Meanwhile, In Cincinnati...

Just got an email from work that our hospital is full and all elective surgical cases have. Even cancelled. No transfers allowed to hospital. Driving home, passed a restaurant that was full. Shaking my head. Frustrated is an understatement.

— Syed A. Ahmad (@SyedAAhmad5) November 29, 2020

Donald the Loser has not spent a minute of his time on the pandemic since he was defeated. Now, he's saying that the FBI and the Department of Justice were involved in rigging the election.

At what point does it become obvious to the casual observer that Donald Trump has lost his mind, that he's nuttier than a boxcar-load of peanuts?

At what point does the 25th Amendment come into play? Someone who is as unhinged as Trump has no business being around anything sharper than a pair of safety scissors.

What Donnie the Sore Loser (and Traitor) Got for $3 MIllion

Wisconsin finished a recount of its presidential results on Sunday, confirming Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump in the key battleground state. Trump vowed to challenge the outcome in court even before the recount concluded.

Dane County was the second and last county to finish its recount, reporting a 45-vote gain for Trump. Milwaukee County, the state’s other big and overwhelmingly liberal county targeted in a recount that Trump paid for, reported its results Friday, a 132-vote gain for Biden.

Taken together, the two counties barely budged Biden’s winning margin of about 20,600 votes, giving the winner a net gain of 87 votes.

That's right: Loser Donnie spent $3,000,000 to get Biden more votes at a cost of nearly $35,000 per vote.

So Trump's going to file yet another baseless lawsuit to add to the long list of losses he's racked up in court.

So much losing.

When all this is over, and when the various states' disciplinary committees state looking at all of the false claims and fraudulent representations mayde by Trumpist lawyers to the courts, don't be surprised if 2021 has a wave of disbarments.

Your Sunday Morning Big Prop Noise

A Hawker Sea Fury, which was missing from last week's post.

For Fun

 

Is Hollywood Dead?

The New York Times is running a long article about how the pandemic and streaming is taking a wrecking ball to Hollywood.

All of it may be true. But this is my opinion:

Imagine, if you will, that you swing by a highly-rated restaurant and pick up a couple of meals to go, with all of the trimmings. You set the table, pour out some good wine, and have a candlelit meal with your loved one. You put the various courses on plates, serve them, and enjoy them immensely.

Is that the same as going to eat at that restaurant? Not even hardly. The experience of going out to eat is lost, even the bad things that can happen (finding a parking space, getting a ticket or being carjacked). It's a takeout dinner at home and, other than the actual food, is no different from bring home bags from McDonalds or cartons from local Chinese kitchen.

So it is with watching a movie at home. Watching a movie at home is watching television. Whether it's interrupted by commercials (broadcast networks, basic cable) commercial-free (premium cable) or on a steaming service, it's still sitting at home, watching television.

Sure, you don't have the annoyances, like some schmuck using his phone during the movie,[1] but you also miss out on the experience of going to the movies.

The entertainment industry consoles itself by thinking of how they came back from the pandemic of a century ago. The counter to that was that even if movie theaters closed in 1918, they reopened in 1920 because there was no other choice. People didn't have movie projectors in their homes, let along orchestra pits.

It's quite possible that going to a movie after the pandemic runs its course,[2] may be a lot harder. Movie theaters may be few and far between. But still, even if Regal and AMC both go Tango Uniform, those buildings are still going to be there. Not all of them will be converted into Fleecing the Faithful operations.[3] or will be razed. Some will be there for those willing to take the risk that some people will want to see movies in a theater and not watch them on their televisions (or phones).
_________________________________
[1] Something that should merit summary execution.
[2] Not "brought under control". Thanks to the fecklessness of Donald Trump and those infected with Toxic Libery and Freedom Syndrome, the chance of bringing the pandemic under control, as was done in other nations, has long been closed.
[3] AKA "megachurches".

More Bullshit from the Loser-in-Chief

One day after [thoroughly defeated] President Donald Trump said he would leave the White House on January 20 barring a massive revolt from Electoral College voters, Trump walked back his statement on Friday.

In a tweet, Trump says that President-elect Joe Biden will only be allowed in the White House if he can prove that he had 80 million votes.

That's nothing but Grade-AAA Fine Bullshit. Biden has won 306 electoral votes. He doesn't have to prove anything to Trump the Loser. Those who allege fraud and the like have the burden of proof.

This was a free, fair and secure election, Trump's unhinged and delusional whining to the contrary.

But there will be no shortage of Trumpanzees who will now parrot that Biden has to prove that there was no fraud. Every Trump supporter who claims that is proving that they are not loyal to this country, they are only loyal to Trump. Oh, they love to claim that they are patriots, but they are nothing but yellow-bellied traitors, every last one of them.

Caturday

A cat relaxes after too much turkey. All he needs is a remote.

(That cat wasn't the only one who is lazy; I just downloaded a photo from the Internet.)

A Sign of How Badly Trump Has Degraded Our Electoral System

{Lame Duck] President Donald Trump [Loser, '20] still won’t bring himself to concede the election he decisively lost to President-elect Joe Biden. But he’s now acknowledging he will leave the White House if Biden’s win is affirmed by the Electoral College, which is firmly on track to do just that in a few weeks.

That it's even a question as to whether or not Trump would acknowledge the vote in the Electoral College shows just how far he's dragged down this country.

How far, you might ask. This far:

Since November 2020’s election, tweets from Trump and his inner circle show how close the Trump campaign is in tone and style to Russian disinformation—@DonaldJTrumpJr, “Ever notice the “glitches” only go one way?”. Yet the current campaign by the president and his allies is different in one important way: total impact. The president has brought disinformation to an audience that the IRA could only dream of. In the week following Election Day, the hashtag #StopTheSteal was used over 1.5 million times on Twitter. Russian disinformation operations have shown some success, but Trump’s campaign has been in an entirely different league in terms of impact. The aftershock of Russian disinformation operations in 2016 strained some Americans’ trust in the electoral process Here, the president—armed with baseless conspiracies about voter fraud—is challenging that trust like never before. No need for Russian trolls; this damage is completely self-inflicted.

Let that sink in for a moment. Trump is doing Putin's work in attacking the electoral system in this country.

Sadly, millions of Trump's supporters have fallen into line. Whether they have simply drunk too deeply of the Trumpist Kool-Aid or they really have no loyalty to their country is a question to ponder. And those two postions aren't mutually exclusive.

That means if you are still following Trump's line on this, you may wave Old Glory around as much as you want and believe you are being patriotic, but you are not. You are either delusional or a traitor. Or both.

Meanwhile, Trump the Loser keeps on losing in court, where facts still matter:

[Loser] President Donald Trump’s legal team suffered yet another defeat in court Friday as a federal appeals court in Philadelphia roundly rejected the campaign’s latest effort to challenge the state’s election results.

Trump’s lawyers vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court despite the judges’ assessment that the “campaign’s claims have no merit.”

“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” 3rd Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote for the three-judge panel, all appointed by Republican presidents.

Because Trump can't stand the idea of losing, he'll cheerfully wreck the electoral system with his baseless charges of fraud. But that's to be expected. For if one thing is clear, Trump doesn't give a shit about this country, or anything else, other than himself.

Because It's Friday

The CT Valley RR:

Happy Thanksgiving

On a number of radio stations back in the day, playing the entire song was a Thanksgiving tradition. Some of them were commercial stations-- almost nineteen minutes of no commercials. And some of them played it twice, at noon and 3 PM.

The judge was really blind, he had a Seeing-Eye dog. He played himself in the movie (as did Officer Obie).

I hope that if you're in America, you and yours have a good Thanksgiving. Try not to punch out your racist uncle or your commie nephew.

And please, enjoy the day without resorting to rampant consumerism.

Or burning down your hostess's house.

(The previous is a complete repeat from previous years. So sue me.)

Looking back over my previous Tanksgivings posts, there were good times and not so good times. Some of the ones when I was younger became family legends.

This one has the potential to spark a lot of family stories. There will be the families that stayed apart because of the pandemic. There will be the families that took a chance and gathered together. There will be the families that did get together and had a family superspreader event. Hopefully, there will be few of those.

I wish everyone a safe day.

Supreme Court to America: Die, Fuckers, Die

The Supreme Court has pledged its fealty to the Death Cult of Jesus:

As coronavirus cases surge again nationwide the Supreme Court late Wednesday barred New York from enforcing certain limits on attendance at churches and synagogues in areas designated as hard hit by the virus.

Packed religious services have been super-spreader events. This isn't a matter of the people who willingly choose to risk getting infected at the services (if that was the case, then it's on them), it's everyone that they spread the virus to. It's akin to the Morons of Sturgis, who spead Covid-19 to nearly every state in the nation.

That the Supreme Court has closed its eyes to that and, instead, become infected with Toxic Libery and Freedom Syndrome, is a national disgrace. It is a cultish decision that ignores reality.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

One Corrupt Fuck Pardons Another

[Lame Duck] President Donald Trump pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday despite Flynn’s guilty plea to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts.

Yeah, like nobody saw this coming. Roger Stone is next up.

Of course, if, for some reason, Trump or Jared or someone is investigated, Flynn would not be able to hide behind the Fifth Amendment. But that's probably not terribly likely.

Trump's pardon will not erase the judgment of history, which will record that Flynn was an unregistered foreign agent and possibly a spy for one of our adversaries.

Career Planning

Seriously, though, what are comedians going to do for the next four years? Joe Biden is boring and competent; neither of which are comic gold.

That's Got to Chap Trump's Ass

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 30,000 points for the first time Tuesday as progress in the development of coronavirus vaccines and news that the transition of power in the U.S. to President-elect Joe Biden will finally begin kept investors in a buying mood.

80% of Trump's campaign was, essentially, "Lookit the stock market!" So yes, this has to burn bigtime.

42 Years

The WKRP Turkey Drop episode aired on this day in 1978.

Murphy Spreads the Bullshit

From GSA Administrator Murphy's letter to President-elect Biden:

Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts. I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official—including those who work at the White House or GSA—with regard to the substance or timing of my decision. To be clear, I did not receive any direction to delay my determination.

I call "bullshit". Murphy damn well knew that if she stepped outside of Trump's "this election was stolen" parameters, that she would be fired, just like Chris Krebs was fired for stelling the truth on the security of the election.

The post-election antics of Republican officials and Republican politicians have been filler for a thick book to be titled "Profiles on Cowardice" (feel free to suggest other titles). They've kept silent as Trump has thickly spread his propaganda that the election was stolen, as aided and abetted by the Right Wing Noise Machine on radio, TV and the Internet.

The difference between Trumpist propaganda and Russian propaganda is miniscule, at best. Every person who has parroted that crap, from Trump on down, has been either a gullible fool or a foreign agent.

Gutless Motors Can Read the Election Returns

General Motors is switching sides in the legal fight against California’s right to set its own clean-air standards, abandoning the Trump administration as the president’s term nears its close.

CEO Mary Barra said in a letter Monday to environmental groups that GM will no longer support the Trump administration in its defense against a lawsuit over its efforts against California’s standards. And GM is urging other automakers to do the same.

Yeah, it's not as though GM cares for safety, the environment, its workers, quality, or anything else other than looking good in its quarterly reports to the vultures on Wall Street.

This is simply a case of rats leaving a sinking ship.

Reality Smacks Trump Upside the Head

The General Services Administration ascertained Monday that President-elect Joe Biden is the “apparent winner” of the Nov. 3 election, clearing the way for the start of the transition from President Donald Trump’s administration and allowing Biden to coordinate with federal agencies on plans for taking over on Jan. 20.

The two-week temper tantrum of Trump is effectively over.

One wonders how long that this could have gone one before a reasonable conclusion could be made that Trump was delusional and the 25th Amendment would be exercized. But that would have never happened, because Mike Pence doesn't have the balls (or the integrity) to make such a move.

Oh, Trump will keep sending in his Legal Moron Squad to make fact-free arguments, but that was always about Trump conning the gullible for more donations.

Putin is Unwilling to Give Up on a Useful Tool

President Vladimir Putin says Russia is willing to work with whomever is officially declared the next president of the United States, but that he won’t offer congratulations until the winner is formally decided or a candidate concedes. 

Putin’s remarks broadcast Sunday on state television reiterate earlier Kremlin comments on why Putin had not congratulated Joe Biden after major news organizations called him president-elect, as did many other world leaders.

Putin's pretty loyal to his servants as long as they serve Putin's uses. But once he's done with them, he has no qualms about disposing of them.

Once Trump is out of the White House, he may want to consider having either Jared or Eric taste his food and sip from his drinks a few hours before Trump consumes them.

Only the Best Lawyers Can be Had for $20K/Day

The judge is asking questions as though he is talking to a competent lawyer. He is not. https://t.co/rq38KrvDNF

— Rick Hasen, Mr. Practicing Attorney (@rickhasen) November 17, 2020

Fucking unbelievable.

Scratch that. It's totally believable.

Also, this:

"If you have got the evidence of fraud, present it," [Chris] Christie said on ABC, where he is a contributor. He decried efforts by the President's lawyers to smear Republican governors who have not gone along with the President's false claims of voter malfeasance.

"Quite frankly, the conduct of the President's legal team has been a national embarrassment," he said, singling out Trump attorney Sidney Powell's accusations against Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.

Given the threadbareness of the case for Trump, I would not be surprised if some from his legal team end up before their respective state bars on ethics charges.

That goes double for Rudy.

Shorter Gavin Newsom: Do As I Say, Not As I Do (Until I Get Caught)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday apologized for what he called “a bad mistake” in attending a birthday party that broke the very rules that he has been preaching to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

He has suffered severe political backlash since it surfaced Friday that he and his wife attended the party Nov. 6 with a dozen friends at the pricy French Laundry restaurant in wine country north of San Francisco.

Yeah, sure he's sorry. I guess he was chanelling Leona Helmsley: Coronavirus restrictions, like taxes, are for the little people.

What he's saying in his apology is that he's a lemming, that he doesn't have a spine.

Smackdown du Jour

Lol pic.twitter.com/33pHz0txB8

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) November 21, 2020

Nailing both Trump and that smarmy prick Rivera in one blow. Well done.

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

Four low passes: Warhawk, Mustang, Coursair and Spitfire:

(Sorry, no Seafury)

Trump Fiddles While the Nation Burns

While His Fraudulency, the Bunker Boy is huddled with his Twitter acccount, crafting even more and more outandish theories to explain why he's going to be wrongfully evicted from his home on January 20th, the coronavirus continues to tear through this nation:

Bunker Boy is more intent on doing Putin's work, ripping away at the fabric of American democracy (as aided and abetted by Lickspittle Lindsey and Moscow Mitch) than on lifting a finger to do anything, let alone say anything, about the pandemic.

At this point, the GOP should change their animal avatar to either a chicken or a weasel. Both are more representative of the character of today's Republican politicians.

The only interest Trump has, other than plotting the most inept coup attempt in history, is golfing. The G20 summit is being held virtually; instead of attending a meeting about the pandemic, His Fraudulency played golf.

While world leaders met on Saturday to discuss preparation efforts to contain and alleviate the coronavirus pandemic in the next few months, President Donald Trump appeared to be golfing.

CNN reported that leaders from Germany, France, South Korea, and Argentina were scheduled to participate in the event. But noticeably absent was Trump, the leader of the country making up the largest share of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in the world.

More Stupidity from the Christian Taliban

A church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is receiving online criticism due to a packed crowd at a recent indoor gathering — and its plans to hold a Thanksgiving event.

For Victory Church’s Nov. 22 Friendsgiving, the megachurch is encouraging its members to “bring a neighbor.”

“We always look forward to this meal with you. All of our campuses will be participating at their facility,” the church wrote on Facebook.

The plans come while the city and state are in the midst of a major COVID-19 surge. Tulsa reported 616 coronavirus cases on Nov. 14, 455 the following day and 398 on Nov. 17 — the three highest totals since the pandemic began.

The coronavirus has no respect for one's beliefs or creed. But what it has proven itself to be is a stupidty test, and a lot of people are failing it.

Unfortunately, it is the healthcare workers who end up bearing the brunt of it, caring for those who were too stupid to take precautions, or who got infected from a stupid member of their family.

Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. There is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

Some things are timeless. Human stupidity in the face of knowledge is one of them.

Caturday

Chip plays with a globe:

It seems like a good metaphor for our times.

For Thanksgiving, Please, Stay the Fuck at Home!

With the coronavirus surging out of control, the nation’s top public health agency pleaded with Americans on Thursday not to travel for Thanksgiving and not to spend the holiday with people from outside their household.
...
The CDC issued the recommendations just one week before Thanksgiving, at a time when diagnosed infections, hospitalizations and deaths are skyrocketing across the country. In many areas, the health care system is being squeezed by a combination of sick patients filling up beds and medical workers falling ill themselves.

This shit isn't rocket science, people.

• Wash your hands frequently.
• Practice social distancing.
• Wear a mask when you leave your home.
• Don't go out if you don't need to.
• Avoid places where people are acting ignorantly.
• And stay the fuck out of bars!

That doesn't sound terribly hard to do. It's not as though you're being asked to give a pint of blood every four weeks, use only three gallons of gasoline a week or go storm the beaches at Normandy.

But we can't do it. We, as Americans, can't engage in simple acts that would serve to limit the spread of this virus, because of an innate selfishness or, as a friend of mine calls it, Toxic Libery and Freedom Syndrome.

So we're basicaly putting all of our trust in two or three unproven vaccines because we're a nation of stupid children who cannot be trusted to do what is right, as egged on by the tantrum-throwing toddler in the White House.

Because It's Friday

Double-headed Garratts:

"This Is Who We Are?"

Public health directors are quitting because they are fed up with the death threats from the Rumpanzees and the QAnon conspiracy loons

One is speaking out. She asks some good questions:

Why aren’t you listening? Why do you refuse to hear from the people who actually know about this disease and how it spreads? We like to believe we take good care of each other here. We pride ourselves on being a down-home community that sticks together, and now this is how we treat each other? This is who we are?

It is. It's one thing to disagree on policy and ideology, but denying scientific facts and then threatening people who disagree with you? That's not just wrong, it's unhinged.

As for those still following Trump on his The Election Was Stolen From Me Crazy Train, they are either lunatics ot traitors.

Trump Continues to Purge People Who Operate on Facts, While Republicans Keep Trying to Steal the Election

[Lame Duck] President Donald Trump fired the nation’s top election security official, a widely respected member of his administration who had dared to refute the president’s unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud and vouch for the integrity of the vote.

While abrupt, the dismissal Tuesday of Christopher Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, was not a surprise. Since his loss, Trump has been ridding his administration of officials seen as insufficiently loyal and has been denouncing the conduct of an election that led to an embarrassing defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.

That made Krebs a prime target. He had used the imprimatur of Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security, where his agency was based, to issue a stream of statements and tweets over the past week attesting to the proper conduct of the election and denouncing the falsehoods spread by the Republican president and his supporters — without mentioning Trump by name.

The problem for Krebs was that he is one who operates on a basis of objective reality, a place where facts matter. That's not the realm of Trump nor his party; they believe in making up bullshit and pretending that their twisted view is as valid as any other

Which it is not. Republicans are now the party of insanity.

Meanwhile, in Michigan, Republicans tried acting like Stalinists:

In an abrupt about-face, Michigan’s largest county on Tuesday night unanimously certified election results showing Democrat Joe Biden defeating President Donald Trump, hours after Republicans first blocked formal approval of voters’ intentions.

The initial move was quickly condemned by Democrats, election experts and spectators at the Wayne County Board of Canvassers online meeting as a dangerous attempt to block the results of a free and fair election.

Remember these names: William Hartmann and Monica Palmer. They are Trumpists and sheet-wearing racists, people who tried to disenfranchise an entire city that is predominantly Black. They are emblematic of the fuckery of Republicans, who will stop at nothing to steal this election from the American People, who turned out in record numbers to turf out Trump.

They deserve to go down in history for who and what they have proven themselves to be.

A Slap on the Wrist, UK Ed.

Ex-Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said Tuesday he has been reinstated to the U.K. opposition party after a three-week suspension — a decision that touched off fury from Jewish leaders angry about anti-Semitism in Labour that flourished during his tenure.

Corbyn was suspended after he said the problem of anti-Semitism in the party had been “dramatically overstated” for political reasons. His comment followed a scathing report from the U.K. equalities watchdog, which found “significant failings” and a “lack of leadership” in how the left-of-center party handled allegations of anti-Semitism among its members.

A three-week vacation after Corbyn basically spent years either closing his eyes to anti-Semitism (best case) or egging it on (worst case)? That's a slap on the wrist, if even that severe.

Basicaly, Corbyn has retracted nothing, apologized for nothing. He's only saying that he was misunderstood, the poor baby.

Between Corbyn and Mini-Trump, there's not very much to like about UK politics.

Nice Shot, Meghan

In light of tonight’s news....

*sorry I had to, the meme is too funny. pic.twitter.com/lo6xHqCbk0

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) November 13, 2020

Georgia Secretary of State, a Republican, Accuses Fellow Republicans of Trying to Steal the Election

He's getting death threats because he's not playing along with Lickspittle Lindsey and the rest of the Trumpers.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that Republican leaders such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have been putting pressure on him to exclude legal ballots in order for President Trump to be declared the winner and earn the state's 16 electoral votes.
...
Raffensperger said he and his wife have received death threats recently, including one that read, “You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it,” he told the Post.
...
Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) has also been critical of Raffensperger, accusing him of siding with Democrats because he has not backed voter fraud claims more fervently.

In response to Collins's accusations, Raffensperger said, "I’m an engineer. We look at numbers. We look at hard data. I can’t help it that a failed candidate like Doug Collins is running around lying to everyone. He’s a liar."

Trumpists are unhinged. They are entitled to their own beliefs, sure, but they are not entitled to their own set of facts.

Fact: COVID-19 is a real virus. It is not "just another flu".

Fact: Over 250,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. When the excess deaths from not seeking treatment for other things, or seeking treatment toolate, are added in, the toll is over 350,000.

Fact: COVID-19 was not engineered in a Chinese bioweapons lab.

Fact: The election this month was the most secure in American history. There is no evidence of massive voter fraud.

Fact: Even when Trump managed to put together a task force to uncover massive voter fraud in the 2016 election, that task force found nothing.

Fact: Donald Trump lost his bid to be re-elected, fair and square.

This is reality. There are descriptive words for those who deny reality.

Well, maybe the election wasn't exactly fair and square. Donald Trump lost in spite of Republicans' decades-long efforts to rig the system, as this guy has pointed out:

It does, indeed.

Dying From Stupidity

Trump's alternative reality propaganda is killing people:

South Dakota ER nurse Jodi Doering has seen some disturbing examples of COVID-19 denial as she works through the pandemic.

After a Twitter thread of her experiences started circulating, Doering appeared on CNN's New Day on Monday to describe how South Dakota hospitals are overwhelmed with coronavirus patients — and yet some of them don't believe the virus they have is real. While many patients are "grateful for the care they receive" from nurses, some COVID-19 patients spend their last moments refusing to call family and friends because they're convinced they're going to be fine, Doering said. "Their last dying words are, 'This can't be happening. It's not real,'" Doering recalled. In some cases, patients even insist they have the flu or lung cancer to avoid acknowledging the coronavirus.

People are being aggressively stupid in much of the country. It's akin to some guy who has a BAC of .25 and then gets killed in an accident; It's hard to muster much sympathy for him, but he killed other people on his way off this mortal coil. So it is with the Covidiots; they're infecting other people because they are living in an alternative reality where the virus isn't real (and Trump won in a landslide).

This pandemic is functioning like a global SAT test, and America is scoring about 450.

It is Time to Face a Bitter Truth

In that there has been no credible evidence of massive voter fraud anywhere in the country, this fact is now obvious:

One can either be loyal to Donald Trump or loyal to the United States of America. One cannot be both. Those who persist in their loyalty to Trump are helping to tear down this country. They are, in truth, doing the work of Vladimir Putin, who would like nothing better than to see Americans tear down their own democracy. Yes, if you buy Trump's lies, you are one of Putin's useful idiots.

If you are still loyal to Trump, then stop saying the Pledge of Allegiance. You are lying every time that you do, you treasonous putz.

Let's Light This Candle

50% chance of a launch at 7:27pm EST for SpaceX's first regular flight to the ISS.

The March of the Bitter Dead Enders, in 1/100th Scale

Saturday’s “Million MAGA March” in Washington D.C. failed to live up to its name, in that only thousands of people—nowhere near a million—gathered in the nation’s capital over the weekend to protest the right of their fellow Americans to vote for someone other than Donald Trump to be President.

Less than ten thousand people showed up to march in Trump's Alternate Reality Parade. That didn't stop Kayleigh McEnany, otherwise known as Baghdad Bob's Biological Daughter, from inflating the crowd size by over a factor of 100.

This election, other than the Georgia runoffs, is over. That won't stop our Toddler-in-Chief from throwing his temper tantrums while the cornonavirus burns throughout the country.

I keep reading calls by Democrats to "let bygones be bygones, let Trump throw his fits and when he goes, pardon him and put this behind us".

To that I say:

Fuck That Noise!

The longer this Trumpist bullshit goes on, the more and more I believe that the proper remedy is to strip the bark off Trump, the Trump Ogranization and his kids; to make plain to the world what a pack of criminals they are. And before you start saying that's wrong and unfair, let me remind you that is exactly what the Senate Republicans tried to do to Joe Biden and his family. The Senate Republicans went after Hunter Biden and, in the last month of the campaign, were stuck with having to quietly issue a statement that there was nothing to see.

Bill Barr tried to open bullshit investigations of this election, only to have his prosecutors come back and tell him there was nothing to see.

That's before we get into the pasta bazillion Benhazi investigations, which found nothing, or the Clinton email investigations, which found essentially nothing.

So now, let it be Trump's turn in the barrel. My guess is that by the end of 2021, Trump will have been indicted.*
___________________________
* He's one hell pf a flight risk, which should call for a bail amount in the ten figures.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

A 1/6th scale model of an An-225:

Yep, Just Turning the Corner on Covid, Donnie

The numbers keep getting worse, setting new records each day for the number of new cases.

Don the Defeated came out of his Bunker of Butthurt yesterday, to speak to reporters about the pandemic and all of the things that he is taking credit for. It was mostly a tissue of lies and half-truths. In other words; same shit, different day.

Caturday, Guest Critters Ed.

From over a dozen years ago, the Budweiser Clydesdales make a wintertime appearance:

A Brief History of Coffee

It can be found here, at Coffee or Die.

306 Electoral Votes

That's where Joe Biden stands, plus a popular vote margin of over five million.

FYI, in 2016, Trump had 304 electoral votes and lost the popular vote by three million.

That's going to leave a mark.

Potusgeist

Heh. Heh. Heh.

You should also read "I Guess I Just Expected More From This Country", which is a bit of a downer.

(H/T)

More...

Trump's superspreader rallies have resulted in over 130 Secret Service agents getting Covid-19. It should be obvious to even the most casual observer that, to Trump, everyone who works in the White House is disposable.

Michael Gerson recognizes that White Evangelicals have shown that they utterly lack character as well as morals.

Because It's Friday

A grade and wet rails can be a challenge.

At least there weren't leaves on the rails.

Our National Embarrassment-in-Chief Continues His Childish Temper Tantrum

President Donald Trump has publicly disengaged from the battle against the coronavirus at a moment when the disease is tearing across the United States at an alarming pace.

Trump, fresh off his reelection loss to President-elect Joe Biden, remains angry that an announcement about progress in developing a vaccine for the disease came after Election Day. And aides say the president has shown little interest in the growing crisis even as new confirmed cases are skyrocketing and hospital intensive care units in parts of the country are nearing capacity.

Things are getting worse.

But Trump cannot find it within himself to do his job. No, he just sits there in the White House, scarfing down junk food, rage-tweeting about imaginary voter fraud and only showing his face to play golf.

Meanwhile, the adults whose job it is to monitor security say that there was no problem with this election:

Election security officials have no evidence that ballots were deleted or lost by voting systems in this month’s U.S. election, two security groups said in a statement released on Thursday by the lead U.S. cybersecurity agency.

“There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” the groups said about the Nov. 3 election won by Joe Biden, a Democrat.
...
The groups, the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council Executive Committee (GCC) and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council (SCC), said the election was the most secure in U.S. history.

“While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections and you should too,” the groups said in the statement released by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
....
Top U.S. cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs, who worked on protecting the election from hackers, has told associates he expects to be fired, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

White House officials have asked for content to be edited or removed that pushed back against numerous false claims about the election, including that Democrats are behind a mass election fraud scheme. CISA officials have chosen not to delete accurate information.

The truth doesn't matter to Republicans, only appeasing the elderly toddler who is the head of their party. They're cowering in a corner as Trump drives this country into a ditch, all because he is so, so consumed by his case of butthurt.

Republicans are showing their loyalty runs to their party, not to their country.

And, Gentle Reader, if you are following Trump on this, the same is true of you.

Trump’s Roller-Coaster of Doom

We keep going up and up.

When the Guns Fell Silent

An audio recording of the last thirty seconds of the First World War, and the first thirty seconds of the peace:

OTD in 1918: Interminable shelling gives way to the sounds of birds as guns go silent, signaling the end of World War I

Always incredible from the @I_W_M pic.twitter.com/VKrOie0335

— Observation Post (@MilitaryTimesOP) November 12, 2020

What's interesting was how little time it took for the birds to be heard.

The Republicans Are Still Trying to Steal the Election

In at least two states (Michigan and Pennsylvania), the Republicans are plotting to have the electors vote contrary to the state's popular vote. In other states, it's a continuation of baseless lawsuits and calls for investigations that have as much grounding in fact as searching for a sasquatch.

The Republicans' favorite lies is that this is about "defending the integrity of the election". It is not. It's about trying to steal the election. It's about pleasing their party leader, El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago.

We are close to the point where any Republican who stands up and recites the Pledge of Allegiance should be first put under oath and then be prosecuted for perjury. For they are all lying. They are not loyal to the Flag and to the Republic for which it stands. They are loyal to their party, to Trump.

Republicans are proving that they are not Americans. They are Trumpers. They do not believe in democracy, they are the party of dictators, of destroying freedom. The only saving grace has been that, as a wannabee autocrat trying to seize power, Trump has been, as he has been at everything else, stunningly incompetent.

Meanwhile, those who are foolish enough to donate to Trump's Steal the Election Fund should know that at least half of their donation is being redirected to Trump's campaign debt. Trump ran his campaign the way he has run all his businesses: Right into the ground. His campaign began the year with a warchest of unprecedented size and blew it on a lot of frivolous bullshit. Now he's seeking to grift his supporters to cover his debts.

That's probably the bottom line of all of this GOP post-election bullshit: Trump needs the money that he's grifting from the gullible.

With Trump, it's all about the grift. That's been true for decades.

102 Years Ago

The guns went silent on the Western Front.

We in the U.S. are not as big on commemorating the day as they are in the Commonwealth nations. Which is a bloody shame.

As Our Angry Toddler-in-Chief Keeps Throwing Hissy Fits, the Pandemic Worsens

If you thought things were bad five days ago, when we went over a hundred thousand new cases a day, well, guess what:

Things have gotten worse.

But Trump cannot spend a moment of his time on the pandemic. He's instead rage-tweeting and filing baseless lawsuits and trying to come up with ways to rig things so that he can seize power.

Yes, things are going to get worse. Nobody in any position of authority at the Federal level can or will do anything, because Trump is so consumed with rage and resentment over losing the election.

If anything is done to slow the pandemic, it's up to state and local leaders. And since a goodly share of governors are in the Party of Trump, well, it's going to suck even more if you live in a red state.

For this is the unofficial motto of Trump's Coronavirus Task Force: Die, Fucker, Die.

A Presidential Venn

El Trumpo Continues His Hissy Fits

A Trump administration appointee is refusing to sign a letter allowing President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team to formally begin its work this week, in another sign the incumbent president has not acknowledged Biden’s victory and could disrupt the transfer of power.

The administrator of the General Services Administration, the low-profile agency in charge of federal buildings, has a little-known role when a new president is elected: to sign paperwork officially turning over millions of dollars, as well as give access to government officials, office space in agencies and equipment authorized for the taxpayer-funded transition teams of the winner.

It amounts to a formal declaration by the federal government, outside of the media, of the winner of the presidential race.

But by Sunday evening, almost 36 hours after media outlets projected Biden as the winner, GSA Administrator Emily Murphy had written no such letter.

Butt-Monkey Barr has given the DoJ the green light to investigate fraud if any is found to exist:

Attorney General William Barr has authorized federal prosecutors across the U.S. to pursue “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities, if they exist, before the 2020 presidential election is certified, despite no evidence of widespread fraud.

Barr’s action comes days after Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump and raises the prospect that Trump will use the Justice Department to try to challenge the outcome. It gives prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election is certified. ... On Monday night, the Justice Department’s top prosecutor for election crimes, Richard Pilger, said he would step down from that post in response to the attorney general’s memo, according to an email he sent to colleagues and obtained by the AP.

Meanwhile, even Fox News has had enough with Trump's lies:

Moments into a Trump campaign press conference on Monday afternoon at which White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany charged that Democrats were “welcoming fraud” and “illegal voting,” Fox News host Neil Cavuto had heard enough.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, I just think we have to be very clear. She’s charging the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting,” Cavuto said, interrupting the video feed of the briefing, which McEnany said she was conducting in her “personal capacity” rather than in her official White House role. “Unless she has more details to back that up I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this. I want to make sure that maybe they do have something to back that up, but that’s an explosive charge to make — that the other side is effectively rigging and cheating.”

I have varying feelings about this. On the one hand, Trump is ginning up the paaranoia and frothing of those elements of his base that are batshit crazy. We'll see more protest by Trumpist lunatics with guns. Trump and his base are doing the work of the Chinese and of the Russians, both of whom like nothing better than to see Americans tear down their own institutions.

Think of that: If you are one of those parroting baseless claims of fraud, you are one of Putin's useful idiots.

On the other hand, what Trump is doing, right now, is sealing his historical legacy as one of the worst presidents in American history. The spirits of Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon and Warren Harding are smiling and saying to one another: "Hey, even we weren't as bad as that guy."

Coronavirus (and a Vaccine)

The first story on tonight's news was about the pandemic.

So much for Loser Trump's claim that nobody would be talking about the pandemic after November 3rd.

We still lead the world in cases, 113,822 new cases in the last day.

The drug maker Pfizer announced on Monday that an early analysis of its coronavirus vaccine trial suggested the vaccine was robustly effective in preventing Covid-19, a promising development as the world has waited anxiously for any positive news about a pandemic that has killed more than 1.2 million people.

Pfizer didn't take any government money, they didn't want to be wrapped up in the Trump-politicized Operation Warp Speed.

A couple of qualms: This is the preliminary analysis of the data, so we don't know if the 90% effective claim will hold up. Second, the transport requirements (the vaccine has to be stored and transported at -70degC [-94degF]) may be problematic for distribution.

There's a lot more to learn about this vaccine. Those who remember the 1970s may feel a need to be cautious.

By the way, the University of Notre Dame is full of idiots, right up to its president. If you or your kids are looking at schools, consider going somewhere else.

Guys Like This Have Badges

An Arkansas police chief who posted calls for violence against Democrats on social media resigned from his job on Saturday.

Lang Holland, who was police chief of the roughly 1,300-person city of Marshall, Arkansas, drew outrage from both local residents and people around the country after making ominous comments online in recent days. In addition to repeatedly saying Democrats should be killed, he shared memes from conspiracy theory QAnon and claimed that the election was being stolen.

"Death to all Marxist Democrats," Holland posted on Parler, a new social media site popular with conservatives and used as an alternative to Twitter. "Take no prisoners leave no survivors!!"

One image he shared depicted a group of Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, wearing prison jumpsuits. Under the image he wrote: "I pray all those in that picture hang on the gallows and are drawn and quartered!!!! Anything less is not acceptable."

These people exist and they have guns. They love parading around with them.[1]

But they forget: The rest of us also have guns. And, as of January 20th, the Federal cops will be working for a president who actually believes in the rule of law.
_________________
[1] There is probably an inverse relationship between the size of their Armalite and the size of their johnson.

Post-Election Memes

The Concession Call

The 2020 election found closure today after victor Joe Biden received a phone call from his opponent in the race, Vladimir Putin, conceding the election. Though some had expected the concession call to come from President Trump, the Russian leader said that would not be right.

“You do not leave important gestures like this in the hands of your puppet.”

I'll Take "Another Reason Why 2020 Sucks" for Five Hundred

Alex Trebek has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 80.

Caturday, Memorial Edition

Sammy, 2002 (or earlier)-2020

Sammy was the cat of my co-blogger, Eck!. He was adopted after Boo passed away. Sammy was already an old man; his previous owner (or servant) was also elderly and had to move into a care faciity where pets were not permitted.

He was kind of a gentle giant of a cat, he loved his humans. In recent months, he began showing signs of kidney disease, which is a common problem with geriatric cats. Last night, it took a hard turn for the worse, and it became his time to go over the Rainbow Bridge.

Fair winds and following seas, Sammy.

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

A Mk.18 Spitfire:

Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Proof

That's my message to those claiming massive fraud: Show your proof. If there's massive fraud, you should be able to easily produce massive evidence of that.

So far, other than the rage-tweeting of Soon-to-Be-Former President Trump, there's nothing. Oh, there's some fourth-hand rumors of boxes of fake ballots that turned out to be photography equipment and lies about the use of Sharpies, but all of that is smoke, mirrors and bullshit.

If you're claiming fraud, you must show real proof. Not innuendo, not conspiracy theory manure, real proof suitable for admission in a court of law.

Otherwise, quit wasting our time and shut the fuck up.

A Song for Trump

If you're racist and you're fired, it's your fault,

If you're racist and you're fired, it's your fault,

If you're racist and you know it and you use Twitter to show it,

If you're racist and you're fired, it's your fault.

Need I Say More?

 

Caturday

Chip is watching the world go by.

But He Was Turning His Life Around!

An up-and-coming Chicago rapper was one of three men killed Friday morning when a fight outside a downtown Atlanta nightclub escalated to gunfire, and police working in the area attempted to intervene.

Investigators believe King Von, whose real name was Dayvon Bennett, was fatally wounded in the parking lot of the Monaco Hookah Lounge on Trinity Avenue prior to the officers’ involvement, according to Atlanta police. The GBI has not confirmed that account and is still working to determine who fired the fatal rounds that killed the rapper and two other unidentified men.

.... Bennett was arrested in Atlanta last year along with Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Derrick Banks, following a February shooting outside The Varsity that left a man seriously injured, AJC.com previously reported.
He was charged in June 2019 with aggravated assault, criminal attempt to commit murder, participating in criminal street gang activity, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, Fulton County Jail records show. Less than three months after his release, he was arrested again by Atlanta police on an aggravated battery charge.

Rock stars, back in the day, did drugs and the worst crimes that they did involved trashing hotel rooms. But rappers seem to think there is some glory in getting into gunfights. What is the allure of living as though they are in a 21st Century equivalent of an 1880s Arizona boom town? Bullets don't care whether some dude is "up and coming". A fes seconds transformed him from "up and coming" into "dead and on a slab."

This guy, who was no stranger to acting the fool, got into a beef with a bunch of people outside of a hookah lounge at 3 in the morning? And the rest is a shock, somehow?

This episode was a classic "stupid people in stupid places doing stupid things."

What is Wrong With Trumpanzees?

Two men armed with loaded handguns were arrested Thursday near the Philadelphia convention center where an ongoing vote count could decide the presidential election, police said.

Joshua Macias, 42, and Antonio LaMotta, 61, traveled from the Virginia Beach, Virginia, area in a Hummer and did not have permits to carry the weapons in Pennsylvania, police said.

They were arrested after the FBI in Virginia relayed a tip about their plans to Philadelphia police. Officers stopped the men on the street about a block away from the vehicle, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. ... A silver Hummer with Virginia license plates was parked Friday at the location where police say they found the men. It was adorned with an American flag and a window sticker for the right-wing conspiracy theory QAnon.

These people are dangerous as hell and it's been going on for years. Those who follow conspiracy theories and sign onto groups such as QAnon belong in locked wards on a steady diet of powerful drugs.

No Surprise For the NYPD

One of their "bad apples" was the guy who was in charge of EEO policies and enforcement.

An anonymous and prolific poster on the Rant, a law-enforcement message board where current and former police officers vent, often in racist, misogynistic, and homophobic terms, may be a high-ranking NYPD officer in charge of fighting workplace harassment. This morning the City Council Oversight and Investigations Division released a report on Deputy Inspector James Kobel, who appears to have posted hundreds of racist comments using the pretty unimaginative nom de plume “Clouseau.”
.....
Councilmember Ritchie Torres called the report “a bombshell” and one of his final acts as chair of the City Council’s Oversight and Investigations Division before he heads to Congress. One of Torres’s investigators connected Kobel, who has been on the force for more than 28 years, to Clouseau by matching personal details Closeau dropped in his anonymous posts to publicly available information about Kobel. For example, Clouseau said that he joined the police department on June 30, 1992, the same day Kobel joined the NYPD. Last October, Clouseau mentioned that he’d proposed to his wife on December 10, 2005. A New York Post gossip column published on December 15, 2005 congratulated Kobel on his engagement. Clouseau and Kobel share other commonalities, including the year their fathers died (at the same age, after serving the same length of time in the NYPD), the date their mothers died, and the fact that they’re both the youngest of seven children.

Until yesterday, Kobel, 50, served as commander of the NYPD’s Equal Employment Opportunity Division, a subunit of the department’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, whose mission is to foster “an equitable and inclusive work environment” through work that has a “direct impact on how our employees interact with the diverse communities we serve.” Kobel’s unit, the EEO division, was responsible for facilitating changes in guidelines, including “the NYPD’s policy on pregnancy and lactation, beards, religious head coverings, and transgender policies.”

And nobody at the NYPD knew that the racist/sexist/homophobic asshole on "the Rant" was the guy in charge of EEO policies and enforcement for the NYPD?

Yeah, sure they didn't know. Inspector Clouseau was being supervised by whom, Capitane Renault?