Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The revolution will be supervised.

All hail the time of the bunny!

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

When we show up, we win.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

I really should read my own blog.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

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

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Let there be snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Happy Divali!

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Happy Divali!

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… A traditional Diwali greeting is to say ‘wishing you a Diwali that brings happiness prosperity and joy to you and all your family.’

You can also wish: ‘May your life be as colourful, shimmering and magical as the lights of Diwali.’

Another can be: ‘May every aspect of your life be as luminous and wonderful as the lights on the lamps of Diwali.’

Sweets, lights, but maybe smaller family gatherings and (hopefully) not quite so many fireworks this year — at least not in pollution-beleaguered Delhi. But this of all years, we can use all the lights we can get!

The Associated Press reports:

The north Indian city of Ayodhya kept its Guinness World Record for a second year on by lighting 606,569 oil lamps and keeping them burning for at least 45 minutes as part of the celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.

Thousands of volunteers lit the lamps, called diyas, along the Saryu river’s banks, through lanes and at houses as dusk fell Friday in Ayodhya, where Hindus believe the god Ram was born and where he returned after 14 years in exile.

The city lit 409,000 oil lamps last year.

Uttar Pradesh state government spokesman Shishir Kumar said the lamps were a stunning spectacle for thousands of visitors who thronged the river banks while ignoring coronavirus social distancing norms…

*sigh*

… There has been a push towards a “digital Diwali”. In Delhi, prayer ceremonies will be broadcast on television and social media to encourage people to stay at home. In an attempt to stop the use of firecrackers during Diwali, the UN environment programme launched a series of augmented reality filters where people could have exploding e-firecrackers, known as e-pataakhas, on their Facebook and Instagram posts instead of setting off the real thing…

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  2. 2.

    Mousebumples

    Just posted this in the fundraising thread but I wanted to repeat it here too –

    Tony The Democrat (@DemocratWit) tweeted at 9:22 PM on Fri, Nov 13, 2020:
    Write #PostcardsToVoters for the Georgia Runoffs!

    GA Dems have a second chance to use the superpower of their vote to make a difference. Encourage them to enroll in Absentee Vote by Mail.

    Help Dems @ossoff, @ReverendWarnock, and @BlackmanDNA win!

    Text JOIN to (484) 275-2229 https://t.co/Z2HwsPujin
    (https://twitter.com/DemocratWit/status/1327451763406999552?s=03)

    I’m going to work on a few dozen postcards this weekend. Who’s with me?

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    An d so it begins.

    Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., challenged the House mask rule during the first session of new member orientation.

    Our first session of New Member Orientation covered COVID in Congress.

    Masks, masks, masks….

    I proudly told my freshman class that masks are oppressive.

    Source

    I for one would not be averse, indeed would welcome Madame Speaker assigning Greene what those in the know deem the crappiest office available. And in no uncertain terms directing the sergeant-at-arms to deny her entry to the floor should she be found in noncompliance with masking rules.

  12. 12.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: It is staggering.  trumpov ramps up the GOP base, but he ramps ours up even more.

    This article (which I saw last night, as did at least one other late-night poster) gets to the heart of trumpism, no ifs, ands, buts, or “economic anxiety”

    “…much of the Trump 2020 phenomenon can be explained by a far simpler way of looking at the electorate: There are White evangelical Christians — and there is everybody else.

    White evangelicals are only 15 percent of the population, but their share of the electorate was 28 percent, according to Edison Research exit polling, and 23 percent, according to the Associated Press version. Though exit polls are imprecise, it seems clear that White evangelicals maintained the roughly 26 percent proportion of the electorate they’ve occupied since 2008, even though their proportion of the population has steadily shrunk from 21 percent in 2008.

    This means White evangelicals turned out in mind-boggling numbers. Because they maintained their roughly 80 percent support for Republicans (76 percent and 81 percent in the two exit polls) of recent years, it also means some 40 percent of Trump voters came from a group that is only 15 percent of America.”

    I still can’t decide whether to feel relief that the 2020 election may just have been the high-water mark of white supremacy and still failed, or sheer terror at how close the orange monster came to winning despite everything he did (or in the case of Covid response, didn’t do)

    Maybe both?

  16. 16.

    scribbler

    @Mousebumples:  I’m with you!  I have a few extra postcards left, and more postcards coming in a few days.  My mood always felt better when I dropped a batch into the mailbox these last few months.

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

    @Jeffro:

    Think that it would be more for our side if not for Post Office shenanigans and Voter Suppression

     

    How many couldn’t vote in Florida because of the POLL TAX

    and multiply that across the country

  20. 20.

    Kay

    Crumlish appeared skeptical of Kerns’ arguments to have the votes disqualified over technical errors voters made in filling out their ballots, such as failing to write their addresses on the outer envelope, and ultimately denied her requests.
    “What consideration should the court give to the thousands of electors who are unaware that the [campaign is] seeking to invalidate their votes,” he pondered. “You are seeking to disenfranchise the voters … for whatever reason.”

    The Trump lawyer admits the votes were legally cast- she just wants to throw out 8000 of them.
    There’s a process to “cure” ballots where the voter is notified when something has to be corrected or the vote CAN’T be counted- what if we put in a process where the voter is notified when a losing Republican candidate – Trump in this case but now that he’s normalized this in the GOP there will be others- is attempting to throw out their vote?
    This was a Zoom hearing because the Trump legal team have been exposed to covid by the Trump campaign team, but you could probably fill a gallery in a court with the actual voters they’re attempting to disenfranchise.

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    Fix.

    @Kay

    you could probably fill a gallery in a court with the actual voters they’re attempting to disenfranchise

    With room to spare for the entire payroll of the Ringling Bros. circus.

    ;)

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    @p.a.

    Runs up, in some interpretations, against a Constitutional speed bump (as well as a concomitant decade(s) long legal sorting out)..

    …Article I, section 10 of the Constitution, provides that “[n]o State shall, without the Consent of Congress, . . . enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State.” The Court in 1893, however, stated in Virginia v. Tennessee that congressional consent is required only for a compact if it is “directed to the formation of any combination tending to the increase of political power in the States, which may encroach upon or interfere with the just supremacy of the United States.” Source

  25. 25.

    debbie

    @Jeffro:

    This means White evangelicals turned out in mind-boggling numbers.

    So did Catholics. Biden is no Catholic, according to them.

  28. 28.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Her entire argument is absolute bullshit. When you vote at polling places, you get a second chance to review your choices before locking them in. This is no different.

  30. 30.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: We need more of that.  Every time he shows his face in public.  Every reporter, when called on needs to start with that.

    You lost the election.  When will you admit you lost the election.

    Loved the “sir” that was tacked on at the end.  Technically respectful, but I thought it was shade.

  31. 31.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    Anecdotal. Catholics were often interviewed on NPR and on local outlets here. Even so, it’s no different than it was back in 2004 with Kerry. Can’t possibly be a “real” Catholic if you’re not staunchly pro-life.

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    @p.a.: I’m good with folks pushing the NPVC and a constitutional amendment.  We have to get this ball rolling any way we can.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    I was pleased with the judge’s question because you rarely hear the interests of the voter represented.

    In my reading over the last 20 years, there’s been a shift from protecting the interests of the voter to protecting the interests of the candidate. These people followed all the applicable rules and I don’t know if they checked but if they DID check they believe their vote has been accepted and counted. There should be notice to them if a sleazy, corrupt candidate like Donald Trump is attempting to throw it out. If we can notice them to cure a faulty ballot we can notice them if someone is trying to throw their vote out.

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    @Mousebumples:   Thank you for the info!  Just got a list of 30 addresses, and it will be a pleasure to write the cards this weekend.  Good to be already set up with them.

    ====

    Jackals:  a friend and I would be interested in phonebanking to Georgia voters, too.  Who would you suggest we contact?

    And good morning, and happy Diwali.

  39. 39.

    Jeffro

    @debbie: the Milbank piece notes that some (presumably significant) portion of non-evangelical Protestants and Catholics also turned out for trumpov and his white supremacist campaign.

    He could have just said, “White Christians”, but I think he wanted to note the especially high turnout by white evangelicals and their especially high level of devotion to trumpov.

    It has been very eye-opening for me to read more about how the evangelical movement was and is fueled by white supremacy.  I always thought these folks just ‘happened’ to be intensely religious(!).  I’ll be lowering my Intelligence and Wisdom scores accordingly.

  42. 42.

    Mousebumples

    @WaterGirl: awesome, thanks!

    @rikyrah:,?

    @scribbler: glad to hear you’re writing too!

    @Elizabelle: awesome! I know i saw a tweet this morning from Ossoff’s campaign with a volunteer link. I’d suggest the candidates, though WaterGirl’s post may cover that.

    @raven: glad to hear it! I love on the ground updates!

  43. 43.

    gene108

    My cousin’s son (his wife is Jewish) is having his Bar Mitzvah in about an hour. Guests will attend via Zoom.

    It was supposed to be in the spring, but 2020 got in the way.

    When I looked up the day, the calendar on my phone noted it’s also on Diwali. Hopefully it’ll be extra auspicious.

    Hope some family in India can see it as well, since it’ll be 8:30 pm IST, when it starts.

  46. 46.

    NotMax

    @Mousebumples

    We may well be witness to the first billion-with-a-b dollar senatorial race.

    I’ll leave it to the the Lincoln Project to decry Ossoff’s opponent as Perdon’t.

  49. 49.

    japa21

    @debbie: He is as far as I’m concerned. In fact, most Catholics I know voted for him.

    Catholics are not a monolithic category. Wide diversity of views.

     This is an interesting POV on it.

  50. 50.

    Nicole

    @NotMax: 

    NotMax! We made the Apple Butter Old Fashioned recipe you linked to yesterday evening and it was every bit as delicious as it looked. I drank 2.5 of them, myself.

    Thanks again for posting the link!

  51. 51.

    germy

    There’s sort of a disconnect between what I see on the regular news and what I see on blogs like this.

    On the regular news, they say Biden won, but it was a close race.  Biden won what Trump won in 2016.

    But then I visit sites like this, and I get the impression Biden won by much more.

    Even the maps look different.  On TV, they showed a map, and the red states really overpowered the tiny blue areas.  And then I see frontpagers here link to maps, and the blue areas look really big, comparable to the red states.  Same amount of wins, but the proportions seem different, like the blue states are displayed larger.

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    @japa21:  Fascinating to finally see the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal land at  John Paul II’s door.  (In this case, with his knowing of allegations against former Cardinal/now defrocked priest Theodore McCarrick and elevating him anyway.)

    I always knew this is why the conservatives insisted on canonizing him so jet-pack quick.  They wanted to try to inoculate him against this.  Won’t work.  (I never think of Trump as a POTUS, or JP2 as a saint.  Illegitimate, in both cases.)

    As with politics, the conservatives within the churches are killing the institutions they are embedded within.  Viva Pope Francis.  (Say that as a lapsed Catholic, but Francis admirer.)

    ETA:  I also want to know why Ratzinger (aka Pope Benedict) scrammed. During his lifetime.  Something was up with that.

  56. 56.

    Elizabelle

    @Nicole:   Now we will need the cocktail recipe brought forward.

    And we will endeavor to keep our potables off the postcards, although no reason the two cannot be combined, otherwise.

  57. 57.

    gene108

    @germy:

    Democratic leaning states have way, way more people. That’s the one thing I’ve come to hate about the EC now is how it skews how impressive Biden’s win is over Trump based on the popular on.

    This is a 1980 level rejection of an incumbent, but it doesn’t feel like it because of the EC map.

  59. 59.

    debbie

    @Jeffro:

    It has been very eye-opening for me to read more about how the evangelical movement was and is fueled by white supremacy.

    It’s what gave them (in their minds) their legitimacy. I’m curious as to what kind of interaction there’s been between white and black evangelicals. Can God’s love overcome racial hatred?

  63. 63.

    debbie

    @Nicole:

    I made apple butter yesterday to use up a mess of apples I didn’t really want to eat.  Now to figure out what to do with it.  ??‍♀️

  64. 64.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: I know you are kidding but Diwali usually falls anywhere from the last two weeks of October to the first two weeks of November. Actually it is kinda late this year.

    According Solar-Lunar Hindu calendar.

    Thanks AL, Happy Diwali.

  65. 65.

    Mousebumples

    @Nicole: nice!

    And to anyone who wants to join in but doesn’t have postcards, the Post Office sells prestamped postcards for $0.39 each. ($0.35 of that is for the postcard stamp). Not the most heavy duty of postcards but they work!

  66. 66.

    MagdaInBlack

    @debbie: Its great stirred in to yogurt, and on toast…and pretty much right off the spoon plain =-

    On a non political note; the squirrel I raised 2 years ago is still coming for breakfast. Yogurt covered pretzels are the fave this week =-)

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    @Nicole:   @ NotMax:

    Thank you.  First attempt will be made with apple juice; have everything but cider in-house.  (Will get some cider, and more bourbon, soon.)

  68. 68.

    Amir Khalid

    There’s a Malaysian custom of holding open house for friends and family on festive days like Eid al-Fitri, Christmas, Chinese New Year, and, yes, Deepavali as we call it here. That custom has added an extra dimension to these festivals, making them also celebrations of Malaysians’ diversity and unity. Because of you-know-what, open house can’t be done this year, and that brings me sorrow.

  70. 70.

    raven

    @Elizabelle: I’m all in for Tiger. It’s been nuts this morning, the indications were that they would just have the “featured groups” on ESPN +. Then it said they’d stream it all live on Masters.com. Then they put it live on ESPN and moved Game Day (which is being held at the Masters) on ESPN 2!

  71. 71.

    germy

    @gene108:

    According to the broadcast TV news networks, Biden barely squeaked into his win. Apparently they don’t want any of us thinking he has a (gulp!) mandate!

  72. 72.

    Matt McIrvin

    @germy: Conservatives really love county-level maps of who won each county, because it always looks like a solid red country with tiny blue islands in it. But the tiny blue islands are where most of the people actually live.

    There are exceptions. Arizona, say, doesn’t look like that because of Native reservations.

  73. 73.

    Nicole

    @Elizabelle: My spouse did a batch with a pecan whiskey that he’d bought on a whim, and it also worked out well in place of the bourbon, so there’s room to tinker with the recipe, for sure.

  77. 77.

    MagdaInBlack

    @germy: I tell myself it is. =-)  ….it comes to the patio door and looks in, then waits on the rail. And brings a friend who runs when I open the door.  The one who doesnt run, I say is mine =-

     

    Eta: it fell out of the rafters at work. One on the body techs came to me, because, well, he knows me. I brought it home, raised it on kitten formula, peanuts and banana chips. When it got warm out, I left her on the patio in her cage, door open. She eventually left on her own.

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    @debbie

    Incidentally, with turkey day upcoming, have heard tell that substituting apple butter (better thickened if a commercial variety) for half the pumpkin in a pumpkin pie works well.

    Or just use it as a topping for traditional pumpkin pie.

  79. 79.

    Nicole

    @debbie: Being South Central PA born and raised, I would, of course, suggest some scrapple for all that apple butter, but that would require tracking down scrapple.

  80. 80.

    Elizabelle

    @raven:   Tiger for me too, then.   My late mother loved him.  Will root for Tiger in her memory.

    I like the comeback stories, and toughness.

  85. 85.

    raven

    @Elizabelle: Yea, it would be impossible to match the win last year but I still enjoy watching him play. My dad, on the other hand, really hated the “arrogant Stanford bastard”. I never why but that was the way he was and he was a major golf fan (and player).

  87. 87.

    MagdaInBlack

    @debbie: Yes, when I was earth mother, we had 6 acres and 100 apple trees( which we thinned down to 30.) It freezes well.

    The guy we bought the place from thought he was gonna get rich on apples. He didnt.

  92. 92.

    Matt McIrvin

    @germy: USA Today was responsible for a lot of this because in the aftermath of the 2000 election, they had that county-level Bush vs. Gore map that got passed around everywhere (and might have contributed to the whole “blue vs. red” iconography we know today). But I really like this page they’ve got showing county data in different ways:

    https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/graphics/2020/11/10/election-maps-2020-america-county-results-more-voters/6226197002/

    one demonstrating that most of the US is purple, and another showing Biden vs. Trump vote margins as differently sized circles. That second one really gives a good picture of what’s going on.

  93. 93.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jeffro:

    It has been very eye-opening for me to read more about how the evangelical movement was and is fueled by white supremacy.

    It’s a hate cult, period.  Very IGMFY.  It starts from the theological premise that their little sect are the only good people, and they are good solely because they praise Jesus in the correct way.  Other actions are irrelevant.  That opens the floodgates for every kind of vile malice, and those floodgates spew.  Racism is still the foundation stone and central pillar, but it’s an entire grotesque culture that equates cruelty with righteousness.

    @debbie:

    I’m curious as to what kind of interaction there’s been between white and black evangelicals.

    My understanding is that the vast majority of even the most socially conservative blacks know their white counterparts want them enslaved again.  As for the whites, I remember someone telling an anecdote about moving from the North to the South.  Up North, the church would have sermons about how to get blacks into the congregation.  Down South, the woman in the next seat asked her how Northerners keep blacks out of the congregation.

  95. 95.

    LurkerNoLonger

    @germy: Popular vote: not close. Electoral college: Well…not that close either. I guess what I’m saying is, it wasn’t close :)

  99. 99.

    germy

    @LurkerNoLonger:

    And yet CBS News claims Biden’s win is basically the same as Trump’s 2016 win

    The average normie hears stuff like this in passing and believes “no big deal.”

    Well, it IS a big deal.

  103. 103.

    TS (the original)

    @debbie:

     if you’re not staunchly pro-life.

    100% GOP terminology, which is used to inflame. The correct term to use is anti-abortion. NO-ONE in the GOP is pro-life. The numbers they have allowed to die with covid is proof of that. Their adherence to the death penalty is proof of that. Their rejection of any type of government support for people without food and somewhere to live is proof of that.

    I am more pro-life than any of them and I believe in a woman’s right to a pregnancy termination.

  104. 104.

    LurkerNoLonger

    @germy: in EC votes technically it is the same, but the number of people who voted for Biden in each state that he flipped was drastically larger than when Trump won them in 2016. I think when the final popular vote total is announced it will be quite striking how large his win was and what a repudiation of Trump it was.

  105. 105.

    WaterGirl

    For anyone wanting to write postcards, I suggest deciding on the organization before buying any postcards.

    Because different groups do things different ways, you can box yourself into a corner if you buy postcards before you decide which organization you want to write for.

  108. 108.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    I’ll leave it to the the Lincoln Project to decry Ossoff’s opponent as Perdon’t.

    I swear to you I’m having a t-shirt made with that.

    EDIT: Just with the single word PERDON’T. In great big letters.

  111. 111.

    Immanentize

    @Sab: Hey, that’s my joke (George Ringo).  We came up with it as soon as JP1 was assassinated and we saw which way the white smoke was gonna blow.

  115. 115.

    Immanentize

    @TS (the original): There are some people — some radical nuns I know for example — who are as close to pro-life as possible.  They embrace the mantle of life theory (conception to death). Yes, they oppose abortion but they also support massive services for mothers and children and care of children.  And care of everyone.  And they support immigration humanity and sanctuary.  They fight poverty and fight for universal health care.  They are vehemently anti-war and anti-death penalty.  But besides the few who try to make the slogan “pro-life” a dedicated lifestyle?  Yeah, it’s complete bullshit.

  128. 128.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Hey, does anyone know how the MAGA marches in DC today are going?  I guess it’s too early yet for them to get going?  My guess is they’ll be tiny, but it is an important measure for keeping track of how the Republican base will react to Trump’s loss.

  131. 131.

    Elizabelle

    @Immanentize: 

    I wonder if we will ever know the true cause of JP1’s death. It was … startling.

    Makes me laugh, too, that the conservatives threw in sainthood for John XXIII to get their JPII over the line. No. Just. No.

  135. 135.

    Kathleen

    @Elizabelle: I read a book about that ages ago (don’t recall title and I have no google phu on my phone) but supposedly he was investigating Vatican finances which encompassed BCCI scandal. As anyone who loves watching Perry Mason or Law and Order knows, such interests lead to character’s demise.

  136. 136.

    Jeffro

    @germy: geez you guys he ONLY ‘flipped’ five states and won by 7M popular votes…y’all act like he won some big “landslide” or something…?

    //?????????

  138. 138.

    Original Lee

    @NotMax: Argh. Should be interesting to see how many tickets she gets in the DMV once the masks-everywhere mandates go into effect on Sunday.

  139. 139.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kathleen:

    @Elizabelle:

    I remember reading that. It was David Yallop’s book In God’s Name. I was always surprised at how upset I was at JP1’s sudden death. He had the sweetest, most benevolent face.

  140. 140.

    J R in WV

    @Elizabelle:

     

    ETA: I also want to know why Ratzinger (aka Pope Benedict) scrammed. During his lifetime. Something was up with that.

    His boyfriend showed up in the news… IIRC~!~

    I can’t imagine, personally, but no figuring taste, right? Maybe it was the power?

  141. 141.

    J R in WV

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    As for the whites, I remember someone telling an anecdote about moving from the North to the South. Up North, the church would have sermons about how to get blacks into the congregation. Down South, the woman in the next seat asked her how Northerners keep blacks out of the congregation.

    Was in Decatur GA for my brother’s wedding to a Georgia Belle. Methodist Church she grew up in. Exactly that question was asked by a member of the congregation of the Best Man, who was quite shocked…~!~

    “How do you all up North keep them out of your congregation?”

    “Say  WHAT?!”

    Actually, I’m pretty sure Joe said “I’m sure I don’t know!” which was as non-hostile as he could be at the moment. This was probably 25-30 years ago now, but that cuts them NO Slack in my book!

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