Friday Talking Points -- The Scariest Election Ever
We'll get to explaining that title further (as if it really needs it), down in the talking points section of our program. And happy Hallowe'en-eve to everyone ("Hallowe'en'en," maybe?).
The homestretch of the 2020 election has been rather bizarre to watch, since President Donald Trump has made his closing argument: "Pandemic? What pandemic? I don't see any pandemic anywhere!"
No, really. He's doubling down on the stupid, in essence. And it's not just him, it's all of Team Trump following his lead. This week, Donald Trump Junior said the following:
The reality is this: If you look, I put it up on my Instagram a couple days ago, because I went through the CDC data, because I kept hearing about new infections. But I was like, "Well, why aren't they talking about deaths?" Oh, oh, because the number is almost nothing. Because we've gotten control of this, and we understand how it works.
Got that? The number of deaths is almost nothing. During this week, the daily new case count hit 90,000 -- far higher than it has ever been -- and the number of deaths per day is now above 1,000 again. That's "nothing" to Stupid Junior, though, obviously.
Trump's own chief of staff had a "Washington gaffe" moment last Sunday, when he accidentally admitted the truth: "We're not going to control the pandemic." This contradicted a choice piece of propaganda out of the White House science policy office, though, which baldly gaslighted the subject, by listing: "ending the Covid-19 pandemic" as a major accomplishment of the president.
We've really and truly crossed the line into Orwellian propaganda, folks. The Trump administration is willing to do anything possible to improve Trump's chances of winning, including: proposing sending all seniors a $200 prescription drug card before the election (a project that never materialized, but even so); putting a personally-signed letter from Trump into every food box delivered to food banks and other charities (and then when the letters were being removed -- since non-profits are barred from engaging in politics -- the administration countered by printing the letter onto the box itself); and the Department of Health and Human Services trying to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on an ad campaign that (as the leader of the effort explained) would have the theme: "Helping the President will Help the Country." This last proposal also never materialized, but they did spend a whole lot of time trying to line up 274 celebrities to take part in it. In the end, only 10 agreed to do so, but the ad campaign never happened. Again, the only possible word for this stuff is "Orwellian." We've always been at war with Eastasia, folks!
But back to the stupid. It's not just sons getting in on the act, we also have Stupid-In-Law as well. Jared Kushner tripped up in an interview and actually said the stupid part out loud, in the most ham-fisted attempt at Black voter outreach ever. After listing all the supposedly wonderful things Donald Trump had done for Black people, Kushner finished with this racist jaw-dropper:
And again, one thing we've seen in a lot of the Black community, which is mostly Democrat, is that President Trump's policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they're complaining about. But he can't want them to be successful more than they want to be successful.
In other words: Trump can only do so much for those lazy and shiftless Black folks, because the only thing really holding them back is their own lack of ambition. This is beyond disgraceful, it is downright disgusting that anyone alive in the year 2020 would even attempt using such a dated racist trope. In the middle of reaching out to Black voters, to top it all off.
So how's Team Trump doing with their outreach to suburban women voters? Well, just about as bad. At one rally this week, Trump promised all the "suburban housewives" the following: "Your husbands, they want to get back to work, right? We're getting your husbands back to work and everybody wants it," he told the crowd. Unfortunately for him, the crowd was not made up of June Cleaver and her friends, because this is 2020, not the 1950s.
Trump also displayed his contempt for women at a rally in Arizona by issuing the following warm invitation to Martha McSally, a Republican senator who is quite likely to lose her election: "Martha, come up. Just fast. Fast. Fast. Come on, quick. You got one minute. One minute, Martha, they don't want to hear this, Martha. Come on, let's go. Quick, quick, quick, quick. Come on, let's go." In the same speech, he made fun of how Kamala Harris pronounces her name, just for good measure.
Trump's campaign seems to be crashing and burning. "Going down in flames" seems to be the appropriate metaphor, to us at least. And Republicans are getting so nervous they don't know which way to jump. Senator Lindsey Graham -- also in the political race of his life to hold onto his Senate seat -- just got this broadside from (of all people) Lou Dobbs: "Just to be clear I don't know why anyone in the great state of South Carolina would ever vote for Lindsey Graham." Elsewhere on Fox News, the Hunter Biden story was completely debunked as a giant nothingburger. If even Fox News is turning on Republicans, what can we expect next?
We're going to end with a call to action, this week. Have you voted yet? We have. This year, voting early is definitely the hip thing to do. So if you haven't turned in your ballot yet, get out there and vote -- before Tuesday, where possible. There's only one way to end this national nightmare of a president, and that is to absolutely bury him in a landslide. That requires everyone to get out and vote this time around. No excuses, no regrets. So cast your vote! Do it now!
We have a few candidates for the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week, we're happy to say.
President Barack Obama gave a fiery speech this week out on the campaign trail, ripping mercilessly into Donald Trump's floundering on the pandemic response (among other things):
What's his closing argument? That people are too focused on COVID. He said this at one of his rallies: "COVID, COVID, COVID," he's complaining. He's jealous of COVID's media coverage.
. . .
Last week, when Trump was asked if he'd do anything differently, you know what he said? He said: "Not much, not much." Really?! Not much? You can't think of anything that you might be doing differently, like maybe you shouldn't have gone on TV and suggested we might inject bleach to cure COVID? That's not something you said -- you know -- "Maybe I shouldn't have said that?"
Speaking of ripping into Trump, George Conway (husband of Kellyanne) wrote a bit of satire for the Washington Post this week, that quite possibly has the most comprehensive array of links proving Trump's failures that we have ever seen. It's worth a read, and it's certainly worth an Honorable Mention.
Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos also deserves recognition, for a letter he sent to the Supreme Court which pointed out one of the many errors Justice Fratboy made in a recent elections ruling opinion. Justice Fratboy then had to sheepishly amend his opinion to reflect the actual facts.
And then there was the story from Montana where a Democratic gubernatorial campaign pranked Chris Christie. This one is seriously funny:
As we barrel ever closer to one of the most heated elections in modern history, politics can't help but seem dark. Luckily, we have former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, the Montana gubernatorial race and an app called Cameo. If this sounds like the setup for a good dad joke, that's because it essentially is.
A few days ago, Christie joined Cameo, where users hire celebrities to create short personalized videos. He joined the ranks of political personalities such as former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandoski [sic] and former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Christie -- a Republican -- soon received a message from someone named Brad Ley, and it read: "Governor -- huge fan (and so glad you're doing better)! My buddy Greg (who is also a big fan!) has been working out of state the last few years & me and his family have been trying to get him to come home to N.J. Could you give him some encouragement?"
So, clad in a mustard yellow University of Delaware fleece, Christie made a 50-second video.
"Now, I understand you left New Jersey some time ago for work, and that happens sometimes. But Jersey never quite leaves you, does it? Now, think about everything we've got back here," he begins, listing Taylor ham, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, the Jersey Shore, the boardwalks and "all that stuff back here that is waiting for you."
"More than anything else, Mike and your whole family, they want you back here," he adds. "So listen, we could do this the easy way or the hard way. You could come back voluntarily, or maybe they'll send me out to get you. I don't think that's what you want, Greg."
What Christie didn't know is that Brad Ley was Brad Elkins, the campaign manager for Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney, the Democratic candidate for governor of Montana. Cooney's Republican opponent, Rep. Greg Gianforte, lived in New Jersey for years.
In other words, it was a setup.
Nicely done!
But the real winners of this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award are four Democratic candidates for local office in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is one of those states where voting by mail was previously incredibly difficult, but where the laws were loosened up for this year. But because they're just not used to widespread mail-in voting, the process is needlessly cumbersome -- including placing your ballot inside a "security envelope" before you put it in the outer envelope. And the courts ruled that any votes turned in without the security envelope -- known as "naked ballots" -- could be tossed out. So three women candidates decided to get the message out to the voters in spectacular fashion:
With Pennsylvania shaping up to be a decisive battleground state in the presidential race, Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam launched an outreach campaign featuring elected officials in the nude.
Joining Hallam in the first round of the campaign are Allegheny County Council member Olivia "Liv" Bennett and state House of Representatives candidate Emily Kinkead, who's running for the 20th district seat in Allegheny County.
"There's a lot misinformation going around about mail-in voting," Hallam told TribLive. "It's brand new. Most voters, this is the first time they're ever voting by mail. I reached out to my friends who are elected officials, as well, and I was like, 'Hey, I have this wild idea. Let's get naked to try to save our democracy.'"
Etna Councilwoman Jessica Semler, state Rep. Sara Innamorato and Duquesne Mayor Nickole Nesby are expected to join the #dressyourballot campaign on Monday.
Here's Hallam's tweet, which featured the photos (don't worry, they're tastefully only PG-13 rated, at worst).
Desperate times call for desperate measures! So your favorite elected officials got naked so that you remember to make sure that your mail-in ballot is NOT submitted without its secrecy envelope!! #nonakedballots #dressyourballot
Doesn't the Constitution say something about the right to bare arms, after all? Heh.
Seriously, though, this is a big deal because naked ballots will not be counted, so Democrats getting the word out could be crucial. And as Madison Avenue has long known, there's no better way to get the word out than using a bit of sex appeal.
While all the women listed in the article are Democrats (and thus eligible for the award), we could only find proof that Jessica Semler and Nickole Nesby joined the other three in the fun. So our Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award this week goes to Allegheny County Councilwomen Bethany Hallam and Olivia "Liv" Bennett, Pennsylvania House of Representatives candidate Emily Kinkead, Etna Councilwoman Jessica Semler, and Duquesne Mayor Nickole Nesby, for the best voter outreach effort we've ever seen. Well done!
[The easiest way to let these women know you appreciate their efforts is to use the hashtags #nonakedballots or #dressyourballot, as suggested.]
Once again, we're happy to report we have no Democrats who disappointed us enough to merit the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award this time around. As always, if you beg to differ, please feel free to make your own nomination in the comments section.
Volume 595 (10/30/20)
We're going to dispense with the normal talking point format this week. It's just too late for any Democratic talking point to make much of any difference at all, at this point. With just four days to go to the election, voters' attitudes have already set in concrete, and no amount of persuasion will change that at the last minute.
We're also going to dispense (for the rest of the column) with our traditional use of the editorial "we," because what I've got to say is more personal than that.
Nothing Could Be Scarier Than This Election
Every year since I really got gung-ho with the blogging, I have had some fun with the last column I post before Hallowe'en rolls around. I go out and buy pumpkins, I carve them into funny political images (some are more successful than others, I fully admit), take photos, and then use them as visuals for an article usually subtitled: "Hallowe'en Nightmares For Right And Left."
In these articles, I go off on two opposing flights of fancy, and try to come up with some truly surreal nightmarish stories -- one to scare Democrats, and one to scare Republicans. Sometimes these can be cartoonishly divorced from all reality, and sometimes they are uncomfortably close to what is going on in the political world. Some are funnier that others, I will also fully admit. Writing comedy is a tricky sort of business, and I'm only a dabbler in the artform myself. But in general, everyone has a good time and leaves thinking: "Boy, I'm glad that will never actually happen -- it's just too scary to even seriously contemplate.
This year, I thought about trying to do my usual Hallowe'en take on things. But I found that I just couldn't. I didn't have any great ideas, I was too exhausted to even contemplate carving pumpkins, and Hallowe'en has already mostly been cancelled anyway. But the real reason I decided to throw in the towel was that it is hard to come up with anything more frightening than what we are already living through. Nothing could be scarier, in other words, than this election. Trying to out-scare next Tuesday isn't possible because no caricature or satire would even come close to what is already reality.
Hallowe'en was cancelled because we're all living through what I've been calling "The Lost Year." The coronavirus pandemic has so changed American life this year that we might as well just call it a lost cause and look forward to whenever we do get back to anything approaching normal. The loss of Hallowe'en (and in-person Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well) is just one more disappointing aspect of The Lost Year. We're all scared of the pandemic, and have been all year long. So there's a plateau of fear we've already reached, which all the other fears rest atop.
As for the election itself, fear is running rampant, especially among Democrats. We all grimly remember the night of the 2016 election, when the polls in several key states proved wrong. What if this happens again? What if Donald Trump pulls off the same miraculous comeback he did back then? As I wrote last week, while contemplating a Hallowe'en column for today: "we could fit the whole thing on a tweet, really: 'Dem nightmare: Trump wins. GOP nightmare: Biden wins, Dems take Senate.'"
This year -- more than any since 2000 -- there is also the fear that the votes just won't be properly counted. Politico recently ran an article that is so scary it was posted with a URL which contained: "election-nightmares-guide." They must have changed the posted title later, but it's an accurate description (and one more reason why I couldn't out-nightmare reality this time around). It starts with an overview:
The coronavirus pandemic was always going to make the 2020 election uniquely complicated, and Donald Trump's norm-busting style was always going to make it tense, but headlines in recent days have started to read like political thriller plot lines. We've seen Iranian skullduggery, dummy ballot boxes and mysterious threatening emails. Congressional Democrats are pleading with the military to respect a peaceful transition of power. A poll shows that barely a fifth of Americans believe this year's election will be "free and fair." There's concern about violence, especially by militias and white supremacists. Some Americans are even laying in extra food and water, fearing what comes next.
Americans have little experience navigating disputed elections at this scale, and none at all doing so with a president hinting he might not leave office if he loses.
It then goes into excruciating detail of everything that could either go wrong or be disputed, from: "Minutes After The Polls Close," to: "Months After The Polls Close." The final segment is what would happen if "Trump Refuses To Leave Office." If you need a fright this Hallowe'en, read this entire article from beginning to end (warning: it is a rather long article).
This isn't the only article to deal with nightmarish scenarios, either, just one of the most comprehensive (Politico also had another article examining the same question from a different angle that is also extremely comprehensive). There is also the question of whether Donald Trump is a "flight risk" -- will he flee the country to avoid post-presidential prosecution?
If you think these scenarios are too far-fetched, consider what we've already seen this election cycle. The Trump campaign website was hacked this week. Also hacked was the Wisconsin Republican Party, and in that case the hackers made off with $2.3 million. The United States Postal Service is indeed successfully slowing down the mail, specifically in the battleground states:
The data shows that the USPS delivered less than 70% of first-class mail on time on Wednesday, down from around 91% in the weeks before [Postmaster General Louis] DeJoy's policy changes. In Southern Florida, only 63% of first-class mail was on time on Tuesday. In the Philadelphia areas, the USPS delivered only 42% of first-class mail on time. In the Baltimore area, that number fell to only 39%.
Consider also that this year has seen the most coordinated nationwide voter-suppression effort from the Republican Party ever (and that's saying something). Even some Republicans are astonished at the brazenness:
"What we have seen this year which is completely unprecedented... is a concerted national Republican effort across the country in every one of the states that has had a legal battle to make it harder for citizens to vote," said Trevor Potter, a former chair of the Federal Election Commission who served as general counsel to Republican John McCain's two presidential campaigns. "There just has been this unrelenting Republican attack on making it easier to vote."
Potter, who now heads the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, added, "It puzzles me... I've never worked for a Republican candidate who thought it was a good idea to make it hard for people to vote."
Team Trump has signed up an army (their term) of "poll-watchers" as well, and it's a fair bet that not all of them will be trained in how this is supposed to happen. What happens if Trump "poll-watchers" show up heavily armed to the polling places, and linger just outside the 100-foot "no politics zone" around them? Indeed, this has already happened at some early-voting sites. For the first time in my lifetime, most people are now merely hoping that we can get through Election Day without widespread and rampant violence at the polling places themselves. But the intimidation efforts are almost guaranteed to happen, even if no actual violence breaks out. This is tinpot-dictator stuff that Americans are not supposed to have to worry about. But the fear is real, and it is not unjustified.
When, after all, has anyone had to worry about what the United States military will do if the election becomes contested? Again, this is third-world stuff that just isn't supposed to happen here.
There's even a nightmare to look forward to if Biden wins -- what will Trump do as an ex-president? Few have really thought all that much about it, but assuming that he'll take the traditional route of fading from the political scene is really not even an option, considering Trump's personality.
This isn't even a full list of all the fears people are now feeling about next Tuesday. There are plenty of others out there. Which is why I threw in the towel on trying to satirize where we stand now. The real and justifiable fears are so overwhelming this time around that nothing I could come up with could possibly make anyone laugh. I'm just not that talented a comedian, sorry.
I will leave everyone with a couple of positive notes, though. That much I can do, at least. Because none of this is guaranteed to happen, really. Things could go a lot better than anyone expects. The election itself may be more low-key than anyone now thinks (because so many tens of millions of Americans have already voted). And the results could come a lot faster than is now being predicted. If Florida is called for Joe Biden, then the race will effectively be over at that point -- because it is almost impossible to chart a path for Trump to the 270 Electoral College votes he needs without the 29 from Florida. If the Democratic dream finally happens and Texas turns blue, then Trump will also be toast. If North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, Iowa, or some combination of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania go for Biden, things could also be over even before the polls close on the West Coast. Trump's only path to victory is incredibly narrow, which means that any fairly large state he loses means his viable pathway to victory will disappear (all of those states except Iowa have more than 10 Electoral College votes).
The Washington Post ran an article which looks at five ways things could go a lot better than is now expected on Election Day. It's worth reading if you read any of those initial articles outlining the nightmare scenarios, just to realign your mental state a bit.
If you really want to feel better about the mail-in voting in particular, Politico ran another deep-dive article that examines the safeguards in place for all the mail-in votes in great detail. It is also a comforting read, right about now.
So in conclusion, nobody now knows which way things will go on Tuesday. It could be a nightmare, or it could be a lot more ordinary than anyone expects. But while Hallowe'en is traditionally about providing some scary-but-harmless fun to everyone, this year I just couldn't do it -- because the scary-but-quite-possibly-very-harmful realities out there were already so overwhelming. The one thing everyone can do to make themselves feel a lot better is to vote early. Drop off your ballot (it's too late to mail it). Go to an early-voting site. Wear your "I Voted!" sticker with pride. Because then you'll know that you've done the most important thing you can to help end our larger national nightmare on January 20th.
[Editor's Note: For those still disappointed at the lack of Hallowe'en column, here are the past five columns we've run, since even back in 2015 Donald Trump was already playing a starring role: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. Reading them all, we'd have to say 2015 was the funniest -- probably since (back then) the thought of Trump as president was still highly amusing to all. And have a happy Hallowe'en, everyone!]
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground
"In the end, only 10 agreed to do so..."
And four of them were the Piano Guys.
LL&P
I thought the bit about--
"What we have seen this year which is completely unprecedented... is a concerted national Republican effort across the country in every one of the states that has (sic) had a legal battle to make it harder for citizens to vote," said Trevor Potter, a former chair of the Federal Election Commission who served as general counsel to Republican John McCain's two presidential campaigns. "There just has been this unrelenting Republican attack on making it easier to vote." was quite funny. It has the flavour of being Sinfeldish..." imagine that... one of the two main parties in a thriven democracy isn't really into all that voting schemata, at the end of the day, they prefer duplicity over democracy, and don't even think about the nuts suggestion of one man/woman, one vote malarky the others were counting on.
See the breadth of my pragmatism, I invoked 'malarky', an obvious Americanism to describe the sentiment and its idiocy that 'more' could be anything other than 'best' where democracy is in play.
*Have. Tenses.
;)
LL&P
Well, I was pretty nervous about the election before reading this column. And, I'm still pretty nervous.
Sounds like we need a fun CW Sunday Night Music Festival and Dance Party this weekend, more than usual, even.
:-)
Great write up as usual.
It would have been better if you had reminded folks who have not voted yet, but live in a place without in person early voting and have yet to mail in their ballot. NOT TO MAIL IN THIER BALLOT, it is too late for that...
Again if you plan on voting by mail it is too late to mail in your ballot. Visit your counties voting office website and deliver it to a designated location or drop box yourself.
DO NOT MAIL IN YOUR BALLOT, IT IS TOO LATE.
goode trickle [4] -
Check the last paragraph:
Drop off your ballot (it's too late to mail it). Go to an early-voting site.
You're welcome...
:-)
-CW
Nothing Could Be Scarier Than This Election
Has anybody ever watched Monsters Inside Me? It's a truly horrifying show about infections and parasites on the Animal Planet network. I had a stroke in 2016 just about two weeks before the election. I was hospitalized for a month and had to endure their very limited cable TV options. To avoid CNN, I actually watched lots of Monsters Inside Me. I remember thinking Who needs Halloween?. I don't recommend watching it and haven't since I was discharged from the hospital.
So, now we have this coronavirus infecting the nation and that repulsive orange parasite in the White House.
Monsters Inside Us! Who needs Halloween?
Nightmares
I love Al Franken. He was interviewed on Real Time with Bill Maher tonight. I laughed harder than I have in a long time. He said that Mitch McConnell is not as charming as he looks and revealed Lindsey Graham's open secret.
I really, really miss Bill Maher.
Thank you, Chris, for using the MIDOW to highlight the women in Pittsburgh who are highlighting Republicans using the courts to steal the election.
My nominee for an honorable mention for MIDOW is Anthony Guevara. I haven't seen any article mention his party affiliation nor his profession. With his 'prank' Mr Guevara highlighted in a spectacular fashion how vulnerable is FL's voting system.
NB: No 'hacking' was required.
How many FL voters will have their ballots rejected because of address mismatch?
'Anthony Guevara, 20, from Naples, Florida, was arrested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and charged with altering a voter registration without consent and unauthorized access of a computer in connection to DeSantis' address change.
...
Officials say Guevara only made changes to DeSantis' registration.
Guevara's attorney, Mike Carr, told NBC News that the incident was a prank.
"It shows just how vulnerable the voting system is. Someone with no computer skills, no intent can go in and do this," Carr said. "He wasn't doing any hacking."
Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee told AP that the state's election website and computer system are secure.'
https://www.businessinsider.com/gov-desantis-had-trouble-voting-someone-changed-his-address-2020-10?op=1
And of course, the State of Florida is SO EXEMPLARY at election security that they immediately locked up Mr Guevara, rather than award him a prize for revealing an obvious flaw.
Another nominee for MIDOW is Jon Ossoff, the Senate candidate in Georgia. His pithy summation of his Republican opponent went viral.
And it can't burnish Sen Purdue's reputation that this burn hurt his feelings so much that he withdrew from the subsequent debate!
'“Perhaps Sen. Perdue would have been able to respond properly to the Covid-19 pandemic if you hadn’t been fending off multiple federal investigations for insider trading,” Ossoff said during a debate Wednesday. “It’s not just that you’re a crook, senator. It’s that you’re attacking the health of the people that you represent.”
Ossoff, 33, posted the clip to Twitter and it has since been viewed 12.5 million times as of Friday.'
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/georgia-sen-perdue-pulls-out-of-final-debate-after-bitter-clash-at-previous-face-off
I also have a retroactive MIDOW nomination, which I just learned about this week. It is Sen Hirono of Hawaii who exposed our new Supreme Court Justice's bigotry by calling out Ms Coney Barrett's retrograde language - and forcing a 'reverse ferret' (a term I recently encountered in the UK parody publication 'Private Eye')
'Barrett's comments were a response to a lengthy statement by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, who detailed why many in the LGBTQ community may be concerned that the rights granted in Obergefell could be overturned if Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court.
"Not once but twice you used the term 'sexual preferences' to describe those in the LGBTQ community," Hirono said. "Let me make clear, 'sexual preference' is an offensive and outdated term. It is used by anti-LGTBQ activists to suggest that sexual orientation is a choice."'
https://www.npr.org/sections/live-amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-confirmation/2020/10/13/923444137/barrett-clarifies-comments-on-lgbtq-rights-after-criticism-from-sen-hirono
"President Barack Obama gave a fiery speech this week out on the campaign trail, ripping mercilessly into Donald Trump's floundering on the pandemic response (among other things):"
Glad you mentioned the Obama-sledging of Trump last weekend, I mentioned it briefly, I thought it was, (and indeed all subsequent Obama husting-hurts), about 4 years of percolating cold loathing that Obama needed to strut off his stuff with Trump...
If anyone can think any other individual so central to Trump's galloping, hate-fuelled never veiled uber-racism than Obama, I pity the wretch if such a benighted entity exists in our or any other world... barring a last-minute appearance of Zarquon and time is called permanently, who deserves the right to swing the cat at Trump than Obama.
And boy. Did Obama ever roll up his sleeves to take Trump back to school, no holds were barred. For over an hour, Obama systematically dismantled everything Trump from his dopey dippy CV19 bleach clanger to sharpiegate. It was a tour-de-force of character flaw exposure and 'over-his-head' accounting.
I doubt Trump caught much of the speech, later that day he was seen, head unexploded, on the mount, proselytizing pointlessly to his pliant plebs.
I'm still not getting why Trump and his flock are drawn to these political events. The Risk being seen at such heathen gatherings should be reason enough to give them a healthy swerve, but... A heaving mob of sweating, hollering, belching and farting Trumpeteers shoehorned into any space can't be a healthy place to be, given they hang on Trump's every word in all matters medical, a gas chamber has more appeal.
I must be missing the nuance of retracing your steps on the hustings, exhaulting the same folk, ones already committed to your cause. My gut tells me what Trump could really make use of between now and Tuesday are converts to his weltanschauung, not packs of gobshitery groupies, and 'Orange Scruffs'...
I won't miss the abnormal, absurd chaos that Trump generates wherever he goes. The only thing worse than being exposed to a preening-self absorbed half-witted ne're-do-well, is doing it twice imagining the more you do it the more sense it might make in the retelling.
LL&P
Lastly.
Good inning, Sir Sean Connery, 90 is respectable give the late obstacles. Hitting Sixes and fours at whim, keeping the wickets for the Bond franchise tidy and being Badger to other great efforts (The Man Who Would Be King, one of my fav's) made our Lad a standout.
He made his bat a buffer and had balls that bite even the worst Packer pitches.
How-is-he? All out for 90.
Ashes to England, Kilts and Kinsmen...To the Glen.
RIP, Sir Sean Connery.
(LL&P)
I really, really miss Bill Maher.
Why? The tangerine nightmare hasn't put him in prison yet. He was on TV last night.
I miss the guy who used to be funny. Is that what you mean?
Yeah.
And, now, I'm really missing Sean Connery. :-(
JTC[14],
Very nice.
JTC, stay tuned for what promised to be a wonderful retrospective on Connery from my other favourite political analyst!
https://www.facebook.com/KFUN995/photos/a.10150747269529553/10158955544724553/?__cft__0=AZUGhFPFZNWHOa_pZnpVxfTe7cMw8GNsJmYLCbFiA04CyEd1Z1DeSuUrKvumqgojbhkCgI-Ro80Y41VJL84KiewoNbTIBIhGhARdCtLYvPce4HW_vCK1NMrd9V_UklM8axXSdKMWMjbdpCkovunrsLQ482LUna1Gm72nLDzLoub9CNYbkqVliKwkOp2_VqngwM0&__tn__=EH-R
Yikes!
Hey, if you walk into a bar full of vampires you shouldn't be surprised if you get drunk. Ahem.
@liz,
where on earth did that come from?
Once in a night as black as pitch
Isabel met a wicked old witch.
the witch's face was cross and wrinkled,
The witch's gums with teeth were sprinkled.
Ho, ho, Isabel! the old witch crowed,
I'll turn you into an ugly toad!
Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry,
Isabel didn't scream or scurry,
She showed no rage and she showed no rancor,
But she turned the witch into milk and drank her.
~ogden nash
I swore I wouldn't say. Heh.
But, yours was fun, too!
Hey, Joshua, a friend sent me this today,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkCvwvcT1zE&app=desktop
I haven't really been watching any of the political ads this season but, this one is beautiful.
Liz [24]
The Cure at Troy by Seamus Heaney is truly beautiful! And Biden’s rendition of it was expertly done! Kudos to whoever coached him on how to get the most powerful performance out of Joe... Not sure if Obama could have done it as well as this version from Biden! The imagery in the video was just as powerful as the words we were hearing... the combination results in one of the finest ads of this election.
I don't think the senator needed any coaching on that. You know, he used to recite poetry in front of a mirror as a kid to get over his stuttering ...
I agree, the ad is the best political ad I've ever seen!
Biden has been quoting Seamus Heaney for as long as I've been following his career, especially the Cure at Troy.
yes, excellent reading.
Everybody needs to keep an eye on a Republican lawsuit due to be heard by a Republican judge filed in Harris County Texas (Houston) on Monday asking that 100,000 early votes already cast be simply thrown out, because they were done in a drive by drop off by people in their cars, because the method is supposedly "illegal" even though it was approved by both the local elections supervisor and the Secretary of State for the state of Texas.
This is absolutely the worst voter suppression that I have heard of so far.
Any thoughts Kick??
To the logical mind, American *demockracy is an exhausting Tilt-A-Whirl™, neverending ups and downs, dizzying and nauseating once it stops to briefly refuel itself with the willing and unwilling alike. Like all carny rides, you can do it all day, but when it's over, you're right back where you started, summed up brilliantly by Macca-the-man...
" When I get to the bottom, I go back to the top of the slide, Where I stop, and I turn, and I go for a ride
Til I get to the bottom, and I see you again"
This is what's most draining, as a fan sitting in the bleacher nose-bleed seating, is the disregard for the representative democratic voting system emanating from every orifice of the Republican machine...It's stark, from every corner of the Democrat's sphere all you hear is 'Get out and vote', alternately, the GOP are in every court in every state trying to get votes extinguished for whatever reason their nimble little brains can conjure up to blow past the card-carrying lifelong Republican judge.
My point is obvious, why fucking bother? America is just playing an embarrassing game of 'dress-up democracy'...
Democracy might be what you're most proud of, but it's a hollow pride when it dances on your lips and dies in your heart.
I get that the folks here are slightly beyond the collective experience in that it's recognised what the Republican's do around election time is self-preservation. Conservatism is in decline in North America, no doubt due to the connectivity of society and the generational urge to not be tied to parental beliefs. GenX and Millenials are less and less religious and less conservative than previous generational groups because they are more accepting of the differences between people than they are loathing of them. Ergo...A 'beautiful, bright, shiny ready to rock and roll for democracy, fuck the lord and pass the bong, let's go vote' block of voters has been created. If I was going into politics, I would cater almost exclusively to that block, they're chomping at the bit to have their say, and by all accounts, they can't fuck up the system any worse than it is now.
Let's see if America has the stones to vote the 'K' out of *Demockracy this week...
It'll be a bumpy ride, it's a Tilt-A-Whirl™, after all...
Good luck, truly, I do mean that.
LL&P
***Dept. of Lincoln Project***
Unprecedented
Cancer
Priceless
Remember El Paso
[30]
Whew! Um, just how do you really feel, Mr. Canuck?
The majority of 'Muricans polled support raising taxes on the rich, inclusivity, a living wage, protecting the environment etc. My perception that the Democrats don't hammer this fact home, from sea to shining sea, has led me to believe that the Democratic Establishment is truly not behind addressing income inequality. That is, they're as happy as the Repugs are to let the bottom 90% of us fight over things like abortion and LGBTQ issues while they laugh all of the way to the bank.
BTW I received my ballot on 7 October. I voted a straight Democratic ticket, took my time researching the Propositions and yesterday hand carried it to my polling place -- done deal!
Let Freedom reign!
[30]
I really like this:
Yeah, that is a great line!
And, very well said, JTC!
Are we ready for a wild CW Sunday Night Music Festival and Dance Party?
Any request for what the theme should be tonight?
BTW I received my ballot on 7 October. I voted a straight Democratic ticket, took my time researching the Propositions and yesterday hand carried it to my polling place -- done deal!
Now, THAT is what I like to hear - very good job, MtnCaddy!
I'm still very, very nervous, though ...
... well, not about California but, you know ...
***Dept. of Works Better than Coffee***
Olbermann's 100 Cringeworthiest Trump Moments
[34]
In the spirit of a Progressive Tsunami on Tuesday, how about Progressive Rock?
That works for me. Ah, define progressive rock! :)
Prism is Progressive Rock if I ever heard it. Heh.
Seriously!
I'll need your help in preparing the set list, okay?
***Dept. of Elizabeth Miller's Sanity***
"But what about '16?"
The Democrats did fret,
But don't you worry, Darling
On Joe Biden I would bet.
Nice. So what did you think of the Biden ad I posted?
"But what about the Senate?
Without that all is lost!"
But the Repugs are going DOWN
Because of Covid's awful cost.
Sooomebody...stop me!
Never!
[45]
That was, indeed, a beautiful ad.
On a personal note, I'm a little embarrassed at how much more you Canadian Brothers and Sisters know about American politics than I know about Canuck politics. Y'all don't mess up the world the way 'Muricans do so we don't need to pay you much attention. Having said that I resolve to give you similar respect, especially because, if the Orwellian dystopia continues down here I may defect to your wonderful country.
(thinking)
On second thought, could Washington, Oregon and California simply defect and join Canadia? That way I could live in a civilized country without having to move.
Don't say yes, don't say no -- have your people call my people and we'll do lunch!
yer scarin' me, MtnCaddy ...
From Wikipedia
Progressive rock (often shortened to prog or prog rock; sometimes called art rock, classical rock or symphonic rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States throughout the mid- to late 1960s.
A (partial) list of Prog Rockers:
Blue Oyster Cult
Buckethead
The Decemberists
Deep Purple
Electric Light Orchestra
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Brian Eno
FM
Robert Fripp
Peter Gabriel
Genesis
Gentle Giant
Jethro Tull
King Crimson
Kraftwerk
Kitar?
Led Zeppelin
The Moody Blues
Nine Inch Nails
The Nice
Mike Oldfield
Phish
Pink Floyd
Procol Harum
Primus
Queen
Renaissance
Some Canuck band, called themselves "Rush"
Spirit
Styx
Tool
Traffic
Vangelis
The Yardbirds
Yes
Frank Zappa
Er, that should read:
Kitar?
K-I-T-A-R-?
(damned auto correct)
My laptop died so I do all this stuff on a smartphone.
It won't print the "?"
Fucking smartphone
C'mon, Elizabeth. Canada-Left Coast Colonies is an idea that I'll be working on should Cheetogod pull it off. Us Flaming Libtards yearn to live in a civilized nation!
Not unlike Sasha Baron Cohen, I think extremes are valuable tools to generate debate. SBC takes it to some places I wouldn't dare to tread, not that it's too extreme, there's not much that is, more that my squeamishness of certain topics might unresolve my ardour. Also, some topics can only be satirized by insiders who can be believed as 'taking the piss' instead of being thought of as just another brute on a mission of hate...
"If Facebook were around in the 1930s," says SB Cohen in the NYT link below, "it would have allowed Hitler to post 30-second ads on his ‘solution’ to the 'Jewish problem'."
A thin line more easily toed by a devout Jew than a former skinhead.
It's heartening that my bizarre vehicle of social observation is taken as meant; Think-Act-No regret. The reverse, No thought-React-Regret, makes for an angry life surrounded by people you don't trust, or believe even when the truth and facts line up behind them 'beak to butthole'... My father is an endless supply of time-hewn Yorkshire sayings and truisms. One I'm reminded of when politics are afoot is, "A bodyguard can only protect you from your enemies, they can do nothing to protect you from your friends"... I've always taken that to mean, think for yourself, carry no one else's water.
The Link...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/17/style/sacha-baron-cohen-maureen-dowd-interview.html
LL&P
***Dept. of Elizabeth Miller's Sanity***
From the POLITICO article,
On balance, state polling at the end of the race suggests Biden is as well-positioned at the end of the campaign as he has been for much of the race. More New York Times/Siena College polls in Arizona and Wisconsin show leads for Biden, including an 11-point advantage in Wisconsin. A poll conducted for a number of media outlets in Michigan showed Biden ahead by 7 points. CNN polls released Saturday put Biden up 12 percentage points in Michigan, 8 points in Wisconsin, 6 points in North Carolina and 4 points in Arizona
Another brilliant read (Sunday's arent for all that religious blathering twaddle, they're for link-hoping mind swelling tours through the media universe that this article tangentially hops in and out of, eviscerating and praising modernity as it sees fit to enhance the narrative. The Beast has some great writers, but they almost feel restrained by some unseen force at times, most likely due to the social convention that too much truth is the same as too many lies...Which is bullshit, obviously.)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/even-if-we-dump-donald-trump-these-forces-will-continue-to-strangle-america?ref=wrap
It hangs loosely around CW's observations of the post-Trump GOP existence, not quite going so far as to suggest the 'Shadow' scenario I'm glad Chris dared to imagine. Judge for yourself if it's prone to tangential shift.
LL&P
***Dept. of Elizabeth Miller's Sanity***
Election Day forecast: Great!
Outside of the Pacific Northwest (where folks vote by mail), basically no rain or snow is in the forecast across the entire country. That means voters waiting in pandemic-mandated lines outside polling places should stay dry, if maybe a little chilly.
[55] 'Fucking smartphone'...lol
But are they? Ducking Ulysses Cents
Auto-correct isn't for people who can't spell, it's an inside joke of iPhone's to make people who can spell look stupid.
;)
LL&P
Ha ha. Brain-dead political hack Scott Atlas has apologized for his interview on RT (Russia Today). He didn't know it was a foreign agent.
Add that to the list of things he doesn't know.
In addition to that idiotic move, he Twitter-mocked Fauci for making a bad first pitch at a ballgame as if anybody outside the death cult cares.
Nice job of bringing more attention to the one topic the orange one's campaign should not be highlighting down the stretch.
[61]
Yeah, you got that right!
MtnCaddy,
I noticed you left PRiSM off your prog rock list. That was a mistake. Prism's roots are embedded in the sixties, for starters. And, they did their part to carry their version of prog rock through the mid to late seventies. Sadly, the Ron Tabak era of the band ended tragically by the end of 1980 and, again, four years later. Prism's style and lyrics are prog rock, through and through, in my opinion, of course.
See ya tonight!
MtnCaddy,
Just found out Gowan is doing another live event tonight at 7pm in support of Canadian troops stationed around the world so I'll really need your help with our little Sunday night shindig!
Get our prog rock night off to a good start and we won't forget to do a little tribute to our favourite 007, too!
[51] MC
Wait! You're missing some of my faves from the Canterbury Scene:
Soft Machine
Caravan
Hatfield and the North
The National Health
Kew Rhone
Robert Wyatt
Mercy Street
Walking In The Wind
Long Distance Love
Hey, everyone!
Here is the first climate apocalypse song from PRiSM Ron Tabak Era, written in the mid seventies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv24gN27kRM
It doesn't get more prog rock than this! :)
CW: This is beyond disgraceful, it is downright disgusting that anyone alive in the year 2020 would even attempt using such a dated racist trope. In the middle of reaching out to Black voters, to top it all off.
Is it surprising, though? It has the Trumpian thumbprint all over it. A frequent trait you will find in "conservatives" in general is to claim how great Donald Trump has been for minorities while repeatedly pissing all over them at the same time. For instance, Donald Trump has been running around the country claiming over and over ad nauseam that he's done more for "Black Americans" than any other president except (maybe) Abraham Lincoln, and then in the same speech he'll brag to "suburban housewives" how he's kept "low-income people" out of their suburban neighborhoods.
Every time I hear the above rhetoric spewed in the same speech, I cannot fathom why no one is connecting the dots and calling him on this BS. The President of the United States is claiming to be great for Blacks while bragging to Whites how he's keeping them out of their neighborhoods... and right-wing minions and "conservatives" in general are not known for being able to connect the dots so you've got to do it for them. So...
Dear dumb GOP sheeple, minions, and useful idiots: Bragging to "suburban housewives" how you've kept Black people in their place and out of their suburban neighborhoods is the definition of White Supremacy and doesn't come close to qualifying you as a champion for "Black Americans." Connect the dots. :)
Great.
You got a tune to go along with that, ah, comment?
We're doing prog rock here tonight, by the way ...
Okey dokey, then ...
Here's another prog rock classic as PRiSM foretells of the surveillance state with 'Satellite' ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfp1yFFdvlk
Here's a new video from Styx for These Are the Times, for our times,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6XuL6qEQf8&list=RDNfp1yFFdvlk&index=7
Now, here's a Prism tune that confirms their prog rock status, featuring the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH7pdYa7sfQ&list=RDNfp1yFFdvlk&index=10
You can't have in the lyrics "Jerry and Linda in the White House' and not be a prog rock tune. You just can't. Heh.
Did I ever mention that Prism used to have a horn section?
Re [51], wikipedia's definition and sample list of progressive rock.
If you read the whole article, you read how the term has spiraled out of control to the point of meaninglessness. As far as I can tell, it basically applies to any band that is not "Classic Rock" or "Pop". So Jethro Tull, Queen, and Emerson, Lake, & Palmer are all the same type of rock and roll. That's not a definition, that's a bin.
Not that I don't like most of the bands on that list that I know. I do. But I never thought they were all, without exception and fitting no other term, prog rock. I like wikipedia's note that 'art rock', which its separate article defines partly as "music ... created with the intention of listening and contemplation rather than for dancing" was the original basis for prog rock.
What happened next was that any band or sound that tried to be different in any way - style, subject, instrumentation, tone, volume, historicity, etc. - from mainstream standard formula rock began to claim that it too was 'progressive'.
The result, as the original article notes, is that prog rock is a retrospective term, applied more since the 90s by aging hipster critics than it was by listeners at the time when the bands on this list were most active.
So, what do you think of my PRiSM?
Isn't prog rock more about a feeling than anything else?
I've never considered Prism a dance band but, I can certainly dance to every single one of their tunes. :)
but, again, it's more a feeling than anything else ... you know what I mean.
How many bands on The List were singing about double helixes and DNA, eh?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxroXF2U79M
One band on that list, though, stands out for me. Well, we Canadians do love our Rush,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJoTxywiRG0
Remembering and reminiscing on the greatest Bond of all (with Daniel Craig as a very, very close second) by watching Goldfinger and Thunderball today.
My other favourite political analyst is a big Bond fan and actually met Connery at a small dinner party and had a chance to chat. He wrote briefly today about the first Bond and said, "There are true stars and there are all those people scuffling around for attention on “reality” TV, in all its various incarnations. This was a true star, perhaps the greatest."
Here's the wonderful theme from Goldfinger ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt2WlDM3tEA
John M From Ct,
I've always felt that the definition was squishy. Not really my favorite genre.
Lemmy Kilmister was a member of Hawkwind at one point, so I used to joke that Motörhead was art metal.
R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
Elizabeth Miller
24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkCvwvcT1zE&app=desktop
I haven't really been watching any of the political ads this season but, this one is beautiful.
This one is awesome, EM. :)
I knew you would approve!
John M
29
Any thoughts Kick??
On October 22, the Texas Supreme Court (all Republicans) denied (with only one dissenting judge) the first Republican attempt against the drive-through voting and allowed it to continue. On Sunday, these candidates who filed their petition requesting the ballots be invalidated lost in the Texas Supreme Court. That's twice the GOP has lost in the Texas high court regarding this drive-through voting.
Harris County conducted primary run-offs this way and cleared it with the Texas Secretary of State before doing it. Many of the people who used the drive through voting were hospital workers and first responders attending to COVID-19 patients who wished to vote without putting their fellow Texans at risk. The law in Texas is clear that these ballots should be counted. I cannot fathom a federal court intervening in a Texas issue and invalidating ballots and disenfranchising 127,000+ voters in Texas.
Elizabeth Miller
85
I knew you would approve!
I really love that ad.
I was listening to the tunes tonight but didn't have time to post any tunes. I was here but flippin' busy... busy flippin'.
I'm home now, and Monday is number crunching day where I cease moving around and get ready for Tuesday. It'll be just like Super Tuesday. I just realized it is Monday... dang.
I have a Biden ad I really like too. Want to see it? I will assume you said yes and post it below. :)
Check out this Biden ad.
"You've marched for four years.
Now it's time to run."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VO2_KG6g-Q
Kick,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VO2_KG6g-Q
That's a pretty awesome Biden ad, too. I liked it very much!
Kick,
I cannot fathom a federal court intervening in a Texas issue and invalidating ballots and disenfranchising 127,000+ voters in Texas.
I sure can, but I don't think he'll get away with it. The supremes sided with state judges in PA and against a federal judge in WI.
ACB is the wild card.
We should all remember that impeachment has not worked on Presidents but has worked on federal judges more than a few times...
This is probably the most stupid question I think I can ask, without the stupid sticking to me like flypaper. ( Right up there on the stupid-o-meter with ads for Piles analgesics that list first as their contra-indicated uses and side-effects, 'Don't use this product if you are allergic to this product!') Another deeply weird thing that suddenly appeared after Trump started his haunt of the WH...
If Trump gives Fauci the 'slippery chicken, with a slide-toe heeler peeler' would that make an impact on voting day?
Fauci well-liked and is widely acknowledged as the big wheel at the CDC, Trump is wide...Is this seen as final proof that Trump is working for loss at the polls?
Seems like an act of political Hari-kari to me...
LL&P
trump called a cubs game?
https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/b/40/b4050670-230a-541e-bf75-fac8f1eac3e5/581b381d4c811.image.jpg
I guess that judge in TX didn't want to look like a fool. That's just another sign that the rat's are jumping off the sinking ship. It will accelerate over the next 24 hours. The orange one is really going to embarrass himself. He couldn't live with what Obama did to him at that WH Correspondents dinner. It'll look like nothing in comparison. How long til he flees to Russia?
John From Censornati
90|91
I sure can, but I don't think he'll get away with it. The supremes sided with state judges in PA and against a federal judge in WI.
It's nuts isn't it, JFC? I'm sure these bozos will appeal, but they did lose today... sort of lost twice too because the Judge found they had no standing to bring suit but also stated that even if he had made a ruling on their case, he would have allowed the votes to count.
ACB is the wild card.
You are so dead on accurate, JFC, but there's an ace in the hole which Republicans (not a typo) made clear in an Amici Curiae brief filed by Benjamin Ginsberg and Joseph Straus:
*
Republicans intervened on behalf of Texas voters; I guess they see the handwriting on the wall that Texas is going to go Blue... it's only a matter of when (not if).
Additionally, Ben Ginsberg wrote an op ed in the Washington Post dragging Donald Trump the GOP for its political tactics to discount the votes of Americans:
My party is destroying itself on the altar of Trump
*
Good for him. Credit where credit is due. :)
James T Canuck
93
Trump doesn't want to lose.
Seems like an act of political Hari-kari to me...
Just Trump being the self-centered and vain SOB he's always been. He doesn't care about doing his job... just settling personal grievances and being the biggest victim on planet Earth. His right wingnut cult members and QAnon nut job base live in another world where they are spoon-fed a steady diet of bullshit. They believe Fauci caused and is also profiting off the pandemic while also believing that China caused it. Yes, I know it sounds batshit crazy... but no crazier than their belief that John F. Kennedy, Jr. is alive and Trump is going to name him as his vice presidential running mate... (checks watch)... any day now.
So to recap: Trump shits himself at night, whines a lot like a victim, and is a dick who isn't qualified to hold the office of the presidency... but he definitely wants to win the presidency in order to avoid criminal prosecution for multiple crimes he's committed both before and during his presidency.
No FTP column for 6 November?
Chris, I don't blame you at all. I haven't interacted much on social media since Tuesday evening, holding my breath for the definitive results.
I hope you too are taking a well-deserved break this weekend.