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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Friday Morning Open Thread: Persons (& Un-Person) of the Year

Friday Morning Open Thread: Persons (& Un-Person) of the Year

by Anne Laurie|  December 11, 20206:43 am| 313 Comments

This post is in: Biden-Harris 2020, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Schadenfreude

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The Biden-Harris ticket represents something historic.

Person of the Year is not just about the year that was, but about where we’re headed #TIMEPOY https://t.co/H4uzUe8Pli pic.twitter.com/YMylCvbkZT

— TIME (@TIME) December 11, 2020

Congratulations, because they (and we) deserve it, every one!

I assume TIME magazine made the incoming president their person of the year, like they always do, because 2020 wanted to get in one last “in hindsight it was pretty obvious that Biden was going to win”

— counterfactual (@counterfax) December 11, 2020

But you know for sure: The real enjoyment is knowing how chafed this is making the GOP Death Cultists. #TimeLoserTrump was the top political trend on Twitter all evening…

This Fake Time cover? #TimeLoserTrump pic.twitter.com/AKceOU2xq2

— Carlene Webb (@carlenewebbbur1) December 11, 2020

given how historical conservative Time Magazine is we're lucky they didn't pick The Ballot Stuffer or Hunter Biden's laptop repairman

— proudly overusing "cope" (@MenshevikM) December 11, 2020

#TimeLoserTrump
This is the only Time Cover you will ever get, LOSER pic.twitter.com/oAFfMuofQk

— ☀️??Lucía??☀️ (@EsquedaLucia) December 11, 2020

Biden and Harris may be TIME's Person of the Year, but Donald Trump will always be Individual #1.

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) December 11, 2020

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Reader Interactions

313Comments

  1. 1.

    Just an observer

    December 11, 2020 at 6:44 am

    Am I frist?

  2. 2.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 6:46 am

    @Just an observer: 
    No.

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    December 11, 2020 at 6:49 am

    Any chance the SCOTUS drop-kicks the Texas sedition suit into the sun today? It’s a ridiculous request, but I’ll admit I won’t rest easy until it’s disposed of, what with all those fanatics on the court.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 6:50 am

    Blech.

  5. 5.

    Just an observer

    December 11, 2020 at 6:50 am

    @Baud: Thank you! I do not want to be Bill Frist anyway! Would anyone?

  6. 6.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 6:51 am

     

    @Betty Cracker:

    Possibly.  Probably likely.  There are some procedural issues that possibly make this a little more complicated to deal with, but it shouldn’t delay them much.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 6:52 am

    @Betty Cracker: It is almost a certainty but should be absolute, hence your angst.

  8. 8.

    WereBear

    December 11, 2020 at 6:53 am

    @Just an observer: Gawd no. Hope that’s firm enough.

    We had our first real snowfall and it seems to be sticking. Will rely on rum and gluten free goodies to bring that Santa feeling… and we have our stack of wood all seasoned from last year. May not have chestnuts, but there will be a fire, and I love those.

  9. 9.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    December 11, 2020 at 6:57 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    What’s the old saying “Even Supreme Court Justices look at election returns.”  Or something like that.  The fanatics on the Court undoubtedly would love to find something to grasp at in order to further this effort.  But the dumbasses simply aren’t giving them *anything* to hang their proverbial hat on.

    Plus, Roberts, while a corporatist stooge Chief Justice in the “finest” tradition, isn’t going to toss what remains of the Court’s credibility on this particular issue.  He’s gotten what he wants to further the longer term agenda.  The Orange Fart Cloud is yesterday’s news in that regard.

  10. 10.

    debbie

    December 11, 2020 at 6:59 am

    Thank you, Time, for very cheerful news!

  11. 11.

    John S.

    December 11, 2020 at 7:02 am

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yes, now from the smoking ashes of the America that Trump destroyed (and his minions will continue working hard to destroy), he and the other religious zealots on the court can create the Gilead of their dreams.

  12. 12.

    raven

    December 11, 2020 at 7:03 am

    We watched “Mank” on Nexflix last night. It’s about Herman J. Mankiewicz and the writing of Citizen Kane. It also has a great depiction of Louis Mayer and the phony “news” campaign that derails Upton Sinclair’s run for governor of California. The  interplay between Mankiewicz and William Randolph Hearst and the writing of Citizen Kane is fascinating and Gary Oldham is awesome in the lead.

  13. 13.

    debbie

    December 11, 2020 at 7:04 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    NPR just ran a report on these lawsuits, which pointed out none of them followed the very specific state requirements for election lawsuits. My assumption was that the lawsuits were just too whacky, but if Kraken et al. aren’t even following well-known procedures for these things, they aren’t seriously contesting the results of the election.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 7:05 am

    I just saw an ad for a robotic litter box.  It gives me hope for the future.

  15. 15.

    burnspbesq

    December 11, 2020 at 7:05 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Any chance the SCOTUS drop-kicks the Texas sedition suit into the sun today? It’s a ridiculous request, but I’ll admit I won’t rest easy until it’s disposed of, what with all those fanatics on the court.

    Possible, but not likely. Paxton will probably try to file something today. There will almost certainly be a disposition by Sunday, in order to clear the way for the Electoral College vote which is supposed to happen on Monday.

  16. 16.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    December 11, 2020 at 7:08 am

    This is just a grift to raise money and to secure a pardon from Dump.

    The court isn’t going to nullify a vote of six states or order a revote and they know that.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    December 11, 2020 at 7:09 am

    Thanks for the reassurance on the SCOTUS, everyone.

    The mister and I have been spending more time on the boat lately, even though it’s been a wee bit chilly. Here’s a pic I took yesterday evening of a Black-Crowned Night Heron.

    Friday Morning Open Thread: Persons (& Un-Person) of the Year

    The mister saw it first — he is the BEST at spotting birds. He’s also good for maneuvering the boat in for a nice shot. I keep threatening to hire him out to eco-tourists to fund our retirement.

  18. 18.

    cmorenc

    December 11, 2020 at 7:09 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Any chance the SCOTUS drop-kicks the Texas sedition suit into the sun today? It’s a ridiculous request, but I’ll admit I won’t rest easy until it’s disposed of, what with all those fanatics on the court.

    Roberts is all about the court’s long-term legitimacy and building a solid conservative-leaning centerist jurisprudence as his legacy, and he will influence enough of the conservative justices to take the long view rather than a far more radical Bush v Gore type of stunt to please Trump’s cult followers.

    SCOTUS isn’t going to go along with the Texas AG’s suit, on both legal grounds and SCOTUS institutional grounds.  By Monday, the Court will either dismiss the suit without comment, or kill it with a terse per curium opinion.

  19. 19.

    Punchy

    December 11, 2020 at 7:11 am

    @Betty Cracker: Once this is dismissed, FL or TN or MO will file the next one.  It cant end because it just cannot.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 7:11 am

    MJ says China has a vaccine. I missed that.

  21. 21.

    Anne Laurie

    December 11, 2020 at 7:12 am

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: What’s the old saying “Even Supreme Court Justices look at election returns.” Or something like that.

    “… No matter whether the constitution follows the flag or not, the Supreme Court follows the election returns.” — Finley Peter Dunne’s Mr. Dooley.

    I devoured FPD’s great political commentaries when I was very young, and their wisdom has stood me in great stead any time in the past fifty years and counting.  (The ‘constitution follows the flag’ referred to the question of whether citizens of America’s brand-new Spanish ‘territories’ — including Puerto Rico, as well as the Philippines — deserved the same rights as those on ‘real’ American soil. ) Were I ever a big lottery winner, I’d seriously look into the possibility of having Dunne’s works resurrected without some of the ‘dialect’ that made them (just barely) publishable during the First Gilded Age, but unreadable to most of us Second Gilded Agers…

  22. 22.

    John S.

    December 11, 2020 at 7:13 am

    @Punchy: Not even Biden being inaugurated on January 20th will stop them! Because why would it?

    Once you start with the premise that the election was stolen and Trump was the rightful victor, anything is possible.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 7:13 am

    @John S.:

    It’s a cash cow.

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 7:15 am

    @WereBear:

    Will rely on rum and gluten free goodies to bring that Santa feeling 

    Is that rum, and gluten-free goodies, or rum-free and gluten-free goodies?

  25. 25.

    cmorenc

    December 11, 2020 at 7:15 am

    @Punchy:@Betty Cracker:

    @Betty Cracker: Once this is dismissed, FL or TN or MO will file the next one.  It cant end because it just cannot.

    IMHO the Texas suit will more likely be dealt with by a terse per curium opinion firmly cutting off all further challenges at the pass, than a refusal to take the case at all, precisely to make it absolutely clear the election outcome is a done deal with the Court, period.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 7:16 am

    @cmorenc:

    Sanctions would help, but I don’t expect it.

  27. 27.

    John S.

    December 11, 2020 at 7:17 am

    @Baud: Not just for Trump and the Grifter Gravy Train that follows him, but also the Media that will prefer the insanity of Trump over the dull Biden administration’s normalcy in governing.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 7:18 am

    @John S.:

    I’ve seen a lot of people on MSNBC lament how Trump is making them cover this when they should be talking about the virus.

  29. 29.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 7:18 am

    @debbie:

    but if Kraken et al. aren’t even following well-known procedures for these things, they aren’t seriously contesting the results of the election. 

    Drop kick them all into the Sun.  (Sorry Sun.)

  30. 30.

    Anne Laurie

    December 11, 2020 at 7:19 am

    @Baud: Sinovax — here’s one recent link.

    It’s probably not as effective as the higher-profile European / American vaccines, and there are ‘questions’ about how well it may or may not have been tested.  But the CCP has the advantage that they’ve already been able to roll out shipments to places like Latin America and the Middle East.

    (Thought I’d been including links in my nightly updates, but there’s so much info out there… )

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 7:19 am

    @Baud: Not so sure about robotic but my wife bought a self cleaning litter box and Miss Kitty doesn’t complain near as much as she used to.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 7:20 am

    @Anne Laurie:

    You probably did talk about it.  I  am not always able to read your covid-19 posts as thoroughly as I’d like.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 7:21 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Will rely on rum and gluten free goodies to bring that Santa feeling

    Is that rum, and gluten-free goodies, or rum-free and gluten-free goodies?

    Or is it goodies made of gluten and rum, which cost you nothing?

  34. 34.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 7:21 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    This ad was for some space capsule looking Transformer type device.

  35. 35.

    satby

    December 11, 2020 at 7:24 am

    WaterGirl last night mentioned her concern about how long calender shipping was taking. I’m a basket case because all the orders I got that I know are Christmas gifts that have shipped so far are being randomly hung up for as long as a week in the Post Office chain of custody. One showed a two day transit to Indianapolis from South Bend, which is a 4-5 hour trip at most. An order John Cole put in sat in a distribution center for a solid seven days.

    DeJoy needs to go to de jail.

  36. 36.

    geg6

    December 11, 2020 at 7:26 am

    @cmorenc:

    That’s my guess, too.

  37. 37.

    RSA

    December 11, 2020 at 7:27 am

    That fake Time cover is so easy to identify as a fake, content aside.

    The “Apprentice” is …

    versus

    The Apprentice is …

    Assuming Time still has copyeditors.

  38. 38.

    satby

    December 11, 2020 at 7:27 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Which one? I’m in the market.

  39. 39.

    debbie

    December 11, 2020 at 7:28 am

    @satby: 

    I ordered an RBG pin from a Canadian seller on Etsy. It got stuck on the American side of the border for three weeks. Once it got out of there, it zipped along to me, but arrived after the swearing in.

    Sorry to hear the post office still hasn’t recovered.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 7:28 am

    @Anne Laurie: @Baud:

    Seeing as I knew of it, I’m certain you covered the sinovax. It’s just that there is such a landslide of info out there that it is easy for some bits here and there to get buried.

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2020 at 7:29 am

    Good Morning, Everyone ???

  42. 42.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 7:29 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning.

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 7:30 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: Haha, I was asking a serious question.  Because – no rum?  You crazy?  Amaretto sours all around?

  44. 44.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2020 at 7:30 am

    @satby:

    jail

    jail

    Jail???

  45. 45.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 11, 2020 at 7:31 am

    @Anne Laurie: “Mr. Dooley In Peace and In War” is free ( for me) on Kindle, so I have new reading for my day off. Thank You

    Eta: Oooh, there’s a bunch of them free =-)

  46. 46.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 7:31 am

    @Baud: Ours is a standard box with a rake mounted on top that traverses the box a couple times a day. A bit noisy but it does work at keeping Miss Kitty happy.

  47. 47.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 7:31 am

    @Baud: ?Litter box in disguise ?

  48. 48.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 7:32 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    This is the box I saw in the ad.

  49. 49.

    The Oracle of Solace

    December 11, 2020 at 7:33 am

    This weekend I will be purchasing many bottles of cava to distribute to the front doors of my acquaintances, so that we may toast the New Year. However, I suspect instead that the Barbarian and I will go through the lot ourselves after the Electoral College formalizes Biden’s win.

  50. 50.

    Danielx

    December 11, 2020 at 7:35 am

    To White House staff:

    Incoming!

    Over 3000 Americans died yesterday, but Joe/Kamala on the cover of Time? That is a crisis.

  51. 51.

    satby

    December 11, 2020 at 7:36 am

    @Baud: jayzus, those things are almost $700! Guess I keep scooping.

  52. 52.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 7:38 am

    @satby: Damned if I know. I just googled them and nothing I saw looks like ours which is pretty basic. Nothing fancy about it at all.

  53. 53.

    debbie

    December 11, 2020 at 7:38 am

    @Danielx:

    But, but, but:

    I just want to stop the world from killing itself!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 11, 2020

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    December 11, 2020 at 7:38 am

    Pre-holiday time hanging heavy on your hands? Xmas tree decoration “if you like to sweat, swear and do stuff.”

    Or, alternatively,

    I see a green tree and I want to paint it black

    ;)

  55. 55.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 7:40 am

    @debbie:

    I’d like to teach the world to sing
    In perfect harmony
    I’d like to hold it in my arms
    And keep it company

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 7:40 am

    @Baud: Definitely not the one we have!

  57. 57.

    JAFD

    December 11, 2020 at 7:40 am

    @Baud: I never thought that my future would involve having to deal with the waste products of robots…

  58. 58.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 7:40 am

    @satby: Same Litter-Robot—Now WiFi-Enabled

    Internet of Litter Boxes!

  59. 59.

    raven

    December 11, 2020 at 7:42 am

    @NotMax: Bad day at Honolua Bay

  60. 60.

    Amir Khalid

    December 11, 2020 at 7:43 am

    @RSA:

    When I look at online news sites, it makes me think that all the copy editors have been let go. Even at the BBC.

  61. 61.

    Danielx

    December 11, 2020 at 7:44 am

    @debbie:

    Yet another claim for which there is NO evidence.

  62. 62.

    John S.

    December 11, 2020 at 7:44 am

    @Baud: The power of Trump (ratings) compels them! Seriously though, what a ridiculous notion. They can choose to cover whatever “news” they want.

  63. 63.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 11, 2020 at 7:45 am

    @debbie: “I love the world and if I have to sue for custody, I will sue for custody”.

    –They Might Be Giants, “Stand On Your Own Head”

  64. 64.

    satby

    December 11, 2020 at 7:45 am

    @mrmoshpotato: not sure that being able to say “Alexa, scoop the litter box” is worth quite that much to me yet, since I still would have all the toting and loading work anyway.

  65. 65.

    WereBear

    December 11, 2020 at 7:45 am

    @Baud: I adore mine. I held out until I found one my engineering brain knew would work.

    Why I love the New Litter Robot

  66. 66.

    NotMax

    December 11, 2020 at 7:46 am

    @raven

    Yup.

  67. 67.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 11, 2020 at 7:47 am

    @satby: Right? Let me know when they get one that hauls it to the dumpster too =-)

  68. 68.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 7:47 am

    @satby: Seeing as I had to get coffee, I made an expedition to that part of the house for a look see. It’s a Petsafe litterbox very similar to this one, which at $140 isn’t too bad.

    eta: not the one I remember, Mrs OHB must have bought a new one when I wasn’t looking.

  69. 69.

    satby

    December 11, 2020 at 7:48 am

    Time to go feed the ferals (and the birds, who eat the cat food after the cats leave). Everyone have a nice day. 39 1/2 days to go if I count correctly.

  70. 70.

    satby

    December 11, 2020 at 7:48 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: That’s my speed, thanks!

  71. 71.

    WereBear

    December 11, 2020 at 7:52 am

    @mrmoshpotato: Plus rum, minus gluten, in all things.

    It seems to be true even in my choice of spirits. While I was once a single-malt fan, it upsets my tummy now. And the “elf with a blowtorch” feeling is the opposite of festive.

    Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s drinking life for me.

  72. 72.

    satby

    December 11, 2020 at 7:52 am

    @WereBear: I would love one… but that cost! I have to save up.

  73. 73.

    WereBear

    December 11, 2020 at 7:54 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: Free rum cake for the holidays could be quite appealing. I am not one to forbid people things that I cannot enjoy. Especially since, with a few adjustments, I can enjoy them.

  74. 74.

    Punchy

    December 11, 2020 at 7:54 am

    @debbie: wait….wut?  Any context?

  75. 75.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 7:56 am

    @Danielx: What the hell is the orange bastard babbling about now?  (Do I want to know?)

  76. 76.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2020 at 7:58 am

    Yeah, it's really shitty that Biden is picking people from the administration that steered the country out of the Great Recession, oversaw the expansion of health care that saved lives, and killed bin Laden. ?— Federico Chispas (@dfsparks) December 11, 2020

  77. 77.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2020 at 7:59 am

    BRIAN WILLIAMS JUST SAID THESE ARE GROWN ASS MEN AND WOMEN ? pic.twitter.com/CxvMnOwmz0— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) December 11, 2020

  78. 78.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 8:00 am

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Right? Let me know when they get one that hauls it to the dumpster too =-) 

    And takes the furballs to the vet.

  79. 79.

    WereBear

    December 11, 2020 at 8:03 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: People with single cats seem to have luck with that. With my rowdy cat circus, I hear it is less so.

    Low litter levels lead to a stuck rake, from a clump stubbornly clinging to the bottom. Then it either burns out the motor, or flings the clump across the room!

    I need something that doesn’t need so much attention. :)

  80. 80.

    debbie

    December 11, 2020 at 8:04 am

    @Punchy:

    It follows a couple of self-congratulatory tweets about how HE had cut years off the approval process for vaccines.

  81. 81.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2020 at 8:04 am

    @raven: I watched Mank too.  Loved it.  Loved how Welles was hardly a part of the story.  But I really (not a spoiler) couldn’t stand to watch the whole long dinner party scene toward the end.  Although it was heavy on the symbolism.  Too painful.  So, a well done film!  PS. Loved Miriam, too.

  82. 82.

    raven

    December 11, 2020 at 8:05 am

    @Immanentize: Mank’s comment on his Oscar was awesome

     

    and this

     

    “On the night of the awards, Herman turned on his radio and sat in his bedroom chair. Sara lay on the bed. As the screenplay category approached, he pretended to be hardly listening. Suddenly from the radio, half screamed, came “Herman J. Mankiewicz.” Welles’s name as coauthor was drowned out by voices all through the audience calling out, “Mank! Mank! Where is he?” And audible above all others was Irene Selznick: “Where is he”

  83. 83.

    WereBear

    December 11, 2020 at 8:07 am

    @satby: I would love one… but that cost! I have to save up.

     

    While they are pricey, they do last for years. Pro-tip: ask about reconditioned ones, for a discount.

    And I think there are cheaper ones that the top of the line models. But I have been impressed with them. And the cats do love it. They watch the lights and even stand in line to get a clean box.

  84. 84.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 8:07 am

    @WereBear: I need something that doesn’t need so much attention.

    Sorry, I married her and there is no way I’m letting her go. :-)

  85. 85.

    SFAW

    December 11, 2020 at 8:07 am

    @debbie:

    I sort of made the mistake of clicking on that link, which led me to the Murderer-in-Chief’s feed, in which I found Gym “Aider-and-Abetter of sexual abuse”) Jordan tweeting lying about Eric Swalwell. [He also lied about the Russia fuckery and the election.] I got concerned, googled it, and found — much to my amazement, so much so that I thought I was gonna plotz! — that Jordan was trying to pretend there was some “there” there, vis-a-vis Swalwell and Christine Fang.

    I hate all those motherfuckers so much. I would gladly become a religious person  if some Just God were to smite all those motherfuckers where they stand, right-fucking-NOW.

  86. 86.

    Danielx

    December 11, 2020 at 8:08 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    See debbie’s comment….

  87. 87.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2020 at 8:08 am

    @Baud: In the end, even if in a fancy space capsule looking item, it’s still just a house of shit.

  88. 88.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2020 at 8:09 am

    New studies suggest that Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to get sick and die from Covid-19 not because of innate vulnerability. Instead, they are more often exposed to the virus because of social and environmental factors, experts said.https://t.co/jhAQUj6Kbb pic.twitter.com/nZPYNZqyQ0— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 10, 2020

  89. 89.

    Chyron HR

    December 11, 2020 at 8:11 am

    @debbie:

    Does he know the police are allowed to shoot crazy people?

  90. 90.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 8:13 am

    @WereBear: Ah yarrrrrrr!!!!!

  91. 91.

    raven

    December 11, 2020 at 8:14 am

    Paul Wikoff is really pissed that Denis McDonough is tapped for the VA.

  92. 92.

    wormtown

    December 11, 2020 at 8:15 am

    @satby: I am here stewing about a package I sent Priority Mail to a friend over a week ago.   According to the tracking site, it is “Still in Transit – will arrive late”.  No kidding ! It took 3 days to get to the first distribution center – which is one hour from the PO where I dropped it off.

  93. 93.

    Chyron HR

    December 11, 2020 at 8:15 am

    @raven:

    A) Who?

    B) Who?

  94. 94.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 8:16 am

    @rikyrah: Yes, Brian.  They’re grown-ass fascists.  And fascist asses.  And should be dealt with pounded into the ground accordingly.

  95. 95.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2020 at 8:18 am

    @raven: poor Sara.

  96. 96.

    raven

    December 11, 2020 at 8:18 am

    @Chyron HR: Damn, Virgil Wycoff was the mayor of Champaign.

     

    it’s Paul  Rieckhoff!!

  97. 97.

    raven

    December 11, 2020 at 8:20 am

    @Immanentize: Did you know his assistant, Rita Alexander was played Lily Collins, the daughter of Phil Collins!

  98. 98.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2020 at 8:21 am

    A Black Man becoming President made them drop their hoods. The thought of this country becoming majority minority in the next 30 years made them decide to overthrow our government. The GOP in a nutshell. Never be fooled. Never listen to those who ask us to reach out to them.— Lynn V (@lynnv378) December 11, 2020

  99. 99.

    Frank Wilhoit

    December 11, 2020 at 8:22 am

    @debbie: I can’t even tell what that is supposed to mean.  It almost looks like a slightly-misremembered quote from something.

  100. 100.

    satby

    December 11, 2020 at 8:24 am

    @wormtown: This is something I ordered from Chicago, two hours away with traffic. That 4 day trip from Gary to Indianapolis and then 3 day sojourn in Indy has become typical. Things are sitting, not scanned in and not moving. Yes, the volume is nuts, but this was made exponentially worse by DeJoy and Trump’s fuckery to fuck with the election and push people into using private shipping. Which would bankrupt my business.

    December 11, 2020, 3:24 am
    Arrived at USPS Facility
    SOUTH BEND, IN 46613
    Your item arrived at our USPS facility in SOUTH BEND, IN 46613 on December 11, 2020 at 3:24 am. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

    December 11, 2020, 3:24 am
    Departed USPS Facility
    SOUTH BEND, IN 46601

    December 11, 2020, 12:27 am
    Arrived at USPS Facility
    SOUTH BEND, IN 46601

    December 10, 2020, 7:28 pm
    Departed USPS Regional Facility
    INDIANAPOLIS IN DISTRIBUTION CENTER ANNEX

    December 10, 2020
    In Transit to Next Facility

    December 7, 2020, 11:09 am
    Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
    INDIANAPOLIS IN DISTRIBUTION CENTER ANNEX

    December 3, 2020, 4:17 pm
    Departed USPS Regional Facility
    CHICAGO IL NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER

    December 3, 2020, 11:24 am
    Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
    GARY IN DISTRIBUTION CENTER

    December 2, 2020, 11:44 am
    Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility
    CHICAGO IL NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER

    December 2, 2020, 10:29 am
    Accepted at USPS Origin Facility
    CHICAGO, IL 60647

  101. 101.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    December 11, 2020 at 8:24 am

    @Anne Laurie:

    I struggle with Gilded Age prose – after all, why use 10 simple words when 45 complex ones will do?

    This is what I find so appealing about Twain (not technically Gilded Age, but a man who was linguistically ahead of his time).

  102. 102.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2020 at 8:24 am

    @raven: I did not know that!!  She was great too.  Nice character arc.  I was sad the nurse kinda disappeared after her story was told.  She was really interesting.

  103. 103.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 11, 2020 at 8:24 am

    In Kos’s Daily Pundit Roundup, there’s a quote from Tim Wu at the Times.

    What Really Saved the Republic From Trump?

    It wasn’t our constitutional system of checks and balances.

    What really saved the Republic from Mr. Trump was a different set of limits on the executive: an informal and unofficial set of institutional norms upheld by federal prosecutors, military officers and state elections officials. You might call these values our “unwritten constitution.” Whatever you call them, they were the decisive factor.

    The Republic has been saved?

  104. 104.

    Spanky

    December 11, 2020 at 8:25 am

    @raven: Hey, didn’t he play drums for Led Zepplin?

  105. 105.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 11, 2020 at 8:26 am

    @satby: Mr DAW has a package making a similar journey. I think yours is more extensive though.

  106. 106.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2020 at 8:28 am

    @satby: @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    Hey, give that package a break, it just wanted to see more of the world before it reached its
    final destination!

  107. 107.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2020 at 8:28 am

    Nope ?
    Kick her to the curb ?

    Dr. Birx wants a role in the Biden administration.Watch this short video and tell me if you think she deserves it.pic.twitter.com/3nRigmlKvI— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) December 11, 2020

  108. 108.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 11, 2020 at 8:28 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m not going to completely believe we’ve won this until Congress succeeds in counting Biden’s electoral votes. That’s the moment when I’ll be sure the military and Secret Service won’t obey Trump’s orders after January 20th.

  109. 109.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    December 11, 2020 at 8:29 am

    @Anne Laurie:

    The thing that I will inevitably learn about Sinovax – and what I will love till the end of time – is that it will undoubtedly be developed without giving a shit about some American company’s intellectual property “right to collect rent”, and they’ll just say “fuck off” when the howling starts.

    Our ridiculous IP laws stymie growth and development, actually making life worse.

  110. 110.

    Frank Wilhoit

    December 11, 2020 at 8:29 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: They only really work if you only have one cat.  We gave them the good try, got three of them, got the reusable plastic trays, got the bagged silica gel.  (? oddly, we were not able to find a source of generic silica gel.  I had supposed that the stuff would be about fifty cents a ton, if you could figure out where to get it…but noooooooo.)  We wound up paying nearly twice, each month, for litter what we were paying for cat food.  But I have no doubt they would work well for one- or just maybe two-cat households.

  111. 111.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2020 at 8:30 am

    Always keep in mind that the Supreme Court justices fine with executing a man who was an accessory to a murder as a very young man, who has worked tirelessly to rehabilitate himself, are the most ardently “pro-life.”— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) December 11, 2020

  112. 112.

    MomSense

    December 11, 2020 at 8:31 am

    I took the day off today.  My son is taking the day off from school, too.  We have big plans to do nothing for a couple hours and then do some chores and Christmas stuff.

    He just came in the room and said “morning Joe isn’t a real show.  Why does he bother having guests?  He just talks over them.”  Yup.  Pretty soon he’ll be yelling at NPR.

  113. 113.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2020 at 8:32 am

    @raven: Paul Rieckhoff’s entire job involves being pissed off.  He won’t get paid if he is not an Angry American (his podcast which I listened to once).

    There used to be a feature in the old Boston Herald called “Top Beef of the Week.”. The amount of outrage over everything these days has turned that into “Top Beef of this Moment (More Soon to Follow).”

  114. 114.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 8:34 am

    @MomSense:

    Wait until he discovers the NYT.

  115. 115.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2020 at 8:35 am

    @MomSense: Ahhh.  The beautiful arc of an evolving and enlightened mind.

  116. 116.

    Geminid

    December 11, 2020 at 8:35 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: In his Autobigraphy Ulysses Grant showed a nice, direct style of writing. I think there was little if any editing needed.

  117. 117.

    satby

    December 11, 2020 at 8:36 am

    @Immanentize: ??

  118. 118.

    raven

    December 11, 2020 at 8:37 am

    @Spanky: No but if you haven’t seen Bonham’s son play them on Stairway by Heart you should!

  119. 119.

    Frankensteinbeck

    December 11, 2020 at 8:42 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    until Congress succeeds in counting Biden’s electoral votes.

    I mean, I’d rather President Biden, but I’ll take President Pelosi.  Congress refusing to acknowledge the votes isn’t what triggers the ‘election in the House’ thing, it just means there’s no president or vice president and we go to third in line.

  120. 120.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 8:43 am

    @rikyrah: Don, I don’t have to watch that video.  No.  The answer is no.

  121. 121.

    Soprano2

    December 11, 2020 at 8:43 am

    @rikyrah: I’m already tired of the whining about how many of Biden’s picks are former Obama administration officials. Where did they think these people were going to come from? They  have a major repair job on their hands, now is not the time for newbies and amateurs, it’s time for people who know what the hell they’re doing. So far my only disappointment is Vilsack for Ag, and I can live with that.

    I read that Elizabeth Warren says she’s voting against the Defense Secretary nominee. How about waiting until the hearings to say that crap? I like Liz Warren, but that’s ridiculous and damaging.

  122. 122.

    Spanky

    December 11, 2020 at 8:44 am

    @raven: Actually, the answer to my question is “Yes he did. Live Aid 1985”, although everyone involved would rather forget about that.

  123. 123.

    zhena gogolia

    December 11, 2020 at 8:45 am

    @rikyrah:

    He’s been reading Leslie Jones’s tweets!

  124. 124.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 8:46 am

    @MomSense:

    We have big plans to do nothing for a couple hours 

    Excellent plan.

    He just came in the room and said “morning Joe isn’t a real show.  Why does he bother having guests?  He just talks over them.”  Yup.  Pretty soon he’ll be yelling at NPR.

    Raising him right!

  125. 125.

    Spanky

    December 11, 2020 at 8:46 am

    @raven:

     No but if you haven’t seen Bonham’s son play them on Stairway by Heart you should!

    Actually, Heart didn’t write Stairway, although Ann Wilson does a decent Robert Plant cover.

  126. 126.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 11, 2020 at 8:47 am

    @Soprano2: Is she voting against Austin or voting no on the waiver?  With Mattis, the Senate voted 81-17 on the waiver and 98-1 on Mattis.

  127. 127.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 8:47 am

    @Immanentize:

    There used to be a feature in the old Boston Herald called “Top Beef of the Week.”. 

    Big ol’ Porterhouse me!

  128. 128.

    zhena gogolia

    December 11, 2020 at 8:49 am

    @Soprano2:

    Yeah, really not helpful. We complain when Republicans do stuff like that (announce their vote before hearings).

  129. 129.

    Raven

    December 11, 2020 at 8:50 am

    @Spanky: I didn’t say who wrote it. I do know who wrote Dazed and Confused!

  130. 130.

    Spanky

    December 11, 2020 at 8:52 am

    @Spanky: If you’re going to show off Jason Bonham, you should at least show him playing with LZ.

    Kashmir

  131. 131.

    SFAW

    December 11, 2020 at 8:52 am

    @MomSense:

    He just came in the room and said “morning Joe isn’t a real show.  Why does he bother having guests?  He just talks over them.”  Yup.  Pretty soon he’ll be yelling at NPR.

    Sounds like you’ve raised him right. Some of us don’t reach his stage until we’re much older.

  132. 132.

    Ken

    December 11, 2020 at 8:52 am

    @raven: Paul Rieckhoff is really pissed that Denis McDonough is tapped for the VA.

    Whereas I, who have never heard of McDonough or Rieckhoff, am in a much happier mood.  There’s something to be said about not obsessively following the cool kids.

  133. 133.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 8:53 am

    EU leaders have been told by Ursula von der Leyen that Britain exiting the transition period without a trade and security deal is now the most likely outcome.

    During a 10-minute briefing at the end of an all-night summit in Brussels, the European commission president refused to put a percentage on the chances of agreement but told the leaders there was a “higher probability for no deal than deal”, sources said.

    With the Sunday deadline agreed by Von der Leyen and Boris Johnson looming, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said all capitals should agree a common line in the event of the negotiations ending in failure over the weekend.

  134. 134.

    mad citizen

    December 11, 2020 at 8:53 am

    My wife and me watched Mank this week, in two sessions.  I slept through a lot of the first hour, and last night my wife admitted she slept through some of that as well.  Over a couple of days I realized that Citizen Kane was involved, so stayed awake for the second hour last night.  I was bored by this film–hard to believe the guy who made Seven made this.

    It turns out the story is more complicated as to who wrote Kane.  It seems Welles did substantial rewrites and tightening of it, and probably wrote a lot of it himself.  This youtube video is interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnB8DscXraw

    Critic Pauline Kael decimated Welles with an essay and Kane book, but others said it was not accurate.  And in an ironic twist, she did the same thing to a UCLA/USC (can’t recall which) professor who had done Kane research, conducted extensive interviews, etc.  Kael offered him a co-credit on her book, but instead used his work without credit.

    I’ve also seen some stuff on the web about the 29 year age difference between Oldman and his movie wife.  If he was 43 in the movie that seems wrong.  Wondered why they chose such an old actor for the role (he is 62).

    Netflix has so much money to throw at movies.

  135. 135.

    JanieM

    December 11, 2020 at 8:54 am

    @satby: Looks like the health care system. Why make anything simple when you can make it impossibly, unmanageably complicated?

  136. 136.

    RandomMonster

    December 11, 2020 at 8:55 am

    @Baud: We bought a robotic litter box once and when the cats saw it doing its robotic thing they were TERRIFIED of it and wouldn’t go near it again.

  137. 137.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2020 at 8:56 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think Warren said the waiver — so did Duckworth.  To me, that’s a signal that they have the necessary votes on the waiver.

  138. 138.

    catclub

    December 11, 2020 at 8:56 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: or rum and gluten: free goodies that bring a santa feeling.

     

    so much for rum, buggery, the lash, and gluten free goodies.

  139. 139.

    Ken

    December 11, 2020 at 8:56 am

    @rikyrah: Dr. Birx wants a role in the Biden administration.

    The job interview should begin with a thirty-day debriefing to determine what, if anything, Birx did in the Trump administration. With supporting documents and naming of co-conspirators colleagues.

    After that – well, I expect they need someone to get the coffee.  Though as I expect the Biden administration will be more efficient than Trump’s, which seemingly had dozens of people in that role. competition will be fierce.

  140. 140.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    December 11, 2020 at 9:00 am

    @debbie: Much to my (pleasant) surprise, a calendar I ordered from a Canadian distributor arrived in less than a week. I think it can air mail so perhaps that made a difference in escaping DeJoy’s clutches.

  141. 141.

    O. Felix Culpa

    December 11, 2020 at 9:01 am

    @Betty Cracker: Nice birb!

  142. 142.

    catclub

    December 11, 2020 at 9:02 am

    @Soprano2: I read that Elizabeth Warren says she’s voting against the Defense Secretary nominee. How about waiting until the hearings to say that crap? I like Liz Warren, but that’s ridiculous and damaging.

     

    11 dimensional chess says Biden nominated Austin to get credit for nominating a black man to head DOD, but expects him to get rejected/ no waiver. I wonder what was the matter with Michelle Flournoy?

  143. 143.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 9:05 am

    @Soprano2:

    Tammy Duckworth yesterday said she would vote against the waiver but for Gen Austin. My question: if a sufficient number of senators vote against the waiver in the first place, the nomination will stall out and there won’t even be the option of voting for confirmation, right?

  144. 144.

    Luciamia

    December 11, 2020 at 9:05 am

    @Betty Cracker: And Monday is for the Electors. Is SCOTUS gonna stretch it out over the weekend? Jesus!

  145. 145.

    Spanky

    December 11, 2020 at 9:08 am

    @O. Felix Culpa: Nice birb indeed.

    I keep threatening to hire him out to eco-tourists to fund our retirement.

    Reading this from the other side of retirement, this doesn’t sound like such a far-out idea. I am absolute shit at finding birds visually, but have gotten pretty good at IDing and locating by their calls. If your husband has a real knack, and it seems apparent he likes to make these safaris, it just might be that kind of once/twice weekly activity that (believe me) keeps you sane as retirement starts to really sink in.

  146. 146.

    Luciamia

    December 11, 2020 at 9:13 am

    @John S.: No, even the Media is sick to death of this sociopath. Have you watched CNN lately?

  147. 147.

    O. Felix Culpa

    December 11, 2020 at 9:14 am

    @NotMax: Time will never weigh that heavily on my hands. Good grief. And that oh so sophisticated black tree. Good grief x 2.

  148. 148.

    germy

    December 11, 2020 at 9:14 am

    I will never get used to ppl in this town who walk around the supermarket in full camouflage gear but no mask. What threat are you hiding from in the cereal aisle? Certainly not warding off the threat of COVID-19

    — Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) December 11, 2020

  149. 149.

    Uncle Cosmo

    December 11, 2020 at 9:15 am

    @satby:

    … [O]rders I got that I know are Christmas gifts that have shipped so far are being randomly hung up for as long as a week in the Post Office chain of custody. One showed a two day transit to Indianapolis from South Bend, which is a 4-5 hour trip at most. An order John Cole put in sat in a distribution center for a solid seven days.

    (NB I’ve posted all this on BJ before, but it’s been awhile & might bear repeating.)

    Post Office delays have been happening for years. Last millennium, when my mortgage payments were mailed to a box at the central Baltimore PO, I would routinely be dunned for late fees even though I mailed them several days before the due date at that same PO – they could & often did take a week to (literally!) cross the hallway.

    On my last visit to Prague (late 2018) I forgot to pack a couple of small items for my host. Early the next year I mailed them first-class to his daughter in upstate NY who was headed over in a couple of months. USPS estimated delivery in 3 days. Tracked them as far as the Rochester PO, then nothing. I started a case with USPS. Eventually the package was found and delivered; total transit time, 18 days. I could’ve walked it there faster. If I hadn’t made a stink, they would never have found it (or maybe would’ve found it & tossed it into the trash).

    DeJoy needs to go to de jail.

    Well yeah, for deliberate sabotage of the mails (on top of the general fuckedupedness of USPS).

    I worked as a letter carrier for two summers in college, & everyone who worked there took their jobs very, very seriously. It breaks my heart to see what the USPS has devolved into. Even before DeJerk tossed DeWrench into DeWorks.

  150. 150.

    germy

    December 11, 2020 at 9:18 am

    I’m asking governors in all 50 states + DC to prioritize drivers & delivery people for early vaccine access. ? These frontline workers should get the vaccine before people like me. https://t.co/3go676Nz9c

    — dara khosrowshahi (@dkhos) December 10, 2020

    Uber: our drivers do not deserve health insurance nor other benefits.

    Also Uber: please vaccinate them first so they can keep making money for our stockholders and board members. https://t.co/PJbu6vOuXw

    — Lorenzo (he/him) (@lorenzofb) December 10, 2020

  151. 151.

    Bex

    December 11, 2020 at 9:19 am

    @SFAW:  Hate-watched a bit of Fox yesterday and they are mostly Swalwell and Hunter. They got nothin’ now that they know Trump is done, so are looking for new ways to outrage the gullible.

  152. 152.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 11, 2020 at 9:20 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: That is correct.  FYI both the House and Senate need to vote on the waiver.

  153. 153.

    Ken

    December 11, 2020 at 9:21 am

    @germy: Camouflage for the cereal aisle would be a rather bright and busy pattern.

  154. 154.

    mad citizen

    December 11, 2020 at 9:23 am

    @Luciamia: I noticed last night on the ABC evening news they twice referred to Biden’s 7 million vote margin win, which I thought was interesting.  If the Media had gone a different way, they would not be saying that–they would breathlessly talking about the swing states and the merits of the suits, etc.

    Agree, the Media is over it.  The lawsuit was around 4 or 5 down the list of stories.

  155. 155.

    Betty Cracker

    December 11, 2020 at 9:23 am

    @Spanky: He really is a wiz at spotting birds, and he’s not even all that into birdwatching — he’s just outdoorsy in general.

    A few years back, we spent a weekend in SW FL so he could fish and we could hike around the Ding Darling preserve. I wanted to see a Mangrove Cuckoo, which lots of people never see despite trying for years. The night before our hike, I played the sound of its call on an app to familiarize myself with it. I didn’t think the mister was even paying attention.

    The next day, we’d just parked the car and were walking toward the park entrance, and the mister says, “Hey, I hear that bird you’re looking for!” and then spotted the damned thing perched in the woods. I never heard it and would not have seen it.

  156. 156.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 9:25 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Thanks. Didn’t know (or at least didn’t remember from Mattis) that both chambers needed to vote on the waiver.

  157. 157.

    germy

    December 11, 2020 at 9:29 am

    @Ken:

    I just wish the employees would wear their masks.  I know lots of customers are idiots.  It’s to be expected. But I push my cart down the cereal aisle, and there’s an asshole with his American Flag™ bandana mask down around his neck, and he’s stocking shelves.  Most of the employees will put their masks up if they see a customer approaching, but not this douche

    So I ask him why his mask isn’t on, and he acts like he wants to fight.

    I’m writing a letter to my representative.  I complained once before to store mgmt.  I’m not doing it a second time.

    And what really pisses me off it seeing all the TV commercials from the CEO of this particular supermarket chain, with his “Your safety and the safety of our associates is our top priority.” bullshit. Then give your employees some real masks.

  158. 158.

    Xenos

    December 11, 2020 at 9:34 am

    @Betty Cracker: for 40 years it has been a major project of the conservatives on the court to ratchet back the circumstances where a plaintiff can assert standing, thereby blocking out a lot of cases pursuing remedies for victims of racial bias and consumer fraud and unfair business practices.

    I can not imagine Roberts and all throwing all of this overboard in order to even accept this suit, much less rule for Texas.  Then again, there is a lot going on that I never imagined possible.

  159. 159.

    Eural Joiner

    December 11, 2020 at 9:34 am

    @raven: also, soundtrack compliments of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, I believe. Can’t believe Trent has gone from the Downward Spiral to…out soon, Soul by Pixar :)

  160. 160.

    Anya

    December 11, 2020 at 9:38 am

    @Soprano2:

    I read that Elizabeth Warren says she’s voting against the Defense Secretary nominee. How about waiting until the hearings to say that crap? I like Liz Warren, but that’s ridiculous and damaging.

    She’s voting against the waiver. And like she did with Mattis, she’ll probably vote to confirm. I don’t see what the issue is?

  161. 161.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 9:39 am

    @Ken: Cinnamon Toast Crunch camouflage.

    Mmmmmm……sugary and stealthy.

  162. 162.

    Jeffro

    December 11, 2020 at 9:43 am

    @satby: I think DeJoy is screwing up the mail over the holidays in order to mess with Amazon’s (Bezo’s) business.  Sheer trumpian spite (possibly trumpov-directed, too)

  163. 163.

    mad citizen

    December 11, 2020 at 9:44 am

    @Eural Joiner: That’s funny!  I had an article on my phone yesterday about how Reznor’s favorite album of all time is Talking Heads Remain in Light.  Made me up my rating of him.

    Here it is: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/nine-inch-nails-trent-reznor-favourite-album-talking-heads-remain-in-light/

  164. 164.

    Jeffro

    December 11, 2020 at 9:44 am

    @debbie: so, he’s basically Orange Jesus?

  165. 165.

    Anya

    December 11, 2020 at 9:45 am

    @Bex: I was trying to understand the Swalwell ‘scandal’ without reading MAGA twitter so I am completely lost but I am assuming he had an affair or something because there was a lot of ‘honey trap’ and Chinese in there.

  166. 166.

    germy

    December 11, 2020 at 9:46 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Safest gear would be a full trix rabbit costume.

    Antifa would assume you were part of an in-store promotion and carefully avoid you.

  167. 167.

    O. Felix Culpa

    December 11, 2020 at 9:47 am

    @mrmoshpotato:  I want these goobers dressed in Trix and Lucky Charms camo

    @germy: Great minds! :)

  168. 168.

    Anya

    December 11, 2020 at 9:48 am

    To follow up on Betty’s SCOTUS question, do they need to be unanimous or they need at least 5 SCOTUS judges to reject it?

  169. 169.

    O. Felix Culpa

    December 11, 2020 at 9:48 am

    @Anya: No, Swalwell didn’t have an affair. That’s the guilt by association that they’re trying to create.

  170. 170.

    Jeffro

    December 11, 2020 at 9:48 am

    @rikyrah: Hellllllllll no.

  171. 171.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 11, 2020 at 9:50 am

    @Soprano2: I was somewhat comforted about Vilsack because the Obama Bros talked about how good they thought he’d be in the job. They described him as someone who keeps his head down and does the work. For one reason, he isn’t using this job as a stepping stone to something else.

    Shirley Sherrod was still a huge mistake, of course.

  172. 172.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 9:52 am

    @Anya: 

    5.

  173. 173.

    Jeffro

    December 11, 2020 at 9:53 am

    @Spanky: that’s awesome, thanks!

    I saw Bonham one time when he was in his own band, way way back in the day.  They were the middle act between Dangerous Toys (wtf?) and The Cult (oh yeah!)

  174. 174.

    Jeffro

    December 11, 2020 at 9:55 am

    @Ken: anyone who sat by while trumpov did his “bring the light and/or disinfectant inside the body” schtick in front of the American people and said nothing should never, ever be trusted with a public health position at any level.

    Just send her packing and move on.  There’s a talented 35-year-old who could do Birx’ job 100x better.

  175. 175.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 9:55 am

    @Anya: They need 4 to hear it, 5 one way or the other to throw it out or not. I don’t see them getting 4 considering the kracken couldn’t get 1.

  176. 176.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    December 11, 2020 at 9:56 am

    @RandomMonster:

    They seem to get perverse pleasure by watching me clean the litter boxes. Some feeling of absolute power, I suspect….

  177. 177.

    CaseyL

    December 11, 2020 at 9:56 am

    Good morning, everyone!

    Much as I would like SCOTUS to drop-kick the Seditionist Suits into the sun, tersely… I wonder if it would be better for the country for them to drop-kick the suit with an issued opinion calling the Plaintiffs and pro-Plaintiff amici exactly what they are:  seditionists at best, and possibly traitors to the Constitution.  It would make me feel better about the future if SCOTUS took the gloves off and called a spade a bloody shovel.

    But that won’t happen, not with the Trumpist Three, Alito, and Thomas.  That lot is likely to make harrumphing noises about how no shred of evidence to support any of the charges doesn’t mean the charges aren’t true, and how voting is a privilege rather than a right.  IOW, stomping all over the Constitution in big hob-nailed boots.

    So I guess the best case scenario is a terse dismissal of the suit on procedural grounds.

    BTW:  One of the Defendant state’s briefs opposing the suit got in a very nice dig at Justice Roberts, when it cited as support for dismissing the case Robert’s own opinion in a gerrymandering case.  As you may recall, Roberts said the Court had no place in a gerrymandering dispute because redistricting is just too political and should be addressed by the state Legislature.  You know, the same Legislature that drew the gerrymandered districts in the first place.   (I think it was Michigan’s brief, but am not sure.)

  178. 178.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 9:57 am

    @Jeffro: Everyone!  You can beat the virus by shoving a Clorox-filled lightbulb up your ass!

    ETA – as well as your head, you stupid Trump trash morons who worship this fat, orange, fascist manbaby traitor.

  179. 179.

    germy

    December 11, 2020 at 9:58 am

    @Jeffro:

    And she didn’t just sit by.  In the linked clip, she tells an interviewer what a great job trump is doing, how “attentive” he is to the science.

  180. 180.

    Anya

    December 11, 2020 at 9:58 am

    @O. Felix Culpa: Apparently Don Jr. in his cocaine fuelled mind was out there on Fox News accusing Swalwell.

    People keep predicting that Don Jr. is going to run for office. I doubt he’ll reach next summer without having a national nervous breakdown. Before this is all over he’ll reenact Charlie Sheen’s tiger blood moment.

  181. 181.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    December 11, 2020 at 9:59 am

    Some pet-related curmudgeonliness.

    • People who carry a poop bag so they don’t leave poop in other people’s yards, but then leave the poop bag instead: you’re doing it wrong.
    • What kind of assholes leave piles of chicken bones on the sidewalk where so many dogs go by, or worse yet throw them into people’s yards?
    • a box of kitty Party Mix (three jars!) and canned food arrived yesterday from Chewy.com that I wasn’t expecting. Either I’m losing track of my auto ship orders or somebody around here is using my credit card. But how did she get the fingerprint for the login?
  182. 182.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 11, 2020 at 10:00 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: When I clean the litter boxes, one of my cats has a tendency to watch impatiently and jump in and use it IMMEDIATELY, sometimes before I’m finished scooping.

  183. 183.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    December 11, 2020 at 10:01 am

    @Jeffro:

    I think I like the notion of about a week’s long, intensive debrief as an “interview” followed by a “we’ll call you when we’ve made a decision.”

    And then don’t.

  184. 184.

    Anya

    December 11, 2020 at 10:01 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks! That makes me feel slightly less nervous.

    The way I’ve been coping with this since the election is to pretend none of this is happening and also playing lots and lots of FIFA online.

  185. 185.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 11, 2020 at 10:02 am

    @CaseyL:

    It would make me feel better about the future if SCOTUS took the gloves off and called a spade a bloody shovel. 

    And then if all of the traitorous Nazi trash was smacked across the face with that shovel.

  186. 186.

    germy

    December 11, 2020 at 10:03 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    • People who carry a poop bag so they don’t leave poop in other people’s yards, but then leave the poop bag instead: you’re doing it wrong. (I gave up years ago.  I used to get really pissed when people would toss their dog poop bags in my trash, because often they wouldn’t even tie the bag.  And then the garbage men would dump the trash, but the shit remained in my bin. I just ignore it now for the sake of my blood pressure.)
    • What kind of assholes leave piles of chicken bones on the sidewalk where so many dogs go by, or worse yet throw them into people’s yards? (Tossing chicken bones into his neighbor’s yard? Sounds like someone who wants to kill his neighbor’s dog)
    • a box of kitty Party Mix (three jars!) and canned food arrived yesterday from Chewy.com that I wasn’t expecting. Either I’m losing track of my auto ship orders or somebody around here is using my credit card. But how did she get the fingerprint for the login? (While you were sleeping. My cat did the same thing to me.)
  187. 187.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    December 11, 2020 at 10:03 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Two of the three are like that. I actually have to time it so it doesn’t happen.

  188. 188.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    December 11, 2020 at 10:06 am

    @Anya: playing lots and lots of FIFA online

    Some sort of role-playing game where you take bribes to decide what country to locate the World Cup?

  189. 189.

    Cheryl Rofer

    December 11, 2020 at 10:08 am

    @Matt McIrvin:  @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Friday Morning Open Thread:  Persons (& Un-Person) of the Year 1

  190. 190.

    Barbara

    December 11, 2020 at 10:11 am

    Steve Bullock hired outside counsel to take a position contrary to that of his own AG. The brief is worth reading, but the gist of it is that Montana adopted many mail in ballot changes in response to the pandemic and was also sued by various and sundry parties, and prevailed in every suit. The only reason they aren’t being sued by Texas is that Trump won in Montana. Link

  191. 191.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    December 11, 2020 at 10:11 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    That sounds like a fantastic board game.

  192. 192.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 10:12 am

    @Anya:

    Here. Read Wonkette instead for an explainer.

    https://www.wonkette.com/wingnuts-just-asking-did-eric-swalwell-share-secrets-naughty-bits-with-chinese-spy

  193. 193.

    Ken

    December 11, 2020 at 10:13 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: But how did she get the fingerprint for the login?

    I assume you’d have noticed if you were missing a finger?  If not, then according to any number of cop shows and movies, she just had to get a glass that you touched once, lift the print off that, scan it, and use a 3D printer to make a rubber replica to slip over her own finger.

    Heck, we had the technology for that back in the 1970s, according to Mission: Impossible – though of course they didn’t have 3D printers, so had to use plaster of paris and Rollin’s makeup kit.

  194. 194.

    Aleta

    December 11, 2020 at 10:16 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    The internet has transformed cat-cat courtship rituals.  But have a talk with her about giving out her address online.

  195. 195.

    different-church-lady

    December 11, 2020 at 10:17 am

    @Anya:

    People keep predicting that Don Jr. is going to run for office. I doubt he’ll reach next summer without having a national nervous breakdown.

    I’m thinking, “Pool Boy II: TikTok Boogaloo”

  196. 196.

    WaterGirl

    December 11, 2020 at 10:17 am

    @germy: Go to the service desk, say you want to file a complaint, and ask for the phone number of the VP of customer relations for that store/chain.

    To cover their butt, they will surely ask if there’s anything they can do to help with your problem.  Then complain about the employees, and STILL walk away with the number and make the call.

  197. 197.

    different-church-lady

    December 11, 2020 at 10:18 am

    @Ken: How could a cat do all that without opposable thumbs?

  198. 198.

    Barbara

    December 11, 2020 at 10:18 am

    @Jeffro: Yes.  We are a large nation with a lot of talented people.  There is almost no one who is indispensable, and certainly, Deborah Birx is not uniquely qualified to serve as coordinator for COVID response.  I feel the same way about Fauci to be honest, but he somehow was able to avoid doing things that made it appear that he was toadying up to Trump.

  199. 199.

    Spanky

    December 11, 2020 at 10:19 am

    @Betty Cracker:  I recently finished the Maryland Master Naturalist program. Florida has a Master Naturalist program, too. You and/or the mister should look into it.

  200. 200.

    WaterGirl

    December 11, 2020 at 10:20 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I was surprised to hear them being so positive about Vilsack, too, and mentioning how well he was regarded by the Obama administration.

    Shirley Sherrod should be hung around his neck until the end of time.  Shirley Sherrod suffered consequences while doing nothing wrong.  Only fair for Vilsack to do the same; only he earned it.

  201. 201.

    Barbara

    December 11, 2020 at 10:20 am

    @Anya: Really running for office takes a lot of work.  I don’t see the commitment to work that it would require.  I think they will continue to try very hard to play a behind the scenes role in being a king maker and getting a cut of fund raising as a result of their “efforts.”

  202. 202.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    December 11, 2020 at 10:21 am

    @Aleta: That explains so much!

    Speaking of cats and the internet, did anyone post the sad news item that Henri le Chat Noir has died? There was a Facebook post about it from his human videographer. He was 17 and I think had a spinal condition of some sort.

  203. 203.

    Spanky

    December 11, 2020 at 10:21 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I think Chewy has been sending autoship orders early to counter the counter the Christmas rush/USPS fuckery.

  204. 204.

    germy

    December 11, 2020 at 10:22 am

    @WaterGirl:

    I complained to mgt. last month.  Manager was very nice about it.

    This was when three guys who were stocking shelves wore no masks.  And one guy was singing loudly along with a pop song blasting on the store’s sound system.

    I’m at the point where I’m just writing a letter to my rep.

    Complaining to store mgmt. isn’t enough.  And I still think the employees shouldn’t be wearing bandanas or kerchiefs (the “thoughts and prayers” of protective face coverings) they should be wearing proper masks provided by their bosses.

  205. 205.

    Barbara

    December 11, 2020 at 10:23 am

    @WaterGirl: It’s definitely a real minus, but I think that we probably look at Ag through a different lens — one that makes it not all that relevant to our day to day lives.  Vilsack’s real strength is his longstanding relationship with China and his knowledge of the agency’s programs and personnel prior to Trump.  I am sure the idea is to hit the ground running.

  206. 206.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 10:24 am

    Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Jasenko Djordjevic works on his miniature sculpture on a graphite pencil. The self-taught artist crafts tiny sculptures on pencil graphite, using nothing but hand precision and a sharp knife
    Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

    I can’t imagine.

  207. 207.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    December 11, 2020 at 10:25 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’ll admit I won’t rest easy until it’s disposed of.

    I won’t rest easy until Trump is in a prison cell or a cemetery.  As long as he’s a free man with a  Twitter account, he’ll remain a dangerous rabble rousing demagogue.  The Manhattan DA and NY Attorney General need to build a solid, airtight case and get this miserable bastard behind bars.  Also would like to see all his lunatic lawyers disbarred.

  208. 208.

    patroclus

    December 11, 2020 at 10:25 am

    I think there is little to no chance that the SCOTUS rules today on the latest joke lawsuit.  They’ve apparently received at least 2 dozen amicus briefs just in the last 24 hours and they have to at least pretend to read them and consider their implications.  To me, a realistic expectation is that they would take at least a few days, so I’m guessing Monday at the earliest.  In fact, there is nothing that requires an immediate ruling – they could presumably sit on this for weeks; thereby rendering the whole thing moot.

  209. 209.

    WaterGirl

    December 11, 2020 at 10:25 am

    @germy: That’s why my suggestion was that you contact the VP of customer relations for the chain.  They pay attention even when the store blows you off.  Sorry if my original comment wasn’t clear.

  210. 210.

    Ken

    December 11, 2020 at 10:25 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: It’s kind of like Junta in reverse – instead of taking bribes, you have to buy loyalty. I’ve seen the mechanism in a few other games. One fairly old one is Conspiracy, originally known as the Sigma File, where you’re spymasters buying the loyalty of agents.

  211. 211.

    germy

    December 11, 2020 at 10:28 am

    @Wyatt Salamanca: 

    I don’t trust Cy Vance.

  212. 212.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 10:28 am

    @germy:Fill your cart with stuff from every aisle. Then walk up to the service desk and tell them you are never shopping there again and why and walk away, leaving them with a cart full of stuff that will take somebody a half hour to restock.

    Hit ’em where it hurts.

  213. 213.

    dww44

    December 11, 2020 at 10:29 am

    @Betty Cracker: I just got off phone from the Washington office of my Republican representative who was one of the 106 who signed on in support of this Texas suit.  Like you, I’m not counting my biddies before they are hatched, but all of us, and I mean all of us, must stand up and be counted.  Each of us needs to publicly  speak out against the Republicans who are supporting Trump in his efforts to overturn the election.  This is dangerous dangerous stuff.  I am NOT being hyperbolic, and even if I am, it is entirely justified.

  214. 214.

    J R in WV

    December 11, 2020 at 10:29 am

    @rikyrah:

    Nope ?
    Kick her to the curb ?

    Dr. Birx wants a role in the Biden administration.Watch this short video and tell me if you think she deserves it.pic.twitter.com/3nRigmlKvI— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) December 11, 2020

    Perhaps Dr Brix can get a job as Public Health Director in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, somewhere like that.

    You know, where everyone respects public health officials, and does what they are asked to protect the public’s health?

  215. 215.

    Ken

    December 11, 2020 at 10:29 am

    @different-church-lady: Oh, I didn’t realize that the suspect was a cat.  In that case, the usual way – while you’re asleep, the cat curls up beside you and implants subliminal messages, masked as purring.  “MUST BUY CAT TREATS… ORDER CAT TOYS… OBEY…”

    Technique also verified by the old Mission: Impossible show, and of course the basis for the society of Brave New World.

  216. 216.

    germy

    December 11, 2020 at 10:31 am

    @WaterGirl:

    No, you were clear.  It’s just that I’m done complaining to that corporation.  I complained once, last month, and then last week the employee acted like an asshole.  If they can’t police themselves, then let them pay a fine or something.

  217. 217.

    Ken

    December 11, 2020 at 10:31 am

    @patroclus: [The Supreme Court has] to at least pretend to read [the amicus briefs] and consider their implications.

    Why?

    And I agree that sitting on it for a while renders it moot, but doesn’t mootness happen on Monday when the EC votes?

  218. 218.

    Subsole

    December 11, 2020 at 10:31 am

    @Baud: What’s stopping them? Editorial directive?

  219. 219.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 11, 2020 at 10:31 am

    @Matt McIrvin: Both my cats do this.

  220. 220.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    December 11, 2020 at 10:32 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: There is also a claim this spy infiltrated one of the city councils here. Which is erm? Fremont is of course were Tesla is but that seems an odd way to go about messing with local manufacturers.

  221. 221.

    germy

    December 11, 2020 at 10:32 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I like your idea. That would be great if I planned to never return.

    But it’s the only supermarket here within walking distance.

  222. 222.

    The Moar You Know

    December 11, 2020 at 10:35 am

    Kick her to the curb

    @rikyrah: right there with you.  I want to see Birx working in a LabCorp somewhere in Iowa where she can’t do any more damage.  She has no right to collect another dime in taxpayer money for her salary after giving Trump cover to try and murder us all.   You can add Fauci to that list too as far as I’m concerned, but Biden is going to give him a shot at redemption which IMO he wholly does not deserve, but so be it.  Don’t fuck this up, Doc.

  223. 223.

    Just One More Canuck

    December 11, 2020 at 10:35 am

    @debbie: FFS (directed at Trump, not you), it’s not the world killing itself. Had Trump even made said some platitudes about wearing masks and following Fauci’s advice back in February or March, a lot of deaths (not just in the US, but around the world) could have been avoided.  Other countries and leaders took their cue from him and dismissed how serious the virus is. Since then, it’s been as though he’s been actively trying to kill his own countrymen. I think you can make an argument that Trump is the single biggest reason for the pandemic being as bad as it’s been, because of his cavalier attitude towards basic precautions. He may be personally responsible for possibly hundreds of thousands of deaths

  224. 224.

    Kropacetic

    December 11, 2020 at 10:36 am

    I just want to stop the world from killing itself!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

    @Frank Wilhoit: I can’t even tell what that is supposed to mean.  It almost looks like a slightly-misremembered quote from something.

    It means “only I can fix it.”  ‘It’ being whatever Trump, rarely correctly*, perceives as being wrong with the world.

    *When he does correctly identify a problem, the odds are astronomically low that he’ll have an appropriate way to address that problem. If he does, it certainly wasn’t his idea.

  225. 225.

    frosty

    December 11, 2020 at 10:37 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: When we were doing storm drain outfall inspections in NoVa, we would occasionally see WaPo bags full of dog poop that had washed down the pipes. Nice job, dog owners, you’ve picked it up and bagged it. Almost there … then you threw it in the inlet.

    No, people, things that go in the inlet do not go to the sewage treatment plant, they go to the creek. An ongoing public education effort.

  226. 226.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2020 at 10:38 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: no no no!

    This is NOT a grant of certiorari.  This is a motion to allow an original filing in the SCOTUS.  You need five votes to grant that motion.

    The rules of 5, 4 and 3:

    It takes five votes to dissolve an order of a lower court (including a stay or an execution warrant) or to allow a motion in the Sup. Ct. (Majority vote rule)

    It takes a vote of four Justices to grant certiorari — an order to hear a case before the full court (a minority power rule)

    It takes only three votes to stay a case that presents the same issue as that presented in a case that is pending before the Court on certiorari review (a kind of status quo ante rule until a decision is issued.)

    In the Texas case, it did not go through any lower court, state or federal, so there is no order or issue about which to grant certiorari review.  Paxton is seeking not certiorari (discretionary review) but is invoking the rare original jurisdiction of the Court as it applies to cases between states.  As my last Con. Law Prof said — “original jurisdiction is for water cases” because 90+% of original jurisdiction cases have been about water rights or islands (e.g. Ellis Island belongs to NJ, not NY.)

    How am I so we’ll informed on this topic?  I am, it seems, the only person who had certiorari granted in a case (4 votes) but could not get a fifth vote to stay the Texas order to execute my client.  Yay for me!  Too bad for Mr. Smith.

  227. 227.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 11, 2020 at 10:38 am

    @Barbara:. I am sure the idea is to hit the ground running.

    That’s become my short answer to most questions about Biden’s picks. Susan Rice may be a foreign policy specialist, but besides being by all accounts a very smart individual, she knows how the Executive branch bureaucracy works, suffers fools un-gladly, and everyone she calls knows she has the president’s ear. She’ll be effective.

  228. 228.

    Subsole

    December 11, 2020 at 10:39 am

    @Amir Khalid: I genuinely cannot fathom a paper not having copy editors.

    Heck, were I a reporter I wouldn’t feel comfortable running a story that hadn’t been proofed…

  229. 229.

    The Moar You Know

    December 11, 2020 at 10:40 am

    In his Autobigraphy Ulysses Grant showed a nice, direct style of writing. I think there was little if any editing needed.

    @Geminid: I recommend it to everyone.  Most of it is NOT about the Civil War, but very early California history.  It’s extremely well written and a great read.  There’s always that “which historic figure would you want to sit down and ask questions of” and for me, since I read his Autobiography, it’s him, no question.  And it’s gonna all be about California.

  230. 230.

    Barbara

    December 11, 2020 at 10:41 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I went to an exhibit at the National Geographic Museum in DC that featured treasures from an Anglo Saxon Hoard, and it was amazing for many reasons, but the one that got to me was that I could barely distinguish the features of many pieces with my eyesight.  It’s the same with the “stamps” that were carved in the earliest civilizations (sometimes on display at the Morgan Library, because Morgan was an enthusiastic collector).  They are so small the library creates larger copies and images so you can actually see them.

  231. 231.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 11, 2020 at 10:41 am

    @germy: I don’t know if you’re on twitter, or if it’s possible to open an anonymous account, but twitter often gets results. Tweet five or seven times “WHY DO EMPLOYEES AT THE PIGGLY WIGGLY ON OLD MILL ROAD BREATHE MASKLESS ON THE FOOD PURCHASED BY THE GOOD CITIZENS OF HAPPYTOWN!” with a picture of flag-bandana guy if you can get one discreetly

  232. 232.

    patroclus

    December 11, 2020 at 10:42 am

    @Ken: LOL.  They have to pretend to read and consider the amicus briefs because they need to maintain the facade that we live in a country bound by the rule of law.

    “Mootness” is a philosophical concept that does not necessarily occur at a specified time or upon the happening of a certain event.  It could, for example, be retroactively rejected with creative equitable relief.

  233. 233.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2020 at 10:42 am

    @Cheryl Rofer: I love that!

  234. 234.

    germy

    December 11, 2020 at 10:43 am

    @The Moar You Know:

    I thought Mark Twain was the editor.  I could be wrong.

    By the way, I recommend Grant’s Cottage as a tourist destination for any history buff (once this pandemic is history).  A beautiful little house; the clock is stopped at the time of his death, his medicine (cocaine tincture) is still on a shelf.  The tour guide was full of information.

  235. 235.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    December 11, 2020 at 10:44 am

    @Ken:

    Our Fiona doesn’t need toys as long as my wife has elastic hair bands in a jar by the bed. It’s pretty cute, watching her select one. She peers, plucks one out and meows for us to play fetch.

    She has a great ability to play fetch longer than we’re interested in playing fetch – she dutifully drops it next to you for the next throw.

    One of the other cats simply dismantles them as he finds them.

  236. 236.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2020 at 10:44 am

    @Barbara: DeGaulle: “The cemeteries are filled with indispensable men”

  237. 237.

    Barbara

    December 11, 2020 at 10:44 am

    @patroclus: They have apparently been sitting on the last case Texas filed (against California) since March.

  238. 238.

    Just One More Canuck

    December 11, 2020 at 10:48 am

    @Ken: Dressed up like a box of Froot Loops?

  239. 239.

    debbie

    December 11, 2020 at 10:49 am

    @germy:

    Can you call your department of health?

  240. 240.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2020 at 10:50 am

    @Ken: yeah, as a guy who writes amicus briefs, they don’t need to read them at all.  They are not pleadings — those must be read.  RBG once told me that she had her clerk’s — in cases that there is argument! — divide amicus briefs into three piles — read, read if there is time, don’t bother.  By far, she said, the biggest pile was the third.

  241. 241.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 10:50 am

    @patroclus: No. Amicus briefs are always purely discretionary. The court doesn’t even have to allow them.

  242. 242.

    patroclus

    December 11, 2020 at 10:54 am

    @Baud: Granted.  (By the way, why is Grant’s Tomb so small given that he was such an important man?).  But once they have allowed them, they should at least pretend to have read them.  RBG should have been less candid about the kayfabe…

  243. 243.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 11, 2020 at 10:54 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: That’s a pretty good explanation! Wonkette rules.

  244. 244.

    Barbara

    December 11, 2020 at 10:54 am

    @The Moar You Know: We visited this place in 2012 and loved it. We were the only visitors and the docent spent a long time with us explaining various facets of the history of California. Link.

  245. 245.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 10:55 am

    @WaterGirl:

    I was surprised to hear them being so positive about Vilsack, too, and mentioning how well he was regarded by the Obama administration.

    Shirley Sherrod should be hung around his neck until the end of time. Shirley Sherrod suffered consequences while doing nothing wrong. Only fair for Vilsack to do the same; only he earned it.

    I would like one of the Democrats on the confirmation committee to confront Vilsack directly about Shirley Sherrod, on national TV. If he admits it was a terrible mistake and he was at fault and puts forward some reasonable suggestion of how he might make things right with her, I’d be inclined to support him.

    If he shrugs it off or deflects blame or weasels around in his response, then I would not be inclined to support him. The Sherrod issue is important.

  246. 246.

    catclub

    December 11, 2020 at 10:57 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: They seem to get perverse pleasure by watching me clean the litter boxes. Some feeling of absolute power, I suspect….

     

    they are waiting until it is clean, then they will stink it up again.

  247. 247.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 10:57 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday that he apologized personally to Sherrod, the former USDA official who he forced out Monday because of a misunderstanding of racial comments she made in a speech in March.

    A clearly chastened Vilsack said he talked with Sherrod by phone and offered an apology which she accepted.

  248. 248.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 10:57 am

    @germy: I didn’t say you couldn’t change your mind. ;-)

    eta: I have this fantasy of doing exactly this at a Hobby lobby, getting checked out and then saying, “You know what? I’ve changed my mind.” and walking out.

  249. 249.

    Barbara

    December 11, 2020 at 10:58 am

    @Immanentize: If you are organized and have time, securing amicus briefs is a way to hit certain issues in more detail than you can in the allotted pages of a main brief.  The most consequential amicus brief I filed was for a deportee whose children had become wards of the state on dubious grounds, and who were placed with a foster family before her rights were finally terminated.  We spent the entire brief discussing constitutional limitations, although the state supreme court decided on state specific grounds.  The action really was outrageous and the lower court’s decision made for cringeworthy reading.

  250. 250.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 10:59 am

    @germy:

    Is this store your only choice of a place to buy groceries?

    ETA: I mean, it may be convenient or familiar, but most places have several competing chains.

  251. 251.

    catclub

    December 11, 2020 at 10:59 am

    @germy: the clock is stopped at the time of his death,

     

    Grandfather’s Clock by Henry Clay Work, I believe.

  252. 252.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 11, 2020 at 10:59 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: We’ve been going to a state park in Newburyport to get some walking-around-in-nature time. The park has a dispenser for poop bags, but has no trash bins–you’re supposed to pack out all refuse and poop bags. So of course people just leave them sitting by the trail. The first time we went, we decided to be good citizens and pick up these poop bags, then realized that meant they were going home with us. No good deed unpunished.

  253. 253.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 10:59 am

    @Immanentize: Figure some killjoy lawyer would rain on my parade.

  254. 254.

    J R in WV

    December 11, 2020 at 11:03 am

    @Just One More Canuck:

    Other countries and leaders took their cue from him and dismissed how serious the virus is. Since then, it’s been as though he’s been actively trying to kill his own countrymen.

    Indeed, Trump HAS been trying to kill Americans, although I would prefer not to think of us as Trump’s countrymen, as he appears to be aiding Russia far more than America.

    I think the prosecutors should indict him for 300,000 cases of voluntary manslaughter, or state-by-state for all the fatalities in each state, as well as all the financial crimes we suspect occurred.

    Then plea bargain down to the proportion of people that died because of a lack of mask wearing according to be best medical statistics. Then put him away in prison for the rest of his brief life.

    Guilty, guilty, guilty!

    I also do not trust Cy Vance jr. I think he’s a rat bastard on the take to keep rich bastards out of his court system. Obvious criminals like Trump, who should have been in jail 30 years ago>!!

  255. 255.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 11:04 am

    @catclub:

    Grandfather’s Clock by Henry Clay Work, I believe.

    Yes. I loved that song as a little girl. It still makes me feel all nostalgic and sentimental.

    Work also wrote the words for “Marching Through Georgia.” :-)

  256. 256.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 11:04 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Figure some killjoy lawyer would rain on my parade.

    Be thankful he hasn’t billed you for it.

  257. 257.

    WaterGirl

    December 11, 2020 at 11:05 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I would like one of the Democrats on the confirmation committee to confront Vilsack directly about Shirley Sherrod, on national TV. If he admits it was a terrible mistake and he was at fault and puts forward some reasonable suggestion of how he might make things right with her, I’d be inclined to support him.

    If he shrugs it off or deflects blame or weasels around in his response, then I would not be inclined to support him. The Sherrod issue is important.

    Not only do I support your approach, but when Joe Biden or one of our elected officials phones for my advice, I will strongly encourage them to go with it.

    I am also willing to sign a petition begging Katie Porter to be the questioner.

  258. 258.

    dww44

    December 11, 2020 at 11:05 am

    @Ken: Right now mootness inaction serves the interests of the seditious GOP.  We need some loud and strong voices from the GOP speaking out against all of these attacks on the very fabric of our Democracy.

     

    This cartoon from Kevin Siers was in my local paper this morning.  On the day after those moral cowards signed onto the Texas suit it is entirely appropriate.   Republican Cowards indeed.

  259. 259.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 11:07 am

    @Ken:

    doesn’t mootness happen

    Mootness? Not mootitude, or mootation?

    :-)

  260. 260.

    WaterGirl

    December 11, 2020 at 11:07 am

    @Baud: Thanks for the reminder.  She never took the job, right?  I think that speaks volumes.  Hoping I am remembering wrong.

  261. 261.

    Citizen Alan

    December 11, 2020 at 11:09 am

    @Soprano2:

    So far my only disappointment is Vilsack for Ag, and I can live with that.

    TBH, I would be disappointed with any Ag secretary Biden nominated because my preference would be an Ag secretary who worked to zero out the farm budget for every Congressional District represented by neither a Dem Senator or Congressman. But Biden is a better man than me.

  262. 262.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 11:10 am

    @WaterGirl:

    Unfortunately, Katie Porter is not a Senator. Otherwise, she’s my first choice for just about any tough line of questioning.

  263. 263.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 11:11 am

    @Baud: Holy shit! You’re right!

  264. 264.

    J R in WV

    December 11, 2020 at 11:11 am

    @Baud:

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday that he apologized personally to Sherrod, the former USDA official who he forced out Monday because of a misunderstanding of racial comments she made in a speech in March.

    A clearly chastened Vilsack said he talked with Sherrod by phone and offered an apology which she accepted.

    In this case I think the only real apology would be the sincere offer of another, better position at the Dept. Just me, tho. Then if she didn’t take it, offer to do whatever he could to help her in the future.

  265. 265.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    December 11, 2020 at 11:14 am

    @J R in WV: That would never work because Trump would simply blame his quack doctors.  One of Trump’s games is he finds other people to break the law for him.

  266. 266.

    Mike in NC

    December 11, 2020 at 11:14 am

    Got an email about Time’s selection and assumed it would be Dr. Fauci, but I’ll take Joe & Kamala because it’ll give Fat Bastard a bleeding ulcer on his way out the door.

  267. 267.

    Ken

    December 11, 2020 at 11:14 am

    In some ways Vilsack has one of the more difficult jobs, because he has to explain to farmers that the Chinese market for US soybeans (destroyed by Trump’s tariffs) isn’t coming back for at least a couple of decades, and that the “emergency” subsidies won’t be continuing nearly that long.

  268. 268.

    germy

    December 11, 2020 at 11:14 am

    if anyone is near a TV, Katie Porter will be on The View shortly.

  269. 269.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2020 at 11:14 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: She can always be retained as an outside counsel and do the questioning for them. There was at least one famous hearing where they did exactly that to avoid the grandstanding for the cameras.

  270. 270.

    Barbara

    December 11, 2020 at 11:15 am

    @J R in WV:  I thought that she was offered her job back but I don’t remember whether she took it or not. Yes, it was shameful. First, she had worked really hard to help the farmers who supposedly had been shafted by Ag, and second, Vilsack didn’t even pick up the phone to figure out what had actually happened.

  271. 271.

    Barbara

    December 11, 2020 at 11:18 am

    @Ken: I suspect it won’t take quite that long to come back.  Farm commodities are incredibly price sensitive.  Still, I think that it won’t come back to nearly the level it had been for a long time, because it will take a long time, if ever, for anyone to trust that our trade policy will not be subject to the sudden whims of a stupid grandstanding president.  No one trusts us now, and no one should.  I don’t trust us now.

    We have distant relatives who are soybean farmers but they operate at a sophisticated level, and plant customized hybrids for large Japanese companies.  I am sure they are beyond relieved that Trump will soon be gone.

  272. 272.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 11:21 am

    @Baud:

    That is very good to know. Thank you.

  273. 273.

    gvg

    December 11, 2020 at 11:33 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Most common is Litter Maid. they are often on sale around now.

    Also check craigslist.

    Some cats don’t like them. Mine did but apparently got tired of it.  Also the kind of litter matters to cats. litter maid uses crystals which do a much better job on odors than anything else as I found when selling my last house.  Some crystals are sharp on cat feet.  I bought a plastic tray for the litter maid so that I don’t have to buy there pricey cardboard tray refills. I then buy my own choice of crystals.

    The fancy robots showed up on craigs sometimes for about 250.

  274. 274.

    Miss Bianca

    December 11, 2020 at 11:33 am

    @WereBear: I’ve become a big rum fan. Hot cider and dark spiced rum the fave drink of choice during holiday season. Hmm…may need to add both to the shopping list today.

  275. 275.

    Miss Bianca

    December 11, 2020 at 11:36 am

    @rikyrah: Well, put that right up there in the “oh, you DON’T say!” insight category.

  276. 276.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    December 11, 2020 at 11:42 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Katie Porter is not a Senator.

    Something that must be corrected!  She’s one of the best questioners, in either chamber, that I’ve ever seen and she’d make an outstanding addition to the Senate.

  277. 277.

    Miss Bianca

    December 11, 2020 at 11:43 am

    @germy: Amazing to me that even my crazy ex-Ranger projectionist is saying the exact same stuff. Of course, he does have a lot of pre-existing conditions that put him at risk of the ‘rona.

    He wanted to put on the marquee of our theater: “Wear a mask. So I don’t have to wear a ventilator.” Our boss vetoed that in favor of “Happy Holidays.” >:>

  278. 278.

    patrick II

    December 11, 2020 at 11:50 am

    Easily the weirdest Trump/Time cover was when his staff put out a copy of the Greta  Thunberg person of the year cover but with Trump’s head photoshopped onto the body of that young girl.

  279. 279.

    Kathleen

    December 11, 2020 at 11:50 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I was pissed at both Obama and Vilsack over Shirley Sherrod. But back when I was listening to NPR I heard him interviewed and he really enlightened me regarding scope of DOA’s responsibilities and improvements Dept had implemented.  I was impressed and grateful for the education

  280. 280.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 11:52 am

    @Miss Bianca:

    He wanted to put on the marquee of our theater: “Wear a mask. So I don’t have to wear a ventilator.”

    Like.

    Our boss vetoed that in favor of “Happy Holidays.”

    Not like.

  281. 281.

    Frankensteinbeck

    December 11, 2020 at 11:58 am

    @Immanentize:

    could not get a fifth vote to stay the Texas order to execute my client.

    Jesus Christ.  I am sorry for him, but also for you.  That must have been horrifying.

  282. 282.

    Kathleen

    December 11, 2020 at 11:59 am

    @germy: His birthplace is close by me. I haven’t been by there in years but should visit it again. The setting is beautiful and peaceful.  It’s called “Point Pleasant”.

  283. 283.

    Aleta

    December 11, 2020 at 12:00 pm

    A good obit for Deb Price (but at NYT)

    And a good thread about some of her work

    Joshua Benton @jbenton

    I am very sorry to report the death of
    @bydebprice, a tremendous journalist, a Nieman Fellow (Class of 2011), and a real trailblazer for LGBTQ people in newsrooms and around the country.
    …
    My favorite (awful) tidbit from that book: Lewis Powell, about to cast the deciding vote in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), told his fellow justices that he’d never met a gay person. Turns out Powell had: He picked one or more gay law clerks for six straight years in the 1980s.

    That book, by Joyce Murdoch and Deb Price, is Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court, “a history of gay rights cases that involved interviewing more than 100 former SCOTUS clerks and deep manuscript research.”

  284. 284.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 12:01 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca, #276

    Fully agree. The Californians can (and, if I know them, will) weigh in, but while I would love to see Gov Gav name Katie to Kamala’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat, or to DiFi’s maybe-possibly-who even knows? Senate seat, the House margin is simply too tight at the moment to risk it. I’m sure her opportunity will come in good time.

  285. 285.

    Miss Bianca

    December 11, 2020 at 12:02 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: In my boss’s defense, we do live in a very red (about to become a COVID-red) county, and we are in the middle of our holiday fundraising campaign, so I can see her point.

    Of course, she also vetoed S’s *other*, earlier choice for the marquee, which was “I honestly thought it was going to be zombies.” That veto I find a little harder to forgive and forget. >:>

  286. 286.

    Another Scott

    December 11, 2020 at 12:05 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Speaking of Georgia, Reuters:

    […]

    It’s a mixed message that many Republicans fear could tilt the tight Georgia Senate races in favor of Democrats if any significant number of Trump supporters boycott the election – as some of the president’s supporters have advocated in right-wing social media circles. Among those calling for sitting out the races in protest are two prominent pro-Trump lawyers – Sidney Powell and Lin Wood – who have promoted outlandish election-fraud conspiracy theories.

    But voters like Frank and Townsend have tuned them out, according to Reuters interviews with 50 Republican voters over the past week in rural, urban and suburban areas of Georgia. All 50 said they planned to vote in Senate runoffs they deemed crucial – even though almost all believed the presidential election was tainted by fraud. (One, however, said he would support Democrats.)

    The interviews suggest that Republican Senate candidates could see strong voter turnout despite the turmoil that has engulfed the Georgia Republican party, pitting Trump loyalists against top Republican state officials the president has attacked for rebuffing his fraud allegations.

    […]

    With Trump’s court losses mounting, [Brantley Co GOP head] Ham said he was now most optimistic about a petition filed this week by the state of Texas with the U.S. Supreme Court. The case argues that changes made by Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to expand mail-in voting amid the coronavirus pandemic were unlawful and should nullify those states’ election results. Trump and Republican attorneys general in 17 U.S. states on Wednesday threw their support behind the lawsuit, which the office of Georgia’s attorney general – a Republican – called “constitutionally, legally and factually wrong.”

    Senate candidates Loeffler and Perdue endorsed the Texas legal action. But they, too, are treading carefully in navigating the bitterness that has engulfed the state party. While neither has explicitly said the election was stolen from Trump, they have generally supported his efforts to overturn it and have called for Secretary of State Raffensperger’s resignation.

    For Chasity Pawvlik, that’s not enough. The 45-year-old Trump supporter said she would vote for Perdue but maybe not Loeffler, who was appointed by Kemp and therefore needed to take bolder action to earn Pawvlik’s support. Among other things, Pawvlik wants Loeffler to push Kemp to conduct a third-party investigation of voting machines that have become the focus of debunked conspiracy theories about altered votes.

    “If she wants my vote, she needs to call him out,” said Pawvlik. “We need to see those machines.”

    One Republican voter interviewed by Reuters, however, said he had decided to support Democrats for Senate, in part because Loeffler and Perdue had aligned themselves so closely with Trump.

    Corey Rudolph, a 42-year-old resident of Alpharetta, an Atlanta suburb, lamented that conventional Republican principles have been lost under Trump. He hoped a more centrist party would emerge but had his doubts.

    “If he keeps control of the media the way that he has, especially the right-wing media, I don’t see how Republicanism as I have known it in the past can come back,” Rudolph said.

    They’re mostly insane, but we can’t count on them not turning out.

    GOTV!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  287. 287.

    Aleta

    December 11, 2020 at 12:07 pm

    My partner just rushed in to tell me that Henri, le Chat Noir has also died, sad news though I only knew him on youtube.
    https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/12/r-i-p-henri-le-chat-noir-angst-ridden-feline-youtube-star-for-the-ages/

  288. 288.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 12:09 pm

    @Miss Bianca:

    Anybody can, and everybody does, put up a “Happy Holidays” sign. It’s background wallpaper, totally unmemorable, harmless, anodyne.

    “Wear a mask so I don’t have to use a ventilator” is eye-catching and attention-getting, and arguably might change a few minds and save a few lives. To me, that’s a message far more in the spirit of the season.

    But I’m feeling argumentative this morning.

    :-)

  289. 289.

    catclub

    December 11, 2020 at 12:12 pm

    @patrick II: 

    Easily the weirdest Trump/Time cover was when his staff put out a copy of the Greta Thunberg person of the year cover but with Trump’s head

    I am not sure which year Time put Adolf Hitler on the cover as man of the year (1939?), but Trump deserves it in the same manner.
    Likewise, I think for Biden and Harris it is similar to the Nobel peace prize for Obama before he did anything, except not be GWBush.

  290. 290.

    Aleta

    December 11, 2020 at 12:15 pm

    @Aleta: Henri’s retirement video

  291. 291.

    Geminid

    December 11, 2020 at 12:16 pm

    @germy: Mark Twain published Grant’s autobiography. I don’t think it required much editing. Grant had to gut it out to complete the work, as he was dying of cancer.

  292. 292.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 12:17 pm

    @Aleta:

    RequiesCAT in pacem.

  293. 293.

    Baud

    December 11, 2020 at 12:18 pm

    @Another Scott:

    They’re mostly insane, but we can’t count on them not turning out.

    Exactly.

  294. 294.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 12:22 pm

    @Another Scott:

    My plan is to vote early, in person, on Monday the 14th. It’ll be interesting to see what turnout is like.

  295. 295.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 12:29 pm

    @patrick II:

    Easily the weirdest Trump/Time cover was when his staff put out a copy of the Greta Thunberg person of the year cover but with Trump’s head photoshopped onto the body of that young girl.

    I remember the doctored image, but wait, you’re saying his staff did that? I always though it was a grand troll.

    Come to think of it …

  296. 296.

    Geminid

    December 11, 2020 at 12:30 pm

    @Another Scott: almost all of Georgia’s November republican voters will turn out for the runoff, but Perdue and Loeffler can’t afford to lose many votes at all. I’m guessing that Warnock and Warner will poll very close to each other, but that there will be an undervote for Loeffler relative to Perdue. As hard as she tries to talk right wing language, Loeffler is still suspected of being a RINO. National conservative groups and people like Hew Hewitt are putting on the full court for both Republicans, though.

  297. 297.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 11, 2020 at 12:34 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    She can always be retained as an outside counsel and do the questioning for them.

    It is a very pretty thought, yes it is.

    There was at least one famous hearing where they did exactly that

    During the Kavanaugh hearings, I believe.

    to avoid the grandstanding for the cameras.

    But then, we are talking about Senators.

  298. 298.

    Bill Arnold

    December 11, 2020 at 12:40 pm

    @debbie:
    “I just want to stop the world from killing itself!”
    That can be (should be) read as a global threat. He is threatening the entire world because his personal world is collapsing. He is a narcissist (NPD) nominally in control of a global (thermonuclear) superpower.

  299. 299.

    Geminid

    December 11, 2020 at 12:40 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: I think the all male Judiciary Commitee republicans picked that woman with the strange hair to ask Ford questions because they were afraid to do it themselves. If you can’t stand the heat, get a woman to do the cooking.

  300. 300.

    sdhays

    December 11, 2020 at 12:42 pm

    @rikyrah: The only utility Birx would conceivably have would be creating a “credibility bridge” to the Dumpsters, but since people in Dump’s orbit don’t have their own credibility – at least not with Dumpenvolk -, there’s nothing there. What else does she even supposedly bring to the table? Her credentials are only impressive considering the Dump-curve and her record during the crisis is abysmal.

    I assume she knows how bad it’s been and wants her record to include the part where Biden’s team actually fixes shit, but I don’t see why they would need her for that.

  301. 301.

    StringOnAStick

    December 11, 2020 at 12:48 pm

    @patroclus: Perhaps SCOTUS wants to sit on it over the weekend when more people are off work and thus more able to do protests\violence in reaction than would happen on a weekday?  Isn’t there a “million (yeah, right) tRumpie March in D.C. Tomorrow?

  302. 302.

    Bill Arnold

    December 11, 2020 at 12:50 pm

    @Danielx:
    No, it’s more galactic-scale narcissistic self-pity combined with a Donald The Dove tweet (No Wars! which is sort of true, curiously.) a minute or two earlier, pretty sure. That flows better semantically. Tweet authors are a little muddled today (Scavino can do Trump’s tone but there is no evidence that Trump does complicated syntax.)

  303. 303.

    Bill Arnold

    December 11, 2020 at 12:59 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Dr. Birx wants a role in the Biden administration.Watch this short video and tell me if you think she deserves it.
    She deserves to be shunned by the entirety of the USA, if we’re merciful.

  304. 304.

    WaterGirl

    December 11, 2020 at 1:18 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    1. I believe that it is possible to outsource questioning to a person who is not in the Senate.
    2. Katie Porter questioning them is more a dream than reality, but I would pay to see it.
  305. 305.

    WaterGirl

    December 11, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    @Barbara: The issue is that he showed very poor judgment, and someone who displays poor judgment often displays it over and over.

    Is it possible that this was a life-changing event for Vilsack?  I cannot say.

  306. 306.

    WaterGirl

    December 11, 2020 at 1:21 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I believe Katie Porter is in an R+3 district, so yeah, this is not the time.  Sadly.

  307. 307.

    WaterGirl

    December 11, 2020 at 1:23 pm

    Talking to myself on a dead thread, not for the first time.  Sigh.

  308. 308.

    Nora Lenderbee

    December 11, 2020 at 1:28 pm

    Hitler was TIME’s Man of the Year for 1938. Guess who got it for 1939. Stalin.
    Other fabulous choices from that decade included Pierre Laval (1931).

    @WaterGirl: Oh hai.

  309. 309.

    Nora Lenderbee

    December 11, 2020 at 1:29 pm

    dupe

  310. 310.

    Barbara

    December 11, 2020 at 1:55 pm

    @WaterGirl: That seems to be stretching the point a lot further than it can possibly go.

  311. 311.

    stinger

    December 11, 2020 at 2:25 pm

    @JanieM: Looks like the health care system. Why make anything simple when you can make it impossibly, unmanageably complicated?

    So usage will drop off and you’ll have your excuse for drowning that governmental service in a bathtub. And for cutting rich people’s taxes.

  312. 312.

    artem1s

    December 11, 2020 at 2:26 pm

    @cmorenc:

    he will influence enough of the conservative justices to take the long view rather than a far more radical Bush v Gore type of stunt to please Trump’s cult followers.

    I’m sure he’s also concerned that if he has to sit thru oral arguments from these assclowns it would likely cause him to stroke out. he dug his own grave throwing in with the GOP nitwits who handed the courts over to the Catholic Church, Gohmert Teahaddist and the grifters like DeVos. It has to drive him crazy to have such inferior picks like Kavanaugh and Barret on HIS court.

  313. 313.

    Origuy

    December 11, 2020 at 2:48 pm

    @frosty: Around here (SF Bay) there are notices painted on the curbs above storm drains that say “No dumping, flows to Bay”. The wording varies, sometimes it says “flows to creek”, but the idea is the same.

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