Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I personally stopped the public option…

It’s the corruption, stupid.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Saul Alinsky is my co-pilot.

It’s not even safe to go out and pick up 2 days worth of poop anymore.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

What fresh hell is this?

Deploy the moving finger of emphasisity!

We can agree to disagree, but i’m right.

This is how realignments happen…

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Han shot first.

Fuck if i know. i just get yelled at when i try it.

I can’t take this shit today. I just can’t.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

This is a big f—–g deal.

You are here: Home / Election 2020 / Monday Evening Point & Mock Open Thread: Another Speedbump for the GOP #FailParade

Monday Evening Point & Mock Open Thread: Another Speedbump for the GOP #FailParade

by | 236 Comments

This post is in: , ,

The #FailParade Continues - STOCKPILE

(Lalo Alcaraz via GoComics.com)
.


Reader Interactions

236Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    New phone who dis?

    HE’LL GET BACK TO YOU Back in July, Gov. Ducey said he changed his White House ringtone to “Hail to The Chief” so he wouldn’t miss a call from Trump/Pence. Guess who called while Ducey was certifying Arizona’s election? (7 secs in) pic.twitter.com/bzBGpfSIDf

    — Brahm Resnik (@brahmresnik) November 30, 2020

  2. 2.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    trump has officially pardoned Flynn, here’s the text.

    Neal Katyal @neal_katyal 
    I am no expert but this pardon looks written to try to establish a precedent for blanket pardons. It pardons all offenses within the jurisdiction of the Special Counsel, something Trump may hope to do for himself and the lawbreakers he surrounds himself with. Nice try won’t work.

    I am even less of an expert, but I looked up Ford’s pardon of Nixon and that seemed like a more relevant precedent. Katyal seems convinced that someone– I guess the USSC?– will overrule a (still hypothetical) self-pardon. I don’t see it happening.

  4. 4.

    germy

    Wow. Flynn’s pardon extends to any crimes within the “investigatory authority” of the Special Counsel, including crimes *arising* out of facts “known to” the SC within the scope of its investigation. Kinda suggests that his criminal liability wasn’t just lying to the FBI  https://t.co/iTuPk2yxn3

    — Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) November 30, 2020

  5. 5.

    jl

    I think WI certified a day early than Dec 1 statutory deadline.
    It occurred to me that almost all the swing states have certified while watching this clip of Ducey sign the papers for AZ, and apparently put Trump’s call on mute while doing so. See link below.

    @brahmresnik

    HE’LL GET BACK TO YOU Back in July, Gov. Ducey said he changed his White House ringtone to “Hail to The Chief” so he wouldn’t miss a call from Trump/Pence. Guess who called while Ducey was certifying Arizona’s election? (7 secs in)

    https://twitter.com/brahmresnik/status/1333535859153440769

  7. 7.

    HumboldtBlue

    Why do I have this dreadful feeling the next four years are going to be worse than the last four? Because the GOP is just getting warmed up.

  8. 8.

    debbie

    How deeply stupid is Donald Trump to think that he, as president, could bring any case he wanted to the Supreme Court?

    And how pitifully pathetic are the people around him not to tell him his plan of getting “his” people seated on the Court would not be a guarantee of much of anything?

  9. 9.

    randy khan

    @germy:

    I am concerned – the flags had gold fringe, so I think it was an admiralty certification, not a regular certification.

  12. 12.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    meanwhile, Josh Hawley is trying to use his verrrry fancy education, and I guess somebody’s twitter feed, to invent a new language of rightwing populism (does “critical race theory” really resonate with Dub and Vern the way the Fox-OANN crowd seems to think it does?)

    Josh Hawley @HawleyMO
    Let me explain this to you. Corporate liberals are woke capitalists. The corporatists love critical race theory and all the other warmed-over Marxist garbage. They sell out working Americans and sneer at them at the same time. That’s the New Left

    Scott Shapiro @scottjshapiro1h
    We have to do better at Yale Law. Students are graduating without being able to write or think clearly. Josh, who was your small group professor?

    you know that one lands, cause you know that whatever kind of show he wants to put on for Dub and Vern, Josh loves that he went to Yale.

  13. 13.

    randy khan

    One of things I will miss least about having Trump as President (and, yes, it’s a long list) is that nothing bad is ever his fault.  It’s even worse than him taking personal credit for every good thing that’s happened and than him claiming good things have happened when they haven’t.

  14. 14.

    germy

    @jl:

    Isn’t it weird how trump thinks he can run government like a business?  Because every boss (or boss’s son) I’ve ever known… their solution to every problem is “Gimme that phone – I’ll make a call!”

  16. 16.

    jl

    GOP attacks on Democrats and Biden have fallen into complete chaos: Biden is ever more communist intent on mass executions of Trumpsters, and ever more the corporate capitalist eager to work the average person to death. And seems to me mass of Congressional GOPers still playing along with Trump and subverting democratic governance.

    I wonder what made McDaniel jump off the crazy train. She doesn’t have to face rabid Trumpster revenge at the next election? Big donors orderubg the institutional GOP to swim away  from the big man passing from power, and therefore of no further use?

  17. 17.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Why do I have this dreadful feeling the next four years are going to be worse than the last four? Because the GOP is just getting warmed up.

    PTSD, which almost every liberal has after living under an abuser for four years.  It will be considerably better than the last four years.  The GOP will still be screaming reactionary assholes, but they always were.  That hasn’t changed.  They have lost the presidency, and that sensation of bad shit happening every single day?  The constant fear of some new horror?  That came entirely from them having an unrestrained president, and Trump being the worst president ever, at that.  I’m not saying it will be sunshine and lollipops now, but with Biden in charge the difference will be vast.

  18. 18.

    jl

    @germy: Yes. Trump clearly looks at the Warp Speed vaccine effort as a ‘I’ll call a guy who knows a guy who can do it’ affair, and then Trump would take all the credit.

    Maybe his first instinct was to take the same approach for covid epidemic control, until geniuses like Kushner talked him out of it (if reports are true).

  19. 19.

    Cameron

    The Hawley statement is gibberish.  He grabbed a bunch of words and phrases from the internet – and obviously doesn’t have the faintest idea what they mean – and tries to construct something that looks like an appeal to….somebody.

  20. 20.

    mrmoshpotato

    I believe this is the first instance in which Trump himself recognizes that his staff treats him like a toddler.

    How many more years will it take these bastards to realize they’re a traitorous orange Soviet shitpile mobster crime family who slurps away at the Kremlin’s ass?

  22. 22.

    KenK

    I just saw where Kim Jong-un received an “early” Covid vaccine. I also saw where he’s 36 years old. That’s a hard 36 years…

  24. 24.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I fucking hope so because I’m becoming more of a giant asshole than I ever was.

    Every little annoyance — from putting on a mask (snapped myself in the eye) to watching the old lady try and use the debit card machine — is now a major annoyance and that’s entirely on me.

    I usually go out of my way to kind and pleasant because despite my issues my life is far, far easier to live than for tens of millions of others. I’m the annoying guy in the grocery checkout who has to crack a joke and now all I want to do is punch every other motherfucker in the face.

    It’s not a good look.

  25. 25.

    germy

    @Cameron:  The Hawley statement is gibberish.

    It’s gibberish because he’s a Republican trying to sound like he cares about working people.  HIs party is all about tax breaks for the wealthy, fewer regulations on corporations, no minimum wage, etc. but he’s trying to twist words around… and failing at it.

  26. 26.

    RSA

    Every state Rs were contesting (AZ, GA, MI, NV, PA, WI) has now certified its results. Trump “path to victory” = getting courts or legislators to toss out the results.

    Trump will never concede, though. I think, in his world view, from his rhetoric, there’s nothing worse than being a loser. Admitting it would break him.

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    Soviet shitpile mobster manbaby: They say you don’t have standing. You mean as president of the United States, I don’t have standing. What kind of a court system is this?

    You fascist pile of shit!  They’re called checks and balances.  And your pile of shit ass is getting checked into the boards repeatedly, but it’s totally legal.  SAD!

  30. 30.

    Brachiator

    I believe this is the first instance in which Trump himself recognizes that his staff treats him like a toddler

    Last week, I listened to a talk radio host and Trump apologist (who, sadly, does not realize that he is a Trump apologist) make the bizarre claim that Trump pushes the voter fraud lie because the people surrounding him will not tell him the truth.

    I almost wanted to call in to the show, send a Twitter message or email.

    Trump planted the seed of the lie about voter fraud before the election.  And he has deliberately chosen people whose primary jobs are to be loyal, to lie for Trump, and to slobber him with praise for anything he does.

    I also remember all the Trump apologists who would say stupid shit like “Oh, just ignore his more outrageous statements. He is just trying to upset liberals.  Look at his brave, bold, strong actions.”

    Well, the Rage Fueled Orange Man Baby is coming unhinged as he wastes other people’s money and taxpayer resources trying to prove a lie and hang on to the presidency.

    It is a gross, pathetic, farce and the only thing good about it is that it will be all over soon.

    The only question is whether Trump will end up back at Mar a Lago, in Moscow, or in a jail cell somewhere in the US. Hopefully it would be a jail with high walls.

  32. 32.

    dmsilev

    @Cameron: Explains why he was so obsessed with toilet regulations.
    Memo to Mr. Trump: perhaps a more balanced diet might help a bit with your problem?

  35. 35.

    Jay

    Wow. Flynn’s pardon extends to any crimes within the “investigatory authority” of the Special Counsel, including crimes *arising* out of facts “known to” the SC within the scope of its investigation. Kinda suggests that his criminal liability wasn’t just lying to the FBI 🤔🙄 https://t.co/iTuPk2yxn3— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) November 30, 2020

  37. 37.

    dm

    @Cameron: I don’t think it has to be meaningful, it just has to sound meaningful.  That’s how propaganda works.  That’s how the Republicans have been doing it since at least the 1990s.

    And that’s a pretty good statement of right-wing populism: “the elites despise you and are laughing at you, even though what they believe is buzzword-buzzword-buzzword.”

  38. 38.

    japa21

    @germy:  Keep in mind the special counsel was not allowed to look into the counter intelligence stuff or financial dealings. There is a lot that falls outside the SC purview.

  40. 40.

    Jay

    @zhena gogolia:

    he’s trying to create a short, memorable word salad of Trumpist/Faux trigger words that the Deplorables will use to attack the very capable and extremely experienced team that Biden and Kamela are assembling.

    The same “up is down” reverse reality the Rethugs managed to paint the ACA with.

  41. 41.

    Roger Moore

    @debbie:

    How deeply stupid is Donald Trump to think that he, as president, could bring any case he wanted to the Supreme Court?

    He’s not necessarily stupid, but he is amazingly ignorant.  I think he didn’t understand very much about the powers and limitations of the presidency when he ran for office, and the only way he learned about them was by trying to do something and being told he couldn’t. He’s like a toddler.  The only way he finds out about what he isn’t allowed to do is when someone tells him no, and he pays about as much attention to those “nos” as a typical toddler does.

  42. 42.

    dm

    I’ve been kind-of glad Trump has been laser-focused on election fraud, because it means he hasn’t had the spare time on his hands to bomb Iran yet.

  45. 45.

    Luciamia

    But the die hard base, every defeat just gets them closer to SCOTUS.  Yay! Yes, they really believe that.

  46. 46.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @zhena gogolia: I don’t know if I’m trembling in my boots, but of the usual suspects named as being willing, if not eager, to pursue trump’s goal of minority-rule, white-natioanlist authoritarianism, his TV-preacher-cum-car-salesman affect is less off-putting than Tom Cotton’s “I’ve got a crawlspace full of squirrel skulls!” or Ted Cruz’ “Yes, I am a smug dickhead, in fact, let me explain to you just how smug a dickhead, because I went to Princeton….”

    We’ll see what kinda shape Chris Christie’s in in two years.

  47. 47.

    mrmoshpotato

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I’m the annoying guy in the grocery checkout who has to crack a joke and now all I want to do is punch every other motherfucker in the face. 

    So what you’re saying is the past 4 years of bullshit have left a mark? 😂

  48. 48.

    Redshift

    @germy: It’s definitely a theme in wingnut circles lately. I also saw it in a “moderate conservative” opinion piece, and retweeted by my acquaintance who rarely says anything horrible himself, he just re-posts horrible things just “to think about,” not because he necessarily agrees with them (yeah, right.)

    They try to “helpfully” explain that capitalists are distracting progressives with all this “woke” stuff (because apparently solving racism is easy for corporations) and while you’re distracted, they’re doing capitalism to you, bwah-ha-ha! The tortured language is in part, I think, because they’re trying to disguise that they’re saying “why not drop all this irrelevant racism stuff and just care about money for white people, like us?”

    I dunno, maybe there’s something more to it, but that’s how it looks to me.

  49. 49.

    Brachiator

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I fucking hope so because I’m becoming more of a giant asshole than I ever was.

    Every little annoyance — from putting on a mask (snapped myself in the eye) to watching the old lady try and use the debit card machine — is now a major annoyance and that’s entirely on me.

    Even with the stress of the pandemic restrictions here in Los Angeles County, I am much more mellow these days. And it’s all mainly because I wake up in the morning and feel some uplift just from knowing that Trump is not president anymore. This was a major irritant. Major.

    For some time before the election, I would engage with Trump supporters and some anti-mask people. Now, I don’t care about rabid Trumpers, and as long as anti-mask fools stay away from me, I can tolerate their foolishness.

    I know that I will probably get meaner and nastier in the future. But for now, I am pretty relaxed.

  50. 50.

    mrmoshpotato

    @RSA:

    I think, in his world view, from his rhetoric, there’s nothing worse than being a loser. Admitting it would break him. 

    Narrator: But admitted or not, he was a loser – a 2-time loser, a tremendous bigly loser.  SAD!

  51. 51.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Completely O/T, and not to derail anything, but you all were so generous with your good wishes/prayers/healing energy directed my sister’s way, I wanted to let you know that she passed away about half an hour ago. Thank you again for your kind words and thoughts. No more pain.

  52. 52.

    jl

    @Jay: I couldn’t help checking on that mystery county. I wondered if they were still confusing MI and MN. But there appears to be no Edison County anywhere in the US, and nothing at all called Edison in MI. There is a high school in MN, though. Where’d they get it?

     

    @mrmoshpotato: I forgot whether Fox News gave UP away to Canada, or WI. Or MN mistaken for WI.

  57. 57.

    Roger Moore

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    does “critical race theory” really resonate with Dub and Vern the way the Fox-OANN crowd seems to think it does?

    It will after Fox and OANN hammer on it every day.  Their whole theory of politics is built around their ability to make people care about absolute bullshit.

  64. 64.

    MattF

    ‘Way back in 2016, Trump reacted to every primary loss the same way– accusing the winner of cheating. Donald Fucking Trump has no other way of responding to a loss. He blusters, he bluffs, he threatens, he lies. That’s it. That’s the whole thing.

    And the permanant icing on the Trump Resentment Cake is his incompetent response to negative events. Always.

  72. 72.

    catclub

    @jl: Trump clearly looks at the Warp Speed vaccine effort as a ‘I’ll call a guy who knows a guy who can do it’ affair, and then Trump would take all the credit.

     

    The DOD website homepage  now features Operation Warp Speed. I wonder how long that will last under Biden.

  73. 73.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    FUCK Larry Hogan, FUCK Larry Hogan, and FUCK Larry Hogan!!!

    This allegedly rational reasonable Republican governor who has gotten much love by the MSM because of his criticisms of Trump has just endorsed Perdue and Loeffler in the Georgia Senate races:

    Do we want a one-party monopoly in Washington, or do we want to send a message to our federal leaders that no one party has all the answers or all the power?

    Do we want to unleash the extremes of both political parties, or do we want to empower leaders in Washington to find bipartisan, common-sense solutions to the challenges we face?

    For the sake of our nation, I urge Georgians to uphold America’s mandate for moderation and compromise by voting to keep David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in the U.S. Senate.

     

    h/t https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2020/11/larry-hogan-is-spineless-disgrace.html

    Larry Hogan is living proof that you can be a Republican critic of Trump and still be a motherfucking asshole.

     

     

  78. 78.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Roger Moore: “Critical race theory” is just wing-nut code for “acknowledging racism in any way” which always has been an animating principle for many Americans because so many are in such deep denial of obvious truths like the existence of Systemic Racism.

  80. 80.

    jl

    @Wyatt Salamanca: GOP has defined lefty extremism down so far, that we can’t even have a USPS that works, since that would be commie, unless corruptly privatized and used to aid one and only one political party retain power (and that, my friends, is real capitalism that will set the masses free!).

  83. 83.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    it gets lost in all the bravado and dishonesty and cruelty but never underestimate just how deeply, deeply stupid donald trump is. overconfident dumb guy explains like 95% of everything.

    Textbook white privilege. Soft landings and good things for the born connected, no matter how stupid.

  84. 84.

    jl

    @mrmoshpotato: Narrator voice: ‘But, President Trump’s lawyers did not know that Edison, Michigan, was, in fact, a choo choo train museum!”

    I can imagine the court asking what kind of jurisdiction Edison Michigan is, and Rudy responding ‘Oh, just a regular one.’

  86. 86.

    geg6

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    Larry should know the what we want are competent leaders who give a shit about the American people.  Unfortunately, as he has just illustrated, there is only one national party that has people like that right now.  I have no problem with bipartisanship if it results in benefits and services for 99% of Americans.  Fuck the top 1%.  That has happened in the past.  Not enough but it is possible.  Until then, Larry Hogan can suck it.

  88. 88.

    germy

    @jl: I can imagine the court asking what kind of jurisdiction Edison Michigan is, and Rudy responding ‘Oh, just a regular one.’

    It would be a real lightbulb moment for Rudy.

  90. 90.

    Barbara

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: No one ever contested Nixon’s pardon so we don’t really have any basis for understanding how it could be interpreted.  What interests me is limiting the power of the pardon based on the idea that a “pardon” overturns a conviction.  You don’t pardon people for offenses they haven’t been charged with or convicted of.  What Trump is doing is trying to prevent anyone from bringing charges based on wrongdoing that has not even been investigated.  He is trying to preempt an investigation.   That is logically different from a pardon.

  95. 95.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @jl:

    This is what bugs them – despite a massive structural privilege that advantages conservative rural white minority rule in the senate and EC, foreign propaganda assistance, complacent courts and the unprecented abuse of the entire government, they lost. That means something.

  100. 100.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @germy: In my experience, even good bosses do this. It’s part of why they’re the boss — longevity in the field, with a rolodex full of useful, trusted contacts. I don’t see this as inherently problematic.

  101. 101.

    TS (the original)

    Trump just claimed that foreign leaders are calling him to say “that’s the most messed up election I’ve ever seen.” The White House has read out zero phone calls with foreign leaders since the end of October. Nearly every major US ally has called Joe Biden to congratulate him.
    — Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) November 29, 2020

    Guess trump is receiving lots of calls on his cell phone. Congress should spend the next 4 years having enquiries about “but those phone calls”. Let trump sit there for 9 hours answering questions.

  102. 102.

    Mike in NC

    Washington Post has an article on Melania’s godawful Christmas decorating history. Over 5500 very brutal comments. People hate her as much as her mobster husband.

  107. 107.

    lgerard

    “Critical Race Theory” is the new “Saul Alinsky’s Playbook”.

    A meaningless euphemism to employ in firing up the rubes.

  109. 109.

    Jean

    @SiubhanDuinne: My condolences.  It’s so very hard to lose a loved one.  I don’t know if you were able to see her toward the end.  I hope you could say good-bye.  My father died in early October, and the night before he passed, my mother broke her hip.  Because they have been in assisted living and quarantined, I could see neither one.  We are also 1,000 miles away.

  111. 111.

    Mike in NC

    “Then they did dumps … big, massive dumps” — Trump to Maria Bartiromo

    Funny how when I take a massive dump I’m reminded of Donald J. Trump Sr.

  113. 113.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @catclub:

    Unless Larry Hogan has been in a coma for the past 12 years, he should know that Mitch McConnell is an obstructionist asshole who will fight Biden every second of his presidency. I never expected him to endorse Ossoff and Warnock, but I would have appreciated it if he’d simply not expressed any opinion at all regarding the Georgia Senate races.

    The gushing coverage of Hogan for his mild criticisms of Trump is further proof of the moral bankruptcy of the MSM.  At the end of the day, Larry Hogan is just another Republican scumbag.

  115. 115.

    jl

    @Mike in NC: ” Washington Post has an article on Melania’s godawful Christmas decorating history. ”

    I remember some pics of decorations in one of the WH rooms that looked like narrow teepees of dead twigs in big containers, with funny indirect lighting. What holiday was that for? I hope that was not for Christmas.

    Anyway, kind of disturbing, unless it was a remake of the Addams Family, where they move to Beverly Hills… which would be a nice cross-over. Uncle Fester could be the weird uncle visiting from his shack way way up the holler.

  116. 116.

    Citizen Alan

    @KenK: One of the few weird conspiracy theories that I actually believe is that Kim Jung Un was replaced years ago by a body double. It’s undisputed that he literally disappeared for six week back in 2014, and to me he looked very different when he came back compared to before and also significantly more crazy.

  117. 117.

    Josie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’m late to the conversation, but I wanted to tell you how sorry I am for your loss.  I know how hard this must be for you and will be thinking of you in the days to come.

  132. 132.

    MomSense

    @jl:

    ‘Nobody gives a fuck about Christmas’.

    In addition to all the other awful things about the trumps- they are also just so incredibly tacky.  They have the worst taste.

  134. 134.

    Citizen Alan

    @Suzanne: Hell, I’ve had PTSD since Dubya got reelected! For the entire 8 years of Obama, I always held onto the fear that it was only the last gasp of modernism before the end of days. And then, we got four years of Left Behind reimagined as farce.

  135. 135.

    Nicole

    @MattF: Whoa.  That was a crazy read, because it came across as kinda not-crazy.  I do not expect not-crazy from Erick Son of Erick.

  141. 141.

    tokyokie

    @SiubhanDuinne: I’m terribly sorry to learn that. I hope that her being in poor health for quite some time gave you the ability to process her passing.

     

    I remember during the 2000 Florida debacle, protesters were calling the Democratic ticket “Gore-Loserman” and yelling, “Get out Cheney’s house!” outside the Naval Observatory. I wonder what those assholes are thinking now.

  147. 147.

    Patricia Kayden

    After Trump and Pence, no one contributed more to the deaths of poor and Black and brown people than Atlas. THAT is the reality. Every word Atlas wrote is counterfactual.— Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) December 1, 2020

  161. 161.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Wyatt Salamanca: just think of it as additional evidence that his political career in Maryland is over.  Also, he’s not doing Loeffler and Perdue any favors having the reputation of a RHINO.

  166. 166.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Wyatt Salamanca: FUCK Larry Hogan, FUCK Larry Hogan, and FUCK Larry Hogan!!!

    Seconded:

    Do we want to unleash the extremes of both political parties, or do we want to empower leaders in Washington to find bipartisan, common-sense solutions to the challenges we face?

    As if Mitch McConnell has ever been interested in compromising if he can just block bills from even being considered by the Senate.  Which is what will happen if the Republicans win either of these races.

    Hogan, you bastard, if that happens, and this nation fails to do anything meaningful about global warming in time on account of your desire for nonexistent ‘bipartisanship,’ I hope your cancer painfully but very very slowly eats you up from inside.  Because you’re the cancer, just as much as the hardcore Trumpublicans.  Even more so, because there’s no question that you’re smart enough to know better, and yet.

  169. 169.

    Kent

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:I am even less of an expert, but I looked up Ford’s pardon of Nixon and that seemed like a more relevant precedent. Katyal seems convinced that someone– I guess the USSC?– will overrule a (still hypothetical) self-pardon. I don’t see it happening.

    The point of a self-pardon is to drag any legal proceedings out until the end of time, or until another GOP Administration arrives.   That is Trump’s modus operandi.   He is an expert at running out the clock.  And a presidential self-pardon would probably take 10 years to get completely and thoroughly litigated.  By then Trump is dead and buried.  Or some future GOP AG has tossed everything out.

    Any assistant AG in some regional DOJ office is going to have to think long and hard if they want to litigate a self-pardon all the way up to SCOTUS so I doubt it would ever even get challenged

    But a self-pardon doesn’t get Trump off the hook for having to testify about anything, or off the hook from future perjury or obstruction of justice charges if he doesn’t cooperate.

  170. 170.

    There go two miscreants

    @SiubhanDuinne: My condolences. My mother passed away a few years ago after a long decline and period of helplessness. Sometimes it is a relief, although still very sad.

  175. 175.

    cain

    @Luciamia:

    Wait till the SC denies it – then the death threats will begin against the conservative justices. You can’t contain that kind of hate.

  176. 176.

    Kent

    @debbie:

    How deeply stupid is Donald Trump to think that he, as president, could bring any case he wanted to the Supreme Court?

    And how pitifully pathetic are the people around him not to tell him his plan of getting “his” people seated on the Court would not be a guarantee of much of anything?

    Well, that’s what happened in Bush v. Gore.  SCOTUS basically reached down an intervened in a state court case.  There wasn’t even any Federal appeals court ruling that got appealed to them.  So there is a precedent for SCOTUS to intervene with no legal basis to do so.  The problem this time is that they’d have to do it 3 or 4 separate times in 3 or 4 separate states.  And not just to stop recounts, but to actually throw out legal votes.  That’s a much taller ask.

    Who the fuck knows how this would have gone has the election been closer.  That’s a very scary thought.

  177. 177.

    cain

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Completely O/T, and not to derail anything, but you all were so generous with your good wishes/prayers/healing energy directed my sister’s way, I wanted to let you know that she passed away about half an hour ago. Thank you again for your kind words and thoughts. No more pain.

    My deep deep condolences. I fear I am sorry that I missed the initial reports of your sister’s health. I’m glad that she is in no more pain – but feel bad for the heartache for those left behind.

  178. 178.

    JanieM

    @SiubhanDuinne: Sad for you and your family. My mom died last spring, and we still don’t know when we’ll be able to gather from various parts of the country to remember her together. Will keep you in my thoughts.

  180. 180.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kent:

    He is an expert at running out the clock.

    Like any toddler.  I’m completely serious.  It is the exact same tactic as a bratty child, and runs on roughly the same mental and emotional level.  Just keep throwing a fit, fling absolutely everything at the wall, and maybe you’ll exhaust your caretaker and get your way.  I am sure Balloon Juice is full of parents who’ve seen it.

  181. 181.

    Jay

    Earlier today, I was diagnosed as having suffered a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), or what's commonly known as a mini-stroke. I'm 23 years old and I just had a stroke due to Covid-19 complications.Not taking this pandemic seriously? Keep reading.— Riley Behrens (@RileyBehrens) November 30, 2020

  182. 182.

    cain

    @MattF:

    I’m not sure that guy was fully onboard in the first place. But you know – with the GOP you gotta be all in or you’re all out. So, he was “soft in”. He’s still an asshole though.

  183. 183.

    raven

    @Jay:  Well, the point seems to be he did everything right and it didn’t matter. I’m not sure what to do with that?

  184. 184.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Wyatt Salamanca: The good news is that there might be (to borrow a rough-order-of-magnitude from e. e. cummings)

    possibly 2-1/2 or impossibly 3

    voters in the entire state of Jawjah who even know who Larry Hogan is, let alone give a frying flock about his endorsement.

    IMO both Democrats will lose by 5-6% (clearest evidence is that Cheeto Benito is coming to campaign for them – he wouldn’t do that unless he was sure he could take credit for them winning) but it won’t be owing to Hogan.

  185. 185.

    Jay

    @raven:

    as he admits, he did almost everything “rightish”, you know, mostly masked, mostly distancing, ( mask or no?) but broke his “bubble”, ( if he had one) with somebody who got infected at a wedding.

    It’s not enough to do “almost” everything right.

  187. 187.

    Ruckus

    @germy:

    rudy, lightbulb moment?

    I don’t think so. There’s no bulb, no lamp, no cord, no power, no one home. That ship has sailed and sunk.

  188. 188.

    Bill Arnold

    @raven:
    My takeaway was that you have to actively police/interrogate the people you trust to make sure that the trust is warranted and to hopefully encourage them to decrease their risk taking. New socialization protocols involve such questioning, in my limited experience (in southern NYS). Many of us who haven’t (knowingly) caught SARS-CoV-2 yet are being even more careful now that vaccines that offer the possibility of never getting infected will be available within the next 6 months. (Depending on schedule; some will be able to get vaccinated sooner).

  189. 189.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Patricia Kayden: I doubt Atlas is a “quack” in his chosen field of radiology. More likely he simply suffers from the syndrome, common among US MDs, that by virtue of a medical degree earned many years before mostly by rote memorization and stamina, he qualifies as an expert in any field of human inquiry via fifteen minutes’ perusal of a few Powerpointless slides. Combine that with an eagerness to suck up to the highest office in the land, and you get the Atlas Schnorred schmegegge…

  191. 191.

    raven

    @Bill Arnold: Yea, I had been swimming at the Y but decided to let it go until the vaccine is available. I’ve had three family members on the other side of the country get it and they all have recovered. . I hate to say it but I hope being 71 and a veteran helps get the vac. Shit is spooky

  192. 192.

    Jay

    @raven:

    I almost did. But I had to make a life or death choice.

    worked out for them, not for me.

    2 more weeks, if my health supports it, to going back to restricted duties at work, same at the DERA Street Medic program. I’ll be able to teach programs, but not do street work.

  193. 193.

    CarolPW

    @raven: Jay didn’t do everything right because he recently valued humanitarian action over personal safety and got to experience Covid first-hand.

  194. 194.

    raven

    @Jay: I wish you the best in all this. I know I’m lucky I’m retired and live in a place where I can get around in relative safety.

  195. 195.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kent: That’s not really what happened with with Bush v Gore.  They took a case that had been decided by the FL Supreme Court and was being appealed to them (short cutting the process a little).  Once it was in their hands, five of them went mad.  But a decision from a state supreme court that involves US Constitutional issues is not a reach for the Court.

  202. 202.

    Jay

    @CarolPW:

    Sam’s fine. Was asymptomatic, one and done in 3 weeks. She’s young, which often really helps. She also stayed outside the RV.

    Sadly, that was kinda the point of the tweet I posted. Covidiots keep hanging on to the belief that kids, teens and the yutes, arn’t affected by Covid.

    They are, and like the 1918 and post-polio, some that the Covid has “lightly brushed”, will suffer consequences down the road.

  203. 203.

    sdhays

    @Barbara: This is something that has always bothered me – the whole idea of a blanket pardon for crimes not even charged is an absurdly broad power. It simply is incompatible with the concept of a “nation of laws” because an unscrupulous President can just make anything he orders people to do “legal”. It’s a farce.

    I find it incomprehensible that the Nixon pardon is considered an acceptable interpretation of the Constitution, but IANAL. How much of its acceptance was not based on legal analysis but rather the nation’s elite desperate embrace of an excuse to turn the spotlight off of their cesspool of corruption?

  212. 212.

    dww44

    @MattF: Not surprising really.  He started out as a Never Trumper, jumped on the Trump Train about midway or so. Supported his re-election in so far as I remember. Only now does the insanity of it all make him jump off again.

  214. 214.

    MoCA Ace

    @SiubhanDuinne:  So sorry for the loss of your sister.  When my mother passed after a very long hospice period it was painful but also a relief.  Dwell in the good memories and they will see you through the pain.

  216. 216.

    different-church-lady

    @mrmoshpotato:

    How many more years will it take these bastards to realize they’re a traitorous orange Soviet shitpile mobster crime family who slurps away at the Kremlin’s ass?

    Let’s everyone say it together, shall we?…

    ‘All of them, Katie!!!’

  217. 217.

    Misterpuff

    @zhena gogolia:

    Oh, okay, people keep trembling in their boots about Josh Hawley. Has anyone looked at a picture of him? He’s like Norman Bates.

    Hmm…. that would be Tom Cotton.

  223. 223.

    Ruckus

    @HumboldtBlue:

    We are getting to the end of the tunnel. There is a light at the end.

    This feels like your last week in the military, when you really, really didn’t want to be there but you needed to be, had to be, but your discharge date is visible and you are just hoping to get at least one day after you get to walk away without looking or coming back. After that you might be able to breathe a bit easier. Thing is you will still have all the memories of your time in, all the bad, and most had some bad, some had almost all bad, and the, well not good times but the moments, the clear breathes, the clear sun. Now this feeling is tempered by this pandemic and the absolutely shitty way that it wasn’t handled at all by an asshole who doesn’t have the slightest concept of how big an asshole he really fucking is and all his enablers. But 80 million of your fellow not fucking assholes did the right thing and kicked this dumb, delusional, disaster of a fucking asshole to the curb. It will get better. Just keep telling yourself that, it will get better. Say it as you close your eyes and try to sleep, let “It will get better,” be your mantra. After all you are one of those 80 million.

  224. 224.

    Ruckus

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I’ve said it before but shitforbrains has the where with all of a 5 yr old spoiled fucking brat. KKKDad didn’t do him any favors whatsoever in not raising him anywhere close to reasonably or teaching him but then you start with a shitty teacher, add in how he made his money and an idiot spawn, stir in millions and it’s almost the most you can expect.

  225. 225.

    Heather

    @SiubhanDuinne: Delurking for the first time after at least ten years of daily reading this blog and comments, to send you my condolences. I am so sorry for your loss. May your sister’s memory be a blessing.

  226. 226.

    Mary Ellen Sandahl

    @SiubhanDuinne:I’m almost a complete lurker, but I want to add my sympathy to the wonderful messages you’re receiving from everyone else. I’m close to my sister, so have some inkling of what you feel. She’ll always be with you in your heart and mind. Peace to you and your family.

  228. 228.

    bjacques

    @sdhays: I say roll with it. A blanket pardon means Flynn can be questioned about anything and anyone. I reckon his Russian buddies will take a dim view of that. And if he was stupid enough to FIB to the FBI once, he’ll do it again, so he could yet see the inside of a jail cell.

  235. 235.

    J R in WV

    @japa21:

    Keep in mind the special counsel was not allowed to look into the counter intelligence stuff or financial dealings. There is a lot that falls outside the SC purview.

    That was the first thing I thought after I read the pardon. Seems strangely limited to a very small set of crimes related to Mueller’s investigation and the DoJ memo authorizing the Special Counsel.

    Everything else appears to be still on the table. If I were Flynn, this wouldn’t help me sleep at night at all. Also doesn’t pardon any of Flynn’s fellow criminal conspirators!

    Although, IANAL — so my opinion doesn’t mean as much as all that.

Comments are closed.