Trump’s Tantrum Could Do Real Harm

found online by Raymond

 

Trump Tantrum     [Image from The Humanist Report]

From Jonathan Bernstein:

The delayed transition, especially if it goes on any longer, will cause all sorts of problems. But the most serious situation right now is the pandemic, with the incoming Biden team unable so far to even make contact with the outgoing Trump people. Make no mistake: This could cost lives.

A week ago, Trump’s reluctance to admit he had lost was unfortunate, but a few days wasn’t going to make much difference. It’s been nine days now since media outlets declared that Joe Biden was president-elect, and more than that since it was obvious to everyone that he had won. By now, the media declarations are irrelevant; while there are still a lot of votes to be counted in some areas, there aren’t many in the close states — not nearly enough to change the results even if every remaining ballot went for Trump. Nor do the president’s lawsuits have any realistic chance of eliminating Biden’s lead, and not just because they’re more frivolous than serious; the truth is that even if he won in court he simply isn’t challenging enough votes to give him a second term.

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538 Gets In On That Sweet, Sweet Both Siderist Action

found online by Raymond

 

Trump supporters protest in Washington DC against ‘voter fraud’     [Image from Sky News]

From driftglass:

Here’s the headline.

Americans Were Primed To Believe The Current Onslaught Of Disinformation

“Americans”. Heh.

And here’s the first paragraph.

It started with a drizzle but quickly turned into a downpour: Disinformation about the election, and in particular unfounded claims of election fraud, has flooded the internet over the past week. And Americans were primed to believe it.

“Americans”. There’s that word again.

And yet, drop down another paragraph or two and you’ll find that the author obviously knows damn well that it’s not “Americans”.

It’s “Republicans”.

But thanks of the same suffocating journalistic cowardice that has all but killed off the press, the author would rather gargle rat poison than say it right out, plain and clear.

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Fox News Anchor Eric Shawn Debunks Another Trump Conspiracy Theory

found on Twitter by Burr

 
One anchor promotes a false claim, the next destroys it
 

Mercer Family to Fund a Right-Wing Version of Twitter

found online by Raymond

 

     [Image from Parler]

From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:

To be called ‘Parler’

The Mercers seem to have enough money to burn, so why not tax them. But I digest…

I’m old enough to remember Reaganbook, which was the Right’s answer to the CENSORSHIP!!1! they felt that Facebook was showing them when it didn’t let them promote Nazi merde. It was a simpler time, before they realized that Faceberg hisself was one of their greatest enablers. Reaganbook, as I recall, didn’t do too well as I recall.

Also, anyone else recall ConservapediaYou know, the Right’s attempt to challenge Wikipedia because actual facts were too damn liberal.

The Right tries to create an online alternate reality to mimic the success they’ve had with Fox News, but the web is more porous than the walled gardens of cable teevee. I suspect Parler eventually will suffer the same fate, and in fact each time one of ’em announces that they are leaving Twitter forever to go to Parler, they almost always show up the next day on Twitter, begging people to go there. Twitter is like the restaurant that no one goes to because it’s too crowded. (H/T Yogi Berra)

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Gritty, Fox, War, Armistice, Veterans, Thanksgiving, COVID, Masks, Transition

Gritty, mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers     [Image from the NHL]
  • Gritty is the ferocious mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team (that’s hockey as in “I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out”). Gritty fits the mascot motif of weirdness but combines it with a tough, ready for a fight, borderline bully, image of the game.
     
    Nicole Conlan writes comedy for Stephen Colbert.
     
    Put Gritty and Conlan together and you get a story for the French public, as Conlan explains Gritty in French. Don’t worry. It’s subtitled for us rubes.
     
    For finding this cultural piece, we are grateful to occasional contributor 4YourConsideration.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit brings us a recording of the seconds before and after the moment World War I ended. The thunder of guns stops. Then birds begin to sing. Remarkable.
     
  • Vagabond Scholar has written many articles over the years about the absurdity and brutality of war. He links to some of them on this week’s Veterans Day, and asks for contributions written by others. I, of course, respond. I take a somewhat different tone with an article from a dozen years ago about a chance encounter in a local library.
     
  • Max’s Dad gets beyond impatient at selfish ignorance as anti-maskers put themselves and everyone else at risk. After all, Veteran’s Day reminds us that so many sacrificed so much, often everything, to allow these modern patriots to stand tall, demanding their own independence from minor inconvenience.

Continue reading “Gritty, Fox, War, Armistice, Veterans, Thanksgiving, COVID, Masks, Transition”

Have Republicans Turned
Against Our Military?

found on Twitter by Burr

 
Startling if true
 

What makes this wrong (if true)

Military absentee ballots are not cast by those seeking to avoid going to the polls for health reasons.

They are primarily cast by those serving their country in outposts around the world.

I checked the local Auburn paper, The Citizen, near where I grew up. Misso is a U.S. Navy veteran who flew on combat missions in the Middle East. He is also a public figure who briefly ran for Congress against two fellow Democrats in rural New York. Works on veterans’ issues.

Does this fit a documented pattern?

Republicans have insisted that some military service people from Nevada be investigated for voting absentee from out of state, apparently unaware that they are allowed by federal law. Military families are encouraged to vote, especially when stationed at remote outposts. In the Nevada case Republicans included names and addresses in documents that were made public, exposing families to harassment by right-wing extremists.

Updates

Scottie has done more research and has updates. Apparently the Republican lawyer was real, but was eventually replaced. Military ballots were put back into count.