…maybe it’s me [DOT 13/11/20]

but you know what...it sure seems like it's other stuff that's fucked up...

…welp…emmer did warn you…there’s gonna be links…but I don’t know as I can entirely recommend reading all of them

‘A Black Eye’: Why Political Polling Missed the Mark. Again.

…because I have to be honest with you

We Are Still Living the Legacy of World War II

…it hasn’t exactly done me a lot of favors when it comes to feeling better about much of anything today…not least if you happen to be busy trying to save or otherwise archive anything from the kinja blogs I gather are set to disappear as of monday

…the click here thing (for the record) seems to produce a dismally formatted “export” to a .xml file…because apparently they hate their users…some more than others, though…since the SplinterRIP & DeadspinRIP accounts don’t even offer that option so I don’t know where that leaves the group sub-blogs

…& I don’t know about you folks but I could stand to feel better about how things look to be shaping up…so if you want to skip to the bottom reel this back up to the top & click the comment number to jump down there…wouldn’t blame you in the slightest

We’ve been through a lot these last few days, people. Decades from now, some of you are going to have to answer your grandchildren when they ask you about the Time of the Two Presidents.

…which isn’t to say that there aren’t things trying to sound like good news

How Pfizer Plans to Distribute Its Vaccine (It’s Complicated)

President-elect Joe Biden is poised to embed action on climate change across the breadth of the federal government, from the departments of Agriculture to Treasury to State — expanding it beyond environmental agencies to speed U.S. efforts to mitigate global warming and to acknowledge that the problem touches many aspects of American life.

The far-reaching strategy is aimed at making significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions even without congressional action, by maximizing executive authority.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/11/11/biden-climate-change

President-elect Joe Biden has chosen longtime Washington operative Ronald A. Klain as White House chief of staff, sending an early signal that he intends to rely heavily on experience, competence and political agility after a Trump presidency that prized flashiness and personality.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/klain-biden-white-house/2020/11/11/story.html
Mr. Klain, a lawyer and veteran Democratic operative who first worked for the president-elect in the late 1980s when he was a senator, has been a sharp critic of President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/president-elect-biden-picks-longtime-aide-ron-klain-chief-staff

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/11/joe-biden-ron-klain-chief-of-staff

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/12/brnovich-arizona-attorney-general-trump

Georgia’s Close Elections Sent Republicans After a Republican

The pressure on Georgia’s top elections official began almost immediately after Joe Biden pulled ahead of President Trump in the battle for the state’s electoral college votes, fulfilling Democrats’ years-long quest to turn the Deep South state blue.

Georgia’s two U.S. senators demanded that he resign, declaring that Brad Raffensperger, their fellow Republican, had “failed to deliver honest and transparent elections.” Trump tweeted a barrage of unfounded accusations that the state’s election was a sham. And the president tapped one of the state’s GOP congressmen to lead his effort to find evidence of fraud, though no such evidence has surfaced.

Raffensperger isn’t budging.

While his announcement Wednesday that he had decided to conduct a hand-counted audit of the presidential vote was taken by some Republicans as affirmation of their suspicions, Raffensperger has his own expectation — that the new tally will confirm a Biden win.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/brad-raffensperger-georgia/2020/11/11/story.html
Republicans Should Be Defending Georgia’s Election Process

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/11/trump-lawyers-suffer-embarrassing-rebukes-judges-over-voter-fraud-claims

The Texas attorney general, who fought against the Affordable Care Act and mail-in voting, has been accused of wrongdoing by his own aides amid calls for his resignation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/12/yes-going-after-trumps-law-firms-is-fair-game

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pressure-mounts-state-republicans-election-suits-founder/2020/11/11/story.html

…& then of course there’s the part where I can’t help but wish we lived in a world where this lady was the top of the ticket instead of Joe…because if I’m honest I still haven’t got my head around why she didn’t get more traction in those primaries

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/11/elizabeth-warren-biden-harris-first-day

…it’s not like you can claim ain’t nobody listening to the ladies these days

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/credited-boosting-democrats-georgia-stacey-abrams-looks-january

…& I know some of this shit is complicated

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/elections/exit-polls-changes-2016-2020/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/graphic-battleground-state-turnout-2020-election

Election Showed a Wider Red-Blue Economic Divide

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latino-voters-georgia-get-attention-high-stakes-senate-races

…but – to the surprise of literally no one who has been paying attention

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/12/why-trump-cant-win

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/12/how-big-is-joe-bidens-mandate

…somehow it doesn’t seem to matter how much the GOP bicker amongst themselves whilst on team blue anytime the call seems to be coming from inside the house it’s like there’s blood in the water

Some, like House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Penn.) have agreed with Spanberger that slogans such as “defund the police,” as well as calls to ban fracking, for example, hurt Democrats. But others in the party’s more liberal wing said they felt like they were being blamed for losses, or that the voices of their constituents — many of them minorities — were being silenced.

“To be real, it sounds like you are saying stop pushing for what Black folks want,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said to centrist colleagues on the call. Ocasio-Cortez whose name and face hovered in the background of some GOP attack ads in Virginia, tweeted that the “‘progressivism is bad’ argument just doesn’t have any compelling evidence,” noting that many Democrats who co-sponsored Medicare-for-all or the Green New Deal won reelection.

“When it comes to “Defund” & “Socialism” attacks, people need to realize these are racial resentment attacks,” she wrote. “You’re not gonna make that go away. You can make it less effective.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/webb-spanberger-defund-attacks/2020/11/11/story.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/11/aoc-isnt-picking-fight-over-ideology-shes-staging-an-intervention/

…but damn if the other side of the coin doesn’t take the shine off

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/house-elections-mccarthy-we-re-the-ones-who-won/2020/11/12/story.html

Which party controls the Senate will largely dictate how ambitious President-elect Joe Biden can get on taxes, health care, climate change and other policy priorities.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/12/donald-trump-has-lost-the-election-yet-trumpland-is-here-to-stay

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/12/once-he-leaves-office-trump-will-need-new-scam

If President Trump announces he will run again in 2024, his vice president’s plans could be derailed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-threatens-more-damage-on-his-way-out-of-office-with-complicity-from-the-gop/2020/11/11/story.html

Trump’s Election Tantrum

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/11/trump-refusal-concede-follows-pattern-incompetence-delusions

Democrats demand a big stimulus plan as Republicans insist on targeted relief.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/12/technology-202-democrats-warn-big-tech-extended-ad-bans-could-hurt-their-chances-georgia

Fact-Checked on Facebook and Twitter, Conservatives Switch Their Apps

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/twitter-conservatives-parler-surges-amid-election-misinformation-crackdown

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/trump-may-accept-results-never-concede-he-lost-aides-say

After Biden Win, Right-Wing Sites Still Push False Vote-Fraud Claims

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/11/enough-is-enough-republicans-fealty-to-trump-imperils-america-itself

The Presidential Transition Must Go On

With the Trump White House blocking the administration from formally cooperating with Biden, the members of the Democrat’s transition team are under strict orders not to have any contact with current government officials, even back-channel conversations, according to people with knowledge of the situation, who presented several explanations for the directive.

Biden transition team members are instead making contact with recently departed government officials and other experts to help them prepare for the new administration. And they are relying on a team led by a former senior State Department official to handle an influx of calls from foreign leaders — all without the benefit of a secure government line or language interpretation services provided by the current State Department.

The scramble shows how President Trump’s refusal to accept defeat has become much more than a symbolic stand. His administration’s blockade comes amid a deadly pandemic, an economic downturn and volatility abroad, stoking growing concerns that it will set back Biden’s effort to meet the swirl of crises confronting the nation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-transition-team-trump/2020/11/11/story.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/makes-me-sick-georgia-republicans-seek-ride-trump-shock-holding-senate

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/biden-risks-his-election-coalition-2022-if-he-pursues-toxic-deals-with-mcconnell

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/11/five-post-trump-obstacles-to-a-global-green-recovery

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/biden-wants-scrap-betsy-devos-rules-sexual-assault-schools-it-won-t-be-easy

…it’s not even as though they don’t fucking know how dangerously full of shit the current round of partisan appointments are

A Republican senator says Biden should receive daily briefings, and he will ‘step in’ to ensure that occurs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-trump-election-intelligence-briefings/2020/11/12/story.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/gop-senators-former-security-officials-push-biden-receive-intelligence-briefings-n1247598

Congressional aides say the anodyne public expressions represent a concerted attempt to self-muzzle, as the political party that prides itself on being strong on national security grapples with its fear of antagonizing an erratic and impulsive lame-duck president while battling to keep control of the Senate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-biden-esper-republicans-georgia-runoff/2020/11/11/story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/11/downright-dangerous-democrat-alarm-as-trump-stacks-pentagon-with-loyalists

The arrival of the new officials has prompted concerns. Their backgrounds offer insights into their policies.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/military-shakeup-election-transition/2020/11/11/story.html

Trump Still Has 70 Days to Wreak Havoc Around the World

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/10/donald-trump-mark-esper-foreign-policy-joe-biden-iran

An Intramural Republican Fight Breaks Out Over the C.I.A. Director’s Fate

…or what the fucking point is of lethal grandstanding like this

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/supreme-court-may-uphold-obamacare-congress-put-health-care-risk

Even in a year that has tallied a record number of federal executions, Lisa Montgomery’s case stands out. Montgomery, 52, is scheduled on Dec. 8 to be the first woman in nearly 70 years to receive the federal death penalty. Her punishment is being carried out on an unusually fast timeline — all amid a pandemic.

The announcement of Montgomery’s execution date came on Friday, Oct. 16, after business hours, according to her federal public defender, Kelley Henry. Justice Department guidelines typically give prisoners 120 days’ notice of an execution date; Montgomery got 54.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/11/record-breaking-spree-of-federal-executions-could-end-biden

…or whatever calamitous attempt to steer the narrative you choose to look at

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/11/11/climate-science-office-david-legates

How One Firm Drove Influence Campaigns Nationwide for Big Oil

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/jeffrey-epstein-alex-acosta-florida-plea-deal/2020/11/12/story.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/justice-department-probe-ends-no-action-against-prosecutors-who-oversaw-epstein-deal

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/11/us-deportations-women-allege-detention-center-gynecologist-abuse

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/trump-s-border-wall-endangered-ecosystems-sacred-sites

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/11/12/justice-department-stalled-probe-zinke

Dominion Voting Systems, which makes software that local governments around the nation use to help run their elections, is now at the center of baseless claims that “software glitches” led to mistakes in vote tallies in Michigan and Georgia last week.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/no-dead-people-didn-t-vote-philadelphia-elections-boss-says

What Places Are Hardest Hit by the Coronavirus? It Depends on the Measure

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/11/us/politics/white-house-covid-outbreak.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/12/turns-out-that-media-coverage-virus-wasnt-just-ploy-hurt-trump

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/passenger-tests-positive-coronavirus-first-cruise-ship-sail-caribbean-since-pandemic

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/11/governments-coronavirus-response-is-now-officially-failure-by-its-own-measure

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/why-experts-say-we-need-stop-talking-about-herd-immunity

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/11/trump-angry-about-pfizer-vaccine

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-jersey-governor-pleads-covid-fatigued-residents-choose-inconvenience-over-death

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-covid-misinformation-now-mainstream-winter-coming

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/misinformation-thousand-cuts-varied-rigged-election-claims-circulate-n1247476

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/vaccine-rescue-first-we-have-make-it-through-winter-experts-say

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/12/fed-shelton-senate

President Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results have made the arcane steps that formalize the will of the people a matter of unusual public importance.

Still, the absence of evidence and of a comprehensive and realistic plan to overcome Trump’s significant deficit and secure him a second term have not stopped some of the leading figures in the administration and the Republican Party from amplifying the president’s misinformation about the election outcome.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-election-results-strategy/2020/11/11/story.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-refuses-concede-work-biden-he-needs-haunting-ghosts-transitions-past

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/11/texas-dan-patrick-voter-fraud-reward

No, there is not a lot of good evidence behind the Trump suits.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-2020-election-lies-prove-there-are-no-moderate-republicans

…because that “strategy” – in case it wasn’t fucking obvious on account of how it’s what all his shit boils down to in the end – is mostly variations on the singular tactic of trying to bilk as much cash as he can out of as many hateful idiots as possible on insanely thin pretextx before he’s out on his ass & the creditors come calling

Sixty percent of the contribution, up to $5,000, goes to “Save America,” Trump’s newly created leadership PAC. And 40 percent of the contribution up to $35,500, goes to the Republican National Committee’s operating account, its political (not legal) fund.

Only after reaching the first maximum would a single penny go to Trump’s “Recount Account,” and only after reaching the second maximum would a penny go to the RNC’s legal account.

“It’s a straight-up bait and switch,” Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, tells me. Such email solicitations target small donors, so for the “overwhelming majority of people contributing … none of their money will end up in recount accounts” or be used for otherwise challenging the election.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/11/trumps-election-challenge-looks-like-scam-line-his-pockets
Today Trump is not simply saying that we should wait for every vote to be counted in the 2020 election. Rather, he is fabricating election fraud and falsely claiming that he won, sowing doubts within his base about American democracy itself. A Politico/Morning Consult poll found that 70 percent of Republicans don’t believe the election was free and fair.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/lifestyle/magazine/trump-presidential-norm-breaking-list/

What Is Trump Playing At?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/11/12/facebook-ad-ban-lame-duck

For years, we’ve been living inside a story defined by Donald Trump’s reality-TV worldview. America finally changed the channel.

How Trump Almost Broke the Bounds of Reality

…all in all it’s hard not to find your thoughts straying to some doomsday scenarios

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/11/can-donald-trump-stay-in-office-second-term-president-coup

Denying defeat, claiming fraud and using government machinery to reverse election results are the time-honored tools of dictators.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/12/could-electoral-college-be-stolen-from-biden

…so

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/trump-coup-media-coverage/2020/11/12/story.html

…yeah

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/12/danielle-allen-tucker-carlson-danger-democracy-posed-by-false-allegations

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/12/kayleigh-mcenany-watch-extreme-hypocrisy-edition

…much as I don’t want to really credit the possibility on account of how it seems like it’s not the sort of thing that could happen in a sane world

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/12/republican-party-embrace-of-trump-refusal-to-concede-fits-pattern-of-rising-authoritarianism-data-shows

…I kinda reached the point where I wound up reading this kind of thing?

…which…if you click through to the article…does also point you in the direction of something a little more recent that’s…well…is this what passes for “better” now?

…either way…that’s probably enough out of me…have some tunes & talk among yourselves…although if anyone has any good news I’m all ears?

…I will say that having some new folks hereabouts…even if the reason for it is lamentable…is definitely an entry on the other side of the ledger, though

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56 Comments

    • …it was the first I heard of it…which sorta makes almost sense since it says it was the first one…but I don’t know as that means anyone thought it was a “great” idea…certainly not anyone who considered why they haven’t been running & what’s happened since

      …so if I had to bet…they made a financial calculation & ignored all other potential variables…as ideas go I think I’d have to peg that one somewhere between cynical, desperate & predictably-fucking-dreadful

      …& I’d probably go ahead & go double-or-quits that the same could be said by whoever thought they’d do well enough out of the deal to make it worth selling tickets

        • Oh I love cruising, it’s my favorite kind of vacation. I’ve been on like 8 cruises in the last 9 years. I love the gaudiness of the boats and staring into the nothingness of ocean waves all around me on the sea days.
          However, my ass ain’t cruising any time soon because yikes floating covid petri dish. 

  1. Aesop Rocks Spirit World Field Guide is here!!! Wife and I have a 2 and a half hour trip to get out of the ADK, so I’ll have a perfect time to listen to the whole thing straight through. I know that isn’t very helpful for all, bit relief for is for a moment.

    • …that is excellent news for which I offer heartfelt thanks since I totally failed to notice until you pointed it out

      …hope you have a smooth trip & all that sort of thing…there’s a distinct possibility you just made my day

  2. Political polling misses the mark for a few reasons: 
     
    a) Most are operating on a margin of error of +/- 3% or even 4%.  What that means in practical terms is that a race that’s being reported as 53-47 should be considered a statistical dead heat.  Not enough people know or understand this, and the press don’t make this information a prominent feature of the reporting.
     
    b) People lie.
     
    c) I think a lot of polls probably don’t include non-responses.  In a truly representative poll, you’re supposed to include people whether they participate or not, and then report your response rate as part of the results.  I suspect a lot of pollsters throw out the non-responders and replace them with a responder, which means the sample is no longer representative of the whole.

    • …there are lies, damn lies & statistics, after all…& I suspect we could go at least a day just batting around other things that might tend to skew polling in one way or another…but you’re absolutely right about the extent to which a big part of the error factor lies in a combination of how they get presented & people not understanding the methodology involved in compiling them

    • It’s going to be incredibly damaging to polls that they failed again after 2016 was such a massive failure. I thought it was probably mostly people lying, as you say – there are absolutely trump supporters who don’t want to say so. But some of the analyses going on make some other good points.
       
      They’re still using phone calls. Who answers phone calls from unknown numbers anymore? Response rate is around 6%, and used to be around 50% in the 1980s. They can’t get a representative sample with such a small sample set, where that sample is skewed specifically to people who answer phone calls. 
       
      And on that last point, they point out that conservatives right now distrust the establishment and are less likely to speak to poll organizations. Apparently this was a lesson learned in 2016, that they tried to correct by including more white working class people. Except that’s not a solution, because despite what the media seems to think, demographics are not monoliths. And polls are still going to be speaking disproportionately to white working class people who are willing to talk on the phone to poll organizations. 

      • It doesn’t surprise me in the least that Dems in Kentucky voted for Mitch. Kentucky has technically always been a Blue state. And yet Mitch has been a senator since he turtle walked off Noah’s Ark. The original one, not the stupid replica that also exists in Kentucky. I don’t think those numbers mean much without comparing them to past years. Don’t forget that Kim Davis, the Rowan Count Clerk who refused to issue marriage licences to same sex couples, was a Democrat up until that whole mess happened and she was championed by and courted for the GOP by the likes of Mike Huckabee.

        • I’ll admit that I know nothing of Kentucky politics and just assume that it is corrupt as fuck! I’ve been listening to some radio shows talking about GOP “watchers” challenging signatures on every vote they see from black area addresses.  I really think the only reason we are getting close to taking back Georgia is Abrams/Palast.  I hope they can get everyone back on the rolls in time to flip the Senate. This is a very important statement…”Candidates of all parties will drown in donations for this run-off. But there’s no sense winning over voters—whose right to vote has vanished.”
           

          Georgia: ‘Stacey Abrams Shill’ Says What We Must Do

  3. Wait, “a Trump presidency that prized flashiness and personality”?
     
    No, WaPo, that’s not what the Trump presidency prized. Qualities they prized include:
    1. Cruelty
    2. Sociopathy (see point 1)
    3. White supremacy
    4. Money
    5. Lack of any morals or ethics (see previous points)
     
    Who the actual fuck thinks that Stephen Miller or Steve Bannon embodies flashiness and personality? Or Jared? Ivanka (might go flashiness here)? Fucking Mike Pence is the polar opposite of flashiness and personality. He’s like a black hole that sucks those qualities out of the universe, replacing them with boredom and misery. 
     
    I mean, if you want people to take your conclusions seriously, you may want to run through the evidence first. Flashiness and personality, my ass. 

    This is one of the biggest problems we’ve had with the Trump Regime — the unwillingness of almost all major media outlets to call it what it is: a miserable kleptocracy staffed by sociopaths. Mix that with fake “bothsiderism” and you get a recipe for complete misinformation. Slapping a cute label on this insanity both minimizes and legitimizes it. Stop fucking pandering to the criminals. They’re not going to buy your paper!

      • I’d modify that slightly to “perceived loyalty to Trump.” Sociopaths aren’t loyal to anybody but themselves. That and incompetence is a big part of why Trump hasn’t completely destroyed the country in the last four years — they all turn on him at the first opportunity. Hopefully Trump will discover that lack of loyalty very, very soon. 

  4. Meanwhile, the President has entered his I’m-punishing-you-by-not-talking-to-you phase of his defeat.  I’ll bet this is the first time in his life he’s lost something, and the other side didn’t eventually capitulate to his ranting and pouting.  Playing golf with him must be super fun.

    • I saw a post yesterday that referenced Dr. Benjamin Spock and toddler tantrums. The post said we need to do exactly as Spock said — when children throw tantrums you ignore them. You don’t coddle them and apologize. 

      • Incidentally, that Dr Spock advice may not have been the best and some child psychologists now think ignoring toddler tantrums leads to them not learning how to appropriately express anger. The advice I try to follow is to acknowledge and empathize with the tantrum, without caving to the demand. I usually end up sitting on the floor with my three year old to ride it out. 

        None of this really applies to trump though. He may act like a toddler, but unlike a toddler, he is fundamentally incapable of learning.

        • True, but their point was really that by ignoring him, you don’t really validate his voter fraud bullshit. Which is exactly the opposite of what Republicans are doing. 
           
          Nothing works on Trump. He’s purely reactive, like a single-celled organism. You provide stimulus, he reacts. He’s incapable of learned behavior. Even the “talking points” he spouts at his Klan rallies are simple repetition without any deeper thought, like a mynah bird or parrot. Except that both of those have been proven to actually think on abstract levels, so they’re smarter than Trump.

  5. Didn’t see this one in the thread, it’s sad news, not good, but Luculle Bridges SHOULD be Remembered💖
    Lucille was Ruby Bridges momma–She was the wonderful, courageous, & determined woman who walked her little girl EVERY DAY, with Federal Marshalls, to ensure that her daughter got the education that Lucille herself had been denied;
     
    A class act, and awesome human being–may she rest in peace & power, may her memory be a great blessing to her family, and may more & more people always remember her name & heroism💖;
    https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5fab9a85c5b6d647a39a2a3e

    • …thanks…I really should have found a spot for that…but I’d hate for it to get lost in the mix so I’m gonna pretend I knew someone would give it a spot of its own like it (& the lady herself) deserve

    • She was an amazing woman. Also- I will never stop being shocked at how young Ruby Bridges is —mid-60s—and that her childhood was so, so recent. I grew up believing it was some distant black and white past, painted by Norman Rockwell. I’m sure she’s heartbroken over the loss of her mother, but also rightfully proud. 

      • That’s what gets me when some white people in the US act like racism is a relic of the distant past. And that organizations like BLM are playing the race card.  It’s even worse when politicians like Mitch McConnell say things like slavery reparations are not a “good idea” since “none of us currently living are responsible.  

        He plays a major role in the systemic racism that is happening right now!

        UGH

      • SOOOOOO much SAME, Toucanny!
        Ruby’s 4 years younger than my mom😳
        The stuff she and *her* mom went through was SO recent, and that fact never fails to completely boggle my mind🤯

  6. Observation: 6 days since losing, still no public appearance from Orangina. Probably because it’s much easier to spew lies and misinformation from behind a phone than to do it on camera. Oh yea, and water is wet. 
     
    Happy Friday!

    • …don’t think that was referenced up there…if only because I feel like it would have been the sort of thing I’d file under good news & I seemed woefully short on that stuff?

  7. Right there with you on the “what if” regarding Warren. She was definitely my choice, and I still hope she will have a place in the new administration. 

    • I love Warren. I volunteered for Warren. I’m still heartbroken that things didn’t work out that way. But unfortunately I read that Biden has signaled that he won’t be pulling any sitting senators to avoid dealing with special elections.
       
      There were various post mortems trying to figure out what went wrong. Lots of people pointing fingers at supposed incorrect spending and messaging. But I was on the team, I was speaking with the rest of the text and call teams – the overwhelming response from people who weren’t going to vote for her was that they liked her but thought Biden (or sometimes Buttigieg or Klobuchar) had a better chance of beating trump. Tons of people supported her but thought their neighbors wouldn’t. 
       
      There were other reasons too. Some blatant sexism, moderates who hated progressive ideas, Bernie supporters who were aggressively and upsettingly rude. But the majority really seemed to be people who supported her but wouldn’t vote for her. And that was really, really frustrating. 

        • I don’t think covid affected her much at all really. She did worse than expected in the first several primaries, and then Super Tuesday killed her. That was March 3, which was before things started shutting down. 

      • …honestly it seems somewhere between hard to credit & flat out implausible that she didn’t get more support…she seemed to be the complete antithesis of the tangerine toddler that would have been her opponent…she had decades of experience, she appears well thought of on both sides of the aisle (since she spent some time as a republican) & it seemed like her raft of policy ideas were the sort of thing that could appeal to a ton of folks but could actually be backed up…particularly since it turned out that the asshole ran on literally no platform in concrete policy terms because they finally acknowledged he’s radically inconsistent & if you set out a line he’d cross it so many times it would make a mockery of the whole idea anyone knew what the fuck was going on

        …& it also seemed that if she wasn’t a first choice for someone who picked one of the principal contenders instead that it was less of a shift to pick her as a second choice than another of the primary candidates in a lot of ways which felt like it should have been a much more natural platform to have people gravitate towards than biden

        …I’m not sure if I’m sadder at the thought that she could have been a more successful candidate & very possibly a better & more effective president…or the idea that the people who say only biden had a shot at not losing to a second term of the craven cabal of self-serving grifters are right about how it would have gone with a woman at the top of the ticket

        …however you cut it it makes me mad if I think about it much so I can only imagine how much it must frustrate folks like yourself who made those kinds of efforts on her behalf…I kind of want to find a hat to put on so I can take it off to you…but that seems too much like the definition of an empty gesture not to be unpleasantly ironic in the circumstances so I’ll stick to saying thank you

        • I honestly, truly believe, in my heart of hearts, that she would have done better than Biden. Some people wouldn’t have voted for her because of sexism, sure, but probably not as many as people think. Multiple studies have shown that way more people think others won’t vote for a woman than actually wouldn’t vote for a woman. (If that makes sense? So like one study showed x amount of people say they wouldn’t vote for a woman, but something like triple that think their neighbor wouldn’t vote for a woman.)
           
          Hillary undoubtedly suffered from sexism, but I think her loss (electoral loss – let’s remember she won the popular vote) had far more to do with frustration with moderate Democrats not accomplishing anything, as well as vague accusations of corruption that stuck.
           
          This is all related to the infighting that’s going on in the Democratic party right now. Moderates are accusing progressives of hurting the party. Progressives are pointing out that they mostly all won their elections, while moderates are the ones that struggled. Perceptions are not matching reality. 

    • …whatever you have in that eye apparently is capable of online transmission

      …what kind of callous corporate asshole couldn’t abide giving FFF a reprieve…it remains astonishing to me the extent to which that platform seems to take every opportunity to demonstrate that it places less than no value on the very things & people that made it worth visiting

      • …that would of course be more than welcome but I think the stumbling block is wrapped up in the way that wordpress handles direct image uploads from the comment section (as opposed to the sort that can be done via embedding a link)

        …there are various ways that’s always been a headache for myo but I know he’s been working pretty hard at finding a way to make it possible without compromising either users’ privacy or the server’s security more than he’s prepared to so I’d like to think it would be possible…but I think there may be somewhere else they were currently considering?

    • …the only audience he’s shown any sign of directly addressing over the last five years has been solidly in denial from the off so in a freakishly tortured sense of the term it would be a logical extension of things for him not to stop pretending to govern

      …it dovetails nicely with their sheer terror at the prospect of confronting reality, after all

  8. just to butt in with something miles off topic
    went to see me mate today (the one thats terminal) he decided to show me the project he cleared out his shed for
    turns out he built his own coffin…. got it all ready to be painted
    was a pretty strange experience discussing a coffin with the person intending to be in it

      • eh…its very him thats for sure
        hes been a carpenter/painter for most of his life…so…its actually a pretty nice coffin lol
        but yeah… hes made his peace
        makes for some damn wierd conversations tho

        • …that sounds heavy…but it also sounds like I think I’d probably admire this mate of yours

          …I knew someone for many years who sadly hasn’t been around for a fair few now but that was pretty close to the way they handled being diagnosed as terminal so I at least have a vague idea of what you’re talking about

          …I don’t really know what to say beyond that without it sounding trite in ways I wouldn’t want it to…but all best to the both of you

  9. The Pfizer vaccine amazes me because of the stringent cold storage requirements. Like why develop something with such an overly complicated storage and distribution process?
    Signed, 
    I’m enrolled in the Moderna study and those folks didn’t require any fancy freezers or shit for their phase 3. 

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