Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

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

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

He really is that stupid.

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

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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

Accountability, motherfuckers.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

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

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Adios MoFo II (Open Thread)

Adios MoFo II (Open Thread)

by | 182 Comments

This post is in: 

It’s amazing how light and carefree I feel. I know things are fucked up and bullshit and will be for the foreseeable future.

But earlier, I was on my way from one place to another, and something was nagging at me, this feeling that I was forgetting a tangible item. Then I realized it wasn’t tangible at all; it was the usual bundle of disgust and dread and national shame I’ve carried for four years. It was lighter. I felt that.

This illustration:

There’s a lot to worry about. But not this day. Open thread!

Reader Interactions

182Comments

  3. 3.

    debbie

    Exactly this. I felt very much lighter when I took my walk this afternoon. I even smiled and chatted (about nothing) with a few people out in their yards. I don’t think it was a coincidence that this has been a very lovely day (70s with a bright blue cloudless sky).

  5. 5.

    Jeffro

    LOVE the illustration almost as much as I’m loving this weight leaving my shoulders.

    Thank you, Joe & Kamala!

    Thank you, historic D turnout!

    Still sinking in just how huge this is. Trying hard not to be a bad winner but hoo boy it’s tough!!

  6. 6.

    phdesmond

    in this happy moment, i’d like to share a poem i wrote last night.

     

    An Inauguration Tune

     
    Trump is gone, and none too soon!
    Angry, smug, grotesque buffoon,
    stupid-suited Pantaloon,
    Queens brat trying to play tycoon,
    piccolo posing as bassoon.
     
    No more poison-gas balloon,
    orange-caked, pale-eyed raccoon,
    whose nightly hissing at the moon
    has made this country his spittoon —
    on January twentieth, at noon!  

      —  Peter H. Desmond

  7. 7.

    Turgidson

    Yes, I felt a palpable amount of what seemed to be permanent stress just start melting off in the minutes after I saw Pennsylvania get called. Man, I had forgotten what it felt like not to carry that shit around everywhere I went.

    Ahhhhh. So nice. So very, very nice.

    Also, looking forward to seeing who takes over for Kamala as California’s junior Senator. Tons of interesting possibilities.

  8. 8.

    geg6

    Yep, I feel the same. Told my John that it felt like I’d had a band cinched tight around my chest that made it hard to breathe for the past four years. It’s gone now and I can take deep breaths again.

    I have a nice bottle of wine in the wine fridge and I talked John into getting takeout from our favorite Italian place (my favorite food in the world). Gonna eat my pasta and drink toasts to Joe and Kamala until I pass out.

  13. 13.

    Suzanne

    I am excited to see what the stock market does on Monday.

    Looking for all of the sat to run in all of the wounds.

  17. 17.

    germy

    I envy you jackals who imbibe.

    I can’t drink at all.  Stomach hurts, head aches and I feel shitty.  I can’t even drink beer, never mind the hard stuff or fancy wines. So I remain sober through my celebrations.

    I’m with you in spirit, just without the spirits.

  20. 20.

    Ohio Mom

    I know we still have to get through the winter but — finally controlling Covid!

    I can fantasize about leaving the house on a whim! Eating inside a restaurant! Traveling!

  21. 21.

    grammypat

    I cried when I saw the video of the call between Kamala and Joe.

    Since Charlottesville, my desktop background has been the pic of the gal giving a double-barrel middle finger to some Loser.

    Today, it is now changed to this pic of the long shadow of VP Harris.

  22. 22.

    germy

    @geg6:  They do it on purpose, and then backtrack when they’re called out.

    “Create narrative first, then find talking mouth to fill in the blanks.”

  24. 24.

    PaulWartenberg

    I hope they place a Historical Marker at the spot outside Four Seasons Landscaping in Philadelphia where Rudy pissed it all away as the state announced for Biden.

  27. 27.

    RSA

    @germy: Ugh.

    I checked the story, and the Times has updated it with “…said Ms. Lavoie-Carnes, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the New Hampshire State House this year.”

    But no indication that the story was updated after publication. (Weinstein has screen grabs of the original, and he’s entirely correct.)

    It’s crap like this, their editorials aside, that made me cancel my subscription.

  30. 30.

    Van Buren

    Never really thought about it before but I am only 2 degrees of separation from Biden so I figure I will be getting offers for an assistant secretary position any day now.

  31. 31.

    caring & sensitive

    I recognize the shadow image but I can’t place it. I seem to recall it’s from the era of school integration but I can’t come any closer than that. Any help?

    By the way I have been reading the blog since before Terry Schavio ( having come here from Andrew Sullivan’s place) and I check in no less than 2 or 3 times a day. I’m in Vancouver BC and I cannot tell you how relieved I, and everyone I know, is about the result.  I’m still concerned that 70,000,000 of you people (including my sister and brother -in -law) voted for that asshole.

  33. 33.

    JoyceH

    @PaulWartenberg: I’m seeing on Twitter that the legal team’s presser wound up in the suburban parking lot of a landscaper, next to an adult book store, BECAUSE THEY BOOKED THE WRONG FOUR SEASONS! They intended to be at the downtown luxury hotel but called the wrong place. Top flight legal talent. Top. Flight.

  34. 34.

    Turgidson

    @germy:

    In a just world, he would have to watch the spontaneous celebrations worldwide with his eyelids taped open Clockwork Orange style for at least 306 (Biden’s like EC total) straight hours.

  36. 36.

    piratedan

    and while I can finally put my personal eeyore to the stables at last, I sit back and reflect on some bit I heard on Morning Joe this morning about “what motivated” GOP voters and it wasn’t just supporting Trump but something that was mentioned by a current GOP talking head who indicated that GOP voters were motivated by the incessant messaging regarding “defunding the police” and that JB and KH are “socialists”.

    You know and I know that these are not true, yet in ad after ad this is how the Democratic politicians and policy positions are portrayed.  I really wonder if this is additional psy-ops stuff from our friendly Russian “helpers” who are toggling the concern buttons of low information voters by driving that narrative in an endless loop and I feel it’s a large reason as to why we under-performed in the House and Senate races… our politicians are looking to introduce anarchy by doing these “evil deeds” and only Trump can stop them.

    As long as these asshats can continue to run unchecked, we will continue to struggle with the “us vs them” arguments that shape our political discourse.

     

    Today I’m happy, come January, I hope Joe and Lady K are ready to fuck up some GRU shit and keep Putin busy in his own back yard.

  37. 37.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Tomorrow we will wake up. We’ll feel like things are OK. When we check our news feeds, we will not be enraged. Our bodies will have to start adapting to the absence of that constant diet of rage that we’ve felt the last four years.

    Something that amazes me is how quickly Trump seems to have become irrelevant in just a few hours. The news cameras are giving him the loser treatment.

    I know there is damage left that he can still do. So why does it feel like the Wicked Witch is already dead?

  39. 39.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @PaulWartenberg: There was no confusion at all. They deliberately put Trump’s team at a landscaping place because it’s the only location they could find that had a large enough pile of manure to make their speech look less like a complete load of bullshit by comparison.

  40. 40.

    Jeffro

    Busy looking through my FB timeline, the better to rid it of trumpov’s ugly orange mug forever, and I am coming across stories from March & April about what we’d need to do to get the pandemic under control.

    Also found one from May(!) about how the president* is unraveling.

    Jesus, GOP, you really fucked up.  And you’re welcome, btw, for Dems going all-out to rid the country of this disgusting human being.

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    It sure as hell is a weight off our shoulders!

    I’m gonna sleep like a baby tonight (and wake up to see how the score has been run up more!)

  43. 43.

    germy

    @debbie:

    Dave was on SNL the Saturday after the 2016 Trump victory.  He told everyone we should calm down and give Trump a chance.  He was serious!

    I watched some of last week’s show, and guest host Mulroney (sp?) said nothing will change with a new president.  He did that stupid “both sides are the same” thing which they think is clever.

    I’m looking forward to see Chapelle.  I’ll probably catch him on youtube tomorrow.

  45. 45.

    different-church-lady

    A crowd of more than 100 people who had been singing “We Are The Champions” stopped mid song to jeer and boo the defeated president as he passed.

    Secret Service had blocked the crowd from standing near the entrance, so they raised their voices to be heard.

    “Bye, bye!” a woman screamed.

    Some bystanders gave the passing cars a thumbs down; others a raised middle finger.

    Susan Rayner, a District resident, was standing with her husband, who held up his iPhone to record the cacophony of boos that followed the motorcade as it went by the intersection of 18th and E streets NW.

    Yes. He had to bear it with his own eyes and ears.

  46. 46.

    PaulWartenberg

    @JoyceH: I heard. we’re talking about a dysfunctional administration that didn’t know how light switches worked!

    I can remember trump had traveled overseas, and nobody had booked a secure hotel for that visit so he had to stay at the embassy.

    Incompetence, across the board.

  47. 47.

    bluefish

    Numb with relief. Anxiety will sweep in soon enough but today just comfortably numb. Five years of daily pesadelo. Get thee behind me, 45.

  48. 48.

    different-church-lady

    @Baud: It’s amazing what Rockwell could come up with when he wasn’t in sentimental mode.

    (PS: what he came up with in sentimental mode could also be amazing effective.)

  49. 49.

    cope

    I remarked in your earlier post that I physically felt better the instant I had confirmed the victory.  I also had goosebumps up and down my arms.  I have not felt so carefree since I cannot remember when.

    I’ve been somewhat worried that even though trump is gone, the trumpers never will be.   But now, I can use the massive amounts of energy it used to take me just to make it through the day to deal with that thought.

    Just to know that come January (the month after next!), we won’t have to see or hear trump speak/tweet as a representative of our country is a wonderful thing to behold.  Also, the thought of all trump’s deplorable appointees heading out the door is just icing on the cake.

  51. 51.

    Citizen Alan

    @different-church-lady: Per the wiki article, it was less about sentimentality than corporate censorship. Apparently, he’d been under contract to the Saturday Evening Post and they wouldn’t let him do racial justice issues. As soon as his contract ended, he move to Look where that work and other pro-civil rights works appeared.

  53. 53.

    different-church-lady

    Betty, the weight you feel lifted off your shoulders is actually a weight off the psyhche of the entire country, even if they supported Trump. They think they are crushed, but they are actually liberated if they want to be.

  54. 54.

    different-church-lady

    @Citizen Alan: Well sure, I get that contract work in the mid 20-century for a general interest magazine ain’t gonna get into controversial subjects. But the difference in tone can be so jarring. Like a musician who could do classical or blues with equal fluidity.

  56. 56.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @different-church-lady: A little while ago I was fondly looking over some pics in my phone of a time Pence came to town and an entire Philly street gave him the one finger Philly greeting.

  58. 58.

    cope

    @germy: I quit drinking a couple of years ago but today, when I finally acknowledged to myself that Biden had indeed won, I went and found a 7-UP in the back of our refrigerator.  I don’t normally drink soda pop either but as I chugged down the celebratory beverage, it was as fine and sweet to me as any booze I ever drank in my life.

  62. 62.

    HumboldtBlue

    I haven’t had a job in more than a year, I’m a broke-ass motherfucker barely hanging on, I haven’t hugged my lady friend since March, I haven’t hugged my nieces and nephews since Xmas and New years and yet I still have a fucking mile-wide smile glued to my face.

  63. 63.

    MaryRC

    @JoyceH: The story I’m seeing is that Trump declared the press conference at the Four Seasons hotel before his staff booked it, the hotel turned him down, and rather than admitting Trump was wrong his staff had to find another venue named Four Seasons.  Typical of Trump to always double down on a mistake.

  64. 64.

    different-church-lady

    @debbie: Oh the misery is going to continue unabated for every day he lives beyond January 20th. Even if there isn’t an anti-Trumper in his sight: the misery will be coming from inside his own mind.

  65. 65.

    mrmoshpotato

    @PaulWartenberg: I hope they place a Historical Marker at the spot outside Four Seasons Landscaping in Philadelphia where Rudy pissed it all away as the state announced for Biden.

    Kiddie fence around it – “This is where Shitstain Ghouliani was…well…a shitstain trying some bullshit to undermine the winners of the most popular votes in history, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.”

  66. 66.

    Patricia Kayden

    Next move: donate, make phone calls and write letters to elect two Democratic Senators from the great state of Georgia. Yes we can!!
    What a great way to end this week!!

  67. 67.

    Linda M

    My wonderful husband died in 2016 and I endured the whole year of campaign without him. I was grieving, then bad piled on to bad, and tRump was elected. I have been grieving all this time over the death and then over the terrible things that have happened to this country under this maniac. Today, when I heard the news, I felt so much lighter and free of the pain of the every day news. Now, maybe, I can come up for air. The news on TV showing all the people gathering in all the cities makes me so happy.

  68. 68.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud: Four Seasons Landscaping should honor the occasion by having a sale on manure.

    With the Kremlin printed on the bags!  Fuck off traitorous, orange, Soviet shitpile!

  69. 69.

    Martin

    A few things to note:

    1. Democrats celebrate. There was no comparable celebrations when Trump was elected. They turn out for angry rallies but not joyous wins.
    2. Don’t get too attached to the number 46. I think there’s a decent chance Trump resigns before 1/20 and gives us a few weeks with Pence as 46.
    3. Kamala is a big Biden deal. She wasn’t needed to bring California home, but she brought a lot of voters across the map home.
  72. 72.

    Louise B.

    So looking forward to having a functioning federal government again!! Biden and Harris will know how to do that, notwithstanding whatever bullshit the Senate throws their way.

  73. 73.

    Sister Golden Bear

    I can’t tell you how much lighter I feel. I didn’t realize just how much dread and disgust I’ve been carrying around for the past four years. It’s a mixture of elations and exhaustion, since this is the first time I can let my stomach unclench—if only for a day.

    On a very personal note, I also can’t tell you how amazing it feels to have the most trans-friendly president ever, after after four years of the administration trying to eradicate me and my siblings from public life.

  74. 74.

    different-church-lady

    @Martin:

    Don’t get too attached to the number 46.

    “Joe, we’re gonna have to send all the merchandise to Africa.”

    Today I was joking to a friend that in Africa they have an entire alternate history of who won North American sports championships.

  75. 75.

    West of the Rockies

    I’m thrilled but I’m also really, really, REALLY hoping there is retribution  for Barr, Miller, Kushner,  DeVos, DeJoy, Pompeo, etc.  I want their careers in government  ruined forever.

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @R-Jud:

    What a great story! So typical of Joe to recognise a home-town name and make the connection. And I have just fallen madly in lust with your Uncle Gino. Holy schnorkes, he was one good-looking man!

  78. 78.

    MisterForkbeard

    @debbie: Right? I made my weekly shopping trip and.. actually talked to people. You could tell they were smiling!

    And (this is the best, part of the reason why I love my town) there were 3 people in Chicken suits holding Biden Harris signs and dancing and singing, right in the downtown square. Lots of laughing, honking and congratulations from the cars and pedestrians. So much fun.

    I had THREE other pro-biden/anti-trump moments on that trip. It’s a wonderful world today.

  79. 79.

    Eljai

    @Linda M:  So sorry for what you’ve had to endure.  I hope your grief continues to lighten.  May the memories of your husband be a blessing.  It has been lovely watching the joyful celebrations around the country today.

  80. 80.

    different-church-lady

    @debbie: There’s a story about Lenny Bruce that ends with, “Oh man, Vaughn Meader is fucked.”

    So goes Alec Baldwin’s Trump impression, although I’m sure Alec is fine with it.

  85. 85.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Martin:

    Kamala is a big Biden deal. She wasn’t needed to bring California home, but she brought a lot of voters across the map home.

    Kamala’s the next Dem presidential candidate in 2024. We’ve got four years to make that happen.

  86. 86.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Oops gotta go. I hear my wife playing Kool and the Gang, “Celebration” in the kitchen. Think I’m needed for some happy dancing.

  87. 87.

    NoraLenderbee

    I’m still exhausted and numb. It will take a while. Like time-release medication. I had an upsetting, angry, emotional argument Wednesday night (not related to politics) and I’m still feeling it.

  91. 91.

    bemused senior

    Stage4 cancer patient here. I am so grateful to have lived in relative good health to see my country (with all it’s many flaws) return to the kind of society I want my grand twins to grow up in. I was alerted to look at the good news this morning by the sound of an air horn across the canyon. Could only mean one thing!

  92. 92.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @HumboldtBlue: Don’t assume that Joe is one and done.  He may be, but let’s not start his tenure by making him a lame duck.  No matter how inspirational one finds Kamala to be.

  93. 93.

    Splitting Image

    @JoyceH:

    I’m seeing on Twitter that the legal team’s presser wound up in the suburban parking lot of a landscaper, next to an adult book store, BECAUSE THEY BOOKED THE WRONG FOUR SEASONS! They intended to be at the downtown luxury hotel but called the wrong place. Top flight legal talent. Top. Flight.

    I’d vote for Rob Reiner to make the eventual documentary of the Trump administration, but he would be accused of recycling too many of his own jokes.

  95. 95.

    Kent

    Josh Marshall pretty much sums up my sentiments at this moment

    Joe Biden had one job: to get 270 electoral votes. He did it. Nothing succeeds like success and really nothing matters but success. Not margins or coalitions or really anything but the fact that he got it done. Excuses would be meaningless if he hadn’t; second-guessing and potshots from the bleachers are equally so.

  100. 100.

    Jazzman

    Hooray for the USA!  We have managed to lance a suppurating boil on our body politic.  Now the healing process must begin.

    Members of my church choir got together today (all masked) and sang “America the Beautiful.”  To my ears it never sounded better.

  103. 103.

    Kent

    Latest AZ ballot drop was 83% Biden and his lead creeps up to 21,188.   He may end up sweeping all the remaining states except NC.

  104. 104.

    germy

    @cope:

    And Lenny Bruce got in trouble when he told an audience that Jackie Kennedy hauled ass to save her ass that day in Dallas.

    The official story was that she was trying to retrieve a skull fragment when she scrambled out of the limo, before being pushed back in by Clint Hill.  Lenny said it was unfair to his daughter, if her husband was ever shot and she tried to get away, that she’d hate herself because she didn’t “stay like the good Mrs. Kennedy.”

    He pissed off a lot of people with that routine.

  105. 105.

    zhena gogolia

    Feeling lighter is exactly how I’ve been perceiving it.
    And not just because I lost two pounds between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

  107. 107.

    James E Powell

    @cope:

    There was a cartoon history a few years later, maybe National Lampoon, that depicted the inauguration of David Frye.

  110. 110.

    Redshift

    Heading down to Black Lives Matter Plaza in DC now. I had stuff to do this afternoon, and was waffling on whether to go, but it seems like too good a party to miss.

  111. 111.

    topclimber

    @HumboldtBlue: As a fellow broke-ass hanger-on, I second your motion on KH.

    In the midst of the celebration we still have the problem that so many voted for Trump. But for what it is worth, Hillary won 51% of the popular vote share of the top 2 candidates out of a total of about 129 million votes. About 16 million more popular votes went to the top two in 2020. Biden/Harris won more than 54% of that marginal share. That number will rise as the count rounds out.

    I take this to mean that the more we turnout, the smaller the share of hate-filled merons will become.

    “Now we are marching to Georgia.” (Changed from through because we intend to stay).

  116. 116.

    Martin

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I agree, but I also have a feeling that rolling into 2024, if he sees the ground is right for Kamala to win, he’ll push her forward. At a minimum, it’s hard for a party to get more than 8 years in the WH, so her odds go down in 2028.

    I think that also means we’re going to have a VERY active VP.

  120. 120.

    dmsilev

    @different-church-lady:

    Some had waited for over an hour to have their chance to jeer at the president returning home, with one woman asking officers if they knew when Trump was expected back from his golf course in Virginia,

    I smell a lucrative franchise opportunity in the making. How much would you pay for a chance to jeer at Trump in person?

  122. 122.

    jnfr

    I don’t know if I’ll fully feel it until January. I still have some fear, and mostly I’m exhausted.

    Watching all the damage these four years, even while working against it, has been soul-shredding. And these last few days have stretched on forever. And I’m still very worried about what they’ll do before Inauguration.

    I’ll get better once the electoral college is past, and maybe I’ll find some joy by Inauguration Day. That will be a joyful moment for sure. Until then, I’m gonna keep watching gifs of Kamala dancing.

  123. 123.

    Pete Mack

    These heels are made for walkin’

    And that’s just what they’ll do

    Today I’m gonna use these heels

    to walk all over tou

  124. 124.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @topclimber: Read today that Biden’s share of the popular vote is the biggest since FDR.

    In the Reagan-Carter disaster, Reagan got 489 electoral votes, but only 50.7% of the popular vote.

    Edit: Hmm. But in 1984 he got 58.8%. So I’m not sure exactly what they meant by “biggest since FDR”.

    (Emily Litella Voice: “Never mind”)

  125. 125.

    p.a.

    Someday we will cross a bridge, someday we will see
    That I can lean on you and you can put your weight on me
    And every man will get a chance to be what a man wants to be
    And every woman will look at her child and know that he’s growing up free

    The sun is gonna shine again
    We’ll make it around that bend
    I’ll walk one more mile with you Cos you’re my friend
    The sun is gonna shine again

    Someday we will ride a train that only seats one class
    To a destination that feels like home at last, oh I
    Know it seems impossible now, I know it seems like a joke
    But if there’s no purpose, if there’s no love
    We hang at the end of a rope

    And the sun is gonna shine again
    We’ll make it around that bend
    We’ll walk together, I swear
    Cos you’re my friend
    The sun is gonna shine again

    I have had my mind made up and I have been in doubt
    But sometimes even I can see the light that will not be put out
    And every man will hold up his head and know it won’t get beaten back down
    And every woman will be not afraid to walk on the very same road

    And the sun is gonna shine again
    We’ll make it around that bend
    We’ll walk together, I swear
    Cos you’re my friend
    The sun is gonna shine again

    We’ll walk together, I swear
    Cos you’re my friend
    The sun is gonna shine again

     

    Graham Parker, The Sun Is Gonna Shine Again (1991)

  126. 126.

    Mallard Filmore

    Is there an opposite of rage click, or rage view? Back in February my brother sent me a link to the twitter account “https://twitter.com/drawandstrike” to warn me that Rudy would drop some amazing stuff about the Bidens in Ukraine.

    I just went there to gloat view the page and it says “This account has been suspended.”

    What a happy day this is!

  127. 127.

    Kropacetic

    @dmsilev: I smell a lucrative franchise opportunity in the making. How much would you pay for a chance to jeer at Trump in person?

    I wonder if Trump would go along with that.  It puts his ego in direct conflict with his love for money.

  128. 128.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Kamala’s the next Dem presidential candidate in 2024.

    Wouldn’t you rather have 1 & 1/2 terms of a Biden presidency, with Biden resigning in mid-term, allowing 2 & 1/2 terms of a Harris presidency?

  134. 134.

    SFAW

    @dmsilev:

    I smell a lucrative franchise opportunity in the making. How much would you pay for a chance to jeer at Trump in person?

    If you want it, you better hurry — I’ve already locked up the rights for the pissing-on-his-grave franchise, as well as the adjacent beer garden, and the hydrochlorothiazide pre-beer dose.

  135. 135.

    Mike in NC

    I think the world is going to think today was almost as big a deal as the Berlin Wall coming down.

  139. 139.

    Kent

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    @topclimber: Read today that Biden’s share of the popular vote is the biggest since FDR.

    In the Reagan-Carter disaster, Reagan got 489 electoral votes, but only 50.7% of the popular vote.

    Edit: Hmm. But in 1984 he got 58.8%. So I’m not sure exactly what they meant by “biggest since FDR”.

    (Emily Litella Voice: “Never mind”)

    Maybe if you are talking about challengers, but not incumbents for sure.  Eisenhower got 57.4% and 457 electoral votes in 1956

  142. 142.

    different-church-lady

    @dmsilev: OK, I’m not violent, but I will risk investigation to say that it goes far beyond jeering for me. Trump is one of the only people I would be willing to punch in the face on sight.

  145. 145.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Sm*t Cl*de: Come on, let’s not write Biden off as a placeholder for Harris.

    Hmmm…  It looks like this is a thing I am going to be pissy about.

  146. 146.

    Starfish

    @Immanentize: We were in the car a while ago, and NPR was only talking to Black people. It was great. They asked Jim Clyburn about what the agenda was, and he did not want to let them go because he was so busy discussing the agenda. He said that he hoped that they would get all the criminal justice reform legislation of the past forty years and form a commission to study the unintended consequences and fix them.

  147. 147.

    C Stars

    @Mallard Filmore: If past behavior is any indication, they’re going to be gnashing teeth about the many Hunter Biden laptops for well into the 2020s. But yeah, they’re also incompetent so…

  150. 150.

    Horatius

    • @Redshift: I followed a Black family holding out a Biden-Harris campaign sign up and down Constitution Avenue matching their honking note for note. Other cars joined in. Yeah it was a party.
    • Watched the sun go down over the Potomac as my worries melted away.
  151. 151.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Sm*t Cl*de: While I certainly preferred Harris to Biden in the primaries, I don’t think either of those things is going to happen unless Joe Biden dies, or has debilitating health issues. Incumbency is a huge electoral advantage, and the kind of person who gets elected President is the kind who won’t quit the job unless they absolutely have to. And Joe Biden has clearly been preparing to be President for most of his life.

  152. 152.

    Dan B

    @piratedan: Thomas Frank has an interesting op-ed in The Guardian about some reasons the white working class are not identifying with Democrats.  It seems reasonable that Bill Clinton, Obama, and Joe adopted policies that disadvantaged workers, like “free” trade.

    I don’t accept it as gospel but it postulates an interesting viewpoint.

  154. 154.

    Baud

    @Dan B:

    That’s not a new view.  But there’s no support for it. The GOP had been even more free trade, and it hasn’t hurt them with the WWC.

  159. 159.

    Elizabelle

    This was funny.  From a friend’s FB page:

    I get it, you hated him 4 years ago and you still hate him now. Hell, I can’t even stand the guy. I’ve seen a lot of hate thrown his way, but this guy is a consistent winner and an overachiever.

    Call it jealously, call it envy, some people just can’t handle how successful he is and how much money he has, could even be jealous that he’s got a hot foreign model as his wife. That’s what the people who support him love about him.

    Yes there have been some scandals, yes there have been some lies, and maybe a few times he’s twisted the truth to make himself look better.

    He’s out there every day proving those haters wrong time after time. You may not have wanted him in this role, but he’s there now and there is nothing you or I can do about it.

    I know it’s possibly going to get worse over the next several days, but like him or not, Tom Brady is turning things around in Tampa Bay for the Buccaneers.

  160. 160.

    Elizabelle

    @geg6:   Mine too.  Love Everlong.

    I got to see the Foos at RFK Stadium when Dave G was touring in his throne, since he’d broken his leg.  He’s since passed that throne along to some other injured rockster.

    Lot of depth to Dave Grohl.

  162. 162.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle: I was at that show!

    The crowd was NUTS when LL Cool J hit the stage!!  Good ol’ dilapidated RFK, you could feel the whole place bouncing  =)

  164. 164.

    Dan B

    @Sister Golden Bear: I can only guess at the magnitude of your relief.  My anxiety as a white gay man has been immense but I believe that living through Joe McCarthy, a Mafia contract, anti-gay initiative campaigns, and AIDS have hardened my expectations.  I have noticed I’m more interested in doing chores so drop by drop my spirit is reviving.  And I really slept well last night – 11 hours!

    Our 15% white neighborhood was completely quiet this AM but my Mike guy says there’s a rally at the light rail station on our hill this evening.

  165. 165.

    Elizabelle

    @Jeffro:   Yes.  LL Cool Jay was beloved. Also Buddy Guy.  Great show.

    George Marshall’s statue is down.  We are all still here.  And, we have President-Elect Joseph R Biden and VP-Elect Kamala Harris.  Bells rang in Paris.  Such a day.

  166. 166.

    Geminid

    @C Stars: like the 2016 election, the outcome of this election was close enough that it could have turned on a number of factors. One might be how in the critical last two weeks of the contest the trump campaign wasted valuable messaging bandwidth pushing a laptop scandal that flopped.

  168. 168.

    Ken

    @bemused senior: I imagine a parish harvest festival dunking booth with Trump in the chair and a line around the block.

    All lines stretch around the block nowadays.  I foresee a new set of cliches for the post-covid era.

  169. 169.

    evodevo

    @Dan B: No…economic “anxiety” has NOTHING to do with white voters and Trumpy…it’s ‘bortion, ‘bortion, ‘bortion and middle-class racism.  You could fix ALL their economic problems, and nothing would change.  The biggest Trumpy voters around here in Scott Co. Ky work at Toyota and make a bundle.  They also fill up those megachurches on Sunday and are virulently anti-tax.   What would change their minds, I haven’t a clue.  They are all IGMFU

  171. 171.

    Dan B

    @Baud: That was my feeling although Dem support put the meme “Both parties are the same.” into some mouths.  It would be great to have some study and a touring task force, even if on Zoom, to address the public’s concerns.

  172. 172.

    Dan B

    @R-Jud: Had to look up the handsome guy.  Yep.  And the women staring at him like they were in a trance, ha!

    He could have been a model or been in the movies.  His bravery seems unreal.  Although I’ve been impressed on many occasions by unlikely people rising to the challenge when the chips were down.

  173. 173.

    Dan B

    @evodevo: Good to know.  It seems to be a fragile status issue, based in perception, not on reality.  In Seattle our working class is union and because of Boeing was well paid.  Since Boeing execs bailed for Chicago and seem to be setting the company up for bankruptcy the employees know who is causing their pain.

  175. 175.

    J R in WV

    @bemused senior:

    So glad you got to see Democracy take a win for your Grand-twins!

    Hope you get to see more wins for Democracy in the near future!

    Best wishes from the bright red state of West Virginia…

  177. 177.

    J R in WV

    @R-Jud:

    Fabulous story about Joe Biden and your mom. And Gino was quite a guy, a real hero, even as “just” a PFC. Doesn’t take rank to be a hero is the lesson there!

    Thanks for sharing this with us!

  178. 178.

    J R in WV

    One interesting thing about these guys who win the Medal of Honor. If I understand correctly, even though they may be a PFC or such low ranking soldier, everyone has to salute them!

    Generals, Admirals, etc. They all salute a Medal of Honor winner!

  179. 179.

    The Pale Scot

    @MaryRC:

    The story I’m seeing is that Trump declared the press conference at the Four Seasons hotel before his staff booked it, the hotel turned him down, and rather than admitting Trump was wrong his staff had to find another venue named Four Seasons.

    That sounds more likely, how does one reserve space on the tarmac in front on a landscaper’s garage? That’s a comedy skit waiting to be written. And not realize that they’re not talking to hotel booking?

  180. 180.

    The Pale Scot

    @dmsilev:

    How much would you pay for a chance to jeer at Trump in person?

    If you can arrange for him to be stocks and supply a basket rotten vegetables…… with some rotten eggs…….. and a super soaker filled with permanent phosphorus ink… with a choice of colors, name your price

  181. 181.

    SuzieC

    Dead thread but..in addition to everything else Kamala Harris is a beautiful and classy woman.

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