TMC for ek hornbeck
Nov 25 2020
Cartnoon
Nov 25 2020
The Breakfast Club (To Hunger)
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
President John F. Kennedy laid to rest at Arlington; New details emerge about Iran-Contra affair; British forces leave New York; Elian Gonzalez rescued off Florida coast; Baseball’s Joe DiMaggio born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
To hunger is to be alive and to hope.
Nov 24 2020
Today’s News Rundown
This is brief rundown of the news so you don’t have to watch cable news. It’s just the facts with maybe a little snark.
With news that the GSA had OK’d the Biden transition, the Dow Jones broke the 30,000 point ceiling. In the morning, the Squatter-in-Chief made a 55 second appearance in the briefing room to call the record “sacred” and try to take claim it. He took no questions and ran out.
He later appeared in the “Roseless” Garden for his last annual pardon of the turkeys. It was announced that this year the two birds, named Corn and Cob, would be reprieved but only Corn showed up. Bet ya Cob is on his way to the Squatter’s dinner table on Thursday. Squatter again took credit for the stock market rise and suggested President-Elect Biden adopt his “America First” slogan. Mmmm, I don’t think so. He and Melanoma left ignoring shouted questions. Press shy, are we.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is doing everything in his power to hinder the Biden administration from giving the unspent funds from the CARES Act.
Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that there is about $455 billion in unspent funds from the CARES Act, which Congress passed to help Americans get through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Mnuchin plans to place the money into the agency’s General Fund, a Treasury Department spokesperson said Tuesday. That fund can only be tapped with ‘authority based on congressionally issued legislation,” the report said, citing, the Treasury’s website.
The $455 billion include about $429 billion Mnuchin is trying to get back from the Federal Reserve, “which backed some of the central bank’s emergency lending facilities.” The remaining $26 billion comes from unspent loans Treasury could give directly to companies that need help. Given the bankruptcies, evictions, and companies announcing that they’re going out of business. It’s unclear why Mnuchin didn’t spend such a huge sum of funds when so many needed it.
Nah, it’s really clear why he didn’t spend the money, he doesn’t care about the little people. After all, he has his.
Pennsylvania and Nevada have certified the election results for Biden.
In Wisconsin, the recount is underway and has voters there frustrated and baffled by the Squatter’s campaign and GOP efforts to throw out ballots. Meanwhile, Wisconsin Republicans are blaming Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg for the Squatter’s loss to Joe Biden. I guess you gotta blame somebody. Don’t you just love victimhood.
In California, a judge has tossed another of the Squatter’s lawsuits. This one would have forced our nation’s low-income elderly, disabled and blind out of their own homes and into deathtrap nursing homes during the pandemic. In another ruling, a California federal judge called the Trump rule that bars states from withholding part of the paychecks of some home healthcare workers for things like health insurance and voluntary union dues a “legal error.”
Judge Vince Chhabria wrote that the Trump rule appears “contrary to the overall purpose” of the Medicaid law. He noted that improving working conditions for home health workers, who have median hourly pay of $10.49, improves the quality of care the workers provide for Medicaid patients.
“It is unclear how barring the payroll practices would serve the purposes of the Medicaid program,” wrote Chhabria, an Obama appointee. He threw out that provision of the law and sent it back to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services to rewrite it.
California and five other states challenged the law. The states in the lawsuit could have lost $6 billion in federal Medicaid funding if they didn’t comply.
This administration is really evil.
In a Guardian article, it reveled that the Squatter administration seeks to transfer ownership of Arizona area to mining company with ties to the destruction of an Aboriginal site.
Last month tribes discovered that the date for the completion of a crucial environmental review process has suddenly been moved forward by a full year, to December 2020, even as the tribes are struggling with a Covid outbreak that has stifled their ability to respond. If the environmental review is completed before Trump leaves office, the tribes may be unable to stop the mine.
Purdue Pharma pleads guilty to criminal charges related to US opioid crisis
Purdue’s plea deal carries more than $5.5bn in penalties, most of which will go unpaid. A $3.54bn criminal fine will be considered alongside trillions of dollars in unsecured claims as part of Purdue’s bankruptcy proceedings.
Purdue agreed to pay $225m toward a $2bn criminal forfeiture, with the justice department foregoing the rest if the company completes a bankruptcy reorganization dissolving itself and shifting assets to a “public benefit company” or similar entity that steers the $1.78bn unpaid portion to thousands of US communities suing it over the opioid crisis.
A sentencing imposing those penalties is set to come around the time Purdue receives court approval for a bankruptcy reorganization.
Naturally, nobody goes to jail.
The US has more than 12 million cases of CoVid-19 aand over 257,000 deaths as per John Hopkins University.
On Monday, more than 85,700 people were hospitalized with the illness as healthcare workers warned of overwhelmed clinics and emergency rooms.
The daily average of cases is the highest it has ever been across the country. There were twice as many new cases a day as there were two weeks ago in nine states: Arizona, California, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Vermont.
In the country’s most populous state, California, there were more than 30,000 cases over the weekend, prompting a flurry of new restrictions. Los Angeles is set to shut down restaurant dining on Wednesday and officials were expected to announce another lockdown.
Here’s a good chuckle. In New Hampshire, seven Republican lawmakers are threatening to impeach the Republican governor over his mask mandate. The NH Republican Party has denounced to move.
I’ve spent time in New Hampshire, most of the people are very nice but there’s a hot bed of loud Trumpsters that can be annoying.
Too many people are ignoring the warning to stay home this holiday to their own detriment and the detriment of family, friends and strangers. STAY HOME, WEAR A MASK AND WASH YOUR HANDS.
Sadly, former New York City Mayor David Dickens died in is home at the age of 93. His wife, Joyce, passed away just last month. She was 89. Mayor Dickens was NYC first, and so far only, Black mayor who served just one tumultuous term that was plagued with a soaring murder rate, stubborn unemployment, rampant homelessness, and his mishandling of a riot in Brooklyn. He was soft spoken and always a gentleman with a penchant for formal wear. He did clean up Time Square, enlisting the Disney Corporation’s help. He raised taxes to hire more police, and spent billions of dollars revitalizing neglected housing. After beating Giuliani by only 47,000 votes out of 1.75m cast in 1989, Dinkins lost a rematch by roughly the same margin in 1993.
I was at Mayor Dickens’s Inauguration and met him and his wife on many occasions during his time in office and after his term. He always kind with a smile and glint in his eye. His face and voice will be missed. May he rest in peace with Joyce. Blessed Be.
Nov 24 2020
Late Night Today
This is a round up of the previous night’s late night talk show host’s opening monologues and highlight segments, because we need a good laugh to get through the rest of the day.
With Stephen Colbert on The Late Show
President Sore Loser Gives Up Opposition To Biden’s Transition After Exhausting Legal Options In PA
After losing his last lawsuit in Pennsylvania and facing calls from Republicans to give up the fight, the president on Monday announced that he would no longer block GSA head Emily Murphy from formally beginning the transfer of executive power to President-elect Biden.
Seth Meyers takes a Closer Look: Trump Disavows Sidney Powell as His Legal Team Embarrasses Itself
Seth takes a closer look at Trump firing one of his lawyers after she claimed the election was rigged as part of a vast conspiracy involving the CIA, the Republican governor of Georgia and the president of Venezuela – who died seven years ago.
It’s day 20 of #Squattergate on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Trump Desperately Tries to Keep Job He Doesn’t Even Do
Day 20 of #Squattergate is upon us, Trump tweeted and golfed his way through the virtual G-20 summit, a new Trump character was introduced and then promptly killed off, Jimmy has another new plan to trick Trump out of the White House, Donald Trump Jr. (DJTJ) tested positive for “The Rona,” Eric Trump’s wife Lara is looking to potentially run for the Senate in North Carolina, despite CDC warnings airports were packed in anticipation of Thanksgiving, we discover Guillermo’s Star Wars obsession after he decorated his front yard for Christmas, and a new high-tech option to celebrate the holidays from home.
On The Late, Late Show with James Cordon
Trump’s Legal Team Is Getting Too Crazy for Trump
James Corden kicks off the show with a bit of breaking news from his head writer, Ian Karmel, who just learned the federal GSA office will officially begin the presidential transition process from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. And Trump had to part ways with one of his lawyers for her conspiracy theories that were even a bit much for the president, who hasn’t shows himself much since the election.
Larry Wilmore has his own show again on the free streaming service Peacock. He mocks the Trump campaign’s failed election lawsuits.
Rudy Giuliani’s voter fraud lawsuits are trying to overload us with disinformation
We’re now 17 days into Election Day and a couple dozen lawsuits into the ongoing legal matter of Rudolph Giuliani v. Reality. Spoiler alert! Reality is kicking Giuliani’s ass.
Nov 24 2020
Pondering the Pundits
Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news media and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt
Paul Krugman: Trump Wars II: The Loser Strikes Back
Trashing the nation on his way out the door.
We all knew that Donald Trump would react badly to defeat. But his refusal to concede, the destructiveness of his temper tantrum and the willingness of almost the entire Republican Party to indulge him have surpassed even pessimists’ expectations.
Even so, it’s very unlikely that Trump will manage to overturn the election results. But he’s doing all he can to wreck America on his way out, in ways large and small. Among other things, his officials are already trying to sabotage the economy, setting the stage for a possible financial crisis on Joe Biden’s watch.
To the uninitiated, the sudden announcement by Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, that he’s terminating support for several emergency lending programs created back in March might not seem like that big a deal. After all, the financial markets aren’t currently in crisis. In fact, defying Trump’s prediction that “your 401(k)s will go to hell” if he were to lose, stocks have risen substantially since Biden’s win.
Furthermore, much of the money allocated to those programs was never actually used. So what’s the problem?
Well, the Federal Reserve, which administers the programs, has objected strenuously — for good reason. You see, the Fed knows a lot about financial crises and what it takes to stop them — and Mnuchin is depriving the nation of tools that could be crucial in the months or years ahead.
Eugene Robinson: Want to understand Biden voters? Here’s your reading list.
From “The Warmth of Other Suns” to Langston Hughes.
Who are they and what drove them to vote in such huge numbers, even during a pandemic? What makes them tick? Is it culture? Tribalism? Race? How did they come to their worldview, and why do they cling to it so passionately? What do they mean for the future of American democracy?
I’m talking about the opaque and inscrutable Joe Biden voter, of course.
After Donald Trump won in 2016, the media and academia embarked on a numbingly comprehensive sociological and anthropological examination of “the Trump voter.” Reporters and researchers swarmed what seemed like every bereft factory town in the industrial Midwest, every hill and hollow of Appalachia, every windswept farming community throughout the Great Plains. I’m pretty sure television crews did, in fact, bring us reports from every single diner in the contiguous United States — at least, those where at least one regular patron wears overalls.
Never mind that nearly 3 million more of us voted against Trump four years ago; no one seemed terribly interested in our inner lives, our hopes and dreams. This time, however, the gap is too big to ignore — Biden, the president-elect, beat Trump by more than 6 million votes and counting. He won back the heartland of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He won Georgia, for heaven’s sake.
Logically, then, we should put aside those dog-eared copies of J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” and subject “the Biden voter” to the same kind of microscopic scrutiny. Venture out of your bubble, Trump supporters, and try to understand how most of America thinks.
Richard L. Hasen: Trump’s Legal Farce Is Having Tragic Results
There is nothing funny about the Republican Party’s multipronged attack on voting rights.
Even as the campaign lawsuits brought by President Trump over the 2020 election enter their death throes, many people continue to worry that Mr. Trump will find three Republican legislatures to magically snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They are concerned that he will pull off an antidemocratic hat trick through maneuvers like delaying recounts in Wisconsin and blocking certification in Michigan to allow these legislatures to submit competing slates of electors to Congress. The goal is to prevent Joe Biden from securing the Electoral College votes he needs on Jan. 6 for Congress to declare him president. [..]
Together, the Trump-related precedents mean that neither state nor federal courts are likely to be able to play a backstop role when Republican state legislatures pass new restrictive voting laws, and that efforts to get around these state legislative efforts are likely to fail as well. Although in theory Congress has the power to override state legislatures with voter-protective legislation for federal elections, it is hard to see any of that getting through the next Congress even if Democrats barely grab control by winning the upcoming pair of Senate runoffs in Georgia.
Mr. Trump has not admitted it, but he lost the 2020 election. His attack on voting rights and the legitimacy of our election system, however, will live far beyond his presidency. At stake is whether this country continues to adhere to the rule of law and to allow elections to be decided by a majority of voters.
Amanda Marcotte: Trump’s on his way out, but leaves a lasting legacy: The right’s open embrace of terrorism
How did the Kenosha shooter post $2 million in bail? Because conservatives are normalizing right-wing terrorism
In any sensible society, Kyle Rittenhouse would be shunned across the political spectrum. [..]
In the past, Rittenhouse would have been largely abandoned, even by right-wingers who might otherwise be generally sympathetic to insecure white men playing dress-up with camo and guns. We’ve seen this pattern from Timothy McVeigh in the 1990s right through the Trump years. Conservatives certainly didn’t embrace Patrick Crusius, the 21-year-old white nationalist accused of murdering 23 people in an El Paso, Texas, Walmart store last year. The mainstream conservative movement often flirts with right-wing extremists, but when the bullets fly or the bombs go off, conservative leaders prefer to pretend that they had nothing to do with the violence.
But Rittenhouse is free now, on $2 million bail, thanks to the conservative leaders who broke this pattern and rallied to the young man’s side. Rittenhouse was aided by Christian websites fundraising for his defense, and according to his lawyer, Lin Wood — who is also involved in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election — assistance was also offered by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell and ’80s-era child actor Ricky Schroder. Schroder even posted a picture of himself celebrating with Rittenhouse, encouraging people to move to social media platforms like Parler that don’t ban people for misinformation or hate speech. (Schroder had his own run-in with the law last year, when he was arrested on domestic violence charges that were later dropped.)
Rittenhouse has Trump to thank for the hero’s treatment he’s getting on the right. Along with undermining the social prohibitions against blatant racism, overt misogyny and openly trying to steal elections, Trump spent the past five years dismantling the taboo against shamelessly encouraging domestic terrorism. Trump’s incitement of violence started shortly after he announced his first presidential campaign, when he fantasized out loud about physical violence against Black Lives Matter protesters in August 2015. He has continued at a steady and intensifying clip over the last five years. By the time Rittenhouse rolled into Kenosha with a gun, Trump had made it safe for conservatives to openly support political violence.
Nov 24 2020
The Breakfast Club (Just Leave)
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Jack Ruby fatally shoots Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas; Charles Darwin publishes theory of evolution; Hijacker known as D.B. Cooper parachutes out of plane with ransom money; Queen’s Freddie Mercury dies.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
Nov 23 2020
Today’s News Rundown
This is brief rundown of the news so you don’t have to watch cable news. It’s just the facts with maybe a little snark.
Update 1 1830 hrs: Finally, the GSA administrator has signed the order to begin the transition and release the funds.
The General Services Administration has informed President-elect Joe Biden that the Trump administration is ready to begin the formal transition process, according to a letter from Administrator Emily Murphy sent Monday afternoon and obtained by CNN.
The letter is the first step the administration has taken to acknowledge President Donald Trump’s defeat, more than two weeks after Biden was declared the winner in the election.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, will step down from that position in the new Congress.
Feinstein’s tenure as the ranking member has been fraught with complaints by Democrats for refusing to challenge Republicans in the committee about President Donald Trump’s recent Supreme Court appointee. Once the hearing had finished, Feinstein thanked committee chair Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), saying, “This has been one of the best Senate hearings I have participated in.” [..]
The 87-year-old California Democrat is one of few on the committee who never attended law school.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) is next in line for the chairmanship.
The infection and death rates of CoVid-19 pandemic continue to climb. At least 843 new coronavirus deaths and 141,034 new cases were reported in the United States on Nov. 22. Over the past week, there has been an average of 171,376 cases per day, an increase of 54 percent from the average two weeks earlier.
A third major drug maker has produced an promising vaccine. Data reveals Oxford AstraZeneca CoVid-19 vaccine has up to 90% efficacy.
California Gov. Newsom has been exposed to the virus and is in quarantine with his family. Gov. Cuomo has announced new restrictions for hot spots in New York City and around the state and he as reactivated the field hospital on Staten Island to ease the burden on increased hospitalizations that are occurring nation wide.
The Guardian has has Live News on the virus which up dates frequently.
It is stiil advised that Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings be cancelled.
In US political news, President-Elect Joe Biden has named his choices for the State Department, Homeland Security, U.N. and his National Security Advisor.
Antony Blinken as secretary of state.
Alejandro Mayorkas as Secretary of Homeland Security.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the UN which will be moved back to a cabinet level position.
Jake Sullivan to NSA.
Avril Haines, a former top CIA official and deputy national security adviser, will be the first woman Director of National Intelligence.
Former chair of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellin to head treasury, the first woman to head that department.
Also, former secretary of state John Kerry will serve as the president-elect’s special envoy to address climate change.
Of course the Republicans in the Senate are already looking to obstruct Pres.-Elect Biden’s choices which is why the runoff in Georgia for the two Senate seats are so critical.
So far the Squatter-in-Chief’s efforts to overturn the elect in the courts has been a huge failure. The Supreme court appears to be ignoring his petition to overturn a lower court decision that allowed the counting of late-arriving mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania. The court could take action at its December 4 conference, which is after Pennsylvania’s November 23 deadline for counties to certify the election.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has granted an expedited hearing on the PA lawsuit that was dismissed by federal Judge Matthew Brann. The Trump Team must submit briefs by 4 PM today, yes, today. Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar was ordered to file her brief on or before Tuesday at 4 p.m. Several Pennsylvania counties and Boockvar asked the Third Circuit for clarification.
Appellees the Allegheny County Board of Elections, Chester County Board of Elections, Montgomery County Board of Elections, and Philadelphia County Board of Elections (the “Appellee Counties”), seek clarification of the Court’s November 23, 2020 Order (Dkt. No. 9), granting the Appellants’ Amended Motion for Emergency Expedited Review to make clear that, under well-established appellate rules, Appellants’ brief must address any bases for their appeal and cannot split appellate issues in sequential briefing or engage in piecemeal litigation. Appellee Secretary Boockvar consents to this Motion for Clarification.
The campaign also said it will seek to delay certification after having said it was NOT seeking to delay certification. This will not go over well with the court. The deadline for PA certification is today November 23.
Also in the Trump PA Circus, this
County officials in Pennsylvania on Monday voted 3-2 on party lines to certify the results of the 2020 election in Luzerne County—a county where President Donald Trump defeated President-elect Joe Biden by more than 20,000 votes. But in a partisan twist that may shed light on the Trump campaign’s larger legal strategy, the two members of the Luzerne County Board of Elections who voted against certification were Republicans, while the three who voted in favor were all Democrats, according to Politico’s Holly Otterbein. [..]
The GOP’s coordinated efforts not to certify the results in a county that Trump won by 22,000 votes was likely part of the Trump campaign’s larger legal strategy to prevent Pennsylvania from certifying election results statewide in hopes that the decision will ultimately be left to the courts instead of the voters.
Biden got 80,000 more votes than Trump did in Pennsylvania.
The Republicans made unsubstantiated allegations about voting irregularities and urged board members not to certify the results.They have until today to sort this out.
Just awhile ago the Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed another of the Trump campaign’s lawsuits
According to Democratic attorney Marc Elias, “Pennsylvania Supreme Court AFFIRMS our 5 victories in Philadelphia and REVERSES our one loss in Allegheny County.”
The suit was attempting to throw out ballots legally cast.
In Nevada, during an election related hearing, a GOP lawyer asked that the judge be tossed from the case because of her Democratic political affiliations. The court recessed so the district’s chief judge could assess the matter.
NBC News has announced Michigan has certified the election for the Biden-Harris team.
Meanwhile, the head of his “crack” team of lawyers, former NYC Mayor Rudi “A Noun, A Verb and 9/11” Giuliani announced on Sunday lawyer Sydney Powell has been fired after just eight days on the job. “Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President,” Giuliani tweeted. Another tweet mocked her dismissal, “Imagine being axed for craziness from a legal team that includes Rudy Giuliani!”
Down in Mar-a-Lago, the Secret Service has started preparing for the squatter’s post White House life.
Renovations to living quarters expected to be occupied by Trump and first lady Melania Trump are underway, ahead of when they’ll be living there full time after the Jan. 20 inauguration, sources familiar with the planning told ABC News.
Sources have described the renovations as “updates” to living quarters, in part because the residence has been used only on a temporary basis. The Mar-a-Lago club also had been opened only seasonally, and it remains unclear how a permanent residency by Donald and Melania Trump could change that.
While Trump will be required to spend at least six months per calendar year in Florida to maintain his residence status, the 74-year-old is expected to spend time at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and in New York, according to the sources, who added that all post-presidency plans remain fluid.
There may be updates throughout the evening as needed.
Nov 23 2020
Pondering the Pundits
“Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news media and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt
Robert Reich: America is being subjected to a stress test – and Republicans are failing
Most elected Republicans are refusing to stand up to Trump. Their cowardice is one of the worst betrayals of public trust in the history of our republic
Financial regulators subject banks to stress tests to see if they have enough capital to withstand sharp downturns.
Now America is being subjected to a stress test to see if it has enough strength to withstand Donald Trump’s treacherous campaign to discredit the 2020 presidential election.
Trump will lose because there’s no evidence of fraud. But the integrity of thousands of people responsible for maintaining American democracy is being tested as never before.
Tragically, most elected Republicans are failing the test by refusing to stand up to Trump. Their cowardice is one of the worst betrayals of public trust in the history of our republic. [..]
That squalor extends down to Republican members of a board of canvassers in Wayne county, Michigan (which includes Detroit) who, after Trump phoned them last week, tried to rescind their approval of ballot counts that went overwhelmingly to Joe Biden. On Friday, Trump invited Michigan’s Republican lawmakers to the White House, hoping to persuade them to ignore the popular vote, too.
American democracy wasn’t designed for this degree of political depravity.
Here’s the good news. The vast majority of officials are passing the stress test, many with distinction.
Amanda Marcotte: Republicans aren’t scared of the Trump & Rudy show — they love this stuff
Republicans aren’t staying quiet because they fear Trump — this clown-car coup has nothing but upside for them
Donald Trump and his, uh, lawyer Rudy Giuliani are moving into the next phase of Trump’s attempted coup, which entertainingly involves Giuliani sweating out the previous day’s martinis into his hair dye while barking incomprehensible conspiracy theories at bewildered reporters.
Unfortunately, the less amusing and more worrisome aspect of the whole ordeal involves Trump’s efforts to lean on Republican-run state legislatures to appoint pro-Trump electors in states where Joe Biden clearly won.
Like most people reading this, I, too, wish I had a crystal ball and could look into the future at Jan. 20, 2021, to see how this all shakes out. In the meantime, the main point of concern is that nearly all Republican politicians are, to one degree or another, supporting Trump’s efforts. [..]
The common theory in the political class is that this silence is borne out of fear of Trump and his tweeting fingers. Former President Barack Obama, who has been blunt in his concerns about the threat Trump represents to our democracy, characterized the GOP’s passive consent to this coup exactly this way.
Richard Wolff: Let’s count the ways Donald Trump has tried to subvert this election, shall we?
Here are some of the most slimy steps down the slippery slope towards The End of America As We Know It
Donald Trump is the kind of populist who hates the people: specifically, the clear majority of the people who voted him out of office.
So he has set about one last gambit – what Dick Cheney liked to call “the last throes” – to steal the election he lost by gumming up the electoral college.
He will fail in his crass attempts to corrupt the election, just as he has failed in his crass lawsuits to challenge the vote counts. Just as he has failed in his entire presidency.
But let’s not brush aside this moment because of its grotesque ineptitude and corruption. It’s not just another Trump tantrum. It may not be a coup, but it is an attempt to destroy American democracy forever.
So let us count the ways this loser of a president has tried to Trumpify America’s elections.
And let us never forget that he did so in cahoots with the formerly Grand Old Party that used to belong to Republicans but now belongs to the Trumpistas.
Here are some of the most slimy steps down the slippery slope towards The End of America As We Know It.
Karen Tumulty: Republican leaders swore an oath to defend the Constitution. That means telling Trump it’s over.
Who in the Republican Party would be capable of doing what their country’s interest calls them to do today?
Where is our Barry Goldwater? Our John Rhodes? Our Hugh Scott?
As President Trump becomes more and more detached from reality, it is past time for him to hear directly from senior members of his own party that he must accept his loss to President-elect Joe Biden and participate in a peaceful transfer of power.
Trump needs to hear this directly, not via a concerned tweet here and there. Republicans cannot deliver the message by cluck-clucking to the media behind a cloak of anonymity. Instead of stepping up to the national interest that beckons, they have indulged the president’s narcissism and abetted Trump in spreading unhinged conspiracy theories that claim the election was stolen.
And what has that done? It has encouraged Trump to become more and more reckless, more and more lawless, to the point where he is putting the arm on Republican officials in Michigan, Georgia and elsewhere to overturn the will of voters in their states.
On Friday, Michigan legislative leaders Mike Shirkey and Lee Chatfield were summoned to the White House. Reports have it that Pennsylvania officials will be next.
It is a subversion of democracy unlike anything we have ever seen. And it demands a response from the president’s own party, on the order of what happened late Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 7, 1974.
Nov 23 2020
An Anthology of Turkey Day Helpful Hints and Recipes
Republished from November 18, 2012 because it’s that time of year again.
Over the last couple of years I’ve shared some of the recipes that I served at the annual Turkey Feast. There have also been diaries about cooking the bird, whether or not to stuff it and suggestions about what to drink that will not conflict with such an eclectic meal of many flavors. It’s not easy to please everyone and, like in my family, there are those who insist on “traditions” like Pumpkin Pie made only from the recipe on the Libby’s Pumpkin Puree can slathered with Ready Whip Whipped Cream. For my son-in-law it isn’t Thanksgiving without the green bean casserole made with Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup. Thank the cats we have a crowd that will eat just about anything on the table that looks pretty. Rather than reprise each recipe, I’ve compiled an anthology of past diaries to help you survive the trauma of Thanksgiving Day and enjoy not just the meal but family and friends.
Health reasons why not to stuff that bird and a recipe with a clever decorative way to serve the dressing.
Suggestions on wine and beer pairings that go with everything including brussel sprouts.
A great substitute for those sticky, over sweet, marshmallow topped tubers that goes well with pork or ham and breakfast.
Hate those gritty, tasteless lima beans in succoatash? I do but this recipe using edamame change my mind
Includes a great recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake that will please even those diehard traditional pumpkin pie lovers.
Any squash can be substituted for pumpkin in this recipe. My daughter is using butternut served with a dollop of cumin flavored sour cream.
Besides making turkey soup or hash with those leftovers and the carcass, there is also some great recipes like the mushroom risotto in this essay.
May everyone have a safe and healthy Thanksgiving.
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