And Sleepy Joe Will Get The Credit: US Politics January 2021

Title from here.

Good morning!

If anyone’s wondering, Trump — who by the way will no longer be president when the next monthly thread starts — has started 2021 with one generic all-caps happy new year tweet, and three retweets of OANN video clips about how he won the election and will surely remain in office.

CNN's lead story this morning made me laugh: "There Will Be 20 More Days of Trump and He Will Be on Fire."

https://media3.giphy.com/media/1AipN9c8gXLO4c36bR/200.gif

what is that face that paul ryan made during that State of the Union?

he kept making it during the entire thing, i remember

pence's face (in that gif) is like "trump is telling us the deep perfect truths, things that may be uncomfortable to hear but which we must carefully consider"

ryan's is...?

"I have water in my ear"

"if i keep the water in my ear for a long time, it gets really hot"

Another truly intriguing headline from CNN: "With Trump a No-Show, Mar-a-Lago Guests Left to Party Maskless with Rudy Giuliani and Vanilla Ice."

I don't usually pay attention to the intricacies of procedural matters, but why did Bernie Sanders give up on his idea to filibuster the defense-bill override to get a vote on the $2,000? Seemed like a good idea.

I thought they voted against holding up the NDAA yesterday because of the fear that “Dems are trying to hold up troop salaries” is a potentially bad political message around Xmas especially with the insane President asking the military to do a coup for him but voters generally don’t care about procedural stuff imo.

So is anybody else having massive problems with the Postal Service? It’s been much worse than when everyone was complaining last summer. The USPS keep blaming “COVID and unprecedented volume” but haven’t seen any news reports about the volume, extended delays, or anything.

I have had first class letters take two weeks to be delivered only 50 miles and packages stuck in the same place for three weeks. But haven’t heard any media outrage. Do we just accept this a “normal” now? I’m old enough to remember when they guaranteed overnight delivery for first class mail in a 200 mile range.

Priority Mail packages seem to be fine for me but anything that's gone out first class or media mail has been a disaster.

Bernie didn't give up on the filibuster idea himself. McConnell invoked cloture, which passed 80-12 today, thus ending any possibility of debate on the NDAA veto.

I've had a couple of mailed payments disappear, including the first payment for my 2021 ACA plan. I had to scramble and make a quick online payment to make sure I had health insurance this year. xps

Speaking of, y'all gotten your stimulus checks/deposits yet?

I had a package take 3 weeks to come from Pittsburgh to NJ. But only the last two days were via USPS - everything else was via FedEx, which I can only assume has changed their name to "FedEx" to get the idea of "Express" out of people's minds, the way it's always rumored "KFC" calls themselves that because they're breeding mutant food-beasts that no longer qualify as "chicken."

My mom got her money; mine isn't here yet, but it'll be a physical check so I figure another week or so.

Xpost All of my household but me

But IRS has a closed account on file so that's why.

I may just get mine through filing my taxes

Got my $600 deposit today

Not only did we get our stim checks, we already spent them.

I spent mine repairing the wall i hit with the UHaul

:(

Yeah we had just ordered a new refrigerator so most of it went straight there. We also donated part of it. (3 checks, for 2 adults and 1 kid.)

I have had Priority Mail (2-3 days) take about 10 days for several recent packages.

Got my payment today

Oh! Just got it.

Swagger (def.): To represent America with pride, humility, and professionalism. We've done it. #Swagger pic.twitter.com/HleT4b4nif

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 1, 2021

No one with the COVID got swagger like us

How it started / how it's going, Newsmax edition pic.twitter.com/hA98s7Q90i

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) January 2, 2021

moves like swagger

omg the Lin Wood stuff going down is CHOICE

Chaki (RIP) v. quick to point out the QAnon / Vanderpump Rules crossover happening as well (on twitter).

It's a little tragic that the only room where Pompeo won't be the biggest asshole is any room occupied by his boss. He really does try so hard.

I feel like tweeting about the vice president facing a firing squad would usually get you a visit from the Secret Service.

I forget, is Wood actually working for/being paid by anybody in all this, or is he just off on his own?

He seems to be in the midst of a high-octane tiger blood manic episode/nervous breakdown atm. A very stable genius imo. #winning

This has an amazing detail: an agent became so enamored of the President’s agenda he quit the Service and became a policy advisor, helping to tear-gas the protestors at Lafayette Square.

Now he’s going back to the Service to train other agents. https://t.co/iS4CR78HAW

— Peter Sagal (@petersagal) December 31, 2020

and sleepy joe will get the credit

Including that Louie Gohmert case that was thrown out yesterday, I wonder what the W-L record now is for post-election court challenges (whether directly initiated by Trump or by someone else on his behalf). They won a minor one early on, and have since lost every single one. I'm totally serious: as a final twisting-the-knife-in-deep farewell, I'd love for some kind of recognition on this page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Losing_streak

Every entry is for a sports record, but come on, Wikipedia, show some imagination.

I love that GYBE! live bootleg- "There Will Be 20 More Days of Trump and He Will Be on Fire."

Mitch McConnell’s Louisville Home Spray Painted With ‘Where’s My Money?’ https://t.co/0hdXxgcSOw

— 89.3 WFPL News (@WFPLNews) January 2, 2021

Clemenza, Marc Eliason twitspacebook is generally good at providing a running total, currently 1-60.

Trump and his allies lost 60 cases:
⚖️In state and federal courts
⚖️In trial and appellate courts
⚖️On the merits and for lack of standing.
⚖️Before judges appointed by Trump and others
⚖️Before judges elected in red and blue states

And they only won 1.https://t.co/XBkKKEmG2Q https://t.co/bgg1ehlkyV

— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 2, 2021

I'm sure that when such an "emergency audit" turned up the exact same results as every other audit of the elections, that would definitely satisfy all these yowling idiots that it was a fair and square vote. For sure, no question. All they're looking for is a fair investigation.

why would you be opposed to an EMERGENCY AUDIT unless you have something to hide

Don't know if it's the go to response to the court case W-L record but just saw someone online give this one: the courts don't even want to hear these cases, because they have no interest in getting involved in overturning election results, even if it's just sooooo obvious the Dems cheated.
Cognitive dissonance is a mutha.

Another truly intriguing headline from CNN: "With Trump a No-Show, Mar-a-Lago Guests Left to Party Maskless with Rudy Giuliani and Vanilla Ice."

I've never changed my display name once in 10 years here, and I don't plan to do so now. But if I ever did, "Partying Maskless with Rudy Giuliani and Vanilla Ice" would be just fine.

Y'know, the absolute absurdity of our times comes in both hilarious and tragic forms, and that news story manages to be both.

in your honour, clemenza

xp

Good job--too good to waste.

I will periodically choose to engage with some random Facebooker spouting obvious untruths in the comments on a news story, just to vent a little. Today it was a guy convinced that the “alternate” slates of electors sent by some Republicans are going to be magically recognized on Wednesday, flipping the election. I explained to him that those are not real electors and were not designated by their state legislatures. He insisted that, no, he had watched it with his own eyes and the legislatures sent two sets of electors. He was laughing about what a rude surprise I am in for. It remains astounding to me how many people not only say this kind of stuff but give every sign of believing it on a deep level.

the funny thing about "lol you'll be sorry on <date>" folk is they disappear after they're proven wrong, pretty much forever

i had one guy tell me I'd be shocked by the SCOTUS ruling on Texas and 5 minutes later the dismissal came out.

What did the guy say after that.

still waiting

I enjoyed the phrase "last-gasp swirl of petulant threats" from this CNN article.

"I think everyone needs to calm down ... It's like a tinder box and throwing lit matches into it." —Sen. Ted Cruz, who has been throwing lit matches into a tinder box pic.twitter.com/xozAujekdk

— The Recount (@therecount) January 3, 2021

Only a true master debater knows the power of telling someone to calm down.

We're all trying to find the guy who did this

Donnie's searching for the real fraudsters...

Good afternoon!

Cruz said challenging the results of the election was not an ideal thing for Congress to be doing, but it seemed better to him than merely accepting the results. “Frankly, two pretty lousy choices,” he said.

Good point, Ted.

If the Washington Post had any balls, they'd post the full recording.

President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that election experts said raised legal questions.

The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.”

Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel rejected his assertions, explaining that Trump is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden’s 12,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate.

Trump dismissed their arguments.

“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” he said. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”

Raffensperger responded: “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”

At another point, Trump said: “So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”

The rambling, at times incoherent conversation, offered a remarkable glimpse of how consumed and desperate the president remains about his loss, unwilling or unable to let the matter go and still believing he can reverse the results in enough battleground states to remain in office.

“There’s no way I lost Georgia,” Trump said, a phrase he repeated again and again on the call. “There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes.”

democracy or undermining democracy, really kind of the same if you think about it

xpost Two to one says they will soon.

xpost

there's a 5 minute clip up, now, with the highlights.

honestly, i've read transcripts like this before from him, i know how he sounds, i know what a bald-faced criminal he is, but i found hearing his voice unsettling and raw, just terrible and pathetic, in a new way.

raised legal questions

I finally learned to stop rubbing my hands together and saying “now we’ve got ‘em!” when seeing phrases like this.

WashPost described this as "vague" threatening, but there's nothing vague about this when the POTUS is saying it to you:

“That’s a criminal offense,” he said. “And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer.”

yes, i get that trump's legal team is a complete fucking joke and that he has not standing and the case would be thrown out and all that, but he still has the power to make it SEEM like it's a criminal offense to his millions and millions and millions of dumbass followers

I wonder if it would raise legal questions if I went on a decades-long crime bender.

how much money do you have? that's what matters, in the U.S.

There’s too many “nothing matters” examples to have kept track of. I think his gelling the world that injecting bleach might kill the virus at a press conference is the biggest I can immediately recall.

if you have no money, you can't pay your bail and you sit in jail until your case comes up, whenever that might be

if you have enough money, you do whatever you want for the rest of your life and millions of people will construct a 4th-rate propaganda operation in your honor and throw money at it all day

xp trump was definitely joking about that bleach, definitely joking. we could all tell by the tone of his voice as he told the joke over a series of 60-90 seconds and kept asking deadpan follow-up questions. he is REALLY funny!!!!!!!

“Let’s see Donald Trump wiggle his way out of -“

https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/wiggle-wiggle/

also, this call took place YESTERDAY!

i don't know why i'm so surprised by that, but holy shit, he really is delusional

It was probably a really bad sign that he couldn’t admit that he lost the popular vote in 2016

that's the fourth state (at least) in which he has criminally, directly, obviously, evidently tried to reverse the election results.

???? wtf????

are non-republicans supposed to just think "well, i guess we can give that a shot when we lose, too, and republicans will be sure to give us a 2-month hissy fit stretch after the election to try to do it, with no real consequences"?

if democrats/obama were doing this in 2012, or if clinton tried this in 2016, there would be open fucking warfare in red counties (non-cities) across the entire fucking country, instigated by the same people who make up Trump's base at this very moment

for the (large, probably supermajority opinion) people who don't really care too much about any of the criminal/downfall of the US stuff, there's also signs that trump is going to tell georgia republicans to stay home for the special election, during his Rally-for-Himself on monday, unless he gets what he wants:

“You have a big election coming up and because of what you’ve done to the president — you know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam,” Trump said. “Because of what you’ve done to the president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote, and a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative, because they hate what you did to the president. Okay? They hate it. And they’re going to vote. And you would be respected, really respected, if this can be straightened out before the election.”

Something I’ve been thinking about is the extent they actually *mean* it but how little that actually matters in the end.

I think the number of people who deep down believe it is very small. But millions of them are smirking and saying all the lines anyway. I mean it might as well be true, it’s *practically* true, what difference does it make anyway the Dems *would’ve* cheated if they had the chance

— brittany wilson 🇺🇸 (@sameoldstory) January 3, 2021

Trump: "But have they moved the inner parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts?"

(long pause)

Ryan Germany (general counsel for the state): "No."

Wish just one of these cowards would say "you lost, get over it" and hang up on him.

Elsewhere he says they're moving the machinery, and sometimes he says they're removing it. Of the three scenarios, I've got to go with the inner-for-outer-parts swap as the most thought-provoking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOiY2WcU9HQ

on the "do republican voters actually BELIEVE this?" front, i agree, it doesn't matter. the whole "projection" thing is very important. they're doing this right now because they BELIEVE that democrats would do it to them, if they had a chance. now republicans have a chance to do it, so they're pre-emptively retaliating against what they believe democrats would have done to them by openly trying to sabotage the election

honestly i think the only thing that could fix this country right now is mandatory talk therapy. a bunch of republicans need to talk about their dads

they are injecting new parts, you can just just inject new parts and boom

Trump: "But have they moved the inner parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts?"

(long pause)

Ryan Germany (general counsel for the state): "No."

"Impossible"--Germany

later in the call (excerpts), trump attempts to belittle the counsel (Ryan Germany), saying that there's no way the counsel could possibly know that the "inner machines" weren't tampered with without looking himself

I’m now being told they left the inner parts and removed the outer parts

nothing is surprising now, including the fact that nothing will be done about this

If you google "replace inner parts with outer parts," you get a lot of results for "inner and outer parts," but in the entire history of the internet, "with" returns zero results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfniG-AdSC4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4I2T8vZwmA

Who’s to say Trump’s inner parts haven’t been removed and replaced with, say, a deranged Teddy Ruxpin doll?

nothing is surprising now, including the fact that nothing will be done about this

Yep, this is the most dispiriting part of the whole thing.

nothing is surprising now, including the fact that nothing will be done about this

― k3vin k.

at this point, sadly otm.

it's amazing how much of american history we could have skipped - hundreds of years! - just because we all assumed that "something" would be done about "this", if it happened

you can't be a president and blatantly commit crimes every day of your term! even your own party would be forced to impeach, there is a limit to shame!!

RONG

The GOP had been working so hard for decades to get to this point, and, they are happy to announce that, at long last, they have left no sense of decency.

Sounds like just another perfect phone call to me

that [decency] was the last remaining obstacle, it's true. throw that out the window, make a beeline toward that tacky-as-fuck mansion in a gated community

Very legal, and very cool!

If you google "replace inner parts with outer parts," you get a lot of results for "inner and outer parts," but in the entire history of the internet, "with" returns zero results.

parts is parts

If you google "replace inner parts with outer parts," you get a lot of results for "inner and outer parts," but in the entire history of the internet, "with" returns zero results.

this is entirely speculative and borderline conspiratorial (sorry), but i don't believe that google represents an accurate record of what's on the internet, based upon what they've done to Google Image Search results

maybe there a few dozen uses of "replace inner parts WITH outer parts", but it wasn't lucrative enough to put advertisements on it, so it was wiped

"They are shredding ballots, in my opinion, based on what I heard" is some claim.

GUILDENSTERN: On Fortune’s cap we are not the very button.

HAMLET: Nor the soles of her shoes?

ROSENCRANTZ: Neither, my lord.

HAMLET: Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favors?

GUILDENSTERN: Faith, her privates we.

HAMLET: In the secret parts of Fortune?

Why would you even take that call let it go to VM!

parts and parts reminds me of a Frank Perdue ad.

guess who won't wear a fucking mask in the middle of a pandemic

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who has criticized pandemic precautions as restrictions on personal freedoms, was on the House floor without a mask, prompting staff to speak to her.

Greene, who has expressed support for QAnon conspiracy theories, also was seen taking photographs on the House floor without her mask. Last month, Pelosi strengthened the pandemic rules, requiring members to wear mask at all times in the chamber.

Greene’s defiance was in sharp contrast to the Senate, where Pence wore a mask and so did senators as they were sworn in. Pence congratulated them with elbow bumps after the oath-taking.

After the confrontation involving Greene unfolded, Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician of the Capitol, whose medical advice has been the foundation of the floor rules, appeared on the House floor to have a conversation with Rep. Rodney Davis (Ill.), the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, which oversees rules on that side of the Capitol, along with senior GOP staff. Monahan left the huddle, and now Davis is in a heated discussion with the staff.

I just wish these cunts would die

^

that's the fourth state (at least) in which he has criminally, directly, obviously, evidently tried to reverse the election results.

One problem is that a president in office is nearly untouchable apart from impeachment, there's an entirely new Congress being sworn in today and this president has only a few weeks left in office. But the biggest problem overriding all else is that the Republicans have slowly morphed into a criminal organization while still controlling multiple branches of government. We are now the world's largest, wealthiest, best-armed banana republic.

Lord Acton was no doubt as big a prat as the other "nobles" of his day, but his much-quoted saw about power corrupting was otm.

xp They never do sadly.

Apart from Cain and that dude last week.

Roffle

It wasn't just Trump pressuring Raffensperger. Here's what Mark Meadows had to say on the call, per @bluestein https://t.co/vKc3ViIdgR pic.twitter.com/w4Mk99lBRE

— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) January 3, 2021

“It stands to reason that if the information is not forthcoming, there’s something to hide,” Hilbert said. “That’s the problem that we have.”

this one’s a doozy.

🤔

Full hour-long audio now live

FOLKS: Full audio published here. Please retweet far and wide. https://t.co/QqIsaNw5pA

— Amy Gardner (@AmyEGardner) January 3, 2021

But the biggest problem overriding all else is that the Republicans have slowly morphed into a criminal organization while still controlling multiple branches of government.

that was always the flip-side of the "just wait until the election, when civilians can finally exert their power via the vote". the morphing, while the months passed by until the election. and now, the months after the election, waiting for the inauguration.

not that i had or have any better ideas, beyond what people have already been doing - protesting, trying to put pressure on local leaders, all of the things we should be doing anyway.

but it turns out that criminals like to take advantage of things

pic.twitter.com/Osi6gWbixT

— Hit Factory Podcast (@HitFactoryPod) January 3, 2021

Have they said where the tape came from? Raffensperger?

wait until the election, when civilians can finally exert their power via the vote

impeachment was tried and failed

We live in a banana republic, so it was made to fail.

You can't say we live in a banana republic and then still invest any sort of confidence in much of the day-to-day of governance. I mean, you can, but it is foolish to do so.

lol pic.twitter.com/Q0R1Gz9M5v

— Opinion Haver (@AsInMarx) January 3, 2021

There’s an additional substantive point I want to draw your attention to. We know President Trump acts like a thug. This is almost a literal replay of the Zelensky phone call which got Trump impeached. But there’s something more. This is a private call. It’s not for public consumption. This isn’t about stoking grievances for 2024 or maintaining control over the post-presidency GOP. President Trump is clearly very intent on remaining in office past January 20th and desperate to do so. He doesn’t think this is a closed question. He’s willing to do anything to remain in office and he believes enough threats can get him there.

this seems destined to go down as:

proud boys et al march on washington, not only on 1/6, but also on inauguration day.
proud boys fomenting violence as biden is sworn in
biden issues order for ...national guard? ... to counter proud boys
"inauguration day violence" for biden

sorry, that quote was from josh marshall. i can't tell if it's too blindingly obvious to post or if people still need to hear it. i think trump rightly sees alt-right paramilitary groups as his allies, and he doesn't seem to have any standards or sense of shame or wrongdoing when calling upon his allies

and that dude last week.

The current right-wing line is that dude last week died of a heart attack. Yes he'd tested positive for coronavirus but that just shows how phony the plandemic panic is. If someone tests positive, any subsequent death is ascribed to the virus. You don't know whether he would have simply died of a heart attack, virus or no virus, so clearly the virus is a Democrat hoax.

Meanwhile - if this is a Banana Republic, why don't we all get stylish khakis?

He’s willing to do anything to remain in office

Evidence suggests this conclusion is absolutely true.

and he believes enough threats can get him there.

More like threats have always been a highly successful strategy for him in the past and he's never paid any consequences for employing them. He won't stop this shit until the pain level for acting this way is greater than the pain of acting like he lost the election.

I think the Daily beast had a “actually Herman Cain didn’t die of covid” piece and I was just like I’m not only not gonna read that I’m also gonna immediately forget I saw the headline.

I just wish these cunts would die

― Change Display Name: (stevie), Sunday, January 3, 2021 3:10 PM (one hour ago)

can we end the monthly threads and just make a rolling us pol thread with this title?

"Tweet far and wide."

What the hell difference will it make now?

proud boys et al march on washington, not only on 1/6, but also on inauguration day.
proud boys fomenting violence as biden is sworn in
biden issues order for ...national guard? ... to counter proud boys
"inauguration day violence" for biden

is this Josh Marshall? We expected violence when Biden won the election. The truth is 99 percent of Trump's fans are too unhealthy and get off on grievance porn to foment any violence, and the 1 percent I worry about every election ever because #whitepeople.

Well, this will dominate the news cycle at least until Nicole Wallace gets to express Shock and Outrage, after which we move on to the next one.

Always with the clear grasp of things:

Trump sometimes forgot Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s name, calling him “George,” and seemed uncertain when the state’s Senate runoff was. https://t.co/ACMbiWMGYv

— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) January 3, 2021

Anyway Alfred's right.

is this Josh Marshall?

the part is ilx quotes was, the rest is my doomsaying

i think we'll have a much clearer picture of 1/20 after 1/6, i guess

brb gonna 420

We won very substantially in Georgia. You even see it by rally size, frankly. We’d be getting 25-30,000 people a rally and the competition would get less than 100 people. And it never made sense.

He really is the stupidest person who ever survived seven decades.

it is kinda cool that he's frank though

a shame he's not fred

Just checking myself here--I mistakenly changed Trump's original question ("But have they moved the inner parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts?") to "outer parts." Sorry, Mr. President, quite a distortion of your very real concerns.

My cousin-in-law: "It’s a Coup D’Twat."

More amusing than anything else but (Roy is a GOP rep)

! Rep. @chiproytx has challenged the seating of all House members from Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia and other states being challenged by Trump.

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 3, 2021

What Roy is doing here is showing that Republicans, perhaps unanimously, support seating all of the House members who appeared on the same ballots as Joe Biden in the states other Republicans plan to challenge on Wednesday.

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 3, 2021

Rep. Chip Roy is challenging the seating of the delegations from AZ PA MI WI NV and GA, basically saying if the presidential election in those states was rigged as the president contends, then so are the elections of the House delegation.

They are now taking a recorded vote.

— Kristin Wilson (@kristin__wilson) January 3, 2021

"Coup d'Twat" is great, mad props

Tonight I am arguing with people on Facebook, a thing I said I’d never do. Because they are so. fucking. stupid.

Rep Chip Roy

President Trump sounded really good (strong, clear voice; no static) on the “recording” - he cares about #ElectionIntegrity, as all Americans do. Thank you, Mr. President!

— Arizona Republican Party (@AZGOP) January 3, 2021

Clear voice no static can’t lose

everybody knows static-voice is a major tell

And Erick Erickson is already on the, “the real criminal is whomever leaked the call” line tonight. Not linking to him, because fuck that guy.

TBF, he isn't saying that, just noting gripes from GA GOP types. The one complaint he quoted basically just asked if the SOS couldn't've waited a day!

True, but that’s clearly the line of thinking he’s teeing up for others to run with, it’s in the replies a lot.

So fucking infuriating that the tens of millions of idiots supporting Trumps attempted coup are the same people who insisted over and over that he would never break the law to get himself elected

that AZ GOP tweet is the joke from 30 rock where liz lemon can't think of anything nice to say about Jenna's movie and starts talking about how cool the trees were

“recording”

ok that account is a parody, right?

I mean I see the blue check but someone is clearly having a laugh

All too real. Kelli Ward is out of her mind.

Clear voice no static can’t lose

― Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Sunday, 3 January 2021 23:44 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Oh yes

I have the feeling that this is only the tip of the iceberg of what Trump’s been up to lately. He wouldn’t only be trying to flip Georgia at this point, and I think he implies as much in the recording. This call is just the one that got recorded and released. I’m sure there have been plenty of others.

this is what he does all day long for four years

Josh Marshall's comparison to the Zelensky phone call is otm, and both are an illustration of Trump's utter indifference — and seeming unawareness — that what he's doing is fundamentally wrong. I think he really thinks this is totally fine, this is how things are done. It's how he's done business all his life: threats, wheedling, pleading, complaining, strong-arming. I'm sure lots of people he's done business with have been on the receiving end of those calls.

xpost he's invited multiple state legislators to the White House and called several of them and he was doing that a month ago. he's definitely been doing this non-stop for months.

be prepared for a world of butthurt, his followers are all convinced the votes are gonna change on 1/6, so the whining and empty rhetoric will hit fever pitch. probably good we're mostly all staying in, cos I don't look forward to hearing people whine outside of coffee shops, playing beat up acoustic guitars and singing "Stop the Steal"

Playing musical instruments doesn't seem to be this demo's forte?

What Trump is doing right now is very clearly a felony, right?

xpost I didn't say 'well'. after all, look at this pic:

https://i.imgur.com/MxLTQ3c.jpg

Looool

microtonal...very cool

jute whyte

It must be exhausting for Trump followers to keep track of who to hate today.

Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona is just as bad as Kemp of Georgia.

He is covering up major voter fraud.

Sending an illegal vote count to Congress.

Not calling a Special Session for a vote on who won the state.

Ducey is a Democrat.

We will all remember.

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) January 4, 2021

So from this I assume there was a Ducey phone call too. Wonder if we'll get tape of that one.

Trump probably called him "Dookie" multiple times.

well, he *did* have the time to listen to him whine

this part jumps out to me from the GA call transcript:

Trump: There’s only two answers, dishonesty or incompetence. There’s just no way. Look. There’s no way.

only because i've thought the same of him, so, so, so many times.

the name that is repeatedly censored - BEEEEEEEEEP - in the full hour audio recording. who is it?

trump, to Ryan Germany, about 40 minutes in:

"Why don’t you want to find this, Ryan? What’s wrong with you? I heard your lawyer is very difficult, actually, but I’m sure you’re a good lawyer. You have a nice last name."

????

Nunes and Jordan getting the medal of freedom when what they deserve is to drown in a septic tank

Trump has spent the holidays golfing, calling state election officials, watching TV, and putzing around on Twitter. Maybe he'll get around to that vaccine rollout now that he's rested and ready.

the name that is repeatedly censored - BEEEEEEEEEP - in the full hour audio recording. who is it?

Stacy Abrams.

trump, to Ryan Germany, about 40 minutes in:

"Why don’t you want to find this, Ryan? What’s wrong with you? I heard your lawyer is very difficult, actually, but I’m sure you’re a good lawyer. You have a nice last name."

????

https://static.dw.com/image/16023671_401.jpg

Trump is proud of his German ancestry (because it's one of the only things he actually knows about himself)

Also re your pic, the only book he has read even part of since high school is a collected volume of Hitler's speeches.

Meanwhile his Scottish ancestry is a source of considerable embarrassment... to Scottish people.

I guess (?) it’s mildly heartening that Tom Cotton reads the 2024 calculus that it will be better for him to oppose this than support it.

(While still propagating vote-fraud bullshit, of course.)

President @realDonaldTrump has filed two lawsuits - federal and state - against @GaSecofState. The telephone conference call @GaSecofState secretly recorded was a “confidential settlement discussion” of that litigation, which is still pending.

— David Shafer (@DavidShafer) January 3, 2021

https://www.rawstory.com/did-trump-record-raffensperger-call/

I mean...it certainly sounded to me like the recording was made in the same room as Trump. I assumed it was one of his people who leaked the tape, but how many of his people does he really surround himself with while making felonious calls?

I'm surprised Trump's not said it was a fake recording tbh

This is from 51mins 40secs in to the call. Donald Trump farts then says, “excuse me”. pic.twitter.com/P4d0Y6gUpW

— Evan Rowe (@rowebocop) January 4, 2021

Nowadays we call that "releasing the kraken."

The uncontrollable flatulence of these gnarled fossils is just about the only thing that makes them relatably human.

trump's bottomless need to be unconditionally adored is very human too. something you're supposed to grow out of around age 2, but still.

i'm surprised and impressed at how far he's going with the flimsy "voter fraud" case. really something.

you'd be bottomless too after one like that

I was working on a fart joke myself but you beat me to it.

Come on, Trump never says "excuse me" when he farts. Like his umbrellas, he just leaves them there, semi-afloat, expecting someone else to deal with it.

not one I'm proud of if it's any consolation Tom

<FARTS>

"We've found the votes!"

"Trump's Philtrum" says that if it makes zero sense (leaking this call himself??) he's probably responsible

The tape pretty clearly came from Raffensperger's office. I can't remember which outlet reported this yesterday, but Raffensperger's people taped it and he told them he wouldn't release it unless Trump came at him again publicly. Which of course Trump did, because he can't help himself.

xpost I mean, it does kinda make sense as filtered through his diseased brain. It's proof of criminal obstruction on the part of the GA SoS!!! So, yeah, I can imagine his dumbfuck ass leaking it.

Oh, it was in this NYT story: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/us/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia.html

Officials in the secretary of state’s office recorded Saturday’s call, and Mr. Raffensperger told his advisers that he did not want to release a transcript or a recording unless the president attacked state officials or misrepresented what had been discussed, according to a person familiar with his direction.

As expected, that attack came in a tweet on Sunday morning, in which Mr. Trump claimed that Mr. Raffensperger “was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!”

In a response on Twitter, Mr. Raffensperger wrote: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.” The recording of the call was made public several hours later.

Given Trump's malicious idiocy you'd have to be a fool not to record him.

Trump claims to have recorded the call but when he played back the recording, it was side 1 of a-ha's Hunting High and Low

It started on Saturday when Trump and his team reached out to talk to Raffensperger, who, according to an adviser, felt he would be unethically pressured by the president. Raffensperger had been here before: In November he accused Trump ally and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham of improperly exhorting him to meddle in the election to help Trump win Georgia. Graham later denied it.

So why not record the call with the president, Raffensperger’s advisers thought, if nothing else for fact-checking purposes. “This is a man who has a history of reinventing history as it occurs,” one of them told Playbook. “So if he’s going to try to dispute anything on the call, it’s nice to have something like this, hard evidence, to dispute whatever he’s claiming about the secretary. Lindsey Graham asked us to throw out legally cast ballots. So yeah, after that call, we decided maybe we should do this.”

gotta be scrupulously fair I didn't hear a fart in that clip

the truth will come out about that fart, which came not from Trump, but from the Deep State

you might call the anus the human body's Deep State.

there it is

the Deep State has been behind some explosive leaks

PUanon

the most controversial fart since Martif Pharti threw that party

was this a voice-only conference call? the idea seems quaint.

it was fart-only

Talking with Trump is always a gas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01O62CDOKUE

Presidential Fart Joke at 3:33

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywCH3HN2S7E

So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.

Dammit I was just trying to post that

xp

The Fart Of The Deal

A+

an A+ for that?

I think it stinks

where are we at with polling? does it make any sense at all to look at the GA polls? are we back to throwing dice and appealing to the gods with sacrifices?

ossoff and warnock have edged ahead in polls, but the margin of error is thin, and I think Dems tend to underperform in GA elections compared to polling. this election is so weird though that anything could happen imo

the democrats have small leads roughly equal to how much the pollsters screwed up by, so it's a toss up.

(screwed up by in november)

also trump is going on stage tonight to call everyone running the election a criminal so you can imagine that being worth a few thousand votes.

The 538 averages look good--+2% for both Warnock and Ossoff. And yesterday can't help the two Republicans; maybe it'll depress turnout a tiny bit.

this is the one that makes me cautiously optimistic

https://www.thetrafalgargroup.org/news/ga-sen-122/

I'll defer to caek on polling, though.

I do think the whole election fraud nonsense is going to depress republican turnout to some extent, but not convinced it will be enough.

i'm not convinced of anything, but it's plausible to me that literally anything could be enough to make the difference in a state that biden won the state by less than 12k votes out of 5m cast.

I'm still surprised Biden won Georgia, I'm not holding out a lot of hope for the Senate races. But I'd be happy to be surprised again.

just over 2 people in a 1000 made the difference in november. i don't think anyone knows if any one "thing" is big enough to change the outcome in that environment.

that said, i find it easy to imagine more than 2 people in a 1000 changing their mind about whether to vote after watching OANN for past 8 weeks, so i see no reason to think the GOP can afford this nonsense right now.

just to be clear, i think pure 50/50 toss up is right, but i don't think it's _insane_ to call the democrats the favorites based on what we know today (they just won the state, they're leading polls from pollsters with known GOP bias, etc.)

obviously winning both would be great for biden's ability to govern but there's another reason why it would be good for the country: if they do lose both of them, that would result in a civil war in the congressional GOP in which one side is 1) completely insane and emotionally unable to back down 2) pretty obviously the reason they lost.

it sucks that they have to win both, I'm reasonably confident that they'll win at least one. would imagine the results are somewhat correlated though - would be weird if one of the Rs got a full margin of error but the other didn't

honestly have no clue how Trump is gonna effect future elections. obviously he drives turnout up but he also drives turnout against him way up as well, idk how that translates in elections where he's not on the ticket. fwiw Dems have been doing quite well since 2016, I'm not sure that changes now

wouldn't it be weird if they just won one? who would vote for one of the dems but not the other?

i cannot imagine two D wins in GA unless each is like +7 in the polls prior. obv not because i know anything, i am just so poll-scorched at this point.

xp one of the democratic candidates is black, so ... many american voters?

oh yeah

like there's no crosstabs here so it's difficult to be sure, but it looks like 20 ossoff voters said they wouldn't vote in the other race, or 10 ossoff voters actually switched to the GOP:

https://www.thetrafalgargroup.org/news/ga-sen-122/

(to be fair, there have been polls in which things are the other way around. the point is, again, both elections will be close, and only takes a couple of people to split tickets or abstain in one race for the outcome to be one senator each.)

that said, i find it easy to imagine more than 2 people in a 1000 changing their mind about whether to vote after watching OANN for past 8 weeks, so i see no reason to think the GOP can afford this nonsense right now.

Honestly wonder whether 2 in 1000 people watch OANN/newsmax

It’s gonna be relentlessly creepy when they start showing those stations in airports and stuff

when will we ever visit airports again

are those like premium cable stations?

i never heard of them before this year

At first I was like "you've never heard of airports???"

"What is this 'flight' you speak of."

Hoping that when we doing get to fly again on the reg, with no fear, it will be such a big deal that people will dress up for the occasion again.

are those like premium cable stations?

― treeship.

not sure. i visited newsmax.com for the first time in forever, this morning, drawn in by some absolutely crazy headline that i can no longer. and on the side of the screen was a little "WATCH NEWSMAX ONLINE FOR FREE!" streaming video. i kept it on for a few minutes, intending to catch at least a snippet of whatever newsmax tv content is, but all they did was show fox news-style old people ailments commercials

I'd encourage people not to pay attention to the polls -- whether the dems have a 25% chance or a 75% chance is essentially meaningless. no one would be surprised by any outcome. they are either gonna win or they're gonna lose, and we're going to find out tomorrow!

Or in 7-10 days, after the recounts.

i would also encourage people not to read my posts tbf xp

I switched to AT+T in November. My new package has OAN.

Problems problems

Cleta Mitchell's law firm says it's "concerned" she was on Trump's call and "are working to understand her involvement more thoroughly."

— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) January 4, 2021

Just interviewed @GaSecofState Brad Raffensperger. He says there was no privacy agreement & @realDonaldTrump broke any expectation of privacy with his tweet falsely describing the call. Details & video shortly. pic.twitter.com/aqgXxKi6Yk

— Brendan Keefe (@BrendanKeefe) January 4, 2021

What a week it’s already been.

Every day is Friday now

http://blogs.voanews.com/student-union/files/2011/07/RebeccaBlack230.jpg

Wonder how things are going to work without him as an obvious catalyst driving response. Guess he'll be around in the background unless he somehow isn't. & wonder how that could happen since if he died right now he'd just be a martyr of sorts

trump that is

Every day is like Friday
Every day is wild and cray-cray

lmao

JUST IN: Another brutal opinion dismissing suit seeking to overturn 2020 election results. Argument 'lies somewhere between a willful misreading of the Constitution and fantasy,' Judge James Boasberg writes. Also threatens to refer counsel for discipline. https://t.co/CHvM7k7MyN

— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) January 4, 2021

In addition to being filedon behalf of Plaintiffs without standing and (at least as to the state Defendants) in the wrong courtand with no effort to even serve their adversaries, the suit rests on a fundamental and obvious misreading of the Constitution.
...
Yet even that may be letting Plaintiffs off the hook too lightly. Their failure to make any effort to serve or formally notify any Defendant—even after reminder by the Court in its Minute Order—renders it difficult to believe that the suit is meant seriously. Courts are not instruments through which parties engage in such gamesmanship or symbolic political gestures.As a result, at the conclusion of this litigation, theCourt will determine whether to issue an order to show cause why this matter should not be referred to its Committee on Grievances for potential discipline of Plaintiffs’ counsel.

Judges: not amused.

"potential discipline"

NO. DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH

Billy from Silent Night, Deadly Night for Prez

Are these lawsuits just gonna keep getting filed forever even once Biden is president?

I guess I can answer my own question: "as long as they can get people to give them money to file lawsuits, 25% of which goes to fund the lawsuits and 75% into a Trump loyalist's pocket, they'll keep filing lawsuits."

sToP tHe sTeAl iF YoU lOvE oUr gReAT uNiTed sTaEtES

I wish I could type like that.

Byron couldn’t have put it more graciously.

sToP tHe sTeAl iF YoU lOvE oUr gReAT uNiTed sTaEtES

― "Bi" Dong A Ban He Try (the table is the table), Monday, January 4, 2021 2:55 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I wish I could type like that.

― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, January 4, 2021 2:56 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

may i draw your attention to playboi carti's twitter?

Seven House Republicans oppose objecting to the electoral votes, and you'll never guess why!

NEW: 7 House Republicans OPPOSE the effort to object to the Electoral College:

- Thomas Massie (Ky.)
- Ken Buck (Colo.)
- Kelly Armstrong (N.D.)
- Mike Gallagher (Wisc.)
- Nancy Mace (S.C.)
- Tom McClintock (Calif.)
- Chip Roy (Tex.)

"We must respect states' authority here." pic.twitter.com/ZolkTw5xwX

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) January 3, 2021

"From a purely partisan perspective, Republican presidential candidates have won the national popular vote only once in the last 32 years. They have therefore depended on the electoral college for nearly all presidential victories in the last generation. If we perpetuate the notion that Congress may disregard certified electoral votes - based solely on its own assessment that one or more states mishandled the presidential election - we will be delegitimizing the very system that led Donald Trump to victory in 2016, and that could provide the only path to victory in 2024."

may i draw your attention to playboi carti's twitter?

― shabbat bloody shabbat (voodoo chili),

Nah. He pays people to fuck with caps-lock.

Trump called him "Lying Ted," insulted his wife's appearance and implied that his father killed JFK... and received nothing but fawning loyalty in return.

"From a purely partisan perspective, Republican presidential candidates have won the national popular vote only once in the last 32 years. They have therefore depended on the electoral college for nearly all presidential victories in the last generation. If we perpetuate the notion that Congress may disregard certified electoral votes - based solely on its own assessment that one or more states mishandled the presidential election - we will be delegitimizing the very system that led Donald Trump to victory in 2016, and that could provide the only path to victory in 2024."

Saying the quiet part loud in official statements!

Wow @ republicans openly admitting that they are unelectable via above-board means.

lol Georgia elections official Gabriel Sterling regarding the voting machine parts "that's not a real thing, i don't even know what that means or how to explain that"

Wow @ republicans openly admitting that they are unelectable via above-board means.

How is following the (antiquated, mostly nonsensical) rules of the system not "above-board"?

Trump called him "Lying Ted," insulted his wife's appearance and implied that his father killed JFK... and received nothing but fawning loyalty in return.

It's not loyalty, it's a desperate bid to be loved by the MAGA hordes. (Which will fail when a SEC coach who resigned under a cloud of scandal calls him a pussy in the first GOP debate of 2023.)

yeah I don't believe for a second that Cruz or Graham or any of those guys actually like Trump at all or will want to be seen with him once he's out of office. Jordan, Nunes, and Gaetz on the other hand...

Personally I am wholly uninterested in whether Republicans are tolerating Trump pissing in their faces because they think it has long-term electoral benefits or actively soliciting it because they are irrevocably addicted to being piss pigs

I'm just gonna go ahead and reconfigure GOP into 'Gaggle of PissPigs' inside my own head, plz feel free to join me

Now I’m imagining a bunch of Republicans in straw hats at the 2024 convention desultorily dancing to “hot piss” by the yellow river boys

Look, what I do on the weekends has nothing to do with these fascist fucks, please do not get it twisted.

old grey mare she aint what she used to be

Jesus fucking H:

US President Donald Trump has presented the Medal of Freedom to Devin Nunes, one of his most vocal defenders.

The White House applauded Mr Nunes for his defence of Mr Trump during investigations into the president, and praised his "unwavering resolve".

The award is the highest honour a US president can bestow on a civilian.

Golfer Tiger Woods, radio personality Rush Limbaugh and posthumously Elvis Presley are among those who have received the honour from Mr Trump.

1000% who gives a fuck

man, every one of these awards is gonna have an asterix next to em after the Trump era ends

It'll be like Pia Zadora

A medal previously awarded to Whittaker Chambers, Paul Bremer, Caspar Weinberger, Kissinger, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Margaret Thatcher...

Oh and Strom Thurmond

seriously. george tenet has one. at that point, who gives a shit.

looking forward to a discourse article about why medals matter, actually

man, every one of these awards is gonna have an asterix next to em after the Trump era ends

he's giving out awards to comic book characters?

serious question: what’s the Pia Zadora reference?

controversial Golden Globe winner: https://thedissolve.com/news/4415-pia-zadora-famously-bought-golden-globe-was-not-bo/

though she wasn't a monster obv, like some of these fuckers. just tended to blunt the value of winning the award.

She won an infamous Golden Globe once..."won."

as a result of which she earned a duet with Jermaine Jackson

I'm surprised Trump hasn't given Chewbacca a belated medal.

Yet.

man, every one of these awards is gonna have an asterix next to em after the Trump era ends

― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Monday, January 4, 2021 4:40 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

From now on those sorts of awards will be called "Medal of Actual, IRL Legit Freedom For Realsies"

Pia is no Cicciolina

ah thanx! (to be fair to Nunes, he won that Freedom Medal fair + square and totally on merit, without a spouse or anyone else paying for it. it’s not a presidential pardon!)

anyways, this Pia Z classic seems appropriate in light of recent posts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aahViYznVTQ

xps

(I see Alfred already brought it up)

I really don't want a pile-on--if you disagree, I understand--but I would defend Tiger Woods as a legitimate recipient if you can focus on the golfer and not the person. I looked up the definition: "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." Culturally, I can't see an objection.

(Elvis, too, of course, but Trump picking him is just bizarre.)

can we give Pia Zadora a Medal of Freedom

I see Jim Jordan got one too

It’s probably okay to be a little annoyed about Jim Jordan Nunes and Limbaugh getting awards. They were wrong about some big stuff!

imo, Devin Nunes getting a Medal of Freedom is an outrage and his acceptance of it diminishes its value! He's just not in the same class as a Strom Thurmond or a Henry Kissinger.

(Elvis, too, of course, but Trump picking him is just bizarre.)

― clemenza, Monday, January 4, 2021 4:18 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

He also gave one to Babe Ruth.

can we give Pia Zadora a Medal of Freedom

Trump picked Elvis and Babe Ruth for obvious, physiological reasons.

Missed that! I don't know if the connecting thread is August 16 (when both died), William Carlos Williams ("the pure products of America go crazy"), or cholesterol.

Like anything else he does, it’s transactional. He’s using it as a reward for personal favors. Medals and pardons are his carrots, and angry tweets sicking his followers on you is the stick. But I agree it’s sickening. I would challenge anyone to come up with a single positive contribution Nunes or Jordan have made other than directly to Trump personally- debasing themselves in every effort to be his most devoted henchmen and providing him cover for his worst misdeeds.

I worry about the future of the SPACE FORCE!! now that Chairman Biden is assuming power.

is he planning hus escape?

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/donald-trump-could-be-planning-turnberry-trip-as-scots-airport-told-to-expect-a-high-flyer-the-day-before-joe-bidens-inauguration/

hus/his

Big HUS aka the steendriver

https://www.dansendeberen.be/wp-content/uploads/1000x1000-999-2-1.jpg

He also gave one to Babe Ruth.

Fair enough, that first album bangs.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/84/Babe_Ruth-First_Base.jpg

He gave it to the candy bar.

common sense demands that the Hus gets one too

(not a US citizen but who cares, freedom knows no borders)

If give one to Jan Hus and Toby Huss

I’d

infrastructure week

Many close advisers to Trump were "beside themselves" & unaware of his call w/ Raffensperger until the story was published first by the WaPo, sources tell me & @Santucci. Sources say Trump is increasingly isolated & only interested in Jan 6 https://t.co/A4qhgmUZ0B

— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) January 4, 2021

J.K. Huysmans first xp

Hope he gets arrested in Georgia

fuck'em

So tired of this story that POLITICO, et. al run once a week.

Are you feeling increasingly isolated?

I don't give a shit that Romney and the rest are Deeply Troubled. They're all louses, charlatans, mountebanks, and cowards, and deserve to die alone and without healthcare. Fuck the lot of them.

yet editors keep assigning this bullshit story because apparently they confuse the American public with the Beltway press. Republicans were racist meretricious bastards during the Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush I, and Reagan eras, and there are no norms to reclaim. Stop searching for Good Republicans.

I half-caught Biden's Georgia speech this afternoon...I don't know: not that anyone voting wouldn't know this already, but the speech was all generic high-mindedness--shouldn't he have been talking about nothing except what the two races mean politically?

nobody actually knows how to win any kind of campaign at all

Joe Biden got elected president based on sorta hanging around afaict

I half-caught Biden's Georgia speech this afternoon...I don't know: not that anyone voting wouldn't know this already, but the speech was all generic high-mindedness--shouldn't he have been talking about nothing except what the two races mean politically?

― clemenza, Monday, January 4, 2021 6:27 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

i didn't watch the speech because i'm not insane, and i'm sure it was terrible, but tbf:

Biden on Ossoff and Warnock, picking up the gift Trump wrapped for him: “Their election will put an end to the block in Washington on that $2000 stimulus check.”

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 4, 2021

“If you send Perdue and Loeffler back to Washington, those checks won’t get there.”

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 4, 2021

Biden, in Georgia, getting some licks in on Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue: “They think they've sworn an oath to Donald Trump, not to the United States Constitution.”

— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago) January 4, 2021

NGL, the whole "Dems will pay you $1400 to vote for them" is not a bad strategy to engage the QAnon/Fox brainworms crowd.

i forgot i followed a veteran teevee journalist from the local pbs station on twitter (promptly unfollowed). he retweeted this garbage george conway tweet. he's ostensibly democrat? actually i have no idea. old white man obviously. so many of these people really truly believe this ahistorical nonsense and get sooo offended at the slightest whiff of "socialism". but they were "counter-cultural" for 5 years in the sixties. skin-deep. starting to realize respectability politics (and the class / racial interests they safeguard naturally) has just completely brainwashed an entire generation of people (and gen x after them, millennials less so maybe).

The country needs a conservative party not dominated by morons, hacks, charlatans, and grifters.

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) January 4, 2021

(xposts) The implied consequences were there, yeah, but I think some specific numbers were in order as to the makeup of the senate right now.

George Conway was one of Clinton's tormentors during the Lewinsky imbroglio and has spent the last 10 months trying to argue for a conservatism possible after Trump -- an impossibility, for conservatism depends on racism and privilege and controlling the levers of power for the sake of minority rule. But he has a paid MSNBC gig so good on him.

xp “Their election will put an end to the block in Washington on that $2000 stimulus check. If you send Perdue and Loeffler back to Washington, those checks won’t get there” covers it, no? You don't need to walk them through the algebra. It's not an ezra klein bit.

Oh damn I thought it was finally time for some game theory

It was surreal to see George Conway retweeted for “bold” anti-Trump statements. Like dude address what we’re all thinking about or stfu

"On January 6th, I will vote to give President Trump and the American people the fair hearing they deserve and support the objection to the Electoral College certification process," Loeffler said in a statement on her official Twitter account.

If only she'd added, "Radical Liberal Raphael Warnock wouldn't do that for you."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-sabotage-republicans/2021/01/04/df5d301e-4eb1-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html

V nice

Trump had tried to reach Raffensperger at least 18 times before Saturday’s call, according to Raffensperger’s deputy, Jordan Fuchs, but the calls were patched to interns in the press office who thought it was a prank and didn’t realize it was actually the president on the line.

Does it matter?

The Georgia election's what matters now. We'll know soon enough.

not going to get my hopes up that Warnock or Ossoff will win

same

If he does fly to Scotland on Biden's inauguration day, does that mean he's on the hook for return fare?

not getting my hopes up that we'll know who won the GA senate runoffs until at least Wednesday a.m.

It’s too late for me- I’ve gotten my hopes up. Go on without me.

What's Scotland's extradition policy?

Here’s Trump’s public schedule for tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/VisWy9Igxc

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 5, 2021

If he does fly to Scotland on Biden's inauguration day, does that mean he's on the hook for return fare?

Biden's inauguration day is this month FYI

"Trump is spending ten days increasingly self-isolating"

Looking at the Rupar clips from the Georgia, DJTJ went on stage to the tune of "Stranglehold".

Does it matter?

XP Also: new donations of $$$ have allowed him to switch back from Sweet'n'Low to Cocaine.

The libertarian asshole CEO of Whole Foods says you don’t need healthcare you just need to eat Whole365 Organic.

Yes! That will cure your hernia, or sickle cell anemia, or congenital heart defect as quick as you can say "Jack Robinson" or "pile of bullshit"!

You know what this thread is, right?
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek)

An enema?

a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enema

reading it does take a lot out of me

lotsa butt stuff up in here today

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDB-9CaUQAAx8OU.jpg

Mike Pence: "Yo, fuck this."

NEW: Iowa Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the Senate president pro tempore, says he and not Vice President Mike Pence will preside over the certification of Electoral College votes, since "we don't expect him to be there."

— Roll Call (@rollcall) January 5, 2021

That should be occasion for a lively tweet or two.

Wheeee!

profiles in courage

A Grassley spokesman clarifies that the senator does not "have any indication Pence won't be present." Grassley, he said, was just trying to explain that at president pro tempore of the Senate, he would fill the chair if Pence does not show or steps out at points for a break https://t.co/iS8Wb7Yfpy

— Nicholas Fandos (@npfandos) January 5, 2021

"Goin' out for a smoke, Chuck. BRB."

of all the recent billionaires to spew sewage in the press recently, WF guy seems like he’d be the easiest to parody in Minecraft

“who needs a private stable of militarized robot dogs when I have my blue-green algae and blood spinning regiment every Thursday??”

so Grassley first says he's doing it and Pence won't be there, then says Pence should do it cos he'll be there but he'll do it if he doesn't show?

These idiots have all backed themselves into the corner of either going through the futile motions of breaking the law/violating the Constitution or being eaten alive by their Q-stituency and their god emperor. Best of luck to ya, fuckos.

Jesus christ, life is so goddamn stupid rn.

the Mr Blonde strategem

He's either alive
or he's dead
or the cops got him
or they don't

Truly we're in the "Tanya Roberts is dead/alive/dead" days of the transition.

https://66.media.tumblr.com/58e1e99107cb546c78bb2904063d0e27/tumblr_o1o7qqdglE1u7gt7ro1_400.gif

Would have been funny if instead of Rambo the morons pasted Trump's head on the Beastmaster.

How it started:
https://thestudioexec.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/marc-singer-beastmaster.jpg

How it ended up:

https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2015/12/10/08/Donald-trump-eagle.PNG

I'm curious what the next Trumper fantasy becomes after Jan. 6. Probably something like, "On Inauguration Day, when Joe Biden fraudulently tries to take the oath of office, the Constitution will turn into a living sword of fire and decapitate him and Kamala Harris and will then knight Donald Trump as Eternal President."

I somehow (!) managed to avoid any coverage of his Georgia speech last night. Anything of note?

Not really. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/its-still-all-about-trump/617551/

no farts

No click.

No idea if it will work but this is the closing pitch they’ve been doing for the past two days and it seems good electoral politics to me?

GA Senate candidate Jon @Ossoff: "When we win both of these Senate races, we will pass $2,000 stimulus checks immediately ... I spoke with the president-elect about that personally yesterday." pic.twitter.com/KZgDBkWTeo

— The Recount (@therecount) January 5, 2021

Hell yeah. When in doubt, promise cash. The GOP can't even be too outraged about it since Trump endorsed it.

lol, the GOP can be outraged about having to put on shoes

Some of my favorite political insight ever came from a Russian construction worker I talked to like 25 years ago, when Vladimir Zhirinovsky was at his peak. I asked the guy, what's the deal with Zhirinovsky? He said, "Zhirinovsky goes to rallies and he shouts, 'Do you want vodka?' And people shout, 'We want vodka!' And he shouts, 'I give you vodka! Do you want sausages?' 'We want sausages!' 'I give you sausages!'"

Whatever else you promise, gotta include the vodka and sausages.

Have they got the Rapture booked yet?

I thought they broke up after that 2011 album

No, but the GOP has cornered the market on Ratpure.
xp dammit

Yeah yeah yeah, bunch of Liars going on about the Rapture !!!

i just love to see democrats actually promising concrete benefits in plain terms in a campaign pitch

otmfm

heaven forbid they serve .. the public .. for a change. not really an "insight" imo, lol.

There are a lot of ways to serve the public. But direct payments (of cash or vodka) translate a lot more easily than less immediate benefits. I think Democrats in the post-Reagan era have been sort of scared off of those kinds of appeals because of being attacked as socialist or, even worse, running up "the deficit." They may finally be figuring out that voters do not give one shit about the deficit.

grover norquist is about to get his cold, sweet revenge, just you wait!

yep they really need to clearly and consistently put the lie to this idea that managing the US economy is in any way similar to managing your family's budget.

There are a lot of ways to serve the public. But direct payments (of cash or vodka) translate a lot more easily than less immediate benefits. I think Democrats in the post-Reagan era have been sort of scared off of those kinds of appeals because of being attacked as socialist or, even worse, running up "the deficit." They may finally be figuring out that voters do not give one shit about the deficit.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, January 5, 2021 11:29 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm, it's just heartening (despite all the problems they have) to see the conversation re-framed again as the government being something that exists to provide things to people

call them Biden Bux and put his signature on the checks, that's what real leaders do

anyone else a nervous wreck? i just want this damn election to be over (and won)

nah, I've pretty much resigned myself to the idea that at least one if not both Republicans will keep their seats and am preparing myself mentally for that outcome

Nov. 3 was two months ago.

yep they really need to clearly and consistently put the lie to this idea that managing the US economy is in any way similar to managing your family's budget.

family budgets include huge amounts of debt like car payments and mortgage payments, which take decades to pay back, sometimes at extortionate interest rates, all of which is considered completely normal and in fact almost required for access to middle class society, so actually family budgets are a pretty good metaphor!

I'm not nervous because I don't expect these two to win.

you don't trust the good people of georgia to do the right thing??

I mean I trust the bad people, sure.

There was a White middle-aged dude interviewed on CNN this morning walking out of a GA polling station who said pretty much verbatim "this election cycle is the first time I've ever voted for Democrats because there are too many issues we need to fix with climate change and race and the Republican Party has shown they have no idea how to deal with those problems" and it was difficult to tell whether he was sincere or trolling.

they fear the national debt because it proves that money is just ~~imaginary~~ *smokes doobie*

ossoff and warnock are going to win

I restrict myself to fantasies about Harris steamrolling McConnell as president of the senate, it seems more likely than both Dems winning the senate races in Georgia. That said, Trump is basically an honorary Democrat when it comes to his ability to fuck up what should be easy wins for his party.

hell yeah they're going to win. because if they don't, democrats will launch hundreds of lawsuits and demand a recount that shows what we all know to be the truth, which is that ossoff and warnock won big time and it wasn't even close

let's stop worrying and let's start SUING and WINNING and TAKING

^ original lyrics to "wishin' and hopin'"

Suing
winning
taking
each otherrrrrrrrrrrrrr

exactly karl

i just love to see democrats actually promising concrete benefits in plain terms in a campaign pitch

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, January 5, 2021 12:20 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the optimistic view is that the stimulus payments debate has crystalized things for nervous nellie congressional democrats with vaguely leftward instincts but internalized self-loathing/learned helplessness (or at least enough of them to make a difference).

the difference between bullshit like this:

Yesterday I announced that, as president, I’ll establish a student loan debt forgiveness program for Pell Grant recipients who start a business that operates for three years in disadvantaged communities. https://t.co/ldwuC9RiIE

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 28, 2019

and "vote for us and we will put $2000 in your bank account before the end of the month" (coming from a historically very centrist Serious Democrat running in a purple state!) is ... i dunno. promising? (table is going to tell me never to trust politicians and fair enough.)

Wait... "As president"???

I mean, they can do both? Give people the $2,000 (per month) now AND still work towards longer term, structural improvements.

xp - check the date, it's when she was running

Oh.. I just saw the date. Never mind.

Xposts

Yeah it's exactly the thing conservatives and libertarians freak out about, that those kinds of actual populist appeals are actually popular. And then someone's gonna want to raise their capital gains taxes to pay for them, the horror the horror.

I thought she was getting a bit big for her chuck taylors.

that tweet sounds like a parody

There was a White middle-aged dude interviewed on CNN this morning walking out of a GA polling station who said pretty much verbatim "this election cycle is the first time I've ever voted for Democrats because there are too many issues we need to fix with climate change and race and the Republican Party has shown they have no idea how to deal with those problems" and it was difficult to tell whether he was sincere or trolling.

― Totino's Fortnite Training Room (DJP)

this guy

Georgia voter: "I have been a lifelong Republican. This is the first time I've ever voted for a Democratic candidate just because there are issues regarding our environment, regarding taxation, regarding diversity issues and so forth that I think need to be addressed." pic.twitter.com/MNHQM185uQ

— The Hill (@thehill) January 5, 2021

but then you have this stupid ass shit

Q: "Will you accept Joe Biden as President?"

GA Trump Supporter: "No he'll never be my President."

Q: "But you accept he's going to be inaugurated?"

GA Trump Supporter: "No I don't."

Q: "How could that change at this point?"

GA Trump Supporter: "Well, could be a civil war." pic.twitter.com/Z91Mza1lnG

— The Hill (@thehill) January 5, 2021

Welp (yawns, stretches, scratches behind)...time fer us to have one a' them Civil Wars, I reckon. Now, how do we kick this off? (yawns again)

These dumb cracker fucks.

Yeah they showed that right before the interview with the guy I mentioned and basically I was like "I am never leaving my house again"

That's why having a divided congress is so important: no civil wars!

xxpost He see the colonel's sweatshirt? Jesus christ.

Surprised Kid Rock hasn't opened up a chain of restaurants called Cracker Fucks.

Those women look as likely to start, let alone participate in, a civil war than Donald Trump would turn vegan.

Don't these people know that Biden owns a Corvette.. and actually has a current driver's license?

Is it bad that I don’t believe the reasonable guy is a “lifelong Republican”?

Do they forget what happened last time there was a civil war in GA? pic.twitter.com/xWKkRC94HI

— Jason Trubilla (@jjtrub) January 5, 2021

Is it bad that I don’t believe the reasonable guy is a “lifelong Republican”?

― Washington Generals D-League affiliate (will)

idk not hard to believe that a white likely middle class guy in GA was raised to be a republican

The full call is here and while I have your attention pay your child support https://t.co/fo2JPaxUEs https://t.co/PPOyuu4fkJ

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 3, 2021

oof

Welp. Just saw on twitter that the beloved internet figure of old Tron Guy is a textbook MAGA chud.

Pelosi defeated McCarthy 216-208. obviously party lines but god help us if/when they take the House back and that thug becomes speaker.

"I hope Mike Pence comes through for us. I have to tell you ... of course if he doesn't come through, I don't like him quite as much." -- Trump pic.twitter.com/jZDOsiEllB

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 5, 2021

I feel like Trump is envisioning something like the La La Land/Moonlight moment.

I hope Pence bursts through his chest like the the baby alien.

I hope Pence bursts through his chest like the the baby alien

idk not hard to believe that a white likely middle class guy in GA was raised to be a republican

what kind of BS is going on here?

Welp.

Republican majority of the Pennsylvania State Senate just removed @JohnFetterman from the chamber. President Pro Temp Corman is presiding instead. Fetterman refused to recognize a motion that would have prevented a duly elected Democratic senator from being sworn in. pic.twitter.com/BOFe1kRMfe

— Abraham Gutman 🔥 (@abgutman) January 5, 2021

It's a fight over mail-in ballots in one close Senate race. Whether to count ones that didn't have a hand-written date. GOP has already lost on this in state court and has filed a federal suit that will probably lose too, but they're refusing to certify the winner in the meantime.

caek, of course I think we all deserve $2000. but *every unemployed or underemployed adult* in the US should have been receiving at least $2000/month since the pandemic started. it is indicative of the absolute loathing and lack of empathy that most politicians have for their constituents that this hasn't happened. this lack of economic action is also among the reasons why 350,000 people have died, many of them needlessly.

https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/spl/john-fetterman-pennsylvania-senate-removed-republicans-jim-brewster-20210105.html

I feel like this is our new future. Don't expect a clearly settled election in which a Dem wins for quite some time. My wife said there's even been some bullshit on a local Facebook group where people are pulling the "voter fraud" shit on local aldermen elections from a year ago. Jesus.

And if there's voter fraud, it's always in the Dems' favor.

And the more Dems win by as the demographics continue to shift in their favor, the more fraud there is.

table, i agree with all of that.

And if there's voter fraud, it's always in the Dems' favor.

Which is why Republicans should always attempt to cast fraudulent votes whenever they can, to offset the undoubted Democratic voter fraud taking place everywhere in every election, even in Republican strongholds. For example, you know the Democrats are cheating in Wyoming elections because how else can you explain any Democrat winning any office in that state? By rights, it should be 100% Republicans all the way down. QED

xp what Trump did to the term “fake news”, Republicans are now doing to the term “fraud”.

I somehow get less depressed by all this shit when I put it in the context of this country's history. Like, this is all just Chapter 232 of the ongoing struggle. Of course we have to fight for it, we always have.

(not just this country, obviously, it's just where i happen to live)

The GOP staunchly believes in upholding the most treasured elements of American political life: gerrymandering and voter suppression.

*every unemployed or underemployed adult* in the US should have been receiving at least $2000/month since the pandemic started.

I was saying similar things by the end of March. It seemed obvious to me. Instead, the USA will lose more than half a million lives to the pandemic, I'm thinking it will claim over 550,000, when that number should have been closer to 150,000. When the pandemic ends, the government could easily enough forestall rampant inflation by sopping up excess cash via increased taxation and retiring treasury bonds purchased by the Federal Reserve. That's how a real democracy would do it.

"beloved internet figure of old Tron Guy" what does this mean?

omg this is going great

these people are out of their minds pic.twitter.com/nttqE5qdKF

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 5, 2021

"I'm going to give everyone three action steps ... turn to the person next to you and give them a hug. Someone you don't know ... it's a mass-spreader event! It's a mass-spreader event!"

(shakes head) how you can view that and be enthusiastic about it beats me

this would be a great moment to learn dinosaurs aren't extinct and see one run right through that crowd

Like tbf if the death cult's ultimate goal is to make me want to die, they succeed on a daily basis.

I have been thinking a lot recently about how all of that sort of insane bullshit has always been here, it's just that now it is broadcast to *the entire planet* a lot more.

We don’t need no George So-ros
Financier! Leave those kids alone

sorry for spamming this but it's a car wreck

beyond parody pic.twitter.com/16nolKMtK2

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 5, 2021

DC (the City) is going to be a mess for the next few weeks. I hate global warming cause only a couple decades ago it’s be too cold for these chuckleheads.

cool, ilx is my new one-stop shop for doomscrolling

my bad

does she have backing music?

I have been thinking a lot recently about how all of that sort of insane bullshit has always been here, it's just that now it is broadcast to *the entire planet* a lot more.

"Jesus Christ and the truth" - rejected Springsteen slogan

_I have been thinking a lot recently about how all of that sort of insane bullshit has always been here, it's just that now it is broadcast to *the entire planet* a lot more._


Yeah I find it oddly comforting that there were lunatics and rumors and conspiracy theories in the past, but they’d wait to the annual town meeting or something to talk about how the Masons or Catholics are sacrificing children.

i liked when the wackos were mostly in their basement on a had radio waiting for the newsletters in the mail.

"My kids'll be ussing their own penssilllss.."

Sounds like she had a nip or two of Hot Damn before taking the podium.

I remember where the only place I read about William Cooper-level bullshit was from randos reviewing Behold a Pale Horse on epinions.com

We’ve got cultural amnesia about how pervasive the Satanic Panic (QAnon v1.0) was and how many lives it ruined and those people are still alive, you don’t need to dip back to the Anti-Masonic Party.

And it helpfully disabuses me of the illusion of “progress” or that “people know better these days”.

― Boring United Methodist Church (Boring, Maryland), Tuesday, January 5, 2021 3:01 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i like item 1 in the list at the end of iggy pop's review of the decline and fall

Iggy Pop on Gibbon’s Decline and Fall is the most poignant thing I’ve read all week. https://t.co/jksAqwnpAQ pic.twitter.com/sG5aW5gN9h

— Mary Harrington (@moveincircles) January 3, 2021

Cultural amnesia about 'recovered memories'

Like, we also know that were weird radical LEFTIST people in small shitty honky towns across the US before, too, who for whatever reason could not or did not want to leave those places. That's also comforting to me.

Iggy otm

We’ve got cultural amnesia about how pervasive the Satanic Panic

oh yeah! I was pretty young during this but remember watching the McMartin case and being so scared by all the propaganda and thinking there were satanic molesters that were going to get me.

I remember a family vacation to Boston Commons as a kid, my first time seeing a doomsday prophet with a sandwich board ranting insanely. Now it's just like that, but on TV 24/7.

the president being the central source and subject of these conspiracy theories -- as the hero, not the villain -- seems a novel development

Yeah I find it oddly comforting that there were lunatics and rumors and conspiracy theories in the past, but they’d wait to the annual town meeting or something to talk about how the Masons or Catholics are sacrificing children.

I mean, how many people were into Lyndon LaRouche? A lot, right? 270,000 people voted for him in the 2000 Democratic Primary! But you could really pretty much go through your life not knowing LaRouchites were out there unless somebody handed you a pamphlet.

dinosaurs aren't extinct

Have you seen half the members of the Senate these days? We could post pictures of Leahy, Grassley, Feinstein et al. staring at impending meteors.

Or asteroids, whatevs

I saw a Lyndon Larouche sticker on a car last year, right before he died. It was...something.

the president being the central source and subject of these conspiracy theories -- as the hero, not the villain -- seems a novel development

A woman I knew from Iraq War protests disappeared into the LaRouche machine after getting recruited on her campus. I Google her name every couple of years hoping she resurfaces.

Meanwhile elsewhere

My brother tells me there was zero coverage of the US on the news in France tonight and he’s absolutely delighted

— Andrew Beaujon (@abeaujon) January 5, 2021

France didn’t cover Bean Dad?

Bean Dad is exclusively covered by a just announced French Spotify podcast.

In France it's called Pere Legume

We’ve got cultural amnesia about how pervasive the Satanic Panic (QAnon v1.0)

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnsolvedMysteries/comments/cb4wq7/old_case_kurt_mcfall/

damn you! i had been ignoring that bean dad thing i saw trending

I saw a Lyndon Larouche sticker on a car last year, right before he died.

The dude who lives across the alley from me has a Ben Carson bumper sticker on his car.

Oh, I've seen a few of those, too. I witnessed a guy carrying a TULSI tote the other day and I nearly drove onto the sidewalk lol

A neighbor is still proudly posting a Yang placard in his front garden.

I saw a Lyndon Larouche sticker on a car last year, right before he died.

Don't look back
you can ever look back

https://i.makeagif.com/media/8-21-2015/HAylMC.gif

xp what Trump did to the term “fake news”, Republicans are now doing to the term “fraud”.

NPR reports that Trump himself might address the cretin rally tomorrow... this won't end well.

That is some level of commitment

It’s amazing how many Biden and Trump yard signs are still up.

NPR reports that Trump himself might address the cretin rally tomorrow... this won't end well.

Maybe he'll clear the crowd out with tear gas first.

"beloved internet figure of old Tron Guy" what does this mean?

― akm, Tuesday, January 5, 2021 1:40 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sorry, missed a comma in there.
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/000/037/tron_guy-thumb.jpg

You cannot convince me that guy is not Ken Bone (or a Bone-clone if you will).

Oh, I forgot about him. Love him <3

(I meant Tron Guy)

the CEO of SurveyUSA, on the GA election:

“There is zero data that points to the two GOP incumbents being re-elected tonight, therefore, as a circumspect pollster in 2020, you’d say the Republicans have at least a 49% chance of winning,” he said.

when ever the people running the polling organizations are talking shit on themselves, you know it's bad

Surely the mass arrests of Democrats and reappearance of JFK Jr. are coming this time

Oops it'll just be RFK Jr yelling about vaccines.

Just don't look at Tron Guy's twitter feed if you still want to <3 him.

Cleta Mitchell, attorney who was on Trump's phone call with GA Sec of State, has resigned from her law firm. “Cleta Mitchell has informed firm management of her decision to resign from Foley & Lardner effective immediately," her firm said.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 5, 2021

Yeah, I think her firm was blindsided by her participation in that call.

Abundant evidence suggests that getting caught in Trump's orbit is not a good career move.

I don't know... he's got a bottomless war chest grifted from the unwashed faithful; he could be her sugar daddy if she only proves her fealty.

People in Trump's orbit are as disposable as kleenex. Fealty is hard to maintain when Trump's whims and demands can contradict the previous day's whims and demands.

As noted elsewhere, if she is *not* working for Trump then her conversations are/were not privileged and she can be subpoenaed for stuff.

the needle is back (but not on yet)

omg FUCK THAT NEEDLE

gather 'round needle watchers, that's if you're still livin'

omg FUCK THAT NEEDLE

I mean, I've heard of threading the needle ...

Seen the needle and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone

Queensryche told ya what u need to know about needles

omg FUCK THAT NEEDLE

― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Tuesday, January 5, 2021 2:17 PM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Look, Neanderthal, what you do on the weekends is your own business, but...

it's easier for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is to fuck a needle

wait i think that's backwards, or is it

I'm sounding with the needle

Joy Phenix voted for gridlock. “They need a backstop,” Ms. Phenix, 55, said outside a polling place in the affluent Atlanta suburbs in east Cobb County where a modest line of voters shuffled through all morning. She said she voted for Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeffler, but that if Mr. Trump had been elected she would have voted for the Democrats.

the Ron Swanson

I mean, it makes sense if you're an absolute fucking idiot.

I’m cautiously optimistic about tonight - Trumps approval is several points lower than it was on Election Day and I can’t imagine half the GOP claiming that elections are illegitimate is gonna help turnout. Not to mention the whole “you’ll get free money if the Dems win” thing. According to Abrahms the early voting numbers for young & black voters are much higher than expected in a runoff.

This is probably worthless but one can hope:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/georgia-senate-polls/

if we win the Senate somehow, I hope Clarence Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh drop dead of aneurysms immediately

we all know fraud is gonna be claimed and they're gonna try not to seat either of them tho

Let's wait three weeks on their aneurysms... just in case.

I came across this on Media Matters, and I thought it summed up my thoughts pretty well RE conservatives' thinking (even if deep down they know the election was fair and Trump lost, hence the "whether OR NOT it was rigged) it fits their whole grievance narrative.

WILL CAIN (CO-HOST, FOX & FRIENDS WEEKEND): I think Americans, I think Republicans, conservatives, can be forgiven for their skepticism. Because whether or not an election was rigged, it certainly feels like society is rigged right now, from the complete squelching of dissent on college campuses, inside the media institutions, to being lied about the Hunter Biden story, to watching President Trump impeached, every step of the way watching President Trump undermine, his legitimacy questioned. And when you deal with that for not just four years but decades, you start to think, if not an election, the entire society is rigged against people who hold my values. And at some point, Steve, Ainsley, and Brian, you begin to understand that kind of skepticism.

PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST, FOX & FRIENDS WEEKEND): Especially at the end when you're told no, you can't question it. There will be no questioning at the end. The more you're told not to question, the more you're told not to challenge the more people feel like eh, something's not right here.

Lotta thoughts and thinking going on in that intro, sorry...

So, they're living in an alternate reality and have grievances with that alternate reality. So fuck them all to hell.

Or actually, no, don't fuck them. Send them all. Send them all to hell.

xpost it's more that "you questioned it in court 61 times, and lost 60 of those times, but inexplicably think it's not over"

begin eating these people, but only non-vital organs so they don't die. replace blood often so they stay alive and are slowly eaten for 20 years

Always been the party of feelz b4 realz.

You gotta respect their deeply held beliefs about reality, you see.

feelz b4 realz - candy rain

And to think how we treated President Clinton with professional cordiality and mutual respect every step of the way... Sen. Douche Canoe (R)

oh fucking jesus christ will cain has escaped sports media

complete squelching of dissent on college campuses, inside the media institutions, to being lied about the Hunter Biden story, to watching President Trump impeached, every step of the way watching President Trump undermined, his legitimacy questioned.

tbf this all happened/is happening.

inside the media institutions

nah

Let us not forget the Squelching of Bari Weiss.

The hot mic picked up some of Rowdy Rudy's squelches as well.

I love the notion that “society is rigged against people with my values” without a trace of insight that maybe those values are actually wrong, and society is telling you so.

Wait are hippies The Man now?

Ha yes exactly. It's adorable watching them become countercultural now. Jk it's awful cause they're the most whiny drama queens ever.

They elect this absolute shithead because he'll "fight for us" and then cry foul when those fascistic lefties try to undermine him

Let us not forget the Squelching of Bari Weiss.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra),

minor Evelyn Waugh iirc

I love the notion that “society is rigged against people with my values”

Moreover, it's a God-given truth that people with "my values" should always be running things, even if most of our neighbors don't want us running things and voted against us. Any outcome where we are not running things is totally wrong and cannot be accepted under any circumstances.

idk, just the fact that they are framing in that way means we already won.

I mean: “society is rigged against people with my values”

I'm gay and a person of color, so I don't know what "society" is other than "Fellow citizens who respect Erykah Badu and Pet Shop Boys."

The War on Christmas was particularly successful this year; no caroling, no church services - mission accomplished!

trump promised Biden would cancel Xmas, and he did! unfortunately I still had to buy presents for some people

think Americans, I think Republicans, conservatives, can be forgiven for their skepticism. Because whether or not an election was rigged, it certainly feels like society is rigged right now, from the complete squelching of dissent on college campuses, inside the media institutions, to being lied about the Hunter Biden story, to watching President Trump impeached, every step of the way watching President Trump undermine, his legitimacy questioned. And when you deal with that for not just four years but decades, you start to think, if not an election, the entire society is rigged against people who hold my values.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz5tXEbT0PE

Kornacki seeing heavy red districts with low turnout compared to Nov

The Dems running one or two points higher in the urban areas than they did in November, that seems like good news

xxp

I agree that Republican values are bad, and, on balance, I'm happy that the mainstream media tipped the scales for Biden. but they DID tip the scales! Every day the news was a nonstop mixture of actual Trump scandals and silly pumped-up bullshit about Trump. I mean, we even made up (and I used) this insane term called "whataboutism" to avoid our own hypocrisies!

I know we clown on that damn needle a lot but this thing, on the same page, seems pretty nice

The expected vs actual line is really helpful to see when new votes come in pic.twitter.com/r1Pwj0QJWH

— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) January 6, 2021

xp
I don't know what we should do to counteract the flow of lies and bullshit on social media, but I don't think it's what happened in the last 4 years.

whataboutism is real, or at least it used to me something real. it may be abused by people though, now. actually i have no idea but i should just assume it's now used incorrectly and is confusing. damn

Maybe electoral self-sabotage does have consequences, after all. Huh.

xp

xp
I know! I hate it when someone pulls a whatabout on me, but maybe that's just because I'm a hypocrite.

true whataboutism, like "both sides"+"ism", takes place when one of the two things being compared is grossly out of proportion to the other

Both races...off to a good start?

Too early and close to be confident

like you chastise a friend for tossing a dirty diaper on the sidewalk, and the bad friend says "whatabout the time you threw gum out the car window?"

Seems to be a lot of solid data indicating that Dems are running a point ahead of where Biden was while rural turnout is 1-2 points behind what the Republicans need it to be

when the Needle says things I like, I like the Needle

when it says things I hate, I hate the Needle

Steve the Kornacki showing Warnoff and Ossoff matching or exceeding Biden's numbers in blue counties. Cautious optimism, etc.

DJI at 7:08 5 Jan 21

xxp

I agree that Republican values are bad, and, on balance, I'm happy that the mainstream media tipped the scales for Biden. but they DID tip the scales! Every day the news was a nonstop mixture of actual Trump scandals and silly pumped-up bullshit about Trump. I mean, we even made up (and I used) this insane term called "whataboutism" to avoid our own hypocrisies!

I mean....I would argue that many of Trump's scandal were underplayed and that the media went out of its way for most of his term to try to present him as a normal president

they all grew a metaphorical pair when it looked like the writing was on the wall in the last six months or so

Xpost i actually am wary of trusting the needle at all, esp cos of how weird it was in GA. but it's the only real interpretive tool i have atm.

Seems that Ds are overperforming in many counties

Again, I'm drinking coffee and eating sorbet. No stress. If they win, fuckin' rad.

impressed you can drink coffee at this time of day

like you chastise a friend for tossing a dirty diaper on the sidewalk, and the bad friend says "whatabout the time you threw gum out the car window?"

I misread this as “threw a gun out the car window” and was so confused, because that’s a pretty valid whatabout and also seems like we might not have the entire story

impressed you can drink coffee at this time of day

― Dan S,

I need it before bed.

I need sex before bed to sleep.

Haven't slept a wink in years

I'll drink sex if you fuck coffee.

Don’t forget that needle.

Needle feels good so far.

The needle and the runoff done

everyone seems nice and relaxed, not worried at all

Would be nice if Perdue lived up to his name.

the margins. are slipping rapidly. I hate this. I always tell myself I won’t get my hopes up and I always do

nice and relaxed, not worried at all

i've kept this airplane aloft from my passenger seat so often that now I can do it with my eyes closed