I’ve never been a big Jake Tapper fan. As a champion grudge-holder, I’m still mad about him calling Fox News a “sister” network and being a supercilious prick when he publicly busted President Obama for sneaking cigarettes behind Michelle Obama’s back. But to give credit where it’s due, Tapper has adjusted to the Republican Party’s descent into madness better than many of his MSM colleagues. Case in point:
“President Trump won this election, so everyone who’s listening, do not be quiet.”
— same exact guy https://t.co/vZNf8ne8dH
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 12, 2021
He’s right. Sleazy arch-toady McCarthy did say that on Frau Ingraham’s TV show back in November, laying the groundwork for the insurrection. Then in early January, with the memory of the murderous mob’s hot breath still on his neck, McCarthy blamed Trump for winding up the rioters and sending them down Pennsylvania Avenue (which he did). Then McCarthy slunk off to Disgraceland to kiss the orange ring, and who knows, he might now be obliged to arrange another trip south to expiate the sin of NOT lying about the election outcome today.
Next, it will be, “Insurrection? What insurrection?” Some Republicans are already there.
Anyhoo, the media loves talking about Papaya Pinochet every bit as much as we hate hearing TFG’s accursed name, but maybe it’s good that they’re latching onto the opportunity to insert Hair Furor into the conversation in this context. Repubs in disarray stories are better than Dems in disarray stories.
Also, I suspect there’s no limit to the abuse Republican voters will take from the GOP officials they return to office; their gluttony for punishment seems insatiable, as long as they know people they hate are suffering more. But maybe some of the remaining non-cultists in the GOP who are watching their elected officials lash themselves to the mast of a twice-impeached, two-time popular vote loser who lost both chambers on the way out will get a fucking clue. Probably not! But better this than a united opposition rallying around something more worthy, like genital warts.
Open thread!
Albatrossity
The GQPers have no good options at this state. Genital warts would be a better option, however
Mike in NC
Everything I’ve read about Kevin McCarthy suggests he’s a spineless weasel, so I’m not sure how he got to where he is.
piratedan
and here in AZ, apparently, despite all attempts to stop them, apparently the contractors for the AZ GOP state party audit have apparently tapped into the AZ Sec of State servers….
https://twitter.com/SecretaryHobbs/status/1392531067031101443
implications are that now these folks may have the data to let them know, who voted for whom…..
Spanky
@Mike in NC:
For Republican leadership that is a requirement.
McTurtle looks like he’s holding in a hernia. Let ‘er go, Mitch!
trollhattan
@piratedan:
That’s deeply chilling if true.
Betty Cracker
@piratedan: WTAF?
zzyzx
@piratedan: why would any server ever have that data?
Baud
@zzyzx:
That was my question.
ETA: FWIW, Party registration is usually publicly available information. Campaigns obtain them all the time.
p.a.
Another Scott
@piratedan:
This nonsense in Arizona is dangerous. However, …
Someone is going to have to connect the dots for me, because I don’t see it. People don’t sign ballots.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
dww44
Tapper has been better during at least the last half of Trump’s administration. Wasn’t paying attention to him before that. Also, he’s got a book to sell, fiction based on the actual events surrounding the Manchurian Candidate and Sinatra’s California home figures prominently I understand.
Re McCarthy, while there was always no there there, he has become number2 at the top of my most disliked political GOP leader. He.and McConnell are just despicable and spineless humans. Need to add Lindsay into that mix.
Spanky
@Another Scott: Right. I don’t see how a ballot gets connected back to a voter, given the information that is usually stored.
Just FYI, I’ve been an elections judge in MD and have a good idea of how things work here with optically scanned ballots. Anyone who knows AZ election procedures is free to chime in, but right now that sounds like overreacting.
Baud
OT. Interesting group.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
You’ve echoed my thoughts on Tapper as well. I ended up watching a helluva a lot of CNN over the last year and he’s been pretty consistent. At times he had me wondering “who is that man on the screen and what did they do with Jake Tapper?”
Also too, I think he and others at CNN refer to the people that didn’t vote to certify “The Sedition Caucus” and unlike most of the other Sunday morning “news” shows, his morning show refuses to book any of them.
Baud
@Spanky:
The tweet wasn’t an overreaction. There’s just no evidence that the secrecy of the ballot has been compromised.
piratedan
@Another Scott: all I can say it was implied in the twitter thread, now officially that could all be bogus as shit in regards to linking specific data with actual individual votes.
It bothers me that despite repeated refusals from the AZ SOS, that somehow, they uncovered a router that was pointed to one of these “audit servers”, and from there, speculation is allowed to run amok as to what data it was passing. I don’t know, and I fully expect that in the interests of “transparency”, we may NEVER know.
SiubhanDuinne
@Spanky:
His hands are back to a normal colour (I still want to know what that was all about, btw), but he does not at all look like a healthy man. Not. At. All.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mike in NC: What? The Young Gun is spineless?
Baud
I don’t watch much TV news these days. But I would like Tapper and others to explain clearly that what McCarthy wants is for decent people to think he’s a reasonable person even as he panders to Trump supporters.
pacem appellant
@Betty Cracker:
“Papaya Pinochet” FTW. Thank you for that. Where ever did you find it? FYI, I was in Chile in the late 90s, post-Pinochet, but he still very much ruled the country as a shadow shogun. TFG is doing it so much more overtly, and less ably(?). Ye gods, I hope so.
Martin
@Another Scott: So, at least for vote by mail, one reason we know the vote is safe is that the Registrar of Voters generates a unique ID for each voter. That’s in the registration database.
The IDs are then separated from all other identifiable information and stored in another database. That database is used to track who has and hasn’t voted, and how that ID voted. The ID is put on the ballot and the enclosing envelope in the form of a barcode. When they scan the ballot back in, the ID needs to match an ID in the database, and the database then stores that a ballot was received for that ID. This is how they cure ballots. In many states you can either replace your ballot by mail or in person, or you fill out a provisional ballot. Depending on the state they’ll just take the most recent ballot and discard the others. In CA they actually call you and say ‘yo, which of these are we supposed to use’.
This is pretty routine for anonymous data collection. Making sure there is a one-way data flow and that the two databases can never be combined is pretty critical.
Presumably the SOS is concerned that that database that links the IDs to the personal information has been compromised. My guess is that the ‘GOP plans to interview voters’ part of this charade means that the legislature forced the SOS to give the auditors both databases, and if that wasn’t already bad enough, someone hung a wireless router off of them.
J R in WV
@Baud:
But nothing reasonable about McCarthy, just like Joe McCarthy back in the 1940s and ’50s. Nothing~!!~
Trumpist fascists, all of them.
BruceFromOhio
Dems gotta learn how to get stronger-faster-better on the media offensive, rather than hanging back and depending on legislative processes: that may not be enough when it matters.
(Fair warning, the second link is to a Never-Trumper essay on a conservative site – when an avid, lifelong conservative writes an essay that confirms my very worst fears, I have to look for either confirmation or refutation, and right now it’s looking like confirmation)
There’s 18 months left in this splendid experiment in democracy, and I do not expect America will have an opportunity to improve the hypothesis based on results.
Baud
@J R in WV:
I know that, and you know that. But McCarthy made this statement today so that some totebagger somewhere who wants to believe that the GOP is still sane will have something to hold onto.
Another Scott
@Baud: The fact that I voted is public information, too. But it’s not public who I voted for.
Which is one reason why it was incredibly stupid for Jenner to say she didn’t vote and played golf instead…
Cheers,
Scott.
Betty Cracker
@pacem appellant: Stole that from someone, can’t remember who, but I hope someone somewhere is keeping track of all the dictator/fascist-adjacent nicknames for TFG, including but not limited to:
Papaya Pinochet
Mango Mussolini
Hair Furor
Agolf Hitler
Obese Orbán
(Okay, I just made that last one up, and shame on me for fat shaming someone, but it’s okay cuz it’s Trump…)
Baud
@Another Scott:
Also doesn’t quite work since you don’t have to wait until election day to vote in California.
J R in WV
@Baud:
True. Sad also.
Now I don’t know who to believe… no, not really.
Never believe a Repugnant, never!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike in NC:
He was the last guy in the room.
J R in WV
@Baud:
Sounds like Jenner is unaware of how voting works in any detail, just as Jenner is unaware of how government works at any level….
Why did she open herself up to all the criticism in the world? What a loon~!~
Cheryl from Maryland
@Another Scott: I see it as someone broke into my house to steal diamonds but only found pearls. So the left. They still committed a crime by breaking into my house.
Leto
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Shit floats to the top?
Baud
@Cheryl from Maryland:
Right. But you wouldn’t then go on the internet and say they stole your diamonds.
Baud
@Leto:
Who are these people whose shit floats? Should I be worried that my shit is so dense it sinks? Maybe I should see a nutritionist.
artem1s
@Mike in NC:
It’s amazing how far someone can fail upward because the person hiring can’t afford to be seen standing next to someone who is more experienced and competent than they are.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: Someone should go back and collect all the names efgoldman had for TFG.
smith
Wouldn’t unauthorized access to the SOS servers be, like, a crime?
catclub
Let me just start a rumor that there are chinese inserted watermarks on those ‘optically scanned ballots’. I doubt I am the first.
Another Scott
@Martin: Thanks.
I guess we’ll have to see what’s actually going on.
To be clear – my view is these nutjobs shouldn’t be anywhere near these ballots and databases, etc. Nothing good can come from their trying to sow doubt.
But people need to keep their wits about them when talking about it. Turning this into another kerning debate only helps the malefactors.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@artem1s: It explains my lack of professional success.
catclub
@Leto:
Depends on the amount of fat in your diet. Probably hydration, also, too.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
Fair game in my book when the Soviet shitpile mobster conman was all “Uuuuhhhh! Hillary doesn’t have the stamina! Uuuuhhhhh!”
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
Don’t know all that is going on. Here is some crazy stuff from a few days ago.
Betty Cracker
This would be hilarious…
VeniceRiley
@Betty Cracker: I was calling him Persimmon Pinochet for a while, but I stole that. I’ve seen so many nics I’ve forgotten most.
MazeDancer
@Spanky: In NY, you are given a number when you sign in, That number is part of the optical scan.
Don’t know what is the system in MD or AZ, but it would be possible in NY to eventually figure out how people voted.
Baud
@catclub:
Oh god. Those yahoos are going to mark up a bunch of ballots with sharpies, aren’t they?
catclub
if there were time stamps on this information, and the ballot is read into the reader machine after it ID has been scanned, you could roughly determine voting. In Principle, either the system does not timestamp events, or large batches are held before running ballots through the reader.
VeniceRiley
@VeniceRiley: Donny Dollhands is still my alltime favorite.
Jeffro
@piratedan: time for the feds to step in. At this point, every voter’s rights there are being violated.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: I hear you – I knew it was wrong at the time, but I couldn’t resist referring to the then-governor of NJ as Chubs Chubbie.
Martin
@Another Scott: So, despite my previous comment, there might be a broader bit of understanding here.
If we view voting as recording our choices on a blank piece of paper and putting it in a box, then you’re right, it can’t be tracked. When you are handed a ballot your name is checked off.
That works well for a serial voting system – one where there is one and only one way to record a vote. Request a vote by mail and your name is crossed off when you request the ballot and when you show up at your polling place, they don’t give you a ballot because you already have one.
But voting rarely works like that any more. We now have parallel voting systems. You have multiple ways to vote, these can overlap in time, and just because your name is checked off doesn’t mean you can’t still vote – either because you requested a mail ballot but chose to use the machine instead, or because you want to use a later ballot to cure an earlier one. This requires a setup like I describe above where you have a series of secured databases that technically allow for recorded votes to be tied back to names and addresses, but should be implemented in a way that if anyone were to do that, there would be a record of that happening and punishment should that happen. (You do want to permit that in order to validate your system is working.) So in theory you can reconstruct the full voting record, but in practice it requires a very deliberate effort that makes it super clear you’re either testing the system, or you’re engaging in fraud.
If you are unaware that the latter system exists, or how it works, you might rightfully conclude that anyone can cast as many ballots as they want, the registrar has no way to detect it, and that it’d be foolish to say there’s no fraud when that would be impossible to determine if you had a serial system. So a lot of people might buy into the idea of fraud because they have no understanding of how modern systems give users flexibility but still protect anonymity and ensure only one vote is recorded per voter. In that regard, they’re much safer than the old system where it was actually harder to audit the vote.
Tony Jay
@Betty Cracker:
Tang the Incestuous
American Tangster
Don the Con
Trumpelshitskin
The Pustule
Ser Assmouth Toefinger of House Tang-Aryan
Ol’ Leatherneck
Say what you like about Fred’s Folly, but he was vaguely man-shaped mine of mockable conceits.
I don’t think anything could beat the simple ‘Dolt45’ for brevity, though. Said everything that needed to be said.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Baud: I’d still call the police. Then I’d change my fucking locks and put my pearls someplace else.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
Twitler
Cheetolini
(picking off the easy ones here)
Jeffro
When I noted McCarthy’s “lemme have it both ways” comment in the last thread with an “UM WHAT?!?”, I was having trouble dealing with the sheer shamelessness.
I’m not, now.
Have at ’em, media. Have at ’em, Dems. No more having it both ways. Which is it, McCarthy? Did President Biden win the election or not? And no, “Joe Biden is president” is not what I asked you – that’s just a wink and a nod to the Q-tards. Even they know that he (currently) is president. The question is, was the election won by Biden and won fairly, or was it “stolen”? Which. Is. It?
So much riding on the answer. Which is it, McCarthy?
Rocks
@Cameron: The best one for Chris Christie was “Oh, the Huge Manatee!” (apologies to the victims of the Hindenberg disaster).
Jeffro
Oh and only slightly OT: it’s not enough to suppress voters, the GQP wants fact checkers ON NOTICE.
No more just, you know, fact checking!!! Now you have to register and might be fined if your fact checking is in fact, not 100% to the GQP’s liking.
Unbelievable.
w_seattle
Maybe add “Twitler” to the list.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jeffro: Suppose the Fact Checker just calls themself a reporter
Cameron
@Rocks: Hadn’t heard that one, but am totally good with it. In an email to my brother after Christie’s presidential campaign tanked, I commented that it was the worst explosion of a giant gas bag in NJ since 1937.
mrmoshpotato
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
Knee pads?
dmsilev
@Jeffro: If he feels that he’s been unfairly treated by a fact checker, he should feel free to sue for libel.
(and yes, I know that’s a nearly impossible hill to climb given the circumstances. He might not know that though)
Martin
@catclub: There are timestamps. They need that for a variety of reasons. Yes, if it’s a paper ballot being fed into the reader, they’ll be batched, and the timestamp is generally meaningless. But it’s important because everyone has a cutoff for when ballots can be received. They’ll also record the postmark if you have a postmark deadline, IIRC.
The key here is that you anonymize the users at the start. I get a random ID, and throughout the process only that ID gets used. Where, when, how, and who I voted for are all attached to that ID, but provided you have a proper algorithm for random IDs, there’s no way to even guess that ID is Martin’s. My guess is that party registration is attached to the ID for primaries, so you could say that some Democrat voted at this time, in this way, for this person.
Now, there’s a few things that can be done here for security. One, you could just firewall these things off really well with a lot of logging for access. I have a few systems I’ve developed where every transaction is logged. My transaction log in some cases is larger than the database itself. And in some of my systems I can write rules to set off a notification if something happens in the log. If you have an account to access the system, and your spouse is in the system, I’ll have a rule to set off the klaxons if you access your spouses record.
Another thing you could do is use a good asymmetrical key arrangement for the ID. Rather than store the ID in the user identity database, you store a different key that can generate the ID using an algorithm that makes it near impossible to derive the key if you have the ID. This way, you could look up Martin, use the recorded key to derive the ID, and then look up how Martin voted, but if you had the voting record with the ID, you wouldn’t be able to reverse this process to determine that was my ballot.
Pretty sure here in CA the Registrar can easily determine who cast a given ballot because of the options here to cure them. Someone can look at the ballot, see that it’s ambiguous and then call me on the phone and ask what I intended.
Anonymous doesn’t mean it’s impossible to put name to vote. Anonymous means it’s illegal to reveal that or use it in an unofficial capacity. But it used to mean it was impossible.
Martin
@lowtechcyclist: Individual One.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jeffro: Has Rep. Maddock ever read the 1st Amendment?
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
I love Obese Orban!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t watch CNN, but it seems to me most of their anchors/reporters have been pretty good in the trump era. I believe Tapper got up on his high horse (named Broder )to get all prim and smug about the great “X days since a press conference!” that he and his kind tried to convince the rest of the universe was a scandal, gave a prim little lecture to twitter on the air, as I recall.
Leto
@Dorothy A. Winsor: GQPs continuing war on the 1st Amendment, except where it pertains to Faux News. Idk, maybe this is a way to put them out of business too considering how GQP members don’t think past the first step on any decision.
Martin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: As one of ours has noted:
hueyplong
The shitgibbon
Gotta go with the classics.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@BruceFromOhio: These are my worst fears too. I feel like folks on our side are way too complacent. We won, but not by much, and many of the suburbanites who voted our way are wavering. We are in real danger.
Redshift
@Mike in NC:
Ever since Boehner was forced out, the main qualification for being GOP Speaker/minority leader is not being smart enough to realize it’s a no-win job and be left holding the bag. That doesn’t narrow it down much, of course…
Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think the talent has a real understanding of what Zucker did to help get Trump elected. I think they are trying to redeem the network.
Shame the NYT hasn’t made the same effort.
natem
@Redshift: Eddie Munster was smart enough to know it was a job he really didn’t want though he took it anyway.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Source?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
emboldened by me
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
Are you very concerned then that since these parallel systems in place can be used to identify individual voters that voters will be targeted for not voting the “correct” way by GOP goons in states like Arizona?
Ruckus
My input to a proper name for mr obnoxious is shitforbrains.
I’ve used it often enough that it comes up as a suggestion when I type in an s.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I said the other day, Repulicans are increasingly acting like they’re bullet-proof. This smacks of either self-confidence or abject desperation
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Somebody should ask Manchin and Sinema if McCarthy “really meant it” and how can bipartisanship be achieved with such bad faith
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: I’m sticking with TFG.
Leto
@Ruckus: I’ve used Trumpov for over 5 years now. My phone autocorrects to that for any variation I put in.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: probably a combination of desperation, and knowing his voters are dumber than a bag of hammers.
Ksmiami
@SiubhanDuinne: good I hope he croaks sooner than later
JMG
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Evidence for this “wavering?” Even anecdotal evidence?
Ksmiami
@Martin: just fucking split the country up. Enough. gOP is traitor trash and I no longer want them in the same country
hueyplong
@Ksmiami: Looks like I’d have to relocate from Occupied France if Ksmiami’s split-up theory were to be implemented.
And working under a state license as I do, I’d have to retire.
Hmm…. OK.
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It is not self confidence. I mean it might be, but it shouldn’t be, considering the political facts of the last few months. Republicans lost everything in the last federal election. Yes not by a lot, but lose they did. They did shit for the public health over the last 12-14 months, during a pandemic. Their money grubbing sponsors will likely have to spend more to win anything next time, and a lot of their base will likely be dead from Covid by the next election.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
As long as it’s derogatory it’s good.
Uncle Cosmo
@Betty Cracker: You might add Trumplthinskin and Orangecandyass and The Emperor Tang® to the list if no one already has. (ETA: Also IIRC it was Agolf Twitler.)
Villago Delenda Est
Tapper is still Villager vermin.
In the words of the late, great efgoldman, fuck ’em.
Jeffro
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m going to go out on a limb here and say ‘no’.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: love how they’re all now going with the orange moron’s way of adding some dumb adjective to a political opponent’s name and capitalizing it.
‘Corrupt Joe Biden’
‘Crooked Hillary’
‘(something really offensive and dog-whistly) Kamala’
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
If he read it I doubt he understood any of the words, especially in context. Or maybe doesn’t think it applies to him. Or both…
prostratedragon
@piratedan: The word “vermin ” comes to mind.
bnateAZ
@piratedan: There are no words for the depths of rage I am experiencing as a voter in Maricopa County.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: TFG even has the Presidential stamp of approval.
Another Scott
@Redshift: … and being able to raise, and control, a lot of campaign money. Part of that automatically comes with the position, but one doesn’t get that position without being able to raise lots of money.
Before Boehner quit, he controlled something like $15M, IIRC, and that was a long time ago…
[eta:] McCarthy raised almost $33M in 2019-2020.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mike in NC
McCarthy has won a new nickname: Kremlin Kevin
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): @JMG: Official source? No. Its more annecdotal. I’m hearing buyers remorse from conservative leaning suburbanites who voted less for Biden than against Trump. They are nervous about the size of the infrastructure bill. They feel like they voted for a moderate and are getting a stealth progressive. They would never vote for Trump in 2024, but they might go back to the GOP for the mid-terms.
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): So, I’m not sure it matters at that point. If a legislature is willing to violate the sanctity of the vote in that way, then they might as well just pick the electors they want and choose the result they want.
Once you’ve lost democracy, you’ve lost it. How you’ve lost it matters in terms of how you need to restore it, but it doesn’t really matter if you are hounding voters or murdering your opposition.
Nora Lenderbee
@Ruckus: My browser automatically replaces the TFG’s name with “asswipe.” It also replaces “Pence” with “shit-for-brains.” Sometimes I’m momentarily confused by your posts.
Mike E
@Uncle Cosmo: Lord of the Fries
rikyrah
IS THIS what I’ve been waiting for? Should this clear up the pharmacies and make it a go?
CDC advisers vote to recommend use of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine in 12-15-year-olds
By Maggie Fox, CNN
Updated 3:29 PM ET, Wed May 12, 2021
(CNN)US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisers voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend giving Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine to kids as young as 12.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices agreed the benefits of vaccinating children and teens outweigh any risks from the vaccine.
The US Food and Drug Administration extended its emergency use authorization for the vaccine in 12-15-year-olds Monday.
“This is one more step to gaining immunity and bringing the pandemic closer to an end,” said Dr. José Romero, who chairs ACIP and who is also the Secretary of the Arkansas Department of Health.
“We still need to vaccinate the rest of the world, but we have made significant steps and are on the road.”
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/12/health/acip-cdc-pfizer-vaccine-teens/index.html
Brachiator
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
They kinda are getting a stealth progressive. I guess this just means that Biden’s proposals are going to have to re-energize the economy.
Redshift
The winner of the GOP nomination for governor of VA got a “surprise” endorsement from TFG, and the state GOP establishment don’t seem very happy about it. They had worked very hard to make sure the Trumpiest candidate didn’t win, so they certainly seem to grasp that he’s still not helping them in suburbia.
James E Powell
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
This sounds like a standard FOX “some say” story.
Biden’s approval rating being more than 10 points higher than his popular vote percentage is not a sign of buyer’s remorse.
And I can’t think of any reason why suburbanites – which I guess is now code for white people who make over $100K/household – would be against a large infrastructure bill. They will be ones who ultimately get most of the benefits of such a bill. Any thoughts?
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Did you see that this morning someone posted the places in Chicago where you can get 12-15 year-olds vaccinated, no appointments necessary, starting on Thursday morning? (8 am
JMG
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Unfortunately for the peace of mind of those voters, Trump is gonna do his damnedest to make sure the midterms are all about him. He won’t let GOP candidates say “elect us to block Biden” without adding the phrase “and to bring back Trump.”
Gravenstone
@Baud: I saw reporting early on that they were using black or blue pens when reviewing them, not the mandated red pens. The red ink would not scan in the event the ballots were marked, while the black and blue will. So yeah, be prepared for a large number of suddenly “spoiled” ballots to materialize.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker:
Donnie (because he demanded to be called Donald)
It looks like AL liked Deadbeat Donnie.
Cheers,
Scott.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: Agree. Much depends on the economic results of the relief packages. So far, there’s reason to be optimistic.
In the OP, I expressed the hope that elected Repubs’ odious antics would turn off non-cultists in their ranks, but the real question is will our voters show up in the midterms. They did in the GA special election and surprised the crap out of everyone (ditto WI in a critical earlier vote). It will take a similar effort. We need Abrams and Wiklers in every damned state!
Another Scott
@Redshift:
Relatedly, …
(Youngkin was formerly a Carlyle Group co-CEO. Worth $600M or so, is a number I vaguely recall seeing.)
Hey, selecting a guy who’s got lots of money, never had an elected office before, did lots of targeted stuff online, etc., worked out great for the Teabaggers in 2016. Why not try it again?
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
I saw that and just about died laughing. OOPS!
Kiss of death in Blue Virginia. =)
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
they won’t let me sign her up. Say she has to be 16 and above.
I will keep on trying.
zhena gogolia
Ksmiami
@hueyplong: I look forward to republic of Canamerica! But seriously must we be cursed to make no progress by empowering the most vile among us? I’m sorry after the pandemic etc and the pod ppl I don’t see any advantages
Jeffro
@Another Scott: as long as the media keeps asking Youngkin about various “America First” positions and his loyalty to trumpov, I’m good with it.
The papers have been tough on ol’ Cox: “career over” read one subhead. Yeowch! (It’s not mean if it’s true, but still)
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@James E Powell: Sure, except these are people I actually know, not a Fox news story.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Yep. Yep. Right now, I think people understand how odious and dangerous the GOP crazy base is. We will see what happens when we get closer to the midterms.
trollhattan
So this is a thing.
VeniceRiley
@rikyrah: Perhaps they don’t have Pfizer? If they do, maybe they’re waiting for the dr. Walensky sign off on the findings. That might not be until Friday
Steve in the ATL
@prostratedragon: how about your current (and my, SD’s, and Raven’s former) city releasing thousands of feral cats from shelters to combat the rat problem? I don’t recall any of the Daleys or that asshole Emmanuel getting that creative!
persistentillusion
@Tony Jay: Tangerine Twatwaffle from the list Tennant read for some late night host…
prostratedragon
@bnateAZ: Feeling sympathetic vibrations in Cook of Illinois.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
California is lurching in that direction.
Personally very disturbed by the large cohort of “nah-ga-geh-it” folks we have, locally estimated at 40% of adults. “Blue county” my aching butt.
Steve in the ATL
@Another Scott:
Baud has dreams of polling this high!
prostratedragon
@Steve in the ATL: If only it were that simple … Don’t know if I’d want kitties eating the subject matter though.
Martin
Woo! Oldest child got his first job offer and it’s a good one!
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
I’d prefer the $5 million.
Baud
@Martin:
?
Biden is already paying dividends.
Martin
@Baud: I don’t think Biden can take credit for this specific offer. However, he graduated right when the pandemic hit and we decided he’d just cruise here at home until he could get vaccinated. He got the shot 10 days ago, so in the sense that getting vaccinated was key to this moment, then yeah, Biden deserves a ton of credit from that vantage point.
Doc Sardonic
@rikyrah: Check http://vaccines.gov with the zip code and you can specify Pfizer and it will tell you who has it in stock. Did a check for 60601and there does not seem to be a great deal of the Pfizer available currently.
Baud
@Martin:
Have we learned nothing from the right? Biden gets credit for all good things. Like Jesus.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: ugh one more 1099-DIV to deal with. Much easier to process the capital losses under GQP administrations.
prostratedragon
Manchin tells ABC News he won’t support SR1 for voting rights.
Another Scott
JuanitaJean: Where are the Four Horsemen:
Hmm…
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Why is that any worse than any of the others?
prostratedragon
@prostratedragon:
Sanctimonious pablum like this does not help him:
But if some insist on doing so, who is he to object, right Joe?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@prostratedragon:
What a fucking idiot. Or not and he knows exactly what he’s doing. I’d like to be wrong but I think this is going to turn out exactly like his bipartisan Newtown Shooting legislation back in like 2013 or whatever that was severely watered down for Republicans and they still didn’t vote for it
ljdramone
@Betty Cracker:
the flip side of Mango Mussolini:
Cheeto Benito
prostratedragon
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Of course. I’m really going to hold my tongue on him, but, you know, we’ll see. All that hot air generally ain’t no good.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
The question then is: are these people representative of other suburbanites across the country? Also, do these exist in significant numbers to affect anything? I’m not sure that’s the case
Baud
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: From efg in the archives, apricot asswipe.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@prostratedragon:
Yeah. I should too. I really wish somebody would ask him about that Newtown bill and how this effort is going to be any different
rikyrah
Thank you ????
President Biden (@POTUS) tweeted at 3:48 PM on Wed, May 12, 2021:
Tomorrow we will cross 250 million vaccine shots administered since we took office.
It’s a truly remarkable achievement for the nation.
(https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1392582587550421000?s=03)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): He has more democrats that might see it more favorably.
Stop watching the sausage being made, it’s an ugly process.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I thought that passed the Senate but didn’t get a vote in the House.
J R in WV
Way back when we kept livestock, we had a hogpen where we kept a pig –> hog. When we took the hog to the butcher, there was no more food being dumped into the hogpen, so the giant rat living under the floor of the hogpen left for better food chances.
Was the size of a possum, a huge rat. Our current at the time giant white cat, with red flashes, killed that giant rat, which was perhaps a little bigger than the boss tomcat. Ralph also attacked a fox sneaking up on the tree the chickens roosted in — he was losing that fight when Wife showed up with the handle from a post-hole digger – whacked that fox HARD, carried Ralph the big tomcat into the house. Fox was trying to drown our boss cat in the tiny creek, wound up with (probably) broken ribs, etc.
Cats are great predators, but depending upon the size of their prey… they can and do lose some fights.
Elizabelle
@ljdramone: Could be Cheato Benito too.
Although Cheeto does emphasize the artificial orange and getting crap all over yourself from contact.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@prostratedragon:
Just a bunch of balloon-juice.
rikyrah
The Farmer’s Market that I went to near work starts again on MAY 27TH???
Kay
DeWine’s doing a sweepstakes – a million dollar winner a week.
There’s another one for kids- they get a chance for a 4 year college scholarship-
My sister loves this- thinks it’s brilliant
Baud
@Kay:
A vaccine passport for a lottery? Oh the irony.
Another Scott
@Baud: He’s nominally competent in some ways.
He’s more dangerous than Fled Cruz and Hee Hawley and the rest because he has a better chance of winning.
A low chance, but not comfortably low enough.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
What a funny thing- he’s using stim money
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV:
Was it orange?
Kay
@Baud:
We’re pro-vacc!
Plus, I feel lucky, Baud. I got this.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: I don’t think any of the politicians will impress the TFG voters, they like their candidate pure and not touched by politics. Someone who will drain the swamp.
Baud
@Another Scott:
I don’t know who is setting these odds, but I’ll take your word for it.
horatius
@Cameron:
I personally prefer Roy Edroso’s “the outlaw Jersey Whale”
sdhays
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
What I don’t get is how anyone who is actually in the Senate thinks this is a good thing. The Senate has been basically a place where absolutely nothing happens for nearly 20 years unless the filibuster is rendered inoperative – either through actual super-majorities like in 2009-2010 or through reconciliation.
The Senate that they claim to be trying to preserve hasn’t existed since the mid-W administration, at least. It’s already dead. The only actual way to bring back the bipartisan Senate is to make it clear that “something” is definitely going to pass. In that situation, minority legislators have a choice of phoning in their “no” vote or collaborating with the majority, and at some point, blanket “no’s” will no longer be a given.
But until the filibuster is gone, they’re just making the Senate a worst place to (not doing any) work.
Geminid
@Jeffro: Late in the nomination campaign, Youngkin was also endorsed by Corey Stewart, who got stomped by Tim Kaine in the 2018 Senate race. A writer at Bearing Drift noted that the Youngkin campaign did not acknowledge the endorsement.
An interview with Youngkin will be aired at 5:08 tomorrow afternoon on Charlottesville’s WINA AM1070. Could be an interesting preview of his communications strategy.
But that is kind of close to dinnertime….
mrmoshpotato
@prostratedragon: Rats and cats and rabbits, oh my!
JMG
If Trump’s breathing and can still be presented to the public (neither cinch bets) by 2024, no other Republicans will even run. Look for state GOP organizations to abolish their primaries if some other egomaniac dares to compete with him.
Elizabelle
@JMG: I think Trump may be a federal felon by then.
The Al Capone route.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: I hope all of the idiots enjoy their Rubbermaid bins of fire hazard.
rikyrah
@piratedan:
??????
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Alright, I’ll keep this in mind
Ksmiami
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): seriously fuck Joe Manchin.
Kay
This pathetic fraud has so much contempt for the public she thinks people will be fooled by this bullshit
There’s no difference between saying this and saying Biden stole the election.
What gets me is how they all think they’re so wildly clever. That moving the words around is so masterful that no one will ever know she’s the 2021 equilvalent of a Birther.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: I like “Wussolini.”
dnfree
@Martin: Thank you for your detailed analysis of how things changed when people started to be able to vote multiple ways, or to fix errors. This is along the lines of my speculations, having used transaction databases and change audit databases in corporate jobs where integrity of data was essential. I agree—it depends on how each state or each system operates, but it is now most likely possible to tie a ballot to a voter. It’s supposed to be difficult to do and illegal to use the information, I would hope.
J R in WV
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Nope, std rat grey with a naked tail. Was almost certainly a Republican, tho~!!~
Kay
She won’t say Biden won the election, because she’s subservient to Donald Trump.
trollhattan
Joe’s having a positive impact on his WV fellow “Democrats.”
Geminid
@Kay: An essential skill of Republican politicians these days is the ability to talk out of both sides of their mouths.
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: Prison isn’t necessarily an obstacle: W.E duBois ran for President from his jail cell, so there’s precedent.
Baud
@Kay:
I give even odds that she loses her bid to replace Cheney.
ThresherK
I don’t know what to make of Tapper, whether or not this will hold, but he’s been doing much better on things for about a few years. And I am not trying to be savvy, or Jay Rosen, but I’ve mentioned as such a couple times here and at LGM, so when I see him doing this I like it.
Andy
@dmsilev:
It was Eugene V. Debs.
R-Jud
@horatius: I liked Jim Newell’s “Governor Sandwiches”.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
It unfortunately has not. It’s only been passed by the House. From Wiki:
prostratedragon
@?BillinGlendaleCA: We’re doing this for love. He wasn’t elected to bloviate.
rikyrah
@catclub:
The most traceable votes are Provisional Ballots. Because, each ballot is attached to a Provisional ID number. You have to research Provisional Ballots, and based upon the research, accept or reject the ballot. Most other ballots are anonymous. You might be able drill down to which batch your mail ballot was in,.but that’s about it.
Provisional Ballots are the least anonymous.
Jinchi
@Another Scott:
It wouldn’t be public record who she voted for, but it would be public record if she didn’t vote at all.
In any case, I don’t know why the press spends so much time interviewing Jenner, who isn’t even leading in the polls and clearly has no interest in actually governing other than to “hire the right people” to tell her what to sign.
Here’s a crazy idea: Maybe just let one of those people run instead.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I was referring to the gun control bill, which is what I thought you meant when you said Newton.
Elizabelle
@Geminid: Wussolini.
Laughing. Out for a walk; check in again later.
Steve in the ATL
@Andy: did you do the New Yorker crossword puzzle today?
rikyrah
@Villago Delenda Est:
Wipe them out
All of them
rikyrah
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Nervous of the size of.the.Infrastructure bill?
????
trollhattan
@Jinchi:
In a Republican state not voting gets you remove from the voter roll.
Jenner is a fucking moron who wants some more camera time than merely being Kardashian provides. Pity.
prostratedragon
@trollhattan: What I’m talking about. Wait for it.
Kay
Perfectly normal political party. Yup.
Geminid
@Kay: Lin Wood packed his carpetbag, moved from Georgia to South Carolina, and is running for Republican State Chairman. Last I read, Wood was doing well at county level conventions, and he may win.
Brachiator
@Kay:
What is the street price of the drugs this dope is taking?
Steeplejack
@Martin:
Congratulations to the kid! What is he going to be doing? Is he the dancer?
AnotherBruce
@Albatrossity: Papoloma virus is the technical term for genital warts. Don’t ask me how I know this.