Make a plan, vote!
Conservative New Hampshire paper backs Biden — its first Democratic endorsement in 100 years
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/25/media/new-hampshire-union-leader-democrat-endorsement-joe-biden/index.html
White House chief of staff: ‘We are not going to control the pandemic’
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/25/politics/mark-meadows-controlling-coronavirus-pandemic-cnntv/index.html
Many midwest Democrats stayed home in 2016. Will they turn out for Biden?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/24/democrats-midwest-voter-turnout-2016-biden-2020
Women’s history shrine donates trove of artifacts to Library of Congress and National Park Service
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/10/25/womens-history-donation-vote-suffrage/
Murkowski, in a Turnabout, Says She Will Vote to Confirm Barrett
Universal mask wearing could save almost 130,000 lives from coronavirus, epidemiologist says
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/24/dr-ali-mokdad-says-mask-wearing-could-save-130000-lives-from-coronavirus.html
Have a great Monday!!
and some music,
Ava Max – OMG What’s Happening
Before I read any further, here’s a little tidbit about the “New Hampshire Union Leader,” né “The Manchester Union-Leader.” It’s about William Loeb, the long-deceased owner/publisher. If Lyndon LaRouche (a nutty native of New Hampshire) had joined the John Birch Society and bought a newspaper he would have been William Loeb.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Loeb_III
About those “Midwestern Democrats”:
Yesterday my Black husband (I’m not throwing this in gratuitously, you’ll see why) and I spent a quiet day squabbling and snacking our way through stuff around the kitchen. Could I tell him how to find out if his mailed-in (“absentee”, we still don’t have mail-in voting and probably never will) ballot was received? “I’ll just do it for you. Yes, according to the ballot tracker your ballot was received by the Board of Elections and deemed valid, but it’s NYC, so who knows if it’s ever going to be counted. Right now, out of neglect and incompetence, it’s probably on its way to a landfill in South Carolina or something.”
We have a little wall-mounted TV in the kitchen so while we were grazing like dairy cows in the Midwest some Sunday show was discussing Midwestern Voter Turnout. Whoever was bloviating touched the third rail and mentioned that the races in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania were so close and if only Hillary had gotten the level of Black support Obama got in 2008 and 2012…
“So I’M to blame for Trump?”
“Of course not. New York went something like 2 to 1 for Hillary. Your relatives in Detroit might have stepped up to the plate though. And you legitimately went to Wharton and got a real MBA from there, not the phony BA that Trump’s father bought for him. Did you ever think to reach out to your friends who stayed in Pennsylvania?”
“So it IS my fault? How many white men like you voted for Trump?”
“Not many, I’m guessing. Here, the dog is doing his little tap-dance, let’s take a family walk and we can talk about something more affirming, like whether one of us has Covid-19.”
They won’t be able to blame him this time!
It Sure Seems Like Black Folks Are Fueling The Record Number Of Early Voters
To be clear, I’m not blaming Black voters. I think a lot of the blame for trump’s 2016 win was misplaced. I blame the the Mercers, Adelsons, Koch’s, DeVos’, and their ilk.
That’s a chain of thought among some white people, apparently, rightfully debunked on places like The Root. The response goes something like, “Why do you expect us to save you from yourselves? Vote your own white asses. We’ve been doing the hard work for centuries. Did we even get a ‘thank you’? Hell no. If some 27-year-old lily white ‘college’ kid can’t get his off the sofa and vote, why should we expect elderly, health-impaired Black people to wait in line for hours because voter suppression just to cast a legal ballot?”
We have voter suppression in NYC but it’s not racially tinged, it’s to preserve incumbency, no matter who the (almost always a Democrat) is. I couldn’t tell you who my Congressperson is. He or she appeared on my absentee ballot and I can’t even remember if the Republican Party fielded a candidate against whoever it was. In New York it’s won in the Democratic primaries and the machine is so powerful the incumbents often face no opposition.
That’s one of the things that made AOC’s win so earth-shaking. She primaried against an entrenched Queens hack, leader of the Queens Democratic club no less, one of the largest in the country, and Nancy Pelosi’s second-in-command. He was expected to take over if Nancy Pelosi ever relinquished the gavel. She’s 80 so you’d think any day now, but oh no.
So we’ll see. It should be an exciting November 3rd.
Has The Better Half read this:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/other-swing-voter/604474/
Kendi lays out a solid argument that while Black turnout was lower in 2016, it was largely because the DNC continues to take them for granted so they didn’t really feel the need to face all of the suppression to go cast a vote for someone they didn’t really like. It’s not the fault of Black voters. It’s the fault of a political establishment that continues to use them for their votes and then cast them aside once those votes have been collected.
Some environmental news:
Japan will become carbon neutral by 2050
‘Zombie batteries’ causing hundreds of waste fires
Southern Voters Strike Back Part II —
Following in the wake of Bolivian voters overturning a right wing coup and voting an ally of Evo Morales into office, now Chileans have overwhelmingly voted in favor of throwing out Pinochet’s constitution in favor a document to be written by popularly elected representatives:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/26/chile-vote-scrap-pinochet-constitution
The vote follows in the wake of constant demonstrations that all began when a small group of high school students protested a rise in public transit fares. Protests gradually swelled into a mass pro-democracy movement.
US right wingers have had a sick fascination with Pinochet from day one, with modern day sickos like Erick Erickson suggesting the US needs a leader like Pinochet who orders opponents to be thrown to their deaths from helicopters. Libertarians have long shown their stripes by waving away his abuses by saying how orderly he kept the economy.
Now we can (hopefully) take our own big step toward democracy in a week.
thanks for both. so nice to hear south america starting to coming out the right wing cloud that had descended over it the last few years
What do you bet this knucklehead is going to continue to hold “protest rallies” or some bullshit if he loses this election? He’s not going to give up the spotlight until the last minute, if even then.
Look for the orange shitgibbon to charge admission. That $421 million dollar bill ain’t gonna pay itself.
…I don’t know if anyone else is interested…but it seems like there was a bit of drama over the waters?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-54684440
…& in case it’s confusing…the SBS are like the marine equivalent of the better known SAS…so describing a little over a dozen of them dropped onto an oil tanker as representing “overwhelming force” might be a bit of an understatement
Understatement indeed. The SBS probably initiated a dialogue: Hullo. There are 12 of us out here and we should like to point out that we are not here to serve you tea.
The clattering sound was the hijackers dropping their weapons and sprinting for the door with their hands up whilst simultaneously soiling themselves.
…if they knew what was good for them, certainly
…many years ago a guy I knew who worked behind the bar in an establishment oft frequented by squaddies told me a tale remarkably similar…for context it’s worth knowing that serving members of the SAS aren’t supposed to disclose that they’re in that line of work
…so there’s a bunch of loudmouths in the place generally spoiling everyone’s evening & making out like they’re big boys who’ll happily take it outside if anyone tells them to mind their manners
…& then one of his regulars comes in as the assholes make their way to the bar demanding another round…so he pours him his usual & while attending to the others’ order they have a little chat
“say – how many times is it you applied to Hereford for that transfer?”
“oh, I’m up to seven now.”
[…cue much tittering from the bunch of tits busy making everyone miserable]
“how many times they turn you down?”
“half a dozen…”
[…bunch of tits exit stage left as though pursued by the proverbial bear…leaving a row of untouched pints they’d just paid for on the bar]