.
When you lost the election a month ago, but still find ways to lose over and over again, almost daily, for the entire month thereafter—I think there's a Hanukkah joke in there somewhere.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) December 12, 2020
AP EXPLAINER: The elections lawsuit dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court was filled with claims that failed to withstand basic scrutiny. Here is a look at some of them: https://t.co/pZWmwnFinz
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 12, 2020
It won in November. The rule of law won today. https://t.co/fu28zTBxed
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 12, 2020
All 50 states and D.C. have now certified their 2020 election results:
Biden 81,282,376 (51.3%)
Trump 74,222,576 (46.9%)That's a 2.4 point margin swing against Trump vs. 2016 and a 15.9% increase in votes cast.
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) December 11, 2020
2/ And have we ever before seen so many officials say “hey! That losing you’re doing so hideously, so flailingly, so spasmodically — that looks like something I want to be a part of!
“This effort, based on nonsense and lies, to disenfranchise millions of Americans, sign me up!”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 12, 2020
The final nail in the coffin was SCOTUS finding out that if they took the case they'd have to talk to Ted Cruz.
— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) December 11, 2020
ETA:
Good night! ? https://t.co/2WtDUVsRtI
— Arizona Democratic Party (@azdemparty) December 12, 2020
raven
Uh uh, no way. . .
Anonymous At Work
It was still 7-2. No telling what Alito and Thomas wanted to do about the merits but the total lack of merits and evidence were not encouraging. Given those two, I suspect that they wanted to take names, like Trump does.
MattF
Twitter has disabled ‘likes’ and responses to Trump’s latest, only allowing retweet + comment. IMO, meltdown is looming.
OzarkHillbilly
@Anonymous At Work: Huh?
Lapassionara
@Anonymous At Work: Thomas and Alito took the position that the court should have accepted the filing, given that disputes between states are within the court’s jurisdiction. My understanding is that they would not have been in favor of granting the relief requested.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I don’t get that last tweet in the OP. What’s the AZ Rep party saying about those three justices? Are they threatening them or gloating about their appointments?
Twitter turned off the Like and Comment buttons on several of Trump’s tweets this morning. You can still retweet.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Probably gloating, something along the lines of, “We lost this battle but we’ve won the war.”
Snarki, child of Loki
Well, thanks to that cRAzY lawsuit (New Nevada? New California?) we have a definitive list of people that need to have a big “T” branded on their foreheads.
Zzyzx
@Anonymous At Work:
The other 2 said that no further relief other than hearing the case was warranted. They just believe that all cases that meet a set of rules need to be heard.
OzarkHillbilly
Headline of the day? Police investigate suspected voyeur over fake nude gameshow
Jay
@Snarki, child of Loki:
tattooed, lasts longer, hurts more.
debbie
@MattF:
Oh, it’s here. Tweets every 5 minutes or so.
OzarkHillbilly
@Zzyzx: If they think they have time to waste on this nonsense, maybe they are just overpaid.
debbie
Probably better for this thread than the previous one”
Anyway, I read how people want to punish the 100+ reps who signed onto that Texas atrocity, but it has to extend to the entire party. Weasel Rob Portman played at measured dignity when he told a local reporter just after the election that he wanted Trump to have the opportunity to present his case and would refer to Biden as president-elect if Trump had not made his case by last Tuesday, December 8, 2020. Silence on Tuesday. The reporter has called and emailed Portman’s office every day since then and received zero response. This reporter has a long, very strong reputation here and every politician usually drops everything to speak with her or appear on her weekly news program.
Pussy weasel.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
What’s the point of doing that? Twitter should disable retweeting on his tweets
Jeffro
Let the long-awaited GOP civil war……beeeeeeegin!
CliosFanBoy
Got my Pets of Balloon Juice calendar! Look wonderful. Love the name “Nacho” for the snake.
debbie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
They should just ban him already.
Matt McIrvin
@Anonymous At Work: Alito and Thomas apparently have a long-running bee in their bonnet about the technical question of whether SCOTUS is obligated to hear all original-jurisdiction cases. It had nothing to do with this case specifically. Alito’s note joined by Thomas specified that he wouldn’t have supported the case anyway, so in that sense it’s 9-0.
Jeffro
as of 3 minutes ago, Twitler: “WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!”
‘just begun’????
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That was my feeling too, since they should want to stop him from spreading false information on their site.
Jeffro
he’s teeing off on Kemp and Ducey already as “RINOs”
LOLOLOLOL
debbie
@raven:
Love that ad. I just canceled my Amex card after they jacked up the annual membership fee from $55 to $150.
germy
It’s all Barr’s fault.
debbie
@Matt McIrvin:
I wonder if Alito was just saying he wouldn’t have supported the case. He never would have succeeded in getting a ruling for Texas.
Ken
@Matt McIrvin: As someone said in a thread last night, if the court did make that a firm rule, they’d set themselves up for a DDOS attack by any and all of the states. Just have your AG file six hundred frivolous suits against other states, any time there’s anything on the docket that you don’t want to move forward.
Jeffro
@germy: ‘partisan killers’ wtf???
Is there a Biden Ninja Assassin Team I don’t know about?
germy
I’d like to see what Adam Silverman says about this.
germy
@Jeffro:
Yes.
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly:
Anonymous at Work in a basement in Ekaterinburg.
Ken
There’s an implicit “so send me more money” there. Also, in the longer term, “subscribe to TrumpTV”.
Either of those may be explicit in other tweets.
zhena gogolia
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It’s the Democratic Party. I think the “Good morning” was taunting them to do the right thing, and the “Good night” was congratulating them on doing the right thing. But I’m not sure.
Cermet
Now the issue is if (or when) the orange skid mark decides that declaring martial law is his final recourse. I’d think even his daughter would be against that but one never knows. That is both possible and through’s all legal issues out – it is the fatal flaw in our consititution – the one and only method that a true dictator could take over. Since bushie the lesser called the 9-11 attacks an invasion it isn’t much a leap to calling mexican’s crossing the border as an invasion. Sure, most people who are sane would consider that action insane but 70 million people would be fully for it. This is scary stuff thanks to that insane and antiquated idea that the CC must have that power..
JPL
@Jeffro: He seems happy.
Jeffro
@germy: <gulp>
Better go put my yard sign back out front, then! 0_0
germy
@Jeffro:
I remember an old James Thurber essay where he complained about typos. He joked about “Don’t give up the ship!” becoming “Don, give up the ship!”
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: ‘Tis but a scratch.
Somebody had to post it.
germy
@Jeffro:
Too late. Look up at your ceiling.
Jay
@Jeffro:
shush,
loose lips sink ships,
????
Jeffro
@Ken: I think you’re right.
He can do some basic math: another 38 days of grifting x .5M/day = 19M in free money, just for keeping it up with the all-caps tweets.
Keep ponying up, rubes! Your orange idol needs you!! (but mostly, just needs your cash)
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
Perfect.
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: I understand where they got the 7-2 now.
JPL
@Cermet: Stephen Miller is busy right now, wondering what if we did that…
trump’s visit to West Point today should be interesting. I hope the pilot of Air Force one locks the door to the cockpit.
Elizabelle
I usually find the WaPost’s Ruth Marcus to be a Villager supreme. However, props to her. She names every one of the Republican Attorneys General and every GOP congressweasel who signed on to that abominable court case.
WaPost:
These Republicans may not be capable of shame, but you should know who they are
… she names every single stooge who appended his/her name; she lists the congresscritters by state. Revolting to see that former Jeff Van Drew is among them. And ends with:
Cermet
@JPL: Never in my life would I believe I’d every type such an idea as anything but an very other the top joke; but this is possible and he is the type to use his power even if it causes such a diaster … maybe not. I am hoping that he’d never really do that.
germy
Ken
Like you’d be able to see a Biden Ninja Assassin that way.
Ages ago on one of the USENET groups, probably rec.arts.games.frp, someone asked “If elves live forever, where are they?” To which someone replied, “All around you. After thousands of years, they’re at level 1,000,000 in all character classes including thief, so they can hide anywhere. You could get on an elevator with ten of them and never know it.”
Elizabelle
Here’s Ruth Marcus’s list, if you’d like to check on your state. The parade of deplorables:
Second, the House members, including [Kevin] McCarthy, Whip Steve Scalise (La.); Jim Jordan (Ohio), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee; Kevin Brady (Tex.), ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee; Rep. Gary Palmer (Ala.), head of the Republican Policy Committee; and Mike Johnson (La.), who organized this constitutional abomination.
The rest, listed in order of their home state: Alabama (Robert B. Aderholt, Mo Brooks, Bradley Byrne), Arizona (Andy Biggs, Debbie Lesko), Arkansas (Eric A. “Rick” Crawford, Bruce Westerman), California (Ken Calvert, Doug LaMalfa, Tom McClintock), Colorado (Ken Buck, Doug Lamborn), Florida (Gus M. Bilirakis, Mario Diaz-Balart, Neal Dunn, Matt Gaetz, Bill Posey, John Rutherford, Ross Spano, Michael Waltz, Daniel Webster, Ted Yoho), Georgia (Rick Allen, Earl L. “Buddy” Carter, Douglas A. Collins, Drew Ferguson, Jody Hice, Barry Loudermilk, Austin Scott), Idaho (Russ Fulcher, Mike Simpson), Illinois (Mike Bost, Darin LaHood), Indiana (Jim Baird, Jim Banks, Trey Hollingsworth, Greg Pence, Jackie Walorski), Iowa (Steve King), Kansas (Ron Estes, Roger Marshall), Louisiana (Ralph Abraham, Clay Higgins).
Maryland (Andy Harris), Michigan (Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, John Moolenaar, Tim Walberg), Minnesota (Tom Emmer, Jim Hagedorn, Pete Stauber), Mississippi (Michael Guest, Trent Kelly, Steven M. Palazzo), Missouri (Sam Graves, Billy Long, Vicky Hartzler, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Jason T. Smith, Ann Wagner), Montana (Greg Gianforte), Nebraska (Jeff Fortenberry, Adrian Smith), New Jersey (Gregory Steube, Jeff Van Drew), New York (Elise Stefanik, Lee Zeldin), North Carolina (Dan Bishop, Ted Budd, Virginia Foxx, Richard Hudson, Greg Murphy, David Rouzer, Mark Walker), Ohio (Bob Gibbs, Bill Johnson, Robert E. Latta, Brad Wenstrup), Oklahoma (Kevin Hern, Markwayne Mullin).
Pennsylvania (John Joyce, Frederick B. Keller, Mike Kelly, Dan Meuser, Scott Perry, Guy Reschenthaler, Glenn Thompson), South Carolina (Jeff Duncan, Ralph Norman, Tom Rice, William Timmons, Joe Wilson), Tennessee (Tim Burchett, Scott DesJarlais, Charles J. “Chuck” Fleischmann, Mark Green, David Kustoff, John Rose), Texas (Jodey Arrington, Brian Babin, Michael C. Burgess, Michael Cloud, K. Michael Conaway, Dan Crenshaw, Bill Flores, Louie Gohmert, Lance Gooden, Kenny Marchant, Randy Weber, Roger Williams, Ron Wright), Virginia (Ben Cline, H. Morgan Griffith, Rob Wittman, Ron Wright), Washington (Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Dan Newhouse), West Virginia (Carol Miller, Alex Mooney), Wisconsin (Tom Tiffany).
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s still disinformative bullshit.
germy
Ken
Worried about a hijacking attempt (“fly this plane to Moscow!”), or just concerned the poor pilot will have to suffer through an hour of incoherent ranting?
germy
@Ken:
I remember Father Sarduci on SNL giving a lecture on UFOs:
“They erase your memory, so if you think you’ve never seen one, that means you see them all the time.”
Kropacetic
They got tired of all the winning, they needed a change of pace.
Spanky
@Jeffro:
Well! Then they wouldn’t be ninjas. now would they?
debbie
@JPL:
I want there to be a steep ramp leading to his seat.
debbie
@germy:
How the hell did she even get a law degree???
JPL
@Cermet: Now we know that most of the house republicans would support him in his effort. After he was first elected, some thought Ivanka would be a moderating force, but that was proven wrong pretty quickly. Thirty nine more days of chaos.
Anne Laurie
The Repubs were bragging, Friday morning, that Trump’s SCOTUS picks were fersure going to hand Trump a ‘win’.
The Dems got to rebut, in the evening…
germy
@debbie:
Studied hard and then cheated on her tests?
She worked in traffic court until she was fired for falsifying a plea. Then she self-published a book and started calling herself a constitutional lawyer.
debbie
@germy:
Ah. Another quality hire, then.
Danielx
@Ken:
Either. Both.
mali muso
Welp, I am back to the GA postcard writing beat, since it looks like that election is going to be somewhat existential for the future of democracy.
Here’s hoping that the Orange One’s rantings manages to depress Rethug turnout (unlikely, but every little bit helps).
Spanky
@Anne Laurie: Right. You have to open the AZGOP tweet to see the time stamp was about 10AM yesterday, so they were anticipating a rather different outcome. So the AZDEM tweet was a rather nice comeback.
Jay
@Ken: covid
prostratedragon
I thought they’d send out a decision with just the word NO! in 84pt type, but the cartoon is even more inspired. Good thing that ends the court phase (please, please!), since the only thing to do next involves ballistics.
Spanky
-Tbogg
Geminid
@Elizabelle: Interesting that Rob Wittman (VA-1) signed the brief. Many others have relatively safe seats, but Wittman’s district was carried by Biden. But I’m not sure this will be big issue for a lot of voters by the the time the 2022 midterms roll around, even if it should be. My own 5th district congressman did not sign on, but Riggleman was knocked by bible thumpin’ Bob Good in a convention this summer. Riggleman had supported trump until then.
Amir Khalid
@Anne Laurie:
Did these Republicans understand that, by publicly stating an expectation that Trump’s SCOTUS appointees were bound to take Trump’s side in a case, they were asserting to all and sundry that these Justices were in his pocket i.e. corrupt? Corruption is of course grounds for impeachment.
Spanky
Because of course …
prostratedragon
One adverb per SCOTUS Justice:
spectacularly,
decisively,
pathetically,
methodically,
ridiculously,
masochistically
hideously,
flailingly,
spasmodically.
I am appreciative.
Benw
Man, the governors of Nuevo Nevada and Huevos California must be so bummed.
Barbara
@Snarki, child of Loki: I would advocate for someone to refer the attorney filing on behalf of “New” Nevada and “New” California to his state bar for possible disciplinary action. These “parties” are not real. They don’t exist. That’s probably why he made no explicit representations about who they were. However, when you file a brief like this you are making implicit representations to the effect that you are filing a legal brief not writing fiction. And honestly, this kind of filing, not to mention the House Republican one and the others that were filed by those with nakedly political interest probably galvanized the court to work even more quickly, knowing that the longer it waited the more “me too” briefs it would receive. An all around shameful effort.
Spanky
I’m not sure how this popped up on my Youtube page. I blame Balloon-Juice.
“912. What’s your white emergency?”
M31
rocketing Trump into the sun is a very difficult ballistics problem, but we should try anyway, even if he only gets up a few miles that would be a good start
Spanky
@Benw: “Huevos” California?
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: It may be a distinction without a difference, but it is still a distinction, one the Guardian failed to note in their article.
prostratedragon
Seems that Jupiter and Saturn will meet on the night of Dec. 21. Hoping for clear skies.
different-church-lady
frosty
@Elizabelle: Huh. My new, ungerrymandered R isn’t on that list. My old one, Scott Perry (PA-10), is, of course. I’ve worked GOTV in two elections to get rid of him (with really excellent D candidates) and it hasn’t worked. I despair. But I really commend them for running. There were elections here when the R ran unopposed.
Jay
@Spanky:
slowly,”Merica” is learnin,
don’t do shit at all, until the Rethug cheque, clears at the Bank.
Barbara
@Amir Khalid: I will say it again. These people who expected that the Supreme Court would be Trump’s personal protection racket seem not to have a clue about the history and aspirations of their “friends” on the court. Really, seriously, clueless.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: It came in a CrackerJack box.
Spanky
@M31: Actually, it’s not that tough an orbital mechanics problem if you don’t mind expending enough fuel to propel Trump in a direction counter to the earth’s motion around the sun until it reaches earth’s orbital velocity. The fucker will plunge straight in.
ETA: And I’m all for expending whatever fuel is necessary. But on second thought, perhaps a trajectory with a series of increasingly near misses so that he’s slow roasted before final entry would be more entertaining.
HinTN
@Elizabelle: Amazing! One of our R congresscritters didn’t sign on. I don’t know much about Phil Roe, he’s from way up east, but I think more of him today.
H.E.Wolf
The good folks at Electoral Vote blog quoted the full text of the Supreme Court’s denial of the TX lawsuit. There is no “vote total” because the Court did not hear the case.
“The State of Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.
Statement of Justice Alito, with whom Justice Thomas joins: In my view, we do not have discretion to deny the filing of a bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction. See Arizona v. California, 589 U. S. ___ (Feb. 24, 2020) (Thomas, J., dissenting). I would therefore grant the motion to file the bill of complaint but would not grant other relief, and I express no view on any other issue. “
Elizabelle
@Geminid:
From another WaPost story:
Ken
@M31: I think someone did the calculations, and a nuclear mortar could do it. There was an accidental launch during Operation Plumbbob though it didn’t achieve enough delta-V to reach the sun (even assuming the object made it out of the atmosphere).
Frank Wilhoit
@Elizabelle: …and the other 74 million co-signers?
JPL
@frosty: I never thought that Newt and Tom Prices district would flip, but flip it did.
Ken
@prostratedragon: I’ve been watching them get closer in the evening sky, as visibility permits. It is pretty cool.
HinTN
@Amir Khalid: We’re all waiting.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was thinking from a book of matches, like those “You can draw this!” scams. But I can’t imagine the tagline.
debbie
@HinTN:
I blame the lack of civics classes.
Spanky
@prostratedragon: To be a bit more precise, “meet” here means they’ll be about 6 arcminutes apart around sunset that evening (at least here in the US). That’s only 1/5 the apparent diameter of the moon, so yeah, it’ll be a pretty good apparition.
For added enjoyment, take some time each evening to check out their positions in the days leading up to and after the conjunction.
Elizabelle
@Geminid: Also found in the WaPost. (And, no doubt, you already know this.)
Geminid meteor shower, among most prolific of the year, to dazzle this weekend
Dozens of shooting stars every hour will streak across the night sky
Informative article; way worth a click. Good luck catching a viewing!
frosty
@Spanky: 912 – that was really great!
HinTN
@prostratedragon: They’re dancing pretty close right now. Pick a clear night and look to the southwest.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
It’s like an Advent Calendar of rejection Trump.
Typical dumb ass Donny he doesn’t get being sore loser only prolongs the humiliation. Something that every other guy learns as a kid. His family is the kind of twatwaffles who listen to the speech “everyone hates loser” at the beginning of Patton and don’t get Patton was talking about war, not firking election or a golf game.
Frankensteinbeck
@Cermet:
The generals have already said they are not interfering in the election. Martial law isn’t a final recourse for Trump, it’s what he wanted to do long ago. We don’t have to worry about it. We don’t have to worry about congress, because if the Senate refuses to validate, Pelosi becomes president. Trump’s only remaining option is to bribe a vast number of electors, and that ain’t happening. It really is all over but the whining.
Benw
@Spanky: eggsactly!
Elizabelle
@frosty: Maybe the new rep hasn’t taken office yet? But if already there — got to appreciate that small bit of progress/good news.
Sloane Ranger
@Cermet:
I doubt he’d do that. He’d be too scared he’d look like an idiot when the military ignored him and stayed in their barracks. He already knows the General Staff won’t support him on this.
Some of the usual suspects, ICE and those prison guards he got out during the BLM protests might be tempted but, even then, their senior leadership will be ordering them not to play along.
mad citizen
@H.E.Wolf: Reading these two paragraphs from SCOTUS, Alito and Thomas make the whole court look like a F ing joke. Couldn’t they have dropped their stupid crusade on that one point for one F ing time, for something this important?
(Heartened, at lease, that my outgoing Congresswoman did not join the brief. 3 R Congressmen from Indiana did, though I don’t believe either senator did.)
HinTN
@debbie: ;^) indeed
HinTN
Hey, WaterGirl, if you’re around. The back button has gone wonky again. Android, S8 running Chrome
Spanky
@Frankensteinbeck: “Bribing a vast number of electors”. ROFL! Given Trump’s record on paying people, I’m not sure even a GOP elector would take such an offer seriously.
OzarkHillbilly
@Spanky: Funny.
Luciamia
@germy: Huh, does she even know what the executive branch is?
zhena gogolia
@Anne Laurie:
Oh, I misread it. I thought they were both from the Dems.
Elizabelle
@Frank Wilhoit: If you want to compile a list, go to it.
I think celebrating victories (OK, some public shaming, arriving way late — but it arrived!) is important.
waysel
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The AZGOP tweet is from Friday morning, 23 hours ago , before the SCOTUS ruled. The AZ Dems tweet is from 10 hours ago, after the ruling. AZGOP thought those 3 justices would flip it for Dumph. And congratulations!
Punchy
@Spanky: Conjunction junction…..what’s that function?
Nelle
@germy: My husband, Vietnam vet, muttered, “He avoided that chance fifty years ago.”
zhena gogolia
@H.E.Wolf:
Right. Saying that it was “7-2” is either misinformation or disinformation. Coming from a nym I’ve never seen, I’ll pick no. 2.
Spanky
@Punchy: Don’t make me go all Kepler on your ass.
germy
It’s the branch that won’t be paying her.
Geoduck
Heh. Checking Foxnews.com, they have a couple of subdued pieces regarding the SCOTUS decision, but their lead article is about Feinstein’s evident mental deterioration. Interestingly, they call the allegations a “hit piece”. So.. really spreading it around. Dems have dementia, and are backstabbers!
SFAW
@Elizabelle:
Huh. Never seen “bullshit” spelled that way.
prostratedragon
@HinTN: Alas, we’re not having clear nights this week in Chicago per the 7-day forecast. I did see a sliver of moon Thursday night, but didn’t know to look around for other things. Maybe after Friday.
FelonyGovt
As a Mets fan, I enjoyed this tweet
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@waysel: It’s really weird they thought that all; all the conservative justices are Federalist and the central tenant of the group (beyond the sanctity of Corporate Citizenship) is a literal, strict reading of the Constitution.
frosty
@Elizabelle: He’s new to me, because of the redistricting, but he’s been there awhile. He won re-election handily. I’m surprised he didn’t sign on with the rest of the 126.
SFAW
@Elizabelle:
Outstanding! Didn’t see any from MA.
[NB: Not-very-advanced students will get the joke.]
SFAW
@debbie:
Trump University School of Law, silly.
prostratedragon
@M31: If we could reconstitute him after each failure, we could keep going till we get it right, like Groundhog Day (which is what this is like anyway, she said unoriginally).
Geminid
@JPL: I read that a goal of the Georgia republicans next year is to gerrymander McBath’s and Bordeaux’ districts so as to knock one of them out. Kansas republicans will try to do the same to Sharice Davids.
germy
SFAW
@FelonyGovt:
Landsmann!
M31
@Spanky: ah yes, more of an energy expenditure problem than a ballistics calculation problem (in that the Earth is moving really fast so to head to the sun you have to counter that motion)
maybe practice on Trump, then work our way down through his various lackeys, and by the time we get to the end of the list we’ll have the problem solved
Elizabelle
Incidentally, South Dakota’s very own AG Jason Ravnsborg signed on to the seditious court pleading.
You may recall him, from running down a man walking along the side of a highway in September. And then going back to the scene the next day and — finding the body!
Investigation is almost complete. May have a decision on whether he is charged or not “before Christmas.”
M31
@Ken: ‘nuclear mortar” NOW we’re talking
germy
How are the “rising stars” of the republican party doing?
Geminid
@Elizabelle: Procrastinator that I am, I was late filing for a copyright. But I do live in a good place for skywatching.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
rikyrah
Ah,
To see the video of when Dolt45 realized that he had outlived his usefulness… And, what lifetime appointment means.?????
M31
OK, hear my out on this, I think it could work:
So set up a series of see-saws, and put a Trump-enabling traitor on each one; then, drop a Trump-enabling traitor from up a mile or so onto the first see-saw, thus propelling each successive Trump-enabling traitor higher than the last, and the final see-saw would have enough energy to reach the Sun.
Hmmm, not sure I took friction and air resistance into account here, but I think that much value will be gained in any case
OzarkHillbilly
This video sums up the GOPs efforts to overturn the election better than any column or blogpost ever could.
Chief Oshkosh
@mali muso: What is the postcard thing (intent, execution, etc.) and how do you sign up for it?
A Ghost to Most
@Jay:
Shit, you members of the Resistance Auxillary explicitly disavowed your participation long ago. Did you finally find your courage?
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: I hope that person never gets caught in an undertow.
rikyrah
@germy:
Uh huh
Uh huh?
PST
@Matt McIrvin: The description of Alito and Thomas having a bee in their bonnet about accepting all cases for filing when the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction is apt. However, it is justified to consider this a 9 to 0 victory. The dissenting statement says that the two justices would not grant any other relief. What the complaint seeks is this:
If the two justices would not have granted a stay or injunction to prevent the vote by the electoral college, let alone grant relief on the merits, then they were effectively turning plaintiffs down too. It is suspicious that it is those two, of course, but it is a position they have uniquely taken in cases having no particular partisan content.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: Even as I was laughing my ass off I was feeling very sorry for her.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: I laughed too. Although: got to admire her determination.
Cameron
I was a bit surprised that my rep, Vern Buchanan, wasn’t on the list. I don’t like him much and he’s pretty right-wing, but apparently he’s smarter than I thought.
prostratedragon
“I Can’t Get Started,” Billie Holiday
germy
Ceci n est pas mon nym
It’s hard to imagine there’s anything more they could damage. But they could indeed.
Of course while he squats in that chair, it’s not legally unauthorized. But the damage is real.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: I like how at the end she just throws up her hands… and falls again. Gets back up, throws up her hands… and falls again.Gets back up, throws up her hands… and falls again.
Gravenstone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I take the tweet as AZ GOP assuming (prior to the ruling) that the Trumplings would de facto support Hair Fuehrer. AZ Dems just rubbed their noses in that not being the outcome.
prostratedragon
@germy: Sad indeed. Sidney Powell: “I cannot confirm that Joshua Merritt is even Spider. “
sab
@Elizabelle: Thank you for that list. That was a lot of typing on your part.
Elizabelle
@sab: Glad you liked the list. Some surprises there (mostly, by absence).
Trust me, it was a straight cut and paste. Kudos to Ruth Marcus (or her intern!) for assembling that list of the seditious. Came from the WaPost story.
The Moar You Know
Nobody can tell me that didn’t make a difference to the outcome. There’s a lot I’d be willing to do outside my normal comfort zone just so as to not have to talk to that shitbag.
Omnes Omnibus
@mad citizen: All Alito and Thomas said was “Dudes, we think the rules mean we need to give you a pity hearing before we tell you to fuck off.”
Baud
@germy:
He’s not sad. He’s just as bad as the rest of them.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
So in totally non-political news, our first snowfall of the season is predicted for Wednesday. A couple of days ago the prediction was for 1-3″, then it shifted to 10″, and now 12″. I’m like a kid going crazy in anticipation.
Whenever there’s snow enough to support it, I like to go out and do a snow sculpture. It was a big thing where I came from. But I’m sure the neighbors think I’m nuts. Also it will likely melt by the weekend.
sab
@Elizabelle: Nevertheless, thank you.
Of course Bill Johnson ( OH 6) was on it. He just got reelected to Ted Strickland’s old seat. I was surprised Ohio didn’t have more. Only 4 plus Gym Jordan.
kindness
Republicans won’t lift a finger until after the Georgia Senate elections are over. And even then I’m not sure they’ll do what is right and throw down the 25th Amendment on Trump just to save us from lunacy with their finger on the nuclear codes.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: Please don’t accuse people of being Russian trolls just because you haven’t seen them before. I’ve seen that commenter here for years, and, indeed, a very quick Google search shows comments from at least as far back as 2011. Let’s not be McCarthyite.
philostopher
@sab: Even more surprised Steve Chabot wasn’t on the list. Nor was my rep, Mike Turner, but I was less surprised. He’s not the worst. Overall, other than Gym Jordan and some other farm-county reps like Brad Wenstrup (he has, IIRC, Clermont and Warren Counties, lots of soybean fields and not many people). Our AG wrote a brief protesting the case. Portman’s permanently in hiding. DeWine has no serious interest in putting his head in that noose. I still hate it that Ohio is so reliably red these days, and I’d never vote for any of them, but I feel like acknowledging when they’re not total hacks is probably the better part of valor…
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: They could have granted the motion then deny on the merits immediately. That’s what Thomas and Alito were saying. But I think the other seven wanted to cut off any such state fuckery in the future and just denied the motion to file. That said, I get the Alito/Thomas position.
There was a time, in the not too distant past (early ’80’s) when SCOTUS had appellate jurisdiction over criminal cases that presented constitutional law issues from state supreme courts on direct appeal. They would file and deny in one swift motion. Then, in 1988? Congress changed it to all-certiorari jurisdiction except for original jurisdiction cases (which includes habeas!)
Frankensteinbeck
@germy: and @Ceci n est pas mon nym:
What they MEAN is that his followers think there are huge files of proof that Hillary and Biden and Obama are criminals in league with Russia and so on and so on. That proof supposedly has not been given to the public solely because it is classified. The Deep State is protecting them, and so on. But if Trump stopped playing nice, told the Deep State to fuck off and he declassified it all, the public would see the truth and the Democrats would go to jail!
There have been signs that Trump has trouble grasping that this proof does not exist. He has ordered Barr to produce it multiple times, for example, and tried to get Hillary’s email server from Ukraine. But he for sure knows there’s evidence of his own criminality he needs to be careful not to expose.
The Moar You Know
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: There’s now a fourth: CUI (Controlled Unclassified Information). It’s unclassified information that going to be treated as classified as far as no release to the public, freedom from FOIA, etc. You don’t need a clearance to handle it but you will be subject to all the same penalties if you release it.
Not a Trump innovation, surprisingly enough. This is Obama’s baby.
Omnes Omnibus
@Immanentize: I was just translating into the vernacular. I think some people are trying to read too much into the Alito/Thomas position.
mali muso
@Chief Oshkosh: I write with Postcards to Voters. Link is here. They work with the campaigns to get the talking points (calls to action) that the campaign thinks is most effective and you can ask for as many addresses at a time that you have the supplies and time to complete. It may take a day to get approved as a writer. Join us!
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: Agreed! There really is no there to worry about.
Suzanne
@zhena gogolia: The Republican Party tweeted “Good morning!” with the pictures of the three, implying that the three Trump appointees would save their bacon. Then the Dems responded with “Good night!” after they did not. It’s taunting them for being LOO-HOO-HOO-ZERS.
mrmoshpotato
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Very happy for you (and your snowblower).
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne: LAH-WHO-ZAH-HERS!
The Moar You Know
@Omnes Omnibus: I liken the Thomas/Alito position as the same position that an ex-girlfriend of mine took to the unfortunate rise of the phrase “these ones”. Now, I get the problem, it’s bad English. But Christ, after the thousandth time of hearing her pedantically correct some poor hapless moron who’d crossed her path and used the phrase, I was ready to make sure someone put it on her tombstone just for spite.
The Thomas/Alito argument is no different. They believe, and WON’T SHUT UP ABOUT IT, that all original claims deserve a hearing. And every damn filing that the Court doesn’t take, those two shitbirds are always squawking that they should at least get a hearing. We get it. Shut the fuck up already.
Barbara
@PST: Just to amplify, the average citizen does not care at all about the narrow procedural point of whether the court is required to accept any case brought by one state against another. They do care if one state can challenge the election procedures of another. On that point, the vote was 9-0. Normally, in this kind of scenario, the two justices that wanted to “accept” the case would not have tipped their hand over how they would have ruled. So the fact that they said they would accept it and then rule that Texas had no justiciable interest in the election procedure of another state means that they agreed with the rest of their colleagues, they just differed procedurally on how they got to the same result. “No standing” (won’t take the case) versus “no justiciable interest” (standing via operation of constitutional provision and then immediately dismiss) is not exactly a large difference, at least not in this scenario.
ETA: Some of the briefs filed in this case are interesting, but one point I had not considered is that this arm of original jurisdiction has never extended to a state bringing an action on behalf of its own citizens (parens patriae jurisdiction). The provision extends only to situations where the putative interest being harmed is to the state itself, e.g., border and water rights disputes.
OzarkHillbilly
No! Really??? Why I never…
Immanentize
Pearls Before Swine.
Here is a very pleasant song:
Another Time
I went to law school with Tom Rapp.
Puddinhead
@frosty: Perry makes me miss Todd Platts.
catclub
This is a re-play of the Fugitive Slave Law, and guess which side the GOP is on? So actually quite consistent with ‘conservative’ principles.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@mrmoshpotato: Snowblower? Fie!
I don’t mind hand shoveling, it’s kind of fun (did I mention I’m a permanent kid about this stuff?). And I pile up the snow I shovel into one giant mound for the sculpture.
catclub
Yeah, classification is insidious – it always increases. You put enough unclassified information together and suddenly it requires classification.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:
shock/surprise re: Good
what a lowlife
MattF
@The Moar You Know: To be distinguished from FOUO, I suppose.
Yarrow
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Which ones. I can’t see that.
cwmoss
@debbie: Any stiff can get a law degree! Even I have one.
CaseyL
@Frankensteinbeck:
I see this cited a lot, but I’m not sure it’s true. There are specific circumstances under which the Speaker of the House becomes President, but I think those circumstances are only if the President and VP are killed/incapacitated at the same time
If the Electoral College is unable or unwilling to declare a winner in a Presidential Election, then the Presidency does NOT go to the Speaker of the House, but to the Senate President Pro Tem. And that is Chuck Grassley.
Cermet
@Frankensteinbeck: Here’s hoping you are correct.
rikyrah
@germy:
I have always thought that he and Jared are selling classified information?
raven
@Immanentize: Damn, one of my favs!
The Moar You Know
@MattF: Yeah, not the same thing at all.
@CaseyL: That is the law. We do not know if the Presidential Succession Act supersedes that or not, as that was written specifically for the event in which a President did not finish their term. I do not look forward to the possibility that this may get tested in court. I am reasonably sure the process would not end with a President Pelosi.
@rikyrah: Extremely unlikely, not because those two clowns wouldn’t (they’d do it in a heartbeat) but because why pay when you can get it for free? To say our national security information is very poorly guarded is an extreme understatement.
rikyrah
@germy:
Sadly, they have experience with this.
They are not new to receiving threats??
Jay
@A Ghost to Most:
???????WTF?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Obama didn’t invent the concept. I used to work in the Defense Dept, and there it was called “FOUO”, For Official Use Only. And other agencies had their own designations, and everybody had their own rules for applying the designation.
Obama found some huge number of such labels in use (I want to say 50+ but my memory may be faulty) and brought them all together under one unified label with one set of guidance.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: There seems to be some confusion about the relation between FOUO and CUI designations. But here’s one source.
https://isoo.blogs.archives.gov/2017/10/23/questions-and-answers-cui-program/
But to further the confusion:
The FOUO designation had several consequences, and exemption from FOIA requests was definitely one of them.
Immanentize
@raven: Really? Almost unheard of. Tom gave me his copy of Dylan’s “Don’t Look Back.”. Did you know Rapp beat Dylan in a guitar competition back in Hibbings?
raven
@Immanentize: I did not but I sure knew them. Reminded me of Tom Rush some.
Immanentize
@raven: I love how spacey, but serious they can be. Tom Rush — yeah like that.
Immanentize
@raven: Tom Rush had COVID — saw him on Boston TV.
https://youtu.be/R9Tp_4tPeHM
mrmoshpotato
Hahaha!
burnspbesq
@debbie:
I got two. It mostly takes discipline and a willingness to work hard. Smarts are nice, but optional.
Uncle Cosmo
@debbie: Discover’s been my go-to card for 25 years now. The only downside I ever found was not being able to use it in Europe, which they kindasorta rectified a few years back via an arrangement with Diners Club (there were some bugs at first).
Kathleen
@philostopher: I was shocked that my execrable rep Chabot didn’t sign on.
Miss Bianca
Pleased – if somewhat surprised – to see that my outgoing Representative, Scott Tipton, (CO-3) did not sign on. Resigned to the fact that my incoming nutjob Representative, Lauren Boebert, undoubtedly would have. This is gonna be a long two years…
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Just bumped into Rod Dreher’s Twitter feed and he sounds like a moderate Democrat, insulting and belittling today’s Hootenanny on the Hill.
When did that happen? I genuinely hated him in the past.
Uncle Cosmo
@Jeffro: Recall the Fundamental Law of Thuglicanism: Every accusation is a confession. He’s inciting his Loud Crowd B’hoys to come out with their penis extenders blazing & fuck some not-like-then people up.
If a single person gets hurt as a result of Orangecandyass’s tweets, the AG of the state in question ought to haul his flabby arse in & charge him as an accessory. And the courts should refuse him bail. Let him rot in a cell. Let the Cowed Buoys riot outside the prison & arrest all their arses for unlawful assembly. (“You may say I’m a dreamer/ But I’m not the only one…” :^D)
PST
@catclub:
That’s a very apt analogy. One of my go-to answers to idiots who claim that the Civil War was about states’ rights is to refer them to the formal secession documents from the seven original confederate states, or to the Cornerstone Speech, and just see how central the argument was that slave states were justified in exiting the union because the federal government wouldn’t drop the hammer on any northern state that tried to provide a bit of due process to its African-American residents whenever someone tried to haul them away under the guise of representing their “owners.” Then they claimed that federal law curtailed a state’s right to allow its Black citizens freedom; now they claim that federal law curtails a state’s right to allow its Black citizens to vote. (That is a slight exaggeration, but suppression of a degree of Black voter participation is the clear goal.)
CaseyL
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
He’s just embarrassed that they said the quiet part out loud. Dreher is anti-democratic, pro-theocratic (as long as it’s his specific brand of Xtianity!), and incredibly, possibly psychotically, obsessed with other peoples’ sex lives.
debbie
@Uncle Cosmo:
I did a balance transfer with Discover about 10 years ago when I buckled down and paid off all of my credit cards. Their terms were better than the others. I went with Amex just to force me to pay off the entire balance every month. I think/hope I can maintain that same discipline now that I’ve switched over to Discover. ?
frosty
@Puddinhead: Boy, you’re right about that! Platts was RW but he wasn’t RWNJ like Perry.
Speaking of PA Republicans, I miss Bill Scranton.
Ksmiami
@M31: just try the traitor trash and dump them in the North Atlantic… I’ve heard the sea temps at this time are a bit cold…
Ksmiami
@Uncle Cosmo: if they come for innocent people, they’ll get Molotov cocktails and car bombs in return. I’m not afraid of these candy assed psychos
Uncle Cosmo
I have every confidence that the spacecraft guidance gurus at NASA can work up a trajectory – probably involving a 3-cushion shot culminating in a gravitational assist around Hisanus…
PST
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: You can continue to hate Rod Dreher. He is an authentic nut case. He’s is okay on Trump’s loss, but he remains the kind of guy who can write entire books about how the real totalitarianism threatening us comes from social justice warriors.
Uncle Cosmo
@HinTN: Let me guess: Senior partner in Roe, Roe, Roe, Eurbote?
Baud
@PST:
The power of cancellation is one no mere mortal should possess.
SFAW
@M31:
Disclaimer: I am not a rocket scientist/surgeon, so this may be a dumb question: Would adding Moscow Mitch to the payload (or whatever the right term is) improve the viability of a sun shot? How about if Shill Barr, Wilbur Ross, Stephen Miller, and Gym Jordan (among others) were added?
Asking for a
friendnation.patrick II
@Barbara:
I am not sure that I like states not being able to bring cases for differences in national election laws. Not allowing one group or another to vote in some single state hurts not only that single state’s representation of that group, but diminishes the national voice of that group in national elections.
It’s not the way we do things, and it would be messy for awhile though.
debbie
@patrick II:
It’s not like Texas would let other states dictate what Texans can and can’t do. That’s what is the most maddening of all.
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
@MattF:
FOUO will no longer be used. CUI replaces it.
patrick II
@debbie:
That we agree on. And even worse, Texas did the same thing they are accusing others of (non-legislatively change some rules to adjust for coronavirus) and they aren’t suing themselves because Trump won there.
Spanky
@SFAW:
I’m working on a rocket motor that will use them for fuel, even as I obsessively refresh BJ.
bcw
@juliaioffe who said:
When you lost the election a month ago, but still find ways to lose over and over again, almost daily, for the entire month thereafter—I think there’s a Hanukkah joke in there somewhere.
Does that mean someone has to make a dumpster-fire menorah?
sab
@Kathleen: Me too.He’s not my rep, but he was among the many Ohio reps I would have expected to sign on.
sab
@burnspbesq: I am living proof of that.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@CaseyL: If the office of President and Vice President are unoccupied, the Speaker becomes President. The circumstances are irreverent. The only time the President Pro Tem of the Senate would become President is if there was no Speaker. Now, since the House is not a permanent body like the Senate is, that could occur if there was no election and no new House. There was an election and we will have a new House on Jan. 3.
Uncle Cosmo
Actually the CU classification would’ve come in handy in 2004 when I was a contractor to the DoD Base Realignment and Closing (BRAC) process. Nothing about what we were doing was classified, but it was so sensitive it was treated as top secret (couldn’t take data outside the offices to work on even if your PC could run rings around theirs, etc.). Congresscritters were desperate to get their hands on our work so they could get a jump on raising hell if a facility in their territory was on the chopping block, whereas the BRAC process was designed to present the Congress with a single across-the-board solution, no nickel&diming allowed. /trivia
Frank Wilhoit
@philostopher: The Ohio Democratic Party has been like a (non-venomous) jellyfish eating itself tentacles-first for decades. The last time it showed any life or competence was when Dick Celeste was Governor. I cannot imagine what it would take to improve this situation.
debbie
@sab:
Now that you mention it, I’m surprised Troy Balderson didn’t sign on. He replaced Pat Tiberi and has turned into even more of a lap dog.
Another Scott
@Ken: Yikes.
The physics of those tests was fascinating, but the implications were horrifying. :-(
(A former colleague’s father worked in some capacity on the Manhattan Project. He died early of some sort of cancer and the family was able to get some compensation from a fund Congress set up decades later. Some estimates put the number of excess US deaths from nuclear testing at 340,000.)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Soprano2
I’m not surprised to see that my rep Billy Long (R-Well-Fed) signed on in the second batch. He’s definitely a follower, not a leader.
mrmoshpotato
So. Much. Winning.
Hey Donnie Dipshit, are you gonna try to “open up the libel laws” in the next month, you loser?
debbie
@mrmoshpotato:
Silly judge. Trump didn’t speak up before the election because he intended to use it to dispute the results.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: Haha. I know. :)
But did he plan to use the results to be called a loser over 55 times?
Sm*t Cl*de
@germy:
Your president is promising that if his coup succeeds, something will happen to his opponent and his opponent’s family.
How many of his supporters are happy with this general principle?
Bill Arnold
@zhena gogolia:
Please don’t be so hair-triggered. That nym has posted since 2009. (I have a full (large) site crawl, fwiw.)
Misinformation; there were a lot of people posting on twitter that it was 7-2, perhaps some of them disinformation operators, but it was an easy mistake to make. Since it’s only a couple of paragraphs, people should just read it. But not everyone did; I’ve similarly personally explained that it was 9-0 a couple of other places (than balloon-juice).
germy
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
Primarily so that he could say “No loser! YOU’RE the LOSER!!” 55 times. Of course, by around the eleventh time, he’ll start saying it worng.
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: SAD!
Ivan X
@Uncle Cosmo: Discover’s cards are fine, but they do something sneaky, or at least used to, if you carry a balance — they calculate the APR over two months, so even if you significantly reduce it in one month, you’re still stuck with another ugly interest payment the next. Of course, if you’re going to carry a balance, you’re much better off with a low APR credit union card anyway, or a balance transfer to a card with 12-18 months 0% APR for balance transfers and no balance transfer fee.
Misterpuff
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The AZ GOP tweet was Friday morning anticipating Morning in Amerika Starring Hair Furor. Timestamp is AM.
AZ Dems point out aftermath in evening. Democracy has a cigarette. Was it good for you too?