I don’t know what the weather is like where you are, but here in the Midwest we’re enjoying a multi-day stretch of late-spring-like days — temperatures in the low 70s during the day and mid-40s at night. Lots of sunshine, too. And we named a new president just as the weekend was getting started.
If you were paying attention, you know the rest: Spontaneous joy and celebration broke out all over the country, especially in cities, and it was wonderful. Pretty much a perfect day all around. Alan had more driveway-sealing to do, so I took off with a friend to play two rounds of miniature golf. It was kind of a down-at-the-heels course, but who cares. Here was the Breeder’s Cup hole:
That horse has seen better days, for sure. But this was the only elephant I had to worry about all day:
We ended up at the Schvitz, which is still closed to all but private events, but hey, I know the owner, and he was on the patio, drinking beer and giggling at memes. We sat until the sun went down, and then I went home and made dinner. It was a pretty great one.
Sunday wasn’t bad, either. Monday and Tuesday will extend the meteorological blessing, and then November returns.
We lost Alex Trebek this weekend, and as Hank notes: How fitting.
So now we face a new week, a new era, and surely it will have its horrors. The hardline Trumpers are hard at work disgracing themselves, but I still feel a little like Glinda shooing the Wicked Witch of the West away: “You have no power here.” Surely they are still very dangerous, but for now, let’s enjoy the moment. The world will be back with us soon enough.
Deborah said on November 9, 2020 at 10:04 am
All of the good news coming out this morning about the vaccine was heartening and also Biden’s plans for combatting the virus. Still a ways to go but I have hope.
Reading about the Four Seasons Total Landscaping fiasco has been a hoot, the Independent out of the U.K. Had the best take, seems like parody but it is God’s own truth. So funny, better than fiction.
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Su said on November 9, 2020 at 10:08 am
A bunch of my college sorority sisters, all well educated and successful, are announcing that they are leaving Facebook for Parler because of the excessive fact-checking/censorship of Facebook. One said she signed up for something I have never even heard of. Another, who works for the SBA in DC (https://www.sba.gov/person/patricia-gibson), was all in an uproar over this: Trumpaccountability.net. OMG, she’ll never get another job because these people are evil! I am sure employers will bypass the normal background checks, LinkedIn profile, resumes, etc. and go straight to Trumpaccountablity.net.
Where does this excessive paranoia come from??
I say “Bye Felicia!” to all of them. Go stew in Parler.
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LAMary said on November 9, 2020 at 10:09 am
I was on Jeopardy. The qualifying test was tough but I made it. Alex Trebek was respectful and reassuring to the contestants. A gentleman who occasionally used slightly language during the commercial breaks. During the first break he asked where the people in the audience came from. There was a group from a senior citizen center near my home. I told them where I lived and they all cheered me on, which I encouraged. During each break after that it became running joke. I still lost but it was a lot of fun. He really was a great guy. Recently he’s been donating money to developing homeless housing here in LA. I give big props for that. He’s been vocal about the location of housing, even supporting a project not far from where he lived.
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Suzanne said on November 9, 2020 at 10:09 am
I just posted a comment that will be in moderation because I failed to finish typing my entire name.
Happy Monday!
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Deborah said on November 9, 2020 at 10:23 am
Suzanne, your comment is already out of moderation.
Contrary to what some grifters are telling us the Pfizer vaccine had nothing to do with $$$ or help from the US government and actually the science of their vaccine comes out of the German company, Pfizer is the power behind it because of its size and reach.
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Deborah said on November 9, 2020 at 10:43 am
Is it just me or is the right wing populace not as engaged/enraged in the aftermath of the election as I thought they would be. I think they’re disgruntled, sure, but it doesn’t seem like they’re as riled up as I worried about, which is obviously a good thing. I mean they’re not out in the streets like they were in Hong Kong and are still in Belarus. But I’m also wondering if it’s still to come. You guys who live in the midst of right wing country, what do you think?
I’m determined not to use the name of the lame duck family at all anymore.
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Bitter Scribe said on November 9, 2020 at 10:49 am
I have been laughing until the tears flow all morning over this “Four Seasons” thing. How perfect an end to the Trump administration is that? I swear, that idea was probably floated in the “Veep” writers room and rejected for being too farfetched.
From Stephen Robinson at Wonkette:
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Deborah said on November 9, 2020 at 11:04 am
I just gave to Ossoff and my husband gave to Warnock. We decided to split it that way rather than give to Fair Fight, not that they’re not a great organization but we thought it was better at this point to concentrate the $ through the separate campaigns.
I’m thankful for what The Lincoln Project did but from now on will be giving money to organizations that work through black women mostly, they seem to have the biggest impact. In the end the LP probably didn’t make that much difference to the big picture. Besides Fair Fight, if any of you can suggest good organizations to support in the future, I’d appreciate it.
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LAMary said on November 9, 2020 at 11:22 am
I heard that the people in charge of the recount in various states are receiving death threats, so there’s that.
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Heather said on November 9, 2020 at 11:37 am
Just saw a tweet suggesting Parler should be redubbed MeinSpace.
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Dave said on November 9, 2020 at 11:43 am
Philadelphia election officials are getting death threats, people calling and saying things like, “This is what the Second Amendment is for”. This, per SIXTY MINUTES last night.
I see a couple of extreme right wing Facebook acquaintances posting things like pictures of a Trump rally with the crowds vs. a Biden rally with a few automobiles and saying, “Common sense would tell you who the winner is, just look at that.” One acquaintance, who found Jesus after alcohol led him down a descending trail, now is a very evangelical sort. He was hurt when someone questioned his religion conflicting with his support for you know who. I wanted to respond so bad and ask how he could be so hurt when his support for a man who calls people names and bullies everyone doesn’t seem to bother him. I’ve made very few comments of a political nature on Facebook, so I resisted.
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Suzanne said on November 9, 2020 at 11:58 am
Will Trumpsters go away quietly? No.
The disinformation is so ingrained that most Trumpers I know are screaming to the rooftops that “All LEGAL votes matter” as if there have never, ever been any poll watchers, vote counters from both parties making sure that didn’t happen. Several GOP governors have already had to make statements that their elections have been monitored and are credible. As stated above, poll watchers have had to hire security. The decent Republicans that are left are about to discover just how bad it is.
And then there is this:”A Trump administration appointee is refusing to sign a letter allowing President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team to formally begin its work this week” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-gsa-letter-biden-transition/2020/11/08/07093acc-21e9-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html
The best part, though, besides the Four Seasons fiasco is that it seems the voter fraud hotline that the White House set up has been inundated with calls from the likes of I.P. Daily, Mike Hunt, E.T., and other “lefty teenagers”.
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Sherri said on November 9, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Taking from Anne Lamont’s wise words, we know that white evangelicals created their own god in their own image because their god hated the same people they did.
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Jeff Borden said on November 9, 2020 at 12:15 pm
I always found it funny that “Jeopardy” was sold in syndication paired along with “Wheel of Fortune,” which for many years were aired immediately before local news programs at a time when “lead ins” were critical to building an audience for the news. One program so smart. The other so simple.
It’s deeply disturbing that sitting U.S. Senators such as Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham are hyping the dishonest balloting hysteria. I imagine Graham is furious after watching tens of millions flow to his opponent and is lashing out. Cruz is just an asshole. Still, we all know there are tens of millions of ‘Muricans sitting out there convinced their golden calf was cheated out of the election. I fear Joe Biden’s pleas for harmoney and cooperation will never be heeded by these angry birds. Once it becomes apparent that the Orange King has no rabbits to pull out of his hat and will have to leave his throne is when I worry his fans will go berserk. The days leading up to the inauguration promise to be ugly and scary. I hope we get through them.
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Suzanne said on November 9, 2020 at 12:51 pm
From our friends in Italy, who may know a thing or two about fascism.
https://www.editorialedomani.it/politica/mondo/joe-biden-is-right-on-trumps-lies-he-is-indeed-like-joseph-goebbels-pm2uxzmw
“ The fascist idea that personal greatness can combat all “evils”, including disease, diversity and democratic facts implies that the leader is the owner of the truth and decides when to share it, ignore it, or worse yet try to make it a reality.
For the faithful, those who believe in the worship of their leaders, these lies are enough; not so for the rest of us. Lies kill and votes confirm electoral victories, this is why President-Elect Biden has a point, Trump is indeed like Goebbels.”
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LAMary said on November 9, 2020 at 1:01 pm
When local heads of the department of public health have to get security to protect them and their families from gun toting jerks who don’t want to wear masks you know the vote counters will have security. My son says I’m a pessimist because I can’t just be happy about Biden. I worry about the armed trumpoid crazies. Cruz and Graham need to consider who is eating up the BS they’re preaching. All the conspiracy nuts, the people who think trump was sent by God to save the country, that Biden is a communist and all the other garbage coming from Breitbart, OAN and Qanon don’t impress me as a group who will go away quietly.
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Sherri said on November 9, 2020 at 1:08 pm
What else are Cruz and Graham going to do? The GOP has no platform other than fear and resentment, so they’ve got to keep stirring that fear and resentment. Sure, they’ll start complaining about deficits again now that a Dem is in the White House, but that’s just resentment that they aren’t on the grift. They hate taxes, but that’s because they resent anyone else getting anything. They don’t have a coherent economic plan or theory.
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Jakash said on November 9, 2020 at 1:44 pm
Sherri, this is none of my business, of course. But, recalling a number of exchanges here from the primary season, I have to wonder. Did you vote for Biden?
I was hopeful that if and when Trump lost, the Republican senators who’ve slavishly supported him for 4 years might finally be unshackled and help grease the skids for his exit. They know who he is, they know how cynical it’s been for them to support him. Hell, many of them ripped him mercilessly before he became the nominee in 2016.
I figured that they’d played a long game, deeply destructive in general, but worth playing, for them, to get the Supreme Court justices, tax cuts, etc. that are their Holy Grail. And they rightly calculated that they couldn’t afford to piss off his cult, because that cult forms such a high percentage of their own support, too. My mistake was in not realizing that Cult 45 isn’t going anywhere and that these freaking Republicans *still* can’t afford to piss them off. What chance would they have in the near future if they abandoned Il Douché and his minions at this point? They played a dangerous game in becoming beholden to the worst elements of their constituency and now they’re stuck with them.
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LAMary said on November 9, 2020 at 2:05 pm
Ben Carson has Covid 19. He’s the one who always looks like he was disturbed while napping.
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susan said on November 9, 2020 at 2:48 pm
Try not laughing while watching this tiktok
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Mark P said on November 9, 2020 at 2:51 pm
Did you see Dave Chappell’s monologue on SNL? He compared Trump’s COVID treatment to that of Herman Cain; what kind of man would get that kind of treatment and let a friend die?
Chappelle’s monologue was good. Edgy and maybe a little uncomfortable, but good. He was a mix of comedian, politician and preacher.
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Jim said on November 9, 2020 at 3:19 pm
David Bossie has also tested positive.
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LAMary said on November 9, 2020 at 3:48 pm
You’re right Susan. Not possible to avoid laughing. Anything with Rudy Giuliani is ridiculous and the fact he’s there at a podium, like nothing is strange about having a press conference or whatever that was in the parking lot of a landscaping company makes it more ridiculous. And that guy who said he knew of shady stuff going on with the counting in Philly is from NJ and is a perennial candidate for senate or congress as well as being a convicted sex offender. As one guy noted on FB, it’s reminiscent of Spinal Tap’s Stonehenge situation.
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Peter said on November 9, 2020 at 3:48 pm
As a getting close to retirement architect, finding out that the owner of the sex shop that’s next door to Four Seasons Total Landscaping is an out of work architect, is that this guy is Living The Dream.
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Sherri said on November 9, 2020 at 4:01 pm
Jakash, I did vote for Biden. Not that it matters, because Washington was going Biden no matter what, but getting rid of Trump matters. All of the money I donated went to other places, though.
I fear Biden won’t be willing to be as bold as we need, but without the Senate, it may not matter. Some of the names I’ve heard floated for a potential Biden administration sound good, like Janet Yellen, others (Meg Whitman, Rahm Emmanuel) not so much. If he insists on putting a Republican in the administration, it should be a Republican Senator who can be replaced by a Democratic governor.
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LAMary said on November 9, 2020 at 4:11 pm
A big no on Meg Whitman.
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Heather said on November 9, 2020 at 4:43 pm
Regular Chicagoans are already gearing up to obstruct any Rahm involvement in this administration. We torpedoed the Olympics, we can torpedo him too.
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Deborah said on November 9, 2020 at 5:16 pm
I don’t think Rahm is going to get very far. I don’t like Meg Whitman either.
Would a republican senator from a state with a Democratic governor actually take a cabinet position in Biden’s admin? Are there any states besides KY that even have repub senators and a dem gov?
I notice that the media and Twitter are still all wound up with taking about the big grifter instead of focusing on Biden. Time to stop giving him oxygen. Pull the plug.
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Peter said on November 9, 2020 at 5:37 pm
Deborah, I had to look – there are some states with democratic governors and republican senators, though I doubt any of them could be enticed to a cabinet position, but who knows:
Louisiana – both senators are republican; same in Kentucky (good luck with that one – I think I would rather wait for the Grim reaper to cashier McConnell); North Carolina; and the states with one republican senator and democratic governor: Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
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David C said on November 9, 2020 at 6:08 pm
It would be better to do a counterintelligence investigation on RoJo to find out why he went to Moscow on July 4, 2018 to get him out of the Senate. Then Governor Evers can replace him.
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LAMary said on November 9, 2020 at 6:17 pm
McConnell’s purple hands were not a sign of good health. He might croak. Or Rand Paul might realize he’s an ass and resign. I know it’s not likely but I can dream.
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Sherri said on November 9, 2020 at 6:57 pm
Oh, I don’t think any GOP senator would be willing to serve in the administration on those terms, but those are the terms I’m willing to accept a Republican in the administration on. I’m done with GOP SecDef’s and want no part of a Republican Secretary of Commerce or anything else, unless I get something substantial in return.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 9, 2020 at 7:14 pm
riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
[There’s a fun thing going around on Twitter putting FSTL into various opening & closing lines of famous novels.]
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Jakash said on November 9, 2020 at 7:51 pm
Thanks for the reply, Sherri. Glad to hear it, FWIW.
Unrelated to that, never doubt McConnell’s inclination to be a dick. Of course, the “gentleman” from Kentucky isn’t going to encourage Trump to do the right thing, and concede. That type of graciousness was for the days before he took the Senate nuclear. He’s got his position as Majority Leader to worry about — no way that’ll take a back seat to his decades-long friendship with the President-elect, whom he refuses to acknowledge.
“Based on my convos with Rs over wknd, most everything McConnell does from here on isn’t about January 20th (inauguration day & working with Biden) but January 5th (the Georgia run-off elections). To win the latter, Rs believe the base must be stoked, esp in a fast-changing state.”
https://twitter.com/costareports/status/1325902978054840320
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Deborah said on November 9, 2020 at 8:00 pm
Just like Ferlinghetti and the smiling mortician, here comes Billy Barr. These guys will stop at nothing. JFC.
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Deborah said on November 9, 2020 at 8:38 pm
After having read more about what Barr and McConnell are doing/saying, it is actually mainly for an audience of one toddler who is in a rage. It’s just marketing. Also McConnell has to keep the base riled up so they send money to Georgia, so Georgians will vote, and he can keep the Senate.
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Sherri said on November 9, 2020 at 8:51 pm
Two thoughts from this article about the NYTimes:
-Like so many orgs, the NYTimes thought it could diversify without actually changing anything.
-Bedbug Stephens can write an oped criticizing the 1619 Project, but Taylor Lorenz has to apologize for a subtweet of Nellie Bowles, Bari Weiss’s partner?
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/11/inside-the-new-york-times-heated-reckoning-with-itself.html
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Dave Kobiela said on November 9, 2020 at 10:17 pm
I watched McConnell’s speech to the Senate this afternoon. I thought it was “interesting” that he made a big deal about Democrats spending 4 years claiming foreign interference in 2016 election, and warning that it could happen again, but boy don’t they have “egg on their face” when US intelligence agencies all say “absolutely no interference” in 2020 election.
Therefore:
a. Democrats did all they could to bring attention to 2016 interference, and warned of the same in 2020.
b. Due to increased diligence and US countermeasures, interference in 2020 is non-existent.
c. Without the aid of foreign interference, Trump loses 2020 election.
Seems to confirm what Democrats have been saying all along. Mitch just put it into the record.
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ROGirl said on November 10, 2020 at 5:32 am
I was on Jeopardy about 8 years ago. Alex gets cards for all the contestants before the show starts. When he saw that I’m from the Detroit area, he told me that he had once lived in another nearby suburb (he was originally from Ontario). At the end of the show, when the contestants stand with him on the stage, I asked him about it. He had lived there in the 1950s. Then he told me he had an uncle who had worked at the downtown Hudson’s, and that he would wait on African-American customers, unlike his colleagues.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 10, 2020 at 7:30 am
Thank you, ROGirl; the Alex stories just keep coming, and they’re all wonderful.
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basset said on November 10, 2020 at 9:15 am
An interesting virus story: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/coronavirus-vaccine-medicine-not-money-motivates-husband-and-wife-behind-the-jab-m8bl3nsbv
And now to my usual topic at this time of year… been out in the woods watching deer run around, yesterday I was privileged to see a bobcat foraging. Peering into gopher holes and just cruising around looking badass, only the second one I’ve ever seen in the wild. Even got a little video, hand held with a pocket cam from eighty yards away after sunset but you can see him.
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Jenine said on November 10, 2020 at 9:29 am
@basset: Yay a bobcat! That is a lucky sighting.
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basset said on November 10, 2020 at 10:30 am
I previously have gotten bobcats on my trail cameras around the same property… on a few occasions a mama with kittens, those pics were quite popular.
Totally unrelated… I am way behind on pop culture and need some of the SNL presidential stuff explained to me. The Biden & Harris characters made some kind of hand sign that looks like the heavy metal horns or the U of Texas hook ’em horns… first and little fingers and thumb sticking out… held in front of their foreheads. I can understand generally from context, but exactly what does that mean?
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Julie Robinson said on November 10, 2020 at 10:35 am
L for Loser.
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Heather said on November 10, 2020 at 10:37 am
Basset, they were making an “L” sign–for “loser.”
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Deborah said on November 10, 2020 at 11:07 am
I have seen a bobcat once on the side of the road at night in Abiquiu, but our neighbors have seen them a lot. They’re very cool looking and easily identifiable because of their ears.
We’re going to uncle J’s place today for a dinner tonight with the caregivers that was canceled earlier because of the virus. There will only be 4 caregivers plus me and my husband so it won’t be a large crowd. It was originally scheduled to include about 25 people with various associations with uncle J, which could have been risky. It will be my first time at his place with uncle J not being there, so it will seem strange.
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Deborah said on November 10, 2020 at 12:51 pm
Looks good for the ACA so far in SCOTUS arguments. It will be interesting to see how Barrett argues and votes.
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beb said on November 10, 2020 at 1:44 pm
Who knew there were so many ways to be a dick. Trump not signing off on the transition efforts is a new one. I guess it’s understandible if he really believed he won the election. But, cone on, he’s just being a dick about that. He needs to find 100,000 fraudulent votes to flip enough states for him to win. That’s not going to happen. It’s hard to believe that two men — Trump and MacConnell can effectively gum up the entire working of the government.
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LAMary said on November 10, 2020 at 1:56 pm
They aren’t just gumming up the government. They’re sucking the air out of the room. By acting like a toddler with a loaded gun trump is getting all the attention. His followers are convinced the election was stolen and they can be pretty scary. Some asshat cop in Arkansas was forced to resign because he said anyone who didn’t vote for trump was unpatriotic and should be shot. This is so much crazier than anything I’ve ever experienced.
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Mark P said on November 10, 2020 at 3:36 pm
LAMary — So he’s no longer a cop, but I’m sure he still has his guns. And now he’s even madder, in both senses.
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basset said on November 10, 2020 at 4:02 pm
Just to get a little perspective today, I looked at the CNN, Fox, and One America News sites, in that order. Went pretty much as you’d expect. Once is quite enough for awhile
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Sherri said on November 10, 2020 at 4:04 pm
This isn’t just about the toddler in the White House. The Republicans have demonstrated over and over that they don’t want everybody to vote, that they don’t believe in democracy, and that they don’t recognize any legitimate government not headed by them.
They are a white supremacist party intent on an apartheid government. The only way to deal with them is to crush them.
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Julie Robinson said on November 10, 2020 at 4:09 pm
An elderly relative posted a change.org petition to “recount all the votes or do the election over”. You can be sure that was ginned up by the Trumpskies.
Firing Mark Esper might have been partly about humiliating him, but I’ve also wondered if it was to put someone in that role who wouldn’t object to using the military domestically to keep Trump in the White House. The possibility chills me.
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Mark P said on November 10, 2020 at 5:12 pm
I have a feeling many of the higher up officers would balk at a coup. Maybe not so many enlisted, though.
Republican Ga senators Loeffler and Perdue are asking the Republican Secretary of State to resign because they don’t like the election results. He demurs. Republicans fighting each other is a lovely sight. I wish we could see more of it.
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Peter said on November 10, 2020 at 6:05 pm
“recount all of the votes or do the election over” Yeah, that should have happened in 2016, but you don’t hear them yelling about that.
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Jakash said on November 10, 2020 at 6:58 pm
McConnell has been repugnant, as usual. Uh, Turtle-Man, this election is nothing at all like what happened in 2000, when Gore didn’t concede at first, and despite the recounts, Hillary conceded by phone *the night of the election* and formally the next day in 2016. After a much closer and harder-to-take finish. So, GTFO.
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1326296829454135300
I’m not so familiar with Pompeo, though. This, along with Il Douché cleaning out the Defense Department, is real normal, and not a tip-off that they’re testing the waters for some kind of coup, at all.
“There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration”
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1326237368479854593
Yeah, Peter, there was much more of a reason to *redo* the election in 2016, given what was known, and what would happen to the Supreme Court over the next 4 years. Also, 2000. Regardless of what was concluded by the partisan Supreme Court, it was clear then that, if everybody who thought they were casting a vote had had it registered the way they had intended, Gore would have won. So quaint that back then, people were concerned about stuff like constitutional crises.
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LAMary said on November 10, 2020 at 7:06 pm
Two things I’ve read about Pompeo: He wants to run for president and he’s an end timer Christian, hence the involvement with Israel, moving the consulate to Jerusalem, etc. He’s also a putz.
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Indiana Jack said on November 10, 2020 at 7:16 pm
Somewhat OT, just learned that there’s a new book out about Jeopardy and it includes an anecdote involving our youngest daughter when she was on the show. She didn’t win but was competitive.
Her real moment in the spotlight was when she taught Alex Trebek how to do the chicken dance. She’d done it on the top of the dugout at a Fort Wayne Wizards game as a kid of about 13.
During a commercial break, Sally taught Alex how to do it right.
Profound silliness, and it’s now immortalized.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 10, 2020 at 8:13 pm
It’s being said in the pages of the NYPost that Trump could earn $100 million for his post-presidential book, and I’m up for earning my 10% of that as a ghostwriter:
“It was the best of rallies, it was the worst of rallies. On a dark and stormy night, we met in the shadow of an airport hanger, where we beat on, Air Force One against the current, borne ceaselessly back into the Electoral College.”
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LAMary said on November 10, 2020 at 8:26 pm
About ten years ago one of my coworkers showed up at a meeting wearing an especially tacky shirt and tie combo. Pink cotton poly blend shirt with a shiny pink polyester tie. Not his usual style, for sure. I must have been staring at it because he felt the need to explain that it was a gift from someone and that it was from the Donald Trump collection.
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Jakash said on November 10, 2020 at 8:34 pm
I’m not quite the student of history that many of you are, to be sure. But is it not unusual for a lame-duck president to fire the Secretary of Defense 2 days *after* the election has been called for his opponent? Even given Trump’s transactional relationship to everybody and every thing, what would be a non-nefarious reason to shake things up in the Defense Department when you’ll be out grifting elsewhere in 2 months?
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 10, 2020 at 9:05 pm
Narrator: It is not.
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Deborah said on November 10, 2020 at 11:29 pm
One of uncle J’s (former) caregivers at the dinner tonight told a chilling story. She’s also a nurse who works on helicopter airlifts. She said that last night they picked up a local woman in her 80s who had a severe lung blood clot (not Covid related) but because all of the hospitals who could treat her were full they had to take her all the way to Indianapolis by helicopter.
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Dexter Friend said on November 11, 2020 at 2:56 am
Trebek was there so long most people never heard of Art Fleming. As kids my brother and I played along intently, screaming out the answers. After I grew up, I never watched at all, unless I was not in control of the clicker.
Tuesday was the 245th birthday of the USMC. A boss of mine always brought in a fancy-expensive beautifully decorated cake and we all got long breaks that day to go into his office for a slice. He never once told any of us where he served, but he was Vietnam War age.
When I was drafted, and going through last-minute physical exams before being sworn in in Indianapolis, the medic-in-charge yelled he did not want to hear any complaints about us all going to Fort Knox for US Army training, because the previous week “the Marines were here and took every swingin’ dick to Camp Lejeune.” Yep, I missed being a jarhead by 168 hours. Fifty years ago, to the day, November 10, my plane landed in Vietnam. It was on.
So today give Dad or Cousin Jack or your kid or a friend who took off 2 or 40 years to serve their nation, a simple call or text and a thought. 🙂
But…with all the stuff about Trump now being a security risk and maybe plotting to sell government secrets to clear some of his personal debt, and firing Esper and 4 other Pentagon aces and replacing them with Trump sycophants, I want to here more from Biden and Harris about this, and what about ending these godam wars, finally? Watching Trump trying to really fuck things up these past 7 days is making us scream “stop this fucker.” Joe trying to unite repuggs under an umbrella with us seems like an impossible dream. I mean, Donny wants to take over the party and Trump already has backing for a 2024 run. Unless the recount keeps him around. Right…sure.
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David C said on November 11, 2020 at 5:46 am
tRump really, really wants the military to intervene on his behalf. That’s why he’s sacking everyone. Trouble with his plan is the generals are going to tell him to fuck off. They’re sitting on big-assed pensions and a chance to really hit it big post retirement in business. They’re not going to mess that up by throwing their lot with the orange shitgibbon and from what I understand they hate his fucking guts. I may be telling myself comforting lies to keep from going mad but I don’t think so. He’s just supercharging people to vote in the Georgia specials.
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Mark P said on November 11, 2020 at 8:46 am
Four Seasons Total Landscaping is taking advantage of the Trump campaign’s All Seasons Total Incompetence (brought to you by Rudy “Old, Broken-Down Dracula” Giuliani). They are offering a Zoom background of their parking lot.
If Trump was capable of understanding how people think of him as both contemptible and ridiculous, he would never show his face in public. Lucky for him and unlucky for us, he is entirely un-self aware.
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Suzanne said on November 11, 2020 at 8:50 am
“If Trump was capable of understanding how people think of him as both contemptible and ridiculous…”
Except that 40% of our fellow Americans do not think of him this way. That is what scares the heck out of me.
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basset said on November 11, 2020 at 10:26 am
Reprised from a couple of years ago, audio of the guns going silent at the end of WW1:
https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/07/eerie-recording-reveals-moment-the-guns-fell-silent-at-the-end-of-ww1-8114109/
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Jakash said on November 11, 2020 at 12:10 pm
Suzanne,
And 47.5%, whether they are “concerned” about his behavior and demeanor, or not, were still willing to vote for him. Hard to believe.
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alex said on November 11, 2020 at 3:50 pm
And our mealy-mouthed GOP governor just fobbed off responsibility for issuance and enforcement of COVID restrictions onto local officials. What a fucking chickenshit.
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Mark P said on November 11, 2020 at 4:23 pm
And our Secretary of State, a Republican, has received death threats from the Trump brown shirts because he insists there was no massive voter fraud. His family is receiving protection now.
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Deborah said on November 11, 2020 at 4:38 pm
Of the four women caregivers at the dinner last night, all of them the kindest most loving people you can imagine, yet two of them voted for Trump. I don’t even know where to put that in my brain. It makes absolutely no sense to me. We didn’t talk politics at all but I know that from one of the other care givers.
We are back in Chicago now, where we’ve reverted to normal November except that it’s currently sunny.
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Deborah said on November 11, 2020 at 8:00 pm
Wow, I like Ron Klain, I hope he gets the job of CoS for Biden. That’s the word on the streets anyway.
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Suzanne said on November 11, 2020 at 8:32 pm
Deborah, I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that some of the most helpful, kindest, caring people I know are Trumpsters, many of whom I don’t doubt would kill me if he asked them to. I can’t understand it.
In Gunter Grass’s The Tin Drum, there is a scene in which a Nazi or some sort of nefarious German thug, after fairly casually wreaking havoc on Jews and other undesireables, tenderly and sweetly rescues some abandoned kittens from a garbage can. The juxtaposition was jarring. I feel now like I am living it every day.
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