70 Comments
Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

“Although I fully realize Trump is the Antichrist that was foretold – Jesus himself said ‘false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect’ – I just don’t like the cut of Biden’s jib. He drives a Corvette and I’ve always been a Mustang guy.”

--- white voter in rural Pennsylvania, interviewed in a diner (natch)

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

McCain says Rice as VP is a deal breaker for her, because she's never been elected to anything. Like Trump has? These people kill me, and it remains to be seen if that will be literal. A hundred sixty thousand dead, at least a quarter million by the election, and these fuckers are worried Biden is somehow going to manage to slip through forced re-education farms or some fucking thing. Obama barely got healthcare, to which we still have a highly disputed right and an impractical access, and these sociopaths are worried their taxes might go up, because Biden's definitely going to accomplish that, he's surely popular enough to change our national song to The Internationale. Really? What planet are these people on? Biden's likely to agree to cuts in Social Security. I'm somehow not concerned about mandatory gay abortions.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Well, Trump says that Biden is going to hurt God! Can you imagine the power of Biden? So intense, so overwhelming that he can not just contend with God, but actually hurt God? Not even Jacob wrestling with the Angel had such power!

So we can't let Sleepy Joe take office! Besides, he's an obvious weakling compared to Trump, who we know is just a victim of all the forces beyond his control.

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Biden created a rock so heavy God couldn’t lift it!

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"Two Corinthians" Says Biden Is Going To Hurt God And I Just Can't Anymore

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

"McCain says Rice as VP is a deal breaker for her"

Meghan, you do realize that your father once thought *Sarah Palin* was qualified to be Vice-President?

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Sheer disbelief hardly registers on the face before the head is nodding with all the wisdom of instant hindsight. “Archbishop Clegthorpe? Of course! The inevitable capstone to a career in veterinary medicine.”

—Tom Stoppard, 𝘑𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴 (1972)

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"Biden's likely to agree to cuts in Social Security." Not according to his campaign platform. He wants to raise the ceiling on taxable income, increase the minimum benefit, increase benefits for surviving spouses and the oldest beneficiaries.

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Let's hope. But he's got a major clusterfuck or fifteen to clean up, and he may end up having to make some compromises just to fucking save our lives. Privatizing SS is something the republicans have been wanting for a long time. I'd like to hope that he'll be able to solve some of these problems in a way that will prevent them from happening again, and that involves making strides on progressive policies. But honestly, I'm not gonna be surprised if it takes a couple years to just stem the deaths from coronavirus and the accompanying poverty and homelessness, and maybe fix a few of the worst policy bullshit from Trump. At that point, our highly intelligent voters will put the GOP back in control of the House and Senate, and then another couple years of gridlock leaves them wondering if Elon Musk can give us flying cars if we just make him president.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

You write this as snark, but I can tell you that I have met and know far too many people who say they WILL sit out the election if Biden picks [fill in name of woman]. Most of these people are dyed-in-the-wool liberals I've known for years--and a distressingly high number of them are women. (During the primaries, I heard many women saying how eager they were to vote for a woman for president--just not THAT woman, whomever that woman happened to be a the moment.)

So I fear we may be doomed by the stupid, the misogyny, and the racism that cuts across Party lines. It's not just Rightwingers who detest Trump but won't vote for Biden. I see too many liberals and Leftys grasping for reasons to not vote for Biden. And I despair.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

My sense was True Wokeness on the part of Democrats would tear us apart in the primaries. I was surprised how little of that I saw with Biden (my 4th or 5th pick) winning. Never thought True Wokeness would help wreck things in the fucking VP pick, but here we are. I'm a terrible political prognosticator, so I'll end with that.

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author

"True Wokeness" is not a problem for anything when the excuses for not voting for another centrist Democrat are always that they'll go "too far."

Look at it this way: I am certain that whatever people who claim they *would* have voted for Biden will use as an excuse, if won't be that he's too *conservative.*

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

I hope you are right. As I mentioned in this thread before: I'm a terrible political prognosticator. But True Wokeness was certainly a significant part of Don's "win" in 2016. I knew several hardcore Jill Stein supporters who spent most of their spare time bashing Clinton at rallies, GOTV events and registration drives and on social media. I'm related to one of these clowns. As recently as a couple years ago, he was still patting himself on the back saying "At least Clinton will never hold an elected office!"

He's been silent on social media the last couple years, aside from the occasional picture from family events.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

I know a woman—a Sanders supporter in 2016 who, despising “Killary,” voted for Stein in the general—who has turned into a full-on Trumpista. I was joking to the frau last month that this person would go full QAnon by the end of the summer, but when I checked her Book of Face presence the other day I discovered that she’s already there: all Pizzagate, all the time, and the rest of that toxic stew. Ugh.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

You wonder how many Weimar Germans went from Rosa Luxembourg to Adolf Hitler.

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author

What a shock.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

The excuses will come in many guises, but always boil down to the essentials:

Do not want woman!

Do not want Black!

Do not want Black woman!

Ewwww! Democrat!

As for the "go too far" part, always remember that every Democrat is worse than Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot combined.

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The centrists are the real problem, many voted for Trump in 2016 and got their pay off tax cut and they only dislike Trump's uncouthness and a couple (not all) of his policies. If they decide Biden is a little bit too far to their left, they will go Trump again.

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No, no, no! It’s the BernieBros(tm) and Susan Sarandon who did all this! They’re the all-powerful villains (who never win anything, nyah-nyah!). It couldn’t be the Republican-voting centrists/independents who are to blame. We just need to woo them harder!

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Spot-on, Roy. My friend's father—fairly comfortable, white, 70s, small town Indiana, Viet Nam vet, no college. This man absolutely hates Don. Detests him. And he's rightly terrified of Covid 19, for himself and his adult children. He generally agrees there's been grotesque mismanagement (no management) to control the spread of the virus. But there's just no way in hell he will vote for a Democrat. His issues tend to be flag-burning and kneeling at the national anthem and shit like that. Fox News has him by the brainstem.

There are millions of these people. Don himself isn't the core problem, not by a long shot. It's the right wing media and the money behind the GOP in general that is the real issue. Don will be quickly and gladly forgotten by most of these folks. True-blooded MAGAts are the minority.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Adding: He's even mildly in favor of national healthcare! He's basically fearful of what would happen if Democrats got into power. These kind of people are scared at heart. And it's a Team Spirit thing, too. How could he betray His Team?

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Yeah, the concept of betraying the team is huge. I just hope most of them decide not to vote. Know Trump is trash but can’t bring yourself to vote for a Democrat? Fine, don’t vote or write in somebody. Just don’t vote for Trump.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

If someone tells me they know Trump is trash but they can't vote for Biden, I'll tell them to fuck off. If I am in their house, I won't ever come back. If they are in my house, I'll kick their asses out. I am so tired of stupidity backing Trump.

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If the Dems just woo those voters a little more, they’ll finally relent and vote Dem. Eventually we’ll get at least a couple Reagan Democrats To come back home!

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True, but we may have to dig up Reagan and run him ourselves to do it.

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We could at least dig him up so we could spit on him, bury him again, and piss on his grave again.

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Always worth noting that if Reagan ran today, he would be far to the left of the current GOP.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

He’s mildly in favor of Medicare and the VA? Pretty ballsy for a septuagenarian.

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Another good one, Roy. Comments:

1. S.E Cupp was part of the problem when chose wrote in a candidate in 2016, and she hasn't learned anything since. "Yes, Trump is a Nazi, but if Biden chooses Susan Rice I'm out of here" -- this is her breaking point? Reading the article, I couldn't help but think that Cupp was offering herself for the job.

2. I admit, I'd be much happier with Kamala Harris than Susan Rice. However, Biden's choice isn't a dealbreaker for me, or (I hope) anyone else with a shred of human decency in them.

3. Interesting that the "writer" of this piece mentions the hair-sniffing incidents, but not Tara Reade. Also interesting that no other women stepped forward to back up Reade's claim (unlike with Trump, Kavanaugh, and celebrity rapists like Cosby and Weinstein). I guess she was delusional and/or a con artist after all.

4. When I saw the headline, I thought this article might be about leftist purity ponies who hate Biden at least as much as they hate Trump -- they're still out there. Somewhat OT: this past week, a guy tweeted about losing faith in Bernie Sanders after he -- you'd better sit down for this, it's a shocker -- started a Twitter thread pointing out that Trump is a racist, sexist, homophobe, etc. The guy claimed that most of Sanders' criticisms applied to Biden too (debatable) and that Sanders should have tweeted about "policy" instead (Dude! At this late date, what more do you need to know?) If you're a leftist who resents Sanders reminding everyone what a shitheel Trump is, you're either a bot or too much of a fuckup to be taken seriously.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Yeah I saw the Bernie thing on twitter, and some of these Bros (of both genders) are so far to the Left they’re actually on the Right. Thankfully, I think much of this purity idiocy is limited to Brooklynites with podcasts. I hope.

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Rewrite of the first sentence for clarity and because people can't edit their posts: "S.E Cupp was part of the problem when she wrote in a candidate in 2016, etc."

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Her column reads like a parody, just not as funny as Roy's.

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author

The purity ponies are a whole 'nother trip. I'm slightly baffled by them -- I should think they'd reroute their energy to local races rather than bashing Sanders (and some of them obviously do -- how about Marquita Bradshaw! https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/511000-marquita-bradshaw-beats-establishment-backed-mackler-in-tennessee)

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Every time I hear talk of battalions of “purity ponies” ruining everything for everyone, I’m a little perplexed. Sure they exist, but I only ever encountered them online (before I left Twitter) where they got outsized attention and amplification. In reality I expect they’re about as big a group as people who will vote for anyone but Trump, except maybe if Kanye runs, in which case... in other words, poseur frauds who were never voting for the Democrat (or even voting at all) in the first place.

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I don't get the worrying about the couple of dozen purity ponies (whatever that is -- it seems to change with the author) but the faithless centrists are generally ignored or alibied

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It’s a pretty clear tell

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I worry about the purity ponies because of the off chance that they might influence someone. The MAGAts are a lost cause, but there are two groups of voters/online cranks who bother me: anyone who hasn't chosen a side by now (like Cupp and her fellow miserable moderates), or leftists who dislike both candidates (which I can't really blame them for) but think Biden is as bad or worse than Trump (which I can). The kind of leftist whose heart bleeds for the people we bomb overseas (which is great) but refuses to vote for the candidate who might actually do some good in office (which isn't). Getting rid of Trump and the Republicans is the most important things in the world, and anyone who doesn't realize that is a fool, a nihilist, or both.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Yo, Doris; fuck your feelings.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Oops, forgot the morning's news: The Mrs. wanted to know why the media's on Old Joe for, I forget which, maybe the cocaine crack. I've been forbidden to tell her that the very objective establishment media have had a decades long hard on for dumping on the Dems so given the slightest opportunity, they do what they gotta do in the name of, you know, objectivity and supporting the GOP at every opportunity. So to summarize: A master of malapropisms says something dopey is bad, being a GOP POTUS deliberately causing the deaths of tens of thousands -- literally actionable manslaughter -- that's fine with our media defenders of democracy.

But here, have a treat:

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/01/parody-trump-2020-ad-too-close.html

And another:

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/hilarious-video-edit-poses-tru.html

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

I caught a few random moments of NPR's "1A" last Tuesday. It was another round-table of journos talking about how they "got it so wrong in '16." One of them said that a positive result of the debacle is that the press now pays more attention to real Americans in the heartland. Specifically, the White Working Class. Neither the host or anyone on the panel put their head on the desk and screamed.

I swear, it's a fucking drinking game now.

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I’m a progressive in the heartland and absolutely nobody pays any attention to me. This drinking game sucks!

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I still appreciate that you helped my Mom

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You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar

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As are you

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

“Sure that Dahmer boy ate people and kept a head in his fridge, but I couldn’t stand having [ fill in the blank] living next door.”

Meanwhile, let’s never forget that everyone who voted for Trump last time and will vote for him in November is, by my Transitive Law of Voting* that I made up four years ago, just as racist, sexist, homophobic and xenophobic as he is.

* You are what you vote for. At worst I’m a centrist horndog, at best I’m a brilliant professor.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

OMG. I didn’t realize the Zoom calls with my bridge group were being recorded.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Yikes. The first rule of Bridge Group is....smile?

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

They also like to look out their windows and call the cops to report on non-mask-wearing and non social-distancing. They especially hate to see young people congregating outside bars

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Obviously your bridge group has a few too many no-Trump bids, even when someone has all the honors plus three in diamonds!

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Your comment is a Grand Slam!!!!

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author

People still play Bridge? Does Charles Goren have a Substack newsletter?

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So far, all the people I know who play bridge are really old. Even older than me. Charles Goran is so old he's dead.

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Well, you just don't get any older than that!

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I play Weir, it's less easy to get across, but does allow me to feel superior or eerie. One of those great lakes

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I think huron to something.

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I'm Ontario

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

What did you expect when you chose the name “Wild Spades”?

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Hah!

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This bit of satire is frightening because it shows exactly why Biden can well lose this after everything else. The affluent white centrists demanded someone who doesn't challenge them very much, and are terrified by melanin and vaginas -- and so will vote in indifferent numbers for Biden if his VP is too blackity -- and then vote Repub in every race where a progressive challenger has managed to come thru.

Voila! Second term. Things get much worse. And folks will still be talking about that awful Bernie Sanders

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Bernie and Eugene V. Debs were in the closet making socialisms, and I saw one of the socialisms, and the socialism looked at me!”

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Too real to be funny. Maybe that's the point, but I could do with a little less reality, thank you.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

It's funny except it isn't. When Obama replaced Bush I hoped that the craziness was over.

Nah. LARGE sections of the American voting public are dumb as rocks, perverse as flashers and mean as rattlers. If President Dogshit pulls the right lever ....

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Doris, let me say this to you. Americans are valiant risk-takers. Clark Gable didn't say "damn the torpedos, full speed ahead" and then sit on his hands and watch his ship sink. How can you even doubt who should get your vote? This is a chance you have to take. Sure, the future of the country might be in jeopardy. But there's doing the right thing, and then there's doing the bold, AMERICAN thing. You don't want to be in a position where you regret that you only had one life to give to your country, and you selfishly chose to keep it. Patriots aren't afraid of death, and there's only one candidate with the potential to make that happen for as many patriots as possible.

Besides, he would never hurt God. Never, ever.

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

Kanye, right?

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Aug 7, 2020Liked by Roy Edroso

I agree with Doris. The Vice Presidential pick is very important. I need someone charismatic and engaging, like Mike Pence, or someone with a lot of experience, like Joe Biden. In fact, if the Democrats picked Biden to be in the race, I'd definitely vote for him.

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"There's no way I was gonna vote for that woman." Word-for-word what my brother told me about voting for Trump (whom he disapproves of, of course). You know my people better than I do myself, Roy.

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Nailed it, Roy.

What’s Primal Scream-level frustrating is that the interviewee in your piece is the type of person the party elders and consultants continue to chase, despite their love being eternally unrequited. Yet they won’t give a crumb to anyone left of center; instead they assume they’re owed the votes of “the left” and only give those voters contempt and scorn. Hey, how about reversing that approach just once? It might be just crazy enough to work!

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Sadly unrepentant centrists will be the death of us all

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