Goodbye Earl Trump
“Well, the weeks went by and spring turned to summer
And summer faded into fall
And it turns out he was a missing person
who nobody missed at all”
Listen, this has been really over since mid Wednesday morning. Am not sure how long The Arizona Republic has called this race, but pretty sure it has been at least a day or more. Even if the drama happy cable networks won’t acknowledge it.
But even MSNBC and CNN are chiming. So, it is really over. Goodbye Earl Trump!
Some good college football on today. ASU at USC starts it off. Houston at Cinci could be interesting. Best game could be Gators at the UGA. But the oxygen in the room goes to…..Clemson at The Golden Domers. Having Taylor Lawrence out puts a large dent in this, bet Clemson can still put up a fight.
I’ll be back in a bit with the pros.
The Chicks with Goodbye Earl.
It feels like we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and it isn’t a fast freight coming toward us.
That’s what I said I felt after I was told I passed my PhD oral on Nov 3 on this year ;-) Now I have two excuses to toast to with my bottle of celebratory scotch :)
Congrats!
Congratulations! (Now you get to be a hood!)
In honor of Stacey Abrams and all the African American women in Atlanta, Philly, Milwaukee, and elsewhere who worked their tails off for YEARS to make this happen, cue the Raylettes: “Hit the road, Jack, and dontcha come back no more, no more . . .”
Don’t forget the Squad, as they hit the pavement and I think put Joe over the top in MI. It’s the kind of flyover country outreach we need to see and can do once it’s safe enough from COVID-19.
cool
The guy who wrote Goodbye Earl, Dennis Linde, was a treasure. He was terribly shy and wrote all of his songs by himself, in his basement. He built a model of a small town in that basement, with small people and buildings and cars. That’s where somebody stuck Earl in a trunk, and where nobody was concerned that he was missing. If Dennis were still around maybe he’d make is a little Donald Trump and stick him in a little trunk so everybody could forget about the sob. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Linde
That is superb!
Indeed!
“The Slingshot” political cartoon (Oct 2020) by Portuguese artist Vasco Gargalo is perfect for today.
https://www.aneddoticamagazine.com/vasco-gargalo-the-slingshot/
(Sorry that the mainstream media didn’t call this election sooner with the combined AZ and NV election returns. Nevertheless, happy that GA and PA had a chance to show their true patriotic colors)
Lol, I am just grousing. Relieved it is at least over for the media. Now for the rest.
Great song bmaz, thanks for the Chicks and Parsippany native Jane Krakowski, one of my all-time favorites.
Is the GA D good or bad? Watching the reptiles v canines.
Hell Yeah!
“Black Ladies”: America’s Early Warning System. (h/t Stephanie Miller)
Such a great day. Not only for us in the USA, but for the whole wide world :)
Tom Boggioni reports that Julia Davis wrote, “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.’ Popov was not alone in his grief. “Unfortunately, Trump lost,” Russian politician Leonid Kalashnikov lamented. “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?”..political scientist Ilya Graschenkov, stating, “This whole time, we’ve been living with an illusion that Trump is ours,” Popov shot back, “Trump is ours, but couldn’t lift anti-Russian sanctions because of the legislation signed into law by Democrats.
This is not the worst scenario for Russia. It is the best scenario for Navalny’s new Russia :)
Disconnect putin’s russia from SWIFT. He won’t last until 2036. His head will be on a pike in 2022.
Pardon my French, but the Independent’s Carli Pierson is out of her fucking mind to suggest that the “lonely,” but “right” decision would be for Joe Biden to pardon Donald J. Trump. Her suggestion is so laughable and willfully ignorant, it’s tempting to think she’s been newly released from Bedlam, or that her article is clickbait or a Republican plant.
Were Biden to act on Pierson’s suggestion, it would doom his administration from the start, along with the prospects of the Democratic Party. It would limit him and Harris to a single term, and destroy the hope of the many people harmed by Trump who helped elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Pardoning Richard Nixon was one of Gerald Ford’s most despicable acts. He did not do it to heal the nation, as he claimed, but to save the Republican Party. Ford stopped our grieving in its tracks, and precluded the investigations, disclosures, and reform that were necessary following the nightmare of Dick Nixon. Pardoning Donald Trump would be a far greater error.
As for any suspected deals with the GOP that might relate to such a pardon, is there any group on the planet better at yanking Lucy’s football than Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party? https://twitter.com/Independent/status/1325135133452738565
I concur with your sentiment, because we are talking real and chronic criminality (outside the legal framework) instead of mere differences of opinion (within the law). We should learn that letting Nixon off the hook let Stone continue, that letting Reagan and Poppy Bush off the hook emboldened AG Barr (and Stone), and letting W and Cheney off the hook gave us the dumpster fire of rank criminality that the WH became.
The theory is that such a pardon will “put things behind us” and let the nation heal, however that assumes good faith on the part of the MAGA cult which is nowhere in evidence. One can’t negotiate with nuts, I’m sure you and the rest of the legal team understand that concept very well.
The great and recently-departed journalist Robt. Fisk turns in his grave at this suggestion.
That is sad news indeed. I had not heard that Robert Fisk had died.
I learned a great deal about the Middle East (and us) from him. RIP
Last week, in Ireland, his long-time home, at 74. It was mentioned in an earlier thread. The Irish Times and Guardian covered it.
Political and business leaders in America need a large dose of consequences.
Pardoning Trump would let all those powerful people escape the consequence of being publically exposed as having willingly enabled Trump’s criminality.
Yes Jennine, you can become President. And if you are a bad President then you can go to jail. US Presidents are subject to the rule of law. Look at the fate of 45.
Trump was as much symptom as cause; he was/is a symptom of American anger at failed institutions. Without justice, our institutions can’t repair or prosper.
* justice, not retribution
Failed institutions isn’t accurate, though. For most of Obama’s administration the GOP resisted anything but budget cutting and deregulation. This was at the heart of the failures leading up to Flint’s water crisis as just one example; the GOP at both federal and state level undermined safeguards and budgets for clean, safe drinking water.
If there’s a failed institution it’s the Republican Party and we need to say that clearly and hold them accountable rather than the people who worked for the institutions who tried to make them work but were hamstrung all the way.
Trump was elected because too many Americans bought the 13 years of The Apprentice propaganda depicting him as a competent, wealthy executive along with his manifold lies that only he could fix things.
Americans sought the easy way out and got burned. Our problem: communicating clearly to them they were ripped off and there are no short cuts to repairing the damage.
Pardon 45 for what? This means the premise here is that Trump did something illegal, and the answer is to ignore it because some misplaced utopia argument?
We need transparency on what has happened, with everything exposed so we understand why the institutions failed one by one.
We barely made it, and not courtesy of the institutions, rather we had to wait for four years to an election, and work really hard to convince the American electorate to show up in large numbers and vote him out because everybody failed on doing their damn jobs.
Aside from investigating Trump, Co, family, we probably need reforming the political system as well.
Thinking about how WH didn’t respond to any Congress oversight, subpoenas, as an example.
Why have norms, if they can be ignored by a candidate / President?
A candidate that cannot get a security clearance, should not be on the ticket.
A pardon for Trump at this moment in history is at the minimum being lazy.
What is hard is to thoroughly investigate, administer justice, reform the system.
Pardoning Trump would not heal division or bring the country back together. It would destroy it. It would be like releasing a fascist after a failed putsch, but with a clean record. Never know, he might be Chancellor some day. It would sow the seeds for an entire crop of would be Trumps.
Its not, Earl Trump, its Lord Dampnut. (anagram)
Or Lord Tandump
I can’t stop laughing about Trump’s last campaign press conference. It was outside the sparsely-painted, cinder block building of the Four Seasons Total Landscape company, next to a not-top-rated sex shop.
I guess when you’ve grifted so much money from your own official campaign, and lose, you don’t want to spend an extra dime. That said, it’s among the classiest things Donald Trump has ever done.
Rudy was so impressed with Borat’s daughter, he hired her to do event scheduling.
It will be interesting to see how many suits do get filed and who pays for them. I note that the NV suit that fell apart Friday was not filed by the DJT campaign, but by people without real standing and a phony case. So, when Rudy says he’s filing suit(s) on Monday I recall that DJT had been saying in the last week or so of the campaign that he had many lawyers and suits ready to go, so where were they all week? The press should report when the suits show up on the docket and no sooner.
I heard an election expert on the radio who said that the Trump campaign would have to pay $3 mill. for a recount in one of these last states that were in dispute. The delicious part is that Republicans had passed this law in the state to punish a third party in a previous election.
That’s better than some pumkin pies I’ve eaten.
LOL
Grift is a major reason for the suits. Dear Leader can fundraise to “stop the steal”, and use the proceeds to pay the campaign’s debts – or maybe just pocket the $.
Best guess is that he wanted it at the Four Seasons and announced it before the arrangements were made, and when the hotel noped right out of it, they went with “anything that says Four Seasons”.
Competence ‘r’ not them.
And now 4 Seasons landscaping can’t get the Rudy stench out of its manure piles.
My 13-yr old daughter came running out of the house,screaming “IT’S OVER!” holding up her phone.
My 15-yr old daughter was helping me finish the window well on the basement egress for her new room. She started crying. We gathered up and danced a jig. I cried, great relief, great joy.
On Thursday, my oldest daughter came home from school, clearly upset. I asked what’s wrong. She said the freshman boys on the bus were chanting ‘rape, rape’ and ‘grab them by the pussy.’ And when they saw two 8th grade girls walking on the ride of the road, they yelled to the bus driver, ‘hit those bitches.’ One of those girls was my 13 yr old.
This is a rural, very conservative part of VT, where massive Trump flags hang from balconies and rip from trucks rolling coal. Trump’s words hold great sway with the men in town who spend their day working solely with other men, listening to country music and Fox News on the radio. The message obviously trickled down to their sons.
Those boys are getting a whole new message come Monday morning at school. It’s time for accountability.
I am so sorry this happened to your daughter and family. Please be safe.
As some one told me a long time ago, the best revenge in life was living well. It has sustained me over the decades. Having said that, I wouldn’t mind spending 5 minutes with the parental units of those boys.
It’s really disturbing that so many of the men in town don’t acknowledge or even care how their words infiltrate and their behavior gets modeled. These guys yap about ‘accountability and welfare moms buying filet mignon and bottles of wine’, rail about the ‘nanny state’ and ‘gubermint.’
We have a whole lot of work ahead of us. Speaking up. Running for office. Challenging authority. And continuing to vote.
Thank you! Always really enjoyed the Dixie Chicks, but that video has to be my favorite. A good ending for an abusive husband. gee wonder how it would end if tr……..met Na, its a gains the law but a body can dream.
EarlTrump is not taking it well.3:53pm Nov 7:
3:54pm Nov 7:
The Downfall parodies are likely to understate what’s happening now in the White House Bunker.
Best response to Trump’s tweet:
Cheri Jacobus Retweeted | Cheri Jacobus | @CheriJacobus
·
Trump is the Tonya Harding of politics.
Quote Tweet
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
· 2h
THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM!
This claim about election fraud is disputed
Mother Jones on Trump.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/11/how-trump-lost/
Not that I am a fan of rehabilitating war criminals… but George W. Bush’s silence is becoming conspicuous, especially since his brother, Jeb, has sent congratulations to President-elect Biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris. Where, oh where is Dubya?
Sail on, sail on, oh mighty ship of state.
To the shores of need,
past the reefs of greed,
through the squalls of hate.
Sail on, sail on, sail on.
https://youtu.be/vHI9BTpGkp8
Amen & thank you!
Mathieu von Rohr on Twitter: 12:49 PM · Nov 7, 2020
A tale of two @derspiegel covers
https://twitter.com/mathieuvonrohr/status/1325133192341254144
When he got COVID I didn’t hope he’d die. I hope he has a long life of 3 squares a day (or maybe 1 if the prison is trying to pump up its profits).
Two things that Biden and Harris can do which will undo some of the worst actions of Trump and William Barr:
Oppose the efforts to extradite and prosecute Julian Assange.
Oppose the upcoming executions of two federal prisoners November 19 and December 8.
“It’s not over until it’s over.” We need to remain sober and vigilant until all the key electors are certified in mid-Dec.
Yep – second that sobering thought. I won’t be able to fully exhale until January 20, let alone the 12/15 elector certification. Plenty of time for loser’s mischief.
AOC has this right. Progressives are not the Democratic establishment’s enemy. They did not cost Joe Biden votes, they took him over the top, unlike the Lincoln Project and John Kasiches, who, while entertaining, brought in only a handful of Republican votes for Biden. Nor is the enemy policies that directly address America’s ruthless financialized health care apparatus or the global environmental crisis.
In my view, pay-to-play politics, lobbyist bundled cash, and preserve the most conservative Democratic incumbent at any price priority, those are the enemy. Complacency and a refusal to change are the enemy. Harkening back to some mythical, more peaceful time is the enemy. No such time existed: the dreams of it elide the sharp edges and the generations of harm done to others.
Americans don’t want to work hard, suffer financial loss or ruin, and survive Covid in order to channel their money into the pockets of a few dozen billionaires. They want to work hard for their families and communities and their collective futures. They need their government to provide the financial, educational, and health care policies that allow them to do that.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/08/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-ends-truce-by-warning-incompetent-democratic-party
There are a lot of red areas in the country. How are democrats going to win in these areas?
For instance Rep. Collin Peterson lost in MN, large rural district, despite the fact he helped farmers with subsidies.
He voted against impeaching Trump, and as Rayne pointed out at the time, MAGA is not going to return the favor anyway…
Don’t know why, maybe the local media in those areas, FOX, Sinclaire, QAnon…
In the cities, we were bombarded by negative ads against him, I can only imagine how bad they were in his local district, they worked…
The negative ads against Ilhan Omar didn’t work because there is a large immigration population in her district, and the Reality Check segment in the TC local news also helped.
So, don’t know what the solution is, but wanted to point out that an AOC message is not going to resonate in these districts.
Talked to a young guy in the rural area, early this year, his parents, die hard democrats, however he voted for Trump in 2016, and he said he is even more entrenched all-in for Trump, he also voted for Trump in 2020, maybe brought few of his friends along this time. In his family, he is fighting with his parents because of the difference in political views. They behave as a cult, it is not rational, no policy message is helping with them.
The divide is real. Democrats need to play a long term game and vision. And fix the polling. You cannot win if you have no clue where you stand.
The other issue I see, the democrats are settings expectations too high so setting themselves for failure.
This is why on election day, because the race seemed so close, people started to panic, I did as well.
As far as the Lincoln project, look for people that split their ticket, voted for Biden at the top, republicans down ballot, there is indication that it happened and helped Biden. Time will tell, too early now.
Democrats need to do better with message development framed for more conservative districts. They also need to go door to door, can’t phone it in. Sadly, the pandemic may have been part of the problem, but finding more creative ways to do outreach is essential.
There are examples in other districts like Rep. Slotkin’s in MI-08 (won re-election in R+4 district) and Rep. Haley Stevens in MI-11 (also won re-election in R+4 district). Not as red as Peterson’s R+12 district but proven methods. Betting outreach to MN-07 Hispanic and Native American voters was lacking, possibly youth outreach as well.
Voters respect reps they know are fighters and they will forgive different positions if they know the reps are taking a stand on local issues.
Having Biden in place helps — being able to say they called the Bureau of Land Management and got something built or a policy changed really resonates, whereas over the past four years everything was decided on partisan grounds.
The house will also need to change its approach to hearings. Having one hearing a week per committee and five minutes per member won’t cut it. Hearings are a key way for reps to get credibility, and years of right wing inactivity means there is a lot to cover.
The key is to require committee and subcommittee chairs to start imposing structure so that GOP reps look like the idiots they are if they screw around. Rules changes are needed, and a lot more work needs to happen at the subcommittee level instead of the committee level.
Having chairs that know the committee’s field would help a lot, instead of doing it by seniority only. (I’m looking at Richard Neal.)
Reaching to Native American voters could be one of the long term goals for the Democratic party. If the democratic party aligns with the Native American voters is going to help in the red areas, where most tribes are, and it has a moral purpose.
They are struggling to keep their native language alive, poor areas, etc.
The natives that are hunting with my husband, they hate Trump, but I am not sure how many voted in this election.
They could possibly counter the young white man MAGA.
Her message may not resonate, but successful implementation of the policies she advocates will. Even Ayn Rand rushed to the bank every month to cash her Social Security check.
Perhaps they need to start addressing the needs of women to such an extent that it actually impacts significantly the lives or at least the perceptions of women in states that are currently moderately or heavily GOP heavy. Harris’ speech on Saturday evening certainly emphasized that sort of talk. Now what needs to be done is to make it real and apparent the difference between bible thumping scammer rhetoric of the 19th century and DP progressive policies that need to be implemented to help women all over the nation and the world.
Lindsey Graham says the quiet parts out loud, too, except he thinks it’s a an effective message: Overturn this election, or “there will never be another Republican president.”
Is that a promise, Lindsey? Or is it like your 2016 criticism of Donald Trump or your commitment never to approve a Supreme Court nominee in an election year?
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/11/lindsey-graham-overturn-election-or-there
What a weasel! Would be so satisfying if democrats win the Senate…