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Aug 1
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See, this is why I'm skeptical that Harris would do any better in a debate. He's just nuts and constantly derails the discussion with shit like this that comes out of nowhere. There's no way to "win" an argument with someone like that.

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Aug 1Edited
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And we've all seen his act already.

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When I say you can't win, I'm imagining the first question, Trump does his firehose of lies, maybe a dozen lies in two minutes, none of it is responsive to the actual question he was asked, and then it's over to Harris. What does she do? Pick one of the 12 to refute? (because refuting a lie always takes more time than stating it.) And leave the other 11 uncontested? Call him out for not answering the damn question? But then she's not answering the question herself, because she's just talking about Trump, and then when does she get to any positive presentation of her own program? It's an awful job, and I suppose some people would be better at it than others, but his only goal in these things is to disrupt and insult and distract, and he's 100% certain to be successful at that.

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Aug 1Edited
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Yeah, I like that. Just assert that he's lying, leave the specific fact-checking to others. Have a set of stock phrases ready to go:

"Well, that was a pack of lies"

"I counted seven lies in two minutes but the fact-checker can check my arithmetic on that."

"There he goes again with his firehose of lies"

"He really does lie an awful lot, doesn't he?"

Each delivered casually, to the audience, pointing at Trump as you might point at a specimen in a petri dish.

Democrats have tended to focus on Trump's policies, and how they are harmful, and I wouldn't say that's wrong, but his lying really should get more attention. It's truly impressive the sheer volume of lies he puts out, to be offended by it you don't need to delve into the details of policy, maybe it'll work on our beloved low-info voters?

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Also point out that lying on this scale is an absolute deal-breaker in ANY relationship, whether you're picking a boyfriend or hiring a plumber. Why should it be any different when you're picking a President?

Turn to the camera and directly address the ladies:

"Think about a relationship you had where you caught your boyfriend in a lie. Just ONE lie. It was harder to trust him after that, wasn't it? And then if there was a second lie, and then a third lie, how many lies did you get to before you dumped his ass? Because that's what you need to do with this guy."

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You're playing chess with someone who just picks up the pieces and throws them at you. No, Gary Kasparov isn't going to do any better at that.

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I think we (finally) have a politician aimed at the top slot who gets the game Republicans have been playing for decades, and knows the only winning move is not to play. The fact that Trump has stripped the veneer off makes it a bit easier for her, true, but it is a quantum leap in that world.

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Aug 1
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Wonkette has an... interesting item on Tabs today; apparently back in '22 Heritage mentioned in an article that, while he did kill millions, you had to hand it to Joe Stalin for his support of the family.

Yeah, for reals.

And Lenin established no-fault divorce in the Soviet Union and that destroyed the family, but Unca Joe repealed it and made family great again! SEE? SEE?

All this being all the more interesting given that the "P2025 Truth" page I mentioned the other day says honest, pinky swear, we aren't planning on ending no-fault divorce, ha ha, so many liberal lies, ha ha, move along citizen nothing to see here! Of course, they also claim there's no ban on same-sex marriage in there, either, no, not using those words, but there IS a request to reverse Obergefell, so, you know, DETAILS.

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Aug 1
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Pass. Hard pass.

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Wonder if Lavrenty Beria is mentioned positively. . .

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You'll laugh, but I checked. Nope, but I did find out children are "victimized" by not having a Mother and Father, with the proper genitals and chromosomes, because something something Bible, I guess. I mean, this is from the folks who are more pissed about COVID restrictions on churches than keeping parishioners alive, because "what about SOULS?". (Mandate For Leadership, p. 453)

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"ribbed cashmere shrug"

This reads more like something the 3rd Missus Trumpus might throw on...

"BUFF TOEHOLD, looking out of it" had me going for awhile – I reread the post to that point trying to figure what it was Buff was looking out of, and imagining some sort of isolation cell/cage contraption...

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I felt like maybe Peoni was overdressed this time.

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Everyone's a (fashion) critic

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Speaking of fashion, I hope that “scurbs” enters the couture lexicon.

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Thanks, fixed.

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I almost never click thru the sartorial links, but jesus christ the price tags!

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Thanks a lot, BIDEN!

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We all might as wear BACON!!!

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Hey now, son, you've quit preaching and gone to meddlin'.

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If we wear Bacon, who does Bacon wear?

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Have to agree with Claire about being overdressed but the outfit was absolutely *fabulous*, especially with those shoes. (I suspect Roy played with Barbies when he was a kid,)

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How do you know she wasn't going to a garden party directly afterward? In Greenwich?

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Mean Times at Greenwich High

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I was thinking a cocktail party in Murray Hill.

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I've seen waaay too many old movies, because I can't see Murray Hill without thinking it's a telephone exchange.

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Or a drag king https://mistershowbiz.com/

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The entire Peoni fashion critique is getting so meta. Now we have a speculative social calendar, lol.

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"The news about him and J.D. Vance has been terrible lately — maybe by insulting a bunch of black people Trump has managed to change the media frame."

Bloody hell – it's gonna be a long slightly-less-than-100 days...

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How do we solve a problem like Ka-MAH-luh

How do we grab her polls and pull 'em down?

Especially when our guy just likes to holler

Speaks flibberty-gibberish, a Weirdo-for-Whites, a clown?

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Aug 1
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Is it one of Your Favorite Things?

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Right there with ya. "Dad you say you don't like musicals, but I have a question for you: How many songs do you know from that movie?" "Why, all of them, of course" "Gotta a news flash for ya Dad"

The soundtrack was played continuously when I was a kid, my mom loved it. We wore that record out. And yes, I really can sing pretty much every song.

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2 marks.

One for distinctive mispronunciation

One for flibberty-gibberish

Ah hell, 3 marks

Gotta hat-tip the formatting too.

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I struggled with how Comma-La doesn't work, but then I realized this would be sung by a chorus of Republican campaign consultants, so of course they'd use Trump's pronunciation.

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Inside poetry-ball

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This is Marks-ism in ACTION!

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The JD Vance who is using that name he wasn’t born with - and chose the last name because it’s “Hillbilly adjacent?

The JD Vance who isn’t a Hillbilly?

The JD Vance who grew up in

Middletown, OH - and graduated from The Ohio State University, and Yale?

The JD Vance who said on the Megyn Kelly show, “Obviously she’s not a white person…but I love Aisha, she’s such a good mom.”?

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Sorry, that’s supposed to be Usha.

THANKS AUTOCORRECT 🙄

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Aisha would have been a BIG problem!

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ROTFL, I thought about that 😆🤣😂

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Yeah, that one. Was there another? Because, YOICKS!

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"Like Mrs. Obama!"

Thanks Peoni – I do, I do...

Anyway, 2 marks.

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Ooooohhhhh, I knew this was going to be a good one *rubbing hands together in glee as I settle down to read*

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Ah, but how does it compare to that all-the-hits clip I linked to?

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Coincidently, thrashing TOEHOLD is my new band name now available for sale at my Bandcamp page. Please visit and drop some crypto on the plate when you leave, thanks.

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Do you accept my not-grifty-at-all BernCoin® crypto?

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ACCEPT it??!! I DEMAND it!!!

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I feel the grift starting.

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[lip curl/mustache twirl]

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It’s funny but also sickening how Trump seems to know the media will have his back, that his remarks will be described as “racially tinged” or “racially charged” and not simply RACIST. The press used to be less lily-livered, but those days are dead. Now they need a Trump victory and all the clicks a second term of chaotic destruction will bring with it.

But WaPo outdid itself, shifting the responsibility for Trump’s tirade onto *Harris.* As if Trump is simply a troublesome force of nature she must decide how to deal with.

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Aug 1
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Kamala, my lord, Kamala. . .

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And yet the only clip I had the stomach to catch was complaining that some substantive question was rude or whatever.

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"Rude" and "nasty" are Trump code words for "OK you got me, and I don't have any bullshit at the ready to counter you."

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Any woman who is not currently fellating Donald Trump is "nasty." He called Hillary nasty, as well as Warren, Klobuchar, Megyn Kelly, and Nikki Haley. "Nasty" is usually coupled with some variant of "dumb" or "low IQ."

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Relieved that the NASTY WOMAN t-shirts I made up in 2020 are still relevant.

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Evergreen.

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I shall lay one on his grave at whatever golf course when he's laid to rest, soon.

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Ooh, gotta dig out my NASTY WOMAN brooch a friend made for me!

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The pivot from that searing and fact-filled question to "you didn't even say HELLO" was breathtaking.

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Part of it is to deflect the fact he doesn't have a good answer, and part of it is the whiny entitlement just below the surface of every conservative man's macho posturing. Despite their veneer of bravado, you won't find bigger crybabies outside of a preschool.

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Oh fer sure. The tell came later, at his Harrisburg rally, where, among his many obsessive verbal side trips, he whinged about how he's SUPPOSED to be running against Joe Biden.

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What I love about it all is how it makes him look weak. His entire schtick is STRENGTH and whining to the refs ad nauseum is really taking some hot air out of his STRENGTH balloon.

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My goodness, he's the whiniest little crybaby god ever made. And here he is at 78. Someone needs to tell him to buck up and stop his sobbing.

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The paradox of narcissism is that one is so abjectly dependent upon the opinion of others.

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That the supporters, notwithstanding that they clearly have serious cognitive issues, are cool with all the infantile behavior makes me a little sad.

The to have not-white not-man Kamala laugh at them…

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My cousin, a journalist in PA who was managing a team covering the event, says the I'm With The Felon t-shirts were selling like hot cakes.

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They’re all sick.

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Wait til they roll out the update:

"I'm With The Weird Orange Felon Guy"

Ticks every box.

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Murc's Law is a harsh mistress

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“As if Trump is simply a troublesome force of nature she must decide how to deal with.” Murc’s Law lives!

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"a troublesome force of nature she must decide how to deal with"

Perfect illustration of some smart people's (I forget the names) thesis that, per the media, only Democrats have agency. THEY are expected to deal with, understand, adapt to Republicans, who are assumed to be unchanging in their lunacy and evil. Similarly, Dems are PROTAGONISTS, whose job it is to confront, learn, and change, while Repubs are fixed in and defined by their antagonist character.

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Like they say, Ellis, you idiot. It's Murc's Law.

Hey, remember Gene Barry in Burke's Law? Lotsa hot babes, etc.? Yowzah.

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This^^right^^here reads pretty funny. Occasionally the formatting justifies itself.

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Not only remember but have the entire series on DVD. (Spouse and I prefer late 50s and early 60s TV shows. It helped us get through the first Trumpov Regime.)

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They're waiting for him to break out the "NI-(CLANG)!" which is when the election REALLY heats up.

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You mean it ENTERS A NEW PHASE? Will his bold choice to use the N-word be a CHALLENGE for Harris? Will Democrats debate how she should respond, thus proving that he has cast them into DISARRAY?

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Trump's Bold and Controversial Statements Leave Harris' Team Stymied

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Perfect. If New York Times Pitchbot needs to take a vacation, I nominate you for the replacement.

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The word from Boeing is...accountability?

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Absolutely…to shareholders! Passengers? Hey, good luck, hope that door stays on in flight!

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Boeing's space program, boldly challenging the old dictum that "What goes up must come down."

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Bravo!

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Oh, Joe Kahn had a dream:

"The news about him and J.D. Vance has been terrible lately — maybe by insulting a bunch of black people Trump has managed to change the media frame."

Anyway.

I don't follow the fashion stuff at all because it's like a foreign language. Being old and retired and a misanthrope in area with enough MAGAts (also living in these times) fashion and stuff means nothing.

So with that caveat, Peony's sandals makes me think maybe one of the men should be wearing sandals.

Ohhh... speaking of the Bolt Upright shtick, a nano-second of mourning for CBS News for realizing that making Norah O'Donnell the face of CBS News was at least as stupid an idea as she.

Anyway.

A lesson:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/are-you-on-team-weird/sharetoken/eb85beb8-39ee-4cc9-abe3-b2331321f6b2

(Actually, weird is the nicest fact-based thing we can about them.)

And real world laughs that don't require any satirization:

https://x.com/atrupar/status/1818737608765456659

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Aug 1Edited
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So our use of weird would be connected to a possible fate or destiny of giving Trump if not the entire party the defeat or loss they fully deserve?

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Aug 1Edited
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"I'm gonna tel you all a story about a New York orange nut

who ain't got the sense God gave to a grasshopper's butt.."

Oh, this is gonna be fun. Thank you for the inspiration.

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A Scot's phrase is "to dree one's weird", meaning to accept or embrace one's fate.

I kin

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Damn it, "I ken the Dook of Orange should dree his weird ads stinking loser..."

Can't text for squat: medical results fair: but I slammed my truck door on three fingers.

Somewhat bruised..

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Grr: "...should dree his weird AS stinking loser".

My weird today was to cut up a wretched Bradford pear that blew down in yesterday's thunderstorm.

The boyfriend gave me a hash oil vape and some gummies so I'm waiting a day.

I'll be fine...

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Typical Bradford pear: they stink in spring, their fruit is inedible and a sneeze will blow them over. I call them "architect's trees" because they look good on paper.

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Accepting his fate (which TBH has yet to come) is something our Donny is in no way wired for.

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"Bubble bubble, toil and trouble...." As always, Billy Shakes knows weird.

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“TRUMP FLIPS SCRIPT WITH A VENGEANCE: No more Mr Nice Guy.”

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The report: FLIPS SCRIPT

The reality: FLIPS TABLE OVER IN INFANTILE FIT

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KETCHUP FLIES

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Just like Jesus with the moneychangers at the Temple

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Well, the digital NYT did go with “Trump Falsely Questions Harris’ Race,” so I’d give them a half a credit for that one article, but between them and WaPo you’d hardly know what a shitshow that interview was. Donald brought up immigrants stealing Black jobs and when challenged, went “All of them, Katie” in response. He whined that Rachel Scott didn’t greet him nicely after she had just shaken his hand, and didn’t even wipe her own on her pantsuit! In short, another weird performance which blew up the internet and made barely a ruffle in the Times’ desperate search for a middle ground between a gibbering felon and a rising star.

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Did you catch the aggressive move with her water bottle? WEIRD.

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WaPo did do a nice, lengthy fact check of all bullshit Trump spewed, but of course could t bring themselves to use “lies,” it was “falsehood after falsehood.” But progress, I guess.

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Donald Falsehood, robs from the truth and gives to the fascists.

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He falsehoods like a rug.

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You, sir, are on fire today.

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Yeah, what the fuck is up with that? Do they even bother to give a reason, to explain the distinction between the two? Or is it now just a flat-out prohibition on the shorter, simpler, more accurate word?

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Just went to read said article, and, while WaPo allowed me to get an editorial without complaining, wants me to "log in" for the actual article, and just what I need, another goddamn "account" sitting out there with another password I have to keep track of. Democracy dies behind a fucking paywall. 🤬

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The changed the headline, like a bunch of cowards without even the conviction of their lack of conviction

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Charles Foster Kane writes out his Declaration of Principles, then says, "But if you don't like them I have others!"

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If NYT-ee NYT is interested, I know a guy* who has a few dozen convictions he might be willing to make some deals on, know what I mean?

*"I know a guy" is my favorite preface toward a sentence full of promise...

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The Jiminy Glick reference alone is praiseworthy; the costuming superb...

Bill Bear-ometer gives it 9 of a possible 10 Bear claws

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I couldn't believe the WaPo headline you cited was real, but apparently others were shocked as well. They've changed it to the slightly less awful Trump's Attack on Harris' Racial Identity Moves Contest Into New Phase.

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Never doubt the mendacity of the prestige press!

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Tubby shit the bed in a spectacularly racist way -- we've got ourselves a horse race!

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And what is this "new phase?" My guess is "all-out racist and misogynistic foghorns blaring loud enough to be heard on Neptune."

The media will, of course, report that Trump use "an old colloquial term for a person of color when describing his opponent as a female dog."

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From Neptune to Uranus!

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Wait, that wasn't the phase we have been in since Biden dropped out?

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It's somewhat dishonest of newspapers to change their headlines online when they get a little blowback. I know, it's partly to increase clicks by making it look like a different article, but here they clearly realized they stepped in it. And what's the "new phase" anyway? Like Trump never made racist or sexist remarks before.

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It’s whatever phase is after the “honeymoon phase” the media has been itching to move beyond for the last few days. Basically they want to get back to the horse race and this gave them the cover to do it.

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New phase? Oh no, he's not PIVOTING again, is he?

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Like the gold-plated revolving door at the entrance to Trump Tower.

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If you pivot four times, doesn't that just bring you back where you started?

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His phase has been stuck on 'stun' for so long I doubt it can be reset.

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Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.

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Awfully "down the memory hole"-ish.

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Not a spine to be found amongst those fatuous fellatin' phonies.

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So their fallback from abject cowardice is total incomprehensibility.

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That's what Trumps do best!

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Olbermann had a long piece consisting of choice bits from Trump's appearance. I can't stand to listen to Trump or even look at him. (I have a beautiful mind I insist remains untroubled)

I forced myself to listen to several minutes of the choice bits this morning. More than I've ever probably listened to Trump . Holy fuck is he irritating. If I went into a Frisch's and he was there and I couldn't find a table that wasn't out of earshot I would leave. That whiny, nasal constantly complaining voice is hellishly intolerable. That's not even considering the content. Pureile,woe is me racist, bullshit. I live out in the Heartland, with the Simple Folk, - the common clay morons. Listening to their hero Trump, I've had to somehow lower my opinion of them and I didn't think that was possible.

Funny stuff! I was going to go look up a Ralph Lauren cricket sweater to see what was involved, then I decided I wouldn't because I'd probably end up wanting it.

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Frisch’s…mmmmm…now I want a Big Boy.

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Big Boy , extra tartar sauce on the side. 7 minute fries.

That sounds great!

We went last month. I had a Swiss Miss.

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Did you catch the couple of times Trump said 'purple' instead of 'people'? Guy's losing it.

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Maybe when you're orange, everyone else looks purple?

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Purple is the New Black.

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OK, ok – oof.

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"The sky was all purple there were people running everywhere. . ." (the late Prince Rogers Nelson)

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"And some stupid with a flare gun, burned the place to the ground"

Deep, man, deep.

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Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?

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Leave it to the master panderer to react to the real-live Nazis’ outrage at JD Vance’s wife of darker cast by stepping onstage and repeating the word “Black” in the weirdest, most offensive way possible. That’ll keep the “race critical” among his base happy for a week or two.

Sure nice of that conference to just give him the opportunity…

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