I suspect those of you on social media have already heard the news that President Biden called the widow of the man killed at the Trump rally, but she wouldn’t take it. Her husband, “a devout Republican,” wouldn’t have wanted her to, she said. As for Trump, he hasn’t called yet. He played golf the following day.
Meanwhile, I looked up the dead guy, Corey Comperatore, on his socials. He was mostly a reply person on Twitter. And many of them were like this:
OK, then.
This really, really has been a shit couple of weeks, hasn’t it? The most terrible people appear to be winning. I’m starting to think they are winning. I’ll still vote, with my optimism fading. But as Neil Steinberg says, anything is possible. I fear the “anything” isn’t the good thing, however. I’ve lost faith in the Democratic Party to respond to this in any meaningful way. I may be wrong — I was certainly wrong to think this country was too decent to sink as far as we have, so consider that — but at this point, I feel more right than wrong.
I’m struck by a phrase in Steinberg’s column: “… this was a lucky wound, another stroke of good fortune for a man born with a horseshoe up his ass.” Perfect. I tend to believe that luck goes in both directions, and I feel like we’ve not had a win for a long while. I’m not a believer in conventional Christian versions of God, so I can’t be comforted by the idea of Trump & Co. in hell. But I do think the universe has a sense of humor, and I want to know when we get to see a little evening of the scales.
Yeah, yeah, tell that to the Jews at Auschwitz.
OK, I’ll stop now. One thing I learned in the newspaper business: Never say “it can’t get worse,” because it always can.
And if you’re a cyclist, be careful out there. Some people hate your guts just for existing.
Dave said on July 16, 2024 at 11:37 am
Yeah, but he was a great family man and in church every Sunday. What a great guy.
I shouldn’t make cynical remarks about a dead man who got up the other morning, not knowing it was his last day, and at a @#*%Y$#* rally, no less. I’m disturbed every day that we’ve arrived to such a point in this country, I always have been a news junky but I can’t hardly pay attention to it anymore.
*done using his name
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alex said on July 16, 2024 at 12:20 pm
Corey Comperatore’s head would probably have exploded without any help from an AR15 if a Democrat made a similarly tasteless joke about Republicans.
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Sherri said on July 16, 2024 at 1:06 pm
Someone described Vance as “Nazi Teddy Ruxpin” and now I think that every time I see his face. And that he’s an owned and operated Peter Thiel creature.
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Julie Robinson said on July 16, 2024 at 1:08 pm
Dave, I’m also trying to avoid news much beyond headlines. It’s hard. But I saw a good one on FB just now, someone who marked themself save from wearing a maxipad on their ear. Now I won’t be able to see it any other way.
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Sherri said on July 16, 2024 at 1:29 pm
I recently signed up for Postcards to Swing States (https://www.turnoutpac.org/postcards/), and they’ve had so many signups they’ve temporarily paused new signups so they can get caught up on shipping out postcards for people already signed up! They’ve also up their goal to 29 million (they already have 16 million postcards promised to send to voters.)
I needed an easy way for my husband to take action and deal with his angst, so he and I will be writing postcards this fall.
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David C said on July 16, 2024 at 1:44 pm
Some horn honking and cigarette butts flicked at me is about as much harassment as I’ve had cycling. I’m done road cycling anyway and selling my road bike. Too many drunks and too many hotheads in two ton battering rams. I turn 65 today, so I’m gifting myself a proper gravel bike to replace the cobbled up one I have now. I’ll
miss the what’s down this street feel of road cycling but I won’t miss the feeling that I’m about to be run down. Now that I’m a newly minted type 2 diabetic I need to get my ass in gear.
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Deborah said on July 16, 2024 at 3:29 pm
Happy birthday David C.
I was determined to be pre-diabetic at my last physical. My dad became diabetic later in life too. Neither of us were/are overweight or any of the things that are said about people who become diabetic. I like carbs like bread and pasta a lot but sweets have never been that big on my radar.
Chicago is cooling off thank goodness, the rest of my stay this week should be ok but lordy Sunday and Monday were miserable.
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Mark P said on July 16, 2024 at 3:30 pm
Nil nisi bonum. But, the guy who got shot, bless his heart? And his wife? She deserves all the thoughts and prayers Trump has sent her way.
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Dexter Friend said on July 16, 2024 at 3:36 pm
…old story now billed as breaking news, Iran wants to finish what Crooks fucked up:
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/16/trump-iran-kill-plot-secret-service.html
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David C said on July 16, 2024 at 3:47 pm
Why would Iran want him offed? He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to them. They’re selling arms to his bud Putin. Their nuclear program is up and running.
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Dexter Friend said on July 16, 2024 at 3:50 pm
From Woodstock 1969: ” Stephen Stills : This is the second time we’ve ever played in front of people, man, we’re scared shitless.”
And in summer, 30 years ago, I was declared a diabetic. Metformin and many other drugs culminating in a Jardiance prescription. Some diabetics don’t make it 30 years post-DX, but I have kept off insulin by watching my health in every way possible. If you are pre-diabetic and cross over into the danger zone, don’t worry, just ask questions and follow all advice your doctors give. I have not once let my ‘scrips expire or run out; I have never skipped a dose. It’s controllable, easy peasy…I really miss cycling for exercise and I can’t run or even walk without 2 canes or a rollator, so I just keep on taking it one day at a time.
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Heather said on July 16, 2024 at 4:02 pm
As someone who often comments and posts about cycling, yeah, there are a lot of people who are really nuts. I’ve had people tell me they hope I end up a red splotch on the road. Drivers are more distracted than ever and aggressive when you call them out on it after they almost hit you. They scream that cyclists should follow the laws to the letter (but they would blow a gasket if we did) and then nine cars out of ten are rolling through stop signs. There’s more bike infrastructure in Chicago than ever in my 30+ years of riding here, and yet I feel more unsafe than I ever have.
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Deborah said on July 16, 2024 at 4:21 pm
I can’t imagine cycling on the city streets in Chicago, too many reckless and irate drivers, as a frequent pedestrian I’ve had a few near misses. Terrifying.
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Jason T. said on July 16, 2024 at 4:25 pm
(Looks at victim’s Twitter feed.)
Wow. Yeah, he was a real charmer.
COVID is a hoax, drinking pasteurized milk is a hoax, everyone (except him) was a diversity hire, he loved Marge Greene and Tucker Carlson, and he thought Mike Johnson was too liberal to be speaker of the house.
And wait’ll you get to the one about wanting to murder global warming activists. (As we enter week 3 of a heat wave that has turned into a serious drought.)
Did you know the American flags around Western Pennsylvania are at half-staff in his honor?
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Jason T. said on July 16, 2024 at 4:27 pm
They’ll be writing songs about him some day. Someone get Lee Greenwood and Ray Stevens started.
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Jeff Borden said on July 16, 2024 at 4:33 pm
Substitute Corey Comperatore in the “Horst Wessel Song.”
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jcburns said on July 16, 2024 at 4:45 pm
Sherri, don’t bother sending a postcard to us (in Georgia.) We’re already hyper-attuned to the election ahead, and not just for the presidency. (We got one in 2020–not from you, of course—two weeks after we early-voted.)
And Stacey Abrams keeps us on point, too.
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David C said on July 16, 2024 at 4:52 pm
That’s my plan Dexter. I have my visit with a diabetic educator on Friday but I’m already watching my carbs like a hawk. I’m sure I’ll be a lot better at it after I meet with her and my glucose is already dropping. But, it’s hard for me. I’m a carb hound. Potatoes are my favorite food. Pasta and bread aren’t far behind. They were torturing me at work today. For some reason, there were cookies and cake all over the place. I was watching an old Barney Miller episode this past week were Yemana said his father’s trick for staying awake was to convince yourself if you fall asleep, you die. So I convinced myself that if I ate the treats, I’d die. Which might not be far off if I’m not good. I’ve been working on my weight for the past three months and am down 20-ish pounds. Ideal weight for me would probably be 155 lbs. I’m at 209 right now. So my initial goal is 175 lbs. 155 lbs seems a bridge too far right now. Anything is better than nothing, I guess.
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Sherri said on July 16, 2024 at 5:10 pm
I’m not surprised that evangelical supporters of the Convicted Felon believe that God protected him from the shooter. I heard similar things all the time growing up, and of course, it never made sense to me. You’re telling me that God protected Trump, but what, was too busy to protect a roomful of kids at school? No, that’s just God sending us a message that we need to “get right with God.” But what about Dylann Roof shooting all those people in church? Guess they weren’t the right kind of Christians.
Evangelicalism is crazy-making, let me tell you.
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Mark P said on July 16, 2024 at 5:24 pm
I mentioned Trump selling “Gott mit uns” belt buckles. Maybe I can beat him to it. I picture a round center with a spread eagle clutching something looking suspiciously like a swastika but not quite, with “God is with us” around it. I’ll bet they would sell for $88, and many of his followers would get the reference.
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Julie Robinson said on July 16, 2024 at 6:21 pm
Happy Birthday, David C, and good luck on your health challenge. From watching my sister, lean protein and veggies will be your best friends. The numbers for pre-diabetes have been lowered, so these days a lot more people are in that category.
Donations left for our church thrift shop included three-foot long water guns, the kind that resemble an AR weapon. We decided not to sell them or downstream to another agency. Straight into the trash.
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alex said on July 16, 2024 at 6:49 pm
I did a spit take when I saw “spread eagle” and “clutching a crucifix” in the same sentence.
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David C said on July 16, 2024 at 8:06 pm
Good call, Julie. With what happened to Tamir Rice in Cleveland you can’t be too careful.
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Sherri said on July 16, 2024 at 8:09 pm
Biden appears to be finally ready to at least talk about SCOTUS reform. It’s a step.
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Brandon said on July 16, 2024 at 8:20 pm
Meanwhile…
Casey Michel
@cjcmichel
There it is: the first time in American history that a sitting member of Congress has been found guilty of conspiring to act as a foreign agent.
Quote
Josh Campbell
@joshscampbell
·
7h
NEW: A jury has found Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) guilty on multiple counts in his federal corruption trial
–@KaraScannell reports
8:02 AM · Jul 16, 2024
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Deborah said on July 16, 2024 at 8:34 pm
Menendez deserves what he got, a jury found him guilty and from what I could tell they called it accurately. The law is the law no matter who it is.
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Cheez Whiz said on July 16, 2024 at 9:18 pm
I think all the gloom and DOOM is coming from people being forced to face the idea that %40+ of this country want to see them humiliated and subjugated, and if they don’t bend the knee, dead. Its a nasty reality to accept, and depression and fear is a rational response. But the only rational reaction is action. Do something, and if you don’t know what ask someone until you get an answer that makes sense to you.
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Sherri said on July 16, 2024 at 9:28 pm
I wanted the Dems to kick Menedez out of the Senate already. Nobody’s surprised at the verdict.
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Jim said on July 17, 2024 at 5:27 am
If elected, Dumplin` will make himself Dictator and everything out the window .
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Dexter Friend said on July 17, 2024 at 6:32 am
David, 15 years ago I was whining in confession to my doctor that I had caved and eaten cake and ice cream at a birthday party. He always had a clipboard in his hand and he flipped it up onto his desk and laughed as he told me that wouldn’t hurt me, just get back on point and nothing was harmed. Food , yeah, I still eat, so I won’t be a zealot there. Alcohol is what will kill me…”the caboose doesn’t kill, the engine does”. (an old adage). That’s why I haven’t had any alcohol in 31.5 years. That’s why I won’t subscribe to one paywalled site. If I pay for The Times, like I’d love to do, soon I’d be paying 15 paywall trolls. Streaming services, which I avoided a long time, got to me. Now , I have them all. I have no damn discipline.
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Dexter Friend said on July 17, 2024 at 6:42 am
Miss this report?
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/spacex-x-headquarters-elon-musk-19577885.php
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Suzanne said on July 17, 2024 at 7:19 am
Trump picked Vance for VP because Vance brings with him Peter Thiel’s mega-money, which desperately Trump needs. But Thiel and Vance won’t need Trump once elected, something Trump can’t fathom. He will become expendable. On the flip side, what people like Thiel can’t grasp, I believe, is that once they burn it all down, the country & system that has allowed them to flourish will no longer exist and their flourishing will cease or diminish. The evangelicals will sit and await their God to whoosh in and save them, righting all the wrongs they thought Trump was going to date right but didn’t and be shocked that their corrupted concept of God never shows up.
Unintended consequences is going to be the star player of the future.
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David C said on July 17, 2024 at 9:08 am
That’s the kind of thing that would get most CEOs shit-canned in a minute. Moving a successful, money making company because Musk is butt-hurt because his trans daughter hates his fucking guts and California is going to make it illegal to out trans kids is the height of stupid. But all those billions buys a lot of get out of stupid cards
Thanks Dexter, I needed that.
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Deborah said on July 17, 2024 at 9:23 am
I didn’t know this until this morning from the NYT, sorry I just copied it and pasted here rather than a link, but it’s more than 4 paragraphs, maybe it’ll get bonged by Nancy:
At birth, Mr. Vance was named James Donald Bowman, after his father, Donald Bowman. Mr. Bowman was Mr. Vance’s mother’s second husband — Mr. Vance wrote that they split up when he was a toddler, and that Mr. Bowman gave him up for adoption when he was 6.
After the divorce, Mr. Vance’s mother married Bob Hamel, who became J.D.’s legal father, and she changed her son’s name. James Donald Bowman became James David Hamel, swapping out her ex-husband’s first name for her uncle’s name, David, to preserve the “J.D.” — which by then was Mr. Vance’s established nickname. (“This seemed a bit of a stretch even when I was six,” Mr. Vance wrote. “Any old D name would have done, so long as it wasn’t Donald.”)
A few years later, Mr. Hamel and J.D.’s mother split up. “One of the worst parts, honestly, was that Bob’s departure would further complicate the tangled web of last names in our family.” His mother, he wrote, took the last name of “whatever husband she was married to.” Her own parents (“Mamaw” and “Papaw”) were Vances.
When J.D. got to Yale Law School, he began to tell his friends about his childhood and his identity. His legal father, whose name was on his birth certificate, was a “total stranger.”
After he graduated from law school, J.D. married a former classmate, Usha Chilukuri, and they both changed their last name to Vance — “giving me, finally, the same name as the family to which I belonged.”
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basset said on July 17, 2024 at 11:36 am
Neighbor kid when I was growing up was named Jay Dee (lastname)… guess they had to make it as simple as possible.
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Jeff Borden said on July 17, 2024 at 1:27 pm
Women really need to acquaint themselves with Vance. He’s an absolute terror on abortion, arguing victims of rape or incest should give birth because “two wrongs don’t make a right.” He’s also dead set against no fault divorce and has urged women to remain in abusive marriages for the sake of their children. As a nationalist, he wants native born American women to pick up the pace and get those birth rates up, up, up!
He absolutely doesn’t broaden the appeal of this ticket. In many ways, his attitudes toward women are as bad or worse than tRump. He isn’t going to woo the suburban women the QOP needs.
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Icarus said on July 17, 2024 at 1:51 pm
“Have had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building,” Musk said.
Yeah, I’m sure he’s walking through the front door like anyone else.
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Jeff Borden said on July 17, 2024 at 2:05 pm
Texass is the perfect place for Elmo, though Austin is a liberal enclave. Can’t wait to see him with a big belt buckle, cowboy boots and ten-gallon hat. Comic gold.
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Courtney said on July 17, 2024 at 2:11 pm
I have a lot of faith in the Gen Z voting blog (the agency I work for has done a deep dive into this gen) – I’m optimistic that between gen Z and women of ALL generations the Democratic party will prevail.
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Sherri said on July 17, 2024 at 2:52 pm
I posted a link to an interview with Elle Reeve the other day, and since then, I’ve read her new book, Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics.
Even for someone as familiar with the online world as I am, it was pretty eye-opening. Reeve has interviewed a number of people on the alt-right, the Proud Boys, etc, and traces the movement from 4chan to Gamergate to Charlottesville to Jan 6; she was present at both Charlottesville and Jan 6. She learns how and why these men (mostly) were radicalized, discussing the extreme misogyny that runs throughout, whether racism is shared or not.
Some of her subjects learn and change for the better or the course of the book, others, not so much. They all see themselves as very smart, and most are smart, but often deeply naive in many ways. Even when trying to provoke violence, they see themselves as victims, only acting in self-defense; they want to provoke the other side into hitting first, so that they then feel justified in unleashing the violence they want to anyway. Or that great excuse of abusers everywhere: they made me do it.
A surprising (to me) number of the subjects in the book named The Bell Curve, still doing damage all these years later, as a key factor in developing their white supremacy.
A quick read, a good primer of how Internet culture and popular culture are blurring and feeding nihilism among young boys and men.
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Heather said on July 17, 2024 at 6:02 pm
Well, I just had a very depressing conversation with a good friend who is Muslim and she says so many Muslims she knows aren’t voting for Biden–they’re voting third party or for Trump because they’re so mad about the genocide in Gaza. She also thinks Biden should drop out. I’m even more upset and confused, if that’s possible.
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susan said on July 17, 2024 at 6:46 pm
Heather, I’m not surprised. Biden really, really blew, and is still blowing, the mess in Gaza. He and his people just don’t seem to learn or to pay attention. It’s the worst thing he has done.
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susan said on July 17, 2024 at 6:56 pm
My brother sent me this truth: “Now that he’s had his ear tipped, he needs to be neutered and relocated.”
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Joe Kobiela said on July 17, 2024 at 7:03 pm
Something completely different, if you go to YouTube and search sweet aviation, there is a short video of me showing off the airplane I fly.
Pilot Joe
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David C said on July 17, 2024 at 7:29 pm
Nice Joe. When I typed Sweet Aviation into the YouTube search, I got two hits. Sweet Aviation and Sweet but phycho aviation. So I got to see your video on the second try. 😉
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alex said on July 17, 2024 at 10:52 pm
“Now that he’s had his ear tipped, he needs to be neutered and relocated.”
How many more people does he need to attack before he’s euthanized?
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Mark P said on July 18, 2024 at 12:02 am
Let’s say for the sake of argument that Biden has done a terrible job dealing with the terrorist attack on Israel and Israel’s attacks in Gaza in response. Helping Donald Trump win the presidential election is a stupid and self-destructive way to express disapproval. If someone wants to destroy themselves as a way to hurt Joe Biden, I won’t stand in their way, but I don’t want them destroying my life, too. Someone who does that is at least as bad as a genuine MAGAt Trump supporter, because they know, or should know, the damage they are causing. Write an angry letter, but don’t pull the whole country down on the rest of us. That would be doing the same thing they accuse Biden of doing, causing untold harm to innocent people.
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Deborah said on July 18, 2024 at 9:51 am
It’s astounding to me how people do things against their own best interest out of spite. It’s certainly self destructing. Muslims in America will not be in great shape if Trump wins, that’s so obvious.
This thirst for power by the zillionaire tech bros supporting Trump and their guy Vance is depressing. What do they think they’re going to get out of it? More zillions that they don’t even need? It’s sick. Power and riches are certainly corrupting. Do they think they’re going to be master’s of the universe? Do they sit around in their underwear and count their money for fun? And why do so many people revere the obscenely wealthy?
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Icarus said on July 18, 2024 at 10:50 am
Oy Vey! What if all the people saying they won’t vote for Biden are just saying that so that Trump et al get a false sense of security? One can dream.
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annie said on July 18, 2024 at 12:24 pm
I’m taking comfort in the idea that things go in cycles–after a few years of MAGA disasters, they’ll be thrown out–tho I don’t know who the democrats will put up to counter Vance as presidential candidate.
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Sherri said on July 18, 2024 at 2:06 pm
I’m tired of the whole Biden must drop out narrative, but I have to say, I find Adam Schiff calling for him to drop out pretty annoying. You know he’s not saying it without Nancy Pelosi’s blessing, and it’s pretty rich for 84 year old Nancy Pelosi to be telling Joe Biden to drop out when she’s still running for reelection.
Yeah, I know she’s in an utterly safe seat, but still, that seat couldn’t be filled by a young, promising Democrat who could eventually go onto to bigger things?
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David C said on July 18, 2024 at 3:27 pm
The press wanted a scalp from Biden and the fucking professional and beltway Dems are sharpening the goddamned knife. Fuck them all.
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Sherri said on July 18, 2024 at 4:55 pm
Republicans like to laugh at progressives and say we don’t even know what a woman is. Well, as Tested, the latest podcast from Rose Eveleth tells us, people have been trying to determine that for at least 100 years, or as long as women have been participating in competitive sports.
Men policing who is really a woman goes back at least to women finally being allowed in the Olympics. The concerns seemed to be not only about cheating men pretending to be women, but that sports would somehow turn women into men, or that women attracted to sports weren’t feminine enough.
All this still goes on, not just about trans athletes, and it’s usually directed towards black athletes. I remember when Britney Griner was in college there was talk about how she’d never try out for the Olympic team because she’d have to undergo sex testing. The first episode of Tested tells the story of a Namibian runner who won silver in the 400 in Tokyo and suddenly was being summoned for special testing; it was discovered that she was intersex.
It always seems to be black and African athletes who get singled out for this special testing. I’ve never heard about Katie Ledecky being subjected to this, even though she holds something like 29 of the 30 fastest times in the 800m freestyle.
The first two episodes of Tested are available, and highly recommended, especially to understand the whole context of “protecting women’s sports” and how it usually means “policing women’s bodies.”
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David C said on July 18, 2024 at 5:27 pm
As if this world doesn’t suck enough, Bob Newhart is no longer in it.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/bob-newhart-comedy-trailblazer-dead-at-94/ar-BB1qeHLT
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Sherri said on July 18, 2024 at 7:55 pm
I still think people are underestimating the level of chaos changing candidates this late causes, and the damage that chaos causes, but I increasingly believe that it’s going to happen. Schiff coming out and calling for it tells me that Pelosi wants it to happen, and I don’t think Biden wins a battle with Pelosi.
It has to be Kamala, and I’m fine with Kamala. Just get it done and stop screwing around.
If you want someplace to put your angst, I’ve already shared about Postcards to Swing States. Another thing that I’ve done in the past and will likely do this year is donate to The States Project. They support Dem candidates in Red state legislatures that can be flipped. You can pick a state and amount, and they’ll divide your donation among the candidates they’re supporting.
Of course, I donate to the ACLU, which has been planning for this election for a couple of years. They have a Battleground States Project, where the affiliates in those states have been collaborating to prepare and have received extra funding and staffing from National.
I have pulled back from donating to Congressional campaigns this cycle. I’m not saying Congress isn’t important, it just wasn’t where I wanted to spend my energy. I have decided I want focus my attention on state legislators and turnout/protecting voting.
My real recommendation is that you choose what you want to focus on, whatever it is, and put your resources there, instead of reacting to the latest news cycle or the zillions of emails/texts/phone calls that will continue to plague us for the next few months.
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Deborah said on July 18, 2024 at 8:34 pm
Lou Dobbs died. No comment.
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Mark P said on July 18, 2024 at 11:30 pm
I saw a few minutes of Trump’s address to the Republican National Convention of Stupid People. It was a gathering of stupid people the likes of which no one has ever seen. There were thousands of stupid people, many thousands. No one has ever seen a gathering like this. This is the biggest gathering of stupid people in our nation’s history, our great nation, the greatest nation, it really is, only it’s really not, not today. Today this great nation is a hellhole, with gangs of violent immigrant rapists murdering thousands of women and children in the streets and in their homes and churches with bazookas and machine guns that Biden issued them at the border, and sinking our aircraft carriers, our great aircraft carriers, the greatest the world has ever seen, only they are not so great today, not so great, because they are manned by trans people and gay people and women who have aborted their babies because they failed sixth grade. Our military is the greatest in the world, only not so great, because of all the trillions of dollars this administration has sent to Ukraine and Mars, and the national debt, which I paid off in the first week of my first term while lowering taxes on everyone, only not on the poor and middle class, the great middle class of stupid people.
Ok, ok, enough. And the crowd ate it up. I could see frost forming on the American flags because the sinking average IQ was actually dragging the temperature down with it.
This cannot be our reality. Can it?
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brian stouder said on July 18, 2024 at 11:46 pm
Mark P – agreed! Trump’s literally incredible delusions and invincible ignorance was on full-display. I guess we really will see whether Trump’s appeal to the very worst demons of our being will indeed incinerate the better angels of our nature.
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Dexter Friend said on July 19, 2024 at 6:19 am
Trump went off the rails after his tale of losing his ear and at one point said our UAW President, the great Shawn Fain, should be fired for encouraging Mexican car manufacturing. That dumb bastard Trump is full of shit, that anti-union fascist.
Trump is batshit crazy, as blogger Craig Crawford led with.
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Suzanne said on July 19, 2024 at 7:38 am
Perfect summation, Mark P, absolutely perfect!
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David C said on July 19, 2024 at 8:10 am
He was still wearing that stupid, fucking gauze pad on his ear. My dad had a skin cancer removed from his ear. The bandage was nothing like that. Trump looked like he was wearing a gauze earring. He’ll probably keep it on until after he loses the election.
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alex said on July 19, 2024 at 8:19 am
Republicans don’t know their own ass when it’s handed to them. And they say we don’t know what a woman is. A gift column from Eugene Robinson: https://wapo.st/4faiVmv
Some say the fact that Biden’s polling numbers haven’t moved one way or another is a sign of his strength, not his weakness, and if the candidate were Harris it doesn’t change anything. There’s still hope if we can motivate people to vote and the off-the-rails neo-Nazi extravaganza this week ought to scare them into doing so.
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LAMary said on July 19, 2024 at 9:09 am
Dexter, do have a favorite Jardiance song version? The chunky big boob lady? The woman who plugs in the copier machine for her dim coworker or the African American guy who is a better dancer the than the other 2? I have an ongoing discussion with several medical professionals about this.
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Suzanne said on July 19, 2024 at 10:42 am
This is article is good.
So many people cannot accept that life is random and there is nothing much any of us can do about it. So they look for some controlling factor, God, political figures, some nefarious cabal, wellness gurus, conspiracies, or whatever, to explain things and gain control. If anything, having cancer has taught me that we have little control. Is there cause and effect? Of course. If I speed down the highway on the wrong side, bad things will happen. But sometimes, bad things happen anyway and that is just how life works.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/01/fluke-brian-klaas-chaos-theory/677111/?gift=F58N5IOcUo4qAP_lFh-H99dhG88eoO4IaIR9RZ9A-kY&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
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Jeff Borden said on July 19, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Well, hell, if Hulk Hogan is backing tRump, I need to rethink my vote.
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Deborah said on July 19, 2024 at 12:02 pm
Thread win Mark P.
Suzanne, I learned that when my mother had cancer and died when I was 14. There’s so much in life we can’t control. Unexpected things happen, both good and bad. It’s not like one should stop trying, we keep plugging away but luck and pluck are what one strives for, sometimes things work out, sometimes they don’t. Saviors are rare.
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brian stouder said on July 19, 2024 at 5:32 pm
LAMary, I’d vote for the chunky big-boob lady every time!
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Jeff Gill said on July 19, 2024 at 7:05 pm
Well.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/19/ohio-sherrod-brown-president-joe-biden-2024-campaign/74477999007/
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Jeff Borden said on July 19, 2024 at 7:12 pm
I finally saw a clip on the news with tRump declaring he was saved only by Almighty God! I guess that church-going fireman was deserted by Almighty God?
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Deborah said on July 19, 2024 at 7:34 pm
We head back to NM tomorrow after a week here in Chicago. The first half of the week was miserably hot but it turned out wonderfully later. It’s breezy and cool now so I almost hate to leave but it could turn hot and humid and I’d be sorry to be here. It’s going to be in the 70s in NM when we get there for a few days at least and then low 80s so with the low humidity that will be fine.
It’s been a busy trip so I’ve been doom scrolling a bit less which is good but even a short doom scrolling session is depressing.
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basset said on July 19, 2024 at 8:29 pm
All I know about Jardiance is that the second or third day I took it I had to pee nineteen times.
Ten Years After and Blue Oyster Cult were the ceiling speaker music in the radiation treatment room yesterday… the techs have no idea what they’re hearing and say they just pick a stream on Spotify. Ten down, eighteen to go.
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beian stouder said on July 19, 2024 at 9:30 pm
I’d ask for Pearl Jam!
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Jeff Gill said on July 19, 2024 at 9:41 pm
Basset, I’ll be curious if a side effect is uncontrollable dancing.
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tajalli said on July 19, 2024 at 11:12 pm
What I find confusing about the push to ask Biden to step down, is that all the Democratic primaries have been held and Biden holds 3967* pledged delegates (total 3904) since we the people voted for Biden.
How is it that we the people can have our wishes reversed or ignored when the delegates have pledged that they will vote for him at the DNC in August.
*Link for referenced data
https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/primaries-and-caucuses/results/democratic-party/president?election-data-id=2024-PD&election-painting-mode=projection&filter-key-races=false&filter-flipped=false
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brian stouder said on July 19, 2024 at 11:28 pm
Jeff, I bet the Uncontrollable Dancing is a side effect of the need to find the bathroom (and, if I were Basset, I’d request Pearl Jam!)
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Dexter Friend said on July 20, 2024 at 1:51 am
LA Mary, I was so used to the original Jardiance lady, I was miffed when #2 took over, then I took a liking to her. The dude, get outta here, chump!
Remember when Tracey Ullman busted out singing the JT Wentworth jingle, driving LD mad, on “Curb…”? Well that runs through my head even more than the Jardiance onslaught.
877 cash now !!!
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basset said on July 20, 2024 at 2:04 am
No requests allowed on the music, if I could bring my own it’d be King Crimson, “The Sheltering Sky.”
I cannot name even one Pearl Jam song. Then again, I am old.
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brian stouder said on July 20, 2024 at 8:41 am
Pearl Jam is my all-time favorite ban, period! Their album Ten (early ‘90’s pop
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brian stouder said on July 20, 2024 at 9:03 am
(technical difficulties). ….absolutely turned my head – and THEN a guy at work won tickets off a local radio station to see them – on a week-night – and he didn’t want to go, so he gave them to me (for free!)…. and the show was beyond marvelous! It was at an outdoor venue (I wanna say Deer Creek, but don’t quote me)….and Eddie announced that there was a bomb-threat, and anyone who wanted to leave could, and we all laughed & laughed- and they proceeded to put on a tremendously marvelous show!
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Brandon said on July 20, 2024 at 3:24 pm
Speaking of uncontrollable dancing: “Party Rock Anthem.”
N.b. Redfoo is Berry Gordy’s son. Sky Blu is Gordy’s grandson, and Redfoo’s nephew.
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Suzanne said on July 20, 2024 at 5:14 pm
Did I mention here that we have a close relative that works for Grindr and that he has verified that traffic was way up during the time the RNC was in Milwaukee?
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Dave said on July 20, 2024 at 8:35 pm
Brian, the only Pearl Jam song I know is the “Last Kiss” cover. Don’t know another thing about them or a lot of other what I consider to be latter day artists.
Suzanne, that’s got to be a mistake or miscalculation or something, all those folks are evangelicals living right at the foot of the cross. Just can’t be true.
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Deborah said on July 20, 2024 at 9:10 pm
Somewhere I read that local bars around the RNC venue were having drag shows to mess with the Republicans. All the people with those weird ear patches was embarrassing to see. Grown ups acting like dorky preschoolers, completely devoid of self reflection.
I’m back in NM. Up at the crak of dawn in Chicago, Midway was a zoo because of what happened yesterday and our plane was jammed, then we got back to our place in Santa Fe and plants that we had spent lots of time and energy on had curled up and died from the heat here while we were gone. It’s cooler now and will be for a while but I’m very crabby, It’s only a little after 7pm and I’m ready to call it a day and hit the hay, hope for a better tomorrow.
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Dexter Friend said on July 21, 2024 at 11:14 am
For anyone here who has a daughter no matter the current age, I highly suggest you do not listen to the song I link without a tissue, for this is so emotional I choked up and tears ran the first time I heard it on Pearl Jam’s latest album, “Dark Matter”. I have two step daughters and one biological daughter. How someone could write a song straight to my heart then finish it with such powerful music and especially Eddie’s vocals…it’s amazing.
Ready? Get ready to cry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv7MMTXWFBQ
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alex said on July 21, 2024 at 2:05 pm
Well the doubters got their wish. They’d better select a dream ticket or we’re in for an even worse drubbing.
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brian stouder said on July 21, 2024 at 2:13 pm
Dexter, Superb! And, thanks! Edit: Alex, agreed; and, GO KAMALA!
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Joe Kobiela said on July 21, 2024 at 2:25 pm
Called it, months ago.
Pilot Joe
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Sherri said on July 21, 2024 at 2:26 pm
I want to see full-throated endorsements of Harris from every Dem in leadership immediately. Stop this chaos.
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Mark P said on July 21, 2024 at 2:28 pm
Biden is probably relieved. He’s thinking, “OK, fuck all of you all! And good luck. I’m outta here, and don’t call when you need help.”
I’m about of the mind that he ought to resign now and let KH run as an incumbent. I’m also of a mind that there is a hell of a huge segment of voters who won’t accept a woman of color. I am not optimistic, unless Trump strokes out.
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Suzanne said on July 21, 2024 at 2:39 pm
My husband’s statement on learning that Biden dropped out?
“I’d vote for Biden’s vomit over Trump.”
Also, Biden should use the newly clarified presidential immunity power to clean the GOP’s clock in any way he can.
Immunity now!
Also again, Josh Hawley is already calling for Joe to resign as POTUS. You know, run away like Josh did.
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Dorothy said on July 21, 2024 at 2:39 pm
We got Obama elected; we’re going to get Harris elected. She’s going to destroy that half deaf rapist felon.
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Dexter Friend said on July 21, 2024 at 2:40 pm
I see no pathway to a Harris win unless women turn out in droves , those who appreciate healthcare.
I lean with Pelosi; an open convention is the way. Josh Shapiro or Gretchen would beat the rapist. Harris would head the executive branch, and would have no power in prosecuting the 34 counts convicted felon. This talk should stop. Trump MUST be stopped. Today, with Joe’s endorsement, Kamala Harris has the inside track. I just hope she is not the candidate. Just watch some videos of Gretchen and/or Shapiro , then compare to Harris’s sing-song applause laden talking points. I just do not believe Harris has a chance in hell.
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Sherri said on July 21, 2024 at 4:40 pm
It’s an absolute slap in the face to the most reliable bloc of voters Dems have, black women, to put anyone but Kamala at the top of the ticket. Don’t even come up at me with Shapiro, who’s only been governor for a hot minute while Kamala’s been VP for three and a half years.
I accept that a white guy governor is going to be on the ticket, but I’d go with Roy Cooper, who’s in his last year as governor in North Carolina and is term-limited.
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David C said on July 21, 2024 at 5:24 pm
The press got their scalp and the Vichy Dems helped. To hell with all of them.
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