"Will you shut up, man?" US Politics October 2020

This McConnell thing--avoiding the White House for two months because "my impression was their approach to how to handle this is different from mine"--I know it's not a big story, but the mere fact of McConnell publicly voicing anything other than abject obsequiousness can't be reassuring to Trump.

Pfft, it makes sense that Pence would leave his fly up.

just putting this here for reference, the Michigan affidavit

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/read-affidavit-accusing-michigan-militia-group-plot-kidnap-gov-whitmer

This McConnell thing--avoiding the White House for two months because "my impression was their approach to how to handle this is different from mine"--I know it's not a big story, but the mere fact of McConnell publicly voicing anything other than abject obsequiousness can't be reassuring to Trump.

― clemenza, Thursday, October 8, 202

Yeah -- it's what The Fixx called a secret separation

You know I'm not an '80s guy, so, honest to god, it took me about 10 seconds before I realized The Fixx wasn't a political website like Politico or TPM.

man Buttigieg is going hard in this interview, I gotta admit

thank you, MatthewK, can't wait to traumatize friends with that

Mike Pence probably shakes his wife's hand post-coitus, maybe pats her back

There's never a post-coitus

Decent chance the Pences are absolute freaks in bed tbh.

The whole mother thing is just roleplay, gets him harder because they can do it in public.

Isn't her ex husband the Viagra creator? Or something like that? She may still be very much in charge of that aspect if so.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday revealed that he is currently taking ineffective coronavirus therapeutic hydroxychloroquine in an effort to fend off a possible COVID-19 infection...

Don't stop believing.

his head is going to be humpty dumpty sized

This is a masterclass in gibberish

Trump speaks to senior citizens about COVID: "You're not vulnerable, but they like to say the vulnerable, but you're the least vulnerable — but for this one thing you are vulnerable." pic.twitter.com/eyZDRwur1p

— The Recount (@therecount) October 8, 2020

Apparently him on Hannity tonight is...a thing.

Yikes. Trump's voice is extremely hoarse and at one point gave out. pic.twitter.com/kf0gwNyPCI

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 9, 2020

Trump is on some kind of a rant about California dumping water into the Pacific because of some tiny little fish that doesn’t do well with something something, and then he went off on forest fires and Hannity is trying to stop him

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 9, 2020

So... he's not a 'senior citizen', I gather? No royal 'We'?
He lives in Florida.

Okay, yes, I'm convinced that he is actively trying to lose

Governor Whitmer of Michigan has done a terrible job. She locked down her state for everyone, except her husband’s boating activities. The Federal Government provided tremendous help to the Great People of Michigan. My Justice Department and Federal Law Enforcement announced...

...today that they foiled a dangerous plot against the Governor of Michigan. Rather than say thank you, she calls me a White Supremacist—while Biden and Democrats refuse to condemn Antifa, Anarchists, Looters and Mobs that burn down Democrat run cities...

...I do not tolerate ANY extreme violence. Defending ALL Americans, even those who oppose and attack me, is what I will always do as your President! Governor Whitmer—open up your state, open up your schools, and open up your churches!

My "I do not tolerate ANY extreme violence" shirt raises a lot of questions already answered by my shirt

They oscillated the mic, and they actually oscillated it very seriously? Did they also oscillate it ... wildly?

he's gonna be rehospitalized by this weekend

I hope he dies as he lived ... dead.

Mayor Pete has been very very good on Fox News. I think people underestimated him. I’m sure he’ll have a cabinet position. Or maybe he’s jockeying for VP.

satan oscillate my moronic sonatas

I wonder

I was long skeptical of the Steve Bannon as master strategist narrative, he's mostly a crank and a conman, but this election year it's clear how responsible he was in turning Trump's impulses into something resembling a coherent message.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) October 9, 2020

one giant Voltron of shit

Trump on Green New Deal: "They literally want to take buildings down and rebuild them ... with tiny little windows. Tiny little windows so you can't see the light." Having covered the Green New Deal a can't say I know what this one is referring to

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) October 9, 2020

very bummed that I can hear "tiny little windows" in his voice

why won't he just d*e

xxxp "satan oscillate my moronic sonatas" :)

I've enjoyed Pete's contributions to Fox News though, he's been surprisingly powerful

There's a decent chance at this point that Trump makes at least one pantsless public appearance before election day.

yeah Pete was good, especially knowing Trump was likely watching

Like his brain has been soup since day one bit the pot is fucking boiling over rn

He's gonna whip it out at the last debate.

Biden on FB, guess the gloves are off

Joe Biden

42m ·
Earlier today, I spoke with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. I am grateful that she and her family are safe, and I commend the FBI and other law enforcement officers for their work to prevent this deranged act by emboldened domestic terrorists.

As a nation, we are at a crossroads. We have come to a point where, despite our shock, we are not surprised that such a heinous plot was even conceived — a plot by Americans to blow up a bridge on American soil, threaten the lives of police officers and other law enforcement officials, and kidnap an American leader, take her hostage, and stage a mock trial for treason. It’s the kind of twisted plot we expect from ISIS, but now it’s here at home.

The words of a president matter. They can move markets. They can bring peace. They can bring war. They can heal divisions or incite violence.

When Governor Whitmer worked to protect the people of her state from a deadly pandemic, and saved countless lives, President Trump issued a call to “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” That call was heard. When protesters with Swastikas and Confederate flags, nooses, and assault rifles descended on Michigan’s capitol echoing the President’s own refrain to “lock her up,” President Trump called them “very good people.” He was heard, just as he was heard by neo-Nazis in Charlottesville three years ago, and again last week, when he told the extremist Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by."

There is a throughline from President Trump’s dog whistles and tolerance of hate, vengeance, and lawlessness to plots such as this one. He is giving oxygen to the bigotry and hate we see on the march in our country.
We have to stop it.

I just spoke a few days ago in Gettysburg about the cost of division in this country and the need to stand up and shut down violence and hate. The moment has come. We need to come together for the country I know, for the country you know. We need to make our voice heard.

Vote.

Vote!?? For who?? You? The other guy? Help me Joe!!

lol good point but uh I think I'll still vote Biden

idk about this sick dude

In other news southern Louisiana is about to get hammered by another hurricane.

“At the first debate they put sidechain compression on my mic... they sidechained it very, very seriously... it gave my voice a woozy, LA beat scene sound... everybody laughed at me, they called me ‘Flying POTUS’...”

— Ambooent 1: Music For Scareports (@pixelatedboat) October 9, 2020

lol

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/our-forecast-thinks-democrats-will-keep-the-house-and-maybe-even-gain-seats/

5% chance of Republicans running the table, just to give you nightmare fuel

9:38 am and no tweet yet hoping for the best 😌💖

— blaire erskine (@blaireerskine) October 9, 2020

About those internal GOP polls:

New polls show Mr. Trump’s support is collapsing nationally, as he alienates women, seniors and suburbanites. He is trailing not just in must-win battlegrounds but according to private G.O.P. surveys, he is repelling independents to the point where Mr. Biden has drawn closer in solidly red states, including Montana, Kansas and Missouri, people briefed on the data said.

Nowhere has Mr. Trump harmed himself and his party more than across the Sun Belt, where the electoral coalition that secured a generation of Republican dominance is in danger of coming apart.

“There are limits to what people can take with the irresponsibility, the untruthfulness, just the whole persona,” said Jeff Flake, the former Republican senator from Arizona. Mr. Flake is crossing party lines to support Mr. Biden, who made his first visit of the general election here Thursday.

Many of the Sun Belt states seemingly within Mr. Biden’s reach resisted the most stringent public-health policies to battle the coronavirus. As a result, states like Arizona, Georgia and Texas faced a powerful wave of infections for much of the summer, setting back efforts to revive commercial activity.

🐦[9:38 am and no tweet yet hoping for the best 😌💖
— blaire erskine (@blaireerskine) October 9, 2020🕸]🐦

In other dumb news: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-got-a-21-million-tax-break-for-saving-the-forest-outside-his-ny-mansion-now-the-deal-is-under-investigation/2020/10/07/de84c1ba-ff6b-11ea-830c-a160b331ca62_story.html

This is (of course) crazy. Trump buys a property in upstate New York for about $7 million, claiming he's going to develop it into a golf corse (which fails) and a housing development (which also fails). But then he deducts the value of the property based on the value of ... the houses he never built, because if it *did* build them, and sold them each for $2 million, then the property itself would be worth over $50 million.

I hope everything this guy ever did is investigated forever. I mean:

In one bizarre episode from 2009, Trump rented out Seven Springs to the former Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi, who was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Gaddafi’s staff pitched a Bedouin-style tent, complete with camel-print drapery, in Trump’s yard.

But even tent-building was doomed at Seven Springs. Bedford officials issued a stop-work order — the tent was deemed a temporary residence, and it had no permits — and Gaddafi didn’t end up moving in.

I wouldn't be surprised if at the end of it all it turns out that *Trump* did Benghazi.

I did find it heartening to see that a guy I followed on Twitter that had been fairly dormant recently suddenly emerged with a full-on, loud campaign for Jo Jorgensen and got completely lambasted in his responses and his follower count plummeted by like 85% in the past two days.

is that related to the "public park" he bought in upstate NY? a few weeks ago there was a photo of a sad little "Trump Park" sign in the middle of a freshly cut patch of grass, along with a caption explaining that trump bought the land and said he would develop it into a nice park, then did nothing and put the stupid little sign on top

/unconfirmed but that's gotta be true

yeah that's the same

Yeah, I think so (I may have posted that ridiculous picture/tweet somewhere in here).