary under Harrison in 1890. Sherman isn’t the best example here. He served as Treasury Secretary under Hayes before he authored the Sherman Act, so his leaving the Senate to go to Treasury and then returning there doesn’t really apply to the Warren issue. Moreover, while the Sherman Act is remembered, it is mostly only as the first AntiTrust Act that was (and is) so weak that it had to be substantially strengthened by the 1914 Clayton Act under the Democrats.
The better example is Lloyd Bentsen, who usually won easily in Texas. Clinton convinced him to go to Treasury in 1993 and the Democrats have never won a Senate race there since. Maybe this year though…
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@UncleEbeneezer:
DeJoy is headed for prison.
OzarkHillbilly
So will paint thinner, turpentine, lacquer thinner, etc etc. tho i’m doubtful how good they are for the environment.
dirge
@evodevo: On the other hand, why could she not be available in an informal advisory capacity on economic issues for whatever cabinet officer required it?
Warren is on the Banking Committee, so this is already her job, formally and more than advisory. Just choose a someone for Treasury who has a high propensity to listen to Warren. Perhaps her former student Katie Porter (yes, that endangers a House seat, but it’s much lower impact than Senate).
Kay
@Sab:
I don’t know- they didn’t even know their own voters, really. That’s why they were all so shocked and horrified their voters glommed onto Trump. If you’re running campaigns it seems like you should know the GOP base better than they did, given that “knowing the GOP base” was their full time job for 30 years. Some profound disconnect going on there.
Geminid
@patroclus: Well, I knew that the Clayton Act built upon the Sherman Act, but I thought the Sherman Anti-trust Act still formed the basic foundation. But I’m no expert on antitrust law. But my point was that a legislator’s role can be very consequential, especially in the next Congress. The energy transition plan proposed by Warren in the primary race excelled the other proposals in scope and practicality. That just one area where she can have an impact. And she is an outstanding advocate. I can even imagine a Warren-Manchin Clean Energy Act. I think Joe Manchin will surprise people in this area.
The Lodger
@dmsilev: However, Ari Goldmember is still frustrated.
Anoniminous
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
No way of saying. It depends on who is paying for the poll and what they want to know.
J R in WV
@JPL:
Butter, cheese, jam, all probably OK so far. Some stuff lasts quite a while.
Ken
@J R in WV: That’s pretty much why cheese and jam were invented – shelf-stable milk and fruit back before refrigeration.
CarolPW
@J R in WV: Condiments (mayo, mustard, horseradish), oils & vinegers, hard cheeses and any fresh fruit/veg that isn’t too limp to eat should all be OK too. Except for celery, dump any of that.
I keep a lot of stuff in my refrigerator that really doesn’t need to be there just because I have more room in there than in my cupboards or on my counters.
Anoniminous
@Humanities Prof:
What part of “ignorant hick Evangelical bigot” don’t you understand?
mrmoshpotato
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
Woo! Dwyane Johnson! Oh wait…
mrmoshpotato
@UncleEbeneezer: Unc, how has Obama failed you today? ?
Anoniminous
@Yarrow:
That’s excellent news. Hispanics living in Texas have a history of not voting because Texas Whites and the various police forces have a history of voter intimidation and violence.
JPL
My freezer is clean. Items stored on the door of the freezer suffered the most. I freeze leftover wine in ziploc bags and one storage area on the door, was red since the bag ripped.
Sab
@Kay: Yes. Thirty years of catering to peoples’ worst racist impulses and they are now surprised that that is the essence of their party? I kind of feel bad for Stu Stevens. He’ s from Mississippi and that has been a backdrop to his life. But the others, no. That has not been acceptable for decades. But they have been doing it.
My brother the oligarch wannabee is like that. He is not a white supremecist because he likes all sorts of Asians and North, South and Central American hispanics. But he does not like black people. He won’t say so but every time he opens his mouth it is obvious.
I have wonderful black people taking care of my dad, and black grandchildren who are also mostly wonderful.
Covid will be here for a long time and we are old. But I cannot imagine speaking to my brother again anywhere but under compulsion in a court of law. Too bad because he is still my brother and I still love him, but every word out of his mouth for the last five years makes me want to hate him.
catclub
Also, the fucking Jim Comey moment has passed, especially given all the people who have already voted. The Biden laptop was a total dud.
Sister Golden Bear
@Immanentize: Ah, but it says “he” — so the prohibition doesn’t include women. Original intent! Original intent! //
debbie
@Kay:
I trust them for their hatred of Trump. That is all that matters at this time. I don’t expect that to continue after the election, but I can’t deal with that until I get there.
debbie
@Kay:
Good. I hope to see arrests here.
West of the Rockies
@patroclus:
Windom was also a damn fine actor. Man, he aged really well for a guy who was in the Harrison administration!//
Kristine
@Kay:
I know this thread is dead, but I had to pull this out for emphasis because yup, this pretty much describes the MSM etc attitude.
Sab
Next elections we need to fund the judges. Ohio ignores them. We have had exceptional judges beaten by loons over the last two decades. Even the Republican real judges were shocked. This has to stop.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
Red wasps. OMG they sting so hard~!
Many years ago while I was still working to rehab the old Jenny Lind farmhouse shack built in the lat 1800s. I was putting plywood soffits over the roof boards sticking out over the high gable, at the far end of an aluminum ladder.
I had put red plastic shutters alongside all the windows, including one upstairs right under the peak of the gable. The first swing of the hammer brought a swarm out from behind those shutters. I went down the ladder as if it was a fireman’s pole, was on the ground in a couple of seconds.
The ladder fell away from me and the house, and the wasps were 15+ feet away around the suddenly ended soffit project. Late that night when it got cool I sprayed those bastards to death. That was when I decided a new house was a bigger priority than rehabbing the old house!
Many years later on we were putting up the first truck load of hay for the livestock into the old barn. Before starting to unload the truck I was in the loft, scooping up old loose hay off the loft floor. I kept hearing this insect buzzing, and when I leaned over to pick up a big gob of old hay, there were approximately two million yellow jackets between my knees.
I jumped out the loft door and landed on my belly on the new load of hay, snaked on my belly over the hay load, the cab of the truck, all the while shouting “God Damn!” at the top of my lungs. A few got up my pants legs. Finally I shouted “Bees!” in between the GDamns and my friend Bob quit looking at me like I had suddenly gone nuts and took off walking away fast.
I shucked off my jeans and ran away. Later on I sprayed and then removed the old hay and spread a tarp to keep the new hay off the floor. The Yellow Jacket stings are not as hard as wasps, but they make up for it with volume, lots of volume.
We voted early last week, didn’t help me as much as I hoped it would, BUT I am officially optimistic about the election totals.
And the current Postmaster General does need to go to jail, badly. Every move he has made was intent on obstructing the US Mail, which is a felony. Interfering with an election also seems like it would be illegal…
J R in WV
@CarolPW:
I agree with everything but Mayo, which has eggs in it, and causes food poisoning every summer in potato salad, which is why al of my tater salad is made with oil and vinegar dressing, no Mayo.
Discard all the mayo containing foodstuffs, even salad dressings that lean towards mayo.
Dan B
@OzarkHillbilly: When we lived in NE Arkansas at the edge of the Ozarks my 9 year old brother was stung by some crazy scary looking wasps. He got dizzy. There are a lot of scary critters in the Ozarks, and snakes.
Kathleen
@Sab: Hamilton County Dems has started funding judicial races and had success in 2018. My sample ballot includes judges at local and state level.