Politico got its mitts on some of the documents Trump’s lawyers tried to keep from the January 6 committee, including a draft executive order authorizing the secretary of defense to seize voting machines and a document titled “Remarks on National Healing.” Hoo boy. First up, the EO:
The order empowers the defense secretary to “seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention under” a U.S. law that relates to preservation of election records. It also cites a lawsuit filed in 2017 against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Additionally, the draft order would have given the defense secretary 60 days to write an assessment of the 2020 election. That suggests it could have been a gambit to keep Trump in power until at least mid-February of 2021.
The draft EO, which can be read in its entirety here, also authorizes:
“The appointment of a Special Counsel to oversee this operation and institute all criminal and civil proceedings as appropriate based on the evidence collected and provided all resources necessary to carry out her duties consistent with federal laws and the Constitution.”
Emphasis mine. He meant Sidney Powell, fellow citizens, the Kraken lady. This slobbering lunatic:
The Trump administration beclowned this country every day for what seemed like an eternity, and maybe we should be thankful that even some of Trump’s otherwise shameless enablers had a vestigial sense of professional self-preservation that motivated them to stop this ridiculous plan. That allowed the nation to dodge the democracy-dispatching bullet that would have been the Kraken lady ranting about election fraud under the international klieg lights. Good gravy!
But in a sense, it’s the “Remarks on National Healing” that really punch the ticket to Crazytown, revealing that even as the Kraken lady and others pursued their mad scheme to overthrow the election, other White House operatives were frantically constructing coup offramps:
“I would like to begin today by addressing the heinous attack that took place yesterday at the United States Capitol,” it opens. “Like all Americans, I was outraged and sickened by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem. I immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders. America is, and must always be, a nation of law and order…”
The draft remarks go on to describe emotions running high after an intense election. “But now, tempers must be cooled and calm restored.”
Trump “vigorously pursued every legal avenue to contest the election results,” the remarks add, and still urges election “reform” so voters could be confident about future contests.
“But as for THIS election, Congress has now certified the results,” the remarks say. “The election fight is over. A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation.”
Whaa? Of course, Trump never gave that speech either, never admitted he lost and never condemned the supporters who attacked the Capitol under his tacky-ass banner. But that someone in the White House wrote something in a category adjacent to a concession speech shows just how rudderless and chaotic the administration was in its final weeks.
Sometimes, the whole thing still seems so surreal. I don’t think I’ll ever quite wrap my head around it.
Open thread.
JoyceH
“Birds of a feather flock together” is a cliche because it’s true. Elect a crazy president, get a crazy government.
Baud
So when I first saw the news about this, I thought it was a draft of the speech Trump planned to give after he overthrew democracy. I now see it was a draft prepared by a naive and embarrassed staffer as a concession speech. I guess that makes me feel a little better.
Gravenstone
Fucker wouldn’t have made it through that sentence without breaking up laughing, then claiming victory for Team MAGAt.
Baud
@Gravenstone:
That’s the only possible way it would have happened.
Roger Moore
@JoyceH:
Or as people liked to say, elect a clown, expect a circus.
Old School
So this speech was written after Trump told the coup participants that he loved them?
Whoever wrote it is delusional.
The Moar You Know
I read somewhere, and I can’t remember where, that Trump had been given a concession speech (“Remarks on National Healing”) and flat-out refused to read it, never mind give it.
Cephalus Max
I can’t express how embarrased I am that Sidney Powell is a fellow UNC alum.
The Moar You Know
Also: why the fuck hasn’t Sidney Powell been disbarred? Who’s gotta get blown to make that happen?
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I made that assumption too and would be unsurprised to learn a draft to that effect is also among the documents released to the committee.
Origuy
One more request for help for my friend Susan, whose cat Tabitha had five teeth pulled. Susan rescued an entire litter of kittens a few years ago and now they are cats with medical problems. She needs help with the bills and any help you can give would be appreciated by Susan, Tabitha, and her sisters Sandtoes, Dixie, Dusty, and Snickerdoodle, and their brother Braveheart. Susan is still paying off the expenses for their sister Stevie, who passed away last year. Here are some kitty pictures, and a shot of the bill.
Contributions can be sent via PayPal or Zelle to me at jlanam AT comcast DOT net or to my Venmo account at @Jeffery-Lanam. Thanks to those who have already donated. Anything is appreciated.
Baud
@The Moar You Know:
I think she’s licensed in GOP states where the state bars are slow rolling it for obvious reason. Googling suggests there are inquiries pending.
debbie
If it looks like treason and smells like treason, it’s fucking treason. We need an Executive Order barring TFG from ever running for public office again.
West of the Rockies
@Baud:
I also supposed the “healing speech” would have addressed the anticipated liberal outrage at Clump being reinstalled.
NotMax
Funny (not ha-ha funny), innit, how only certain states are accused of shenaniganning.
Constitution (oh that old thing) – 20th Amendment, Section 1* – affords NO wiggle room. The term ends at the stroke of noon on Jan. 20 regardless. And there is in place procedure for who takes the office in an acting capacity should it be necessary. For even this SCOTUS it would be a prodigious leap to declare the Constitution unconstitutional.
*”The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.”
Sure Lurkalot
My brother would still vote for him as would millions of our “fellow” citizens. So the
Is something I can totally relate to.
A Ghost to Most
Some of us wrapped our heads around it long before the rest.
Ocotillo
This just goes the show how f*$king heavy a lift Democrats have to try and put this nation back on stable footing. Things like this keep coming out and at least half the voting public is like “Let’s go Brandon”.
He (orange one) was right when he said he could shoot someone of 5th Avenue and not loose a vote. Hell he picked up votes in 2020.
May God have mercy on us all.
Geminid
@JoyceH: Trump would have gotten further in this scheme if he had picked a more loyal acting Attorney General, and more compliant acting Defense Secretary. He might have thought he had. It seems that White House Counsel Cippolini also dug in his heels and Trump had to work around him. I look forward to these men’s testimony before the January 6 Committee. That won’t be long, either.
Brachiator
Already in violation of the Constitution here. The president does not determine how long he will serve after an election.
There is also this weird establishment of Trump paranoia (or egomania) as the starting point. The election is fraudulent because Trump said so, unless proven otherwise.
And Republicans fall for this shit?
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
The truly scary thing to me is that if these assholes had tried this, and somehow managed to pull it off, what passes for the political press in this country would have just kind of shrugged its collective shoulder and asked, “Well, who can really know whether this is a bad thing? Democrats say it is, but they’re shrill, and sometimes their voters say bad words, and the Republicans say it’s good, so I guess the answer must be somewhere in the middle? It’s kind of okay, but not perfect. Did I get that right? Can I go to all the right parties now?”
raven
Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen Master, Dies at 95
There was conversation around MLK and his opposition to the war in Vietnam earlier this week:
lgerard
The sad part is that these stupid things have already appreciated 40%.
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
Because the process is deliberately slow. She has already been sanctioned for some of her work in the post-election challenges. IIRC, now somebody needs to make a complaint with the local bar wherever she is licensed to practice asking her to be disbarred. It’s quite possible this has happened and the proceedings are underway, but that they’re kept under wraps unless the subject is actually disbarred. That’s pretty common, so people don’t have their reputation smeared when somebody abuses the process by making an unjustified complaint against them.
Baud
@lgerard:
Using NFTs to replace Ticketmaster might be their one and only productive purpose.
cmorenc
I’m curious to find out which Trump WH aide/staffer thought there was a snowball’s chance in Hell that Trump could be persuaded to authorize release of this one his behalf, let alone speak this announcement himself. S/he must have temporarily been seized by the delusion that s/he was working for Al Gore in 2000, not Donald Trump in 2020.
The Moar You Know
@West of the Rockies: the GOP has already worked that equation. The vast majority of people of a “liberal” bent aren’t armed. No need to consider how they might feel about anything.
trollhattan
@lgerard: Since I’m too a-skeert to click through, are they selling digital renderings of food in addition to, you know, food?
Cacti
Here’s the thing…
I think some of the Republicans who opposed Trump didn’t do so out of a sense of principle, so much as they found him personally trashy.
If a Bush had tried this move, Bill Barr would have had zero reservations.
Wag
shows just how rudderless and chaotic the administration was
in its final weeks.FIFY!
Holy mackerel. The shit is going to hit the fan over the next week or two, isn’t it?
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
but… but… …. her emails!
cmorenc
@Roger Moore:
Yes, exactly this. Sometimes the circumstances preceding a lawyer’s likely forthcoming disbarment are so egregious and notorious that such is obviously forthcoming (e.g. the prominent lawyer in South Carolina Alex Murdaugh accused of misappropriating massive amounts of insurance settlement money), even though the proceedings before the state bar association are kept behind closed doors until a decision is issued.
Mike in NC
Putin relaxes at night by watching video of the MAGA mob ransacking the Capitol while he laughs and sips his vodka.
NotMax
FYI regarding cryptocurrency.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@lgerard:
It sounds like the plot of the hilarious 1990 Marlon Brando grifting comedy “The Freshman” (photo)
Steeplejack
The secretary of defense—WT holy F?! How would there be jurisdiction? Oh, that’s right—that’s where Trump installed all of his quislings right after the election. Guess he couldn’t do that at Justice.
Baud
@NotMax: It’s his money, once he’s paid. AFAIK, crypto is in a bear market right now.
Mary G
Just a bottomless pit of corruption, stupidity, and sheer chutzpah. I was.one of the people who said “oh, we’ll be fine, the Supremes, the House, the Senate, the DOJ, the States,etc. etc. will hold him back.” I was so wrong. And they are plowing ahead with so many worse things.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
It’s easy; once you accept that the Trump was the stoner of presidents then everything makes sense.
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: Great timing!
Maybe he’ll have enough leftover to ride the bus home.
The Moar You Know
@Cacti: That WAS my father, my father in law, and mother in law. Had the GOP memoryholed the orange monster, they would have gotten those three votes back.
But they not only haven’t done that, they’ve doubled down, and as a result, the Democratic party has three new registered voters. They are always going to be conservadems, but I’ll take those votes too, and they’re not going to even consider a return unless the party of Trump forswears him and apologizes. The forswearing of the man I can see happening and it may happen soon. Apologies, on the other hand, will not happen in my lifetime, never mind theirs.
lgerard
@trollhattan:
After reading this
Rodolitz acknowledged that membership in the club isn’t just about food, or even a high-end dining experience
my thought is that they are not selling food at all, just an experience
I wonder if you can wear Melania’s NFT hat while enjoying your membership
schrodingers_cat
One reason Rs get away with murder is because our political press loves them. Check out NYT Nate’s take on Democratic president this morning. Apparently, they have all been politically unsuccessful since FDR.
According to substitute Nate (although the real one is not covering himself in glory either.)
LBJ, Clinton and Obama unsuccessful
Reagan and Coolidge successful
Baud
@The Moar You Know: Good on them for putting the country over party.
lgerard
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
So far it seems more like the plot of “The Producers”
Argiope
Nominated
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Standing outside City Hall wearing a sandwich board:
“Will Govern For Food.”
//
debbie
@A Ghost to Most:
Yeah, like before he even announced.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
HA! Those fools investing money in crypto.
Luckily I got in the ground floor of the Dutch Tulip market
Geminid
@Geminid: Correction: that’s White House Counsel Pasquale Anthony “Pat” Cippilone. Ironically, born in the Bronx, New York City. A University of Chicago Law School graduate.
Steeplejack
@Origuy:
Can you give us an update on how much was collected after your first request?
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
The NYT is garbage.
Argiope
@Brachiator: I find I’m playing this retrospective guessing game about who really fell for it and who is just a cynical authoritarian. Barr is easy: cynical. Powell and Giuliani may have had the cult addle their brains and may actually believe the bullshit they are spouting. There is a high whiff of crazy about each. I think maybe the cult broke some GOP brains for real. And then there are the Republican voters who hear FOX and OAN all day, and their confirmation bias keeps them from listening critically to the claims. They may not believe it all, but they aren’t going to go out of their way to disprove it to themselves because they like the conclusions and feeling aggrieved.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Yeah, that’s a detail that seems to get overlooked, even here.
cmorenc
Consider that it is true that many people across the political spectrum have long criticized pure electronic voting machines for their potential vulnerabilities to tampering and hacking (i.e. those which don’t create a paper trail such as optical scanning of paper ballots). That’s the background which team Trump was probably assuming would give their claims enough credibility to at least bring things to a standstill lasting past January 20th.
Of course, in this case team Trump’s particular claims had no basis in actual fact, but nevertheless any federal voting rights reform legislation should mandate the sort of accurately auditable, yet voter-anonymous paper trail that optical scan paper ballots create.
Kristine
My pup’s grooming/playcare place is located in Paul Ryan’s old district, and I drive through farm country on the way to pick her up so I’m used to seeing Tr*mp flags etc. One resident recently hoisted a “Let’s Go, Brandon” flag. Yesterday I saw they added a Tr*mp 2024 flag as well. I don’t see how TFG can survive that long or make it through a campaign, but I didn’t think he’d last a year in office so what do I know?
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: And they are Nazi enablers. The original version and our homegrown copycats. That’s why I call them Vichy Times.
Kay
And universities.
Origuy
@Steeplejack: Sure, it was a total of $310, including one donation for $150 and one for $100.
NotMax
@Geminid
That ends the confusion. Was almost sure Cippolini would have been played by zombie Chico Marx.
:)
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G:
Yup. More respect to Congressman Schiff and the January 6th Committee for their tireless work.
gene108
@Argiope:
I like Congressman Schiff’s idea about power revealing people’s nature. Some people can say no to power, because of principle. Others like Barr and Giuliani may have wanted to be relevant again, so they clung to Trump because he had power as President. The allure of “being somebody that matters” overrides other ethical concerns.
Geminid
@Argiope: Barr got out. I think his last day was December 23. I forget who the acting AG was, but his Deputy, Mr. Rosen, would not cooperate with Trump’s henchmen. Rosen has sat for hours with January 6 staff. His testimony should be good.
I’m a little bit tempted to get satellite TV for these hearings. But my Atlanta friend will be watching them like a hawk and will convey the high points. Plus, I know of a blog where that’s all they’ll talk about.
Steeplejack
@raven:
RIP. ? A great voice. For those interested, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life is a good introduction.
Cermet
Extreme weather that will only get further extreme and that is the future; war clouds threaten, and these too will become both more common and sooner or later, the storm will break; the pandemic is raging and yet this is just the first of others that will occur; the joke of our slaved based constitutional “democracy” is exposed even as the inferior court delivers it to remains to fascism; racism grows and feeds said fascist forces; supplies and distribution – maximized for profits begin to fail and unravel; the ultra wealthy grow in leaps as the middle class shrinks; so, as the fire burns and grows all we can do is deal with extinguishing embers; the truth is – the center will not hold
NotMax
@gene108
If only Rudy had stuck to cross-dressing instead….
//
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@schrodingers_cat:
This is what the Times infamously wrote about Hitler on it’s front page in 1922
Sounds like something Haberman or Broder would post. Literal Nazi enablers.
gene108
This bit from the “concession speech” is so abjectly divorced from reality. Trump ordered the Executive branch agencies to stonewall Biden’s transition team as much as possible. The head of the GSA put transition funds on hold. The DOD and intelligence agencies weren’t allowed to brief President-Elect Biden.
Then McConnell continues the pile on of disrupting the transition by refusing to hold hearings for cabinet appointees, while Republicans still controlled the Senate, which is another norm that fuckhead ground to dust.
RaflW
Had that E.O. attempt been made, one wonders what the street protests would have looked like. I’m inclined to think they’d have been huge, and would have been used by TFG to further attempt to cement power. Would DoD have been placed in the insane position to have to decide to take orders from a Junta and possibly shoot civilians, or melt down the chain of command?
I’m grateful we didn’t find out.
That draft speech, however, sounds like something a lower level staffer wrote as fan fic to soothe her or himself. No way on g-d’s gray-green earth anything like it would have emerged from Donald’s diet coke hole.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
“The Great Bell Chant (the End of Suffering).”
Kay
The speech on “healing” was much less likely than Trump just conceding like a normal, decent person after he was defeated. Every day they let him pretend he won it got less and less likely he would admit he lost. If he wasn’t going to concede when the race was called because he was humiliated and he’s a giant crybaby, he was never going to concede after spending 3 months shrieking about how it was stolen.
What was amazing about him was how people would watch some bad behavior and then judge what he would do next based not on the behavior they had just witnessed, but on what a normal person would do. That’s not how it works!
schrodingers_cat
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Time and Economist were writing to peans to Modi in 2014. He was projected as India’s great hope. Knowing fully well that he presided over a genocide when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2002.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: By people you mean the MSM right? Because I never did have those expectations of him.
Captain C
@schrodingers_cat:
By that standard*, W was a smashing success until the markets crashed in ’08. If they’d waited to implode until January 21, 2009, I’m sure by this standard he would have been a ‘success’ as well.
*Because apparently ignoring intelligence pertaining to the 9/11 attacks, invading the wrong country (and fucking it up and lying about it before, during and after), and farting around while New Orleans was near-destroyed by a hurricane counts as success for a Republican, at least per the political department of the NYT.
Citizen Alan
@lgerard: The restaurant will never open. The grifters behind it will walk away with $15m. And the dumb-fucks behind it won’t even get a fish dinner out of it. They probably won’t even get a picture of a fish dinner.
The Dangerman
@West of the Rockies: I’m right there with you and the others at first reaction…
…but, after some thought, I can’t envision Trump would be capable of a healing speech. I can, however, envision Trump giving a speech to the effect of “kiss the ring and suck it, libtards”.
Steeplejack
@Origuy:
Thanks.
RaflW
@Brachiator: And Republicans fall for this shit?
A significant portion of the country favor hierarchy, loyalty and obedience. They just want someone large and in charge. Even if they suck. It’s reflected in how they parent (and probably in how they mange if they are in a work setting. Ugh.)
TFG was the worst pointy-haired boss evah. But no matter his massive failings and fragile ego, he was the boss. “Yes, sir” is the answer.
I don’t get it. But the vagaries of human nature are weird as f–k.
Citizen Alan
@NotMax: I feel responsible. I mean, I didn’t even vote in the NYC mayoral election, but I feel like just by moving here from Mississippi, I have brought the crazy with me and contaminated the city. Adams will start praising the Confederacy before too long.
karen marie
@The Moar You Know: It is ridiculously difficult to get disbarred, more so to get permanently disbarred. You can get caught stealing money from your clients, get disbarred, and then get your license back in seven years in Massachusetts.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
Even the people who worked for him! What about this person would lead them to believe he was ever going to deliver that speech? Not once in his life has he admitted he failed. They cheated, it was unfair, it was someone elses fault, ithe failure never happened and was actually a huge success – that’s his whole life. There wasn’t going to be any magical conversion to decent, law abiding person. That ship has sailed.
Steeplejack
@cmorenc:
Speaking of Alex Murdaugh, more indictments today.
karen marie
@NotMax: I look forward to him inevitably getting hacked.
debbie
@Kay:
People who have had to endure him since the 1970s will tell you he’s never apologized for anything.
Geminid
@Geminid: Another correction: Jeffery Rosen was the acting Attorney General the last ~27 days of Trump’s tenure. Richard Donohue was acting Deputy Attorney General.
RaflW
@lgerard: Already appreciated 40% you say? Just new opportunities for first movers to pump-n-dump. A sucker is born every second.
At least the Christian Louboutin set that would be buying extremely culturally resonant restaurant tokens can afford to be snookered.
karen marie
@lgerard: Reminds me of this. Hahahaha.
Citizen Alan
@Kay:
I would genuinely rather die than go back to Mississippi for anything other than my mother’s funeral.
Kay
Here’s the man who was supposed to deliver the “healing speech”, denying his airline failed:
Citizen Alan
They WANT to believe it. I keep saying this. Trump didn’t have hypnotic powers. Fox News doesn’t beam mind control waves into people’s brings. These animals seek out liars who tell them lies that comport with how they want things to be!
Kay
@Citizen Alan:
I’d be interested in going there. I’ve never been. I like that lush southern landscape although it’s way too hot for me :)
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
Trump always had this hard-on about the military being his military. But all his fantasies about a coup just misses all kinds of points. None of this shit is remotely supported by the Constitution. In the absence of a series of Constitutional amendments dealing with possibly fraudulent elections, had the military stepped in, there would be nothing to prevent a general from saying “Fuck it, I am president now. Trump is insane and is being held in custody, pending transfer to an island gulag. Thank you and God Bless America.”
Once you kick the Constitution aside, there ain’t no rules.
RaflW
@Citizen Alan: A friend that I’ve since sadly lost contact with went to the School of Polymer Science and Engineering in Hattiesburg for his PhD. He GTFO’d the instant he completed his degree.
I visited once while he was there. As a generally ‘out’ young man, the whole damn state gave me mild heebie jeebies — and I was living in Texas at the time. I’ve never really wanted to go back.
Citizen Alan
@Kay: Spend a weekend in Oxford, MS. Ideally on a football weekend. The Grove experience is truly unique (or at least it was pre-Covid; don’t know now). And there’s a lot of csurprisingly good restaurants and cool historical things to see. Be sure to live a shot of whisky on William Falkner’s grave, frex. But after that, no, unless you really like tacky riverboat casinos, there’s nothing to do and no reason to even visit.
Well, there’s the birthplace of Elvis in Tupelo, if you’re really into over-hyped shacks, I suppose.
Suzanne
@Citizen Alan:
100%.
Another Scott
I assume the folks who wrote the “Remarks on National Healing” shared a janitor’s closet office with Milton Waddams.
The reality was – “Go home. We love you, you’re very special.” Everyone could see that at the time, in real time.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
But, Kay, “What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time?”
dr. bloor
@Cephalus Max: Powell is what she is, which is mentally ill. No shame in that. The embarrassment and shame belong to our media overlords who are either too naive or cynical–and in some cases, both–to put an end to her entertainment and advertising revenue value.
RaflW
@Kay: To the extent that Trump has always ever only been about brand identity and current cash flow (profits? who cares about profit as long as you have debt coverage and are one step ahead of the lenders who can break your kneecaps), then in his warped sense, he did do ‘great’ with that airline.
I do have to laugh at that ugly-ass livery on his planes being an ‘aesthetic’ success. But I’m not attracted to the marble, mirrors, and leopard fur style.
p.a.
Aren’t we overlooking the possibility the reconciliation speech was the author’s application to be a writer for The Onion?
Suzanne
@Steeplejack: That remark just filled me with incandescent rage. Like “humoring him”, the thing you do with a grade schooler…. is what we’re going to to with the fucking PRESIDENT. Because he is all up in his fucking feelings.
Anyone who ever dares, in my presence, to assert that women are “emotional” better duck fast.
Brachiator
@Argiope:
I don’t know who is cynical and who a true believer. I don’t know that it much matters if the end result is the same.
But I do note that I find it strange that so many people seem to believe in Trump and are willing to be loyal to him, even though that loyalty is rarely rewarded.
And the Republican Party is playing some weird game. They brush aside every warning about the clear and present danger that Trump and people like him represent, and fan the fames of sedition believing that they cannot get burnt.
I am not sure that we have seen this before on a national level in American history.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@karen marie: Usually, to get disbarred, you have to either fuck your clients or fuck over your clients; and they have to complain about it.
West of the Rockies
@NotMax:
Kind of pissed at Texas Republicans. Didn’t the state sue WI or in MI 1/21 fir how they determined electors? A Texas judge fucked up Biden’s Covid efforts, are fucking up Roe V Wade…
bk
@Cephalus Max: me too
satby
@Steeplejack: oh, Steep, thanks so much for that!
Brachiator
@RaflW:
I think this goes beyond parenting and work behavior. Hierarchies and aristocracies have been around for as long as human beings have existed. Resistance and rebellion have also been around. We are strange animals.
Kent
@NotMax: It’s all fake. He isn’t actually getting a salary in bitcoin. If that were the case his salary would be written as say 0.5 bitcoin per month and he would be paid accordingly regardless of how much bitcoin goes up or DOWN during his tenure. He is getting an ordinary salary in dollars that are transmitted to him in bitcoin. Just like a paycheck isn’t actual dollar currency but a piece of paper with some numbers written on it.
Geminid
@Citizen Alan: Ulysses Grant spent much of December,1862 in Oxford, along with 40,000 Union soldiers. He had to leave and go back North, but not before he found out how abundant food was in Mississippi. Enough to feed an army! Grant applied that lesson four months later in his Vicksburg campaign.
Steeplejack
@Kent:
As I understand it from Twitter, so it must be correct, he is getting his salary paid in dollars, which someone outside of the government then converts to some form of crypto.
To be clear, I’m just quibbling with the phrase “transmitted to him in bitcoin.”
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Plus, cabinet secretaries are not kings. They can’t just do whatever they want or whatever some political flunky in the White House tells them to do – especially not instantly. These are huge bureaucracies with acre-feet of rules and laws and regulations. There’s never One Weird Trick…
Cheers,
Scott.
WereBear
@lgerard: modern tulip mania
HinTN
@Citizen Alan: Ocean Springs is nice but the Walter Anderson museum is not enough of a draw to go there for that reason alone.
Geminid
@The Moar You Know: Now that your three relatives have dipped their toes in, they might decide that the water’s warm. The people I know who vote Republican believe that the Democratic Party is a bunch of radical woke socialists, and think they are voting for the lesser of two evils. An example of “negative polarization.” Your relatives may see the party differently now that they’ve broken away from the Republican mythology.
Another Scott
Reminder of how insane too many of our courts are these days…
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@Steeplejack:
“He’ll be much more likely to concede after everyone tells him he won”
NotMax
More hoops, and not of the Hula variety.
Kay
Yay. Bring out the National Voter Registration Act – dust that off. There’s the Help America Vote Act, too.
japa21
@Kay:
SCOTUS will tear them up. The US Government should just send a few tons of the appropriate paper and ink to Texas so they can’t use that as an excuse. See what they come up with next.
Kent
@Steeplejack: Well, the point of crypto is that it is volatile and not tied to any other currency. Like it has crashed by about 50% in the past month or so. If he really wanted to get paid in bitcoin he could do so but his salary this month would be worth half as much as last month. And no one has a clue as to what his salary would be in say January 2023.
Instead he’s just doing a stunt and basically using bitcoin like a paper check to transmit a dollar salary into his hands. It is all so stupid and pointless.
Starboard Tack
@RaflW: Arthur Miller remarked years ago that that portion was just aching for an ayatollah.
NotMax
@NotMax
Ought be noted, also too, that while the .me domain nomenclature is now treated across the ‘net as a generic top-level domain, it was originally assigned as a country code top-level domain to Montenegro (and still is used as such), which country in theory could request its (to coin a word) genericality be quashed or limited or otherwise challenge its use.
lgerard
The accolades pour in
danielx
@Kay:
This.
His go-to insult is to call somebody a loser. He has never admitted he lost at anything and I suspect is psychologically incapable of such an admission, because he is Donald Trump and Donald Trump does not lose – ever, at anything. It would be a denial of his very self.
Uncle Cosmo
And why I call them the Herrenvölkischer Beobachter. (I’ll see you a Pétain and raise you a Schiklgruber.)
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I think it helps to realize that SFB didn’t think he was president as much as he thought/thinks he’s god, and that everything he wants or thinks is perfect, no matter that he (and we) has/have over 7 decades of proof that he is, at the minimum, 100% full of shit and 100% wrong every minute of every day.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Impeccable logic!
Have you seen Jane Mayer’s new piece about Ginni Thomas? Ugh.
The Pale Scot
Ok, it’s time that I start looking for a desert island
From PZ’s place about EO Wilson’s legacy
These are educated people? The dropouts I played BB with (me included) (thuggish white guys all) would never say something so stupid
Steeplejack
@Kent:
No, I believe that legally the city can pay him only in U.S. dollars. What he does with the money after that is up to him, and apparently he wants to do performative crypto-stunting.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
WTF. That sounds crazy.
Steeplejack
@lgerard:
Phrasing!
Ruckus
@Kay:
That ship was never built in the first place.
SFB earned that title not long after he hit double digits and has been the same person ever since. And the only reason I don’t know if he was better when he was in single digits was because he wasn’t written about back then. But he hasn’t been worth more than 1/2 lb of fresh dog crap for almost 60 yrs and likely longer.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Trump is a fool who believes his own bullshit. He is afraid to admit defeat, so he keeps lying and plunging ahead. It is how he plays his ego games.
A sane society would never have elected him president, or they would have kicked his ass to the curb a long time ago via impeachment and removal from office.
Unfortunately, there are still a bunch of fools in his base who yearn for Trump to be their Dear Leader. And there are evil gnomes like DeSantis waiting in the wings for their turn.
I almost miss the old days when the shittiest Republicans were people like Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Little Marco Rubio.
Almost.
Now I fight for better tomorrows against the GOP Death Cult.
Gravenstone
As someone who doubtless thought of themselves as smarter than the average bear, did he not realize that this supposed “argument” would imply he was himself a needle dick?
Ruckus
@karen marie:
I’ve had better meals at McDs. And I’ve had food poisoning from McDs. Twice. Two different states. Haven’t eaten there in over 30 yrs because of it. If McDs was the last place on earth to get anything to eat, I’ll starve. I’m sure that would be better.
The Pale Scot
@Gravenstone:
Ha! Excellent!
Ruckus
@Citizen Alan:
Is it possible that they are actually like SFB except that he started with money and turned it and himself into shit and they just like shit?
Brachiator
@The Pale Scot:
Wilson’s contribution to evolution is secure despite any connection to Rushton’s wacky bullshit.
This is Yellow Peril 2.0. White people are inferior to Asians, who will dominate them, and do not need big dicks to take their wimmin.
Ruckus
@Citizen Alan:
I was stationed in Charleston SC for 2 yrs. This was over 50 yrs ago and I have zero desire, no hits to the head with a Louisville Slugger, gun in my back, reasons whatsoever to go back. And yet some actually like the place, and there were good restaurants. I’ve been to 46 of the states, and some were pretty, some were amazing, and still, there are a few I have the same need and desire to return to. None.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
This. 7 billion times this.
We have the option to think, to understand, to explore, to research, to fix… And we have the option to opine about things we know zero about, the ability to know everything, to figure out how to kill more effectively for no reason, along with many other useless things. We value time almost as much as we waste it. We value money far more than people, most would rather save money than people.
Strange? At the very least.
getsmartin
@Citizen Alan: – We live on the coast, which is somewhat sane given the diversity that’s present here and influences from other regions. I’ve always said that living an hour from New Orleans (almost) makes living in Mississippi tolerable. My partner is from northeast MS and went to Ole Miss (she loathes the Ole Miss “culture”, btw). When we do the obligatory holiday visits, I feel like an alien up there. Good on you for making your “great escape”, which I hope to do eventually.
Gin & Tonic
@Ruckus: Been to Charleston a couple of times many years ago and enjoyed it. She-crab soup, then hustled a couple of Citadel morons out of pocket money in a bar game. What’s not to like?
J R in WV
@Ruckus:
I spent a few weeks in Charleston SC for USN training, was not impressed at all. Then my ship was sent to the yards, first to Mobile Bay for hull work, and then to Pascagoula MS for overhaul. We (Wife and I) spent nearly a year — 1972 — in Pascagoula. Worst year of our lives!
In early 1973 I was discharged in Key West (ship’s home port at the time) and flew to Pascagoula, where Wife was waiting for me. We rented a U-Haul, packed up and left for WV.
Interestingly, we were both working at the local newspaper when Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre took place. We were at a Saturday night pizza party, with a radio providing the music, and the hourly news break reported on the political firestorm. Wife and I left shortly after hearing about it to go to the newspaper office, where we would have access to the news wires. This was some 35 years before the Internet was created.
For those who don’t recall that, Nixon was deep into his Watergate scandal:
Bork was later nominated to sit on the Supreme Court, but failed to gain Senate approval, after his behavior on Oct 20 1973.
We watched the teletypes spewing out stories, with write thrus, bells ringing to inform wire editors across the world that NEWS was happening. Back then weekends were really sparse for news, everyone had the weekend off. When a big story came over the wire, the bell would ring 5 times — that was for a story like the Second Coming, the beginning of a World War, the Murder of a President. Something that would require 72 Point headlines!!
At the time, the newspaper building was pretty much dark, empty, as the Sunday morning paper had run, and no one would show up again until Sunday afternoon to create the Monday morning paper. So Wife and I watched the biggest political story in our lifetimes (or so we thought) come over the wires. We had the NYT wire, the Wa Po wire, AP, UPI, even the sports and race wires, though there wasn’t much moving on the race wire, which was mostly for gambling sports bars, strictly illegal at the time, not the wire, just the betting.
And now, 48 years later, the Saturday Night Massacre of Richard Nixon appears to be gentle history compared to current events. And even though both Wife and I are retired, we have far more news available today (depending upon weather for our sat connection) than even a modern newspaper had in 1973. And TFG makes Nixon look like a patriot…
Amazing to see history happening before our eyes and ears.
I hope this makes sense, it’s late at night for us, and I have to go feed the critters and tuck Wife in.
laura
@Steeplejack: I felt a total downshift in less than a minute, just a deep heart peace and ease.
Thank you for this. If he hasn’t achieved nirvana after this life, I hope that he continues to evolve ever upward.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
No argument there. Shall probably try to repost it in a thread when Yutsano is around to see what he says about it.
The Pale Scot
oops
LongHairedWeirdo
You should. When people shamelessly lie, about anything at all, and get lots of rubes agreeing, you can feel like maybe you’re the crazy one. But you’re not.
We now know the Republican Party will cover for a president who incites an insurrection, even after his refusal to take Covid-19 seriously led to far too many preventable deaths. Plus, we will never have to listen to a Republican claim to revere the Constitution, since they ignored he presidential duty to see that the laws are faithfully executed. I mean, not just when Trump pushed Hatch Act violations on underlings. Just to make sure *no one* could pretend he cared about the law, he actually had the White House staff turn the White House into a corrupt prop, because it was a bully’s victory… “See, I just made lots of people break the law, and you *still* can’t touch me!”
So yes, surreal, because of the amazing level of gaslighting.
Expatchad
@Brachiator: Funny. People no longer ask me why I have moved to Asia.
Expatchad
Funny. People no longer ask me why I have moved to Asia.