Category: News & Comment

Rick Scott is the U.S. Senate’s Whiner-In-Chief

Buck Banks

Photo: Rolling Stone

The image is pathetic: Florida’s freshman U.S. Sen. Rick Scott sitting by his pink princess phone, waiting for the call that never came. Then whining on the Fox News Rundown podcast:

“He’s not called me to say ‘Oh, how can I be helpful in the things that are important to your state?’ … He doesn’t care one iota. He just has this radical left agenda he’s fulfilling, but it’s not good for American families.”

The image is also a complete fantasy. As is the notion that the incoming president of the United States should take the time out of his first busy week in office to call the freshman senator from a state that didn’t support him in the recent fair and legal election.

We would wager that Rick Scott is pretty close to the bottom of the list of 100 U.S. senators Joe Biden is likely to call — ever.

But Scott isn’t done whining. His idea of bipartisanship, apparently, is: If I go to your inauguration, you have to call me.

“President Biden’s been pretty disappointing to me,” Scott noted. “I went to his inauguration. He gave a talk about unity. And then he spent the next seven days doing everything but unity.”

This from the guy who voted against Biden’s cabinet nominations for Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Oh, and he was also among the 45 senators who voted that Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial is unconstitutional.

Not to mention he was one of eight Senate Republicans to vote against certifying the election results.

Hey Rick, stay near that phone. I’m sure Joe’s call will come any minute now ….

Amanda Gorman’s Inauguration Poem: ‘The Hill We Climb’

Buck Banks

Photo: Maclean’s

Mr. President, Dr. Biden, Madame Vice-President, Mr. Emhoff, Americans and the world,

When day comes we ask ourselves,
Where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We braved the belly of the beast
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice.
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished […]

Daily Mail: Blood on Trump’s Hands

Pensito Editors

One woman has been shot inside the US Capitol after President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the building and violently clashed with police in a bid to stop Joe Biden's victory being certified - as Washington DC authorities declared a 6pm curfew amid the violence. Violence broke out after dozens of Trump supporters breached security perimeters at the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon with lawmakers inside the House Chamber urged to put on gas masks as tear gas was fired in the Rotunda. The woman was reportedly shot in the chest and is in a critical condition. It was not immediately clear who shot the woman. Police could be seen treating her on the floor of the iconic building.

Daily Mail: One woman has been shot inside the US Capitol after President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building and violently clashed with police in a bid to stop Joe Biden’s victory being certified – as Washington DC authorities declared a 6pm curfew amid the violence. Violence broke out after dozens of Trump supporters breached security perimeters at the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon with lawmakers inside the House Chamber urged to put on gas masks as tear gas was fired in the Rotunda. The woman was reportedly shot in the chest and is in a critical condition. It was not immediately clear who shot the woman. Police could be seen treating her on the floor of the iconic building.

Ask Dr. Democrat: Is Gavin Newsom Getting Recalled?

Dr. Democrat


Dear Dr. Democrat:

Politico says it’s time for concern about efforts to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) — and this is just as he’s about to appoint at least one (but let’s face it, probably two) senators. Should I (we) be concerned?

Half-Baked in Bakersfield

Dear Half-Baked:

Republicans are bestirring themselves in California. That is true. But the article’s reference to the state’s “Republican establishment” is laughable — probably as laughable as Florida’s “Democratic establishment.”

This part is correct:

A recall by Republicans, who still have the albatross of Donald Trump, an unpopular president in solidly blue California, around their necks, remains a longshot. And Democrat Newsom still enjoys the strong approval of the majority of Caifornians, the latest Public Policy Institute of California poll showed.

Hillary won by 4.3 million in California. Biden won by 5 million and change — 11 million to Trump’s 6 million. Newsom is over 60% in the polls.
[…]

Texas Can’t Let Go of ‘Negro’

Buck Banks
Topozone

NPR has dug up a story that contains these elements: ingrained Texas racism, racially pejorative names assigned to geographical features, a weird twist in federal beaurocracy and a clear lack of desire to rectify an ongoing racist practice.

In 1991 when then-Gov. Ann Richards signed a bill authorizing changing the names of 19 sites across Texas that were considered racially insulting to Blacks, everyone thought that was the end of it. They even submitted substitute names that celebrated African Americans who had made significant contributions to the state.

But in the 30 years since, only one of the 19 cliffs, rivers, creeks and valleys with the word “negro” in its name was changed. The other geographical features were not renamed due to local resistance and the limits of federal jurisdiction.

[…]

The Deadliest Days in American History Lie Ahead

Buck Banks

Business Insider

Here are the deadliest days in American history:

1. Galveston Hurricane – 8,000
2. Battle of Antietam – 3,675
3. Battle of Gettysburg – 3,155
4. September 11 – 2,977
5. Last Thursday – 2,861
6. Last Wednesday – 2,762
7. Last Tuesday – 2,461
8. Last Friday – 2,403
9. Pearl Harbor – 2,403

Former FDA Commission Scott Gottleib told CBS News the U.S. could reach nearly 4,000 deaths per day from the pandemic in January.

Grifter-In-Chief Continues Post-Election Fund-Raising Telethon

Buck Banks

New York CBS2

Now that Attorney General William Barr has asserted there was no widespread fraud associated with the 2020 election, that should put an end to Trump’s shameless post-election shenanigans, right? Hardly.

Trump has only amped up his ongoing rigged-election claims, which lay at the heart of his biggest White House scam yet. Indeed, he posted to Facebook a 46-minute speech — one he called “the most important” he’s ever given — in which he claimed, again without evidence, that the presidenttial election is “under coordinated assault and siege.” He failed to note that it’s his assault and siege, and it’s on American democracy.

Some have questioned why, after losing 39 meritless lawsuits and wasting millions of dollars on pointless recounts and helplessly watching all battleground states certify their election results, Trump continues to deny and attack. Some say it’s because he is simply incapable of admitting defeat, but the real reason is simpler still — MONEY!
[…]

Hilarious Twitter Posts on Trump’s Presser at the Other Four Seasons

Trish Ponder

As if you weren’t feeling great enough this morning following the incredible event last night featuring our new president-elect and the country’s first female vice president-elect. Maybe we’re still giddy but the posts on Twitter following Trump’s announcement of a big press conference at the Four Seasons — no, not THAT Four Seasons…well anyway, see for yourself.

[…]

Reporters are Starting to Probe Trump’s Covidgate and the Questions are Disturbing

Trish Ponder

Although the word has been used in other contexts, “Covidgate” is now the suspicion that the White House could be covering up that Pres. Trump himself is the one who spread the disease to so many in his inner circle, at Republican fundraisers, and countless numbers of those people’s contacts. The facts remain to be proven but reporters, who have also been exposed, are investigating.

There is no question that Trump continued to expose others after he had the virus.* The only question is did he mean to? When did he know he had COVID and how many lives did he choose to put at risk?

CNN’s Jake Tapper posted a Twitter thread that asks repeatedly when Trump last tested negative. This is a question the White House, and Trump’s medical team, including his osteopath, Navy Commander Sean Conley, is refusing to answer. It’s an alternate way of asking when Trump tested positive.

We know Trump arrived for the first debate too late to be tested before taking the stage with Biden. Was this on purpose to cover up because they already knew what the test results would be, or was it simply typical of his chaotic movements? And why is the White House refusing to do contact tracing after the superspreader event for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett? Is it because they already know who the results will trace back to?

Trump had famously been tested multiple times a day, as had those allowed to enter his airspace at the White House. Why did this abruptly stop? Check out Tapper’s musings on the subject.

[…]