DRW50

I know some on the right have claimed the early numbers are good for Republicans - I haven't checked as they always lie, but I imagine Democrats will have an advantage in that vote which is then matched by Republicans on Election Day. My main worry is how many of those mailed in votes are going to disappear. I hope most people, if they can, are voting on the day, but I am not one to make those proclamations as I am voting by mail this year. It's bad for Trump, good for Senate Republicans. They can claim they are the party of austerity (with various outlets like NYT already pushing stuff about the deficit again), crash the economy, and blame Biden for it if he wins, setting up a comeback narrative in 2022. I just hope Democrats can win the Senate because if they don't then Republicans will do nothing, other than investigate Hunter and wait for the clock to run out.

Let's hope. Flop sweat alert. They're lucky Biden is so into bipartisanship as that's the slim chance they have of this not happening if Democrats win the Senate - a decision they created and they are wholly responsible for.

Greenwald is still pushing this nonstop, trying to create outrage over the Ukraine prosecutor. I'd say I hope this makes people finally see through him, but if going on !@#$%^&*] Carlson's show over and over won't do it, what will.

I think it's going to be very close. Right now if I had to guess I'd say a narrow Biden win, with a lot of litigation and street violence, and a tied or R+1/2 Senate. I hope I'm wrong and it's better for the Democrats but I think there's just too much boiling under the surface.

The NC stuff feels like Trump's people trying a psy-op...it's going to be very close. It's disappointing and depressing, if not surprising, how much the message of just give up about COVID and let it happen has resonated. The one that bothers me most is people who say, "Who cares if cases are going up? People are dying less, so the treatment has improved!" Yes, who cares about incredibly expensive treatment that still leaves someone with longtime health problems. We are such a callous, heartless country. I'm also not surprised that Trump is pivoting to trying to drive up hate against Fauci, hoping it will egg up more base turnout. Whether it will work depends on how successful the voter suppression efforts are. The sooner the Democrats don't need Florida to win, the better. Trends are not good there and it is not worth the time or money.

@amybrickwallace that may be about the best my scan quality will get. I can type out the article for you if you wish.

The closer the election gets, the more the media fears losing their money train, and the more they are desperate to make the story all about themselves and about how special and brave they are. They hate us and they don't care if we drop dead. Expect a lot more of this:

They are probably right to be wary, as so much relies on the senior vote this year, and Trump's campaign is trying to woo them back, with the new free vaccine plan (never mind that there is no vaccine and it probably would have been free for them anyway) and his "new tone" (the media always eats that up) at today's hate rally. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/16/trump-florida-seniors-covid-429880 Biden's campaign is also canceling ads in Texas, so that would mean they know things aren't going to get too big (they are also canceling ads in Virginia and Colorado, likely for the opposite reason). And beyond all that, they will need the Senate if they want to get anything done. The chances of many going along with the idea that he will win easily so needs a check in the Senate makes me very nervous. Reason #948394 why it was not a great idea for Trump and his people to focus so heavily on Biden dementia smears: And in our latest "being racist is funneeee!!!11!!" installment, we have what is described as the more mainstream senator in Georgia. How sad. (and best of luck to Jon Ossoff - hopefully he will pull off a surprise)

I guess, based on that story with Lien and Philip Moon, this was still around the strike, but one benefit of stretching stories means you get a lot of lovely community scenes and conversations threaded through - the Snyder party, and especially the John and Emma scenes, are pleasing. And the scene with Betsy and Seth where they are talking about other people and each other at the same time is beautifully written. This is also a look at the Kirk/Iva/Hank "triangle," as it were. And for all you Beau fans, he sings a song. Overall I think the show did a decent job with not whitewashing Josh too much (we see multiple characters here, including Craig, being wary of him), but, even if it may be in character for selfish Lily, seeing her pout and get fussy over other people not accepting him is irritating.

Honestly at this point I don't even really know if Democrats will get the Senate, even if Biden wins, so it's mostly a lot of drape-measuring. If they don't then nobody is going to get appointed anyway, it's just going to be lots of 'acting' heads. @Vee I did not see your post - thanks for the Christie article. Better late than never from a big name Republican, I suppose, even if no one will listen.

So worthless. I'm surprised he didn't do the town hall himself. Maybe he didn't have enough Republican panelists to tell him what to say.

I didn't bother with either of the town halls, but seeing so many extremists attempt to move the refs by treating Savannah Guthrie as if she is Morton Downey Jr (RIP) is really something. They have no shame. The spin is already going in full motion that Trump had a hard time while Biden got a pass. Seeing all the rage toward Dianne Feinstein (I do think she should have retired but as much as I despise Lindsey Graham and these sham hearings, nothing she has done has made any negative difference) reminds me of just how high the expectations are among Democrats while Republicans can do whatever they want. This sums it up, in a lot of ways.

MSNBC vs NBC tensions. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/15/trump-town-hall-fury-at-nbc-429639 Petition of celebs, including many NBC actors: https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/sterling-k-brown-chris-meloni-sophia-bush-and-more-stars-petition-for-nbc-to-move-trumps-town-hall-timeslot/ar-BB1a45w7 Conan speaks: Disappointing news about Scully. I remember how smoothly he ran the phones at CSPAN for many years. I should say at least he admitted his mistakes, but this is a consequence of journalists becoming way too online and losing any objectivity.

Oh please - talk about bad attempts at CYA. I know this is also Politico, but here's a piece about the NBC vs MSNBC tension over the town hall. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/15/trump-town-hall-fury-at-nbc-429639

Oh Judi. 😢 I never can remember if she had issues with Vincent as much as she did Grant.

For the very first time in my life, I have something to praise the "mayor for life" for. Those Hunter Biden photos have the desiccated coolness you don't really get much of anywhere now - they're like something from a '60s art book you'd probably pay way too much money for. I'm even using one of them as my avatar at Walford Web. So thanks, Rudy. I still hope you burn in hell, and I know you will, but you aren't all bad.

I always had a hard time with Roger's redemption, in that by 1979 he moves away from being a matured scoundrel into being a self-righteous ass, and this just increases more and more (it doesn't help that he and Randall Edwards had no real chemistry, and the show made the bad mistake of assuming viewers would only care about his relationship with EJ if they saw Delia as a heavy). The nadir for me was that story where Faith and Roger left Delia penniless over a mine left to Faith, or something. Yes, Delia schemed, and she got what she deserved, but it was impossible for me to sit back and enjoy Roger and Faith smugging it up, especially given their history. Roger really lost any layers and I found him just about unwatchable for the last few years of the Soapnet run.

For anyone who was wondering about useful places to donate:

JD Vance is a huge piece of [!@#$%^&*] who is funded by dangerous men like Peter Thiel, hangs around the likes of Amy Chua (who has so many ugly ties to Brett Kavanaugh) and from what I've heard Hillbilly Elegy is patronizing and basically tells poor people it's their fault if they suffer and die. It would be very Oscar-like if Glenn Close or Amy Adams won for something so repulsive.

I hope Biden's people will blast that story everywhere the way they did when Kellyanne Conway tried to be cute and went on national TV bragging about how much violence and chaos would help Trump. Now the focus is on how Twitter and Facebook are censoring the story and this will cause a Streisand Effect and amplify it. I don't know if I believe that or not, because there really isn't anything to amplify, but people are so stupid I can't assume anything at this point. Speaking of stupid, Amy Covid Barrett was exposed as ignorant and a complete phony today, but it won't matter. The best to hope for is that Lindsey Graham pining for segregation so openly might put off a few more so-called moderates and hurt his reelection. In other news that is not surprising, but is still sad. https://www.complex.com/life/2020/10/ice-cube-helped-develop-new-black-trump-platform-says-senior-adviser

Sorry to hear about your news @Taoboi

And right on time for the NY Post sham article that Trump can use to hammer away in this format. And of course overshadowing Biden's town hall and trying one more time to push the comeback narrative. I would have probably said in past years that NBC as a whole should be boycotted, but with the pandemic I know people in the industry as facing hard times...so I will just say I will continue to avoid anything to do with NBC "news." I still haven't forgotten that shitass interview Matt Lauer did with him (while throwing Hillary to the wolves). They know the damage was already done - they amplified the story then do what they always do, half-heartedly question it when they know many will only notice the original tweet. This is their dream come true. I'm not surprised Politico is involved - I read a lot of Politico but they never really hide what they are - and I am even less surprised that the wretched Maggie Haberman jumped on this. Her mother works for the Kushners, Maggie herself can't hide her fondness for the Trumps (even happily posing in photos with Trump), and her husband tried to help Jeffrey Epstein. (Maggie's mother also has ties to Epstein...) Axios, another Trump-enabling outlet, is also trying to push a narrative about how Biden has avoided the press and has just lucked out. I don't think most of it will work, but it's clearly an attempt to force through a narrative of Biden as unqualified and scandal-plagued, which is what they thought they were going to get when he won the primary. If it narrows the margins enough to steal the election for Trump (as he will be going to the courts with any result anyway - the narrower Biden's win the better for Trump), then it gets them just what they want and need.

Trump's people tweeted out a crass chop of Biden as being in a nursing home with other patients. I know older people aren't likely to see that, but I hope they will not go back to their natural fold (I mostly mean older white and sometimes Hispanic voters) as we are near the end. The GOP never actually cared about senior citizens, but I never thought they would be as brazen and sick as they have been this year, especially the point where they were basically just telling them to go die to save the economy. Fauxgressives have been going hogwild over far right Wolf Blitzer trying to force Nancy Pelosi to take Trump's deal. We are in bothsidesbothsidesbothsides hell as the media is increasingly terrified their money train is over. I just hope people don't fall for the bait.

The channel that has mostly put up Trisha/Trucker clips put up a full episode a few days ago. I'm not sure if it was already around but I'd never seen it. The main stories are the teen dramas amidst an unintentionally hilarious cameo from Marla Maples (she is passable enough but her intro, including Louie having a crush on her and Ava saying after hard times a visit from Marla Maples is just what they need, is a hoot) and the well-acted but extremely grimy Clay/Stacey plot. There are some nice Casey and Ally scenes, and a reminder of what a big budget even the lowest-rated soap had.