Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

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

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

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Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Recommendations

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In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools unsuffered.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the world of shit falling on our heads daily in the political sphere.

Tonight’s Topic:  Recommendations

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For this week’s MC, following an exhausting week and a day of celebration, let’s do another thread of recommendations.

What are you watching, or reading, or listening to that you want to recommend?

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Excellent Read(s): “Joe Biden’s Long Wait Is Over”

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A delightful backgrounder for last night:

WILMINGTON, Delaware — About five hours before polls closed on Election Day, 21 empty pickup trucks appeared in the parking lot of the Chase Center, sitting in two careful rows facing the stage where Joe Biden was supposed to address the nation in a victory speech later that evening.

The fleet of Jeep Gladiators and Jeep Wranglers, along with some Ford Rangers and Chevy Silverados, had been arranged in alternating colors of red, white, and blue, all with open backs or sunroofs, and hoods stamped with BIDEN–HARRIS decals. They were reserved for the family and friends who would be arriving with Biden to his socially distanced “drive-in” rally — the proverbial front row in a sea of other cars. Sitting opposite a freshly installed panel of bulletproof glass, US Secret Service protection befitting a president-elect, they had the clean and perfect look of new rental cars, windows darkened, paint gleaming in the sun. In the style of a tailgate, aides had placed a pair of blue folding chairs in the back of each truck.

By 11 p.m., it was clear there wouldn’t be a final result that night. Light-up foam batons, stamped with the campaign logo for guests in the parking lot, never got distributed. After midnight, when Biden finally did arrive, his motorcade sped into the parking lot of the adjacent Westin hotel, and his party took their seats in the Jeeps: There was his brother Jimmy Biden, Jill Biden’s sisters, and the former vice president’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, watching from the roof of a Jeep. They had waited a long time for this night. Around 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, they finally got to see him take the stage, only to say “we’re going to have to be patient” and “keep the faith.” After three minutes, Biden waved goodbye, and headed home…

Throughout the week, his campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon hosted daily Zoom briefings, laying out projections for the outstanding vote. On Thursday, Biden published a transition website, saying he was dedicated to preparing for his possible administration and would “continue preparing at full speed.” That afternoon, he and Harris attended briefings on the economy and the coronavirus pandemic, which is deep in a deadly third wave that has brought the total number of American deaths to more than 236,000. On Friday, Biden aides believed they would finally get their call, going public with plans for a victory party, broadcast live on primetime television. The networks held off, and once again, Biden passed the stage, empty and waiting, to address reporters inside the Chase Center.

“As slow as it goes, it can be numbing,” he said of watching the numbers come in on TV. “But never forget: The tallies aren’t just numbers. They represent votes and voters, men and women who exercise the fundamental right to have their voice heard.”…

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… As the country waited for ballots to be counted, it was Biden — not the occupant of the Oval Office — who was reassuring people that this democracy was intact, that the system was working and that the center would hold. He was the voice of calm optimism in the midst of tumultuous times.

When he became president-elect late Saturday morning, he did something far more herculean than accepting responsibility for a worsening pandemic and a struggling economy. He removed a terrible, suffocating weight from the back of this nation. For the more than 74 million Americans who voted for him — and surely even for some of those who did not — Biden’s election allowed this country to laugh, to dance and to breathe. He cracked open a space where the light could shine through. Indeed, his victory caused people to weep in joyful relief as they became aware of the heaviness that had afflicted their hearts, after they’d suddenly been relieved of it…

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Finally a Normal Person

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Finally a Normal Person

Last night I had a last minute tweet-spree that I think is worth sharing (although now that I am editing this I see that Tamara already did I should really read this blog before I write anything). I’m pretty sure I have said this before here, I know I have said it elsewhere and I have definitely had this conversation with friends and my parents, but I want to put it here so it is permanent.

Beyond all the horrible things Trump has said, and more importantly, done, what has really bothered me the most about Trump is the meanness and ugliness just for the sake of it. The man is a shallow, empty, sucking hole of nothingness, completely devoid of joy and laughter and happiness. Again, it’s not just the policies.

I look at him and see just an empty, shallow, joyless man. I don’t recall ever seeing him laugh, or laugh at himself. The only time he sort of smiles is when he is cutting someone down or hurting someone. And then it is a slight smirk while searching the crowd for approval.

He doesn’t appreciate anything outside of how he views it making him look, and even then, he doesn’t actually care how he looks, he cares how people think about he looks. Nothing has value to the man other than that which he perceives immediately makes him better in the eyes of others.

He doesn’t like to read and couldn’t name a book if you asked him, he doesn’t like music (he couldn’t make a playlist like Obama if you gave him a million years), he doesn’t care about art other than it’s monetary value, or poetry, or fine dining. The man eats well done steak with ketchup fer fuck’s sake.

The only way he measured things is by how he perceived it made other people envy or look up to him.

“I’ll hold up a bible because other people like it and it is important to them and I want them to like me.”

He has no appreciation for nature, or ironically, architecture. He could never look at a peaceful meadow without thinking “Let’s raze this and put in a golf course and slap my name all over it.” His buildings are all garish phallic symbols adorned with his name. He has no concept of the use of space or color, everything is gold or the most expensive marble or wood not because it works or flows or has utility, but because it is the most expensive material and that is what rich people do other people will respect him more because look at all the rich things he does. He’s gaudy, and garish, and tacky.

And he absolutely does not care about other people. He has no friends. He has no sense of loyalty, honor, or truth- everything is temporary, and it rests solely on how he perceives something reflects on him at that very moment. As soon as you have nothing to offer him, you are gone. But he will quickly embrace you as soon as you think you have something to offer him, forgetting how he has treated you in the past.

Same with women, who does not view as human beings, but as objects to be used to make him look better. He doesn’t love beautiful women for their beauty or their wit or charm or talents, he loves the idea of other people seeing him with beautiful women. And since he can not recognize actual beauty, that is why all the women around him look the same- bottle blonde with fake breasts, because that is what he thinks EVERYONE else thinks is beauty.

I mean, can you honestly imagine him ever just wanting to go to a friend’s house to sit on the couch and chat, and play with their dog, and have coffee, and talk about things? Or remembering something little his wife had wanted and mentioned, and picking it up while seeing it on his travels, and spiriting it away in his luggage and taking it home and hiding it and wrapping it and just being excited to give it to her? Just the little human things that make life worth living. He feels and appreciates none of it. It’s all a crude dick measuring contest, and the only way to get ahead is to cut other’s down.

It’s why he is such a bad negotiator. He’s incapable of understanding win/win. Someone can only get ahead when someone else loses. It’s why he and the GOP never figured out that the way to save the economy was to handle covid. They couldn’t fathom that one didn’t have to be at the expense of the other.

Everything about him is hollow, vulgar, and contemptible. If he were not doing so many horrible things to people, he would be pitiable.

Contrast that with this guy:

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Finally a Normal Person 2

Finally a Normal Person 3

I am under no illusion that the next four years will be a progressive panacea, but just having that sociopath Trump and his enablers and sycophants will make EVERYTHING immeasurably better. Even when Biden does something that I disagree with, at least I can feel safe knowing that some thought was put into it, and it wasn’t just done to spite someone or to make Joe look “good.”

And that’s a fucking start.

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You’ve been so kind and generous

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Thanks a lot to everyone who gave. We raised 1.3 million this cycle.

It’s fair to say that the down ballot races didn’t go as well as hoped, despite tons of money pouring in. I’m going to think about what are the best causes to raise money for as we go forward (I’m also going to raise money for Warnock and Ossoff, yes). Here is one that really delivered: Stacey Abrams’ group Fair Fight. By my count, there were 49 states where things didn’t go as well as I’d hoped last week and ONE STATE where things went much better. That one state is Georgia. This group’s work in registering 800K new people and getting automatic registration passed almost certainly played a big role in Biden winning Georgia.

I hope there is a lot of thinking being done by lots of Democratic donors right now and that they are considering making Fair Fight, and other groups like it, a top priority.

Balloon Juice for Fair Fight

Goal Thermometer

And, remember, don’t gloat, organize.

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Sunday Open Thread: Giving Back

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So after Halloween, I saw this mom’s post on FB and shared. Of course, Steve Hartman had to find out the whole story.

I wish I could tell you I’ll have recipes or even a climate solutions post sometime soon, but like most of you, I found it difficult to concentrate. I’ll be back on task later this week, I’m sure.

And if you didn’t see it, this thread by Cole is full of truth:

https://twitter.com/Johngcole/status/1325305870452977665?s=20

Click on the little birdie to read the entire thing. And get ready to argue about bananas when you’re done.

Open thread

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One Little Story

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I want to talk about a local election that’s an interesting reflection of the change we’re seeing in blue states. It’s my New York State Senate seat, District 55. The Republican holding the seat is your average white man, Rich Funke, who retired rather than face the living hell of being in the minority now that the NY Senate is majority Democrat. Funke is anti-choice and a bit of a tool, but he’s popular due to being a former TV sportscaster. This is a very white (77%) suburban district and Funke won in 2018 52/48 against a good candidate, Jen Lunsford. In 2016 he ran unopposed, and in 2014 he soundly beat the Democratic incumbent, Ted O’Brien (59/41).

After Funke’s retirement, the Republican party ran a 39 year-old male, white lawyer and Army vet, and the Democrats ran Samra Brouk, a 34 year-old black woman whose previous qualifications include doing fundraising for a non-profit. I listened to a debate between the two and she’s razor sharp and quite progressive. Still, I was doubting that she could win a district that recently rejected a couple of good Democrats.

I was wrong: it was 52/48 Brouk, a result that I would not have predicted even in my more optimistic moments.

I would chalk this one up to suburban moms, just as I’ve chalked up other recent Democratic wins in my town, which was formerly a Republican stronghold for the town, county and state legislative offices (even though it consistently voted for Democratic federal and statewide candidates.) Trump has turned the letter “R” after someone’s name in any election into a poison pill, and those moms have a solid turnout operation.

I’ll also add that Brouk won despite some of the most ugly, racist TV ads I’ve seen in a long time. They showed pictures from some rioting in Rochester side-by-side with her face and basically insinuated that she supported the riots. These ads, like most New York Republican ratfucking, aired a few days before the election and have disappeared from sight.

Here’s a thread to report on local races in your area.

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The Biden Administration’s Job One

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This is Job One, and Joe Biden is on it.

The numbers of sick and dead are shooting up the steep part of the exponential curve, where they become hard to control. Most of the country is seeing uncontrolled spread of the virus – that means that people don’t know how they contracted it. The numbers set records every day now.

One of the first things Biden has done since he became President-Elect is to announce that he will name, on Monday, a 12-member COVID task force.

The task force will be led by three co-chairs: former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith from Yale University.

I have no doubt that the three will be available to the press immediately, and that they will have strong messages about how to deal with the pandemic. The first message will be that we are not talking politics, we are talking about a barely living organism that has no respect for status or ideology. Its mathematics are stark, but not inexorable if we meet it with our intelligence. To begin, mask up, distance from other people, and wash your hands.

Biden will engage.

“There are some things he’s going to do right off the bat,” said Nicole Lurie, a Biden campaign adviser who served as the Obama administration’s top pandemic-preparedness official. “He will reach out to Tony Fauci. He will declare his intent to be an active participant in the WHO and in the world. And I believe that in very short order, he’ll be in touch with governors and mayors around the country, listening to what it is that they’ll need to pivot this response.”

There’s a tradition for the President-Elect to avoid competing with the President, but there is no competition here, because, even as more White House staff are infected with the virus, Trump continues to do nothing. And the virus continues its mindless multiplication.

The response must be immediate. The incubation period of the virus means that people infected today will show symptoms a week or two later; the path of the disease to death is another week or two. Some people will not die but will be disabled, perhaps permanently.

What Biden and the task force can do is less than will be possible after he is inaugurated on January 20; for example, only then can he invoke the Defense Production Act to make protective equipment and medications more available. Congressional action will be needed, too, so that schools can be made more safe and people will not have to risk their livelihood to keep safe.

But we must start now. Mask up, distance from other people, and wash your hands.

Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner

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