President-elect Joe Biden said many of America’s security agencies were ‘hollowed out’ under President Trump and the lack of information being provided to his transition team by the outgoing administration was an ‘irresponsibility’ https://t.co/40yc4okBEU pic.twitter.com/krODqgJ1GY
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 29, 2020
Per the Washington Post:
… With less than a month before Inauguration Day, Biden has been laying the groundwork for how to tackle the gargantuan twin challenges that he will face as soon as he assumes the presidency — ending the coronavirus pandemic and rebuilding the economy. He has steadily filled vacancies in his Cabinet and in senior positions in his government, which will take over at noon on Jan. 20.
He has been met with remarkable resistance from Trump, who has refused to concede the election and has continued attempting to overturn the results. Trump blocked any transition efforts outright for more than two weeks before relenting, at least initially. He has declined to say whether he will attend Biden’s inauguration, and the incoming team planning the event assumes he will not…
On Monday, Trump continued to tweet conspiracy theories about the election — at one point retweeting a view that opponents were guilty of “treason” — and spent much of the day at his private golf club in Florida.
Meanwhile, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris attended a virtual briefing with 15 national security and foreign policy advisers, including several would-be Cabinet nominees. In comments that followed, Biden said the advisers told him that many of the agencies critical to national security have sustained “enormous damage” during the Trump administration.
“Many of them have been hollowed out in personnel, capacity and in morale, in the policy processes that have atrophied or have been sidelined, in the disrepair of our alliances . . . in the general disengagement from the world,” Biden said. “And all of that makes it harder for our government to protect the American people, to defend our vital interests in a world where threats are constantly evolving and our adversaries are constantly adapting.”…
Biden said Monday that most government agencies have shown “exemplary cooperation” with his transition team, especially given the challenges of the pandemic and the Trump administration’s effort to stall conversations, but that his staffers have encountered “obstruction from political leadership” when they could not afford to waste any time. He noted that four years ago, he and then-President Barack Obama gave the incoming Trump-Pence administration “access to all that we had.”
In raising concerns about the transition, Biden was careful to distinguish between political appointees in the agencies and the career professionals who he said had cooperated fully…
He’s absolutely earned some gloating rights, given that few if any candidates were as chronically underestimated as him by the media. He was far ahead in primary polls for a year and the media simply brushed it off. https://t.co/oZsQCNT0Fo
— Tentin Quarantino (@agraybee) December 28, 2020
… Recounting his successful efforts to help get the Recovery Act passed in 2009, Biden pointedly said, “I’m going to say something outrageous. I’m not bad at this because people know whatever I tell them, I will do. I’ll keep my word.” But Biden knows his policy agenda won’t be to everyone’s liking. Some of those folks are unreachable.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to get, you know, anyone, from the Proud Boys to some of our really, really strident Republicans, 20 of whom I’m told in the Senate don’t want to vote for anything. … I’m not going to get those folks,” Biden admitted before adding, “I don’t have to get those folks, I don’t think.” For the president-elect, it’s all about making the case.
“I think there’s a case that can be made that demonstrates that everything from racial equity to environmental progress to plain old jobs can be had in a way that everybody can sign on to,” said Biden, who knows that all of his goals won’t be easy to attain. The difficulty doesn’t bother him in the least. “It’s the only reason I ran,” Biden said…
Baud
Already admitting failure.
Great snippets, AL. I wish I had heard Biden live. Saw someone on MJ this morning complaining about Biden’s messaging about the stimulus check. Pissed me off that people don’t recognize that he knows what he’s doing.
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
oatler.
Feel the Bern :(
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/28/bernie-sanders-filibuster-delay-defense-veto-override-451697
Baud
I’ve said this before, but I continue to love the fact that Trump made a bunch of stupid demands on the stimulus, and all of that has been ignored except for the $2000 checks.
I took a negotiation course once that was three hours long, and one of the points they made sure to cover was that you never offer a laundry list of demands and concessions, because the other side will simply accept the concessions and ignore the rest.
The course was not entitled Art of the Deal though.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: A lot of people are invested in the pov that he doesn’t.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
As a general matter, I disagree with the internet consensus that leadership always means getting on the soapbox and rousing the masses. Sometimes it does mean stepping back and giving other people space to do the work. But that makes criticism more complicated, and less tweetable.
debbie
That quote cited by John Rentoul is brilliant!
debbie
@Baud:
Sometimes it also means stepping back and letting your opponents punch themselves in their faces. I’m looking forward to that!
Anne Laurie
@oatler.: From what I’m seeing, Senator Sanders may finally have found his niche…
OzarkHillbilly
I hate that rah rah bullshit, but it feels like most people eat it up.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
It has its place, but it only gets you so far.
Geminid
In the NDAA override vote yesterday evening, 66 Republicans voted to sustain trump’s veto, compared to 40 who voted against the bill earlier this month. On the Democratic side, 20 voted to sustain the veto, compared to 37 who voted against the bill originally.
My understanding is that the Corporate Transparency Act contained in the NDAA will apply to existing corporations, not just new ones. I’m hoping this law will hit trump where it hurts.
Spanky
@OzarkHillbilly: Thinking people don’t!
So yeah, most people do.
Spanky
@Baud: It got Trump to the White House. That’s pretty far.
(Assumes one considers demagoging as a form of leadership.)
NotMax
Media respite FYI.
Coming on Friday to Netflix; looks as if could be fun (although expect something like 70% of the cultural references will sail right over this gray Western head), Whatever Happened to Mr. Cha? Article — Trailer
Geminid
@Geminid: The NDAA also included language barring further withdrawals of U.S. troops from Germany. The trump administration announced plans this summer to remove 12,000 of the 36,500 troops stationed in Germany, furthering it’s policy of weakening NATO.
Gin & Tonic
I like this Biden guy.
trnc
@Gin & Tonic: Right Hook Biden is my favorite Biden.
Ramalama
I like the way Joe’s Biden his time till he gets sworn in.
sab
CW for the past four years has been that Republicans in Congress are afraid of Trump and do whatever he says. Nonsense. Aside from the racism Trump has never had a policy agenda. He just wants to maximize attention.
Whatever has come out of the Senate is McConnell’s agenda, not Trump’s. Trump usually went along since he frankly didn’t care, and when he didn’t he ended up being the one to back down.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
The Kremlin’s Bitch of the Dumbass
schrodingers_cat
@sab: Legislatively the Orange ?? has been a weak President. Your comment nails it.
Uncle Cosmo
The four-year run of Malice in Blunderland closes in 22 days, 3 hours, 23 minutes and counting…
Dorothy A. Winsor
We couldn’t have a better incoming president to undo Trump’s damage because Biden has been here before. He knows how things are supposed to work (which Trump still doesn’t know).
PsiFighter37
Curious as to who Biden has in mind for CIA and AG – seem to be the 2 most conspicuous posts he has not yet announced nominees for. My hunch: if Democrats win both GA seats, he will nominate Yates; if they do not, he will nominate Jones (for the AG seat). I suspect he is having trouble with CIA because the left continues to make noise about anything that stuff Obama or Bush may have done that they do not like. Michael Morell would have been a perfectly fine director and would have had the respect of the folks working there. Why he was torpedoed, I am not sure I understand fully.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Next you’re gonna say bullshit slogans can only get you so far. :(
Soprano2
I think this is true when it comes to the “culture war” issues like racism. When it comes to policy, if Republicans disagree with Trump (like the $600 checks, or the defense bill) they don’t have any trouble at all going against him.
Luciamia
Oh, Trump will be at the inauguration. Wearing A 2024 t-shirt, eating a cheeseburger and waving at the camera.
Baud
@Spanky:
No doubt the Republicans are more susceptible to it than the Democrats. But the GOP doesn’t really have a policy agenda anymore.
germy
New York Times headline tomorrow, probably:
“I don’t think” Biden Says
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
OT, and NYT, but I thought of you when I saw this article on Patwardhan:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/magazine/india-documentary-anand-patwardhan.html
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Can you please give us a Trigger Warning before you write stuff like that? I was so shocked, I had to find my nitro pills. Next you’ll tell me there’s gambling in this establishment.
mrmoshpotato
Have the Proud Trash considered pool noodle rafts on the Potomac?
Immanentize
@Luciamia: my prediction is Trump will hold an alternate inauguration on the White House lawn before Biden’s inauguration at noon.
SFAW
@Baud:
Which made you a better negotiator than the Murderer-in-Chief. Hell, a three-minute course would have done that
Amir Khalid
@oatler.:
Bernie’s gotta Bern, right? No tactical discipline, always playing to the crowd.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
I find it appalling that your suggestion is actually plausible.
JHC, I hope I live long enough to see Trump and his family in jail, as paupers, or both.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize:
Narrator: This is not a thing, but a loser dumbshit like Dump might just try it.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
I dunno, it seems like a semi-reasonable way to try to get Traitor Turtle to hold a vote on the $2000. I thought the conventional “wisdom” was that Moscow Mitch would prevent it from getting to the floor, thus not forcing Perdue and Loeffler to take a position which might lose them votes.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding/misreading things; wouldn’t be the first time.
HinTN
@Baud:
We could all do with a lot more of that.
geg6
@Soprano2:
Nah, they are with him on the culture war stuff. If you are a Republican, you are automatically a bigot who loves some autocracy. Seems to be their reason for living.
Immanentize
Well, 2020 is ending like 2020 for me — My FiL, the Immp’s remaining Grand Father, was put into the hospital yesterday with extreme exhaustion. NOT Covid!!! Yay! But rather his cancer, which was in remission earlier this year, has decided to breakout and spread quickly.
Because of Covid, no hospital visits for my BiL. We will know more later today hopefully.
Joe and Jill need to turn things around very fast including finding the secret CIA/NSA file with the cancer cure.
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
I’d like them to do a test run on the upper Kennebec. Especially after the snow melt starts.
Baud
@Immanentize: Sorry to hear it. Hoping for the best.
Amir Khalid
@Immanentize:
I hope the media covers both the “inauguration” and the subsequent humiliating removal of the pretender president by White House security.
Baud
@geg6: Right. The culture war has been their bread and butter since Nixon. Trump took what was already there and turbocharged it.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
Oy. Best wishes to/for your FiL.
Baud
@SFAW: It’s appalling, but it’s also pathetic. That’s how the right would play it if a Dem tried it, and I think we should follow their example in this instance.
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: White water pool noodling?
SFAW
@Immanentize:
After pondering this a few seconds more, I figured that Fuckhead will tweet out how his (2017) inauguration had more attendees than Biden’s
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
You got it. I seem to recall that the Kennebec can get pretty rough in Spring.
ETA: Although I expect MomSense and Davis X have better info than I.
Amir Khalid
Eine kleine Techfrage: What do you guys recommend for an open-source, ad-free media player?
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: I’ll take covering Dump getting thrown out of our House. To hell with covering whatever Inauguration Day stunt the fucking orange fascist puts on.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: So sorry. Sometimes you just want to cry “enough”!
prostratedragon
@mrmoshpotato: This is wonderful. Harry’s Restaurant in the hotel as well.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: Like you, I have no problem with Bernie doing this.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: VLC.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Another side order of shit.
Baud
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
Which will be true, as far as the bald statement goes, since Biden’s people are not contemplating any events attended by big crowds.
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
What about Media Player Classic?
Baud
Expect tweets.
PsiFighter37
@Baud: Looks like Obama would have won again, but with Biden now being president-elect, he siphoned off enough votes to drop Barack into second.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: Don’t know that one unless you’re talking about Windows Media Player and just being ridiculous.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Fake poll. No way she’s as popular as him.
dmsilev
@Baud: He’ll probably say that there’s no way such an admired person could have possibly lost the election, so RIGGED FRAUD!
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
Bernie’s move is likely not going anywhere unless Senate Democrats back him up. This would have a better chance, I reckon, if it were Chuck Schumer pushing it.
Soprano2
I think a lot of them are with him, but they like it better when it’s disguised the way they used to do it rather that right out in the open. They used to be willing to repudiate the occasional out in the open appeal to racism, but since Trump they are notably silent now whenever that happens, because it happens all the time due to Trump. They don’t have a way to repudiate the really awful things he says and still do the “wink wink nod nod” stuff to the base. That’s what I meant, they are unwilling to even do the pro forma stuff of repudiating outright racism, homophobia, misogyny, and religious bigotry.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Immanentize:
I’m so sorry to hear that about your FIL. Cancer is awful
Baud
@PsiFighter37: Yeah, plus Trump has a cult following. They add up, as we’ve seen. Unlike Obama, I doubt Trump has staying power.
Soprano2
I had a friend post on FB that Melania saves the government money because she only has 5 people on staff, as opposed to the 44 Michelle Obama had. I told him that’s because Melania doesn’t do anything! LOL
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t remember ordering this side?! And yet, it is delivered faster than a USPS package.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’ve been yelling “enough” for a while, now. No effect.
Baud
@Amir Khalid: The Dems aren’t going to back him up in the sense of trashing the defense bill completely, as opposed to just delaying the vote. Bernie’s gambit is that he can force McConnell to hold a vote on the checks by threatening to keep the Senators in DC over the weekend. That’s it.
mrmoshpotato
@Soprano2: Fuck Christmas!
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
Media Player Classic is an open-source version of WMP, Apparently well-regarded, but upon looking it up I see that it hasn’t been updated in three years. Is that a dealbreaker?
dmsilev
@Soprano2: Wikipedia lists seven ‘key staff members’, and presumably there are more lower-level staffers as well, so ‘5’ is arrant bullshit.
Edit. Your FB friend is repeating an old right-wing meme from the early part of Trump’s administration before Melania Trump’s staff was fully built out. And it magically doubled the size of Michelle Obama’s staff. The real number for the latter was around 25, which was typical for her immediate predecessors as well.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: I personally would avoid something that was seemingly abandoned three years ago. :)
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Second vote for VLC.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Boy, you’ve had your share. Wishing him, and your BIL and you, all the best.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: What with all the shit sandwiches you’ve been getting served, maybe you should consider a different deli?
Gin & Tonic
Since, for many of us, it is winter…
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@mrmoshpotato: I hate this because the Harrington is one of our favorite places to stay in DC.
It is unfortunately a block away from the Trump Monstrosity. Why can’t the Proud Boys stay there?
The Proud Boys aren’t their fault, it’s one more case of employees who know better having to deal with unmasked superspreader assholes (but I repeat myself) in order to keep their job.
Frankensteinbeck
@oatler.:
I don’t see a problem. The Defense Act is the one that could probably be delayed a few days without killing anyone. It’s not like he’s reducing the chance it passes. Increasing the chance the $2,000 stimulus increase is passed is worth it. Even a small increase in odds.
@Immanentize:
I’m going to confess: I knew that Trump would try every way to cheat and overturn the election. I knew that he would not concede. This is standard malignant narcissist stuff. I saw it coming long before the election, and so did a lot of other people.
Trump has still gone past my expectations. I was expecting “You cheated” and not staging a military coup only because the military would not even consider cooperating. I was expecting him to be an absolutely zero cooperation asshole about the transition. I was not expecting the extent to which he clearly believes the most insane conspiracy theories and in particular I was not expecting his declarations that he’s going to keep being president. Narcissists are usually willing to go with “I would have won if it was fair.” I’m still pretty sure he’s too cowardly, but him actually having to be escorted out of the White House is becoming plausible, even reasonably likely.
Interesting side effect: He just might refuse to destroy the evidence of his crimes because that would be admitting he’s leaving.
We’ll have to see. January 6th is another big break point that wild, desperate speculations that This One Weird Trick might overturn the election have been attached to.
germy
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@SFAW: Your really good negotiation courses don’t have a set ending time. You only get out when you successfully negotiate an exit with the instructor.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Seconding the recommendation for Videolan’s VLC above. The reliable gold standard of free media players, IMHO, for quite some time. Small footprint devoid of fancy-schmancy bells and whistles, and non-intrusive. Linky.
Jay
@Immanentize:
fuck cancer,
so sorry.
danielx
@Baud:
Well…tax cuts and deregulation, both of which benefit rich oligarchs.
narya
@Baud: I saw his interview on Colbert last week, and was interested to see that he regards some Rs as . . . having betrayed a personal friendship w/ him (Lady G in particular). I think that, and the comment above, are progress, actually, rather than admitting failure. I guess I don’t think it’s admitting failure to say, these fascist tools aren’t ever going to support the steps the rest of us know we have to take to rebuild the economy, etc. It marginalizes them in a useful way. but we’ll see.
debbie
@Immanentize:
So sorry to read of this crap news.
NotMax
@NotMax
Will add that have been using it, with no complaints, as the default player for both video and music since at least as far back as WinXP.
The only thing I don’t care for is the default desktop icon. But desktop icons are super easy to change and swap out for something more appealing.
Kristine
@Immanentize: damn this year. Good thoughts for you and yours.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
He’s gonna see that 18% ranking and huff it like one of his own farts.
Wonder what idiot selected the list?
Frank McCormick
@OzarkHillbilly: Which is why way too many people (who should no better) put so much faith in the attendance to and enthusiasm for Trump Rallies.
Soprano2
@dmsilev: Figured it was complete bullshit, but didn’t even care to Google it, because you can’t get through to them with facts.
Barbara
@Baud: One reason they are ignoring everything else is that many of the items he is complaining about were part of the White House annual budget request. He requested them. So, in an art of the deal kind of analysis, it would be like entering into a deal that required the seller to remove everything on the existing property prior to closing, and then, just before closing, accusing the seller of devaluing the property by removing everything that was already there and demanding a price concession. In other words, totally bad faith. But then, it would not surprise me in the least that Trump had no real idea of what his own budgetary requests had been way back in June.
Baud
@narya:
FWIW, my “admitting failure” comment was facetious.
Geminid
@Baud: Its hard to predict trump’s status after he leaves the Presidency as there are no very analogous precedents. But it’s kind of fun, so here I go: 1) within the Republican party, trump will more or less successfully try to maintain his power, but his will be a negative influence. 2) for the U.S. population generally, trump will be like a particularly toxic radioisotope with a half life somewhere between 10 and 20 months. In three years, he’ll only make the news when a) there is an important development in a civil or criminal case against him, or b) the trump organization sells another high profile asset, say, his Scottish golf course. His predictable teasing of a 2024 presidential run notwithstanding.
Mary G
@Immanentize: You have had a time of it. I’m sorry another of your loved ones is in the hospital. Fuck cancer.
jonas
@Soprano2: I see the MAGAts are also whining that Melania never got featured on Vogue or other major fashion magazines despite being so obviously hawt, whereas Michelle Obama got a cover like every week or something. Liburul bias!
Well, editors want to sell magazines, so they’re going to put whatever sells on the cover. Michelle Obama was smart, glamorous, and a role model for millions of women and girls. Vapid trophy wives whose faces have been botoxed into oblivion and are horrible human beings to boot tend not to make copies fly off the newsstand racks, so to speak.
jonas
@Geminid: That sounds about right to me. I’m really hoping he successfully hamstrings the GOP to the extent that no viable candidate can really gain enough momentum going into 2024. If he can’t run himself, he’s going to try to foist Ivanka on them and then all hell will break lose.
schrodingers_cat
@Immanentize: Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.
Amir Khalid
@Immanentize:
Wishing for the best for your father-in-law.
Frankensteinbeck
@jonas:
Ivanka? HA HA HA HA. Trump’s appeal is specifically that he’s a deranged, stupid, ranting, openly and frothingly racist asshole. His children are boring. All of them. None of them will be able to bring out the evangelical white supremacy vote, much less the Nazis.
I mean, he’s dumb enough to believe she could be his political heir, but she has none of what makes him appealing to the GOP base.
danielx
@Immanentize:
Forget it, Jake, it’s 2020. Fuck cancer, and hoping for the best.
Ken
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: That’s also the approach taken by XKCD’s cybersecurity final exam.
Frankensteinbeck
So, the Sanders crowd think Sanders is responsible for the $2,000 push and that he is strong-arming mainstream Democrats into it. Krugman, of all people, is claiming Democrats are divided on this. It is truly one of the most dependable rules of American politics that Democrats can’t get credit for what they do.
germy
germy
Amir Khalid
@Frankensteinbeck:
In particular, it’s hard to imagine Jewish convert Ivanka having much appeal to a bigoted white “evangelical Christian” base.
Suzanne
Not sure if anyone got a chance to read this follow up with Arlie Russell Hochschild, who wrote the wonderful Strangers in Their Own Land. I feel like she has better insight than most.
“Hochschild is telling us that Trumpism is not just a garland of public-policy proposals that any other Republican can drape around his or her neck. And it is more complex than a personality trait, or a talent for saying mean stuff on Twitter. Rather, Trumpism is an emotional planet that orbits around Trump’s star. Breaking the connection between Trump and the better part of the GOP will require either that Trump disappears (an unlikely proposition) or that a larger star emerges from the Republican backbench (also unlikely).”
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
Based on what???
@Frankensteinbeck:
This, along with holding Dems responsible for GOP actions, is the reason we can’t have nice things.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: He wanted to make sure Biden couldn’t easily reverse the move.
Punchy
Did you hear that, sometime in mid- to late-Jan, Biden is going to cause/allow over 330K Americans to die because of a virulent, oft-deadly viral strain of coronavirus? The virus, currently no worse than mild flu, is expected to very rapidly mutate (again, some time around mid-Jan) into an extremely dangerous viral agent, something that Biden’s team has not accounted for, and the Real Merkin Patriots will be doing their part to broadcast this failure all across the country so that everyone is aware of this scourge and Biden’s complicity in the whole affair.
germy
@jonas:
Suzanne
@Amir Khalid: Oh, the evangelicals LOOOOOVE Ivanka. They love to have a couple of token Jews around. Converts are better, in their mind, makes them feel a little bit less inferior. Evangelicals are all for the Jews until the Rapture.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
Vogel and others are working on their first drafts of “Biden raises taxes of working Americans” stories as we speak.
As soon as Biden is sworn in, they’ll hit SEND.
sab
@Frankensteinbeck: Don’t the Proud Boy and Nazi types like Don Jr nearly as much as his dad? His only problem is he doesn’t have the Apprentice fan base.
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly: The part that’s escaping me is that if the 67 votes are there to override the veto, there should be 60 votes to end the filibuster. Unless there are 8 Senators who for some reason want the bill dead, but don’t want their fingerprints on it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Frankensteinbeck: that’s a strange thread, Krugman says it’s divisive, but he doesn’t give any indication of who’s divided. I think the Dems were near-unanimous on the $2K checks (I know Lipinski bragged about voting against it). He seems to be talking about a divide among left-leaning pundits, and maybe economists, not so much elected Dems.
Ken
If the GOP can find a way to make it happen and make it look like the Democrats are responsible, Trump’s half-life will be measured in hours.
(I’m taking “Trump disappears” literally – or rather in the mob-metaphorical sense – though I’m sure the original commenter didn’t mean it that way.)
Suzanne
@jonas: Ivanka really wants to be President, apparently. But she’s DOA to everyone she really needs to put together a coalition, because the pretty princess is not going to get the “poorly educated” rural blue-collar white dude vote, and those people are all in for Trump. Can you see any of those people voting for Mrs. Jared?
I don’t think any of the kids have what it takes to go far in politics. Don Jr. might get himself a Senate seat somewhere and then resign after half a term. They all want to cash in.
Jinchi
Trump is more likely to gun somebody down on 5th avenue and pardon himself on the spot than he is to attend Biden’s inauguration. He wouldn’t have attended Hillary’s in 2016 if she had edged him out, either. He will never acknowledge a rival’s victory. I realize the press has to ask the question in hopes of an official answer, but I worry that they still haven’t realized who this man is yet.
Suzanne
@Immanentize: Oh Lord. I’m so sorry. Hugs to your FIL, and to you, and Immp. And one more time, with feeling: FUCK 2020.
narya
@Baud: :-) Thank you for clarifying–I truly didn’t realize that. And you’re still one of my favorite commenters.
germy
@sab:
I don’t know. I remember (was it last year?) Don Jr. being booed at some rally he’d put together.
Immanentize
THANK YOU all for your supportive thoughts. Send them to Richmond Texas….
Meanwhile, it is true that Bernie won’t be able to filibuster for very long. But I believe the rules will give him three days? I think it’s three…. My guy:
NeenerNeener
@Amir Khalid:
Plus, Don Jr will fight Vanky tooth and nail for the nomination. Maybe they could have a cage match on Pay-Per-View.
sab
@germy: Wonderful. My impression is that in Israel you really can’t own land outright as in America. Everyone lives in some sort of cooperative housing like kibbuztim, moshavs, condos, homeowner associations. Except if you can get some overseas billionaire to buy it for you. So Sharon got to have his own fancy ranch complex near Beersheva, and now Adelson has his beachfront place in Tel Aviv.
zhena gogolia
@Barbara:
I had a landlord who told me, “Anything you don’t want to take with you, just pile in the middle of the rooms. I have a guy who’ll haul it away for $100.” So we paid him $100 and left all the junk in the middle of each room to be hauled away.
Then he came to me when I was cleaning on the last day and said, “Don’t worry about that, we’re going to repaint everything anyway.” So I left.
Then he videotaped the whole apartment and the “mess” we’d left, and refused to give back our $1200 security deposit. I’ll never be that naive again.
germy
germy
@sab:
Another happy ending.
Dorothy A. Winsor
For those of you who know things, is Space Force going to go away in the Biden administration? I’ve been assuming this is something Biden can undo.
Suzanne
@Ken: Well, it was the writer of that Atlantic piece who said it, following up with Arlie Russell Hochschild a few years after her book, in which she wrote about “the deep story” the the Trumpy people tell themselves. I think they meant “disappear” as in “recede from public life”.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
And risk the cries of how “Biden lost Mars”? No way.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken: You are of course right, but I still have no problem with Bernie making them vote on it. Of course they will say they weren’t voting against the $2k but for the defense bill and their acolytes will swallow that, but a lot of folks who could have used another $1400 might think and then remember in 2022.
Frankensteinbeck
@sab:
Nope. Not even close. They like him as much as they like any other mouthpiece loyally spouting pro-Trump slogans. They often praise such people as heroes, but exclusively in that role of lieutenants carrying out their real champion’s will.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud:
a lot of people care more about performative righteousness than results, and they’re over-represented on twitter and in the media, so we get the phenomenon
HayesKrugman and Yglesias are talking about, and Medhi Hassan being brought in to sub for Chris Hayes. It’s like Hayes left his id behind while he took his vacation.Actual Dem voters, as always, aren’t really well represented on twitter
OzarkHillbilly
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Krugman has also said he thinks they should increase the extra UE as opposed to giving $2K to people who don’t need it.
Geminid
@Suzanne: Evangelicals seem to romanticize, even idealize Jewish Israelis. They are more ambivalent about Jewish Americans. But the non-evangelical component of trump’s base is rife with antisemitism, and Jared Kushner is a particular focus of their animus.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@OzarkHillbilly: right, but he implies it’s divisive among Dems, and I don’t see that. Could just be that, like me, he’s typing while under-caffeinated
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: I’d be sorely tempted after that.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
I’m really sorry to hear about your FIL. Fuck fucking cancer and COVID.
I hit a dark place about politics. I saw soooo many young people, former students, friends, fiber friends, friends of my kids, and random “progressive” people on twitter and Instagram all bashing Pelosi for the $600 relief checks. I will never forget or forgive Wilmer for the way he has ruined young people’s understanding of politics and perceptions of the Democratic Party – all in service of his wealth and ego.
My whole life the pattern has been that Republican administrations make a mess (it gets exponentially worse with every Republican administration) and then the Democratic administration works miracles to clean up the messes only to be punished by the left for not delivering enough. In spite of it all we manage to make incremental progress which we must then defend from attacks and in the process watch our progress chipped away at. Then we re-elect a Republican administration, rinse repeat.
I guess I hoped that after the last four years of exposure to the Republican Party’s sadistic death cult, some of the leftier than thou might have learned some perspective. Nope. I honestly couldn’t tell the trumpers from the wilmerites.
I gave up on the righties a long time ago, but what do we do about the “woke” white progressives? Yelling at my devices isn’t accomplishing anything. I really regret deciding not to move to Norway when I had the chance.
Mary G
@jonas: @germy: The thing is, fashion magazines don’t just put people on their cover for nothing. It’s always linked to an interview. Melania doesn’t do interviews.
Plus there’s no way putting her on the cover doesn’t turn off many regular readers, and it’s probably not going to inspire impulse buys at the supermarket checkout line.
ETA: and her taste in clothing is boring af. Michelle Obama had it right wearing young unknown designers who had some different ways of thinking.
Amir Khalid
@Suzanne:
I have no doubt they like their token Jews, in that sense. But to see one such having power over them might be more than they can take.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I doubt it, the Space Farce has support in the military.
Suzanne
@Geminid:
Agree 100%. But I have heard nothing but praise for Ivanka and Jared from the Evangelicals. I remember there was even some Evangelical pastor who said that they were CHOSEN, “Leave it to Jesus to use a Jewish couple to change history”, or some other absolutely disgusting bullshit.
In my experience, the Evangelicals tend to be more comfortable with converts to Judaism than with actual Jewish people. I have my thoughts as to why that is.
Frankensteinbeck
@Geminid:
They see Israel as their proxy in exterminating Muslims/Arabs (they don’t know there’s a difference). This overrides the fact that they see Jews as evil baby-eaters who are deservedly going to Hell. I have seen that mask slip and had it directed at me. Some of them make an exception to the extent that they treat converting heathens like big game hunting, so they love to try to sweet talk Jews into accepting Jesus.
Suzanne
@Mary G: Melania doesn’t even have style. She has money, which is not the same thing.
WaterGirl
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: For real? Or are you being funny?
MomSense
@Mary G:
Her taste is tacky and she doesn’t wear clothes well. You rarely see runway models with pron boobs. It doesn’t work.
Geminid
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The Space Force is created by legislation, the last NDAA I believe. But Biden can make it a token headquarters. He’ll have to withstand pressure from the Colorado congressional delegation, though, since they want a substantial Space Force headquarters in Colorado Springs.
Did you know there is a Space Force March?
Suzanne
@Frankensteinbeck: Some of the Evangelical crowd also believes that the Second Coming won’t happen until “the Jews rule Israel”. And THEN the Jews will go to Hell and they’ll be done.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Yuppers. Easier to make a living marketing false teeth for hens than to axe a military program.
Suzanne
@MomSense: She doesn’t have a good personality, so she doesn’t have any style. Style is expressive. There’s nothing to express there.
Frankensteinbeck
@Suzanne:
Melania’s entire look is what Trump wants it to be. I don’t have a problem with her being a sex worker. Marrying for money is definitely not the worst job in the world. It is entirely separate from her being a heartless, entitled asshole. But I recognize that her public and private image is a major part of the job, possibly the biggest part with a narcissist like Trump as her employer.
EDIT – @Suzanne:
Absolutely true. The Rapturists are fucking nuts, but they are real and they are at least a double digit percentage of the US population. That’s inextricably tied to their loving seeing Israel murder Muslims, though. Jews not only need to rule Israel, they need to start WW3 against Muslims to fulfill the prophecies.
Soprano2
In general, women wanted to read interviews with Michelle Obama because she’s interesting and compelling. Melania is conventionally “beautiful”, but totally uninteresting as a person to the average woman, which is why she was never featured on the cover of a women’s magazine. The MAGA’s don’t even know what’s in those magazines!
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: Ooh, cite for the Colorado Springs thing?
That’s just great. That’s what my dipshit wingnut new “representative” is going to be spending her time on.
no comment
Since this is an open thread, I need to vent about Covid-19 a little.
My husband went to visit his family over Christmas. (The idea of potentially spreading the virus stressed me out, so I decided to stay home.) He drove straight there, only stops for food, gas, & restroom breaks. Including him, only 4 people total. However, it was inside & no masks.
On Christmas, I lost a bit of my sense of smell. (I called my husband immediately to let his family know in case we were both sick & he was asymptomatic.) I seem to be able to smell certain things, but not others; some smells are dulled, but still there. I also have mild symptoms that could be related to my allergies or something other than Covid. I keep wondering if I have the virus, or if it is mild hypochondria about this virus.
Haven’t been tested yet. I should have gotten tested Saturday or Monday, but appointments were full, & walk-in times were estimated at 2 hours. Today, appointments are still full, and walk-in times are estimated at 5.5 hours! Even if I get tested today, with the number of tests they have to process, I probably won’t have an answer until next week.
I’ve been staying at home, wearing a mask in the house, & staying away from my husband, in case I am sick & he is not. Meanwhile, he’s working from home (HR) and complaining about about all the employees that either tested positive for Covid, or were in close contact with someone who tested positive during a Christmas gathering — as if he didn’t attend an unnecessary gathering!
NotMax
@Geminid
One reason I’m not all that sanguine about Ossoff’s chances. Fear enough will slither out to vote not for Perdue but against the Jew.
Suzanne
@Frankensteinbeck: I don’t give a crap about her being a sex worker, either. But I think that most people who have style are really good at using their look to express something about themselves. It’s not just about owning expensive clothes or being pretty. Think of Tilda Swinton, who is weird-looking and apparently a weird person. But she has awesome style.
Mary G
David Perdue has come out in favor of the $2,000 covid relief checks. His polls must be bad. Safe enough because MM won’t allow a vote.
Frankensteinbeck
@Suzanne:
Oh, yes. Absolutely. I’ve never seen hints Melania has style personally, either, but I’m just laying out why she looks like she does. She’s dressing like Trump wants, and Trump has no style.
germy
In the real world:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Soprano2: someone pointed out that the “First Lady” cover stories the trumpies are whining about are never just photo-shoots, they’re long interviews. I can’t remember who tweeted it– I think a CNN reporter– but she said Melanie hasn’t given a single interview in four years. I was surprised at that, but I can’t remember any quotes from her beyond press releases and her former friend taping her, so I suppose it might be the case.
FTR: I am deeply ambivalent the whole “First Lady” thing we do in this country. If Melanie wasn’t a trump and a birther and in general as awful as her husband, I’d have some sympathy for her aversion to the unnecessary public role
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Yes, I know. Was sort-of the point.
I sorta feel bad for Biden, since (in a normal time) his Inauguration crowd would (I assume) dwarf the Traitor-in-Chief’s. But that’s about 200th on my Top 100 list of things to be concerned with.
Mary G
@Suzanne:
@Frankensteinbeck:I bet she and Twitler like things that are the most expensive from whoever won’t make a fuss when they get stiffed on the bill. In fact they may consider themselves “influencers” and charge the designers money that goes into Jared’s shell PAC disguised as donations.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@no comment: Oh man. The testing situation makes all that so much harder. Someone should be able to be tested immediately and get the results within 24 hours. The situation now just lets the disease spread.
Trump screwed this up beyond measure.
Jay
@jonas:
to get the cover, one has to do an interview,
Melanoma hasn’t.
Lyrebird
@Baud: You are on fire this morning!
Not the right metaphor, but hey,
keep bringing it! You and whoever agraybee is are helping me keep going today.
Warblewarble
It is not alone the strident republicans, it is the broader authoritarians who know to be quiet and dissemble ,who empower and make the proudboys a threat. The republican party is a threat to Americas future for many years to come.”Friends across the aisle” saw those “FRIENDS” at Gettysburg.
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No sympathy. If Michelle Obama can do it for 8 years, she can do it.
SFAW
@Baud:
Do you have to ingest pharmaceuticals to come up with stuff like that, or does it just come naturally? If it’s pharma, I want to know where I can get me some. If it’s natural, then I guess I’ll just end up being consigned to the rut of not-so-bon-mots.
In case it wasn’t clear: Excellent comment!
germy
It amazes me that that she refused to do that.
If cover photos were so important to them, she could have had the interview questions submitted via email, and then had her social director or some other staff member craft the replies. The whole staff could read over the answers and make them sound smarter. And then Melania could skim the whole thing and sign off on it.
Did they think she’d be subjected to grueling, in-person 60Minutes type interviews? These fashion magazines mostly want personal stuff: “What do you eat to stay so slim and pretty? What exercise do you do? What is the one thing you wish people would understand about your husband?” (Okay, that last question would take some extra thought, but it could be handled with an answer like “He cherishes his time in this office and wishes he could accomplish more” or something.
Mike in NC
Dana Milbank at WaPo: “In His Final Days, Goes Full King Lear”
Fat Bastard, of course, has always been King Leer, walking into girls’ dressing rooms at beauty contests to grope them and drool. Good riddance to this sick nut.
The Moar You Know
@Amir Khalid: there is only The One: VLC.
germy
@Mike in NC:
Wait…. he groped them?
I thought he just wanted to march through and have a good look. I didn’t know touching was involved.
CaseyL
@SFAW: @Amir Khalid:
As I understand it, Bernie doesn’t consult with Dem leadership, ever. So I doubt he has Schumer or anyone else backing him up. This is his usual attention-seeking, quixotic bit of fluff. He’ll get the attention he wants and accomplish nothing else.
I’d be delighted to be wrong.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: On December 27 Military Times published an op-ed piece by a retired Air Force general pitching Colorado Springs as a permanent headquarters for the Space Force (it’s now the temporary home). The general went into a lot detail, some of which showed the influence of local elements of the military’industrial complex that have latched on to a boondoggle. The general neglected to mention the advantages of having the Air Force Academy band handy for playing the Space Force March at ceremonies.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: And it goes like this?
Another Scott
@CaseyL:
Repost – TheHill:
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Cameron
@Mary G: Loeffler has, too.
germy
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: You can grab them if your famous. They just let you.
Mary G
@germy: Have you read fashion magazines lately? Because they’ve been getting pretty political for a while. They would’ve grilled her about the Jacket and not nicely.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@germy:
Trump is as hardcore a misogynist as he is a white supremacist. Women are to be seen and not heard. Trophy wives especially. He particularly likes women as his Presidential spokesperson because their job is to look pretty while saying his words.
SFAW
@CaseyL:
Although I don’t hate him as much as, say, schrodinger’s_cat does, I have no love for Bernie.
That said: if it either (A) gets Moscow Mitch to bring it to the floor, or (B) make Traitor Turtle have to expend “political capital” (so to speak) to prevent it being approved, I’m good with that.
Suzanne
@Mary G: From what I understand, the clothes worn at major events are provided gratis by the designer or are sold for not much. But I also remember reading right after the election that most of the major fashion houses were refusing to dress Melania and Ivanka. So they can of course buy whatever they want through normal channels, but no designers want to be associated with them.
jc
Biden needs to hit Trump with some serious punches, before Jan. 20. Hit him for his incompetence, and hit him for his dishonesty.
Trump continues to make speech after speech falsely telling people to rally against ‘election fraud’ — he’s intentionally Implanting alternate reality falsehoods in 70 million gullible people’s minds.
Trump profits handsomely from these lies. What helps Trump hurts America — he’s conning his base and making millions with toxic lies that damage democracy.
Joe, speak out against Trump’s money scam, mock it and disrupt it, because it’s poison in the bloodstream that hurts America.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: Thanks for that! I will have to look it up.
Suzanne
@Frankensteinbeck: I also think Melania doesn’t want to really be a public figure, not like Trump does. She would have been thrilled to spend the rest of her life in New York showing up for charity balls and gallery openings, and just being a society wife and mom.
To be fair, I relate very hard to her on this. I have never, not even as a child, had any desire to be famous. Just rich.
Tenar Arha
@Suzanne: @MomSense: @Mary G:
The magazines & the fashion industry might have come round if either of those women had done something to stick up for people other than themselves & people like them. And those magazines decided, probably after Charlottesville if not before, that they wouldn’t tank their circulation by associating with them.
And there’s ways to make an interview/cover offer that will be refused. I’m betting most of the interviews on offer refused to accept preconditions about what they could ask or wouldn’t give Melania/the WH final publication approval.
artem1s
@mrmoshpotato:
mrmoshpotato
December 29, 2020 at 8:54 am
so which SC Justice does he get to swear him in? COVID Barret or Boof Kavanaught? Giuliani? Maybe this is why Barr left early.
Barbara
@Suzanne: I do have some issues with Hochschild’s view on these issues generally, however, on this I think she is correct. Trump is a lizard brain stimulator who viscerally understands how to scratch his “base’s” itch over cultural dispossession. No one else in the Republican Party has it — Chris Christie probably comes closest, just in terms of personality. They won’t admit it, but it’s that combination of hating dark people but putting it in a non-Southern persona is what brought a lot of Trump’s base to the voting booth.
But he seems to be in not terribly great health and it is very unclear to me that he can continue to command the kind of presence that is needed to keep these people in a state of committed hysteria. Sarah Palin could not pull it off.
Among other things Trump prioritizes his own comfort above just about everything else. I honestly think he is so determined to continue being president not because he is afraid of prosecution or debt, but because it is just so damn easy to use AF 1 as a personal jet.
rikyrah
Be ready to fill those agencies, 46.
With COMPETENT PEOPLE ??
trollhattan
@Mary G:
Grilling her in the jacket would have been acceptable as well.
VOR
@Baud: Yes. I worked for a company which offered two overlapping products. One was feature rich but expensive, the other lacking some features but cheaper. Sales people always wanted to offer customers a choice and bid both products. Almost without exception, customers would demand the features of the high-end product at the price of the lower-end product.
Geminid
@Another Scott: Chuck Schumer ought to know Senate procedure well enough not to sacrifice the NDAA override vote, which to me is critical not just for the anti money laundering measure contained in the NDAA. I just hope Rand Paul can’t piggyback on Sanders’ effort to monkeywrench this vote, as Paul is hostile to the NDAA. I think McConnell wants the veto override, though, so he and Schumer ought to be able to make it happen. I don’t think the $2,000 payment will get through the Senate regardless of Sanders’ and Markey’s efforts. These efforts might be somewhat beneficial if they succeed in getting a recorded vote, or if they keep Loeffler and Perdue in DC.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
????????
artem1s
@OzarkHillbilly:
there are an awful lot of military families and contractors in GA. Just saying that he’s not helping by making this a defense spending vs. relief money. the GA military families and those whose jobs rely on military contracts aren’t going to find this a very helpful strategy. it will be seen as Dems being anti-military once again. It’s a stupid idea and will damage the Dems chances of winning the Senate. But I kind of wonder if that’s not Bernie’s plan as he will lose power in the Senate if Ossoff and Warnock both win.
taumaturgo
@PsiFighter37:
Michael Morell would have been a perfectly fine director and would have had the respect of the folks working there. Why he was torpedoed, I am not sure I understand fully.
He called torture “a useful tool” making himself a torture apologist.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Comparing my mood four years ago to today is interesting. “Who are these creatures?” sums up my 2016 outlook, as Trump virtually vacuumed out the white collar prisons and Bush II leftover pile to stock his incoming administration. Today I’m variously hopeful to gratified with Biden’s moves, based on the actual person selected. Quite an improvement, other than, you know, those pesky three-thousand daily COVID deaths, the responsibility for which is being shoved upon Biden and his time-traveling superpowers.
“Why is Joe Biden not keeping us safe from this killer?”
Suzanne
@Mary G: Yeah, the idea that the fashion world is not politically aware is inaccurate at best and (sorry) misogynist at worst.
It’s another example of the things that mostly women and gay men are interested in being coded as frivolous, as opposed to proper masculine interests, like watching other people playing games or firearms.
planetjanet
@Geminid: The orange one will definitely start his campaign for 2024 on January 20, 2020. It is simply a perfect vehicle for continued grafting. He can let it go. His “rallies” will still attract the media. He is not going away at all.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Barbara:
That’s interesting. I never thought of resistance to Southerners among the Staten Island/Bungalow Belt/exurb types who gravitated to trump, but I bet you’re right, there’s something there.
catclub
@Immanentize: Judge Judy will preside?
Miss Bianca
@Suzanne: Witness the anti-disco crusades of the late 70s-early 80s, which were led overwhelmingly by loudmouth white males. Anything that women, POC, and gay guys liked to dance to HAD to be inferior. Worse, a THREAT.
Another Scott
@Frankensteinbeck: I haven’t read PK in a while, but it sounds like he continues to get politics wrong (while being excellent in explaining economics).
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Cheers,
Scott.
Suzanne
@Barbara: I agree with you here. Trump just has that instinct for his base and how they used to feel (even if it’s just cultural memory), and how they want to feel. I actually think it’s more than racism, more than misogyny. It’s just a sense that life used to be lined up for people like them and now it isn’t. Now they find that no one aspires to their lives — culturally influential brands actively don’t even want their money — and that hurts.
rikyrah
@PsiFighter37:
I think that he is waiting for the GA elections to announce AG. He is considering someone ‘controversial’ for AG.
Matt McIrvin
@trollhattan: “Vote for me because the other side can’t protect you from the damage caused by me” has been a surprisingly large part of the Republican pitch for a long time. I think it actually makes sense if you think of all this as being about power and dominance, rather than caring for the people. A lot of voters want to be on the side of the guy who can do the most damage.
rikyrah
@PsiFighter37:
As far as the CIA, phuck the left and their noise. Anyone who would be good at the job will run afoul of the left.
Suzanne
@Miss Bianca: Things that women, gay men, and indigenous peoples do have long been coded as inferior to things straight white dudes like. Men are artists, women and natives are craftspeople. Men are chefs, women and minorities are cooks. Women’s interests are silly, men’s interests are a worthy diversion from stress. Broadway and musicals are shallow, but prog rock is the work of auteurs. Romantic comedies are “light”, war movies are deep and serious.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Could be possible
???
rikyrah
@Baud: Dolt45?
Phuck Outta Here ?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott:
Accurate. He had a weird grudge against Obama I could never quite figure out, him and Jon Stewart. I never saw either as big Clinton supporters, nor quite what we would come to call Bernie-Bros, but they both seemed to resent Obama for… reasons.
@Suzanne: Tom Nichols always talks about their desire for a “respect” they think they deserve and don’t get. I would call that a need for broad cultural deference, as you describe. His analysis interests me because he grounds it in his experience with his old friends who are the classic “non-college whites” and many of them make more money than he does with his fancy degrees and titles, they have boats and/or pools and/or second homes, but they still feel oppressed and looked down upon.
rikyrah
@Gin & Tonic:
-40????
I know it’s coming ??
frosty
@zhena gogolia: I never got a security deposit back, even when I left the place cleaner than it was when I arrived. Example: “The oven had to be cleaned.” My response: “I never used the oven. I didn’t even open the oven door.” It didn’t matter, he kept the deposit.
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: My impression is that the Space Force has been very slow-walked. The Pentagon is chronically short of funding (believe it or not) for the things it wants and needs to do, and shuffling people around for a new command is very disruptive.
We’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@planetjanet: No, trump is not going away. I am just predicting a steady loss in influence. But as far as his rallies go, I think Fox alone covered his rally in Valdosta Georgia. And will trump continue to draw big crowds? We’ll see. But on top of the real power a President can exercize, the Office itself has given trump a certain power over people’s minds, and he has been a larger than life figure both for those who love him, and for those who hate him. That will change when Joe Biden becomes President.
germy
@Suzanne:
I had someone here tell me “The Beatles were cute, but they were no Rolling Stones.”
rikyrah
@Suzanne:
It’s called clinging to the Whiteness above all else.
They miss when they were the ONLY fish in the pond, and everyone else was shoved into sardine cans.
I have called it. ..
The delusional world of Mad Men.
THAT is what they want back.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
They have a COVID-19 TEST IN SENEGAL THAT COSTS $1
$1
WHY HAVEN’T WE ORDERED IT.
Suzanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yeah, that lack of “respect” comes up a lot in those Cletus Safaris, and I think that there’s more there if any of the reporters were smart enough to drill down into it. Like, what do people think “respect” means? To me, “respecting” someone doesn’t mean that I look up to them. It means that I acknowledge that they are equal to me in worth. It doesn’t mean that I want to follow their path or think they’re smart or praiseworthy or worthy of being elevated as a cultural ideal or whatever. But for a lot of people, they think that’s “disrespect”. This is actually what I think is the first-order issue for the Trump people: they (culturally) remember when they had more cultural influence, when they were well-considered, when their kids looked up to living a life like theirs. The racism and misogyny are second-order issues here…. because most of them never stopped to realize that in that mythological past when they were “respected”…. no one “respected” women or minorities.
One commenter said a couple of weeks ago, “can’t you listen to Blake Shelton and drink Budweiser and I’ll listen to The National and drink microbrew and just leave one another alone?”, and for the cohort that thinks “respect” means “deference”…. the answer is NO.
Suzanne
@rikyrah:
But a specific flavor of whiteness. I guarantee you that they aren’t clinging to the strain of whiteness that produced the work of Jackson Pollock or The National or eats arugula and Dijon mustard.
They are clinging to a specific straight white dude fantasy.
Miss Bianca
@Suzanne: No lies told there.
Suzanne
@Miss Bianca: The fact that a lot of white people no longer look up to the Trumpy white people is seen as a deep betrayal, which is, Im convinced, much of why they hate “elites” so much.
Like, we’re talking about Melania Trump on this thread: I only know one dude who has expressed to me that he finds her attractive. Most of the dudes I know think Melania looks really cheap… obvious plastic surgery, lots of makeup, always showing off her ass, it screams “try hard”. Not ugly by any means, but certainly not the kind of woman they would ever be seen in public with. But what’s the point of a trophy wife if people aren’t envious of you?
worn
Amir – I am in agreement with the other folks who replied: give VLC a try.
FYI I have been using this application without complaint on both my Windows & Apple computers for well over a decade. It is a great program and the one that I always use when attempting to open just about any random multimedia type file.
Suzanne
Musing on this topic is causing me to reflect on the casual acquaintances I’ve had in my life who I have described as “always on the job interview”. Who are always striving to impress and see every relationship as an unspoken competition. Who “curate” their lives on social media.
I hate those people.
And I especially hate them now that their fucking psychodrama has destroyed the country.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Coming late to an excellent thread.
There are a pair of local (Los Angeles market) talk radio hosts who unfortunately lean to the right. But recently they nailed something about the desire for respect thing. They both grew up in smallish European ethnic communities in New York and New Jersey. They note that their relatives and people grew up with are often successful, but still have this chip on their shoulder about the success and achievement of some people. This jealousy and resentment is always expressed by the comment, “Look at that guy. He thinks he’s a big shot.”
They always have this thing about people who act as though they know more than they do and, most importantly, who they think can push them around.
Quiltingfool
@Frankensteinbeck: I have nothing to add to your comments, you are spot on in your observations. Sometimes I read comments but don’t look at the nyms closely. I’ll read one of yours, say “Wow!” to myself, check the nym and think, “Yep, that’s Frankensteinbeck. Good stuff.”
My favorite thing about Balloon Juice is there are so many great commenters (is that a word?). Well, really 2 favorite things, can’t forget the awesome front pagers!
J R in WV
I use VLC and it’s associated drivers to watch embedded video, GIFs, broadcast TV via HD-Homerun tuners on the LAN, etc, etc. With Linux OS mostly. I do have a Windows 10 laptop to run a scanner/printer tool which offers better control than open source tools for the Canon multi-purpose device. I don’t use VLC with that device, since VLC isn’t part of scanning nor printing.
It (VLC) is the nuts for that kind of use.
Geminid
@Another Scott: I don’t think the Army, Navy, or Airforce want a Space Force. As you say, money is tight, and it will be unless and until we substantially cut back our worldwide presence and mission.
I read an article once by a retired Navy admiral, advocating an increase in the Navy budget. One thing I learned is that the Navy, Army and Air Forse have achieved a kind of budgetary stasis, in which each service receives close to 1/3 of the Pentagon budget. The admiral wanted to push the Navy’s share to 34%, maybe even 35%. I was reminded of an anecdote, perhaps apocryphal, in David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest: Walking away from an Congressional military budget hearing, a senior admiral scolded a junior admiral,”How many times do I have to tell you. The Soviets are the adversary. The Air Force is the enemy!”
Soprano2
Trump promised to take them back to the 1950’s, before those icky “civil rights” were put into law, and before “women’s rights” became a thing, before “the gays” came out of the closet and when everyone was a Christian or a Jew or kept their mouth shut about their religion. They want to go back to a time when the U.S. was on top of the world, and white men were on top in the U.S., and everyone else knew their “place” and stayed in it. That’s why they voted for Trump, I think, more than anything else. They honestly believed all the high-paying, “manly” factory and mining jobs were going to come back.
Groucho48
@trollhattan:
Over a nice charcoal fire
Soprano2
They want everyone to acknowledge that the things they like and want to do are superior to everything else. It’s like the mythology about how small towns are the perfect places to live. I grew up in one, and while they have their plusses, they have big minuses too, but we aren’t supposed to talk about that. Why are we not allowed to criticize people who live in the rural areas, but they’re allowed to criticize people who live in cities? It’s all part of that same mythology, which has been around as long as we’ve had America (maybe even longer!).
Barbara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There are a lot of people who are not religious and don’t like having to bow down to the Christian God in everything they do and say. GWB pulled it off by being genial and frankly duplicitous, but Trump is the real deal and everyone who looks at him honestly knows it. He doesn’t give an FF about religious belief or faith.
JAFD
Not a big media person (even tho I used to live there ;-) ), but,
Another vote for VLC – http://www.videolan.org)
Have never had problems with it
Original Lee
@Frankensteinbeck: A friend who has been a mild Trumpista (in that he’s been supportive of the things that benefit him but willing to decry the really cruel stuff) has finally reached his limit and is leaving the GOP. As far as I can tell, it was the Alternate Inauguration stuff that was the last straw. Interestingly, the few people who have commented are telling him to become an Independent. I was expecting a flame war of massive proportions, as he lives in Indiana, but no, just a few really nice comments about how he’ll be happier as an Independent.