WATCH: Joe Biden’s election win, Trump’s presidency and marriage difficulties in the White House: Here are some excerpts from former President Barack Obama’s wide-ranging interview with Oprah Winfrey pic.twitter.com/lLjwWdY8TR
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 21, 2020
… at driving the Worst People in the World ever farther out of their rotten little minds.
Foreign autocrats:
"Like a ward boss, except with nukes and a UN Security Council veto": Obama talks Putin, Russia and more in his newly published memoirhttps://t.co/6jqRaXYzdG
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) November 22, 2020
Implied: And as a former Chicago community organizer, I can respect the limited options that led to such a degraded career choice.
Diehard MAGAts:
Obama calls Trump era an 'anomaly' in Canada-U.S. relations | CBC Radio https://t.co/7N3Nt87zPM
— Thea Ishii ?????????? (@thea_ishii) November 23, 2020
Very Serious Media Village Idiots:
Holding their feet to the firehttps://t.co/GnmQWrvzK7
— malarkey has been defeated (@Convolutedname) November 23, 2020
peak levels of basic https://t.co/f2qwGXFz96
— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) November 16, 2020
Cosplay socialists:
“We need to get people out of the cesspool of conspiratorial toxins”
Oh ok you’re saying this because you want to stop Medicare 4 all
— Centrist ?? Madness (@CentristMadness) November 17, 2020
His Vice President just won the largest electoral victory in a generation. The idea that Obama failed to produce a center-left legacy that dominates modern politics is just racist edgelord wishful thinking. ?? https://t.co/UYmwalgRu1
— Four Seasons Total Manscaping ???????? (@SJGrunewald) November 20, 2020
debbie
So much stupid, so little time.
Baud
I don’t even understand half of these tweets.
NotMax
Young minds at work: Who’s up for some more voting?
debbie
@Baud:
Exactly.
Geminid
Sidney Powell, unchained: “Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha…..RELEASE THE WACKYNN!!!”
PsiFighter37
Seeing some talk on Twitter that Georgia is already back to purging voters, even those who just voted a few weeks ago. Hopefully that removes any notion that Raffensberger is a good guy, because he’s not.
Mustang Bobby
Wow, that’s some serious carpet-shaving smoking going on it that gang.
John S.
@Baud: It’s the sekrit code of Rose Twitter. You only understand if you’re already in the club, and you only get in the club if you already understand.
OzarkHillbilly
Gotta drop this here before I go, Florida Headline of the day: Man rescues puppy from jaws of alligator without dropping cigar .
Anne Laurie
Count your blessings.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
“It was one of my best cigars.”
debbie
@Anne Laurie:
NPR had a report on both right- and left-wing militias this morning. No one’s making sense, not even the militia medics!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
That was one aggressive little gator.
raven
ooops
Baud
@debbie:
We have a militia?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: And they’re all in drag.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
rikyrah
@PsiFighter37:
?????
He is scum.
rikyrah
@Baud:
I wondered about that myself ??
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Oh thank god. I thought it was just me.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Is Klinger in charge of it?
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: And we look fabulous.
Baud
@Mustang Bobby:
It would be hard to look worse than the right-wing militias.
JMG
It appears Michigan state election board will not vote to certify its results as the two Republicans will vote no. GOP legislature ready and willing to name Trump electors. Court battles to ensue. Why not lynchings to ensue?
NotMax
@Baud
To the tune of Rawhide.
Scrollin’ scrollin’ scrollin’
Keep that cursor scrollin’
Move past all the trollin’
Scroll by!
.
Baud
@JMG:
Cite?
debbie
@Baud:
Apparently. I’m hoping to catch the replay of the report so I can get the name of “our side’s militia.”
Mustang Bobby
@Baud: To quote Lanford Wilson in “Fifth of July,” “Anything’s possible with a little taste and charm.” The right-wing nutsery has neither.
Baud
@debbie:
If they say anything about Jackal Nation, the jig is up. Move on to the safe site.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: What a brave guy to go in after his pup! This is why I have a stout fence to keep my dogs away from the river, and I never walk them off-leash around any body of water.
JMG
@Baud: Ron Brownstein of the Atlantic and CNN on Twitter. Blogger and Michigan reporter Nancy Nall. New York Times story on one board member who says he’s gonna vote no.
RandomMonster
@Baud: Glad it’s not just me.
Baud
@JMG:
Traitors. Whitmer will deal with them.
Zzyzx
Of all of the states involved, Michigan is the one that worries me the most going forward as they have a very hackable system and probably no way of changing it in the short term.
The good news is that when the other states come in line, it’s likely that MI’s Republicans don’t fight too hard because they don’t want to deal with all of the fallout for none of the gain and then that could lead to saner rules coming into place.
rikyrah
rikyrah
@rikyrah:
debbie
@rikyrah:
Say it out loud, you @#$@%s!
JMG
@Baud: I have to assume Whitmer and Co. are prepared for this event, seeing as the Wayne County board tipped the GOP hand last week.
MJS
@JMG: If I understand it correctly, both Republican members have to vote “no”, and CNN is reporting that only one has said he won’t vote to certify, while the other isn’t saying anything. Remember, the two GOP board members in Wayne County also said they weren’t going to certify those results, but they did. It’s performative assholery.
Baud
Former Republican Tim Miller on MJ practically in tears about what the GOP has become.
Interesting.
SFAW
@Baud:
Me either. I just thought it was because I’m dim. [Well, I guess I am, but maybe not in this case?]
Yesterday, a friend reminded me of the phrase (or its equivalent): “I recognize all the words that you just uttered, but not in the order you used them.” [NB: my friend was talking about someone else. My friend is quite articulate, and all his words make sense in the order he speaks them.]
JMG
@MJS: If I was planning to participate in this attempted coup, I sure wouldn’t say anything either until I did it.
MJS
@Baud: “Has become”? “Has always been, but is now out in the open” is more accurate. At least since Gingrich’s ascension, if not Reagan.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Bernstein is showing journalists how it should be done. As Kay has rightly said, elected Republicans should get ZERO credit for acknowledging that Trump is an incompetent boob on background or secretly congratulating Biden for winning the race. Safeguarding our democracy is part of their damned job. Was glad Bernstein name-checked the two cowardly shit-stains who represent my state in the US Senate.
SFAW
@Baud:
I hope so. Bribery? Soliciting a bribe? [For trying to get Trump to give them COVID relief in exchange for their vote. Yeah, yeah, “the President did not try to pressure them” etc etc blah blah blah. You got a bridge you’ll sell me, dirt cheap, as well?]
WereBear
@NotMax: That was a thing of beauty. Thanks for the functional earworm.
MJS
@JMG: Likewise, if I wasn’t going to participate in this bullshit, I wouldn’t advertise that fact, which would just invite Michigan’s right-wing militias to make me their next target.
lowtechcyclist
Fact check: true, if you define ‘a generation’ to be very very short.
Obama won a much bigger electoral victory in 2008, and his victory in 2012 was by roughly the same margin as Biden’s this year.
In order for that legacy to dominate ‘modern politics’ it must dominate the legislative bodies where that politics happens. Other than for a brief moment in 2009, Mitch McConnell has had a veto over pretty much everything the Dems have wanted to do. And then there’s the state legislatures.
Fact check: FALSE.
Geminid
@Baud: There are relatively small groups of armed left wing militia. One guy from Chapel Hill NC brought a dozen or so people with rifles to the August 2018 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, ostensibly to protect anti-fascist demonstrators. They were outnumbered 10-1 by rifle toting militia members. At one point a Maryland klansman did fire a pistol close to a counterdemonstrator holding a lighted hairspray can. Thankfully this did not precipitate a firefight. It would have been a bloodbath. Judge Moore of Charlottesville gave the Klansman 8 years of prison time. The Culpeper man with the spray can got some weekends of jail time, two years probation.
As horrifying as the death of Heather Heyer and the severe injuries to her cohorts were, I’ve always thought Charlottesville was lucky that day wasn’t far worse.
JMG
@MJS: Agreed. The guy who gave the interview to the Times is the idiot.
A Ghost to Most
@Baud:
We do, but you failed the audition.
Enjoy the ongoing Calvinball.
satby
@Betty Cracker: They’ll just deny it. And it seems way too little, too late now. Including Bernstein, who probably has known this for years.
Starfish
@John S.: So many people were getting so upset by Rose Twitter yesterday. I live so far outside of it that I was not sure what they had done. A couple of days ago some of them were fantasizing about Trump stealing the election so they could yell “Bernie would have won!” They are pretty exhausting at this point.
Baud
@Starfish:
Cultism is a human problem, not a GOP problem. The GOP just has a way of amplifying human problems.
Emma from FL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Me three. Nor do I intend to figure it out!
Kathleen
@Baud: Post pic of T Shirt on your web site or GTFOFH NPR.
Baud
@satby:
Yep. It’s amusing watching so many people pretend to be smart because they realize what BJ understood at least four years ago.
Quinerly
@Baud: I thought the exact same thing. Thank you for admitting it. I was truly wondering if something had happened to my reading ability/comprehension overnight.
Baud
@A Ghost to Most:
I’m gonna sue. You’ll be hearing from Rudi and Sydney shortly.
Baud
@Quinerly:
We are all normies now.
topclimber
@Baud: People on BJ aren’t just smart. They know they are, and right about most anything.
Baud
@topclimber:
Nominated for the rotating tag.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Not sure who’s pretending to be smart in this scenario — Bernstein, the cowardly senators or all of the above? I think Bernstein has been pretty good throughout the Trump presidency, certainly by Beltway standards. As for the senators, of course they knew Trump was a dangerous fool all along. Even Lil’ Marco, who isn’t as bright as either of my dogs. It’s a cowardice and dereliction of duty problem, IMO.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I was half thinking of the remorseful Republican I saw on MJ when I wrote that.
Starfish
@Baud: That’s a great way to put it. There was a lot of freedom of speech whining yesterday too about “Won’t the true believers hold onto their beliefs more strongly if we censor them?” I don’t care about the strength of a cultist’s beliefs. I do care about the amplification.
Immanentize
In other news, that doesn’t involve making up facts that prove we will lose, it seems Emily Murphy is scheduled to appear before a House Committee today. That Committee includes Katie Porter. I hope she brings her white board.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: A “generation” is the average female reproduction time and is usually taken to be 18 years (though it’s getting longer in the USA). I rate that part “true”.
On the other part, he’s probably referring to Biden winning the primary (and against Donnie) showing continued dominance against the Wilmer wing. I rate that part “mostly true” but could have been expressed more clearly.
YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: It is cowardice and dereliction of duty. Republican officeholders are keeping their heads down because they want to keep the trump voters while letting others do the messy work of sending him off.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
I’m sure she’ll appear, and be completely forthcoming, just like her boss.
Joe Falco
Georgia State Elections Board to consider emergency elections measures on Monday.
There are three items the board will consider:
Elizabelle
More virtual film festival, by and about Native Americans. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, this week.
Healing Voices; available now through November 27, 3:00 Eastern. Recommend “Sisters Rising” highly; strong women speak about helping to protect women in their communities against violence. 58 minutes; was also screened this weekend with the Pocahontas Reframed festival. (FWIW, the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota is stunningly beautiful in summer.) [re the reservation, per wiki: in western North Dakota ; home for the federally recognized Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. I’d not heard of these native nations before.]
nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up. 98 minutes. A young Cree man, Colten Boushie, was shot and killed by a farmer; a Stand Your Farm incident in rural Saskatchewan, with trial following. Excellent and troubling film.
Overview of the whole NAMI film series. Some of these films disappear after tomorrow.
debbie
@Immanentize:
Or at least place a ball of yarn where Murphy can see it.
rikyrah
Amir Khalid
@Immanentize:
Sometimes I imagine that Emily Murphy could decide to really gum up the works and formally ascertain that Trump won. Could she?
ALurkSupreme
@Amir Khalid: No.
JPL
@Immanentize: Do you know what time? President Obama is going to be interviewed by the Washington Post at 11:30, so that is already on my calendar.
Immanentize
@SFAW: I’m just hoping that at this point she simply issues the necessary declaration:
“Let the games begin!”
JPL
@Joe Falco: Number 3 could be problematic, but supposedly it is to prevent people to temporarily relocate in order to tilt the election. Only republicans are allowed to cheat.
Amir Khalid
I think Obama putting The Beatles’ Michelle on his playlist is a bit on-the-nose.
Immanentize
@JPL: The timing is unclear? My guess is it may be “non-public” but later a cspan spectacular as can happen these days.
JPL
@Immanentize: She’s painted herself in a corner now. If she had followed the guidelines as written, it’s likely the rabid right would have accepted it. Now that their cult leader has declared massive fraud, they never will.
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: Oh man, that will be must-see TV if Porter gets to question her!
germy
RSA
@Zzyzx:
Michigan Republicans piss me off.
That’s 450 out of 878,000 votes, 0.00051 of the total.
By analogy, I’m imagining running a chain of stores:
“Boss, Store #231 pulled in $878,000, but there’s a discrepancy of $450.”
“Plus or minus?”
“Can’t tell.”
“Okay, we’re going to have to shut everything down until we figure this out.”
germy
@Betty Cracker:
I’d love to see a thread dedicated to that hearing.
topclimber
@Another Scott: I think the biggest EV comment may have confused the EV margin with the popular vote one. Recent memory is telling me Biden beat Trump’s sorry ass by a bigger percentage than any challenger to an incumbent since FDR demolished Hoover.
As for an enduring Obama coalition, it does look like it is the one that has proven most effective against the GOP. Reagan set the tone for Republican dominance even though he lacked party control of Congress, as I believe both Bushes did for a few years. So has Trump the past two. Let’s not set the bar unrealistically.
We can (and oh yes we will!) debate the proper mix of center and left in the Democratic Party. But we damn well better build on what Obama and Biden and a cast of millions have done. We need to dominate national politics for at least the next decade. Otherwise, we and our planet are fracked.
germy
Must see TV
debbie
@Baud:
Okay, it was the local NPR station. The leftist groups don’t have a formal name; the leader called them “community self-defense” groups. Their membership, like the militias, are largely veterans. Somewhere in between the two are “street medics” who it seems try to reason with everyone.
sherparick
@OzarkHillbilly: Beat me to it. An only Florida story. I don’t think he is going to have any problem keeping that puppy away from the water from now on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiWB3q_Plm8&feature=emb_title
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/23/man-rescues-puppy-from-alligator-without-dropping-cigar?CMP=twt_gu&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium#Echobox=1606135885
germy
What time do the hearings begin? I haven’t seen anything in the news.
Kay
@Geminid:
This understates what’s happening here, IMO. It’s a frame that is inherently beneficial to Republicans. “They don’t really mean to overturn an election…”
Most of them are not keeping their heads down. Most of them have been cowed by Trump into not even using the word President Elect and most of them are actively casting doubt on the election by insisting that it will be decided by a court.
It’s simply not true that most of them aren’t actively participating in this- they are.
I don’t know why they’re doing that and I’m under no obligation to believe what they tell Jake Tapper or Maggie Haberman secretly.
It is not my job as a member of the public to find reasons for what Republicans, by both word and actions (including joining or bringing court cases) are promoting here. It is their job to tell me. They have told me. What they say is they don’t accept the results of the election. That’s the stated, public GOP position. Finding some other, better, secret reason isn’t or shouldn’t be the job of reporters and it certainly isn’t the job of the public.
TS (the original)
@JPL:
And they are probably the ones that are deciding to relocate to tilt the election. Whatever they say democrats are doing – that is what the GOP is doing.
Nicole
@OzarkHillbilly: I watched the video just now, having heard about the incident, but not seen it. My two thoughts:
Thank you for posting the link; I’m glad they were all 3 okay, though I imagine likely a little disappointed on the part of the alligator.
germy
Rooftop sex parties?? I had no idea.
Matt McIrvin
If you’re assuming Obama’s goal was to be the liberal Reagan? Yeah, he failed. There’s no comparison to the level on which Reagan managed to fuck us up. I don’t think anyone in the modern US could be a liberal Reagan because liberal ideas just aren’t stupid enough to be that appealing.
Even FDR could only do it by making a devil’s bargain with racists, basically the same one Reagan made later. And if you can’t or won’t do that, you’re hosed.
montanareddog
@Amir Khalid: Maybe he was virtue-signalling to his fellow coastal elitists by choosing a song with furrin words in it
Kay
What if we set the ordinary, adult standard for words and deeds and applied that to Republicans?
2. OTOH, they secretly told Jake Tapper and Maggie Haberman that they don’t really want to overturn an election.
We GIVE them the second? Why in God’s name would we do that them that favor? Here’s how the Republican Party must prove they didn’t and don’t intend to overturn an election- they have to say it in public using their names and dismiss their lawsuits. That’s the ordinary adult standard.
I’m not giving them a lower standard. I’m not coming down. They have to come up.
Kay
@germy:
Murphy has already lied under oath. She’s already lied once for Trump in a congressional hearing when she was protecting his disgusting, corrupt fleecing of the US public in regards to his DC real estate.
Murphy is a liar and she’ll lie under oath. We already know that. No reasonable person should believe a word she says.
Kay
Instead of questioning Murphy, who is a liar and will and has lied under oath, what if the career people under her were questioned as to her activities and work since the election?
If they want to talk a subpoena would protect them, and, again, Murphy is liar.
Can we go around the low quality, weak, cult-member Trump hires and get some actual information?
LurkerNoLonger
Twitter makes everyone sound like assholes and makes assholes sound like bigger assholes. I think it’s the character limit…and the limit of one’s character*.
*Damn, I’m on fire this morning.
Betty Cracker
@Nicole: The video I saw didn’t show the gator grabbing the dog, but my guess is the pup had wandered pretty close to the water. Sadly, that sort of thing happens, which is why it’s so important to leash dogs around any body of water in Florida, as you said.
I’ve read about people rescuing their dogs from gators lots of times but never saw a video of it until now! Can’t wait to show my husband, who did not grow up here and whom I sometimes suspect of not taking the gator threat seriously enough. :)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@MJS: This whole Stalinist cult of personality around Trump is new. The Republicans didn’t start with St Reagan Maxiumus until he was out of office.
Barbara
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, removing one gator is barely worth the effort. It’s amazing there aren’t more alligator related deaths in Florida.
I am so tickled that one of Obama’s favorite songs is Michelle by the Beatles. What a guy.
SFAW
@LurkerNoLonger:
Jumping in a lake might help with that. If the fire is more localized, a possible solution might be sticking your head in a bucket of water.
Matt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I remember differently. It was definitely starting during his term, particularly in the run-up to his reelection after the early ’80s recession ended.
O. Felix Culpa
Dan Pfeiffer, who was Senior Advisor for Strategy and Communications under Obama, disputes the cowardice theory of Republican behavior (full text here):
PenAndKey
@ALurkSupreme: I’m being completely serious here when I ask (no matter how insane the idea is), what legai and enforceable standard prevents her from doing just that? The language of the law is:
So, yes, in a sane world the only possible answer here is that Biden has the EC count necessary to meet this threshold and she can’t say otherwise. Murphy is already violating the spirit and text of the law by refusing to admit this and treating Trump’s lawsuit attempts as legitimately having a chance of changing the EC count totals. From what I have seen there’s nothing actually stopping her from “ascertaining” that Trump will come out on top in his fights. And, as we have seen time, and time, and time again, if there’s nothing stopping Trump and his minions from committing an action they’ll eventually end up doing it.
TaMara (HFG)
@JMG: Everything I read, including Brownstein and CNN says it’s not likely they will do this. And there are already plans to deal with the subversive members.
Geminid
@Kay: I was stating what I thought was a motivation of republican officeholders who state privately to reporters like Bernstein what they don’t say publically. No warranties as to their character were express or implied. If you want to infer justification from explaination, that is your right. People do that all the time, in general as well as political discussions.
TaMara (HFG)
@debbie: Can you give me a link to this. I’m thinking we could have some fun coming up with uniforms and names for our Leftist-militia.
Kay
.
@lisamurkowski
: “It is time to begin the full and formal transition.”
Murkowski has been ordered by Donald Trump not to say “”President elect” and she is complying with that speech order.
The entire Republican Party vets all their speech past Donald Trump and the low quality Trump hires. They may not use certain words.
“Liberty! Freedom!”
They are people who easily and naturally gave in to an authoritarian leader, up to and including the words they utter. They cannot be relied upon.
germy
No Emily Murphy on TV today.
ALurkSupreme
@PenAndKey: I see your point, but it’s just not a rabbit hole I want to go down this morning, so I’ll leave your question to the better legal minds on this board. In my own probably uninformed opinion, she’s already played the one card she has to play.
Kay
@Geminid:
Why would we offer them a better explanation as to their behavior than they themselves are willing to offer?
I assume people who join a court case to throw out 1.5 million votes want to throw out 1.5 million votes no matter what they secretly tell Carl Bernstein.
Kay
@Geminid:
Bernstein is telling us they’re hypocrites and liars. “Hypocrites and liars” is better than than what they have done here, which is deny the results of an election and block a transition.
That’s why they’re telling Bernstein that. Because it’s better for them. Is it true? I don’t know- all other people get judged by what they say and do publicly rather than what they secretly tell 3 other people, so I’m just holding them to the ordinary, higher standard rather than the lower standard they want me to adopt.
Kay
@Geminid:
They are once again getting both sides of their argument. “We want to overthrow an election”- that’s what they filed, Judges are evaluating their claims based on what they filed.
But they ALSO get this “we don’t really want to throw out an election”
They have to choose. Pick ONE. They don’t get both. There’s just no reason to to give them that.
Luciamia
@Betty Cracker: To always remind that guy about leashes, I think he should nickname his puppy, “Lunch, Interrupted.”
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: My FiL and BiL live in a planned development in Texas with nice ponds and a natural slough. There are plenty of gators who get into the ponds and hunt little dogs. Generally, the management company pulls gators that reach 6 feet out of the ponds. But the slough is the slough!
And anyone who doesn’t know how fast gators travel on land near a body of water has no place living near one.
Barbara
@O. Felix Culpa: Yes, of course, he is right. The tell is that the exceptions are almost soly those whose electoral or professional status is not at risk (Pat Toomey), or might be at higher risk if they don’t speak up (Larry Hogan). Even someone like Cory Gardner who probably is never going to get elected to any public office is apparently angling for a position within the RNC. So he has to toe the line, and he does. The only other exceptions to this are people like Michael Steel who have been off the reservation for a while now. Those who are trying to thread the needle, like Murkowski and Collins, by wringing their hands asking for an orderly transition without acknowledging what’s really going on deserve special contempt.
Joe Falco
@O. Felix Culpa:
I think Dan has the right of it, but it’s incomplete because this election has showed, in Florida at least, that the Republicans can use that method and wring some votes out of certain Hispanic groups by playing on their fears and traumas experienced from their countries of origin.
Tdjr
@Nicole: They were lucky it was a small gator. The pup was a tiny snack for a bigger one and would have been swallowed before the guy could hit the water.?
Immanentize
@Kay: How do we get this to penetrate? Judge people by actions. You probably have this same feeling — Id rather appear before a careful thoughtful judge who is courteous and follows the law while being a total racist in his home or a bar over a smug insulting judge who makes up new rules as he goes along but is a pinacle of equality and virtue outside the courtroom.
I mean, it is a real clever trick these Republicans run — vague denials or expressions of concern while doing bad things. Susan Collins has made a successful career doing it! People finally caught onto her game, but she was reelected.
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: It’s pretty easy to find examples on all sides. “Let Reagan be Reagan.” He was “attacked” for not being “conservative” enough on some things, but it’s hard to tell if that was performance art or what.
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
Thread from someone who knows:
glory b
@Baud: Seconded for a rotating tag.
I also say this about myself to my children.
PenandKey
I know how fast they are. It’s a big part of why I will never live anyplace in the US that doesn’t freeze in the winter. Just… No thanks. I prefer living someplace that doesn’t have apex predators that used to eat dinosaurs as part of the local food chain.
Immanentize
@Geminid:
@Kay:
Everybody!
I urge you with all my loving heart to watch this video:
Jay Smooth — How to tell someone what they did was racist
I show this to all my first year students to show them the difference between “what they did” and “what they are.”. Bernstein is trying to tell us “what they are.” Who cares. I see what they did and are doing and they should be held accountable for that.
Please watch? It’s really good!
O. Felix Culpa
@Joe Falco: My sense it that there are at least two dynamics with the Hispanic groups you reference: Cuban and Venezuelan emigrees who respond reflexively to “socialism” ooga-booga, and longer settled working class and small business-owning Hispanics in the Southwest who are transitioning to honorary white status, just as the Italians and Irish did decades ago.
ETA: In New Mexico you also have the descendants of the conquistadors, who do not identify with the Mexican and Central American arrivistes. Many of the older folks in the “traditional Hispanic” group are socially conservative and deeply Catholic. They are peeling away from the Democratic coalition. I’m looking for research to find out where their children and grandchildren are trending; I think it likely that the latter are more liberal, but need more data to be sure.
Yarrow
The correct response to any of these bothsides media assholes is, “Fuck you. You enabled Trump.”
Immanentize
@germy: Again, even Rep. Connolly is fighting the “who she is” fight. I don’t care. I see what she is doing and it is WRONG.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
NYT digs deeply into the home lockdown privations of….
…the hyperwealthy assholes that infest the Style section – you know, the folks that need gigantic tax increases.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/realestate/covid-houseguests-entertaining.html#click=https://t.co/9fysax1D7z
Yarrow
@PenandKey:
You’re going to have fewer and fewer options. Alaska maybe?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Matt McIrvin: Sure, but that was more like fanboism, . This is full Stalin 2+2=5 with Republicans saying things they know are dangerous lies out fear of being denounced and purged.
LAO
@Immanentize: Hey man! How have you been. The batshit crazy lawyering has made me insane — how about you?
PS — I’ve been on something of a social media hiatus for mental health reasons. I have a lot of balloon juice to catch up on.
Omnes Omnibus
Perhaps it’s not the best idea. Welcome back.
Just One More Canuck
@Baud: Will Rudy usee the liquid from the vegetables left rotting in the bottom of the fridge as his hair dye again?
LAO
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks. I see what you mean.
danielx
@LAO:
May I recommend small doses to start.
schrodingers_cat
@LAO: You haven’t missed much.
Frankensteinbeck
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
They aren’t afraid of Trump. They are afraid of their own voters. Republicans went batshit insane when a black man was elected president. Trump is only the current face of a screaming psychotic tantrum by slightly more than half of whites that THEY are normal, THEY must be obeyed, THEY get to hurt whoever they want, THEY are the future, and THEY must never be contradicted in any way. Since conservatives love sadistic bullying that puts them in no danger and requires almost no effort, the deluge of death threats the base dishes out to anyone who catches their eye is extremely unpleasant.
And it doesn’t help that all elected Republicans are somewhere on the index of derangement. Very few of them are as far along as Trump, that’s all.
BR
@PenAndKey:
You’re right — I did the math, and once PA certifies, Biden is over the 270 mark (along with GA, AZ, and NV). No need to wait on the recount in WI or the nonsense in MI. I imagine the nonsense will quickly come to an end once that is apparent.
Cheryl Rofer
@O. Felix Culpa: Not disputing that that might be the Republican strategy, but I keep wondering what kind of country they want power over. One in which 3000 people are dying every day from communicable disease? One with a cratered economy?
Maybe their own ill-gotten money is enough for them.
SFAW
@LAO:
I noticed your absence, I hope everything is OK.
Very happy to see you back!
Geminid
@germy: The Oversight Commitee is a large one. There will be questioning from, besides the wicked smart Katie Porter Democrats: Chairman Carolyn Maloney(NY), Eleanor Norton (DC), Steven Lynch (MA), Jim Cooper (TN), Gerald Connolly (VA), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL), Harley Rouda (CA), Kweisi Mfuni (MD), Ro Khanna (CA), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (CA), John Sarbanes (MD), Peter Welch (VT), Robin Kelly (IL), Mark DeSaulnier (CA?), Brenda Laurence (MI), Stacy Plaskett (Virgin Islands), Jimmy Gomez(CA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Rashida Tlaib (MI), and Ayanna Pressley (MA).
Kweisi Mfume both preceeded and succeeded the late, great Commitee Chairman Elijah Cummings, who I really miss.
Kay
@Immanentize:
There are real tangible consequences for us normalizing this behavior. Republicans in Congress just won a larger vote share than Donald Trump. They kept their jobs because of this bullshit narrative where they were able to set themselves apart from Trump.
Republicans in Congress did better than Donald Trump in the last election. We don’t have the senate because they were able to do this “wink wink, nod nod” bs and distance themselves from Trump’s actions.
They are playing both sides of this because it benefits them. All I’m asking is that we force them to pick a side and not go along with the cover that goes “this is all political theater”. Why the fuck would any Democrat ever give voters a reason to continue to vote for Republicans in Congress? We’re telling people that while it’s not safe to vote for Donald Trump it IS safe to vote for a GOP Congress. And that’s exactly what they did.
Yarrow
@LAO: Welcome back! How’s your puppster?
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: A scholar and acquaintance I admire deeply, john a. powell (all lower case), and I had a great conversation about how in the Jim Crow days, the primary question was “Who is not white?” Every generation, the miscegenation rules got more strict — 1/2 black blood to 1/4 to 1/8 to 1/16 to one drop of black (or Indian or Mexican) blood.
Thereby, the category of “not white” grew. powell thinks the new question is who is “not black.” It doesn’t rely on blood or even color at all — it depends on success in the white world under specific terms. Tiger Woods is “not black.” Kyle Kaepernick is black. Nikki Haley is “not black.” Ben Carson is “not black.” The whole post-racial thing came about because people thought there was agreement that Barak Obama was “not black.” Ooops. He failed the specific terms of the not black club.
schrodingers_cat
Today seems to be a good day to stay away comments on Balloon Juice which will be 90% doom and panic posting.
LAO
@SFAW: Thanks, covid adjusted, I’m fine. It’s just been very, very stressful — which I certainly expect has been true for every one.
@schrodingers_cat: come on, what no thoughtful and insightful commentary? I don’t believe it.
SFAW
@BR:
I hope you’re right, but the non-zero part of me that is paranoid about those traitors says that, if their cheating gets Biden down to 270, there will be even more insanity coming from the Traitor-in-Chief, and I expect Bill Barr has some evil planned.
Not a completely rational worry, of course, but given how these fuckers have been destroying (or attempting to destroy) a functioning US government, I wouldn’t put anything past them. And I am less than sanguine about what the traitors on the SCOTUS will do. Sotomayor, Kagan, and Breyer are fine, Roberts would probably side with them, but how many others? [Not a rhetorical question; I really can’t tell on which side of the line Gorsuch and Kavanaugh would fall. ]
LAO
@Yarrow: Maggie is living her best life. The power balance of our relationship has totally shifted. I can’t believe how well trained she’s got me.
Kay
@Immanentize:
Murkowski has accept the limits on her speech Donald Trump hasd imposed, where she’s forbidden to say “President-elect” yet she wants credit for saying Biden should get transition funds 3 weeks after the election?
Bar, lowered. Standard, lowered. No. I’m not giving her a lower standard. Jake Tapper will! Maggie Haberman will! Carl Bernstein will! But why would Democrats? Tie him to her like an anchor around her neck. Everything he does that she puts up with is now HERS.
Spanky
@LAO: Jesus! She’s alive!
(Not implying she’s Jesus. Ymmv.)
Immanentize
@LAO: I miss you so!
Mental health is overrated! Come back!
I am zooming my ass off teaching a LOT of classes online. I did a really interesting amicus in support of cert. out of Ohio in a double jeopardy and merger! claim. Otherwise, waiting for the sun.
Happy to see you.
Yarrow
@Kay:
Completely agree. The messaging was that Trump was awful but there was much less emphasis on how dangerous his enablers are. Super frustrating.
When I was talking with anyone who might have usually voted for Republicans I framed it in a, “So disappointed in what Republicans have become. Why aren’t they standing up to Trump? Why aren’t they standing up for the country?” kind of way. I put the blame on Republicans for not doing their jobs. Then I’d pivot to “They’ve all got to go because the country needs a party that will stand up for the country” format. I know I got several people to vote against all Republicans so I know that tactic can work.
Barbara
@SFAW: No, the danger is that by signaling that it can be done it opens us up to a future where it becomes a go to tactic, and not every election promises to be nearly this secure mathematically.
PenAndKey
Well, I do live in Wisconsin, and while our weather has been trending up even the worst case scenario maps I’ve seen have us staying at or below the freeze point for Dec-Feb in the next sixty years. So the pine trees are migrating north, but gators shouldn’t be an issue in my lifetime. That, and I have been working at convincing my wife that Canada looks pretty good. If Ontario ends up with southern WI weather that may be enough to finally convince her to agree to move.
Dupe1970
@rikyrah: And no Ted Cruz. Perhaps my Senator is dumber than I realized.
Yarrow
@LAO: LOL. Pets have a way of doing that.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: Ugh. In Texas you have the Canary Island Hispanics who are generally lighter skin and trace their lineage back to the Spanish, ignoring their entire centuries-long intermarriage and relationships with the indigenous peoples.
It’s an illness.
Yarrow
@PenAndKey: Canada is going to have to build a wall there will be so many American migrants wanting to cross their border.
JPL
@LAO: It’s great seeing you and you always focus on yourself first, and us second. So we can safely rule out that you’re Sydney, right?
schrodingers_cat
@LAO: I speak of the comment section. Where every hypothetical always breaks in the favor of the WH incumbent. There are exceptions of course but I speak of the majority of comments.
Yarrow
@Dupe1970: Ted Cruz was owned by the Mercers and was the candidate who used the Cambridge Analytica Facebook data before the Mercers dumped him and gave Trump that data. He knows there’s plenty of dirt on him and how bad it will be if he speaks out against Trump. Not speaking out against him even in private is an act of self-preservation and has nothing to do with his intelligence or lack thereof.
Kay
@Yarrow:
We’re still doing it. “Oh, they don’t really mean they’ll throw out 6 million votes! They’re much, much better than that. They’re just playing a little politics!”
What if we stopped making excuses for them and just let their words and actions speak for them? What is the possible downside of that? That it will freak out people who voted for Biden? Good! They should be freaked out! The Republican Party is trying to throw out their votes.
LAO
@JPL: OMG, no. Who’s Sydney? do I want to know?
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: Well, I’m not panicking. Rose Twitter can fuck off.
Immanentize
@Yarrow: Rebecca Mercer is the money behind Parler.
Spanky
@Yarrow: … and the US will pay for it.
Kay
@Yarrow:
Biden has actually been BETTER than the rest of the Democratic Party. At least he didn’t hustle to give Republicans an excuse. He doesn’t weigh in on WHY they’re trying to overturn an election. That would be better than endorsing and promoting their excuses.
Immanentize
@LAO: I think he means Sydney Powell. Trump’s no longer attorney and Flynn’s stand in court crier.
Spanky
@LAO: Rudy’s sidekick in insanity.
Yarrow
@Kay: No argument from me. I do not understand why Dems can’t see the advantages of doing this sort of thing. Are they afraid they’ll make the media bothsides gatekeepers angry and someone will write a mean thinkpiece or something? Get a grip.
Maybe time for a little Maya Angelou quoting, of the “when people tell you who they are, believe them the first time” sort of thing. “Republicans are saying they want to throw out 6 million voters’ votes and we take them at their word.” Etc.
LAO
@schrodingers_cat: I get it. After the last 4 years, I’ve totally lost my trust in my ability to judge politics and understand what’s going on. It’s part of the reason why I haven’t been around, I certainly didn’t want to contribute to a collective breakdown. Frankly, I’m completely demoralized by Trump’s post-election actions and the collective response of elected Republicans.
JPL
@LAO: lol I spelled it wrong, it’s Sidney Powell. She has a lot of free time now and who knows might check up on us. I’m pleased to hear that Maggie has been taking good care of you
If you ever visit GA again, some of us hope to keep it blue.
PenAndKey
Their legal immigration system is already tough enough. If you’re not wealthy or a 20-something prodigy good luck getting in with anything less than a masters degree, 3+ years of high level skilled labor experience, near-fluent bilingual French skills, or family already in-country.
My wife and I each have a BSc, are both considered O-class skilled labor, and in our early 30s. Result? Without either uprooting my career and missing out on my kid’s childhoods so I can risk everything by signing up to be a temporary foreign worker for a couple years, or snagging a provincial nomination (from Saskatchewan, which is the only province I can maybe get one) I actually have very little chance of ever meeting the score threshold to actually qualify for permanent residency.
I’ll be honest, it’s a pipe dream at this point more than anything because the math simply isn’t there. My kids could conceivably get in by attending college there, but they’re 11 and <1 y/o, so that’s years off.
Now, illegal immigration across the border? You are very likely right that it’ll be a growing concern this century. And won’t that be a hearty bit of irony?
LAO
@Immanentize: lol
@Spanky: lol
Cool. Good to know that I remain as clueless as ever. Nothing really changes in the world. It’s sort of comforting.
Omnes Omnibus
Because Ohio’s second degree murder statute doesn’t differentiate between intentional murder and felony murder? Jury verdict of not guilty on one prevents retrial on the other?* I was involved in one of those back in early 2000s.
*Many substantive details omitted for space and not boring the normies reasons.
LAO
@Immanentize: That sounds great! I actually returned to lawyering — which is a drag but what’s a girl to do?
O. Felix Culpa
@Cheryl Rofer:
Good question. My guess is that (1) they’re not deep thinkers and (2) they assume they’ll be somehow immune. Leopards, faces, and an expectation that their authoritarian regime will somehow end differently from all the others.
Omnes Omnibus
@PenAndKey: You do know that the vast majority of people in Ontario live at the same latitudes as Wisconsin, right? Toronto is south of La Crosse.
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow: I did say that there were exceptions. You are included among those.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
Too late for that.
Yarrow
@Immanentize: Fully aware. The Mercers certainly act like they are Russian assets.
Geminid
@Geminid: I meant to add that Mfumi represents and Cummings represented the Maryland 7th District (Baltimore).
schrodingers_cat
@PenAndKey: FWIW it is easier than our system. I have had many friends from both India and China who came here as students and then immigrated to Canada because of the interminably long wait to get a GC if you don’t have relatives in this country and come from countries that send many immigrants to the US (India, China, Mexico and Philippines IIRC)
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: That was part of it, but it also involved a pleas, five years incarceration, then a new attempt to charge a capital crime. Weird. But fun! Sosa.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize:
Very interesting observation with explanatory power for the current environment and ethnic groups with upwardly mobile aspirations. Also an awful tell on the deeply embedded anti-black racism in our society.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: We need more people to join us on Team Exception!
I get that sometimes people get demoralized. This stuff is exhausting. And sometimes fear wins for the moment and people freak out. But when it happens over and over again it’s time to look to see if we’re being used, in the sense that Dems freaking out and their resulting exhausting is someone else’s goal.
Pessimism and freaking out doesn’t help us achieve our goals and it actively depletes our energy. It also doesn’t draw anyone to our side. People are generally attracted to confidence. We could benefit from demonstrating that we have it. We’re on the side of right, patriotism, and American democracy. We can be confident in that.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat: Really? Maybe I’m reading a different set of comments than you. I saw mainly one person doom and glooming, who received significant pushback. Most of the discussion has been fairly substantive on other issues.
JPL
@Yarrow: The Mercers are amoral, who don’t believe in public service.
lowtechcyclist
@Kay:
I called Hoyer’s office on Friday, saying that Pelosi, Hoyer, Schumer, etc. should give their Republican colleagues that day and the next to acknowledge that Biden was the President-elect.
And that if they didn’t overwhelmingly meet the deadline, then the Dem Congressional leaders should be all over the Sunday morning shows, pointing out that Congressional Republicans were overwhelmingly going along with Trump’s efforts to undermine the election and destroy our democracy.
Needless to say, that didn’t happen. But it should’ve. I’m good with Biden and Harris staying above the fray. But the Dem Congressional leadership should be in the fight, kicking GOP ass.
Immanentize
@Yarrow: maybe they just act like they want to reproduce a plutocracy over here?
Different topic. I had an idea last night — what if someone raised funds to create big monuments to Grant and Sherman and Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman and others and then placed them in the Southern States that protect civil war monuments? I bet we could get a lot of money for that endeavor.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: Check the comments during the election week.
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow: Two thumbs up for this comment.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: I look at the world through that lens now. It explains the strong assimilationist urges of folks like Mexican American farmers and small businessmen in the Rio Grande Valley. That and the priests.
Aleta
@LAO: I love how they turn a command we taught them into a gentle order to us. “I’m sitting here. That’s your cue. Give treat. (omg these bozos are thick.) “
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat: I’m talking about today. Perhaps I misread, but your comment seemed to refer to responses to this post. Agreed that there has been significant doom-and-glooming in the past weeks…and also significant pushback. I leave when the doomsayers take over, but I like to give reality-based pushback a chance. I also have compassion for those who are frightened. These are scary times. I remind myself, when I get scared, that we fucking won. Not the war perhaps, but a major battle, and we live to fight on.
Yarrow
@JPL: They’re worse than that.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize: Sigh. I still hold out hope for the youth. We did major youth outreach this election (within parameters of what was doable in the pandemic) and I’m waiting for the data to come in so we can measure impact.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize:
Boy, that word “interesting” really doesn’t mean what it used to anymore.
Kay
@lowtechcyclist:
If Democrats tell the public there is nothing to worry about when Republicans try to overturn an election the public will believe it, and they have.
Again- I get why media are doing it. Why are Democrats?
It’s not fine. They’ve successfully blocked the transition. They’ve successfully distanced themselves from Donald Trump to the extent that are now permitted to say one thing publicly and another privately and we’re all voluntarily adopting how Republicans characterize their own behavior.
Kay
Trump’s approval is going down. I bet the GOP’s approval would go down too if we stopped making excuses for Republicans and told people they are trying to overturn an election, instead of telling people they don’t really mean it.
NotMax
@LAO
Wow, you’re back. it’s like hearing an offstage voice on the B-J version of This Is Your Life. A welcome sound indeed!
Omnes Omnibus
No. They have not. Biden is still setting out plans, still naming his cabinet, and still going to be president on January 20, 2021. They have interfered with a smooth transition process. It is a bad thing, but it is not blocking the transition. Hyperbole can get in the way.
Aleta
@OzarkHillbilly: I only wish Richard had been clamping down on the stub of a cigar on one side of his mouth when he spoke to the camera.
Kay
Question- does this framing help Republicans? Of course it does. Why in God’s name is every Democrat promoting it?
The press conference they gave exists. The thing happened. Media want you to ignore than and instead rely on their “sources” who are giving a much more political beneficial reason for this insanity,
No. I’m going with what they said at the press conference. It’s not my fucking job to give Republicans cover.
debbie
@TaMara (HFG):
It’s audio, and I’m not finding a link to it.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
You continue to insist Republicans aren’t blocking the formal transition. Yes, they are. Even Murkowski admits it. She says they should stop blocking the transition.
We gave them 3 weeks and we didn’t get shit in return. I don’t know Omnes- is there anything more real than people dying because they’re blocking the transition. That’s what Biden said. Does he mean it?
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: I don’t deny that what they are doing is a problem. But they are not not going to prevent Biden from taking office. Fundamentally, that is my point.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: I was referring to a pattern, not just this post. Specifically LAO saying that she had not kept up with Balloon Juice.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: I have to ask who is saying that the Republicans don’t really mean it? Is the Biden campaign saying that?
Aleta
@Omnes Omnibus: A block is an interference. Their blocking has successfully caused interruptions and delays— they’re blocking access to federal funds, interrupting federal processes like obtaining security clearances, and blocking transition hires from access to federal agencies. (In my understanding of what I’ve read.)
But to me your general point about hyperbole in the comments is good. Useful if you could sometimes apply it more universally to other commenters’ negativity. ( Hasty examples: “The blog is a drag, hardly worth reading” “Commenters here are fearful” “You (a specific person) are (- x). ” )
You have enough influence to reduce that kind of negativity, which is also infectious among us social animals acting as a group and affects its mood.
LAO
@NotMax: thanks!
Miss Bianca
@LAO: Yay, you and Alternative Fax are *both* back! Have missed you both extremely!
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Katie Porter carries a white board in her purse, so she always has one with her. For real.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat: Well, you did say
but I’ll take your interpretation. I appreciate your insightful comments and don’t generally care for broad-brushing the commentariat.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca: Seconded.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
Lee Chatfield
@LeeChatfield
This is as true today as it was when I first tweeted it. Election integrity matters. That’s why our ongoing legislative inquiry matters. And whoever gets the most votes will win Michigan just as they always have. The BSC has their legal job to do and we have ours.
This is not okay. Checking and re checking and re checking votes ONLY in AA counties in an attempt for Republicans to throw those votes out is not okay and it is not okay whether or not they actually succeed in blocking Biden.
We can’t even defend our own voters now? The millions of people who came out in a pandemic and stood in line for hours? We all must pretend this is perfectly fine as long as Joe Biden becomes President?
We lowered our standards. We lowered our standards to meet the rock bottom levels of the Republican Party where as long as the coup doesn’t actually succeed everything is hunky dory. It’s not.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
This is a racist dogwhistle intended to portray every non white voter as a presumptive felon and it’s being eagerly promoted by the entire Republican Party, all the way down to the county level.
People CAN and SHOULD object to this. Democrats- especially elected Democrats who after all were the beneficiaries of most of these votes- need to object to it. NOT pretend it’s business as usual.
I don’t care what their third level, backflip, strategic secret reason for this is. It matters not at all. What matters is that they’re doing it.
Object, object, object. If you don’t, this is the new norm.
cleek
@Matt McIrvin:
he wanted to be Reagan in the sense that Reagan fundamentally changed politics (with an assist from Newt).
J R in WV
@sherparick:
I want to give that guy all the credit for having the courage to dive into alligator infested waters to save his pooch!!
I might have done that in the heat of the moment, but OMG afterwards I would have been all shook up!
What a hero!!!!
mrmoshpotato
Catching up and –
chef’s kiss
J R in WV
@PenAndKey:
She should be impeached, so as to lose her pension and all benefits, for breaking the law. Should be a long list of such people, in one impeachment bill. Make the Republican Senators vote to acquit the bastards in public, on a roll call vote.