Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

Nothing worth doing is easy.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

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

You can’t love your country only when you win.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

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

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

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

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Smorgasbord of Schadenfreude

Smorgasbord of Schadenfreude

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From Jonathan Swan at Axios:

Senior White House and Trump campaign officials are complaining bitterly about poor internal communication, blaming colleagues, pondering what jobs they might try to get next year, and lashing out at their new enemy: Fox News.

The state of play: Aides told Axios they’re dreading the prospect of Fox calling Pennsylvania for Joe Biden, which could make the conservative network the first to give Biden 270 electoral votes.

A Trump campaign official said the internal view was that it’s essential to keep the race “optically” alive, and that if Fox were to call it, it would severely harm their efforts to support President Trump’s (false) claims that he’d already won.

Kay is right — it’s outrageous that media outlets are operating under different rules to accommodate the the whiny-ass Trump family. It’s not like they can expect anything resembling gratitude in return from that pack of ravening grift-mavens.

The Trumps are tacky, loud, demanding wannabe mobsters, and power is slipping out of their hands, thank dog. There’s no reason for Fox News or any other outlet to keep kissing their asses.

Trump advisers are also venting at what they describe as a grossly incompetent post-Election Day operation. “I don’t know what the message is,” said one prominent surrogate who regularly appears on cable to defend Trump: “There’s no organization or coordination. If I was to go on TV right now, I wouldn’t know what the [blank] to say.”

A senior administration official said: “When Bush had this issue they tapped arguably the pre-eminent statesman of his generation, James Baker, to spearhead their legal and PR efforts, to great effect. … We rolled out Rudy Giuliani, Corey Lewandowski and Pam Bondi. You can draw your own conclusions.”

What a fitting coda to this absurd nightmare: it ends with a scrum of thuggish clowns.

I don’t know if y’all saw Trump’s insane speech last night. MSNBC cut away, and for the first time ever, I switched channels to continue watching because it was so nuts. Anderson Cooper summed it up:

COOPER: “That is the President of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, and we see him like an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun…”

It’s going to get worse, of course. And it will be glorious!

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

286Comments

  3. 3.

    debbie

    I thought all the outlets’ cutting off Trump’s tirade yesterday was a very good (if very small) sign that he will be shown the door eventually.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    According to Nate Cohn at the NYT, the networks are waiting for Biden’s PA margin to pass the recount threshold (0.5 percentage points) before making the call. That honestly doesn’t bother me. We all know the result anyway.

  7. 7.

    Yarrow

    I think Arizona has an update coming in a few minutes. Does anyone know when Pennsylvania is supposed to update next?

  12. 12.

    laura

    I am so ready for the back stabbing and bitterness, the White House will be a combination of Hitler’s bunker and a High School girl’s bathroom. It’s going to be a huge, stank-ass never ending game of the hot potato of blame. I am here for it!

  13. 13.

    jackmac

    I watched the whole thing (via WaPo web site) and witnessed this rapidly shriveling president deliver this pathetic litany of grievances. It was glorious!!

  14. 14.

    dmsilev

    Also, news orgs say that both Maricopa County in AZ and NV statewide will be updating their vote totals at 11 Eastern, so Real Soon Now.

  15. 15.

    germy

    I was watching ABC news with John Muir last night when Trump came on.  They cut away from Trump so Muir could do some fact checks.  Wow!  So I switched to my CBS affiliate.  From 6:30 to 7:00pm it’s a local Sinclair news show, and then at 7 they switch to the CBS national news.    The Sinclair station cut away from Trump, too!

    The two Sinclair anchors (they’re very conservative) looked embarrassed by Trump, and told each other that the only reason he was speaking was because Biden had spoken earlier in the day.

    And then the national CBS news came on, and two reporters flat out called Trump a liar.

    I’ve never seen anything like this from broadcast TV news, local or national.  The  honesty was startling.

  16. 16.

    Calouste

    Well, even if there was a James Baker around and he was willing to taint his reputation by working for the shitgibbon, the shitgibbon would still have to listen to him (no her, the chance of the shitgibbon listening to a woman is absolute zero), and admit that he knows better. That’s lottery ticket level probabilities we’re talking about here. So that why there’s the current on-crack legal team spearheaded by ole hands-in-pants.

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    If I was to go on TV right now, I wouldn’t know what the [blank] to say.

    “Landru, guide us!”

    //

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    @laura: Come sit six feet away from me!

    Also, Andrew Bates is the most underrated person on the Biden campaign, IMO:

    “As we said on July 19, the American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House,” campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.

  22. 22.

    Nicole

    I’ve burst into tears twice so far this morning, and I realize it’s because all of this bottled-up stress I’ve carried the past 4 years is getting released. I’m feeling such gratitude today.

    I hate televised news, but I’ve had CNN Live on the computer all morning.  Oh my God.  It’s so close to being over.

  23. 23.

    Splitting Image

    A senior administration official said: “When Bush had this issue they tapped arguably the pre-eminent statesman of his generation, James Baker, to spearhead their legal and PR efforts, to great effect. … We rolled out Rudy Giuliani, Corey Lewandowski and Pam Bondi. You can draw your own conclusions.”

    Heh heh. I said the same thing last night. The fact that Trump was depending on Rudy Fucking Giuliani to hold on to Michigan was delicious. And what the hell does Lewandowski know about Pennsylvania election law? The moron had no real plan for contesting the election other than telling a fixer to go fix things. A small-time crook right to the end.

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    “Why aren’t you helping?”

    “Because it’s Trump?”

    Does that answer pass the Voight-Kampff test?

  25. 25.

    ByRookorbyCrook

    Does this mean we get taco trucks on every corner or was that offer only good four years ago?

  29. 29.

    amorphous

    @dmsilev:

    AZ just updated and Trump added about net 1000 votes, but is still down over 40k votes

     

    edit: wait, did it update?  i can’t tell.  the datasets i am looking at are conflicting.

     

    edit edit yeah it updated and Biden is up still over 43k

  30. 30.

    trollhattan

    @Yarrow:

    And Stephen Miller is rounding up a few “volunteers” to join Trump in the bunker, along with some cyanide capsules.

  31. 31.

    Zelma

    I saw this quote sometime ago and wrote it down.  I think it was in the NYT but I failed to cite the author:

    “Great men and bad men alike seek attention as a means of getting power, but our president is interested in power only as a means of getting attention.”

    I pray that once Trump is out of office, that attention will wane.  There is no reason for the media to pay attention to an ex-president, however outrageous his tweets or statements.  This would drive him crazy or rather crazier.  I do worry that the media cannot overcome its Trump addiction.

  32. 32.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @dmsilev: I’ve been wondering when Biden will give his speech, how he will phrase things, etc. I suspect he’ll wait till later so that the news week ends– to the extent that it ends– on his announcement.

    I wonder if the Lame Fuck will be too upset to golf this weekend, and if Melania is in touch with her European real estate agents. I think she’s gonna be shocked at how little her renegotiated pre-nup will buy her in Paris.

  33. 33.

    randy khan

    @Omnes Omnibus: 

    “Why aren’t you helping?”

    “Because it’s Trump?”

    Does that answer pass the Voight-Kampff test?

    SATSQ: Yes.

    Quoted in full because it is so delicious.

  36. 36.

    germy

    @Yarrow:

    Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling just said something very significant. He said there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud – but they are seeing some small things – and that in an election this close, small things can add up.
    — John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) November 6, 2020

    I don’t trust these fox personalities.

  37. 37.

    MazeDancer

    Do not care about much nothin’, today, except:

    Social Security is safe
    Medicare, Medcaid, and some kinda healhcare is safe
    NATO is safe
    Planet is safer
    Russia is blocked
    Don’t have to leave US

    And a woman, Black & Asian, to boot, is going to the White House.

    Wasn’t sure if there was going to be a Woman in the WH in my lifetime. Thank you, Goddess, for my being alive.

  41. 41.

    rk

    I’m looking forward to his pain. I’m going to savor every single minute of the pain of his supporters. I didn’t want him to die of COVID because I wanted him to die a thousand deaths every single say for the rest of his miserable existence. I hate myself for enjoying Biden’s victory far less than Trump’s defeat. But that’s where I am today.

  42. 42.

    Martin

    @amorphous: AZ did update, but Trump didn’t pick up as much as needed. He now needs to win a greater percentage of what remains.

    Still likely to be very close.

  43. 43.

    jonas

    Trying to stop the counting hasn’t worked. What’s plan B? I’m not sure, but is there even the remotest chance they could try to conspire with state legislatures to fuck with the appointment of electors or something? There was some suggestion that they’d try to pull that if Biden won Pennsylvania. I mean, they’ll stop at nothing. They’re completely desperate. Sure, there’s schadenfreude, but there’s also some angst that we’re dealing with desperate, stupid people who know that once this is over, they’re going to be in a world of shit legally and financially.

  46. 46.

    amorphous

    @Martin: where are you seeing this?  i see 100% reporting on the AZ website.

     

    Disregard they have it weird.  There’s a button on the landing page for uncounted ballots.  yeah still a lot.

  50. 50.

    MoCA Ace

    I am so looking forward to the thugs eating their own.

    Hope all you greedy jackals left some popcorn for me!

  52. 52.

    patrick II

    I have no idea how the next eighty or so days will be. Loud, useless wailing gnashing of teeth? Or as much harm as he can do in a rage before he leaves office, and what form could that take? I don’t really think he’s nuts enough to push a button. Of course, he will try to bury his hires in the government, but that won’t really be him. That takes effort, that will be his apparatchiks. But I think most other things are reversible. Barr seems to have gone to ground, the official IG report on Hunter is probably a bust (or it would be out already).
    I probably lack imagination, there is probably a myriad of things. I will be glad when he is gone.

  54. 54.

    Mary G

    Today is the first day I’ve actually looked at numbers or news stories besides a two-second peek. There were severe flashbacks to 2016. I just didn’t think my heart could stand the strain. Having Darrell Issa waltz back into a different district and seeing the CA propositions come out how they did just broke me, as did not taking the senate. Finally I looked today and the guy I wanted to win a city council seat came in first! They are supposedly nonpartisan, but an out Democrat has never won. Until now! And a woman is the VP elect. So happy the media is finally using the proper language to describe Twitler: he lies. How hard is that?

  56. 56.

    BR

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Can someone clarify the ACA hearing that’s coming up — is it that the Supreme Court will hear it or will they announce their ruling? Don’t they sometimes hold their rulings for months? Because they could always hear it and then rule after the GA Senate runoffs.

  60. 60.

    Jimmm

    I had a dream last night that I got in my car, drove across the country, and joined a throng of (masked and socially distanced) people lining the fence of the white house chanting “na na na na…  na na na na…  hey hey…  goodbye”.  It continued night and day, with people working in shifts, until he finally fled the building for good.

    Too much to hope?

  61. 61.

    lowtechcyclist

    Senior White House and Trump campaign officials are…lashing out at their new enemy: Fox News.

    Rooting for injuries!

  63. 63.

    ByRookorbyCrook

    I am a bit sad that John Lewis was not able to see Clayton Co flip Georgia blue in his lifetime. Fantastic work by Stacey Abrams and all the AA activists in Georgia.

    Plus Mark Kelly put a stomping on Sienna. Tough to rejected by voters twice in two years. His margin was greater than Joes.

  64. 64.

    trollhattan

    @Mary G:

    I was thoroughly bludgeoned on the CA propositions. Sucks to be me, apparently. But like a kid who got that Christmas bike and just socks for every other present, I’ll settle for the bike for now and apologize for Tom McClintock later.

  65. 65.

    NobodySpecial

    I continue to be amused by the fact that Jo Jorgensen is the winning margin in multiple states.

  66. 66.

    CaseyL

    Breathing a huge sigh of relief.  To quote one of my favorite old political thrillers, “Things may not get much better, but at least they won’t be getting worse.”

    Let’s hope President Biden (!) can hit the ground running, even before January.

  70. 70.

    germy

    Remember when Roy Cohn and Trump sued the govt when they got called out by the DOJ for segregating Trump buildings? It’s the strategy from the beginning. Never admit defeat and counter attack.
    — Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) November 6, 2020

  73. 73.

    lowtechcyclist

    @ByRookorbyCrook: Does this mean we get taco trucks on every corner or was that offer only good four years ago?

    Damn, I sure hope so!  I really wanted that taco truck in my neighborhood.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Mark Kelly finally, officially named as winner in the AZ Senate race! I know we’ve been taking that for granted, but now it’s official. So happy for him and Gabby!

  76. 76.

    MJS

    @Nicole: Cumberland County went for Trump, but I believe their mail-in ballots went for Joe, and the counting of those last evening started the dam break for Joe in PA!

  82. 82.

    Isua

    I spent so much time reading these comment threads these last few days that when I closed my eyes at night and tried to get some sleep (ha ha ha no sleep) my brain would start making up comments to read, and would start inventing new bad news for my whole nervous system to freak out about. (I don’t like my brain.) Finally, FINALLY we’re here!

    Thank you so much to everyone who’s been reading and commenting and freaking out and keeping the hope alive here. Today is a good day.

  83. 83.

    BR

    Can we start having regular fundraisers here for Stacey Abrams’s organization?  They’re going to need the funding to win the GA runoff elections, and she’s shown that she knows what she’s doing way better than any of the other high-profile orgs.

  86. 86.

    germy

    Biden staffers had previously been told, "don’t watch the news, keep your head down, do the work."

    But Friday morning, they were told: "This is the moment when you should be watching the news. They did the work, now enjoy this moment."https://t.co/VKVlv6U6jW

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 6, 2020

  87. 87.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @debbie:

    I thought all the outlets’ cutting off Trump’s tirade yesterday was a very good (if very small) sign that he will be shown the door eventually.

    The outlets’ cutting off Trump’s tirade is a sign that the media are a lagging indicator of public opinion.

  89. 89.

    germy

    I’ve got ABC news on right now (they’ve pre-empted regular programming) and they’ll talking about Stacey Abrams and the great work she’s done.  And how she’ll continue, with the senate races.

  90. 90.

    Kent

    @dmsilev:According to Nate Cohn at the NYT, the networks are waiting for Biden’s PA margin to pass the recount threshold (0.5 percentage points) before making the call. That honestly doesn’t bother me. We all know the result anyway.

    Might as well delay the big party until prime time.  I’m fine with that.  Extend the torture for the Trump people a few more hours.

  91. 91.

    Sloane Ranger

    Biden will become President. That is a reason to celebrate. So, take some time and do that.

    Then we need to look down ballot, where we didn’t do as well as we wanted and expected. I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to down ballot races, so do we still stand a chance of getting a majority in the Senate or at least drawing even? Even if we don’t people need to support the Democratic candidates in the Georgia run-offs.

    We also need to look more widely and deeply at why we didn’t win any State Legislatures and get more Senators.

    Starting in January, the Democrats need to have a full post-mortem. What worked, what didn’t. Where and how to improve ready for 2022 and 2024.

    Just my thoughts from across the Pond.

  94. 94.

    Quinerly

    @Kent: I’m down with extending the torture.

    Very unhinged thread of Trump Tweets that started about 10 mins ago. Invoking Ken Starr’s name.

  98. 98.

    Kent

    Biden’s lead doubles in Nevada to 22 thousand as Clark County (Vegas) votes start coming in 2 to 1 for Biden.

    Drip drip!

  102. 102.

    jimmiraybob

    I may have alluded to this before but is there a list of non-extradition nations to which the Trump family can retreat while they build their new model MAGA army (assuming he doesn’t settle on Florida as his rebel-leader-in-exile base of operations)?  I may or may not be using this information for betting and other entertainment purposes.

    I assume that Plan C will involve a prison cell and writing his memoir, “My Struggle.”  Which leads to another betting opportunity, who will be his Rudolph Hess (note taker/editor)?

    There may or may not be a slight tongue-in-cheekiness to the above.  I’m feeling cheeky.

  105. 105.

    hueyplong

    @Yarrow: Pause in counting in NC until last mail ballots received.  Postmarked by election date yet arrived afterward is OK here.

  107. 107.

    TriassicSands

    Now, according to the Republican Constitution, the election moves to the Supreme Court, which could have obviated the need for all the suspense by simply voting early Wednesday morning. Clearly, all Democratic votes are illegal and must be rejected, leaving the “you know, smart guy” with a shutout in both the popular vote and Electoral College, something never before achieved in the history of this country.

    We’ve wasted enough time “counting votes” (sheesh, who are we kidding?), fascism awaits, and we need to get on with it!

    All hail the “you know, smart guy.”

  109. 109.

    mrmoshpotato

    @rk:

    I hate myself for enjoying Biden’s victory far less than Trump’s defeat. But that’s where I am today.

    No shame in hating these evil bastards.

    Added – today is bittersweet with the past 4 years of atrocities and the needed clean up.

    Added 2 – and the damn lame duck session.

  111. 111.

    NotMax

    @Yarrow

    Previously announced that NC’s release of numbers is for all intents and purposes sealed in carbonite until November 12th, so expect any changes to them then and probably mostly on Friday the 13th.

  113. 113.

    CaseyL

    I’m sorry we didn’t follow our own (and Biden’s) advice:  Don’t panic on Election Night, because the vote count will take a long time.  Expect Trump to be ahead on Election Night because the mailed ballots won’t have been counted yet.

    I for one am looking forward to maybe, just maybe, no longer waking up in the morning with a jolt of terror and dread, as I have been every morning ever since Walking Pustule won in 2016.

  119. 119.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @CaseyL: I’m sorry we didn’t follow our own (and Biden’s) advice: Don’t panic on Election Night, because the vote count will take a long time. Expect Trump to be ahead on Election Night because the mailed ballots won’t have been counted yet.

    Speak for yourself.

  121. 121.

    Ian G.

    You know what vision of the future gives me the most schadenfreude? The idea of the State of New York tearing down the criminal enterprise that is the Trump Org to the point where there is nothing left for Uday, Qusay, and Lolita to fight over. Even if the three of them get sent to minimum security prison for a few years, the idea of them living the rest of their lives with nothing left of their family’s fraudulent empire fills me with the most joy. Enjoy your one bedroom 3rd floor walk up! Enjoy waiting in line at Gristedes! Enjoy life as the ordinary people you so despise!

  122. 122.

    Baud

    @germy:

    Don’t feel bad for Trump. He still has his crippling debt, money-losing properties, and numerous legal problems to fall back on.

    Don’t forget a place in American history along side Benedict Arnold and John Wilkes Booth.

  123. 123.

    patrick II

    Trump’s Arizona rallies may have killed off enough republican voters to give Biden his victory.

  124. 124.

    PenAndKey

    @Poe Larity: If 286 electoral votes for Bush in 2004 was a “Mandate” what will 306 be in 2020?

    According to the media? A colossal democratic failure to materialize their “blue wave” and something immediately demanding that Democrats reach out to their GOP counterparts. It will also require that they stop being liberal and figure out what the “economically anxious” parts of the country rejected about them.

    Obviously.

    @patrick II:  Trump’s Arizona rallies may have killed off enough republican voters to give Biden his victory.

    We’ve reached the point where, if true, I don’t even feel bad about not feeling bad about that. As a completely unrelated story, did you know that one of the big reasons why large mammals like elephants and whales have extremely low cancer death rates is that their cancer cells develop their own “hyper tumors” that kill off most cancer tumors before they get large enough to cause damage to the whole organism? That seems relevant to the current discussion.

  125. 125.

    hueyplong

    Loving the electoral map now.  Trump’s only places are the homes of Confederates, Copperheads, and tumbleweeds.

  126. 126.

    Humdog

    So, do we consider a civil war within the Republican Party between MAGAts who refuse to concede to the vote count and the small group of Rs expressing discomfort with the lawless “corrupt election” cries a good thing? Graham and Cruz picked the MAGAt side and Shitstain’s family and closest supporters are complaining the party isn’t backing them up. Even hinting Shitstain will run again in 2024. I like the idea that MAGAts turn on the other Rs and try to split the party, but I don’t really want to keep hearing from MAGAts.

  130. 130.

    Quinerly

    @CaseyL: I must say I didn’t panic election night and on Wed. My concern was losing House seats and making no inroads in the Senate #. A gut punch. Plus, realizing at least 48% of the country voted for Trump, yet he has never had a favorability rating that high in 5 years. Distressing about all that money spent in SC and Lindsey still winning by 12 pts. And the Collins win in Maine. Figured it would take days to count all these mail in ballots and since Trump basically ordered his disciples to NOT vote by mail, there would be that Red Mirage that we were warned about.

  132. 132.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @hueyplong: Supposedly Trump out performed polling by 3% because of fan bois, so with him gone that’s likely to shift things the future.

  133. 133.

    Yarrow

    Apparently some R Senators (Roy Blount, Lindsay Graham) are saying things like “show us the evidence of fraud” rather than screaming about fraud like they did a day or so ago. A walk back.

  135. 135.

    Just One More Canuck

    @laura:

    ‘a combination of Hitler’s bunker and a High School girl’s bathroom’

    very Cracker-esque – that’s beautiful

  136. 136.

    PenAndKey

    @Quinerly: Figured it would take days to count all these mail in ballots and since Trump basically ordered his disciples to NOT vote by mail, there would be that Red Mirage that we were warned about.

    Their plan, that they idiotically telegraphed for months, was precisely this. The GOP was counting on that red mirage effect to insulate their theft attempts. I hate to say it, but as “well, no duh this was going to happen” this may seem to those of us paying attention, if they’d just kept quiet until after election day it might have had a chance of working.

  137. 137.

    Jinchi

    I’m happy Biden pulled it off with room to spare, but even happier that I live in a state that voted for him two-to-one.

  138. 138.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Yarrow: not surprised about Blount, but that’s quite a change from what Lindsey was saying last night. I wonder if Mitch, or the Mercers, have put out the word: “Enough, we have the courts and Senate. Cut him loose.”

  140. 140.

    germy

    “The last President I covered who refused to accept the vote count in an election was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, 2009.” – Christiane Amanpour

  142. 142.

    prostratedragon

    Anderson Cooper, ladies and gentlemen!

    Haven’t read “Metamorphosis” in years, but surely there’s at least a subtext in which everyone around Gregor Samsa is wondering what took him so long to notice.

    Eta: Surreal moment: Fauré Pavane gliding along in the background on the radio.

  143. 143.

    Quinerly

    @PenAndKey: True Story.

    And did you catch Trump whining about that it makes no sense that so many mail in ballots are for Biden, and so few for him? That’s supposed to be suspicious.

  145. 145.

    Calouste

    @Humdog: Infighting after an election loss is a good old tradition in conservative parties around the world. You don’t usually see that in the US, because the party that is not in the White House doesn’t really have a leader until the next election, so there’s nothing to fight for. This time around though the shitgibbon will try to cling onto some kind of leadership and that’s going to be … interesting.

  146. 146.

    jimmiraybob

    As long as we’re on the subject of schadenfreude, Obama will be swishing three pointers in Trumps head for the rest of his days.  That’s what he does.

    Sad.  Not really.

  148. 148.

    jonas

    @Poe Larity:  what will 306 be in 2020?

    Even as it appears that the MSM really has no fucks left to give for Trump’s ballot-blocking bullshit, their implicit theory of politics is that it is natural for Republicans to be in charge, and Democratic victories, no matter how significant, are always flukes that Democrats must acknowledge by not acting like they have a real right to govern, “reaching out across the aisle” and not being too confrontational with Republicans, etc.

  149. 149.

    germy

    The Trump campaign Latino outreach program was run by a Latino woman, Hannah Castillo and she should get credit for an amazing job! Too bad she wasn’t there the last couple months. https://t.co/EwO6vUsh2H

    — Brad Parscale (@parscale) November 6, 2020

    He’s still in shock after seeing the death star explode.

  151. 151.

    sdhays

    @germy: “Too bad she wasn’t there the last couple of months.”

    What? Did she get fired along with Parscale? Is this him saying that Dump would have won if they had kept buying him Ferarri’s?

  152. 152.

    germy

    Should be an interesting power struggle in the GOP. Their base is pissed they’re not speaking up for Der Leader.

    If you want to win in 2024 as a Republican. I would probably start saying something. Just saying.

    — Brad Parscale (@parscale) November 6, 2020

  153. 153.

    TriassicSands

    @PenAndKey: If 286 electoral votes for Bush in 2004 was a “Mandate” what will 306 be in 2020?

    The biggest political crime in the history of the universe. — D. Trump

    In 2016, there were more than 3,000,000 fraudulent votes for Hilary Clinton, giving her the “appearance” of a popular vote victory, despite Trump’s largest Electoral College victory margin ever.

    Now, we’ve got a case of more than seventy million fraudulent Democratic votes (Hunter Biden voting by computer from his basement somewhere in Ukraine). This calls for swift action by the six legitimate justices of the Supreme Court (the other three are traitors and will be dealt with in the second Trumpreich).

    Note: All facts contained herein are “alternative facts.”

  155. 155.

    StringOnAStick

    I need to do serious, get this remodel stuff on the road errands but I’m so enjoying reading all this!

  156. 156.

    Ksmiami

    @prostratedragon: I’ve been reading a lot of Kafka lately and thinking about how our so called justice system works against our citizens in a very Kafkaesque brutal bureaucratic way

  159. 159.

    OGLiberal

    Not that this is at all meaningful but I was 18 the first time Biden ran for President.  I was 2 when he first won his Senate seat.  Very happy for the guy – he never gave up on what he wanted.  And relieved for the country.

  162. 162.

    PenAndKey

    @Quinerly: I saw that, and it was as pathetically transparent as expected. I’m pleasantly surprised to see that it was so badly telegraphed ahead of time that the media really doesn’t have a choice but to treat it as old news BS and promptly ignore it. My guess is that it’s also why even the judges dealing with his lawsuit attempts are tossing them out left and right as meritless.

  163. 163.

    patroclus

    So I wake up to very good news in that Pa. and Ga. flipped as expected and Nevada has now widened.  This is now all over but the whining and the lawsuits and the recounts and the network calls.  I don’t expect a concession from Trump, but it’s only a matter of time before his loss is widely recognized.  Thanks to all of last night’s commenters

    Pa. up to 9,746 pro-Biden.

  164. 164.

    Kent

    Folks, I get the hand-wringing about the Senate but do not underestimate the immense power of the presidency and executive branch.  As a former Federal manager in a science agency I can promise you there is an immense amount of work that can and needs to be done in every agency in the Federal government.  There are thousands of Trump era regulations to reverse.  Workforces to rebuild.  We need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.  Just off the top of my head.

    Rebuild and ramp up Warren’s Consumer Protection Agency after the vandalism from Trump

    Reverse 4 years worth of undermining of the ACA and push it as far forward as possible.

    Rebuild all the environmental agencies and get started with the task of repealing and reversing all of Trump’s anti-climate and pro-pollution regulatory changes.

    Dust off Obama’s clean power plan and mileage standards for vehicles and start across the Federal government with a massive climate change project from the military to the USPS (electric mail trucks etc)

    Start auditing the ultra wealthy and start enforcing tax laws once again.

    Top to bottom review and overhaul of the DOJ and marshal the forces of the Federal government to reform and monitor justice and police departments across the country.

    Hell, even things like CA prop 22 could be reversed nationwide by the stroke of a pen from a Biden Department of Labor by reclassifying gig workers, or establishing much more stringent rules for them.  All of this can be done without legislation as the laws already exist.

    And, more importantly we need to repair our tattered standing around the world.  Everywhere.

    None of this requires the Senate at all.

    6 of the 8 years of the Obama Administration were under Republican or split Congresses.  And they were not bad years.

    There is tremendous work to be done.

  165. 165.

    john b

    @Benw:  there’s some very cautious thought that the senate races in NC and Alaska aren’t over yet but it’s a long shot for Dems

    Biden has a better shot in NC than Cunningham does, and Biden doesn’t really have a shot in NC, sad to say.

  167. 167.

    PenAndKey

    @OGLiberal: Not that this is at all meaningful but I was 18 the first time Biden ran for President.

    Huh, I usually consider myself fairly plugged into national politics but I was today years old when I discovered that Biden actually ran for president the year I was born. I’m glad for all of us he stuck with it.

  169. 169.

    Miss Bianca

    @Ian G.: And just think…they could have spared themselves so much future agony, and the country and the world so much past and present agony, if they had just doped Dad up and institutionalized him when he started talking about a POTUS run.

    But if they had had the slightest shred of the self-awareness they would have needed for that to happen, they wouldn’t be the trashbags they are.

  171. 171.

    germy

    @sdhays:  I think he’s lashing out at every woman he was forced to coordinate with.  I get the feeling he has issues with women in positions of authority.

  172. 172.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Yes, but the bits she’ll be allowed to retain after his debts are called and fines paid to the USG will surely allow her a hut with a cabbage patch, radish plot and three goats (along with a broken goat cart) in her birth village in Slovenia.

  173. 173.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The Trump family is white trash who don’t live in a trailer park.  Nouveau Riche who represent all the lack of taste and class that is implied.  Heirs of the fortune of a pimp.

  176. 176.

    patrick II

    @Quinerly:

    He believes it.  He can talk himself into anything. Even after he told his voters to hold off and vote in person, he’s like “Why are all the mail-in ballots for Biden”? He makes up his own reality as he goes.  It’s similar to Cleek’s law except it’s self-created and updated continuously.

  177. 177.

    Miss Bianca

    @patrick II: LOL!!

    Oh, God! I love it, even tho’ I couldn’t even finish that movie because it freaked me the fuck out so bad!

    My grammar is deteriorating. Must be all the giddiness in the air!

  178. 178.

    Aziz, light!

    @Ian G.: Slumlord Jared and Princess Complicity have $800 million. They will be fine except for no longer getting invites to the best rich-people parties. But Junior’s cocaine budget ought to take a big hit.

  183. 183.

    Kent

    Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC just now

    “We need to see a 35,000 vote margin in PA before we are going to call it.”  Apparently that is from upstairs.

  184. 184.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Aziz, light!: I’ve always thought our soon-to-be-erstwhile Plastic Princess settled for the whiny pencil-neck because she had seen both their fathers’ balance sheets.

  187. 187.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @mrmoshpotato:

    If I represented Miller, Barr, or anybody from DHS, I would advise them to plan no international travel, as Interpol red notices may be awaiting them.

  188. 188.

    Chris Johnson

    @jonas: This is why we have to set them up to believe that only the Never Trumpers, Lincoln Project etc. are the REAL Republicans and the Trumpers are a fluke that didn’t happen and don’t count and are an ex-parrot.

    Back in the day there were real Republicans. Kinda. At least that’s the spin that should be given. You get all the Republicans to drop Trump and Trumpism and pretend they were never Vichy.

    The thing is, this cripples them, because their constituents are QAnon crazies. They MUST ditch Trump and the insanity, but they can’t. There will be no option, politically, but to turn against the traitors and MAGAs, and they will do that to save their skins, but it will cripple them politically.

    And ever after, much like you can cow a Democrat by calling ’em a socialist, if Republicans give you trouble you get in their face and go ‘ARE you a Qanon terrorist?’ and they’ll have to cringe, because those people are going to poison the Right in people’s minds for generations.

    A fitting end.

  189. 189.

    patroclus

    The goal now is to build on the current leads to make them unassailable from the expected lawsuits – they become “frivolous” when the margins get so large that it just doesn’t matter if they were indeed true.  I’ve heard various theories but have seen no hard evidence from the Trump campaign as yet.  They have a legitimate right to raise complaints that would need to be examined, but that only goes so far if the margins are big enough to show that they wouldn’t make a difference.  It helps that it’s multiple states, with different methods and rules.  Trump essentially needs a “Hail Mary” in about 5 states – one would be a heavy lift; 5 seems impossible.

  191. 191.

    Miss Bianca

    @patrick II:

    Even after he told his voters to hold off and vote in person, he’s like “Why are all the mail-in ballots for Biden”? He makes up his own reality as he goes.  It’s similar to Cleek’s law except it’s self-created and updated continuously.

    Schitt’s Cleek’s Law? : )

  192. 192.

    James E Powell

    @Poe Larity:

    If 286 electoral votes for Bush in 2004 was a “Mandate” what will 306 be in 2020?

    A clear warning that Democratic messaging is failing, that they’ve gone too far to the left, that they need to rethink their views on abortion, that they need to appoint several Republicans to cabinet posts, and that they need to get to work on reducing the debt/deficit and entitlement reform.

  193. 193.

    Kay

    Jake Tapper
    @jaketapper
    ·No it isn’t.
    Whoever wins 270 electoral votes becomes the president-elect.
    The US Constitution doesn’t demand that the loser concede, or be gracious, or even remotely mature.
    Just the 270 electoral votes.

    He’s really had it.

  194. 194.

    TriassicSands

    @SFAW:

    They might only claim fifty to sixty million fraudulent Democratic votes. They wouldn’t want to exaggerate — being committed to truth and all.

    If, in the end, Biden takes Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania that might be too much for the SCOTUS to undo. In 2000, it was only one state, which was manageable, but to install Trump they have to overturn Pennsylvania, Georgia, and one of the other two.* If Thomas or Alito were the Chief Justice, they might go for it, but Roberts, with his eye on his legacy…uh uh, I don’t think so.

    *Unless they bring Wisconsin and/or Michigan into the mix.

  195. 195.

    Kent

    @john b: Biden has a better shot in NC than Cunningham does, and Biden doesn’t really have a shot in NC, sad to say.

    I thought that Cunningham might have lost his race when he failed to keep his pants zipped.  But I’m not sure a Dem challenger would have won anyway in NC if the top of the ticket didn’t win.  Incumbents tend to out perform the top of the ticket.  Challengers rarely do unless the incumbent is especially bad as was the case in AZ and she wasn’t really a legit incumbent anyway, having been appointed not elected.

  196. 196.

    Chris Johnson

    @TriassicSands: The Supreme Court doing anything about this would destroy them immediately and completely. They absolutely can’t. They must hold off and be more strategic (which we also shouldn’t let ’em do).

  197. 197.

    germy

    Vincent Fusca — the guy QAnon believers think is JFK Jr. In disguise — confirmed to me that he is indeed a Pittsburgh poll watcher— Will Sommer (@willsommer) November 6, 2020

  198. 198.

    Kent

    @TriassicSands:

    @SFAW:

    They might only claim fifty to sixty million fraudulent Democratic votes. They wouldn’t want to exaggerate — being committed to truth and all.

    If, in the end, Biden takes Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania that might be too much for the SCOTUS to undo. In 2000, it was only one state, which was manageable, but to install Trump they have to overturn Pennsylvania, Georgia, and one of the other two.* If Thomas or Alito were the Chief Justice, they might go for it, but Roberts, with his eye on his legacy…uh uh, I doubt it.

    *Unless they bring Wisconsin and/or Michigan into the mix.

    Even in 2000 SCOTUS didn’t actually undo the election.  They stopped the recount but Bush was never actually behind.  But they didn’t actually reverse a single legitimately counted vote.

    We all know and believe that Gore would have won the recount. But that’s a separate issue from reversing actual counted votes in 4 states.

    I don’t see it happening.  That would be an actual coup and would be completely illegitimate.

    The Trump people are honestly too incompetent to even figure out how to start something like this. They have Giuliani and Pam Bonde leading the effort.   Ha.

    The problem for Trump was that there was never a moment where they could stop the national count and award him the win because he was unexpectedly behind in Arizona. Arizona fucked everything up for them which is why so much rage against Fox for calling it for Biden.  So at every moment since Tuesday, stopping the count would have awarded Biden the presidency on the basis of AZ and NV even if they gave PA and GA to Trump.

  199. 199.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Let’s not hesitate to compare Trump to the maturity that Hillary Clinton showed in attending his inauguration for the good of the country.

  201. 201.

    Aziz, light!

    I want to give a shout out to all the Black women in America. Thank you for bringing us to this day.

  203. 203.

    Bex

    @germy: Democrats don’t need to give Republicans anything, Ricky. I enjoyed your white-faced deer-in-the-headlights look last night after the CNN pundits’ take-down of your pal Trump, by the way.

  204. 204.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Chris Johnson: They must hold off and be more strategic

    I think Roberts is very much a politician playing a long game, and I suspect the same is true of Barret and Gorsuch as well. The other three are probably more crusaders, but I doubt any of them, except maybe Thomas who has to live with his crazy wife, give a fuck about trump

    (which we also shouldn’t let ’em do).

    There is no “letting”. The only things that may shift the court are time, Covid and/or cholesterol.

  205. 205.

    Tenar Arha

    @Sloane Ranger: Yep, absolutely.

    Too many on Twitter seem to be already coming to certain of their preferred conclusions. I’m trying really hard not to, because after 2016’s “economic anxiety,” I’m reluctant to even tolerate the first popular narrative that gains traction, especially after most careful detailed analyses came down to Comey, propaganda, targeted voter suppression, and white patriarchal supremacy.

  206. 206.

    germy

    NEWS: Some in Trump's inner circle are aware that Brad Parscale is writing a book and are concerned the ex-campaign manager could reveal damaging information about the president and his family.
    Story out soon from me and @Jordanfabian.

    — Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 6, 2020

  207. 207.

    JMG

    I saw on Twitter that Biden carried four of the five states with the most boat owners in the US; California, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. That’s gotta sting Trump.

  208. 208.

    Kent

    @Chris Johnson:@TriassicSands: The Supreme Court doing anything about this would destroy them immediately and completely. They absolutely can’t. They must hold off and be more strategic (which we also shouldn’t let ’em do).

    Why would they even want to?  They are conservatives but not MAGAts.  Trump is a fucking embarrassment.  It will be a lot more fun for them to poke holes in everything Biden wants to do over the next 4 years than suffer through 4 more years of Trump.

    A conservative Court actually has FAR FAR more national relevance and power during a Dem Administration than a GOP Administration.

  210. 210.

    Quinerly

    @Kent: but ticket splitting in NC. Dem incumbent governor re elected. I found that interesting. And Cooper was called election night. He has been tough as he can be re Covid and closures.

  212. 212.

    Kent

    @JMG:I saw on Twitter that Biden carried four of the five states with the most boat owners in the US; California, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. That’s gotta sting Trump.

    Texas must be the 5th.

  214. 214.

    Matt McIrvin

    @jonas: I’ve heard that Republican state legislators in PA have been trying to throw cold water on the “rogue legislature Hail Mary” idea. They know which way the wind is blowing.

  215. 215.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @MattF: I think I first saw that in the film version of Children of a Lesser God. Everybody in the audience got it.

  218. 218.

    Kay

    Steve Thomma
    @stevethomma
    · 15m
    Rush Limbaugh concedes election, says Biden has won

    There’s the call for the Trumpsters. What about normal people?

  219. 219.

    Kent

    @Quinerly:@Kent: but ticket splitting in NC. Dem incumbent governor re elected. I found that interesting. And Cooper was called election night. He has been tough as he can be re Covid and closures.

    Oh, I agree.  Cooper is a popular incumbent who’s stock went up during Covid.

    My point was that incumbents like Cooper can and frequently do outperform the top of the ticket.  Like Collins in Maine.  But Cunningham was not an incumbent. It is a much bigger reach for a challenger to outperform his/her party leader on the top of the ticket.  Think about it.  How many Trump voters are there in NC who think Trump is OK but then have a problem with Tillis?  Not many I’m guessing.

    I’m just saying that if Biden loses, Cunningham was probably going to lose anyway regardless of whether he kept his pants zipped or not.

  223. 223.

    Elizabelle

    Schadenscrolling.  I love it.

    Think we may do a lot of it once the legal industrial complex gears up against Trump.  And his co-criminals.

  226. 226.

    Suzanne

    I really think that slagging on McCain was part of Trump’s (potential) undoing in AZ. Also maybe on Jeff Flake.

    Also, the Latinos-deserting-Biden theory needs to be tested there, too…. considering that the percentage of Latinos there is both significant and growing. (Important to note that the Latino community in AZ is much more similar to that in southern CA than in NM or TX).

  227. 227.

    JPL

    @Kent: I heard through the grapevine..  (okay that was corny)   He already has former members of Obama’s administration working on it.   Starting on day one, changes will be made.

  229. 229.

    topclimber

    @patroclus: The frivolous lawsuits thing is BS. IANAL but what are the grounds to sue? That a premature call affected voting…uh, no, voting is over. That it messed up the day you chose on the office poll that Biden would hit 270 EVs and cost you $20? That it caused you to be depressed a day or two earlier than waiting would have?

    All BS. This has to do with Fox not pissing off the Trumpsters in their audience, which is pretty much their whole audience.

  230. 230.

    TriassicSands

    @Kent: We all know and believe that Gore would have won the recount.

    Actually, I believe the final conclusion was that Gore would have won a statewide recount, but lost the more limited recount.

    The Court might give Trump minor victories, but I would be beyond shocked if they went any further than that. On the other hand, that seems much more certain with Roberts as Chief and Barrett newly installed for the explicit purpose of delivering the election to Trump. That might be too far even for a religious zealot — she would be so obviously corrupt. Still, with “God” squarely behind her…?

    Trump, ever the unstable idiot, really didn’t have to announce his reason for needing such swift approval of Barrett.

    I expect this to drag on in the courts — will Trump ever be willing to concede? I kinda doubt it. I suppose Bill Barr will have the Justice Department advising Trump’s visible lawyers.

    In other court news, I look forward to the future questioning of Mr. DeJoy.

  232. 232.

    Original Lee

    @Kent: I have to take issue with the “Gore would have won a recount” part of your comment. Gore might have won a recount of the full state of Florida, especially if they had counted all of the overseas and military ballots, but he didn’t ask for that. The Miami Herald and the Washington Post went in to the places that Gore requested recounts, and they spent months going over those damn butterfly ballots, using either 5 or 6 different sets of criteria for counting the votes, and they published a detailed report about it. Gore only won those areas by a few hundred votes by using the broadest set of criteria. Bush won with all of the others.

  233. 233.

    Quinerly

    @Kent: I’m with you. NC is my birthstate. I still have a family farm in Pitt County and strong connections to Carteret County on the coast. I was worried about Cooper and pleased to see him win so quickly. The Lt Gov is a Repug and ran against him.. Seemed to be doing everything he could to undermine Cooper on on Covid. But I guess you know this if you are from NC. ?

  234. 234.

    Kent

    @pamelabrown53:

    @Kent:

    TEXAS?!? Surely you meant Florida.

    Well, OK yes, Florida.  Forgot about that.   I don’t see how either TX or FL have less boats than MN.  Texas has a huge Gulf Coast and lakes everywhere.  There were ski boats in many of the driveways of my suburb in Waco.  I’m going to look this up.

  236. 236.

    Citizen Alan

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I’m still half convinced that the day after the election is officially called for Joe, Clarence Thomas will retire so that Moscow Mitch can ram through a fourth Nazi justice during the lame duck session.

  237. 237.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Sloane Ranger: Winning both runoffs would bring it to 50-50, and the Vice-President acts as tiebreaker in her capacity as President of the Senate.

    (Except during the period between January 3 and January 20, when it would be Mike Pence–this could theoretically be important if there’s some kind of fight over electoral-vote certification on January 6, though I doubt it will be).

  240. 240.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Citizen Alan: I wouldn’t put anything past any of them, especially as I suspect Susan Collins is now feeling as bitter and empowered as Thomas has been for the last thirty years.

  241. 241.

    CaseyL

    @Elizabelle: Twitter had a tweet from a “Texas lawyer” who looks to be about 16 years old, heading off to PA to fight for Trump.  Then there’s Bondi. Giuliani, and Lewandowski:  corrupt hack, Nosferatu, and dumb hack, leading the charge.

    We, OTOH,  have people like Marc Elias and Bob Bauer.

    Elias posts the documents that were filed.  The Trump pleadings read like someone who…. doesn’t know much about the law.  Hardly any citations, hardly any legal analysis, hardly any reasoning.  The Democratic pleadings, their tables of contents are longer than the entire GOP pleadings.  The citations and reasoning are dense and run many pages.

  242. 242.

    TriassicSands

    @Kay:

    The absolute worst thing would be for a last minute reversal in a key state. That would just fuel Trump’s claims of fraud and his audience, some seventy million strong, would be outraged, possibly to the point of violence. Slow and steady — fitting for Biden — wins the race. The votes don’t get certified now and the Electoral College doesn’t meet until December.

    Count every vote. As I commented last night, I am enjoying Biden’s inexorable overtaking of Trump. Each new vote count is another knife in the heart for Trump as it gradually slips away.

  243. 243.

    VeniceRiley

    @topclimber: Brian Stelter Selter? on CNN said he had multiple Fox top talents leak the instructions they got to not call Biden “President ELECT” with the lawsuits as the excuse.  This is coming straight from Rupert and Lachlan. Anyhow, the fact that they’re leaking to their boss’ enemies is outstanding.

    Tapper basically told them all they can hand over any claim of being a journalist.

    It was some plasma temp burn.

  244. 244.

    Quinerly

    @Kay: OK, I found it. Looks like Rush didn’t mean it.

    “Comes back, says he did not concede a Biden win, and that if he have that impression he didn’t mean to.” Steve Thomma

  247. 247.

    TriassicSands

    @Kent: None of this requires the Senate at all.

    But it does require the approval of the SCOTUS. The Republican goal is to prevent Democrats from accomplishing anything. I would get prepared for lots of lawsuits. I don’t envy Biden at all.

  248. 248.

    Kent

    @Miss Bianca:@Kent: I was thinking FL was probably the 5th.

    Actually the numbers of registered boats and boat sales are hugely different.  I think some states like MN register even the smallest boats like canoes so they have huge numbers.  Where states like TX only register larger motorized boats on trailers and such so have smaller counts.  Here is the comparison between registered boats and boat sales.

    Number of Registered Boats

    California 1,051,606
    2. Michigan 1,000,337
    3. Florida 922,597
    4. Minnesota 834,974
    5. Wisconsin 650,280
    6. Texas 624,390
    7. New York 529,732
    8. Ohio 413,276
    9. Illinois 398,431
    10. South Carolina 383,971

    Boat sales

    1. Florida
    2. Texas
    3. California
    4. North Carolina
    5. New York
    6. Louisiana
    7. Washington
    8. Delaware
    9. Michigan
    10. Minnesota
  249. 249.

    BC in Illinois

    @germy:

    Don’t feel bad for Trump. He still has his crippling debt, money-losing properties, and numerous legal problems to fall back on.

    And he has the Biden-Harris Administration ready to efficiently handle every *Freedom Of Information Act* inquiry into everything Trump, and his minions, have done for the last four years.

  251. 251.

    Kent

    @TriassicSands:

    @Kent: None of this requires the Senate at all.

    But it does require the approval of the SCOTUS. The Republican goal is to prevent Democrats from accomplishing anything. I would get prepared for lots of lawsuits. I don’t envy Biden at all.

    Yes and no.  It doesn’t take SCOTUS approval to repeal a Trump regulation, for example.  They may chip away at stuff but the president still has immense power and if we end up in a constitutional showdown, so be it.  That would be long overdue.

    And of course it’s going to be a long fight.  But no reason to hide in a crouch.  Do like the Republicans always do when they take the presidency.  Take the OFFENSIVE with confidence.

  252. 252.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: I’m actually fine with them not calling it until a Trump comeback is not just staggeringly unlikely but mathematically impossible.

    At this point, Trump COULD theoretically win some statistically unlikely proportion of the outstanding ballots, flip PA and AZ and GA and win the election. We know he won’t (well, he could definitely still get GA), but it’s not ruled out if you were to assume nothing about the outstanding votes.

    And as I think somebody here said, the really really late-counted ballots at the very tail end tend to be weirdly distributed and you can’t actually assume much about them based on previous trends. I think in PA there’s enough still out that that’s not applicable (they occasionally add some very Trumpy blocks of ballots but it’s always, like, 17 votes), but still.

  254. 254.

    OGLiberal

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Barrett just got on and she no longer needs Trump for anything.  She doesn’t even need his base, although they love her anyway.  She’s got a longer term agenda.  It’s not a good one but why start of looking like a complete political hack to save a guy who can no longer do anything for you?

  255. 255.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy:

    NEWS: Some in Trump’s inner circle are aware that Brad Parscale is writing a book and are concerned the ex-campaign manager could reveal damaging information about the president and his family 

    Haha, what isn’t known or suspected about the Kremlin’s bitch and his mobster crime family?

  257. 257.

    Kent

    @OGLiberal: A Conservative SCOTUS is largely irrelevant in a conservative presidency.  Their power goes up immensely with a Dem presidency.  If they are partisan hacks they will probably relish standing up to Biden much more than taking 4 more years of abuse from Trump and being portrayed as his bitches.

  258. 258.

    OGLiberal

    @Kent: I’ve always thought the limited recount was a big mistake on Gore’s part.  What was the reason why he didn’t go for the full state?

  259. 259.

    Kent

    @Matt McIrvin:And as I think somebody here said, the really really late-counted ballots at the very tail end tend to be weirdly distributed and you can’t actually assume much about them based on previous trends. I think in PA there’s enough still out that that’s not applicable (they occasionally add some very Trumpy blocks of ballots but it’s always, like, 17 votes), but still.

    Don’t confuse late counted with late arriving.  The late arriving ballots can be squirrely.  But the ballots being counted in PA right now are not late arriving.  They are just part of the normal masses of ordinary mail-in ballots.  They aren’t being counted in order of arrival or anthing like that.

  260. 260.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kent: Good point. I’ve also been hearing confusing things about how much of the estimate of remaining ballots in PA is provisional ballots. (Don’t quite understand what will be required to get them counted, if anything.)

  261. 261.

    cckids

    @jonas:Trying to stop the counting hasn’t worked. What’s plan B?

    Bitching and moaning and lying. Entirely ineffective at anything but fomenting unrest among the basest of the base. Trump being Trump.

  262. 262.

    Kent

    @OGLiberal:@Kent: I’ve always thought the limited recount was a big mistake on Gore’s part.  What was the reason why he didn’t go for the full state?

    I lived through that era and I don’t really remember.  I never bothered to read any of the post-mortems or watched any of the documentaries because it was just too painful.  Probably it was too strategic by far or something.  I think there were also differences in types of ballots and they were mostly interested in recounting the punch card ballots with the hanging chads, not the optical scan ballots.  But like I said, I don’t really remember.

    But anyway, 2000 is a completely different situation than today.  Stopping a recount is fundamentally different from reversing 4 different state elections.  I don’t see SCOTUS getting their fingers dirty with any of this.  They aren’t that stupid.

  263. 263.

    PaulWartenberg

    COOPER: “That is the President of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, and we see him like an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun…”

    Holden : You’re in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down…

    Leon : What one?

    Holden : What?

    Leon : What desert?

    Holden : It doesn’t make any difference what desert, it’s completely hypothetical.

    Leon : But, how come I’d be there?

    Holden : Maybe you’re fed up. Maybe you want to be by yourself. Who knows? You look down and see a tortoise, Leon. It’s crawling toward you…

    Leon : Tortoise? What’s that?

    Holden : [irritated by Leon’s interruptions] You know what a turtle is?

    Leon : Of course!

    Holden : Same thing.

    Leon : I’ve never seen a turtle… But I understand what you mean.

    Holden : You reach down and you flip the tortoise over on its back, Leon.

    Leon : Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden? Or do they write ’em down for you?

    Holden : The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t. Not without your help. But you’re not helping.

    Leon : [angry at the suggestion] What do you mean, I’m not helping?

    Holden : I mean: you’re not helping! Why is that, Leon?

  264. 264.

    guachi

    @Kent: Democratic challengers only outperformed Biden in Arizona and Montana. Clinton also outperformed House and Senate candidates in 2016.

    I think Trump was just uniquely bad. Democrats should be cautious in 2022 when Trump won’t be an issue for voters.

  265. 265.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kent: I think a lot of people have gotten the wrong idea from discussions of/complaints about the 2000 election, that the Supreme Court has the constitutional power to certify elections.

  266. 266.

    p.a.

    @RuralChrisLee

    President Jimmy Carter, the pride of PLAINS, has seen a lot in his 96 years of living — and now, he gets to see his beloved Georgia turn blue once again.

     

    nice tweet!??????

  268. 268.

    horatius

    @Kent: Also tie them up in litigation in NC as much as possible to count and recount every provisional ballot to prevent Thom Tillis from being seated. Right out of the Norm Coleman playbook. Drag it on for months, maybe a year if you need to.

  269. 269.

    Kent

    @guachi:

    @Kent: Democratic challengers only outperformed Biden in Arizona and Montana. Clinton also outperformed House and Senate candidates in 2016.

    I think Trump was just uniquely bad. Democrats should be cautious in 2022 when Trump won’t be an issue for voters.

    Trump was uniquely bad to us.  But also uniquely good as a politician in terms of riling up his base.

    The electorate is going to re-sort in 2022 and 2024.  I don’t see any national Republican on the horizon who is going to be able to marshal Trump’s MAGA forces.  So things will re-sort and new Republican majorities will emerge in new ways.  It’s going to continue to be a yearly battle against the forces of big money who aren’t going away.  The Koch Brother types.  Its an endless fight that will outlast all of our lifetimes.

    I expect to see more GOP efforts to attract Hispanic voters as their white evangelical and white working class numbers decline.

  270. 270.

    horatius

    @mrmoshpotato: Take the high road man. Listen to Michelle Obama. Let’s stick to the respectful definition.

    A frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that’s often the byproduct of anal sex.

    Be Nice!

  271. 271.

    Kent

    @horatius:@Kent: Also tie them up in litigation in NC as much as possible to count and recount every provisional ballot to prevent Thom Tillis from being seated. Right out of the Norm Coleman playbook. Drag it on for months, maybe a year if you need to.

    That doesn’t work because the new Congress doesn’t get sworn in until Jan.  We are still in the lame duck session.  You’d have to drag out recounts past Jan and I don’t see that happening.  If it was a few votes difference maybe.  But there are like 100,000 votes separating them right now.

  272. 272.

    Sebastian

    @hueyplong:

    Republicans said “no rules!” and went all in four years.

    Ok.

    Now our four years.

    When we are done and you are up for it, let’s sit down and agree on new set of rules

  274. 274.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: I thought it was great!  He laid himself down to get people to the other side, even though he didn’t make it himself.  ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  275. 275.

    patrick II

    @Kent:

    They broke the law though.  Florida law says within one-half of a percent then a manual recount.  Within one percent a machine recount.  Rick Scott had a machine re-count victory in his senate race.  They pay attention to the law at times.

  276. 276.

    Soprano2

    @debbie: At long last, Steve Inskeep utters the word “lies.”

    I didn’t know he could do that in association with Trump. It took until he knew Trump was on the way out. Sometimes I hate these people.

  277. 277.

    Brachiator

    The Trumps are tacky, loud, demanding wannabe mobsters, and power is slipping out of their hands, thank dog. There’s no reason for Fox News or any other outlet to keep kissing their asses.

    Fox News was in the political grift business long before Trump.  They have to maintain their brand.

    With other media outlets, it’s a little more complex. Ultimately, the media is part of the Establishment. They want to be around no matter which party is in power.

    But I also think that cynicism, even more than claims of objectivity, is necessary to be a journalist.  Doesn’t matter whether the journalist is good or a hack. They need it in order to deal with unpleasant and unsavory characters. Unfortunately, this cynicism often blinds journalists to real dangers to democracy, and sometimes even to dangers to themselves and people they claim to care about.

  283. 283.

    Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride

    @Kent:  As I recall, Gore couldn’t have asked for a statewide recount because Florida law required hard evidence of a potential problem in any county that was challenged, and they wouldn’t have had time to find such evidence in every county under the short timeframe for filing the challenge.  (There might even have been counties that didn’t have any problems.)  It did unfortunately look like partisan cherrypicking, but there was probably no way around that.

  284. 284.

    Dmbeaster

    @Zelma: They will overcome it.  Being president means he can demand attention and some degree of respect and deference.  He has worn that out – remember the debates three years ago about accurately labeling his crap “lies.”  But he can still get attention as president even though they now apply the label.

    He now has loser stink on him, and they shortly have no reason to do anything other than diss him.  But he will remain a strong voice in right wing media.  There is a huge potential that he does damage in that capacity.

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