…you know what didn’t need to be made worse than it would have been?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/10/11/trump-stimulus-talks
…stupid question, really
…these days the list of obvious answers is longer than it has any business being
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/10/trump-coronavirus-test-week-surreal-reality-show
…but as you may have guessed by now…I’m talking about monday…a day that has murdered more weekends than any other by such a margin that even monday gets sick of it a few times a year & forces tuesday to do its dirty work…this is…not one of those weeks
…& speaking of dirty work
…but you know that isn’t the business of the day…because it’s the judicial environment they want to render toxic & fetid today
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/read-amy-coney-barrett-s-full-opening-statement
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/10/politics/barrett-second-amendment-supreme-court/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/amy-coney-barrett-bush-gore/2020/10/10/story.html
…so…can we be clear about this…she was pretty much a shitty judge…& not even for long…so there is (& I say this advisedly) exactly no good reason she should sit on the bench of the Supreme Court
“Sen. Harris is someone who always does her homework. She’s prepared. She’s thorough. And she’s often one or two steps ahead of the witness.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/harris-supreme-court-barrett/2020/10/10/story.html
…but lets face it…the sunk costs fallacy is some serious shit…& having deep pockets doesn’t stop you having a shallow grasp of it…so there’s not exactly a shortage of people prepared to hurl good money after bad…although once some of these folks get their hands on it it ain’t exactly clear you can call it good money any more
Whereas some campaigns might communicate with supporters for the purpose of grass-roots organizing […] Trump emails I receive have only one purpose: to gin up contributions. And the solicitations are unlike any I’ve ever seen. Tonally, they diverge wildly from past presidential campaigns — or from anything that might be termed “presidential” at all.
Instead, they embody Trump’s lifelong habit — borrowed from his career in New York’s notoriously unscrupulous real estate world — of making unethical, comically dishonest pitches. In a simpler time, Republican politicians and conservative talking heads made money by selling their audience to advertisers peddling investment advice, gold or unproven cures for erectile dysfunction. Now, the huckster making dubious promises is the president himself. Trump’s campaign blew through a once-massive fundraising advantage, spending more than $800 million of its $1.1 billion haul before early September. In August, the last month for which data is available, former vice president Joe Biden outraised Trump by $155 million. By late September, Biden had $141 million more in the bank than the president did. Not coincidentally, Trump’s fundraising entreaties are becoming increasingly implausible and desperate.
For proof that Trump thinks his political supporters are a bunch of suckers to swindle, just look at how he gets them to part with their money, alternating between flattery and abuse: You’re one of the president’s finest supporters, you are told, and that’s why you personally have been selected for this opportunity to give him money — except when you’re told that you’ve let him down by not donating enough. The campaign’s apparent hope is that the recipient will crave Trump’s approval and seek it through generosity. Sometimes, the praise and shaming are deployed in concert, as in this July 14 pitch nominally sent by the president himself: “I’ve asked my team to pull the records of my BEST donors – our most loyal Patriots who I can always count on when I need them the most. I’m disappointed to say that when I asked for your file, they told me you showed up in the BOTTOM 1% of all Trump Supporters.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trumps-campaign-lures-donors-with-absurd-financial-promises–and-insults/2020/10/09/story.html
…& I know some of these aren’t technically monday things…but they still suck & they can’t give your weekend back either
Trump delivers dark and divisive speech in first major appearance since Covid diagnosis
…because the party of “law & order” loves to give orders…but thinks the law only applies to other people
…which…for the record…or just once more for the cheap seats…is 100% not fucking okay…okay?
…still, worrying as all the shit is that they’re so clearly trying to pull
They aren’t even trying to hide it: President Trump and Senate Republicans are desperately rushing to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in time to rule on bogus election-administration disputes they have in the pipeline: Bush v. Gore 2.0.
Barrett has an obligation to recuse herself from those disputes, and she should promise to do just that.
Trump has made clear he wants Barrett in place to help him win the election. “I think this will end up in the Supreme Court,” he said. “We need nine justices.” Senate Republicans parrot the president. A Supreme Court with just eight justices, claimed Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), “lacks the constitutional authority to decide anything.” That’s simply wrong.
The court holds the constitutional authority to decide cases with eight justices; it actually needs only six for a quorum. If the court happens to split 4 to 4, the lower court ruling would stand. Somehow, that prospect didn’t bother Republicans four years ago. They made sure we had only eight justices during the 2016 election when they stonewalled Merrick Garland’s nomination.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/11/justice-barrett-must-recuse-herself-deciding-future-president-who-picked-her
…some things are legitimately nice to contemplate
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-post-abc-presidential/2020/10/10/story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pennsylvania-trump-lawsuit-voting/2020/10/10/story.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/10/republicans-presidential-election-fears-biden-trump
…& as it happens
…I could stand to hear more of this sort of thing, too
Trump is probably going to be surprised that he won’t get a chance for Amy CoVID Batshit to save his pathetic flabby ass unless he simply attempts to void the election. The margins are too damn big now.
Yeah, I’m nervous about taking a victory lap after 2016, but all evidence suggests it will be a blowout and will never end up in court. Trump’s dragging down the whole Republican party with him. I was hoping that a couple of Republican senators might break ranks (pull a McCain?) on confirmation to bolster their re-election chances, but that seems unlikely. It’s weird — they’re all committing political suicide just to get this judge, who won’t decide the election and who will rule against very popular positions. It’s like Mitch McConnell is Jim Jones and he’s handing out the poisoned Koolaid, and they’re saying, set me up another, Mitch!
Twenty-two days until the election. Three weeks from tomorrow. Focus, Cousin Matthew, focus. Odds are good that there will be two months of utter chaos until Inauguration Day and then all of this will go away. The entire Cabinet will change over. The department heads just below Cabinet rank will be gone. No more Jared and Ivanka. No more Stephen Miller. No more Kauyieleaigh McEnemy. Trump will have entered the history books but will, one hopes, soon become a distant memory, like all one-term presidents. Who really remembers what Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter did and why they weren’t re-elected? Well, I know, but American presidential history is my own particular fetish.
As Jesse Jackson used to say (and maybe still does), “Keep hope alive!”
Jimmy Carter is a great man and had great ideas. He was too nice for politics. My father has never voted since 1980 because he says voting doesn’t matter. For some reason, he blames Ted Kennedy for Jimmy not getting reelected. And, before everyone piles on me for not getting him out to vote – he would vote republican now – so I’m cool with him not voting.
Jimmy Carter is a great man who served in a very difficult time. The Iran hostage crisis, high inflation, a resurgent right, a made-for-TV (literally) opponent in Ronald Reagan. Ted Kennedy decided to make his move in 1980 because he figured it was now or never. Chappaquiddick was behind him (so he thought, in his safe-Senate-seat Massachusetts bubble and all the deference every Senator used to get on Capitol Hill) and he ran to Carter’s left. Kennedy’s main campaign issue was national health insurance, something we still don’t have 40 years later. Germany has had a version since the late 19th century and most of western Europe adopted it right after WWII. I’ve never understood this because in 1980 the two tallest skyscrapers in Boston were the John Hancock and the Prudential. They might still be to this day. I guess Kennedy didn’t need money from the insurance industry, or agreed to cut them in on the action, who knows?
Ah, that explains it. I mean he literally spits when he talks about Ted Kennedy. We’re from Georgia – so there is a huge reverence in our family for Mr. Jimmy. We even have a Jimmy Carter coffee mug that absolutely no one is allowed to drink out of.
I agree about Jimmy Carter, he was also the victim of the other worst president of all time and big reason we are in this situation we now face. Much like Trump, Reagan would basically commit treason to get elected before going on to destroy the middle class and create a roadmap to fucking us all for generations.
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/1/ronald-reagan-october-surprise-carter-iran-hostage-crisis-conspiracy
I love this website!