US Politics, November 2018: "There is no blame. There is no anything."

Vote TAX RETURNS Tuesday, November 6th.

there are no presidential tax returns release to the public as yet, either

*released

good thread title

mourning

No Blame November

Oppo Dump

good luck usa

who won?

impeach the president!

Jacob Wohl really likes Inglorious Basterds.

First, one of the fictitious employees of Surefire Intelligence actually a Photoshopped Christoph Waltz.

Now, as @melaniasbelts points out, Wohl appears to have stolen a scene and a line from the movie for his fake Mueller dossier. pic.twitter.com/8lYElR3RPy

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) October 31, 2018

so who's looking forward to the Jacob Wohl press conference

I was briefly relishing the inevitable downfall of everyone involved in this conspiracy of idiocy but then I remembered the world we live in so now I'm just bracing myself for their inevitable reality shows and/or cabinet appointments.

These days, the only qualities with any practical utility are moxie and hate.

not to mention the 6-figure GoFundMe campaign

Wohl also tweeted a week prior to the tourney that the US Soccer team would dominate the World Cup this year

he and sayoc should start a wingnut soccer fan club in jail

“Well, I try. I do try and I always want to tell the truth. When I can, I tell the truth. And sometimes it turns out to be where something happens that’s different or there’s a change, but I always like to be truthful.”

Please note the corresponding book of the Bible when u r quoting Jesus.

Axis of Evil!

Today in Miami, John Bolton will announce a new policy toward Latin America to confront the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, calling them the “Troika of Tyranny.”

— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) November 1, 2018

This is what happens when you don't give your propaganda a Frum pass

surprised he didn't go with "devil's triangle" tbh

Well, that would just be confusing, given the well-known drinking game by that name.

interesting that troika appears to be a russian word

That's the kind of bold flavor they enjoy in...Albuquerque!

Troika? Sigh. Does it feel like they just included Nicaragua because they wanted to get to three?

The ALBA Autocrats.

surprised they didn't go with the three enemigos, though I guess that wouldn't play in Miami

The White House probably announced this farrago thinking he might help Curbelo, Scott, etc. Who the fuck knows.

Three Enemigos is great.

Red Lobster Create Your Own Scapegoat Trio

oh what the hell

watch now: John Bolton smacks down on three countries with three words and they're left reeling

Troika? Sigh. Does it feel like they just included Nicaragua because they wanted to get to three?

― Frederik B, Thursday, November 1, 2018 3:02 PM (forty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I assume it has to do with Bolton's love of the film Red Dawn

Troika has anti-EU connections too - though obviously Bolton and anyone in Trump's cabinet is too stupid to realize that.

... connotations not connections.

I’m worried that we’ve done immense harm to the marginalized in the name of God. You realize it is not good news at all if you are just baptizing certain inequalities or biases.

I don’t feel so much like I am leaving conservative evangelicalism. I worship like one, I talk like one. It’s not like I can pull myself out of this relationship. I feel incredibly guilty for attending a church I can’t invite people to. But I love the community that raised me. A lot of evangelical parents are judged by the successful transmission of values to their children. I haven’t wanted to shame them.

I am very excited to vote for Andrew Gillum. It is not that you have conservative evangelicals suddenly becoming liberal. It is more a realizing that you could be practicing something that isn’t even Christian at all.

run away, Alexandria! it's not too late! you can pull yourself out of this relationship!

someone 'scoping the Jacob Wohl press conference lmao

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1MYGNyrreaQKw

hahahahahaha, just as predicted

http://i63.tinypic.com/zl95ag.jpg

oh my god he's taking questions guys

did Wohl actually just admit Surefire Intelligence is real now

"sometimes people go to jury duty, but they're also somewhere else"

"Sometimes people go to jury duty, and they're also somewhere else! ... Stop laughing, this isn't a laughing matter."

idk if this wound up in the other thread but

https://i.imgur.com/uijRows.png

for masochists, Rush Lumbago will be interviewing DeSantis on his show in a half hour

"my opinion is that jacob is a child prodigy who has surpassed mozart"

What was that about Jacob having an honourary Harvard law degree?

xxxxpost this is the schadenfreude I needed. my god. about 40,000 Twitter users predicted the "no show due to fear" (including me) publicly on Wohl's feed yesterday and that's the route he chose to go anyway.

some have said they think the person blotted out in the pic is Gateway Pundit writer Cassandra Fairbanks, which would be hilarious.

jacob wohl, in the midst of getting laughed at, said "this is not funny. it's not a laughing matter"

later, his lawyer/co-presenter took the mic and said that he is 52 years old, and that in his 52 years he has never met a brighter young man, and then...

"jacob is a child prodigy that has eclipsed mozart"
*reporter yells out "He can't even open an eTrade account*

Look, I wasn't the brightest 20 year old by any stretch of the imagination. But this dude plays poker with his cards facing the wrong way.

eclipsed mozart, eh? name five of his arias

Why would he even care? He's eclipsed him.

BREAKING: I have acquired an unedited photo of the woman with Wohl in the above photo:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTM4MDk3OTYxOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDk5OTUwOQ@@._V1_UY317_CR9,0,214,317_AL_.jpg

maybe he meant he got between Mozart and the sun

Please tell me that this press conference is being archived somewhere so that I can watch it later, please. Oh please.

thaaaaaaat's a-

this dude, who from what i can see/hear appears to actually be Dennis Hayden in Die Hard, is easily good enough to be trump's lawyer.

I'm reminded of the group project I had in college where this one dude did no work at all and never came to any of the group meetings but actually got up and stood with us on the day we presented. I was, in roughly equal measure, repelled by the audacity and in awe of the chutzpah.

I'm reminded of the time where someone paid me $2 to write a report for them about the Beatles so I fabricated a bio stating that Maximilien Robespierre was their bass player

that was a mix of barry zuckerhorn and the arrested development tubas

sorry, meant the curb your enthusiasm tuba song

Jacob's explanation for denying any knowledge of Surefire: "I preserved that level of pseudonymity."

Great twitter thread on the Wohl press conference

The hapless Jacob Wohl / Jack Burkman press conference on Robert Mueller is about to kick off!

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) November 1, 2018

Lmao Burkman’s fly was down the entire time.

at the end they were like "any more questions?" and someone yelled "are you prepared for federal prison?"

TRL but make it hateful pic.twitter.com/NpgTwsbIr4

— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) October 31, 2018

that ted cruz / zodiac cryptogram tweet posted upthread is real lmao

ted cruz, go on chapo

Please tell me that this press conference is being archived somewhere so that I can watch it later, please. Oh please.

― a butt, at which the shaft of ridicule is daily glanced (Old Lunch)

whole thing is here, i think

Its on Periscope: https://t.co/Xf2oTyTVE9

— Barry Nelson (@realbarrynelson) November 1, 2018

This is like watching someone start a fistfight with a grizzly bear. You know how it's going to turn out but, hey, I'm sure my last minutes on earth won't be quite as thoroughly entertaining.

Wohl is fuming again that someone photoshopped him into a corncob: "One of them had a picture of corn!"

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) November 1, 2018

"im not owned! im not owned!!", i continue to insist as i slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob

— wint (@dril) November 11, 2011

v grateful that hellworld can still throw us the occasional treat #blessed

wint, a man for all seasons

i'm guessing the corncob photoshops are direct references to the dril tweet but i'm delighted at how wohl keeps reinforcing it xp

this was basically a real life Nathan For You episode

I'm just going to suggest real quick that we all start keeping a corncob on our person at all times just in case we ever run into Jacob Wohl so that we can slowly pull it out of our pocket or briefcase and present it to him, silent and smiling. We will continue to do this for the rest of his life.

I seriously cannot believe that A) Wohl referenced the dril tweet and B) Burkmans' fly was open the whole time

dril is shaping our reality daily

this was basically a real life Nathan For You episode

― frogbs, Thursday, November 1, 2018 12:07 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha totally

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dq7pa3vWkAAdtiH.jpg

Zoom 🤣 pic.twitter.com/9wnC6kGcGq

— scattered everywhere (@scattrd_evrywhr) November 1, 2018

lmao at that Ted Cruz tweet. imagine having to play along with a meme that you're a serial killer in order to appear human

Still not working, but points for trying, Ted-Thing.

hiding in plain sight

Wohl: "My default is to NOT believe women..."

TED CRUZ (trying to figure out something cool to say): uh I’m a serial killer

— KT NELSON (@KrangTNelson) November 1, 2018

god it sucks this thread was created before "There was a picture of me in a corn costume" could be used as a title

Maybe a middle school guidance counselor is giving him general "how to deal with bullies" advice

xp

lmao it gets better

From @willsommer's live thread: Jacob Wohl says he took this photo with his "client" at the DC airport, but she was too scared to come to the press conference.

But @AricToler pointed out the photo looks a lot like LAX...https://t.co/6zHZstbdC6

— Respectable Lawyer (@RespectableLaw) November 1, 2018

I don't know if I've ever seen a man own himself so thoroughly

before even reaching drinking age no less

it's definitely not DCA, there's not 71 gates there

the top half is LAX, showing the ceiling for reference

he looks cute in that one

From Axios, this morning:

What’s next: Watch for the caravan warnings to fade the day after the election — and the attacks on the GOP establishment, the media and Robert Mueller to escalate big time, sources close to Trump tell us.

i like how the jacob wohl thing has developed into forensics 101 for internet gumshoes. real life is kind of complicated, but jacob wohl provides an accessible case study that everyone can join in on

CNN's lead story: "Trump campaign releases racist ad" https://t.co/OsdxlMMBjV pic.twitter.com/SvRSJxD2qz

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 1, 2018

of course

our client is named carolyne crass, yeah that’s just her name not like a thing we made up or forgot to google to make sure we weren’t remembering some public person pic.twitter.com/0KKgiyqhva

— warrior cop (@wyatt_privilege) November 1, 2018

Watch for the caravan warnings to fade the day after the election — and the attacks on the GOP establishment, the media and Robert Mueller to escalate big time, sources close to Trump tell us.

Allen, Swan, and the rest of the Axios crew are masturbatory garbage.

they're licking their chops thinking of more chaos fun

otm

Shit man you can't blame them for trying such an obvious, clumsy, stupid conjob. A lifelong obvious, clumsy, stupid conman is President.

Allen, Swan, and the rest of the Axios crew are masturbatory garbage.

No argument here, but they speak the language of the masturbating garbage pile in the Oval Office.

i’ll not have masturbation traduced by association with yr president pls

trump is #nofap

Look, don't shame a man just because he can't wrap his Vienna sausages around his toadstool.

dude

https://media1.tenor.com/images/783096c09f34233b515f1de7589e6907/tenor.gif

Breaking: A federal judge has DENIED a lawsuit filed by Native Americans disenfranchised by North Dakota's voter ID law.

This decision ensures that hundreds, perhaps thousands of Native Americans will not be able to vote in the upcoming election. https://t.co/GFkawn9f3S

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) November 1, 2018

If I'm able reduce y'all's pre-election jitters even a fraction of a percentage by chasing everyone out of this thread with my shitposting, I'm willing to take that bullet.

I wonder if we'll ever get any less good at fucking over the native inhabitants of this country/continent.

if you want to post photos of fecal matter, you can't improve on that judge's decision.

lol don't encourage him!

jeez, that Hovland decision. (nominated and confirmed by GWB, btw)

he decides that it's too close to the election to make any changes, because making changes "on the eve of an election will create as much confusion as it will alleviate, and is foreclosed by precedent which is hesitant to permit 'eleventh-hour changes to election laws.'"

i could see the argument that NEWLY requiring a street address to vote, on the eve of an election, would create confusion. however, LIFTING the requirement just makes it easier to vote. it doesn't cause confusion. the worst it does is piss off someone who was making a bunch of phone calls to try to get a street address at the last moment, or make someone who brought proof of their street address to the voting booth say "i guess i didn't need this street address. oh well."

it's aaaalmost like they just don't want some people to vote

You're assuming they view them as people.

Whodathunk we'd need a Native American suffrage movement in twenty-motherfuckin-eighteen.

i... would've?

when is the last time that trump pinned a tweet? he doesn't typically do so, right?

i ask because he has pinned his racist nu-willie horton ad to the top of his timeline

Donald Trump said Thursday that if any member of the migrant caravan making its way toward the United States border throws stones or rocks at U.S. military personnel they would “consider it a firearm” and license to use lethal force in response.

"I hope there won't be that, but I will tell you this—anybody throwing rocks... we will consider that a firearm, because there's not much difference,”

oh it's going to be really great when our military is murdering people on our southern border

i absolutely see that coming

I am already seeing reports that the 'caravan fired on mexican authorities'. no idea if there is any truth to that or not (I only saw the headline on a conservative family member's FB); if untrue I'd think this was getting set up to pre-emptively set this as an expectation.

"camps for concentration of migrants" going up that trump says will house tens of thousands

no idea if there is any truth to that or not

oh come on, those ppl are not armed

I hear you but in rebuttal might I just say: Soros

no you may not

not that it matters, but it wouldn't surprise me if one person out of several thousand people is "armed" in some way, especially if that definition is distorted to include a knife or something.

the best possible outcome out of all this is that they arrive to the border weeks after the election, fox and trump have stopped talking about it, and trump tweets something taking credit for stopping the evil caravan and gets 46,000 likes

it would be great if they were indeed infected with smallpox but the only person they killed was Trump.

The mini-Trump trying to be Governor of PA seems to be losing bad (polls lol) and has double down on the whole caravan thing for his final ad push.

Trump's "Willie Horton" was released from custody by Joe Arpaio and re-entered US during Dubya's presidency.

doesn't matter, the Democrats made 'em do it

he also used an AR-15, which is a totally normal weapon that everyday americans should be allowed to use in self-defense, definitely not something to be banned

Good evening!

Goddamn what I would do for a democratic party that was as powerful and effective as the GOP claim they are xxp

*Wouldn't

good mourning!!

What did I miss while ilx was down? Tax returns surfaced yet?

Trump died.

He'd have to be alive first to do that.

We've updated to Trumpcode 2.0, which will autocorrect all of your posts if they contain any fake news.

I love Donold Tormp, he vary hansome and vary intllegient.

what a tragedy

“Now, we did have two maniacs stop a momentum that was incredible, because for seven days nobody talked about the elections,” Trump said. “It stopped a tremendous momentum.

OK who does he blame first next Wednesday? i think we have a winner

Goddamn what I would do for a democratic party that was as powerful and effective as the GOP claim they are xxp

Party of inclusion, etc..

A broad church.

(Not sure if that phrase is used in US politics tbh)

do the US have "melts" as well? idk.

mmm patty melts

toasted rye bread and burger w/ Swiss cheese sounds much better than UK melts!

What a tax return!

lmao

This is outrageous. We've seen absolutely no proof that Roy Moore, Paul Manafort or Rob Porter are in the caravan. https://t.co/ctGQ3YKnZz

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) November 2, 2018

More WohLOLs

Jacob Wohl tweeted this photo of the ‘Mueller accuser’ (left), who failed to turn up to his press confidence. You can just stick it into Google Images to get her face, since that exact photo is old, already online and.. his girlfriend. pic.twitter.com/rYyauaWFiw

— Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) November 2, 2018

omfg this kid

You may recall that I predicted Wohl issuing a picture of himself as the accusing party. This is maybe only like .01% less stupid than the stupidest thing I could come up with.

i love this kid, what an entertainer

imagine ruining your life this much before you can even legally drink

He should just say he's been molested by Mueller.

it's amazing to attain Peak Asshole at such a tender age

all these teen maga chuds just make me think of this guy:
https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/922734_10151472938033801_1348835416_n.jpg

https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/922734_10151472938033801_1348835416_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_ht=scontent-lht6-1.xx&oh=d6730b9bda7495a692e5cef7ad42f9b5&oe=5C4A4E05

Twenty minutes, walking into my regional library and early voting location to pick up a copy of an Olivier bio, a well-chosen Cuban mulatto no older than 21 or 22 wearing a Vance Aloupis shirt asked if I'd voted.

"I hope you voted Republican."

"Sure didn't," I said.

"I thought you wanted bipartisan solutions. To make this country great."

"I don't. I want to be as partisan as possible."

His mouth fell open and he walked away. Clearly this wasn't in the scripted responses he expected.

It felt great. Life is made of small victories.

awesome

good response to an extremely dumb statement

"I'd like to vanquish the republican party from the face of the earth" would also have been acceptable

nice call on Jack Black in Bob Roberts. I haven't seen that movie in this century, but I think the only part that would ring false now is the snl-like cast member pulling the plug on the show in protest

haha that kruse tweet

I can't bring myself to rewatch bob roberts until Trump's dead or in prison or out of office and in disgrace

Alfred that is a heroic response

even Sideshow Bob Roberts is a tough watch now

Alfred that is a heroic response

― Jacob Lohl (stevie),

Anger is an energy.

anger is the color of your energy * 311 wank *

NYC residents (aside from Staten Isl and Queens I guess) rarely meet 'out' Republicans. The last 2 mornings the same pair of corporate lawyers (Democrats) were chatting right next to me on the subway and I wanted to commit fucking seppuku.

Try sudoku instead

Just saying, there's an established ecosystem of people like this, and he won't suffer for it as much as we might hope.

The only time I've been able to state, "I believe the current Republican party, and anyone currently active in it, must be repudiated by all who care about America or the planet. After Trump, I will never consider voting for any current Republican," has been with push-pollsters. I'm in a Red county, and have received these calls from people in the upper midwest (Kansas, Dakotas), and I've received these calls every few days.

nicely done Alfred

xp

keep it up, assholes

“Two or three weeks ago, the No. 1 thing people were quietly worried about was apathy or low turnout with Latino voters and you’re not hearing that anymore,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a bipartisan immigration advocacy group.

He added: “This is a reminder of a thing they like least about this administration and you’re seeing that show up. Public opinion polls on the House have moved away from Republicans in the last two weeks and if you look at where that’s coming from, it’s the president’s hard-line rhetoric.”

No generic ballot poll has directly linked the president’s immigration talk to a pro-Democratic voter shift. But recent studies have shown that Americans see immigration as among the nation’s most divisive issue, in addition to it being a policy area Trump has mishandled, according to voters in some states with key midterm races.

An MPR News/Star Tribune poll taken last month in Minnesota, where both Senate seats are up for grabs and Republicans are competing for the governor’s mansion, found that 52 percent of likely voters disapprove of the president’s direction on immigration, versus 42 percent who approve.

What does that fucking mean, he's been an asshole on immigration from (before the) start. Who is on the fence here? (Immigration pun intended?)

"Sure, he's an asshole, and sometimes he's a big asshole, but now he's an even bigger asshole and is losing my support."

honestly I think that's an accurate summary

when Trump is in the news for his assholishness, support for him and by extension the GOP drops

No one outside of @tedcruz’s camp in #Texas thinks he’s well ahead. If @BetoORourke pulls of the upset, he’ll be the story of the night and arguably the year; proof of a generational paradigm shift in American politics; and suddenly a front runner for the Democratic #2020 ticket.

— Howard Fineman (@howardfineman) November 2, 2018

seppuku
sudoku
Sanpaku

nice little run of posts

tryna temper my beto expectations, tbh, feels reminiscent of tempering my bernie expectations in 2015 -- "i like him but what's the point." that first tempering did not go the way i thought it would.

Yeah, I'm very nervous about letting myself get too excited

I am hopeful but skeptical he can pull it off - betting on increased turnout among traditionally low turnout demographics is not often a winning strategy. If he has a very good latino GOTV operation and that turnout spikes like it has in central CA districts and other places then.... maybe

what's the latest polling out of Texas?

538 has cruz up by five in a weighted average

It would be kinda beautifully poetic if Cruz is defeated by increased Latino turnout.

Cruz has a lot of weight.

In last night's debate, Danny O'Connor challenged Troy Balderson on his opposition to Medicaid expansion and it was definitely something. #OH12 pic.twitter.com/PgBSdEwdd3

— 🗳4 DAYS TO VOTE 🗳 (@plunderbund) November 2, 2018

Emerson College did one from Oct 28-30, Cruz up 3.

i retain at least a small amount of hope, even though my expectation is that he'll (barely) lose. the amazing amount of early voting kind of throws a huge wild card into it, especially because the ramifications of that aren't clear

New nonpartisan Alaska Survey Research poll finds the *dean of the House* trailing by 1% in #AKAL, the state's lone House seat:

Alyse Galvin (Undeclared/D): 49%
Rep. Don Young (R) 48%

Two weeks ago, @CookPolitical moved the race from Likely R to Lean R.https://t.co/ZlBM5ccHKr

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 2, 2018

also she's proooooobably going to lose but this is good

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paulette-jordan-idaho-democrat-governor-race_us_5bc90d21e4b0d38b58766654

even if he wins i still find it slightly depressing that it would take historic turnout and a perfect campaign to beat america's least-loved non-executive branch politician-cum-serial killer.

lmao

https://i.imgur.com/bxpsVZ8.png

thanks for that Paulette Jordan article caek, that's the most comprehensive piece on her that I've seen yet.

"Morning" Joe made a lot out of that Emerson poll this morning.

NYC residents (aside from Staten Isl and Queens I guess) rarely meet 'out' Republicans. The last 2 mornings the same pair of corporate lawyers (Democrats) were chatting right next to me on the subway and I wanted to commit fucking seppuku.

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, November 2, 2018 10:09 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I worked with an "out" republican lawyer. He was married to a super rich guy (scion of some wealthy latin american family) and, like most "moderate Republicans" I guess just loved tax breaks more than social progress.

The Cruz camp is rattled enough that they're officially running a PAC-style hit ad about O'Rourke's DWI.

Not raising my hopes either, but I suspect the Cruz camp has seen...startling internal polling, maybe not enough to put Beto ahead but a surprise.

remember the Northam/Gillespie race

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/02/democracy-loser-us-midterms-poor-ethnic-minorities

"In Georgia 53,000 voter applications, most from African Americans, are currently being held up by the secretary of state, Brian Kemp, some for such petty reasons as a missing hyphen. "

angry and concise Gary Younge piece about the low odds of democracy actually breaking out during this voter suppression/gerrymandering fest.

POTUS currently announcing economic warfare via an old meme

oh, brother

maybe this would be a good time for everyone involved with GoT to tell Trump to stfu

“Your name is Reek” pic.twitter.com/4V69fPfhMb

— Twlldun’s pre-emptive xmas name. (@twlldun) November 2, 2018

“I like her honesty and character and authenticity,” gushed Tri Robinson, a conservative Republican and evangelical pastor in Boise who hosted a fundraiser for Jordan. “She cares about what we care about. She cares about the poor. She cares about climate change.”

the cognitive dissonance...

midwestern conservatives do actually seem to give a shit about the environment and it's not hard to imagine a pastor being fond of helping the poor

it is hard to square either of those concerns with being a member of the Republican party

people have more than one dimension!

like i hear you on the cognitive dissonance i'm just saying it's not as weird to me as it might seem -- at my office we spend a lot of time and energy getting lefty perspectives into heartland newspapers and we've consistently found those audiences are into climate change material and inequality material

yeah but are they into changing their tribal affiliation, which 9 times out of 10 trumps any actual positions they support

ie "I'm a Christian and by the way FUCK YOU LIBTARDS"

In the words of the apostles iirc.

https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/WmlIUzUg0Z4sPN6XS.KcDg--~B/Zmk9c3RyaW07aD0xNjA7cHlvZmY9MDtxPTgwO3c9MzQwO3NtPTE7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://media-mbst-pub-ue1.s3.amazonaws.com/creatr-uploaded-images/2018-11/7df502e0-de27-11e8-85de-2bc5daae7cc3

donny always looks like he's smoking a j, i really hate his terrible face and mannerisms. i can't believe he's president. i went to a great used bookstore near here last night and they have a whole section (three high bookshelves worth, Soto's dream!) of president biographies. seeing Trump in there wedged between Truman and the single Tyler book they had was pretty depressing.

is it... actually possible that Steve King could lose?

King has steadily lost support among donors and members of his own party since Saturday’s massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in a Jewish neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The gunman allegedly shouted, “All Jews must die!” before opening fire, killing 11 adults and injuring six others, including three police officers.

Although the eight-term congressman has been an anti-immigrant firebrand for years, he has amped up his rhetoric over the past several months to include retweeting known white supremacists and endorsing a Canadian white nationalist politician.

King also showed himself to be fluent in white nationalist talking points during an August interview he gave to a far-right publication in Austria. There, King repeated his “somebody else’s babies” argument by speaking fearfully about declining fertility rates in the West and his belief that Muslim and Latino immigrants pose a threat to the United States and Europe.

His Democratic opponent in the upcoming midterm elections, J.D. Scholten, has seen a spike in campaign donations, with $350,000 pouring in from 7,500 donors in a 24-hour period this week.

The two candidates are neck and neck in the polls.

n (three high bookshelves worth, Soto's dream!)

all that's needed is a fresh Old Fashioned on the table

Michael Cohen tells VF about 4 instances in which he remembers Trump using racist language in private, including once when Trump apparently responded to a remark about the whiteness of his rallies by saying, 'black people are too stupid to vote for me.' https://t.co/ta51F9X3o9

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 2, 2018

xxxpost The absolute very least that I ask when he is no longer president is that I never have to see his face or hear his voice again as long as I live. I think I'd be willing to let all other legal/karmic consequences slide if he were to just disappear altogether from public life. Dream the impossible dream, I guess.

amen

Guys, if you've heard Trump use racial epithets in private, you'd better cash your chips now because I feel like he's maybe a single-digit number of days away from doing so in public at this point.

I hope they decide to digitally edit him out of all movies and TV shows from the past like they did with cigarettes

donny always looks like he's smoking a j, i really hate his terrible face and mannerisms. i can't believe he's president. i went to a great used bookstore near here last night and they have a whole section (three high bookshelves worth, Soto's dream!) of president biographies. seeing Trump in there wedged between Truman and the single Tyler book they had was pretty depressing.

its really kind of amazing that after 2 years on the job Trump still comes off like a D-list reality star who embarrasses himself nearly every time he speaks. his brain seems utterly unable to absorb any new information whatsoever. it's like we're on the receiving end of karmic justice because we called Dubya stupid for 8 years.

last i saw Bogart was still smoking. xp

was the "rocks/rifle" story posted?

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/01/trump-immigration-953569

Stay request denied, emoluments suit going forward

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/11/02/trump-request-to-stay-emoluments-suit-denied-potentially-allowing-plaintiffs-to-seek-details-on-his-d-c-hotels-foreign-customers/?utm_term=.3e6d6bbd6bb6

this motherfucker's gonna be in court for the rest of his (hopefully v short and miserable) life

I encourage every American citizen to file a frivolous lawsuit against him ASAP to help ensure this fate.

#IA04 Rep. Steve King (R) finally went up on the airwaves at 1:18pm today, 2.5 weeks after his opponent. The ad looked familiar to me...and yup, it's a recycled ad from his *2014* race. https://t.co/VkRF8zBspG https://t.co/6qHqYiAok1

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 2, 2018

the nigerian army today quoted trump to justify its shooting of rock-throwing protesters this week

just coming here to post that

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/world/africa/nigeria-trump-rocks.html

But...there is no blame.

It's like people weren't even listening when our president absolved himself of responsibility for the impact of his provocative public statements. There is no anything, guys.

Israel has been shooting at rock throwers for a generation, this isn't new xp

it's like we're on the receiving end of karmic justice because we called Dubya stupid for 8 years.

― frogbs, Saturday, November 3, 2018 6:00 AM (eighteen minutes ago)

Dubya was very stupid. Trump just lowers the bar on any matter with which he associates.

You can win the Presidency, but you're still not a king
You can insult refugees but it don't mean a thing
You say Kim-Jong Un's a friend, but he ain't changed a whit
You can try to ban Muslims but we'll call you on your shit
Cause you want us
But we don't want you
You want everyone
And you want us
But we don't want you
And no one, no one, no one ever
Is to blame

I don't need the reminder, Mr. Mayor, but thanks. What's new is justifying atrocity by pointing to a recently uttered statement of the President of the United States.

That danger of the 'Trump-cover effect' can't be understated imo

*overstated

yes, his aesthetic of "i'm gonna lick my lips as i order crimes in front of cameras"

the subterfuge of normal heads of state, blown up

Trump will be a locus of anger for the rest of his life. His kids will spend their inheritances on security (as they and their families lose Secret Service protection in 2021). His name will continue to be taken off condo projects, and name licencing revenue has dried up. His grandchildren will find "Drumpf" a less embarrassing surname.

The worst thing that could happen to the Trump empire was winning the 2016 election. Some of them may even be forced to work for a living.

The question is, which one of them will murder him?

POTUS says he is putting up "massive cities of tents", "thousands of tents" - or camps with a concentration of illegal immigrants. The overall numbers he claims could be 10, 12 or 20 million people. "The size of Vermont" he says.

— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) November 1, 2018

does he have any idea how numbers work? guess this explains his success in the casino industry

xp: Honestly, I'd be more concerned about outsiders who want to hurt Trump, personally. They know there's only one human he's ever come close to loving.

those poor trumps just can't catch a break

BREAKING: Federal judge denies @realDonaldTrump's attempt to stop discovery process in "Emoluments Clause" lawsuit by DC/MD A.G.'s. Will allow AGs to get documents showing foreign-government customers at Trump Hotel D.C.
Story coming soon...

— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) November 2, 2018

the name david fahrenthold brings back memories of a foregone time when we thought that trump's financial impropriety might make a lick of difference in voters' minds

POTUS says he is putting up "massive cities of tents", "thousands of tents" - or camps with a concentration of illegal immigrants. The overall numbers he claims could be 10, 12 or 20 million people. "The size of Vermont" he says.

children of men, cool movie, cool life

the 20 million people who live in vermont are outraged

camps with a concentration of illegal immigrants camps with a concentration of illegal immigrants camps with a concentration of illegal immigrants camps with a concentration of illegal immigrants camps with a concentration of illegal immigrants camps with a concentration of illegal immigrants camps with a concentration of illegal immigrants camps with a concentration of illegal immigrants camps with a concentration of illegal immigrants camps with a concentration of illegal immigrants

the name david fahrenthold brings back memories of a foregone time when we thought that trump's financial impropriety might make a lick of difference in voters' minds

otm

It makes almost no difference now.

However, I find the prospect of future American History textbooks, which will treat Trump no better than Albert Fall (of Teapot Dome noteriety) or Robert Bork (of Watergate), pretty delicious. There are going to be a half-dozen movies about this era, as the political classes are more incensed about a Queens slumlord gaining the presidency than they were about some willfully ignorant Texan scion starting pointless wars.

i was wondering for just a sec how LBJ was a "scion" but nevermind

plus he was unwillfully aware

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/414551-cruz-suggests-orourke-campaign-money-is-funding-migrant-caravan?amp

slow clap for tracer, that’s been in my head since thread went up

LBJ was no angel, but his decisions were little different than those that might have occurred with any other 1960 or 1964 frontrunner. Every "serious" foreign policy thinker was all about containment, based on the "lesson" of 1938 Munich.

We saw a similar effect during the Obama presidency. I don't think Obama was personally inclined to spreading US vs. Islamist conflict to Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Mali, but it happened. Whether its McNamara and the hundreds of Vietnam think tank hawks in the 1960s, or the similar set of think tank hawks from Samantha Powers on down in the Obama presidency, presidents choose between the options they're given. Almost no presidents enter with enough knowledge of the foreign policy establishment to select advisors that buck the consensus.

GWB was worse than the norm, as he outsourced his vetting to Cheney and other neocons, so all of his intel served the preexisting neocon agenda of deposing Saddam Hussein. Sending Scuds to Isreal in 2001 doomed him. GWB was never briefed on conflicting evidence from the intelligence community, was never briefed on the internal divisions of Iraq, was never briefed on history. He was too willfully ignorant to seek knowledge from independent sources, and did as his advisors advised.

I don't think LBJ was willfully ignorant in the same sense. My sense of his presidency is that he felt betrayed by the limited intel he received from the start of his presidency, and somewhat trapped within existing policy and foreign policy norms. He never cared as much about Vietnam as he did about civil rights and Great Society programs.

It matters that the people we elect are intellectually curious. When some Queens slumlord claims that he knows everything, and that he and only he can solve the world, it should have been automatically disqualifying.

That last paragraph is A+.

Actual Gilead manual:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/washington-state-legislator-circulates-proposal-on-exterminating-liberals

Shea replied to Rowe and the Seattle Times in a Facebook video of his own, furiously claiming that he wasn’t angry over the incident while showing off his historical knowledge by claiming that the Mayflower compact was “a covenant with God to advance Christianity.”

“The counter-state is working overtime,” he said, adding that “there are two main counter-states in America: Marxists and Islamists.”

He went on to criticize a recent Rolling Stone profile of him as an example of a “Maoist insurgency model.”

“In fact, I’ve been wanting to do this video for a long time,” Shea said, repeating angrily that he wasn’t upset. “Yesterday, the Rolling Stone posted an 8,000 word article that was essentially a slander smear piece – a hit piece – against me.”

lmfao

the name paul krugman brings back memories of a foregone time when nobel laureat's op-eds didn't make any difference, either

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/opinion/republican-party-lies.html?

Judge Orders Georgia’s Brian Kemp To Give Thousands More People A Shot At Voting

A federal judge in Georgia on Friday ordered state Secretary of State Brian Kemp to establish additional procedures to guarantee that voters flagged by the state as potential noncitizens can vote in the 2018 election if they can prove their citizenship.

The decision from U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross is a win for voting rights groups who are suing the state over its so-called “exact match” system for registering new voters. The ruling is expected to affect 3,141 people who registered but whose registrations were considered pending because the state couldn’t verify their citizenship. Overall, there are about 53,000 people whose voter registrations are pending because of a system that critics say is inaccurate and discriminatory.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/georgia-brian-kemp-voters_us_5bdc92cee4b09d43e31ecee7

lol Kemp's gonna do that... over the weekend?

but it's good news, I'll take it

Sure. He'll work a late night.

Shea replied to Rowe and the Seattle Times in a Facebook video of his own, furiously claiming that he wasn’t angry over the incident

and another thing: im not mad. please dont put in the newspaper that i got mad.

— wint (@dril) December 29, 2014

Anyone who suggests I'm not on an even fucking keel is going to get mashed.

The overall numbers he claims could be 10, 12 or 20 million people

That's a sequence of numbers alright.

they're comin' to America TODAY

Asked about new @ABC News/WaPo poll finding 49% believe he encourages politically motivated violence with the way he speaks, Pres. Trump tells @karentravers, "You're creating violence by your question...A lot of the reporters are creating violence by not writing the truth." pic.twitter.com/pm4YI4VTao

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 2, 2018

another SC rebuke for Chump

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/11/02/supreme-court-refuses-to-delay-case-alleging-an-improper-political-motive-in-decision-to-add-citizenship-question-to-census/?utm_term=.f4ecd1c95cee

I mean in a manner of speaking he’s right. If media had told the truth that he is a racist etc. from the start...

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/jacob-wohl-accused-of-fooling-desperate-woman-into-paying-him-for-sham-private-investigation/

tbf his solutions are indeed bespoke

man wtf w the SC today

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-refuses-to-block-kids-climate-lawsuit-against-us-government/2018/11/02/34bd7ee6-d7af-11e8-83a2-d1c3da28d6b6_story.html?utm_term=.d8337e8dfa86

I mean that lawsuit seems p crazy to me, maybe they're just expecting lower courts to rule against it

"the government should seek relief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit." good luck

9th circuit is the most liberal circuit in the country...?

sorry I was being sarcastic. I was thinking the government isn't likely to win in the 9th

i am the 10,000th person to make a zodiac killer tweet edit

https://i.imgur.com/qty6qec.gif

lol

https://i1.wp.com/badbooksgoodtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/chef-kiss-gif.gif?fit=300%2C198

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have granted the Trump administration’s request to delay the trial.

lol of course

also for the climate change lawsuit:

"Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch would have stopped the suit."

I am very proud of those local kids

yes!

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/11/03/us/politics/03repubs-print/merlin_146231109_013fcbfe-9950-4b8d-81b1-f7afb991f133-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp

Myyyyyyyyy....WAR!
YOU'RE ONE OF THEM
YOU! SAY!
THAT YOU'VE MY FRIEND
BUT YOU'RE ONE OF THEM ONE OF THEM ONE OF THEM!!

Cruz demonstrating how to make a Canadian Clanger.

https://processedmedia.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/mr-show-s1-ep4-3.png

where are the tax returns

there are no tax returns, there is no anything.

this is relatively old news, from the ancient time of august 26, but just to start the day off right, here is a list of investigations that democrats are expected to launch if they take the house:

President Trump’s tax returns
Trump family businesses — and whether they comply with the Constitution's emoluments clause, including the Chinese trademark grant to the Trump Organization
Trump's dealings with Russia, including the president's preparation for his meeting with Vladimir Putin
The payment to Stephanie Clifford — a.k.a. Stormy Daniels
James Comey's firing
Trump's firing of U.S. attorneys
Trump's proposed transgender ban for the military
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's business dealings
White House staff's personal email use
Cabinet secretary travel, office expenses, and other misused perks
Discussion of classified information at Mar-a-Lago
Jared Kushner's ethics law compliance
Dismissal of members of the EPA board of scientific counselors
The travel ban
Family separation policy
Hurricane response in Puerto Rico
Election security and hacking attempts
White House security clearances

And probably lots more. Obviously some of these are in progress already under various jurisdictions.

2018-2020 (and beyond) might still be a shitshow, but at least there might be some shit to show for it.

counting chickens not yet hatched

everyone with twitter, will you please join me in yelling at steve king?
i would like to see him ratio'd to a legendary degree. i fucking hate this asshole

for some reason i'm getting a poxy fule error every time i try to post his latest tweet. it's the one that says "My opponent is the antithesis (the opposite) of Iowa values. My record proves I embody them."

system is protecting us. hail system

#IA04: Rep. Steve King (R)'s lead over J.D. Scholten (D) down to 46%-45% nearly halfway thru NYT/Siena poll. Scholten now airing *two minute* ads. https://t.co/6KqZMxRjaA

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 3, 2018

patiently waiting by my phone for a possible call from Nate Cohn

he conducts all the calls, right?

This is the 2 minute ad by the way

Dem running agnst Steve King puts up 2 min!!! Field of Dreams-inspired ad. ('real" field of dreams in the 1st CD, btw, not the 4th)https://t.co/hlbkfyGZYD

— amy walter (@amyewalter) November 2, 2018

Also lol

#IA04 Rep. Steve King (R) finally went up on the airwaves at 1:18pm today, 2.5 weeks after his opponent. The ad looked familiar to me...and yup, it's a recycled ad from his *2014* race. https://t.co/VkRF8zBspG https://t.co/6qHqYiAok1

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 2, 2018

Hi, I cover the White House for one of the world's most important publications. The President of the United States giving his tacit approval to the massacre of people in synagogues and Chuck D saying "Farrakhan's a prophet" in "Bring the Noise" in 1988 are the same thing

— Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) November 3, 2018

breaking: meet the press blows

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/11/02/study-over-past-3-months-guest-panels-sunday-shows-have-been-overwhelmingly-conservative/221974

https://i.imgur.com/WMPKrkj.png

(in case you're wondering, "We coded panels as tilting left when a majority of participants were Democratic or progressive; we coded panels as tilting right when a majority of participants were Republican or conservative; and we coded panels as balanced when Democratic and progressive guests numbered equally with Republican and conservative guests. Neutral guests did not affect a panel's tilt.")

things you can do with a lawnmower

https://i.imgur.com/mzcA8Fl.png

i found this article from the night before the 2016 election. it is awesome

https://www.wired.com/2016/11/2016s-election-data-hero-isnt-nate-silver-sam-wang/

Forget Nate Silver. There's a new king of the presidential election data mountain. His name is Sam Wang, Ph.D.

Haven't heard of him just yet? Don't worry. You will. Because Wang has sailed True North all along, while Silver has been cautiously trying to tack his FiveThirtyEight data sailboat (weighted down with ESPN gold bars) through treacherous, Category-Five-level-hurricane headwinds in what has easily been the craziest presidential campaign in the modern political era.

When the smoke clears on Tuesday—and it will clear—what will emerge is Wang and his Princeton Election Consortium website and calculations (which have been used, in part, to drive some of the election poll conclusions at The New York Times' Upshot blog and *The Huffington Post'*s election site). What will be vindicated is precisely the sort of math approach that Silver once rode to fame and fortune.

...So when the smoke clears on Tuesday; when enough non-white and female voters haven't been harassed or intimidated enough to stay home; when Clinton crosses the finish line with something close to 300 Electoral College votes and a popular vote victory somewhere between two and five percentage points; and Nate Silver is telling his 1.7 million Twitter followers that he'd been right all along this election, Sam Wang will be standing tall above the fray, draped in his "median-based probability election" cloak.

Long live the new election data king.

lolll wired

When the smoke clears on Tuesday what will emerge is Wang
When the smoke clears on Tuesday what will emerge is Wang
When the smoke clears on Tuesday what will emerge is Wang
When the smoke clears on Tuesday what will emerge is Wang
When the smoke clears on Tuesday what will emerge is Wang
When the smoke clears on Tuesday what will emerge is Wang
When the smoke clears on Tuesday what will emerge is Wang
When the smoke clears on Tuesday what will emerge is Wang
When the smoke clears on Tuesday what will emerge is Wang
When the smoke clears on Tuesday what will emerge is Wang

This is the 2 minute ad by the way

Dem running agnst Steve King puts up 2 min!!! Field of Dreams-inspired ad. ('real" field of dreams in the 1st CD, btw, not the 4th)https://t.co/hlbkfyGZYD
— amy walter (@amyewalter) November 2, 2018
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Saturday, November 3, 2018 3:26 PM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Through the whole I was waiting for him to start carping about Courtney Love and Beck and Hanson

That lawnmower thing---on two phone games that I play the most and am usually high on the leader board my handles are "trumpisadick" and "trumpsucks."

I do wonder how the MTP panel composition would change under a Dem administration

I do wonder how the MTP panel composition would change under a Dem administration

They would eliminate the token Democrat and make it all Republicans.

That's how it was in 2009-2010.

Huh

oh sweet jesus I hate this motherfucker. praying that abrams wins and this doesn't go into a runoff.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/04/us/politics/georgia-elections-kemp-voters-hack.html

also:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/04/politics/sonny-perdue-cotton-pickin-florida-governor-andrew-gillum-ron-desantis/index.html

really, my dude? really???

The Kemp news...i hope that fucker has a stroke

I thought he'd actually prevented the Georgia servers from being looked into previously which might have helped prevent further hacking. So, slight hypocrysy there.

Hmm hipocracy on the part if a Republican... I don't know, don't buy it tbh

.@SenBillNelson has been in public office for over 40 years. He’s been in the Senate for 18 years. He’s the only statewide elected Democrat in Florida. @desiderioDC talked to voters who think @AndrewGillum chose Nelson for the ticket.

AMAZING pic.twitter.com/EJud1dmXyk

— Chris Hartline (@ChrisHartline) November 5, 2018

Hypocritic oaf

if he can pull Nelson over the line...

I hate Rick Skeletor Scott

You have no idea!

Forty-eight hours from now, I will be pointedly avoiding the internet. Probably watching something on Netflix.

i will be right here

stoked for the madness

Nope. Can't avoid it. To quote Morrissey, angel, we go down together.

I guess we'll see. The memory of Election Night 2016 - which never officially ended for me, because I couldn't sleep - is still very raw.

ray netflix is right on the dang internet!!!!

j., you know what I meant.

ayo how does one watch election results on the west coast of the USA?

― Sing The Mighty Beat (sic), Sunday, November 4, 2018 5:39 PM (yesterday)

yeah i for one am lining up some dense and wine-oriented movie watching i think, the november 2016 double-feature of "duck soup" and "saboteur" was totally inadequate at skipping forward through time, esp since as soon as the credits started rolling someone near the back of the theater checked their phone and yelled out "it's america that's being sabotaged, because trump is winning!" i dismissed them as superficial followers of early precinct information or w/e but a few hours later my little household, deep in some sad cups, was switching between bob ross and "airheads" just to try and blot out the minutes until the last, miserable make-or-break states came in. netflix must be sitting on fascinating data of what ppl reached out for that night. i'm going to need continuous distraction, minimal news, unless it's amazing news.

it's not going to be another upset like that

i've probably posted all that on one of these threads before, sorry

sure i just don't need to be sitting there watching ppl say "checking back in the texas senate race, it is still TOO CLOSE TO CALL although o'rourke is probably hoping that THESE precincts break in his favor" etc etc til 2 in the morning

"nate, since we're still waiting on those Fargo precincts to figure out if heitkamp has a chance, are there any state senate races where the exit polling so far has surprised you?"

I'm going to sit through every last second of the election returns and then hate myself after.

oh yeah. i will try not to watch that stuff either.

it's not going to be another upset like that

― Trϵϵship

538 gives republicans a 1 out of 7 chance of holding the house. just for fun, i'd suggest googling "random number generator", putting a min of 1 and a max of 7, and clicking "generate" until a 7 comes up

it took me 8 times

but

idk

(got a 7 on my second try)

this is my idea of wild sunday night fun btw

i posted this over on the mid-term thread and no one gave a shit about it, but i think it's worth thinking about

there are all sorts of assumptions built into the models, and minor adjustments to them can yield pretty different results.

i really like the whole NYT live polling thing especially if you drill down into an individual race (like dave brat v spanberger: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/elections-poll-va07-3.html)

i realize that might be paywalled off for some people, or you might have run out of free articles for the month. but just to give you an idea, for each individual race they provide these kinds of alternative projections and then update the results in real-time as they conduct the poll:

https://i.imgur.com/imS0QOL.png
https://i.imgur.com/P2Jfngx.png

I’m going to go to a national park after I vote

can I recommend that ppl torrent some classic robert altman movies to occupy their time? altman is good iirc

We're going to a Ethiopian restaurant in the East Village for my birthday and then catching up on South Park. Already voted by mail.

I voted absentee aaaaaaages ago, and although I can only vote on federal races because: expat I’m still getting hundreds of badly personalised begging emails from DFL state races. Must have deleted 20 yesterday alone.

I have most of the Altmans, will loan them to the cause if it keeps y'all out of trouble.

I'm absolutely not watching any of the returns. Voting immediately after work on Tuesday, coming home and distracting myself with non-internet/tv/radio stuff until blessed sleep falls over me. I'm pretty much just bracing myself for the worst because I will never again put myself through the turmoil of two years ago (partly because it might literally kill me).

I honestly don't see much of a future if this week isn't a repudiation of Trump. Anything else will be perceivable and perceived as a tacit approval of him and everything he stands for, and proof that people who outwardly profess not to be racist are tolerant of racism if it doesn't upset their own personal apple cart.

I mean, there will still be a future in that scenario, just probably not for America as a livable country.

For many segments American hasn't been livable since the mid 2000s.

Or 1800s.

ANYWAY.

Here's why we need some hope:

This is wild. My grandparents could not vote because they were black. They fled Florida with my uncle and mother so they wouldn't go to Jim Crow schools. Now Florida could have a black governor. https://t.co/bDR4sXACCF

— Student Loans 🍝 (@AdamSerwer) November 5, 2018

Given Trump is the most disliked president, and given his policies have had and will have dire consequences, and given there are Republicans saying they're voting Dem (however few) and I presume not the other way around, and given a potentially record midterm turnout, and given an apparently relatively huge number of young people and college educated white women voting, and one hopes Latinos and African-Americans as well, and given the record amount of money being spent, on presidential levels of ads and gotv campaigns, is it fair to say that this midterm election, however it turns out, will be The Best We Can Do? I'm not really thinking about it that much, but if after all of this the Dems still fail to take the house, then ... I don't know what else there is to do.

Parallel argument: there was lots of hand-wringing, here and elsewhere/everywhere, about what Trump and his supporters would do had he lost the election and claimed it was all rigged/corrupt (which he did anyway, but still) and refused to accept the results. We have indications of election tomfoolery, both at the behest of active participants (like Kemp) but also ongoing thanks to outside interference that has yet to be resolved or fixed. So if, despite the aforementioned momentum and numbers, the Dems fail to perform as predicted/expected ... do the Dems just roll over?

All of the factors you mention are heartening but it remains to be seen if they will offset the GOP's enthusiasm for gaming the system in their favor and cheating their way to victory.

*taps fingers on desk*

because I will never again put myself through the turmoil of two years ago (partly because it might literally kill me).

Not dumb. 2016 was a lot easier for me to handle, (and SO much more quickly sussed- i was offline by 8p MST!) having lived 2004.

thots and prayers

staying up to watch a good election > going to bed early and ignoring the election >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> staying up to watch a bad election

2018 isn't the last gasp for democracy. In 2020, the Senate electoral landscape is dramatically better for Democrats, with 11 Democratic incumbents and 20 Republican incumbents.

Demographic trends are in the Dems favor. The median age of a primetime Fox News viewer is 65. Younger generations are more ethnically diverse and have lower religiosity. With its embrace of Trump and nationalists/nativists, the GOP has damaged its brand among younger voters for decades to come.

Economic and environmental news will also drive change voters in 2020. We're going to have $100+/bbl oil by 2020 if current production trends continue, Trump's trade wars will extend their effects, the stock and bond markets are at historic overvaluations. More climate deniers homes will be destroyed by the changing climate.

It's going to take decades before the U.S. recovers from the damage the Republicans have done to the judiciary since 2000, but 2020 looks a lot like 2008 to me.

I'm not accustomed to playing Polyyanna, but these are strange times. I'd like to caution the mostly white cis men posting in this thread that when you're in line cheerfully for hours like these residents of North Miami were yesterday in the hopes of electing the first black governor in Florida's history and first Democrat since 1994 you're not thinking about the Future of the Republic.

Demographic trends are in the Dems favor.

People have been saying this for years. The numbers are in Dem favor, both in terms of demographics and presumed voting inclinations as well as in (I want to say) total number of registered Dem voters. Hasn't really done much good, if every election in recent memory has been some bloody battle to the death determined largely by attrition.

With its embrace of Trump and nationalists/nativists, the GOP has damaged its brand among younger voters for decades to come.

Remember when, after Obama was elected, the GOP (led by the likes of Priebus, I want to say) was all "we have to look deep inside ourselves and change, because the country and its demographics are changing?" The GOP sure doesn't. Alfred, I want to thank you for the disheartening but informative book about America and its courts/laws during Reconstruction, which shows how hard it is to get things done for the good of the country when 50% (or more) of the country disagrees over what is good.

I mean, prove me wrong, America. But Trump proved everyone wrong. Maybe he cheated, maybe he was lucky, but the fact that he was elected at all does not bode well.

i posted this over on the mid-term thread and no one gave a shit about it

In fairness this may also be because this is the mid-term thread.

There are lots of good trends! The GOP has been driven to such psychotic extremes of late because the majority of the country is moving in an increasingly-progressive direction.

I have to say that of the few Dem political ads I've seen, I've been very impressed by the lack of punches pulled. All Republicans are getting the Trump albatross hung around their necks, the NRA is being explicitly painted as an extremist organization, etc. The only GOP commercial I've seen featured a fake smiley Rauner and his wife taking turns reading cue cards, with Rauner ineptly mouthing his wife's lines while he awaits his turn to talk.

is it fair to say that this midterm election, however it turns out, will be The Best We Can Do?

I mean its definitely worth mentioning that the map is pretty brutal for the Dems this go around. if we were dealing with 2020's map in this environment I have no doubt it would be a historical wave.

Iowans, for personal reasons I hope you’ll vote Steve King out. I’m tired of being confused with this racist dumbbell.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) November 4, 2018

a King without a crown

Steve King getting owned would be delightful.

judd legumes compiles various governments borrowing trump's words to excuse atrocities:

Nigeria isn't the only authoritarian regime to feel emboldened by Trump. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, for example, blasted a media outlet critical of his regime, Rappler, as "fake news." The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission shut down the outlet.

In a January press conference, Duterte denied personal involvement in the move against Rappler and blasted the publication in a Trumpian rant. "You can stop your suspicious mind from roaming somewhere else. But since you are a fake news outlet then I am not surprised that your articles are also fake. You went overboard, you are not only throwing toilet paper, you are throwing shit at us," Duterte said.

In August, a government spokesman responded to reports that Duterte was in poor health by saying anyone that publishes such information should kill themselves. The spokesman told reporters that anyone suggesting Duterte was sick should "just hang themselves because what they want will not happen."

Trump's criticism of "fake news" has been adopted by "prominent leaders or state media in at least 15 countries," according to a report by Politico. Authoritarians are typically using the phrase to "undermine and discredit" critical media coverage.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, for example, brushed off an Amnesty International report that 13,000 people died in a military prison, by claiming "we are living in a fake news era."

https://i.imgur.com/7QeoO7K.png

seems fine

Happy Monday morning to the editors at the Washington Examiner! pic.twitter.com/AzVLIgI7nL

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 5, 2018

woulda been a way better hack without that last sentence

Agreed.

c'mon kids
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/powerup/2018/11/05/powerup-will-there-be-a-youth-wave-early-voting-points-to-yes/5bdf5c391b326b39290545bd/?utm_term=.52ee170159a2

today i had a lyft driver who repeatedly expressed his pride in the 18 year old rider in the back seat who'd voted early

What makes me the most pessimistic about potential Dem mid term gains is that Republicans voters are very motivated, GOP politicians and voters are enthusiastically embracing the crazy on another level. It will be the obvious overriding factor but won’t be addressed in lieu of other kinds of hand wringing because no one knows what to do about it.

thread:

I've spent some time with people tracking the minutiae of Texas voting registrations and voter challenges and I'm once again convinced that voter suppression is the larger story of this election

— Anne Helen Petersen (@annehelen) November 5, 2018

but there's fewer republicans than ever, thanks to trump, so not sure if that helps your anxiety xp

Gillum and Scott both up by 7 pts in FL, looking pretty good (fingers crossed)

er lol I mean Gillum and NELSON duh

you know you're rooting for the skeletor

http://pictures.picasion.com/pic64/cbb7e54274d556ddb93dee876ee669a1.gif

lorida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum (D) holds a 7-point lead over Republican Ron DeSantis, according to a new poll in the closely-watched governor's race.

The Quinnipiac University Poll survey, which was released on Monday, shows that 50 percent of likely voters polled favor Gillum, while 43 percent of likely voters surveyed support DeSantis.

Six percent of likely voters in the survey said they are still undecided, while just 1 percent of polled voters who had picked a candidate said they may change their mind on Election Day.

The 7-point advantage for Gillum is similar to the Quinnipiac survey of the Florida governor's race released on Oct. 23. The poll found that Gillum had a 6-point lead over DeSantis at the time.

Gillum’s lead seems substantial and impressive

I don't quite believe it's as wide as seven points, but there hasn't been a single poll since August in which DeSantis has led.

And I still can't quite believe Florida looks ready to elect a black liberal to the governorship.

I was making fun of Pete Davidson on the SNL thread, but apparently he described Rick Scott as looking like he was whittled out of Bruce Willis' penis.

that's almost the opposite of what he said

he described Bruce Willis' penis as looking like a whittled out Rick Scott?

or was it that Rick Scott looked like he was whittled by a penis out of Bruce Willis?

*signs executive order*

Whichever way you cut it, it sounds like he was saying Rick Scott is a useless flesh ruin, which nobody can deny.

which nobody can deny

https://i.imgur.com/3Le3xcP.gif

uncanny

McCaskill also getting a narrow lead in late polling (Menendez being up by 15 isn't really a surprise, I don't think?)

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/05/trump-close-out-midterm-961507

Trump on racist ad: "I don't know about it [...] a lot of things are offensive. Your questions are offensive" pic.twitter.com/YfqjVIm6is

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) November 5, 2018

we're probably only about three weeks away from Trump deciding to just start answering every question with a jack-off motion.

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what his 'invisible zipper' gesture has always signified. Probably best not to consider the particulars of how that translates in the boudoir, tho.

NJ voters can almost always be counted on to say "You seem like a real asshole - I'm voting for the crook."

"You're an offensive ad."

this country has a long history of well-liked crooks, it's part of our charm

did we observe his remark "Border security is very much a women's issue"

I have no doubt Trump’s 3rd grade “Nuh uh, YOU are!” comebacks are taken as real sick takedowns by his base.

xps

Law Enforcement has been strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING which may take place in Tuesday’s Election (or Early Voting). Anyone caught will be subject to the Maximum Criminal Penalties allowed by law. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2018

"why do you have an illegal ID??"
"So I can vote"

what about that caravan? they're perched on the border, fake IDs in hand, right??

strongly notified

we should know by now how he expresses himself. his style is consistent enough that we got tired of parodying it.

NJ voters can almost always be counted on to say "You seem like a real asshole - I'm voting for the crook."

― grawlix (unperson), Monday, November 5, 2018 12:50 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

P much true in IL, as well. Like, I'm obviously gonna vote for Pritzker over Rauner even as I wonder if he's going to wind up being (checks Google) the fifth Illinois governor to do jail time.

Ha, I guess doofus on SNL actually said Rick Scott looked as "if someone tried to whittle Bruce Willis out of a penis," which is also ... illustrative. Also scans like Bruce Willis might have been trapped in a penis, in which case ... is Rick Scott a hero?

uh isn't that Trump tweet voter intimidation and therefore illegal or have we just accepted that Trump can break whatever laws he wants

Laws? Where we are going, we don't need ... laws.

it's legal illegal voter intimidation

he was reaching for an illegal vote

To be fair, there's been so little evidence of voter fraud it proves how well the criminals have hidden it.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-russia-could-steal-the-midterms/

I dont like russia conspiracy stuff but i am concerned about how insecure the voting system is

isn't that Trump tweet voter intimidation and therefore illegal

xps galore - his intention to intimidate is pretty clear and his position at the apex of government lends extra force to his words, but legally speaking he's on very safe ground, since he frames it entirely as intimidating ILLEGAL VOTERS, who are completely safe to intimidate.

I’m not sure anyone has brought this up before, but Trump’s a massive dick

i haven't thought of it before, but yeah he IS kind of a dick!

A lot of things started making sense once I noticed

many people are saying he's a dick

I dont like russia conspiracy stuff but i am concerned about how insecure the voting system is

― Trϵϵship, Monday, November 5, 2018 7:34 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this, too, is the game.

undermining confidence in the system being just as efficient a way to sow discord as real in-county server meddling

I was going to give you fellas guff about your unkind words for the president, but I mulled it over for a minute and, gee whiz, you may just have a point. I'm not entirely convinced he has our best interests at heart. Still mostly convinced, but not entirely.

P.S. I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't have this gushing head wound looked at. But it doesn't seem to be affecting my judgment and, heck, things have a way of just working out if you leave them alone.

There really isn't a "voting system" in the US, there are hundreds or thousands of voting systems. Which actually gives me more big picture confidence, not less, although may make certain individual places more vulnerable.

Analysis: Violence around election time actually makes people more likely to vote https://t.co/F30pOjQBiq

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 5, 2018

good 2 know

i remember in 16 being convinced someone would die at the polls

AZ and NV join TX in eclipsing total vote for 2014

29 states + DC surpassed their 2014 total #earlyvote:

DC, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, LA, MA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NJ, NM, OK, SC, TN, VA, UT, VT, WI, and WV

3 states surpassed their 2014 total vote (early + Election Day):

AZ, NV, and TX

— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) November 5, 2018

what a fool believes

Sweet freedom!

what a fool believes

― President Keyes, Monday, November 5, 2018 3:27 PM

lol it took me way too long to get that

Trump just complained that PC culture doesn’t allow him to say that his daughter is beautiful

— Sam Stein (@samstein) November 5, 2018

Feels like that particular vein of frustration with 'PC culture' runs much much deeper.

if he wants to be a fucking creep no one is stopping him

And lest we give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that this is merely an innocuous, fatherly expression, let us recall the number of times he's similarly expounded on the beauty of his other daughter.

Or, y'know, acknowledged her existence.

(I guess, for the sake of accuracy, I should say 'the at least one other daughter whose existence is known to the public'.)

Calling ivanka “beautiful” is an interesting way for him to characterize the things he said about her that people were horrified by

So here is the context as to why Kemp stated he was investigating Dems yesterday:

https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/11/04/kemps-aggressive-gambit-to-distract-from-election-security-crisis/

I think I saw somebody posting about that on Twitter the other day. Something about looking at the Secretary of State site, or at least the part that pertains to voting, and seeing that the security had not been updated since maybe 2011, not coincidentally the year he became SoS.

i remember in 16 being convinced someone would die at the polls

Wore my H> shirts 2 days in a red county Sunday & today. Still not murdered.

uh isn't that Trump tweet voter intimidation and therefore illegal

see Dick, Tricky

Holy shit @ the details in Neanderthal's link

in case it wasn't obvious, the reason kkkemp is doing this at the 11th hour is to whip up a fear-based misinformation campaign because there's a good chance the GA gubernatorial election will go into a runoff

^^^

If the Dems win Georgia can they immediately correct the problems with the voter data security flaws. Or is there a system that they need to fight through to correct things like that.
Or alternatively would any attempt to make those processes more secure immediately cause the GOP to start wailing about how they were messing around with voter data in a suspiicious way. or is that inevitable anyway.

lol basically it sounds like they need to just follow directions from the courts instead of being total dicks about it

^^^ the existential difference between the Dems and the GOP.

Kemp going with the armed Black Panthers gambit on twitter.

My read on tomorrow:

• The House is pretty much a lock for the Democrats, and I think the margin is gonna be wider than pollsters can prove/journalists are willing to assert
• The Senate is likely to stay Republican, but is much more within reach than pollsters can prove/journalists are willing to assert
• A lot more states are gonna have Democratic governors next year than currently do
• Republican voter turnout is gonna be down because Trump voters are not Republican voters, they're Trump cultists who don't actually give a shit unless the Leader is on the ballot, and besides, the Trump cult was always small - it was just fortuitously concentrated enough in three states to bend the Electoral College the wrong way; plus, it's possible that a statistically significant number of Republican voters are gonna cross the line and vote Democratic
• Democratic voter turnout is gonna be way up because journalists, most of whom have spent the last two years living in diner parking lots in Pennsylvania, are massively underestimating just how much people fucking hate Donald Trump and want to strike any possible blow they can against him

Largely agree with you, unperson. I'd add I think there's going to be enough close Senate races to ensure this election story runs a week.

I really would love to see a polling firm call people and ask, straight up, "Do you hate Donald Trump, yes or no?" I think the numbers would shock the world.

yeah unperson i kinda buy most of that. altho tbf there is prob not a causal connection between diner-covering journalists and voter turnout. a pissed-off electorate and turnout, yes. all the little data points from special elections have been pointing that way for the past year and i've def been leaning a lot of my hopes on that general pissed-offedness being at a high point for tomorrow.

This is the key to Schumer's politics. Kavanaugh, unless he's impeached, will be a generational victory for the conservative movement, but the backlash to that victory might save one imperiled Democratic Senate incumbent. GOP takes that deal every time. So does Schumer! https://t.co/1l9OIsXuVy

— Italian Alex Pareene (@pareene) November 5, 2018

for those of you are lucky to not have evangelical trump lovers in your family, there's a kind of astonishing, right on the nose, conversation in the latest nytimes 'the daily' podcast episode that you should listen to. the whole episode is good, but there's a really special part from 20:50 to 33:00 where it's just a recording of a phone call between a well-spoken evangelical and her father. the daughter was a lifelong republican until she started interacting and working with refugees. she makes an argument for christianity as a faith that is intended to help the outcasts of society, not demonize them. her father is...every old guy who watches fox news.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/podcasts/the-daily/white-evangelical-women-trump-beto-texas.html
(or just look up "the daily" on spotify, if you ave that. it's the latest episode)

there is definitely a part of me that suspects people are still feeling way too burned about 2016 and are underestimating the chances of a massive wave. I mean the polling looks good but I don't know how much it's accounting for massive turnout + lots of new registrations, not to mention the fact that we went from MAGABomber to Synagogue Shooting to "Too Racist For TV" political ad in the span of like a week

I keep remembering how everyone got Ralph Northam's victory wrong exactly a year ago and how the cognoscenti also didn't Gillum's stunning landslide in August.

*didn't see

not too racist for NBC to air it during their most popular show (sunday night football) before suddenly realizing it was racist
xp

lotta audible groans and "what the fuck"s when that came on even in the small Wisconsin town I live in

I don't think that ad is going over well with anyone but the chudliest of the chuds

President Trump has the *worst pre-election approval rating in modern history* immediately before his first midterm election via new @CNN poll and Gallup trend:

W Bush 63%
Eisenhower 61%
Kennedy 61%
Nixon 58%
HW Bush 58%
Carter 49%
Obama 46%
Clinton 46%
Reagan 43%
Trump 39%

— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) November 5, 2018

I dont have a good way to judge whether the caravan thing is paying off for Trump. I think a lot of people buy his line that the Democrats are willing to tolerate lawlessness re. immigration and they don’t like that. On the other hand, the manner in which he has chosen to make this argument is getting people killed.

wow this list, i'd forgotten about so much of it (this is mostly not the "trump tweeted WHAT NOW" stuff)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/paloma/the-trailer/2018/11/05/the-trailer-18-moments-that-shaped-the-midterms/5be0557c1b326b39290545d1/?utm_term=.be70c5577a6d

the people who buy that line didn't need convincing, they were already bought

she makes an argument for christianity as a faith that is intended to help the outcasts of society, not demonize them.

― Karl Malone, Monday, November 5, 2018 2:36 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

As a Jew living in Christendom I do not know how deeply faithful Christians come to any other conclusion about their religion. Maybe they're not that sincere about their religion, I guess.

I dont have a good way to judge whether the caravan thing is paying off for Trump. I think a lot of people buy his line that the Democrats are willing to tolerate lawlessness re. immigration and they don’t like that. On the other hand, the manner in which he has chosen to make this argument is getting people killed.

― Trϵϵship,

Treeship, no one except his base is buying this argument.

Reagan's unpopularity post-shooting well into 1983 is one of those facts that his hagiographers ignore.

xp I worry that it isn't necessary to buy the argument for the argument to succeed, to the extent that "success" is planting that little seed of fear that keeps somebody home instead of going to vote.

Hope not alfred xp

paying off for trump is not mutually exclusive with no one but his base buying his argument. voter enthusiasm is high for both parties. higher for democrats, it's true. but i'm not sure the base would turn out to the extent that they have (at least by early voting) if they weren't scared into it by their derpmaster

So this is extremely un-empirical and the exact kind of post I get flamed for but I’m gonna go for it.

When the new york times publishes an article about illegal immigration or sanctuary cities or a related topic, the comments are flooded with people who say they are democrats but fiercely against the democrats’ policies on immigration, which they (ignorantly) equate with “open borders.”

I don’t know if these are real democrats/independents posting this or some kind of weird pose struck by MAGA dudes. But it seems plausible there are people with this attitude, given Trump’s victory in counties that went for Obama and the fact that immigration was his central issue. I hope there are very few people like this but I don’t know.

I’m sure there is like polling on this I could look up. But when the conversation turns to the border I am always afraid it helps Trump, even though he sounds like a fascist and is behaving like a fascist on this issue, separating families and sending troops etc.

Don't read comments, listen to Queen.

I'm not sure that anything can be discerned from comments sections except maybe 'anonymity is antithetical to civilization'.

Which queen song u feelin now? I like ‘don’t stop me now’ for karaoke

i want to break free is the karaoke jam tbh

I love I want to break free

I've done an excellent "A Kind of Magic" at karaoke, including harmonies.

ive seen self-deception on us pol threads before but

Oh, that’s a great one for karaoke. This is better than the other conversation.

Queen is worse than Bob Menendez

come on

I love queen

i'm a big fan of this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6zAo_PMdBo

When I was a kid bohemian rhapsody fascinated me. It sounded like nothing else on the classic rock radio my parents would listen to.

I don’t want to die / I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all is still, I feel, a pretty great little paradox

not sure why you would even post that crüt

xp. not a paradox

get free by the vines is the greatest karaoke song of all time

yeah that's just how depressed people think ime xp

Sure it is

It’s contradictory on its face but contains a deeper, psychological truth.

it is not contradictory

wanting to die and wanting to not have been born are orthogonal desires

Yeah but having one of those thoughts spur you on to the other is a paradoxical phenomenon.

not sure why you would even post that crüt

joeks, bruv

lol ok

I want to believe this so much:

Logically I think Beto comes up just short. But I’ve got a feeling about this one and something tells me he pulls it out. https://t.co/ByUNwG4F9P

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 6, 2018

But I’ve got a feeling about this one

It's the feeling of incredulity that a majority of humans or any other any species could like Ted Cruz.

A lotta new voters registered in texas that might not be getting picked up by the polls.

But there are a lotta already-registered retrograde voters in texas who somehow will force their reluctant hands to vote for Cruz.

a whole lot of Republicans to overcome. On the flip side, my family hasn't voted yet, so no votes cannibalized over here.

I don't want to be contradictory just for its own sake, but I don't think Josh Marshall's 'feelings' are a reliable source.

Re: nobody knows anything -

This is the single most terrifying bit of poll-related data for Republicans, in that Democrats made gains in a pretty diverse array of districts, which might lead one to wonder what's happening in the districts that *haven't* been polled recently. https://t.co/Os8kc9QqoX

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 5, 2018

i.e. they know that Democrats are doing great

🤞

Prayers said, now to bed

Awesome pic.twitter.com/XDsL8j9f1Z

— Jon Millstein (@jmillstein) November 6, 2018

Nobody here needs to hear this, but: VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTE

https://img.saostar.vn/2018/10/29/3954341/tu-the-ngoi-1.gif

Legit thought that said "head down and hug taxes"

Cruz bathroom - huh???

in todayz paypuh

The fact that this guy paid six figures for a full page NYT ad when his local paper would have run the same stupid “socialism is scary because of Venezuela!” letter for free does not support the argument that devotees of capitalism are smart pic.twitter.com/lXnQR8cUCk

— Hamilton Nolan (@hamiltonnolan) November 4, 2018

Republicans are just going in on open and unabashed ratfucking at every level, aren’t they? My friend is a state representative—just a lowly state representative!—running for reelection and the fuckers are sending fake text messages in her name to people in her district with bizarre “crunchy ecowarrior” messages like “save the earth, only turn on your taps once a day! Do your part or YOU’LL BE COMPLICIT!” As well as fake pseudo-handwritten and unattributed mailers full of lies. It’s crazy to think that this must be happening in pretty much every race out there. They really have no shame, do they

Jesus. Is anyone ever held accountable for that stuff or is it just forgotten aftef election day?

there is no blame. There is no anything

Election 2018: The Legacy of Roger Stone.

I hope I live long enough to see the Republican party fucking eat it (and likely be replaced by something even worse, but still).

perhaps it is happening now

Cruz bathroom - huh???

http://i36.tinypic.com/wbvxv5.gif

It was time for that.

Xps way things are now, those fake crunchy eco warrior msgs will likely convince a lot of ppl to save water etc, and vote for impersonated state representative

Good mourning!

where are the ballot returns?

Who's winning?

The Washington Post reports:

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Monday that he hopes Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor “will elope to Cuba,” hours before he is set to appear with Iowa’s governor in an election-eve rally.

At an appearance in Hampton, Iowa, King was discussing the Supreme Court and said that he was optimistic that “we’ll have a 7-2 court” after Tuesday’s midterms, according to Weekly Standard assistant opinion editor Adam Rubenstein.

King added that perhaps “Kagan and Sotomayor will elope to Cuba,” referring to President Barack Obama’s two Supreme Court appointments. A spokesman for King did not immediately respond to a request for clarification of the congressman’s remarks.

It's good to know King is pro marriage equality. I hope he elopes with a pig.

starting to think this steve king guy might have some questionable views tbh

I don't know, give him a chance!

*slick rick voice*

heeeeeerrrreee we go

While I do lament how often racists are dispensing with even the subtlety of a dogwhistle these days, it is kinda refreshing to know who's an irredeemable bag of shit without having to put on the They Live glasses.

I saw some crazy numbers about how extreme the gender gap has gotten among likely congressional voters. Women are 63% for democrats, men just 48%

Dogwhistle is overrated as a political tactic imo. Awful lot if racists way too stupid to pick up on it. Just whistle loud and clear for everyone, and the dumb racists you puck up will comfortably outnumber the 'decent conservatives' lol who you turn off.

Pick up

Not in a sex way lol altho maybe a lot if us have been there

538's Dem Senate odds have quietly ticked up a bit to "1 in 5" (19%) which I still wouldn't count on obviously, but I do think it's good that the late-breaking trend is in that direction, must mean good or stable polling in some races somewhere.

I suspect there will be many surprises tonight. Hopefully in a good way.

raining in metro Atlanta this morning :(

no one who buys the NYT is going to believe anything in that ad.

It's his big Don Draper "Why I'm Quitting Tobacco" moment of moral clarity.

My office mate got assaulted at her South Philly polling place this morning because she told the poll worker she shouldn't have her Bible on the table

wtf

Thanking u bg for momentarily alleviating today's high anxiety as I try to suppress laughter induced by the dn that I somehow just noticed.

Hey @united did you know this store in your @EWRairport Terminal C is pushing an entire display of Trump merch? Are you happy to profit from Trump's racist, sexist agenda? Or do you just not care? pic.twitter.com/6XYIVArhl0

— Elisha Sessions 🆒 (@elishasessions) November 4, 2018

Little column A, little column B.

full disclosure: i stole my dn from some tumblr maniac, glad someone else is enjoying it as much as I did

For the Riverdale fans in the crowd:

Don’t get it confused, your ‘enemies’ are not the myriad of different, working class people that live in this country. Your actual enemy is the 1% robbing you of your liberties and securities while trying to point the blame downward.

— Cole M. Sprouse (@colesprouse) November 5, 2018

Wouldn't it be something if a former Disney Channel star were the one to finally drill that message into the minds of the general public.

Stranger things have happened (multiple times a day for the last two years, for example).

britney spears, leader of antifa

jughead go on chapo

I hadn’t planned to watch returns but then I remembered someone gave me an entire bottle of mulberry gin last week, so I am prepared for waking up at 3am UK time.

yet dylan sprouse remains silent smh

if the senate comes down to arizona, ooooooh boy

BREAKING, READ: Green Angela Green's Last-Minute Withdrawal; Her Votes Will NOT Be Counted, Polling Places Will Post The Withdrawalhttps://t.co/Rs7B3pD5vy pic.twitter.com/e4BgRTUIMt

— Arizona's Politics (@AZs_Politics) November 6, 2018

wait so her votes won't be counted, but the Governor votes in Oregon for the Independent Party candidate who withdrew will remain?

oh never mind, I misread

what effect will this have on the AZ senate race, for those of us who have not been following it that closely?

Imagine if Nader had behaved similarly in 2000.

... but even if votes for her aren't counted, that's still a vote lost from the D contender right?

green party eat my ass

otm

In an NBC News/Marist poll last month, 6 percent of likely voters put their support behind Green.

I don't really see how this would help a D contender (xp)

she's polling in the low single digits, and 3rd party candidates traditionally do worse on election day than in the polls (they struggle with turnout).

by waiting until the last minute to withdraw, she stays on the ballot, and reduces the number of people who know about the withdraw all. some of those people would have voted democrat if they'd have known.

like if you want to run 3rd party (especially against a centrist candidate like sinema) then go for it, but this is bullshit.

i'm in a congressional district where the candidates are one (1) democrat and one (1) green. if i could vote i would vote green in that situation. i have no problem with greens in principle. but what angela green has done is a selfish grift.

green party sure seems to attract those

anyone who was planning to vote Green in such a close race will probably write-in "My own pure and noble soul" when they find out their candidate dropped out

for the true heads

https://www.danielnichanian.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Elections-tracker-Nov5.pdf

"Dónde votar" ("where to vote") is the top trending search on Google in the US today - spiking 3,350%.#Midterms #vote https://t.co/7P9QmWr3G9 pic.twitter.com/AQe5gkMw8V

— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) November 6, 2018

Imagine if Nader had behaved similarly in 2000

nearly all of his voters wd've voted for someone besides Gore or Bush, or not voted

the Dem fantasy still lives 18 years on

Hey, man, I just said 'imagine'. Wherever your imagination takes you is on you.

not the thread for it but fwiw the florida result in 2000 was so close that whatever's left from "nearly all" would still have been enough to give gore the win. there are other cards you can play in the arguments about third parties and this is a weak one i think.

I am aware of that

maybe Al could've said "i agree" less often in the debates

MOVING ON...

I will never not enjoy watching Ted Cruz get owned. (In this case by a talking dog.)

Cruz: It was the Democrats that took you into the vet to get fixed.

TRIUMPH: I support spaying and neutering...just like Trump did to you. pic.twitter.com/HBZK1uHXJm

— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) November 6, 2018

truly the most abject spectacle in american political life

The fact that an unpalatable and utterly emasculated squidperson can still win the Shitkickin' Machoman vote is as clear a demonstration as I can think of that blind obeisance to the death cult Trumps every other facet of a GOP-er's composition.

lest we forget

Wow, a cow made of butter. My girls would love it. In fact, the first sentence Caroline ever said was "I like butter" pic.twitter.com/TzBZJmVFKT

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 9, 2014

a classic

i would actually like to see the butter cow tho

Caroline Says

as she gets up off the floor
"why is it you won't release your tax returns
"i thought "conservatives" cherished tradition"

a cow made of butter is not a bad description of Ted Cruz

i remember finding that butter cow thing pathetic mainly as an admission to his down-home cowboy-hat voters that he had never been to a state fair before

It has that same false ring as Romney saying he loves Costco shirts.

lol

Someone is seeking atonement... pic.twitter.com/qUmv5pFZIw

— Ian Sams (@IanSams) November 6, 2018

"Wow, a cow made of butter" is going to echo through my head all day now.

who is Comey canvassing for – Hilary in a striped jumpsuit?

I don't know why the sudden swaggering onrush of #bluewave taunts are making me so nervous.
https://i.makeagif.com/media/7-28-2015/DC7V1u.gif

"now i haf a machine gun.....ho...ho...ho"

I'm a New York City Jew and I've probably been to more state fairs than Ted Cruz.

The longer version of this dingbat quote is if anything even better. Trump says that Democrats will destroy Obamacare and that Obamacare is good. Then he says how McCain prevented Trump from destroying Obamacare but don't worry he's still going to destroy it next year. pic.twitter.com/l9MKzVBzmT

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 6, 2018

imagine voting for this guy

He sounds like the huckster he is. I can't imagine voting for this guy because I am not that much of a sucker.

that's a very 1989 crowd

I voted for him cos he has a nice butt

https://i.imgur.com/5gcz16e.png

this says it all

that's a very 1989 crowd

i have this theory about part of the united states existing outside of time

Never underestimate how tough it is for people to admit as much once they realize they've been conned.

they forgot to give him his meds

Obamacare is good

This is... not what he's saying.

most of them didn't even notice because he caught himself fucking up (for once) and blurted out something about the individual mandate being bad