2020 Election Results Part 9: Biden Wins Again And Continues Building An Administration

[Alisamer]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

One of  the new senators who will be seated in January, "Tubs", who is being foisted on us by repugs in Alabama, is all-in for trying to subvert democracy as long as it's what Twitler wants: "Trump’s final hope rests with Tommy Tuberville. Sad!"

 

The saddest part? This guy is smarter than most people who voted for him.

Have people always been this stupid? Or is the general intelligence level actually going down? Are the people who were dumb enough they might have choked on Kinder Eggs or blow-dried their hair while in the bath actually living long enough to breed now, and that's what's going on? Or is it some environmental effect?

[Maggie Mae]

14 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

Have people always been this stupid? 

We've had the same level of general intelligence since forever. Out level of education has risen as we discovered more technology. But I guess that's not really what you were asking. 

It's my experience that there has always been a lot of stubborn, undereducated, anti-intellectual Americans. Growing up, I remember being so disappointed with adults because so many were so wrong about so many things. And they weren't nice about it. 

14 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

Are the people who were dumb enough they might have choked on Kinder Eggs or blow-dried their hair while in the bath actually living long enough to breed now, and that's what's going on? 

I think the warning labels and bans on products have more to do with our lack of universal health care, to be honest. Let's say my hypothetical child chokes on a Kinder egg and is left brain damaged. I'm left with ongoing health care costs, plus the initial bill. Since most people can't pay cash in the millions for the ambulance, then 24/7 health care, etc, it's financially prudent to use the insurance to sue the manufacturer for not labeling the choking hazard. Then eventually it happens to enough people, citizens get together, insurance lobbys and the product is removed. Companies put the warning label on as a shield from liability. 

If we had universal health care, we'd have a very different way of life. 

[47of74]

Oh my fucking God Biden is planning to put an actual professional in as education secretary. 

Quote

President-elect Joe Biden is poised to nominate Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona for Education secretary, adding another Latino to his roster of Cabinet appointees and choosing a leader who has pressed schools to remain open for in-person classes during the pandemic, according to people familiar with the decision.

Cardona’s selection fulfills Biden’s campaign promise to name an educator with public school experience as his nominee for the post. He has spent his entire career in Connecticut, working as an elementary school teacher, principal, district administrator and assistant superintendent, as well as adjunct professor before being named Connecticut’s state chief last year by Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont.

 

Edited December 22, 2020 by 47of74

[47of74]

Actually I think this is a good thing to have the official accounts start fresh on January 20.  I didn't like how they had us all following the official accounts automatically in 2017.  It'll be a chance to clear out all the Russian trolls, bots, and Branch Trumpvidians out of the accounts too.   

I do wonder if I'll have to unblock them or if they'll be new accounts and the blocks go away.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Black Aliss]

3 hours ago, Alisamer said:

The saddest part? This guy is smarter than most people who voted for him.

Have people always been this stupid? Or is the general intelligence level actually going down? Are the people who were dumb enough they might have choked on Kinder Eggs or blow-dried their hair while in the bath actually living long enough to breed now, and that's what's going on? Or is it some environmental effect?

Yes. Blame it on the government interference that mandated ground fault circuit interrupters on hair dryers, back in 1991.

[47of74]

That was an order!  Steiner’s Pence’s attack was an order!

Quote

One of the familiar genres of White House reporting during the Trump era has been the theme that President Trump is degenerating into madness, or at least some deeper state of madness. I have treated these reports with persistent skepticism. By all outward signs, Trump’s grip on reality has waxed and waned in regular intervals, and the man who publicly insisted in 2011 that Barack Obama had faked his birth certificate did not seem substantially more hinged than the one who claimed Joe Biden had fired a Ukrainian prosecutor to protect his son’s business. The people around Trump who believed he was growing more deranged were perhaps mistaking their own diminishing ability to cope with his delirium with a change in the patient’s underlying condition.

And yet here, in the true final stages of the Trump presidency, we at last have evidence of genuine change. Trump’s mental decline may not be actually accelerating, but he is turning against his supporters in a sharp and distinctive fashion.

The Hitler analogies are easy to overplay — Trump is not a genocidal warmonger, which is by far Hitler’s most salient trait — but the whiff of the Führerbunker is difficult to miss when you encounter such passages as this, from Axios: “Trump, in his final days, is turning bitterly on virtually every person around him, griping about anyone who refuses to indulge conspiracy theories or hopeless bids to overturn the election.” In lieu of Russian tanks, the unstoppable force everybody else around the mad leader can see coming is Joe Biden’s clear Electoral College victory.

So the likes of Barr and McConnell are all slowly edging away while Trump rages at their betrayal and seeks out followers delusional enough to indulge his fantasies. Trump sent out a bizarre attack on McConnell for refusing to support his hopeless attempt to decertify Biden’s election. Even supine Mike Pence is now “not fighting hard enough for him,” reports Axios.

 

[Ozlsn]

7 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

In an interview with the Alabama Daily News, he also offered the insight that World War II was not, as many suppose, a conflict against Nazism. “My dad fought 76 years ago in Europe to free Europe of socialism,” he said.

... so the US lost the war then? Just asking, given basically pretty much all of it has some form of socialised health care at least. 

You know, I now really want voter fraud investigated in Alabama, because how the hell else did this guy get elected? 

[47of74]

Senator Padilla. I like that. 

Quote

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that he has chosen the state's secretary of state, Alex Padilla, to fill the Senate seat being vacated by Kamala Harris, who will be sworn in as vice president next month.

Padilla will be the first Latino senator to represent the state.

“Through his tenacity, integrity, smarts and grit, California is gaining a tested fighter in their corner who will be a fierce ally in D.C., lifting up our state’s values and making sure we secure the critical resources to emerge stronger from this pandemic. He will be a Senator for all Californians,” Newsom said in a statement announcing the appointment.

Newsom said that Padilla, a Democrat whose parents were Mexican immigrants, had worked his way up from “humble beginnings” to the halls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Los Angeles City Council and the state Senate.

 

[Hane]

9 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Oh my fucking God Biden is planning to put an actual professional in as education secretary. 

 

Yes! Dr. Cardona used to be my daughter’s principal when she taught music here in Meriden. She says he’s the best principal she ever worked for, and she’s going to be interviewed on our local NBC 11:00 news tonight!

He’s the anti-DeVos. His parents came to our town from Puerto Rico, his first language was Spanish, and he grew up in public housing. All of his education, from elementary school to the University of Connecticut, was in public schools. His wife and my daughter were in high school together.

Fun anecdote: He used to have kids in the front lobby of his school every morning, playing music for their classmates. One day he visited my daughter’s music class, then got his drums out of his car so he could participate in the lesson. He gave the kids a pep talk about the importance of music education. (He, his wife, and their two kids—who attend public school here in town—are all musically talented.)

I got to meet him a couple of years ago when he and his wife were at my table at the 40th anniversary of our domestic violence task force. He’s a nice guy, a supportive administrator, and a gifted educator.

[Ozlsn]

1 hour ago, Hane said:

Yes! Dr. Cardona used to be my daughter’s principal when she taught music here in Meriden. She says he’s the best principal she ever worked for, and she’s going to be interviewed on our local NBC 11:00 news tonight!

He’s the anti-DeVos. His parents came to our town from Puerto Rico, his first language was Spanish, and he grew up in public housing. All of his education, from elementary school to the University of Connecticut, was in public schools. His wife and my daughter were in high school together.

Fun anecdote: He used to have kids in the front lobby of his school every morning, playing music for their classmates. One day he visited my daughter’s music class, then got his drums out of his car so he could participate in the lesson. He gave the kids a pep talk about the importance of music education. (He, his wife, and their two kids—who attend public school here in town—are all musically talented.)

I got to meet him a couple of years ago when he and his wife were at my table at the 40th anniversary of our domestic violence task force. He’s a nice guy, a supportive administrator, and a gifted educator.

You know of all the appointments being made this is the first one I've gotten teary over. He sounds wonderful, and I hope he and his team can make a huge difference.

[47of74]

The Kraken team messed up. So they blamed the clerks at the Supreme Court. 

Nice.  Why don’t you go in and call the Chief Justice an asshole to his face?  That blowback would be slightly less painful. 

[Hane]

@Ozlsn, we’re all sitting around here being all home-town proud of Dr. Cardona, but the usual gang of idiots on social media are saying he was only chosen because he’s Latino, or that some teachers’ union members don’t like him, or he’s too young (45!), or that he’s a “Democrat shill,” or that he won’t be able to keep the job because Biden really lost the election. The most exquisitely stupid negative comments are coming from people who didn’t even know he existed until today.

In the meantime, I’m just blocking the trolls and basking in the great appearance my daughter made on tonight’s news.

[fraurosena]

19 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

In an interview with the Alabama Daily News, he also offered the insight that World War II was not, as many suppose, a conflict against Nazism. “My dad fought 76 years ago in Europe to free Europe of socialism,” he said.

As a European who's grandmother was part of the resistance during WWII, this is highly offensive to me. My grandmother risked her life and that of her six children by fighting the nazi's and hiding many Jewish neighbours and friends in a secret chamber dug under her house. Without her, many of them would have been deported and killed. She was a hero. And a socialist, I might add.

[JordynDarby5]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

As a European who's grandmother was part of the resistance during WWII, this is highly offensive to me. My grandmother risked her life and that of her six children by fighting the nazi's and hiding many Jewish neighbours and friends in a secret chamber dug under her house. Without her, many of them would have been deported and killed. She was a hero. And a socialist, I might add.

Wow, your grandmother was so brave. That's awesome!

[AmazonGrace]

Good god, is he even aware that the Soviet Union fought on the Allied side.

 

An evergreen quotable from Biden:

 

 

[Howl]

So, Nicole Wallace (anchor of Deadline: White House) has serious Conservative cred

• served as the White House Communications Director during George W. Bush presidency and re-election campaign
• senior advisor for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.

She combines a brilliant mind and gracious persona but so clearly has absolutely zero fucks left to give to those who have supported Trump in any way and are currently in rehab mode.

Hello, 911? I'd like to report a murder and some arson. 

Exhibit A: In an interview yesterday with Chris Christie  "Are you making a calculation that you can clean the Trump stink off of you faster than Marco Rubio and some of your other competitors?"

Plus Leslie Jones pile on: 

 

Edited December 23, 2020 by Howl

[GreyhoundFan]

6 minutes ago, Howl said:

So, Nicole Wallace (anchor of Deadline: White House) has serious Conservative cred

• served as the White House Communications Director during George W. Bush presidency and re-election campaign
• senior advisor for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.

She combines a brilliant mind and gracious persona but so clearly has absolutely zero fucks left to give to those who have supported Trump in any way and are currently in rehab mode.

She also wrote an interesting trio of novels. I especially enjoyed the first in the series, "Eighteen Acres".

[Howl]

40 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

She also wrote an interesting trio of novels. I especially enjoyed the first in the series, "Eighteen Acres".

I noticed that listed in her WIKI bio.  What's your take on her writing?

[GreyhoundFan]

5 minutes ago, Howl said:

I noticed that listed in her WIKI bio.  What's your take on her writing?

It's a little uneven, but I thought the story was interesting enough to overlook the writing style. She does include lots of insider detail, which I found the most fascinating. I think her books are worth a read.

[Howl]

Taut, well scripted, accurate: 

 

[fraurosena]

? Oh, wouldn't that be loverly! ?

 

[AmazonGrace]

Biden wins again:

He wins staplers and office space.

[Alisamer]

4 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Biden wins again:

He wins staplers and office space.

Ethics debriefing? I think a large portion of Trump's administration missed the Ethics Installation in the first place.

[fraurosena]

Be still, my doggie loving heart!