Five times in our nation’s history the Electoral College winner has lost the popular vote, and twice in the past 16 years (both favoring the Republican nominee).
Abolish the Electoral College!
“While the nation—and much of the world—shudders at the thought of a Donald Trump presidency, our electoral system has once again failed to deliver a formal victory to the person who got the most votes.” — The Progressive
Keep the Electoral College
“Those clamoring to dump the system cobbled together by the nation’s Founders — which gives each state as many electoral votes as it has members of Congress — should be careful what they wish for. Adopting a national popular vote would trade one set of problems for another.” — USA TODAY
An easier way to reform the Electoral College: States collectively possessing at least 270 of the 538 available electoral votes would change their rules to force electors to support the candidate who wins the national popular vote. Read More
It’s been a while since I took Polysci 101, but what I recall is that the EC was the Founders’ way of (1) making sure that the uneducated citizenry would not be able to put a demagogue into the presidency and (2) an effort to keep the large states from having control over who the president was. In a sparsely populated country of largely agrarian population that might have made sense. We no longer have that set of conditions. I’ve never been a fan of extending representative democracy to elections. I’m sure there are good arguments to keep the EC, with or without tweaks, but I’ve never heard one that makes any sense to me.
btw, woo hoo.
Well I was right yesterday about watching for a motion to continue in the drumfpfU fraud case, but I was wrong about who would file it.
usa today: White supremacists urge trolling Clinton supporters to suicide
Experts who have studied hate groups say white supremacists see Trump’s election as a victory for their ideology and a repudiation of multiculturalism. The outcome of the race has emboldened those who lurk in the Internet’s dark recesses to step up their attacks.
“We’re going to be hearing more about this — many different kinds of harassment of women, of people of color, of Muslims, linked directly to either Trump’s rhetoric or the alt right,” said Sophie Bjork-James, a post-doctoral scholar at Vanderbilt University’s anthropology department.
The Daily Stormer urged its readers to accost Muslim women, and “yell at them, tell them to go home.” At least two women whose Twitter names were circulated by The Daily Stormer said they had been subject to violent tweets.
[….]
Observers of hate groups worry that online antagonism may lead to real-world confrontations. Schools and police departments reported several incidents of racist and neo-Nazi graffiti, as well as some assaults, in the two days since the election. A female student in San Diego, Calif. on Wednesday said she had been accosted by two men, one white and one Hispanic, who made comments about Muslims and Trump, then grabbed her purse and backpack. San Diego State University Police were investigating the assault as a hate crime.
[….]
“If we saw a transition from online trolling to real-world incidents, it’s disturbing,” said Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who said the organization has received “dozens” of reports of incidents — many tied to Trump’s election.
raw story: Welcome to Trump’s America: 58 reports of people bullied by emboldened bigots -and the list is growing
and
merryjane: Nazi Graffiti and Racist Threats On the Rise After Trump’s Election
Nazi graffiti appeared in several states on the 78th anniversary of Kristallnacht.
pogo, in the same ruling won’t judge curiel have to address the spectre of recusal and the alleged bias charge, the other elephant in his courtroom?
patd, recusal is done by either motion of a party or by the court on its own motion. It ain’t done by spectre of bias, and particularly not when the bias is coming from the defendant – which is normally viewed skeptically. I’m not sure there’s a recusal motion pending.
Oh, and lest I forget, Happy Veterans’ Day. Our thanks go out to you for your service and sacrifice to the nation.
If we were to rid ourselves of the anachronistic system we are now bound by, perhaps we could look to incorporating American territories in the Pacific including Guam and American Samoa as part of our Union along with Puerto Rico. The residents of these territories, American citizens all, shouldn’t need to move to the mainland to cast a vote.
two Americas in California high school students are demonstrating because they don’t want their classmates deported. in PA high school students are yelling at their classmates to go home. And those people should be respected because why?????
they are nothing but the klan without the robes
Thank you Donald Trump for pandering to the worst of America and making them think it was alright to be a racist pig because they lost a job. FU
As for the electoral college – as Pogo pointed out it was to keep the “uneducated” voters from making a mistake –how did that work out?
Sad that states have turned over selection of Electors to the political parties. Not what Founders envisioned. Idea was for the state legislatures to choose leaders of intellect and wisdom, not let it become a partisan affair — another case of the naivete that Founders sometimes fell into.
is this the faithless elector provision dating back to mid-1800s when a candidate died after the election but before the electoral college met… which I think most states outlawed when the mobsters tried to get Garfield’s election annulled?? or something like that
Inexplicable …
WSJ: White women overall voted for Donald Trump by a decisive margin, and white women without college degrees broke even more heavily for the Republican nominee, according to exit polls.
Did you see interviews with the women supporting Trump?
I think the Comey announcement and the 10 days of “Hillary’s going to be indicted and the Clinton baggage theme” did her in in PA. and the two rust belt states. It definitely boosted Trump’s themes.
dunno about that KGC, but I don’t like the term “faithless” so commonly used for an Elector who votes differently than the state vote — if done for the right reasons, i’d call that faithful
It is with in Congress’ power to fix this without a constitutional amendment. Just create more states Example divide California up into a bunch of small states. The other eliminate and combine smaller states. What congress can create it can uncreate. Why do we have 2 Dakotas? Does Wyoming really have an excuse for existing. Vermont, NH and Maine, 3 states that if they had decent roads you could drive across them in a couple of hours and not miss a thing. From the car window all three look the same.
grin duck and run
Jack
While IMO, the Electoral College may be an anachronism… the effort to abolish it would have be enormous. Methinks we have much bigger problems facing this country without using so much energy on a constitutional amendment that, once again IMO, would most likely go down in defeat.
A salute to all the veterans participating in and reading this blog.
So I guess this is what’s in store for rebellious Electors, thanks to party control of their ranks (which was not part of the Constitution):
AJC — An Electoral College revolt against Donald Trump is quickly quashed in Georgia: Elector who said he wouldn’t vote for Trump forced out by state GOP
The other severe limitation on the value of the Electoral College is the frozen size of the House of Representatives that is no longer allowed to increase in size at the same rate as the population. WY gets 3 votes to represent 585 thousand people while CA gets only 55 for about 40 million. So each WY elector is voting for 195,000 and Each CA elector is voting for 720, 000
I guess the GA elector serves as a lesson to others – stay quiet.
btw, I gues trump’s plans…
“Trump has said he will win in court and then restart the program, which has not been in operation since 2010.”
Renee, that electoral college reform compact sounds like the easiest path to EC reform.
…will have to be put on hold for about 4 years unless he plans to run trumpu from the WH.
Poobah, of course the founders expected states to appoint wise electors – they were the guys running the states and knew who they would be appointing as electors. And they were still having a Whig-Tory hangover, and their battles were largely big state-little state and were not partisan yet. (At least that is my take on the over riding dynamics of the Constitutional Convention.)
Jack… oh… so now you’re going to tell us that tourism should be rampant in Missouri because of it’s beautishisnish… 🙂
Craig… the election is over. We don’t have to like the results (which I don’t)… but instead of saying “let’s change the rules of how presidents are elected”… how about Democrats making some changes within the party. There’s been some good suggestions on here so far starting with changing the leadership.
I say let’s hold Trump’s feet to Democratic principles and get working on the next election.
Oh yeah… I forgot to mention…. thank you Bink for your post last night on supporting us women here on this blog… much appreciated.
Well, time to prepare for my weekly trip to Publix, delayed to Friday this week rather than the usual 5-pct off Wednesday, because of the generous 10-pct off for veterans with any sort of ID. Thank you Publix for your support.
Godamighty, I don’t think we’ve encountered reactions like this before:
And the Dixie Chicks lost the best part of their career over a throwaway comment about Shrub. Wonder if any of the moosicans who supported Hillary will comment publicly overseas.
Renee, good idea (but while we’re at it why not look at the EC as well?)
Wanted to take time today to sincerely thank all of the Veterans out there.
I wish that more of our population could get to experience the camaraderie that you develop with others of very different backgrounds and ethnicity when placed in truly life threatening situations.
All of the vitriol and division we experience as Americans disappears immediately when your getting shot at. Then its just you and another American beside you.
My best friend in the Navy (we started together as young ensigns) is an African American man, from Philly and really liberal. I’m white, from Jacksonville, and pretty conservative. To this day we can argue until we’re red in the face. Cuss at each other…..then laugh, hug and have a beer.
I cherish that.
Renee, I have not yet read many of yesterdays comments. I have never sensed that the pain that women have felt here because of societal failings has not been recognized and shared, when possible, by the men who are true regulars along the Trail.
As I have said several times, I am an Eleanor Roosevelt Democrat; rest assured that will never change. I, and many others around here, have the back of every cohort here that is vulnerable and needs support.
Given the current state of our government I thought some banana recipes might be in order
Howard Dean to run for party chair
I think Keith Ellison would be good if only for the symbolism
and I’m not sure about Pogo’s argument that it needs a full time person without another day job
that being said. I am fully onboard with Dr Dean I think he’s great/
Happy Armistice Day 11th hour of the 11th month…
Ok. All us old farts (and young farts who will one day become old farts) get ready. Ryan wants to fuck up Medicare. The irony is his solution is to make it like Obamacare.
“WY gets 3 votes to represent 585 thousand people while CA gets only 55 for about 40 million. So each WY elector is voting for 195,000 and Each CA elector is voting for 720, 000”
Jamie, but you forgot to count the prairie dogs… like the ones above at devils tower wy probably outnumber all of ca.
speaking of prairie dogs, my favorite above…. rather fitting for our country right now.
A Happy Shout Out to my brother who is a Viet Nam vet but has never used his service to enforce a view
From Greg Sargent’s Plum Line column this morning:
Now who would have guessed that?
In support of the women here on the trail, along with those at the swamp…..I am in complete accordance with what champ said last night….I thought that his sentiments was understood as a norm……once in a while it needs to be said i guess…….
….also include my 4 sisters and mother….Patsi of course…
After talking to some family members (the very religious ones) that voted for trump……it all had to do with the abortion issue again…..and a strong hint of what the bibles example of what a man can do and what women SHOULD do…..
Not so bad for those males in the bible to rape and kill, have extra marital affairs (king david and bathsheba comes to mind) while demanding that all women must meet the standard set my the virgin mary……….
So……once again: when we get rid of all organized religion…we can end almost all of things that hurt us and the world over……the unfairness of treatment of women all over the world….not just here in America……but where women suffer both physically and emotional abuse on a daily basis in other countries……
On the bright side of this….is that women can now more than any other time in history, can defend them selves against the males like the tramp of a trump………Undereducated women voting for trump…..makes sense to me….all they read is the bible……mostly……..
Oh, can i put in a request: as long as you are going to change the EC….can we attach a rider….for Campaign Finance Reform…….
Maybe what the dems need to do…..is to team up with others in third partys…or start to listen to Dr, John Haglen….go look up his platform, his solutions to the things that the dems are important to them…..and combine a winning team…..but a winning team for all of us…..not just reorganize like the Cubs did the past 5 years………or winning one for the gipper more important……..remember Ronald Reagun was the gipper……he took all those unsatisfied white voters away from the dems in 1980……how you gonna get em back on the farm?………..find the way for us indies to join your team….and that would require to get out of the rah, rah, team mentality…….
Trump’s entire campaign staff is the captured interest of a hedge fund manager
remember at the beginning when he said he would make the hedge fund managers hate him…..???????
pogo, elite is in the eye of the beholder
and anyway their elites think they’re better than our elites
merriam-webster
Simple Definition of elite
: the people who have the most wealth and status in a society : the most successful or powerful group of people
I wunner which god are those Pray Redogs prayin’ to.
The Mercers the funding and idiotology behind Trump
All I know is that Democrats should be careful with what they wish for. Remember when Harry Reid talked about maybe it was time to change the filibuster rules and then proceeded to do nothing about it. Right now I say THANK GOD!
Hey Jax… nice to see you resurface.
Write a bill to take away electoral votes from all states that take out more than they chip in. Compromise by cutting the electoral votes of each state by two : those representing the senators.
Happy Veterans Day to all Vets past, present and future and their families! From a former Air Force brat and Army wife!
Craig: I wonder what those numbers would have been had the country allowed all the citizens to vote during half of its existence! The system may have made sense in 1787/1804 but not in 2016. I’m on the dump the EC side of the issue.
Bink: Lovely post last night, thank you and all who share your sentiments!
Solar: Yes, it’s similar to “I love you”…we may know it’s true, but it’s nice to hear the words once in a while 😉 Also, your religious family members are like many who are very selective in what parts of the Bible should be meaningful. I’m sure it never occurred to them that trump has probably paid for a number of abortions in his day because that’s what men like him do.
Mr. Cracker and I have decided that if Trump Co tries to make all Muslims register that we will register as Muslims too and we hope that so many others join in that the list will be useless or at least we will all be together in the internment camps
……will give you an example of political courage…right here on the trail through very deep introspection (his)….we have one of the most intelligent person that i have the pleasure of calling him a friend……XR,……once an Republican…chose to be a Dem for the right reasons……and i can see and sense a struggle in him that makes him feel that he is still not 100% comfortable with it all….X if im wrong, please forgive me….
There is a part of ones self, that is being hidden by ones self, from ones self…..introspection it takes a lot of courage…….thanks xr……..once again, sorry if im out of line…..using you as an example……
XR has been an x for over 30 years
Yeah, there no where to go once you get to the other side……unless you jump in the middle and swim upstream…….later looks a little chili…..but sunny and bright……..no bike ride or anything today…..just a very long walk……..at times like this…..a very long walk……..walking deliberately from heel to toe……as in hand and foot reflexology (acu-pressure points also)……it massages the entire brain system……..i need to clear this foggy head ……….later
Pogo, out the door, but with a question on my mind for you:
What is going to happen with the appointment of the scotus nomination that is pending….will the “present” president (or can he still) be able to finish the job…..or has he….the dems lost this one to Trump also…….
solar, in pogo ‘s absence my guess his answer would be that the senate still could man up and consent to merrick garland being on the court among other responsible things needed to get done during their lame duckness. but being who they are, they won’t.
they already said the appointment should go to the next president…that’s why they wouldn’t act on Garland
and now we are expected to be all kumbayah and pretend they don’t intend to destroy the entire safety net built up since FDR
Although Trump promised not to end social security and medicare – that certainly is not the Republican agenda and I’m sure he would trade it or funding for his wall.
solar, here’s something for you to think about on your walk from Miami herald: New Congress to feature historic number of Hispanic lawmakers
The Congress that takes office in January along with President-elect Donald Trump will feature the largest class of Hispanic elected officials in history, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials says.
The U.S. House of Representatives will include five more Latino members following Tuesday’s election, increasing the number from 29 to 34. Two other Hispanic members were elected, but replaced Hispanic members.
[….]
Latinos also made gains in the upper chamber, NALEO said, with the election of Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, the first Latina to serve in the election.
usa today:
Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid unleashed a bitter condemnation of President-elect Donald Trump on Friday, blasting him as a “sexual predator” who “fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate.”
“If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate,” Reid said in a long statement. “Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those fears, but he owes it to this nation to try.”
Added Reid: “If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.”
[….]
“I have personally been on the ballot in Nevada for 26 elections and I have never seen anything like the reaction to the election completed last Tuesday,” Reid said. “The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.”
“White nationalists, Vladimir Putin and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear — especially African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, LGBT Americans and Asian Americans,” Reid continued. “Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.”
Reid said the fear of minority groups about Trump “is entirely rational, because Donald Trump has talked openly about doing terrible things to them.”
“Every news piece that breathlessly obsesses over inauguration preparations compounds their fear by normalizing a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans,” Reid said. “Their fear is legitimate and we must refuse to let it fall through the cracks between the fluff pieces.”
Well, Sue called and I am on B&B (bond & band-aid) alert for tonight. She and her husband are traveling to Charlotte to participate in the protests planned for that city. I can’t think of nicer way to spend a Friday night.
The media assumes its Uriah Heep position
NBC is reporting that ALL the demonstrations are being coordinated out of Portland, Ore by anarchists…
nytimes:
Hillary Clinton didn’t just win the popular vote. She won it by a substantial margin.
By the time all the ballots are counted, she seems likely to be ahead by more than 2 million votes and more than 1.5 percentage points, according to my Times colleague Nate Cohn. She will have won by a wider percentage margin than not only Al Gore in 2000 but also Richard Nixon in 1968 and John F. Kennedy in 1960.
mother jones:
Before This Election, Newt Gingrich Believed the Popular Vote Winner Should Be President
So did Donald Trump, but they’re not complaining now.
cosmopolitan:
In fewer than 24 hours, an online petition asking the Electoral College to elect Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump for president of the United States has amassed over two million signatures.
“Mr. Trump is unfit to serve,” the petition argues. “His scapegoating of so many Americans, and his impulsivity, bullying, lying, admitted history of sexual assault, and utter lack of experience make him a danger to the Republic.”
“Secretary Clinton won the popular vote and should be president,” it continues. “The only reason Trump ‘won’ is because of the Electoral College. But the Electoral College can actually give the White House to either candidate. So why not use this most undemocratic of our institutions to ensure a democratic result?”
About twenty-two million veterans, or about 7.3 percent, of living Americans have served in the military at some time in their lives. For all of us who served – Thank you for experiencing what so few others have.
Why Trump protesters are wearing Safety Pins
Thanks, Solar. I was once a failed republican, but have since matured into a yellow dog Democrat. LIZ 2020
LIZ HAS 2020 VISION
I could get on a Liz bandwagon
but first we have to find candidates for the mid-terms and then make life so miserable for any Republican senator in a state with a Democratic governor that they quite.
someone wrote an oped in today’s times about getting rid of the surrogates I hope more people feel that way.
Ditto RR: A salute to all the veterans participating in and reading this blog.
POGO,
Hillary herself acknowledged that she had made a major mistake by describing half of Trump’s supporters as “deplorables,” she even said that she “stepped in it.” Why defend her? I may be optimistic but I do not think that half of Trump’s supporters (about 30 million) are openly racist, misogynistic and other bigots. I would think that the comment included a lot of just working class people that are feed up with being craped on for 42 years by both Parties.
Do not forget Bob Woodward’s 1994 book ‘The Agenda’ has Bill Clinton saying in a 1992 post-election meeting, that Woodward was sitting in on:
What we’re doing now is turning against the people that voted us in and supporting the bond market and Wall Street. How more corrupt can you get?
Black even joined the Sanders Campaign.
Profile of William K. Black
■ Associate Professor of Economics and Law, University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC),
■ Distinguished Scholar in Residence for Financial Regulation, University of Minnesota Law School
■ Founding Member of pro bono, Bank Whistleblowers United that seeks to restore the rule of law to Wall Street.
■ Former financial regulator
■ White-collar criminologist
■ Serial whistleblower
■ The regulator Charles Keating, the “Keating Five” and Speaker of the House Jim Wright most hated
■ Author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One.
■ The Savings and Loan (S&L) Banking Crisis
The Savings and Loan (S&L) banking crisis of 1985 resulted from a multitude of causes. The crisis saw more than 1,000 S&Ls collapse, costing the U.S. government more than $100 billion. The dismantling of the regulatory structure started with The Financial Institutions Regulatory and Interest Rate Control Act of 1978 that eased rules on S&L investment in land development, construction and education loans and the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 that allowed credit unions and S&Ls to offer checking deposits, and to charge any loan interest rate they chose. Both laws were signed by President Jimmy Carter. In 1982, Ronald Reagan furthered the deregulation of S&Ls by signing the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act, which allowed property owners to put real estate into trust accounts to avoid future lawsuits or creditors. The bills reduced regulatory oversight and by the time the crisis was in full swing in 1985, 1,043 out of 3,234 savings and loan associations would fail due to risky and illegal behavior.
Among others, Black exposed the Keating Five, a group of five senators involved in doing favors for savings and loans in exchange for contributions. Charles Keating, the chairman of Lincoln Savings & Loan was deeply involved. Sen. John McCain was one of those senators Black exposed. He, along with the rest of the senators, was reprimanded but otherwise unpunished.
Black’s tenacity in investigating the banking corruption angered Charles Keating so that he wrote a memo ordering Black’s death! “…get Black — kill him dead. If you can’t you ought to retire.”
Black’s aggressive response resulted in more than 1,000 bankers convicted by the Justice Department. Among those jailed were Charles Keating Jr., whose Lincoln Savings and Loan cost taxpayers $3.4 billion, and David Paul, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in the $1.7 billion collapse of Centrust Bank.
Solar
Better send any of the women in your family of child bearing age to Planned Parenthood even if there is a rush on right now. The Vice President elect wants to outlaw birth control. When it is free as now under Obamacare, abortions have and will continue to drop. Once women with no choice have to pay for it, watch them skyrocket.
Ryan has already proposed privatizing Medicare & Social Security. You didn’t think the Dummkopf Elect was actually going to run things did you?
Another example of what Faux Spews does all the time.
Fox Deceptively Edits Obama Interview to Falsely Claim He Told Illegal Immigrants to Vote
Jamie,
That is precisely the point trump will not run things, his handlers will…..it does not matter who is potus…..they are only window dressings for their true bosses…….u want change…..get a third, and a fourth party going…….Hillary might have done a cpl of very important things….scotus….tweek obamas mediocre health program, and sounded very intelligent telling us why she couldn’t do too much more than that……excuses would have been offered…….
I dont have too much more to say….so im thinking of going away for a while……will check in once in a while and read what ever thread is non-political……..
ps….read a few comments here and other places…..Michele Obama for potus…………….seriously???? later
What’s a little nepotism got to do with it.
A working age (20-something?) woman in a corporate job asked me, in earnest, a week before the election:
“What is ‘the glass ceiling?'”
Purple,
Thanks for yours of 3:14PM. I’ve missed you a lot lately.
Glass Sealing keeps the twenty-something, who is changing her clothes, separated from the peeping gropers.
Glass Ceiling is keeps the twenty-something, who has brains, education, and drive, below the peeping gropers.
Flatus, thanks for the tip about the Publix vet discount dad is loading up now.
PiT, “I would think that the comment included a lot of just working class people that are feed up with being craped on for 42 years by both Parties.” no, i do not believe it was meant to, but don’t misunderstand me. I only defend the use of the term to the extent the shoe fits, and I think she could have found a much more artful way to describe the folks she was referring to. I don’t defend her overstating its application or overstating the percentage of his supporters to whom the term would apply, and really, there’s no way to determine how many of his supporters are racists, misogynists, etc. Frankly it’s probably a relatively small percentage of his supporters, but I’d wager that a very large percentage of such folks were his supporters. It was a political mistake that she could easily have avoided.
What’s the buzz on Christie getting booted as transition team head and replaced by Pense? I’ve been cloistered this afternoon.
Solar, Garland’s nomination is done for. It will never see the light of day.
Pense & Bannon in as well as the nepotism squad of Ivanka, D Junior, and Eric. End result: Lazy & Stupid Trump will have his puppet strings pulled by the VP and Representatives of Evil.
There are lots of free offers for vets google your local zip to find them
My brother lives in the Phoenix area and breakfast, lunch and dinner today are on the house
and he also got a free haircut I’ve seen a picture and maybe not so much.
Alan Krueger, Austan Goolsbee, Christina Romer, Laura D’Andrea Tyson, and Paul Krugman, did the USA no favor by trashing Gerald Friedman’s analysis of the Sanders economic plan.
So, the thinking was…Gee I’ve been shit on by the government for xxx#years so I’m going to vote for a man who wants to completely dismantle everything and destroy any credibility we have left in the world. He’ll undo everything, take away our rights, join the other dictators of the world and tell me what I should believe and who to hate. That’ll show ’em!
I don’t see the logic in any of that.
I just read an article about the trump transition team at WaPo. Our national nightmare is beginning in earnest. Pense’s elevation to transition team head signals a strong policy shift to RW religious nutjob ideology. Backed by the likes of Marsha Blackburn, Jeff Sessions, etc., there could be a strong and rapid return to the darker days of the country that trump vowed to take back. At least we can now see the outline of what he meant when he said it, and it is ugly.
Well, time to try and get the missus to leave the office for the weekend. Checking in later.
Yes this will be the “stop and frisk you for your papers” era
Five Thirty Eight – Odds of Electoral College Popular Vote Split Steadily Increasing.
Pogo
Yep. Heaven help you if you aren’t Christian, are LGBTQ or actually care about anyone in the groups hated by Pence, Bannon, Breitbart & Stormfront.
Although I try to keep up with whatever is “hot”, screw that, I don’t bother keeping up with any of it, I have no idea who Leonard Cohen is even though I apparently should care. Except that he is now dead and room temperature. I have read the articles in the media. I read the wiki and Rolling Stone. I still have no idea why he is being put up to the music world as the last Bach or whomever. His death is front page news from New York to LA. Hopefully those here are more attuned to the “important” (oh wait – may I use a word from the latest media descriptions of HRC – “elites”) of the musical world and tell me who he was and why I care.
Are we under attack again ?
Leonard Cohen wrote an amazing song about sex. It’s called “Hallelujah”.
You’ve heard it, before, many times.
Say goodbye to the “great American road trip”, you’re going to have to present papers at state borders, soon.
States and EC votes that the deadbeat took with fewer than 50% of the vote :
FL – 29, MI – 16, PA – 20, UT – 6, WI – 10.
The total is 5 states with 81 EC votes, that could have changed the EC final to 329 for HRC and 209 for the minority guy.
Clinton also leads in the popular vote by 395,050 votes. Ergo, the grope party is the minority party.
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.
—Bob Dylan
I’m done.
They kept my black playmates and their families in social and financial chains in the the fifties, regardless of the fine words in the constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
They murdered my president. (Lee Oswald? I think not. He was a patsy.)
They turned LBJ and his great heart for the workingman into a bloody war-monger.
They murdered the black champion, MLK jr. (James Earl Ray? Haha, him and what army.)
They murdered my president’s brother. (Sirhan squared? Oh, sure.)
They murdered John Lennon. (Random act? I think not. The voices in Chapman’s bathroom told him to do it.)
They dragged most of my friends half-way across the world to be blown apart and die and go missing when they should have been at the drive-in picture show, and then prolonged the agony by electing Milhouse.
They squandered and ridiculed Jimmy Carter’s genuine concern for the people of America and elected an alzheimered actor whom they revere to this day.
They impeached Bill Clinton like a bunch of whiney bullies on the school yard, as the economy soared.
They elevated, in a stolen election, (thus demolishing one of our most sacred processes) George W. Bush, thus unleashing all those tired old dogs from the Vietnam war onto the world stage once again, to let slip once more the dogs for profoundly ridiculous trumped-up lying bullshit “reasons”. (9-11? I think not. They ignored Bin Laden and invaded Iraq.)
They have spent the entirety of President Obama’s tern trying to rip him and his family apart in the most heinous fashion and completely block, like whiney little schoolyard bullies, every and anything he’s tried to accomplish with his terms……. because he’s black and honestly tried to help the working man. Which, by the way, said help he accomplished without them.
He, personally as president, truly helped THIS working man immensely by freeing me from a diet of hot dogs and and from paying $4 a gallon for gasoline and from having to sell anything valuable I’d ever managed to get ahold of, which situation their beloved President Bush gave to me on a wooden platter.
And now they have elected Donald Trump.
Im done. I’ve had it.
I do hope, for myriad reasons, that Trump somehow proves me wrong.
The only thing I ever learned from love was how to shoot at someone who out drew you.
lc
We just got back from 10% off at Longhorn Steak House, plus a free (very large) appetizer — popcorn shrimp. Great day to have a Vet Dad.
Sturgeon: I agree with you 100% but we just can’t lay down and die. We can’t succumb to evil. We have to keep on keeping on!
When Nixon was elected he punished the voters of Massachusetts (we didn’t vote for him) by closing Westover AFB which was at the time one of the biggest SAC bases in the world. Our local economy took years to recover from that. Glad to say that Westover is now an important Air Reserve base and our economy is doing pretty well, and improving all the time.
When Reagan was elected he cut funding to HHS and I lost a job I loved. It took me a while to recover from that, but eventually I got back up on my feet.
In 2008 one of my sons lost everything, (business, house etc) thanks to GW and it took him a few years to recover. He’s got another business now and is doing well.
I fully expect my family to face some serious consequences from the election of trump the dictator pig. I honestly don’t know if we’ll recover this time but we’ll keep fighting. I’ve signed 2 petitions in 2 days and made a couple of small donations. I’ll keep doing whatever I can because…what’s the alternative?
No one over here intends to lay down and die, for the most part…..that ain’t the Sturgeone way…….:-)
when Clinton was elected, they closed charleston naval shipyard……a big blow around here…..the death of the shipyard seems to have given birth to a plethora of Landscape Engineers.
I just don’t like the way republicans look at things, and it just seems that they all living in Potterville and will never grow out of it. Mired.
Solar
You votefor a non-party candidate then come back later saying that Hillary might have made the changes that people here have committed their souls in helping her achieve. Where are you at?
Michael Moore’s to do list
He just appointed Myron Ebell to head the EPA. Ebell thinks the whole climate change thing is liberal drama. Strike one.
It will all work out . Believe me . (Jesus H Christ)
Flatus, thank you. Great question.
There is nothing that will sit well with me about what’s unfolding with the upcoming administration.
We’re a doomed species- we’re not going to construct an egalitarian society, we’re not going to colonize space, and we’re always going to live in a world where the have-s oppress the have-nots.
Human ego is such that it can’t rectify with itself being perceived inferior to another, so mankind will always compete to allieviate that discomfort. A better job, nicer clothes, a fancier car… anything to assure oneself that not only does their own life have value, but that it has MORE value than ones’ acquaintances. Why? I suppose it might be rooted in primitive behavioral survival mechanisms that necessitated competition for scarce resources. Those resources are still scarce, so we have constructed economic systems where the difficult work is done by the people out-of-sight and out-of-mind. It seems like life is easier, but only because someone else with whom you don’t associate is making it so, with much less benefit to them.
Now, those chickens will come home to roost. Middle-class conservatives will get the life they want, they will just realize, until it’s too late, that it’s not the one they imagined. There will be a justice in that, at least. If you don’t appeciate the lives of those in other societies, around the world, you will, because soon you will be living like them. It will be difficult. I’ll be right there with you, toeing the line.
I hired on at that shipyard as an apprentice pipe fitter in 67……a very interesting place……didn’t take me long to opt for more schooling but I did spend 2 long and hot summers there…….fitting pipes.
i went back, of course, after I was released from the coast guard, and again, didn’t take me long to realize that I’d rather be in Philadelphia, all and all, and went back to piano-mongering. On my last day I worked the morning, and then began checking out of all the departments and offices. Mr. Murray, the old hand I was assigned to, and I had come across a situation down in the bowels of a destroyer……there was a pipe coming out of a boiler or whatnot, and it was “marked” to be cut, but Mr. Murray wasn’t buying it so he went off the boat to look for someone and left me in charge of the pipe. Mr Murray loved to have to go look for someone and leave me in charge, ie take a nap on top of the hatch……
so while he is gone, my replacement, Mickey, shows up…….an earnest lad by all appearances, hard hat squarely in place, safety goggles firmly in place, and massive ear protector things……well, Mickey is anxious to get underway and wants to know where to start……now…….so I tells him, I says, Mr.Murray has gone to check on this pipe being marked to cut and don’t look right to him and so I am in limbo here. For some damn reason, Mickey is bound and determined to cut that pipe where it’s been marked to cut. I tell him he needs to wait for Mr. Murray to get back but he just can’t take his eyes off that pipe….
At this point, I have to leave on my checking out of a govt job ritual and I left it with Mickey.
after a couple hours of checking out I’m sauntering down the huge wharf, back towards my destroyer, and I see a huge commotion down the wharf a ways……there’s a red-light ambulance…..and a great flummox of people. As I begin to pull up closer I see they’re putting old Grandma White, pipe shop leading-man, into the ambulance, and then I notice the crowd gathered on the edge of the wharf, screaming invective at one Mickey, who had removed his ear protectors.
Mickey had cut the pipe.
and that meant the boiler had to be taken out or something at the cost of 3 or 4 decks above it and poor old Grandma White had a heart attack.
i got off early.
Flatus
Thank you for your service and for raising your family so your children have a sense of civic responsibility
I hope they don’t need you for bond or band-aides.
Didn’t he say he was going to drain the swamp? It appears, however, he’s building a bigger better swamp.
I really think the Donald has put himself in the ultimate modern-day “Catch 22”. There are a number of key promises that he has to keep including:
– Building the wall and getting Mexico to pay for it
– Repealing Obamacare
– Canceling Sanctuary Cities
– Deporting 11 million people
– Banning Muslims from entering the country
– Monitoring Muslims in this country
– Re-initiating torture in our intelligence agencies
But – Almost every one of these is nearly impossible. He already said today that he’s considering keeping parts of Obamacare and may cancel, or perhaps amend it as an alternative to cancellation.
If he doesn’t do these things, his supporters are going to march on the White House with pitchforks.
If he does these things, his approval ratings will drop to the 20’s or 30’s. And given the fact that he’s a huge egomaniac – he’ll hang himself from the Truman balcony – leaving us with Mr. Conversion Therapy as the new President.
He’s suggested pouring a ton of money into fixing our infrastructure which creates jobs at the same time (not a bad idea), but what will be the reaction of his Republican Congress when he asks them for a Trillion dollars to do it?
All the while – getting his advice from a bunch of the most conservative hard-line establishment Republicans around.
This — is going to be a show!
You’re right….it IS going to be a whale of a show..
You are poetic, Mr Sturgeone, and a damn fine story teller.
Goodnight, Mr Paranoid. smiles
” . . . a whale of a show.” – Mr Sturgeone
Call me Ishmael.
Whosoever spies me this orange whale,
that man shall have this gold doubloon.
Caveat: tipping hats in the current political climate would be unwise.