Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

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

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

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

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Infrastructure week. at last.

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

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

It’s the corruption, stupid.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

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

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

An almost top 10,000 blog!

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

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

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The willow is too close to the house.

Republicans in disarray!

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Excellent Read(s): “Joe Biden’s Long Wait Is Over”

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

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A delightful backgrounder for last night:

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

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

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

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

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

======

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

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

Black voters raised up Biden because he was the tonic they believed a divided and exasperated nation could accept and he was the reliable partner they could trust. He was a pragmatic choice, but that doesn’t lesson his value. He was the loyal and supportive vice president to Barack Obama — willing to stand behind the country’s first Black president and to share both the beauty of that and the ugliness of it. The country was on the cusp of an era grappling with White grievance and White privilege and Biden, who had competed with Obama in the primaries, accepted his professional shortfall and joined his team. And that said something about Biden’s character, namely that it’s not a hostage to his personal success.

He turned around and helped a Black woman — an Asian American woman — take in the rarefied air of high power when he chose Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) as his running mate. She brought her own skills and constituency to the ticket. She benefited him in his ambitions, and if he has taught this country any single lesson from this choice and his victory, it’s that there’s wisdom in making space for the expertise and abilities of Black women…

At a moment when this country’s wounds are deeper and more dire than financial, Biden — the man who has grieved under the public’s gaze, been professionally humbled in the harsh spotlight, spoken earnestly and impolitically of his support for same-sex marriage, and admitted mistakes in his earlier stances on criminal justice — seemed uniquely suited to this moment that was deeply in need of compassion. He is a man who understands that leadership sometimes means simply being human and being able to see the humanity in others. Leadership means carrying the burden so that others might breathe easier or can shine brighter…

======

(My Irish granny, and Irish-American Nana, would give the tone of this piece so much side-eye. The phrases ‘shanty Irish bog-trotter’ and ‘common as pig tracks’ might well have been spoken.)

… Joe Biden has come through a lot of history, and not unscathed, either. I applied to be one of his speechwriters in 1976, fresh out of college. (I didn’t get the gig, which is why he hasn’t built his library already.) Since then, he’s run for president three times. In 1988, he was sunk by a plagiarism scandal brought to light by operatives in the employ of Michael Dukakis. (When Mike Dukakis oppo’s you out of a race, it’s like losing a fistfight with Plato.) In 2008—Twenty years later!—he was swept aside by the phenomenon of Barack Obama, of whom he memorably once said,

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

And this is why campaign aides jump out of windows.

Obama, of course, held no grudges and, by picking Biden as a running mate, revived his career as cool Uncle Joe, one of the more remarkable charisma transfusions in the history of American politics. There is no question that Biden was transformed by the vice presidency, making him the first vice president to be elevated rather than minimized by that office, at least without the president’s having died. The gaffe-ridden friend of the Delaware financial-services industry slipped on the aviators, unleashed his killer smile, and found his way back to being the decent guy, friend of the Amtrak commuters, damn fine Dad, that everybody who really knew him always said he was…

Reader Interactions

156Comments

  1. 1.

    Betty Cracker

    A disappointed clutch of Trumpers were waving Trump flags and “stop the steal” signs in front of the courthouse in my town earlier today. Gave ’em the “L” sign — couldn’t help it!

  2. 2.

    Patricia Kayden

    And the Trump scam continueth. Thank goodness for a decent President in Biden.

    So if you donate to Donald Trump’s legal fund to challenge the election, it seems from the small print that the first 60% of your money goes towards paying down his campaign debt: pic.twitter.com/Q2JvGmMbR3— Alistair Bunkall (@AliBunkallSKY) November 8, 2020

  3. 3.

    JoyceH

    Maybe everybody knew this, but I was frankly BAFFLED by the US map and the names etc that appeared in the sky during the fireworks display. I was all, “How did they DO that?!” So I was grateful for Brian Williams explaining that they were drones. So I guess now we have… precision drill team drones?

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JoyceH: ZOMG I TOLD YOU ALL BIDEN WAS GOING TO JUST BRING BACK OBUMMER POLICIES AND NOW WE HAVE DRONZE OVER AMERICAN CITIES SAVE US GLEM GRIMWOOD!

  5. 5.

    germy

    Inside Trump’s loss: A culmination of self-destructive decisions

    I get the impression that Trump’s loss to Biden of all people is particularly humiliating for him.  Because Biden was part of the Obama team… Trump’s nemesis.

    I learned from the article that Stephen Miller came up with the idea to launch a birther movement against Kamala during the campaign.  Other staff members were against it, but Miller thought it was a good idea, and Trump found the tactic interesting.

  7. 7.

    prostratedragon

    @JoyceH:  Yeah, been about a year now –maybe since the New Year displays or the Super Bowl– that droneworks have become the big thing.

  9. 9.

    Pete Downunder

    @JoyceH: Even as a drone owner and lecturer on drone law I am hugely impressed with these computer driven drone displays. I have no idea how they do it so well. Perhaps because I’m old.

  10. 10.

    Sister Golden Bear

    The fight is far from over, but not waking up to a sense of existential sense of dread and disgust — one that I’d internalized so much that I wasn’t even conscious of it anymore — is a refreshing change.

  11. 11.

    JoyceH

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: 

    I think it’s funny that we come up with this awesome new technology, much of it probably developed in military labs, and we wind up using it for – cute little stuff. First we had the greeting cards that played music, and now we’re using drones to jazz up fireworks displays.

  14. 14.

    germy

    Democrats: Rural Americans, we want to build a broadband throughout rural areas, pivot to wind energy, expand banking services in USPS to help rural Americans.

    Rural Americans: I'm voting Trump to make you cry.

    Media: Dems need to present ideas to win rural America.

    — Jennifer Hayden (@Scout_Finch) November 8, 2020

  17. 17.

    Baud

    I would have supported an asshole Dem against Trump. It’s gratifying that I didn’t have to in order to win.

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    Out of curiosity went and looked up election results for Mr. Cole’s county in WV.

    Dolt 45 – 70.7%

  21. 21.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @germy:

    It’s become clear to me this summer that the narrative that urban part of the country doesn’t understand the rural part is 180 degrees opposite of reality.

    People living outside the city (sometimes including close-in suburban areas), seem to have completely wrong and silly ideas of what happens in the cities.

    In large part I think this is due to local TV news agendas coming from non-local ownership.

    If you live outside a city you get what is presented as the news coming from that city, when it’s clearly nothing of the sort.

    Don’t think there’s a quick solution, but it’s one more mess to clean up.

  24. 24.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @LeftCoastYankee: You make an interesting point. I grew up in a rural conservative area that time and economic development forgot. I remember some parents screaming about the school endangering their children with a planned eighth grade graduation trip to NYC (namely to the notoriously dangerous Radio City Music Hall and Circle Line Tour). A lot of people in cities come from rural places and know full well what they fled. The reverse, perhaps not quite as much.

  27. 27.

    KithKanan

    @JoyceH: The fireworks displays themselves, of course, being a way people around a thousand years ago found to do “cute little stuff” with gunpowder and mortar/rocket technology.

  28. 28.

    germy

    Here’s the last paragraph of an AP story that appeared on my local news station’s website:

    Trump, whose voluminous Twitter account seems to provide an apt entry for any occasion, offered this advice in 2016: “Vladimir Putin said today about Hillary and Dems: “In my opinion, it is humiliating. One must be able to lose with dignity,” So true!”

  31. 31.

    waspuppet

    @JoyceH: They’ve been doing that for a while, at least in other countries. I could tell Joe couldn’t figure out how they did it at first either — and I don’t mean that in a “He’s senile” way; I mean it in an AWWWWWWW way.

    PS My wife and I turned to each other and said “He is going to be the LAST one to leave.” We knew it.

  32. 32.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Yeah, there’s probably always been a natural distrust or disorientation when having to go to the city from a small town.   I’m pretty grateful for the field trips into NYC as a kid.

    But I also remember watching the news from NYC as a kid, and never got the message it was a hellhole (even in the 70’s when crime was pretty high).

    I did get the impression there was an awful lot of fires….

  34. 34.

    Bill Arnold

    @germy:

    I learned from the article that Stephen Miller came up with the idea to launch a birther movement against Kamala during the campaign.

    Seems it came from the Claremont Institute, and Miller pushed it.
    Stephen Miller’s Second-Term Immigration Agenda Is Worse Than He Wants People to Know – The senior administration official who dabbles in white nationalism is just getting started. “Stephen’s in charge,” Trump once said. (Jean Guerrero, November 3, 2020)
    Ewww. (bold mine.) Reminder that Stephen Miller’s power is tethered to Donald J. Trump’s power.

    Miller’s attack on birthright citizenship would likely come in the form of an executive order, according to a current DHS official. The expectation would be that it would be legally challenged and ultimately end up in the Supreme Court, where Miller hopes for a new interpretation of the 14th Amendment to exclude the children of people who lack legal immigration status.
    It’s reasonable to suspect that the tortured legal arguments supporting this policy would come from the Claremont Institute, a California-based think tank that promotes racist ideas, including that diversity spells our doom. Its “scholars” were behind the birther lie about Kamala Harris and have cheekily debated the merits of eugenics. Last year, Trump awarded the institute with a National Humanities Medal.

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Sister Golden Bear: The fight is far from over, but not waking up to a sense of existential sense of dread and disgust — one that I’d internalized so much that I wasn’t even conscious of it anymore — is a refreshing change.

    Exactly.  I slept like a log last night.  It. was. WONDERFUL!

    But the fight isn’t over against these anti-democracy, anti-women, anti-minority, anti-LGBTQ, anti-environment, anti-science, anti-… bastards.

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Do read this beautiful essay by @RobinGivhan

    I have only recently come to really appreciate Robin Givhan. For a long time she was basically the WaPo’s fashion/style writer, and while I would open one of her columns occasionally, I’m generally not that interested in “who wore what designer at which red carpet event?” so I didn’t bother reading her.

    That might have been a mistake. Since her beat has expanded to “critic at large,” covering issues of race and politics and culture writ large, I’ve followed her regularly. She’s a terrific writer.

  37. 37.

    gene108

    @germy:

    One thing the Obama years taught me is policy is mostly immaterial in attracting votes.

    It’s all about having an attitude voters can relate to.

  39. 39.

    Ken

    @Pete Downunder: And of course with the push of a single button they change from cute display drones to KILLDRONZ!!! 

    In theaters December 24, because for some reason there’s always a horror movie in the Christmas lineup…

  43. 43.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Sister Golden Bear: Willful ignorance is a thing, especially when it comes to places where darker people and “perverts” are believed to congregate.

    @LeftCoastYankee: The ambulance chasing — FIRE! MURDER! MAYHEM! — of local news assuredly added to the misperception of cities as scary places, in addition to the underlying racism I mention above.

  45. 45.

    different-church-lady

    Sooooo nice to be enjoying one drink tonight because I want it, instead of 500 drinks because I need it…

  46. 46.

    JPL

    In order to keep ratings high apparently the idea is to get members of the squad on talk shows every weekend.   Although I agree with some of their views, they are not the democratic party.   Maybe have Marjorie Greene on and paint her as the face of the republican party.

    Please don’t think that I comparing her to AOC and others, because they are not bat shit insane.

  47. 47.

    Woodrow/asim

    @gene108: One thing the Obama years taught me is policy is mostly immaterial in attracting votes.

    I’m starting to come around to this. I gotta step away, yet I’m thoughtful about how so many of the “intense” Progressives latch onto specific policies — remember the fight over the Public Option? — as their “line in the sand.”

    These policies, like MFA today, are ones I suspect the vast majority of Americans agreed on in abstract. Yet, most folx aren’t flocking to voting booths to support them. I wonder if a lot of this apparent divide is really about putting Policy-first, over other ways to align Progressive work and goals?

  48. 48.

    David ?Booooooo!? Koch

    Gawd isn’t great!

    We’re back to talking about made up issues like dronzzzzze and t3£pH0ИÊ MƎ±adatɘ

    we don’t have to worry about concentration camps and children in cages.   we’re gonna have to struggle to make up shit to gripe about.

  49. 49.

    Kent

    @gene108:

    @germy:

    One thing the Obama years taught me is policy is mostly immaterial in attracting votes.

    It’s all about having an attitude voters can relate to.

    This.

    Most people don’t even understand the policy in question to begin with.  At least not people who are in the persuadable category, which none of us really are.  And people informed and smart enough to actually understand policy nuance are rarely persuadable “undecided” voters in the first place.

  50. 50.

    different-church-lady

    @Woodrow/asim:

    I gotta step away, yet I’m thoughtful about how so many of the “intense” Progressives latch onto specific policies — remember the fight over the Public Option? — as their “line in the sand.”

    The problem is, for the “intense” progressives, the line always needs to be drawn one step further away, by definition. It’s a cart-horse problem — we think they want certain things and are willing to take steps towards them. What the really want is to always have something to complain about so they can maintain their “outsider” cred. It’s Hipster Kitties all the way down.

  52. 52.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Woodrow/asim:

    ’m thoughtful about how so many of the “intense” Progressives latch onto specific policies

    remember TPP?

    These policies, like MFA today, are ones I suspect the vast majority of Americans agreed on in abstract. Yet, most folx aren’t flocking to voting booths to support them.

    for me that’s gun safety, 70%, 80%, 90% support in opinion polls, much less clear how it plays in voting, especially in the infamous purple states.

  53. 53.

    different-church-lady

    @David ?Booooooo!? Koch: Me, I’m really looking forward to getting back to normal things; like, for example, finding out how Biden is the worst president since Hitler because healthcare policy does not align with a given internet individual’s views because it’s .003 degrees different from that person’s target.

  54. 54.

    lashonharangue

    @Woodrow/asim:

    Except for OTR I mostly lurk, but wanted to share something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Hope this doesn’t come off as concern trolling, or worse like David Brooks. Full disclosure: I am a WM boomer and recovering policy nerd.

    The last ten years have convinced me that three things are true for a sizable portion of humanity, maybe not a majority but more than the crazification factor:

    1. identity is more important than ideology
    2. narrative is more important than facts
    3. sense of status position is based more on referencing others below rather than those above

     

    I think this is why class based programs favored by politicians as distinct as Obama and Sanders face such strong opposition. I also think this contributes a lot to anti-democratic/xenophopic tendencies. This problem is not just in the US. It seems to be true in such different places as the UK, Hungary, Myanmar, Poland, India, Germany, Turkey. Russian active measures can exploit this challenge but are not the source of it. Social media may amplify this but is not the cause. I heard Ta-Nehisi Coates say in an interview that he had left journalism for fiction writing because he was trying to communicate facts to people who were responding with myths. So he decided to create new myths.

    This has real implications for the future of liberal nation-states that are not ethnically/religiously/culturally homogeneous (commitment to rule of law, equality of citizenship, representative democracy; and non-zero sum political competition and legitimacy). It also casts further doubt on the world’s ability to deal with climate refugees in the next 20-40 years. 

    Is an inclusive nationalist identity in a multicultural country still sufficiently compelling? If not, are there enough engaged citizens who will push back against authoritarian/herrenvolk tendencies? Probably 20-30% of people will always be low information citizens. On what basis do you appeal to energize those people? Are new narratives needed to do this? If yes, who/where should we look for such narratives?

  55. 55.

    Kent

    @different-church-lady: Policy change is always incremental.   The problems with purity pony types is they aren’t interested in actually making policy through the hard work of building voting coalitions in Congress or the electorate.  They just want to posture.  It gets tiresome.

  56. 56.

    David ?Booooooo!? Koch

    @Kent: LBJ passed Medicare and Voting Rights Act and lost 47 seats a year later.

     

    FDR installed national minimum wages and lost 81 seats 5 months later in 1938

  57. 57.

    Brachiator

    @Bill Arnold:

    Miller’s attack on birthright citizenship would likely come in the form of an executive order, according to a current DHS official.

    More insidious crap that has been halted by Biden’s election.

    And soon, Miller will be able to slither back into the dank hole he came out of.

  59. 59.

    West of the Rockies

    @Bill Arnold:

    Well, scrawny  Stephen Miller will be looking for gainful  employment  shortly.  He will be toxic, but some crap-ass outfit  (Redstate?) will pick him up.

    He could go the way of Milo Shutyouryapolis.

  60. 60.

    different-church-lady

    …it’s like losing a fistfight with Plato.

    Pierce just endlessly continues to amaze me.

  62. 62.

    HumboldtBlue

    @germy:

    That says it all. I worked with people who have rarely left Humboldt County never traveled abroad — these are “successful business people” — and have no experience and coincidentally no frame of reference for the dynamism a city creates.

    They live close parochial lives and there is no effort to expand a horizon or try new foods or listen to new music or live around people who look, speak, smell and sound vastly different from you because they fear that instead of embracing it.

    The GOP has been successful in projecting “identity politics” onto Dems as if that’s a bad thing when it’s literally their core strategy, vote GOP no matter what.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    That’s a good one.

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    @David ?Booooooo!? Koch:

    LBJ passed Medicare and Voting Rights Act and lost 47 seats a year later.

    FDR installed national minimum wages and lost 81 seats 5 months later in 1938

    So, we should be looking for some great things from Biden.

  64. 64.

    Ken

    @different-church-lady: Look, unless Biden’s healthcare policy utilizes a couponized paid-forward system tied to a pricing basket of WHO essential medicines and funded by a 2.273% tax on elective surgeries, it’s just a sell-out to the insurance and medical industries.

  65. 65.

    David ?Booooooo!? Koch

    @germy: Act Blue raised $29 million in the last 48 hours.

     

    Have to think it’s going to Georgia organizations.

  66. 66.

    JPL

    @Brachiator: In the olden days some wanted to rid us of that law, in order to anoint Schwarzenegger king.    Then Arnold f..ked up CA and they changed their minds.

  67. 67.

    Steve in the ATL

    @O. Felix Culpa:

     

    A lot of people in cities come from rural places and know full well what they fled. The reverse, perhaps not quite as much.

    Says someone who has clearly LITERALLY* never seen a dystopian future movie!

    Speaking of which, I enjoyed “To the Lake” on Netflix. The Russians even threw in a twist ending.

    *yes, I saw your post last week!

  70. 70.

    WaterGirl

    @Woodrow/asim: That’s one reason Pete Buttigieg did so great. FIRST he introduced himself to voters, they could see that he was smart, sincere, sharp on his feet.  They trusted him.

    He talked generally about his views but didn’t lay out specific plans at first.  Once they trusted him and knew how sharp he was, then they could get more detailed.

    Connection first.  Then once they trust you, the details of the plans aren’t the deciding factor.

  73. 73.

    trollhattan

    @JPL:

    That was a funny, brief period, when wingnuts wanted to leagalize non-native born citizens eligible, because Arnold. Only they quickly learned that Arnold was not interested in being an actual, practicing wingnut and further, was not Conan the Barbarian in real life.

    It was kinda funny.

  77. 77.

    HumboldtBlue

    @WaterGirl:

    That’s a lesson I learned this time around.

    I paid Pete absolutely no mind during the primary but having watched him over the past two months I am deeply impressed. He’s excellent and someone who I will continue to learn from.

  78. 78.

    Brachiator

    @different-church-lady:

    …it’s like losing a fistfight with Plato.

    Pierce just endlessly continues to amaze me.

    Pierce is quite funny here, but Plato was a brawler. He may even have wrestled at the Isthmian Games.

     

  79. 79.

    Kent

    @HumboldtBlue:

    @WaterGirl:

    That’s a lesson I learned this time around.

    I paid Pete absolutely no mind during the primary but having watched him over the past two months I am deeply impressed. He’s excellent and someone who I will continue to learn from.

    He is my pick for Secretary of Commerce, my old agency.  Which has a very eclectic mix of science, tech, and business-related agencies under it’s jurisdiction (NOAA, Census, Small Business Administration, Patent Office, NIST, etc.)

  80. 80.

    Yarrow

    @lashonharangue:

    sense of status position is based more on referencing others below rather than those above

    Oh yeah:

    “The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of who will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it.”

  81. 81.

    Baud

    @Kent:

    The problem with him being in government is that he then can’t go in Fox and make them cry.

    But he should have whatever he wants.  He’s solid.

    edited.

  84. 84.

    different-church-lady

    @Kent: I was in a cafe looking for wifi when I first saw the “FBI Surveillance Van” gag. But what made it extra funny was that this person also had their access point configured for “FBI Surveillance Van – Guest”

  85. 85.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I think fires were also an easier source of dramatic footage, back in the day.

    One of the stranger memories I have is a while after moving to Portland (OR), and watching the local Fox affiliate news for a brief period, and they had footage of a dramatic fire… in Pennsylvania.

  87. 87.

    Ken

    @Kent: But can we trust the NOAA?  Have you seen what they’re forecasting for Eta?  It’s zig-zagging back and forth across the Florida Gulf coast like it’s trying to erase Trump’s old sharpie line. That ain’t natural.

  92. 92.

    scott (the other one)

    Anyone else see this piece from TPM?

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/election

    I really like TPM. Even beyond JMM, they’ve got a lot of really strong, incisive writers. But every once in a while, I’ll be reading something, and come across a statement that makes me say, “what the hell?” And when I scroll back up to check the byline, it’s always always always John Judis. Without exception.

    Here’s today’s:

    The greatest Republican disadvantage in 2020 (and in 2018) was Trump. Trump’s victory in 2016 was a fluke — the product on an opponent who ran a particularly inept campaign, the Comey letter, and voter fatigue with the same party having already controlled the White House for two terms.

    “a particularly inept campaign”

    Kiss my ass. Clinton’s campaign was just fine. Every single campaign could have done at least a little bit in some way or another—it’s thousands of decisions over an at least 18-month period. But hers was far, far from particularly inept, even taking into account the reasonable at the time decision not to go harder in those three midwest states at the very end.

    She was the target of a 30-year smear campaign, won the popular vote and only lost the electoral college thanks to a perfect storm of James Comey behaving unethically, Russian ratfucking, GOP treason, voter purges, too cool for school indies, purity ponies and a mainstream media gleefully looking for a horserace and therefore ignoring all the above to go after buttery males. And even with all that, she still only lost by 80,000 votes in three states.

    “An inept campaign.” That claim from a political professional is particularly inept. What an asshole.

  93. 93.

    Ken

    @raven: I think both chambers have to accept it.  Also, it might be (for once) a fairly bipartisan issue – bad numbers hurt the states in a lot of ways.

  94. 94.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Steve in the ATL: Lol. I have LITERALLY almost never seen a dystopian movie. So there. My narrative stands, happily impressionistic and without supporting data, because, who needs it?

  98. 98.

    Kent

    @raven:@Kent: I wonder if Biden can do anything about the census?

    Hell if I know.   My plan would be:

    1  withdraw all the numbers and make some official government finding that they are irrevocably flawed (based on tremendous documented evidence)

    2.  Publish “adjusted” numbers to account for all the pandemic-related undercounts that GENEROUSLY account for all the people that Trump tried to undercount

    3.  Tell the GOP to take it or leave it and if they want to leave it, authorize a new census for 2021.

  99. 99.

    Another Scott

    Headline at TheHill now:

    Lindsey Graham: If Trump concedes election, Republicans will ‘never’ elect another president

    “Your proposal is acceptable…”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  103. 103.

    Kent

    @Ken:@raven: I think both chambers have to accept it.  Also, it might be (for once) a fairly bipartisan issue – bad numbers hurt the states in a lot of ways.

    Bad numbers hurt the states but not the GOP.  Two separate issues.

    Take Texas, for example.  Bad numbers are likely to undercount minorities in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and the RGV.  This brings in less money to the state (which largely goes to social programs anyway) but it also over-weights white rural areas within TX making it easier for them to maintain their gerrymandered hold on both the Texas State Legislature and the Texas Congressional Delegation.

    The Texas GOP would probably prefer a 36 seat congressional delegation at the current gerrymandered  22 GOP and 14 Dem seats.  Than an expanded 38 seat delegation that is split more evenly 19 GOP and 19 Dem and causes them to loose 3 seats in Congress.

    The same phenomenon applies even more extremely at the state legislature level.

    I think a lot of TX GOP wingers are perfectly happy to see billions of dollars of Federal money pass them by if it means keeping their grip on power.  Look at how many tens of billions of dollars they gave up just to spite Obama by refusing to expand Medicare.  That was free money that cost them nothing and they still turned it down for no good reason.   If it means keeping power they’ll be more than happy to go with undercounts of TX minorities.

  110. 110.

    J R in WV

    @LeftCoastYankee:

    Back when I was hiring software developers from all over the world, we would tell them that West Virginia was pretty rural, but had nice small cities, and was one of the safest states in the US as far as violent crime went.

    So Arpan came to me some months after joining our development shop and asked if WV was so safe, how come he saw violent crime on the TV every evening on the news. I thought for a moment, and said that the local TV stations would report on any crime anywhere in WV, Ohio or KY, in order to have something scary on the evening news show. No matter how far away and irrelevant to the folks here around Charleston. I also mentioned the newscast  slogan “If it bleeds, it leads!”

    I added that most of the crime was involving people who knew each other, had a violent dispute, were formerly married, behind a bar at 3 am, etc. Stranger on stranger crime was pretty rare even compared to the other more common crime in the area. He mentioned a week or so later that after observing the evening news that he thought I was right. I didn’t mention that my wife was a reporter, even tho she didn’t really ever cover that sort of thing.

  111. 111.

    Immanentize

    @J R in WV: I realized this growing phenom when I saw the American press nationally pushing a kidnapping/murder story from Germany in 1981!  I still have the painted xerography I made from that nuttiness.

    Everything and everywhere is dangerous! Crime!! Be afraid!!!!
    It was crazy, but there it was!

  112. 112.

    Eljai

    @Kent: @raven: I would think this kind of thing would give Biden grounds to redo the census:

    “It was all a sham. I felt terrible, terrible. I knew I was lying. I knew I was doing something wrong.” Two census takers tell The AP that supervisors pressured them to enter false information into a computer system about homes they had not visited.

  113. 113.

    cain

    It seems Biden’s lead is back up in AZ to over 20k with the latest batch. It seems that AP and Fox News are being vindicated. Biden is going to get AZ and GA. This has turned into a complete domination of pretty much everything.

    Now we just have to stop the circular firing squad.

  115. 115.

    Fair Economist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    These policies, like MFA today, are ones I suspect the vast majority of Americans agreed on in abstract. Yet, most folx aren’t flocking to voting booths to support them.

    for me that’s gun safety, 70%, 80%, 90% support in opinion polls, much less clear how it plays in voting, especially in the infamous purple states.

    I think what the Republicans are doing is targeting disinformation and social media advertising at people based on those occasional issues they disagree with us on. The economically progressive gun advocate gets “Obummer is coming to TAKE OUR GUNZ!” The upper middle class family whose kids survived a school killing get “AOC and Bernie are gonna take ALL YER MONEY fer SOSHULISM”. And so on. They don’t get counter messages from us because we don’t do disinfo and do much less social media advertising/manipulation.

  116. 116.

    Baud

    @Fair Economist:

    I also think more people have been more likely to vote against us for specific single issue impurities.  GOP voters let anything slide as long as the party is making us cry.

  119. 119.

    CaseyL

    We can’t get anywhere as a country while propaganda outfits like FB, Fox and Sinclair are peddling falsehoods to tens of millions of people.

    It may be entirely possible that 70 million Americans are willingly and happily fascists/racists or at least sympathizers.  They’ve been around forever, and they’ve been in control of national policy quite a few times (e.g., Trump’s hero, Andrew Jackson).

    It may also be possible that the number of outright fascists/racists are more like 50 or 60 million.  Still awful, but more manageable – IF we could get that other 10-20 million to watch something other than FB, Fox and Sinclair.

    While you have  “alternate facts” being marketed like candy, and people eagerly eating it up to the point that they flat out refuse to believe actual facts, even when the actual facts are standing right there before their very eyes, I don’t know what you can do (without violating the First Amendment, like suspending their broadcasting licenses).

    I’m relieved Biden won.  I’m looking forward to seeing him take office, looking forward to seeing what Harris can do as Veep, very keen to know who his AG will be and how well that person will be unleashed.  I have hope again, which I didn’t have for 4 long years.

    But until and unless we can undo what Murdoch hath wrought (and which his heir Lachlan intends to maintain) I think we’re stuck with damage control, rather than problem solving.

  120. 120.

    WhatsMyNym

    @cain:

    Now we just have to stop the circular firing squad.

    That’s what our press do for a living – screw with the dems. See comment #108.

  121. 121.

    Butter Emails

    @cain:

     

    It seems Biden’s lead is back up in AZ to over 20k with the latest batch. It seems that AP and Fox News are being vindicated. Biden is going to get AZ and GA. This has turned into a complete domination of pretty much everything.

    Now we just have to stop the circular firing squad.

    Honestly, I don’t think the election went that poorly for us, especially given the surprising turnout of Trump supporters.

    1. That so many people decided to vote for the Tangerine Tyrant is a massive stain on our country and not one I know how to deal with right now.
    2.  It’s disappointing we weren’t able to take the Senate, but given the unexpected Trump surge, not exactly surprising given how close most of the races were polling.
    3. That said, we still get a second bite at the apple and taking the Senate in a couple months thanks to the efforts in Georgia and picking up Arizona Colorado Senate seats while losing Alabama.
    4. It looks like we took Georgia and Arizona which is a nice bonus
    5. We didn’t lose the House – lots of people were confident we’d get an even larger majority, but we had an awesome performance in 2018. Holding the bulk of the seats we gained is actually pretty impressive given the disadvantages we have
    6. Biggest downer is the we really needed to do well in the state legislatures and we didn’t. That’s going to make winning even harder after redistricting.
  122. 122.

    germy

    Scoop: President Trump plans to brandish obituaries of people who supposedly voted but are dead — plus hold campaign-style rallies — in an effort to prolong his fight against apparent insurmountable election results, four Trump advisers tell me https://t.co/HGfpZjSVXA

    — Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) November 8, 2020

  123. 123.

    Baud

    @germy:

    Scoop: President Trump plans to brandish obituaries of people who supposedly voted but are dead — plus hold campaign-style rallies — in an effort to prolong his fight against apparent insurmountable election results, fleece his supporters some more, four Trump advisers tell me

  126. 126.

    japa21

    @Butter Emails: Pretty much my thinking.

    1. The fact is, Trump was on the ballot and there were thousands if not a few million voters who wouldn’t even have gone to the polls if he hadn’t been.  The models didn’t pick that up. One of the reasons we did so well in 2018 was that he wasn’t there. It isn’t totally about anger at Trump being taken out on the GOP in 2018 but not in 2020. It was just as much who voted in 2016 and 2020 but not in 2018.
    2. We may still, as you point out, take the Senate. I would say 40% chance of taking the Senate and 30% chance of ending u[p with 51 seats (Alaska is still out there).
    3. Yes, we get the second chance in GA and Trump won’t be on the ballot.  He had very long coattails, something else unexpected.
    4. The key will be in keeping them.
    5. If you had been told in 2016, after Trump’s victory that by the end of the 2020 cycle the Dems would pick up about 34 seats between 2018 and 2020 elections, we would have been ecstatic.  I am curious, Did we lose any Dem seats that we had held prior to the 2018 election?
    6. That hurt big time and is something we will need to work on even harder.
  127. 127.

    cain

    @Baud:

    It seems that rural folks are finally getting the message that this thing is not abstract and have finally started to take precaution. Their leader of choice is still going to be out there doing rallies while his people suffer. We should definitely keep using him to talk about why having adults in charge matter.

  131. 131.

    Calouste

    @germy: Seems like the shitgibbon and the Nazi incarnate are disappointed that there haven’t been any terrorist acts yet, so they’ve decided to recommend a few targets.

  132. 132.

    Ruckus

    @cain:

    CA will not be final until Dec 1 according to the SoS site that I just checked. There are a fair number of provisional ballots outstanding and some counting still to go. LA county had over 600K mail in/drop off ballots. The count is not final but the percentage of win gives the nod to Biden.

  133. 133.

    Matt McIrvin

    @germy: It certainly sounded like Miller. The claim, if taken seriously, would imply that nobody born in the US to non-citizen parents is really a citizen.

  134. 134.

    cain

    @Baud: It’ll be interesting to see Trump’s trajectory now that he’s a has been.

    I think he’s gonna try to scam his followers for as much as he can so that he can pay off his debts in some shape way or form.

    What I’m going to be interested is him trying to sell of his properties and the like. But more likely he’s gonna get caught trying to sell U.S. secrets. In which case, seeing him go to jail would be the least that should happen.

  135. 135.

    cain

    @Ruckus:

    That’s good. I doubt that would be of any surprise to anyone.

    I’m interested to see what the EV map will look like after census (and apparently there is some cases of fraud that Biden can work on by conservatives) Someone told me Oregon is getting another congressional district and so our EV will be 8 instead of 7. I would like to see 10! :-) I think we’re worth it ;D

  141. 141.

    Suzanne

    @O. Felix Culpa: It’s really bizarre. I was having this discussion with a friend, who had an acquaintance go on some rant about crime-ridden urban shitholes. I was like, if they’re so terrible…. why do all the elites live there, and why are the property values so high?

    Whatever. I know it’s just how the downwardly mobile save face.

  142. 142.

    CaseyL

    @Suzanne: Yeah, their stories about the high cost of living in big cities meaning no one wants to live there remind me of the old Yogi Berra line about a restaurant, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

  143. 143.

    Kent

    It occurs to me that every day that Trump continues to obsess about the election and fraud and futile court cases is one less day that he has to get down to the business of lame duck ratfuckery and propping up the GA Senate candidates.

    From the point of view of Dems, the longer he obsesses and tilts at windmills, the better.  We don’t need him laser focused on how much further damage he can do in the DOJ or EPA or DHS or whatever.

  146. 146.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This made me laugh, the Intercept’s chief Tara Reade correspondent mocking people who mock Maggie Haberman

    Ryan Grim @ryangrim · 36m
    One of my many unpopular opinions is that Maggie Haberman is very good at what she does and liberals who think she’s some Trump fan are just cuckoo and really made fools of themselves the last 4 years.

    I imagine she’s a good contact when the Intercept collapses and he wants to go back to somewhere like Politico

  148. 148.

    Dan B

    @lashonharangue: You have hit upon what behavior psychology has clarified in the last couple decades especially with new tools like FMRI.  It’s possible to see the changes in brain structure that make it nearly impossible to change subconscious beliefs.  It helps explain why people tell pollsters one thing that makes them feel good about themselves and then revert to type in the voting booth.

    Dems need a 24/7 365 communication infrastructure to combat the K street Think Tanks.  A decade ago I was surprised to learn that right wing Think Tanks all have full TV and radio studios for rehearsal and broadcasting.  They know that propaganda works and is essential to staying in power as a minority.

  149. 149.

    Baud

    @Dan B:

    A decade ago I was surprised to learn that right wing Think Tanks all have full TV and radio studios for rehearsal and broadcasting.

    I’ve recently learned that too.  They also offer their services to GOP politicians who want to practice, I believe.

  150. 150.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’m not on twitter. Does it not have autocorrect?

    Pete Hegseth @PeteHegseth · 4h
    Might see you on Twitter now & then, but moving to @parler_app — for real FREE SPEACH. LEFTIST @Twitter is, as the President says, the real enemy of the people.

  151. 151.

    Kay

    @germy:

    Normal people will be moving into the holiday season. Is he going to hold rallies on Thanksgiving? Christmas Eve?

    They should hold one Christmas Day.

    There’s a calendar. It goes “November election, The Holidays”

    I realize the Trumps and the people they hire are oddballs and freaks but that’s the calendar in America.

  152. 152.

    Ruckus

    @WhatsMyNym:

    Well of course CA mailed ballots to every registered voter. No one had to go to the polls. On Tuesday there was a short line to get in to the polling place I walk by on my way to work, which had been open since 10/31. Tuesday evening there was probably 30 people outside waiting in line just after 5pm. It’s a large room so I’d bet there were probably another 15-20 in the room voting. 3 1/2 million people voted in LA county 610,000 voted by drop off or mail. I have no idea why so many needed to vote in person. I’ve voted in person I think 4 times in 50 yrs.

  153. 153.

    sdhays

    @Immanentize: Yeah, I started reading that without paying attention to the byline, and after I got a couple paragraphs in, I thought, “Wait a minute, this John Fucking Judis, isn’t it?”

    I should have known. They mostly only publish his long form garbage as non-Prime since there’s no value to it.

  155. 155.

    Sasha

    (When Mike Dukakis oppo’s you out of a race, it’s like losing a fistfight with Plato.)

    Plato was a champion wrestler. Merely losing a fistfight to him instead of Plato utterly crushing you is an accomplishment.

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