In Praise of Potemkin

by wj

We’re overdue for a new Open Thread. So this is it.

Recently, I’ve seem increasing numbers of reports that members of the administration who speak with Trump, or with members of his inner circle, are routinely slanting (or totally inventing) what they say to him about the world outside the White House. Especially when it comes to how things are going with covid-19 and with his reelection campaign. Fake polls are especially big.

I submit that this is a good thing. Trump strikes me as, at least potentially, the kind of guy who would destroy everything around him rather than admit, especially to himself, that he has failed or is somehow a loser. But so long as he is surrounded by a bubble of (mis)information which tells him he is succeeding, he has no reason to deliberately do anything massively destructive. If he can be kept in the dark until the election, it will be all to the good.

After the election, of course, he may be unable to avoid the fact that he has lost. Not that he won’t frantically try various tactics to undo the result. But the critical fact will be that those around him will know that he is on the way out. And therefore, it is in their own self-interest to avoid letting anything happen that would trash their personal employment prospects going forward. In short, his enablers are likely to cease enabling.

Sure, it would be nice if Trump could be persuaded to do something constructive about covid-19 or about the economy. But realistically, how likely is that? Is it even possible, given how he is? And since he can’t, better he continue to be encased in a Potemkin village where everything is going great. No matter what reality is outside.

Comments

[cleek]

i'm definitely not one to put any credence into the "Trump will steal the election" stuff. but, i think if his staff continues lying to him about how the election is going could put him the kind of mood where he really thinks there's no way he could have lost - vs his just being an obstinate jerk and trying to lawyer a win out of an obvious loss. and if he really thinks he was cheated (and the yes-people around him reinforce the notion), he could make a lot of trouble.

[russell]

as an aside:

you can put me down as absolutely putting credence into the "Trump will steal the election" stuff. if he can find a way to get away with cheating, he will cheat. if he can find a way to game any part of the electoral system, he will do so.

see also, crippling the USPS.

it's basically how he's approached every damned thing in his life. why would this be different?

[sapient]

I'm with russell. Yes, of course he's trying to steal it, and he may well succeed. He stole it last time, and he's in a better position to do it this time.

[wj]

I'm OK with him trying to steal the election -- IF he fails. But I'm more concerned with him deciding to trash the country in a fit of pique. The sort of thing any other spoiled (emotional) 3-year-old would do if not catered to. Even more than his on-going incompetence and petulance is doing, I mean. Not necessarily starting a war, as some here have worried. But something similarly damaging to the nation.

[sapient]

I should have added at least one link.

[Nigel]

None of this is good.
Whichever way you look at it.

[John Thullen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzUpBAuxJGk

[John Thullen]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-presidential-nomination-acceptance-speech-gettysburg-white-house

Gettysburg seems as good a place as any to take up where the First Civil War more or less ended up.

[Nigel]

Another sociopath...

https://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2020/08/in-praise-of-potemkin-.html
Georgia's governor said Monday that the reopening of some of the state's schools amid the coronavirus outbreak has gone well except for photos shared on social media showing students crowded together in hallways.

“I think quite honestly this week went real well other than a couple of virtual photos," Gov. Brian Kemp said at a news conference with the U.S. surgeon general....

[wj]

Of course, that Georgia school has now been closed down again. And not because of the photos being published.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-coronavirus-school-viral-photo-temporarily-closes-positive-covid-19-tests/

P.S. Nigel, that link is to this thread. Were you trying to link to something different?

[Priest]

Those would be REAL photos, governor, of REAL students, in one case at a school that is now closed because some of those students and school staff have tested positive. Hope Abrams runs a better campaign in two years so we can be rid of this fool.

[cleek]

will he do what scummy politicians everywhere have always done - mislead, use the tools he legally has to try to push the odds in his favor, etc? of course he will. and what he doesn't personally authorize, there are underlings everywhere who will be happy to take some initiative. that's par for the course.

by "steal" the election, i'm thinking of things like "cancelling" it, or somehow declaring himself President For Life, or refusing to leave the WH (and nobody is able to carry him out), or whatever.

[wj]

or refusing to leave the WH (and nobody is able to carry him out)

That one, at least, won't work. The Secret Service might have to bring in a fork lift, but they are perfectly capable of moving him. Sedated and in a straight jacket if necessary. And I suspect that, after 4 years of having to follow this bozo around, they will be all in favor of not having to do so any longer.

[Girl from the North Country]

you can put me down as absolutely putting credence into the "Trump will steal the election" stuff. if he can find a way to get away with cheating, he will cheat. if he can find a way to game any part of the electoral system, he will do so.

Obviously, this.

cleek, I can't believe you really meant your first sentence @02.55 at the head of this thread! But if you did really mean it, could you explain why?

[Nigel]

Yes, wj.
Don’t quite know how I did that.

[Nigel]

you can put me down as absolutely putting credence into the "Trump will steal the election" stuff

Me as well.
Anything from out his thumb on the scale (manipulation of the postal vote etc) through to executive order postponing it indefinitely, were he able to get away with it.

[Girl from the North Country]

cleek, sorry! I somehow missed the reference to President for Life in your 05.55, read the beginning I think and thought you were talking about the governor of Georgia! What a relief - I thought I was going crazy!

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Those who declare themselves "President for Life" should get their wish.

Immediately.

With "two in the noggin"

[John Thullen]

They want to get rid of Cabinet positions and replace them with fake regulatory agencies:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/10/1967891/-Watch-what-happens-when-a-fake-government-agency-threatens-an-essential-worker-with-a-lawsuit

Many more guns in America, pointed at every conservative and republican at all times.

The Founders would approve of dispatching them at will.

Stop fucking with us.

Or else.

[John Thullen]

Essential workers.

There is no such thing to subhuman republicans.

[John Thullen]

I nominate Susan Collins' head for addition to Mount Rushmore.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/10/1967891/-Watch-what-happens-when-a-fake-government-agency-threatens-an-essential-worker-with-a-lawsuit

Her actual head.

Or perhaps we require a separate monument honoring the mealy-mouthed dupes in America, with just their gagged silent mouths carved into rock.

[wj]

Of course there are essential workers for them. How else would you characterize their housekeepers, yard staff, etc.? Without whom, they might have to do some real work themselves.

[John Thullen]

As delightful as it is to re-read the prior link, read this one instead at 10:02pm.

[John Thullen]

"How else would you characterize their housekeepers, yard staff, etc.?"

Overhead. Ever immigrant dispensable even as they are deemed essential and as they cough Covid into those chicken parts to feed Republican gobs.

Romney's moochers. Fat, black welfare queens.

Quintessential.

The meek who shall inherit the Conservative Movement Earth with Second Amendment solutions.

But the conservative movement counts on their meekness.

[John Thullen]

"This one" being:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/10/1968108/-Collins-toes-the-Trump-line-on-his-unconstitutional-COVID-19-executive-orders

[John Thullen]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/08/trump-coronavirus-deaths-timeline.html?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

I guess we can confiscate all of that pointless weaponry and ammo from shitheads, since the very occasion the Founders bequeathed the mealy-mouthed right to Americans has passed with nary a trigger-finger twitching by way of tree-of-liberty irrigation by pissy, armed conservatives.

Mass, genocidal murder by government. Conservative movement gummint to be precise.

Yeah but ... masks.

[russell]

Hey JDT, was this you?

:)

[John Thullen]

Even my imagination falls short.

Can you buy that rig at WalMart, or ... what?

I love that the KKK militias, all republican sponsored and funded, stopped to ask: "Who ARE those guys?"

I wonder if Bellmore has one of those?

And "HER rifle"?

Man, I love that the conservative body count will be gender-neutral.

Or, are those just cracker man-boobs visible?

It's so politically correct. Any gay hyphenated conservatives in the mix?

Or is Peter Thiel too good for the street fray?

[wj]

The line I loved was

the members of the armed group were "extremely aggravated" because they didn't have anything to defend themselves from a flamethrower.

Well, I guess I can see how it could be aggravating if your plans to act all brave, because the other guys aren't armed, suddenly fall apart. These militias are threatening. But they are also incredibly pathetic.

[John Thullen]

"Hey JDT, was this you?"

Another question: Will this be US three months from now?

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/10/1968221/-There-is-a-revolution-in-Belarus-This-is-important-for-us-in-the-United-States

The opposition candidate, Belarus' Biden ham sandwich, just fled the country, fearing for her life.

Putin is watching.

Trump is watching Putin help him to steal the election in November.

"The Secret Service might have to bring in a fork lift, but they are perfectly capable of moving him. Sedated and in a straight jacket if necessary. And I suspect that, after 4 years of having to follow this bozo around, they will be all in favor of not having to do so any longer."

That would a satisfying spectacle.

But what if the secret service inside the Secret Service arrests and detains winner Biden and his Vice President instead on Trump's orders several days after the election.

"These militias are threatening. But they are also incredibly pathetic."

Once they are ordered by Trump to fire their weapons at the Other in public, they'll step up quickly from pathetic to the new norm of their fever dreams .. deadly and genocidal.

[John Thullen]

A new technology to keep the conservative movement in their place:

https://lifehometips.com/home/pest-super.php?affId=76E606D5&c1=us&adid=34264493393&sxid=77r5mf31twsz

[russell]

Another question: Will this be US three months from now?

Neo-Nazi white supremacist group Revolt through Tradition has begun covering BLM posters in Salem MA with their own stuff.

Some locals say WTF, some say hey, free speech, some say great, it's about time.

When you've got a significant minority of the population saying hey, maybe we should give these Nazi folks a hearing, then you've got trouble. It makes it hard to tell just where the bottom is.

Creeps like this have always been around. The remarkable innovation of the Trump years is that it is once again socially acceptable to wear your swastika in public. Perhaps even literally.

Some very fine people, no doubt.

I have no idea where we're gonna be in three months. It could go in any number of directions, possibly several of them all at the same time.

We'll just have to wait and see.

[John Thullen]

"Warten wir es ab"

All the cool German kids were saying it on February 1, 1933.

Academic question for conservative Americans:

In what year before 1941 would it have been advisable to shoot Hitler in the head?

NOT knowing what we know now, but put yourselves in their time and place, when certain actions were A-OK, like, for example, antisemitism and racism, which seem to be escaping their political correct shackles and making a comeback.

[Girl from the North Country]

In what year before 1941 would it have been advisable to shoot Hitler in the head?

Well, as a sci-fi novel I heard about (or read? I can't remember) some years ago, posited, that would not have helped.

[wj]

But what if the secret service inside the Secret Service arrests and detains winner Biden and his Vice President instead on Trump's orders several days after the election.

I think you underestimate the pervasiveness of the deep state -- that is, the portion of Federal employees who take their oath to support and defend the Constitution seriously. (Granted, their numbers seem to be a bit thin in Customs and Border Patrol. But I think they're an anomaly.)

[John Thullen]

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-considers-barring-reentry-americans-125653399.html

Will they be able to vote?

I'll bet not.

Will that edict include what we used to call American "diplomats".

But when they do return, if ever, they should head directly to their local gun store.

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-people-men-insulted-biden-134308470.html

All my life, I've heard conservatives start a sentence with "Some people say ....."

As in, yes, in my presence: "Some people say Martin Luther King should be shot." (this, not long before he WAS shot), and "Some people say JFK's assassination was deserved." (any number of right wing Texans, Rubio Cubans, and a republican who said it to my face roughly 30 years ago, and "Some people say we should just shoot the homeless.", about five years ago, and "Some people say blacks and hispanics are inferior on the intelligence curve and that is why they are more susceptible to the Corona virus", now THAT a few weeks ago, from a Trump hater.

Actually, as political correctness has been beaten back in rude fucking armed America, more and more the some-people-say dodge is losing popularity.

So, in that spirit, I say .. me ... this guy right here ... that the Republican conservative movement will be wiped off the face of the Earth, win or lose.

[hairshirthedonist]

There was no need to shoot Hitler. The 1917 flu stopped WWII before it even started. Learn your history, sheeple!

[Nigel]

In what year before 1941 would it have been advisable to shoot Hitler in the head?

1918.
It would even have been legal at that point.

[John Thullen]

Ben Shapiro did this:

https://www.joe.co.uk/music/ben-shaprio-rcardi-b-lyrics-wap-246135

Then subhuman conservative rapper Rush Limbaugh did this to an actual, living, breathing black woman who one day could be Vice President, even if it is from exile:

https://www.mediamatters.org/rush-limbaugh/rush-limbaugh-resurrects-vile-sexist-smear-against-kamala-harris

Ten cheers for metastatic lung cancer with complications from Covid-19, including hair loss in his final minutes.

Yeah, I prefer "She .. loves you ... yeah .... yeah ..............yeah, to Cardi B's lyrics, in case the both-sides-do-it lapdogs weigh in.

[Hartmut]

Parts of the German military were willing and preparing to take Hitler out right before his Munich gamble. Afterwards, when Chamberlain bowed to Hitler's demands, that option was off the table. Later the Brits planned to have a sniper kill Hitler but decided against it because they thought he would be replaced by someone less effective in bungling the war in the East, so keeping him alive would shorten the war. After the war many German generals claimed that they would have won the war if Hitler had listened to them. But the actual archival documents show that he DID more often than not. He was no genius but no idiot either and had a remarkable talent for hiring capable people.
He almost died in a car accident between the annexation of Austria and the Munich agreement. Some reputable historians are of the opinion that in that case he would be fondly remembered and the downfall of his house of cards blamed on incompetent and corrupt successors. His antisemitism (at this point in time no talk of 'the final solution' yet*) would be seen as regrettable but not that uncommon.
So, the question would be: Would we be willing to exchange WW2 and the holocaust for a world were Hitler was thought of as a tragic case of a Great taken in his prime?

*actually the term or a similar one was used in combination with the Nuremberg race laws, so at least no genocidal connection.

[wj]

A beautiful, blisteringly sarcastic take on Biden's VP search.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/11/team-biden-wishes-it-had-known-something-was-slightly-wrong-with-every-woman-before-promising-female-vp/

[russell]

All my life, I've heard conservatives start a sentence with "Some people say ....."

The correct response to this is "yeah, but what do *you* say?".

The "some people say" thing is BS. It's somebody wanting to float something out there, without owning it.

Make them own it.

The Trump presidency has been one unending adventure in ignorant bigots trolling the world to see what they can get away with. That extends back long before Trump, for that matter, the whole conservative pundit industry have made a lucrative business model out of it.

Fine with me, show me what you're made of. Let us all see what's going on inside those tiny minds of yours.

But the rest of us need to draw lines. No freaking "some people say" BS.

You say it, you own it.

[CharlesWT]

Some People Say...

[John Thullen]

This deplorable President says:

https://digbysblog.net/2020/08/when-he-says-this-believe-him/

As Russell has opined, they want it all.

They will take it all.

They mean what they say.

So do I.

Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid gone.

And then they will be gone, and not to the political wilderness to reappear as some even more ruthless Devil.

Gone from this Earth.

[John Thullen]

Why, indeed.

https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2020/08/why-are-there-no-democratic-insiders.html

Once the neo-Never Trump republicans help to defeat Trump, and I'm on the record as deeply skeptical that will happen, they can go fuck themselves too.

Go away and never touch my government again.

[John Thullen]

It's gonna be chinks, fags, wetbacks, niggers, whores, and liberal Soros kikes for three solid months.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-learn-chinese-biden-win-2020-election

Muslims may be breathing a sigh of relief, but they shouldn't.

Hate the Republican Party.

Kill it.

[John Thullen]

For the first time since 1918, the Russkies are off the hook with the fascist right in that thing, what is it? America?

Republicans are bottling their precious bodily fluids for sale in Moscow sperm banks.

[wj]

And Some People (will) Say after the election
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue2-ZVxpVjc

Which people those will be depends on who wins, of course. But the person to blame will be the same.

[John Thullen]

Trump/Putin/Barr are considering bringing hundreds of thousands of crack Russian troops into the United States to vaccinate Americans with the new Russian Covid-19 vaccine, help deliver the mail, monitor polling places and to count the mail-in/absentee ballots.

They'll be arriving in your communities along about October 1, this Fall.

You can recognize them by their MAGA hats. Otherwise, all of them will appear to be your republican family members, neighbors, church friends, and blogging mates who have felt afraid all these years of saying what's really on their minds.

Don't be fooled. You've heard of "some people who say"? Well, these are those people.

A special KGB detail will round up Democratic Party child molesters identified by QAnon.

QAnon issued a statement thru the White House press office stating that for efficiency's sake, it would be more effective to round up all registered Democrats for the sake of the children, rather than trying to identify the seven barely innocent Democrats in the country who have never set foot in a pizza joint, on account of their allergies and who thus have alibis.

Texas, Florida, South Dakota and Georgia Governors are fully on board, as long as assurances are provided that no United Nations or WHO health experts sneak into their states too.

Trump hotels, resorts, and golf clubs around the country will serve as housing mustering and supply line bases for the troops.

The Treasury Department will transfer tax monies into Trump's family accounts to cover the luxury costs of our ... "guests".

[John Thullen]

More on the Trojan Horse .... I mean the Lincoln Project:

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/08/11/whats-the-real-point-of-the-lincoln-project/

[nous]

Gotta love that it only took five hours before Shapiro's "Wet Ass P-Word" reading got remixed with the actual song and uploaded to the Internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVco0KHQei4

😂

[Michael Cain]

Open thread, huh?

My chronic exertional compartment syndrome has improved to the point that I could walk three miles this morning. Right lower leg got uncomfortable by the end, but neither one really hurt. The doc and physical therapist are still perplexed that I can get on a bike and ride all day without any problems.

[wj]

Sanity starts to creep in.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/11/big-ten-cancels-fall-college-football-season/

Let's face it. You can make a case, not a really strong one, but a case, that reopening schools should happen for the sake of children's education. Even with the risk of covid-19 spreading as a result.

But what possible excuse is there for resuming athletics? None that any sensible adult wouldn't be embarrassed to make. It's raw exploitation, plain and simple.

[wj]

Ship's pool:
Will Harris get attacked first for being female or for being black?

She'll get attacked for both, of course. But where will the scum decide to start...?

[nous]

Let's face it. You can make a case, not a really strong one, but a case, that reopening schools should happen for the sake of children's education. Even with the risk of covid-19 spreading as a result.

I occasionally teach a research writing class on the subject of children in armed conflicts. I've had dozens of students write papers analyzing the best ways to provide children with their human right of access to an education in dangerous circumstances.

This is no different.

If concentrating students and teachers in one location or gathering in numbers is dangerous. then we have models of how to mobilize resources and deal with that. There are whole organizations and publications that specialize in exactly this sort of thing and they have already shared their best practices with the world. The results fall short of what can be expected in more ideal circumstances, but life goes on and societies adapt. In the long run it is less costly than losing a huge chunk of the population - mostly children and educators. The road back from that is longer and bumpier.

The important thing to recognize and accept is that there is no approach in these circumstances that leads to normalcy.

Sorry.

[Michael Cain]

Will Harris get attacked first for being female or for being black?

Well, when she was still running for the top spot she got attacked for not being black enough, with the attackers meaning she didn't grow up inner-city poor.

[nous]

It seems the right wing (starting with Rush) are trying to push the narrative that Harris slept her way to the top.

[Marty]

Another coastal elite, the Dems just don't give a damn about the heartland. I guess that swings. California and black women to the Democrats. Oh, wait.

She will be a great attacker for the rest of the campaign and a competent President. She was always his best choice. IMO.

[wj]

It seems the right wing (starting with Rush) are trying to push the narrative that Harris slept her way to the top.

OK, one guess/argument for attacked for being female.

[wj]

California and black women to the Democrats.

The critical point there being turnout by black women. Which could well make a difference in places as un-California as North Carolina and Georgia. Or even Texas.

[Nigel]

Quietly delighted with the choice.

[Nigel]

It seems the right wing (starting with Rush) are trying to push the narrative that Harris slept her way to the top.

Wankers.

[Marty]

Actually wj I am not sure she will produce that, in black women or women in general. She could, but she's not really all that black and she slept her way to the top. This stuff just writes itself.

Just kidding, turnout matters and she can help there, but she is also a pretty left leaning candidate but has law and order creds that I think will move suburban, professional women in greater numbers than anyone else he could have picked.

[cleek]

the right wing (starting with Rush) are trying to push the narrative that Harris slept her way to the top.

don't call them sexist, tho. that would be worse than actual sexism.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Every accusation is a confession, part the infinity.

Far more evidence that Nikki Haley "slept her way to (not quite) the top". Of course the beneficiaries of Nikki Nooki are a-okay with it.

[Michael Cain]

Harris won two different statewide offices in a state that is very heavily Latino. I suggest that the fact that Biden wins if he holds what Clinton won, and flips AZ and FL on Latino turnout, is important.

[sapient]

I love Kamala! So excited!

Thanks, folks. Special thanks to you, Marty.

[russell]

the Dems just don't give a damn about the heartland.

The thing that everyone likes to say about (D)'s and minorities - that they are the (D)'s "plantation", that they keep promising them wonderful things for their votes and then forget about them the day after election day?

That's the (R)'s and the "heartland".

[John Thullen]

coastal elite?

Marty.

Marty, Marrrrty! Florida, Texas, and Massachusetts, your hangouts (unless now you are going to say you are living in Kansas), all have extensive coasts.

That salt in your veins ain't sclerotic sodium chloride of the earth heartland, it's sea salt, probably briny.

And yet you have maintained, or fake, a deep state deplorable provincial outlook and have never risen above your station. ;)

Plus, the so-called heartland, more like the land of a whole lotta gall, was once a vast inland sea.

Let the crapola sing.

[sapient]

She was always his best choice. IMO.

I read selectively. I agree with Marty here!

Go, Marty!

[bobbyp]

the DemsRethuglicans just don't give a damn about the heartland vast urban areas of our country where the MAJORITY of real Americans live.

The thing that everyone likes to say about (DR)'s and minoritiesrural white people - that they are the (DR)'s "plantation", that they keep promising them wonderful things for their votes and then forget about them the day after election day?

That's the (R)'s and the (so-called) "heartland".

[sapient]

Nicely done, bobbyp. Very nice.

[John Thullen]

I would advise the Biden/Harris campaign to hire heavily armed bodyguards to keep all suspected conservatives/republicans as far as way physically from the candidates as possible.

That death cult is sending deliberately infected suicide super-spreaders, symptomatic and asymptomatic, including their children, to sicken and kill our candidates.

FOX News, Brietbart, Oan, Redstate, and the rest are handing out Covid-19 virus popsicles to all of their political reporters who will shove Covid-laced mics in our candidates' faces and huff and puff droplet-laden spittal insutls into their faces with their "Why are you beating MY wife?" inquiries.

And for pity's sake, don't kiss any babies handed to over the velvet rope you in a crowd, Joe and Kamala, without a thorough vetting of their "parents', by licensed veterinarians.

Besides, if Biden kisses baby in a campaign stop at a pizza parlour, after QAnon gets a hold of that news, he might as well adjourn to the joint's basement and have his way with the infant anyway.

You've heard of anchor babies, I spose?

Now be on the lookout for republican children trying to place fatal schmooches to our candidates.

Fascist Covid-babies.

I mean, they are trying to kill us NOW.

What do you think they have in store for our socialist, muslim, chinky operative, black lives don't matter, double-lifed gay, child molesting, anchovies on pizza, open borders, fetus devouring, tax hound candidates, who are probably sodomizing each other as we speak?

Hanh?

I'm not kidding.

Shoot to kill anyone who tries to infect our candidates dead on sight.

[hairshirthedonist]

I took Marty to be imitating Republican talking points in a predictive fashion, not espousing them.

[John Thullen]

Well, yes.

One can never be too careful, however.

[Girl from the North Country]

It seems like an excellent choice, given all the necessary calculations. And Marty's comments cheer me too. Let's hope many conservatives think the same way. Onward and upward - no pasaran!

[John Thullen]

Susan Collins spits out the mealiness, and goes full antisemite.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/11/1968455/-Anti-Semitism-too-Susan-Collins-You-re-that-deep-into-Trumpism

She remains deeply concerned and troubled however by ...... the thought of having to get a job.

[John Thullen]

Very influential bond king, who called 2016, predicts Trump will win again in the Fall:

\https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jeffrey-gundlach-says-base-case-is-trump-wins-re-election-215711167.html

Say Harris is too, God forbid, charismatic.

He's afraid she'll stand over a manhole, maybe his, on election night, and let her skirts be blown up, like Marilyn, to clinch the thing.

He should check and see if his building has adequate fire escape access and rooftop rescue in place if Trump wins.

Assholes always carry the day in pigfucker America.

I think he's right, though.

And then the END.

[sapient]

We don't need your 9:09, JT. You may well be right, but we don't need this right now.

We need everyone to believe one last time (if it's that) that they can vote them out. If it doesn't happen, you were right. Fine. Whatever.

[John Thullen]

Being right, or claiming I'm right, is the least of my worries.

I just want to kill this guy before he kills me:

https://twitter.com/davenewworld_2/status/1292984224518209537

No one here is going to be disenthused and not vote or vote for Trump because I'm a realist about the subhuman sadists we are up against and the EVIL they will perpetrate,

I'm all in on Biden.

If he loses, then Trump is right and THAT will be the end of any peace in this country.

I don't matter.

sapient, we are on the same word in the same sentence on the same page of the same book.

Let it be. I have never once censored YOU.

Yell at Marty or someone else who disagrees with you.

[John Thullen]

Ok, that was a little harsh.

I apologize.

And that guy in the video reminds me of dozens of assholes in baseball and softball games who I played against who got louder and more insulting and ever more courageous, but only as five of their teammates got between me and them and carried them off to the parking lot and then thought maybe they should call the cops on ME, because I'm Billy Martin nuts in sports and politics.

The rest of the time, I read and mind my own business and help my friends and family.

[John Thullen]

Steve Scalise cracks me up:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/marjorie-greene-qanon-congress-georgia

He's just jealous that someone might want to shoot the QAnon candidate instead of taking potshots at him during the congressional baseball standoffs because now she's the biggest asshole in the Republican playbook, instead of him.

I bet she's a better second baseman as well.

[wj]

Starting already to see comments suggesting that, as a result of Harris being picked, Trump will dump Pence. Most suggesting replacement by Haley, though I doubt she would be dumb enough to take it.

But I was amused to see this:
"Pence is toast. Trump will have to dump him. For a girl. Maybe Ghislaine?"

[John Thullen]

I wish her luck.

It is

what

it is.

[John Thullen]

Pence's wife is just now on her knees in prayer that Trump dumps the hubby ... geez, Mike, you got what you wanted, now get away from me ... but Pence, being a fine crypto-Christian gas station owner poisoning his neighbors' water supplies with his corroded, leaking, Marty-approved unregulated below ground gas storage tanks, and beseeching God that the real God, Trump, opts for Haley, who has proven she can dumb down when power calls.

Pence, himself barely sentient outside of Bible study class, will be relieved, because he's fed up himself with the "Shut up, Mel" routine, as Trump consults his Cabinet, and would like to return to whatever "I" state that is and resume his small-scale conservative grifts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGEOjxtQtWc

Shut up, Mel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfbk27GMdC0

[Hartmut]

Corey Lewandowski freaked out about the mere idea of a female VP candidate a few days ago (i.e. even before Harris was announced).
Ok, formally he freaked out about the pre-exclusion of a male running mate but the gist was clearly 'why choose a woman if there are qualified males to choose from?'.

[Nigel]

Shut up, Mel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gINEJhFyQmk

[wj]

the gist was clearly 'why choose a woman if there are qualified males to choose from?'.

One might equally ask, "Why choose Corey Lewandowski for anything when there are qualified (or even just equally unqualified) anybody else available?" Yet he no doubt expects that there is an adequate supply of fools who will. At least Biden has a shot at getting competent performance from his choice.

[wj]

The "some people say" thing is BS. It's somebody wanting to float something out there, without owning it.

Trump (to Hannity, who else?) on the selection of Harris:
“A lot of people think it’s a dangerous choice,”

So now we know how he sees this impacting his reelection chances.

[wj]

It's wild (baseless?) speculation time!

It occurs to me to wonder why it is that Trump has been far less nasty when talking about Harris than about any of the other contenders. Or anybody who opposes him on pretty much anything, for that matter. Especially anybody female. Could it be that, considering what a coward he is, she's got him scared -- and has had for some time? No idea why that might be, but it would explain the relative shortage of dumb nicknames, of nasty tweets, etc.

It would also explain his comment, a few days ago, that "She would be my number 1 draft pick" for VP. Might have been a try to make Biden think that Trump preferred running against her, to push him towards a different choice.

As I say, no idea if it's true, or why it might be. But he's definitely long treated her more gingerly than one would expect.

[John Thullen]

Trump told Hannity that absentee ballots are being sent to dogs by Russian wolf hounds and Chinese Pekingese.

Rick Santorum's dogs are voting for Trump on account of that that he is going to double the marital deduction.

[byomtov]

It seems the right wing (starting with Rush) are trying to push the narrative that Harris slept her way to the top.

I don't think it would be wise of Trump or Rush to take that line.

Which is not to say they won't.

[John Thullen]

Limbaugh already has "taken that line".

https://www.mediamatters.org/rush-limbaugh/rush-limbaugh-resurrects-vile-sexist-smear-against-kamala-harris

As has Tomi Lahren at FOX, where going "down" is how both men and women who work there move "up".

My God, until Ailes left and croaked, employees had to enter his executive lair crawling on their hands and knees while blindfolded for their "performance" evaluations.

https://hiphopwired.com/playlist/tomi-lahren-sexist-tweet-kamala-harris-willie-brown/

How is that expectations of wisdom from these ilk live on despite 40 years of this stuff?

[John Thullen]

via Hullabaloo:

'David Von Drehle of the Washington Post gives us a taste of what a Trump acceptance speech might sound like delivered from the Confederate side of the Gettysburg battlefield:

“Four score and seven years ago. Not everyone knows a score. People ask me, they say, ‘What’s a score?’ Fauci the other day. What’s a score? Not everyone knows. The score is the best it’s ever been. Under Trump, 87. Under Obama, not so much.

“Eighty-seven tremendous, tremendous years ago — and some years that were not so great, frankly — our fathers brought forth; also the mothers, the great suburban mothers. Biden wants to take away their dream. Our fathers and our mothers brought forth a new nation. How they did it: not so good. Not so perfect. A lot of people got hurt. Some were bad people, but a lot of them were good. The king of England, not everyone agrees he was so bad, but now they have a queen. Very few people know this.

“Someone told me Thomas Jefferson ate by himself at the White House and was the smartest one ever. I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I frankly think my IQ — people tell me it is tremendous. The doctors see and they can’t believe it. They say, ‘Mr. President, this is unbelievable!’ It’s called a ‘cognitive test.’ Biden’s afraid to take it. Sleepy Joe.

“My people, the best people, they tell me Thomas Jefferson made a good deal when he bought Louisiana, the great state of Louisiana, for 3 cents an acre. I say he must have read my book.'

[wj]

It's enough to make me go all-out Thullen
https://washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/12/masks-florida-ban-billy-woods/

[CharlesWT]

As I say, no idea if it's true, or why it might be. But he's definitely long treated her more gingerly than one would expect.

But, being selected as Biden's running mate is the last(first?)straw...

"The Trump campaign is continuing its attempt to paint Sen. Kamala Harris (D–Calif.) as a dangerous left-wing radical in the wake of her selection as Joe Biden's running mate. The latest angle of attack: her support for plastic straw bans.

This morning, the campaign tweeted out a short new attack ad featuring footage of Harris saying that we should ban plastic straws in response to a question from CNN's Erin Burnett at a 2019 town hall on climate issues.

The short clip also features Biden saying at an earlier campaign event "I don't think we should be using plastic straws anymore" in restaurants, although it's unclear from the full clip of the former vice president's remarks whether he endorses full prohibition."
Trump Campaign Attacks Kamala Harris for Wanting To Ban Plastic Straws: Both Harris and the Trump campaign agree that plastic straws are a superior product. Only Harris wants to ban them.

[John Thullen]

Yup, Billy Woods. One of them coastal elites.

How should the citizenry in Ocala respond to unmasked asymptomatic conservative movement law enforcement knocking on their front doors with a warrant or demanding you roll down your car window so they can breath on you?

More and more guns are probably the answer.

It's republican subhuman America, after all.

I guess women having the shit beat out of them by their husbands and boyfriends, but who have been trying to observe the mask and social distancing protocols aren't going to be calling the cops in.

It's amazing how one type of republican assholery feeds directly into all republican assholery in a swirling interlocking shit storm of all-American republican assholery.

Defund that police department.

Woods will turn in his badge, his weapon, his Taser, his tear gas, his pension, and his health insurance card and be asked to step away from the public as he goes and fucks himself.

[cleek]

i wonder how the former and current Ms Trumps feel about "sleeping your way to the top" as an insult...

[CharlesWT]

Trump agrees with Harris...

"President Donald Trump's re-election campaign, which is depicting Sen. Kamala Harris (D–Calif.), Joe Biden's vice-presidential pick, as "far-left" and "radical," was quick to note that the senator has criticized her running mate's draconian record on criminal justice issues. Yet so have the Trump campaign and the president himself, which makes it hard to tell whether this point is meant to reflect badly on Harris or on Biden.

"Harris has repeatedly slammed Biden, going so far as to say that he supported racist policies that hurt the Black community," says a press release from the Trump campaign. "Harris said Biden's 1994 crime bill 'contribute[d] to mass incarceration' in the U.S.""
Kamala Harris Is So 'Radical,' Trump's Campaign Says, That She Criticized Joe Biden's Criminal Justice Record. So Does Trump.: Harris and Trump are both right that the Democratic nominee has a long record of championing draconian penalties.

[John Thullen]

"It's enough to make me go all-out Thullen"

yeahbut, then .... who will be left to say "Gotta say, I didn't see THAT coming!"

%-}

You do your thing, I'll do my thing.