Friday, October 16, 2020

Election 2020 Update: Town Hell, Dianne Resignstein, Senate flip-flop


But no fundraising chatter.  That's for the duopoly, the consultants, and the corporate media.  If we had an actual democracy, then news solely of interest to the plutocracy would not dominate the reporting at the end of the election cycle.  Especially when 900,000 Americans filed for unemployment this week, people without the money to buy insulin are trading it for free on the underground market, and those working three gigs still won't have health insurance after Amy Coathanger Barrett becomes a Supreme Court Justice this time next week.

The obscenities of our current political system are all these and more.  And electing Joe Biden -- and a slate of Blue Dog Democrats down the ballot -- are not going to fix any of them.

End of rant.


On NBC, an aggrieved president perched on a stool, fought with the moderator, refused to rebuke dangerous conspiracy theories and spewed misinformation about a deadly pandemic.

A click away on ABC, Joe Biden offered detailed if long-winded policy discussions as he issued calls for national unity to a deeply divided nation.

These weren’t just different channels; they were different worlds.

Sure, some news was committed. Biden promised George Stephanopoulos of ABC News that he would clarify his views before Election Day on expanding the size of the Supreme Court, a notable pivot for a candidate who has refused to get into the issue.

And in an unusual choice, Biden engaged in the theoretical exercise of what would happen if he lost the election. A candidate’s standard answer to that question is, “I’m not going to lose.”

Biden took a different approach.

“It could say I’m a lousy candidate and I didn’t do a good job,” he said. “But I think -- I hope that it doesn’t say that we are as racially, ethnically and religiously at odds with one another as it appears the president wants us to be.”

Archie Bunker and Mr. Rogers, when we could have had FDR.  Or even Henry Wallace.  Instead, Barack Obama decided we should have a brain-addled reincarnation of Harry MF'n Truman.

Trump, meanwhile, was grilled by Savannah Guthrie of NBC News over a series of his dubious and outright false claims. When he said that data showed that 85 percent of people who wear masks still catch the coronavirus, Ms. Guthrie noted that he had falsely characterized a study.

When he tried to dance around the date of his last negative coronavirus test before his diagnosis -- information that would clarify whom the president might have exposed and when -- Guthrie’s questioning made it clear he was dodging.

“Possibly I did, possibly I didn’t,” he said, when pressed on whether he took a test on the day of his first debate with Biden.

And he professed ignorance about QAnon, the sprawling pro-Trump conspiracy theory community whose bizarre claims that the world is run by a cabal of satanic pedophiles have been linked to real-world violence. This week, the president retweeted bonkers theories from several QAnon supporters.

His excuse boiled down to: Retweets don’t equal endorsements.

“I don’t get that,” Ms. Guthrie exclaimed. “You’re the president. You’re not like someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever.”


Yes, one of these is worse than the other.  And when the two choices are eating shit or drinking piss, I choose neither.


Biden is going to win in a landslide.  Don't get spooked.  Yes, there will be voting machine malfunctions, and poll workers contracting COVID, and excessively long lines, and all of the many and varied forms of vote suppression Republicans have made famous.  You shall overcome.

And Biden's coattails will be long, and they will be running both ways.

I still won't be voting for him, because Texas being in play means it's a wipeout for Trump pretty much everywhere else, from NY to CA, Seattle to Miami.

Senate control remains a very close question, with Georgia being the wildest of cards.  Don't waste any more time, effort, or money on Amy McGrath.  Please.  Grist says that the fate of the planet runs through four seats.  Two are all but certain to flip to blue, and the other two wouldn't surprise very many people if they did.

Those four Repukes -- Tillis of NC, Daines of MT, Ernst of IA, and Collins of ME -- are part of CNN's ten most likely swaps, with Doug Jones (D) of AL losing his, along with Cory Gardner (R) of CO and Martha McSally (R) of AZ.  That's a net gain for Team Donkey of four, maybe five.

I think Gary Peters in MI will survive, and Lindsey Graham was in serious danger prior to the Barrett hearings this week and the helpful assist provided by the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  He's been saved.


Appalling.


Not on anyone's list for flipping -- to be fair, it's been off, on, and lately off -- is Texas.  Though MJ Hegar won't be able to blame it on the wealthy making it rain on her.

I'll do another Texas round-up tomorrow before the Funnies on Sunday.
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