December 3, 2020

F**k yo couch, driver, f**k your couch!

He’s a super freak.

A 6-foot-3, 300-pound Florida man was arrested after he allegedly punched a cab driver, then danced in the street yelling, “I’m Rick James, b--ch!”

The suspect, Paul Kijek, also shouted, “You white motherf--kers,” before he was arrested just 2 miles from his Clearwater, Fla., home over the weekend. A Pinellas County arrest affidavit identified the 50-year-old as a white male.

According to police, witnesses at Back Bar and Lounge stopped Kijek from driving home from that venue “due to his level of intoxication” shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday. ..........(more)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/florida-man-punches-cab-driver-screams-i-m-rick-james-b-ch/ar-BB1bxj5S?li=BBnbcA1

December 2, 2020

Donald Trump Tells Christmas Party Guests At White House: 'See You In 4 Years'

Lame duck President Donald Trump suggested to guests at a White House Christmas party on Tuesday that he’ll seek another term in 2024 if his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat fail. (See the video below.)

“It’s been an amazing four years,” the outgoing president said in footage of the event posted by The Daily Mail. “We are trying to do another four years. Otherwise, I’ll see you in four years.” ............ (More)

https://www.huffp.st/bXisrH2

December 2, 2020

Florida man punches cab driver, screams 'I'm Rick James, b--ch!'

He’s a super freak.

A 6-foot-3, 300-pound Florida man was arrested after he allegedly punched a cab driver, then danced in the street yelling, “I’m Rick James, b--ch!”

The suspect, Paul Kijek, also shouted, “You white motherf--kers,” before he was arrested just 2 miles from his Clearwater, Fla., home over the weekend. A Pinellas County arrest affidavit identified the 50-year-old as a white male.

According to police, witnesses at Back Bar and Lounge stopped Kijek from driving home from that venue “due to his level of intoxication” shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday. ..........(more)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/florida-man-punches-cab-driver-screams-i-m-rick-james-b-ch/ar-BB1bxj5S?li=BBnbcA1

December 2, 2020

Suddenly Republicans want norms, ethics and "civility": Are they actually psychopaths?

Suddenly Republicans want norms, ethics and "civility": Are they actually psychopaths?
Trump is still trying to steal the election — but Republicans are acting as if they never enabled this criminal

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
DECEMBER 2, 2020 2:30PM


(Salon) Throughout this post-election period, the reaction from congressional Republicans has been entirely predictable. Mostly they've remained mum about the demented behavior of their president during the last month as he has continued his precipitous dive into a rabbit hole filled with conspiracy theories so delusional that it calls for medical intervention. A few have stepped up to say publicly that Trump has a "right" to pursue legal remedies in court, while privately assuring reporters that the president just needs to act out a little bit before he finally can emotionally accept what's happened to him.

His stalwart manservant, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., initially involved himself in Trump's attempts to strong-arm state officials into throwing out legitimate votes in order to help him win. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has evidently been poring over some alleged statistical analysis he found on a dodgy website, and has convinced himself there's something hinky about votes that were counted after midnight. And Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the man Trump once accused of stealing the Iowa caucuses back in 2016, now wants the Supreme Court to take up one of the president's absurd cases.

....(snip)....

This brings me to today, when I watch with astonishment as Republicans who have actively collaborated with Donald Trump are partying like it's 2009, as if Donald Trump were still hosting "Celebrity Apprentice." Take, for example Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who had the unmitigated gall to go to the floor of the Senate and say this on Tuesday:

https://twitter.com/sbg1/status/1333790639712989184?s=20

Your jaw has to drop at the utter absurdity of any Republican saying such a thing, particularly one who not only supported Trump with his opaque, byzantine business dealings around the world but voted for every one of Trump's corrupt Cabinet picks, including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who was just revealed to have remained on the board of a Chinese company up until last year. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/12/02/suddenly-republicans-want-norms-ethics-and-civility-are-they-actually-psychopaths/

December 2, 2020

How does a country function when half its people have lost their minds?

How does a country function when half its people have lost their minds?
By Jeffrey C. Billman


(Detroit Metro Times) “As far as the civil war goes,” Jonathan Strickland, the mayor of the 1,400-person town of Sundown, Texas, told Reuters recently, “I don’t think it’s off the table.”

Strickland, an oilfield production engineer, joined a militia-type outfit called the South Plains Patriots. As another member explained, “If President Trump comes out and says: ‘Guys, I have irrefutable proof of fraud, the courts won’t listen, and I’m now calling on Americans to take up arms,’ we would go.”

They, like two-thirds of Republicans, say they’re certain that Donald Trump won re-election but had his victory stolen through a vast conspiracy of ballot-stuffing election officials and vote-switching vote-counting machines hacked by foreign powers. (It’s not clear how many of them actually mean it.)

Trump is still fanning the flames.

....(snip)....

Our democracy withstood Trump’s attacks, barely. But that’s hardly cause for celebration. This year was less an aberration than the culmination of the cynical, total-war politics Republicans have employed since the Gingrich era, one that brooks no compromise and prospers by tearing down political systems. Fortified by a feedback loop of propaganda — first talk radio and Fox News, then the clickbait sites Facebook delivered to Boomers’ feeds, now the Pravda-esque OANN and Newsmax — the GOP became a breeding ground for conspiracy theories. ..................(more)

https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/how-does-a-country-function-when-half-its-people-have-lost-their-minds/Content?oid=25903547&utm_source=featurefollow&utm_medium=home&utm_campaign=hpfeatures&utm_content=HomeTopFeature

December 2, 2020

Washington DC: Metro's proposed budget eliminates weekend rail, closes 19 stations

Metro is proposing a new operating budget with a nearly $500 million deficit.

Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said Monday the proposed 2021 budget includes closing Metrorail at 9 p.m., ending weekend service, closing 19 rail stations and reducing the number of trains, which would result in longer wait times.

“We’re facing. obviously, a historic budget crisis. It started in (fiscal year) 21 and will continue in (fiscal year) 22,” Wiedefeld said.

Everything would be reduced to “bare bones service” meant to support essential travel, while ensuring Metro survives to serve the region during a recovery. ........(more)

https://wtop.com/tracking-metro-24-7/2020/12/metros-proposed-budget-eliminates-weekend-rail-closes-19-stations/

December 2, 2020

Washington DC: Metro's proposed budget eliminates weekend rail, closes 19 stations

With sharply reduced ridership and lacking fresh federal relief, Metro is proposing a new operating budget with a nearly $500 million deficit.

Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said Monday the proposed 2021 budget includes closing Metrorail at 9 p.m., ending weekend service, closing 19 rail stations and reducing the number of trains, which would result in longer wait times.

“We’re facing. obviously, a historic budget crisis. It started in (fiscal year) 21 and will continue in (fiscal year) 22,” Wiedefeld said.

Everything would be reduced to “bare bones service” meant to support essential travel, while ensuring Metro survives to serve the region during a recovery. ........(more)

https://wtop.com/tracking-metro-24-7/2020/12/metros-proposed-budget-eliminates-weekend-rail-closes-19-stations/

December 2, 2020

Sidney Powell needs a map

Sidney Powell demands Wisconsin officials provide security footage from election center in Detroit


On Tuesday, right-wing attorney Sidney Powell, one of multiple high-profile lawyers trying to prove widespread election fraud against President Donald Trump, filed a new lawsuit challenging the election results in Wisconsin, where President-elect Joe Biden won by just over 20,000 votes — demanding that the state “decertify” the election.

But one other provision of the lawsuit caught the eye of Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel. Powell is also demanding that election officials in Wisconsin turn over security tape footage from an election center in Detroit, Michigan — an entirely different state. ......(more)

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/12/sidney-powell-demands-wisconsin-officials-provide-security-footage-from-election-center-in-detroit/

December 2, 2020

Seems like former (hell, perhaps current) Trump admin employees are leaking like rusty buckets....

..... quite an extraordinary news night.

December 2, 2020

So now Bill Barr is part of the "deep state" per looney Lou Dobbs? ... I need a scorecard to keep up

Fox Business Network host and top Donald Trump sycophant Lou Dobbs was absolutely beside himself on Tuesday over the news that Attorney General William Barr said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the election results. Dobbs even accused Trump’s loyal A.G. of being part of the “deep state” and “perhaps compromised.”

The pro-Trump TV personality, who has been one of the loudest boosters of the president’s baseless “rigged” election narrative, kicked off his program Tuesday evening by erupting at the attorney general for admitting the Justice Department has been unable to find any proof to back Trump’s claims that President-elect Joe Biden “stole” the election. .............(more)

https://www.thedailybeast.com/lou-dobbs-accuses-bill-barr-of-being-compromised-and-part-of-the-deep-state