From First To Worst (#ETTD)

Mmmm, the schadenfreude.

Last November, following a thrilling run capped by winning the World Series, our home baseball team, the Washington Nationals, made a trip to the White House to celebrate.  Some players, noting the record of aspiring autocrat Donald "Mango Mussolini" Trump, declined to participate in the event.  Some, however, made a point of displaying their Natitude MAGAtude.

Like journeyman catcher Kurt Suzuki, who donned a MAGA hat and got a free feel from Mango, much to the squealing delight of manager Dave Martinez (Puerto Rican American!) and General Manager Mike Rizzo --

Also taking part in the merriment with the cager- of- immigrant- children was long- time Nats player Ryan Zimmerman, who presented Putin's puppet with a team jersey --

Zimbo's remarks indicated he may have taken a few too many beanballs in his career:

Zimmerman, who presented Trump with a Nationals jersey bearing his name and No. 45, praised Trump’s leadership. He called the visit an “unbelievable honor” and said the team would “like to thank you for keeping everyone here safe in our country and continuing to make America the greatest country to live in in the world.” (our emphasis)

Yes, we feel much safer today with Putin's puppet, the Very Stable Genius, in control of the nuclear button, not to mention his attempts to emulate his Russian hero in domestic politics!  And how did that coronavirus thing work out for ya?  Much safer, yes. Thanks for your thoughtful analysis, Zimbo.  And note to Suzuki:  you do know your man's a White Nationalist, don't you?

That day cost the Nationals a lot of fans, including us.

And, because Everything Trump Touches Dies (#ETTD), it also cost the Nats a successful follow-up season.  They went from World Series Champions to last place in the National League East this year (something we had a sense was brewing back in July).  Zimbo opted not to play this season, which may be his last anyway;  Suzuki is at the end of his 2-year contract and hopefully will be let go (not holding our breath, though).  Martinez, unfortunately will still be with the Nats for a while, lending the franchise his #ETTD bad karma stink for seasons to come.

Trump Jr. Calls For Armed Thugs At Polling Sites

Blasting the quiet part out loud, the troubled scion of the Trump crime family and unloved son Greasy Donald Trump Jr., fresh off of his bloodshot-eyed, coked-up turn at the Republican National Convention, is pushing for armed thugs to "monitor" the election returns at polling stations. What "monitor" really means is intimidation and suppression of Dem in-person voters:

Stark language in Don Jr.’s new “defend your ballot” ad: “We need every able-bodied man and woman to join Army for Trump’s election security operation...we need you to help us watch them” pic.twitter.com/qJwaQApptr

— Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) September 25, 2020

We can forsee a few right-wing militia groups and street thugs like the brownshirt "Proud Boys" heeding Junior's desperate and dangerous call -- a few.  Local election officials need to be alert to this attempt to sabotage the election, plan ahead, and work with local authorities to stop it.  That said, this juvenile effort is likely to turn out to be a dud, just like the Portland "Proud Boys" rally yesterday that attracted a few hundred thugs, rather than the 10,000 the organizers had predicted.  Plus, with so many Democrats voting early or by mail, Greasy's rallying cry is a 2016 tactic that's largely been overtaken by events, thanks to his daddy's botched coronavirus response.

Pics Of The Week -- Her Honor

 

(Former clerks of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg await her casket at the Supreme Court/Getty Images)

(Justice Ginsburg's casket arrives at the Supreme Court, met by her former clerks/CQ-Roll Call, Inc., via Getty Images)

Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)

(Rob Rogers, robrogers.com)

(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)

(Steve Benson, gocomics.com)

(Steve Breen, San Diego Union-Tribune)

(Bruce Plante, Tulsa World)

(Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer)

(Stuart Carlson, gocomics.com)

(Ed Hall, Artizans.com)

(Nick Anderson, Washington Post Writers Group)

(Marc Murphy, Louisville Courier-Journal)

(Rick McKee, Counterpoint)

Please Support These Democratic Organizations

Aside from supporting the institutional organizations like the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Biden-Harris campaign, there are numerous organizations that we can support with whatever we can spare to help remove the stain in the Oval Office and elect progressives. Here are just a few:

American Bridge 21st Century

EMILY's List

VoteVets

Voto Latino

Wegotthevote

Also, because the fight has to be taken to the State legislative level, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is working to elect more Dems to critical State government positions (think Congressional redistricting, voting rights vs. suppression, progressive Constitutional amendments, etc.). This is a very high priority which often gets short shrift in campaigns for Federal office.

Trump's Reckless And Deadly Fight With FDA

 Above all else, above public health and above causing thousands of more deaths, sociopathic demagogue and career con man Donald "Mango Mussolini" Trump puts his re-election first. He's putting his re-election first because he knows the law is after him, for years of fraud, tax evasion and potentially treason, and he needs the legal immunity protection of the office.

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread in the U.S., as he "downplayed" (i.e., lied about) the seriousness of the virus, he's pushed quack "cures" to his gullible cult. Hydroxychloroquine, introducing disinfectants and ultraviolet light into the body, and even homicidal "herd immunity" were touted by Trump, who falsely claimed the virus was a "Democratic hoax" and would disappear like a miracle.

We're at the vaccine trial point now, and Trump is trying to sweep aside normal, scientific processes to ensure the vaccine is effective and won't actually kill people. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that they will be promulgating tough standards to regulate any COVID-19 vaccine, which would delay the introduction of the vaccine well beyond election day. Trump is pushing back on the FDA, believing that his re-election chances hinge on having a vaccine, any vaccine safe or not:

"The White House’s involvement appears to go beyond the perfunctory review that agency officials had expected, and is likely to reinforce public concerns that a vaccine may be rushed to benefit the president’s reelection campaign. Polls show that the number of people who say they’re willing to take a coronavirus vaccine if it were available today has nosedived from 72 percent in May to 50 percent as of early this month, according to Pew Research Center, largely because of concerns that politics, rather than science, is driving the process."  (our emphasis)

As with his virus super spreading Nuremberg / Herman Cain Memorial rallies, Trump wants to create the illusion that things are back to normal, or will be by election day. He doesn't care who dies as a result, because it's always all about him and his freedom from prison.

(image: If only)

Tweets Of The Day -- How To Deal With A Toddler

 

Am I the only one that thinks continually asking Trump at pressers if he will commit to a peaceful exit only gives him confidence that he has a different choice? Quit fucking asking. You don’t ask a kid if they will go to bed or stay up all night. You put that little bitch to bed

— mamrie hart (@mametown) September 24, 2020

 

We need to stop inviting this, stop headlining it, stop freaking out about it: Ignore the strongman fantasies. If Trump loses the election, he'll lose his job. Period. https://t.co/pSkpvziTDH via @usatoday @usatodayopinion

— Jill Lawrence (@JillDLawrence) September 25, 2020

 

(h/t Silver Spring Bureau Chief Brian)

QOTD -- The Insulting Barrett Nomination

"... For most American women under the age of 40, the society we grew up in — one in which women worked outside the home in every field, where pay discrimination wasn't yet eradicated but was at least both decreasing and widely condemned, where planning the number and spacing of your children was the norm and where much more was expected of men in the home and women outside of it — wasn't novel but normal.

"I didn't know RBG, but I imagine this tectonic shift in women's basic assumptions about their lives must have been one of her greatest accomplishments: not being lionized or thanked for what should have always been, but seeing what she dreamed of, was told was impossible and did anyway become so basic that we forget things were ever any other way.

"That's why it would be such an insult to Ginsburg's life and her work to appoint a judge like Barrett: someone who is happy to take advantage of the opportunities her predecessors created, who is smart enough to grasp how she got where she did and is nonetheless reactionary enough to help burn RBG's legacy to the ground — and make it that much harder for other women to rise." -- Jill Filipovic, on the insult aspiring autocrat Donald "Mango Mussolini" Trump's SCOTUS pick Amy Coney Barrett represents to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her legacy.

Mail-In Ballot Gaslighting

News item:

Luzerne County, Pa., is Trump country. The president won the county by nearly 20 points four years ago and has returned multiple times since, holding rallies in the county seat of Wilkes-Barre in 2018 and at a manufacturing facility in the county in the past month.

It is not, in other words, the sort of place where you’d assume that Democratic operatives would launch an effort to subvert the 2020 election. Yet over the past 24 hours, that’s been the subtext to assertions made by the president, the White House and the Justice Department — a subtext which by now seems almost entirely false. [snip]

What we have learned, in fact, isn’t that Democrats are trying to rig the election. It’s that the Trump administration — including the Justice Department — and the Trump campaign are willing to use sketchy allegations in an effort to undermine confidence in mail-in voting. That effort is itself part of an obvious move by the Trump campaign to delegitimize valid ballots out of concern that those ballots will tend to favor Trump’s opponent. That’s why rejecting “naked ballots” was a win for Trump’s team in the first place: it would probably lead to more votes for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden being thrown out in a pivotal swing state, precisely the outcome Trump’s party wanted.

Shorter: 9 ballots were discarded because they were believed to have violated rules that Republicans sued to have in place, all of which Trump/ Barr/ Republicans will now use to gaslight mail- in voting.  

 

Here's that DOJ update https://t.co/4oZamK7ssE

Pretty clear the problem here wasn't absentee voting, which is routine for military personnel, but rather the new (and controversial) ruling that requires ballots be placed in privacy envelopes. More on that: https://t.co/hb4I2EmQiq

— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) September 25, 2020

From that story. Pennsylvania Republicans wanted those ballots thrown out. https://t.co/XW9HRV9Zit pic.twitter.com/PiazXZidKX

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) September 25, 2020

 

Even by Trump standards this is cynical bullshit, and it should be presumed at this point that any statement from Bill Barr’s doj or the White House is a lie of commission or omission until proven otherwise.

— Adam Serwer🍝 (@AdamSerwer) September 25, 2020

 

Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)

(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)

(David Rowe, Financial Review, London)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Tom Toles, Washington Post)

(Signe Wilkinson, Philadelphia Inquirer/ Daily News)

(Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

(Lalo Alcaraz, LA Weekly)

(Kevin Kallaugher, Counterpoint)

(Jeff Darcy, Cleveland Plain Dealer)

(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)

(Nick Anderson, Counterpoint)

(Mike Thompson, USA Today)

(Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ)

Pics Of The Day: Justice Denied, Justice Defined

 

A woman touches a mural of Breonna Taylor at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C. On Wednesday, a grand jury failed to indict any of the three Louisville, KY, policemen for the killing of Taylor, sparking widespread outrage and nationwide protests.

(photo: Cheriss May/Reuters)

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in state in the Capitol's Statuary Hall today, the first woman and the first person of the Jewish faith to lie in repose there. Her greatness has yet to be fully appreciated.

(photo: Erin Schaff/Associated Press)

Can The USPS Reverse DeJoy's Sabotage?

Corrupt Trumpist villain Postmaster General Louis "Delay" DeJoy tried his best to foul up the mail system that people rely on for everything from medications to Social Security checks. They were his collateral damage, since the sinister intent of DeJoy, a Trump fundraiser and accused "straw donor" felon, was to cripple the U.S. Postal Service's ability to handle absentee ballots for the November elections. Sane people (Dems and others supporting Joe Biden) are expected to vote by mail in overwhelming numbers, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Federal and state judges have slapped DeJoy with injunctions, stopping his plans and ordering him to return operations to the way it was before he started meddling for Team Trump. Now, the USPS has disseminated an internal directive to implement a point-by-point reversal of all of DeJoy's actions:

"In the wake of those rulings, some mail sorting machines that had been deactivated but not disassembled were being reactivated across the country. A USPS spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to the new instructions, overtime is 'authorized and instructed to be used as necessary,' managers are "authorized to use their best business judgment to meet service commitments" and hold trucks so mail is on time, retail hours are not to be changed except in emergencies, collection boxes aren't to be removed except for extraordinary events like extreme weather 'or civil unrest,' and election mail is to be processed as first-class mail even without first-class postage." 

This doesn't mean that DeJoy's malicious meddling failed completely. It's reported that DeJoy responded Wednesday to Federal Judge Stanley Bastian in Washington state that issued the injunction that many mail sorting machines have already been stripped for parts, and can't be used:

"DeJoy and the Postal Service said Wednesday in a filing to be considered by the judge that the injunction should be amended to acknowledge the machines cannot be put back together.

The postmaster general stated that the old machines were stripped for parts to improve or repair other sorting machines.

'It is therefore not possible to return such machines to service,' the filing read." (our emphasis)

Impeding the processing and delivery of the U.S. mail is a felony, and it's clear from Judge Bastian's earlier injunction that the court believed DeJoy was doing just that for his Dear Leader's political advantage. So, add DeJoy to the list of criminals to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law once we have a new President in place.

(photo montage: Wikimedia Commons and Gage Skidmore)

Weekend Rolling Music

Britain's Michael Kiwanuka was born and raised in the Muswell Hill section of London (making him, like the Davies brothers, a Muswell hillbilly!). But his songwriting is a unique mix of American R&B, soul, funk and folk influences.  His 2019 album "Kiwanuka" won the Mercury Prize and appeared on more than a dozen "best of 2019/ decade" lists. "Rolling" has a distinctly retro feel with the fuzz guitar and other rarely used effects, but it's lyrics betray a modern viewpoint:

"No tears for the young/ A bullet if you run away/ Another lost one/ Like father, like son we pray/ Rolling with the times/ Don't be late"

Hope you enjoy.

Three Battleground State Polls Give Biden Clear Edge

With the usual caveats -- casting your vote is what counts, don't be distracted or disheartened by Trump's tactics, etc. --  the "A"- rated Fox News poll is unadulterated good news for Joe Biden in three battleground states:

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump in the battleground states of Nevada, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, according to Fox News statewide likely voter surveys.

In each of the three states, majorities disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president, pluralities say coronavirus is “not at all” under control, and Biden is the preferred choice when it comes to handling the virus. Plus, he’s favored over Trump to nominate the next U.S. Supreme Court justice.  

There are few undecided voters, and Biden’s support is 50 percent or better in each state.  His advantage over Trump is outside the margin of error in Nevada and Pennsylvania, but not Ohio. 

Across the states, Biden’s edge comes mainly from women, nonwhites, voters under age 35, and those ages 65 and over.  When it comes to handling coronavirus in particular, more seniors trust Biden to do a better job than Trump -- in larger numbers than back his candidacy overall.

The eye- openers are Ohio and the Nevada margin.  Here are the numbers with 39 days until November 3 (but vote early/ by mail if you can!):

NEW Fox News Polls:

NEVADA
Biden 52%
Trump 41%

OHIO
Biden 50%
Trump 45%

PENNSYLVANIA
Biden 51%
Trump 44%

— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) September 24, 2020

 

The poll was taken after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Biden is favored in all three states as the person who should fill that vacancy.  Other factors generally favor Biden as well (handling coronavirus, police reform and violence, etc.).  

Keep the pedal to the metal!

Ad: Seniors, Trump Doesn't Give A Damn About You

Former VP Joe Biden is maintaining his lead in a number of battleground states. States that are now in reach for him include so-called "sunbelt states," which have big senior populations like Arizona and Florida. This is a smart ad that reminds seniors in those states and others that lying sociopath and mentally unstable Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump doesn't give a damn about their survival in the pandemic. He told a super spreader rally of his that the virus "affects virtually nobody." Tell that to the 160,000 senior Americans who have perished from it.