President-elect Joe Biden has outlined more than half a dozen actions that he will take during his first day in office.https://t.co/WnmpgHKAJP pic.twitter.com/0yzqzJpRWj
— The Fix (@thefix) November 11, 2020
President-elect Joe Biden named longtime adviser Ron Klain as his White House chief of staff, his first major appointment, as he builds his administration regardless of whether Donald Trump accepts #Election2020 results https://t.co/6gV6Gklcfu pic.twitter.com/GQnnZ8cCjr
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 12, 2020
NEW — President-elect Biden is set to start reversing Pres. Trump's immigration legacy.
The Biden team is planning to fully restore DACA, enact a 100-day freeze on deportations, limit ICE arrests, overturn green card restrictions and much more. @CBSNews.https://t.co/YTek3rt2z6
— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) November 11, 2020
World leaders have spoken to President-elect Joe Biden about cooperating on the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and other issues. Biden seemed intent on easing key Asian allies' uncertainties about a less-engaged Washington. https://t.co/VH9pIdJe26
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 12, 2020
Quoted by @michaelcrowley in the NYT on why autocrats are slow to congratulate Joe Biden: “The free world is ready to move on. The autocrats are mourning one of their own.” https://t.co/4PUU5eXAxv
— Tom Wright (@thomaswright08) November 11, 2020
Baud
I read AZ is official for Joe.
Good job, AZ voters. Special shout out to the Navajo.
debbie
I had really hoped to be less angry by now.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Did you see Maricopa County Judge Rules To Unseal Evidence In Trump Lawsuit
More legal hilarity follows.
debbie
How many lawsuits have been filed so far?
ETA: @OzarkHillbilly:
Every single lawsuit should be unsealed so the American people are made fully aware of this bullshit.
Baud
Ron Klain seems to be a hit.
gkoutnik
“…I kinda like it…”
debbie
@Baud:
He’s certainly got the background to handle Joe’s priorities on Day 1.
Barbara
@debbie: They want us to feel like we have lost even when we win. It is infuriating. Bringing bogus lawsuits makes me angry because it turns yet something else that is good about our system of government into a pile of shit. I hope they have to pay for it but most likely they won’t.
Baud
MJ says some Trump supporting evangelical preacher has acknowledged the election result.
As disgusting as Trump and the GOP are, Trump being destroyed by a thousand cuts is a silver lining.
Baud
Karl Rove had acknowledged the obvious.
J R in WV
Yesterday someone (sorry, don’t recall exactly who) posted a link to a TPM piece with a list of the Transition management committee members. The list was broken into each committee, their scope, and a list of the individuals, their previous occupation and their funding source, which was mostly “volunteer” for now…
I was really uplifted by the information, the people volunteering, their positions in foundations, at top universities, with unions. Two of the four committee members for the US Postal Service were previously with either the PO itself, or with one of the unions representing the workers at the Postal Service, for example.
Just the fact that many committees were going to have reps for the workers in that set of agencies was buoying my feelings for the next 4 years. I hope that the Justice Dept committee has lots of top former prosecutors on board! Even if just to scare the living daylights out of Fat Bill Barr for the next few months!
It is now obvious that Biden will have top staff in every department to fix things that have been deliberately broken by Trump’s minions and their total incompetence. People with the needed skills and abilities are willing to work to repair and improve our government, and I am so grateful for their willingness to dig in and take charge!
ETA: The committees with scope for environmental issues had members from well known environmental advocacy groups, land use groups, etc. Just so encouraging to see people who care about the missions involved in organizing this monumental effort. Makes D-Day look like a weekend picnic in some ways!
debbie
@Barbara:
I want to see a major media piece detailing Trump’s machinations to get reelected, from his hope that COVID would kill off Democrats in blue states, to “losing” ballots in the gumming up of the post office, to fighting against the late ballots from the military. The whole nine yards. Get it out in the open.
Ken
Especially since so many of them are self-inflicted.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@debbie: I’m still royally pissed off but I had my best night’s sleep in months last night just to spite them.
Kay
The nice part of the Trump Administration being so lazy and incompetent is they did a TON by executive order – legislation is more difficult and requires work and they don’t work- so a TON can be voided or overturned.
Baud
@Bluegirlfromwyo:
I’ve been sleeping so much better. It’s wonderful.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
Me too. It just keeps getting worse. Those assholes.
Thanks to Anne Laurie for these cheery posts. Whenever I see Joe or Kamala I calm down a bit.
debbie
Good to see Trump’s not the only one decompensating.
zhena gogolia
@J R in WV:
Yeah.
TS (the original)
@OzarkHillbilly:
From your link I found this interesting (my bold)
Be nice if the claims backfired and whoever took the video is charged with an offense.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
I do know it will end up being better, but it’s the having to go through this that is so maddening.
germy
At the same time I’m excited that Biden can use executive orders to do an end run around potential McConnell obstructionism.
This is why I’m hoping for many Democratic administrations to come.
Baud
The guy with the t-shirt “I’d rather be Russian than Democrat” perfectly captured the current republican zeitgeist.
SFAW
@Baud:
We’ll see how much you libtards are laughing/smiling when the Marshal of the Supreme Court (or “Martial,” according to Omnes*) comes to throw Sleepy Joe Biden in Federal Prison for attempting to overthrow the President-for-Life via an illegally held “election,” also known as a Democrat Party Attempted Koo (or however its speled).
In a rational world, all the judges having their time wasted by the innumerable bullshit lawsuits will say “GTFO of my courtroom, or I’ll throw you in Rikers (et al.) for contempt, and for being treasonous mofos.”
*Yes, Omnes, I know the context in which you issued your correction last night.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Jay C
@debbie:
I believe that at this point (pre-“finalization”) the Trump campaign/GOP have filed twelve suits in courts in a few states alleging various election irregularities.
And all twelve have been, AFAICT, dismissed (usually summarily): mainly for that arcane legal “defect” of being unable to provide any credible evidence – or even the possible existence of credible evidence- to back up their allegations. Funny thing about judges, wanting to see evidence: obviously some sort of Deep State conspiracy ….
So 0-12 so far.
Not surprising when your “proof” is basically on the level of “ Rudy Giuliani tweeted that he heard from a guy who heard from a guy”.
SFAW
@zhena gogolia:
Seconded, thirded, etc.
OzarkHillbilly
@TS (the original): Yep, more legal hilarity.
rikyrah
Just opened up my email.
My test results are negative ?
I want to go back to working from home.?
Got seven days more of quarantine.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
I’m so glad. It’s a really good feeling.
Lyrebird
@J R in WV: Thanks for your post… do you mean this list?
@zhena gogolia: so totally agreed w/y’all, that’s inspiring to read.
And just like someone (Baud! or someone else?) said – not celebrity names. People I’ve never heard of, but bringing in yes Sierra Club, folks representing Native concerns, someone from a day labor union, someone from RAND, all folks who should be at the table. (Those are from different committees.)
Joe’s got one hell of a job to do, but I am still stoked he’s got the job, thrilled VP-Elect Harris will be there helping, and inspired by this crew of experts.
debbie
@Baud:
They should all move there then.
Lyrebird
@rikyrah: Thank goodness thank goodness! Hooray!
debbie
@Jay C:
One in PA wasn’t — letting the observers move from 10 feet away to 6 feet. So 1-11. Still good.
Kay
@germy:
Exactly. Trump could have gotten an anti-immigrant law. He had majorities in both chambers. He was just too lazy and incompetent to get it done. So now Biden can wipe it all out. Erase all of Miller’s work.
Here’s Trump’s first two years:
rikyrah
@Baud:
The Navajo Nation DID?THAT ?
I will never be able to look at those Arizona results and not remember how they came out.
debbie
@rikyrah:
I missed that you got tested, but very glad for the results.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: There or Mississippi.
SFAW
@Jay C:
Maybe they have Adam Gase running their “legal” efforts?
[Apologies for the NY Jets-based joke.]
ETA: debbie’s subsequent comment indicates that, since they racked up a “win,” it’s unlikely that Gase is running things
rikyrah
@J R in WV:
Competent adults are back ????
mali muso
Took an actual mental health day yesterday which included avoiding doomscrolling obsessively and checking Twitter to see the latest outrage. Baked sourdough bread, made some cookies, watched a movie and it felt amazing. Not that I don’t love this place, but the angst around everything that might go wrong was really starting to get to me.
and on that note, good morning!
rikyrah
@TS (the original):
I want the people charged who paid the Post Office ‘whistleblower’.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: I encourage them to emigrate.
germy
The AOC seal of approval.
OzarkHillbilly
US deports migrants who accuse detention center gynecologist of abuse
Nobody could have ever predicted this.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
sixthdoctor
Does anyone know if there’s a list of Fair Fight-level organizations grouped by state somewhere on the net? Looking for the best places to send my money for the next two years, and any org looking to replicate GA or AZ’s results seems like a good investment.
Kay
@rikyrah:
It’s a fairly serious charge. I wouldn’t assume Project Veritas won’t be charged, especially if there was a payment and there seems to have been one. It would be a second offense for some of them, too.
Baud
@debbie:
@Gin & Tonic:
I’ll contribute to that GoFundMe.
raven
@rikyrah: You get you mail in the morning????
Baud
@rikyrah: ?
TS (the original)
@rikyrah:
I would like to see the people charged who dismantled the USPS. The deplorables lying about what they did/saw are very small cogs in the obscene attempts to declare elections illegal. I want those at the top to be charged. It’s always the idiot at the bottom of the food chain who gets caught/charged.
MJS
@OzarkHillbilly: The “Thomas Liddy” referenced is the son of G. Gordon Liddy (who, sadly, appears to still be alive).
Dorothy A. Winsor
@debbie: As long as Trump and his enablers keep talking, I will be angry.
I wondered this morning if Trump really thought he’s going to stay on as president. Or is he just looking for money and immunity? The latter implies a rationality I’m not sure he’s capable of.
rikyrah
@TS (the original):
I want them charged in MULTIPLE STATES.
NO PARDON POWER ?
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Money
Definitely
He owes 400 million. Folks want their money ??
Kay
@TS (the original):
“Charges” need to be specific though. “Dismantling the USPS” has always been a Republican policy goal. They once passed a law that was designed to make it fail. They may be able to charge him with some tangential crime- perjury or channeling public funds to enrich himself or cronies, but Republicans don’t want the post office to work and never have. They want to chop it up and sell it off in pieces.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Seconded. It’s the first one.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Money definitely.
He owes 400 million that we know about… folks want their money ??
debbie
@Kay:
Conspiracy to withhold votes. Would that work?
rikyrah
@Kay:
Which is something the Democrats need to correct
OzarkHillbilly
Florida braced for Eta as new study finds hurricanes staying stronger for longer
Dorothy A. Winsor
@TS (the original): Reminds me of those ridiculous O’Keefe attempted stings. I saw his name in a news piece the other day, but I didn’t read it. He’s a preposterous person.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: Oh good. Do you still have to quarantine because it can take a while for the virus to show up?
TS (the original)
@rikyrah:
Money
Definitely
Agreed – no way will he be able to live as he wants without the force of the US Government/Lawyers behind him. He will no longer be able to force other countries to lend to him & his family. The trump “name” is no more. No reputable network would dare give him a TV show, etc etc.
He will rue the day that his hatred of Obama made him think about being US President.
Kay
@debbie:
No, I wouldn’t think so because he delayed all the mail. Honestly it could be portrayed as just classic really bad management. He barred overtime and gave them nonsensical targets to meet, targets that don’t work at all with how the postal service operates. It’s this really complex web of local offices who transfer to sorting stations and then back. There’s a huge private contractor piece- the people who haul the mail state to state and cross country are private truckers.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Lyrebird: Biden is making his own job easier by letting experts do their thing. That’s a welcome contrast to Trump. I’ve often marveled at how he screwed up the COVID response. All he had to do was hand it over to experts and support them. Then he could golf or something. But no. He had to do it himself.
TS (the original)
@Kay:
Specific is fine. They dismantled machinery, they stopped overtime, they forced trucks to leave without mail – and the workers will not have to lie to prove these events.
De Joy should be held in contempt for disobeying a Judge – and hopefully that will happen soon.
TS (the original)
What is really good about Biden winning – all the unqualified and pro trump Ambassadors will be out of a job. I am overjoyed that Scott Brown will be leaving the delights of a covid-controlled NZ to return to who knows what in the USA.
And it took trump 2 years to nominate an Ambassador to Australia, who will also shortly be unemployed.
OzarkHillbilly
I doubt anybody has heard from her so a thought for Betty C and hers this AM.
Baud
@TS (the original):
The Denmark ambassador is going to go to jail for voter fraud after Kay gets done with her.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yeah, she said her power was iffy.
Kay
Here’s what’s hard for me. The bar is now so low that I’m supposed to be grateful that Republicans will allow the President to be President. After all, they could have just thrown out the results and installed a leader. That’s the measure for them now. Rock bottom. They’re congratulated for not completely destroying the country. I think lowering the bar for themselves is deliberate on two fronts- no one expects anything but malicious bullshit from them and it makes Democrats feel this is all they can expect.
What they are discussing and contemplating with throwing out electors is a coup. Putting a thin veneer of law on top by threatening to throw the plan to a corrupt court doesn’t make it any less of a coup. We’re now relieved that the Republican Party didn’t attempt a coup. That’s the standard for them.
OzarkHillbilly
@TS (the original): I’ll laugh if he applies for asylum in NZ.
Kay
OTOH one thing that is really encouraging to me is that Republican attempts to suppress votes (IMO) have backfired. I think they’re actually driving turnout on our side.
Baud
@Kay:
Shouldn’t we start thanking Democrats for not leading an army to repel the usurpers?
rikyrah
???
Fair Economist
@Bluegirlfromwyo:I envy you folk who can sleep well. I wake up in the middle of the night worrying about the Senate, and the damage to democracy from the current antics attacking the electoral system. (Yes, I’m donating and volunteering, but I’m still worrying.)
Baud
@Kay:
Plus, it does seem as if the actual vote tabulation process has gone smoothly everywhere, even if slowly. No hanging chads in 2020.
rikyrah
@Kay:
The whole
Make a VOTING PLAN
was a success, IMO
TS (the original)
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’ll cry if they dare to let him stay. (I think it unlikely).
OzarkHillbilly
Soprano2
I’m not sure I’ll ever completely get over my anger at Trump and his cult members. They sure aren’t doing anything to help that process along. I just cannot forget the “Fuck your Feelings” banners and T-shirts, and the condescending way they all told me after Hillary lost “It’ll be OK, you just wait and see, Trump is going to do wonderful things for you and all of us”. So now I say, fuck their hurt feelings. Joe is a much better person than I am.
Kay
@TS (the original):
That part was such a profound misunderstanding of how the postal service works it amazed me. When you work there there is nothing that is more important than getting the mail on the truck.
The entire day revolves around it. Everything else gives way to that. Which I don’t think is how ordinary people understand the postal service. From the end user side it’s about “delivery” to addresses. 90% of it is moving mail between places. On the truck. All day when you’re a postal service manager you’re beating the truck getting there or tracking where the truck is or missing the truck. The “last mile”, delivery to your house, is a tiny piece.
BC in Illinois
Breaking News!
No one saw this coming!
Cheryl from Maryland
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The narcissistic inability to let the experts take over has been my universal experience with bad managers. I don’t know how many meetings I endured listening to incompetent managers layout step by step their “how-to” and then ended by pointing out their blueprint would not and could not achieve their ultimate goals.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Can’t go back to work for another seven days.
So, I am working from home.
I just needed two weeks, and I wouldn’t have cared. But I have deadlines and I have to meet them remotely ?
OzarkHillbilly
@TS (the original): Yeah, I am being just a weeeee bit facetious.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: We’re fine! Lost power for a bit, and the howling winds caused my poor elderly Daisy dog to have an alarming panic attack in the middle of the night, but we came through otherwise unscathed. Lots of little branches down, and one big branch came down and almost hit our canoes, but that’s about it. :)
germy
Baud
@BC in Illinois:
Can’t wait to learn all the things the NYT withheld from us for the last four years.
VOR
@rikyrah: iirc Forbes identified $1.1B in Trump debt. The $400M is just the known portion due in the next 2-3 years.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Good to hear.
TS (the original)
@OzarkHillbilly: Very best thoughts that they are OK.
I am reminded that every minor or major weather event from 2009-2016 had the GOP announcing it was all Obama’s fault & he must immediately visit the scene, provide instant recovery & make amends for upsetting the weather dogs.
Now – we rarely hear about the event, let alone the aftermath. Another failure that belongs to trump. He did zero presidenting for 4 long years.
Kristine
@SFAW: Fourthed.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Good to hear.
Kristine
@rikyrah: I’m glad. May that continue to be the case.
Kay
I bet he’s relieved. The Trump nutters terrorized his public health officer to the extent that she quit due to concerns about her own safety and they’re trying to impeach him.
Baud
We should have a betting pool on how many lawsuits get filed against Trump on the afternoon of inauguration day.
Fair Economist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I think Josh Marshall of TPM has the right take. Trump throws fits and files endless nuisance lawsuits when he’s losing. This is very much of the kind of thing he does when his business has trouble – for example, he loves to sue his creditors for “fraudulent lending”. The “plan” is not to win the suit but to force a favorable settlement, and it often succeeds for him. It won’t work here because Biden isn’t going to settle. In the meantime, though, it’s doing a lot of damage to democracy.
I do expect the flunkies will destroy the evidence of Trump’s wrongdoing, and Trump will pardon them. If Biden’s DOJ chooses to investigate, I expect they’ll end up going to jail anyway for lying to investigators later. I hope that happens; no more “look forward, not back”.
Kristine
@mali muso: that was very wise. Glad you had a good day.
I should do the same.
Soprano2
https://www.fastcompany.com/90573460/kathrin-jansen-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-scientist
Figures it’s a woman!!!! So cool.
germy
Trump cries ‘medical deep state’ after Pfizer vaccine news comes post-election
OzarkHillbilly
What with all the angst over the presidential vote, I had all but forgotten about this: Prop 22: why Uber’s victory in California could harm gig workers nationwide
Kill the rich.
Baud
@germy:
Looking forward to Trump complaining about the law enforcement deep state when he’s prosecuted for his crimes.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
AP goes on another Cletus safari.
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-elections-coronavirus-pandemic-ced7bebdfebdeb63e545704d652daf85
10 years from now, they’ll still be scouring hellholes for people who love Trump.
germy
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@debbie: Wait, countries for white people where laws are to protect white people? Hasn’t that experiment already been tried for the last 1000 years or so?
Sab
@Soprano2: In my neighborhood all the Biden signs came down the day after the election. Trump signs are almost all still up. I am wonderimg if they will be replaced by Christmas decorations at some point, or just festooned with evergreen trim.
Nobody in particular
@Cheryl from Maryland:
Dunning Kruger Effect. Trump has a terminal case. Narcissists are usually smarter but Trump has ’em both. Prognosis is very poor.
TS (the original)
@OzarkHillbilly:
I would be 100% not surprised if he tried to stay – or at least get dual citizenship. It is a quiet unassuming place with (as is often said) many more sheep than people and a place where people are more important than business and $$$. And it’s easy to be a big wheel in a small place which would suit him no end.
Public health care system, virtually covid free, government retirement superannuation, public schools etc etc – what is there not to love.
TS (the original)
@Betty Cracker:
Glad to hear all is fine
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Amen!
HinTN
@OzarkHillbilly: Just wow! Thank you for that piece of history that was unknown to me. Black parachutes, indeed. Are we capable of that local knowledge today, with all our high tech capability?
germy
OzarkHillbilly
@TS (the original): Sounds like Republican hell to me. He’s probably already working on staying.
Nobody in particular
@Sab: The battle of the appropriate time to take down your Christmas decor has begun. Battle lines were drawn at the start of the War on Christmas. The political implications of your choice will be recorded. Let them savor the moment, the forlorn supporters of fascism, for although they will rise again, they’ll need a new Fuhrer. Third time’s the charm, “some people say.”
J R in WV
@Lyrebird:
Yes, that’s the one. So uplifting… I slept so well last night I woke up at 7:30 feeling rested. Made tea, drinking a whole pot of Assam. Woot!
Bluegirlfromwyo
@Fair Economist: Oh, I still worry. I just figure peace of mind is the best revenge.
different-church-lady
@BC in Illinois: So Maggie does not understand the difference between “news” and “promotion”.
Kristine
@Betty Cracker: Good news!
germy
artem1s
@debbie:
Yahweh bless them and their ignorance. Goy is not a nice word. They are too stupid to understand it will make them a laughing stock with the people they hate.
J R in WV
@TS (the original):
Yes THIS!!! Dejoy to DeJail. Interfering with the U S Mail is a crime, and he committed hundreds of thousands of iterations of that crime. I would accept as little as 30 days, but per offense, and consecutively, at Florence CO.
Immanentize
Epitaph for a Tyrant — W.H. Auden, 1940.
germy
MomSense
If anyone is interested, at 11:00 am Maine’s Governor Mills will be answering questions live on Maine Public Broadcasting. It’s available for live streaming. These are always interesting because it’s not just NPR listeners who ask questions and our Governor is wicked sharp. It’s a pleasure to listen to her mind work.
Jeffro
Well, it was a complicated process, after all:
and on and on and on…
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
For Trump, it was never about doing the work. He has never cared about the job of presidenting. What soothes his insecurities and feeds his vanity is having the power to stifle the experts, disregard their counsel, and do whatever the hell he thinks will profit him. He fancies that that’s him being tougher and smarter than they are. That has consequences — which are only now, for the first time in his life, catching up to him.
debbie
@artem1s:
Exactly!
Raoul Paste
“Access Sally”— Roy Edroso
I wonder if a 20-something is going to get that reference
Ella in New Mexico
@debbie:
I try so hard not to be impatient and just focus on what’s important right now, but between COVID-19 putting my patient’s lives in danger and seeing Republicans cowtowing to Stupid Orange Fuck’s “It’s All Just Theater Now! meltdown there’s no place to go but fucking pissed right now.
Just gotta remember who to direct my rage against, I guess. Certainly not the poor chick on my local restaurant FB Group page who just asked the simple question “Hey, where’s the place to get a really good salad in town” and I literally told her “In your own damn fucking kitchen stay home and chop up some lettuce and onions and tomatoes and make your own frickin salad-stop acting like everything is fucking normal!
And thank you, Anne Laurie for posting that wonderful Chicks ballad above. It’s so right for the times.
Chyron HR
@germy:
Trump: “It says, the paper says, the largest planet in the solar syst… them.”
Contestant: “What is Jupiter?”
Trump: “NO! You’re WRONG!”
J R in WV
@Betty Cracker:
Puny greek-named Hurricane couldn’t harm Betty Cracker’s swamp bunker!!
Glad to hear from you in these turbulent times, Betty!!
J R in WV
@germy:
Thanks for this, germy:
Roy is hot today !!! Access Sally indeed!
Jeffro
@Chyron HR: SNL should do a Jeopardy-ish skit, only instead of ‘crass Sean Connery’, they should have trumpov up there, flailing away in all his idiocy and toddler-temper.
Like, every week.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: My mother told me stories about a few times when she traveled with relatives by train, as a child. She had one of these things, a “muff,” which the adults traveling with her used as a place to secrete documents they needed to transport, on the theory that the authorities wouldn’t search there. In the end they didn’t, and she lived to tell me the stories.
No, I won’t go into details.
hueyplong
@germy: “Access Sally” (for Haberman) might be best nickname ever.
J R in WV
@Baud:
My money is on “All of them, Baud!”
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: Marginalized groups have always known what to expect from the bigoted thugs of the GOP, and they respond accordingly. As Maya Angelou wisely observed, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them–the first time.” All too often it’s white “progressives” groups or low-information” voters that are doomed to be disappointed by the bullshit.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: So glad to hear that you didn’t have any major damage.
JPL
@germy: “trump CRIES” That’s all you need say. What a whiny orange asshole he is.
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: that Proposition 22 sailed through even while Biden won the state easily shows the power of the media campaign waged by it’s proponents. But it also may show a problem with California Democratic voters, and the Democratic voting independents: they believe our economy is a zero sum game. They don’t see that a prospering working class makes for a more prosperous middle class.
Immanentize
@The Thin Black Duke: MLK’s “moderate whites.” I don’t think I’ve ever read a more searing indictment written in such a banal phrase.
Frank Wilhoit
Then there is this, which has an interesting title (granted that titles on pieces like this are often editorial rather than authorial, and that they are sometimes changes after publication): “I’m Not Yet Ready to Abandon the Possibility of America”. Close parsing of those words — “yet”, “ready”, “abandon” — yields, to my mind, a fairly dark tone; YMMV. But I must make clear that I abandoned the possibility of America in 1980 and so, again in my view, must have anyone with a ethical compass, a sense of history, a pragmatic viewpoint. I can never decide which is more vile, more disgusting: the fact that everything is performance, or the material being performed. I am all about making distinctions, but many distinctions eventually cease to matter in practice.
zhena gogolia
@artem1s:
My Jewish ex-husband ingrained in me that “goy” and “shiksa” are slurs and should not be used casually.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: I love a big blow, but not necessarily when it threatened all I had. I am glad it swept into town, made a ruckus and moved on.
TS (the original)
@Jeffro:
I would really like to know why he wears badly applied orange makeup to his face.
And why the deplorables think this is wonderful. Imagine their reaction to any other man appearing in public with an orange face. They seem to have always reacted to the concept of trump, rather than the reality.
Kay
@The Thin Black Duke:
True.
I’ve followed election laws for a long time. I’m not an expert but I’m a lawyer and I’ve been reading the laws and cases for 20 years now. Listening to Republican Senators talk about it, two things are going on. They’re maliciously lying about it to deceive their voters, but they also don’t know any of it.
I think what has happened is there has been a real and profound drop in QUALITY on the Right. They’re lazy because they don’t have to actually know anything or do anything.
Rand Paul tweeted that there should be an “audit” process where some portion of votes are examined and if no fraud is found certification can proceed. He tweeted this like it was his great idea. All states already have that, including his. They don’t know anything because they’re never required to know anything. The quality just keeps declining.
JPL
@germy: See there is some good news.
Fair Economist
@Geminid:
The campaign was INSANE. Even I saw ads, and I almost never watch TV. There was no opposition I saw beside tweets and posts by activists, and that has little reach. I’m not too shocked it passed, and I don’t think it says much about voters that they supported the only side they ever heard from.
Immanentize
Even though y’all don’t seem to be morning poetry people, here is another:
A POEM SOME PEOPLE WILL HAVE TO UNDERSTAND — Amiri Baraka, 1969
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: Karma.
Fair Economist
@Bluegirlfromwyo:
Blessings and congratulations to you. Wish I could.
Jay C
@germy:
Wish I could upding that for “Access Sally”.
LOL
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: ::side-eye::
OzarkHillbilly
@Fair Economist: The gig companies spent $200 million. Nobody could match that.
narya
@Geminid: Similarly in IL: Biden won, but the fair tax amendment did not pass.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: Letting them move closer was the equivalent of a garbage time touchdown in football.
Nicole
@TS (the original):
He has rosacea, which is not uncommon in people with Celtic ancestry (that includes Germans). I have it myself. It’s a frustrating condition. Harmless, but really frustrating. Alcohol is a trigger (ergo “gin blossoms” on some people’s faces), and while people say he doesn’t drink because of his brother, as vain as Trump is, I’ve wondered if it’s actually about the rosacea. Exercise is also a trigger. Which he also won’t do.
I wouldn’t mock someone for a skin condition, or for a body shape, but I can sure as hell mock them for poor makeup choices (especially after 10 years on a TV show that had professional makeup people there to teach you stuff), and for having enough money to buy things properly tailored, but not doing it.
(Sunlight is a trigger for my rosacea, and so the one bright spot for me with all the mask wearing is that it’s been good to keep the flushing down. Always a pony somewhere!)
mrmoshpotato
Fixed.
TS (the original)
@Nicole:
Thanks – if that is the reason, he surely has other options than looking like an orange man in badly applied makeup. He could presumably pay someone to assist – and knowing his grift, get the government to pay the bill for him.
I understand nothing about him at all – Watching Biden (and Obama) prepare for the job, what trump thought he was doing is frightening to the nth degree. The world is extremely lucky that he kept most of the horror actions at home – he could have blown up the world.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I can imagine a lot of evangelical grifter preachers seeing Trump as the threat to their own scams with Trump’s post presidency plans. Grandma only gets so much money in her Social Security checks for love donations.
snoey
@Kay: Our Town Clerk suddenly announced that the office was closed this week due to election related activities that the state needed done this week.
I think this means that she drew the short straw on a random audit.
H.E.Wolf
I called the office of the GSA in my region and had a nice chat with the person who answered the phone. I left a message for the Regional Director to pass along to Ms. Murphy, the GSA Administrator who is slow-walking the peaceful transfer of power.
https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/organization/gsa-leadership-directory
Yesterday, phone numbers were visible for each of the regional directors. Today, you have to click the link, then search for the “About our region” link, and hunt around.
Here’s a sample (Look for the “Contact” info on each page; it’s in small print):
https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/regions/welcome-to-the-national-capital-region-11/about-the-national-capital-region-ncr
The Moar You Know
@Geminid: The term “latte liberal” was specifically made for Californian liberals. Out of the several hundred people (all of the liberal mindset) I know well, I know four that actually give a shit about working people, and two of those are my wife and I.
The other two are the guitarist and drummer in my band. Tough road for those guys, especially this last year. No gigs at all.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: Good to hear – other than the stress on poor Daisy.
Zelma
@Amir Khalid:
I may have posted this quote before and I don’t remember where I found it. A FYNYT column I think:
“Great men and bad men alike seek attention as a means of getting power but our president is interested in power only as a means of getting attention.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@debbie: I ran into some Proud Bois in some You Tube comment section and wow, talk about the Wingnut event horizon. Long Rants in that weird code they speak in, I though I was up on wingnut speak but half the stuff they said made no sense to me between the code words, dog whistles and multilayer subtexts. No surprise the Proud Bois are facturing with that level of non-communications.
And let me savor the irony of group that calls themselves “Proud Boys” who refuse to talk in normal English.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Friend of mine described it as an option play: “a coup if conditions are right, a scam if they’re not.” I think that’s about right.
taumaturgo
@BC in Illinois: Milking it all the way beyond the finish line.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@zhena gogolia: Just remember Trump real goal in all this is an excuse to grift his base for more money. My dad is a registered Republican and he was telling me he gets a call from the RNC once day demanding money from him (even though he voted for Biden lol)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@rikyrah: congrats then!
debbie
@Ella in New Mexico:
I can relate!
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
My work here is done
Zelma
@Nicole:
I have long though he has rosacea. Probably got it from his Scots mother. It can be controlled but never defeated and I bet the make-up he uses doesn’t help.
I had an epiphany when I saw all the portraits of the early presidents at the National Gallery and noticed their red cheeks. They all had rosacea!
debbie
@Immanentize:
Longer, but eerily prescient still:
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
@debbie: Actually, the court didn’t give them that — the parties agreed to it out of court as a compromise which the court accepted. The outcome of the suit was a failure for the Trump side. So 0-12 is correct.
SFAW
@taumaturgo:
I’m sure the FTFTFNYT will fire her for journalistic mis-something-or-other.
Aleta
Nat’l Geographic on “The sleep-infection connection”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Jeffro: SNL having Trump doing a sad piano “Macho Man” last week was pretty good. And Jim Kerry dressed as Biden and calling Trump a “Luuuzer!”
geg6
@Sab:
Hmmm, around here the Trump signs disappeared 11/4. Some of the Biden signs are still up. We took ours down on 11/4, but we always take our signs down the day after Election Day. If we lost, we do it in the morning. If we won, after work so they are up during the daylight hours. And then gone.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize: Thank you for posting this. A new poem to me and glad to have read it.
@debbie: Ooh, also a good one. Thanks!
geg6
@Nicole:
I have it, too. But I use an actual coverup to tone down the redness when I have to wear makeup, not orange paint.
debbie
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride:
You’re right; I’d forgotten that it was moot.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: So glad to hear that! Sounds like you have one more test to go?
Miss Bianca
@TS (the original):
As the saying goes…from your mouth to God’s ears
ETA: And as another saying goes…Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
WaterGirl
@H.E.Wolf: If you or someone wanted to research and find the numbers for each region, I bet those offices and phone numbers could find their way to a link in the Election Action! sidebar.
Miss Bianca
@OzarkHillbilly: $200 million could have funded a lot of benefits. Just sayin.’
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Geminid:
That’s a load of malarkey.
It was the power of a relentless media campaign saying that the drivers loved the contractor relationship and the companies threatening to leave the state if they didn’t get what they wanted.
ETA: The “drivers” in their ads were always Black, Asian or Latino. Always.
Immanentize
@debbie: Thank you! I love Ferlinghetti. He came to read when I was in college, then I met him again one sunny day at City Lights
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: Thanks. The last line speaks to me these days.
debbie
@Immanentize:
Impressive!
I used part of the poem for a lettering assignment when I was in art school, the part about waiting for America to straighten up and fly right. I got bonus points from the instructor for being so politically relevant.
laura
There were some really good propositions that didnt pass in CA including cash bail. I hope that prop 22 gets a revisit by the Biden NLRB and I’d be thrilled if Richard Griffen is appointed as Labor Sec, and David Weill reappointed to the Board. David was fantastic on cracking down on misclassification.
Uncle Cosmo
“It’s Over, Rover” had a delightful experience on Election Night 2012 when the Ohio results (which he clearly mistakenly assumed Ohio SOS Ken Blackwell had competently ratfucked) demonstrated he was Full. Of. Shit. Once burned, twice shy.
Uncle Cosmo
How will you feel when Biden executive orders are challenged in court and swiftly appealed up to the Extreme Court, where the Fascist Five will declare them unconstitutional (on whatever bullshit grounds they can cobble up)?
I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer – but that’s essentially the situation (rejection of New Deal programs as “unconstitutional”) that provoked FDR’s attempt to “pack” the USSC. Think it won’t happen again? Think again.
Omnes Omnibus
Of course you are.
Uncle Cosmo
“Out, damned Scott! Out, I say!”
And, to quote Cheeto Benito in the Pure-White House regarding his election lawsuits –
Geminid
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I understand that the campaign by the proponents of Prop 22 was powerful, and I said so. But when I said the results “may” show a problem with voters seeing the economy as a zero sum game, and having little regard for the working class, I was speaking from observations of people in general, and some Democrats in particular. To me the proposition that a prospering working class makes for a more prosperous middle class is plain as day, and no slick ad campaign could make me see Prop. 22 as anything other than an appeal to misguided selfishness. But a lot of higher income people don’t care about the working class, and that is a problem for us all. I might also say it’s a problem for the Democratic party. But that’s another story.
neldob
@Fair Economist: Lots of lousy propositions and laws get passed like that, with so much money. Prop 13 in CA probably, the car tabs fee thing here in WA. Money, the mother’s milk of politics. Some human beings think corporations are people, probably because they can’t see through the money in their eyes.
Uncle Cosmo
@taumaturgo: I hate, hate, hate it when parents are forced to bury their children.
But I would make an exception for Clyde Haberman.
Nothing could be more fitting than for his little girl MAGAt to contract a terminal illness that prevents her from scribbling another word and lasts for years of utter agony before the inevitable demise as her medical bills eat up every cent of her advance.
Kent
Biden could overrule Prop 22 on a nationwide basis with a stroke of the pen. Distinguishing between contractors and employers is well within the authority of the Department of Labor. They don’t even need new legislation to do it.
Geminid
@Kent: I hope Biden does overrule prop 22. And I hope he and his Labor Secretary can tilt the regulatory table in favor of unions, so that the Teamsters or the SEIU, or both, can unionize Amazon and operations like it.
Nobody in particular
@Kent: They still haven’t figured out if the journeymen musicians who provide live music for your favorite dive bar or fern bar are contractors or employees. They are neither, really. And because of this ridiculous nonsense, they get screwed. “Sure! You can play here! Put out a tip jar.” I don’t have to go back on the road to tell you that I’ve witnessed “collusion” with my own eyes. Price fixing, wrt to what club owners will pay. Soon they’ll ask you to pay for the privilege of providing their patrons with background music. But we’re hooked. We play because it is in the blood. LVT is the only way to go. Make the vulgar libertarians freak out because of it and they can play with contracts all day long in their business dealings. I drive a hard bargain. As David Cay Johnston put it, when taxes are paid based on the value of the land owned, and just land, not improvements or structures, it makes money laundering very difficult. No amount of camo will hide a piece of land. Split Rate property taxation is a start. Some states and counties have experimented with it.
https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/htdocs/publications/review/05/05/CohenCoughlin.pdf
Labor should never be taxed. Full Stop. It wasn’t until John Bates Clark came along. WFBuckley, Jr. was hip.
He was a Georgist. And knew the word for the fear of having peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4474939/user-clip-william-f-buckley-discusses-land-taxation
“The natural wage of labor is the product.”
Benjamin Tucker
Nota Bene: I have nothing against industrial capitalism that produces widgets — tempered with Keynesian economic policies. Most of the wealth produced here is sucked up by the Hoover of the FIRE sector of the economy: Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. None of those industries actually produce anything but a foolproof way to pick your pocket.
Nobody in particular
@Uncle Cosmo:
Are we allowed to use that term now? It was starting to trend but all of a sudden, media have chosen to use the euphemistic “authoritarian.” Granted, fascism is a term difficult to define, like obscenity. But Justice Potter Stewart famously wrote in his opinion that when it came to “obscenity,” he knew it when he saw it. Like terrorism. There is no universally accepted definition. Why? Because under some definitions, American soldiers could be prosecuted in various courts, including the Hague. Has Kissinger visited the Hague lately? He’s a war criminal according to them and would be put on trial. I suspect “fascism” suffers without a working definition for the same reason. I’m learning to embrace my “inner fascist.” Just in case any Trump claws their way back.
Bill Arnold
@rikyrah:
DJT, his family, and his henchpeople will correctly be blamed if anything bad happens to J. Biden or K. Harris until this is rectified. Perhaps DJT and crew don’t value their own lives. Deniability is irrelevant. DJT and his family and henchpeople have been actively and deliberately encouraging the creation of right wing terrorist cells and lone wolves. (That encouragement is stochastic terrorism. )
sgrAstar
@Geminid: I’m a CA expat with tons of liberal CA relatives. They all said they didn’t know how to vote on the Uber bill. There was no clear message from the drivers or understanding of what *they* wanted. I think the outcome of that vote was primarily due to ineffective marketing in the face of a massive company-financed campaign.
?
Full Metal Wingnut
@Bill Arnold: He wasn’t already getting SS protection as a former VP?