I love that clip.
I’ve quoted it for years.
Red Dwarf was really well-written.
My neighborhood also does have a lot of cats and sometimes front doors and brick walls get sprayed heavily.
Relatable on a lot of levels.
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Trump has tweeted out “STOP THE COUNT!” even though stopping it wouldn’t exactly help him right now.
It’s also worth noting that, if counting were stopped now, Biden would win the presidency because he is ahead in Nevada, which would get him to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.
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Oh, pshaw…don’t you understand that scenario would be contrary to long-held norms and would require our institutions failing to step in? What possible reason could you have to believe any such thing is even on the table!? Other than the last four years of evidence, I mean…
I am 100% convinced that if not for his handling of Covid, he’d have swept to reelection with something like 40+ states. Almost no Republican bore any political cost for aligning with Trump. Trump may & probably will lose, but Trumpism certainly did not.
Hell, McConnell is already sending signals that any Cabinet nominees from Biden need to be vetted by him, or they are a non-starter for confirmation. These people still believe (and are not entirely wrong) that they are in control of government.
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Coconino, too.
For those who don’t know their Arizona counties: Pima’s got UofA, Coconino has NAU (my alma mater), and of course college towns tend to have concentrated progressive populations. ASU is in Maricopa County, and the area surrounding ASU is pretty blue, but the county is huge and there are more than enough conservative areas to counterbalance that. And when I say “conservative” I mean batshit-fucking-crazy, Debbie Lesko/Andy Biggs territory.
Some more on the returns as they return: azcentral/the Arizona Republic has one of those shitty “only show part of the headline on the homepage” things going on this morning.
Homepage shows headline: “In latest batch, Trump gets share of votes he would need to reclaim AZ”
Click through and full headline is: “In latest batch, Trump gets share of votes he would need to reclaim Arizona. But next rounds of ballots present new challenges”
That “But” is kind of fucking important. Me, I’d have gone with the shorter and punchier “Trump could still win Arizona, but probably won’t”.
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?
Members of the president’s cabinet need approval by the Senate?
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@Melizmatic
My particular hope is both. Health so bad he can’t even tweet while NY and every other state possessed of a state attorney general with an ounce of integrity prosecutes him for all the illegal shit he’s done. And his family.
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Heads of any agencies do (Dept of Education, Labor, Secretary of State, etc.).
But he could ignore McConnell and just make them all acting like Trump did. I hope Biden stands his ground on this, but if the GOP controls the senate (likely) there will be zero movement on nominees. No judges. No cabinet members. Nothing will move.
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Let’s not have all the warrants and subpoenas waiting outside the Whitehouse ready to pounce. That will just make him bunker down.
You have to pretend that all is fine, maybe lure him with “dancing girls” or porn stars, or maybe a yellow brick road. Then when he’s away from the Whitehouse, pounce.
Or maybe a Trojan horse will work.
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Just because I’m like that, I’d avoid words like “victory looms.” It might be peeking over the horizon. Barely. I want it as much as anyone, but pre-result triumphalism seems inapt.
I know! How elitist-sounding.
Yup–they require confirmation of the Senate, and then serve at the pleasure of the President (i.e. can be fired for any reason or no reason by the President unilaterally). Usually it’s only a problem if the nominee is wildly unqualified, which, unsurprisingly, was an issue for Trump. His solution was to appoint a bunch of “acting” Cabinet heads, who served permanently.
It’s always been the norm that the President is given wide latitude in his own Cabinet and it isn’t appropriate for the Senate to deny confirmation simply based on a preference for someone else, but obviously the GOP no longer feels bound by that system.
I really wonder what the GOP Senate will choose if (jebus willing) Biden wins and an effective vaccine is introduced early enough next year to give us a chance to get the economy back on track. Do they sabotage it for another four years to give them a chance to retake the Executive, or do they try and get a booming economy that they can take credit for back home? Fuck if I know.
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Now there’s a statement I really never wanted to hear. Fuck it; I’m going back to bed.
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Government shut down. I guarantee it. Ted Cruz will pull the usual “we need to cut spending,” the budget will be held up, and away we go again.
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The GoP yelling about spending during a Dem admin is just them saying don’t spend money on people other than our constituents and donors. A food fight.
If Biden wins somebody should really go and check the gold stash in Fort Knox.
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It’s not surprising - he’s got a lot to offer a lot of people.
Just think of the bigots, misogynists, homophobes, transphobes, racists, islamophobes, plain old cruel and mean, greedy, shouty, crass, bullying, lazy, superficial, and entitled there are in the US - Trump has something for all of them without any of that boring policy or leadership to get in the way.
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Although during the Obama administration the GOP changed that norm of giving latitude to the president for judicial nominations (not just the supreme court)
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Trump is, by himself, a big tent for people who are angry at somebody. They can overlook how bad he is for their group because he’s going to be worse for the group they hate. I saw this most clearly back in '16 when a large number of Indian-Americans we knew voted for Trump because they saw him as “tough on the Muslims.”
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At least none of the real lawyers seem to be taking Trump’s claims seriously. He’s depending on the guys who just debase themselves for him on TV now.
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As a bunch of folks are pointing out–we probably make a mistake to believe the strategy is to “win” as we understand it at this point. This is a team of goons, not a team of lawyers who can win a case. It’s much more likely that the strategy is to create chaos and sow distrust; as many sharpiegates and piles of burning ballots and 100k ballot “dumps” and whatever other nonsense they can pump into the proceedings becomes truth to their cult, no matter what the courts ultimately rule. And then?
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