• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No one could have predicted…

This blog goes to 11…

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

Too inconsequential to be sued

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

We need fewer warriors in public service and more gardeners.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn – Nancy Pelosi

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

Peak wingnut was a lie.

This is a big f—–g deal.

How do you get liars to care about the truth?

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

This really is a full service blog.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Let there be snark.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Wetsuit optional.

Historically it is a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

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

I did not have this on my fuck 2020 bingo card.

Mobile Menu

  • Look Forward & Back
  • Balloon Juice 2021 Pet Calendar
  • Site Feedback
  • All 2020 Fundraising
  • I Voted!
  • Take Action: Things We Can Do
  • Team Claire, and Family
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • BJ PayPal Donations
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Nature & Respite
  • Information As Power
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • On The Road
  • Garden Chats
  • Nature & Respite
  • Look Forward & Back
You are here: Home / Archives for Open Threads / Excellent Links

Excellent Links

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Performative Outrage

by Anne Laurie|  December 17, 20207:31 am| 131 Comments

This post is in: Cat Blogging, Excellent Links, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Our Failed Media Experiment

someone did a collab tiktok with a cat and it's perfect pic.twitter.com/8ckEIRo51y

— Rob N Roll (@thegallowboob) December 15, 2020


It’s the cat’s expression that makes the bit. Must you, human? Can I not have one unmediated moment of joyful creativity without your vulgar stalking? …

Speaking of which…

show full post on front page

Incoming Biden WH deputy Chief of Staff Omalley Dillon says she thinks big bipartisan deals are possible even though the Republicans are a “bunch of fuckers” and “mitch McConnell is terrible”https://t.co/1spD5B734q pic.twitter.com/I631xo97nm

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) December 16, 2020

Within an hour of the networks’ at last declaring Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election, his campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon took to Twitter to celebrate. In contrast with what we’ve come to expect from those who serve in the current administration, she wasn’t gloating or triumphalist. She was honest, elated, and grateful. “We can do hard things,” she wrote, “and you just did!”…

… She is the first woman to manage a successful Democratic presidential campaign, the first woman to run a campaign that ousted an incumbent president, and of course the first person to spearhead a winning ticket in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic.

Her task since she joined the Biden team on March 12, 2020—less than 24 hours after Tom Hanks announced he had tested positive for Covid-19, the NBA suspended its season, and the World Health Organization designated the brand-new disease a global pandemic—has been to do the hardest possible things: Win a virtual election. Fight a cascade of misinformation. Keep hundreds of staffers and the candidate himself safe. Do not flinch.

After Biden is sworn in, O’Malley Dillon will serve as his deputy chief of staff—her first White House role ever after two decades in presidential politics. But in the meantime, with the tiniest bit of breathing room now that Donald Trump and the GOP have lost almost 60 court cases in their futile, craven efforts to overturn the will of the voters in the 2020 race, O’Malley Dillon made some time to meet Doyle over Zoom and talk about—what else?—the hard things…

The scary pull quote, which seems extremely on-point for the campaign Biden just won:

That might be what we’re missing—is that redefining of compromise. That it is or it can be the ultimate victory.

Yes, exactly. And frankly, that’s what we need. The president-elect was able to connect with people over this sense of unity. In the primary, people would mock him, like, “You think you can work with Republicans?” I’m not saying they’re not a bunch of fuckers. Mitch McConnell is terrible. But this sense that you couldn’t wish for that, you couldn’t wish for this bipartisan ideal? He rejected that. From start to finish, he set out with this idea that unity was possible, that together we are stronger, that we, as a country, need healing, and our politics needs that too.

Which is not to say it is easy. It is like a relationship. You can’t do politics alone. If the other person is not willing to do the work, then that becomes really hard. But I think, more than not, people want to see impact. They want to see us moving in a path forward. They want to do their work, get paid a fair share, have time for themselves and their family, and see each other as neighbors. And this overhang of this negative, polarized electorate that politics has created is the thing that I think we can break down…

But the Democrat lady said a Big SWEAR!!1!!…

I can’t count the number of double standards involved here. The things that Republicans and men are allowed to say (“refreshingly frank”!) that Democrats and women aren’t (“beyond the pale”!) is amazeballs. https://t.co/IpVpnqa1c8

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 16, 2020

decorum aside, the degree to which i get upset about a staffer calling politicians “fuckers” depends in no small part on the degree to which those politicians are, in fact, a bunch of fuckers

this is subjective, i understand this

— Normie Transition Team (@CalmSporting) December 17, 2020

Remember when Republican congressional representative @RepTedYoho called Democratic congressional representative @AOC a “fucking bitch” in person? I sure do. But, sure, tell us more about the outrage over a comment in a magazine interview that was directed at no specific person.

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) December 17, 2020

we burned the harsh language fainting couch four years ago, we are not dragging it’s charred and ruined frame out just to let a few anonymous sources score cheap points

— golikecorpromachine (@golikehellmachi) December 16, 2020

yes, after the last four years, let alone the last six weeks, the dems should definitely be worried about (checks notes) hurting congressional republicans’ feelings https://t.co/ioKhkOeubu

— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) December 17, 2020

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Performative OutragePost + Comments (131)

Monday Morning Open Thread: Building A Cabinet & An Administration

by Anne Laurie|  December 7, 20206:04 am| 190 Comments

This post is in: Biden-Harris 2020, Excellent Links, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You

President-elect Joe Biden is more popular than President Trump has been at any point since he started running for president in June 2015, according to a new Gallup poll.https://t.co/mDXru28AEm

— CNN (@CNN) December 6, 2020

Reuters has an excellent checklist of what we actually know about Biden’s choices for his team to date. Many fine choices!

show full post on front page

In this video, Biden calls for extending unemployment insurance, emergency paid leave, and the eviction moratorium. Every person dunking on it by claiming he just wants government to understand people, not help them, is actually showing they tweet about videos they don't watch. https://t.co/jyB1HeTus1

— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) December 6, 2020

This is so pathetic. We are literally trying to convince people, some in power but a lot not, that there’s no shame in the richest country in the world using its resources for the good of its citizens. How pathological is that?

— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 6, 2020

Joe Biden is a natural optimist, and a skilled practitioner of reach-across-the-aisle politics. He also knows, as my granny would say, how many beans make five:

i don't know if it will hold, nor do i know if it'll be successful, but i have been surprised by the degree to which biden's cabinet choices have not been compromises or attempts to win over republican support. that's not something i would've predicted from him. https://t.co/bUjRZ5pz3M

— special interest machine (@golikehellmachi) December 4, 2020

Speaking of the Soon-to-Be-Ex-Squatter… the wealth of details here made me laugh:
Fired Sale - Lalo Alcaraz

(Lalo Alcaraz via GoComics.com)

Monday Morning Open Thread: Building A Cabinet & An AdministrationPost + Comments (190)

Horrifying Stories: How Kyle Rittenhouse Spent His ‘Stimulus Money’

by Anne Laurie|  December 5, 20208:49 pm| 127 Comments

This post is in: domestic terrorists, Excellent Links, GOP Death Cult, Gun nuts

Wisconsin court rules there is enough evidence to warrant a trial for Kyle Rittenhouse in the killing of two men and the wounding of a third in Kenosha in August. The killings came two days after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man.https://t.co/Nn8TlP5lGF

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 3, 2020

While his right-wing-crowd-funded lawyers did their uneven best, it seems that ‘hapless manchild forced to defend himself against angry pervs and violent anarchists’ was an insufficient excuse to just quietly flush this whole unfortunate incident down the memory hole. So here’s some horror tales for a Saturday night:

show full post on front page

This says so much about the tragedy that is the United States of America, November 2020:
Easy access to weapons.
Little access to healthcare.
Less access to mental health.
Rage, racism.
Unemployment & economic fearfulness.
And #COVID19 in the background.https://t.co/X93EUXpRzH pic.twitter.com/HaZzPEqg8f

— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) November 19, 2020

… A Washington Post examination of video and police records, along with other documents, sheds new light on the mindsets of the two people principally involved — one a gun enthusiast who thought of himself as a medic, the other a homeless man with a criminal record who was discharged that day from a psychiatric hospital.

The Post found that Rittenhouse, who was too young to buy a rifle, had arranged for an adult friend to buy the weapon for him using money Rittenhouse had received from a government stimulus program.

The Post interviewed Rittenhouse, who spoke publicly for the first time since his arrest. He said he did not regret that he had a gun that night. “I feel I had to protect myself,” he said. “I would have died that night if I didn’t.”

One of Rittenhouse’s sisters told The Post that he supported peaceful demonstrations but objected to violence and called the rioters in Kenosha “monsters.”

The examination also reveals new details about Rosenbaum’s struggles with mental illness and includes the first on-camera interview with his fiancee, Kariann Swart. “I don’t think there’s any sort of self-defense when there’s an unarmed person in front of you, and you’re holding an assault rifle two feet away,” she said. “But yet on the other hand, you know, Joe, you shouldn’t have been down there.”…

Some of the worst people in the GOP Death Cult helped buy Rittenhouse his temporary freedom, some of them are trying to further their political careers off him, and — inevitably — some of the cultists have gone to war with their fellows over him. Meanwhile, the best future this sorry mope can look forward to is a cell adjourning Dzhokhar Tsarnaev‘s in the ‘But It Seemed So Heroic When They Described It to Me’ Supermax…

99% of suburban gun nuts masturbate to this fantasy of winning a heroic OK Corral shootout against murderous invaders. 0% of them will ever have a chance to. It is sad, in a way, until they, fired up by obliging GOP fearmongers like Ted, go actively looking for their chance…

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) November 22, 2020

For, you see, 99.999% of gun nuts are, to use a technical term, pussies. I haven't shot an actual gun since I was 16 and never plan to again in my life, and I could beat up any one of them with a frying pan without breaking into sweat. They are decadent, bored, suburban pussies..

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) November 22, 2020

They know that as long as they merely brandish their toys and yell at cops' faces, then, by virtue of being white, they are gonna be fine. Actually pulling that trigger unleashes a world of possibilities they have never contemplated when jerking off to their fantasies…

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) November 22, 2020

Someone young enough to not understand consequences. Or someone stupid enough to not care about them. Someone like Kyle Rittenhouse, who would have made a perfect Hitlerjugend in the 1940s, or someone like the Michigan would-be kidnappers who are actually violently insane…

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) November 22, 2020

Rittenhouse won't be the last one. Not all crazy plots will fail. More "heroes" will be elevated by the right. Killing liberals will become normalized. Some suburban pussies may actually be convinced that pulling the trigger won't have dire consequences. You finish this story.

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) November 22, 2020

Horrifying Stories: How Kyle Rittenhouse Spent His ‘Stimulus Money’Post + Comments (127)

The Ongoing Pandemic: Some (More) Longer Reads

by Anne Laurie|  December 2, 202012:11 pm| 144 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Excellent Links, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You

The US reported the second highest day of Covid-19 deaths Tuesday.

There were 2,597 new deaths reported across the US. The only day to top it was April 15, when six more deaths were recorded. https://t.co/UP95QuOZgp

— CNN (@CNN) December 2, 2020

Don’t know who still needs the warning, but: Unpleasant material below the fold…

show full post on front page

======

As COVID19 surges across the US, it’s hard to describe the situation inside hospitals for healthcare providers & patients.

We made this video depicting 1 day in the ER to show the painful reality & to remind us why we must remain vigilant. Please watch.pic.twitter.com/JzxcHJKFuP

— Craig Spencer MD MPH (@Craig_A_Spencer) November 29, 2020

======

States With Few COVID-19 Restrictions Are Spreading the Virus Beyond Their Borders https://t.co/BB0N64foea pic.twitter.com/Gvk9GzSsvf

— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) December 1, 2020

Finally, something red states are willing to share with their more prudent neighbors…

… As the number of COVID-19 cases skyrockets nationwide, the extent of the public health response varies from one state — and sometimes one town — to the next. The incongruous approaches and the lack of national standards have created confusion, conflict and a muddled public health message, likely hampering efforts to stop the spread of the virus. The country’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said last month that the country needs “a uniform approach” to fighting the virus instead of a “disjointed” one.

Nowhere are these regulatory disparities more counterproductive and jarring than in the border areas between restrictive and permissive states; for example, between Washington and Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota, and Illinois and Iowa. In each pairing, one state has imposed tough and sometimes unpopular restrictions on behavior, only to be confounded by a neighbor’s leniency. Like factories whose emissions boost asthma rates for miles around, a state’s lax public health policies can wreak damage beyond its borders.

“In some ways, the whole country is essentially living with the strategy of the least effective states because states interconnect and one state not doing a good job will continue to spread the virus to other states,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. “States can’t wall themselves off.”…

The degree of coronavirus regulation tends to track political lines. President-elect Joe Biden carried blue Washington state with 58% of the vote, while President Donald Trump easily won red Idaho with 64%. Trump has helped to fuel the patchwork response to the pandemic, criticizing the approaches of some states, praising others and at times contradicting the advice of his own coronavirus task force and Fauci.

“What really struck me [is] how hard it is to take the pandemic strategy as laid out by the White House with every state on its own and … implement it because every state is not on its own, they are all interconnected,” Jha said.

Biden has said he wants to implement national standards, such as required mask wearing, to help blunt the spread of COVID-19 while acknowledging the federal government lacks little power to do so. He hopes to work with governors and local officials to establish consistent standards across the country.

A lack of such consistency is affecting eastern Washington, which appears to be absorbing some of the costs — both human and economic — of Idaho’s more laissez-faire approach to the virus. The rate of new cases in and around Spokane, near the Idaho border, is far higher than in Seattle and western Washington, which experienced one of the earliest outbreaks in the country in February. Although slightly more than half of recent COVID-19 cases in Spokane spread among households or personal contacts, Spokane Regional Health District epidemiologist Mark Springer said, “people bringing back COVID-19 from larger events in Idaho” has been a problem. And with Idaho’s rate of new cases now doubling Washington’s, Idahoans who commute to the Spokane area pose an outsized danger. At the same time, Washington’s shuttered businesses have ceded customers to their Idaho competitors….

======

From an NBC News reporter:

THREAD: I just spent 3 days with frontline workers at hospitals in a part of Appalachia where hospitalizations have more than doubled in the last month. But hospital staff say many in their hard-hit communities still don’t believe COVID is real. Misinformation is rampant.

— Dasha Burns (@DashaBurns) November 28, 2020

One nurse told me stories of otherwise healthy 30 year-olds coming in short of breath and not understanding why. She tries showing them chest x-rays and explaining evidence of the disease, but often they don’t believe they have COVID until they’re in critical condition.

Another nurse told me some come in severely sick with COVID, but when they test positive they blame the hospital for giving it to them. There’s a popular conspiracy theory that hospitals are benefitting financially from COVID. But in fact, many are struggling to stay afloat.

Ultimately, politicization and misinformation around COVID are having tragic real-world consequences. People are dying because they don’t seek medical care when they begin having symptoms. They don’t believe they’re sick. And by the time they get to the hospital it‘s too late.

This is heartbreaking for families and also for health workers who often treat people they know personally in these small, tight-knit communities. They are watching neighbors die because they were told by leaders they trust that this virus is a hoax.

These frontline workers see multiple deaths during a single shift…then go out into a world where people downplay the virus, say masks infringe on their civil liberties, and tell stories of big gatherings. And they know they will make more calls to the funeral home tomorrow.

Huge thank you to @BalladHealth staff for taking the time to talk to me about your experiences. It’s not easy. But what you do every day is much harder. Your resilience is staggering.

======

COVID-19 may continue to circulate in rural areas into 2021 and beyond, even as cities get the virus under control through a combination of vaccination and nonpharmaceutical interventions, @aetiology writes.https://t.co/pTRIdZT6g0

— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) November 23, 2020

… In May, I warned in Foreign Affairs that the coronavirus pandemic in rural America would lag behind the pandemic in urban areas and that it would be “slower, steadier, and likely to continue for a longer period of time.” That is what has happened so far. After initial outbreaks in the spring that were mostly clustered around specific industry-related hot spots—including meatpacking plants, nursing homes, and jails—many rural areas are now experiencing widespread community transmission. The virus took longer to reach these areas, but now it is making up for lost time. Although cases are rising across the country, the highest per capita infection rates tend to be in rural areas and small towns. In Ohio, for instance, nine of the 12 counties with the highest per capita incidence of COVID-19 have populations of less than 50,000.

Geography alone does not explain this discrepancy. Rural areas are less likely to have mandated that residents wear masks, and even in those areas that have mask mandates, residents are less likely to comply…

The situation in rural areas is likely to get worse before it gets better. Hospitals in these regions (if there are hospitals at all) are smaller and have fewer resources than metropolitan facilities. As a result, a flood of COVID-19 patients can easily overwhelm them. And with rising infection rates straining the health-care system across the country, rural hospitals may not be able to transfer critically ill patients to larger, more urban ones…

Vaccine distribution also presupposes that people are willing to be vaccinated. But potential COVID-19 vaccines have been highly politicized. Just as President Donald Trump’s promise to roll out a vaccine prior to the election sowed distrust among Democrats, the Biden administration’s likely effort to distribute one early next year could meet with skepticism among Republicans, especially in rural areas where Trump supporters will have heard over and over that Biden and the Democrats “stole” the election. Black Americans in both rural and urban environments may also be suspicious of any new vaccine after years of mistreatment by the medical establishment, even though they are at high risk for severe COVID-19 infections…

The Ongoing Pandemic: Some (More) Longer ReadsPost + Comments (144)

Break Out the Tiny Violins: Hard Times for the Gun-Humpers

by Anne Laurie|  November 29, 20207:10 pm| 129 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Gun Issues, gun safety

After disputing allegations of misspending for years, the NRA tries to come clean — new tax filing says current and former execs misused the nonprofit’s funds for personal gain. w/ @CarolLeonnig https://t.co/GdMENP9NmF

— Beth Reinhard (@bethreinhard) November 25, 2020

Our bad!… no, really, them bad. They’re trying to save Chief Grifter LaPierre’s worthless arse by blaming the guys who’ve already been thrown off the sledge:

… The NRA said in the filing that it continues to review the alleged abuse of funds, as the tax-exempt organization curtails services and runs up multimillion-dollar legal bills. The assertion of impropriety comes four months after the attorney general of New York state filed a lawsuit accusing NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre and other top executives of using NRA funds for decades to provide inflated salaries and expense accounts.

The tax return, which The Washington Post obtained from the organization, says the NRA “became aware during 2019 of a significant diversion of its assets.” The 2019 filing states that LaPierre and five former executives received “excess benefits,” a term the IRS uses to describe executives’ enriching themselves at the expense of a nonprofit entity.

The disclosures in the tax return suggest that the organization is standing by its 71-year-old chief executive while continuing to pursue former executives of the group. The filing says that LaPierre “corrected” his financial lapses with a repayment and contends that former executives “improperly” used NRA funds or charged the nonprofit for expenses that were “not appropriate.”…

show full post on front page

The tax filing acknowledges that there are disputes over the alleged financial abuses the NRA blames on the departed officers, including former board president Oliver North and former chief lobbyist Chris Cox.

Some of those executives parted ways with LaPierre over his leadership and are cooperating with the New York attorney general’s investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation…

LaPierre personally signed the 2019 tax return; such a document is customarily signed by the organization’s treasurer. “He is putting himself on the line, under penalties of perjury, which is what you do if you are trying to get in someone’s good graces,” Hackney said.

New York lawyer and expert on nonprofits Daniel Kurtz said, “It’s a smart move by the NRA instead of digging in their heels, though who knows how they came up with the numbers. It’s an admission of wrongdoing, for sure.”…

The new tax documents portray an organization trimming costs and struggling as membership dues and other revenue declined even before the coronavirus pandemic curbed charitable fundraising nationwide. The NRA reported a $12.2 million operating shortfall last year, up from $2.7 million the previous year. This is the fourth year in a row the organization has reported spending more than it took in.

The one area where the NRA’s expenses are growing: legal costs, which soared in 2019 to $38.5 million from $25 million in 2018. Ackerman McQueen was the NRA’s highest paid contractor for years, churning out provocative marketing campaigns and broadcasts, until the relationship disintegrated in a litigious squabble last year. Now the NRA’s single largest vendor is the Dallas law firm headed by William Brewer, which was paid nearly $25 million last year…

To reiterate: The NRA is not a gun organization with a lobbying arm, it’s a grift lobbying business with a gun-related trademark.

Related topics, from a longer thread:

To distill @mattyglesias' take: gun politics are bad for Democrats, gun policies aren’t effective enough to be worth the sacrifice, so progressives should just cede the issue in favor of other priorities. Why I think he’s wrong (a thread): https://t.co/5KxgAnMMF7

— Ted Alcorn (@TedAlcorn) November 26, 2020

But are gun politics really bad for Democrats? Yglesias argues that reformers’ message invariably collapses into “gun control > gun rights,” which polls poorly and puts them fundamentally at odds with gun owners. But to end gun violence we need not take the path of “gun control.

— Ted Alcorn (@TedAlcorn) November 26, 2020

The science backs focused deterrence & violence interruption to address community violence, lethal means counseling & protection orders to reduce suicide, & yes, commonsense laws strengthening norms for safely selling & storing guns. @Abt_Thomas https://t.co/o5axWsQtef

— Ted Alcorn (@TedAlcorn) November 26, 2020

Yglesias is beholden to the old myth that gun hobbyists are some uber-powerful bloc—but they’ve never been more than a fraction of the population, and they're increasingly matched by single-issue voters on the other side who have finally gotten organized. https://t.co/Me3BpF2PaW

— Ted Alcorn (@TedAlcorn) November 26, 2020

Bottom-line: if you do the hard work of building public support, addressing a national scourge (and one that falls grossly unevenly across the population) through moderate and evidence-based means can be good politics and good policy.

— Ted Alcorn (@TedAlcorn) November 26, 2020

Break Out the Tiny Violins: Hard Times for the Gun-HumpersPost + Comments (129)

Friday Morning Open Thread: President-Elected Biden Continues To Impress

by Anne Laurie|  November 20, 20207:35 am| 310 Comments

This post is in: Biden-Harris 2020, Excellent Links, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

“We need to be clear with the American people about what to expect”

President-elect Joe Biden outlines his plan for tackling the Covid crisis in the US https://t.co/VVJu36MLxx pic.twitter.com/5Dpefv6C17

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 19, 2020

show full post on front page

I spy FIVE Republican governors on this call with the President-Elect — including Alabama, Utah and Arkansas https://t.co/FzKnf6uNkO

— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) November 19, 2020

Biden brushes aside Trump attempts to overturn the election, confident his victory will stand https://t.co/L4sM2Vjk9S

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 20, 2020


Excellent read:

… “It’s hard to fathom how this man thinks. It’s hard to fathom,” Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Del. “I am confident he knows he hasn’t won and he’s not going to be able to win, and we’re going to be sworn in on Jan. 20.”

Biden said he did not plan any new legal moves in response to Trump’s latest efforts, but also did not rule out taking action against the General Services Administration at a future date to force a belated recognition of his presidential transition. The GSA, following Trump’s dictate, has refused to allow the traditional exchange of information with the incoming administration, even blocking intelligence and pandemic briefings.

“Hang on. I’m on my way,” Biden said, after being asked what he would tell people concerned by Trump’s efforts to question the results. “That’s what I say to them. Not a joke.”…

Biden’s communications team has also concluded there is no upside to engaging more directly with Trump’s false claims about the election, including broadly discredited conspiracy theories of massive voter fraud. They are aware that such accusations may weaken voters’ confidence in the election and Biden’s ability to govern across party lines but think elevating the issue with Biden at the fore would not help.

“The Biden campaign built the largest and most aggressive voter protection operation in history, and they are still out there making sure every vote is counted and all the votes are certified,” said Ben LaBolt, who served as press secretary for President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. “The president-elect is focused right where he should be, which is staffing his administration and outlining his plan to govern.”…

“The claims are totally laughable and it’s political theater,” said one Biden adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. “We’re focused on the issues that we think the American people care about: health care, covid, the economy. And that’s the split screen: Trump is relegated to a smaller and smaller audience while we’re focused on doing the business of the transition.”…

JUST IN: After a statewide audit, Georgia election officials have confirmed President-elect Biden's victory over President Trump https://t.co/aReuY9s9d2

— CNN (@CNN) November 20, 2020

A top Georgia election official says a hand tally of race ballots has been completed and the results affirm Joe Biden's narrow lead over President Trump. The hand count stemmed from a required audit and was not in response to any suspected problems. https://t.co/CQGcCYVMz4

— The Associated Press (@AP) November 20, 2020

The Biden transition team is in the process of vetting Rep. Deb Haaland for the Interior secretary post, sources told The Hill.

If tapped by Biden, Haaland's nomination would be historic, making her the first Native American Cabinet secretary.https://t.co/reUEwwwXvR

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 18, 2020

Yes, that's Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), Haaland's counterpart on the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. QUITE an endorsement: https://t.co/rGH8YSyUGK

— Emma Dumain (@Emma_Dumain) November 18, 2020

Friday Morning Open Thread: President-Elected Biden Continues To ImpressPost + Comments (310)

Thanksgiving 2020: A Superspreader Event for the Whole Family!

by Anne Laurie|  November 17, 202010:32 am| 227 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Excellent Links, Information Warfare, Our Failed Media Experiment

Party of Death. https://t.co/WWBCGn2i6u

— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) November 14, 2020

If your loved ones and/or family have decided that ‘Thanksgiving is too important *not* to celebrate as usual’, it’s probably too late to change their minds. But maybe some gentle advice from, say, the CDC, might at least help them minimize the aftereffects…
Thanksgiving 2020:  A Superspreader Event for the Whole Family!

The COVID-19 pandemic has been stressful and isolating for many people. Gatherings during the upcoming holidays can be an opportunity to reconnect with family and friends. This holiday season, consider how your holiday plans can be modified to reduce the spread of COVID-19 to keep your friends, families, and communities healthy and safe.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 epidemic is worsening, and small household gatherings are an important contributor to the rise in COVID-19 cases. CDC offers the following considerations to slow the spread of COVID-19 during small gatherings. These considerations are meant to supplement—not replace—any state, local, territorial, or tribal health and safety laws, rules, and regulations with which all gatherings must comply…

show full post on front page

Considerations for Hosting or Attending a Gathering
If you will be hosting a gathering during the holiday season that brings people who live in different households together, follow CDC tips for hosting gatherings. If you will be attending a gathering that someone else is hosting, follow CDC Considerations for Events and Gatherings. Below are some general considerations for hosting a gathering that brings together people from different households. Guests should be aware of these considerations and ask their host what mitigation measures will be in place during the gathering. Hosts should consider the following:

  • Check the COVID-19 infection rates in areas where attendees live on state, local, territorial, or tribal health department websites. Based on the current status of the pandemic, consider if it is safe to hold or attend the gathering on the proposed date…
  • If setting up outdoor seating under a pop-up open air tent, ensure guests are still seated with physical distancing in mind. Enclosed 4-wall tents will have less air circulation than open air tents. If outdoor temperature or weather forces you to put up the tent sidewalls, consider leaving one or more sides open or rolling up the bottom 12” of each sidewall to enhance ventilation while still providing a wind break…
  • Encourage guests to avoid singing or shouting, especially indoors. Keep music levels down so people don’t have to shout or speak loudly to be heard…
  • Provide and/or encourage attendees to bring supplies to help everyone to stay healthy. These include extra masks (do not share or swap with others), hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol, and tissues. Stock bathrooms with enough hand soap and single use towels.
  • Limit contact with commonly touched surfaces or shared items such as serving utensils.
  • Use touchless garbage cans if available. Use gloves when removing garbage bags or handling and disposing of trash. Wash hands after removing gloves.
  • Plan ahead and ask guests to avoid contact with people outside of their households for 14 days before the gathering.
  • Treat pets as you would other human family members – do not let pets interact with people outside the household.
  • That last item — dogs and cats can get COVID-19, and while they probably won’t pass it on to humans, it’s only fair to remind guests not to snuggle Rover or Muffy without washing their hands first, and afterwards.

    Unfortunately, one of every pandemic’s greatest weapons has been the universal human insistence that ‘MY people are clean and strong; *we* couldn’t possibly carry or spread this plague.’ Also, too many people will tell you — will even believe — that they’ve been ‘totally self-isolated’… except for the housekeeper. Or that visit to the hairdresser. Or their condo’s book club. Or their golf foursome!

    If you think a negative test result means you don't have coronavirus, you could be wrong. Here's what you need to know. https://t.co/jHISjjTMPa

    — CNN (@CNN) November 17, 2020

    People are infectious two days before showing symptoms.

    That means you can't tell if someone is sick by looking at them or asking them how they feel.

    Stay 6' apart and masked. https://t.co/xfTAoZ8s3x

    — COVID19 (@V2019N) November 15, 2020

    hello america this is what happened with canadian thanksgiving pic.twitter.com/iZd1Bok4j0

    — patrick (@patwmurray) November 15, 2020

    Another way to think about these lags is that some of the people who are infected on Thanksgiving will enter the hospital in the middle of December, and the morgue around Christmas. pic.twitter.com/S9kqHW981l

    — Ed Yong (@edyong209) November 15, 2020


    To be continued…

    Thanksgiving 2020: A Superspreader Event for the Whole Family!Post + Comments (227)

    • « Go to Previous Page
    • Go to page 1
    • Go to page 2
    • Go to page 3
    • Go to page 4
    • Interim pages omitted …
    • Go to page 294
    • Go to Next Page »

    Primary Sidebar

    Guest Posts: Priorities

    Kakistocracy
    I believe In My Fellow Americans
    Defeat Them
    Turning Bystanders Into Activists
    UFOs and Officers
    First Up, COVID
    Idiots and Maniacs
    Our National Illness
    Libraries
    You Have One Job

    Do Something!

    Call Your Senators & Representatives
    Directory of US Senators
    Directory of US Representatives
    Letter to Elected Officials – Albatrossity
    Letter to Elected Officials – Martin

    I Got the Shot!

    🎈Ways to Support Our Site

    Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
    Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal
    Shop Amazon via this link to support Balloon Juice ⬇  

    Recent Comments

    • Platonicspoof on COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Saturday/Sunday, Jan. 23-24 (Jan 24, 2021 @ 11:39am)
    • OzarkHillbilly on Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Hydroponics for Winter Cheer (Jan 24, 2021 @ 11:37am)
    • Chris Johnson on Repub Stupidity Open Thread: These Colors Don’t Run… But *We* Do! (Jan 24, 2021 @ 11:37am)
    • WaterGirl on Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Hydroponics for Winter Cheer (Jan 24, 2021 @ 11:35am)
    • waratah on Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Hydroponics for Winter Cheer (Jan 24, 2021 @ 11:33am)

    Team Claire, and Family

    Help for David’s Niece Claire
    Claire Updates
    Claire update for the holidays 12/23

    Balloon Juice Posts

    View by Topic
    View by Author
    View by Month & Year

    Featuring

    John Cole
    Silverman on Security
    COVID-19 Coronavirus
    Medium Cool with BGinCHI
    Information Is Power

    Calling All Jackals

    Site Feedback
    Submit Photos to On the Road
    Nominate a Rotating Tag
    Meetups: Proof of Life
    2021 Pets of Balloon Juice Calendar

    Culture: Books, Film, TV, Music, Games, Podcasts

    Noir: Favorites in Film, Books, TV
    Book Recommendations & Indy Recs
    Mystery Recommendations
    Medium Cool: What If (Books & Films)
    Netflix Favorites
    Amazon Prime Favorites
    Netflix Suggestions in July
    Fun Music Thread
    Longmire & Netflix Suggestions
    Medium Cool: Places!
    Medium Cool: Games!
    Medium Cool: Watch or Read Again

    Twitter

    John Cole’s Twitter

    [custom-twitter-feeds]

    Site Footer

    Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

    • Facebook
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • Comment Policy
    • Our Authors
    • Blogroll
    • Our Artists
    • Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2021 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc