Josh Marshall trying to spin a fantasy world of a Russiagate 2.0?

Josh Marshall, as all the #BlueAnon vervently faithful know, as well as leftists like me, is proprietor of Talking Points Memo, one of the top Blue MAGA go to sites for news analysis.

Well, they've got a doozy.

First, the author, because that gets us to the header of this piece.

Josh Kovensky. But, we need his tagline:

Josh Kovensky is an investigative reporter for Talking Points Memo, based in New York. He previously worked for the Kyiv Post in Ukraine, covering politics, business, and corruption there.

There you go.

The TL/DR of the piece is that Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro had a Plan B for after Jan. 6, 2021 to try to extend the vote count past that date. The Electoral Count Act time-limits challenges to prevent an actual, or threatened, filibuster and the goal was to get around that.

Options?

1. Have Pence say he would actually count votes himself;
2. Have Pence recuse himself on conflict of interest grounds to Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Grassley.
3. Try to filibuster anyway.

Option 1 was never happening. 

Option 2? No vice president presiding over his own or his team's defeat — Tricky Dick and Dan Quayle being the two most recent, and with Nixon having better grounds than Pence to be asked to recuse — has ever done so.

Option 3? In comments to Trump, TPM says Chesebro suggested multiple lines to try to trigger it:

• Mike Pence could decline to open Biden electoral votes — it would be a “fairly boss move,” as Chesebro put it in one email — likely delaying the certification of Biden’s win while posing a core challenge to the ECA. 

• A “test case” could be filed before SCOTUS aimed at invalidating the law. It would be filed by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) acting in Pence’s place as President of the Senate. 

• The Senate filibuster could be used as a blunt instrument to block the ECA from either being followed or being implemented on Jan. 6.

Even though people like former Trump chief of staff Rinse Penis told Chesebro not to get Trump's hopes up too much, he apparently at least talked around the edges of this.

And .... nothing happened.

Trump instead incited a riot at minimum, insurrection at maximum. If he knew the details of the Chesebro plan, he ignored them.

That said, as Chesebro, and Rudy Giuliani, and gazillions of other lawyers who have worked for Trump should know, he's generally really good at ignoring advice from lawyers.

And, Kovensky should know that, too. That said, with Trump's recent NATO comments, it's a "good" time for angles like this.

Dear BlueAnon: The 14th Amendment doesn't apply to Trump

At least not yet. Let's look at that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment:

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Now, while it doesn't explicitly stipulate that a conviction by trial or guilty plea is necessitated, and while Reconstruction Radicals didn't consider it that way at the time, I have little doubt that any state or federal court today (and any state court ruling otherwise would be appealed to the federal level, or will be) would say that petitions and suits to remove Trump — or even state legislative actions to do so — are not "ripe" because of the lack of a legal verdict against him.

I don't care what Michael Luttig or Second Amendment flip-flopper Larry Tribe say, per PolitiFact. Nor do I care what the current generation of Kermit Roosevelt says:

Kermit Roosevelt, a University of Pennsylvania law professor, said, "There’s nothing in the text of the Constitution to make me think that this requirement for office-holding is any different from the others imposed by the Constitution, such as being 35 (years old) and being a natural-born citizen. Those obviously don’t require a conviction. So I think the argument is strong that court proceedings aren’t necessary for someone to implement the disqualification."

Besides federal courts in general likely differing, two SCOTUS Justices certainly will — Thomas and Alito, of course — probably Kavanaugh, possibly??? Gorsuch and maybe??? Barrett. If both the question marks agree, it doesn't matter what the Blind Ump thinks.

Madison Cawthorn? The appeals court was wrong.

Couy Griffin, Otero County, New Mexico, commissioner? Proves my point; charged and convicted first.

So, if Trump is on the ballot next year? Blame Jack Smith for not charging him with seditious conspiracy, or the federal version of "aiding and abetting." 

Oh, all of the above apply to renegade Republican celebrity candidate (best label I can think of for him) John Anthony Castro as well, and I'm still unsure exactly what string he's running. But, former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmini agrees with me.

Otherwise, this is basically like BlueAnon types (and some Never Trumpers) talking up the 25th Amendment without reason while Trump was president. (Greg AtLast also knew this.) They are again looking for a constitutional solution to a (currently) political question. And, since Jack Smith didn't indict him on anything close to sedition, I expect it will remain currently political through next November's election day.

Trump Train vs Biden Bus

Two of the eight metaphorical Trump Train riders who harassed the literal Biden (campaign) Bus during the 2020 campaign swing through Texas have settled the lawsuit that Wendy Davis et al filed against them. The two "apologized" as part of otherwise undisclosed settlement terms, but like many Jan. 6 criminal defendants, this may be weak tea. The two apologists, Hannah Ceh and Kyle Kruger, are daughter and fiance-in-law of two of the organizers of one of the big Trump Trains. Here's what Kruger said, re the weakish tea:

“I knew that my driving was risky, but I wanted to express my opposition to their campaign and send them a message to leave my community,” Kruger added in his apology. “While I regret now participating in such risky activity, and apologize to the occupants of the bus for my part in the actions that day, at the time I and other Trump Train participants were happy that, after our actions, the Biden campaign canceled the rest of the bus tour.”

Per the rest of the story, he was more aggressive about this than her. Trying to get in bigly good with the future in-laws?

We'll see what happens with the other six. And, are they also legally self-representing?

Arizona continues to out-wingnut Texas, now on vote recount

The Arizona Senate is looking for made-in-China bamboo ballots as part of its hired firm, Cyber Ninjas, recounting Maricopa County ballots from last November. No, really.

That and other things have Arizona's Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs, saying the senate needs to bring the recount into alignment with state law. That's part of a lawsuit settled Tuesday by Hobbs and Arizona Democrats, with details here.

The secretary of state argued some of the procedures “appear better suited for chasing conspiracy theories than as part of a professional audit,” referring to the examination of ballots with UV lights to search for nonexistent watermarks. 

Meanwhile, Hobbs said observers noticed computers left on and unattended at tables used for forensic analysis, a violation of elementary security protocols. 

And Hobbs raised concerns about hiring, pointing to (former state Rep. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale’s) selection toapparently handle ballots despite the fact he is also on the ballot as well as present at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 when it was overrun by a mob and previously fired for dishonesty from a job as a code enforcement officer.

Hobbs also specifically called out her Republican predecessor, Ken Bennett, as part of this. He's part of the recount, and made the bamboo ballots claim, passing on something from Cyber Ninjas.

The feds, namely the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, have now also weighed in, fearing that federal voting rights laws may be violated, perhaps may have already been violated.

Texas Progressives round up to start 2021, insurrection free

Let's see if 2021 is better than 2020. So far, it's off to a nutty enough start of its own, and that was even before the invasion of the U.S. Capitol, which is going to get a special header.

With that, let's dig into the first Roundup of the new year, starting with yesterday's nuttery.

Insurrection

Start with my post yesterday about Ashli Babbit, who will surely soon be made into a martyr. Then look at what I said about Jonathan Turley, a kinder, gentler Matt Taibbi in his whataboutism. I started the day with looking at Ted Cruz, 2024 Pander Bear.

Texas

The Trib gives a redistricting overview, and reminds that this will be the first since the Supreme Court and alleged librul umpire John Roberts junked Voting Rights Act preclearance.

Grits looks at rot in the Austin police academy. 

Dos Centavos is proud to unveil DC'sTop 10 Posts of 2020.

Reform Austin looks ahead to education-related bills in the Legislature.  

Michael Conklin studies the question of whether Dan Patrick owes someone a million bucks for his "voter fraud" reward. 

Eric Berger and Matt Lanza look back at the year in hurricanes.

Texana

The Monthly offers up its favorite 2020 photos.

Daniel Vaughn tries the Cornyn brisket recipe so you don't have to.

The Observer offers up its favorite 2020 strange but true.

Texas metro areas

Jeff Balke describes the clash between neighborhood activists and TxDOT over their I-45 expansion plans.

Heywood Sanders advises the city of San Antonio to give up its delusions.

National

Here's the latest on the Russian hacks and how bad they may be. One note: With the Russians allegedly using servers inside the US, many national security hawks may again raise the cry to let the NSA do more inside the US. There's also the possibility that some of the hacking was by people, not computer networks.

Latinos for Trump was a real thing. Will it last beyond Trump? The New Yorker takes a deep look, and it's one that Democrats (and parties of the actual left) should not ignore.

Just how bad is Facebook for democracy? The New Republic takes a look.

David Bruce Collins wants left civility on Twitter. 

Finally, for fans of old-school blogging, Vagabond Scholar presents the Jon Swift Roundup for 2020.

Global

A mix of Brexit and COVID snarled the New Year's travel plans of many Brits trying to either return home or go back to the Continent. 

Tesla has plans to open a German factory with dreams of kicking German carmakers' butt. Turns out, they've been hard at work on e-cars and are instead ready to kick Tesla's butt.

Martin Luther was officially excommunicated 500 years ago, Jan. 3. My thoughts.

Insurrection. Period and end of story (for Ashli Babbit)

That's a good word for it. Will this affect the future of the GOP? Former WaPost columnist Harold Meyerson, the closest thing to an old labor liberal there before getting canned, says it will. I doubt it, and we've been hearing stuff like that for years, about demographic or other "destiny." Right, Gilberto Hinojosa? Here's my brief take on an attempted twosiderism jujitsu by Jonathan Turley. So far, Ted Cruz, 2024 Pander Bear over the electoral vote confirmation, is unrepentant.

We also know who the #MAGA insurrectionist was who got killed. Per San Diego's KUSI, she is Ashli Babbit. "Babbit," how appropriate of a name; I actually initially read it with a second "t" at the end, as in the Sinclair Lewis novel, which would only have been appropriate. Contra her husband, an insurrectionist is not a "great patriot." Also, if she was still in the Air Force, per this story, whether active duty or reserve, she clearly violated her military oath of service, among other things, and should have already been court-martialed. Contra KUSI, I extend no condolence to her family. Would I extend condolence to Peggy Shippen had Benedict Arnold been captured and hung? Per the last link, I feel condolence for her mother-in-law, but not totally, even there. If she really is that puzzled, she hasn't been paying attention to her daughter-in-law, or to Ashli's husband Aaron calling her a "great patriot" when she's been Trump-drunk months if not years.

All of this is just the surface of the iceberg.

In photos of the insurrectionists, I saw a number of people carrying placards that, at least indirectly, referencing things like Pizzagate. Besides the likes of two-faced, or two-anused, Tucker Carlson who a month ago said Sidney Powell had no evidence and today said it was "not their fault" to the insurrectionists, Pizzagate promoters like Jack Posobiec have blood on their hands, too.

Plus, the insurrectionists contributed to three other deaths inside the Capitol.

And, led to performance theater nutters like this:

This guy seen today with fur & horns is
Jake Angeli

His Facebook includes a photo of him shaking hands with Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney who hours before the violence kicked off today encouraged supporters to pursue a "trial by combat" pic.twitter.com/PrYOViZEVp

— ☇RiotWomenn☇ (@riotwomennn) January 7, 2021

What else is there to say? This:

And here’s “Antifa’s, non-Trump supporting” Jake Angeli speaking himself earlier in the year! 😂 pic.twitter.com/d4GvvEbXsC

— Rino (and sometimes Roy) (@RinoTheBeagle) January 6, 2021

And this at the link. And this link. He's a QAnoner. Hopefully, he loses every gig he has as a voice actor.

===

Also arguably having blood on their hands? The Capitol Police, who had myriad reasons to be better prepared, and more proactive, than they actually were. Today's performance invites questions of political, racial and class bias.

Just in case you're wondering? The federal criminal definition of sedition very much fits the action of leading actors on Jan. 6, specifically bullet points 2 and 3. This is why, contra the admins of the official Green Party Facebook group and people like Charles Keener here, it's important to know what percentage of self-identified Greens are conspiracy-thinking enough to consider this a "psyops." 

Jonathan Turley, electoral chaos and twosiderism

Everybody knows the story by now: at least one person shot after the Capitol was invaded. Jonathan Turley reminds us that Democrats have indeed challenged state electoral votes before, like a few did on Ohio in 2004. (Fraud claims there were as specious as any made in 2020; Kerry fortunately, unlike Trump, rejected them.) Turley also calls out some of the MSM, including Todd and Tapper by name, for pouring some of their own gasoline on the blaze.

 It's quite possible the mobocracy would have happened anyway. But, why add to its likelihood?

At the same time, Turley is wrong in other ways. None of the previous moves against individual states' electoral votes by Democrats, outside Florida 2000, asked for what Republicans like Ted Cruz have asked for now. Nobody challenging Ohio 2004 made an explicit statement that a new version of an 1876 electoral commission should meet, let alone that it should possibly extend after Inauguration Day.

Turley also ignores that, contra 1876, you did not have a sitting president who ran for re-election awaiting the outcome of a special electoral commission.

And, it goes with Turley's attempts to frame previous Trump statements, like his call to Raffensperger, in the narrowest legal light possible. 

Turley also ignores that Trump said and did nothing today, while PENCE eventually gave the order to call out the National Guard.

In short, Turley is acting like a milder, legally buttoned up version of Matt Taibbi.

Ted Cruz, electoral college Pander Bear

Let's be honest, folks: That's the only reason Havana Ted Cruz decided to follow Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley today and officially challenge elector slates from several states.

Hawley has the 2024 presidential bug, and Cruz has not fully shaken his 2016 bout with that bacterium. Wisconsin's Ron Johnson is just an idiot, and I'm not sure about some of the other senators, but Cruz has that bug, and since 2016 it's mutated and swapped genes with Trumpism.

Cruz never really was a "principled conservative," but he's now made that clear.

Whether he can actually get the nomination in 2024 remains unclear. If he does, he has Texas' LBJ law to mean he can run for Senator again as well as president.

Matt Taibbi: Maybe up to half right this time

Sometimes, Matt Taibbi is still half right. This is in a piece of his talking about YouTube banning #StartTheSteal videos and similiar.

The half right?

Hey Democrats, how many of you remember protestors storming the official Wisconsin electoral college vote and protesting after the 10 electors officially voted for Trump?

That said, he is no more than half right, this is the most right he's been since going to Substack and he, like the other alleged outside the box stenos, continues to throw babies out with bathwater and apparently believes no Russian meddling at all happened and that Guccifer 2.0 doesn't exist. Beyond that, no electoral voters needed a police escort to cast their votes, unlike in Michigan this year.

 

NOR did Democrats have "alternative electors" cast their own pseudo-electoral votes in Wisconsin.

Plus, Taibbi is also half nutbar.

So, I asked him on Twitter, as I've asked Aaron Maté more than once, if he's a Seth Rich conspiracy theorist. Per this piece, he's at least a fellow traveler. 

So, Matt, I slapped the "no follow" on your piece. No clicks from me. 

Now, shut up and work on getting to be more than half right. And, like Aaron, if you are a Seth Rich conspiracy theorist, at least be honest about it.

I'll take some #TheResistance twatwaffles over Joseph Epstein

The Resistance is all bent out of shape to the point of calling Joseph Epstein a "twatwaffle" and worse on Twitter for stating reality about Jill Biden and "Dr."

First, AP Style says only use it with MD and DO, etc. NO PhDs.

Second, Epstein's right about comparative ease of many non-PhD doctorates, including Jill Biden's EdD. Public school superintendents here in Tex-ass have them like candy, and in many cases they're obtainable without a single in-person class at the granting institution.

The twatwaffles of #TheResistance, meanwhile, talk of Jill Biden as though she has a PhD, and she doesn't even do that.

Third, the actual twatwaffles of #TheResistance are likely the same people who supported Dem-leaning media in 2016 when it told actual medical doctor Jill Stein to drop the "Dr."

And, the blind rage of The Resistance is blind indeed! I've seen people on Twitter claim that Epstein, 14 years older than Biden, is engaging in ageism. I've seen others claiming he's comparing his honorary doctorates to Biden's academic degree, when A. He isn't and B. He only claims one honorary degree, not multiples.

And, it's not just individuals. Daily Beast has a bit of rage-blindness ...

And, it may have been one of those media outlets attacking Jill Stein 4 years ago. I know Charles Davis was there at the time and attacking Stein for other things.

The fact that Northwestern said he hadn't taught a course there since 2002 means nothing, as he would have been 65 then. 

Yes, he has a controversial past, and his 1970 article on homosexuality is beyond controversial, just wrong. He deals with that in a 2015 Washington Examiner piece which is very interesting, at least partially apologetic, and readable.

As for the claim that academic titles were first and MDs just followed? Err, wrong! Originally, you went to university for one of three things, as any actual historian knows: Law, medicine and theology.

In short, agree with Epstein or not, but do it honestly on the ground, and without being a 2016-based hypocrite.

 

That said, he went too far with the "almost fraudulent." It is an earned degree, first of all, and second, given how much of a winger Epstein is, could be interpreted as a larger dig. (You fill in the blanks.)

Texas Progressives glad that DACA is back (on paper)

As Trump continues to lose election challenge suits, there's still a special election for the Texas Lege, Biden Cabinet nominees and infighting over them.

There's other things on the plate for this week, so let's dig in, and we shall do so.

Texas

The Observer eyeballs the high cost of traditional death in Texas, Texas' role in spreading this nationwide (the Dignity et al chain of semi-monopolistic funeral homes started here) and what some are doing to fight back.

Off the Kuff has wrapped up his look at recent Presidential results with analyses of East, Central, and West Texas.

"Let's go aggressively centric." Yep, Texas Dems, that's the idea of your Hollywood heartthrob that you have hard-on for as your 2022 guv candidate. More on Matt McConaghey's appearance on Russell Brand here.

Dr. Peter Hotez says "goodbye and good riddance" to Scott Atlas.  

Sanford Nowlin previews the legislative budget battle.  

The Bloggess presents Year Eleven of the James Garfield Miracle.  

Jessica Montoya Coggins worries about the next phase of anti-abortion legislation in Texas.

North Texas

Tarrant County went blue, just slightly, which started the mouthbreathers in the local GOP off with localized fake news claims about voting fraud. It's the first time since LBJ that that's happened, which explains the butt-hurt.

Shelley Luther is playing up the antimasking angle in her SD30 runoff against Drew Springer, but as COVID numbers soar, will that dog hunt?

Nancy Rodriguez will be bad for Dallas ISD. Schutze explains.

Is downtown Dallas walkable? Zac Crain says actually, yes, sort of. The Observer writes about his effort.

National

Ken Paxton, on state trial for corruption and under FBI investigation for more corruption, is of course the perfect poster child for vote theft #StartTheSteal corruption by suing other states.

Joe Biden, more than Status Quo Joe, is New Jim Crow Joe, Counterpunch details.

He's also the New Warmonger Joe, giving us a career military man, retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, instead of warmongering neoliberal-con Michele Flournoy, as Secretary of Defense.

SocraticGadfly, noting Biden's fall-offs vs. Hillary Clinton, and of course vs. Obama, looks at minority voters vs the Democratic reservation, and about minorities looking beyond the two-party box. 

A federal judge ruled that some teens should be allowed to apply for DACA again.

Friendly reminder that Trump was mostly talk, little action on ending "forever wars," contra Maté, Blumenthal and other not always useful idiots. Friendly additional reminder that his mindset, frozen in amber from 50 years ago, includes being frozen in amber on wanting to fight Cold War wars.

It's fun watching the Biden Hispanic Cabinet calf scramble!

The Hispanic Biden Cabinet calf scramble!

So, Hispanics think Biden is slighting them, and they highlight a leak that New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham turned down a shot to run Interior as one big proof, and say they think MLG should be considered for Health and Human Services AND that this hurt Rep. Deb Haaland's shot at Interior, where she has indicated an interest.

Second, Raul Grijalva knows better than to be stoking false hopes for New Mexico.

Two Cabinet members are NOT both coming from a small state! Period and end of story.

Second, it's VERY unlikely that a one-term Congresscritter, even if American Indian, and even if she has Obama-Biden connections of some sort in the past, is getting a Cabinet-level position. BIA, sure. Interior, not likely.

Third, Lujan Grisham is the governor of a state that still loves itself some oil and gas fracking, and under her watch, has loved cutting the boys some methane emissions loopholes. She has no bidness running Interior.

Blacks and Browns and the Democratic reservation

Joe Biden underperformed Hillary Clinton on African-American and Hispanic voting. Related? He underperformed her in many central cities.

You Democrats can cite "COVID worries" on not going door-to-door in central cities all you want. I don't buy it. You can cite "money" all you want, and as, at the presidential level, Biden outraised Trump, I certainly don't buy it.

Instead, per the header, the "reservation effect" seems bigger than ever among many national Democrats. And, that is an operating assumption that Blacks, and to a lesser degree, Hispanics, will "stay on the reservation."

But, you know what? Even with a president with a known history of racism long before he became president (as in the 1970s HUD suit), they DIDN'T stay on the reservation.

The sad part, for Blacks and Hispanics, for the nation's voting and more, is the twosiderism that's connected to this.

Many of these minorities assume their only alternative to Democrats is Republicans.

And, of course, it's not.

Libertarians have made a pitch for minority votes on the grounds that the ending of affirmative action will free minority entrepreneurs from being stereotyped as getting unfair assistance. It may work, but what sets that apart from similar Republican claims? I've not heard GOP-type racism from Libertarians. I've also not heard Libertarians telling minority voters that. It's strange not to be playing that up, but ... hey, Libertarians, you want to waste ammo? Your biz.

Greens have in some places, like the Philly where Biden lost votes, made inroads with central city minorities. But, they're hampered by other problems. One is the perception of being just an environmental party, with the related perception of environmentalism being a "white" issue. Both are wrong, but the GP's own early history was highly white. The other is the resistance of many Greens to Howie Hawkins' attempt to move the party in a more directly ecosocialist realm. I think he was right, even though I didn't vote for him for other reasons. But, the GP imploding in 2024 wouldn't totally surprise me.

Texas Progressives look forward to Pres. Biden (well, not totally)

Trump continues to be a titty-baby, but contra The Resistance, there will be no actual coup.

Contra one increasingly erratic pundit, though, Trump's non-coup firings don't mean what they are claimed to mean.

As for the header? That comes from a blog post of yesterday. Go here.

As for the likes of the increasingly idiotic Glenn Greenwald claiming the firing of Esper and other things are to get us out of Afghanistan?

Well, this is a new teh Stupidz from Glenn Greenwald. Trumpy's been Prez 3 years, 10 months. Plenty of chances to end the war in Afghanistan. Hasn't. Firing Esper, etc. has nothing to do with that.
Hey .@ggreenwald do you get free crack on Substack? Can I have some of this? https://t.co/zXsiNtWtP3

— Your Glenn Greenwald pouty tomato face 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) November 13, 2020

And with that, off to the rest of this week's roundup.

Texas/national

Turns out there were a lot of ticket-splitters in South Texas, people either voting Trump then lower-level Dems or else Trump then undervoting. Gilberto Hinojosa, he of whom I started the #FireGilbertoHinojosa Twitter tag, should let lower level Texas Dems thank their lucky stars the suit to reinstate straight ticket voting failed. This in-depth analysis notes a lot of them were Hispanics worried about oil and gas jobs. "Defund the police" issues may have been another. That said, even within Texas' Mexican-Americans, the "Hispanic" vote isn't monolithic.

The Observer also weighs in, noting that in the Dem primary, Biden ran THIRD in many Valley counties, behind not only Bernie Sanders but also Michael Bloomberg. It notes that Biden/DNC got lazy during the national campaign, with lack of boots on the ground. Look, Biden wasn't going to win Texas anyway, but this points to a bigger issue — his seeing the campaign and probably the nation, as binary, as in Black and White, with little room for "Brown," whether Hispanic, South and East Asian, or American Indian.

Meanwhile, Capitol and Main falsely claimed that "Black voters saved America." This is wrong on MANY counts. First, I HATE the "GROUP X OF VOTERS saved America." It's simplistic at best. Second, as Biden's Black vote, along with his Hispanic vote, declined nationally as in Texas vs Clinton 2016, it's simply wrong. Third, David Sirota's latest landing ground risks going off my blogroll again with a simplistic duopoly-driven narrative that Joe Biden, vs Donald Trump, will "save America."

National

SocraticGadfly talks forthrightly about how COVID made Biden president and probably not much else.

DosCentavos reminds Dems that the election is over and that continued fighting with the "radical left" only damages the 2020 Biden coalition kept together by dollar store scotch tape.

Vox pulls a Libertarian twist on the old "Greens cost Dems the election, with the same stupid assumptions, in this case that Libertarians would have voted GOP if given a forced binary choice. At least Jane Coaston interviews actual Libertarians, contra MSM doing hit jobs on Greens in similar cases.

Texas

Scammin Ricky Scaman defeated for re-election as Falls County sheriff. I take personal pleasure in this one.

The four fired whistleblowers against Kenny Boy Paxton have sued him.

Off the Kuff has an early look at some election data.

Bill Kelly recalls a time when Republicans respected the will of the voters.  

Sri Kulkarni analyzes his defeat in CD22. 

Rick Casey finds reason for optimism.

Dallas

D Mag interviews some snooty neoliberal Californians (well, the wife actually went to Plano PLANO WEST!!!! for high school) who are now polluting the Metromess. 

Schutze talks to Drunkenville's Monte Anderson, still doing well in the development world.

World

Could vote suppression happen in other advanced democracies? The Guardian weighs in from the UK.

RIP, Robert Fisk. The best obit I've read so far comes from Patrick Cockburn.

Texas progressives: Election post-mortem, more

Rather than the normal "bug" for Texas Progressives, we use this great photojournalism shot by Brendan Smialowski.

Texas politics

Off the Kuff had some initial thoughts and observations about the election.

Whistleblowers against Texas AG Ken Paxton detail their allegations.

Dade Phelan says he has the votes to be the next Speaker of the House.

Dems' woes with Hispanics continued, as Trump actually picked up a county at the edge of the Valley and vastly outperformed his 2016 performance. And, no, it was not "just rural voters." The Valley has multiple cities of over 100K. Instead, Texas magnified an issue nationwide — Biden's slipped performance, as compared to Hillary Clinton, among Hispanic voters. And Blacks. (See below.)

And, on Texas Hispanics, if it's that they're now voters, just more Trump voters than in the past? Maybe it's MORE than about damn time that Texas Democrats mayordomo Gilberto Hinojosa et al dump the "demographics is destiny" claims, as Mezzcans for Trump has put paid to the old "non-voting state Texas" claims. I've said for more than a decade that this is wrong on religious grounds. I've said for almost a decade that this is wrong on religious and other grounds. Actually, even more trye that it's time for Texas Dems to dump the "demographics is destiny" claims? It's time for Texas Democrats to dump Hinojosa.

Per Texas Observer, a Hispanic husband and wife from El Paso, divided on their presidential support, and STRONGLY DIVIDED, even, illustrate just how much demographics is not destiny. 

Speaking of? DosCentavos gives us his take on the Texas Latino vote and how Dems missed an important issue in South Texas. Stace has some good insights.

And, just like state-level Texas Dems (and some in this county) have been talking for years about turning Collin County blue, they still haven't.

That said, I blogged a year ago that state redistricting, especially for state House seats would be "fun" and might well cause internecine GOP infighting. I stand by that. And, in the case of declining population in rural Texas, demographics IS destiny.

Meet José Garza, the new Travis County DA.

Ed Espinoza presents his notes on the election.

Elise Hu recaps her Election Night.

Therese Odell leaned into the Veep comparisons while things were still up in the air.

National

Yesterday, National Review told Trump, Bill Barr and their bullshit lawsuits that "it's over." Period and end of story.

It wasn't "shy Trump voters" skewing polls, but it was (in part) QAnon Trump voters, who in many cases, might also be called "fuck you, pollsters, Trump voters." (I do NOT consider "shy Trump voter" a proper identifier for people like this; rather, it's for a person who, if it were known to their friends that they were voting for Trump, would be ridiculed.) That said, I don't buy this as a total explanation. There weren't THAT many Black and Hispanic QAnoners. 

Per what I said above about Biden in Texas? Nationally, Biden ran lower than Hillary Clinton among both Hispanics AND Blacks. Maybe, per Nikole Hannah Jones of the 1619 Project, it's past time to ditch "Hispanic," which is about as meaningful as "Asian" as an ethnic category. (For that matter, re "African American," where do you fit new or newish Nigerian immigrants who came to America freely vs the descendants of slaves?) More here from Margaret Sullivan, where that Twitter thread link was seen. 

Meanwhile, ConservaDems in Congress are making new noise about moving that old Overton Window further right. That's even though, per Mondoweiss, "Squad" type new Congresscritters won most their races. 

Beyond more states legalizing pot, and California sadly getting snookered by Uber and Lyft and (paid to play?) drivers to pass Prop 22, another measure from California could have national implications in the near future. Voters there passed Prop 24, which toughens California's previous privacy law passed by the state lege and just in effect for one year. It bans data sharing, not just selling, among other things. Plus, companies must provide a clear link on a webpage for people to opt out of data sharing. AND? It creates a state agency to enforce this. I can't imagine that a lot of websites will bifurcate webpages. EFF said this summer it was a mixed bag. I agree on wishing it had opt-in rather than opt-out, but I think their pay-for-privacy worries are overblown.

Beyond drugs, Colorado voters passed a referendum to reintroduce wolves. Reportedly, the occasional Yellowstone wanderer has gotten into NW Colorado already — since confirmed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife — but the referendum calls for an active state reintroduction program like what brought them back to Yellowstone decades ago. I find it interesting that a lot of support came from southwestern Colorado. True, Durango is hippie-blue, but there's also lots of Mormons and lots of oil and gas folks there. Speaking of, and showing that "American Indian" is perhaps not much more monolithic than "Hispanic," the Southern Ute tribe opposed.

Daniel writes an excellent, in-depth piece about the old tu quoque fallacy and related modern whataboutism re the presidential campaign. 

Besides Trump himself and his family? Yes, it will indeed be nicest to say goodbye to Bill Barr.

Some centrist Catholic type, writing in Merika for British paper The Independent, says Biden should pardon Trump. Wrong. Ford's pardon of Nixon, without saying what he was being pardoned for and without publicly confirmed guilt (even if accepting a pardon insinuates that) was itself wrong, and her citing it as a precedent shows how all wet she is. In reality, this just enables bad behavior.

Matt Bai, in the face of Trump's staff egging him on in the votes issue, GOP Congresscritters carefully circumscribing their responses, and right wing puntry egging Trump on even more than his own staff, and ignoring that COVID got Biden elected, laughingly claims "Trumpism has been repudiated." (The latest example for why Bai has faded from punditry prominence.)

Per numbers from Great Lakes states in this National Review piece, Howie Hawkins 2020 finished well behind Jill Stein. Partly not his fault, I'm sure; likely that 2016 Greens had many "safe candidate" Berniecrats who went back to the Dem tribe this year. Hey, the Rhode Island Green Party even gave them an excuse. "Well, if GREENS are saying 'You have to vote Biden,' ..." you get the results pictured in the poll.

And, while the relatively small numbers on the poll on this blog make it anecdotal, it is an anecdotal confirmation.

Non-politics

SocraticGadfly takes his first look at what the St. Louis Cardinals might do and probably will do this offseason.

Traces of Texas has an amazing photo of the Astrodome.

Sara Cress sums up her experience running the super popular Harris County Clerk Twitter feed.

Grits for Breakfast evaluates the state of criminal justice reform after the election.

Texana/national/global

All three, since he's not native to Texas and no country owns Antarctica. Meet Wayne White, the man who has spent three winters at the South Pole as station manager of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

Sustainable farming, at least at the leadership cadre level, is racist.

Joe Biden should be thanking COVID on his knees

To some dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, it may sound cynical to the point of being perverted.

But, it's not.

Skeptical? Certainly. NOT cynical. It's a skepticism based on facts.

This sobering reminder to Democrats. Had it not been for this tiny virus, thousands of times smaller than a human cell, Donald Trump would be serving a second term. How much that says about the enthusiasm of his base, how much it says about how weak of a candidate Biden was, and how much it says about other things will be pundit-ed out on the Interwebz for months to come.

But the basic fact is true, when one looks at how thin Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan were — if not for COVID, Trump remains president. 

Period and end of story.

That includes that, per this Politico mini-bio piece, if COVID hadn't intervened, Biden's anemic in-person crowds on the Democratic primary trail would have remained anemic — and visible — no matter the interventions of Harry Reid and Dear Leader Barack Obama.

Period and end of story.

When you know that Biden trailed Hillary Clinton among Blacks and Hispanics, and won working-class voters (no, they're not all white, and no, Bernie didn't say that, Sanders haters, but yes, he comes close to implying that at times, Sanders bromancers) by Overton Window shifting, he doesn't win without the coronavirus.

Period and end of story.

It's not the grace of god, as no such critter exists. Nor is it the luck of the Irish, as luck doesn't exist in a metaphorical sense and in a psychological sense, it's based on other legends, recency bias fallacies and more.

Elections 2020 personal post-mortem

PROLOGUE: (And update.) In comments, Tiago asked me, per my graphic, what exactly I meant by a non-Marxist post-capitalism rather than anti-capitalism. 

I can now offer a specific example. I'm not saying I agree with it totally, nor am I saying it's the only post-capitalist option out there, but? "Doughnut economics," as described in this story, are one example, and an example with an explicitly environmental focus. Is it perfect? Of course not? Is it even going to wind up being the best option? As currently formulated, likely no. Is it a good starting point, despite bashing from non-wingnut conservatives to Branko Milanovich on the left? I say yes. Robert Hunziker has his take on doughnut economics at Counterpunch.

And with that, on to the original post.

FIRST MAIN POINT: As I said more briefly in the middle of a couple of blog posts elsewhere late last month?

I didn't vote. I've defended principled non-voting by others for years, and now I'll defend it in my own self.

So, WHY?

In part, semi-technical reasons. I need to renew a piece of plastic, and I hadn't transferred it from a previous address, and the powers that be that oversee such things said I couldn't transfer the address or renew it over the Interwebz, and COVID. I will get it taken care of, but I didn't before the election. But, it also offered me a backup excuse beyond the real reasons.

At the presidential level, it was a mix of national Green Party and Howie Hawkins factor. Both the party's Presidential Candidate Support Committee and Howie's own campaign treasurer, Travis Christal, the former despite MULTIPLE emails, never gave me the so-called "letter of interest" submitted on behalf of Jesse Ventura by who knows who. (I asked Travis as I had his email, and explained I had asked the PCSC multiple times by email and hadn't gotten the time of day. I DID get a "welcome to the Green Party PR type email the first time, which only cheesed me even more.)

And, exactly that is the problem.

I want to know who, given all the shenanigans, and what exactly it said. That's doubly true as we could have another round of this bullshit in 2024. Background on Jesse, the letter of interest, and his desire to have his not-rose-scented ass kissed is here.

Related? The Green Party Facebook group, which is an official Party organ, after all, censored more than one of my would-be posts there, and I was able to prove it. And, I'm not the only person to have had such complaints. (The group is moderated, and favoritism by moderators, beyond censorship, seems to be a problem.)

Third? Not doing anything about the Rhode Island GP for endorsing Biden but threatening to do something to the Georgia GP because of "trans activists." I'm not a GCRF, as I've said before. I'm a GSHF. That is, I'm a gender-skeptical humanist feminist. I don't have a problem calling out misbegotten SJW-ism when it happens, even if I don't agree with all GCRF claims. Somewhat more on that issue, as well as the "trans activist" issue in general, is here. More on how trans activists both inside and outside of the Green Party get a lot of issues of biology wrong is here. And, Howie was at least a "fellow traveler" on all of this.

Fourth? Something I explicitly blogged about, Hawkins, along with top campaign advisors Margaret Flowers and the late Kevin Zeese, drinking the Xi Jinping Kool-Aid. I have long voted Green precisely because of foreign policy as well as domestic policy issues. That said, the U.S. foreign policy establishment isn't always wrong, and it's not wrong by default. Twosiderism that abets concentration camps is simply unacceptable.

Fifth? Yeah, a certain amount of Rethuglicans and Democraps believed some of the coronavirus conspiracy theories, too, but they ran hot and heavy among Greens. Howie himself supported vaccinations, and didn't support any of the conspiracy theories, but? The party needs to be more explicitly pro-science on this (and other badly stereotypical "Green" issues) in the future. Per the graphic at right, I not only vote based on foreign policy issues, I vote based on broad insight issues.

I saw no reason to vote below that level. Greens had two statewide offices for which I could vote. BUT? Reading between the lines of Texas Supreme Court rulings, had either David Bruce Collins or Katja Gruene won, the TSC said that Secretary of State Ruth Hughs could retroactively charge the campaign finance fees. And, would surely make them due immediately. Had Hughs and staff not screwed the pooch on trying to charge GP candidates within the party, before nomination, Collins and Gruene would have been dead in the water legally.

As far as Dems? Hegar left me cold. I had no clue about my CD 13 Dem for Congress. I know a ConservaDem ran against Drew Springer for the state House. And, all county-level races were primary-decided.

SECOND MAIN POINT: OK, now, what did "we" get wrong in the general election?

It wasn't "shy Trump voters" skewing polls, but it was (in part) QAnon Trump voters. That said, I don't buy this as a total explanation. There weren't THAT many Black and Hispanic QAnoners. 

Nationally, Biden ran lower than Hillary Clinton among both Hispanics AND Blacks. Maybe, per Nikole Hannah Jones of the 1619 Project, it's past time to ditch "Hispanic," which is about as meaningful as "Asian" as an ethnic category. (For that matter, re "African American," where do you fit new or newish Nigerian immigrants who came to America freely vs the descendants of slaves?) More here from Margaret Sullivan, where that Twitter thread link was seen.

And, on Texas Hispanics, if it's that they're now voters, just more Trump voters than in the past? Maybe it's MORE than about damn time that Texas Democrats mayordomo Gilberto Hinojosa et al dump the "demographics is destiny" claims, as Mezzcans for Trump has put paid to the old "non-voting state Texas" claims. I've said for almost a decade that this is wrong on religious and other grounds. 

Meanwhile, ConservaDems in Congress are making new noise about moving that old Overton Window further right. That's even though, per Mondoweiss, "Squad" type new Congresscritters won most their races. 

THIRD MAIN POINT: Playing off the first main point, Democrats still don't "own my vote." As of now? Neither do Greens. They may, or may not, regain me, starting with the 2021 convention and what they do or don't do vis-a-vis Rogues Island, the Alaska GP nominating Jesse, and Georgia.

Otherwise? Per a "where are they now" piece in the Dallas Morning News about Metroplex area 1960s civil rights activists, with many of them saying they were civically active, but not politically active to the point of non-voting? I'm OK with staying that way myself.

The GP needs larger reforms to hold on to me. The SPUSA needs to move its nomination to 2024, not 2023, so that it can have a clearer idea of whether or not to have the potential Green nominee also be its candidate.

As for the party?

Per numbers from Great Lakes states in this National Review piece, Howie Hawkins 2020 finished well behind Jill Stein. Partly not his fault, I'm sure; likely that 2016 Greens had many "safe candidate" Berniecrats who went back to the Dem tribe this year. Hey, the Rhode Island Green Party even gave them an excuse. "Well, if GREENS are saying 'You have to vote Biden,' ..." you get the results pictured in the poll.

UPDATE, Nov. 20: Via Ballot-Access News, "others," as in the really minor candidates, outperformed Hawkins, who is listed at less than 400,000 votes. (As of late January, Wikipedia confirms that "others" did outperform him, with more than 600,000 votes. That's not totally new; if you lump McMullin with other "others," Stein lost by about 20 percent in 2016. She lost slightly in 2012.)

And, while the relatively small numbers on the poll on this blog make it anecdotal, it is an anecdotal confirmation.

Partially his fault? Probably. Partially internal GP things outside his control? Almost certainly.

Final election prognostications (and post-mortem!)

Last Thursday, as a lead-in to this corner's version of the weekly Texas Progressives roundup (not counting my normal split-off of coronavirus news), I had the following semi-rhetorical questions:

• Will Biden win?

• Will Democrats regain the U.S. Senate? 

• Will Texas Dems flip the state House?

• Will Biden win Texas?

• Will M.J. Hegar beat John Cornyn?

• How well will third-party candidates Jo Jorgensen and Howie Hawkins do?

• If Hawkins is well behind Stein 2016, in part because lack of dues-paying membership put a crimp on state-by-state party ballot access, what will the Green Party do?

• Will the GP address rogue states Rhode Island (openly endorsing Biden and sending no presidential delegates to the GP 2020 convention) and Alaska (separately nominating Jesse Ventura) at its 2021 convention?

OK, let's "lean in," as the Facebook PR spinners say.

 

Note: Answers, as they come, in italics, starting late Nov. 3.

• The biggie? Eighty percent odds Biden wins. About 55 percent he meets or beats Trump's 2016 total of 304 EVs (setting aside faithless electors in the case wrongly adjudicated by SCOTUS). About 25 percent he hits Dear Leader's 332 of 2012. Ninety-five percent Biden wins the popular vote. Eighty percent he does so by bigger margin than Hillary Clinton.

 

Nov. 3: Biden is ahead, and looks likely to win after Fox gave him Arizona on an early call.

• As of right now? Sixty percent odds Democrats regain the Senate, as I've talked about previously.

 

Nov. 3: Fading, starting with Ernst winning Iowa. Stay tuned on Georgia.

• Forty percent they flip the state House. In other words, it's a definite possibility, but I just don't see it with enough legs to make it reality. (Related? I blogged a year ago about possible internecine GOP fighting over redistricting.)

Nov. 3: FadED, not fading. Be surprised indeed if by this time Nov. 4, they've won more than four new net seats. Reasons are many, including some relative lack of enthusiasm, some GOP fears, and, stop me if you've heard this before, but Texas is "a non-voting state" ... among much of its Hispanic populace. See link in next graf. (My largely White exurban Metroplex county unofficially broke 70 percent.)

 

Nov. 4: Wasn't just Texas, and wasn't just Hispanics. Nationally, Biden ran lower than Hillary Clinton among both Hispanics AND Blacks. Maybe, per Nikole Hannah Jones of the 1619 Project, it's past time to ditch "Hispanic," which is about as meaningful as "Asian" as an ethnic category. (For that matter, re "African American," where do you fit new or newish Nigerian immigrants who came to America freely vs the descendants of slaves?) More here from Margaret Sullivan, where that Twitter thread link was seen. Meanwhile, ConservaDems in Congress are making new noise about moving that old Overton Window further right. That's even though, per Mondoweiss, "Squad" type new Congresscritters won most their races.)

• Fifteen percent on Biden winning Texas. I expect he'll be tripped up by the usual bugaboo of "non-voting state Texas" having Hispanic turnout that leaves him a bit short. (I expect the break on Hispanic votes will be more pro-Biden than Hillary Clinton, but that reverse taco ConservaDem Hispanics will remain glued fairly strongly to Trump.)

 

Yep. 

 

Nov. 3: It may tighten, but, it looks like Biden's finals vs Trump will be about what the last few polls said. And maybe UH was right that some of it was some independents breaking late for Trump. A LOT of Hispanics in the Valley apparently broke Trump rather than being non-voters. "Fortunately," I've been in Tex-ass long enough to see this continue to play out.

• Ten percent. Unlike Biden, Hegar's never had a poll showing her in the lead. I don't see her pulling this off.

 

Nov. 3: Called this right. Cornyn, despite him becoming a lapdog to Trump and a second fiddle wannabe to Havana Ted Cruz, apparently is less offensive enough to run about 2 percentage points ahead of Donald.

• Jorgensen, despite Justin Amash refusing to seek the Libertarian nod because he didn't want to elect Trump, will probably get 80-90 percent of what Gary Johnson did in 2016. Contra a glue-sniffer at this piece at Independent Political Report, she will NOT increase Johnson's vote by 50 percent and take 5 percent of the national vote. You can bet on that and make book on it. Howie, on the other hand, in part because Greens are on fewer state ballots this year and in part due to Jesse-stanners and Dario-stanners bolting? No more than 60 percent of Stein. That also said, because other Greens may be like Rhode Island? If we do an apples-to-apples comp, I think he'll fall short of Stein at no more than 80 percent just comparing states where they both are/were on the ballot.

 

Nov. 8: Per numbers in this National Review story wondering if Biden won Wisconsin by Dems keeping Howie off the ballot there? Howie, on an apples-to-apples basis, may be lucky to finish at 50 percent of Stein. Not primarily his fault, but will be ammo for Dario-stanners and Jesse-stanners. 

 

UPDATE, Nov. 20: Via Ballot-Access News, "others," as in the really minor candidates, outperformed Hawkins, who is listed at less than 400,000 votes.

• No. Usual strawmen about "too pricey," etc. will be raised, and Republicans will use this loophole to run as Greens in select races and other things.

• No. But, there's a 50-50 shot trans activists will try to punish the Georgia GP next summer.

Texas Progressives have last pre-election thoughts

Just five days left before Election day, and we face the following questions:

• Will Democrats regain the U.S. Senate? 

• Will Texas Dems flip the state House?

• Will Biden win Texas?

• Will M.J. Hegar beat John Cornyn?

• How well will third-party candidates Jo Jorgensen and Howie Hawkins do?

• If Hawkins is well behind Stein 2016, in part because lack of dues-paying membership put a crimp on state-by-state party ballot access, what will the Green Party do?

• Will the GP address rogue states Rhode Island (openly endorsing Biden and sending no presidential delegates to the GP 2020 convention) and Alaska (separately nominating Jesse Ventura) at its 2021 convention?

Maybe not all of America is facing these questions, but this person is. You may get tentative answers to the first three here; I'll tackle all, probably next Monday.

And with that, let's jump in!

Texas-elections

Yes, it started a week early, but comparing two weeks time with two weeks time, early voting was already equal to 2016, and the extra week means it should surge way past that. But? What will overall numbers be? Will total turnout be that much higher? OR, per Betomania, will they be that much higher for Dems than in 2018? Many experts say it will break 65 percent and threaten 70 percent, numbers not hit since 1992. Dan Solomon has more on the turnout and what it might hint at.

The battle over dropoff sites for absentee ballots continued, but Texas Supremes finally said "no" to plaintiffs and kept Abbott's rules in place. (It may be a form of vote suppression, but the legal ruling is correct.) Meanwhile, the battle over drive-through voting is firmly settled in favor of voters and against Steve Hotze. Well, change that. Hotze refuses to give up and yesterday was one of the plaintiffs in ANOTHER suit.

Justin Miller at the Observer ponders the latest on the battle to flip the Texas House. That said, Tom DeLay's mid-decade redistricting isn't totally unique. Michigan Republicans planned similar in the 1890s, but state House and state Senate disagreed within themselves on details. Read more here.

Off the Kuff (doing his best Beto impersonation?) tries to make sense of some recent polls that show Joe Biden with a slight lead in Texas.

However, the two newest of said polls, for various reasons, show The Donald with a 4-5 point lead. And, the NYT's poll, as discussed by yours truly in detail, shows that Texas is once again, among Hispanic voters .... wait for it, wait for it ... looking like a non-voting state. Shock me.

Reform Texas is amused by John Cornyn's delicate ears.

The Texas Signal notes that we're still a state that does its damnedest to make it hard to vote. 

Jim Henson and Joshua Blank look at how independent voters have shifted away from Republicans in recent Texas elections. 

Matt Mohn marvels at the extreme variance in polling preferences of Texas Latinos in this election. 

Sending the National Guard to Texas' largest cities on election day smacks of vote intimidation, Strangeabbott.

Texas-other politics

Kenny Boy Paxton is now supposed to get tried by a jury of his peers Collin County cronies, even as he seemingly violates state whistleblower laws by sacking AG employees.

Senfronia Thompson is officially in the ring for Texas Speaker. Could she pull off a nomination even if Dems don't flip the House side of the pink dome?

Texana

The Monthly has the first in a three-part series about how Texas  school history textbooks are teh suck. The first piece is good, but per not yet great. Per this hot take of mine, the review may be exchanging one form of privilege for another in one passage. If you asked around GOP Austin, Danny Goeb would say they're great, Strangeabbott would issue a Jesuitical hair-splitting statement while talking about his Mezzican wife, Kenny Boy would try to sell you stock in Pearson and Tim Dunn would pay $1 million to get the SBOE to approve a textbook even more wrong.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' refusal to officially exonerate Lydall Grant is its biggest black mark in many years on a ledger full of them.

Two Navajos have raised this year's death count at Fort Hood to 28, and suspicions surround both of them, with the usual Fort Hood lethargic and changing responses adding to that.

RIP Jerry Jeff Walker.

The Texas Living Waters Project tries to imagine what our state would be like without water.

National

Doing his Weird Al Yankovic schtick, SocraticGadfly taps his inner Blue Öyster Cult and offers up the lyrics for “Don’t Fear the Virus.” After all, “Donaldine and Melania ARE together in COVIDity.”

Reflecting Hume's younger thought on reason being the slave of the passions in the Treatise, rather than his (not totally warranted IMO) partial pullback in the Inquiry, wingnuts are burning $10 million to try to unseat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. If one-third of those contributors haven't maxed out to Trump, I'm sure, given his "poor me" on campaign financing, and refusal to extend himself more (of COURSE not cash) via a loan that wouldn't be repaid this time and would be even more griftier than four years ago, I'm sure he'd love some of that for ad buys in neighboring Pennsylvania.

Garrett Hardin wrote about, and popularized, "the tragedy of the commons." He did so not as an enlightened environmentalist, though, but as someone more xenophobic and racist than Ed Abbey. And, because of his motivated reasoning, he actually got some things wrong.

Paradise in Hell sampled reactions to the last debate.