This could be a really bad couple of months!

Those of us who practice critical thinking understand the concept.  That’s what I try to teach to my students every day – look at issues from all sides while questioning the motive of the owner of the message.

Unfortunately, I think too many people (including me) look at the 27.33452% of the population who support Donald Trump and believe they have not processed the information we have processed correctly.  That is not true, however – leaving many of us frustrated and angry that people, sometimes our loved ones or friends, have views about politics that we find objectionable and obtuse.

What we are dealing with is a type of re-education that has taken place through the “Uses and Gratification” theory of communication – that people seek out information sources that validate their thoughts.  Hell – I do this as well. 

But many of the 27% are psychologically weak. They have been given a common enemy. They have been lied to over and over and over.  They are looking for something to be a part of, participate in – in other words they are trying to instill meaning and order into their lives.

But their commitment to SFB is less like an avid fan and more like  a converted Hare Krishna disciple — who is armed.

The debates are pointless, the field of people who are undecided is negligible, and the danger that we often negate because of its’ mere absurdity is not a fantasy. 

This could get deadly my fellow mixers – how deadly I don’t know.  Thoughts?

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90 thoughts on “This could be a really bad couple of months!”

  2. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/30/politics/health-care-vote-senators/index.html

    We WILL flip the Senate!  
    The Republicans have sided with tRUMPsky to their own detriment…and are now forever tied to white supremacy.  

    Americans also
    know that Republicans want to take away healthcare protections like preexisting conditions, and, that they want a female member of a misogynistic cult to help take away healthcare coverage from millions.
     
    There is NO pivot away from any of these things.  And guess who is happy out this? SFB.  Folks have stopped talking about his taxes.    

    Guess what, Republicans.   tRUMP has been playing you like Nero’s fiddle. 

  4. If it’s still dark where you are, go outside and look up to the west.  Beautiful moon!

  5. Only a little over a month before the really big fight begins 34 Days of Trump on the wall 34 Days of Trump In a fit of rage Tear off a page 33 Days of Trump on the wall

  6.  NYTimes:

    Trump Renews Fears of Voter Intimidation as G.O.P. Poll Watchers Mobilize
    Republicans are putting together what they call an army of Trump supporters to monitor election procedures.
    […]
    But while the official poll watchers are being schooled in legal procedures, Mr. Trump and some of his closest surrogates, including his longtime confidant Roger J. Stone Jr. and his son Donald Trump Jr., have recently floated conspiracy theories that also sound like calls to arms.
    During a recent appearance on “The Alex Jones Show,” a far-right radio program that peddles conspiracy theories, Mr. Stone said that ballots in Nevada should be seized by federal marshals, claiming that “they are already corrupted” and that Mr. Trump should consider nationalizing the state police. Mr. Stone, a felon whose sentence was commuted this year by the president, has ties to the Proud Boys.
    In a video imploring Trump supporters to join a poll-watching brigade called “Army for Trump,” Donald Trump Jr. made similarly evidence-free claims of fraud.
    “The radical left are laying the groundwork to steal this election from my father, President Donald Trump,” the younger Mr. Trump says on the video, posted on Twitter.
    Even as President Trump failed to condemn violent white supremacists during the debate, his own Homeland Security analysts asserted in a threat assessment that such extremists represent the “most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland through 2021,” according to a September draft of the assessment obtained by The New York Times.
    The assessment said that “open-air, publicly accessible parts of physical election infrastructure,” including polling places and voter registration events, could be “flash points for potential violence.”
    […]
    The Republican establishment has ample reason to want to avoid accusations of voter intimidation. In the early 1980s, after the party sent hired workers sporting armbands reading “National Ballot Security Task Force” into Black and Latino precincts in New Jersey to challenge voters’ eligibility, it operated under an increasingly strict federal consent decree that eventually barred it from conducting or advising on any sort of “ballot security” activities — even by unpaid volunteers.
    Richard L. Hasen, an election-law expert at the University of California, Irvine, said that because of the president’s influence, the Republican National Committee was at risk of being associated with the same kind of behavior that led to the consent decree. He noted that the 2017 federal court ruling lifting the consent decree stated in a footnote that Mr. Trump had clearly encouraged voter suppression during the 2016 presidential campaign, but that his behavior could not be tied to the national party.
    Now, however, he effectively controls the party.
    “While I was worried about Trump norm-breaking in 2016, it is far worse for a sitting president to be undermining the integrity of the election,” Dr. Hasen said. “Whether Trump means the things he says or not, he’s convincing his most ardent supporters that the only way he loses is if the Democrats cheat.”
    He added, “That’s profoundly destabilizing and scary.”

  8. and now for more important news: it’s fat bear week!

    https://explore.org/fat-bear-week#vote

    Choose the fattest bear of the year! Fat Bear Week is an annual tournament celebrating the success of the bears at Brooks River in Katmai National Park. From September 30 to October 6, your vote decides who is the fattest bear.  Matchups will be open for voting from 12 – 10 p.m. Eastern (9 a.m. – 7 p.m. Pacific).

     

    fat bear week bracket

    [ and no D’ump is not one of them (maybe next year)]

  10. newsweek about the above tweet:

    During the debate, Trump brought up Hunter Biden and claimed he had been “thrown out of the military” for cocaine use. Trump Jr. went further in his interview with Beck, suggesting Biden’s history with drugs could be a problem if his father becomes president.
    “Hunter Biden now has a tie—a direct tie to Vladimir Putin and Russia,” Trump Jr. said, referring to an accusation that Biden received $3.5 million from the wife of the mayor of Moscow. Biden’s lawyer denies this.
    “And you don’t think they would use that over Crackhead Hunter? Like, you don’t think that we need leverage over Joe Biden later on in life?” Trump Jr. said.
    Hunter Biden received an administrative discharge from the Navy Reserve in 2014 after failing a drug test for cocaine the previous year, as the Wall Street Journal reported at the time, citing “people familiar with the matter.”
    The Lincoln Project may be trying to draw attention to unsubstantiated rumors that Trump Jr. was on drugs during his speech to the Republican National Convention this year. Some pointed to what they described as his glassy eyes.
    Trump Jr. dismissed the idea he was on drugs as “ridiculous” and said that if his eyes appeared glassy it was due to “something with the lighting.”

  11. DV, you are spot on.  I’m taking nothing for granted, and I know that the chance of correcting what we believe is inaccurate assessment of information by D’ump’s true believers is as negligible and the percentage of undecided voters – not very high.  So we soldier on.
     
    Well, while Fall arrived last week according to the Calendar, it got here officially yesterday.  Temps dropped after a front bringing rain passed through and I woke up to a cool morning with the first real leaf cover in the front yard. Time to put the mulcher on the tractor.

  12. Trump Jr., drugs or not, is simply a privileged asshat. I’d love to hear he dies with a rifle in his hand, gored by the rhino he did not kill quickly enough.

  13. DV, you lay it out well, I just wish there was something to about it. Overwhelming deplorables with reasonables at the ballot box all there is. People who think truth is fake are pretty much helpless.

  18. Hey Oldsea….    great to see you back!   I know you had a super busy summer…  hope it was successful.

  19. Hi Oldsea. Your article gets at what were Joe’s best moments, straight to camera and the voters. He probably planned more of that but the clown wouldn’t let him. Next format is a town hall.

  20. What about all of the white women in the suburbs who are voting for Joe.  We could easily be mistaken for evangelical, holy rollers.   More Biden/Harris merch arrived in the mail and I’m afraid to wear it in public.  Frankly, I might be afraid to do so even after Joe is sworn in.
     
    Here’s the thing Republican in Congress need to remember.  tRUMPsky has no loyalty to you or your party or this country.  Your ass is grass at some point.   Do the right things now, please.
    1) Refuse a SCOTUS hearing
    2) Impeach the bastard on any of his numerous crimes
    3) Get the media involved (even Fox) to tell the truth to the numb-nuts planning to overthrow our government 
    4) Pray that the orange poodle’s handler shuffles off this mortal coil soon

  25. Say you are looking for a less stressful life, and possibly less expensive.  You look at other countries and immigration requirements.  You choose the climate, history, whether you can become a citizen and cost of living.  Good so far.  At least if you are a straight white male.  Things should be almost equal for straight white women.  People of color would check with around for issues of racial injustice.  Good so far.  If you are LGBTQ you need to check more including if you are legal.  There are a few places that being gay is punishable by death.  Same for being transgender.  Which means life is not always easy to live for those who are not straight white males.

  26. Bob Murray is not well regarded generally in the Ohio Valley area.  He’s obviously not the most protective employer in the area. A firm I used to work for represented him in employment matters. He fought them all.

  27. the guardian:

    Subway bread is not bread, Irish court rules

    […]

    In a judgment published on Tuesday, the court ruled that the bread served at Subway, the US chain that hawks giant sandwiches in 110 countries and territories, could not in fact be defined as bread because of its high sugar content.

    The ruling followed an appeal by Bookfinders Ltd, Subway’s Irish franchisee. The company had argued that the bread used in Subway sandwiches counted as a staple food and was consequently exempt from VAT.

    […]

    The ruling is not the first slice of controversy for the brand. In 2014, Subway decided to start removing the flour whitening agent azodicarbonamide from its baked goods after a petition circulated online. The ingredient is commonly used in the manufacture of yoga mats and carpet underlay and has been banned by the European Union and Australia from use in food products.

  28. All the violence you’ve seen on your TVs is always constrained to a few city blocks and is easily avoidable.
     
    We’ve learned how to conduct government business on online.  Go ahead and take over a courthouse- your arraignment will be done over Zoom.
     
    i carry mace and keep my head on a swivel.🤷‍♂️

  29. I am so tired of hearing Trump’s voice. He has ruined the morning news for me!🇺🇸

  31. So, what these white supremacists call “civil war” will actually be them committing random domestic terrorist acts- innocent people will die, but it won’t be long before the general public sees them for what they are- ignorant jerk-offs🤷‍♂️

  32. What follows is one conclusion of The Economist’s  evaluation of Tuesday’s debate:
    “…Mr Biden has rejected the Utopian ideas of the left of his party. His tax and spending proposals are reasonable—an order of magnitude smaller than those of, say, Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. They imply only a slightly bigger state and attempt to deal with genuine problems facing America, including shoddy infrastructure, climate change and the travails of small business. If anything, the flaw in Mr Biden’s plans is that in some areas they are not far-reaching enough.”
    As I have said in years past, my investment in that British weekly is money well spent.

  33. Oregon Democrat….  welcome back!  
    Flatus…  we get The Economist also.  It’s a bit pricey for a yearly subscription…  but we think it’s worth every penny.

  34. The best part of this vid is the supremacist ring-leader running through a flower bed because he’s so scared

  35. Of course, we can’t forget that peaceful activist Heather Heyer was murdered that day, so, yeah it won’t be fun. Gird your loins✌️❤️🇺🇸

  37. This is a long (but interesting)  analysis of the debate by a Democratic operative name Geoffrey Sea.
     

    Fight and Flight

    The analysts on MSNBC all sort-of got it. “He’s not running against Joe Biden, he’s running against the election,” said Rachel Maddow. “He’s not even trying to win the election,” said James Carville.

    No shit, Sherlock. One thing Donald Trump knows how to do is read ratings and polls. Trump has known for awhile that he can’t win the election, and he gave up trying. Tonight’s performance was not about winning votes. Trump is doing something else. The else is something that the media analysts do not understand because they are prisoners of their conventional roles — they are “election analysts” not war correspondents or crime reporters. “I don’t know what the hell that is we just saw,” said Eugene Robinson. Well, if you don’t know, if you didn’t expect this, you shouldn’t be paid as an analyst. Tonight’s performance — as vote-alienating as it was — was exactly what should have been expected. It is what I expected.

    And no, Donald Trump is not just going insane. He’s a sociopath, but he pursues his aims with unerring logic. His aim is simply not to win this election by getting more votes. So what is he doing?

    The answer requires criminology, not political analysis. Trump is an unindicted felon. He’s thinking like one. His aims are that of any criminal not yet arrested and prosecuted. That is to say — Trump knows the crimes that he has committed. He knows how much tax evasion he has engaged in. He knows how much theft and fraud he has committed. He knows which national security laws he has violated. His dominating thought has nothing to do with an election. He is preoccupied with avoiding prosecution and prison.

    Since that is his dominating thought, and since he knows that he cannot win the election — precisely because he knows that the New York Times now has his tax returns — his aim is to prepare his departure in the post-election period. This is completely logical.

    Trump has been transparent about his departure plan. He once disclosed that if he loses the election, he’s “gone” — with a whole lot packed into that four-letter word. Trump plans to leave US jurisdiction before he can be arrested and indicted , and while he still has command authority over federal marshalls.

    As I’ve written before, Trump’s destination is also clear. He has a golf resort in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. Trump’s family, namely Kushner, has been in secret negotiations with UAE for years, which resulted in the recent “peace” deal with Israel. It should be expected that Kushner also negotiated refuge for Trump in UAE should it be required, as it will be.

    Working backwards, if we assume that Trump has been actively planning an escape to Dubai before January 20, then all of his actions over the past months makes sense, including the debate spectacle tonight. He doesn’t give a damn about winning over voting constituencies — that is irrelevant to his planning. He wants a public reason to give for his flight to Dubai, and his preemptive attacks on the integrity of the election provide him with that rationale.

    He also wants to activate his hard-core base so that they will continue to support him in exile. He must figure that if the Proud Boys launch a little armed insurrection, as he instigated tonight, it will help preoccupy the Biden administration and lessen the chance that US forces will intervene to abduct Trump and return him to US soil for trial. Thus he continues to play to only the most militant of his supporters, because they are the only ones who can help him.

    The debate spectacle confirmed this analysis. There is no other explanation. Obviously Trump is not trying to win the election. He’s doing another thing. Yes, we need to get out the vote, but Democrats need to stop acting as if it’s the election that’s in contest. What’s in contest is the post-election endgame.

  40. The key to things not being FUBAR is the Goopers…. I guess  it will be a mess. Because they Are gutless losers.

  41. Can the Commander-in-Chief be court-martialed?
    Will tRUMPsky invite violence against Americans by a rag-tag, low-intelligence militia and/or will he order those in the real military (you know, those he called suckers an losers), to overthrow the government on his behalf?
    Are there any Republican Senators with the brains and balls to stop a SCOTUS hearing?  

  42. Old Man – Not only did Vlad win the debate, but whether we legitimately end up with a second term (Psalm 120, help us) or if he tries to steal it or if his low-intelligence and violent followers cause chaos, it’s all good for Vlad.

  43. BiD, no, the CiC can’t be court martialed.  He’s teh civilian leader of the military.
     
    Now here’s a surprise – from WaPo.

    The Trump campaign said Thursday that the president would participate in the second and third debates, but that it does not support changing the format. Campaign officials also accused the leadership of the Commission on Presidential Debatesof bias against President Trump.

    I guess he likes the rules he already refuses to follow and doesn’t want to learn new ones to break.

  45. That narcissist will never turn down an opportunity to scowl and preen in front of a camera, who’s he shitting?😆

  46. i’m guessing trump already had CoVId a few weeks ago when he was stumbling and stammering and sweating.

    i read yesterday a healthy, athletic 19-year old kid in North Carolina dropped dead in two weeks after infection, so maintain the protocol💪

  47. If you’ve been keeping track, everything i’ve posted about COVID, since March, has been dead-on-the-money.  i even predicted genetic predisposition to increased vulnerability, which was confirmed, this week.

    Listen to me, and live😎
     
     

  48. Anyway, you dictate the terms, Team Biden.  Mr. Projection of Strength can’t afford to back out of a debate with modified rules. 

    Ok, pardon me. ✌️🇺🇸❤️

  49. (Fecal spray [shared bathrooms] and dining with others in an enclosed space will kill you- be advised)

  52. John Bolton on CNN, “I’m probably going to write Ronald Reagan on my ballot”
    A real POS. 

  54. Craig, wow what’s going on in IOWA? Ernst is losing badly. Maybe, people don’t like her hypocrisy on seating a SC justice so so close to an election. Whatever, ill take it.

  55. Democrat Cunningham raises record $28.3M in third quarter for bid against Tillis

    Democrat Cal Cunningham raised more than $28 million in the third quarter of the year for his campaign to unseat Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), setting a record for the most raised in a single quarter by any North Carolina politician.
    Cunningham’s $28.3 million quarterly haul is nearly four times as much as the $7.4 million he raised in the second quarter. The massive fundraising sum likely puts Cunningham in a strong position heading into the crucial final month of his campaign.

  57. Notorious GOP operatives charged with felonies for trying to trick people out of mail-in voting in Michigan

    On Thursday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced a pair of infamous Republican tricksters have been charged with multiple felonies for a series of scam robocalls designed to trick voters out of voting by mail.
    Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, who are known for a number of failed schemes including paying off a woman to accuse Dr. Anthony Fauci of sexual assault, are charged with voter intimidation, election conspiracy, and two computer crimes. Their robocall, targeted to Detroit and other Democratic-heavy urban areas, allegedly warned voters — falsely — that a vote by mail would give the voter’s personal information to police, debt collectors, and public health officials administering mandatory vaccines.

  58. Republicans are the source of most voter fraud and election dirty tricks and that’s a fact

  59. Jim Carey will be Biden on SNL.  Maya Rudolph reprises her role as America’s fun-aunt, Kamala.
     
    When the real Kamala debates Penceky, will the whitest man be able to explicitly denounce white supremacists? 

  61. Bob
    She’s like, hell no. Melania is one weird-ass birther. That side look of her’s is downright, scary!

  62. renee, thanks for posting that piece by geoffrey sea.  i tend to agree with his theory.  

    “The answer requires criminology, not political analysis. Trump is an unindicted felon. He’s thinking like one. His aims are that of any criminal not yet arrested and prosecuted. That is to say — Trump knows the crimes that he has committed. He knows how much tax evasion he has engaged in. He knows how much theft and fraud he has committed. He knows which national security laws he has violated. His dominating thought has nothing to do with an election. He is preoccupied with avoiding prosecution and prison.”

     

    however, am not so sure about the escape to kuwait as i think (if he loses god willing) he’ll resign in the last few days of term with a promise (deal) from pence to pardon him of all federal crimes first and then maybe go where states have no extradition ability to pull him back for state crimes.  this opens up opportunities for more than just kuwait.   monaco maybe?  they took in idi amin dada oumee so why not D’ump? 

  64. I have reached the conclusion that the republican party no longer exists.  Whatever version is accepted by the media is what will be used for decades to come.  Perhaps trumpians, which continues a touch of the old Republican party, the “ian” should be good enough.  Maybe trumbiest?  Or maybe something that rhymes with SFB?  It all comes down to there is no more republican party, only a cult.  We have lived with political parties for most of the life of the U.S.A.  Now we have to decide what to do with the failure of these United States of America if we do not survive the assault by the greedy old perverts on our government.

  66. I really didn’t know much about Samantha Fish, although I’ve heard of her I couldn’t say I could’ve ever told you anything that she recorded. So I went and looked through a few things on the Internet, and boy has that woman got it. Her blues chops were fucking incredible. There was a keep the blues alive cruise done in 2019 that she was a part of and the last performance of the cruise apparently was produced and directed on stage by Paul Shaffer, and she and Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Joe Bonamassa and a couple other guys were up there and she kicked ass. I’m gonna have to download her stuff. There you go one more current blues artist. And Bink, it ain’t fucking country.

  67. BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Hopey Hicks, who’s traveling  with D’ump recently is COVID positive. I just wonder how close she’s been to D’umbass. 

  68. Obviously, Geoff Sea has been reading my posts and taking them seriously.
     
    trump’s choices are 1. state prison and fed prisons, 2. suicide, 3. flight to avoid prosecution to either russia or the Middle East.

  69. A potential fly in the election ointment. Hope Hicks tested positive today for the virus. She’s with trumpity a ll the time.  And, if he gets it….a lot of possibilities.
     
    There’s always something.

  70. Lol, Pogo, don’t get hung up on labels.  Glad you fine folk are grooving to some new shit. Cheers✌️❤️🇺🇸

    Ooh, nice, was gonna post that exact St. Vincent vid, last night, but went to bed, instead.

    She collaborates with David Byrne, fyi, BiD

  71. That new rule in Texas, where mail ballots can only be hand delivered to one specific location – I would assume that they’ll pick the farthest out, nastiest, inaccessible crime infested pothole laden road under construction shit hole of a polling place they can find.  Fuckers! 
    Early voting here starts on October 13th.  I have everyone’s voting cards in an envelope.  We are going to go in person, probably the 14th or 15th to avoid day one crowds.  I hope there’s some amped up bald headed confederate flag toting tattooed partially toothless white supremacist ass wipe standing near the door with his AK47.  I’m going to look him in his one good eye and blow him a big ‘ol kiss – Texas Style.  I’m so sick of this republican bullshit nonsense.  
    Rant over!

  72. Hey, in case you might think i’m an internet tough-guy, i tore a Trumpistani a new asshole, tonight (face-to-face).  It ended with him texting me an apology😎
     
    i refuse to be bullied by these assholes.

  73. yup, just coming down off the adrenaline buzz

    (but also making the point that these loud bullies fold under pressure very quickly)

  74. dvitale30, it’s being challenged, anyhow. But you can mail the ballot in the post office and pay a little more for express or whatever it’s called.
     
    I’m voting in person regardless of  the obstacles. 

  78. Sorry, if i seem a little on-edge, it’s because my President is trying to start a civil war (amid a pandemic).
     
    i understand, now, he’s not capable of it.  

  79. No moss on wiki.  This already. “On October 1, 2020, Hicks tested positive for COVID-19.[54][55]”
     
    The possibilities & permutations of trumpity having Covid. He should cancel his trips and quarantine. He and Pence should stay apart, etc.

  80. Just stopping in to say that St. Vincent is awesome. I saw her on Austin City Limits and she was great!

  81. Well, well, trumpity is quarantining. He’s waiting on his test results.  Like his tax returns?
     
    Will he cancel his road shows?

  86. Bink, I haven’t seen that guy in ages.  I loved him! The moon was glorious this morning, right about 6:30.   

  88. Sorry, Mr. C, i’ll stay out of your new thread.  i have push-ups to do and crude armor to fashion, anyway🤷‍♂️

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