“Well, I guess that’s it, it’s over,” said my back home pal Moon Dimple.
“Some context would help,” I said.
“You know. The election.”
What I knew is I was being set up. He can be clueless sometimes but even he knows the presidential election isn’t for another five months, so how can it be “over.”“Fine,” I said. “I’ll bite. Why do you think an election that hasn’t taken place yet is over?”
“Because that’s what all the polls and experts say, dummy. Don’t you pay attention?”
I do pay attention, of course. And I am aware that the latest polls indicate that Trump is falling faster than a sack of rice off a bridge. The poll that’s gotten the most attention is the one by Gallup showing only 39 percent of Americans approving of Dear Leader’s job performance while 57 percent disapprove. (I always wonder about those tortured few – in this case 4 percent – who can’t manage to have an opinion. It must take them days to order in a restaurant.)
That poll resulted in a subsequent CNN analysis – an oxymoron if ever I’ve heard one – with the headline “History says Trump’s low approval rating is unlikely to move.”
And in Michigan, there was another poll indicating that voters in Michigan – which Trump won by a mere 10,000 votes in 2016, or about the size of a good-sized neighborhood in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint or any other sizable city – have soured on Trump big-time, resulting in this Detroit Free Press headline: “Joe Biden has doubled his lead over Donald Trump in Michigan, poll says.”
“See what I mean?” said Moon. “It’s over. Done. Finito. Over with. Biden is going to be president. There’s a million headlines saying so.”
“Oh, c’mon,” I said. “It’s not over by a long shot. Trump has been an utter disaster but his supporters don’t seem to notice or care. In fact, the worse he behaves, the more they seem to like him.”
“It’s the little brother syndrome,” he said. “If someone slugs your little brother, you defend him even if he probably deserved it.”
“True,” I said. “But let’s not forget that Hillary was way, way, way ahead in the polls at this point, too.”
“Yeah, but she’s Hillary, you know? She has a special talent for ticking people off. Besides, you know that the polls can’t be wrong twice. They’re scientific. It’s a proven fact.”
OK, I knew he was baiting me again. He wanted me to launch into my hand-waving, spit-flecked, red-face rant about how polls are ruining American elections by convincing the dimwitted that there’s no point in actually voting because the outcome is predetermined, which is how we ended up with a cruel, evil, Creamsicle-colored dolt as president who has made us the laughingstock of the world.
“Not gonna work, buddy,” I said. “I know you know my position on polls, just like I know you’re only pretending the election is over to get my goat.”
“Moi?” he said in mock horror. “I would never do such a thing. I just happen to believe that the polls are always right. Except when they’re not.”
“That might be the dumbest and yet most profound thing you’ve ever said.”
“Thank you very little.”
“Don’t mention it.”
I think I need a better class of friends.
Note: Please, for the love of Mike, vote in November. We can’t take another four years of this.
Why in the world does anybody still like Trump?
What’s the dopiest, silliest song ever? But you still notice it when you hear it, and remember it, and sorta smile? “Macarthur Park?” “Flyin’ Purple People Eater?” Pappa-Oo-Maw-Maw?” “Itchy Goo Park?”
Trump, I guess is sorta like these old dippy songs. Otherwise, I have no idea of why anybody at all likes him at all anymore.
The fat lady hasn’t sung yet.
I do not think America will get duped twice in a row.
The swing states where trump won by narrow margins in 2016 will be hard for him to win in 2020.
Joe Biden has huge support across the country and it is increasing as each day passes.
The current president has found his support to be dwindling.
We must all get out to vote in November, we can not afford another four years of this madness.
We’ve been duped and the Democrats are doing nothing about it. There is an old saying “Follow the Money”. The vast majority of the trumpsters firmly believe that the day trump was sworn into office he snapped his fingers and the economy went from the great recession to a booming economy. The reality is he inherited a booming economy and he takes all the credit and his followers believe every last word of it. The best economic growth in the last ten years was in 2015 at 4.8% growth. But trump has convince his followers he started it. So no matter how much of a scum bag he is they all think he saved them from financial ruin, so no matter what else he does they think he’s god. The sorry thing he has never been challenged on it but facts are facts, Hope it’s not to late.
Here we go again. back in 2016 the democrats looked at the poll numbers and made statements to the effect that the republicans should not bother to vote because hilliary was going to win in a major landslide. It did not turn out the way they wanted. It was fun to watch the election night results and the looks on the faces of democrats as it slowly dawned on them that Trump had won.
I will still read your posts Andrew, but I will still exercise my right to not believe them.
Am I happy with everything that President Trump has done? NO!
Biden has been part of the Washington D.C. scene for over years and what has he and the other long time serving politicians have done. Very little.
I have more to say, but I’m lazy, so I will instead try to be succinct.
2016 happened the way it did because 50 years of Republicans giving in to their worse nature to win individual elections culminated in Trump voters infiltrating and taking over the party. Independent of that, 30 years of Democrats indulging the romance and blindly ignoring the cynicism of political aristocracy resulted in Hillary becoming the preeminent Democrat candidate, despite the fact that she was a politician fundamentally and fatally flawed by decades of baggage, both enraging opponents by constantly seeming to “get away with it”, and leading her herself to fall to the opiate of Clinton sycophants, convincing her that nothing she did would bring consequence. This bred a candidate that was arrogant to the point of terminal hubris.
Both fatally defective candidates arrived in a perfect storm of historical coincidence, each the only contemporary candidate the other could possibly lose to. History spoke, and he won, because necessarily one of them had to lose to the other. He won the electoral college, and she won the popular vote.
Here’s the difference with 2020. Trump isn’t running against Hillary. He’s running against another old white male that hasn’t been pissing off half the population for three decades like she had. And he’s now an incumbent with a record he has to either stand on (the stock market up to February of this year) or run against (North Korea is nuclear, Iran going nuclear, Russians supporting Syria and Venezuela with impunity, the failed China Trade war, the budget deficit, the national debt, the world’s highest number of covid-19 infections and deaths (winning!) his own chosen generals, cabinet secretaries, and chief of staff functionally, and one literally calling him a “#&*$!&% idiot”, the unemployment rate, the GDP, mass unrest in the street …and the list goes on…)
Hmm, ok, I think I failed at succinct… but there you go.
Our country depends on getting Trump out of office. Take nothing for granted people….VOTE!!
Our democracy will not survive another 4 years of this “you gotta be kidding me” jerk!
VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!!!!!!
According to Reuters, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the government agency that compiles gross domestic product data, said the economy grew 2.9% in 2015.
The government’s annual GDP revision, which covered data from 2014 through the first quarter of 2017, also showed the economy performing worse than previously estimated in 2016 ( Obama’s last full year in office)
The economy grew 1.5% in 2016. It was the slowest growth sine since the 2007-09 Great Recession ended.
You speak of facts, yet bring none to the table. Obama handingTrump an economy with 1.5% growth isn’t what reasonable people would call ‘booming’, but thanks for the hilarious attempt at revisionist history. Before the Wuhan virus, U.S.A. had record low unemployment, record low black and Hispanic unemployment, stock market gains of nearly 33% in value, all AFTER Hussein left office. Facts skippy, facts.
1 Poster Brad is a dope.
2. I have a dog in this Back vs. White discussion we are having in the USA. Ethnically, I am White as the dickens. I cannot help it. Was born that way.
But, I am not one of those privileged, prejudiced, oppressors! Nor is ANYBODY in my family, going back generations. I truly resent it, when I hear people on the radio talking about white racism, as if every white person including me, is guilty.
And, they say, we may not know it ourselves, because we all are rich and lucky… Horse-frokkey! Do not assume anything about me, please, and I will not assume anything about you.
Brad your king ignored it as a hoax and said it will go away with no vaccine! He screwed himself for ignoring the FACTS! FACTS Right. He said it and no fake news. You will follow the idiot in chief off a cliff. The guy is a fool and you know it. You said it. The economy was growing at the end of the Obama era. Took eight years to straighten out George Ws mess. Facts for sure. You are dead wrong and you know it. Trumps economy was on the coat tails of a president that had class and was respected. Not a racist rapist tax cheating womanizing piece of shit! Prove me wrong!
Hey Brad, Arrogant ignorance coupled with the refusal to accept or recognize reality, is a sure recipe for failure! PLEASE name ONE THING Trump did for this economy!
The refusal to recognize or accept reality is a sure road to failure!!
Our American Problem is NOT White versus Black. The problem is decent people versus creepy, murderous twits.
It is extremely ironic that John “Nuke Em” Bolton is the GOOD GUY in the current anti-Trump effort. Mr. Bolton was an extreme irrational right-winger in the recent past. But now, what the heck?, let’s buy his book and read it all the way through.
But see, that’s the point. His Republican/Conservative bona fides are objectively undeniable. He’s been a prominent Republican appointee in multiple Republican administrations and a reliable talking head on Fox News.
That both makes him a bad guy to people that think those ideas are bad, and it makes him credible when he comes out saying a Republican is doing it wrong.
Those two things are not at all contradictory.
One mobster saying what he saw as a witness in the prosecution of another mobster doesn’t make him a “GOOD GUY”, as you say. That’s a simple straw man argument.
Did you see that people in San Francisco pulled down a statue of Ulysses S. Grant? U.S. Grant was the person who ended slavery in the USA, along with Abe Lincoln.
Who are these people who cannot understand the difference between U.S. Grant and e.g. Robert E. Lee? Brutal twits, ignorant jerks, pretty much. Is it possible, maybe, that right-wing Neo-Confederate Ted Nugent fans did it? Nah. Probably not. Lamentably not.
Things are getting out of hand. Watch your back. Be careful which side you choose. Create your own side.
It seems our educational system is not working correctly. Yes, it is wrong to pull down Grants statue. Sounds like whoever did it just likes to raise hell? Indeed the men who saved our country in the 1860s, should be revered.
So many sad liberals tonight, with the news that black NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace didn’t really find a noose in his garage. Predictably, if democRATS can’t find real racists, they’ll invent them, aided by the media. Jussie Smollett, in a rare moment of rest while still hunting down his ‘white supremacist’ attackers, stands in 100% solidarity.
Ya know, Brad? I was just going to post something similar. It turns out that “noose” in the African-American driver’s garage was just the rope for pulling down the garage door. Ha! Preposterous!
People are ridiculous. Can’t help it. We were born this way.
You’re correct that it was garage pull that was there since 2019, and well before anyone could know that particular garage was to be assigned to a black driver, and therefore he wasn’t the target of an anonymous racist threat.
However the context you’re tellingly omitting is that the US Attorney, the FBI agent investigating the case as well as Nascar President Steve Phelps are all on record confirming that the rope itself was fashioned into an actual noose, not just a knotted rope.
So the sequence of events is that a black Nascar driver arrives at a garage he was assigned to find an actual noose hanging in it….
Yeah, given that, I think its not unreasonable to suspect it had been placed there by someone to specifically threaten him and to start investigating it. But that’s me, perhaps your nature is different in such matters.
Here is what Bubba Wallace said about the rope: “It was definitely in the shape of a noose. It wasn’t a functioning noose,” Wallace said.
I cannot find a close photo of it on line. Can you find one? A hangman’s noose is a specific type of slip-knot loop. I would know how noose-ish this loop was, if I could see a close photo.
Hey Brad, I for one, am tired of the 8 yr. old mentality of calling people or political folks names. (democRats) Please …..maybe you could go back to school and further what little education you may have and try to speak a little more intelligently. You comment is obviously just more residual bull—- from our so-called leader. Pathetic indeed!
Maybe, take a look at The Ashley Books of Knots, aka The Bible of Rope. Page 204, knot #1119, and page 59, knot #366. If we get a close photo of the rope in Bubba’s garage, we can tell whether it actually was a noose, or just a handle.
https://www.liendoanaulac.org/space/references/training/Ashley_Book_Knots.pdf
No, I’m going off the ESPN story in which each of them say its a noose. And given that the concern that it could be something meant to visibly threaten, the fact that it wasn’t functional is a bit of a distinction without a difference, wouldn’t you say?
Adam – Nope. Let’s get a photo, and we will see.
I agree a photo would be preferable. But if a US Attorney, an FBI Agent, and the President of Nascar each say that it looked like a noose… I’m kinda thinking that the possibility may, just may mind you, exist that it, wait for it… looked like a noose.
Someone previously using a loop fashioned to look like a noose as a garage door pull in a moment of dark humor is not at all implausible to me. And, as I said, upon a black Nascar driver arrives at a garage he was assigned to find an actual noose hanging in it, its not unreasonable to suspect that rather than a leftover artifact of someone’s whimsy, it is instead might be a threat to that black man.
With that, in the context of a noose being presented to a black man, saying that it was improperly tied is missing the point, perhaps willfully so.
yecch, word salad…need to proofread more and try and multitask less, sorry.
1. Bubba said it was not functional. 2. 15 FBI agents said it was NOT a noose. 3. We need a photo, to make up our own minds. (4. And, Bubba said he never actually saw the thing with his own eyes.) 5. I can tie any number of different loop knots which would function as handles, but would NOT be nooses. Let us see this knot. Why the heck can we not find a picture of it?
Sigh, ok, I cede, you’re right.
If a loop of rope isn’t correctly tied as a functional noose, there is no way someone would use it to threaten a black man with lynching.
I wonder if people that were hung with loops of rope that weren’t correctly tied nooses were in fact really hung?
Heck, if it wasn’t a noose, maybe that means they never died…
This could change everything…
Oh, balderdash, Adam! Have you ever had a storage unit with a rope hanging down, for closing the door? Have you ever rented a truck with a hanging-down rope, to pull the back door shut?
It seems to me that Bubba and NASCAR and the FBI probably went cuckoo over this garage door rope. BUT! Let us look at any picture of the actual rope, and make up our own minds.
Do you know how to tie a bowline, the queen of loop knots? Do you know what a bowline looks like? Do you know how to pronounce , “bowline?” Let’s reserve judgement until we see this knot.
Are you guys for real??? For god sakes…let it go!
No no, Matthew, I agree with you… only a functional, properly tied noose could be used to make a lynching threat to a black person. If its not functional, like you said, that’s important… then it can’t be used to threaten someone, and an investigation need not be started.
And yes, my quote: “Someone previously using a loop fashioned to look like a noose as a garage door pull in a moment of dark humor is not at all implausible to me.” seems to indicate that I can see it being used as a door pull. You missed that.
But as you said, it must be a functional noose to be a possible threat. No self respecting bigot would not know how to tie one and instead just use what he thinks is a noose.
I’m with you, I’m on board. We’re in complete agreement.
Oh, yikes. RAV is right. Too silly. Sorry. Good night, good luck.
Okay. here is a link with a picture of the noose. Bubba says it was not functional, but it looks pretty noosey to me. Apparently, it was not aimed at Bubba, but it looks like a noose.
https://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/story/_/id/29364817/nascar-releases-image-noose-found-bubba-wallace-garage-says-concern-was-real
Peace, brother.
Take your ‘L’ cuck matty. One can travel to Hong Kong, walk through the markets and buy Prada, Rolex, Coach, any exclusive ‘brand name’ known the world over. They won’t be genuine, but you can pretend in front of your friends, and more importantly in front of yourself. Hey, it LOOKS like something, so it MUST be something. Solid reasoning there, skippy.
1. Here is a picture of Mount Rushmore in masks:
https://redgreenandblue.org/2020/07/03/national-parks-even-mount-rushmore-show-theres-one-kind-patriotism/
2. What should be the new name for the Washington Redskins? The Washington Red Glare? They probably will have to call themselves the Washington Americans. They probably could keep their same logo.
A Michigan Covid story:
Downstairs from my apartment, there are a great bakery, a great coffee shop, a good pizza place, and a fancy wine/etc. store. They all have tables out on our sidewalk. So…
I got home this afternoon from a canoe trip. Two groups were eating at the sidewalk umbrella tables. One group of four was talking with another group of nine. I did not say a word to either group. But, a lady from Group 4 was talking to Group 9, asking about social distancing and masks.
The Alpha Male from group 9, not a sophisticated person, judging by his attire and voice, said, “Social distance, no, we do not do that. Masks, no, we do not do masks.” This was right outside my front door. I do not want this type of foolish ding-dong coming anywhere near me or my family. I gave him an extreme sourpuss look, and he noticed, but that was it.
I just went in, to my safe home.
More (very bad) residual from the Bozo in the White House. If we had (and hopefully get in Nov.) a real leader, we possibly might have this pandemic at least somewhat, under control! It is disheartening how some folks follow this idiots (Trump) lead, no matter what he says. Hopefully wiser heads shall soon prevail!
Stay in that safe little cocoon. Better yet, get a house with a basement. Go down into the basement, turn off the lights, draw the curtains, hide in a closet and protect yourself from the entire universe, now and forever. Delicate snowflake lives matter!
Sounds like you’re describing a bunker Brad…funny that.
Do I dare bring up the noose again? Somebody tied it, months ago, at least. That racetrack has many garages. Do all the garages have nooses on their door ropes? Probably not. SOMEBODY tied that original noose on that particular garage. Apparently, it was NOT aimed at the only black NASCAR driver.
Somebody tied it, and that person could come forth, talk about it, and be famous for 15 minutes. Why? A joke? Only kind of loop that person knows how to tie? Some big political or ideological statement? Or?? Inquiring minds want to know.
Personally….I think it’s time to “move on”. Apparently it was a misunderstanding, we should let it go at that. I think there are (much) bigger issues to deal with regarding (out of control) racism in America.
It wasn’t a misunderstanding, it’s context.
As I’ve said before, context is everything.
The investigation determined that someone no later than late last year, documented by photographic evidence, tied a knot that resembled a noose and attached it to that specific garage door. This was long before it was known that the garage would be assigned to a black driver. Therefore, absent the input input of the unknown tyer, the motivation of tying that particular knot is unavailable to us. We thereby lack context to accurately judge motive. The opportunity to do so is probably forever lost to us by the understandable reticence of the knot tyer to step forward into the buzzsaw.
Speaking for myself, again, as I said before, I could see someone fashioning the knot as a door pull in a moment of whimsical dark humor. Its very plausible to me that the knot tyer had no racial motivation whatsoever.
Then, more recently, someone that hadn’t seen the noose before sees it for the first time after the garage was assigned to the only black driver in NASCAR(*), one that had just come out against the display of the Confederate flag in professional racing, This person reports it to NASCAR who, in this context, obviously initiates an investigation.
Again, of course they initiate an investigation under these circumstances.
Someone saw a noose tied up in a garage assigned of the only black NASCAR driver. (*)
Duh.
As example, if someone sees smoke pouring out of the windows of a house, we wouldn’t fault them for calling the fire department after authorities find that the homeowner had bought a special effects smoke machine that he left on accidentally.
Respect context, the world makes more sense and makes you less angry.
*Didn’t research: True. Or if not, close enough to be functionally true.