Breaking: Biden/Harris just became the first presidential ticket in U.S. history to surpass 79 million votes. https://t.co/9dMmSHHdVa?
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 17, 2020
Scandal as sources indicate Biden will not demand that the DoJ open an investigation into his political rivals https://t.co/8Ba85A8YwV
— Zoomcock Archivist (@canderaid) November 17, 2020
"Not instantly announcing a DOJ investigation into your political rival, while simultaneously distancing yourself *and* allowing the DOJ to pursue such an investigation" seems… not nearly as bad as some on this website think. https://t.co/2wbrcA49Mo
— Casey Michel ?? (@cjcmichel) November 17, 2020
Across the global, strongmen and authoritarians lament at losing a faithful flunky…
"Biden traveled to the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and met with strongman Slobodan Milosevic…he spoke with Milosevic bluntly: 'I think you’re a damned war criminal and you should be tried as one'." https://t.co/aIaTkHBYjr
— Jasmin Mujanovic (@JasminMuj) November 17, 2020
While looters of the public treasury quietly retreat to their secure hideouts…
If you're like me, the mere existence of this tweet is thrilling, after 4 years of @BetsyDeVosED .
Gee thanks, @DrBiden — a breath of genuinely fresh air just wafted through my home. https://t.co/YNigYAtQfa— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) November 18, 2020
One cool thing about Joe Biden is nobody is going to convince themselves he’s a unicorn-like political talent — his brilliant move of paying attention to what the actual views of the electorate are is something that other politicians can very easily copy.
— Matthew Yglesias ?? (@mattyglesias) November 17, 2020
Immanentize
Dr. Jill is the bomb.
That is my comment
Baud
Not bad for an old white guy who doesn’t speechify great.
John S.
So Biden sold us out already and won’t publicly promise to go after Trump? I knew he was worse than Trump!
/Jacobin
Suzanne
We are all thrilled to see the back of the Orange one, that’s a given. But I’m sure that Mr. Suzanne, like many other educators, thinks that DeVos is a close second.
This is an interesting thought experiment, ranking how terrible they are.
debbie
I hope the Biden administration opens an investigation into the attempted voter suppression in Detroit. I woke up as pissed off as I was last night.
hueyplong
I demand video of Trump learning the Wayne Co deadlock vote had been reversed.
Every irritation we have experienced the last 15 days has been visited twelvefold upon Trump.
satby
@debbie: The Michigan AG is already on it.
Elizabelle
Octavia Butler fans: free event tonight (Wednesday) at 10:00 pm Eastern (7:00 pm Pacific).
Eventbrite registration: again, free:
debbie
@satby:
Good.
Zzyzx
@hueyplong: I have to admit that seeing his 3 tweets on the topic during that brief window between decisions almost made the stupidity of the board worth it. You can see his hope and then, nope!
Immanentize
@Suzanne:
It’s been done — See, Dante, Inferno
Baud
@Immanentize:
There going to need to build new circles.
satby
It’s a long way away, but I’m feeling hopeful enough about the future again that I just signed up for a trip* to Costa Rica that includes volunteering at a sloth wildlife refuge and a sea turtle conservation area. Edit: * in 2022
Elizabelle
Los Angeles Times: excerpt from the book being discussed tonight:
‘A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky’ reveals Octavia E. Butler’s early life in Pasadena
OzarkHillbilly
A man with a mission: Underwater museum: how ‘Paolo the fisherman’ made the Med’s strangest sight
WaterGirl
@debbie: I am still wondering who Biden is going to choose for the new cabinet-level Office of Voting and Democracy.
Biden can create something like that, can’t he?
Baud
@satby:
Biden’s win and the positive vaccine news give reason for hope.
Nicole
@Suzanne:
So many terrible people we won’t have to hear about anymore! DeVos, Meadows, Mnuchin… oh, reading about them all handing in their resignation letters is going to be glorious.
Immanentize
@Baud: Yeah? And how is Biden gonna pay for that, huh?
SFAW
@Suzanne:
This article is “a good start.” *
*”A good start” is, of course, the answer to the question “What do you have if you put all of XXX at the bottom of the ocean” (or thrown into an active volcano, or whatever).
Baud
@Immanentize:
I actually think he could get Mexico to pay for that project.
Other countries too.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
Cuts to: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and income taxes for the top 0.01 percent.
Kathleen
@Baud: NYT: “Biden/Harris ticket garnered more than 79 million votes. But mere numbers can’t measure passion of Trump supporters. “
WaterGirl
@satby: What did you decide about the market for this season? The last thing I saw on BJ is that if they didn’t straighten up and fly right by a certain date, you were going to pack up for the season.
Wondering where things stand now at the market.
SFAW
@Kathleen:
DougJ/NYTimesPitchbot-worthy. Well done.
Kay
Genuinely good news. 61 more days of this for the rest of the country- years and years of this ahead for the Republican Party. They should just appoint Don Jr and get it over with.
Kathleen
@SFAW: Thank you sir! I am honored that you liked it!
Elizabelle
My copy of President Obama’s memoir (volume 1!) arrives today.
It’s going to be educational to read reviewers’ opinion of his book. I think we are going to get as much insight into their thoughts and what drives them as his own.
topclimber
@John S.: I am old enough to remember when Joe and EW put out a joint statement three months ago warning Trump malefactors that corruption will be prosecuted when Dems take the White House.
satby
@Elizabelle: @OzarkHillbilly: such great reads, thanks for sharing!
@Baud: and I have missed travelling and volunteering!*
edit* outside my local community.
Baud
@Kathleen:
“At this diner, the numbers tell a different story.”
LurkerNoLonger
Has New York finished counting? My vote will try to put them over 80 million.
Elizabelle
@Kay: I tire of all the “kingmaker” talk. It is incessant.
Glides right past the alternative, that Trump might be a criminal and civil defendant in many trials, and his very liberty to travel around might be severely limited. Yank that passport. You are looking at the flightiest of all flight risks.
Although “kingmaker” is perfect for discussing the Republicans. Their base believes in a monarch; does not believe in democracy. Watch what they do. Listen to what they say (a bit; you don’t want to lose too many brain cells …)
Baud
@satby:
I’m not looking forward to coming up with fresh excuses for avoiding people.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Geeno
@Immanentize: It’s infrastructure – it’ll be part of the stimulus.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I recycle mine.
rikyrah
???
An Ohio couple had a wedding that became…
Wait for it….
A Superspreader Event ???
satby
@WaterGirl: Well, it’s still undecided. I have pretty much kept away from people at the market, and now the reduction in customers is big enough that it doesn’t get crowded. They’re still not doing what they need to, so I’m still considering pulling out, but I don’t feel particularly unsafe right now. Though in anticipation of staying home I’ve been gradually emptying my booth anyway.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
“You’re getting a third kidney removed?”
Elizabelle
The FAA has just cleared Boeing’s 737 Max to fly again.
Who wants to be the first to fly on that thing? COVID now, but I want to give it three years before I set foot on one.
Southwest may be in trouble if passengers don’t want to fly their newest jet.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
She will be a fabulous First Lady?
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
The kings whom Trumps graciously deigns to make in 2022 will be those who have a satisfactory answer to his demand: “What’s in it for me?” Anyone else will be told to go pound sand.
satby
@Baud: I just don’t give an excuse. Less talk the better ?
Sab
@John S.: He will probably do the same as Obama did with Holden, which is to behave properly and allow the AG a lot of independence, instead of treating him/her as his own personal attack dog like Barr. That doesn’t mean DOJ can’t go after them. It just means it won’t be ordered to do so.
Gin & Tonic
NARRATOR: Milošević was, in fact, a war criminal.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud:
So you’re saying I have a chance?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: “God blessed me with a couple extras.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: Don’t be ridiculous. ;-)
Zzyzx
I used to be obsessed with sovereign citizen conspiracy theories. The way I learned about them was this weird website a decade or two ago called something like the Southern Law Journal. They were believers but they would warn about using the cases that had been thrown out. [1]
Their constant refrain was that they didn’t want other (obviously incompetent) people filing these really true and easily winnable cases because they kept blowing them. Wait and let the website authors do so and then they’ll be sure winners! The rationalization that the problem wasn’t with the fact that there isn’t one easy trick to escape the law, but rather that everyone else who ever argued them were horrible (in a way that the site authors somehow weren’t) amused me but now we might be seeing it.
We’re getting all of the election conspiracy theory out there but it’s being done by Rudy Giuliani and other equally competent people. They’re doing such a bad job at it that they may make it much harder for someone better to really steal an election this way. So thanks?
[1] Seriously, the website was amazing. It was constantly, “Stop using the argument that your name appeared in all caps! That hasn’t worked once,” but despite that, they still believed that other exceedingly dubious claims to never pay taxes would easily win.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I just don’t think anyone knows. There’s real risk for the Republican Party. Pols are popular until they aren’t. Bush WON his re-elect and 4 years later he was at 25% approval. Trump didn’t even win a second term and they’ve tied themselves to tightly to him they’ve already capitulated to him picking their next nominee.
At the end of the day : he lost. He couldn’t get re-elected. Almost all of them get re-elected but Trump couldn’t. What they’ve done is lower the bar again. Now he doesn’t even have to win and he’s a huge success and they all have to obediently do what he says. The measure now in the GOP is “if you don’t lose by a landslide you’re the winner and Party leader”.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@hueyplong:
Just watch the segment of Downfall when Hitler learns that Steiner isn’t going to rescue his dumb ass. It’ll catch the gist of it.
rikyrah
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
Trump lost his re-elect. They have special incredibly low standards for him so they’ve decided that losing his re-elect is really “winning” but that’s not actually true.
It’s good for us that the incumbent Republican who lost re-election picks the next GOP nominee. They should absolutely let the loser run the Party. Maybe they can “win by losing” again?
Elizabelle
Last Octavia Butler item this morning: an interactive from LA Times that is totally worth the click. Photos of her homes, loved places, notebooks, bus passes (bus trips took a long time, and she wrote on them). It’s stunning that first question on a library volunteer intake form was “ethnic group.”
This is just a delight.
LA Times: The literary life of Octavia E. Butler
How local libraries shaped a sci-fi legend
oldster
Yggles is right. Pandering, like pork barrel legislation, is the sort of thing that op-ed writers love to condemn. But they both turn out to be better than the alternative, of ignoring the wishes of voters and refusing to pass legislation.
So here’s to my imperfect president, who will listen to the voters and try to pass laws to do what they want.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Trump’s not even their “leader.” The actual leader is whoever programs the crap that ends up in Trump’s mind that particular day or week. He is all greed and anger.
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
They’re treating Trump exactly the same as if he had won. He wins, he runs the Party. He loses, he runs the Party. They’re now completely disconnected from the measure, which is not “didn’t get slaughtered” but is “winning”. They’re going to ignore the minor detail that he lost and treat him as the winner within the party.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
This is what happens when you throw out all the standards. The GOP is jettisoning the last standard- winning. Their leaders no longer have to win to be crowned.
There’s something wrong with your measure when it treats the loser exactly the same as the loser. It is no longer tied to merit at all.
rikyrah
Kathleen
@Baud: ????
TS (the original)
@Elizabelle:
There are very few countries that would welcome trump to their shores – with or without a passport. Excluding Russia (and I don’t even know if they would want him), anywhere trump would want to go, there would be massive protests. As someone who has only ever attended 2 political protests in my life – I would take to the streets if trump were ever invited to my country.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: BOOM!
debbie
@WaterGirl:
A czar, perhaps?
rikyrah
germy
I love when they eat their own.
germy
@TS (the original):
I thought his plan was to retire in Florida.
TS (the original)
@rikyrah:
If you live in South Australia – and had a wedding planned for the next week, it just got cancelled & no way can you go ahead with it. The celebrant/Preacher could not come, no venue can open. No-one is allowed into your house & you are not allowed out. You wouldn’t even try.
rikyrah
Immanentize
@Baud: You still have the virus for at least nine months. Then I suggest a contageous skin ailment — no one like those. Alternatively, just ask before accepting any invites: “Pants are optional, right?”
rikyrah
@Kay:
Kay,
The GOP pretended that Dubya never existed during the Obama years.
Why isn’t the same going to happen with Dolt45 ??
mrmoshpotato
@satby:
A relaxing, lazy day at the sloth wildlife refuge.
danielx
@Kay:
They got away from that whole merit concept when they nominated
Bush– er, Trump. After that it was all downhill. On the other hand, when a political party’s policies are opposed by a majority of voters, how much difference does merit make? Might as well nominate somebody whose attraction is that he’s going to kick over the table and insult everybody in sight.Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Elizabelle: That and in English history their kingmakers never ended well.
Matt McIrvin
@Zzyzx: Part of the reason I’ve been anxious that some of their latest One Weird Tricks might work is the Republican packing of courts on every level. The truism that “you can’t hack the law” depends on judges not being insane. But what if the judges are insane, have in fact been hand-picked for this particular variety of insanity? Maybe “the card says Moops” arguments start to work. And now that there’s a majority of hardcore right-wingers on SCOTUS some of the guardrails might be down.
At least they seem not to have bought the bizarre argument in the last anti-ACA suit. But it got all the way past the circuit-court level.
germy
@mrmoshpotato:
Almost a contradiction in terms…
rikyrah
Finishing up a pot roast in the crock pot.
Do I dump in a bag of frozen green beans for the last half hour?
Zzyzx
@rikyrah: because Trump has a cult of personality/celebrity which is much harder to overcome than just throwing another conservative onto the pile.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: Did these extras ever appear on screen? Get a credit at the end?
Zzyzx
@Matt McIrvin: that was my fear at first too which sent me into a deep spiral after RBG’s death but, at least so far, the Supreme Court hasn’t acted that way with the election cases, so I’ve relaxed.
Ken
The principle that the President can do anything by executive order is well-established. Also that he can fund it by moving money from other programs, ignoring what Congress may have said.
Well, when I say “well-established”, I mean that Trump did it and the Republicans didn’t say a word.
Gin & Tonic
The US State Department has formally congratulated President-Elect … uh, Maia Sadu, of Moldova. She was elected all the way back on November 15.
p.a.
tRump being as stupid and lazy as he is, his ‘kingmaking’ ability depends on whoever in his inner circle has his ear at the time* before getting bounced, filtered through the 2.178 ideas he can keep consistent track of (idea 1 being MINE MINE MINE). The question is the paradox between the Nazi idea that the big lie repeated constantly becomes the truth vs the rapid change and multiple info sources of the digital world making most messaging age poorly and get swamped regularly.
Just think he’s so stupid and lazy, and now has loser stank to boot, that Murdoch et al will bury him for a new face. And any tRump attempt at alt-media will go the way of his other businesses.
*since his family is – so far- immune from getting bounced, what he pukes up thankfully usually comes from the dopes Jarvanka, Uday, and Qusay.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m looking at that video of Ned Staebler excoriating his fellow election board members. Love that he names names and then repeats them. But where is he? That has to be the Art Institute or something. That cannot be his house. I hope Room Rater is taking note.
Kathleen
@rikyrah: Like++++
Immanentize
@Kay: Are you saying that the Republican Party is now the party of the participation trophy?
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh, I thought maybe you grew a new one.
rikyrah
Rupert has sent down the order. ??
mrmoshpotato
@LurkerNoLonger: NBC News is at 79111664 with an estimated 3922516 votes still to be counted. (Aht aht ah!)
germy
Zzyzx
@Dorothy A. Winsor: during that brief window where they didn’t yet certify, I saw the Republicans’ home addresses get posted on a message board. I think they knew what was going to happen.
Steeplejack
@SFAW:
Great article. Really got my blood boiling.
OzarkHillbilly
@TS (the original): How tyrannical.
Kathleen
@mrmoshpotato: I’m so lazy the sloths would have to take care of me.
germy
satby
@rikyrah: You could.
Ken
Possibly interrupted by moments of sheer terror, when you realize those meathooks aren’t just for hanging from a limb.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Here you go ?
Kathleen
@rikyrah: I’d put it on high. I put frozen precooked noodles into my chicken soup, set on high and cook for 30 minutes in my crock pot.
germy
@rikyrah:
Rupert decided it would be easier and more fun to spend four years attacking Biden/Harris than four years defending and normalizing Trump.
satby
@TS (the original): He’s not a smart man, but even he knows he’ll be a short-timer on earth if he goes to Russia.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay: Haha, Dump has GOP chairstain. Could he do that from prison, or Hell if we hang the orange bastard?
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Hell no. I’m the star of the show Do you think I’m going to share the limelight with those lowlifes?
LurkerNoLonger
@Matt McIrvin: the fact that Trump is 0-25 in election-stealing cases should put your mind at ease.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: When I lived in Detroit, Neil Staebler was a big name in Michigan Democratic politics. I assume this is Neil’s grandson. He’s a truth teller.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: INJURIES #1 Woo! (waves foam finger)
satby
@germy: nobody likes reruns when a new season is about to drop.
Cermet
@Elizabelle: Good – they are the primary cause of why the 737 max was designed in the dealy manner it exhibits; their insistence that any mod to the new 737 design does not require re-cert is why Boeing built that deadly control over-ride.
germy
Sixteen minutes ago…
satby
@germy: rots and swears Mitch.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy: I think Biden had us all at “Would you shut up, man?”
Baud
@germy:
Who cares? Even the media stopped broadcasting Trump’s tweets.
rikyrah
He is one of the few people who points out the difference between Biden and Hillary’s vote totals.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: How mushy do you like your green beans?
Also, I fully endorse breakfast pot roast.
WaterGirl
@debbie: Excellent thought!
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: ha!
My favorite episode of Extras with David Bowie.
Baud
@rikyrah:
If only those 13 million read Balloon Juice is 2016.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: I had no idea trump could spread himself that thin.
Kay
@Immanentize:
A lot of the coverage is like that too. “Trump increased his share of AA and Latino voters”.
Bush increased his share of Latino voters and actually won. Obviously the Bush Movement was bigger than the Trump Movement, if winning is the gauge.
If your election analysis article reads exactly the same whether the candidate won or lost you might have fallen victim to Trumpism.
The measure in this thing is winning. He lost. He’s one of the few who lost re-election too, so it’s worse than losing the first time out. He was known and affirmatively rejected.
He’s managed to convince these people that losing is the same as winning. “Maybe better!”
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Green beans in pot roast? Heresy!
germy
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I remember for days after that debate, the TV news networks kept replaying that Biden clip. Their message was “both sides” were rude to each other during the debates, oh no what is the world coming to…?
mrmoshpotato
@Kathleen: Speedy sloths!
satby
Time to go get ready for my doctor’s office gig. Test driving the new electronic records system today with me as the beta patient. All the exam equipment has been added other than the retinal camera, which we’re adding today.
TS (the original)
@rikyrah:
And the question was looking to get a very different answer. VP Harris can handle the media.
Ken
@germy: Oh, for the halcyon days of involuntary committal…
danielx
@germy:
Right. And I got moves like Jagger and can walk on water!
germy
rikyrah
@satby:
???
TS (the original)
@germy:
I didn’t know he had a plan, other than to overturn the election results.
germy
Fair elections in Georgia?? Oh, that Georgia.
germy
@Ken:
In depression-era comedies, men in white suits would show up with big butterfly nets.
satby
No he hasn’t. They know he lost. They’re afraid of his cultists and loathe to give up their power, so as long as humoring him keeps them safe from his crazies and in control they’ll do it. And when the greater number of people know what they’re doing and call them on it and make them worry, like yesterday in Wayne County, they stop. It’s stupid that they’re trying, but if they were smart they wouldn’t be Republicans.
satby
@rikyrah: ?
germy
mrmoshpotato
@satby: Awww….the Rethuglicans built a cult then lost control of the cult!
SAD!
Azelie
@Immanentize: I’d put DeVos in the 8th circle, 10th Bolgia (falsifiers, those who pass off fake things as real). I think Trump goes in the 9th circle. 3rd ring is treachery against guests, fourth and deepest is treachery against masters. Either way he’s frozen deep enough for the orange makeup to stain in the ice around him.
Gin & Tonic
Reflecting the increasing influence of young voters on the Democratic Party, the House leadership trio is set to be re-elected today, with a median age of … 80.3
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
My hunch is that Trump’s post-presidential king-making power will be self-limiting: he’ll anoint too many people whose only talent is sucking up to him, or bribing him, and they’ll turn out to be losers. That is, after all, how he has operated as POTUS.
Kathleen
@mrmoshpotato: But not too speedy.
rikyrah
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: Pelosi has said she’s stepping down in 2022.
Young people have shown they are not opposed to supporting old people like Sanders, Warren, Markey.
ETA: Also, too, I haven’t yet seen a breakdown of the young people’s vote compared to the olds this election. I don’t even know if anyone has reliable data yet.
Geminid
@Kay: From what I see in Virginia, some of the evangelical dominionists see losing as winning. They’ve demonstrated their fealty to their small-minded version of the deity, amidst an increasingly secular population. And they expect to raptured in time to thumb their noses at the rest of us.
TS (the original)
@OzarkHillbilly:
Been a lot of that lately – Most people down under seem to prefer that to having the place overrun with covid-19 patients.
I think everyone has much sympathy for those who had been planning their weddings, but no-one is protesting or going to court.
NB. There has been one case in our High Court when a would be trump style business man took one state to court because they had closed their borders and wouldn’t let him in. He lost and had costs awarded against him.
Kay
@satby:
I don’t believe that. Republicans know better than anyone the far Right has no where to go. They’re not going to vote for Democrats, particularly the Christian Right, no matter what Republicans say about Trump. It’s an excuse. They’re on board for overturning the election, they just want Trump to do it so they can distance themselves from it.
If this had come down to just 75,000 votes in Pennsylvania every Republican would be working hard to throw those votes out not because they’re afraid of Trump’s base, but because they back Trump and will do just about anything to install him.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: How can they be re-elected today? This is not the new Congress yet?
zhena gogolia
Adopt a President Trump, “In the Arms of a Traitor”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW8OKtSGjMg&feature=youtu.be
Kay
@satby:
It bothers me because in my view Republicans have gotten away with this. They’re demanding we not look at their actions and judge them on that but instead discern a concealed motive for their actions- how they’re afraid of Trump’s base. I don’t have any obligation to give them an excuse, especially not the excuse they’re all frantically pushing.
From where I’m sitting it looks like the Republican Party are not just backing Donald Trump, they are 100% behind his efforts to overturn an election and install himself. If they want me to think something different they’re going to have to behave differently. It’s not my job to discern their motives. Could be because they’re “afraid of Trump’s voters” – the excuse they’re telling media- but it could be a lot of things. He could be blackmailing them, or maybe it’s the obvious answer- they are not actually committed to democratic elections and would prefer an authoritarian state.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: The median age of a US Representative is 20 years greater than the median age of a US resident. It would be nice, I think, if representatives were more, how shall I say, representative.
trnc
I understand the implied racism by the 2 GOP Wayne County canvass board members, and I’ve seen their twitter attacks on liberals. All bad enough, of course, but someone said there were some explicitly racist postings. Were those deleted, or far down the feed or posted on other platforms? Maybe on Facebook, but I torched that account after Cambridge Analytica. Any links are appreciated.
I see that there are media reports on the reversal, which make clear their (ahem) “unusual” request to throw out the Detroit districts, but sadly no mention of their various forms of unprofessional conduct.
SFAW
@Steeplejack:
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize:
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I think people don’t consider this enough; Trump is one of the base, not the puppet masters. That’s the reason why Trump resonates so well off in distributed Beavis and Butthead land. Sure Trump drug of choice has a fancy Greek name to it, but it’s still meth.
Brachiator
@Kay:
Whether Republicans like it or not, Trump is mentally unbalanced. Pundits, historians and even Democrats need to be ready to declare this, openly and often.
We have a supposed president who not only is crazily challenging an election that he clearly lost, but there are reports that he is simply hunkering down in the White House.
If the GOP and his base want to continue to support him, there is not much that anyone can do about it. However, once he is out of office, no one needs to respect him or defer to him anymore. He can sit in a corner at Mar a Lago and dictate his memoirs to Maggie Haberman. But from here on out, every time he spouts some nonsense, he should be called on it.
Seventy nine million people said that they were done with this old fool. That should be pretty definitive.
SFAW
@trnc:
Someone posted some of Hartmann’s social media things from a few years ago. Although I didn’t see him saying “I hate all ni-CLANGs,” the picture of Obama, and some of the words, were pretty confirmatory.
Kay
@trnc:
I thought it was interesting that the Democrat on the board who made the video said “Monica” (one of the Republicans) is a Q believer. I knew that was coming. That was inevitable. There are a ton of them.
Marianne Williamson wrote a post about how they have taken over the “New Age” movement that she’s a part of- you knew that was coming too.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: Congress is also wealthier than the average. I also wish it was more representative. But I’m not interested in complaining about the age of some Dem leaders.
Frankly, one reason so many of our leaders are older is that our voters’ low turnout between 2010 and 2016 foreclosed many up-and-comers from making a name for themselves in government. 2018’s high-turnout midterms brought in a lot of fresh blood in Congress and the states precisely because it was high turnout. I hope the Trump experience gets our people to take civic participation more seriously, rather than remaining cynical and aloof and then complaining about the result.
Keith P.
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yep, he’s trying to be the perfect candidate as dreamed up by Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh, and fluffed by Lou Dobbs.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@rikyrah: Dubya himself had the class to lie low, but I will note the grifters around him like Rove fought desperately to maintain control of the GOP, shut down the normal self examination that happens in political parties after a disaster and started the kind of double down when things fail that ended up with Trump.
WaterGirl
@satby: Sounds like fun!
Kay
@Brachiator:
It’s just so funny to watch. Republicans are now untethered from the basic truth of politics, which is you have to win to claim the prize.
They are behaving exactly as if he had won. But the hard reality is he didn’t win. George W Bush was a much more successful politician than Donald Trump if the measure is winning, and that is the measure. They can change the measure over there in Crazytown if they want and make losing “winning” but Joe Biden will still be talking the oath and Donald Trump won’t be.
I encourage the Republican Party to rally around this idea- that losing is winning. That’s ok by me.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I used to adore Vanity Fair. I read it out loud to my husband while he’s cooking. But this month’s issue (with AOC on the cover) is unbearable. I keep having to stop reading every time they mention Biden being “geriatric.” The kicker was when AOC put herself in the same category with Nancy Pelosi as “two powerful women.” Barf.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud:
That makes one of us. I look at European countries with leaders in their 40’s or 50’s with envy. Some have an entire cabinet of ministers with a median age in the 40’s.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Good guess — this is from the Wikipedia entry on Neil Staebler (I remember him too from my Michigan years):
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic:
Somehow when I was young, it was okay that everyone in power was an old white male. Now that I’m old, it’s a sin to be over 60.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: A year from now, Nancy Pelosi will hopefully be in the process of grooming the next person for leadership in the house.
But Joe Biden is going to need a steady, experience hand for at least this first year. Either we will be facing unprecedented obstruction (if the Rs are in the majority) or someone how knows how to get shit done (if the Dems are in the majority).
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
I don’t really care about age, anymore than I care about any other demographic component per se, aside from the general desire for diversity.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Keith P.: Kind of, but this Stable Genius Savior of America persona is something Trump worked on since the 80s, Rush and Mr Bow Tie of True America are just the latest voices in Trump’s head.
zhena gogolia
Joe Biden is old. And he saved the country from fascism. We don’t hear the latter mentioned nearly as often as the former.
snoey
@germy: It pains my masshole sports soul to say it, but Gritty has earned chucking rights.
Kay
Would this have been covered differently and perceived differently by the public if Republicans had ONLY been judged on their actions, and not judged by their excuse, which is that they are afraid of Trump’s voters?
Just the actions- not the secret and less damaging motive they frantically promoted to media. Just by the actions 1. they are not accepting the results of an election and 2. they are actively subverting democracy.
Why should I not judge them on their actions? Why did they get this incredible concession, where everyone has decided what they do doesn’t matter, instead what they really think (supposedly) matters?
I’m not giving them that. If they don’t want people to think they’re anti-democratic authoritarians who worship Trump like cult members there’s a solution for that- they can behave differently. Until they do I’m taking them at their word- they don’t accept results when they lose and they worship Trump and follow him blindly. They have not given me one reason not to think that and it’s not MY job to guess their intent. I’m just watching the actions and listening to the plain language. That’s all anyone else gets.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Right. You can’t imagine them referring to other older politicians that way, especially one they might like. It’s not just Republicans who think they are entitled to be disrespectful to Democrats.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
Be a shame if he died and Andy Beshear appointed Charles Booker to replace him immediately. Yep, a real, honest-to-god shame….
Kay
Donald Trump and his cult members tried to throw out all the votes in 6 PA counties. Then they tried to throw out the votes of the entire City of Detroit. The Republican Party publicly backs this, in both word and deed. Those are the facts. All the rest are excuses offered and promoted by the Republican Party in the hopes no one will hold them accountable for any of it because they don’t really mean it. Really. In their hearts. Ask the voters in the City of Detroit whether it matters if Republicans really mean it. No Republican assisted them in defending their votes. Only Democrats did.
SFAW
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
So true. I, for one, would honor him by visiting his grave.
After downing a bunch of beer, of course, and making sure there’s no Port-a-Potty around.
germy
L85NJGT
If they are a royalist party, they might want to try a Sun King rather than a failed Qing emperor.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: interesting. I guess they have all the new members there. And the ones who lost? “Why doncha all go get a drink or something while we take care of business….”
Kay
The publicly available evidence that the Republican Party supports throwing an election is overwhelming and all of it comes not from accusations but from their own words and deeds.
The “secret” motive in their hearts – that they don’t support overthrowing an election- is the only evidence that cuts the other way.
I’m going with what they say and do rather than what they whisper to reporters “on background”. I think it’s crazy to do anything else. People are judged by words and deeds, not some other measure they invent.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
There is one of the problems, the entire American media’s core belief is coming to some conclusion is wrong and immoral. That’s why we have “documentaries” on UFOs, confusion over the shape of the earth and how magnets work and people drinking bleach.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Fucking magnets.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I do believe elected Republicans despise Trump and are going along with his antics because their base loves him and they want to keep their jobs. But you are exactly on point to note that it’s not our job to discern their motives, and we shouldn’t attribute higher standards to them than they’re publicly upholding.
As Maddow says of the Trumpers, watch what they do, not what they say. That goes triple for what they say off the record. The fact is Republicans are trying to help Trump consolidate authoritarian control over this country. They’ll fail, but that’s what they’re trying to do. And that’s all that really matters.
germy
Kenneth Vogel. Remember him? He’s irritable because he’s anxious to start “criticizing” the Biden administration:
Kay
Raffensperger will be removed and shunned by the cult, but what a way to go out. The only Republican with any power to impact results who found the courage to stand up to the cult.
He keeps talking because I bet it’s freeing. Must feel great. They have been threatening him for almost a year and now he’s free.
NotMax
@Baud
Yeah, a topic simultaneously attractive and polarizing.
Baud
@germy:
Wow. He should be fired for his lack of professionalism.
PST
@SFAW:
The (Acting) AG should be Hillary Clinton. Her blood has been boiling already for quite some time. Acting can be on the job for 300 days. She could get lots done in that time.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah:
Why not? Live dangerously. : )
germy
@Baud:
In Centrism Fan’s thread, we see Vogel listing Biden appointees and making them sound evil. He knows what he’s doing.
And then when he’s called out, he’s all “Gee, ya mean I can’t even be critical of Biden?? But I’m a journalmalist!”
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It is absolutely amazing they get away with it. The ONLY place they’ve hit a brick wall with it is in court, for the obvious reason that their secret good motives don’t matter at all there.
Judge yesterday kept insisting America’s Shittiest Mayor return to the pleadings– what he fucking FILED. It’s very simple. He’s accountable for what he wrote. No hidden meanings.
On the facts, every GOP Senator supports Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn an election. Their words and deeds, not mine.
Baud
@germy: He’s pretty obviously looking to follow Greenwald’s career path.
ETA: Seriously, nothing Vogel writes should be treated as legitimate unless verified by an independent credible source.
NotMax
@rikyrah
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia: Way to misinterpret my comments.
Gin & Tonic
@germy: Ken Vogel is an asshole. Full stop.
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: Green beans are the wrong texture for pot roast. Root vegetables – potatoes, carrots, onions. That’s what belongs in pot roast. Am I wrong?
Sloane Ranger
The Christian Right were some of the biggest supporters of Prohibition. When that failed, they withdrew from politics altogether for almost half a century. I assume the Republicans don’t want that to happen again.
Citizen Alan
@rikyrah: Bush went back to Texas and took up painting. Shitgibbon is incapable of enjoying any hobby or leisure activity that doesn’t involve drawing attention to himself and stirring up his death cult.
trnc
@SFAW: Thanks.
Baud
@Sloane Ranger:
If we can beat the conventional wisdom and have a good 2022 and 2024, I think it’ll go a long way to discouraging the right for a long time.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Not that it amounts to a hill of beans because I’m a nobody, but I intend to spread the word on Twitter! Every journo think piece about GOP tip-toeing should be met with a barrage of that simple truth — look at what they’re doing! Who gives a fuck what they say?
trnc
@Kay: Yeesh! Gonna take a long time to dig this country out.
Just One More Canuck
@Nicole: I look forward to reading the NYT series of articles on ‘How is prison life affecting you, Secretary Mnuchin/DeVos/Azar/Mr. Attorney General”?
Emma from FL
@rikyrah: Well, yeah. Logical.
Kay
More secret (but good!) motives from “sources” – let’s all delve into Emily’s HEART rather than holding her accountable for her actions.
Emily’s job search must not be going well. It’s time to send the hacks out to plant some pro-Emily bullshit.
You are forbidden to judge these people by words and deeds. Instead, they get the much lower standard of what is really in their hearts.
It’ll be tough for this low quality Trump hire when she’s finally, finally booted off the public payroll. At her next job no one will bother discerning what is in her heart. They’ll just measure her actions. This elaborate deference and low standard will end when she’s the assistant manager at Wendy’s.
I don’t care at all if there’s a transition. The low quality hires will be turning over absolute garbage work anyway. It’s a waste of time. There is no “vaccination plan”, just like there was no “pandemic plan”. None of these people have done a lick of work since 2019.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Peter Baker’s career path. Always attack Ds and give weaselly explanations for what Rs do, no matter how terrible.
Baud
@Kay: Reminds me of the encomiums about Comey’s integrity.
topclimber
@satby: Some Republican with smarts and a remnant of integrity is eventually going to wise up to the fact that the current GOP is poison for anyone with Presidential ambitions. No one will galvanize their dwindling base like Trump. I expect their White House prospects to be nil through 2032. Leningrad Lindsey seems to agree.
Let’s say someone who can wait until 2032 for a Presidential run is a long-term planner who can lay the ground work for an alliance of white evangelicals, conservative Catholics and prosperity Republicans–the latter being those who are in the top 20% economically, but primarily high salary professionals and business folk who don’t necessarily think their financial success depends on beggaring the rest of us, denying climate change and pandemics, or keeping the brown folk down. Break NOW with the Nazis and the worst of the Deplorables and you could still have close to 40% of voters and a continued presence in Red Statehouses.
Throw in reachable Latines and Asians, who also believe in the economic doctrines of self-improvement and lower taxes on WAGES; combine with the conservative bias of the Electoral College; run with a Nikki Haley or Tim Scott and you might have a shot in 2032 when (I surely hope), Kamala Harris (or another strong Dem) will be ending her second term as President after Joe retires in 2024.
After three terms of the same party, voters often get tired and look for an alternative. It won’t be today’s GOP.
Ben Sasse anyone? Age 61 in 2032 if my math is right. He claims he doesn’t want to be a recurring incumbent in the Senate, has executive experience in his resume, possesses what passes for charisma among Republicans, and could prep for the big office by becoming Nebraska’s governor.
Come 2032 allowing whatever is the business party a chance at the White House might actually be acceptable–provided Dems control both houses of Congress and more state legislatures after the next census in 2030. Since we need these conditions anyway to make progress on fundamental issues like economic equity, climate change, racial justice and a lower defense budget over the next 12 years, maybe it would be ok.
Or at least Sasse and a few other smart ones might come to believe they could have a brighter future with a new Republican/Whig/Enterprise party, thus making the old GOP weaker.
Call me old school but perpetual single party rule, be it Dem or GOP, is not healthy. We need a worthy adversary other than our fellow Dems.
Thanks for anyone who has read this far, even those who will likely trash the idea. I am just indulging in a pandemic pastime. It’s been fun.
Kay
I have a precedent Emily the Low Quality Trump Hire could study. She should look at the “precedent” that got her her job, the precedent where the Obama Administration didn’t refuse to accept the results of an election and welcomed the low quality hires into their no-work jobs.Emily doesn’t have to go back too far. She could use 2016.
What possible justification could CNN be using to print this garbage with no one’s name attached to it? Are these people 6 years old? Why would CNN protect them?
No one should hire the Trump employees not because they were Trump employees but because they’re whining, lying, poorly raised children. On the merits they fail.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Vogel is a terrible hack. It was so gratifying to see him frantically blocking people on Twitter when the whistleblower blew up his “Biden Ukraine Corruption Accusations Cast Long Shadows on Campaign” narrative.
He lost the scoop of a fucking lifetime — a Watergate-sized story of the president’s attempt to extort a vulnerable ally — because he was lapping up what Trump’s corrupt crew was spoon-feeding him instead of connecting the obvious dots.
I hope he wakes up in a cold sweat about that for the rest of his life.
Kay
@Baud:
I think it’s hysterical. The LOW standard. I was in a pretrial about 6 months ago and the state’s witness inadvertently testified that the state had lied in a pleading. Ordinary county court. Thousands of pretrials like this a day, all over the country. Magistrate called us into chambers and asst prosecutor started babbling about what was in her heart- her secret good motive. Magistrate cut her off “you lied. Withdraw it on the record”.
This can’t go on like this. Regular people can’t have higher standards than the President and Senators.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
I made it easy.
If they are the orange disaster or family, if they work for his ridiculously dumb ass, if they like his ridiculously dumb ass, they all rank as ridiculously dumb, skanky, racist, assholes.
Saves a lot of work ranking them on order of assholyness.
Ruckus
@Nicole:
They aren’t going to hand in letters of resignation. They are going to slink away in the night, hoping not to be noticed. It won’t work but still, they will try.
Baud
@Kay: We have a lot of privileged people who want leadership positions but don’t want to be put in the position of making hard choices and politically difficulty decisions. They feel entitled to the benefits of leadership but not the risks that go along with it.
To some extent, it’s all random and therefore “unfair.” But that risk is the price of admission. Ordinary people are forced to take arbitrary risks all the time. High ranking people aren’t entitled to special protections.
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl: Hey, I say, whatever blows your dress up when it comes to pot roast – I probably wouldn’t use green beans, myself.
WaterGirl
@Kay: Poor Emily! You know, when you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, you absolutely have the luxury of doing what you think is right.
Unclear precedence? Please. Total bullshit. Total fucking bullshit.
A deeply moral person doesn’t “consult” with only one person who has a dog in the fight. A deeply moral person would look at the consequences of her actions and see that she is not only standing in the way of the peaceful transition of power, she is also doing that during a pandemic where millions of lives are at stake with pandemic planning.
Any law firm that takes her back should be shunned until the end of time + 1,000 years, just to be sure.
Kay
@Baud:
The best thing I’ve read in this whole nightmare post election period was a response from an ordinary person on Twitter. Someone was going on about how “USC blah blah” wouldn’t “allow” Trump to execute a coup and the person responded “oh, because all those countries where there were coups had COUP LAWS?” The nature of the thing is it’s unlawful. Pointing to laws that bar it really misses the threat.
“Why are you locking your door? There are LAWS against breaking and entering you know”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@topclimber: I was wondering that myself, what happens if the GOP slides off into White Grievance, tinfoil paranoia and irrelevance? The is only so much governance one can do using the X-Files as inspiration. There does seem to be a legitimate split between rural and urban on what they want out of government. Return of the Granger Party?
TheTruffle
So at what point will the media begin visiting Biden voters around the country?
Kay
Well, when you get hopeless just remember the Trump Low Standard.
George W Bush put together a GOP coalition in 2004 and actually won.
Donald Trump’s massive excellent juggernaut that we’re all in awe of performed worse than George W Bush’s ordinary GOP group.
All Republicans announced after 2004 that Center Right Nation had been permanently established and they’ve gotten exactly ONE term since. They couldn’t even drag their shitty incumbent over the finish line.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@trnc: I saw them this morning. They were on the man’s account. FB, I think. I didn’t retweet or anything because I didn’t want to spread that vile crap. They were pictures of things like Obama in a gang outfit.
Kathleen
@Kay: I wonder if anyone else in the media besides Jennifer Rubin is pointing this out.
Kay
Emily doesn’t deserve the job she thinks she’s entitled to not because she’s a Trump Republican but because she’s a dishonest hack and her work sucks. These are the hard truths Emily’s parents could have told her and saved us all a lot of trouble. Coddling her further isn’t wise.
J R in WV
@satby:
Quite a coincidence, wife and I have ophthalmologist appointments today. I have glaucoma, she is getting close to cataract surgery, depending upon the Trumpian Plague.
Then more shopping to stay home for a long time.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay: I am pretty sure Pinochet didn’t first insult the rest of the Chilean military by calling them suckers and then tell them to stage a coup, murder all the commies while Pinochet went golfing. One would have to go back to Marcus Junius Brutus for that kind of idiocy.
The real danger with Trump isn’t what he will do, it’s the ideas he is giving to people who are much much more capable who will come latter.
Baud
@Kay:
Those seem like the same thing, Kay.
Barbara
@Kay: The anxiety expressed by an awful lot of Trump supporters like Emily that is attributed to seemingly neutral causes like “precedent” and “fear of fraud” is, at heart, an expression of fear that they really are mediocre who won’t get nearly the same professional privileges if they faced a more level playing field.
BR
@Kay:
Not to get nerdy about it, but there’s some game theory here — it’s an iterated game. If they know, and they *definitely know* by know, that there are no consequences to their behavior, because nobody gets discredited for long in American life any more, then their strategy changes.
By restoring that corrective mechanism, where crooks and incompetents are held accountable for a long long time, we can change their strategy. I was thinking about Spiro Agnew as I wrote this, and about how (as I understand it) he was pretty much shunned from public life despite having never really been prosecuted.
catclub
I still think 79M out of a population of 330M is terrible in terms of voting participation.
TomatoQueen
@topclimber: Sasse is a moral coward, a weakling, and a sophist. No Sasse, no how.
I do not believe the R has the capacity to build a new and more acceptable type of R. They’ve practiced to deceive since 1948 at least.
Baud
@catclub:
Turnout rate was 66%.
jonas
@LurkerNoLonger: Covid has either shut down or substantially slowed down a lot of absentee ballot counting in upstate counties. In NY-22, Brindisi is rapidly closing in on Claudia Tenney who thought she had this in the bag and claimed victory before tens of thousands of mail-in ballots had even been counted. She could still squeak out a win — it’s a very rural, very Trumpy district — but given that the mail-ins are breaking around 80-20 for Brindisi it’s not looking good for her right now.
SFAW
@TheTruffle:
Good one!
germy
@catclub:
I thought there were about 153 million eligible voters.
We can’t count children and infants. They never show up at the polls.
SFAW
@catclub:
It’s closer to 150M out of 330M. Not sure how many persons are eligible to vote* in the US, but pretty sure it’s less than 330M.
*”Eligible” as defined by non-fascists/non-RWMFs/non-Rethugs, of course.
Baud
@Baud:
http://www.electproject.org/2020g
trnc
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thanks for the info. A classy bunch til the end.
catclub
@germy: My estimate is: 80M under 18, so down to 250M,
then 30M non-citizens, or felons forbidden to vote (huge overestimate) gets to 220M eligible voters.
I think your figure is maybe how many are registered to vote.
Di
@debbie: I saw that last night and for the first time since all the fraud nonsense started, I felt hopeful. Our side is fired up. We’re not letting democracy go. It may be a long, hard road, but we’re gonna be all right.
J R in WV
@snoey:
Can anyone translate this into middle American English, please? I do understand the “masshole” word… the rest of it tho?
SFAW
@J R in WV:
“Gritty” is the mascot for one or more of the Philly sports teams. [Flyers, I think, but not sure.] Philly sports fans are reputedly pretty bad, even worse than NY and MA fans.
germy
@catclub:
We agree the percentage of people voting is too small.
Too many people either don’t care, are intimidated by the process, or are prevented from voting.
Another Scott
@Kay: Quoting FTFNYT – “She absolutely feels…”
Dean Baker often makes the point (it’s one of his many, and valid, hobby-horses) that “feelings” and “thoughts” are worthless in reporting. What matters is what people say and what they do. When reporters substitute the former for the latter, they’re gaslighting their readers.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
catclub
@Baud: ok. I will use the california ‘eligible to vote turnout rate’ of 67% for the entire country. 79M = Biden votes
Give Biden 53% of the total
so 100/53 * 79M = total votes 2020 =149M total votes in 2020
but now apply the 67% voting rate: 100/67 * 1549M = 222M people
who were eligible to vote. Terrible turnout.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trnc: this guy got a screen capture from his facebook page, that I suspect will be protected soon, if it isn’t already
catclub
roots for the Red Sox and the Cheatriots.
[ETA: I have heard the jargon, and though not a fan, I but mostly think the pats are more efficient at their jobs than some others, and resented for it.]
tom
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Those are the Diego Rivera murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts. I assume that’s his Zoom background, I don’t think he was actually at the museum during that call.
Kay
@Another Scott:
Emily can do the job we’re paying her to do or she can sit in her ass and do nothing until January 20th. Either way Emily is walking out of there with a box for her belongings.. She can do this the dignified way or we can remove her physically. That’s her choice.
I sort of hope we have to remove them. It would be a fitting end to their employment term. As far as I’m concerned they’re psychotic stalkers who won’t take no for an answer. The country needs a restraining order to get them off our property and keep them off.
We fired you, Emily. Terminated for bad work. Get going.
J R in WV
@germy:
Isn’t Vogel the guy who had the inside scoop on Biden’s total corruption in — where was that again? — Ukraine?
Right?
Totally corrupt, until suddenly Trump was impeached~!!!~
How does that happen, the wrong guy turns out to be corrupt, gets impeached? Vogel was quite the guy, missed being on the wrong foot by that || much.
No! Much less than that, but I can’t type it any closer than that.
Can’t someone, anyone, fire Vogel for being obviously crooked and corrupt? Don’t reporters need to at least appear to be honest tellers of truth? Or was that in the long ago, before the Trumpian Plague and the rise of American fascism?
J R in WV
@Just One More Canuck:
Everyone keeps leaving Wilbur Ross out of the list, the champion money launderer of them all, I bet, excepting Donald of the Trumpian Plague.
Bank of Cyprus>?? Really!!!
Another Scott
@topclimber: On one of the NPR talk shows yesterday there was an interview with a NewYorker writer about his piece on the future of the GOP.
tl;dr – Since more banksters and MotU and suburban moms are Democrats than before, and since Hawley said that the GOP is a “working class party now”, that means that the parties are going to switch bases soon. The Democrats will be the party of Business, and the Republicans will be the party of trade-skeptical lower and middle class people.
I don’t buy it. People aren’t one-dimensional.
But smart politicians realize that society isn’t static and they need to adapt as society changes.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@J R in WV:
He’s less of a reporter and more of an operative.
Kay
Anyone who thinks these people don’t intend to stay in power regardless of election results is willfully ignoring what they’re saying and doing.
They’re not leaving and the Republican Party supports this 100%.
There’s going to have to be some action to eject them. They not only haven’t moved towards accepting results, there are more of them defying results every day.
If we manage to get rid of them without force and we ever allow another Republican in that office, we’re insane and we don’t deserve a democracy.
This is the GOP playbook now. They lose, they remain in power. Full bore, unapologetic authoritarians who install leaders.
leeleeFL
@Kay: I think Biden should find a place for him. Courage and honesty are such rate commodities on his side of the fence, we should recognize it on the rare occasion we find it.
leeleeFL
@PST: That actually would be DELICIOUS!
Kay
Republican congressional leaders told media people they would accept the results of this election.
None of them have done so. At what point do we start to talk about whether Republican congressional leaders lied to media? Because that’s clearly what happened. They have made NO effort to transition and in fact more and more of them are supporting Donald Trump’s quest to install himself as President.
In the next 61 days this gets better? It’s gotten worse every day since the election. There’s some magical “better” switch?
Kay
@leeleeFL:
Well, he’s the SINGLE person on the Right who has stood up to Donald Trump in a real way that thwarted Trump. One. One person.
That’s the quality of that whole party. They have one brave person who does his job. Had. They’ll now have to shun him on orders from the cult leader.
germy
@leeleeFL:
Find a place for him? Why? Because he followed the law? Is the bar so low for Republicans? “He didn’t break election law, let’s find a place for him in our administration.”
Kay
How bad, do you think, will this situation be in 61 days? Really, really bad. Broken beyond repair.
This is 100% on the Republican Party. They could put a stop to in 2 hours, but they refuse, because they are hoping Trump succeeds.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: also, in between his work for Bush II and trump, he was some kind of grand muckety-muck at Microsoft. I imagine he’s quite happy to go back to where the grass is sweet and tall, after some six month “fellowship”– whatever the hell those are– at the Kennedy School or Nikasenen (sp?) Center, the think tank of the Never Trumpers
leeleeFL
@germy: No, because he did the right thing when it mattered and it will cost him the career he planned. He could have done what was expected of him by his Bosses and kept the path open for a future in Rethuglican politics.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I do give Krebs props for this.
snoey
@Kay: There’s more than a bit of prisoner’s dilemma to this.
If Trump succeeds they win.
If they all move together and get rid of Trump they win.
If one of them moves alone Trump goes nuclear on his ass.
They’re in a trap they set for themselves.
germy
He did the right thing by not breaking election law. I mean, yeah, he could have listened to Lindsey Graham and tried to toss legal ballots.
I really don’t care what career he planned. Why should I?
Kay
Helen Kalla
@helen_kalla
· 41m
Watch @SenatorLoeffler break basic Senate ethics rules, solicit donations for her campaign, and urge people to visit her campaign website from a federal office building. #gasen #gapol
No standards, folks. This Senator is breaking the rules and no one in the Republican Party will do a thing about it.
So…we’re relying on them to follow laws? Why? They’re not recognizing an election. Why would they recognize laws?
The whole Party is now Donald Trump. His standards are their standards.
leeleeFL
@germy: Since I once upon a time gave up a great opportunity for a future as a business owner because it entailed lying about the current owner’s illegal activities, dumping chemicals to avoid paying for removal…I know you don’t get rewarded for doing what’s right as often as you should, especially if it costs you your planned future. I just think you should. I’ll show myself out
leeleeFL
@germy: Since I once upon a time gave up a great opportunity for a future as a business owner because it entailed lying about the current owner’s illegal activities, dumping chemicals to avoid paying for removal…I know you don’t get rewarded for doing what’s right as often as you should, especially if it costs you your planned future. I just think you should. I’ll show myself out
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: As do I! He was doing his job correctly even though he knew the likely outcome.
Uncle Cosmo
@Geminid: I’m rooting for them all to get The Crapture – in which they are bodily raised up & dumped face-first into a nearly-full septic tank.
Just One More Canuck
@Baud: Wiki says that’s the highest since 1900
Just One More Canuck
@J R in WV: I think someone will just pour some salt on Wilbur, like a slug on a sidewalk
Uncle Cosmo
You’re only counting votes for Biden while counting everyone in the US, including kids, non-citizens and felons not eligible.
U.S. population eligible to register to vote is ~240M. Total votes for President (already counted) are ~155M, which is roughly 65%.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Niskanen Center is where political scientist Rachel Bitecofer published her work after she cut loose from Chritopher Newport University’s Wason Center this spring. Now it seems she publishes on The Cycle, an outfit she started with fellow data slinger Sam Epstein
Bitecofer also keeps up an informative twitter feed.
sgrAstar
@zhena gogolia: WE saved the country from fascism.
?
misterpuff
@SFAW: Who is the Dem’s Roy Cohn?
Who is the Dem’s Bill Barr?
Imagine if Dems played hardball by the same rules as the Republicans.
Notice I said imagine. Its just not in us to be as nasty or as focused on payback as them.