Patterico's Pontifications

11/14/2020

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 12:01 am



[guest post by Dana]

Here are a few news items to chew over. Feel free to share any items that you think might interest readers. Please include links.

First news item

Current status of the Republican Party:

SMDH.

Second news item

Trump claimed this:

PA says no way:

Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State said Friday that she would decline to recount or re-canvass votes cast in the presidential election last week. Kathy Boockvar wrote in a statement that “no statewide candidate was defeated by one-half of one percent or less of the votes cast.”

Thirds news item

Gov. Newsom: Do as I say, not as I do. And whatever you do, ignore that CA is the second state to report 1 million cases of COVID-19:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife attended a dinner party with a dozen attendees from several different households—despite his own administration recommending that people refrain from such gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic. The Nov. 6 dinner for one of his political advisers was held outdoors at Napa Valley’s swanky French Laundry restaurant, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Communications director Nathan Click said that the party “followed public health guidelines and the restaurant’s health protocols—all in line with the state’s rules for restaurant operation.” But, after the Chronicle published its story, Newsom said he shouldn’t have gone. “I should have modeled better behavior and not joined the dinner,” he said.

Third news item

More do as I say, not as I do:

After getting hammered with criticism, the plans were modified:

Fourth news item

Obama followed W’s lead:

“Whether it was because of the respect for the institution, because of lessons learned from his father, bad memories of his own transition or just basic decency, President Bush would end up doing all he could to make the 11 weeks between my election and his departure go smoothly. I promised myself that when the time came I would treat my successor the same way.”

Ensuring a smooth transition was a family affair:

transition

Fifth news item

Pressing on in spite of Trump’s resistance:

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will be briefed by national security experts next week, Biden transition official Jen Psaki said on Friday, amid concerns that being out of the loop due to delays to the transition could be a national security risk.

A handful of Republican senators have urged the Trump administration to allow Biden to receive presidential daily intelligence briefings, which the president-elect traditionally receives before taking office.

Related: Former Chief of Staff to President Trump, John Kelly, weighs in:

“You lose a lot if the transition is delayed because the new people are not allowed to get their head in the game,” Kelly said Friday. “The president, with all due respect, does not have to concede. But it’s about the nation. It hurts our national security because the people who should be getting [up to speed], it’s not a process where you go from zero to 1,000 miles per hour.”

“Mr. Trump doesn’t have to concede if he doesn’t want to, I guess, until the full election process is complete. But there’s nothing wrong with starting the transition, starting to get people like the national security people, obviously the president and the vice president-elect, if they are in fact elected, to start getting them [up to speed] on the intelligence,” he said.

Sixth news item

Contrary to Trump’s dire warnings:

President-elect Joe Biden’s top coronavirus adviser said on Friday there were no plans for a wholesale nationwide lockdown to curb the surging coronavirus as three U.S. West Coast states jointly called for a halt in non-essential travel.

Seventh news item

Trump dreaming out loud:

“We’re going to win Wisconsin,” he began. “Arizona — it’ll be down to 8,000 votes, and if we can do an audit of the millions of votes, we’ll find 8,000 votes easy. If we can do an audit, we’ll be in good shape there.”

“Georgia, we’re going to win,” he continued, “because now, we’re down to about 10,000, 11,000 votes, and we have hand-counting” — a reference to the coming recount. “Hand-counting is the best. To do a spin of the machine doesn’t mean anything. You pick up 10 votes. But when you hand-count — I think we’re going to win Georgia.” He’ll also win North Carolina, Trump joked, “unless they happen to find a lot of votes. I said, ‘When are they going to put in the new votes in North Carolina? When are they going to find a batch from Charlotte?'”

Then there are two more — Michigan and Pennsylvania. “The two big states,” Trump said, before allowing, “They’re all sort of big.” In those two, Trump is pinning his strategy on protesting the exclusion of his campaign’s observers during critical periods of vote-counting. “They wouldn’t let our poll watchers and observers watch or observe,” Trump said. “That’s a big thing. They should throw those votes out that went through during those periods of time when [Trump observers] weren’t there. We went to court, and the judge ordered [the observers] back, but that was after two days, and millions of votes could have gone through. Millions. And we’re down 50,000.”

Eighth news item

In the right place at the right time:

When a bystander collapsed at the Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery Wednesday, a nurse was nearby and rushed to his aid. She happened to be the wife of the nation’s top military officer, Gen. Mark Milley…

“I just saw legs laying there,” said Milley, a practicing nurse.

Milley ran to see if she could help and found the man unresponsive.

“When I first got there, he was breathing in a very erratic way that he wasn’t really taking air into his lungs as he should have been,” she said. “And then he stopped breathing.”

The man had no pulse. Milley said she directed someone to call 911 and started chest compressions. “I did about two cycles of CPR, and then he just took a big, deep breath and kind of groaned a little bit and then started moving around.”

Milley detected his pulse and within a few minutes he began to respond to her questions.

“I put him in a side recovery position and just talked to him and told him what was going on and encouraged him to take deep breaths,” she said.

Ninth news item

LAPD gives LAPD a brusing:

Nearly 9 out of 10 Los Angeles Police Department officers did not feel supported by Chief Michel Moore and did not believe he or other commanders provided strong leadership during recent protests and unrest, according to a summer survey conducted by the officers’ union.

Many officers said Moore should resign, accusing him in comments they submitted with the survey of “cowering” to Black Lives Matter protesters, “pandering” to city politicians and “not having an organized plan” during the unrest, the union said.

Nearly 70% of respondents said the department was unprepared for the protests, which followed the May police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and close to 40% said they were thinking of leaving the force.

However, officers panned the chief for kneeling with protesters — a sign, to them, that he was capitulating to a violent crowd. Many questioned why he did not highlight more of the positives about officers as protests spawned more and more questions about LAPD behavior, the union said.

This:

“After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.”

Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

Have a good weekend.

–Dana

237 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. There is something in the human worship of symbols and signs that makes a “concession”, which is substantively irrelevant though symbolically important, the necessary precondition in people’s minds to providing for a transition of power, which is actually really important to get right.

    Even Trump supporters would probably be willing to admit that there’s a strong chance that Biden will be president. And if so, then it would only be good government to take steps to make that possible transition go smoothly. Call it contingency planning.

    But because Trump is a “winner” if only in his own head, and acknowledging the possibility of defeat is something only losers do, then nope – no concession to be had. Good government? Something only drones and drudges and bureaucrats worry about.

    Trump supporters really give up a lot when they put their faith into a Mad King.

    Victor (4959fb)

  2. After volunteering to make GotV phone calls for Jerry Ford when I was 13 (and shaking his hand at the last rally before he went home to Grand Rapids to vote on Election Day);

    After doing my six-week high school senior project internship in the spring of 1980 at Oakland County Republican headquarters;

    After making the maximum individual primary and general election donation to Dubya in 2004 (and getting interviewed in a local paper as one of the only UC employees to do so);

    After voting straight Republican in every election for 30 years (1984 – 2014)…

    It is impossible for me to imagine ever voting for another Republican again.

    The QAnon Monster Raving Looney Trump Virus Party is a clear and present danger to the republic.

    Dave (1bb933)

  3. For a little non-political entertainment, two amazing shots from the world of sports.

    Fake Football: Danish defender makes an acrobatic bicycle kick that rebounds off the crossbar … right back to him, and a split second later, he makes a second acrobatic kick to put the ball in the net.

    The only sport(*) more boring than Fake Football: On his 26th birthday, during a practice round for the Masters tournament, Spanish golfer Jon Rahm skips his tee shot on the 16th hole across a pond for an unbelievable hole-in-one.

    (*) Auto racing is not a sport.

    Dave (1bb933)

  4. PS With special guest star Marianne Williamson, just for JVW.

    nk (1d9030)

  5. @realDonaldTrump
    ¡
    14h
    700,000 ballots were not allowed to be viewed in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh which means, based on our great Constitution, we win the State of Pennsylvania!

    ARTICLE SMILEY FACE

    IF AN ELECTION’S BALLOTS WEREN’T VIEWED, THE CANDIDATE COMPLAINING FIRST AUTOMATICALLY WINS UNLESS THE OTHER CANDIDATE HAS PLACED HIS HANDS ON A DESIGNATED “BASE” AT WHICH POINT THE LENGTH OF BIRTH CERTIFICATES SHALL BE COMPARED, THE LONGEST BEING DEEMED THE MOST NATURAL OF BORN CITIZENS.

    Dustin (6ec957)

  6. And whatever you do, ignore that CA is the second state to report 1 million cases of COVID-19

    Dana, we have 1/8 of the population of the country, and are 38th in total cases per 100K.

    California has reported 2551 cases per 100K, while the rest of the country’s rate is 3362.

    If the whole country had California’s rate of COVID deaths, almost 100,000 more Americans would still be alive today.

    tldr; scoreboard

    Dave (1bb933)

  7. For thee, not me is everywhere.

    Chicago mayor announced a lockdown, then immediately attended a political rally that broke all the rules.

    Rules are just for little people dontcha know…

    Hoi Polloi (66077a)

  8. The QAnon Monster Raving Looney Trump Virus Party is a clear and present danger to the republic.
    Dave (1bb933) — 11/14/2020 @ 3:27 am

    Trump will be gone soon and QAnon will shrink into nothingness. You will be left with far-left extremists and their arson and riots. What then?

    Hoi Polloi (66077a)

  9. QAnon will shrink into nothingness.

    I hope you’re right. If you are, I think the support for conservatives will grow. If your prediction of far left arson and riots comes true, we will see that in the mid-term election outcome. Remember, AOC’s candidates were also largely repudiated. Lincoln Project’s goal of ruining a bunch of republicans was not successful. Folks want to be safe, after all.

    The best thing to do here is to remember that guys like Dave and me, guys like Whembly and RCOcean, we do pretty much want the same thing and are divided by issues of situational ethics around one particularly bad politician and his movement.

    I know a lot of us are saying we can’t trust the GOP. But we know we can’t trust Team D either.

    The sooner we get past the personalities the sooner we can make elections about issues.

    Dustin (6ec957)

  10. Anybody in the mood for a very topical Pink Floyd tune?

    nk (1d9030)

  11. Obama followed W’s lead

    LOL. So Bush gave them the idea of leveraging the Logan Act during the transition?

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/biden-raised-logan-act-in-oval-office-discussion-about-flynn-peter-strzok-notes-show

    Maybe Trump should follow that lead too.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/will-ben-rhodes-biden-get-the-mike-flynn-treatment
    Just four years after the Obama administration authorized the secret surveillance of Michael Flynn for his communications with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Ben Rhodes has boasted that Joe Biden is already talking to foreign leaders while another president rules the White House.

    “Foreign leaders are already having phone calls with Joe Biden, talking about the agenda they’re going to pursue on Jan. 20. If that reality hasn’t sunk in yet for some people in the White House, it will sink in when they have to leave on Jan. 20. And they’re going to be in for a rude awakening here.”

    Stop the presses — isn’t Rhodes confessing that his (likely) future boss is committing the same supposed violation of the Logan Act that they claimed Flynn did, in order to justify further spying on the Trump campaign?

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  12. Even Trump supporters would probably be willing to admit that there’s a strong chance that Biden will be president. And if so, then it would only be good government to take steps to make that possible transition go smoothly.

    If only we had a decent example to follow in the past ten years. Any suggestions?

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  13. Flynn was a special case, BnP. Every patriot in the know had those concerns. Biden wasn’t hurting Trump. He was obviously helping him.

    This is actually a good example of how important a smooth transition is. Obviously Obama and Bush didn’t agree on a lot of stuff, but Bush’s first year saw tremendous intel failures right after the worst transition in modern history. Think about the stakes. Think about what Russia’s doing near our borders today. Think about Iran. Shouldn’t Trump let Biden’s pros get started understanding what’s going on? That might mean many American lives.

    Get past the personal aspect of this. The election is over.

    Dustin (6ec957)

  14. #13 Apparently Bush did a good job for Obama. If you have an example of Obama making things purposely difficult for the Trump transition team, do tell. I mean they did put together briefings regarding the threat of a global pandemic, but perhaps they should have made the briefings more entertaining?

    Victor (4959fb)

  15. When the job calls for howling lunacy, you hire … https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/14/giuliani-trump-legal-plans-436475

    nk (1d9030)

  16. So if Trump is responsible for all the Covid-19 deaths so far, is Biden going to be responsible for all the Covid-19 deaths after the vaccine is approved and he sends it to other countries before giving it to our general public?

    As to the election. I do believe there was fraud, on some level I believe there is fraud in every election. To say there was absolutely NO fraud whatsoever is ridiculous. It happened. To the degree that it would change the results? I don’t think so. What was on great display was a huge bureaucratic mess of great proportions in large Democrat run cities and counties. To have that degree of ineptitude is not acceptable and states need to do better on every level.

    Despite all this Trump does have the right to contest and go through the courts. It will run it’s course as it did with Gore.

    The sooner we get past the personalities the sooner we can make elections about issues.
    Dustin (6ec957)

    Yes. This has been way too much about Trump and not about policies. I see Biden policies as extremely damaging. Already I have had two family members receive notices of work cutbacks and layoffs due to the threat of the Paris Treaty and the attack on fossil fuels. The talk of a shut down has one family member in fear of losing their house as they will definitely be out of work. For all the talk of getting back in to the WHO’s good graces the Biden team ought to see that shut-downs hurt more than they help as noticed by the WHO and many other countries. Our family was impacted by a suicide due to the last shut down. I also shudder at the words of one of Bidens Covid advisors saying we would use “personal savings” to pay for Covid relief. This was from August but just as valid today as he still is advocating a lockdown, even more strict, Australian style.

    We need a shutdown

    I said several times on this site in the past year that we should watch because the government would find a way to take our 401k’s and savings…. looks like this guy wants to do just that. I can see an order that our savings would be replaced by worthless government bonds.

    Typically when the government runs deficits, it must rely on foreign investors to buy the debt because Americans aren’t generating enough savings to fund it. But we can finance the added deficits for Covid-19 relief from our own domestic savings. Those savings end up funding investment in the economy.

    What I don’t get is how people don’t understand how lockdowns hurt the poorest of poor. Those who work labor jobs, those that can’t work from home. But the policy makers are able to work behind a computer in their living rooms and can’t relate to someone out doing physical labor for the most part. For a party that screams about white privilege they certainly don’t understand that being able to work from home is a privilege and not everyone has the ability to do that. AND not everyone wants to be supported by the government, they prefer to earn their own and make their own, on their own. I’d love to see one of these folks have a pipe break and have the plumber come fix it virtually. Then maybe it would sink in.

    Marci (405d43)

  17. “I proudly told my freshman class that masks are oppressive I’m a moron.”
    There, fixed that for Ms. Greene.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  18. 18,

    To be clear about Dr. Osterholm, Biden’s advisor, talking lockdown:

    In an interview with NBC News on Thursday, Osterholm clarified his comments, saying “it was not a recommendation. I have never made this recommendation to Biden’s group. We’ve never talked about it.”

    “My only point was if we are going to keep making restrictions state-by-state, there is no compensation for the businesses that are being impacted,” he added. “What we’re doing right now is not working.”

    A Biden transition official told NBC News that a shutdown “is not in line with the president-elect’s thinking.”

    Dana (6995e0)

  19. The problem with the Majorie Taylor Green-types in Congress, or in positions of power within the GOP, is that it will continue to tarnish the reputation of the GOP, which Trump has already done. It will also cause the Party to lose viability. As long as the Republican Party is tied to Trump in any way, the Party will remain weakened, and eventually become ineffectual, depending on the extent of the Q’anon-types in its leadership ranks. I think that our nation at large will be weakened without a robust, cohesive, and reasonable platform to represent right-leaning voters. Moreover, the Democratic Party needs to continually rub up against tough opposition. Not craziness. That just makes their job all the easier.

    Dana (6995e0)

  20. Moreover, the Democratic Party needs to continually rub up against tough opposition. Not craziness. That just makes their job all the easier.

    Hey, are those windows still boarded up?

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  21. Flynn was a special case, BnP.

    So was Carter “Russian Asset” Page.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  22. So was Carter “Russian Asset” Page.

    Indeed!

    Russian Spies Tried to Recruit Carter Page Before He Advised Trump

    Russian intelligence operatives tried in 2013 to recruit an American businessman and eventual foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign who is now part of the F.B.I. investigation into Russia’s interference into the American election, according to federal court documents and a statement issued by the businessman.

    The businessman, Carter Page, met with one of three Russians who were eventually charged with being undeclared officers with Russia’s foreign intelligence service, known as the S.V.R. The F.B.I. interviewed Mr. Page in 2013 as part of an investigation into the spy ring, but decided that he had not known the man was a spy, and the bureau never accused Mr. Page of wrongdoing.

    The court documents say that Mr. Page, who founded an investment company in New York called Global Energy Capital, provided documents about the energy business to one of the Russians, Victor Podobnyy, thinking he was a businessman who could help with brokering deals in Russia.

    In fact, Mr. Podobnyy was an S.V.R. officer posing as an attachĂŠ at the Russian mission to the United Nations.

    […]

    According to the court documents filed in 2015, the F.B.I. secretly recorded Mr. Podobnyy and another Russian operative named Igor Sporyshev discussing efforts to recruit Mr. Page, who was then working in New York as a consultant.

    To record their conversations, the F.B.I. inserted a listening device into binders that were passed to the Russian intelligence operatives during an energy conference, according to a former United States intelligence official. The Russians then took the binders into a secure room where they thought they could evade American intelligence eavesdropping attempts.

    In a transcript of the conversation included in the court documents, Mr. Podobnyy tells his Russian colleague that Mr. Page frequently flies to Moscow and is interested in earning large sums of money. Mr. Page was apparently interested in striking a deal with Gazprom, the Russian state-run oil firm, according to the transcript. Mr. Podobnyy called Mr. Page an “idiot” but said he was enthusiastic.

    Russian intelligence officers had been given the task of gathering information on potential United States sanctions against their country, according to the F.B.I., and the three men were focused on economic issues in particular. The third Russian spy, Evgeny Buryakov, posed as an employee of a Russian bank. Mr. Sporyshev worked as a trade representative of the Russian Federation in New York.

    Mr. Podobnyy promised through his contacts with Russian trade officials to steer contracts to Mr. Page.

    “I will feed him empty promises,” he was overheard saying, according to the transcript.

    Dave (1bb933)

  23. @24: Amazing what metamorphosis happens when people are under oath, eh Dave?

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (22:59)
    If he knew then what you know now, would you have signed the warrant application in June of 2017 against Carter Page?

    Andrew McCabe: (23:08)
    No, sir.

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (23:09)
    Okay. Finally, who is responsible for ruining Mr. Carter Page’s life? If it’s not you, if not Rosenstein, if it’s not Comey, if it’s not Sally Yates, who’s responsible for putting together the information provided to the FISA court that was completely devoid of the truth, lacking material facts, completely represented what Mr. Page did and how he did it, who we look to for that responsibility?

    Andrew McCabe: (23:50)
    Well, sir, I don’t agree with the way that you’ve characterized the entirety of the-

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (23:55)
    That’s what the court said.

    Andrew McCabe: (23:59)
    I think as the IG pointed out in the conclusions of their report, that-

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (24:10)
    Everybody’s responsible, but nobody’s responsible?

    Andrew McCabe: (24:12)
    Sir, it would help if you’d allow me to finish my answer. I think it might be easier to understand. I think that we all are-

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (24:17)
    Okay. The question is who’s responsible?

    Andrew McCabe: (24:20)
    And I think that we are all responsible for the work that went into that FISA. I am certainly responsible as a person in a leadership position with oversight over these matters. I accept that responsibility fully. I cannot-

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (24:35)
    Did you mislead the FISA court?

    Andrew McCabe: (24:39)
    I signed a package that included numerous factual errors or failed to include information that should have been brought to the court.

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (24:49)
    And what should be done? What should be done to you and others?

    Andrew McCabe: (24:55)
    Well, Senator, I think we are doing that with this process. I think our efforts should be focused on figuring out how these errors took place and ensuring that they don’t happen again.

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (25:07)
    That starts with those who committed the problem being held accountable.

    https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/former-fbi-deputy-director-andrew-mccabe-testimony-on-russia-probe-transcript/amp

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  24. You know we’re never going to be rid of Trump, right? As much as the media complains how much they hate him, what would they have to talk about if it weren’t for Trump? Biden is going to be soooo boring, he’s not going to be selling outrage. Long after Trump leaves office, every tweet he tweets is still going to be headline news. The media needs Trump, nothing and nobody can replace him.

    And the idea that Trump is going to attempt to hang on to power after the votes are certified by the states is ludicrous, he’s a simpleton who couldn’t possibly pull off such a plan. Look at how easily the DoD tricked him into believing they were actually ending the war in Afghanistan and pulling down troops in Syria and elsewhere! Which is of course how it should be, if your boss gives you orders you don’t agree with, you should feel free to ignore him and disobey those orders, that’s how the Rule of Law operates. I for one can’t wait for Biden to order more troops into Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria, fully refund the Palestinians, put a stop to these peace agreements with Israel, end our energy independence so that we become more dependent on the Middle East for our oil and thereby justify our meddling there – there’s just so much money to be made selling arms to various terrorist groups and the governments they’re fighting, bombing the hell out of foreign countries and then letting contracts for re-building the countries we just got done bombing, plus all the foreign aid we can pay out in the form of bribes to get various groups to carry out contradictory objectives….so much money to be made selling war that that idiot Trump has just left on the table!

    Jerryskids (999ce8)

  25. The next handful of sh*t being thrown on the wall of democracy, hoping for something to stick: Scytl, revealed by none other than that idiot Congressman from Texas, Louis Gohmert.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  26. I think this one is even more relevant as we try to end this grim era of demonization, Mr. nk.

    (But it has yours at the end too…)

    Dave (1bb933)

  27. So if Trump is responsible for all the Covid-19 deaths so far…

    No, just most of them since Memorial Day. Xi and Chinese Communist Party brought it here, but Trump mismanaged if from there. The US is now 8th worst on earth in cases per million and deaths per million, not counting countries with fewer than a million people.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  28. Trump will be gone soon and QAnon will shrink into nothingness.

    Nice crystal ball you’ve got there. The evidence that Trump will be going away anytime soon is …?

    You will be left with far-left extremists and their arson and riots.

    So we need Trump to prevent the riots that happened while Trump was in charge?

    We could get the police to stop murdering people in their custody. We could give protesters hope that their legitimate concerns are taken seriously, instead of retweeting “White Power!” videos and extolling the virtues of torch-carrying neo-nazis.

    What then?

    I’ll worry about what to do when the Republican Party ceases to be a Trump personality cult if and when it happens. Frankly I doubt I’ll live to see it.

    Dave (1bb933)

  29. Amazing what metamorphosis happens when people are under oath, eh Dave?

    I realize that the idea of a public official honestly acknowledging a mistake is inconceivable in TrumpWorld, but he’s talking about the last FISA warrant, not the first three.

    And the IG found that all of them were adequately, if imperfectly, predicated.

    Dave (1bb933)

  30. That Scytl story is next-level insane.

    A Congressman is claiming that “a large US Army force” raided a data center in Frankfurt, Germany and seized computers that supposedly stole votes from Trump.

    Apparently the only thing these people won’t believe is the truth…

    Dave (1bb933)

  31. The first claim concerning this alleged military operation on the sovereign territory of an ally was posted in the early morning hours of November 8, almost a week ago. And the rumor is only now seeping out of the fever swamps.

    But Gateway Pundit’s “intelligence source” has confirmed it, so I’m kinda nervous guys…

    /sarc

    Dave (1bb933)

  32. A Congressman is claiming that “a large US Army force” raided a data center in Frankfurt, Germany and seized computers that supposedly stole votes from Trump.

    Laugh all you want, but nobody has accounted for Chuck Norris’s whereabouts during the period in question, have they?

    JVW (ee64e4)

  33. JVW,

    Those conditions sound like the perfect petri-dish for Covid goo to spread. I don’t understand why masks are randomly used, and why there is no enforcement for them to be on at all times. Nor is it clear why there isn’t enough disinfectant/soap for body and clothes available. Frankly, although the writer of the piece opined that Loughlin would be traumatized long-term by the isolation she is facing, it sounds like being quarantined with a small number of inmates is better than being exposed to a larger number of inmates. Both for Covid reasons and just in general.

    Dana (6995e0)

  34. Even at 80, I’m sure Norris could kick some kraut ass on those data center nerds.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  35. Moreover, the Democratic Party needs to continually rub up against tough opposition. Not craziness. That just makes their job all the easier.

    Hey, are those windows still boarded up?

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67) — 11/14/2020 @ 8:56 am

    Which has nothing to do with the point that, if the Republican Party doesn’t get its sh*t together soon, and remake itself into something to be taken seriously-that means extricating itself from all things Trump/Q’anon/general nuttery – then the job of the Democrats is made all the much easier.

    Dana (6995e0)

  36. Those conditions sound like the perfect petri-dish for Covid goo to spread.

    I just find it funny how we’re emptying the prisons of drunk drivers, smash-and-grab thieves, and fiends who have committed fraud on the elderly because we are allegedly so worried about the spread in COVID among the incarcerated, but this Hollywood woman — who, and I can’t emphasize this enough, is far too attractive to have been prosecuted in the first place — has to sit in the COVID cell because she figured out a sneaky way to get her kid into USC.

    Bill Clinton would have pardoned her yesterday. What the hell is President Trump waiting for?

    JVW (ee64e4)

  37. From another thread, but it belongs here. So “apologies” for a ‘double post.’

    51 years ago this weekend [Saturday] NASA launch Apollo 12 with Pete Conrad, Al Bean and Dick Gordon aboard on America’s second mission to land men on the moon. Struck by lightning at launch, the crew managed a pinpoint lunar landing in the Ocean of Storms, a safe return to Earth and made a legend out of flight controller John Aaron.

    Half a century or so later, by coincidence, this weekend as well [likely Sunday,] if the weather holds, SpaceX, in conjunction w/NASA, will launch the first ‘operational’ Dragon spacecraft, ferrying a crew of four astronauts– three Americans and a Japanese– to the International Space Station for a six month stay. It will mark a milestone in low Earth orbit [LEO] commercial spaceflight operations for the United States — and for humankind. And it begins to fulfill one of the many rich prophecies made by Arthur C. Clarke 50 years ago.

    In the epilogue to a book released in the summer of 1970, titled, “First on the Moon: A Voyage with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr.,’ the prescient Clarke predicted multiple paths to the future, now in the process of fulfillment; the business and industrialization of LEO space being one of them, noting:

    ‘whenever new territory has become available to mankind, it has sooner or later been developed, colonized, or otherwise exploited; there are no exceptions to this rule, if a sufficiently long time scale is adopted. From discovery to full exploitation, however may take anything from a century to several hundred thousand years.’

    Half a century isn’t too shabby a start.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBnvkTsz4Sw

    And yes, that’s The Big Dick himself attending the Saturn V launch– first time a U.S. president did so.

    “Flight, EECOM. Try SCE to Aux.” – John Aaron 11/14/1969

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  38. Even at 80, I’m sure Norris could kick some kraut ass on those data center nerds.

    If we start hearing reports in the German press of high-security steel doors which have been spin-kicked open, we’ll know that the reports are indeed true.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  39. So if Trump is responsible for all the Covid-19 deaths so far, is Biden going to be responsible for all the Covid-19 deaths after the vaccine is approved and he sends it to other countries before giving it to our general public?

    This is a concern I have: will the U.S. choose to send a supply of vaccine to other nations before every American who wants the vaccine has the opportunity to get it? Will Americans be given sufficient supply before we generously offer to other countries?

    Oncologist Dr. Zeke Emanuel, one of 10 advisory board members named to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus task force, has pushed the U.S. and other countries to not hoard a coronavirus vaccine.

    Emanuel, co-uthored a paper in September in which he encouraged officials to follow the “Fair Priority Model,” which calls for a “fair international distribution of vaccine,” rather than what he and his co-authors characterized as “vaccine nationalism.”

    The model allows the country that produces the vaccine to hold onto enough of a supply to reach a threshold for herd immunity (“Rt below 1″). Beyond that, the model supports distributing the vaccine internationally, which means giving away or selling doses of the vaccine before it’s available to every citizen in that country, Emanuel explained to Scientific American.

    “Reasonable national partiality does not permit retaining more vaccine than the amount needed to keep the rate of transmission (Rt) below 1, when that vaccine could instead mitigate substantial COVID-19–related harms in other countries that have been unable to keep Rt below 1 through ongoing public-health efforts,” the Science magazine article titled “An ethical framework for global vaccine allocation” argues.

    “Associative ties only justify a government’s giving some priority to its own citizens, not absolute priority,” Emanuel wrote with his co-authors.

    The Trump administration had said that the U.S. will share any coronavirus vaccine it develops with other countries after American needs are met and that the U.S. will not coordinate with the World Health Organization (WHO) on distribution.

    “Our first priority of course is to develop and produce enough quantity of safe and effective FDA-approved vaccines and therapeutics for use in the United States,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said during an August visit to Taiwan.

    “But we anticipate having capacity that, once those needs are satisfied, those products would be available in the world community according to fair and equitable distributions that we would consult in the international community on,” Azar said.

    Emanuel and his co-authors argued against a proposal by the WHO to distribute vaccines globally at a rate proportional to each country’s population, and dismissed the belief that high death toll could be avoided by providing vaccines to countries based on “the number of frontline health care workers, the proportion of population over 65, and the number of people with comorbidities.”

    Dana (6995e0)

  40. What I don’t get is how people don’t understand how lockdowns hurt the poorest of poor. Those who work labor jobs, those that can’t work from home. But the policy makers are able to work behind a computer in their living rooms and can’t relate to someone out doing physical labor for the most part. For a party that screams about white privilege they certainly don’t understand that being able to work from home is a privilege and not everyone has the ability to do that. AND not everyone wants to be supported by the government, they prefer to earn their own and make their own, on their own. I’d love to see one of these folks have a pipe break and have the plumber come fix it virtually. Then maybe it would sink in.

    I think this aptly describes the tension between protecting public health and the need keep the economy running (via people working). And yes, it does hurt the manual laborers more. Although, where I live, they are still working. Given that we are still seeing serious upticks in cases, the issue of transmission rates remains. If bars were closed, and Americans simply followed protocols of mask-wearing, social distancing, and hand-washing, I suspect the virus spread would decrease substantially. But following even the simplest health protocols are a bridge too far for too many Americans.

    Dana (6995e0)

  41. We just had a “rigged election” that was simultaneously the most secure election ever, according to our president.

    For years the Dems have been preaching how unsafe and rigged our elections have been. Now they are saying what a wonderful job the Trump Administration did in making 2020 the most secure election ever. Actually this is true, except for what the Democrats did. Rigged Election!

    That’s genius-level thinking right there.

    Radegunda (0a00f2)

  42. And the IG found that all of them were adequately, if imperfectly, predicated.
    Dave (1bb933) — 11/14/2020 @ 9:49 am

    So we had four FISA warrants for Page…yet no crimes found, no indictment.

    One could say that Page was exactly what we thought he was, a CIA source and not a Russian asset.

    Of course, we still have the Pee Dossier from Christopher Steele that says otherwise…

    Hoi Polloi (66077a)

  43. So we had four FISA warrants for Page…yet no crimes found, no indictment.

    Mr. Clinesmith would be surprised to hear that.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  44. So we had four FISA warrants for Page…yet no crimes found, no indictment.

    That damned FBI isn’t very good at railroading innocent people, is it?

    One could say that Page was exactly what we thought he was, a CIA source and not a Russian asset.

    Being a CIA source has little relevance to whether he was a Russian asset. CIA affiliates – including very high-ranking ones – have been recruited by them.

    Of course, we still have the Pee Dossier from Christopher Steele that says otherwise…

    The initial impetus for investigating Page was not the Steele Dossier (which says he spoke and met with Russians who he did, in fact, speak and meet with). Crossfire Hurricane was launched in response to a report from a friendly foreign government’s diplomat:

    the FBI opened Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016 , just days after its receipt of information from a Friendly Foreign Government (FFG) reporting that, in May 2016 , during a meeting with the FFG , then Trump campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos “suggested the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from Russia that it could assist this process with the anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to Mrs . Clinton ( and President Obama).”

    In August, the FBI opened investigations in Papadopoulos, Page, Manafort and Flynn. No surveillance warrants against any of the four were initially sought. Six weeks later, based in part on information from Steele, they decided to request a warrant on Page, who was no longer affiliated with Trump’s campaign. They never requested warrants on the other three, who were still affiliated with Trump.

    The delay in requesting surveillance on Page, and the decision not to surveil other Trump lackeys (who, if they were looking to gather compromising information on the campaign, would have been far more attractive targets), demonstrates that the FBI was acting in good faith and targeting their intrusive measures based on reasonable suspicion. If the FBI already had all relevant information, such that they could make decisions with perfect knowledge, they wouldn’t have needed warrants. FISA warrants are tools for gathering information about possible crimes, not sanctions for crimes already known to have taken place.

    Dave (1bb933)

  45. Embrace the corruption!

    Convicted perjurer and witness tamperer Roger Stone, who was pardoned by Trump a few months ago, is running Trump’s election-stealing disinformation campaign.

    It is an internet battle cry: Stop the Steal has swept across inboxes, Facebook pages and Twitter like an out-of-control virus, spreading misinformation and violent rhetoric — and spilling into real life, like the protest planned for DC this weekend.

    But while Stop the Steal may sound like a new 2020 political slogan to many, it did not emerge organically over widespread concerns about voting fraud in President Donald Trump’s race against Joe Biden. It has been in the works for years.
    Its origin traces to Roger Stone, a veteran Republican operative and self-described “dirty trickster” whose 40-month prison sentence for seven felonies was cut short by Trump’s commutation in July.

    Dave (1bb933)

  46. President-reject Trump waves to his cultists in Washington!

    The president’s backers, who include white nationalists, conspiracy theorists and far-right activists from across the country, carried Trump flags and signs demanding action that was already being taken: “Count the legal votes.”

    One man, dressed in camouflage and a red “MAGA” hat, waved an American flag attached to a baseball bat. After a week in which more than 750,000 Americans were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, almost none of the Trump supporters was wearing masks.

    On a day when the president’s supporters touted a vast array of falsehoods, his spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, offered perhaps the most ludicrous.

    “More than one MILLION marchers for President @realDonaldTrump descend on the swamp in support,” she tweeted, exaggerating the crowd size by a factor of about 200.

    Among the protesters were members of the Proud Boys, an extremist group known for their black and yellow colors and endorsements of violence. Some wore flak jackets and helmets. “Stand Back, Stand By,” read some of their shirts, referencing the president’s directive to them at a September debate.

    By early Saturday afternoon, as conservative speakers at Freedom Plaza derided the news media, including Fox News, the Proud Boys marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, leading hundreds in chants of “f— antifa” and shouting down stray opponents who yelled “Black lives matter.”

    But there was ProtestWarrior style Resistance hooliganism, too, Comrades!

    Marching with them was D.C. resident Justin Anthony, who waved a satirical sign that read, “Sue anyone who did not vote for this great American.”

    He led chants to the tune of “Count only Trump votes” and danced around in a large mock police uniform with the name “Officer Pudge” on its badge.

    Almost no one got it, he said. They joined in, asked for pictures, cheered.

    “It’s crazy,” he said. “Like, they really don’t see how insane this is.”

    LOL.

    Dave (1bb933)

  47. It will be interesting to see post Jan 20th, how the GOP organizes and what message it brings to the country? Who emerges as its leading voices and does Trump stay “active”? What will be the Party’s priorities….will it be more wall talk….more trade wars…..more Hunter Biden….or will we see something new…and more edifying?

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  48. @31: “I realize that the idea of a public official honestly acknowledging a mistake is inconceivable in TrumpWorld”

    “Mistake.” LOL. “Viva le resistance.” Oddly enough (h/t James Taranto), all those “mistakes” cut in one direction. What are the odds!

    “Mistake”:

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (17:45)
    No, that’s not my question. No. My question is why did the FBI not open up an investigation based on the CIA input? The CIA is telling the FBI that they have information that Hillary Clinton signed off a plan to deflect attention from her and put Trump in a bad light regarding Russia. That came in September 2016. You didn’t know about it apparently. Can you explain to this committee and the American people why the FBI did nothing regarding that allegation?

    Andrew McCabe: (18:16)
    I cannot, sir, explained to you what Peter Strzok or anyone else thought about that at the time. But I can explain to you that the information in that memo-

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (18:27)
    I accept that you believe that Mr. Papadopoulos should be looked at. I’m not arguing with you. I don’t understand how you can tell … how the FBI operated. You’ve got a tip from a Australian ambassador of the United Kingdom talking about a bar conversation with Mr. Papadopoulos about Russia hacking and that leads to two and a half years of turning the country upside down. Your own CIA informs the FBI in September that they have information that Hillary Clinton herself signed off on a plan to divert attention from her email problems to Trump by linking him to Russia for political purposes. And Mr. Strzok never told you about it. The FBI never opened up an investigation. They never hired one agent. That really is disturbing to a lot of us.

    “Mistake”:

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (19:32)
    Okay. Did you know at the time that the CIA had warned the FBI on numerous occasions to be careful using the dossier, it was internet rumor?

    Andrew McCabe: (19:47)
    I did not know that at the time and I don’t know that now.

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (19:50)
    Okay. Well, we got a list of, let’s see, a list of CIA informs the FBI that Carter Page had been approved as an operational contact from 2008 to 2013. Did you know that the CIA had told the FBI that in August of 2017?

    Andrew McCabe: (20:11)
    No, sir.

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (20:13)
    The reason that’s important that would explain what Mr. Page was actually talking to people he claimed to be talking with.

    “Mistake”:

    Did you have a conversation with Mr. Orr about the reliability of Christopher Steele?

    Andrew McCabe: (20:30)
    I had a conversation in October of 2016, about with Mr. Orr about his interactions with Mr. Steele.

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (20:43)
    Did he tell you should be concerned and be careful?

    Andrew McCabe: (20:47)
    I don’t remember him saying I should be concerned or be careful, no.

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (20:51)
    In the fall of 2016, this is his testimony to the committee. You put Mr. McCabe on notice. Hey, you need to watch this. You need to verify. I certainly gave him the same caveats, and the caveats were that Steele hated Trump. Yes, your concerns. Yes. What did he say when you told him that you were concerned about … You need to be careful, for lack of a better term? I think he understood because he also worked on Russia criminal matters. So we have Mr. Orr under oath saying that he expressed concerns to you, Strzok, and others about the reliability of Mr. Steele. You don’t remember that?

    Andrew McCabe: (21:29)
    Senator, I don’t remember the specifics of our conversation. However, we were engaged in trying to determine and verify the statements in Mr. Steele’s reporting at that time. So we were certainly concerned about those things.

    “Mistake”:

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (21:44)
    Were you aware of the subsource interview in January and March to the FBI?

    Andrew McCabe: (21:51)
    I was aware that an individual who our team thought of as one of the primary subsources had been identified and that they were interviewing-

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (22:00)
    Did they tell you about the substance of those interviews?

    Andrew McCabe: (22:04)
    Not in detail.

    Senator Lindsay Graham: (22:06)
    So, you didn’t know that in January the subsource tells the FBI, he had no idea where some of the language attribute to him came from. His contacts never mentioned some of the information attributed to him. He said he did not know the origins of other information that was supposedly from his contacts. He did not recall other information attributed to him or his contacts. Still used incorrect source characterizations for the primary subsource’s contacts. Still used incorrect source characterizations for the primary subsource’s contacts. That in March he said he never expected Steele to put his statements in reports or present them as facts. The statements were word of mouth and hearsay conversations had with friends over beers or statements made in jest that should be taken with a grain of salt. Was any of that ever communicated to you?

    Andrew McCabe: (22:57)
    No, sir, not that I can recall.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  49. self-described “dirty trickster”

    Obviously we needed a dirty trickster to snoop out all the dirty tricks the other side is doing — just as we needed someone with a history of trying to buy personal favors from politicians to clean up the system where rich people can buy favors from politicians.

    Radegunda (0a00f2)

  50. “It’s crazy,” he said. “Like, they really don’t see how insane this is.”

    They also don’t see how insane many of their hero’s tweets and other public statements are.

    Radegunda (0a00f2)

  51. @52: Unfortunately, you’ll have to settle on one 2024 candidate. How long they align with your purity tests might be measured in days if not minutes. But, when actually winning elections is way down on the list of priorities, who cares.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  52. How long they align with your purity tests

    I don’t have any purity test. There has been only one GOP presidential candidate in my voting life whom I could not in good conscience vote for. There has been only one incumbent who is regarded as temperamentally, intellectually, ethically unfit by substantial numbers of people who have worked with him in the White House — some of whom have put their own personal safety at risk to say so.

    My “test” is that the president not be a sociopath who views everything first and foremost through the lens of ego and self-interest and who frequently makes insane public statements, requiring his underlings to clarify that what he said is not really the operative policy, and who peddles conspiracy theories and blocks a smooth transition rather than admit that a clear majority of voters want him out.

    Radegunda (0a00f2)

  53. How long they align with your purity tests

    Back in 2015-16, Trumpers were labeling nearly every other elected Republican or candidate a RINO, and saying that only Donald Trump could and would restore true constitutional conservatism. Only Donald Trump would be immune to corruption. Only Trump would act from the purest patriotic motives.

    Now, everyone who isn’t 100% obeisant to Trump is a RINO — and/or is applying a silly “purity test” by asking for a modicum of integrity (and mental stability) rather than realizing that the only thing that matters is winning elections.

    Radegunda (0a00f2)

  54. It’ll all come down to Georgia. Who knew the Alamo was set in a red-clayed-peanut-field east of Plains.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  55. Dismiss the dismissive; ignore 71-plus million American voters at your own risk.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  56. It’ll all come down to Georgia. Who knew the Alamo was set in a red-clayed-peanut-field east of Plains.

    Only 1 of 3 of Netflix’s southern dramas – Teenage Bounty Hunters (set in ATL), Outer Banks, and Sweet Magnolias (SC) accomplished their intended purpose.

    urbanleftbehind (cd860e)

  57. Russian Media Is Angry and Desperate Over Biden Win
    …….
    Pro-Kremlin news anchors, pundits and experts have long dreaded former Vice President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, having described it as “the worst scenario for Russia.” As their nightmare became an inevitable reality, Russian state television shows were permeated with angry faces and raw emotions.

    “Nothing will ever be the same… What are we witnessing? What is the world coming to? Not only this country, but the world?” mournfully asked Evgeny Popov, the host of Russian state media show 60 Minutes. Panelists in the studio grimly outlined the bevy of consequences Biden’s presidency may mean for the Kremlin.

    Lawmaker Leonid Kalashnikov, who admittedly celebrated Trump’s victory in 2016, said: “Unfortunately, Trump lost.” Pontificating about what Biden’s presidency will mean for Russia, Kalashnikov surmised: “Understandably, I have nothing to be happy about… All of us should be thinking: ‘What is Russia supposed to do now?’ Get ready to be disconnected from SWIFT [international banking payment system]? That Europe will line up along with their sanctions?” He warned fellow Russians about the wave of incoming consequences: “Trump lost, so it’s time to get ready … They will start fighting against us like they do in the Middle East.”
    ……
    “This whole time, we’ve been living with an illusion that Trump is ours,” noted political scientist Ilya Graschenkov. Host Evgeny Popov corrected him: “Trump IS ours, but couldn’t lift anti-Russian sanctions because of the legislation signed into law by Democrats.” Visibly irritated by the lack of deliverables from the Trump administration, combined with the surety of additional punitive measures anticipated from the incoming president, Popov exclaimed: “We spit on them both!”
    ……..
    In his interview with radio station Echo Moskvy, politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky—who famously celebrated Trump’s 2016 election by throwing a champagne party in Russia’s parliament—bitterly complained: “Trump didn’t do anything good for us … In his election campaign, he promised to improve [relations], but in reality he did nothing, he didn’t even come here. All U.S. presidents came to Russia and invited our president to their place in Washington, everyone except him. Donald Trump did not come to Moscow and never invited our president to Washington. Therefore, all we are left with are bad memories.”

    Discussing U.S. elections on 60 Minutes, co-host Olga Skabeeva pointed out: “The last time we interfered, but not this time around.” Writer Zakhar Prilepin noted that Trump should have been a better friend to Putin and Skabeeva enthusiastically agreed: “Then we would have saved him. Everything would have been fine.”
    ………
    ……… Appearing on a radio show Soloviev Live, Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of state-funded propaganda networks, RT and Sputnik, disingenuously argued that the U.S. president’s unsubstantiated claims of election fraud should be taken at face value simply because of his unprecedented access to information no one else is privy to.

    ……. The Kremlin’s mouthpieces baselessly alleged that 11 million illegal immigrants, 1.5 million dead voters and an untold number of dogs—supposedly registered to vote by their owners—unlawfully voted for Biden…….
    ……..
    ……. Lawmaker Leonid Kalashnikov summed up the U.S. election debacle: “That’s how you delegitimize a nation.” Discrediting the crown jewel of Western democracy has always been one of Russia’s top priorities—and while he failed to come through on other fronts, Trump delivered a parting gift above and beyond the Kremlin’s wildest dreams.
    >>>>>>>
    Putin smiled.

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  58. The Trump admin is going out like it came in: lying about crowd sizes.

    https://twitter.com/kayleighmcenany/status/1327646530103369728

    Davethulhu (6e0d47)

  59. #57 The race came down to a gated community in Sandy Springs, where a group of ladies who decided over brunch that their bridge club group could abide a Democrat but could not abide Trump (who reminded them of that nasty boy at Westminster who almost raped Sylvia).

    “He just has no manners”.

    If the race came down to Plains, GA, Trump would be having a COVID party, er, rally down at the fairgrounds in Perry to celebrate his landslide.

    Appalled (529cb9)

  60. #58 And if the only way to humor the 71 million is to ignore the 76 million, things get a little scarier, don’t you think?

    Appalled (529cb9)

  61. Those conditions sound like the perfect petri-dish for Covid goo to spread. I don’t understand why masks are randomly used, and why there is no enforcement for them to be on at all times.

    I have a family member who is a prison guard in a medium security prison. The guards and staff all wear masks at all times. They request the inmates do but cannot force them to. Their “rights” and all can’t be infringed upon. Plus it is already tense with family visits being far and few between, if any at all, so enforcing a mask mandate puts guards and prisoners alike at risk of bodily harm from possible riots, which are known to happen in prison populations. Why aren’t they enforced? People like to live.

    Marci (405d43)

  62. Secret intelligence exists that ‘would cast Trump in very negative light’, warns ex-FBI chief

    Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe has warned that classified intelligence from bureau’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign ties to Russia could contain information that would “risk casting the president in a very negative light”.
    ……..
    “From your knowledge, is there anything that could come out that people would look at and say, ‘wow, I can’t believe they ever included the president in this analysis, he and his people clearly did nothing’?” asked Mr (CNN host Chris) Cuomo.

    Mr McCabe replied: “There is some very, very serious, very specific, undeniable intelligence that has not come out, that if it were released, would risk compromising our access to that sort of information in the future.

    “I think it would also risk casting the president in a very negative light – so, would he have a motivation to release those things? It’s almost incomprehensible to me that he would want that information out, I don’t see how he spins it into his advantage, because quite frankly, I don’t believe it’s flattering.

    Asked if Mr McCabe thought there was more “bad stuff” about Mr Trump that wasn’t already publicly known, he replied: “There is always more intelligence, there is a lot more in the intelligence community assessment than what is ever released for public consumption.

    “The original version of that report was classified at the absolute highest level I have ever seen. We’re talking about top secret, compartmentalised code word stuff, and it would be tragic to American intelligence collection for those sources to be put at risk.”
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  63. Marci,

    According to the report JVW linked to, it is staff who don’t consistently wear masks. That is what I was referencing in my comment.

    The groups said testing remains inadequate, staffers use masks inconsistently and inmates can’t obtain adequate cleaning supplies, soap or personal hygiene products from the prison or the commissary to wash themselves or their clothes or to disinfect their living areas.

    While I certainly understand your point re inmates and their rights, it’s puzzling that staff don’t consistently wear masks to protect themselves at least.

    Dana (6995e0)

  64. DHS Admits It Likely Made False Statement to Federal Court When Justifying Chad Wolf’s Appointment
    Attorneys at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday notified a federal judge that a previous claim relied upon to justify the controversial and likely unlawful appointment of Chad Wolf as Acting Secretary was not true.

    Wolf took over the department’s top job after previous Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan resigned in November 2019, but according to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), Wolf was not the correct official in the line of succession at DHS to assume the role. While Wolf and DHS have vehemently disputed that theory, in a lawsuit filed by several states challenging Wolf’s authority the department recently argued that the point is moot because Wolf was rightfully appointed to the position in September 2020.

    The department claimed that after Wolf was officially nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as DHS Secretary on September 10, Peter Gaynor, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), became the designated Acting DHS Secretary under the Federal Vacancy Reform Act (FVRA).

    ……..[A]fter Gaynor became Acting Secretary, he exercised his authority to designate a new order of succession under which Wolf, as the Senate-confirmed Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and Plans, would have immediately began serving as Acting DHS Secretary.
    ……..
    DHS told the court on Friday, however, that Gaynor may have issued the latest succession order before President Trump officially submitted Wolf ‘s name to the Senate for consideration as DHS Secretary, calling the blunder an “inadvertent factual inaccuracy.”

    “Late yesterday evening (Thursday, November 12, 2020), however, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conveyed to the Department of Justice that it had learned that Mr. Gaynor’s September 10, 2020 succession order may have been signed approximately one hour before Mr. Wolf’s nomination was formally submitted to the Senate,” said the letter to U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis.
    ……..
    If true, that would mean that Gaynor’s order empowering Wolf was not valid, as Gaynor wasn’t authorized to sign off on a new line of succession at DHS.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  65. U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will be briefed by national security experts next week, Biden transition official Jen Psaki said on Friday, amid concerns that being out of the loop due to delays to the transition could be a national security risk.

    Seeing names of hacks and frauds like Jen Psaki recycled pretty much dashes whatever small hopes I had that the Biden Administration might be made up of a handful of credible people. Another long four years ahead of us, it would seem.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  66. Isn’t there some kind of mercy rule we could invoke on behalf of Trump’s lawyers at this point?

    Trump Campaign Lawyer Comically Filed Election Lawsuit in Court That Had No Authority to Hear the Case

    One of President Donald Trump’s numerous election lawsuits was filed in the wrong federal court. Like, the really wrong court. On Tuesday, a campaign lawyer filed a Michigan-focused federal lawsuit in the Washington, D.C.-based Court of Federal Claims–which has no authority to hear an electoral fraud themed lawsuit whatsoever.

    University of Texas Law Professor Steve Vladeck noted the mishap on Twitter across a series of posts on Thursday evening.

    “The Trump campaign has filed a wide-ranging lawsuit challenging the counting of votes in Wayne County (Detroit) not just in a federal district court in Michigan, but in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in D.C. — which has *no jurisdiction* in such cases,” he said.

    “To be clear, I don’t think this is malicious; it seems pretty clear it’s just a filing error,” Vladeck added. “But it says a lot to me about where we are that we’re seeing these kinds of errors.”

    Even more true to form, they blamed PACER for filing the suit in the wrong court – as if the electronic document system decides for itself where to file:

    The attorney of record claims the whole ordeal was simply a mistake–and one that certainly wasn’t his.

    “PACER misfiled this case,” attorney Mark F. “Thor” Hearne II told CNN’s Katelyn Polantz.

    Competent attorneys mocked the risible excuse:

    Trust in the integrity of the Trump campaign’s legal personnel, however, is currently at an all-time low.

    “Not credible—PACER doesn’t choose what court a case is filed in,” noted former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti via Twitter. “The lawyer does.”

    The Trump campaign later upped the ante by documenting the mistake in a court filing that pawned off responsibility of the federal court system’s information technology.

    “ECF doesn’t work that way,” National Security Counselors Executive Director Kel McClanahan said via Twitter–referring to the federal Judiciary’s Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system which allows case documents to be filed online. PACER is the system that allows the public to access files submitted via the CM/ECF. For more information on how these systems communicate with one another see here.

    “The systems don’t even talk to each other,” McClanahan continued. “I couldn’t accidentally file something in the W.D. Mich. any more than I could accidentally file it in Australia. What is not beyond possibility is a stupid lawyer who is barred in two courts clicking on the wrong ECF bookmark by mistake [and] not realizing it until later. That might not be uncommon in the legal circles in which Trump’s lawyers travel.”

    Ukraine whistleblower attorney Mark Zaid also disagreed that the technology itself was the problem here.

    “I have been involved in 100+ federal lawsuits since electronic filing became a thing,” he tweeted–noting that he’s worked in multiple federal courts across the country including the Federal Court of Claims. “I have NEVER experienced such an occurrence, nor have I ever even heard of it happening.”

    Dave (1bb933)

  67. Seeing names of hacks and frauds like Jen Psaki recycled pretty much dashes whatever small hopes I had that the Biden Administration might be made up of a handful of credible people.

    It’s unclear what your beef is. She said:

    I don’t have an update on this, Matt. We’re still working on it.

    She said they were looking for the form. She didn’t make any false claim. Frankly, compared to the tsunami of lies we’ve been inundated with for the last four years, a straightforward and honest answer looks pretty damn good to me.

    The following day, she announced that they had determined they did not have the form.

    So to summarize:

    1) she acknowledged that the request about the form had not been addressed yet,
    2) she said they were working on it, and
    3) the following day, she resolved the question, insofar as the existence (or not) of the form on file was concerned

    Dave (1bb933)

  68. The Court of Claims is what litigates federal eminent domain. I told you Trump was going to try to get the White House by declaring it a TIFF and doing a Kelo. I told you.

    nk (1d9030)

  69. @63. No worry. The next two years come in no deposit, no return Bidens.

    Keepyour eyes on Harris; betcha she’s picked her Cabinet already.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  70. It’s unclear what your beef is. She said:

    The link actually goes to a listing all of the posts we have had where she is mentioned, and I submit to you that a perusal ought to convince you that there is ample reason to view her as a fraud and hack.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  71. @70-
    Trump bragging (and taking questions) is not news. It’s great that Pfizer was able to create their vaccine, but many questions remain. Pfizer stands to make a killing (as does its CEO, apparently) from the American taxpayer to produce the vaccine; it may be free to Americans to take, but Pfizer isn’t doing anything for free.

    Sounds like socialism to me.

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  72. S-o-o-o … Pretty Woman Rule for Lori but not for Jan, eh, JVW?

    nk (1d9030)

  73. @62. Aside- visited Plains, GA back in the day. Rural; quaint; quite boring. Very much like northwestern Ohio, except everybody had a funny accent. Spent five minutes trying to decipher what a ‘pinny’ was at a grits-serving Georgia,CSA, McDonald’s. In the USA, we call it a ‘penny.’ 😉

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  74. And while we’re on the subject, JVW, why doesn’t Jen get the cuteness exception afforded to Gabbard, Williamson, and Laughlin?

    Your anti-Biden bias is showing…

    Dave (1bb933)

  75. Damn, nk beat me to it!

    Dave (1bb933)

  76. Post 75 should read:

    Trump bragging (and not taking questions) ……

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  77. Another long four years ahead of us, it would seem.

    In more way than you realize, JVW; you watch; we’re gonna miss Melania boarding AF1. Jill’s caboose has that aging Amtrak sag.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  78. I had that the Biden Administration might be made up of a handful of credible people.

    Everybody he knew in government as ‘credible’ is dead.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  79. Pence, Met With Chants Of ‘Four More Years,’ Replies: ‘That’s The Plan’
    ………
    During a speech to the Council for National Policy, a conservative think tank, Pence was met with chants of “Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!” according to a transcript of the speech put out by the White House.

    “That’s the plan,” Pence responded, later stating in his remarks, “I promise you: We will keep fighting until every legal vote is counted, until every illegal vote is thrown out, and we will never stop fighting to make America great again.”
    …….
    Big Number: 7 9%. That’s the share of Americans in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday who said Biden won the election, compared to just 3% who said Trump won and 13% who said the election has not been decided.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  80. Federal judge says new DACA rules are invalid
    Chad Wolf was not legally serving as acting Homeland Security secretary when he signed rules limiting DACA applications and renewals, and those rules are now invalid, a federal judge ruled Saturday.

    Wolf in July issued a memo saying that new applications for DACA, the Obama-era program that shields certain undocumented immigrants from deportation, would not be accepted and renewals would be limited to one year instead of two amid an ongoing review.

    The Supreme Court blocked a Trump administration attempt to end the program and the memo sought to buy time while the administration decided its next steps.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  81. I submit to you that a perusal ought to convince you that there is ample reason to view her as a fraud and hack.

    OK, I read the first page worth.

    There was a second (prior) piece about the Clinton exit form, asked on March 13, 2015. Psaki noted the question had been asked a long time ago, and she didn’t have new information. March 13 was a Friday. The first piece, where she indicated she still couldn’t answer was March 16, a Monday. And she announced that they had no exit form for Clinton the next day – Tuesday March 17. Where is the fraud and hackers?

    There are two posts in which she defends the repatriation of Bowe Berdahl:

    “We have a commitment to our men and women serving in the military, defending our national security every day, that we’re going to do everything to bring them home if we can, and that’s what we did in this case.”

    I get that you don’t like the answer. Not seeing the fraud and hackery. In another, earlier statement (before Bergdahl was convicted of anything) she gave him the presumption of innocence. As a State Department spokesperson, the military circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture were not a topic for her to address anyway.

    Then there is a statement asking Israel to do more to limit civilian casualties in Gaza. You disagree with the policy, but Psaki wasn’t the one who made it, and there was nothing fraudulent in her announcement.

    There is a breathless piece about Barack Obama having accumulated $375 in unpaid parking tickets (exactly half of megabillionaire Donald Trump’s total income tax bill in 2016) while in law school (gasp!) that is downright quaint after what we’ve lived through for the last four years.

    And finally there is a quote in which she (honestly!) admitted that sensitive diplomatic negotiations are not always publicly acknowledged. Somebody didn’t like her answer, and tried to conceal it. Her original answer was entirely reasonable. If she was involved in the ham-handed video editing and denials that followed, it doesn’t reflect well on her. A Trump spokesperson likely would have simply attacked the reporter for asking the question, or brazenly lied, rather than answering it honestly.

    Dave (1bb933)

  82. Ol’Joe rode a bicycle today.

    Just like 430 million Chinese.

    …and Xi Jinping smiled.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  83. Nah, Dave, Jan was always a guachinanga. Just better at it (with that approachable-girl-next-door-disingenuousness) than “alternate facts” Kellyanne and “l’yddle is a word, next question” Sarah. Kind of what Kayleigh could have been if she weren’t a blonde.

    nk (1d9030)

  84. My body, my choice.

    My fist, my choice. Same thing.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  85. And so it goes: it’s not what Biden will do; it’s what Trump has done.

    Our Captain still commands from a bridge in your heads.

    What. A. Showman.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  86. https://twitter.com/livesmattershow/status/1327740865545203717

    This is what many Biden supporters wanted. I hope you enjoy it.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  87. When the ruler is lawless, the people are lawless.

    nk (1d9030)

  88. You guys think Jen Psaki is cute? To each his own, I suppose.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  89. In real news.
    NJRob (eb56c3) — 11/14/2020 @ 3:03 pm

    Trump is lying, per usual. As they say, presume everything he says is false until proven true.
    For H1N1, the CDC started working on a vaccine in April 2009 and started distribution later that October.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  90. Dave, evaluating every single Obama/Biden appointee’s level of honesty in context to someone in the Trump administration is kind of like evaluating UCLA’s football program in relation to UCI’s. Even in making that comparison, we can still come to the determination that UCLA’s team sucks.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  91. @93. Agree. If ‘mammary’ serves…

    “They’re called boobs, Ed.” – Erin Brockovich [Julia Roberts] ‘Erin Brockovich’ 2000

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  92. I wish they all could be California* girls, too, JVW, but what’re you gonna do?

    *Nah, not really.

    nk (1d9030)

  93. A low income bracket amalgam of Christina Hendricks or Gillian Anderson, JVW – 93. Marie Harf would complete the Pajama Boy threesome.

    urbanleftbehind (cd860e)

  94. That didn’t take long. The Scytl conspiracy lasted a day, and then it died. Gohmert was left scrambling, saying, “Well shucks, folks, it was a German tweet in German, y’all can’t expect me to get sumthin’ like that right.” Or something like that.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  95. This morning, I passed through nk-land on my way to the North and Kostner Menards for wood fence supplies.

    urbanleftbehind (cd860e)

  96. Marie Harf

    I was trying to remember the name of the other bookend. Thanks, urbanleftbehind!

    nk (1d9030)

  97. @98. Anderson is just pouty; Hendricks has great… sass.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  98. Everybody anyone knew in government as ‘credible’ is dead.

    FIFY. The Rapture is over and we are what’s left.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  99. This is a plan of where Trump will be staying for the next few weeks:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrerbunker#/media/File:Reichskanzlei-Fuehrerbunker.svg

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  100. Federal judge says new DACA rules are invalid

    This is just done so that Biden doesn’t run up against the Administrative Procedures Act himself.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  101. What happens to DACA if Congress votes down a law permitting the “Dreamers” to stay? The whole idea of these immigration orders, going back to Reagan’s amnesty, was that they were put in place in anticipation of imminent Congressional action. What if the action is neither imminent nor anticipated?

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  102. This is what many Biden supporters wanted.

    Name one?

    Dave (1bb933)

  103. The ones doing the assaulting, anyway. Right little camp guards those guys.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  104. “The ones doing the assaulting, anyway. Right little camp guards those guys.”

    Like this guy?

    https://twitter.com/MattRod2991/status/1327771863544594432

    Davethulhu (6e0d47)

  105. Like this guy?

    Whaddabout….

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  106. “Whaddabout….”

    I admire your shamelessness, bnp.

    Davethulhu (6e0d47)

  107. I like people who don’t get egged.

    nk (1d9030)

  108. It is what it is. I voted for Biden, but I take no responsibility.

    nk (1d9030)

  109. #77. Never been to Plains (like most people living in ATL). It’s not on the way to anything, and you can scratch your Jimmie Carter itch by going to his library.

    SW Georgia has some nice towns with pretty confederate statues. NW Ohio has Toledo.

    Appalled (529cb9)

  110. Anyway, I don’t know why I should believe that rigged and fraudulent video. Match the pixels!

    nk (1d9030)

  111. This is good news, that we killed an al Qaeda leader and that it happened in Tehran, a nice middle finger to the Mullahs.

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Israel worked together to track and kill a senior al-Qaida operative in Iran earlier this year, a bold intelligence operation by the two allied nations that came as the Trump administration was ramping up pressure on Tehran.

    Four current and former U.S. officials said Abu Mohammed al-Masri, al-Qaida’s No. 2, was killed by assassins in the Iranian capital in August. The U.S. provided intelligence to the Israelis on where they could find al-Masri and the alias he was using at the time, while Israeli agents carried out the killing, according to two of the officials. The two other officials confirmed al-Masri’s killing but could not provide specific details.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  112. Trump’s media favorites battle for the Trump trophy
    ………
    Parler, the “free speech”-friendly version of Twitter, saw a massive explosion of growth right after the election — only to be hit with a viral claim that the social media platform was owned by George Soros. QAnon supporters revolted against Newsmax, a conservative cable channel owned by Trump confidant Chris Ruddy, after the network used a photo of a man wearing a hoodie to describe a white nationalist. Nationalist blogs began running hit pieces on Fox News, claiming its viewership was down, and Trump, reportedly mulling his own media enterprise when he leaves the White House, claimed that its ratings had “collapsed,” because “they forgot the Golden Goose.”
    ………
    So the race is on to determine which outlet — cable, radio, internet or otherwise — will embrace Trumpism the tightest. And the competition is driving the far-right MAGA echo chamber to cannibalize itself.

    At the center of it all is an impulse for confirmation bias, according to misinformation and extremist researchers. Trump supporters, they said, are looking for a place to migrate that promotes their theories on why their candidate lost. That’s why they’ve increasingly gravitated to places like One America News Network and Newsmax, two Trump-friendly conservative outlets that are more inclined to embrace the debunked ballot-fraud conspiracies Fox News will not touch. …….
    ………
    ……… Populist news sites like Big League Politics have attacked the organizers of Stop the Steal, a loose network of Trump-affiliated groups organizing mini-protests against the election results. MAGA influencers have razed conservative allies expressing slightly more realistic expectations.
    ……….
    Without Trump in office — or even in public life — it’s more than likely that these disparate groups fragment back into their own separate zones online. White nationalists, after all, can’t exist in the same movement as hardline pro-Israel activists. Anarcho-libertarians don’t naturally fit with more extreme evangelicals. And QAnon supporters can hardly stomach anyone reporting any unfavorable news about Trump, even if it’s from Newsmax.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  113. Love burns eternally, Comrade Rip, but hate needs to be constantly stoked.

    nk (1d9030)

  114. More good news:

    Peter Sutcliffe, who was convicted of killing 13 women and attempting to murder seven others in a yearslong spree that led newspapers to call him the Yorkshire Ripper, died on Friday. He was 74.

    Mr. Sutcliffe’s death was announced by Britain’s Prison Service, which said he had underlying health conditions and had tested positive for the coronavirus. A coroner will investigate the cause of death.

    He was convicted in 1981 in the murders of 13 women over the course of five years in northern England and given a life sentence for each, the maximum permitted. The murders, which occurred between 1975 and 1980, gripped the public and the authorities, and the lengthy investigation was “a source of considerable embarrassment to the police,” The New York Times wrote at the time.

    Mr. Sutcliffe was interviewed by the police several times during their investigations in the 1970s. His arrest came after he was found with fake license plates on his car; he confessed to the murders, many of which were carried out from behind with a hammer and knife. A jury of six men and six women convicted him.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  115. @118-
    I agree. It’s a popcorn moment to watch the alt-right cut themselves up.

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  116. NW Ohio has Toledo.

    You can have it.

    Lived in NW Ohio. Bet thing about Toledo is it has an airport.

    To catch flights leaving Toledo.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  117. Plagiarist JoeyBee on China: “Come on, man — They can’t even figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the West. They can’t figure out how they’re going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. They’re not bad folks, folks … They’re not competition for us.” Idiot-elect, 5/2019

    You bought him; you own him.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  118. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/11/justice-alito-tells-it-like-it-is.php

    Alito’s message was that key American rights are in jeopardy. He noted, for example, that the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has resulted in previously “unimaginable” restrictions on individual liberty. “We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020,” he stated.

    Alito was careful to emphasize that he wasn’t diminishing the “severity of the virus’ threat to public health” or even taking a position on whether the restrictions are good public policy. However, he argued that the restrictions on public gatherings and worship services highlighted “trends that were already present before the virus struck,” including a “dominance of lawmaking by executive fiat” rather than by legislators and the relegation of certain rights to second class status.

    Religious rights, for example. Alito homed in on the decision of Nevada to limit church attendance to 50 people, while reopening large casinos to 50 percent capacity. “It pains me to say to it, but in certain quarters religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right,” he concluded.

    Take a quick look at the Constitution,” Alito urged. “You will see the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, which protects religious libe

    Well said.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  119. Trump says coronavirus vaccine won’t be delivered to New York right away
    President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. government would not deliver a coronavirus vaccine to New York if and when one is available.
    ……..
    “He doesn’t trust where the vaccine is coming from,” Trump added. “These are coming from the greatest companies anywhere in the world, greatest labs in the world, but he doesn’t trust the fact that it’s this White House, this administration, so we won’t be delivering it to New York until we have authorization to do so, and that pains me to say that.”
    ………
    ……… and that pains me to say that”.

    I don’t think Trump will be around to make that decision given the time it takes to produce sufficient doses. But it’s clear Trump doesn’t care.

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  120. “We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020,” he stated.
    You mean like slavery, segregation, and the interment of American citizens of Japanese descent?

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  121. https://twitter.com/_xoxoxoxoxxoxo_/status/1327732154487463937

    Here are the leftist brownshirts in all their glory.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  122. “Here are the leftist brownshirts in all their glory.”

    See my post @109 for the whole video, rather than just the end.

    Davethulhu (6e0d47)

  123. Rip, your post about vaccine delivery to NY is a deliberate lie stoked by the left. Trump made it clear he cannot deliver any vaccine to NY as long as their governor, and leftist hero, has made it clear he will not accept any such vaccine.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  124. Thulu, the video starts at 44 seconds so clearly not the FULL VIDEO as you allege. It also shows 1 guy standing up to the leftist fascist mob and not intimidated by them. As he walks away, he gets sucker punched, stomped, and robbed.

    So please, continue.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  125. Look forward to you supporting all evidence including all the names of everyone in the video involved going to the police. Right Davethulu?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  126. “Thulu, the video starts at 44 seconds so clearly not the FULL VIDEO as you allege.”

    I went to “Jorge Ventura Media” on twitter but could not find the the original. If you have more context, please feel free to provide it.

    “It also shows 1 guy standing up to the leftist fascist mob and not intimidated by them. As he walks away, he gets sucker punched, stomped, and robbed.

    So please, continue.”

    It shows three guys assaulting the guy with the megaphone, who then find out they bit off more than they could chew.

    Davethulhu (6e0d47)

  127. Davethulu,

    let’s make this real simple. Do you support all evidence, names of individuals involved and any witnesses to go to the police and file a report to let justice be determined?

    Yes or no?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  128. “Look forward to you supporting all evidence including all the names of everyone in the video involved going to the police. Right Davethulu?”

    Guy who gets sucker punched kicked megaphone guy in the head first, so yeah, go for it.

    Davethulhu (6e0d47)

  129. “Do you support all evidence, names of individuals involved and any witnesses to go to the police and file a report to let justice be determined?”

    Do you? Seems like you had your mind made up based on an incomplete video.

    Davethulhu (6e0d47)

  130. Sounds like you’re equivocating thulu. I gladly support the rule of law and not the mob. I want every single person who took a swing, a push or a kick to be identified and justice dealt accordingly.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  131. “Sounds like you’re equivocating thulu. I gladly support the rule of law and not the mob. I want every single person who took a swing, a push or a kick to be identified and justice dealt accordingly.”

    Cool. What part of my posts made you think I think otherwise?

    Davethulhu (6e0d47)

  132. The part where you called the guy getting sucker punched in the face and knocked out “the end” when the video you posted shows others at least assisting the guy to bring him to the police and your claim that “they bit off more than they could chew” which implies you supported the actions of the mob.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  133. @128-
    I just quoted Trump, unless you are denying he made the quoted statements. I’m

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  134. “The part where you called the guy getting sucker punched in the face and knocked out “the end” when the video you posted shows others at least assisting the guy to bring him to the police and your claim that “they bit off more than they could chew” which implies you supported the actions of the mob.”

    If nobody was seriously hurt, it’s unlikely anyone is going to be charged. I mean, sure, go to the cops, but they’re just going to see a bunch of idiots brawling and not do anything. Same as what happens with these brawls everywhere else.

    Davethulhu (6e0d47)

  135. Knocked out, skull busted open (blood) and robbed, but no one seriously hurt.

    I’d love to see the beginning of that video. I also hope there are more videos around. Let them all get arrested if they are deserving of such.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  136. No RipMurdock. You didn’t quote Trump. At least not in good faith. Otherwise you would’ve quoted the following which was at your link

    New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo “will have to let us know when he’s ready for it because otherwise, we can’t be delivering it to a state that won’t be giving it to its people immediately,” Trump said.

    It’s the very first line. Curious that you ignored it since you love to copy/paste articles.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  137. @141-
    Several other states have made similar comments but Trump singled out New York.

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  138. @141-
    Usually the first line repeats the article title, which is why I edit it out.

    But as I said, it won’t be Trump’s decision. Distribution will be left to the Biden Administration. Maybe states that do nothing to deal with the pandemic (like the Dakotas)!will have their allocations held up until they take some action. But Biden wouldn’t do that.

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  139. Well, you know, Mr. French has to write things if he wants to get paid, Mr. Dave.

    nk (1d9030)

  140. From the files of He Is You, #987,654,321:

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/how-ronald-reagans-coded-racism-paved-the-way-for-trump

    urbanleftbehind (0978ff)

  141. Forgive me, comrades, if I do not click on either link.

    The reason these guys want to be paperback writers but need to keep hacking away “at The Daily Mail” is easy to understand if you paid attention in senior high school English with Mr. Perschbacher at Lane Tech like I did.

    A drama requires conflict and resolution. These guys know how to make up a conflict but fall flat on their faces when it comes to the resolution. Dead end. No exit. No turns. No backing up.

    The ancient Greeks like Sophocles, and Aeschylus, and Euripides faced the same problem but they could get the gods to come down and write the second half of the story for them (and for some strange reason gave it a Latin name, deus ex machina).

    As time went on, better writers who could be paperback writers if they wanted to, thought it better to let the people in the story work out the resolution instead of bothering the gods all the time.

    But some writers just gave up and said, “The hack with it, either the gods comes down or you’re just going to get the conflict without a resolution and learn to like it”.

    And that’s the way it is on this, the twelfth day, of “A New Hope” or “America Awakens”.

    nk (1d9030)

  142. California dinner:

    Communications director Nathan Click said that the party “followed public health guidelines and the restaurant’s health protocols—all in line with the state’s rules for restaurant operation.”

    House dinner:

    Our office strictly follows the guidance of the Office of Attending Physician, including for this dinner.

    And the guidance, of course, takes account of what the politicians in charge want to do.

    What little people want to do, especially people not too likely to vote Democratic, not so much. Their activities can be foregone. It is not necessary.

    Sammy Finkelman (bda33a)

  143. how did trying to thwart the oracle work out for king laius mr nk?

    Dave (1bb933)

  144. RE: Pandemic spike:

    Nothing is going to help, except injecting people at risk, who haven’t tested positive with low doses of Regeneron or Eli Lilly antibodies (people who test positive should get more.)

    And nothing is going to make that happen, except an Act of Congress overruling the FDA, the way the Alaska Pipeline bill overruled the EPA, or momentum building to pass it, in which case, like the Supreme Court sometimes, they may, so to speak, follow the election returns, like it did in 1937.

    But Trump is too cowed and uncertain of himself to get the ball rolling. It is not enough even to make the antibodies available, which has happened already, actually, in fact, with Eli Lilly (does this give the FDA an excuse to delay emergency authorization for Regeneron, which is what cured Donald Trump?) they’ve got to be used off label as a prophylactic. And we can make a pretty good about how much is needed.

    Everybody is still focused on vaccines, which effect things with a lag of at least two months, and won’t provide an all clear till, at best, late next summer.

    Sammy Finkelman (bda33a)

  145. 124. Rip Murdock (bd1cdd) — 11/14/2020 @ 8:42 pm

    I don’t think Trump will be around to make that decision given the time it takes to produce sufficient doses. But it’s clear Trump doesn’t care.

    He probably discussed that with his coronavirus task force, and they approved.

    Because there’s no point in delivering a vaccine if it is not going to be used. Especially while supplies are short.

    But if he cared, he’d be making plans (unlikely as it is that they will be carried out) to bypass the Governor of New York State.

    Sammy Finkelman (bda33a)

  146. Not well, Mr. Dave, but then we might not have had an explanation for Trump, either, if it had.

    nk (1d9030)

  147. French has it right. The GOP is stuck with a Right-wing media that has been thoroughly compromised. A healthy ecosystem would not only have been wary of Trump in 2016, it would have cultivated a healthy set of competing voices that could have seriously challenged Trump for the nomination in 2020. Instead, the “talkers” and “news analysts” enabled Trump, providing a robust defense of much of his nonsense….in exchange for ratings and back channel influence. We have raging conspiracies today because there are few journalistic standards applied to “talk” or “analysis”. It’s just talk, right? We’ve legitimized National Enquirer-level gossip….and no one has a big enough platform to yank the chain on it. Much of Right-wing media is about keeping listeners maximally angry and fearful and knowing who to blame. It’s this fever factory that incubated Trump and which is desperately trying to keep the Trump show going. So until the incentives change, I don’t see the masses wanting a return to normalcy…..and a dysfunctional Right….coupled with a Progressive-leaning Left….is bad for this country.

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  148. Sammy @148. And that’s what Justice Alito was talking about as referenced in NJRobb’s Comment 123. Politicians whimsically making it up as they go along, careful not to inconvenience themselves or endanger their phony-baloney jobs too much.

    nk (1d9030)

  149. Word for the day:
    re¡bar¡ba¡tive
    /rəˈbärbədiv/
    adjectiveFORMAL
    unattractive and objectionable.
    “rebarbative modern buildings”

    nk (1d9030)

  150. He probably discussed that with his coronavirus task force, and they approved.

    Trump reportedly hasn’t met with the CV task force in months, only Pence.

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  151. The Dakotas are ‘as bad as it gets anywhere in the world’ for COVID-19
    ……..
    Both North and South Dakota now face a predictably tragic reality that health experts tell USA TODAY could have been largely prevented with earlier public health actions.
    ……..
    North Dakota’s COVID-19 death rates per capita in the past week are similar to the hardest hit countries in the world right now — Belgium, Czech Republic and Slovenia — according to Saturday New York Times data. That data also places South Dakota’s recent per capita deaths among the world’s highest rates.

    And there’s currently nowhere in the U.S. where COVID-19 deaths are more common than in the Dakotas, according to data published by The COVID Tracking Project.
    ………
    ……..[A] a number of factors that have made both North and South Dakota vulnerable to the virus’ spread………higher rates of preexisting conditions and economic inequality in the region, in addition to health care that lags behind the U.S. standard.
    ……..
    [Dr. William Haseltine], president of ACCESS Health International ……. blamed politicians — especially South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem — for ignoring public health measures that have been successfully used to curb the spread of the virus elsewhere in the world.

    Noem has cast doubt on whether wearing masks in public is effective, saying that she’ll leave it up to the people to decide. She has said the virus can’t be stopped.

    [North Dakota Gov. Doug] Burgum, also a Republican, had pleaded with people to wear masks and praised local towns and cities that have mandated masks. He had avoided requiring masks and refused to enforce limits on social gatherings and business occupancies until late Friday.
    ………
    Noem and Burgum have touted ideals of limited government, with Noem continuing to express concern about how decisive state action could be an example of a government overreach.

    But Haseltine framed public health actions another way: Not enacting them is like standing in the way of an ambulance — the ambulance being proven health measures like mask mandates and social gathering restrictions. Even worse, encouraging large scale events in a pandemic as South Dakota has done is equivalent to manslaughter, Haseltine said.
    ……..
    The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s influential model predicts daily deaths in North and South Dakota will peak, then decrease in coming weeks, but total deaths will more than double by March 1.

    In two states with less than 2 million people between them, more than 3,000 are expected to die of COVID-19 by then.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  152. Republican convicted of election fraud helps lead Trump rally baselessly claiming election fraud
    ……..
    The Lansing [MI] rally of a few hundred people Saturday came after a similar gathering last Saturday and small protests during the week.

    One of the speakers is blogger and GOP activist Brandon Hall, who says he’s running for Michigan Republican Party chair. That position is currently held by former state Rep. Laura Cox (R-Livonia), who Trump announced at a pre-election rally in Grand Rapids would “be fired” if he lost the state, which he did. Cox has continued to defend the president and make unfounded claims of voter fraud after the election.

    “We’re not going to give over our electoral votes to Joe Biden without a fight,” Hall said, as reported by the Lansing State Journal.

    What Hall didn’t mention, and neither did the story, is that he has firsthand experience with election fraud. In 2013, Hall was charged with 10 counts of election law forgery, which is a felony. In December 2016, Hall was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 18 months probation for election fraud, the Grand Haven Tribune, FOX-17 and MLive reported.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  153. South Dakota’s failed Swedish-style COVID experiment

    But even as she stands on the precipice of this dire situation, Gov. Noem has not been spurred into action. ‘I’m going to continue to trust South Dakotans to make wise and well-informed decisions for themselves and their families,’ she wrote last month. ‘I’m also asking that we all show respect and understanding to those who make choices we may not agree with. Our trust in the data and in each other has been rewarded. This is a testament to the people of South Dakota — our greatest weapon against this common enemy.’

    How measly such words must seem for the medics on the frontline in her state’s hospitals.

    And what does she mean by ‘trust in the data’? It isn’t clear, particularly when the data makes for grim reading. South Dakota currently has 60.5/100,000 of its citizens in hospital with COVID-19. Why would anyone think this is a reason to blithely carry on as they’ve done before?

    […]

    To fail to act when the wheels are so clearly falling off your strategy to contain the coronavirus — as South Dakota is doing — is nothing less than willful negligence. We should be wary of the siren call to inaction, the pretense that doing nothing is a sensible course of action.

    Sweden has not, despite many claims to the contrary, done nothing, but its strategy has been deliberately light on compulsion and is nowhere near the success that it is often held up to be.

    What’s more, we see with South Dakota that a genuine ‘do nothing’ strategy could be an even more spectacular failure. It is wishful thinking to believe such a strategy could work anywhere else.

    Dave (1bb933)

  154. @152

    mourning becomes ivanka mr nk

    Dave (1bb933)

  155. Comrades, I wish to make on thing perfectly clear. I by no means maintain that Trump is the only person in politics who sucks.

    It has never been my intention to imply that other politicians are not weak-kneed, political time-servers who are concerned more with their personal vendettas and private power struggles than the problems of government.

    Nor to suggest at any point that most of them do not sacrifice their credibility by denying free debate on vital matters in the mistaken impression that party unity comes before the well-being of the people they supposedly represent.

    Nor to imply at any stage that they are not squabbling little toadies without an ounce of concern for the vital social problems of today.

    Nor indeed that I do not consider them as crabby ulcerous little self-seeking vermin with furry legs and an excessive addiction to alcohol and certain explicit sexual practices which some people might find offensive.

    I am sorry if I have ever given this impression.

    nk (1d9030)

  156. I think you’re saying you like plagiarism is what I think

    Dustin (4237e0)

  157. The Lincoln Project calls on Republicans to respect democracy.

    “If a president wasn’t elected legally, then no one was elected elected legally.”

    Dave (1bb933)

  158. nk @147.

    The ancient Greeks like Sophocles, and Aeschylus, and Euripides faced the same problem but they could get the gods to come down and write the second half of the story for them (and for some strange reason gave it a Latin name, deus ex machina).

    This is a modern post-Renaissance term. The Greeks didn’t give it that name. They called it ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός (apò mēkhanĂŞs theĂłs) or theos ek mēkhanēs, ‘god from the machinery.’ Based upon the fact that actors playing gods were suspended above the stage, brought onto stage using a crane (The Greek word means a method or an expedient – because I guess the exact device varied and sometimes they came from below.)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina

    Aeschylus introduced the idea, and it was used often to resolve the conflict and conclude the drama. The device is associated mostly with Greek tragedy, although it also appeared in comedies….Aristotle was the first to use a Greek term equivalent to the Latin phrase deus ex machina [or earliest surving example of it] to describe the technique as a device to resolve the plot of tragedies. It is generally deemed undesirable in writing and often implies a lack of creativity on the part of the author. The reasons for this are that it does damage to the story’s internal logic and is often so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, allowing the author to conclude the story with an unlikely ending.

    Shakespeare used it in a couple of his less known plays like As You Like It and Pericles

    The term includes rescues in any number of ways, like Oliver Twist discovering someone is his aunt, or bacteria killing Martians or the children in Lord of the Flies being discovered by a passing navy officer, or the eagles in J. R. R. Tolkien’s books.

    Sammy Finkelman (bda33a)

  159. its a valid lifestyle choice orientation mr dustin

    Dave (1bb933)

  160. It’s not plagiarism to quote the classics.

    And you may quote me on that.

    nk (1d9030)

  161. “It’s very spaced,” she said and there is enhanced ventilation and the Capitol physician signed off.

    Ventilation (dilution) actually is very important.

    It’s why relatively few infections were traced to subways, but taxis and Ubers can be dangerous. Some crowded public outdoor events might have poor air circulation. and you could breathe in what the previous passenger exhaled or maybe coughed.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/02/nyregion/nyc-subway-coronavirus-safety.html

    In New York’s subway trains, transit officials say, the filtered air that circulates through a car is replaced with fresh air at least 18 times an hour. That is a much higher than the recommended air-exchange rates in restaurants, where recycled air is replaced eight to 12 times per hour, or in offices, where it is replaced six to eight times an hour.

    This sharply reduces the chances of a superspreader event on trains, as long as they do not become overly crowded, said Linsey Marr, an expert on the airborne transmission of viruses at Virginia Tech.

    But once too many people pack a train, the ability to provide proper ventilation to prevent the spread of viral aerosols diminishes significantly. When riders are standing shoulder to shoulder, any viral particles a sick passenger exhales could be readily inhaled by another passenger — which is possible even if both are wearing masks.

    Sammy Finkelman (bda33a)

  162. One of my former Japanese colleagues, who won the Nobel Prize in 2002, has passed away:

    Masatoshi Koshiba, scientist who shared 2002 Nobel Prize in physics, dies at 94

    He was the first to show that “solar” neutrinos actually come from the Sun (previous experiments could not detect the direction of the neutrinos, so the evidence for their origin was only circumstantial) and the first to detect them in “real time”.

    When I was in graduate school, Koshiba’s experiment in Japan was our competition. They used the technology we pioneered, but their experiment had only 1/4 of the sensitive target mass of ours. They made up for that by having 20 times the light collection, allowing them to see very low-energy solar neutrino interactions that we could not.

    After some upgrades to my experiment, we both detected the pulse of neutrinos from a supernova in 1987. My first major talk at an international conference (in Hamburg in 1987) was on this discovery; I was still a graduate student, and Koshiba’s talk was right before mine.

    He was an outwardly genial, but imposing figure. When we joined the second-generation Japanese experiment a decade later, he was mostly retired, but still held in awe even by very senior Japanese colleagues.

    Dave (1bb933)

  163. Sammy @164. Μηχανή *(mechane, machine) includes the abstract as well as the concrete meaning of “device”, so don’t preclude the connotation that the author devised having the gods step in, as well as the stage manager devising a crane to lower them to the stage.

    nk (1d9030)

  164. That’s an amazing story, Dave. 94 and a Nobel Prize is not a bad run.

    Dustin (4237e0)

  165. Rebarbative administration.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  166. BTW, the overhead crowd shot looks like 10s of thousands attended, not just 10,000.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  167. Pentagon senior adviser accused Pompeo and senior politicians of taking money and getting rich from ‘the Israeli lobby’
    …….
    Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, who was appointed as senior adviser to newly installed acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller this week, made the comments in two media appearances in 2012 and 2019.

    “You have to look at the people that donate to those individuals,” Macgregor said in a September 2019 interview when asked if then-national security adviser John Bolton and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham wanted war with Iran. “Mr. Bolton has become very, very rich and is in the position he’s in because of his unconditional support for the Israeli lobby. He is their man on the ground, in the White House.”

    “The same thing is largely true for Mr. Pompeo, he has aspirations to be president,” he added. “He has his hands out for money from the Israeli lobby, the Saudis and others.”

    …… Macgregor also said the Israel lobby has “enormous influence” on Congress and accused the lobby of wanting to instigate “military strikes” with Iran in a 2012 interview with the Russian-state media network RT.

    “ I think the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and it’s subordinate elements or affiliated elements that represent enormous quantities of money that over many years have cultivated an enormous influence in power in Congress,” he said. “I think you’ve got a lot of people on the Hill who fall into two categories. One category that is interested in money and wants to be reelected, and they don’t want to run the risk of the various lobbies that are pushing military action against Iran to contribute money to their opponents.”
    …….
    Bolton, through a spokesman, said, “I don’t respond to anti-Semites.” The State Department declined to comment on behalf of Pompeo.
    ……..
    Macgregor was nominated to become the US ambassador to Germany this summer, but his nomination stalled in the Senate Foreign Relations committee after CNN’s KFile reported he disparaged immigrants and refugees, called for martial law and lethal force at the US-Mexico border, and attacked Germany’s military power and culture.
    …….
    Several Jewish advocacy groups came out against Macgregor’s ambassador nomination after it came to light that he dismissed German remembrance of the Holocaust and downplayed the country’s Nazi history.
    …..
    ……[H]e said that US involvement in World War II was a “disaster,” and incorrectly said there was no desire in the US to go to war with Nazi Germany. In 2012, he claimed there was evidence that conflict with Japan was engineered to end the Great Depression.

    “People were not terribly happy about having to fight the second [war]. There was certainly no support for fighting the Germans during the Second World War. There was obviously for fighting the Japanese because Japan made the serious mistake of attacking us, but there was, there was great reluctance to be involved in these wars,” Macgregor said.
    ……..
    He must have heard the same WW II lecture as Tuberville.

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  168. Why Trump Carried Out His Pentagon Purge
    …….
    An Administration official who sees the outgoing President regularly told me that Trump is determined to bring home all forty-five hundred U.S. troops that remain in Afghanistan—or at least as many as possible before he leaves office. “He wants to put us on an irreversible course to a total withdrawal,” the official said.

    Getting out of Afghanistan was, the official said, one of the primary motivations behind Trump’s decision to fire Mark Esper, his Secretary of Defense, earlier this week. Since Trump’s election, in 2016, he has promised to end the country’s military involvement in Afghanistan, where American troops have been engaged since 2001. Trump has reduced the size of the force there—from about ten thousand troops when he took office—and he announced as recently as last month that all American forces would be coming home by Christmas. But he has not achieved a total withdrawal, which he has blamed on his Defense Secretaries—principally Esper and his predecessor, James Mattis. Trump “felt like he has been slow-walked ever since he came into office,” the Administration official said. “Now with Esper gone, he can do it.”
    …….
    The situation in Afghanistan is tenuous. In February, American and Taliban diplomats signed an agreement, by which the United States would withdraw all of its forces once security conditions in Afghanistan were stable. But Trump has been reducing the number of U.S. troops even though the conditions have not yet been met. American officials say that the President has been undercutting his own negotiators and emboldening the Taliban. “The trouble with the Taliban is, they are getting everything for free now,” an American official told me.
    ……..
    A complete pullout would have serious consequences. Most diplomats and military commanders agree that, without continued American financial and military support, Afghanistan’s government and armed forces would eventually collapse. The American official said, “I hope the President realizes that if we leave, the debate will become ‘Who lost Afghanistan?’ ”
    ………
    A question Trump can answer in 2024.

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  169. Conservative Treehouse announced today that WordPress has deplatformed them and given then till the beginning of next month to find a new location.

    I know I know. They supported President Trump so they deserve what they get.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  170. 174. A second possible reason is an American sponsored Israeli attack or a joint attack, on Iran’s nuclear facilities in advance of Biden re-establishing or attempting to re-establish the Iran nuclear agreement.

    Sammy Finkelman (bda33a)

  171. @176-
    I doubt that. It would go against Trump’s desire to withdraw from the Middle East. If anything, it should be a joint Israel/Saudi operation, as Iran is a direct to them and not the US.

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  172. Trump Allies Explored Buyout of Newsmax TV as Fox News Alternative
    …….
    Hicks Equity Partners, a private-equity firm with ties to a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, has held talks in recent months about acquiring and investing in Newsmax, according to people familiar with the matter, part of a larger effort that could also include a streaming-video service.

    Newsmax’s viewership has risen sharply since Election Day, as it wins over viewers loyal to Mr. Trump who are frustrated that Fox News and other networks have declared Democrat Joe Biden the president-elect. Newsmax hosts have promoted Mr. Trump’s claims that the election was stolen. No evidence of significant fraud has emerged or been presented.
    ……
    …… Newsmax’s average prime-time audience jumped 156% to 223,000 viewers during the week of the election, according to Nielsen data, and last Thursday crossed one million from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., about half of Fox’s audience during the time period. Sustaining those gains when interest in the election subsides won’t be easy. Fox averaged nearly six million prime-time viewers during the week of the election, about 22% higher than the previous four weeks.
    ……..
    In an interview, Newsmax Media Chief Executive Chris Ruddy said he has had many discussions with interested parties over the years looking to buy or invest in Newsmax. “Newsmax never had any deal with the Hicks group, and if it’s true they were using our name for the purposes of capital fundraising, that is wholly inappropriate,” he said.
    …….
    If Mr. Trump wanted to create his own media business from scratch, the most likely avenue would be a subscription streaming service, some industry executives said, and he could likely create a viable business, though perhaps not one with the scale of a TV network. “I think for someone like Trump it’s an easy million,” said Chris Balfe, a partner at the digital media consulting firm Red Seat Ventures, referring to the number of subscribers Mr. Trump could launch with. Typical industry prices for such services can run from roughly $6 to $10 a month.
    ……
    …… The Wall Street Journal reported early this year that Hicks Equity Partners was seeking a buyout of San Diego-based One America News Network, also known as OANN. Those talks have cooled in recent months, some of the people familiar with the matter said, though Hicks Equity still considers it a compelling target.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  173. Conservative Treehouse announced today that WordPress has deplatformed them and given then till the beginning of next month to find a new location.

    I know I know. They supported President Trump so they deserve what they get.

    We should boycott all websites hosted on WordPress.

    Oh, wait.

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  174. I notice that Conservative Treehouse does not post the full text of the notice.

    They claim no explanation was given, but the part they omitted likely contains it.

    The terms of service do not appear to prohibit falsehoods.

    It does prohibit posting personal information, and calls for violence.

    If they posted material from Hunter Biden’s laptop that was published by the NY Post, it contained unredacted personal information and would likely have violated that rule.

    Dave (1bb933)

  175. I know I know. They supported President Trump so they deserve what they get.

    Did they just recently move to WordPress? Was their Trump-support unknown until now?
    If the answer to both is no, chances are very high that WordPress’s decision was based on something other than CT’s support of Trump.

    Radegunda (20775b)

  176. Difficult to give too much credence to the claims of a site filled with discredited and brazen falsehoods from top to bottom.

    If the account of their “deplatforming” is truthful, it looks to be the only thing on their homepage that is.

    Dave (1bb933)

  177. It does prohibit posting personal information, and calls for violence.
    If they posted material from Hunter Biden’s laptop that was published by the NY Post, it contained unredacted personal information and would likely have violated that rule.

    LOL

    Now do Antifa and Trump’s tax returns.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  178. @166. “All men and women created by — you know, you know, the thing.” – Idiot Plagiarist Elect

    A classic.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  179. Dave — good story about the neutrino.

    I friend of mine likes to ask: Would it be more gratifying to be a scientist who discovers a previously unknown truth about the universe, or a composer who creates great musical works. He comes down on the composer side, because someone else would eventually have made the same scientific discovery, whereas no one but Gustav Mahler, e.g., could possibly have written a Mahler symphony.
    OTOH, some people will never agree that the Mahler symphonies are actually great, and their subjective judgment is not wholly irrelevant to the question.

    Radegunda (20775b)

  180. 157, 159.

    … and just in case Gryph is reading, here’s a revealing thread from a South Dakota ER nurse.

    lurker (d8c5bc)

  181. Now do Antifa and Trump’s tax returns.
    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67) — 11/15/2020 @ 2:32 pm

    So tedious.

    If I wasn’t certain that no one would voluntarily beclown themselves so transparently, I’d swear you just criticized someone for whatabouting in this very thread. That’s unpossible, right?

    lurker (d8c5bc)

  182. Minnesota Senate GOP held large, in-person dinner party just before COVID outbreak
    ………
    A GOP spokeswoman confirmed the Nov. 5 victory dinner party this weekend in response to FOX 9’s questions about it. Republicans had not previously disclosed it, even as controversy erupted over the outbreak. The spokeswoman, Rachel Aplikowski, did not say why she had not disclosed the party in earlier public statements about the situation.

    At least three senators, including Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, have now tested positive. Gazelka revealed his positive diagnosis on Sunday and said he was quarantining while on an out-of-state trip. Sen. Dave Senjem told FOX 9 he had tested positive last weekend. Sen. Paul Anderson has also tested positive, Aplikowski said.
    ……..
    But Democrats said the GOP never notified them about the COVID-19 outbreak before Thursday’s special session at the Capitol. Senate Democratic Leader Susan Kent said it was a ‘blatant disregard” of the health of other senators and Senate staff.

    The GOP’s Nov. 5 dinner party was held at a Twin Cities event center with between 100 and 150 attendees, including most Republican senators, a source told FOX 9 on the condition of anonymity.

    In response to FOX 9’s questions, Aplikowski did not dispute the person’s account of the event. She did not say how many senators who attended the party then attended the special session in person seven days later, but said no one who tested positive went to the special session.
    …….
    Sunday morning, Minnesota health officials reported 7,559 new cases of COVID-19 and 31 more deaths. So far, the state has seen a total of 223,581 cases and 2,905 deaths.
    >>>>>>>>

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  183. The case for the Oxford comma just refuses to stop rearing its ugly head.

    lurker (d8c5bc)

  184. Trump Family Business Faces Post-Election Reckoning
    …….
    Trump Organization executives say a key focus will be growing the brand globally once Mr. Trump leaves office. Yet those plans will face hurdles. In China—a market long eyed by Mr. Trump—the president has become deeply distrusted after his trade war damaged U.S.-China relations. In Europe, some of the Trump trademarks have been eliminated by legal challenges.

    The Trump Organization might soon slim down. Several properties are for sale, including its Washington hotel and two skyscrapers in New York and San Francisco that are part-owned by the Trump Organization. The organization also has been considering selling its Seven Springs estate outside of New York City, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
    …….
    Additionally, the pandemic has hurt business at Trump hotels and resorts, and the financial benefits some get from Mr. Trump being in the White House could decline.

    Trump Organization executives say its businesses are healthy. “The Trump Organization is an incredible company with tremendous cash flow. We have never been stronger,” the company said.
    …….
    Since Mr. Trump launched his run for the presidency in 2015, his businesses have become closely linked with the GOP. Republican spending at Trump properties has topped $23 million since 2015 compared with less than $200,000 in the five years prior, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

    Those revenues will likely decline, including $37,000 of monthly rent payments the Trump campaign has made to Trump Tower in New York. The office tower, where the Trump Organization is based, has suffered from falling occupancy rates since Mr. Trump took office, the Journal previously reported.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  185. Biden won places that are thriving. Trump won ones that are hurting.
    …….
    The parts of America that have seen strong job, population and economic growth in the past four years voted for Joe Biden, economic researchers found. In contrast, President Trump garnered his highest vote shares in counties that had some of the most sluggish job, population and economic growth during his term.
    ……

    Rip Murdock (bd1cdd)

  186. Liftoff! Congrats to Crew-1, NASA and SpaceX on a nominal launch.

    Ad Astra!

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  187. Arizona just won a football game on CBS. I started watching when there were 34 seconds to go and the score was 3-36 against them.

    Sammy Finkelman (bda33a)

  188. Biden won places that are thriving. Trump won ones that are hurting.

    If you like your virus, you can keep your virus!

    Dave (1bb933)

  189. LOL. (Scroll to the first reply.)

    lurker (d8c5bc)

  190. Breaking-Trump campaign jettisons major parts of its legal challenge against Pennsylvania’s election results
    ……..
    Trump’s attorneys filed a revised version of the lawsuit, removing allegations that election officials violated the Trump campaign’s constitutional rights by limiting the ability of their observers to watch votes being counted.

    Trump and Rudolph W. Giuliani, his personal attorney, have said repeatedly that more than 600,000 votes in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh should be invalidated because of this issue.

    Trump’s pared-down lawsuit now focuses on allegations that Republicans were illegally disadvantaged because some Democratic-leaning counties allowed voters to fix errors on their mail ballots. Counties have said this affected only a small number of votes.

    Cliff Levine, an attorney representing the Democratic Party in the case, said on Sunday evening that Trump’s move meant his lawsuit could not possibly change the result.

    “Now you’re only talking about a handful of ballots,” said Levine. “They would have absolutely no impact on the total count or on Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump.”
    ………
    The party’s over.

    Rip Murdock (3c07f4)

  191. Trump coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas urges Michigan to ‘rise up’ against new Covid-19 measures
    ……..
    “The only way this stops is if people rise up,” Atlas said. “You get what you accept. #FreedomMatters #StepUp”

    His message — which runs counter to the consensus of public health officials — is likely to fuel new tension between the White House and Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whom federal and state officials announced last month was the target of an alleged domestic terrorism kidnapping plot.

    Responding to Atlas’ tweet Sunday evening, Whitmer told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “We know that the White House likes to single us out here in Michigan, me out in particular. I’m not going to be bullied into not following reputable scientists and medical professionals.”
    …….
    Throughout the pandemic, Whitmer has been the focus of extreme vitriol from far-right groups. The alleged scheme to kidnap her included plans to overthrow several state governments that the suspects “believe are violating the US Constitution,” according to a federal criminal complaint.
    …….
    Because calling for the people to “rise up” against the Governor worked so well last time. Next time extremists won’t conspire to kidnap Whitmer, they will go “lone wolf.”

    Rip Murdock (3c07f4)

  192. Trump golf count. To date:
    287 outings (There are only 208 weeks in four years.)
    $142,000,000 ($142 million) cost to taxpayers.

    nk (1d9030)

  193. The case for the Oxford comma just refuses to stop rearing its ugly head.

    Some years ago I collected examples of sentences in which the Oxford comma actually increased ambiguity about what is linked and what is separate. So I’ve come down squarely on the fence.

    Radegunda (20775b)

  194. 199. I’d love to see it. (The collection, not the fence).

    lurker (d8c5bc)

  195. One absurd thing: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson went into quarantine because he;d been exposed to someone who tested positive.

    But he recovered earlier this year from a severe case of Covid, without artificial antibodies!

    What’s going on is they refuse to accept, what’s known in every other disease, that he has immunity, and even if you want to say a mild, probably asymptomatic, case can flare up, there’s too much doubt. Doubt piled upon doubt that he could ever infect anyone.

    These same people will believe is a vaccine, when it’s a known fact that a vaccine generally confers less immunity than an infection (although some of the vaccines on tap for Covid try very hard to create high levels of immunity)

    Sammy Finkelman (f6c6ee)

  196. when it’s a known fact that a vaccine generally confers less immunity than an infection

    I’m no expert, but I’m guessing the vaccine will try to give immunity to multiple strains and being infected with only one strain wouldn’t be as effective.

    Regardless of whether the vaccine can work, and it’s fair to be skeptical at first, we do know people test positive for COVID after recovering. i know everyone is sick of this year’s little preventative measures, but we are lucky that it’s not hard to isolate. We have screens and selfie cams everywhere, easy communication, cheap and awesome entertainment, and groceries and great meals can be loaded in our trunks or delivered to our doors for not much money.

    Dustin (4237e0)

  197. my point being, a leader making a show of isolating and doing the right thing is not just about the immediate issue. He’s re-iterating a norm. It’s just run-of-the-mill leadership.

    Somewhere between the New Mexico Governor and the US president is a happy medium where people can follow good advice. Reasonable people will differ about what’s appropriate, but it must be nice to have a leader who isn’t making it worse.

    Dustin (4237e0)

  198. What #201’s lament misses is that there are documented cases of reinfection. The Prime Minister follows the advice of science even though he is “bursting with antibodies”.

    The President chose a different approach than the UK. And he politicized the differences. Which makes it almost impossible to discuss any kind of cost benefit analysis without getting into a fist fight. If you think that doesn’t figure into this…

    Appalled (3b1b4a)

  199. Is there a single Secretary of State in the US that has agreed with Trump? That the election was rigged in their state?

    noel (9fead1)

  200. Homeland Security says no, there isn’t fraud. Of course the election officials in every state say the same. Is there any credible evidence of any major fraud, anywhere? Not that I have seen.

    But… the President of the United States… declares he prevailed when Biden won by six million votes and three states to spare. Just mind-blowing. On elections, he has been crying wolf for over four years. Always lacking proof.

    noel (9fead1)

  201. noel, it’s surreal. It’s not just that Biden obviously won. It’s how all the Trump fan blogs and podcasts are demanding Trump fans “rise up.” It’s the constant calls for bloodshed. I guess step one was to provoke the far left, and they are often easily provoked. The fear of lefty riots and violence has somehow opened a door for the far right to talk about civil war a whole lot more. And Trump sees this as an opportunity.

    But playing this out, if you’re cynical about democrats, just think how many doors this stuff is opening for radicals down the road. Think how rarely (if ever) this will actually work out to benefit the GOP on any policy or outcome, and how often it will push cities and the house, maybe judges, to get things wrong.

    Surreal that Team R is party to its own future failures. Not surprising though.

    Dustin (4237e0)

  202. Moderna vaccine 94.5% Effective

    Drugmaker Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine is 94.5 percent effective based on preliminary data from its ongoing trial – making it the second US company in a week to report results that far exceed expectations.

    The US government has already bought 100 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine, which is enough to vaccinate 50 million Americans given people need to have two shots.

    President Donald Trump reacted to the news by tweeting: ‘Another Vaccine just announced. This time by Moderna, 95% effective. For those great ‘historians’, please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!’

    Moderna, part of the US government’s Operation Warp Speed program that will handle distribution of the vaccine to states, expects to have enough safety data required for authorization in the next week or so and will file for emergency use authorization in the coming weeks.

    A key advantage of Moderna’s vaccine is that it does not need ultra-cold storage like Pfizer’s, making it easier to distribute.

    Moderna expects it to be stable at standard refrigerator temperatures of 36 to 48 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 days and it can be stored for up to 6 months at -4 degrees Fahrenheit.

    Pfizer’s vaccine must be shipped and stored at minus 94F, the sort of temperature typical of an Antarctic winter. At standard refrigerator temperatures, it can be stored for up to five days.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  203. On elections, he has been crying wolf for over four years. Always lacking proof.

    “Trump Russia Collusion”

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  204. The best comparison to Donald Trump, I think, is the Enzyte scam which targeted men with small penises, and it is because it targeted men with small penises what makes it the best comparison if the obvious needs to be stated.

    Petty theft on a grand scale — the scammer collected around $400 million at an average of only about $100 from each victim and ended up with a 25-year prison sentence.

    nk (1d9030)

  205. And in case you were wondering “But what bout his female supporters?”

    nk (1d9030)

  206. “Trump Russia Collusion”

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67) — 11/16/2020 @ 7:23 am

    Trump did collude with Russia ya knuckle head. You say this 500 times a day but you’re just trying to convince yourself.

    Even if we didn’t have all the direct evidence, you’d have to work pretty hard to deny Trump does all he can to make America worse and help Russia. It’s ridiculous at this point.

    Team R doesn’t mean “Republican”.

    Dustin (4237e0)

  207. “Trump Russia Collusion”

    Trump!

    To: Donald J. Trump, Jr.

    Good morning

    Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.

    The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.

    This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped along by Aras and Emin.

    What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly?
    I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.

    Russia!

    From: Donald J. Trump, Jr.

    Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer. Could we do a call first thing next week when I am back?

    Collusion!

    Dave (1bb933)

  208. @213: Good thing Don Jr. wasn’t on the ballot, just like Hunter wasn’t.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  209. @213: Good thing Don Jr. wasn’t on the ballot, just like Hunter wasn’t.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67) — 11/16/2020 @ 7:52 am

    Don Jr is a senior member of Trump’s administration and his campaign. The idea that you’ve somehow defended Trump from collusion because his most senior people, trust years later, were busted dead to rights, is a nice combo of pathetic and hilarious. Adam Sandler could voice your comments.

    You know better though. No one sticks to the same talking point this much without knowing what you’re doing. You don’t want to convince. You want to piss us off because you know we love our country and there’s nothing we can do to stop Trump from damaging it every day.

    Dustin (4237e0)

  210. @214

    The #2, #3 and #4 officers of President-Reject Trump’s campaign attended a meeting in furtherance of an illegal conspiracy with Russian intelligence operatives to procure aid to the campaign.

    Dave (1bb933)

  211. @216: Well, be sure to let Weissmann’s team know that.

    After four years, good to know it could’ve been “#2, #3 and #4 Officers Russia Collusion” instead, but too bad it wasn’t.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  212. It’s really something your defense is that you know the collusion happened, but so what, too bad, so sad.

    The king of whatabouts would have a stroke if Obama was 1% as linked to something 1% as bad.

    Dustin (4237e0)

  213. It’s really something your defense is that you know the collusion happened, but so what, too bad, so sad.

    It’s really something that you hear X when I said Y.

    Sounds like you and Dave have a scoop. Please run to your Weismann pit bulls with it, since he found nothing.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  214. Erick Erickson, who voted for Trump in GA…

    By faith, a lot of Republicans believe, just as Democrats did in 2016, that the 2020 election has been stolen through vote fraud.

    I guarantee you that there will be vote fraud and the media discredits itself by denying any fraud. There is always fraud. The question is not if there was fraud, but was it enough to alter the outcome of the election. We are starting to get a sense of it in Pennsylvania.

    Over 680,000 illegal votes were cast there, according to Rudy Giuliani and the President’s legal team. This morning the President’s lawyers have abandoned that claim. The claim was premised on Republican observers being unable to witness the counting of the ballots. The President’s lawyers are dropping that claim now because it turns out the witnesses could observe. While they could not be within six feet, it turns out there were cameras with the counters so observation via closed-circuit television could still be made. The President’s lawyers are abandoning that claim.

    The more substantive claim from the President revolves around an equal protection argument. That argument is that voters in Democrat counties could cure their absentee ballots, i.e go put their signature on the ballots after the absentee ballots were sent back. Republicans were not given that opportunity.

    Pennsylvania allows counties to do this. Republican counties in Pennsylvania for some reason did not aggressively contact voters to cure their votes. Democrat-led counties did. The GOP remedy is to toss all the votes. However, under well-established precedent, judges are not going to toss lawfully cast ballots and there is now no way to tell whose ballot goes with whose envelope. The more appropriate remedy would be to allow Republicans to cure their ballots that have not been counted. If so, there are not enough ballots to offset Joe Biden’s lead.

    In Michigan, the 234 pages of affidavits from over 100 people have been considered by a court. The judge determined the complaints are mostly based on Republican poll watchers not having gone through their training. According to the judge, if they had, many of the things they flagged would have been understood as legitimately trying to get ballots to scan. Others, under oath, acknowledged they were not sure if ballots were being duplicated. Still others walked back their affidavit claims while under oath in court.

    Also in Michigan, it turns out 10,000 dead people did not vote. Both the Republicans and Democrats in Michigan agree that the coded birthdates of 1900 on voter registration files were done to add records into an electronic database when printed voter registration files lacked a birthday. The computer system required one, so local elections officials used a birth date in 1900 as a common code to flag they were missing the real birthday.

    Less than 50 people have been confirmed to have cast ballots nationwide despite being dead. In each case, it was someone who voted absentee and then died, but boards of elections were not notified. One person in Nevada is confirmed to have had a ballot cast in her name, though she was dead, and that is under investigation.

    In Arizona, the President’s team has withdrawn much of their complaint and now only want a court to focus on 191 ballots out of an 11,000 vote margin.

    In Georgia, a hand recount is thus far showing that Dominion Voter Systems did not rig the election. The hand count is aligning with the machines. President Trump is complaining about signature verifications on absentee ballots. The problem is the GOP already participated in that process, which occurred before the election.

    In Georgia, the absentee ballots began their verification process the week before the election. Once the signatures were verified, the ballots were removed from the signed envelopes. There is now no way to reconnect a ballot to an envelope because there is no way to identify each voter’s ballot.

    The President’s legal team has won only one case. It was in Pennsylvania and applied to too few ballots to offset Joe Biden’s victory.

    As to the Dominion Voter Systems conspiracy about the CIA, seized data from Germany, etc. no one has provided any evidence so far of the legitimacy of the claims. No lawyer has thus far been willing to make those claims under oath in court. Consequently, their validity cannot be determined. Without an effort to put forward the evidence in court, they shouldn’t be considered any more legitimate than the Christopher Steele dossier.

    You can believe by faith that the election was stolen, but there needs to be some evidence for it. Thus far, the GOP hasn’t found any that holds up under scrutiny. I continue to believe there is voter fraud, but I also continue to believe it won’t be enough to alter the election. The President’s lawyers keep withdrawing claims while his surrogates on television make even more sensational claims with no evidence. This is not helpful or good.

    I don’t know if this will get through to all the Fraud Truthers out there, but it should.

    Paul Montagu (1ed8c1)

  215. I don’t know if this will get through to all the Fraud Truthers out there, but it should.

    Unlike Collusion Truthers, you mean. Give it four years.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  216. I had some fellow Republicans over to the house Saturday night. It was safe. They already had COVID six weeks ago. But they were still wearing a MAGA hat and MAGA mask.

    Anyway…. things were peaceful for a good hour and then Pennsylvania stealing the election came up. I asked for the proof but they insisted that they just needed time to gather some, of course. Then I asked the question I had been waiting to hear an answer to. I asked:

    “His UN Ambassador, Secretary of State, CIA Chief, FBI Director, Chief of Staff, his spokesman and lawyer (among many others) have all said that the man is unfit. The President is unfit for office. But you believe Donald Trump. Only him. Why? How many more will it take to convince you?”

    It took only a few seconds before the words were used. I knew they were coming. “Deep State”. I responded: “But, they are his appointees.” Then I just let it go. QAnon might have been next. And I didn’t have the patience for that one.

    noel (9fead1)

  217. Please run to your Weismann pit bulls with it, since he found nothing.

    He didn’t “find nothing”.

    They decided Junior would be able to convince a jury that he was too stupid to know that asking a foreign government to provide campaign assistance was illegal.

    Dave (1bb933)

  218. His UN Ambassador … said that the man is unfit.

    If you’re referring Haley, that was before she worked for him, no?

    Since jumping on the Trump Train she’s been #MAGA all the way.

    Dave (1bb933)

  219. Biden won places that are thriving. Trump won ones that are hurting.

    A bad economy works against the challengers, if people are afraid they will make things worse.

    Sammy Finkelman (f6c6ee)

  220. Sorry, it was National Security Advisor. I was referring to Bolton. Not Haley. But there are so many Trump critics among his appointees. Hard to keep track.

    noel (9fead1)

  221. Trump’s national security adviser acknowledges it ‘obviously’ looks like Biden won
    ……
    “If there is a new administration, they deserve some time to come in and implement their policies,” O’Brien said. “We may have policy disagreements, but, look, if the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner — obviously, things look that way now — we’ll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council. There’s no question about it.”

    During his remarks, O’Brien also called recent peace deals that Israel struck with Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates “a great legacy for [Trump] to have as he leaves office.”
    …..
    I still don’t understand why so-called “peace deals” with Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates are such a big deal. Neither of them are a front line state to Israel, Bahrain and the UAE are minor players in the Middle East, and Sudan is one of Trump’s “s**thole” countries. Now if Trump had brokered a peace deal between Israel and Syria, Lebanon, or Saudi Arabia, or reconciled the Koreas (under his “lover” Kim Jong Un, of course) that would be “a great legacy.”

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  222. 220. Erick Erickson:

    The question is not if there was fraud, but was it enough to alter the outcome of the election.

    And was it organized? People voting for deceased individuals can happen in an unorganized manner. What you hear about historical election fraud is when absentee or new votes were created by people running the election.

    The two big organized things that might have happened aren’t quite fraud, at least by themselves, and may be illegal – ballot harvesting and and vote coaching (depending on who is doing it) when someone is marking a ballot.

    Many Democratic votes were lost because of the absentee ballot system, particularly in Pennsylvania, with it’s Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes like rule to put the ballot inside an otherwise purposeless envelope – but it happens everywhere all the time. In 2018 many Democratic ballots were spoiled in one county in Georgia – it was 1/60 that amount this year. They were generally Democratic ballots because the Democratic Party promoted mail voting and Donald Trump discouraged it.

    The “bullet votes” just for president that Sidney Powell, and after her Rudolph Giuliani, talk about are not ones that were counted all at one time, but are the sum total of such votes in the entire state, and anyone who knows anything about how people vote knows there is always a small fraction of votes cast like that in any multi-office election.

    there were cameras with the counters so observation via closed-circuit television

    And at least one element of the process in Philadelphia was live streamed.

    The computer system required one, so local elections officials used a birth date in 1900 as a common code to flag they were missing the real birthday.

    I think the date of birth they used was actually January 1, 1901. Or was that not the right way to do it?

    In Georgia, a hand recount is thus far showing that Dominion Voter Systems did not rig the election. The hand count is aligning with the machines.

    Had that been going on, it would have been detected within a few hours after the polls closed.

    ..As to the Dominion Voter Systems conspiracy about the CIA, seized data from Germany, etc. no one has provided any evidence so far of the legitimacy of the claims.

    Wrong and too weak refutation.

    The whole business with vote counting software changing votes is nonsense, not because it can’t theoretically exist, whether the software was stolen from the CIA or written by North Korean hackers, but because it can’t theoretically exist without almost immediate detection in places with paper ballots or precinct level vote tabulating.

    How long did it take to discover a problem with the vote counting in the Iowa Democratic caucuses this year?

    Sammy Finkelman (f6c6ee)

  223. Unlike Collusion Truthers, you mean. Give it four years.

    Unlike the conspiracy between Putin people and Trump people to help Trump win, the Fraud Truthers have no evidence. People who have read the relevant parts of the Mueller and SIC reports know that.

    Paul Montagu (fe439e)

  224. Trump will be gone soon and QAnon will shrink into nothingness.

    QAnon kind of disappeared after the election. (except for some people promoting the ides he really won)

    I think whoever or whatever was behind it wanted Trump to lose the 2020 election.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/technology/qanon-election-trump.html

    …These are trying times for believers in QAnon, the baseless conspiracy theory that falsely claims the existence of a satanic pedophile cult run by top Democrats. For years, they had been assured that Mr. Trump would win re-election in a landslide and spend his second term vanquishing the deep state and bringing the cabal’s leaders to justice. Q, the pseudonymous message board user whose cryptic posts have fueled the movement for more than three years, told them to “trust the plan.”

    But since Mr. Trump’s defeat, Q has gone dark. No posts from the account bearing Q’s tripcode, or digital user name, have appeared on 8kun, the website where all of Q’s posts appear. And overall QAnon-related activity on the site has slowed to a trickle…

    …“QAnon believers are used to having Q’s predictions not come true,” said William Partin, a research analyst at the nonprofit Data & Society who has studied the QAnon movement. “Sometimes people get disappointed and quit. Others try to adjust the overall narrative to make the setback part of some larger plan. But it’s very difficult to do that kind of adjustment with something as large as losing the presidential election.”

    Sammy Finkelman (f6c6ee)

  225. Qanon is alive and well in the Republican Party and Congress.

    Rip Murdock (3c07f4)

  226. QAnon kind of disappeared after the election.

    They’re very busy packing and moving to Washington, to take their congressional seats in January…

    Dave (1bb933)

  227. Here’s another classic case of Trump administration hypocrisy.

    The top General Services Administration official who’s blocking President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team from accessing government resources ahead of his inauguration appears to be looking for a new job, according to a message obtained by ABC News.

    Emily Murphy, head of the GSA, recently sent that message to an associate inquiring about employment opportunities in 2021, a move that some in Washington interpreted as at least tacitly acknowledging that the current administration soon will be gone.

    She won’t declare Biden the “apparent successful candidate” while expecting to be unemployed in 65 days.

    Paul Montagu (3444cd)

  228. @233: Actually, this is another example of Montagu hypocrisy. The GSA mucked with the Trump transition while your outrage meter was on the fritz.

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/oct/25/donald-trump-got-bad-gsa-treatment/

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  229. @232: Collusion Truthers are the QAnon of NeverTrump.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  230. A pessimistic view: (probably not true but all these thins have been said) For one thing, it really doesn’t hospitalize most of its victims and for months.

    https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/10/29/the-latest-antibody-data-from-lilly-and-from-regeneron

    In the comment section:

    nobody says:
    29 October, 2020 at 3:22 pm
    To recap:

    We have a virus that has upwards of a 90% attack rate in enclosed spaces, spreads extensively through superspreading events, hospitalizes its victims for months (at best), and is so transmissible that a single outbreak can overwhelm any healthcare system within weeks.

    Monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma are almost entirely ineffective.

    Existing anti-viral drugs are completely ineffective.

    Sporadic reinfections are possible within six months of initial infection, meaning that widespread reinfections are a likely possibility over the longer term. Acquiring herd immunity though mass infection is not possible even if the death toll was acceptable.

    The best vaccines currently in testing are not expected to provide sterilizing immunity, meaning that herd immunity through vaccination will be impossible.

    The social will to impose short/medium term mandatory physical distancing strategies to protect health care systems, and minimize the mortality rate, either does not exist or has evaporated in much of the world.

    Most governments have been unwilling to ramp up production of respirators/masks of a high enough quality to allow uninfected people to protect themselves. Masks that the market generously allows ordinary people to buy are mostly only useful for source control.

    Most people are not psychologically able to cope with the kind of zero contact lifestyle that is required to keep the virus from spreading.

    Seems to me that anyone who expects ‘back to normal’ at any point in the future is being hopelessly optimistic.

    Seems to me that anyone who is completely confident that civilization won’t collapse within the next few years is also too optimistic. Europe did survive the black death, but society is a lot more fragile now than it was then.

    Sammy Finkelman (f6c6ee)

  231. https://thepostmillennial.com/blm-activist-filmed-sucker-punching-man-in-viral-video-was-recently-released-from-prison

    Surprising absolutely no one, the leftist antifa thug who cheap shot a Trump supporter knocking him out is a child molester.

    NJRob (eb56c3)


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