“The universe is basically an animal. It grazes on the ordinary. It creates infinite idiots just to eat them. Smart people get a chance to climb on top, take reality for a ride, but it will never stop trying to throw you and eventually it will, there’s no other way off.”
The current attempts by the president to ignore reality, and the will of the people, by refusing to concede the election is what amounts to a very slow, very dumb coup attempt.
The peaceful transfer of power is fundamental to any functioning democracy, and I realize categorizing what we have in 2020 America as a functioning democracy is a reach.
Not only does the president’s temper tantrum hurt the republic, it has real-world consequences for our national security.
The transition period is vital for any incoming administration. The few months in between the election and inauguration are used to get the incoming staff up to speed on any issues they might face when assuming control, like looming national security threats.
There couldn’t possibly be any U.S. adversaries who would see the hissy fit thrown by a one-term president on his way out the door as an opportunity, could there? The Trump administration’s refusal to believe in basic math puts us all at risk.
The fact that Trump is kicking and screaming is to be expected, as is the capitulation of his utterly spineless Republican enablers.
There were plenty of folks in the pundit class who thought that once Trump was defeated his acolytes would stop indulging the whims of the 74-year-old toddler and get back to the business of pre-Trump obstructionist politics.
That was never gonna happen. The GOP is rotted to the core by white nationalists, Qanon disciples and former establishment Republicans too scared to challenge them. Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse can’t save it.
Democrats, and Joe Biden specifically, have no choice but to ignore them and continue the transition as best they can. The calendar, like the vote count, is inevitable.
Not a surprise, a little sad. Election Showed a Wider Red-Blue Economic Divide Highly educated Republican-leaning counties have become rarer with each recent election. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/upshot/election-red-blue-economic-divide.html
Trump’s purge of the military’s civilian leadership seems to be motivated by a desire to selectively declassify information in order to refute the Russiagate investigation.
This might well be an abuse of power and could also, as some journalists claim, endanger national security. But it is very different than a coup.
It is more accurately viewed as a cover-up.
With Trump, it is always important to keep an eye out not just for his outward bluster but also his interior motives. Aside from the cover-up, he’s also interested in keeping his con game afloat.
He’s now raising hefty sums from his followers for a supposed election defense fund. But as Talking Points Memo reports, “In reality, there is no election defense fund; the donations are siphoned into a mix of various committees.
Up until Tuesday, some of the money was being used to pay down the Trump campaign’s debt.
As of Tuesday morning though, the formula was changed to funnel most of the money into Trump’s new leadership PAC called Save America.”
None of this is reason for complacency. Trump’s worrisome actions demand vigilance, rebuke, and congressional sanction.
They do not, as yet, require that we panic. Now is the time to keep the powder dry. The triggering event that requires mass mobilization might come soon and progressives need to prepare.
But there is nothing to gain—and a potential cost in exhaustion and wasted resources—in sounding the alarm too early.
A central tenet of the outlook of many conservatives is that “elites” look down upon them and regard them as bigoted, uneducated rubes.
Well, they have a point: That’s exactly how Republican politicians and the revenue-generating, right-wing media machine regard them.
✁
It is Trump who believes fear of immigrants is what motivates his base; Democrats trust voters to understand that immigration is essential to the United States.
And it is Republicans such as Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) — not Democrats — who are convinced that constituents will buy into the anti-Ukrainian Kremlin agitprop that they dish out in generous portions.
✁
Fox News is apparently convinced that its viewers want a steady diet of Hunter Biden conspiracy theories, horror stories linking immigration and crime, false and ludicrous claims of voter fraud from anonymous witnesses and climate change denial.
Rupert Murdoch and his clan, not to mention producers and executives, surely know this is bunk; its own reporters on the news side know it is claptrap. But, hey, this is the slop they figure their audience craves. (Disclosure: I am an MSNBC contributor.)
Republicans’ contempt for the masses is nowhere more obvious than in the latest Trump scam — his claim of a “stolen election.”
I have zero doubt that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and every Republican senator knows the election was definitive.
Biden won.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who said he has “nothing to congratulate” Biden for, must figure members of his base are so ignorant and irrational that they will think better of him if he practices election denial.
✁
The entire GOP strategy for the Georgia Senate elections apparently centers on a belief that Georgia voters are irrational and will rise up in fury because they think they have been wronged — again — by conniving Democrats.
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. . . ." Mahatma Gandhi (frequently misquoted as “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”).
At no point does it appear the Trump campaign is worried about who won the popular vote – it’s all about contesting the few votes that might “flip the college.”
The Electoral College is not the deliberative body it was designed to be. In its present, and very perverted, form, it is nothing more than a mandated gerrymander. It is a numbers game.
And I sincerely doubt that turning Electors back into “free agents” would be an improvement. The Electoral College is nothing more than a justification to ignore the popular vote.
If only I could live long enough to see an end to the corruption and embarrassment of the Electoral College!
Cheapskate0 about 4 years ago
On point. It is up to us, first.
KLSeering about 4 years ago
To quote Matthew West “God, why don’t you do something? He said I did, I created you!”
Sanspareil about 4 years ago
Control outSmarted KAOS most of the time!
braindead Premium Member about 4 years ago
Trump Disciples DO NOT WANT the chaos to stop.
They want to continue LYING about election fraud.
They want the virus to keep infecting and killing people so that we can achieve herd immunity — ‘herd mentality’ in the words of Their Messiah.
.
This is how they show their ‘patriotism’.
.
When are they gonna scream about liberating Utah?
nosirrom about 4 years ago
Speaking of Chaos
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-make-public-appearance-biden-projected-winner/story?id=74146517
RobinHood about 4 years ago
“The universe is basically an animal. It grazes on the ordinary. It creates infinite idiots just to eat them. Smart people get a chance to climb on top, take reality for a ride, but it will never stop trying to throw you and eventually it will, there’s no other way off.”
Rick Sanchez
Silly Season about 4 years ago
The current attempts by the president to ignore reality, and the will of the people, by refusing to concede the election is what amounts to a very slow, very dumb coup attempt.
The peaceful transfer of power is fundamental to any functioning democracy, and I realize categorizing what we have in 2020 America as a functioning democracy is a reach.
Not only does the president’s temper tantrum hurt the republic, it has real-world consequences for our national security.
The transition period is vital for any incoming administration. The few months in between the election and inauguration are used to get the incoming staff up to speed on any issues they might face when assuming control, like looming national security threats.
There couldn’t possibly be any U.S. adversaries who would see the hissy fit thrown by a one-term president on his way out the door as an opportunity, could there? The Trump administration’s refusal to believe in basic math puts us all at risk.
The fact that Trump is kicking and screaming is to be expected, as is the capitulation of his utterly spineless Republican enablers.
There were plenty of folks in the pundit class who thought that once Trump was defeated his acolytes would stop indulging the whims of the 74-year-old toddler and get back to the business of pre-Trump obstructionist politics.
That was never gonna happen. The GOP is rotted to the core by white nationalists, Qanon disciples and former establishment Republicans too scared to challenge them. Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse can’t save it.
Democrats, and Joe Biden specifically, have no choice but to ignore them and continue the transition as best they can. The calendar, like the vote count, is inevitable.
~
https://www.nj.com/opinion/2020/11/worst-coup-attempt-ever-sheneman.html
William Robbins Premium Member about 4 years ago
Not a surprise, a little sad. Election Showed a Wider Red-Blue Economic Divide Highly educated Republican-leaning counties have become rarer with each recent election. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/upshot/election-red-blue-economic-divide.html
Silly Season about 4 years ago
Trump’s purge of the military’s civilian leadership seems to be motivated by a desire to selectively declassify information in order to refute the Russiagate investigation.
This might well be an abuse of power and could also, as some journalists claim, endanger national security. But it is very different than a coup.
It is more accurately viewed as a cover-up.
With Trump, it is always important to keep an eye out not just for his outward bluster but also his interior motives. Aside from the cover-up, he’s also interested in keeping his con game afloat.
He’s now raising hefty sums from his followers for a supposed election defense fund. But as Talking Points Memo reports, “In reality, there is no election defense fund; the donations are siphoned into a mix of various committees.
Up until Tuesday, some of the money was being used to pay down the Trump campaign’s debt.
As of Tuesday morning though, the formula was changed to funnel most of the money into Trump’s new leadership PAC called Save America.”
None of this is reason for complacency. Trump’s worrisome actions demand vigilance, rebuke, and congressional sanction.
They do not, as yet, require that we panic. Now is the time to keep the powder dry. The triggering event that requires mass mobilization might come soon and progressives need to prepare.
But there is nothing to gain—and a potential cost in exhaustion and wasted resources—in sounding the alarm too early.
~
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-concede-defeat-coup/
humistonbill about 4 years ago
Very poignant, meaningful strip today! For both sides.
Silly Season about 4 years ago
A central tenet of the outlook of many conservatives is that “elites” look down upon them and regard them as bigoted, uneducated rubes.
Well, they have a point: That’s exactly how Republican politicians and the revenue-generating, right-wing media machine regard them.
✁
It is Trump who believes fear of immigrants is what motivates his base; Democrats trust voters to understand that immigration is essential to the United States.
And it is Republicans such as Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) — not Democrats — who are convinced that constituents will buy into the anti-Ukrainian Kremlin agitprop that they dish out in generous portions.
✁
Fox News is apparently convinced that its viewers want a steady diet of Hunter Biden conspiracy theories, horror stories linking immigration and crime, false and ludicrous claims of voter fraud from anonymous witnesses and climate change denial.
Rupert Murdoch and his clan, not to mention producers and executives, surely know this is bunk; its own reporters on the news side know it is claptrap. But, hey, this is the slop they figure their audience craves. (Disclosure: I am an MSNBC contributor.)
Republicans’ contempt for the masses is nowhere more obvious than in the latest Trump scam — his claim of a “stolen election.”
I have zero doubt that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and every Republican senator knows the election was definitive.
Biden won.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who said he has “nothing to congratulate” Biden for, must figure members of his base are so ignorant and irrational that they will think better of him if he practices election denial.
✁
The entire GOP strategy for the Georgia Senate elections apparently centers on a belief that Georgia voters are irrational and will rise up in fury because they think they have been wronged — again — by conniving Democrats.
~
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/11/elites-who-think-maga-voters-are-rubes-republicans/
Bookworm about 4 years ago
Cheapskate0 about 4 years ago
National Popular Vote!
At no point does it appear the Trump campaign is worried about who won the popular vote – it’s all about contesting the few votes that might “flip the college.”
The Electoral College is not the deliberative body it was designed to be. In its present, and very perverted, form, it is nothing more than a mandated gerrymander. It is a numbers game.
And I sincerely doubt that turning Electors back into “free agents” would be an improvement. The Electoral College is nothing more than a justification to ignore the popular vote.
If only I could live long enough to see an end to the corruption and embarrassment of the Electoral College!
kennis_97 Premium Member about 4 years ago
enough is enough with all the conflicting Scott toons. Pick a side, and if it’s republican go fix your party.
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] about 4 years ago
The only chaos is caused by the White Right.