GET OUT: US politics November 2020

it wasn't good for the party, or the country!

I don't know. On some universal scale of did Clinton and Obama do more good than bad, that's a complicated thing to measure. But politically we don't have a universal scale, we have a binary choice. Were Clinton and Obama better for the party and the country than Bush/Dole/McCain/Romney would have been? (Along with the whole executive branch apparatus that would have come with them?)

I know people hate lesser-of-evils arguments, but at the same time we live in a country where nearly half the population just voted for Donald Trump, so, I mean ... we don't just get what we want.

Let me give a concrete example. I worked in government for a medium-sized city, for a liberal mayor, in a very red state. The first four years I was there, Obama was president. The last two years, Trump was president. It's hard for me to encapsulate what a seismic shift that was for us. In the Obama years, we had a president who liked cities, had an actual urban agenda, had a climate agenda, and we basically felt like had our back on policy and budget issues. Multiple people in our administration had direct, first-name contacts with people in the White House. I can't tell you what a difference that made for us in a state where we were perpetually under siege from our own state Legislature, who actively opposed anything we tried to do for LGBTQ rights, affordable housing, climate issues, etc. When Trump got elected, that all stopped immediately. We had no relations with the White House, and all we heard about was what rotten hellholes cities were. Programs we relied on were threatened with elimination every year, and some of them were actually reduced. And we suddenly felt very alone and isolated in our blue bubble. And I'm sure every city government in the country felt the same, especially those in red states.

So when you talk about things being "better" or not, I mean, they were way better, in both tangible and moral-support ways, under Obama.

Now here’s some real joy

Lou Dobbs berates Ric Grenell for not filing enough legal motions pic.twitter.com/A4nVCsxrcY

— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) November 5, 2020

Things got significantly more tense pic.twitter.com/uJurHgxinW

— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) November 5, 2020

in other news, Kanye apparently did best in TN with >10K write-ins

Is he saying the needle is sentient

Basically the whole time, IMO. Nailed Florida. Nailed NC, even as folks thought Biden was doing great. Initially got the wrong impression on GA, but eventually figured out Biden was favored long before it was obvioushttps://t.co/uDln8tb9tA

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) November 5, 2020

in other news, Kanye apparently did best in TN with >10K write-ins

We gotta think more dialectically. I thought Clinton did more domestic damage than Obama...but he, not George H.W. Bush, replaced Byron White and and Harry Blackmun.

Making Taylor Swift his running mate was a genius move

_it wasn't good for the party, or the country!_

I don't know. On some universal scale of did Clinton and Obama do more good than bad, that's a complicated thing to measure. But politically we don't have a universal scale, we have a binary choice. Were Clinton and Obama better for the party and the country than Bush/Dole/McCain/Romney would have been? (Along with the whole executive branch apparatus that would have come with them?)

I know people hate lesser-of-evils arguments, but at the same time we live in a country where nearly half the population just voted for Donald Trump, so, I mean ... we don't just get what we want.

Let me give a concrete example. I worked in government for a medium-sized city, for a liberal mayor, in a very red state. The first four years I was there, Obama was president. The last two years, Trump was president. It's hard for me to encapsulate what a seismic shift that was for us. In the Obama years, we had a president who liked cities, had an actual urban agenda, had a climate agenda, and we basically felt like had our back on policy and budget issues. Multiple people in our administration had direct, first-name contacts with people in the White House. I can't tell you what a difference that made for us in a state where we were perpetually under siege from our own state Legislature, who actively opposed anything we tried to do for LGBTQ rights, affordable housing, climate issues, etc. When Trump got elected, that all stopped immediately. We had no relations with the White House, and all we heard about was what rotten hellholes cities were. Programs we relied on were threatened with elimination every year, and some of them were actually reduced. And we suddenly felt very alone and isolated in our blue bubble. And I'm sure every city government in the country felt the same, especially those in red states.

So when you talk about things being "better" or not, I mean, they were _way_ better, in both tangible and moral-support ways, under Obama.

lol there are angry Trumpers on Twitter trying to gotcha with Nate Silver saying we should call Nevada by saying COUNT THE VOTES

like they actually thing network 'calls' are official state vote certifications

How much are game-worn "Team Trump" fleeces gonna go for ten years from now

do we have polling yet on how big a role borat ii / the lincoln project played?

xpost - I wish they'd end up buried next to the Atari ET game mass grave, but I can't be that hopeful.

Lou Dobbs: "I'm not asking for little sweetheart letters!"

haha

Four minutes of Lou Dobbs clips and I can already feel my blood pressure boiling. How people watch that shit all day every day is beyond me.

do we have polling yet on how big a role borat ii / the lincoln project played?

You can make the argument that these people are insulated from a lot of the economic hostility everyone else has to face.

As a government employee, I can say this is untrue.

Solid post, tipsy

I have said this before but in 2000 I was working on a book on the history of women's health. It was 200 pages long.

Incoming HHS secretary Thompson heard about the project and said we could proceed as long as it didn't mention birth control, abortion, or ESPECIALLY lesbians.

The final version was 110 pages long, with an added chapter about the history of cosmetics.

But of course the pArTieS aRe teh SAmE

Wow

Trump has unleashed his legal dogs or war and his most effective all-star persuasion trolls, with air support from weaponized autism. Dems don’t know what is coming for them.

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) November 5, 2020

Lou Dobbs: "Lone Wolf Donald"

Four minutes of Lou Dobbs clips and I can already feel my blood pressure boiling. How people watch that shit all day every day is beyond me.

Weaponized autism?

Uh....weaponized autism??

hoping that Scott Adams commits public suicide when this is over

Wow that scott adams tweet is cringe for all time

That’s what you end up saying when you’re an old man trying to keep up with young internet fascists

ima try to get him banned one sec

Autism is kind of like spiderman juice guys

i wanted to tweet back "you have to stop the q-tip when there's resistance" but how badass can you look quoting Friends

Im supposed to be napping why can’t i stop refreshing

tempted to pay for a promoted tweet @ Scott Adams that just says "Scott Adams eats his own cum".

Fucking hell

I’m not going to share the video, but Steve Bannon called for the beheading of Dr. Fauci and FBI Director Chris Wray.

Political reporters who still interview him and go to him for quotes like he’s a legitimate public figure: maybe stop doing that?

— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) November 5, 2020

xp
Could you EAT any more of your own cum?

Is Bannon in prison yet?

*of

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) November 5, 2020

lol, he corrected the "of" typo, but didn't further explain wtf he meant by "weaponized autism"

unleashed his legal dogs or war and his most effective all-star persuasion trolls, with air support from weaponized autism is like internet gibberish of the highest order. Food truck quinoa nesciunt laborum eiusmod. Brunch 3 wolf moon tempor, sunt aliqua put a bird on it squid!

No one is surprised. https://t.co/DZ0GNZMjqG

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 5, 2020

Like obv the weaponized autism comment is super offensive and fucked up....but what the fuck is he even talking about?

Bahaha the enormous TRUMP 2020 NO MORE BULLSHIT flag is gone from my neighbor's pickup truck (which obv is parked in his lawn). Just the US blue lives matter flags remain.

Like obv the weaponized autism comment is super offensive and fucked up....but what the fuck is he even talking about?

ahoy natey

If 90% of the ballots are from Clark County, there's no reason not to call Nevada. https://t.co/0CaF4t4mgH

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 5, 2020

Oh boy!

The president is now speaking at 6:30 pm, per updated schedule

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 5, 2020

As a government employee, I can say this is untrue.

For sure, but also my point wasn't that having Obama in the White House was good for us personally, it was good for everything we were trying to do to help people who needed help. Especially in a state where we couldn't count on support from the capital.

PA margin down to 78k

Steve Bannon called for the beheading of Dr. Fauci and FBI Director Chris Wray.

Oh, that's just the bottle talking.

president is now speaking at 6:30 pm

trying to get his last licks in before PA or GA get called.

Wondering how many votes Trump lost for saying he’d sack Fauci after the election.

Hope PA is called at 6:25 PM.

sadly, probably not many.

And GA at 6:29 just to rub the salt in.

I guarantee that trump lost 0 votes for anything he’s done in months. Trump voters do not think like that. Mayyyybe he lost some r votes for the stimulus checks.