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

im calling it right now, the 2020 election will be a referendum on tony bobulinski

...and now it's a surprise how?

surprise, there's a guy who exists named tony bobulinski

There's alotta shithead kids who couldn't vote in '16 (or '18) that can now.

there's also alotta shithead geezers who voted in '16 who are dead now

For weeks it's been Bobulinski this, Bobulinski that. Tonight, the wait is over: Bobulinski.

The real surprise will be when Tony Bobulinski turns out to be this guy:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Co-OfK6WEAA-vY2.jpg

Calling Bobulinski Mr Tony Bobulinski

https://imgflip.com/i/4jhgv6

The skill

On the Trump camp's pre-debate press call, reporters are asking questions about various subjects (where Trump will be on election day, @RichardGrenell's reported meetings with Venezuelan politicians, the debate) and Grenell is refusing any questions not on the Biden emails.

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) October 22, 2020

When @DJJudd asked about the meetings, @RichardGrenell asked if he has covered the Biden emails. Judd responded he covers the Trump campaign.

During a back and forth with @tamarakeithNPR, Grenell told her "don't be homophobic" as she tried to interject. https://t.co/VOUeBBktt2

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) October 22, 2020

Wait 'til Biden spot Bobulinski sitting in the front row, leering at him. Game over!

https://i.imgur.com/Z1KKMfC.jpg

I will say it again (and again, and again): he does not want to face the potential consequences of not winning, but that is not the same as wanting to win. (sweeps hand across panorama of everything Trump has done or said recently) Clearly.

So this thing is tonight, and the strategy is clearly to go all-in on (Hunter) Biden. How long until Trump is muted? How many times will he have to be muted? Will he end up muted the entire time? Will he get muted every time he tries to change the subject back to Hunter Biden? Will Trump storm out in a huff after he gets muted? Will they mute his footsteps? Will they foley in funny sounds, like horse hooves or farts? The betting markets must be going nuts!

There's a big part of me the genuinely thinks he's going to storm out of this one tonight.

from your words to, etc

I think I'm going to preemptively storm out, straight to my beer fridge.

man, this guy

Why it matters that the entire mainstream press is non-reporting the Biden emails (or falsely labeling them disinformation): they’re likely to be charged soon with challenging a Biden administration. If they’re already lying on his behalf, it makes them politicians, not press.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) October 21, 2020

he's the one true boy

(or falsely labeling them disinformation)

I'm not inclined to take matt taibbi's simple word on this without some believable corroboration (not like giuliani's mush-brained dribblings). what did the FBI conclude about these emails, then?

OK I'll bite: is there actually anything all that incriminating in those HB emails? WHat I've read is not at all convincing and comes across as desperate. Not to mention that the sourcing is highly suspect. And the irony of a Trumper alleging nepotistic self-dealing is mind-melting.

Please please put all your eggs in this email basket; it's a winner.

Xxpost nothing that they've made public

Read:

I finally dug a little bit into the "Hunter Biden email" story because I could not figure out what the supposed scandal was. Let's assume the "smoking gun" email is real. The "scandal" is even more ridiculous than it seems, and depends on the endless stupidity of Trumpers....

— Kurt "Mask Up, Vote Early" Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) October 21, 2020

I had not watched Presidential Roastmaster Barack Obama until just now. This is decent material. As someone who also got their first job at 15 working at Baskin-Robbins (within the year I had moved around the corner to Dunkin' Donuts), I particularly enjoyed that bit:

President Obama: "He's got a secret Chinese bank account. How's that possible ... imagine if I had a secret Chinese bank account when I was running for reelection? You think Fox News might've been a little concerned? They would've called me Beijing Barry." pic.twitter.com/kJvSh0DITr

— Leland #StayHome 🏡 #VoteByMail 🇺🇸 (@daft_editor) October 22, 2020

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/22/bernie-sanders-biden-labor-secretary-431266

Much more interesting interview with former Trump voters in PA on NPR right now, about why they voted for him, why they're not voting for him now, what changed. I wonder if NPR will, or even could, cobble together a piece on people that voted for Clinton but are now voting Trump. I wonder if those people exist. They must, right?

and NPR's the #bothsides org that can do it!

Obama should give this speech every day in a different state until Election Day.

Ye olde "c'mon, man" whistlestop tour

Two prominent Texas Democrats — former congressman Beto O’Rourke and former housing secretary Julián Castro — urged Biden on Thursday afternoon to quickly spend more money in Texas, an emerging battleground state they’re convinced he can win.

Both pointed to Biden’s large cash-on-hand advantage over Trump and recent polls showing a tightening presidential race in Texas, which Trump won by 9 points four years ago. An average of recent polls in the state show the two candidates separated by 3 percentage points, with Biden at 46 percent and Trump at 49. While Biden is advertising in the state and has staff working there, Texas is a far lower priority than states that narrowly decided the 2016 election: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida.

“There are big priorities, like making sure that Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are locked down, and I believe that the Biden campaign has done a fantastic job of locking those states down — and they need to — but to have Texas [so close], that’s just too much to ignore,” Castro said during a Thursday afternoon virtual news conference organized by the Texas Democratic Party. “The resources and investment ought to be made in this state because … to win Texas is not just to win an election, it’s to win on the issues that matter to our country, it’s to send a strong message that Donald Trump can’t deny and it will remake the electoral map for generations to the benefit of Democrats everywhere.”

i have to admit, the electoral map does look pretty different when it has giant-ass texas in blue:

https://i.imgur.com/im74rLj.png

(you can hover over the little dots in 538's forecast to see how different the results of the 100 representative simulations)

https://i.imgur.com/xfB2YnL.pngBiden is favored to win the election

Pete has been putting in work tho

Props to Pete Buttigieg for going on Fox News and routinely speaking truth to people who aren’t used to hearing it https://t.co/8iS2lG0pIF

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 22, 2020

I didn't like Pete on the campaign trail after a certain point, but Fox Guest Troll Pete is fun.

Well, he is with his people.

The big pissbaby meltdown over the 60 Minutes questions this morning are giving promise of some satisfying dopamine spikes fro schadenfreude in the first half of the debate tonight.

Trump tonight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v-33jcEDk4

And I wish Morbs had lived to enjoy the Giuliani news yesterday.

Lol, I heard some bs analysis a bit ago saying that the last time all Biden had to do was to let him babble to look good, so Trump's handlers were hoping that this time he would hold back, be more respectful, and let Biden twist himself up. Yeah, sure that'll happen, as the 60 Minutes tape, recorded just days ago, showed him fully capable of doing. Thank goodness they're not going to ask anything about Covid. You know, for his sake. Because that would be unfair. Also, it's a female debate moderator, which is also unfair, so should he decide to go full-asshole, she had it coming (to coin a phrase I'm sure Trump has never used).

Y'know, if that Trump fellow would just evince the slightest capacity for self-regulation, he could be a helluva president.

he's going to bring one of those rapmaster 5000 mics to speak into when they turn his actual mic off

Fun interview with the guy who did those Trump-talking-about-Weird-Al and Trump-talking-about-Scooby-Doo riffs, who was a conservative evangelical Christian four years ago.

What are you doing vocally that makes things... click into place?

He has a lot of shit in his throat. So it was about boosting sort of the distortion in my throat and cranking up the, um, ambient kind of gross throat noise. There’s like a hissy breathy croak in his throat. Also he has just totally blown out the top half of his head, like kind of his entire upper respiratory system with cocaine and crushed up the British Sudafed and everything all the time and, uh, screaming at 21-year-olds to take off their clothes and everything he does all day. So he’s sort of trashed his nose and his throat. So I try to close off certain nasal passages.

Everyone Gen X and up it seems fixates on the wealthy Trump of the eighties. That’s what I hear kind of all the hack Trump impressions doing, the old eighties Trump, the womanizer. In a smoother Trump voice: She’s a very beautiful woman. She’s got great legs and, you know, I’m hoping we get really close with it. I think it’d be really nice to get to know her. In his normal voice: And that’s not who Trump is now. Like, he’s the devil. And he’s old. That’s the main thing I focus on, is that this is a rasping old man who is inches from death at any moment. He’s dying. He’s inches from death and Billy Crystal has come out with the bellows from the Princess Bride and they pumped him full of steroids and give him a big shot in his ass, and he’s hanging on for dear life every moment of the day.

would you look at that - the trump crew are wearing masks tonight

ah, i see - it's because the debate commission required them to. which, uh, they also did last time, right? the trumps just didn't do it, and no one was willing to throw them out of the building

They're made of flash paper. They're going to simultaneously light them up in an attempt to blind Biden but will, instead, give themselves simultaneous second-degree facial burns.

they're lined with irresistible oats this time around

here we go.

Trump sounds like shit

so in other words he's talking

He wishes he could hide in a basement for a year & a half.

I think we could arrange that