Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Let me file that under fuck it.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Spare Me the Worry on This One

Spare Me the Worry on This One

by | 139 Comments

This post is in: 

While we’re waiting and watching, I’m seeing some comments on Twitter and elsewhere noting that the prospect of Fox calling PA (and therefore the election) for Biden will be some kind of tough moment for the Fox team, given the freak out that accompanied Fox calling AZ for Trump.

Anyone thinking this has a very narrow view of the Fox mission:  they’re here for the long run of minority rule, and Trump is fucking toast, so they wouldn’t give him the steam off of their piss at this moment in history.  They rode that train to the end of the line, and, for them, there’s always a new one leaving the station.

On a related topic, the prediction that Trump will join up with OAN and create a Trump Network to compete with Fox might be true, but, if he does, I’d argue that it doesn’t matter to Fox.  It’s a big deal to get on a lot of cable systems the way Fox has, and their fascism-curious geriatric audience is a cable audience.   They have a huge first mover advantage.  Trump is also a really terrible businessman who could fuck up a ham sandwich — he’d certainly fuck up Trump Network by putting a goober like Jared in charge, demanding absurd advertising rates, etc.

My prediction is that Fox will call PA as soon as it makes sense, which is going to be quite soon.

ETA: On a completely unrelated topic, holding grudges is an underrated human virtue.

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    My impression is that Fox likes to be first to call elections, so I can see them calling PA before Biden takes the lead.

    ETA:  First!

  2. 2.

    MisterForkbeard

    Agreed. I don’t think Fox is going to have any issues calling the race.

    Like everyone else, they want to be right about it, so they’re waiting. That’s all.

  3. 3.

    guachi

    GA down below 10,000 votes now.

    EDIT: LOL at Patroclus and I dropping vote margins immediately in a new thread.

  5. 5.

    Yarrow

    Elections have consequences.

    Rob Portman is poised to replace Ron Johnson as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which has been investigating the Bidens under Johnson’s chairmanship.Portman has never been enthusiastic about the Biden investigations.t.co/dU7g7GjjK2— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) November 5, 2020

    Did Portman go to Russia on July 4th?

  8. 8.

    trollhattan

    Rupert’s profits will rule the day, so however they treat Trump’s unraveling will be calculated through that lens.

    I hope Biden’s folks boot that OAN trixie from the WH press pool. That nonsense has gone on far too long. “Excuse me sir, can you explain just how you’re so awesome and manly and why the Democrat Party is nothing but losers?”

  9. 9.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The other reason why Fox will do it is just to troll Trump into blowing up for the reality TV drama.  This all about the theater.

  11. 11.

    Luciamia

    Speculation that Trump will address the nation like Biden has. That might push him over  the edge.

  12. 12.

    SoupCatcher

    @Yarrow:

    No. The group of eight did not include Portman.

    I’m not sure if this Washington Post opinion piece is behind the paywall or not, but here’s an excerpt.

    So, what do we call these Red Square Republicans? My interlocutors on Twitter suggest “Moscow Mules.” Or, given the position they put themselves in before our masters in Moscow, perhaps they should be called the Prostrate Eight: Sens. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Hoeven (N.D.), John Neely Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), John Thune (S.D.) and Johnson, plus Rep. Kay Granger (Tex.).

  13. 13.

    trnc

    They rode that train to the end of the line, and, for them, there’s always a new one leaving the station.

    Not to mention the old ones like Yertle.

  15. 15.

    David ?Booooooo!? Koch

    @Baud:  Fox has the luxury of being a joke.

    If they get a call wrong, people would laugh, but it would be ephemeral, as no one takes them seriously as a news outlet.

    If a legitimate outlet gets a call wrong there would be congressional investigations, competing outlets would use the flub as a club, there would be documentaries on the incident for decades.

  17. 17.

    cain

    I hope they announce soon – that gap seems to be growing as well as in Georgia. I would really like to see Arizona on our side as well. Then we can end this destructive conflict.

    How is North Carolina doing?

  18. 18.

    Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)

    I disagree on the trump network thing if that actually happens. First, you’re overstating how much trump would have to do. He wouldn’t be running the network, and OANN is already on cable so it’s not like he’d be creating a network from scratch. He’d license his name–as he always does–and appear as often as he’d like. His presence alone will undoubtedly get OANN added to more cable providers, or get it featured more prominently.

    I can almost guarantee there will be a mass defection of the Fox audience to OANN, especially now that trump would have financial incentive to bash Fox non-stop. Sure, people will still watch Hannity and Carlson before flipping back to OANN, but as far as Fox’s news programming and other filler materials, those ratings will sink like a stone.

    While it would be delightful to watch Fox burn, the sad thing is that it would only be because something far, far worse has taken its place.

  19. 19.

    Splitting Image

    It’s worth pointing out that Fox News’ entire business model is to receive a larger than normal fee from cable companies when they are distributed as part of a package. They earn far more money per cable subscriber than MSNBC or CNN, and far more money than their audience warrants.

    Anybody who tried to duplicate their success without the same fee structure would be dooming themselves to bankruptcy within a few short years.

    Which is another way of saying that Trump is the right man to try it….

  21. 21.

    sdhays

    There’s a cynical level for Fox not just being first, but being willing to “tell like it is” when a lot more people are paying attention. It gives them more legitimacy than they deserve. Megyn Kelly telling Rove that he can’t count was great TV, but it was also an example of a functioning news organization. Most of the time, Fox doesn’t operate like that, but doing it in ways that blow up and get a lot of coverage help in their mission.

  22. 22.

    Barbara

    I read that his aides considered having him speak but they couldn’t decide on what he should say. I guess “Let’s be patient and hopeful while the promise of democracy is fully honored” wasn’t in the cards.

  23. 23.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    Trump needs to be too busy fighting off state *AND FEDERAL* indictments to worry about business prospects. And the blatant dishonesty of Fox News and the entire Republican Party really needs to be laid bare.

    With Nixon, we “looked forward, not back” and Reagan came into office, and sold weapons to Iran, to illegally fund the Contras. When Bush pardoned him, we looked forward, not back, and were lied into a war, and civil rights were flushed down the toilet. We looked forward, not back, and ended up with Trump.

    We need full, fair, and excruciatingly non-partisan investigators to show just how deep the rot runs through the Republican Party, or this nation is going to continue to be in a world of hurt. I mean, come on; y’all *know* that every case, every death, after 2020-11-03 is going to be Biden’s fault, somehow. You know the Republicans will block stimulus unless it’s *precisely* what they want (which won’t work), and then blame Biden for the economic pain. I even saw a news story about how McConnell is going to block Biden’s cabinet (unless he, essentially, nominates Republicans), as if the Republicans hadn’t howled at the very *prospect* of doing that to Trump.

    The truth of how slimy and despicable the Republicans are just doesn’t matter; it won’t move the needle. People don’t care that the Republicans don’t give a fig for the Constitution (remember: it specifies that the President has a duty to see the laws faithfully executed; you can’t revere the Constitution if you’ll skip the parts that aren’t appealing when your party is on power). But we all know there’s corruption, and almost certainly criminality, to be found.

    I was talking to a nurse who is especially scandalized by how there must be plenty of people in the administration who knew laws were being broken, and she wanted to know why *she* faces a year in jail if she fails to report something important (like suspicion of danger to the welfare of a child), and why so few people in the administration seem obliged to report on lawbreaking – or, if they are obliged, why they’re showing so little concern over their failures to report. I mean, seriously, lots of people knew Trump was extorting Ukraine; but only one whistleblower came forward. WTF?

  29. 29.

    Barbara

    @Splitting Image: I read that as well in articles about why advertising boycotts don’t have much impact on Fox. I wonder how long-term these arrangements are, but even so, old people make up a disproportionate share of cable subscribers so I’m not sure Fox won’t continue to have bargaining leverage.

  30. 30.

    bmoak

    @cain:

    OANN had already been kicked out of the press pool but the WHPCC because Chanel Rion refused to follow masking/distancing guidelines.  She is there as a “special guest” of the Press Secretary.

  31. 31.

    guachi

    @patroclus: Perdue’s been below 50% since this morning. It just wasn’t low enough to show up as “49.9%” as it was getting rounded to 50%.

  33. 33.

    Humanities Prof

    @cain: North Carolina is going to be locked in stasis for another week.  Can’t remember exactly why; I believe it has to do with the vagueries of state election law.

  38. 38.

    Humanities Prof

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Now that you say it, that does ring a bell.

    Doesn’t seem likely that North Carolina can be flipped (the gap is about 1.4%, which might be too big to close), but there’s a good chance Biden knocks Trump’s margin of victory down well below 1%.

    If everything else works out the way it should, it won’t matter.

  42. 42.

    cain

    @LongHairedWeirdo:

    He doesn’t have any money – he can’t afford to pay lawyers – not without a little help and looks like DB is calling in their markers. They are done with him. I think he’s going to be going down in flames.

    HIs people should see him circling the drain – to show that he was an empty suit with nothing to show for it. I want them to despair.

  43. 43.

    hueyplong

    I’m normally optimistic about close states. As a NC resident, I’m not optimistic about NC.

  45. 45.

    Martin

    Fox’s polling and election calling team is outstanding. Seriously – it’s the only redeeming quality that Fox has. The problem is just so at odds it is with the rest of Fox News. I sometimes wonder if their polling/election team and Rasmussen just changed jobs everyone would come out happier.

  46. 46.

    JPL

    Earlier today on the family text thread, my son announced that Biden was going to win the remaining states except NC.    It’s important to know that my son also says some things just to make me feel better.   e.g. During one of our famous ice storms, he said don’t worry if you can’t get home, I’ll come and get you.   Even I didn’t think that was true.

  48. 48.

    scav

    Is the winner of the World Series announced by Republican mobs before, during or after spring training?

  52. 52.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @JPL: The very fact that GA is down to the wire is amazing in itself and a sign of things are changing.

  53. 53.

    Yarrow

    Republicans are going to be dealing with the Trumps for awhile.

    It’s quite a thing to watch 2024 GOP prospects jump to attention after @DonaldJTrumpJr called them out for not being aggressive enough in his father’s defense.
    — Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) November 5, 2020

  54. 54.

    schrodingers_cat

    I am fielding brain dead comments from Indian people on Twitter and in the family WhatsApp group and came this close to call a cousin (by marriage) a moron who needs to STFU about things he doesn’t understand.

    He was crowing about voter fraud and our election system, including being critical of paper ballots. RW talking points from the IT Cell. Because I saw them on Twitter as well.

  56. 56.

    Jeffro

    @Yarrow: via WaPo

    Two of the president’s sons, Eric and Don Jr., as well as his personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, lashed out at fellow Republicans who haven’t rallied behind their baseless claims of voter fraud and lawsuits to invalidate some votes.  “The total lack of action from virtually all of the ’2024 GOP hopefuls; is pretty amazing,” Don Jr. tweeted. “They have a perfect platform to show that they’re willing & able to fight but they will cower to the media mob instead. Don’t worry @realDonaldTrump will fight & they can watch as usual!”

    “Where is the GOP?! Our voters will never forget…” Eric Trump tweeted.  “NO, THEY WON’T!” Giuliani tweeted in response.

    Haley and Cotton chimed in dutifully, of course.  Nobody else, though!  LOL

    They want y’all GONE, trumpov krime kartel!  Preferably all together, plane-into-the-side-of-a-mountain wise.

  57. 57.

    Bill Arnold

    @SoupCatcher:
    I’d forgotten how interesting that list of Red Square Republicans is.
    If any of them are compromised and the Federal Government knows it and Biden is in control of the Executive Branch, that could flip control of the Senate.

  59. 59.

    Martin

    @cain: I’m not convinced they made the right call about AZ. I think if they did, they were lucky.  I think they fucked up a bit about the specific way that AZ counts ballots, got ahead of things, and has probably been having continuous debates about whether they  should pull that call back. Having AP also call it lets them ride it out.

    I don’t fault them too much for that. This is fucking hard, and with literally thousands of different trends to keep track of, you’re going to get some of them wrong. The upshot is that election calling is generally quite conservative so usually your fuck-ups don’t get seen because they’re usually small.

  60. 60.

    rikyrah

    @Martin:

     

    Fox’s polling and election calling team is outstanding. Seriously – it’s the only redeeming quality that Fox has.

     

    THIS.

     

    You would think that Fox would be another Rasmussen – but, it’s legit.

     

    It’s so strange to type that.

  65. 65.

    Humanities Prof

    Does anyone here know how late state officials work on counting ballots?

    After 5:00 pm here in the east, but I suspect they’ll be at it for a while longer.  They don’t work around the clock, do they?   At what time do they shut it down for the day and pick it up in the morning?

  66. 66.

    debbie

    OAN would be nuts (even more nutzy than they already are) to launch anything with Trump. He’s failed at everything he’s ever tried.

  67. 67.

    AnotherBruce

    So enlighten me, what does it mean to block cabinet employees? I’m talking about the physical blocking as well. Someone from the legislative branch can block the executive branch. It seems to me that Biden can go and tell McConnell to take a flying fuck at a rolling donut and totally ignore him.

  68. 68.

    debbie

    @Humanities Prof:

    The Guardian Live Blog posted this about 10 minutes ago:

    Pennsylvania secretary of state says counting will continue ‘into the evening’
    Kathy Boockvar, the Pennsylvania secretary of state, said the counting of the state’s remaining ballots would continue “into the evening.”

    Speaking to reporters in Harrisburg, Boockvar expressed pride in how election officials have conducted the count in Pennsylvania.

    Boockvar also noted military and overseas ballots will be counted through next Tuesday, and provisional ballots will still need to be processed.

    “The closer the race is, the longer it takes,” Boockvar said, noting there are hundreds of thousands of ballots left to be counted in Pennsylvania.

  69. 69.

    Wapiti

    @Humanities Prof: They’ve got a huge number of service members stationed there; it makes sense that they’d accept ballots received after election day, as along as they have a valid postmark of election day or earlier.

  70. 70.

    Martin

    @Humanities Prof: Boy, that usually varies by county.

    Bottom line, everyone has a deadline to certify the vote. Here in CA it’s early December, so our counties are chill – slow and steady, don’t burn everyone out. Other places it’s like next week and they’re fucking scrambling and going 24/7.

    I think that’s why AZ is going nonstop and why Nevada is like ‘yeah, we’ll get to it’

  73. 73.

    hueyplong

    @debbie: Beautiful.  So long as Biden has passed Trump before we get into all those extras, we’ll be drinking while Trump suffers the torments of the damned.

  74. 74.

    Another Scott

    @AnotherBruce: The trouble with that is that official acts taken by a non-confirmed Secretary (etc.) can (and have been) challenged in court as being illegal.  So, it hamstrings the agency in doing its job.

    The process does matter.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  75. 75.

    Kent

    @AnotherBruce:So enlighten me, what does it mean to block cabinet employees? I’m talking about the physical blocking as well. Someone from the legislative branch can block the executive branch. It seems to me that Biden can go and tell McConnell to take a flying fuck at a rolling donut and totally ignore him.

    Whatever you are hearing is bullshit.  The president has absolute control over the executive branch.  To the extent that Congress can intervene it is only through legislation which would need to go through both houses of Congress and passed by Pelosi.  McConnell has zero ability to do anything with respect to the executive branch except (1) block confirmations which doesn’t affect policy because acting secretaries can still do the same job, and (2) open the usual Senate investigations and subpoena executive branch staff like they always do.

  76. 76.

    Ohio Mom

    Rob Portman is one of my Senators. He is Susan Collins — he pretends to be reasonable and moderate — but with a stone face.

    Do not expect anything good from him and you won’t be disappointed.

  80. 80.

    Kent

    @Another Scott:

    @AnotherBruce: The trouble with that is that official acts taken by a non-confirmed Secretary (etc.) can (and have been) challenged in court as being illegal.  So, it hamstrings the agency in doing its job.

    The process does matter.

    The law provides that interim acting officials have a finite term of service and can’t be acting forever.   I don’t know the exact length of time.  I think Trump’s folks are getting sued because they have acting officials who are acting like they are permanent and still making decisions past the point that the law allows.

    But acting officials who are acting legally have the same power as confirmed secretaries.  The lawsuits are about officials still making decisions despite expired terms, not the fact that acting officials were making decisions.

  82. 82.

    One of the Many Jens

    On the previous post, folks were wondering about Nevada.  The main things that have made this race more difficult than usual are (a1) for the first time ever, every registered voter was sent a mail-in ballot, because of the pandemic.  So there was no way to know for sure exactly how that would play out in terms of registered vs likely voters.  That led to an enormous amount of uncertainty.  (a2) Those mail-in ballots have to be postmarked by election day, not received by election day, so how many ballots that would include fits into that uncertainty around a1.  (b) Also because of the pandemic, door to door canvassing didn’t occur, and I think turnout operations in Clark County are highly dependent on the extremely efficient GOTV operation down there.  The lack of that direct GOTV work was impactful across the country, without doubt, but I think Clark County was especially heavily affected by that, so Ralston’s so-called “Clark County firewall” wasn’t as dominating as expected. (b2) Not to mention that there are a lot of Nevadans hurting right now, since the state’s economy is so tourism/service-industry dependent.  I’m not sure that caused votes to flip (though who knows) so much as it created a lot of turmoil, where that GOTV door-to-door work would have come really really handy.

  83. 83.

    Martin

    @AnotherBruce: Yeah, sorta. It’s a bit like judges in that certain cabinet members must be confirmed. But you can always do what Trump is doing and put acting people in without confirmation. There are limits to that put in place by USSC, but I think we’re going to have to put something in place that guarantees a confirmation vote by the Senate within a certain amount of time of nomination. That was the real problem with Garland – the Senate has no obligation to hold a confirmation vote and can just leave the executive and legislative branches vacant.

    You always have to craft policy around the abuses. I’d have had the Senate confirm these judges/cabinet positions but if after 30 days no vote is held, then the candidate can be assumed to be confirmed.

  84. 84.

    Kent

    2020 just continues to suck.  We just found out today that our 14 year old cat Diego has cancer and will need to be put to sleep tomorrow.  Fuck.

    We are really ready for some good news.

  85. 85.

    hueyplong

    In a case of karma if ever there was one, the last Fulton stuff will be from John Lewis territory.  Would be beautiful if those votes gave Biden the lead.

  86. 86.

    Suzanne

    @Martin: I think they fucked up AZ. Maricopa isn’t blue. CENTRAL PHOENIX and some of the suburbs are blue, but some of the other suburbs are ruby-red.

  87. 87.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Kent: I’m so sorry. I have a 18 year old cat and we had a similar scare about 3 weeks ago, though in our case it ended up just being a virus and she got better.

    I spent a day or two being pretty sure I’d have to put her down and I was inconsolable.

  88. 88.

    Martin

    @Kent: Acting secretaries can, do a degree. But also per federal law, they can only serve in an acting role for 210 days. So if you’re willing to musical chairs your cabinet, sure, you can do it, but that’s a shitty way to run a government.

    You can also take the Trump position of just ignoring the law and the GAO.

  89. 89.

    Another Scott

    @Kent:

    Lawfare:

    As Trump’s insistence that “acting … gives me more flexibility” might suggest, the president has made a great deal of use of the FVRA of late, relying heavily on it to fill open spaces in the administration. In some cases, he has pushed the limits of what the law allows. And in one instance, a judge has found that the president’s maneuvering outright violated the FVRA.

    On March 1, Judge Randolph Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the appointment of Kenneth Cuccinelli as acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director was unlawful. After Trump appointed Cuccinelli to the newly created position of principal deputy director of USCIS in June 2019, the administration then rearranged the line of succession at the agency such that the principal deputy director became the most senior successor to the vacant USCIS director position. This allowed Trump to promote Cuccinelli to the acting director position, seemingly in compliance with FVRA requirements. But the court found that Cuccinelli’s appointment did not comply with the FVRA because “[h]e never did and never will serve in a subordinate role—that is, as an ‘assistant’—to any other USCIS official.”

    My only point is that Biden cannot (legally) do whatever he wants with his cabinet if the Senate refuses to confirm his nominees (which I do not actually expect to happen). There are rules and procedures, and as you point out, time limits.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

    (Condolences to you and yours about Diego.  :-(

  90. 90.

    hueyplong

    @Kent: Oh, man, that’s horrible.  And zero notice.

    We had that happen 7 years ago and I spent an all nighter with the cat before we took him in.  Just heartbreaking.

  92. 92.

    Matt McIrvin

    @guachi: In the unlikely event that Biden holds NV and AZ but does not win PA or GA, for a win of precisely 270 including the Omaha electoral vote, it will precisely match the map I pegged as “this would be really unpleasant but it would almost be worth it for the exploding heads of the Trumpsters I know in Nebraska”.

  94. 94.

    debbie

    @Ohio Mom:

    Like Collins, he’ll be all pursed-lips serious. I’m not sure that’s a good look on a man.

    Meanwhile, does anyone have a link to a run-down of the status of all the court cases? I am having trouble keeping them straight.

  95. 95.

    mdblanche

    @Splitting Image:

    It’s worth pointing out that Fox News’ entire business model is to receive a larger than normal fee from cable companies when they are distributed as part of a package. They earn far more money per cable subscriber than MSNBC or CNN, and far more money than their audience warrants.

    Why do the cable companies agree to that?

  98. 98.

    Martin

    @Suzanne: I think the problem was that they missed how the breakdown of votes would change throughout the count. As we’re seeing, every state has a different dynamic going on based on the voting options and the rules/convention for counting. Here in CA late counts are almost always blue because of how CA law requires ballots to be cured relative to who is more inclined to vote by mail/provisionally. Biden will probably pick up a million vote gap in CA over the next month. It’s a LOT of votes, and it’s a process that I think is unique to CA, but at least prior to this election wasn’t shared in all counties because there was a time window to implement the new policies which some counties like mine met, and others like LA hadn’t fully gotten to.

    Like I said, it’s hard, and because of all of the changes to voting process/trends this year, it’s WAY harder. They’re gonna fuck up a bit here and there.

  99. 99.

    debbie

    @chopper:

    A bit more for you numbers nuts:

    Nevertheless, here are the key numbers: almost 6.5m ballots have been counted so far. Trump’s lead currently stands at 78,000 down from 618,000 on Wednesday morning.

    The vast majority (more than 99%) of in-person votes have been counted, while 326,000 mail-in ballots remain. So far today, Biden has won 78% of mail-in ballots counted.

    (The Guardian)

  101. 101.

    Kent

    @Martin:

    @Kent: Acting secretaries can, do a degree. But also per federal law, they can only serve in an acting role for 210 days. So if you’re willing to musical chairs your cabinet, sure, you can do it, but that’s a shitty way to run a government.

    You can also take the Trump position of just ignoring the law and the GAO.

    Well yes.  Point is that the Senate can be assholes, but they really can’t obstruct any administration policy.  It isn’t like judges.  If a Biden EPA wants to roll back Trump’s regulatory changes, nothing the Senate can do to stop that and messing with confirmations won’t slow it down one bit.

    If Biden wins I honestly think they will confirm all of Biden’s appointees if they aren’t unusually controversial.  Because they know this.  They may make a show if he nominates someone like Susan Rice and they decide to revisit Benghazi.  But there are enough institutionalists in the Senate like Romney, Murkowski, Collins, and Sasse who will vote to confirm.  And Biden can play nuclear war on McConnell if he wants as well.  There are a shitload of corrupt McConnell cronies that need DOJ investigations opened up on them, including McConnell’s wife’s family.   Biden can make McConnell’s live more miserable than the reverse.  Administrative power is a lot more powerful than legislative power.

    Besides, McConnell isn’t about posturing for effect.  He isn’t like the turds in the House with their endless Benghazi crap for the cameras.  He is about exercising power.  I don’t see him fucking around with this small ball stuff.  He will jam things up through budgets, must pass legislation and things like that.   And letting every Biden legislative item die in the Senate.

  105. 105.

    hueyplong

    @debbie: Because Trump told his cult not to use the mail, a Biden percentage in the 70s might well apply regardless of the county at issue.  This looks good to me.

  107. 107.

    Splitting Image

    @mdblanche:

    Why do the cable companies agree to that?

    Because they can pass the extra cost on to their subscribers and their subscribers don’t rebel. When people buy a package of channels from their cable company that includes Fox News, they pay for it whether they want it or not, and the cost is bundled in with the channels they do want.

    The type of TV viewer who might be likely to mount a protest over this is probably also the type of TV viewer who disconnected their cable years ago. At this point cable subscribers are older than average and more likely to tune into Fox anyway, so cable companies aren’t eager to mess up this arrangement.

  108. 108.

    Nora Lenderbee

    @Kent:

    Biden can make McConnell’s live more miserable than the reverse.

    I hope Mr. Decency is not too decent to do that.

  109. 109.

    MisterForkbeard

    @debbie: This is making me do math, but Biden needs to win the remaining at around 3% to win, and that gives him a few thousand votes as a cushion.

    Seriously though, this is the first time I’ve had to put together an algebra calculation in years and it took me a minute to put it together. >_<

  111. 111.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Splitting Image: I wonder if we could fix a lot of this with a new ‘cable bundling’ law or somesuch. Like, cable companies HAVE to offer a cheaper option with only the government channels and… no, that’s not going to work.

    But I’d really love to just make people directly pay for Fox.

  112. 112.

    Bill Arnold

    @Martin:

    Acting secretaries can, do a degree. But also per federal law, they can only serve in an acting role for 210 days.

    Plenty of time to launch Justice-Department-powered opposition research investigations on the dirty-looking Senate Republicans, and leak juicy bits randomly. Or threaten to convincingly enough that MM does his job.

  113. 113.

    Kent

    @debbie:

    Nevertheless, here are the key numbers: almost 6.5m ballots have been counted so far. Trump’s lead currently stands at 78,000 down from 618,000 on Wednesday morning.

    The vast majority (more than 99%) of in-person votes have been counted, while 326,000 mail-in ballots remain. So far today, Biden has won 78% of mail-in ballots counted.

    If this is true, and I’m doing the math right, then Biden wins with about 62% of the remaining vote.  If Biden wins 62% of the remaining 326,000 ballots that will net him 78,240 votes.    As long as his vote percentages keep coming in above 62% he should win.

  114. 114.

    Matt McIrvin

    @debbie: Just crudely assuming Biden gets 78% of the remaining ballots, the shift in the gap should be (.78 – (1-.78)) * 326,000 = 182,560.

    That’s bigger than 78,000.

  115. 115.

    debbie

    @MisterForkbeard:

    From the new thread:

    Georgia “Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that as of 5:45 p.m. today there are approximately 36,331 ballots still outstanding

    Unless they knock off for the night, there should be results pretty soon.

  116. 116.

    MisterForkbeard

    @debbie: It’s easy, just not without writing it down. I think…

    326,000 * (Biden Win Rate) – 326,000 * (1-BWR) – 78,000 = 0.

    Solve for Biden Win Rate and you’re done. If you plug in .63 you get a pretty close result but biden wins by a few thousand, too many to fix in a recount.

  117. 117.

    MisterForkbeard

    @debbie: I haven’t been following the Georgia numbers at all, no idea what kind of clearance rate Biden needs to win there.

  119. 119.

    J R in WV

    @patroclus:

    November 5, 2020 at 5:01 pm

    Pa. difference is now 90,542.

    We just got home from wife’s dentist appointment (crown maintenance) and some shopping.

    I’m sure your post [ 90,542 ] is full of meaning for you, vu to me it is just a random number. Difference between who and what? Which way is the number moving?

    Without more data, 90,542 might as well be the current number of sunspots — just a random factoid which includes some number.

  120. 120.

    James E Powell

    @mdblanche:

    Because people will not subscribe to a cable channel if they can’t get their FOX. It used to be for Bill O’Reilly. I do not know who it’s for now.

  122. 122.

    Kent

    @J R in WV:

    We just got home from wife’s dentist appointment (crown maintenance) and some shopping.

    I’m sure your post [ 90,542 ] is full of meaning for you, vu to me it is just a random number. Difference between who and what? Which way is the number moving?

    Without more data, 90,542 might as well be the current number of sunspots — just a random factoid which includes some number.

    It’s old news anyway.  The current NYT election map has the PA difference down to 78,314 with 93% of the vote counted.  If the upstream information is correct, then Biden needs a bit north of 62% of the remaining vote to pull ahead.   He has been averaging 78%.

  124. 124.

    James E Powell

    @J R in WV:

    The number refers to the gap between Trump & Biden in PA.

    The number has been getting smaller, but at a slow rate that causes anxiety and frayed nerves.

    The number is now 78, 314

  125. 125.

    cain

    @Kent:

    oh no.. I’m so sorry, Kent. :/ They live such short but precious lives. :/ On top of all this fuckery, you have that – warm thoughts in your direction.

  129. 129.

    James E Powell

    @Kent:

    Damn sorry about that, man. Same sort of thing happened with my best-est buddy ever. Came home and [herein readers are spared details] and it revealed he had cancer all through his body. He was an old guy and we had a good life together, but it really hurt.

  134. 134.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @Martin: It would probably have to be the equivalent of a recess appointment, to pass Constitutional muster. It does seem that obstruction by McConnell this term would prove it’s necessary.

  136. 136.

    Kent

    @Martin:

    @AnotherBruce: Yeah, sorta. It’s a bit like judges in that certain cabinet members must be confirmed. But you can always do what Trump is doing and put acting people in without confirmation. There are limits to that put in place by USSC, but I think we’re going to have to put something in place that guarantees a confirmation vote by the Senate within a certain amount of time of nomination. That was the real problem with Garland – the Senate has no obligation to hold a confirmation vote and can just leave the executive and legislative branches vacant.

    You always have to craft policy around the abuses. I’d have had the Senate confirm these judges/cabinet positions but if after 30 days no vote is held, then the candidate can be assumed to be confirmed.

    The problem for McConnell and Senate obstructionists is that executive branch agencies are not like judges.  They are more like the military in that there is ALWAYS someone with acting authority at any moment in time.  All holding up confirmation does is defer authority down to the next person in the chain of command, who is probably an assistant secretary of some sort.

    In my old career as a mid-level manager with NOAA in Alaska there were days when so many folks were out of the office or on travel that I was actually the acting official and signed regulatory actions myself.  Usually on Fridays in August when everyone else is on vacation or left early.

    Where Trump got into trouble was trying to go outside of the normal chain of command and assert that unconfirmed folks just had authority that the chain of command didn’t give them.  Because in every agency, most of the career people in the chains of command would have been opposed to Trump’s illegal policies.

    This won’t be a problem for Biden because he isn’t trying to subvert policy or law, just implement it.  So I expect that 95% of the top civil service folks will be behind him.

  137. 137.

    Croaker

    No matter the negatives, doom sayers, trollers, etc.  Ignore them.  Time will tell.

    Patience and be calm.  Be nice to your posters or otherwise you are just being a TOOL.

  138. 138.

    J R in WV

    @Kent:

    our 14 year old cat Diego has cancer

    That’s terrible news, I’m so sorry. 14 years is long enough to be really attached to a good kitty…

    I hope good news is creeping closer to us as we type~!

  139. 139.

    Brachiator

    On a related topic, the prediction that Trump will join up with OAN and create a Trump Network to compete with Fox might be true

    I don’t know what Trump might do next and don’t much care, but I note that since late 2015 people predicting what Trump will do next have largely been wrong.

    Where are all those people so sure that Trump would drop out of the 2016 race in the middle of the GOP primaries?

    Anyway, I just watched Harris and Biden speak, and I was smiling and felt relief for the first time in a long while, while watching US political leaders. Looking forward to more of this.

Comments are closed.