johnzo

(reading the politico article about the campaign) Here's my takeaway: somehow Trump's campaign was full of complete Coen-movie nincompoops like Guilifoyle, and had to work with losing thirty three cents of every dollar it raised to the various grifters it employed, and yet it turned out voters like an old Chicago machine. The guy still got more votes than any other candidate in history -- except for his opponent, luckily. **** Trump forever, but I will always be in awe of his capability to get the marks on board. We're just lucky that for every mark he brought in, he mortally pissed off 1.001 other voters... (I mean, seriously Deutsch Bank? ... an unsecured loan for 1/3 of a billion dollars to a guy who went bankrupt operating casinos? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?)

The trouble with ruling by executive order -- as Obama did because of Mitch, and as Trump did because he was too ******* stupid to try to pass legislation -- is that the next executive can undo those things without a lot of effort.* Real change, like fundamental change, will demand legislation. And Mitch is a problem, but it's not just Mitch. The big Dem tent means that there are lots and lots of cautious and centrist Dems in Congress who are really not interested in progressive legislation. You saw that in 2009-2010, when a single pissy senator (**** Lieberman forever) blew up the public option in Obamacare. Much as I would love to see Biden just hammer on Medicare for All and bully the government into making it happen, I'm not holding out a lot of hope. (*The courts famously told Trump he couldn't end DACA .... but not because he lacked the authority to do so, but because federal regulation change has to go through a mandated process and that process was ignored and the court was like "just file the paperwork right and do the right studies to quantify the impact, and then you can change your rules." But doing that kind of work is for chumps, apparently; the Trump gang never came back to it.)

unfortunately the system requires compromise. assuming Russian Mitch keeps the senate majority and the GOP keeps its discipline, no legislation -- even the bandaids necessary to fund the gov't -- passes without his say-so. the next coronavirus relief bill will be interesting. Lots of vulnerable GOP senators coming up in 2022, Biden has some leverage.

such a gorgeous cover song here. Wasn't until I heard this version without all the Queen mega bombast that I realized just how heavy this song is, it's about absolutely crushing despair.

ok normally I don't go for this lol GOP kinda stuff but good lord this is some kind of story. it's from 2017 so you might have heard it already https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2017/03/tennessee-anti-lgbtq-lawmakers-torrid-affair-cousin-revealed/ when you get deeper in the article you find out she wasn't -really- his patient. He was just writing pain med prescriptions for her while she was sexing him up, so it was more of a casual thing. what is the big German word for incest-cuckold-sexual-harassment-professional-misconduct-drug-dealer? Anyway, dude is currently facing discipline from the doctor authority in Tennessee.

the National Review (not linking) posted an article about how electing trump was a "middle finger" to all the evil progressives in the USA. No platform, no policies, no coherent philosophy, no health care plan, no COVID plan. Just a middle finger. That's all the GOP is now, that's all they can be. Reactionary anger.

Lots of tweeting / news yesterday about how youth early voting is exploding in the USA. Here's the source story on that: https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/absentee-and-early-voting-youth-2020-election

well, well, well. the FBI has charged a boogaloo boi in the burning of the MPLS precinct. https://www.startribune.com/charges-boogaloo-bois-fired-on-mpls-precinct-shouted-justice-for-floyd/572843802/

listening right now. Announcing that Iran and Russia have compromised voter registration databases and that it's them (not the proud boys as was earlier announced) that are pushing out fake election alarms over email. (edit: and asking Americans to be "thoughtful consumers of information.")

Miller is a ******* stealth snake. Guy is all over the White House immigration policy but nowhere on the record. Real mob style operator. I'm wondering who he sees holding him accountable for what he's done. Back in 2008 I seriously wanted the DOJ to put John Yoo on trial, but I trusted Obama when he said that we needed to turn that page. No more. I want Miller to be testifying under oath before Congress about what he did in the White House. Trump is in the crosshairs of a lots and lots of gunfighter prosecutors who want to put his notch on their irons, so I'm pretty sure that guy is gonna see a cell, but Miller is the guy I really don't want to get away.

Respectfully, I think that if Trump could make a dollar from invading New Brunswick -- maybe to help get Trump Tower Fredericton built -- he would not hesitate. I don't think that Trump is some saintly dove, it's just that war doesn't seem to be his grift (so far) And this is the only thing about him that was a pleasant surprise. I was real scared he was gonna be lobbing cruise missiles (and worse) all over the goddamn place as soon as he was elected, completely ******* up the world just to put some "wartime president" shine on his ass. For whatever reason, that didn't happen. (and none of this is to suggest that Donald Trump is anything more than a skinsuit of sewage. it's just that this one particular fear of mine hasn't come true so far. I've got scars from 2003, watching this country leroy jenkins itself in Iraq)

yeah, my mom was in municipal politics for years and knows elections very well. She's astonished at the stuff that happens in the USA. The First Amendment is a hell of a drug. It is very hard for American governments, at any level, to restrain speech.

I will celebrate when Trump is no longer president and I will celebrate when the ****** is in the ground. But I agree with Colin: so far, the guy has started way fewer wars than the typical GOP president in my lifetime. It's hard for me to pick between Bush II and Trump. Bush II killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and left things way more ****** up than they were, and he figured that the USA could tame Afghanistan when every empire in history that has tried became not-an-empire shortly afterwards. Who to choose between a semiserious cabal of couchstain war pigs who tried to bomb the Middle East into Pax Americana and the lunatic thief who is prying all the copper pipes out of the White House while the country gets more divided and coronavirus runs rampant?

the thing you need to realize is that "Cruz" is not really a white guy name. There lots of racism in America directed at people with the name "Cruz." You may have heard about the ICE raids and the border wall... Yes, I know that Ted Cruz is a mongrel of Irish, Italian, Cuban, and Carribean descent, and he was born in Canada. "Mexican name and not born in the USA" is something that resonates with the Trump base regardless of the details, and I very much doubt that Trump would've worked the birther angle against a candidate named Ted Crews.

Just made our xmas plans. My spouse and I are going to hard quarantine for two weeks, then spend two weeks in Portland with our very best chosen family. I am so so so stoked for this.

(weird they gave the Afghani restauranteurs transylvanian accents, but hey, it was the nineties)

like a lot of things in the USA, it varies from state to state. This guy was elected. Based on what I read here (https://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/2018/02/governors_order_recall_are_the.html) he can be recalled, or he can be stripped of his powers by the governor.

Holy ****, not a super huge Van Halen fan but you can't deny the impact that EVH had on guitarists. rest in power chords, Eddie.

this is pretty funny I think. he gets all het up about St. John / St John's. Wait until someone tells him about Roughriders / Rough Riders.

If I ever shame myself here to such a degree that I have to abandon my name and start anew, my new secret identity will be Gotcha Books.

Ok, I'm reading the "Where'd the money go, Donny?" NYT story... huh! 4 million bucks, that's unseemly but not too bad I guess, I had thought that the number would be one or two orders of magnitude higher, maybe there's less to this than I thought? reading onward.. uh, yeah, okay. There it is, right in plain sight there.

A few years ago the TSN showed footage of how the crew entered the TF press box before a game. There was a ladder up through the front window, if I recall right.

60 people in a one-bedroom apartment. Brings back fond memories, but yeah, now is not the time for that kinda thing.

How much did the CFL want from the feds? Was it $150M? We could fund the league if we bust 300 more bozos like this. Kentucky Man Accused Of Breaking Canada's COVID-19 Rules Faces $569,000 Fine https://www.npr.org/2020/08/25/905847150/american-man-accused-of-breaking-canadas-covid-19-rules-faces-560-000-fine?fbclid=IwAR3Sb0OP1A_zql7d-Ld8d5RjICKl8dAM_ldZvrr-BK-ntl6TuvX3FrBKwk0

Gavin Walls! I remember that guy found an extra gear in the big game, he was makings plays all over the field (as a DE!) he was playing like he wanted to win the game singlehandedly, but not in the way where someone does too much and plays badly, the opposite way where they are just out of their minds good and making plays that you wouldn't expect.