November 8, 2020

At the November Beach Café...

IMG_1109

... you can talk all night.

123 comments:

Churchy LaFemme: said...

I wonder how Scott Adams feels about this now?

stevew said...

Walked along the beach today, was glorious. Lots of people out and about. Some with masks, many without. Maintaining the recommended social distance was not an issue, it was low tide. The water was cold, for any of you that aren't from Maine. Some hearty souls were sunbathing, taking in one of the last beautiful, warm(ish) days. Our granddaughters, on our son's side, had a great time - and so did we.

Winter is coming. Literally and metaphorically.

readering said...

China and Russia have not congratulated Biden. Hmmm.

Sally327 said...

I've been thinking about why Trump supposedly lost white men this time around. I don't really know if I believe that, I think it comes from the exit polls, which always seem somewhat dubious in my opinion.

But assuming it's true, I don't think it would be because they disagreed with his policies or his accomplishments as President, I think it may be that they just lost confidence in him. He was never good at projecting competence. You had to take it all on faith and after awhile that gets old, having it be so hard to figure out the playbook. Joe Biden seems predictable at least. Maybe those white men voted for boring.

Michael K said...

A very interesting post from Australia.

Indeed, the cheating Democrats used secret CIA election rigging software called HAMMER and SCORECARD to skew the vote. Air Force Gen. McInerney discusses this with Steve Bannon in his War Room podcast. Mary Fannin writes about it on TheAmericanReportDotCom website. The Democrats also used it to cheat Bernie out of the nomination. This election is NOT OVER, and Donald Trump is still our President.

This was appropriated by Obama admin types. It was formerly limited to CIA and military.

Scorecard does something very similar to the software in Michigan that changed Trump votes to Biden votes.

Michael K said...

Blogger readering said...
China and Russia have not congratulated Biden. Hmmm.


The Yuan recovered all it lost during election day when Trump was leading. Biden likes his congratulations in cash.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Holy Sh*t https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/developing-nancy-pelosis-chief-staff-chief-executive-feinsteins-husband-major-shareholder-dominion-ballot-counting-systems/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=websitesharingbuttons

rcocean said...

Powell was on Fox News saying they'd identified 450,000 ballots in the keys states, that had a vote for Biden AND NO ONE ELSE. they also have identified. that the Software used that had a "glitch" and transferred votes from Biden to Trump in Michigan had the same "Glitch" in other key states. And furthermore, that this Dominion software is partly owned by Pelosi and Diane Feinstein and her husband.

Incredible. Of course I could only find this by going to the relatively obscure website "Conservative Treehouse". This should be all over the news, and people should made as hell, and demanding a full and honest recount of all these ballots. We don't need mittens and fucking George Bush telling Trump to be a good loser and concede.

rcocean said...

BTW, larry corrira (Sic) at Monster hunter nation had an excellent write up on the all the fraudulent red flags. Trump needs to get the DoJ involved and also get the Trump supporters involved to put pressure on the State Legislators to seat the R electors. This is the job of the legislature NOT the State Supreme Courts or the Governors.

YoungHegelian said...

Okay, a bit of a tin-foil hat post, but here goes: I think there was cheating in Maryland's vote counting, too.

Here's 2016.

Here's 2020.

The needle didn't budge. In four years, no one's mind got changed. It's almost as if the counters had the 2016 results as a number to shoot for, and went for it. With one exception -- Libertarians. Are you telling me that in a safely Democratic state like MD where a protest vote won't change anything, the Libertarians of all people defected to Biden? Don't believe it for a minute. Not a minute. Libertarians aren't like that, and they especially aren't like that for freakin' Joe Biden.

Now, do I think that the state was ever in play for Trump? God, no! But, that Biden got better numbers than HRC, and that the Libertarians broke for Biden? Sorry, no way.

rcocean said...

All this shit happened because the R's roll over and give the D's mail-in ballots, same day registration, no Voter ID, etc., etc.

If you remember correctly, Mittens was praising Vote by mail, when Trump pointed out that it was an invitation for fraud. There's no bigger creep and liar than Mittens. He's gotten people fooled with his phony "Look at my big bible and my wonderful family" act.

Narr said...

China and Russia haven't congratulated Biden!

They're probably taken aback by the size and brazenness of the D fraud; I'd lay dollars to piroushkis that their objective polling probably had Trump as likely winner, or at least much closer to the real numbers than the MSDNC cooked up.

The seamless cooperation (so far) between the Organs of State Security (DC main office) and Big Tech will be going into Russian and Chinese intel briefings and casebooks and studied for years, I'm sure. They have it easy, and they know it, but for the D's to pull this off in a supposedly open and free election has got to make them think.

Than again, they MAY be dithering about how to proceed now that Sheriff Joe and the Cali Ho are ready to use their righteous powers against them . . .

Narr
Beware, Moscow and Beijing!

rcocean said...

Young, you have a good point. Another point is that trump did far better with Black voters in 2020 than he did in 2016, EXCEPT in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta! Can the fraud be more obvious?

Are we really supposed to believe that Biden out performed Obama with Black voters in these cities? Absurd.

Humperdink said...

My lovely bride, Mrs. Dink, is lamenting the election results. I am upbeat. Trump is a fighter. He is not Pierre Delecto, nor JEB!. He will demand an accurate count. The frausters involved at the state level will be looking over their shoulders for the next several months. The SCOTUS will decide this election.

rcocean said...

The main villain in all this is Traitor John Roberts and the 3 D Judges (Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan) who refused to review the Pennsylvania vote extension BEFORE the election.

320Busdriver said...

One of the best breakdowns of the electorate in 2020.
“ A blind unconditional hatred of President Trump fuels the energy and action of Biden supporters. Their leader’s ideas, policies and resume are irrelevant. Biden is a tool to kill the Trump presidency. Nothing more.”

WHITLOCK: THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IS A STORY OF LOVE VS. HATE
https://www.outkick.com/whitlock-the-2020-presidential-election-is-a-story-of-love-vs-hate/

West Texas Intermediate Crude said...

Sally327-
Trump "lost" white men according to the exit polls.
The pollsters were jokes during the campaign, due to not knowing who to ask, people who answer lying about their intentions, and agenda-driven questioning. The few who had the right answers (e.g., Trafalgar, Rasmussen) were widely mocked if they were not ignored.
Why would exit polls be any more accurate than pre-election polls? If anything, they would be less accurate, as they have to be done face-to-face. If I, a white man, had to tell a stranger that I voted for Trump, I would have a fair chance of losing my job, getting attacked, or worse.
The difference between political polling and astrology is that stars exist, honest questions and answers do not.

320Busdriver said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mandrewa said...

Here are some more thoughts on Benford's Law, which is a mathematical distribution found in certain kinds of numbers. It can only detect basically one kind of vote fraud. It cannot detect people voting that should not be voting, such as illegal aliens or people who are voting in a state that they are not resident. It cannot detect ballots discarded by postal workers. It cannot detect people who are voting twice or three times or ten times and who are able to do so because addresses or signatures are not being cross-checked.

It cannot detect votes that were harvested or paid for. It cannot detect votes coming from a nursing home that are actually from the staff of the nursing home.

That are lots of vote frauds that Benford's Law will not detect. But there is one kind of vote fraud that Benford's Law will detect with near certainty if the people doing it are unaware of Benford's Law. And that is if they are just making up numbers at the poll station.

And this is exactly what I believe has been happening for all of my life in certain corrupt cities like Baltimore, MD, Philadelphia, PA, Milwaukee, WI, Chicago, IL, Detroit, MI, Memphis, TN, and so on.

These are all places where the results from certain districts always come in late after they know how many votes they will need to win. They are all places where usually there is no poll watcher from the other side.

They are all places that claim very high and sometimes impossibly high voting percentages.

I don't think these polling stations are counting votes. They are just making up numbers. If they were doing real counts, the counts are going to obey Benford's Law. If they are aware of Benford's Law, then they can make up numbers that will obey this counterintuitive property that actual counts have. But if they are not aware of Benford's Law then they will almost certainly break it.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Like stevew did in Maine, I walked along Nye Beach in Newport, OR. Low tide was at 11:45 a.m. PST, the sun was out with a moderate breeze from the north with about 45-deg F temperatures. Yaquina head and lighthouse was glorious. No one was wearing a mask, people were out with their dogs. Everyone enjoying the sun before the rain returns on Monday night.

jaydub said...

"China and Russia have not congratulated Biden. Hmmm."

Yeah, but they did congratulate Hunter.

Sally327 said...

"The main villain in all this is Traitor John Roberts and the 3 D Judges (Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan) who refused to review the Pennsylvania vote extension BEFORE the election.

11/8/20, 6:17 PM"

I think it's possible that Roberts provides cover to the other more conservative judges on some of these issues. I don't know if that's true here but all that happened was the USSC refused to grant a stay of the PA Supreme Court decision allowing mail in votes to be counted that were postmarked by election day but received up to three days after. I don't think that decision is why Trump lost PA. The voter still had to have marked the ballot and put it in the mail by election day. There isn't anything inherently fraudulent about that.

Readering said...

The Philadelphia case was not what you think it was.

Readering said...

From their TV appearances supporting Trump today, you can see which ones fear his hand on their '24 ambitions.

Readering said...

None actually harbors doubts on who will be sworn in on Inauguration Day.

Different for AA commenters, divided between Trump and Harris.

J. Farmer said...

@Sally327:

But assuming it's true, I don't think it would be because they disagreed with his policies or his accomplishments as President, I think it may be that they just lost confidence in him. He was never good at projecting competence.

I think there is definitely something to this. The Kushner strategy was to increase Trump's share of the black and Latino vote, and while it looks as though he succeeded, it also looks as though it was offset by a losing a share of the white vote. Apparentluy, Jared the wunderkind does not remember the 1996 Dole campaign and headlines like, Dole, in Change of Focus, Appeals for Black Votes. It has been conventional wisdom in the GOP for years that white working class men are becoming demographically less relevant and that the GOP needs to broaden its support among black and Latino voters to stay relevant. It's pushed by every lame GOP "strategist" from Frank Luntz to Karl Rove to Steve Schmidt.

There's also the confounding cultural factor. Personalities like Trump are more popular in black and Latino culture than white culture, influenced by the WASP disdain for ostentation and self-dramatization.

p.s. Simplest explanation for why Trump was "never good at projecting competence": he was incompetent.

Drago said...

With Biden in charge, there will be a lot less of this type of coordination:

"U.S.-Japan joint exercise, involving 46,000 troops, called a success"

https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2020/11/06/US-Japan-joint-exercise-involving-46000-troops-called-a-success/5991604686439/

Why you ask?

Because the ChiComs do not approve.

In fact, the progress Trump made in getting the Asia/Pacific key players to improve their offensive military capabilities (Japan, Australia, South Korea, India) will now be put on the backburner.

Watch for rapid expansion of the ChiCom manmade islands in the Spratley's.

Readering said...

True Japan wanted Trump ler friends there.

Drago said...

readering: "China and Russia have not congratulated Biden. Hmmm."

The ChiCom's and russkis are sitting pretty now with the democraticals looking to be in charge in January.

The ChiComs can return to business as usual, hollowing out the US middle class and more US transfers of technology and supply chain nodes to the ChiComs while the russkis can count on business as usual with our NATO "partners" returning to complete non-modernization policies along with no more US complaints about Putin gaining the inevitable increased stranglehold over western Europe's energy supplies via Nordstream II.

With Merkel continuing to shift all German energy generation to Natural gas supplied by the russkies, we are already at a point where Putin can shut off the spigot for the energy needed for US bases in Germany!

Readering doesn't understand any of that....but the Ukrainian and russky cats who paid off the Bidens/Pelosi's/Romney's etc (yes, Pelosi's son and Romney's son are also on the Boards of Putin connected Ukrainian energy interests) know it all too well.

Happy Increased Yuan and Rubles Day come Jan 20.......

Lawrence Person said...

Benford's Law shows Biden voter fraud.

William said...

I was mildly depressed by the election outcome. I'm only mildly depressed because I avoid the news. I just don't want to watch those smirking bastards gloat. Great Courses and Shakespeare for me. Safe spaces and no triggers....I see where Phil Collins is having some kind of weird break up with his ex-wife whom he invited back into his house to live with him. She cheated on him with a male escort and, then, cheated on the male escort by marrying someone different altogether. She now refuses to leave the house and, indeed, wants to take possession of it. My heart goes out to Phil Collins who in some ways is even more wronged than Trump....Phil is the father of Lily Collins. Lily Collins is blessed. She got her mother's looks. Let's hope her eyebrows don't go bald in later life. I saw two episodes of her show Emily in Paris. I may watch another episode. The show makes cheap jokes at the French, but, in the first two episodes anyway, did not criticize Republicans or conservatives. That's an extremely rare phenomenon and should be encouraged.

Drago said...

Speaking with several of my more connected military compatriots, they are already "looking forward" to increased emphasis in the US military on wokeness studies/critical race theory training and rapid return to the obambi/Biden depletion of military resources while Biden simultaneously increases US military commitments in the Middle East.

Prediction: the US will introduce a significant military increase in Iraq and Syria with a simultaneous "Color revolution" (see: Ukraine/Georgia/Belarus, amongst others) to depose Assad.

Watch for an explicit claim of increased use by Assad of chemical weapons on his own people as the primary justification for this ramp up.

This will, of course, yield increase Middle East muslim migration into Europe at the very moment even Macron is shutting his border due to the number of attacks on priests and beheadings in broad daylight.

Also watch for Biden to begin squeezing Britain to assist the EU in forcing Britain to have a Brexit in name only, precisely as Juncker, Barnier and Von Der Leyen desire.

Freeman Hunt said...

Especially excellent photo.

Drago said...

The Iranians have also got to be doing handstands right now (no easy task in full length robes, eh?).

Biden will return to the make believe "constraining" Iran Treaty which guarantees an Iran nuclear breakout in a handful of years.

That agreement you will recall, allowed the Iranians themselves to designate which facilities to submit to inspection and then......(wait for it....wait for it....)..the Iranians themselves got inspect and certify their own facilities as compliant!!

Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a big win for the Iranians.

On the economic front, American coal will be destroyed, leading to ChiCom domination, which is the intent. Lots more Peabody Energy bankruptcies in our future....to the ChiCom's immense benefit.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

The Iranians have also got to be doing handstands right now (no easy task in full length robes, eh?).

That's an awful image, Drago. I see their robes flowing along the ground, exposing their privates. I'm having trouble getting rid of that image. You are a terrible, terrible person, Drago!

Mark said...

Now we see the attempt to canonize Joe Biden as Mr. Catholic. It's all very disgusting.

Being a bad Catholic is nothing to brag about, even if he is technically "Catholic."

After all, Roger Taney was Catholic, Nancy Pelosi is Catholic, Anthony Kennedy is Catholic. All sorts of people are.

That Biden professes to be Catholic is nothing to celebrate. It's something for the rest of us to be ashamed of.

Humperdink said...

"That agreement you will recall, allowed the Iranians themselves to designate which facilities to submit to inspection and then......(wait for it....wait for it....)..the Iranians themselves got inspect and certify their own facilities as compliant!!"

Reminds one of how votes are tabulated and certified in Philadelphia.

Mark said...

The fact is that a republic and democratic form of self-government are largely voluntary. The law and Constitution are largely voluntary too. None of it is self-enforcing. It only works if people voluntarily decide to go along with it.

If you have a number of people determined to corrupt the process, and enough other people who simply do not care (perhaps because they don't mind what appears to be the result), then that is the death of law and democratic self-government.

In the "United" States today, not enough people really care about law and free elections. So we can huff and puff all we want, but it ain't going to get us anywhere.

Duke Dan said...

Explaining the Benford’s law observations. https://principia-scientific.com/joe-bidens-votes-violate-benfords-law-mathematics/

TA said...

Nice photo. Crop the right a little to eliminate twigs, and the bottom proportionately, and add a little saturation. Would love to see what it would look like.

rehajm said...

If The Trump team can get the recount ball rolling there's plenty of evidence Trump gets close- 269 before PA and it could very well have the non segregated ballots thrown out by the the judicial or the legislature.

CoA flags are on over 130k ballots in GA alone. It takes one good finding...

rehajm said...

Benford's morning gives you a clue there's something wrong. You still have to go find the fraud though...

rehajm said...

It was a debate...

Readering said...

As you might be able to tell, I want Trump to drag this out as long as possible and collect as many $$ from Trumpist suckers as possible.

This gives heartburn to my friends but I am made of sterner stuff.

Rt41Rebel said...

As you might be able to tell, I want Trump to drag this out as long as possible and cause as many major Democratic cities to burn to the ground as possible.

This gives heartburn to my friends but I am made of sterner stuff.

Chuck said...


Blogger rcocean said...
All this shit happened because the R's roll over and give the D's mail-in ballots, same day registration, no Voter ID, etc., etc.
...


We got most of that in Michigan because a large majority of voters voted for it in our Blue Wave (anti-Trump SnapBack) election of 2018. We Republicans opposed the ballot measures. I voted against them. But we lost.

Your stupid and uninformed whining about what you think Republicans did or did not do, does not change the facts. It just makes lifelong Republican loyalists like me think that you’re not worth our attention.

Titus said...

That's not a beach Mary. Beaches are on the ocean, not a pond in Wisconsin.

narciso said...

The big tech companies are banning any mention of benfords law, math not sacrosanct anymore.

mockturtle said...

BumbleBee@6:03: Wow!!!!! :-O

Roughcoat said...

I just saw a TV commercial for McDonald's with Dr. Lecter -- the real Dr. Lecter, Brian Cox -- doing the voiceover. He was talking about breakfast pastries. It was kind of disturbing.

mockturtle said...

Some of these 'called for Biden' states are ridiculously close and not through counting. AZ margin of 0.5%, PA 0.6%, WI 0.7%. GA, as yet uncalled, 0.2%, although the MSM says Biden's lead in GA is 'growing' when it is, in fact, narrowing by the minute. It ain't over, folks!

Fubar.N.Wass said...

I think that the election was as close to a tie as a national election can get. We could flip a coin to decide, but I have another suggestion. Take both candidates to the top of the Washington Monument and toss them both off. Whoever lands first is declared the winner and his vice-president takes over.

Rory said...

Does everyone know that if you bite into a basic thin pretzel and a basic potato chip together, it tastes better than either tastes separately.

J. Farmer said...

Biden will return to the make believe "constraining" Iran Treaty which guarantees an Iran nuclear breakout in a handful of years.

That agreement you will recall, allowed the Iranians themselves to designate which facilities to submit to inspection and then......(wait for it....wait for it....)..the Iranians themselves got inspect and certify their own facilities as compliant!!


Biden's foreign policy team will undoubtedly be blobbed up liberal internationalist dreck. That said, the JCPOA was a rare foreign policy accomplishment, and abandoning it at the behest of warmongering, neocon Iran hawks was colossally stupid. If the deal was as bad as its opponents claim, they would not need to resort to incessant lies (demonstrated above) to attack it.

It's a pity, too. Trump could've been the kind of figure to pull off a "Nixon goes to China" moment with Iran. The anti-Iran obsession has distorted our middle east policy for decades now. If we were serious about competing with Russia and China and India, we'd do business with Iran, not constantly try to overthrow their regime and sew chaos in the region.

D.D. Driver said...

Another point is that trump did far better with Black voters in 2020 than he did in 2016, EXCEPT in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta! Can the fraud be more obvious?

Technically, you are correct that this is a "point," but it is also a "lie." Trump did well in Milwaukee:

"Election results also show that Trump was somewhat successful in cutting into Biden's huge margins in predominantly Black and Latinx neighborhoods in Milwaukee.

In the most predominantly Black wards, where more than 90% of residents are Black, Biden got almost 2,900 fewer votes than Hillary Clinton in 2016. Meanwhile, in those same wards, Trump gained ground, picking up about 300 more votes than in 2016.

On the south side, in wards where more than two-thirds of residents are Latinx, Biden's winning margin was nearly 1,200 votes smaller than Clinton's. He didn't win as many votes among Latinos as Clinton, and Trump performed better with the group than four years ago."

Narr said...

OK, this has nothing to do with anything sensible, but it's bugging the hell out of me.

It's an obscure movie question, based on very hazy memories. Here's what I think I know
(don't go to IMDB until you hear me out):

American, late 70s-early 80s, low budget, low key, quirky. The protag is a married fireman who has a brief affair (maybe); there's a scene in the firehouse recroom with the guys playing out a miniature WWII tank battle on a sand table.

The frustrating part isn't that I can't pin it down with crappy clues like that, but that I was almost sure it starred Gene Hackman! Apparently not.

Does this ring any bells?

I know Hackman was in at least one big budget fireman movie.

Narr
This was not one of those. TIA

Gahrie said...

@Farmer:

I have never understood your obeisance tp Iran. Almost abasement really. Surely the brightest area of the Trump presidency is his Middle eastern successes. No new wars, and Sunni Islam making peace with Israel.

narciso said...

That china deal was perhaps the most immoral in us history giving assent tl a regime that had killed 60 million of its own people, putting us alongside the murderous khmer rouge.

Jupiter said...

Wow! Facebook and Twitter have decided that Benford's Law is socially unacceptable.

Rory said...

"In the "United" States today, not enough people really care about law and free elections. So we can huff and puff all we want, but it ain't going to get us anywhere."

In a word, entropy.

Jupiter said...

Wow! Watching Scott Adams on YouTube. In the box under the screen, it says

"U.S. elections
The AP has called the Presidential race for Joe Biden. See more on Google."
with a big "SHOW ME" button. Then under that, it says
"Robust safeguards help ensure the integrity of elections and results. Learn more"

It doesn't mention whether we have always been at war with Eastasia, but I'm guessing not.

320Busdriver said...

I joined parler a few weeks ago.. just got a message from a friend and there seems to be a mass exodus off face book. Serves those assholes right. I will deplarform myself soon. Parler is obviously inundated with new member requests. It’s working VERY slowly tonight.

Sally327 said...

J. Farmer at 7:07 PM:

"p.s. Simplest explanation for why Trump was "never good at projecting competence": he was incompetent."

Well, yes. I think he was at being but then I think most people are or start out that way, it's such a huge and difficult job and Trump had no government experience at all. I think he tried to make the job fit him, instead of trying to fit into the job, although maybe that would have been too much to expect from a man in his 70s. Plus he's a terrible judge of people.

narciso said...

Democrats are good at destroying institutions sowing hatred of the country of faith of even basic scientific precepts, the war on hcq is just one example.

J. Farmer said...

@Gahrie:

I have never understood your obeisance tp Iran. Almost abasement really.

The source of your confusion is your assumption that my opinion about our policy towards Iran has anything to do with my feelings or opinions on the nature of the regime. I'm very upfront about my politics, and they aren't theocratic Islamic jurist. Nor is Islamic monarchy. But I think we should have the same policy with them as with Iran. And China and Russia and Germany and Israel and Turkey.

Surely the brightest area of the Trump presidency is his Middle eastern successes. No new wars, and Sunni Islam making peace with Israel.

The lack of new wars is by far the most laudable aspect of Trump's foreign policy, although he did escalate the conflicts he did inherit, and we are more entrenched in the middle east now than when he took office. That no new wars is the bar for a successful foreign policy is a sign of how far down we've gone the rabbit hole.

"Sunni Islam" did not make "peace with Israel." A couple of heads of royal families normalized relations to make form what had been done informally for years.

Mr Wibble said...

I'm supposed to register my vehicle and get a new driver's license within 30 days of moving to my new state. Only, the state DMVs are appointment only and the earliest appointment I could find is for January.

This is going to be fun.

D. said...

Trump won!

MalaiseLongue said...

@Sally327: ". . . all that happened was the USSC refused to grant a stay of the PA Supreme Court decision allowing mail in votes to be counted that were postmarked by election day but received up to three days after. I don't think that decision is why Trump lost PA. The voter still had to have marked the ballot and put it in the mail by election day. There isn't anything inherently fraudulent about that."

Are you accounting for Justice Alito's demand that those ballots be segregated from the rest, and for the possibiity that they were not?

@Readering: Your sock puppet is showing.

Drago said...

LLR-lefty and #StrongWitmerFanboy Chuck: "We Republicans opposed the ballot measures."

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

J. Farmer said...

@Sally327:

it's such a huge and difficult job and Trump had no government experience at all. I think he tried to make the job fit him, instead of trying to fit into the job, although maybe that would have been too much to expect from a man in his 70s. Plus he's a terrible judge of people.

I agree with your assessment. Trump has a formidable skillset for campaigning but not so much much for governing. He has a point-of-view that is often attracting among the working class. Going back to the 80's and his remarks on Japan, Trump persistently frames trade deficit issues in terms of the US being ripped off, taken advantage of, cheated, or otherwise duped, and the responsibility for this lie with weak, feckless political leaders. Therefore, the solution is a leader who will be tough and aggressively pursue American interests. By displaying toughness, America will be able to get what it wants. This misunderstands all the myriad ways that American power is checked and prevented from getting outcomes it desires. If anything, Trump's point-of-view is 180 degrees wrong. The US has been addicted to the sledgehammer approach in international affairs since the end of the Cold War.

Rt41Rebel said...

"mass exodus"

This term drives me crazy. I hear and read it all the time. Please stop using it everyone. It literally means "mass mass departure." Back me up on this one Ann.

narciso said...

We're talking economic power, where weve deinstrualized in favor of cheap goods often from country averse to our interests.

Jupiter said...

"Back me up on this one Ann."

Maybe you should just have readering back you up.

effinayright said...

readering said...
China and Russia have not congratulated Biden. Hmmm.
***************

Why would they need to?

China knows that Hunter got a 1.5 BILLION deal because of his dad.

Russia knows that Hunter got a 3 MILLION deal because of his dad.

They've got Biden on a very very very short leash.

(which is apparently OK with you)

effinayright said...

Sally327 said...
J. Farmer at 7:07 PM:

"p.s. Simplest explanation for why Trump was "never good at projecting competence": he was incompetent."
***************

Funny. Even those of us who have been lowly line managers know that "competence" is defined as "doing what you signed up to do".

Trump did that, over and over again.

What's YOUR definition...chump?

effinayright said...

D.D. Driver said...
Another point is that trump did far better with Black voters in 2020 than he did in 2016, EXCEPT in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta! Can the fraud be more obvious?

Technically, you are correct that this is a "point," but it is also a "lie." Trump did well in Milwaukee:
*********
you are so intellectually debased, so degraded, so brain-dead that you call a disagreement a "lie".

fuck you.

J. Farmer said...

@wholelottasplainin':

What's YOUR definition...chump?

Actually being able to do it. I concede Trump is a talented spin doctor of his own record. His MO has been to threaten, bluster, give up, take much less than what was demanded, and then spin it as a victory by saying he never really wanted what he demanded in the first place.

The NAFTA renegotiation is a good example. Trump fell for the oldest trick in the book. They made some concessions in a few relatively small areas, rebranded it, allowed Trump to present it to this supporters as a win, and then carry on with business as usual. The phase one China deal was even less than that. A can-kicking, face-saving deal that's designed to self-destruct.

narciso said...

As opposed to complete capitulation to mexico china iran, you have no complaint with marxists as long as a pasty white guy foes it. You will get your wish

Yancey Ward said...

"I've been thinking about why Trump supposedly lost white men this time around. I don't really know if I believe that, I think it comes from the exit polls, which always seem somewhat dubious in my opinion."

I am beginning to believe that he didn't. It is difficult to near impossible to understand some of the partisan voting changes that are being demonstrated in, almost exclusively, the swing states. Now, perhaps it is because of the overwhelming use of mail-in-ballots- we have never run this kind of election before, but my problem with using this as an explanation is that Republicans weren't overwhelmed in the early vote where partisan registration figures were available- indeed, knowing the historic edge Democrats have in legacy registration in most swing states, I was very encouraged that so many Republicans voted early- they just used in-person early voting more than Democrats did.

The most noticeable thing is that Trump got stomped (relatively speaking) in the collar counties/areas of the big cities in the swing states, but basically only in the swing states. If I were Trump's lawyers, I would focus on hand recounting places like Chester County, PA and Butler County, PA (at least give some of the red couties everywhere some hand counts). Also Cobb County GA and Gwinnett County GA. I would hand recount Buncombe County NC, even though he is leading in NC right now (it may go to a recount, too, at some point). I guess I just don't believe the theory that mail-in voting suddenly brought out so many more Democrat voters in suburbia that were there all this time, but not so much in the cities they surround (see Philly, for example).

I guess I want to see some actual hand recounts to compared to machine counts. Most recounts of recent years are just machine counts- I don't trust them any longer- I need to rebuild some trust in the software being used, and I think half the country does, too.

Attonasi said...

My wife and a whole bunch of her Hong Kong friends were posting about the election. A lot of jokes like "One Country Two Systems" and other references to the US being taken over by China. Dozens of posts. She was talking with her Mom and Dad about them.

And now they are all gone.

We are seeing the iron fist up front and center.

You lefties better start stepping back.

Right fucking now.

Gahrie said...

His MO has been to threaten, bluster, give up, take much less than what was demanded, and then spin it as a victory by saying he never really wanted what he demanded in the first place.

You've never heard of demanding more than you expect so that you can "settle" for what you want?

J. Farmer said...

@Gahrie:

You've never heard of demanding more than you expect so that you can "settle" for what you want?

Indeed. That's my point. It's negotiation 101. Is there anyone on the other side of the table who thinks Trump's position is his best and final? It's not asking more than what he wanted that was the problem but getting less than what he wanted.

J. Farmer said...

@gahrie:

As opposed to complete capitulation to mexico china iran, you have no complaint with marxists as long as a pasty white guy foes it. You will get your wish

One day you will have to come to terms with the fact that the Cold War is over. My capitulation is to reality, that the US has been in relative decline for decades. Starting with the rise of West Germany and Japan and later East Asia, China, and India. Our attempt to maintain a hegemonic position in a liberal international order has led us into one costly, counterproductive conflict after another. China spent the first decade of the 21st century expanding its infrastructure and capacity. We spent it trying to turn Iraq and Afghanistan into constitutional republics on the premise that this was the best and most effective way to protect ourselves from Islamic terrorism.

gadfly said...

Blogger Michael K said...
Blogger readering said...
China and Russia have not congratulated Biden. Hmmm.

The Yuan recovered all it lost during election day when Trump was leading. Biden likes his congratulations in cash.


The last official transfer of cash from China that I know of was the $17.5 million in 2017 from Trump's bank account in China to his personal account in the United States. Making up conspiracies about Biden has become the pattern for Donald and the the new GOP. Stick to the facts, man.

Jaq said...

From back before the New York Times got their orders from whoever is running the media

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/us/politics/as-more-vote-by-mail-faulty-ballots-could-impact-elections.html

mandrewa said...

Facebook and Twitter banning reference to and discussion of Benning's Law is election interference. We aren't a democracy if we allow these organizations to do this.

Jaq said...

China and Russia have not congratulated Biden. Hmmm.

https://www.newsweek.com/chinas-state-media-taunts-trump-twitter-claiming-he-won-election-1545773

Of course well all know readering, she runs with whatever she reads on from some rando on Twitter as fact. The ChiComs don’t let unapproved opinions dominate social media, and they do it with more than little warnings saying “This is contested by Democrats,” they show up in the middle of the night and people disappear. If we keep going in the direction we are going though, that’s what will be happening here. Just look at the enemies lists Democrats are creating.

Good citizens need not fear.

Jaq said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rehajm said...

It is difficult to near impossible to understand some of the partisan voting changes that are being demonstrated in, almost exclusively, the swing states

Recall Pelosi's first order of business in her new Congress was to pass a resolution 'fixing' voting. Like all things government it is big and bloated but if you comb through it is it filled with little nuggets on how to fix an election.

Repeating- their first order of business was to help Democrats legalize election fixing.

Here's a few random bits:

- CONDITIONS ON REMOVAL OF REGISTRANTS FROM OFFICIAL LIST OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS ON BASIS OF INTERSTATE CROSS-CHECKS

- SEC. 1094. ACCEPTANCE OF VOTER REGISTRATION APPLICATIONS FROM INDIVIDUALS UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE.

- “(b) Minimum Early Voting Requirements

-State may not remove the name of any registrant from the official list of voters eligible to vote in elections for Federal office in the State unless the State verifies, on the basis of objective and reliable evidence, that the registrant is ineligible to vote in such elections.







Jaq said...

Peoples_Pundit@Peoples_Pundit
·
9h
Just under 10k confirmed dead returned absentee ballots in Michigan. We're done, for now.

While I'm open to the idea some of these have been rejected, I'm not open to any outright dismissal they all were rejected.

This was a small, tested listed that suggests irregs are plenty.
709
11.3K
26.7K

Peoples_Pundit@Peoples_Pundit
·
9h
Re: Georgia, which we just began to touch now, there are 132k CoA flags in Fulton County, alone.

Just so everyone understands, and my listeners will, I'll keep going regardless of the results of this particular election.

We're never going to stop until we clean it up.


https://twitter.com/Peoples_Pundit/status/1325581205673287682

Stacey Abrams fought on heroically, Al Gore got his day in court. Donald Trump is supposed to walk away with his tail between his legs “for the good of the country."

Jaq said...

Watch Fox News lie

https://twitter.com/jamiedupree/status/1324803334621057027

D.D. Driver said...

you are so intellectually debased, so degraded, so brain-dead that you call a disagreement a "lie".

No, no, no, friend, we do not get to disagree about provable facts. When you misstate facts that is a lie.

Maybe you did not make up the lie, but when you repeat the canard that Milwaukee somehow had suspiciously high voter turnout, overall, or among African Americans: you are spreading lies. Do better.

Mark said...

"Exodus" -- from Latin exodus, from Greek exodos "a military expedition; a solemn procession; departure; death," literally "a going out," from ex "out" (see ex-) + hodos "a way, path, road; a ride, journey, march," figuratively "way out, means," a word of uncertain origin.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/exodus

The word has certainly been used in the mass context, but the word itself does not appear to necessarily mean a mass migration. It simply means a departure from a place, no numbers stated.

Of course, you didn't need teacher to back you up, as if she is the authority on all things. You could have simply looked it up yourself.

Kassaar said...

If Drago’s predictions come true, we in Europe (continent of knee-jerk anti-Trumpism on practically the whole political spectrum) will finally realize that Trump wasn’t that bad after all.

West Texas Intermediate Crude said...

On our weekly phone call, my TDS mom asked me how I felt about the election results. She gets her "information" by IV from NYT and NPR. We have studiously avoided talking politics all year. I said, "It could have been worse" in an attempt to deflect her and change the subject (it worked).
I really think the PA and one or 2 other states will be changed, and Trump will be reelected. Maybe I'm delusional.
I almost don't want it to happen because politics aside I love my mom, and I'll be OK even with Biden, maybe better in terms of my investments.
But I love my country too, and I have kids and grand-kids who need to have a future.
I hope he is reelected.

Rory said...

"If I were Trump's lawyers, I would focus on hand recounting places like Chester County, PA and Butler County, PA"

Butler County actually had police officers driving around and hand-delivering ballots:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/butler-county-sheriff-deputies-deliver-mail-in-ballots-voters/DBS63NUFUJFWVD4EPQY6DSNLPQ/%3foutputType=amp

Chuck said...

I see that our old buddy Scott Adams is still in full denial mode. Prognosticating that right now, there is a 60% chance that Trump is re-elected.

This is fantastic. I see Scott, in his tattered Imperial Japanese Army uniform, doing Periscope podcasts from a remote island in the Pacific for thirty more years.

I had thought that Adams would have been clever enough by now to have declared Trump a loser because Trump failed to follow Adams’ brilliant insights into master persuasion techniques. Timing is everything when you’re part of a personality cult. But nope; Scott Adams — self-proclaimed First Prognosticator of Trump, is now going to be the Last Dead Ender for Trump.

And that cannot be more perfect for me.

rehajm said...

Trump may be within one state of 270 after the counts are in. AK NC he's up, he's shrinking Biden leads in AZ and GA...

With recounts in WI GA AZ he could flip without legal intervention

Courts can still toss out invalid ballots in any of them. Public information shows MI and PA have suspect ballots.

Are you that confident in the judiciary now dems or are you running on hopium?

narciso said...

And we lost farmer, to the ideology.

Jaq said...

“Like Steven Spielberg’s E.T. he seems to instinctually believe in the healing power of physical connection—even if that intimacy can sometimes feel a bit too close....’There is something religious in this laying-on of hands. It is an act of communion.’”😂

These are the same people who told us that Hillary’s drinking problem was going to lead to a new nicer Washington of business over cocktails.

Chuck said...

rehajm said...
Trump may be within one state of 270 after the counts are in. AK NC he's up, he's shrinking Biden leads in AZ and GA...

With recounts in WI GA AZ he could flip without legal intervention

Courts can still toss out invalid ballots in any of them. Public information shows MI and PA have suspect ballots.

...


Biden won Michigan by more than 146,000 votes.

In 2016, Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes, and complained bitterly when the Green Party legally requested a recount.

Jaq said...

"and complained bitterly when the Green Party legally requested a recount.”

Got a quote for that? Of course not.

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

And we lost farmer, to the ideology.

I have no idea who "we" are, but I am almost certain they never had me. I also have no idea what ideology you're referring to but am similarly certain that it doesn't reflect what I actually think.

Mr. Majestyk said...

If Trump ends up winning this thing, that would be sooooooooooo 2020.

Jaq said...

I used to be a nihilist, like Farmer, but now I don’t even believe in that anymore. It assumes that we have enough information to judge. Evolution is not a nihilist, I don’t think, and evolution gets stuff done. We have simple little minds in comparison to evolution, which has the power to suss out the most complicated interrelationships and arbitrate differences between any number of facts. Pretending that we understand the Universe and how it created mankind, to any degree, is like pretending we know the contents of a book after getting a dim glance at the cover.

It all comes down to what I like to say “It’s a tall order to prove a negative.”

Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days. - Crash in Bull Durham

He might have gone overboard on the three day kiss, let’s say it’s metaphorical.

Jaq said...

I guess what I am trying to say above is that evolution discovered values from first principles involving slavish adherence to physical laws.

Bruce Hayden said...

“ I am beginning to believe that he didn't. It is difficult to near impossible to understand some of the partisan voting changes that are being demonstrated in, almost exclusively, the swing states. Now, perhaps it is because of the overwhelming use of mail-in-ballots- we have never run this kind of election before, but my problem with using this as an explanation is that Republicans weren't overwhelmed in the early vote where partisan registration figures were available- indeed, knowing the historic edge Democrats have in legacy registration in most swing states, I was very encouraged that so many Republicans voted early- they just used in-person early voting more than Democrats did.”

As Larry Corella, the former auditor has said, too many red flags.

My theory for quite some time, is that COVID-19 was overblown for several reasons, including the masking requirements discussed ad nauseum here. Then, a couple months ago, all of a sudden, I started seeing the meme that we needed to start planning for mail in voting. No real discussion of whether it was necessary, or even desirable, but just jumping to the conclusion. Elite opinion decided we needed mail in voting, and, voila, the meme was set across the country. Who set that elite opinion? I have no idea, but can pretty well guarantee that they were Never Trumpers.

I think that it was idiotic. We are all used to containers of pens marked “clean” and “dirty”, disinfecting shopping carts and work surfaces between uses, etc. It wouldn’t have been worse for voting than what we deal with day in and day out. In our county in MT, we officially had mail in voting, but they allowed in person voting, if you really wanted it. I did, and it was in the same office that had all the property records and plats, so very convenient for me. It was the usual masking, distancing, and cleaning pens and work surfaces, as I experienced many places elsewhere (not all - its MT, with Resistance in everyone’s blood, so a lot of places just put up masking signs and ignore violations). No one even tried to explain why voting was different, and, thus, why mail in voting was required (with absentee voting provided fir those in high risk situations).

And that was when it became obvious, and I started pointing out, that mail in balloting was being imposed, mostly by fiat, across the country, primarily to provide a mechanism for voter fraud. That was probably right around Labor Day, though it could have been late August. Absentee voting typically is even safer than voting in person, in terms of fraud prevention. Of course, single party states like CA had intentionally removed most of their voting fraud prevention provisions, since they had institutionalized their power through fraudulent voting. But most of the rest of the country still has decent fraud prevention provisions, at least in their statutes.

So, how do you guarantee a loss for Trump, in the face of his positive job rating, booming economy before the lockdown, with minorities doing best, reduced hostilities, and a lot of minority outreach? By cheating. But cheating, in the swing states that hadn’t gone the route of institutionalizing fraud, lime CA, was difficult, and esp at the levels that would be needed. And that, I would suggest was 99% of the reason that all of a sudden, out of the blue, everyone agreed that we needed mail in voting. Or at least everyone who counted, and stood to gain if Trump lost. And, interestingly, it was imposed by fiat by the governors and Secretaries of State in the swing states so critical to Trump’s loss, several of whom had been installed by the Dems two years ago at huge expense.

I think that it might have worked, if the real margins had been closer. But they weren’t. States like PA knew that a Dem win probably meant an economic crash, as Biden/Harris shut down fracking, etc. The fraud required to beat Trump in these states was just too large to even pretend to hide this time. And, BTW, to hide it, may have been why the polling didn’t converge on reality the last weeks before the election.

Bruce Hayden said...

Let me summarize my previous rant: Mail In voting was imposed across the country, mostly by fiat, in order to bypass statutory provisions designed to make voting fraud difficult. This was the plan all along, or at least since before Labor Day. And justifying that may be a big part of why everyone has been forced to wear masks.

Bruce Hayden said...

One thing that is interesting to me right now is how the big tech companies, like Twitter, FB, Google are trying to suppress the underlying knowledge about the fraud that was committed last week by the Dems. Gf course they are on the Dems’ side here, because they very illegally pulled out all of the stops to turn Trump out of office. And that is probably because he poses an almost existential risk to at least their profitability, if not to their existence as single entities. They provided hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, of in-kind political advantage to Biden. Moreover their §230 safe harbor is gone the minute that the Republicans win unified control over the elected branches. Maybe even with just a Trump reelection. And, of course, they also face antitrust scrutiny too. They are taking huge risks, right now, by doubling, tripling, down on their content moderation, and downright censorship. It got very egregious last week. But, I suspect that they don’t see that they had much choice, and that should scare everyone here.

Trump has suggested that he might start his own network, if he loses, after the abrupt left turn by Fox this year. He has the market - as with Fox’s old strategy of filling the market void left by the other news networks by their hard left tilt. He has 70 million voters, many of whom would prefer a Trump news network to any other news network. The problem though is getting the signal through. The transmission companies have been buying content (and a little gong the other way too). AT&T (with Direct TV), Comcast, etc have competing products, that would be harmed by the competition, and more importantly, probably, would endanger the continued illegality of some of their practices (see above). Denying a Trump Network carriage, of course, would be a fairly blatant Sherman Section 2 Tying violation, but in a Biden/Harris Administration, the only remedy would be a lengthy, expensive, civil case, since they would control the DOJ’s Antitrust litigation (and calling off antitrust scrutiny was, no doubt, part of their deal with the Dems to work so hard to beat Trump).

One alternative might be to go to a network streaming service. But the suppression of Q and his Anons has shown that it is very possible to deplatform sites on the Internet, even with foreign domain names. With Q, they just create new sites to republish their postings. That wouldn’t work with a Trump Network.

Should be interesting.

Chuck said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Chuck said...

Bruce Hayden I think you can thank Meade for protecting you from my valid, on-point questions. None of the critical Midwestern states had “mail in” voting, unless you think “absentee voting”, which Trump endorsed, is “mail in.”

Michael K said...

p.s. Simplest explanation for why Trump was "never good at projecting competence": he was incompetent.

Ah. No wonder Farmer agrees with Howard. About most things, I assume.

mockturtle said...

Competence, to me, means getting things done. Not just talking about getting things done.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Bruce Hayden I think you can thank Meade for protecting you from my valid, on-point questions. None of the critical Midwestern states had “mail in” voting, unless you think “absentee voting”, which Trump endorsed, is “mail in.””

So, are you saying that each and every ballot mailed in, in these states, was personally requested by the actual voter? How do you explain precincts with over 100% of eligible voters voting? Or tens of thousands of ballots showing up, in mass, where they shouldn’t be? (Not talking about the probable election fraud, but rather boxes and bags of thousands of ballots showing up in odd places before the election).

I will agree that mail-in voting is different than absentee voting. The big differences are that you have to request absentee ballots, and then they are validity checked, when returned, such as by postmark and signature. At least in MT, they know who an absentee ballot went out to when it is returned to be voted (outer envelope has a bar code identifying the voter), thus eliminating the opportunity for illegal ballots being voted.

Bruce Hayden said...

Oh, and PA very much implemented mail in voting last year - signed into law October 31, 2019. Notably, it specifically requires that ballots need to be received on Election Day, and have a valid signature. There was not, of course, a statutory provision allowing for late acceptance of ballots, or for late ballots at all. The statute said Election Day. The governor said later. The governor waiving or extending those requirements, by fiat, is presumably part of why it appears that the governor violated the SCOTUS ruling in Bush v Gore.

Bruce Hayden said...

“ Competence, to me, means getting things done. Not just talking about getting things done.”

I think for most of them, it also means not upsetting the entrenched, unelected, bureaucracy. That was, in good part, why Trump for impeached - he ignored the permanent bureaucracy in setting foreign policy in regards to the Ukraine (I.e. he wasn’t toadying up to the Russians enough, and instead we were using the Ukraine against them). They consider themselves the experts, so he must be incompetent, if he ignores their suggestions, and ignores their policy decisions. Never mind that the Constitution gives that power to the President, and not to them.

My view is that LT Col Vindman should have been relieved of duty the day after Trump’s impeachment failed in the Senate, and dismissed soon after that. The commanders who were derelict in their duties, and didn’t, should also have been relieved of their commands. At least though, he was passed over for promotion, and retired soon thereafter. At one point, it looked like the Army was going to promote him, and that would have set a horrible precedent. But he, luckily, wasn’t.

Chuck said...

Bruce Hayden said...
...
So, are you saying that each and every ballot mailed in, in these states, was personally requested by the actual voter?


Yes that is exactly what I am saying. Every "mailed" ballot in Michigan was a requested absentee ballot. What you seem to be asking about, and which you don't seem to have the wherewithal to articulate, is that what you are griping about was a problem to just one state that is actually in play. That is Nevada. So now go ahead and try to make your very specific case of "fraud" in Nevada. That is it.

How do you explain precincts with over 100% of eligible voters voting?

Those stories are dumb urban myths raging through the far right blogospehre.

Or tens of thousands of ballots showing up, in mass, where they shouldn’t be? (Not talking about the probable election fraud, but rather boxes and bags of thousands of ballots showing up in odd places before the election).

Show us any credible evidence of that happening.

I will agree that mail-in voting is different than absentee voting.


Good. That helps, for you to concede that. And as I quite rightly pointed out, Trump himself endorsed "absentee." So let's be more careful about the terms you're using.

The big differences are that you have to request absentee ballots, and then they are validity checked, when returned, such as by postmark and signature. At least in MT, they know who an absentee ballot went out to when it is returned to be voted (outer envelope has a bar code identifying the voter), thus eliminating the opportunity for illegal ballots being voted.


I could've told you that. So we are back to the one single state of Nevada, where you have any issues. And now the Trump Team can go right ahead and knock themselves out, looking for thousands of fraudulent votes in Nevada.

Chuck said...

Bruce Hayden said...
Oh, and PA very much implemented mail in voting last year - signed into law October 31, 2019.


Pennsylvania confused the issue by calling their process "Mail in or absentee voting." It is an "absentee" process in fact. No one in PA is sent a ballot unless they apply for it.

https://www.votespa.com/Voting-in-PA/Pages/Mail-and-Absentee-Ballot.aspx#mailin

Narr said...

OK, Trump is an incompetent.

But the entire rotten system has been exposed as never before; he destroyed the Republican establishment. Can any thinking person come to their defense or explain why they shouldn't have been put on the dustheap? His incompetence may yet effectively destroy the Dim establishment, or give them enough rope to hang themselves. (Same question.)

That's two excellent consequences of his incompetence.

Every president walks into a buzzsaw. In Trump's case, recall, he had no powerful friends in DC on either side of the aisle, and when they realized he hadn't run to become friends with them, it was plain he couldn't be allowed to remain.

He did acquire a few actual allies in DC, but not the power players, other than in the most nakedly opportunistic way on their parts. He had to depend on weaklings like Jeffy Sessions or Company men like Barr and Mattis to fill very important posts.

I don't think Trump expected the DS to love him--I don't think he had any conception of the DS beyond a vague populist anti-elitist instinct. He was indeed naive to the point of incompetence in not realizing how far the DS would go to get rid of him, how relentless and shameless they are, how determined to keep themselves in control of the empire.

Someone mentioned Sampson. Yes, Trump has the Sampson Option, and there is no reason for him not to use it at the last moment.

Narr
Sampson, Hercules and the Augean Stables, take your pick of metaphors

J. Farmer said...

@tim in vermont:

I used to be a nihilist, like Farmer, but now I don’t even believe in that anymore

This is the second time this week someone has used the word "nihilist" incorrectly. Since you "used to be" one, why don't you explain what about my point-of-view is nihilist?

rehajm said...

Suspiciously Conspicuous Chuck wrote...

Biden won Michigan by more than 146,000 votes.

Not to worry Chuck. If Trump wins, Biden's vote lead in Michigan isn't likely to matter...

rehajm said...

...btw, there are sworn affidavits from Detroit election officials claiming observation of backdating and no signature ballots being counted...

Freeman Hunt said...

My wife and a whole bunch of her Hong Kong friends were posting about the election. A lot of jokes like "One Country Two Systems" and other references to the US being taken over by China. Dozens of posts. She was talking with her Mom and Dad about them.

And now they are all gone.

We are seeing the iron fist up front and center.

You lefties better start stepping back.

Right fucking now.


Yow! What platform?