Althouse: At the Smokestack-Skewers-the-Sun Café...

October 31, 2020

At the Smokestack-Skewers-the-Sun Café...

... you can write about anything you want.

51 comments:

Jon Ericson said...: President @realDonaldTrump: "Do not be intimidated by our opponents’ angry and menacing tone...In truth, they are terrified of YOU! They are terrified that YOU will discover that YOU have the power to end their corrupt rule once and for all."

Not the Bee - funny nevertheless

Trashy people; 10/31/20, 6:32 PM
brylun said...: Watching an old Perry Mason episode today (The Case of the Golden Fraud), I came across the term "badger game" and immediately thought about Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his effort to trap Rudy Giuliani.

What a great human being that Sacha Baron Cohen is!; 10/31/20, 6:37 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: The full blue moon this morning was magnificent.; 10/31/20, 6:44 PM
tcrosse said...: Be advised that tomorrow’s sunrise is scheduled an hour earlier.; 10/31/20, 6:47 PM
I'm Not Sure said...: His first Trump parade...

https://twitter.com/Skillsetmag/status/1320091833666433025; 10/31/20, 7:08 PM
stevew said...: A cold start to the day. Went for a wonderful walk, brisk pace and brisk air. Everyone I happened upon was cheerful, "Hello" "Good morning", and greeted me well. Where is this fracture we hear so much about? Where is the polarization? Life for most of us is not a constant focus on politics, the election. We live in harmony, regardless of who we plan to vote for.

Good evening! Happy Halloween! Best wishes for a good night and a wonderful Sunday.; 10/31/20, 7:09 PM
I'm Not Sure said...: Just now, Biden ad on tv. Claim: Military Times says there is more support for Biden than Trump.

From Military Times poll (5 days ago) here...

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/10/26/poll-trump-backed-by-majority-of-veterans-but-not-younger-ones/

If the election was held today, who would you vote for?

Trump- 52.4%
Biden- 42.3%; 10/31/20, 7:19 PM
Tom T. said...: I live in Northern Virginia, and my neighbors' Halloween decorations seemed especially menacing during trick-or-treat this year. Lots of skeletons, witches, and Biden-Harris signs.; 10/31/20, 7:24 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Voted for the Giant Cheeto in Chief on Thursday. It felt good. Chances of winning MD are about zilch, but not so with some of the amendments on the ballot. I voted as best as I could to choke the cash flow to the greedy bastards that run my county.; 10/31/20, 7:24 PM
Narr said...: That first photo looks like a missile launch.

Narr
Very nice.; 10/31/20, 7:25 PM
Sebastian said...: Good trick or treating. Lots of families out. Kids happy. Parents happy. Mostly masked.

Of course many houses dark. Mostly old folks playing it safe.; 10/31/20, 7:28 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Marl Levin Show tonight ... superb. A Biden - Harris Kabob. on another note... https://www.reddit.com/r/ConservativeMemes/comments/jlag15/i_aint_afraid_of_no_joe/
Loved it.; 10/31/20, 7:35 PM
rehajm said...: President Obama sounding more like a child today. Taunting Trump like a child. I'm old enough to remember when he was the great regal orator...; 10/31/20, 7:38 PM
David Begley said...: Today should have been WI at NE. Sad!; 10/31/20, 7:45 PM
alan markus said...: I hope on election night comments are not moderated (or a moderator stays up all night). The last several elections the only "coverage" I have followed are the commenters here.

Who can forget the WI Supreme Court race (Prosser versus Kloppenburg),spring 2011? The one where some of Waukesha's vote totals were not uploaded properly that night, resulting in an undercount that made it appear that Kloppenburg won? It took several days for the error to be noted, and that Prosser was actually the winner?

At about 400 comments in, Ann and some of the commenters started to articulate that something was not right.

As per Ann: UPDATE, 11:43: Dane (Madison's county) is nearly all in. I don't see how Kloppenburg can net more than about 3,000 with what's left of Dane. Waukesha is now shown as completely in, but the numbers didn't change, so I think something may have been misreported. I took the trouble to do a calculation and was going to predict that Prosser would net 40,000 more votes in Waukesha. What happened?

Blogger Kansas City said...
For those who were counting on Waukesha, they are now 100% reported and the numbers barely moved. Very odd.
By the way, are there absentee and military votes to be counted? Any have information on that?
4/5/11, 11:50 PM

Blogger Sloanasaurus said...
The final numbers only show a 58% turn out for waukesha compared to 2010. That's terrible relative to Dane or Milwaukee.
4/5/11, 11:56 PM

Blogger Joshua said...
That's odd. The Waukesha totals didn't change, but now they're reporting all precincts in, so there's not as much Prosser-friendly territory left as we had thought.
4/5/11, 11:57 PM

Blogger Whippet said...
Ann,
I'm with you on Waukesha. Weren't the totals for the county the same prior to the 60+ prevents reporting? No change at the county level and barely any movement in the total votes. Something is off here...
4/6/11, 12:20 AM

Blogger Sloanasaurus said...
...............................
I think there is still a discrepency in Waukesha worth 1000-2000 votes for Prosser. So things can still change a lot regarding the race.
...............................
4/6/11, 2:06 AM; 10/31/20, 7:48 PM
Quayle said...: Here in Michigan, getting 10 - 15 texts a day from all kinds of Democrat sources, some addressed by name to my daughter who never used this phone or number.; 10/31/20, 8:12 PM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: At one of the houses at which the three youngest Pantslets trick or treated tonight, the candy was wrapped in Trump 2020 stickers. 🤣🤣🤣; 10/31/20, 8:18 PM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: We saw a Biden car parade today. Maybe 30 cars? The Trump parade today had over 3,000. Winning!; 10/31/20, 8:19 PM
WK said...: Had 3 groups and total of 9 trick or treaters. New neighbors stopped by (haven’t moved in yet as doing renovations). Five year old was a pirate. Nine month old was dressed as RGB. Mom had a gavel. So. Not sure where they lean politically.; 10/31/20, 8:21 PM
Professional lady said...: We pulled our front yard bench in front of our porch steps and put lighted pumpkins and candy on it for the trick or treaters. Got several groups of mostly small children from the neighborhood, all in cute costumes. We weren't sure if any trick or treaters would show up. We're glad we put out candy for the ones that came. Usually we get lots of kids from Detroit - they come to our inner ring suburb for trick or treating. We're happy to give them candy. No Detroit kids this year. Maybe next year will be back to normal.; 10/31/20, 8:24 PM
tim maguire said...: brylun said...What a great human being that Sacha Baron Cohen is!

His entire career is built around using people’s decency against them. He convinces them to help him in order to ridicule and humiliate them.; 10/31/20, 8:26 PM
Yancey Ward said...: I see Boris Johnson is taking Britain back into lockdown. What a fucking fool he has become.; 10/31/20, 8:30 PM
walter said...: How are the target lessons going?; 10/31/20, 8:35 PM
Big Mike said...: ... they are terrified of YOU!

Well, a guy named Dr. Eric Cervini “flew down to Texas to help with the Biden/Harris bus tour.” I believe the 19th century term used by cowboys to describe people like him was “Pilgrim.” He and the other denizens of the bus encountered a bunch of Trump supporters and went insane with fear, going so far as to call 9-1-1 and even hailed a cop. Jake Tapper was suitably outraged, before eventually deciding that Dr. Cervini’s tweets seemed “deranged.”; 10/31/20, 8:38 PM
MadisonMan said...: Not many trick or treaters tonight. Candy was overbought. What does one do with leftovers -- unopened boxes of full-sized bars?; 10/31/20, 8:44 PM
chuck said...: Czech Cardinal Dominika Duka's Twitter account has been suspended. According to the cardinal's spokesman, Jiří Prinz, Twitter has not provided any reason for its decision. However, a possible explanation could be that on Oct. 1, the cardinal shared an article published by the Conservative Newspaper about the appointment of US Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

Isn't that interesting. Twitter needs to be cut down to allow new growth to prosper. It is blocking all the light.; 10/31/20, 9:13 PM
walter said...: Poor Joe Rogan still buys Jack Dorsey's mopey hippy schtick.; 10/31/20, 9:20 PM
narciso said...: That landmark study on trump rallies was written by two graduate students and one professor of economics.; 10/31/20, 9:26 PM
Political Junkie said...: I hope the "big mo" for Trump shown in the Des Moines Register poll is happening across the country. If so, Trump has solid chances. We shall see.; 10/31/20, 9:34 PM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: Based on my Facebook feed tonight most of my local parent friends took their kids out trick or treating tonight. Maybe 1/4 of the houses in the neighborhood (including mine) had candy on tables for self service. Another 1/4 had porch lights on but we didn't ring doorbells - not sure if they were welcoming trick or treaters or not so we skipped them. It was fun and great and several households went all out. Meanwhile Mr. Pants was chatting over text with a couple of colleagues; one lives in New Jersey and said that his town banned trick or treating and the mayor threatened to have any parents who tried to participate anyway arrested and charged with child endangerment.

Thank God I don't live in place where the only reasonable option with my leaders is tree, rope, some assembly required. Who the fuck do these people think they are?; 10/31/20, 9:57 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: National security nightmare of Humper's abandoned laptop containing phone numbers for the Clintons, Secret Service officers and most of the Obama cabinet plus his sex and drug addictions - all secured by the password Hunter02

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8901193/National-security-nightmare-Hunter-Bidens-laptop.html; 10/31/20, 10:04 PM
D. said...: "fossil fuels" keeping the lights on for the Madison Luddites/Idiots/Leftists!; 10/31/20, 10:08 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: For the first time in decades, the U.S. was illuminated
by a Blue Hunter’s Moon on October 31; 10/31/20, 10:16 PM
320Busdriver said...: Latest Des Moines Register. IA poll has Trump taking the lead.. BY SEVEN!!!!!!; 10/31/20, 10:20 PM
PhysicistDave said...: Regardless of who wins Tuesday (or a week from Tuesday or whenever), there has been a major change in American politics due to Trump.

Through most of my life (I am close to the age of our host here), both major parties agreed that Americans had to tolerate endless wars and a secretive "national-security state" in order to maintain "American leadership" in the world. The cost was tens of thousands of American lives (and many more non-American lives), erosion of civil liberties, and of course trillions of dollars in deficits.

There were occasional dissents: the McGovern campaign in 1972, Senator Frank Church's exposure of abuses by the "Intelligence Community" in the mid '70s. But those dissents were soon suppressed.

But now, we have a Republican President who denounces "endless foreign wars," who attacks the "Deep State," and, most importantly, who gets roars of approval from his supporters when he does so.

This is the American tradition going back to the Founders.

An empire cannot be a republic.

If we want to restore and preserve the American Republic, if we want minimal government and a rule of law and not men, this is the necessary path.

There is now a mass movement in America against militarism, imperialism, and world hegemony.

And against all expectations it is in the Republican Party.

We can take our country back. America can cease being the world hegemon and become a normal country. We can end the American Empire and restore the American Republic.

And for that we can thank Donald Trump.; 10/31/20, 10:36 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: Halloween in Nice, France?; 10/31/20, 10:38 PM
Readering said...: Trump campaign running ad that has default setting where donors' accounts automatically deducted on recurring basis into December unless they take the extra step of opting out. And when questioned, campaign basically admitted that its "your donation 1000% matched" promise is false.

I'm sure a lot of marks are on this site pro-Trump site.; 11/1/20, 12:01 AM
Wandering Badger said...: Election will be interesting - just today, thousands show up in Beverly Hills for Trump (https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/31/trump-supporters-fill-streets-of-beverly-hills-the-silent-majority-is-silenced-no-more/) and Texan Trump supporters surround the Biden Bus tour. The Beverly Hills rally included LGBT for Trump, Blacks for Trump, and all kinds of other non-traditional pro-conservative groups. There is no enthusiasm for the Biden/Socialist Platform side. Will it be a Red Tsunami ? or a Blue Wave like the "media claims ?; 11/1/20, 12:17 AM
stephen cooper said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/1/20, 2:06 AM
Big Mike said...: We did not have as many Trick-or-Treaters as usual last night, perhaps due to COVID-19. concerns, perhaps because it was pretty cold. Lots of leftover candy, except wife and I are trying to lose the weight we put on since last March.; 11/1/20, 3:49 AM
AllenS said...: MadisonMan said...
Not many trick or treaters tonight. Candy was overbought. What does one do with leftovers -- unopened boxes of full-sized bars?

Gain weight?; 11/1/20, 5:41 AM
Rory said...: We had a normal number of Halloweeners, all different ages, in Western Pa. My dog had a great time barking at the kids.; 11/1/20, 5:53 AM
Rory said...: "...some addressed by name to my daughter who never used this phone or number."

I've been getting texts from Virginia Democrats, thanking me for volunteering to watch the polls. I left Virginia several years ago, have never made any contact with Virginia Democrats, and Virginia doesn't even have party registration.; 11/1/20, 5:58 AM
J. Farmer said...: @PhysicistDave:

If we want to restore and preserve the American Republic, if we want minimal government and a rule of law and not men, this is the necessary path.

There is now a mass movement in America against militarism, imperialism, and world hegemony.

America can cease being the world hegemon and become a normal country. We can end the American Empire and restore the American Republic.

And for that we can thank Donald Trump.

None of that is happening. Trump escalated US actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we have more troops in the region than when Trump assumed office, including thousands stationed at a reopened base in Saudi Arabia. He has also escalated conflict with Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, and Cuba. Trump needlessly antagonized and causes a diplomatic row with South Korea, an important treaty ally, but unquestioningly supports reckless clients like the Saudis and Emiratis. He has supported huge increases in military spending in addition to the useless Space Force boondoggle. And he seems eager to plunge the US head first into a "new Cold War" with China.; 11/1/20, 8:43 AM
Michael K said...: Our neighborhood had a party on our street, which is dead end, and parents brought kids so they could have a nice time. Games and what looked like a football crossbar.

Readering is upset at a Trump fundraising site while millions of California money floods AZ and Texas.; 11/1/20, 9:18 AM
Ken B said...: Winning the internet this week:

seagullsbutnosea
@seagullsbutno
Beheadings are the language of the unheard; 11/1/20, 9:47 AM
Ken B said...: Winning the internet this week:

seagullsbutnosea
@seagullsbutno
Beheadings are the language of the unheard; 11/1/20, 9:47 AM
Narr said...: We stayed dark last night, but did see a small number of trick-or-treaters working along the street, escorted by parents in cars. The neighborhood directly to our north, a notch nicer with winding streets and farther from main roads, was pretty noisy and lit up-- lots of driveway parties I think.

Take your leftovers to the foodbank?

Narr
Include a can of beans; 11/1/20, 10:19 AM
rhhardin said...: OOps, I have to reprogram the clock radio. An old Drake R8B, now in service of turning on at noon and shutting off at 3pm, to record Rush. Unfortunately none of its many buttons on the front panel work any longer, but it responds to computer input on its serial port.

SO it's po / tl123200 / po

There, now the time's right.

It's a superb shortwave/broadcast receiver, from back when receivers mattered, and before IBOC contaminated the AM band with noise.; 11/1/20, 11:34 AM
Maillard Reactionary said...: Just in case the darkness and non-working doorbell weren't enough, I put an "IN QUARANTINE" sign on my front door last night.

We were left in peace. The quarantine ended about 11 PM.; 11/1/20, 3:40 PM
Maillard Reactionary said...: rhhardin: Receivers don't matter any more? What happened? Serious question here. The conventional wisdom before was that if money was limited, you should spend on the receiver (I'm talking about amateur radio here) as opposed to transmitter power.; 11/1/20, 3:43 PM