Sorta speechless.

I think John Scalzi says it best:

Like many of you, I watched Sunday night’s debacle with my jaw in my lap. I’m honestly out of words, other than various versions of “what the–?” This is the culmination — or the closest version on a culmination, surely to be topped later — of something that has never been hidden. While the rest of you were passing around yet another Charles Pierce essay, I was struck by the headline for an adjacent blog. I won’t even look it up, but it read something like, “This all happened because Trump wanted to be on ‘Days of Our Lives.'”

And that’s it, isn’t it? A man for whom millions will cast their vote for president in about a month once appeared, purely out of vanity or “brand-building” or whatever bullshit reason he had, on a soap opera. No, this is not like Bill Clinton playing sax for Arsenio Hall or Barack Obama appearing on “Between Two Ferns.” This is not only a soap opera, but one of the absolute worst ones ever. (My neighbor/sitter used to watch it, begrudgingly. Her mother-in-law loved it, and it was one safe thing they could talk about. She said it was so awful you could generally get away with watching two days a week and be entirely up to speed.)

There was also his appearance in the professional wrestling ring, can’t forget that. Something about shaving Vince McMahon’s head, or something. Of the 14 seasons of “The Apprentice” I don’t have much to say, other than this: I tried to watch it once, and lasted maybe 12 minutes.

It’s mind-boggling, jaw-dropping, when you think of it. Politics and the public face of campaigns have changed a great deal in my lifetime, but this is a step beyond. This is a clown threatening tinpot-dictator justice on his running mate, on national television.

This is the alt-right. Good job, guys.

I’m not usually this gloomy, and I’m not, really. It’s just that every so often it hits me.

My neighbor and her mother called “Days of Our Lives” DOOL, for short. Dool. Like drool.

Just a little bloggage today. On the upside, a charming piece, by Hank, on the TV angle to the last three days:

(Billy) Bush, who is the nephew and cousin of the 41st and 43rd U.S. presidents, ascended from movie-junket gnat to a more lofty role reserved for the kings of infotainment — the Ryan Seacrests and Carson Dalys, whose superhuman work schedules and ability to yammer on camera never abate. They host music competition shows, New Year’s Eve countdowns, red-carpet shows, morning talk shows, Olympic Games, radio shows. They exist in a ubiquitous, onanistic state of lifestyle and entertainment worship, and they do it for so long that they eventually become the bolder name among the gaggles of barely boldface names that they “interview.” But what is their job, really? Part of me wants to call these rarefied creatures yanchors. Part of me wants to call them brosts.

They’re successful because we so rarely, truly think about them. We reward them with the same mindlessness they serve to us, a daily exchange of pablum. To think that the outcome of this election could have somehow, all this time, hinged on Billy Bush, who exists mostly because America leaves the TV on all day so the dog won’t feel lonely.

Finally, a rather startling collection of 30-second spots on workplace safety, and the necessity of vigilance, etc. Surprisingly graphic, and Canadian. Who knew?

Onward the week lurches.

Posted at 4:04 pm in Current events |
 

77 responses to “Sorta speechless.”

  1. alex said on October 10, 2016 at 9:44 pm

    Those Canadian dolts. Obviously they missed the workplace casualty to beat all. The scene: Dressing rooms of a soap opera. Donald J. Trump lumbering down the hallway with one hand in his pant pocket…

    “We are Farmers… Bump ba-dump ba-dump-ump-ump.”

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  2. Sherri said on October 10, 2016 at 9:55 pm

    A Republican woman has some words for Republican men: https://mobile.twitter.com/MBGlenn/status/785641127604916224

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  3. Sherri said on October 10, 2016 at 9:59 pm

    Hacked, modified, misleading email, from Russian outlet through Wikileaks to Trump’s hands today at his rally: http://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-sidney-blumenthal-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-benghazi-sputnik-508635

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  4. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 10, 2016 at 10:16 pm

    So the dog won’t feel lonely? If only that equation ended there.

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  5. Sherri said on October 10, 2016 at 10:57 pm

    Billy the brost bragged at Rio, but didn’t give Cousin Jeb! first dibs? Sad!

    http://pagesix.com/2016/10/10/billy-bush-bragged-about-vulgar-trump-video-to-nbc-staffers/

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  6. Nancy P said on October 11, 2016 at 5:41 am

    “The Apprentice” was on for FOURTEEN seasons?! (That fact gets a question mark AND an exclamation point.)

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  7. Suzanne said on October 11, 2016 at 6:21 am

    “They’re successful because we so rarely, truly think about them.”
    Until all this happened, I never in my life had heard of Billy B. So I never thought about him.

    Fortunately, our tv is in its own separate room and we rarely go in there. But most people I know have the tv prominently displayed in the main room of their home and it is on all the time.mi can’t count how many family celebrations I’ve been to where all are gathered together and the tv blares away in the background. I think my parents only turn theirs off when they go to bed.

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  8. brian stouder said on October 11, 2016 at 8:41 am

    Sherri – and you hafta love the alliteration in the lead sentence of the article you linked:

    “Billy Bush brazenly bragged to NBC staff about the vulgar Donald Trump tape while covering the Olympics in Rio, multiple sources tell Page Six”

    I’d say Billy Bush is a brazenly bubble-brained boob, but he’s been bounced, so we’ll wish him the best

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  9. Peter said on October 11, 2016 at 9:06 am

    All you need to know about soap operas: When I was in high school our grandma lived with us. Every day she and her neighbor, Mrs. Arvay, would watch General Hospital and All My Children, and when my sister came home from school they would tell her what happened on the soaps. However, my grandma and Mrs. Arvay spoke no English, and my sister didn’t speak a second language. In fact, my grandma and Mrs. Arvay couldn’t really speak to each other, since Mrs. Arvay only spoke Hungarian.

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  10. susan said on October 11, 2016 at 9:24 am

    Peter – That’s really funny!

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  11. Icarus said on October 11, 2016 at 9:46 am

    Scalzi came back to it later

    http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/10/11/trump-the-gop-and-the-fall/

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  12. FDChief said on October 11, 2016 at 10:25 am

    Scalzi finally got his Trump post up and it’s pretty much what you’d expect. Fun read, in a “dog bites GOP” sort of way.

    My only issue with it is that Scalzi expresses sympathy for the non-Trump Republicans. Seriously? Because if you’re still a Republican at this point you’re either one of the deplorable or…what? Still in it for the tax cuts in perhaps the least-taxed of the industrial democracies? Hoping for a juicy piece of privatizing the Bonneville Power Administration? Wishing on a “deregulation” star that your chemical company can return to the pre-Love-Canal Era?

    I mean…take the plutocracy, theocracy, bigotry, and a vague yearning for imperialism (a new American Century) out of the GOP platform and what’s left? The Cuba Embargo?

    I have absolutely zero “sympathy” for anyone who votes to foist that vile pottage of stupidity and used food on me.

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  13. Icarus said on October 11, 2016 at 10:32 am

    ” Because if you’re still a Republican at this point you’re either one of the deplorable or…what? ”

    I supposed it’s like Catholics who are still catholic in spite of the priests who abused children and the way the Church handled it. Or how about Penn State graduates who are still proud of their alma mater in spite of Sandusky and Papa Joe’s cover up?

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  14. Deborah said on October 11, 2016 at 11:05 am

    I’m sure my FB is weighted to the liberal side, but wow, have there ever been lots of negative posts about Trump coming from everywhere. Every day there are more and more. If the Republican Party can redeem themselves at all for letting this happen, it will take years.

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  15. brian stouder said on October 11, 2016 at 11:20 am

    One of the Donald’s main go-to lines that makes this seem like a real-life satire, is his constant laments about “a rigged system”.

    What does that mean?

    Contests have rules, or else how do you know who won? Societies have laws, or else they devolve into chaos.

    Really, if things were as “rigged” as the Donald likes to yelp about – he’d never (ever!) have gotten the nomination.

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  16. FDChief said on October 11, 2016 at 11:25 am

    Icarus: pure tribalism, in other words – mytribe good! Yourtribe bad!

    The problem with that is you can’t run an industrial democracy with a Neolithic mindset like that. If yourtribe is “bad” then ceding power to yourtribe is unacceptable. We’ve been seeing the fringes of this with stuff like the Clenis Hunt, birtherism and the refusal to confirm (or even consider) nominations.

    But this is even more fundamental. “Conservative” in the US has come to mean a credo-like faith in many things that are objectively loathsome. Trump has not made them more vile – he’s simply stripped off the pretense of civility that made them SEEM less vile.

    I mean…think about the “conservative” position about women. From subservience to reproduction to lesbianism to…pretty much everything the GOP default position is; grab ’em by the pussy. Make ’em do what Daddy knows is best. Patriarchy, beeyotch!

    What is Trump doing…other than saying that out loud?

    And…if you dump Trumping…what is left? What other than DLC-style Democratic policies, that is..?

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  17. FDChief said on October 11, 2016 at 11:29 am

    So…my problem w the GOP is that I can’t see a way out for them. There’s too much baggage; FOX and Rushbo and the plutocracy and fear and racism and hate.

    My suspicion is that the 30% – the real hardcore Base – goes full-on Blackshirt after this.

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  18. Jakash said on October 11, 2016 at 11:35 am

    I wish the outrage regarding the Russian tool and/or clueless fool aspect of Rump’s deplorable list of attributes highlighted in Sherri’s link @ #3 would receive as much backlash as the pussy conversation did. This hacking nonsense is really getting out of control and, when some of the most dangerous hackers in the world are actively working to change the outcome of this election, that’s, uh, pretty important. Especially when you have an electorate in which somewhere north of 40% of voters, not all of them Republicans, seem to be fact-averse and can be readily conned by something that’s either taken out of context or made up out of whole cloth.

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  19. Jakash said on October 11, 2016 at 11:41 am

    Hey, they’re even more efficient, powerful and dangerous than I thought! The handsome purple icon that’s always been assigned to all of my comments here was somehow replaced by that strange blue one. Now that’s scary! ; )

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  20. Ann said on October 11, 2016 at 11:56 am

    Totally off topic, but this made me wonder whether there’s an AquaMermaid franchise in Detroit. It’s got to be easier than surfing. http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2016/10/11/how-to-swim-like-a-mermaid

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  21. nancy said on October 11, 2016 at 12:04 pm

    Alas! It looks as though Chicago stands alone (east of the Mississippi, anyway) in mermaid franchises. Fun story, though, and I totally get what they’re talking about. My fave laps in my swim workout are the ones I do with fins — it’s like having your very own outboard motor.

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  22. Suzanne said on October 11, 2016 at 12:30 pm

    Trump now feels empowered because he’s “unshackled” from the GOP. How can the GOP be surprised by this? After 40 years of promoting hatred of government, how can they be surprised that people hate government, which includes them, people like Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, and their kind, because they are part of government?

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  23. Deborah said on October 11, 2016 at 2:08 pm

    Little Bird voted already in NM, it started today. She said there was a long line. I’m doing early voting in Chicago when I get back, I can’t remember when it starts there.

    I haven’t called that mental health link yet that Jolene posted here a few days ago concerning our problem neighbor. Things have escalated though, because he has started stalking the new young man who lives upstairs from us, to the point that he showed up at the young man’s place of business which is a gallery near the plaza and the young man felt that he had to treat the mentally ill neighbor very carefully because it might have caused the MI neighbor to damage the expensive art there. Everyone is on pins and needles, no one feels safe being outside around the building now. We all wonder when we are away if there will be broken windows or whatnot on our places. The night of the debate, the MI neighbor knocked on our door 3 times. We just ignored it. He knocked again at about 3:30 the next morning. Yikes.

    The reason I haven’t had time to call is because yesterday and today have been moving days to our cabin in Abiquiu. It’s completely finished and we are thrilled. I will be posting photos on Facebook soon.

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  24. adrianne said on October 11, 2016 at 2:10 pm

    And don’t forget hatred of the media. Here’s the scene in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., at a Trump rally:

    “Crowds screamed and chanted obscenities at the press pen with Trump’s encouragement. He paused repeatedly to allow thousands of fans to turn around and directly confront reporters for long periods.”

    And there’s this charmer, who showed up to a Trump rally with “She’s a cunt, vote for Trump.”

    I’m beginning to get PTSD symptoms the longer this obscene campaign goes on.

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  25. Scout said on October 11, 2016 at 2:22 pm

    Happy Birthday to Deborah! What a great gift to be moving into the Abiquiu cabin at last.

    That Scalzi piece was pure poetry. I fervently hope the end result of this seemingly endless shitshow is a thoughtful reform of the R party, but there isn’t much evidence that enough of them have the necessary self awareness. I will settle for HRC winning handily and still have my fingers and toes crossed that the D’s can at least re-take the Senate and send Yertle McConnell packing.

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  26. brian stouder said on October 11, 2016 at 2:30 pm

    Scout’s ‘Yertle McConnell’ for Thread Win!

    https://www.google.com/search?q=yertle+the+turtle&biw=852&bih=196&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjEg43rsNPPAhVL4CYKHTZXBuQQsAQIVA&dpr=0.85

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  27. Sherri said on October 11, 2016 at 2:31 pm

    You’re not the only one feeling PTSD, Adrianne. If you ever been abused, this is a difficult campaign: http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/10/8/13206832/trump-leaked-audio-sexual-assault-rape-gaslighting-abuse

    On a different note, Hillary is starting to signal what her priorities would be if she were to have a Democratic Congress: http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/10/11/13237160/hillary-clinton-child-tax-credit

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  28. Heather said on October 11, 2016 at 3:08 pm

    I agree with FDChief. Scary stuff. How long until the violence escalates? Even I (white woman) am starting to feel like there are whole swathes of the country where I’m not safe.

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  29. brian stouder said on October 11, 2016 at 4:01 pm

    That Vox link was very good; depressing, but essential.

    Here’s a complete non-sequitur:

    http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/schools/No-one-speaks-against-FWCS-plan-15711230

    Board president (and friend-of-nn.c) Mark (the Shark) GiaQuinta lead the Trustees through the budget process over the past sveral meetings, and they will have a final vote later this month, but it was time for Public Comments (as required by law), and….crickets.

    an excerpt:

    During a public hearing at Grile Administrative Center, no one spoke against the budget, the district’s three-year capital improvements plan or its 12-year bus replacement plan.

    One resident did speak – to thank the board for its successful efforts with the City Council to stop a proposal to end the city’s business personal property tax, one of the school budget’s major income streams.

    Didja see that?! That “One resident”? – that was me! GQ said “Take all the time you want!” – and 45 seconds later, I was done.

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  30. brian stouder said on October 11, 2016 at 4:12 pm

    …and another palate fouler –

    http://www.npr.org/2016/10/11/497520017/trump-apparently-quotes-russian-propaganda-to-slam-clinton-on-benghazi?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20161011&utm_campaign=npr_email_a_friend&utm_term=storyshare

    That Eichenwald fellow is the Woodward & Bernstein, I’d say

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  31. brian stouder said on October 11, 2016 at 4:13 pm

    “is the NEW Woodward & Bernstein”…

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  32. Scout said on October 11, 2016 at 4:46 pm

    @brian stouder: I am a big fan of Eichenwald’s election coverage too. Another journalist who is really doing the work that broadcast news won’t is David Fahrenthold of the WaPo.

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  33. Sherri said on October 11, 2016 at 8:07 pm

    The WaPo in general, and David Fahrenthold in particular, is doing great work. I urge a subscription, if you haven’t already, not just because of their election work, but because they’ve stepped up their game overall.

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  34. Colleen said on October 11, 2016 at 8:13 pm

    Re: mermaids—I work part time at the YMCA. I took a call last week from a woman who said she is a “professional mermaid” and wanted to know if she could practice with her mermaid tail in our pool. I had to call back to aquatics to find the answer.

    For the record, you CAN practice with your mermaid tail…..

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  35. Sherri said on October 11, 2016 at 8:37 pm

    Another important tidbit from Wikileaks. John Podesta understands why you add the stock slowly when cooking risotto.

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  36. alex said on October 11, 2016 at 9:04 pm

    Talk about a Flash Mob! In the Fort, no less. You go, girls!

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  37. Dexter said on October 12, 2016 at 1:49 am

    Geez, Alex, in MY day, why, we just protested genocidal wars; this issue is so much more important to the babies of Allen County. I do know this mission was carried out in select markets , not just Fort Wayne, according to some radio news report. I see some of the comments were reflecting disdain and disgust for the protesting women. Those folks should have been around Mayor Armstrong’s Fort Wayne 40+ years ago…6X movies and all sorts of sex toys sold in stores on Broadway, “massage studios” in several locations in the city where nobody got any certified therapy, but took pleasure in the young women. Nightclubs where oral sex was performed on-stage as entertainment, I guess…that was Mayor Armstrong’s Fort Wayne. The City of Churches, I believe it’s called.

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  38. alex said on October 12, 2016 at 6:41 am

    Dex, I remember when I was a kid that Broadway was Whorehouse Row and totally in-your-face about it. Then, in the late ’70s or early ’80s, came “Citizens for Decency” and they began picketing in front of “adult entertainment” establishments hoping to drive them out of business. The city eventually enacted zoning laws putting adult businesses where no one would have to see them and today Broadway is a thriving corridor of dive bars and head shops with a couple of trendy microbreweries thrown in.

    A lot of the conservative nostalgia for yesteryear, it seems, overlooks the bleaker realities. I think it’s really a yearning for a return to “it’s a man’s world.”

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  39. nancy said on October 12, 2016 at 8:11 am

    One of my fonder memories of that era in FW, Alex, was when a nice suburban housewife told me her family had once owned the Rialto Theater, which had deteriorated to a porn/grindhouse by then. She told me allll about the dungeon some sad little sex worker had set up on the second floor, which included a dog cage, doubtless for titans of industry who needed to let off a little steam after a full day of bossing. I had heard this story before, and worked to keep my face utterly impassive, because dog cage? Big fucking deal.

    I asked her if she was willing to pay anything toward a purchase/restoration of the Rialto, which is why she had sought me out. Of course not, she said, but she wanted me to write about it, so everyone else would.

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  40. brian stouder said on October 12, 2016 at 9:13 am

    Just this side of 50 years ago, my older brother and some of his friends went to a Saturday matinee at the Rialto, to see Bonnie and Clyde.

    Somewhere during the show, he threw up – thus earning that movie legendary status, at least in my imagination

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  41. Jakash said on October 12, 2016 at 2:35 pm

    So much for Rump’s, (and Pilot Joe’s, last week), attempts to create a false equivalency between the way Rump and Warren Buffett handle their taxes:

    “‘I have paid federal income tax every year since 1944,’ Mr. Buffett wrote in a letter released Monday.

    ‘I have copies of all 72 of my returns,’ Mr. Buffett added, ‘and none uses a carry forward…’

    ‘I have no problem in releasing my tax information while under audit. Neither would Mr. Trump — at least he would have no legal problem.'”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/business/buffett-calls-trumps-bluff-and-releases-his-tax-return.html?

    I suppose this indicates to delusional Rump supporters that Buffett is not as “smart” as Rumpelthinskin. Seems to me that it indicates that, wildly rich as he is, Buffett has other priorities in his life beyond just racking up the billions, as his yuge charitable donations indicate. And that he’s much more interested in keeping America great than the Cheeto Charlatan is.

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  42. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 2:44 pm

    The 90s just won’t go away. Charlie Pierce tells us about another character from those days now on the federal bench and doing his best to gut Elizabeth Warren’s best work: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a49530/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-court-decision/

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  43. Jolene said on October 12, 2016 at 2:52 pm

    Re Warren Buffett: As you may know, Nebraska is one of two states (Maine is the other) in which electoral votes are determined by Congressional district rather than at the state level. Buffett has challenged voters in his Omaha-based district to produce the highest turnout ever on behalf of Hillary Clinton. He’s reserved a bus (or maybe it was a streetcar, whatever), and, on Election Day, he’s planning to ride it all day to take voters to the polls. And, he’s promised to take as many selfies as there are passengers who want them.

    His endorsement here: https://youtu.be/4InxQ7V3d4Q

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  44. alex said on October 12, 2016 at 2:53 pm

    Buffett’s a man of integrity. About the Bush tax cuts, he called them a terrible idea and said that the rich didn’t need them but rather the middle class, who would spend money and stimulate the economy so that businesses like Buffett’s would grow and invest in creating more jobs.

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  45. Jolene said on October 12, 2016 at 3:11 pm

    If you’ve been following the polls closely, you know that the LA Times has a panel study (a study that re-interviews the same people over time) that has been a consistent outlier, finding more support for Trump than any other poll. I had wondered why it was producing such discrepancy results, and, today, the NYT answers my question .

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  46. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 3:31 pm

    Buffet may have cheated on his wife, but he doesn’t cheat on his taxes, and he’s long been a supporter of higher taxes for people like himself.

    I’m done with the articles on Trump supporters. Can we have some articles about the same people in the country, so I don’t feel like the country is going to be destroyed? I mean, I’m in a nice blue bubble out here, but I’m tired of reading about the loonies still supporting Trump.

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  47. brian stouder said on October 12, 2016 at 3:33 pm

    Jolene, that was a tremendous, informative article on polling – and the outlier.

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  48. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 3:41 pm

    Hillary gave Republicans a chance this summer to leave Trump and Trumpism behind; that offer is no longer on the table. I suppose this will be used as another example of the liberals forcing the conservatives into Tru,prism, but nobody is forced into bigotry.

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  49. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 3:42 pm

    Trumpism, obviously. I’m on an iPad, which sometimes does odd things.

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  50. Dave Bell said on October 12, 2016 at 3:42 pm

    About 35 years ago I took a Political Science class from Professor Downs. One of the three things he wanted us to remember years down the road was: “The American voters get what they deserve, which is not very much.” Still rings true today.

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  51. brian stouder said on October 12, 2016 at 3:43 pm

    This passage captures much –

    On its own, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with weighting for small categories like this. But it’s risky: Filling up all of these tiny categories generally requires more weighting. A run of the U.S.C./LAT poll, for instance, might have only 15 or so 18-to-21-year-old men. But for those voters to make up 3.3 percent of the weighted sample, these 15 voters have to count as much as 86 people — an average weight of 5.7.

    When you start considering the competing demands across multiple categories, it can quickly become necessary to give an astonishing amount of extra weight to particularly underrepresented voters — like 18-to-21-year-old black men. This wouldn’t be a problem with broader categories, like those 18 to 29, and there aren’t very many national polls that are weighting respondents up by more than eight or 10-fold. The extreme weights for the 19-year-old black Trump voter in Illinois are not normal.

    …plus, can’t you just hear the trump-partisans saying “SEE!! SEE!! – the polls are RIGGED!”

    At a visceral level, the term “rigged” works; but as soon as you begin to think about it, it falls apart.

    Any human endeavor – from a step above anarchy and chaos onward – can be described as “rigged”

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  52. Jolene said on October 12, 2016 at 3:44 pm

    Here’s another interesting LA Times piece re the entanglements between Trump, Mark Burnett (producer of The Survivor, The Apprentice, and The Voice), and NBC. Important because Burnett, apparently, holds unaired footage of taping of The Apprentice that would tell us more than we already know about what a gross person Trump is.

    http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-nbc-donald-trump-apprentice-20161010-snap-story.html

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  53. brian stouder said on October 12, 2016 at 3:46 pm

    Tru,prism

    Sherri – I think your term cpatures much!

    The social/political light of day in 2016 America is being subjected to a Tru,prism – and we’re going to see it’s constituent parts

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  54. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 4:08 pm

    A bit ironic that this appears in the NYTimes, given how uncritically they’ve run material from Judicial Watch: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/us/politics/judicial-watch-hillary-clinton.html

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  55. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 5:01 pm

    Scallions wrote about Trump. Today, as early voting begins in Ohio, he writes to endorse Clinton: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/10/12/my-endorsement-for-president-2016-hillary-clinton/

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  56. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 5:01 pm

    This iPad is killing me! Scalzi, not Scallions!

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  57. Suzanne said on October 12, 2016 at 5:07 pm

    Adam Gopnik weighs in:
    http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-dangerous-acceptance-of-donald-trump

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  58. LAMary said on October 12, 2016 at 5:10 pm

    I prefer to think about the Donald with his actual last name, not the de-Germanized version. It’s Drumpf.
    Sounds like someone farting into a pillow.
    Donald also claimed to be Swedish, not German, for a few years.

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  59. Judybusy said on October 12, 2016 at 5:15 pm

    I so agree with Mr. Scallions. So articulate, to the point. My favoroite paragraph is when he points out that perhaps the most qualified person ever to run for President is running against the most unqualified person, and Trump was ahead in the polls prior to the first debate simply because he’s a straight white man. It brilliantly illuminates how much better a woman has to be the further she tries climb.

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  60. Heather said on October 12, 2016 at 5:23 pm

    So, now that Nate Silver tweeted some maps showing the discrepancies if only men and only women voted (guess the results!) there is an actual serious hashtag to repeal the 19th amendment. Welp, that says it all, doesn’t it? So much for saying this election isn’t about sexism.

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  61. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 5:27 pm

    Ios10 seems to have made autocorrect dumber, or changed my settings so that it’s not working as well for me. I wish I hadn’t upgraded.

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  62. Jolene said on October 12, 2016 at 5:44 pm

    Have seen several clips today of early voting around Cleveland. Of course, that is Clinton country, and you can see her ground game in effect as the voters being interviewed describe the GOTV efforts they’ve experienced or participated in. One mentioned that, this past Sunday, 200 members of her church had gone door to door to register voters and encourage them to vote. Another said that he wanted to get his vote in early and get busy bringing others to the polls.

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  63. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 5:58 pm

    Here’s an article about Clinton supporters, many Latino, in an area where immigration has been an issue before: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hazleton-donald-trump_us_57fd1ae5e4b068ecb5e1f290?so281p5h7frg722o6r

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  64. Jolene said on October 12, 2016 at 6:28 pm

    On TV tonight: PBS is rebroadcasting the Frontline show re HRC and Trump, and CNN has a show about Michelle Obama’s effort to promote education for girls around the world. Trailer at this link: http://www.cnn.com/shows/cnn-films-we-will-rise

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  65. beb said on October 12, 2016 at 6:39 pm

    Warren Buffet is my favorite billionaire. He has a sense of social justice in that he’s embarrassed to be paying income tax at a lower rate than his secretary. And when he unloads on Trump he uses both barrels.

    Trump’s claims that the election is rigged because he’s been rigging it for years, contributing to State AG’s, for example whom he was business before them.

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  66. Scout said on October 12, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    This has me doing the Happy Dance today!

    http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/arizona/

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  67. Jolene said on October 12, 2016 at 7:29 pm

    Two women go on record–and one on videotape–saying that DJT did exactly the sort of groping that he talked about with Billy Bush, but denied on Sunday night. Color me not surprised.

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  68. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 7:59 pm

    Miss Wahington 2013 has some stories: http://www.king5.com/news/local/miss-washington-2013-says-donald-trump-groped-her/334981243

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  69. Jolene said on October 12, 2016 at 8:04 pm

    From last May, an article about Donald Trump and women that probably should have gotten more attention at the time.

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  70. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 8:06 pm

    Everybody is searching their archives now. CBS found some old Entertainment Tonight footage of 46 year old Trump joking about a 10 year old girl: “I’m going to be dating her in 10 years.”

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-unearthed-footage-trump-says-of-10-year-old-i-am-going-to-be-dating-her-in-10-years/

    The thing that is striking about Trump is how little he has changed. You go back and read old articles, old interviews, and they read like they were written yesterday.

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  71. Jolene said on October 12, 2016 at 8:15 pm

    Sherri, the man has said himself that he hasn’t changed since first grade.

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  72. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 8:16 pm

    One interesting note: most campaigns hire someone to conduct oppo research on their own candidate, so they’re prepared when something comes out. Trump refused to, wouldn’t pay for it. So the campaign is flying blind. In Trump’s reality, none of this happened. When he first heard about the Access Hollywood tape, he didn’t think it was something he would have said.

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  73. adrianne said on October 12, 2016 at 8:24 pm

    And now we will have an avalanche of women who feel comfortable coming forward with tales of The Groper. It will be like Cosby. All similar tales, all leading back to this sexual predator who had the absolute gall to run for president. And criticizing Bill Clinton. As far as I know, his encounters were consensual. Not The Groper.

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  74. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 8:26 pm

    Note, too, that Trump calls the Times reporter a “disgusting human being” when she calls him for comment.

    But let’s not limit our discussion of his vileness to white women. This video of his testimony before Congress hasnt gotten the attention it deserves: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/they-dont-look-like-indians-to-me-donald-trump-on-native-american-casinos-in-1993/2016/07/01/20736038-3fd4-11e6-9e16-4cf01a41decb_video.html

    But Hillary said superpredator, so both sides, right?

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  75. Sherri said on October 12, 2016 at 8:37 pm

    Meanwhile, the Trump campaign strategy is to attack Bill: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-10-12/trump-takes-a-back-to-the-future-focus-on-bill-clinton-s-women

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  76. Deborah said on October 12, 2016 at 8:56 pm

    OK, I’ve been kinda out of circulation here, checking in from time to time. It’s amazing what you miss when you do that. You all are a treasure trove of information about the election drama.

    Little Bird and I spent the night in the Abiquiu cabin after moving some more stuff in, mostly little stuff like dinnerware etc, but important. It was so nice to spend some timeout there in nature with limited access to the Internet. We sat out on the roof deck for awhile last night drinking in the stars and the moon instead of CNN or the NYT. It was heavenly.

    Lots more drama back at the ranch in Santa Fe with the mentally ill neighbor. This time he was tearing up plants and landscaping that we’ve been doing for the last four years, we got into a confrontation with him about that and he went apeshit. I haven’t gotten a call back from the Mental Health alliance, not even sure that anything they can tell me will help. One of the neighbors down the lane has called the cops because he and some of his sketchy friends had tried to go into her private fenced in patio area. The cops didn’t do a thing. This is extremely serious and the rest of the tenants and owners in our building are getting together with a lawyer as soon as it can be arranged. Scary.

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  77. Jenine said on October 13, 2016 at 9:51 am

    @Deborah: so glad to hear about the Abiquiu cabin and so sorry to hear about the Santa Fe neighbor. I hope the lawyer has some remedies to propose.

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