Sunday, November 08, 2020

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 Looking forward to One Twenty Twenty One!

                                                                                                                                   ~ Chicago Tribune

60 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Sis is very excited about this.

      Delete
    2. Joe: "MITCH! GET YOUR LEG OUT OF MY DOG'S MOUTH!"

      Delete
  2. Y’know what?

    I knew the stress of the pandemic and election was weighing on me. This past week, it got to the point where I couldn’t hold two thoughts in my head at the same time. It was like I was fuzzy headed.

    Then DT lost. And the ship of my brain righted itself. The great weight of stress has largely lifted. I feel lighter, more relaxed, was even a little giddy at first.

    I knew it was bothering me, but didn’t realise how all encompassing it had become. It feels so good when it stops.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stress like that can be pretty damned sneaky; glad you are feeling better. Go read about the first pets; one is a first--the first rescue dog.

      Delete
    2. Oh, I did...last night. I’m excited to share that with my 13 yo granddaughter whose mom has rescued dogs (and cats, and horses).

      Delete
    3. For me it's not just knowing I don't have to worry about four more years of Trump but the sharp drop-off in email volume. I'm once more finding time to work on my book.

      Delete
    4. Yes! This morning I had only 12 emails, as opposed to 300+.

      Delete
    5. Bill, Susan--
      I noticed the same thing. Now I am slowly unsubscribing from the ones that come through, although it is really too late.

      Delete
  3. Trump evidently isn’t serious about recounting Wisconsin; from polticalwire.com:

    The Trump campaign has not committed to put up the $3 million required to pay for a recount in Wisconsin, the Washington Post reports.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Three megabucks should be pocket change for a multibillionaire.

      Delete
    2. The Trump campaign, if not Trump himself, knows that -- absent something like hanging chads -- recounts essentially never change anything.

      Delete
    3. Besides which, the campaign has been essentially broke for weeks. They may simply not have the scratch.

      Delete
  4. NYT: Dancing in the Streets, and a Parking Lot, for Joe Biden [Click]
    “People have not historically hustled to spontaneous outdoor dance parties for Joe Biden.
    They have not clanged spoons against frying pans in celebration for him, formed triumphant honk-parades along Fifth Avenue for him, made Champagne toasts with strangers in his honor through chants and tears.
    “BIDEN!” his supporters shouted outside Manhattan’s Washington Square Park on Saturday, the call echoing from apartment windows and taxis and sidewalk restaurant tables. “JOE BIDEN!”
    Joe Biden. That Joe Biden — institutionalist 70-something, incorrigible square, inexhaustible reciter of Irish poetry.
    But then, it seems that defeating President Trump can do strange things for a man’s reputation. . .”

    ReplyDelete
  5. Naomi Klein: We were told Joe Biden was the 'safe choice'. Why did he barely scrape through? [Click] “A great many people did not vote for Joe Biden, they voted against Trump. We have to recognise how narrow this win was.” And here we are, with the institutional Democrats bashing those on the left of the party who made this tenuous victory possible.

    ReplyDelete
  6. BBC: US election 2020: Why Donald Trump lost [Click] “Let the 2020 election bury the mistaken notion once and for all that the 2016 election was a historical accident, an American aberration.”

    ReplyDelete

  7. US posts fourth consecutive daily Covid record as Joe Biden prepares task force, announces co-chairs of working group. [Click]
    Bearing out Dr Anthony Fauci’s recent warning of cases rising and staying above 100,000 a day, the seven-day average for cases was 103,973. Hospitalisations were also rising, at around 56,000.

    “We’re in for a whole lot of hurt,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, told the Washington Post last week. “It’s not a good situation. All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”


    Well, that's enough and more than enough for this morning. My apologies for the included doom mongering.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Even if trump committed to the $3 Million bill for a recount we ALL KNOW he never pays his bills.

    ReplyDelete
  9. OHIO; COVID cases 250,268 and 5,517 deaths.

    ReplyDelete
  10. November 8, 2020 at 2:06 pm EST By Taegan Goddard

    George W. Bush released a statement:

    “I just talked to the President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden. I extended my warm congratulations and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night. I also called Kamala Harris to congratulate her on her historic election to the vice presidency. Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country. The President-elect reiterated that while he ran as a Democrat, he will govern for all Americans.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Never would I have imagined myself saying this in connection with Dubya but, Class Act!

      Delete
    2. Yeah, that was truly decent.

      Delete
    3. It seems that now we can have a better view of W's native character, since it has been freed of the influence of Cheney.

      Delete
  11. Biden Inherits a Historic Mess [Click] Arguably, worse than what FDR inherited in 1932.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Replies
    1. Romney and Murkowski have now congratulated Biden. Romney was on Meet the Press this morning, though, and his performance there was not something to be proud of.

      Delete
    2. Well, that's something. But I can never forget how Romney saw nothing wrong with destroying businesses and the communities that depended on them to line his own pockets.

      Delete
  13. Excerpted from behind a paywall:

    “the pro-Republican bias in the Electoral College has grown since 2016. In other words, the Democratic presidential candidate now must win the popular vote by 4 to 5 percentage points to have a chance at winning the election. That’s up from about 3 percentage points four years ago. . . The relative weight of a rural vote has grown in comparison to the votes of those living in more populated areas.”

    We can't get the national popular vote compact approved a day too soon to suit me.

    ReplyDelete
  14. WaPo: Democratic turnout increased, but Republican turnout increased almost as much. [Click] So much for the idea that increased turnout necessarily favors Democrats.

    ReplyDelete
  15. A Memo to the GOP, Wall Street, Joe Biden, and All Democrats: 'No, Mitch McConnell Is Not the 46th President.’ [Click] "President Biden will be under no obligation to hand Mitch McConnell the keys to his Cabinet.” I’d say if Mitch doesn’t cooperate on the cabinet, then every presidential appointment normally meriting consent of the Senate should be made at one fell swoop.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow! Not only can we see the mountains for the first time since before the forest fires started, they have snow on them! That explains it being a little chilly.

    ReplyDelete
  17. NYT: In a Divided Washington, Biden Could Still Exert Economic Power [Click] “If Republicans control the Senate, a Biden administration could take a cue from President Trump and find ways to act unilaterally on some economic issues.”

    ReplyDelete
  18. https://www.curbed.com/2020/11/four-seasons-total-landscaping-trump-giuliani-philadelphia-perfect.html?utm_source=fb

    From the article: "The photos that emerged from the event had the tawdriness of America’s worst cityscapes and the richness of an allegorical painting. The sound system’s snarl of cables lay sloppily piled on the asphalt, the emblem of every garbled message. A Sunoco sign presided over the end of an administration desperately addicted to fossil fuels. Windows covered in blackout shades and bars recalled ICE detention centers. A rusting steel scaffold appeared to be propping up the whole derelict structure. And at the center of it all, a small man behind a cheap lectern trying to persuade a tired nation that this gimcrack spectacle must never shut down."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good fun, indeed. Now if the person who actually made this (probable) mistake can just hide out for six weeks or so, s/he might not be modeling a suit of concrete pajamas. Then again, it could have been a member of the Deep State under deep cover, and the payoff will be a nice family vacation.

      Delete
    2. Oh, and that "steel scaffold" appears to be a gantry for moving heavy objects between the inside of the building and trucks. Large economy size containers of manure, for example. But that's being very picky.

      Delete
    3. The whole thing is way better than the EdStone. [Click] Them limeys just can't match Yankee ingenuity.

      Delete
    4. "None of these explanations makes sense, because the site was simultaneously too perfect to be accidental and too elaborate to be intentional."

      Delete
  19. A ‘Terrifying’ Coronavirus Surge
    November 8, 2020 at 9:47 pm EST By Taegan Goddard

    New York Times: “The rate of new cases is soaring, and for the first time is averaging more than 100,000 a day in the United States, which has reported more Covid-19 cases than any other country. An astonishing number — one in 441 Americans — have tested positive for the virus just in the last week.”

    “With 29 states setting weekly case records, the virus is surging at a worrisome level in more than half the country. Nationwide, hospitalizations have nearly doubled since mid-September, and deaths are slowly increasing again, with few new interventions in place to stop the spiraling outbreak.”

    ReplyDelete
  20. I looked at the weather prediction, and it says 34F tonight, 33F tomorrow. We had partially moved our epiphytic cacti into their winter quarters, but I figured I had better at least get the remainder into a slightly sheltered place. They probably would have been all right, but Miyoko has put so much work into them over the years that I wouldn't want to take chances with any of them freezing. We got the job done well enough. Now back to Hogwarts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, Alan! Our overnight low is expected to be 45 tonight, 49 tomorrow night. So glad you were able to get the cacti safely put to bed.

      As to Hogwarts, have you also read the books? I read them over a Summer a few years ago and was quite impressed with the writing and the complexity of the story across 7 books. Rowling actually had the plot mapped out from the start. So Impressive.

      Delete
    2. I read the books before I saw the movies. Now I can't recall how I visualized the various characters. It sticks in my mind that the movie portrayal of Snape was quite different from the picture in my mind.

      Delete
    3. Rowling chose Alan Rickman for Snape early on. I think it was chiefly his voice, but also his skill.

      Delete