Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

The house always wins.

Nevertheless, she persisted.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Screw the Judean People’s Front. Splitters.

Mission Accomplished!

We still have time to mess this up!

Wetsuit optional.

Not all heroes wear capes.

… makes me wish i had hoarded more linguine

Trump is going to draw a dick on that dog with a sharpie, isn’t he?

I personally stopped the public option…

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

‘Forty-two’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.

Good luck with your asparagus.

Too inconsequential to be sued

The revolution will be supervised.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Everybody saw this coming.

This blog will pay for itself.

Militantly superior in their own minds…

You are here: Home / Archives for Open Threads / Excellent Links

Excellent Links

Schadenfreudelicious Link: “Grief, anger, disbelief: Trump voters face Biden’s victory”

by | 317 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Did we not say all the incantations correctly? Did we not sacrifice the best fruits of our labors? How can we have been forsaken, oh Dark Lords of Death?

The Associated Press does not have the Grey Lady’s smarmy sympathy for the befuddled Trumpists. (I swear, just for a moment, I wondered if Betty Cracker was muscling into DougJ’s parody territory… )

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — When Joan Martin heard that Joe Biden had been declared the winner of the presidential election, the retired nurse and avowed supporter of President Donald Trump was deeply unsettled. To steel herself, she thought about how her household weathered Hurricane Katrina when it battered her hometown of Picayune, Mississippi, in 2005.

As the storm blew toward the town, Martin rushed out into her yard to carry her 85 show chickens to safety. Outside, howling winds lashed her family’s barn, lifting the edges of the roof off its moorings.

“The next day they (the chickens) were very concerned about the changes in the yard — we had trees down,” said Martin, 79. “They were very eyes-wide. But within two days, they said, ‘Oh, yeah, we can deal with this,’ and they did. So I have to follow their lead.”

Across the country, many of the 71.9 million people who voted for Trump — especially his loyal, passionate base — are working through turbulent emotions in the wake of his loss. Grief, anger and shock are among the feelings expressed by supporters who assumed he would score a rock-solid victory — by a slim margin, maybe easily, perhaps even by a landslide….

Schadenfreudelicious Link: “Grief, anger, disbelief: Trump voters face Biden’s victory”Post + Comments (317)

Excellent Watch: The Current Leader of the Free World Congratulates President-Elect Biden

by | 267 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Excellent Watch: The Current Leader of the Free World Congratulates President-Elect BidenPost + Comments (267)

Trump Crime Cartel Death Watch Open Thread: Murdoch Has Declared Trump A Sunk Cost

by | 152 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

This has been brewing for some time, of course. From the Washington Post, “The long love affair between Fox News and Trump may be over”:

The last day of Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign began just after 7 a.m., as polls opened on the East Coast, with a call to “Fox & Friends,” the television morning show that had turned the reality star into a U.S. president. He got his usual hero’s welcome. But it was no longer enough…

…[H]is remarks quickly turned pointed that Tuesday morning as he boasted about how well he had done in the job of president, despite unexpected challenges — not from China or Russia or North Korea, he said, but from the United States. And he mused rhetorically about what had changed the most for him since 2016.

“Fox,” he said, answering his own question. “It’s much different now.” As the hosts sputtered, he elaborated: “In the old days, they wouldn’t put sleepy Joe Biden on every time he opened his mouth. . . . It’s a much different operation — I’m just telling you.”

It was the last day of a campaign Fox had done so much to support, but it was a preview of the war — now one week old but months in the making — that may have permanently ruptured the bond between President Trump and his once-favorite television channel. As he faces expulsion from the White House, Trump has vowed revenge on the network that propelled his political career, according to close White House aides — perhaps by publicly attacking Fox or undermining its business model by endorsing a competitor…

In recent months, he had begun to complain — on Twitter and to his aides — that Fox had turned on him. That impression was only heightened when reports emerged that Murdoch was telling associates that the president was going to lose…

Which leads to this excellent, if daintily-phrased, NYTimes article from last week — “New York Post Shifts Tone on Trump as a Top Editor Plans His Own Exit”:

show full post on front page

Trump Crime Cartel Death Watch Open Thread: Murdoch Has Declared Trump A Sunk CostPost + Comments (152)

“Interesting” Read: If Only This *Were* Haberman’s Professional Obituary…

by | 185 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

To be honest, were *I* Maggie Haberman, I’d have been a lot more suspicious of ‘(No Longer) #BuzzfeedBen’, the man Dean Baquet hastily hired in the wake of Smith’s much-circulated hit piece on… Dean Baquet. But it seems they’re old friends, fellow miscreants in the newsbeat trenches, so…

Of course, Haberman — and her NYTimes bosses — couldn’t resist what must’ve seemed like a victory lap! But when you read the piece, well… those sneaky barbs:

… That was the beginning of the end of one of the most astonishing runs in the history of American journalism. Ms. Haberman has been, for the last four years, the source of a remarkably large share of what we know about Donald Trump and his White House, from the Mueller investigation to his personal battle with the coronavirus to his refusal to accept defeat. She’s done more than a story a day, on average, and stories with her byline have accounted for hundreds of millions of page views this year alone. That’s more than anyone else at The Times…

Politics used to be covered as a kind of a sport, but it doesn’t feel like that anymore. (John King of CNN was jeered for calling vote counting “fun” on election night.) And despite the television glamour and lucrative book contracts that flooded in for reporters in the Trump era, the real work of reporting is painstaking and exhausting: getting people, one by one, to tell you things they should not, and then telling your readers about them.

Ms. Haberman was particularly well-suited for this journalistic moment because of her sheer relentlessness and hunger, and her lack of smug self-satisfaction. She seems to need to prove herself every day. She texts while she drives, talks while she eats, parents while she reports, tweets and regrets it, doomscrolls. She hates Twitter so much she stepped back from the platform in 2018 and wrote an Op-Ed about it, and then started tweeting again. (Relatable!)…

show full post on front page

“Interesting” Read: If Only This *Were* Haberman’s Professional Obituary…Post + Comments (185)

Late Night Schadenfreude: “Inside Trump’s loss: A culmination of self-destructive decisions”

by | 146 Comments

This post is in: , ,

There will be a mort of these stories over the next few weeks, and you all know I am not too nice to share the wealth:

When the White House essentially relocated to Air Force One over the final weeks of the campaign, President Donald Trump had a common reaction whenever he saw his rival Joe Biden appear on one of the airplane’s many televisions.

“Imagine losing to him?” he would ask no one in particular as he hurtled toward another regional airport in another battleground state, according to sources onboard.

When his large-screen television flashed poll numbers showing an unmoving deficit to Biden, Trump sometimes brought his fist down on his wooden desk, jolting the glass of Diet Coke that always seemed to be nearby…

Trump so far has refused to accept the election results, waging a legal strategy to contest them in courts and issuing false allegations of fraud. There are currently no plans to invite Biden to the Oval Office for the traditional meeting between the incoming and outgoing presidents, a historic sign of the peaceful transfer of power. Aides instead are working to craft ways for the President to feel validated even in loss, including through more rallies…

There will be rallies, as long as they can find venues to book. Even if the venue turns out to be an unpaved parking lot between an adult book stare and a crematorium…

show full post on front page

Late Night Schadenfreude: “Inside Trump’s loss: A culmination of self-destructive decisions”Post + Comments (146)

Excellent Read(s): “Joe Biden’s Long Wait Is Over”

by | 156 Comments

This post is in: , ,

A delightful backgrounder for last night:

WILMINGTON, Delaware — About five hours before polls closed on Election Day, 21 empty pickup trucks appeared in the parking lot of the Chase Center, sitting in two careful rows facing the stage where Joe Biden was supposed to address the nation in a victory speech later that evening.

The fleet of Jeep Gladiators and Jeep Wranglers, along with some Ford Rangers and Chevy Silverados, had been arranged in alternating colors of red, white, and blue, all with open backs or sunroofs, and hoods stamped with BIDEN–HARRIS decals. They were reserved for the family and friends who would be arriving with Biden to his socially distanced “drive-in” rally — the proverbial front row in a sea of other cars. Sitting opposite a freshly installed panel of bulletproof glass, US Secret Service protection befitting a president-elect, they had the clean and perfect look of new rental cars, windows darkened, paint gleaming in the sun. In the style of a tailgate, aides had placed a pair of blue folding chairs in the back of each truck.

By 11 p.m., it was clear there wouldn’t be a final result that night. Light-up foam batons, stamped with the campaign logo for guests in the parking lot, never got distributed. After midnight, when Biden finally did arrive, his motorcade sped into the parking lot of the adjacent Westin hotel, and his party took their seats in the Jeeps: There was his brother Jimmy Biden, Jill Biden’s sisters, and the former vice president’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, watching from the roof of a Jeep. They had waited a long time for this night. Around 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, they finally got to see him take the stage, only to say “we’re going to have to be patient” and “keep the faith.” After three minutes, Biden waved goodbye, and headed home…

Throughout the week, his campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon hosted daily Zoom briefings, laying out projections for the outstanding vote. On Thursday, Biden published a transition website, saying he was dedicated to preparing for his possible administration and would “continue preparing at full speed.” That afternoon, he and Harris attended briefings on the economy and the coronavirus pandemic, which is deep in a deadly third wave that has brought the total number of American deaths to more than 236,000. On Friday, Biden aides believed they would finally get their call, going public with plans for a victory party, broadcast live on primetime television. The networks held off, and once again, Biden passed the stage, empty and waiting, to address reporters inside the Chase Center.

“As slow as it goes, it can be numbing,” he said of watching the numbers come in on TV. “But never forget: The tallies aren’t just numbers. They represent votes and voters, men and women who exercise the fundamental right to have their voice heard.”…

======

… As the country waited for ballots to be counted, it was Biden — not the occupant of the Oval Office — who was reassuring people that this democracy was intact, that the system was working and that the center would hold. He was the voice of calm optimism in the midst of tumultuous times.

When he became president-elect late Saturday morning, he did something far more herculean than accepting responsibility for a worsening pandemic and a struggling economy. He removed a terrible, suffocating weight from the back of this nation. For the more than 74 million Americans who voted for him — and surely even for some of those who did not — Biden’s election allowed this country to laugh, to dance and to breathe. He cracked open a space where the light could shine through. Indeed, his victory caused people to weep in joyful relief as they became aware of the heaviness that had afflicted their hearts, after they’d suddenly been relieved of it…

show full post on front page

Excellent Read(s): “Joe Biden’s Long Wait Is Over”Post + Comments (156)

Election Watch Open Thread: Examining the Mechanics, with the AP

by | 34 Comments

This post is in: , ,

If you want to look at election stories that are actually informative, the Associated Press has been doing this job for quite a long time, and they’re very professional. From Esquire:

… The Associated Press has called U.S. elections since 1848, when it used a new technology, the telegraph, to declare Zachary Taylor the next president of the United States. In our lifetime, Election Day has pretty much gone like this: visit your local polling place, vote, flip on the TV around prime time, and watch the returns come in. By the time you go to bed, the media has declared a winner. While cable networks have their own teams of experts who compile data and project winners, they rely on the AP’s reporting and data to cross-reference their work. And the AP supplies results to its subscribers, including The New York Times, Google, and myriad local newspapers. The general consensus is if the AP declares a winner, it must be true…

So, how is the Associated Press planning to call a winner in this historic election, to ensure it gets this one right despite the unprecedented hurdles, because getting it wrong could spill the country into chaos?…

The AP’s election-coverage operation is massive and complex, but here’s the simplest way to describe how it calls elections. An editorial team consisting of reporters, editors, and photographers produces stories about Election Day. A team of sixty analysts interprets data coming in from each state to declare winners in about seven thousand elections, from the White House to local races. And “a bridge” of editors, according to [Washington bureau chief] Pace, connects these two sides; she’s part of that team.

show full post on front page

Election Watch Open Thread: Examining the Mechanics, with the APPost + Comments (34)