Historic Mandate. https://t.co/9sV6upitX6
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) November 10, 2020
he can pretend he’s president all he wants but he can’t make all the other people who make the trappings of office happen pretend https://t.co/NT1IOiEtAo
— kilgore trout, four seasons appreciator (@KT_So_It_Goes) November 9, 2020
the playbook trump is running right now – and I mean the entire playbook – is from last monday when they hoped to lose in a single state by a few hundred or thousand votes
they never had a playbook for losing four states by tens of thousands of votes
— kilgore trout, four seasons appreciator (@KT_So_It_Goes) November 10, 2020
Interesting theory:
if it is not already clear, jared kushner is pressuring trump not to drop out because he is in vastly more legal jeopardy than donald trump himself is
— rev. howard arson (@Theophite) November 9, 2020
i would not be surprised at all if there is a saudi or qatari-related crime for which he faces potential life imprisonment
— rev. howard arson (@Theophite) November 9, 2020
different-church-lady
I’ve been working most of the day, with no way to doomscroll. Public Radio is still acting like Biden is going to be president, but I’m supposed to believe the Secretary of State is honing his 15 minutes. SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW FREAKED OUT I SHOULD BE AS OF THIS MOMENT.
mrmoshpotato
For the record, Ken Starr can go blow Bill Clinton.
WaterGirl
@different-church-lady: What secretary of state and what 15 minutes?
TriassicSands
Thanks a lot, Anne. After seeing that cartoon, I’m going to fast on Thanksgiving!
Jeffro
I dunno, Kilgore…the whole thing’s fishy to me. Or even stupider than I can imagine possible.
“We’ll just have the Supreme Court throw out every mail-in vote, everywhere, case closed!”-level stupid.
Eljai
@different-church-lady: I looked at the video and it appeared Pompeo was being sarcastic. So he’s just being his usual asshole self.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: Even in this Soviet shitpile bastard administration, the federal Secretary of State doesn’t have shit to do with elections, and Pompeo can go blow that goat from Taylor Swift’s “Trouble” video.
Question answered?
gene108
@different-church-lady:
I think it depends on the scheme Republicans are working up. I think part of the reason for their antics it is to drive up turnout for the GA Senate races.
But there has to be more beyond just this cycle. I really wonder what they are working towards to try and retake the House in 2022?
It will be nastier than the 2009 Tea Party.
JoyceH
With Kavanaugh signalling that he’s cool with leaving the ACA in place!
zzyzx
This drives me crazy as a fan of logic. Trump is behind in PA. He should be wanting more ballots to be counted right now, not fewer. It’s a long shot, but the only one he has.
Wag
@Jeffro: It might even rise to “you have to declare the ACA unconstitutional because there’s no penalty anymore” level of stupidity. The Roberts Court didn’t seem to buy the ACA arguments, and I doubt that these stupid arguments will fare any better.
randy khan
@WaterGirl:
When asked about cooperating in the transition, Pompeo made a comment about how the transition to the 2nd Trump term would go smoothly.
zzyzx
@JoyceH: yeah a big sidebar today is that the SC isn’t just going to throw the election to Trump for kicks
RandomMonster
Here’s a question the jackaltariat can help me out with. If Dump issues pardons, say to Jared or Ivanka or anyone, do they have to be pardons for specific accusations, or can they be general get out of jail free cards? If it was discovered later that Jared drank the blood of the pool boy and made a skin suit out of him, the pardon wouldn’t extend to that crime, right?
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato:
That’s “highly respected Ken Starr” to you, buddy.
IOW a different Ken Starr than the one we know.
But a capitalized Travesty is not to be trifled with. It’s at least a travesty-and-a-half.
mrmoshpotato
@TriassicSands: LOL
Thobby Wibbly
So what’s with Arizona? The gap keeps closing while people had been telling me it would expand for Biden.
Doesn’t matter thanks to PA and GA, but I’d still like to hold it.
mrmoshpotato
Re:pasty-faced Jared
YES PLEASE!
Jeffro
@Wag:
@JoyceH:
The ACA case isn’t decided yet, but yes, it’s encouraging. And – related – while I can’t see Roberts or Gorsuch having too much to do with trumpov’s nonsensical arguments about throwing out ballots, who knows where Kavanaugh and Barrett will land?
I guess trumpov’s last hail-mary is going to be trying to get the GOP legislatures in multiple states to throw out their D slates of electors in order to seat R ones. Totally legit there, GOP (eyeroll)
different-church-lady
@WaterGirl:
a) Wait, do we have another one already?
b) 15 min in the sense of “What do beginner stand-up comedians need to hone relentlessly in order to become successful?”
different-church-lady
@Thobby Wibbly:
Who told you that? Everything I heard was “expect Arizona to narrow, but not fall to Trump.”
dmsilev
@RandomMonster: Well, that particular activity would probably be a felony in DC or any of the states, so a pardon wouldn’t help (and I think skin suits are more likely to be Stephen Miller’s sort of thing). But yes, Ford gave Nixon a blanket pardon so there is precedent.
Eljai
RNC staff blindsided by layoffs. I dunno, doesn’t seem like something they’d do if they really thought they were winning.
Yutsano
Excuse me. Our next President is speaking right now.
zzyzx
Biden does not sound worried in the slightest in his press conference.
The problem Trump has is that people are treating him like the President Elect and that does carry weight.
BC in Illinois
Donald Trump has one problem.
He doesn’t have a plan for a successful getaway.
* * *
Really. Try to imagine his legal / financial / tax position in six months. Even his political position or his ability to appear on television.
Hand the Freedom of Information Act to the Biden/Harris administration. Check every request for genuine security concerns, then let it all hang out. Not just for the White House. For the EPA, the Interior Department, Commerce, Labor, Transportation, State, ICE, Homeland Defense.
Be the Freedom Of Information Administration. It will tell the people — and the people in government — how the public business is expected to be handled. The impeachment phone call is not the only time that Trump and his people said, “I need you to do me a favor, though.”
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: Oh? And who is this “highly respected Ken Starr” whose good name has been stained forever for having the same name as Consensual Cocksuckinggate Ken Starr?
Can this highly respected man sue the scumbag Ken Starr?
ETA – that’s “Constitutional Travesty.” A proper noun I never knew of before. Oh the education we’ve been getting from this Soviet shitpile mobster conman!
gene108
@trollhattan:
He is highly respected, along with those who worked in his Office of Special Counsel investigating Bill Clinton.
Brett Kavanough’s work with Starr’s Clinton investigation propelled him to a federal district court nomination in 2003, under Bush, Jr., which Democrats successfully fought until 2006, and a SCOTUS seat under Trump.
VOR
@RandomMonster: IANAL, but the pardon power is pretty much unconstrained in the US Constitution. President Ford issued a “full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9,1974.” http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/speeches/740061.asp
So yes, there is precedent for a very broad pardon.
randy khan
@RandomMonster:
He can pardon anyone for any federal crime that the person committed prior to the pardon. It can be specific – and it usually is – but it also can be general. He can’t pardon for state crimes; there is an open question about whether he can pardon himself or not because, of course, nobody ever has thought of doing that before. (If you want to go down a rabbit hole, you can spend a lot of time pondering that question – there are real arguments both ways.)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I don’t understand how anybody can call this an historic mandate when the only legal votes are the 71,444, 567 (and counting!) that were cast for Our Dear Leader.
That’s basically what the entire, active GOP (with one notable exception in Rmoney) is currently saying.
And they want us to “reach out” to them. Sure, with subpoenas. And be happy that I’m not King because then we’d be reaching out to them with tumbrels.
Steve in the ATL
A couple of weeks ago I received a panel that included an arbitrator named Kenneth Starr. I thought NFW it’s THAT one–and it wasn’t–but I wonder how much business the guy loses because of either confusion or visceral reactions to the name itself.
Eural Joiner
I keep hearing how the media and our corporate overlords and even our vaunted leaders won’t speak or act for fear of backlash and retribution from the Trumpsters.
I think it’s high time they should be afraid of us – the sane majority that has been winning elections for the past two years with record numbers.
raven
My brother the lawyer feels that the Barr statement will have little impact and is just not that bad. Other barristers?
topclimber
Thank you for the tweet about Trump getting a smaller popular vote share than any incumbent since FDR.
He won’t care about FDR, but to be a bigger LOSER than Jimmy Carter! That’s going to leave a mark.
gwangung
@mrmoshpotato: It’s #RapeAccomplice Ken Starr as far as I’m concerned.
schrodingers_cat
@topclimber: You mean Hoover, right. FDR beat Hoover, the incumbent.
fancycwabs
Were I the president-elect, I’d give notice that anyone with a government job failing to participate in the peaceful transfer of democratic power would be terminated for cause on January 21, so enjoy losing your pension and failing to qualify for unemployment.
Sab
Trump cartoon is funny, but this Thanksgiving and probably next will suck and hopefully be curtailed because of Covid risk. Families that don’t curtail Turkeyday risk a horrible Christmas because of actual Covid.
I went reluctantly to Ace Hardware today. Everyone was masked except one repair or whatever guy from a big local real eatate developer/renter outfit. He arrived with mask and nose sticking out and everyone scampered away and shunned him as much as possible. Usually they defer because employer is a big deal, amd he is actually charming.
Maybe he wants to go through life being an asshole, but I think not. He was following the lead of his hot shot employer, and local retailers and customers aren’t on board anymore.
Unnecessary and hell of a way to learn it, but competent business people do learn.
Masks do work. People hunker down in pandemics, and that slows the economy.
topclimber
@schrodingers_cat: since FDR beat Hoover, pretending that’s what he meant to say all along.
LuciaMia
Highly respected? Ha-ha-ha-ha…
Steeplejack (phone)
@raven:
Some Twitter lawyers—oops, I mean actual lawyers who are on Twitter—said the same thing. I can’t check right now, but I think @Popehat is one, or he has links in his feed.
Kay
@raven:
Steve in the ATL
@raven: I concur with the judgment. More window dressing than anything.
raven
@Kay: Seems mixed.
Amir Khalid
@randy khan:
Nixon did ask his DoJ if he could pardon himself, when he was exploring that option, and they said, Hell No.
lamh36
So I been battling this sinus infection since this weekend. My ears are still congested and I’ve still got an occasional cough, but it’s a bit better. But my ear being stopped up still is bothering the hell out of me. I had a teledoc appointment and that doc said it was likely a viral sinus infection, NOT Covid related. So he prescribed a 6 day oral steroid treatment. I’m on day 3 and my ears are STILL congested…UGH. I guess they are less so than before, but still feel clogged.
I’m gonna finish up this steroid regime and if they are still congested, I’m gonna have to go on head to urgent care so the doc can have a look in my ears, cause I suspect it may be bacterial after all and I may need an antibiotic prescription for relief
Add to that, even though I KNOW it’s my usual sinus infection, due to all the Covid precautions, I still have to get a COVID test done before returning to work. My job shipped a self collection kit to my house, but I was out of town. FedEx claimed they left it on the porch. There was no package on the porch or anywhere near when I got back from SF. So I had to get another one shipped. It came today and this time I was here to get the package handed directly to me. I collected the sample and dropped it off at FedEx for overnight return. Which means I should have my results by Friday.
I’ve missed 6 days of work cause of this sickness and I’ve been trying to work remotely. But do you know how hard it is to “work” when you are already not feeling well and there is a nice big ole bed right next to the desk in your bedroom. Also too, I feel like all the things I was finally getting the hang of, I’ve got to revist again…UGH
LuciaMia
These last few states….
Georgia is at 99% counted. Arizona at 98. What the hell does it take to finally call them?
different-church-lady
I’m tellin’ ya, kids, all this shit has two purposes:
a) Keep the game alive in the hopes that the refs will call the Hail Mary pass caught instead of incomplete.
b) Get a street uprising going
They are NOT just humoring Trump. They are deadly serious about figuring out a way of prying this loose from Biden, even if they are attached to enough reality to know the odds are slim. Slim is not none.
catclub
@gene108:
Economic sabotage as in 2009-2010. if there is a vaccine the economy should come roaring back. There is not the same debt recession that takes forever to emerge from.
Jacel
@Thobby Wibbly: My understanding is that in Arizona voting by mail has been widespread for a number of years, and especially encouraged among Republicans in that state. Well established enough that Trump’s demonization of voting by mail probably had little effect in that state. So the balance of the mail vote would have more of a chance to be favorable to Trump than the bigger-than-usual early voting encouraged for Democrats.
Brachiator
@gene108:
I know that political junkies are always thinking about the next election, but the GOP just ain’t that smart. No one is.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
One step I expect will make me feel safer is certification of results by the states. I went looking for certification dates and found this table on Ballotpedia. Most of the dates are before Thanksgiving.
TriassicSands
Yes, but the Nixon DoJ was a temple of probity and righteousness compared to Barr’s sewer.
catclub
“I can call spirits from the vasty deep.”
“But when you call them, do they come?”
A shakespeare misquote for all occasions.
Omnes Omnibus
@different-church-lady: Sure, slim is not none, but it should affect the amount of angst being used on the situation.
randy khan
@Amir Khalid:
Well, that’s the moral answer. And for what it’s worth (not much!) I think the better argument is that a President can’t pardon himself. It actually kind of follows from the theory that the President can’t be prosecuted by the federal government.
Steeplejack (phone)
@raven:
mrmoshpotato
@Sab:
Yup. People may be tired of COVID-19, but it’s not tired of infecting people.
West of the Rockies
@TriassicSands:
Yeah, gross cartoon for sure. Ugh.
TriassicSands
“Highly Respected Ken Starr”
What’s the source for that…the Hades Prevaricator?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@lamh36: This is a new job too, right? That’s really a pain when you’re trying to make a good impression. Feel better.
TriassicSands
@West of the Rockies:
I may never eat again…
Kent
Blanket pardons will make all that go away.
Ken
“The House is faced with an unprecedented situation, having to decide which of three slates of electors to accept: The Biden electors designated by the Secretary of State based on the popular vote; the Trump electors designated by the Republican-dominated legislature; or the Leader Smith electors designated by the People’s Revolutionary Council after the brutal mob execution of the members of the legislature.”
zzyzx
@TriassicSands: I’m quoting the front page post. Don’t blame me!
TriassicSands
Trump doesn’t care about any of those guys.
He lost to SLEEPY JOE BIDEN OF THE BIGGEST MASK EVER!!!
There could be nothing worse. It’s like the 1927 Yankees losing to a Little League team. (And I hate sports analogies. So, it’s more like a pack of Alaskan wolves being out-hunted by a pack of Pugs!)
Kent
Pardons can be an absolute blanket pardon. Look up the text of Ford’s pardon of Nixon: https://watergate.info/1974/09/08/text-of-ford-pardon-proclamation.html
Now, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974.
Brachiator
@different-church-lady:
The Republicans are fooling themselves by continuing to nurture Trump’s delusions. The majority of the country are not in doubt about the election. People in the US and around the world have accepted Biden’s victory, have incorporated it psychologically, and are ready to move along.
I don’t see that the GOP could do anything that would be remotely seen as being constitutional. Or acceptable.
Right now, I don’t see that the country as a whole will continue to indulge Trump’s delusions. Trump is a fool, and the GOP leadership are arrogant and misguided, and misreading the public mood if they continue to push their nonsense.
mapaghimagsik
“Do not eat the orange turkey. I repeat, do not eat the orange turkey.”
lamh36
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yup the new job
WaterGirl
@randy khan:
What the fuck?????
SiubhanDuinne
I like the Danziger cartoon.
“The bore’s head in hand bear I …”
Kent
@WaterGirl: He’s speaking to an audience of one. As they all are.
WaterGirl
@different-church-lady: Well, we do have them in all 50 states, do we not? I didn’t realize you meant Pompeo. Holy fuck, I had not heard him say that.
Mallard Filmore
@Amir Khalid:
Being able to self-pardon will open us up to near Putin level fuckery. Arrest political opponents and send them to Gitmo, for example.
TriassicSands
@zzyzx:
You’re forgiven. But I have to admit when I copied and pasted those words, the severe nausea I’ve been experiencing since I saw the cartoon at the beginning of this post, got a lot worse.
I have to call the Poison Hotline now, I’ve overdosed on ondansetron and promethazine. It said take one…I lost count at 65…of each.
I’d better look for a post about posies or puppies. This is too much for me.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Kent:
Not state-level charges, anyway
Kay
They sent them a letter! They’ll definitely allow Biden to be President now.
patroclus
@raven: Well, I have a law degree and I think Barr is attempting to play both sides. To please Trump, he issued a memo but the wording is mealy-mouthed enough for the U.S. Attorneys to sit on their rumps and do nothing, which, absent some compelling evidence, they seem likely to do. The precedent he set is merely internal to the DOJ – changing the way these sorts of investigations/prosecutions would be handled from the Elections Office to the individual US Attorneys and the Task Force member who resigned is understandably concerned. But it’s likely to result in nothing substantive and Trump is probably too stupid to realize it. In any event, Barr covered his rear and won’t be directly blamed by Trump for inaction (hey! – he sent out a memo!).
Suzanne
@different-church-lady:
YES THIS. This is not just trying to manage his feelings.
pamelabrown53
@TriassicSands:
LOLOL! Actually, I,m thinking it would be a more joyful Thanksgiving if I decorated my turkey with a trump toupee and some wax lips…then – with my electric knife – carve it with a gleeful vengeance.
cmorenc
@Jeffro:
The GOP better be careful what they ask for, should they attempt this ruse – in instances where two rival slates of electors from state(s) crucial to either candidate reaching 270 must be resolved, the issue goes to a joint session of Congress, which the democrats could, so they choose, derail from the house side – leaving NO duly elected president as of Jan 20th – resulting in interim President Nancy Pelosi until the dispute is resolved
Fortunately, Pa Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R) has reiterated several times that the Pa legislature will NOT move to appoint electors to override the popular vote, even writing an op-ed to this effect.
gvg
@Kent: I would bet her broke a bunch of state laws. New York for example.
I also wonder if he has broken any international laws…countries may have been waiting for a vindictive Trump to be out of office. I would expect a bunch of countries examined everyone connected to Trump. I’ve always thought it was really stupid for Trump to run for office because of how watched Presidents are.
Mike E
NC governor Roy Cooper pauses the state covid reopen plan at phase 3, and restricts indoor gatherings (aside from religious ones) at 10 people down from 25. Our health sec’y watches the metrics of infections and hospital bed space in particular; she pointed out that all of this has been made harder due to our TEA legislature refusing to expand Medicaid. So it goes.
Kay
@Suzanne:
They’re holding out for a deal. They know they can’t remain in power but they want something big in return. Immunity, would be my guess.
scav
I can’t decide if that’s a long pig or a turkey. I suppose a bo
are is technically possible.Extra helping of potatoes and cranberry relish for me, but appreciate the effort.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: ? ???
Ohio Mom
Yutsano @24:
Thanks for the heads up. Though I didn’t watch all of it — fastforwarded and hopped and skipped around, don’t need to hear why the ACA is important —but watched the question and answer part in full, and SWOON!
I’m in love.
Oklahomo
@TriassicSands: At least it wasn’t some awful Turducken version with Trump and his sons…
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: What would you prefer that they do? You don’t want them to do nothing. A letter is insufficient. What, in your view, is the correct response?
West of the Rockies
@lamh36:
Have you ever had your ears cleaned by a doc? It’s stunning how much better your hearing might be (and how much gunk comes out).
mapaghimagsik
@Kay: I would guess this is not going to happen. I certainly hope not and would kick up a fuss if that looked like it was the direction.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
As they said, Narcissistic attack the people they know when they are rejected.
https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/the-jolt-the-orchestrated-push-to-discredit-georgias-election-sparks-more-gop-infighting/XOMUV6AGINBZDFVHKKCNY2RYGM/
All this nonsense from the GOP like Turtle weasle words about the election is to pacify Trump so Trump doesn’t deliberately sabotage the Georgia Senate run offs. And knowing Trump, he will do it anyway to be king a-hole.
Kay
@Suzanne:
And the GOP are on board because an investigation and/or prosecution of the Trump family either implicates them or makes them look bad. They want to cut a deal.
patroclus
@cmorenc: Indeed, we were discussing that in the thread below. The best the Republican endgame can hope for is a President Pelosi. They’ll realize this eventually and will consequently cave, in my view
Moreover, because Pennsylvania Republicans aren’t going to go along, the issue is actually fairly dead, even at this early stage. That’s 20 electoral votes, which, with Biden at an expected 306, means that the math precludes their endgame from even getting off the ground. Which, to me, indicates that they’ll cave sooner rather than later.
LuciaMia
@scav: And could have done without the careful depiction of the butt cheeks.
cmorenc
@Mike E:
I know you were speaking to a different context than the one I am about to – but there are some restaurants in deep-red areas of NC that are openly defying mask and table spacing requirements. On Saturday morning, my wife and I were down at Sunset Beach, NC and decided to go to a longtime favorite “local’s secret” type breakfast place we hadn’t been to in a long time, not since pre-Covid last summer. BIG mistake. Place was packed, NO one was wearing a mask, several patrons at various tables had MAGA hats on (my perverse favorite: “Trump 2020 – no more bullshit” )- AND though the place was otherwise physically the same, waitresses were the same, menu the same as last time a year ago – the name of the place had changed from “Big Nell’s to “Southern Squeal” with a hog-face logo superimposed over the center part of the stars-and-bars confederate flag.
Now it’s our former, late not-favorite any more locals’ restaurant we won’t ever be setting foot in any more. I really hate it because the head waitress once knew me so well that she had my freshly poured glass of iced tea sitting on my favorite table soon as she spied me walking from my car, and would ask me even before I sat down: “same order? Yep”, mutual smile and wink. But the sheer defiant recklessness of the restaurant and other patrons to health and safety, I won’t put up with.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay: Consider Lindsey Graham, according the polling Graham was dead meat until Trump showed up on the ticket and then the Trump fan bois voted R because Pentumilate Leader Trump said so. The GOP needs Trump because Trump is the only reason their a-hole base shows up to vote.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
I would prefer they do nothing to doing such a weak and ineffective thing. They should either commit to defending this election and start hauling these people in front of Congress or do nothing. If they want to start a fight they should start one.
The Dangerman
@Jeffro: I don’t know how they can pull it off but the Trumpty Dumpty crowd is gonna try and put Trumpty back together again. Shenanigans in the EC? Somehow get the election kicked into the House? I forget how many of the 50 they control (one state, one vote right?
I don’t know much but it feels like if they can’t have the Office, they’ll just burn it all down. The differing realities the Righty news sites are spewing is pretty amazing and appalling.
There are a whole pile of people that are gonna be really pissed in a few weeks.
trollhattan
Our and several surrounding CA counties were just moved to “purple” COVID status due to big upticks in reported cases. We had a nice lull in October but the last couple weeks are heading to August levels.
No more indoor restaurant service, for one thing.
lamh36
@West of the Rockies: I don’t recall that I have. I have done some at home remedies but I supposed the doc has better procedures
Kay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Trump is transactional. He wants something in return for leaving office and the GOP wants him to get it, because that works out better for all of them.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
Maybe she’ll insist that Biden is not President-elect until the Electoral College says so — which is, after all, technically true, even though the transition customarily begins before that.
Kent
As I understand it, the PA legislature couldn’t go along even if they wanted to. Their session ends on the same day before Thanksgiving that county election boards need to submit their certified results to the PA secretary of state who reviews them and then certifies them.
There is no constitutional way for the GOP legislature to re-convene after Thanksgiving to ratfuck with the election. Under the PA constitution, only the governor has the power to call a special session of the legislature, and he is a Dem. Once they adjourn when their session expires before Thanksgiving they are out of session until the new state legislature is sworn in and convenes in January.
At least that is my understanding. It is probably the same in other states. They generally don’t have lame duck sessions in December
When the WI legislature met in lame duck session in 2018 to ratfuck the incoming governor, I believe the special session was actually called up by the outgoing governor Walker. WI now has a Dem governor as well.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: if it were up to me, the subpoenas already would’ve gone out, but 1) IANAL 2) IAM neither an MoC nor an experienced staffer 3) as we’ve seen, it’s tough for the House to act alone, though the looming specter of a Dem AG might change the pattern of ignoring subpoenas
trollhattan
@cmorenc:
California county health officers have authority to close and fine places that violate COVID orders. But county sheriffs can undercut them, creating interesting enforcement dynamics in rural and suburban counties.
mrmoshpotato
Dump being a whiny sore loser bitch will not help his horrible legacy.
-Joe Biden
OGLiberal
@Jacel: That’s kind of the irony of it all. The tightening in AZ is because Trump is winning more of the mail-ins than Biden. Biden won clearly on the election day count. Of course, it’s not really irony – it’s just rank hypocrisy.
West of the Rockies
@lamh36:
I’ve had it done twice (scuba diving in bad visibility conditions left sand in my ears). The result of cleaning was like having brand new ears. “Are the walls breathing?”
randy khan
@WaterGirl:
He thought he was being clever, I suspect. And he’s in the group jockeying to be the inheritors of the MAGA horde. I don’t know if he realizes that Trump plans to hang on to them himself to continue the grift.
JPL
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Our tax dollars are now paying for extra security for the SOS. Both Loeffler and Perdue are wealthy individuals and they should reimburse the state.
Belafon
I can’t go to Twitter at work, but Trump is firing Pentagon officials now: https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1326262874998779907
Emma from FL
@Kent: IIRC you can’t blanket pardon state cases.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
That’s another wrinkle to this: what does the GOP think our allies and partners, most of whom have already congratulated Biden on winning (because he has), will respond if Republicans were to somehow ram through another Trump term? Take those congratulations back?
Would our allies, the UN, etc actually condemn this for what it was: a coup? I’m reminded of a comment by a Japanese diplomat that said that US presidential elections are like presents: you have to accept them, put on a happy face, and say it’s what you always wanted. I would hope our allies would condemn the US Republican Party
Honestly, what good has having the world’s largest military done for us? In situations like these, it has made us more susceptible to internal political threats, like an autocratic political party trying to hang onto power, by eliminating any outside pressure that could applied to make the GOP back off
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
She doesn’t even respond. She doesn’t think she has to.
BlueGuitarist
@Kent:
@RandomMonster @dmsilev @VOR @randy kahn
Has there been any instance other than Ford’s pardon of Nixon of a pardon for unspecified crimes? Does that single specific precedent apply to anyone other than a former president?
Also, people often say that the Constitutional limit “except in cases of impeachment” means that the president can’t pardon himself. But if a president is impeached for, say, hiring a hit man to kill an opponent, then it seems straightforward that the president also cannot pardon the hit man, or more generally, henchmen involved in actions causing impeachment.
If that’s the case, then impeaching Trump now for emoluments violations and corrupt schemes to profit at the expense of the taxpayer could block some pardons.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
Then she could also refuse to appear before the House, could she not?
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
It got much cooler earlier this week and restaurants with outdoor seating took a big hit. I guess that health officials are also looking ahead to Thanksgiving and cooler weather as possibly leading to more infections. But these decisions also significantly increase economic pain for a lot of people and businesses.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay: Yes, Trump wants money, lots of it because he has a shit load of debt and the RNC is the only place he as now. Word is Deucha Bank is calling in their loans after 1-20-2021 on Trump. There has been quite few articles that are saying Trump wants control of the RNC after he is out of office.
randy khan
@Kent:
A friend looked this up and apparently the Wisconsin legislature can call its own special sessions if it wants. But most states aren’t like that, and flipping Wisconsin wouldn’t do any good.
And in case you’re wondering, Nevada’s legislature is Dem-controlled.
Gravenstone
@Kent: Not if it’s the Saudis or Qataris who want his head on a platter…
Kay
@Belafon:
The firing isn’t the point. The replacements are the point. He’s putting his people in positions to protect him. In order to do that he has to get rid of the people who are there.
cmorenc
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Alas it was but a hopeful illusion that the 44%-44% tie in SC opinion polls a month or so out indicated any realistic chance Harrison had to capture a significant portion of the nominally “undecided” 12% in a Presidential election year when Trump was certain to win SC by 8 to 12 points. All respondents who nominally said they were “undecided” actually meant that they had been paying too little attention to form an opinion, but come actual voting time, they were going to stick with prevailing local political culture and vote for Trump and Graham. Which is proven by the fact that Graham actually beat Harrison by around 56-44 (within a point of Trump’s margin over Biden in SC).
Harrison might have had a realistic chance of upsetting Graham in an off-year election, when a huge portion of that less engaged 12% might have stayed home, together with a just-large-enough fraction of those who would have voted for Graham had they not had other distractions keeping them from making it to the polling booth on election day. In other words, Harrison might have had a chance of a slightly larger % of those committed to actually showing up in an off-year election.
Martin
CA still has 2 million ballots to count. That gap will open up further.
In other news, we lost CA-48. The parties dumped a huge amount of money in that race. Rouda was not nearly as good a candidate as Porter. If we want to win these races, we need to find exceptional candidates.
zhena gogolia
@Martin:
Oh, you scared me, I thought you meant Katie Porter. You didn’t, right?
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
He can’t fire senior military leaders. I doubt they’ll go along with any bullshit. Ditto most of the enlisted
Emma from FL
Do we trust Biden or don’t we? I’m asking because so many here seem to assume only Republicans have agency. If the incoming President cannot be trusted to defend the vote why the bloody hell did we elect him for?
(ps I think I already had a hissyfit about this, so enough said)
Gravenstone
@Kay: You have to start the process somewhere.
Martin
@Kay: Yeah, this is a slow moving coup attempt. Won’t work.
But this should be part of the Jan runoff message in GA.
Roger Moore
@LuciaMia:
Clearly, he means respected by people who are high.
Suzanne
@Kay: I tend to agree with you. If this was just about saving face, there are graceful ways to lose. They genuinely want something or they genuinely think they can steal this election.
Kay
@Goku (Amerikan Baka):
Then they issue a contempt summons and bring her in physically. But they won’t need to. If she knows they intend to enforce it she’ll show up.
Start a fight or don’t start a fight. Don’t start 1/100 of a fight.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And isn’t that what this special election in Georgia is going to be?
patroclus
@Kent: My memory is that in Wisconsin, the majority leaders in the legislature called the special session, but I could be wrong.
In any event, it doesn’t really matter. With Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan in the bag, the Republican endgame isn’t going to happen barring some major revelation of massive vote fraud real soon. They’re just bloviating and will eventually accept the outcome. Biden seems to playing this right – being patient. And he can probably manage a smooth transition even with the money and the office space being delayed for awhile. I’m fairly confident…
And gaming out the Republicans’ possible endgame is interesting, but there’s just too many states (in 1876-77 there were 3 states and Hayes was stuck at 184 when he needed 185) and Biden has too big of a lead for this to really get off the ground.
patrick II
Even their original one close state scenario went out the window when Biden passed Trump in Pennsylvania ballots counted that were received Nov 3 or earlier. Alito putting aside the !ater ballots served no purpose at that point.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
Sure, but A) Trump has filled his DOJ with yes men and B) he wouldn’t listen to them if they told him what he didn’t want to hear anyway.
Cacti
@Suzanne: Have to agree.
This is starting to sound a lot more like an active coup attempt than just trying to salve Trump’s ego.
David Frum’s neocon ass was right about one thing. If right wingers have to choose between democracy and far right politics, they’ll abandon democracy.
Kay
@Suzanne:
It’s not money because the people they hope to make a deal with won’t offer them that. They’ll get the money from Republicans/Republican donors anyway, so that’s a given.
They want something else.
frosty
@lamh36: My son has been having ear problems. When he saw the doc last week they cleaned them out. He is amazed at how much better he can hear!
Kent
You can’t blanket pardon any state charges unless you are the governor, not the president.
I was just responding to the original post talking about Federal treason charges and stuff related to Saudi Arabia for Jarrod.
But Trump can definitely make any Federal charges go away for all of his spawn.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
And then Trump orders DHS agents to protect her from the “tyrannical Dems” trying to steal the election from him. We end up in a stand off. What next?
Mike in NC
@cmorenc: We’d never eaten at Big Nell’s but I heard she had died. I took one look at the new Confederate sign and decided we’ll give the place a hard pass.
Martin
@zhena gogolia: No, Katie is my district CA-45. Sorry about that. She won by 7 points, and it was less than 1% back in 2018 (same as Rouda in 48). This district is safe so long as she’s the candidate. It just shows how important it is for Dems to go out boldly, do the job in a public way, and not hide out hoping that voters forget they have a Dem representing them.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@patrick II:
I didn’t know Biden beat Trump with ballots received before 11/3. That’s impressive and takes another tool out of the Republican ratfucking tool box thankfully
MomSense
Why do I feel like the post Adam promised us is going to drop imminently?
Martin
@Kent: it’s unclear if you can blanket pardon in that way. My guess is USSC even in the current form would knock that down. I know there was a blanket pardon of draft dodgers, but nobody challenged that. So was the job of the pardon to convince courts that they couldn’t be convicted, or convince USAs that they shouldn’t bother bringing those cases, and those people shouldn’t worry about being charged? I think the latter.
I doubt USSC would support pardons against future charges or pardons of unnamed individuals as that would be en effective veto against the judicial branch. Why not blanket pardon the entire country against any charges? Just shut down the DOJ since it couldn’t do anything any more.
My guess is the courts would require the individuals being pardoned be named, and the charges being pardoned be enumerated.
TriassicSands
@pamelabrown53:
I’d can the electric knife and go with the wood chipper. (A lawnmower might suffice, but you’ll probably have to clean the walls afterward.) Good luck.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Trump’s plutocrats buddies, Putin or even the Saudis could prop him up quite well.
He doesn’t need to hold up the transition for this.
It is a keen insight to note that Trump is transactional and wants something to go away, but he also is tremendously resentful and tremendously insecure. He has rarely been forced to accept defeat on such a large public stage. He doesn’t like looking like a big loser and is reacting like some huge wounded beast.
Kent
Honestly guys. We are in kind of an echo-chamber here.
But if you go look at the headlines of any major newspapers, or follow the network news coverage, they are all moving along with President-elect Biden. Covering upcoming policy changes and appointments and such. All this lawsuit noise from Trump is just fading away in volume. Like the Pod Save America guys said…He is like the photo in Back to the Future that is just fading away.
It’s a nice reality check to get out and read regular news for once.
Martin
@MomSense: My guess is he’s struggling to keep up with responding to new shit that Trump is doing.
“Hi, I wrote this 4 hours ago and it’s now out of date”
JPL
@Kay: So it’s my understanding that they can be moved into other positions.
Suzanne
@Cacti: Yep. I don’t think we are as concerned as we should be.
TriassicSands
@Oklahomo:
Oh, man (or woman), you won’t be satisfied until I become a breatharian!
Cacti
@Kent: The press was completely asleep at the switch when the fascists first infected the government in 2016, if not actively abetting them.
I have about zero confidence in the “librul press” to warn us of any danger.
Martin
@Kent: Yeah, I have no worries about Biden’s win. That’s done and dusted. I do worry about the inclination of Republicans to support these moves by looking the other way/staying silent, and what that says about the resiliency of our institutions that we have no ability to intervene here so long as Trump has the DOJ on board. That’s a huge problem, and I’m not sure how future Congresses can fix it.
IOW, it’s telling that Trump is starting the purge with the military, and not other parts of government, and that there is nothing Congress or the courts can actively do.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kent: Forget it. They’re rolling.
gene108
@Brachiator:
GOP politicians, with the exception of someone like McConnell, who is very calculating, are varying degrees of dumb.
But GOP operatives are sharp.
The real question is how many top Republican campaign operatives joined Project Lincoln or other never-Trump movements, and how many want back into the Republican fold?
If you read about the 2010 election, the operatives, like Ed Gillespie, were planning to hit down ballot races state races that rarely got any attention with third party money as soon as the Citizen United decision dropped.
Plus the billionaires that still run the Republican party will be looking to blow a lot of money at House and state elections.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Cacti:
But don’t the GOP care about how it looks to the rest of the world? What about those crowds celebrating all across the US on Saturday and Sunday?
Do they honestly think nothing will happen to them? That there won’t consequences/blowback? They would effectively be painting targets on their backs for the rest of their lives
Martin
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): There are no consequences for those who can keep power. That the Senate kept Trump in place after impeachment is clear evidence of that.
Dems will have some real trouble rectifying that clear perception.
WaterGirl
@Kay: They are getting it all on the record.
TriassicSands
Yeah, fortunately, religious people can’t get COVID-19. That’s why they live forever. Oh, wait, that isn’t until after they die. Hmm. Apparently, “God” wants all his children to get COVID-19. Maybe there’s surplus of senior housing in Paradise.
My apologies for the cynicism.
Cacti
Not even a little. We’re no longer dealing with rational actors.
mali muso
Watching Bob Bauer on the Biden-Harris legal briefing. Sounds like he is deconstructing each of the “arguments” and scare scenarios we have been hearing.
Martin
@Cacti: Oh, no, they’re rational. It’s just their goals are WILDLY different from our goals.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
I would think stealing an election that was clearly won by the opposition with the largest vote share in American history would face consequences, if only through revolutionary mob violence. They would be painting targets on their backs for the rest of their lives
Kent
@Omnes Omnibus: Not sure what you are talking about. The headlines are all good for Biden and horrible for Trump. And there is actually very little coverage of all of Trump’s ridiculous frivolous lawsuits. For example, right now in the WA Post the top headlines are:
Justices appear ready to Uphold ACA
Biden Says Trump’s refusal to concede is “an embarrassment”
Biden presses to expand health insurance on uncertain terrain
As an ex-president, Trump could disclose secrets he learned in office, former and current officials fear.
Have we all been conned? The Q-Anon conspiracy theory faces a post-Trump identity crisis
JMG
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): It is their belief that once they seize power, they will repress any consequences with state violence, deadly violence. If that happens, our country will be hundreds of Northern Irelands around this very big place. Peachy keen.
Steeplejack
@LuciaMia:
I think you were the one who hit me with the “It has to be damp” comeback on the Addams Family thread last week. I got back to that thread way late; just wanted to say thanks and ?.
Sister Golden Bear
@Kent:
Unfortunately too many Trumpalos are also listening.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@JMG:
For that plan to succeed, they would need the active assistance of the armed forces. I don’t believe they would go along with it
TriassicSands
The Republicans are into regifting.
Cacti
@Martin: The leaders maybe rational. Trump’s followers are completely out to lunch.
CatFacts
Reminder: They want us panicked and demoralized, especially ahead of the Georgia run-offs.
I’m sure Biden’s people are taking this mess seriously behind the scenes, but personally I’m heartened by his public stance. Narcissists hate being laughed at, and Biden is calling Trump ridiculous. Sociopaths hate being told they’re cowards, and Biden is saying that McConnell is afraid of Trump. That kind of confidence strikes me as a good attitude for him right now.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: That may have been what Biden said but he did say it more diplomatically than that.
Joe’s whole demeanor as he was taking questions reminded me of when my cocker spaniel was in heat. (You shouldn’t spay them until they have gone into heat the first time.)
All these dogs were coming around the house, pushy, obnoxious, in your face. There was one older dog who was just hanging around like “excuse me, hi, I’m over here if you’re interested” and he finally hopped into a car that had the window down, and slept for the night.
Joe reminded me of that when he was taking questions. I know some people want him to escalate the whole thing and refer to what they are doing as refusing to go along with the peaceful transition of power. There may be a day and a time for that, but I don’t think that’s today.
He’s the old dog saying “yep, I’m the president elect, and you young pups can make all the fuss you want, but come Jan 20, I’m the next president.”
schrodingers_cat
I am so old that I remember that people on here were in panic mode about Bloomberg.
Aziz, light!
Repub leaders know perfectly well that Biden has won and will be inaugurated. This latest platter of steaming bullshit is meant to keep the MAGAts on board in future elections. Can’t win those without cranking up the rage machine.
Emma from FL
All right, so… I’m supposed to be scared when that ass Pompeo says something clearly meant to get Biden voters in a tizzy. I’m supposed to be scared of the Trumpist mob (are all democrats pacifists?). I’m supposed to be scared of state governments that happen to be mostly democratic-led turning on an illegal dime to favor Trump. I’m supposed to believe that the army of lawyers assembled by the Biden campaign will suddenly all resign and run with their tails between their legs. In fact, I am supposed to believe that the folk that ran a near-perfect campaign will bollock it up so badly that they will let it slip away. I’m supposed to be afraid of what Republicans will do in 2022. What else?
(added) found one more below. I’m supposed to be afraid of martial law.
TheTruffle
I had my first ever colonoscopy yesterday. It seems to be a perfect metaphor for last week’s events.
(FWIW, everything looked fine. Yay!)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT: This is funny. Small-time RWer forgets to switch to his sock-puppet twitter-feed.
catclub
well. given that Barr is still a true believer, I can imagine that some USA’s
are also true believers. And they might well pursue cases based on the flimsiest accusations.
Vhh
@cmorenc: i am worried about an actual coup set up by the,new, Trumper mgmt of DOD. Martial law.
Emma from FL
@Vhh: With what fucking army? The one who told Trump to go pound sand?
opiejeanne
@trollhattan: WA has been setting records with new cases for the past 10 days. Yesterday we had 2217 new cases. My county, King is still in Phase 2, but that may change since Puget Sound is becoming a big hot spot.
LuciaMia
But don’t you understand. They’re doing this to SAVE our country!
Kay
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Vhh: isn’t there something in the law about officers not being obliged to follow illegal orders? Milley has made some mistakes, but I can see him putting Kash Patel through a wall.
catclub
I think that is happy talk. or at best a 5-4 decision in favor of keeping the ACA.
It should be unanimous by just looking at the last two years it has worked – plus all severability precedents.
Yarrow
@lamh36:
If you haven’t tried Xlear nasal spray it might be worth a try. It uses xylitol, which breaks up biofilms in bacteria, in a saline solution. It’s not addictive and doesn’t damage nasal passages. You can find it at drugstores or in the drugstore aisles of your supermarket.
catclub
If white people are asked to choose between democracy and white supremacy, as many described the recent election, A majority of them pick white supremacy.
Sister Golden Bear
@Martin: Agreed that we need the best possible candidates we can find.
But several of the Orange County seats (including Cisneros’ where my mother lived) were marginally holdable seats, at least for now. 2018’s Blue Wave meant picking up some seats were likely to flip back in different election.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
well, damn, MSNBC calls NC-Sen for Tillis. Anything else would’ve been a shock at this point, but… damn.
Aleta
From SCOTUSblog @SCOTUSblog
(not consecutive tweets)
[ED: “giv. the peculiar circumstances of this moment” ?? — Assholes. Are they going to throw this into everything now–]
Yarrow
@Kay:
They want get-out-of-jail-free cards. Seriously. They’re all facing lots of time behind bars. They know it. They want someone to make the lawsuits and the prison time to go away.
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Gotta wonder if it would have gone differently if the Dem could have kept it in his pants.
Emma from FL
@Yarrow: I would give it to them with the caveat that they would have to renounce their US citizenship and sell all US properties and move to another country.
Haroldo
@Thobby Wibbly:
Check out the accompanying website. It’s going to be close, but it looks like AZ will hold. This ‘vote scraper’ from the data the NYTimes is provided shows the the current vote margin, the estimated votes left to count, and the percentage of the votes left that Trump would need if he were to win. This is just arithmetic, and does not reflect where the remaining votes are coming from. In this instance is does not matter because if this is correct, Trump is not making up votes quickly enough to win.
https://alex.github.io/nyt-2020-election-scraper/battleground-state-changes.html
Aleta
Also Imani Gandy live-tweeted her take on the arguments before the SC today, here: https://twitter.com/RewireNewsGroup
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow: or kept his thumbs out of it, i.e., not texted while married. I originally typed, “not sexted”, but I gather there was about as much sex in those texts as in an episode of the Brady Bunch.
One of surprises of the trump family has been that he managed to beat the “never write it down” rule, which I’m sure old Fred beat into him, into the Fredos
TomatoQueen
Everybody get your Biden scarf or other token, hold it above your head, and sing along with Miss Brittany Howard: https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/watch-johnnie-walkers-election-day-ad/2291836
(Liverpool fans know what to do)
Kay
@Yarrow:
I think so too. It’s who blinks first. The leverage they have is the capacity to damage Biden’s Presidency – damage the country too – we know they don’t give a shit about that but Biden does.
They know they can’t keep the Presidency. They think they can get a concession – something big that they want or need- by holding out. I would assume it’s some kind of immunity but the problem with that is the other party could offer assurances and renege. How would they enforce it? The United States could just say “fuck you crooks, tricked ya!” and slam the door. And an agreement can’t bind parties that aren’t involved in it, so some other entity could just prosecute them.
catclub
wow, Michael gerson at WAPO: I thought he was way more ‘still toeing the GOP line’ than Rubin.
Jeffro
Amen to that!!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Yesterday the Attorney General, today the head of the CIA
I have all kinds of questions, not the least: If they didn’t want people to know about it, they would’ve talked on the phone. Who was this for?
Jeffro
@Ken: LOL
An excellent shot across the bow, if only the Ds would take it =)
patrick II
@mali muso:
Which is what in part makes them irrational.
Jeffro
@cmorenc: that’s good news on the PA majority leader, whew (seriously)
cmorenc
@Mike in NC:
When the place was still “Big Nell’s, it was a dowdy, but unique place profusely decorated with retro-NasCar memorabilia – huge autographed wall-mural photos of Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, model racecars, old NasCar-themed Pepsi bottles, etc. and retro-style booths with black leather vinyl seating and Formica tables, except this was a living relic not anything some fancy-pants decorator-designer had ever touched. This was the place the locals came to get breakfast, and it was kind of an honor to be accepted as one of them by the waitresses, who had all worked there since forever.
Alas, with the changeover to “Southern Squeal” the place jumped the cultural/political sharks that had always likely lurked latent below the surface. I was suddenly in a quite alien place that morning when I walked in.
catclub
@Emma from FL: I think they have much less to fear about any prosecution. Any prosecution will have to run against an absolute tide of rightwing complaints about criminalizing political disagreement.
There were no torture prosecutions and no financial crimes prosecutions the last time around.
Yarrow
@Kay: They’re going to try to damage Biden’s presidency no matter what. I’m not too worried about that because it’s the same old, same old.
Right now they’re in the bargaining stage of grief. Trying to see what leverage they have. Maybe there’s voter fraud in Arizona! Maybe black people voted too much in Georgia! I know! We’ll refuse to sign off on the transition! That’ll do it! Now they’ll have to give us our get-out-of-jail-free cards. We’ll be home free. Wheee!
The whole thing is so dumb. But they’re giving it a go and we’ll have to watch it play out while Biden’s team meets them in court and the judges smack them down. And we can and should protest it all loudly. Not with actual protests but online, to our congressional representatives, etc. Keep the pressure up.
WaterGirl
@frosty: Does it hurt to have your ears cleaned out? I will never forget being in a doctor’s office years ago hearing someone screaming in pain from somewhere in the office and being told that some older person was having their ears plugged.
it has haunted me, I can still hear it.
raven
@cmorenc: What about the Riverview Cafe at Sneads Ferry?
schrodingers_cat
@Emma from FL
Do people who are afraid of a coup and martial law usually post comments on blogs. Asking for a friend currently eating ?.
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It was more than texting. They had at least one “intimate encounter.”
MisterForkbeard
@Kay: I’m hoping this is a necessary step 1 in a larger plan. Ugh.
I think the next step is start yelling loudly about how Trump’s administration is sabotaging the transition in an effort to sandbag the Biden administration, and that if Republicans don’t want to be responsible for and get the blame for early-admin screwups they need to intercede now.
JanieM
@WaterGirl:
You didn’t ask me, but I can answer: sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. The last time mine were cleaned out the wax was badly impacted, and it hurt like hell, and my ears actually bled a bit. It sucked. But I’d had it done four or five times before that, and it wasn’t that bad the other times.
WaterGirl
@mali muso:
Where are you watching that?
catclub
Jan 20, 2021: “No more Trump bullshit”
Kay
@Yarrow:
They know they’re leaving January 21st. It isn’t a coup. It’s blackmail. They’re going to hold the country hostage until they get what they want, which is not the presidency (they know they can’t get that).
These are small, shitty, sleazy people. They have no interest in anything as big and ideological and requiring commitment as a “coup”. They’re holding out hoping to make some sleazy, corrupt deal.
SFBayAreaGal
@Omnes Omnibus: Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’…keep those dogies rollin
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MisterForkbeard:
J R in WV
@TriassicSands:
Highly respected, yet somehow fired from Baptist university Baylor, for allowing his football players free range to rape co-eds on campus.
How could this happen? Starr is completely transactional! If you want to rape young women, that’s fine, if you’re paying him.
mali muso
@WaterGirl: It was live-streaming on FB via one of the local Virginia for Biden groups that I follow. Here is a link.
WaterGirl
@Emma from FL: Well done!
Jeffro
Yes. Exactly. He wants loyalists in there who can shred the evidence, screw up the transition, and otherwise trash the place on the way out.
Kay
@MisterForkbeard:
I think Biden got to them today by going around the State Department and talking with world leaders. The State Department is supposed to arrange those calls but o course they won’t because the office is occupied by the Trump sleazebags. So Biden went around them – he already knows some of the people he’s calling- and Pompeo lashed out at that press conference because he was angry.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think it’s stronger than that. You are obligated NOT to follow illegal orders.
Aleta
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Here’s a mere guess. Face to face is more secure than phone, no phone logs and no one on her end of the phone listening. Tr or someone wants to let her know her job depends on a request. Or, they’re sounding her out to see what she’ll do if they act on a plan. Maybe they want a statement from her to help them initiate a Senate action, or maybe it’s not about the Senate—McConnell is just the most trusted messenger Tr has now.
C Stars
@lamh36: UGH sinus infections are the worst. I can’t even imagine trying to work through that. Really sounds like you need antibiotics, not steroids, though I know that doctors are extremely reluctant to go that route these days. I ended up in hospital with sepsis a couple of years ago because of a doctor’s insistence that I did not need antibiotics, so if you’re not feeling better soon definitely go back to urgent care and insist.
cmorenc
@raven:
Haven’t been there. One of the perverse things about acquiring a beach house on one of NC’s barrier islands is that you tend to quit visiting other locations along the coast. We bought our house on Sunset Beach in 1995 and we simply pack a few clothes and go, buy a few groceries once we’re down there, and everything else is cozily already there, familiarly waiting for us. Anywhere else, we’d have to rent a motel or someone else’s unfamiliar cottage. Of course, at our own place, we tend to spend time puttering around maintaining the place that we would spend out on the beach or exploring the area if we were renters.
Yarrow
@Kay: Well, yes. And? Biden’s team isn’t going to negotiate with them. There’s nothing to negotiate. They’re going to be the small, petty, sleazy people we know they are no matter what. Here’s Biden’s offer – nothing.
Splitting Image
One question about that cartoon. Is the guy holding the Trump pig supposed to be Uncle Sam or David Cameron?
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
My concern with Barr’s witch hunt is they want s scalp to bring back to Trump and they will target some poor innocent(s) for a political prosecution. And please don’t tell me about the incredibly noble USA’s and how they would never do that- most of them went along with the absolutely bullshit political prosecutions of protesters at Trump’s direction. I don’t have any illusions about prosecutors, particularly those who were appointed by Donald Trump.
The Moar You Know
This thread…man, you guys are the worst winners ever. I don’t know how most of you get out of bed in the morning.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Sounds about right.
artem1s
@lamh36:
try applying a moist warm compress on your throat just under your ear. It may not help the infection at all but it will help the fluid drain out of your ears. I have terrible ear infections – they are horribly uncomfortable – hope you get some relief soon.
raven
@cmorenc: It’s further away than I thought.
Jeffro
I think this is correct.
So point it out publicly and loudly, Ds, and remind the remaining non-criminal Rs that they’re going to go down too if they continue to run cover for the crooks.
C Stars
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s been interesting to watch the schism develop between good faith republicans (the few that are left) and bad faith republicans. I still think we come out of this episode with the two parties being remade to the left. Which is maybe why the bad-faithers are grasping so desperately with their nasty little fingernails.
J R in WV
@lamh36:
I had my first ear ache in my life a couple of years ago. Doc said my ear drum was convex (or concave, long time ago) because of a pressure imbalance. He prescribed a nasal spray called Ipratropium Bromide Nasal Solution 0.06%, which as an inhaler is used to treat COPD. 4 squirts 4 times a day.
The nasal spray opens up the tubes and allows the pressure to balance. No side effects that I can detect, ear ache and sinus issues over. Maybe ask about it. My doc is board cert Family Practice and Gerontology, as he says “I hope all my patients become old under my care!”
ETA, not a medico of any sort, just a patient happy with my treatment.
cmorenc
@Kay:
And how are they going to get very far with any attempted prosecution in only two months before Biden’s acting AG takes over from Barr? I do suppose they could force someone to do a perp-walk for the media within that time frame, but after that?
Kay
@Yarrow:
Right . If it were me though (I don’t recommend following my lead) I would offer them something and then happily and gleefully RENEGE. What are they going to do? “YOU SAID you would!”
The problem with sleazy deals is there’s no way to legally enforce them. Think of it like luring them out the door with a dog biscuit and then snatching it back and slamming the door when they’re out.
Citizen Alan
@LuciaMia: You are misquoting him, I believe. I’m pretty sure he was talking about them choosing between democracy and white supremacy.
Aleta
@lamh36: With a sinus infection I’m useless, even to try. Hope you’re better soon. I like heat, like a hw bottle. Or hot water pored into a small bottle/container that fits against places on my face. Or hot washcloth over and over. Sorry everything is so complicated now. Wears me out.
Kattails
@Sab: Thanksgiving likely sucking… yes to that, but also my neighborhood Christmas Day get together has been cancelled; a lovely, warm sit-down dinner with anywhere from a dozen to 18 people, great food and conversation. The couple who have been hosting for several years sent out an email two weeks ago. They certainly don’t anticipate that this will be safe by that point. :-(
I’m a card-carrying introvert and the isolation is even getting to me.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
What’s hilarious is that these same fuckers bitch about snowflakes needing participation trophies for losers…lol! The Trump humpers around here first took down their signs when it was announced that Biden won. Then quite a few of them put their flags and signs back up when Deal Leader refused to concede.
These fuckers aren’t the patriots they imagine themselves to be, they’re just spoiled dumbfucks who bitch and moan their way thorough their woe-is-me life in an attempt to get what they want.
Citizen Alan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I really want to meet Cunningham someday and ask him “Was the bitch worth it?”
Yarrow
@Aleta: The hot washcloth helps. I heat it up in the microwave over and over. Lasts for a minute or so each time. Do it 3-5 times in a row and the sinus passages open and drain.
SFBayAreaGal
@The Moar You Know: I laughed out loud. Thank you for your comment.
C Stars
@cmorenc: I live in deep, deep, deep blue Bay Area. A few weeks ago the city opened public playgrounds as long as masks were worn. Well, sure enough, despite huge signs everywhere, every single public playground is crawling with the a*shole parents who aren’t wearing masks and/or are not making their kids wear masks. It’s so frustrating to me because I walk/bike by with my kids, who are DYING to play on a playground, and have to explain to them that those playgrounds are now reserved for the jerks who don’t care about not spreading the virus, not for us. (And this despite the fact that our family pays out a Very Not Cheap property tax bill for upkeep of same playgrounds).
Technically these people can be fined but I just can’t fathom calling the police to crack down on kids at the playground…
debbie
@zzyzx:
I liked the crack about Trump’s behavior being embarrassing. That’s a good strategy, I think. Humiliation and belitlement.
Kropacetic
@Citizen Alan: He has an office. Call it.
Martin
@Sister Golden Bear: They were won in a high-turnout midterm, and were lost in a higher turnout general. My point though was that Katie kept her seat by being a full-throated Dem and making clear that she was doing the job.
Porters name recognition is massive for a first term candidate. And she’s not exactly a natural candidate to do that, as compared to AOC who I think is so charismatic and outgoing that she can’t really help but do that. Put another way, why does everyone know who Porter is, but not Rouda? That’s Porter being smart and working her butt off, and Rouda not putting forward that same level of effort, and taking the same degree of risk.
Conventional wisdom is if you barely win election, keep your head down. I think that’s wrong. Katie went for it and got rewarded and Rouda didn’t and got punished. Katie was one of the first dems putting out video statements after the Muller report and backing impeachment. That helped her.
Kattails
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I emailed my Gov. yesterday insisting that he remark on this publicly. Those with that kind of power need to do so. It’s NH so it’s Chris Sununu, a Republican.
Citizen Alan
@Kattails: I had to put my foot down over Thanksgiving with my family. It would consist of my mom, my sister, her husband, and her three children. But the middle child was agitating to bump Thanksgiving dinner back to Saturday because he was spending the first part of the week with his girlfriend and her family in Florida (which immediately set off alarm bells). I pressed for more info, and my sister finally admitted that the middle child, his girlfriend, and her family were going to Disneyland. To which I said “Hell no, we’re having Thanksgiving on Thursday, and we’ll leave Alex a plate of leftovers.“
The Moar You Know
@WaterGirl: No! IT FEELS AWESOME. I can think of one circumstance under which it might hurt, and that is if you had a SERIOUS ear infection. Otherwise, no. If it didn’t cost a doctor’s visit I’d have it done every month.
debbie
@lamh36:
If you took a plane, did you have the sinus infection when you flew? Have you thought about it being clogged Eustachian tubes? Happened to me a few times and Afrin nasal spray worked wonders.
Emma from FL
@schrodingers_cat: So it would seem. Americans aren’t used to real coups, you see.
rikyrah
@different-church-lady:
I am not freaked out. The folks know that it’s done.
Martin
@C Stars: Oh, shit, I would totally do that. Not the police, but I call the county public health office, so much so that I’m not on a first name basis with the guy who answers the phone on weekdays. Restaurants, grocery stores, events, neighbors having big parties, etc. When the neighbors chartered the ice cream man to come by for a big ice cream party for the neighborhood kids (which was a wonderful idea) I pulled the owner aside and asked him to enforce masks or I’d call the county. And there was some grumbling when he did that, but people got on with it and did it.
Yeah, it kind of feels like a dick move, but this is public health we’re taking about. If it feels rude, consider how you’ll feel if one of those kids dies. You’d forever regret not calling.
But don’t call the police. It’s not their job.
WaterGirl
@JanieM: thanks. hoping for a happier answer, but i am also a big fan of reality, so i appreciate the info.
rikyrah
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
BW AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Martin
@lamh36: Yeah, I’ve had my ass kicked by sinus infections a number of times. I’ve finally gotten ahead of them with really aggressive use of allergy meds and sudafed. If I get even the slightest hint of an infection I start a half-dose course of sudafed-D (the stuff that isn’t meth) and 9/10 it knocks it out in a day or so, and if not, I move to a full dose, and it usually clears it up.
Give it a try next time.
C Stars
@Martin: Yeah, that’s a good point. Maybe I’ll email the city manager or health officer and let them know what’s going down on the playgrounds. We tried enjoying the playgrounds at first and I was just constantly asking parents to put their masks on/their kids’ masks on, but got tired of getting dirty looks, so now we’re not going at all. It really doesn’t feel fair for the kids.
debbie
@MomSense:
Heh, I’m dreading it too.
Kent
Made my day! You can’t make up this level of stupid if you tried.
Kattails
All these comments made me remember a dream I had just this morning, woke up from driving into town and seeing the roads flooded, and on a side road someone was trying to push a baby elephant out of the way. In the dream I was laughing really hard and thinking, I haven’t laughed like this in ages.
I am thinking that I know we’ve flooded them out and just need to get these unruly babies under control.
rikyrah
@different-church-lady:
Street uprisings GO BOTH WAYS.
Kent
He probably still would have lost. Challengers rarely outpace the top of the ticket and Biden lost NC (or will likely lose).
But yes, beyond belief stupid, I agree.
Captain C
@LuciaMia:
They don’t consider us part of the country, or anything else other than drones to be worked to death.
CaseyL
@WaterGirl: It depends on how bad the wax is, and how hard they have to dig to get it.
Usually, ears can be cleaned out by pushing water in there with a syringe. My doctor did that to me, I’d never had it done before, and it was at first the WEIRDEST thing I’d ever experienced. They were mightily amused by the faces I made. It didn’t hurt at all; it was just really really strange.
If that doesn’t work though, the doctor has to go in with a pick. And that can hurt a lot, because they have to dig around an area that is hardly ever touched and so is very sensitive.
J R in WV
@JanieM:
I recall learning somewhere that people can have either soft ear wax, or hard ear wax. People with soft ear wax are unlikely to need a medical ear clean-out, people with hard ear wax will more often need ear cleaning. Apparently it is a genetic heritable trait. My ear wax is soft, and a q-tip after the shower does all that’s needed.
JanieM
@J R in WV: I never heard that, but I can believe it. I first had to have mine done in college, so mine may be the hard kind. But that first time, and most of the rest, it wasn’t unpleasant, just, as CaseyL says, weird — sort of tickly. Mostly the water sprayed inside my ears has done the job, with occasionally a bit of work with the pick. This last time even the water hurt like hell. Going forward I’m going to try to have it done as a routine, so it doesn’t get so bad between times. Seeing blood on the tissues was not a happy experience. And no (to someone upthread) I did not have an ear infection
ETA: ENT doc told me years ago not to use the over-the-counter stuff — Debrox — that ultimately it damages the tissue inside the ear. I’m trying another suggestion from my current doc but it’s a long story and the jury is out until my next checkup.
Bill Arnold
@Yarrow:
How did the text messages get to the nationalfile.com?
WaterGirl
@The Moar You Know:
Thanks for that!
If a Tree Falls
@Watergirl
My primary physician (a former ears-throat-nose specialist) had me put mineral oil in my ear canals for a five minute soaking each night for a week before cleaning out my ears with water in a huge syringe. It was painless. Yes, it’s shocking how much stuff comes out.
WaterGirl
@The Moar You Know: Good to know! thank you
frosty
@WaterGirl: Eek! That’s not good!
He didn’t say, but I imagine if it did, he would have said so. He’s not a guy who deals with pain very well. :-)
Ms F says he mentioned “pressure”. Given my tinnitus and hearing loss I’m thinking of giving it a try before I get the hearing aids.
WaterGirl
@If a Tree Falls:
Wow, all this information. Who knew?
Thanks to all who responded!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@J R in WV:
As a diver, Afrin works wonders with my ear issues. Opens them up straightaway.
Danielx
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s not over til we say it’s over!
Ruckus
@zzyzx:
Always, always, always count on shitforbrains doing/saying the absolutely dumbest thing thing possible at the worst possible moment for him. It is his defining trait, and it stems from his intelligence, or lack there of, and his narcissism.
Nora Lenderbee
There are ear-cleaning videos on Youtube. Just saying.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kent: Probably a dead thread, but I was saying that the doom brigade had the bit in their teeth and were off and running.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I get a little wobbly sometimes, but I have no interest in talking about the worst possible things that could happen, requiring a cascade of worst possible outcomes, one after another after another.
It’s like masturbation, but without the fun.
ballerat
@Brachiator: Immunity from his state crimes I suppose. Financial, likely. Or his treason is so egregious that even a pardon won’t work.
No reason his state charges of financial crimes and treason can’t go together. In fact I kind of expect there to be Russians involved in all of that.
Captain C
@Citizen Alan: If you’re going to mess around and have something to lose, make sure you mess around with someone who has at least as much to lose if it gets out, and that they have no significant other who might want revenge and has no fucks left to give.
Obvious Russian Troll
My late father hated Bill Clinton and was a devoted dittohead. However, he had worked with Ken Starr on a professional level, and even he thought Ken Starr was a mediocre ass.