Top 10 Idiots

Top 10 Idiots's Journal

November 18, 2020

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-17: The Man With The Golden Goose Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-17: The Man With The Golden Goose Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! Still coming to you from this blank void. How’s everybody doing? I know, this has been quite a week, hasn’t it? For the first time in five years I feel like I can finally sleep easier at night. But we’ve still got a long way to go before the end of 2020. And man it’s going to feel like an eternity until January 1st gets here, after which we only have 20 more days left of this god forsaken administration! So do we have time for the thing? And yeah this is the first “thing” we’ve had in like two months so let’s do this thing! Well we got to talk about the Space X launch for a minute. Wasn’t that great on Sunday? Yes like the Lakers winning the NBA Finals or the Dodgers winning the World Series, just some mild escapism from the absolute shit show that is 2020. But that said it was pretty cool to watch wasn’t it? I mean it wasn’t quite the spectacular they had last year when they launched a Tesla Roadster in orbit around the earth but it was still pretty cool, am I right? I mean I always said that space travel will start expanding when it becomes profitable to do so. And now that Space X has taken the helm it looks like it might start becoming profitable to do so! Although really, Elon Musk believes in alien DNA and promoted Kanye West for president, and named his baby after a series of unpronounceable syllables, so is this really the guy who we want in charge? It remains to be seen. OK enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to. But first John Oliver is back and he talks about Trump’s insane denial of the 2020 election results:

Wow, the dust has finally been settled from the 2020 election but Trump isn’t going quietly! In the #1 slot this week is of course the guy who won’t be president for much longer and that’s’ Twitter’s own @realDonaldTrump (1). He’s attempting to stage what one might call a coup and it’s backfiring on him spectacularly! In the second slot this week is Trump Supporters (2) – they’re planning a Million MAGA March on Washington DC and we will have all the low lights from the shit show! Yes, you saw that correctly! In the third slot this week is SCOTUS (3). So Boofing Brett Kavanaugh had an independent thought on health care, but then Samuel Alito decided to channel his inner Frank Costanza and air his grievances to the Federalist Society! In the number four slot this week is also @realDonaldTrump (4) and he has a plan to start his own news network! Yes, he’s declaring war on the channel that made him, Fox, because, reasons. In the number 5 slot this week is our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates (5) and this week my home state of California always makes the news for the big money and big prizes poured in to their proposition system, so what made the cut this year? Well it was quite the mixed bag for starters! In the number 6 slot this week is our weekly visit to the Holy Church of the Top 10 in “Holy Shit” (6) and this week – our resident pastor takes a look at what Northern California megachurch hipster cult pastor Sean Feucht is up to and well, let’s just say that coronavirus likes this. In the #7 slot this week is a new edition of “Beating A Dead Horse”. So Ben Shapiro – you know him as the guy who constantly attacks liberals for needing “safe spaces” – hates the concept of gender bending in rock music. Well guess what? That concept is older than time itself! Taking the #8 slot this week, is a new segment! We have our first ever edition of “People Who Somehow Got Re-Elected” (8) and who better to induct into the new class than our old buddy Mitch McConnell? Because he has an inexplicably low approval rating, yet keeps getting reelected every time! WTF! In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot this week is a new I Need A Drink – why are celebrities buying controlling stakes in European EFL teams? We will have some drinks and find out! Finally in “Road To The White House” (10) – why does Trump refuse to concede? And why won’t they tell the incoming president anything? So many questions! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

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[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Can we talk about the New Zealand Bird Of The Year vote for a minute? Because it’s quite literally insane that they actually have a Bird Of The Year vote. And in this election there were 1500 votes that were found to be fraudulent. That’s because New Zealand really cares about its’ bird of the year. Which this year happened to be Spotted Kiwi. Although I personally happen to be a fan of the Yellow Eyed Penguin in this case. So cute! But the reason I bring this up is because this is just an election to decide New Zealand’s national bird. Now imagine this having real consequences like here in America, where President Boy Who Cried Wolf is screaming about voter fraud. Allow me to cue my inner Twilight Zone narrator and just imagine if you will, a scenario in which 5,000,000 votes suddenly got overturned. It’s frightening, isn’t it?

President Donald Trump on Friday sought to reframe his unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud, proclaiming in a statement that his push to ensure the integrity of this year’s vote “is no longer about any single election.”

He also vowed to pursue a fair and transparent vote counting process “through every aspect of the law,” despite there being no evidence of broad wrongdoing.

The president struck a slightly less combative tone than he has previously this week, ditching his pleas to “stop the count” of ballots as his opponent Joe Biden pulled ahead in two states that would hand him the presidency.

“We believe the American people deserve to have full transparency into all vote counting and election certification, and that this is no longer about any single election,” Trump argued. “This is about the integrity of our entire election process.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/06/trump-campaign-election-is-not-over-434684

That’s right – Trump is hopping mad! But just think about that bird election there for a minute. Now just imagine what could go wrong if Trump ordered a recount in every state and somehow got the majority of the popular vote overturned? It’s pure fantasy at this point – he lost and the election results are unlikely to be overturned. But take a look at the clusterfuck currently happening in Georgia to get a preview of where we could be headed.

A recount in Georgia’s presidential race found more than 2,600 ballots in Floyd County that hadn’t originally been tallied, likely helping President Donald Trump reduce his 14,000-vote deficit to Joe Biden.

Trump could gain nearly 800 net votes from the discovered ballots. There were 1,643 new votes for Trump and 865 for Biden.

The problem occurred because county election officials didn’t upload votes from a memory card in an ballot scanning machine, said Gabriel Sterling, the state’s voting system manager.

He called it “an amazing blunder” and said the county’s elections director should resign.

“It’s not an equipment issue. It’s a person not executing their job properly,” Sterling said. This is the kind of situation that requires a change at the top of their management side."
https://www.ajc.com/politics/georgia-recount-uncovers-2600-new-votes-in-presidential-race/I75NSPYYGNF43HQZBPYKJWJ5MA/

That is true! And there’s no one who’s a bigger sore loser than Trump is. Hell he’s even a sore winner – think about the fact that he’s spent the last four years just berating Hillary over the results of the 2016 election. Nothing pleases this guy! But in fact he’s dead wrong on his election claims and he’s fighting quite the losing battle. He’ll go down in flames and it might take Bradley Tanks and a SWAT team to remove him from the White House on 1/21/21.

A group of 59 computer scientists, researchers and cybersecurity experts on Monday released a letter rejecting President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread electoral fraud as “technically incoherent” and “unsubstantiated” in the latest rebuke of Trump’s campaign to undermine public confidence in the election results.

“We are aware of alarming assertions being made that the 2020 election was ‘rigged’ by exploiting technical vulnerabilities,” wrote the group of experts, which included Matt Blaze, a cryptologist and professor at Georgetown University, and Alex Stamos, the former security chief at Facebook. “However, in every case of which we are aware, these claims either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent.”

Since multiple media outlets, including Fox News and the Associated Press, on Nov. 7 projected Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election, Trump and his allies have continuously made false claims of election fraud. The director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has debunked the president’s conspiracy theories while mostly avoiding mentioning Trump by name.

“Anyone asserting that a US election was ‘rigged’ is making an extraordinary claim, one that must be supported by persuasive and verifiable evidence,” the security experts wrote in their letter. Trump and his allies have provided no such evidence, and lawyers representing the Trump campaign in court have consistently failed to convince judges of their arguments.
https://www.cyberscoop.com/election-security-experts-trump-voter-fraud-baseless/

Holy shit! I’m no expert on cyber security by any means but I think even a room full of chain smoking monkeys on typewriters could tell Trump that he’s completely full of shit on election fraud! I could go on all day about how members of his own party are saying that he’s completely full of shit but I don’t have that kind of time! Even the US election security officials claim he’s full of shit!

US election officials have said the 2020 White House vote was the "most secure in American history", rejecting President Donald Trump's fraud claims.

"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," a committee announced.

They spoke out after Mr Trump claimed without proof that 2.7 million votes for him had been "deleted".

He has yet to concede to the president-elect, Democrat Joe Biden.

The result of the 3 November election was projected by all the major US TV networks last weekend.

On Friday, the BBC projected Mr Biden to have won Georgia and Mr Trump to have won North Carolina.
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54926084

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[font size="8"]Million MAGA March Highlights
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We seriously had a pool in the Top 10 Home Offices going as to how long before Saturday’s Million MAGA March in Washington DC would turn violent. I figured it was going to be at some point after the march when the protestors got bored and went home. I was not disappointed. Of course you should know by now that when the MAGAs gather – whether it’s the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers, that some serious shit will fly and it will most likely end with injuries and arrests. Or as the Los Angeles Lakers call it, a victory parade. I kid, I kid. But let’s take a look at the million MAGA March for a minute and how the Trump presidency began and how it will end.

The Trump administration is ending the same way it started: spreading false claims about crowd sizes in Washington, D.C.

On Nov. 14, thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters rallied in Washington to support false claims that he had won re-election. But White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted an alternative estimate of the demonstration’s attendance.

"AMAZING! More than one MILLION marchers for President @realDonaldTrump descend on the swamp in support," McEnany said in the tweet, which has been shared more than 56,000 times.

The post took us back to January 2017, when Trump’s first press secretary, Sean Spicer, claimed the crowd at Trump’s inauguration "was the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period." We rated that claim Pants on Fire!

Since Trump retweeted a claim that more than a million people gathered in Washington to support him, we wanted to take a closer look at McEnany’s tweet.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/nov/16/kayleigh-mcenany/million-maga-march-did-not-have-more-1-million-att/

Yes these are some extremely terrible people. And if you saw the posts on Twitter you’d think that conservatives were badly mistreated during the protests. No they weren’t. In fact like most protests, they’re the antagonists looking to start some shit, but they’re able to spin it in such a way that they’re the victims. And yes like every pro-Trump march since the administration began, this one ended about how you’d expect.

Supporters of President Donald Trump — including members of the militant hate group the Proud Boys — fought with counterprotesters in Washington, DC, on Saturday night following the “Million MAGA March” rally that attracted crowds of thousands in the nation’s capital throughout the day.

During the day, the rally was largely peaceful, with only minor altercations between demonstrators and counterprotesters. But by evening, the violence reportedly intensified, leading to at least one hospitalization.

The Proud Boys, as Vox’s Fabiola Cineas has explained, are known for inciting violence, and reports from the scene note provocations coming from demonstrators, as well as from counterprotesters at various points. Video footage shows a number of street brawls breaking out in various parts of the city, including some fights that left onlookers asking for a greater police response.

During one such melee near the White House, baton-wielding Trump supporters fought with a group of counterprotesters in a brawl that left one man hospitalized after being stabbed in the back. Separately, an independent journalist said she believed she was stabbed in the ear by a member of the Proud Boys. Four police officers were injured.
https://www.vox.com/2020/11/15/21565938/million-maga-march-violence-protests-dc

So yeah just keep in mind that if you hang out with the Proud Boys, someone is gonna get stabbed and that’s something that you should try to avoid at all costs! But the thing is the Trump administration ended the same way it began – by lying about crowd sizes! And let’s comment on their uniforms for a minute. I mean seriously they complain about Harry Styles wearing a dress, but they have no problem with color coordinating and matching scarves? Please!!!

The Proud Boys, a violent far-right group which Donald Trump told to “stand by” during a September presidential debate, are expected to rally in Washington DC, on Saturday. They’re part of a constellation of groups and demonstrations heading to the capitol to protest the election result in a “Million MAGA March.”

“People want to show up and have their voice heard,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told Fox on Thursday, when asked about the event. “I mean this president — look, he got more votes than any Republican nominee, or for president I should say, in the history of our country and indeed he got more Republican votes as any nominee in the history of our party back in 2016.”

The president did not win the presidential election, and in all likelihood lost the popular vote by millions, but he and his allies have continued to claim without evidence Democrats cheated the results in statements and a series of flagging lawsuits around the country.

The concurrent demonstrations in the capitol, including the Million MAGA March as well as various “Stop the Steal” events, are a physical manifestation of the outrage that’s spread in conservative circles online, and are expected to attract a broad cross-section of Trump-supporting factions, including radical anti-government vigilante groups like the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, followers of conspiracy-peddling outlet Infowars, alt-right activists, neo-Nazis, as well other supporters of the president.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/proud-boys-dc-maga-trump-election-b1722071.html

Yeah seriously! The Proud Boys even got a visit from Dear Leader as he drove through the rally on his way to go golfing. But the one nice thing is that the MAGA movement appears to be dying down even though 70 million voted for the Orange Asshole. And like I said the Trump administration will end as it began – with them lying about crowd sizes. In fact this was one of the most poorly attended rallies in recent memory.

Saturday’s “Million MAGA March” in Washington D.C. failed to live up to its name, in that only thousands of people—nowhere near a million—gathered in the nation’s capital over the weekend to protest the right of their fellow Americans to vote for someone other than Donald Trump to be President.

According to a report from the Washington Post, those gathered at the march heard from a cast of speakers who were conspiracy theorists, among them Alex Jones (who has been sued for accusing the families of the children killed at Sandy Hook of being actors), after getting a glimpse of their head conspiracy theorist Trump, who drove by the people gathered in his name on the way to golf.

During the day the Trumpers marched through the streets against voting, COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and even Fox News (which has begun acknowledging the fact that Biden is the projected winner of the presidential election).

True to form, current White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany hopped on Twitter to continue the tradition of press secretaries in the Trump White House, by outright lying about the numbers of people present for the march, claiming that it was “more than one million”:
https://www.theroot.com/the-million-maga-march-didnt-meet-its-target-number-bu-1845679318

[font size="8"]SCOTUS
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Yes it’s a fact that conservatives now have a 6 – 3 supermajority on the Supreme Court. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that even they have to follow the law and the constitution of the United States. Even a man such as Boofing Brett Kavanaugh has to comply by the standards of the bench that he presides over and it cannot be ignored! But even such hard lined conservatives like Boofing Brett have an independent thought every once in a while. But it won’t be long before the conservatives break his spirits and remind him who he is working for. After all they will strip our rights and take away our nice things whether we like it or not!

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts made comments Tuesday implying they’re likely to uphold the Affordable Care Act as the fate of the landmark health care act was argued before the court, suggesting it is unlikely that a majority of justices will ultimately vote to strike down the ACA even if its individual mandate provision is declared unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court heard Texas v. California Tuesday, which concerns whether the individual mandate in the ACA, which imposed a penalty on Americans who didn’t purchase health insurance, should be declared unconstitutional after Congress invalidated the mandate by getting rid of the tax penalty in their 2017 tax legislation.

Conservative state attorneys general and the Trump administration argue that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, and because of that the entire ACA should be struck down, because they believe the individual mandate cannot be severed from the rest of the law without the entire law being invalidated.

Kavanaugh said during the hearing that the case appeared to be a “straightforward case for severability” based on the Supreme Court precedent, and “it does seem fairly clear that the proper remedy would be to sever the mandate provision and leave the rest of the act in place,” including protections for preexisting conditions.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/11/10/kavanaugh-roberts-suggest-they-wont-strike-down-affordable-care-act-obamacare-in-supreme-court-hearing/?sh=5dabed5a6954

That’s right! Brett Kavanaugh had an independent thought alarm that even conservatives can’t ignore, and it certainly wasn’t what Trump signed him up for and paraded him around for! Both he and Roberts are suggesting that it’s not the court’s duty to strike down ACA. Though no matter what happens we’ll keep an eye on it because that’s what we do. But even the insurance industry themselves is surprised by this ruling! And they would know.

It’s been 10 years, and Republicans still can’t quit Obamacare.

As coronavirus cases mount and as state and local governments brace for more COVID fallout, the battle over President Obama’s signature achievement continues to rage -- and the health benefits of more than 20 million Americans hang in the balance.

The war over the Affordable Care Act has been full on since its enactment in March 2010.

Republicans who voted against it then called parts of the ACA unconstitutional, taking particular aim at the individual mandate provision, which requires people to enroll in insurance coverage or face fines. It faced challenges in the Supreme Court in 2012 and 2015, and was upheld both times. President Trump has vowed to overturn Obamacare as well, but after nearly four years in office still has relatively little to show for his efforts.

Now, as coronavirus continues to take lives, and with two months left in the White House for Trump, the fight over Obamacare is before the Supreme Court once again.
https://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/the-war-against-obamacare-is-still-raging-after-10-years-and-a-pandemic

Oh seriously people! Stop your rabbling! Kavanaugh will be told to get in line soon enough. As if that wasn’t enough, let’s switch gears and talk about Samuel Alito’s showing at the Federalist Society’s annual gathering of deplorables. It seems he has a few thoughts on COVID destroying our basic civil liberties. And before we do I want to show just what we’re up against. And why Alito is not fucking helping at all!

Washington (CNN)White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Scott Atlas criticized Michigan's new Covid-19 restrictions in a tweet shortly after they were announced Sunday evening, urging people to "rise up" against the new public health measures.

"The only way this stops is if people rise up," Atlas said. "You get what you accept. #FreedomMatters #StepUp"

His message -- which runs counter to the consensus of public health officials -- is likely to fuel new tension between the White House and Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whom federal and state officials announced last month was the target of an alleged domestic terrorism kidnapping plot.

Responding to Atlas' tweet Sunday evening, Whitmer told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "We know that the White House likes to single us out here in Michigan, me out in particular. I'm not going to be bullied into not following reputable scientists and medical professionals."

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/15/politics/scott-atlas-coronavirus-michigan/index.html

Gee seriously what could go wrong there? We already have one petulant man child attempting to stage a coup the last thing we need are clones! So Dr. Atlas said that shit. We’re in the worst pandemic not seen in an entire century, so why do Alito's comments matter when Atlas says shit like this? Well take this combined with Kavanuagh’s comments on the ACA and we have a colossal shit show in the making and it’s all thanks to you know who.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito delivered an unusually inflammatory public speech Thursday night, starkly warning about the threats he contends religious believers face from advocates for gay and abortion rights, as well as public officials responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to a virtual conference of conservative lawyers, the George W. Bush appointee made no direct comment on the recent election, the political crisis relating to President Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his defeat or litigation on the issue pending at the Supreme Court.

However, Alito didn’t hold back on other controversial subjects, even suggesting that the pressure Christians face surrounding their religious beliefs is akin to the strictures the U.S. placed on Germany and Japan after World War II.

“Is our country going to follow that course?” Alito asked. “For many today, religious liberty is not a cherished freedom. It’s often just an excuse for bigotry and can’t be tolerated, even when there is no evidence that anybody has been harmed. ... The question we face is whether our society will be inclusive enough to tolerate people with unpopular religious beliefs.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/13/alito-speech-religious-freedom-436412

[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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Well if you can’t beat them, steal them. That seems to be the motto of the Donald J. Trump reelection campaign. And we’ve said before that if Trump loses the election that he’s going to burn the house down before he goes. In fact it’s already started and he’s going nuclear on Fox News. That’s right – the network that made him into the heartless monster that he is is turning on him, like some kind of fucked up Frankenstein monster. And I mean come on, I read the Frankenstein novel in middle school I have seen how this sort of thing turns out! And it will not turn out well for Trump or for Fox News.

"Fox News Sucks! Fox News Sucks!"

For those of us who are no fans of Donald Trump, we have all likely thought words to that effect over the years as Fox News defended Trump and the Republican Party. But the chant "Fox News Sucks!" didn't come out of the mouths of Trump's opponents, but rather from a swath of Trump's own supporters during Saturday's march in Washington, D.C.

For me, it was a beautiful sight: watching Trump supporters adorned with their Trump paraphernalia, waving Trump flags, in the streets chanting the mantra over and over. Finally, I agree with Trump supporters on something!
This is not the first time Trump lovers have mocked Fox News. Days after the November 3 election, some Trump supporters were heard chanting "Fox sucks" in Arizona outside a vote counting location -- reportedly because they were upset the network had called Arizona for Joe Biden before most other media outlets.

But the large numbers of Trump supporters Saturday vocally eclipsed what happened in Arizona. This was clearly a reaction to Trump's increased attack on Fox News via his tweet Thursday, where he claimed Fox News forgot he was the "Golden Goose" for their ratings. Trump, in essence, appeared to blame Fox News for his election loss, writing: "The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!"
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/15/opinions/trump-election-war-fox-news-obeidallah/index.html

I could honestly see that’s where news is headed. Seriously a man as petty and vindictive as Trump obviously has something up his sleeve. The guy is fuming mad over losing the election and he’s taking it more like the child screaming at Target when his parents don’t buy him a toy than he is taking the loss like a real man should. So how did the relationship between Trump and Fox News turn into a modern day version of the Frankenstein story?

The last day of Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign began just after 7 a.m., as polls opened on the East Coast, with a call to “Fox & Friends,” the television morning show that had turned the reality star into a U.S. president. He got his usual hero’s welcome. But it was no longer enough.

“This has been a very special show for me,” he told the hosts of this broadcasting safe haven where he had workshopped his birther message, shared gossip and conspiracy theories, and repeatedly set the tone for his entire administration’s day. “We’ve had a great relationship, and you have a great show. So, it’s my honor.”

But his remarks quickly turned pointed that Tuesday morning as he boasted about how well he had done in the job of president, despite unexpected challenges — not from China or Russia or North Korea, he said, but from the United States. And he mused rhetorically about what had changed the most for him since 2016.

“Fox,” he said, answering his own question. “It’s much different now.” As the hosts sputtered, he elaborated: “In the old days, they wouldn’t put sleepy Joe Biden on every time he opened his mouth. .?.?. It’s a much different operation — I’m just telling you.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/the-long-love-affair-between-fox-news-and-trump-may-be-over-heres-how-it-ended-last-week/2020/11/09/f4dddb5e-2095-11eb-90dd-abd0f7086a91_story.html

That did go south so fast! And remember that episode of Futurama where Bender gets kicked out of a theme park and vows to start his own, but better? Well Trump is aiming to do just that. He’s made the world look at the US as a laughing stock, and he’s taken his brand of poison to Fox News as well. So if he gets kicked out of Fox News where’s he going to go? It seems Trump’s brand of love – hate with Fox News has been taken to new extremes.

President Trump has told friends he wants to start a digital media company to clobber Fox News and undermine the conservative-friendly network, sources tell Axios.

The state of play: Some Trump advisers think Fox News made a mistake with an early call (seconded by AP) of President-elect Biden's win in Arizona. That enraged Trump, and gave him something tangible to use in his attacks on the network.

"He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it," said a source with detailed knowledge of Trump's intentions.

With loyal viewers and longtime dominance, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said on a Nov. 3 earnings call:

"We love competition. We have always thrived with competition. ... Fox News has been the number one network, including broadcast networks, ... from Labor Day through to Election Day."

Here's Trump's plan, according to the source:

There's been lots of speculation about Trump starting a cable channel. But getting carried on cable systems would be expensive and time-consuming.
https://www.axios.com/trump-fox-news-digital-media-competitor-25afddee-144d-4820-8ed4-9eb0ffa42420.html

Oh come on, Axios! You know Trump isn’t the type to throw tons of money away on a business that will go nowhere! Oh wait, he’s already lost money in casinos, airlines, vodka, steaks, hotels, golf courses, and a fake university. What’s there to stop him from investing money in his own media company? Well like most breakups, this one is going to be extremely long and extremely painful, and the last thing we need is another conservative media outlet. Trump might think he's the golden goose, but really he's more The Man With The Golden Goose. And a solid gold toilet. So I give this one six months before they pack it in.

Allies of President Trump have reportedly looked into investing in the conservative news outlet Newsmax to compete with Fox News, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal published on Sunday.

Hicks Equity Partners, a private-equity firm with connections to a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, have been in discussions in recent months with the media company about investing in Newsmax. The Journal reports the talks may also be part of larger efforts that could include a streaming video service.

Trump's allies have been exploring ways to compete with Fox News for the past two years, according to the Journal. Trump’s relationship with the network has been complicated. He has often shown appreciation for the support he receives from Fox News hosts and the network's coverage of his presidency has often influenced decisions he's made inside the White House. He has also lashed out at the network when it criticized him.

Trump recently posted a flurry of anti-Fox News tweets that attacked the network and lamented that it had forgotten the "golden goose" that made it successful. He appeared furious at the network's projection that Democrat Joe Biden would be victorious in Arizona's presidential tally.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/526069-trump-allies-raising-millions-for-new-conservative-tv-network-report

[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: California Propositions
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It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines! This is Top 10 Investigates!

Every election cycle, the state of California always makes national news for it’s increasingly controversial series of laws that are decided by the people known as “propositions”. They’re always a mixed bag of stuff and you never know what you are going to get with each one. But unlike other states, California’s propositions are sponsored by some big money investors on both sides – for and against. And this year there was a lot at stake – including allowing rideshare drivers to unionize (Prop 22), requiring dialysis clinics to employ on site medical staff (Prop 23) to a tale as old as time, requiring employers and colleges to embrace diversity (Prop 16). So what were the big winners and losers this year? Let’s start with one of the big losers, Proposition 22.

What happened in California? Despite the state’s liberal reputation, voters there last week approved Proposition 22, a ballot initiative exempting many gig companies from state workplace laws and stripping their workers of basic, essential protections.

Uber, Instacart, Lyft, DoorDash and other on-demand providers of ride-shares and food and grocery deliveries spent $200 million pushing the proposal, an astounding sum that workers and their allies couldn’t remotely hope to match. Not surprisingly, Californians were misled by an avalanche of claims about the proposal’s impact on workers. The measure, which takes effect next month, was approved with 58 percent of the vote.

Emboldened by the results in California, Uber and friends are apparently planning to take the show on the road. Potential targets could include Massachusetts or New Jersey, where state regulators have pursued them, or New York or Pennsylvania, where courts have rejected the argument by gig companies that workers run their own independent businesses. The rest of us need to understand what happened in California.

What was at stake with Proposition 22 was whether workers for app-based driver and delivery companies would be considered employees under California statutes, which like workplace laws nationwide, cover only employees, or whether they should be classified as independent contractors. Proponents argued that requiring gig companies to follow current laws would badly damage their on-demand business model and result in longer wait times, higher prices and the loss of countless jobs. These were the same bleak prognostications gig companies made about the minimum wage for drivers that New York City enacted two years ago — predictions that did not come to pass.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/opinion/prop-22-california-gig-workers.html

Yes so think of Uber and Lyft sponsoring legislation against their employees like KFC sponsoring legislation against chicken. It’s in their name! Another big loser in all of the Propositions was Prop 20, a measure that would have reduced prison populations and toughened stances on criminals. So how did that one favor with voters? Well it was, as they say, rejected.

Proposition 20, a California initiative that would have toughened sentencing in criminal cases and reduced the number of prison inmates eligible for early parole, was rejected by state voters on Tuesday.

The measure by law enforcement and prosecutors hit the ballot just as the Black Lives Matter movement was drawing new attention to demands for change in the criminal justice system to reduce incarceration and its disproportionate effect on people of color.

“The defeat of Proposition 20 is a significant milestone in California’s ongoing effort to make its criminal justice system more effective, and the rejection of mass incarceration by voters is a major advance for the national criminal justice reform movement,” said Jay Jordan, executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice, the organization behind many of the reforms that Proposition 20 targeted to eliminate.

Proposition 20 was opposed by 62% of the voters, according to the state’s unofficial election tally.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-03/2020-california-election-prop-20-falling-short-in-early-returns

Well that’s prison-ist. But this year this shows that California isn’t the progressive paradise that conservatives think it is. In fact if any of these propositions had won, you could think that it indeed was a progressive paradise. But if you look at the actual exit polling data, you will see that in fact the opposite is true about California.

No surprise — unofficial election results show California voters going for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden over President Donald Trump by a 2-to-1 margin. Democrats dominate state government, too.

But while California is often painted as a solidly blue state, the 2020 election has shown that when issues are on the ballot, it’s always not so progressive.

“Everybody focuses on candidates, while initiatives are where all the policy gets done,” said Democratic strategist Jim DeBoo.

DeBoo worked on the successful “No on Prop 21” campaign this cycle, advocating against expanded rent control laws. He was speaking on a panel hosted by Capitol Weekly Thursday.

“When you’re having a discussion with voters about initiatives, the partisanship pieces separate,” he said. DeBoo noted that there’s often a false assumption that Californians are going to turn to their political party leaders for guidance on ballot measures.
https://www.capradio.org/articles/2020/11/06/why-this-years-ballot-propositions-show-california-isnt-as-progressive-as-some-might-think/

That said how can some of these measures pass in the future? Well it’s just like any other campaign where you have to get out the vote. Unfortunately for some, Prop 22 and 23 had some huge money backing them. Although if you do live in California, you’re probably relieved that you don’t have to see commercial after commercial and receive robocall after robocall. What won and lost? Here’s a definitive guide.

California voters weighed 12 statewide ballot measures in areas including criminal justice, rent control and privacy laws.

Here’s a look at what failed and what was approved:

PROPOSITION 14: APPROVED. Authorizes $5.5 billion in state bonds to fund stem cell research, with $1.5 billion dedicated to research on Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke, epilepsy and other medical conditions. The money would include funding for construction of research facilities. The bonds would be paid off over about 30 years at a total cost of about $7.8 billion.

PROPOSITION 15: REJECTED. Would have loosened some of 1978?s Proposition 13 limits on property tax increases by permitting most commercial and industrial properties to be taxed on current market value rather than the original purchase price. Those properties would be reassessed every three years. Residential property wouldn’t have been affected. Supporters said the measure could raise an additional $12.5 billion a year to fund schools and local government services.

PROPOSITION 16: REJECTED. Would have allowed race, sex, color, ethnicity, and national origin to be considered in the awarding of government contracts, public employment and in admissions to state colleges and universities. Supporters sought to repeal a 1996 voter-passed amendment to the state Constitution that effectively banned affirmative action.
https://ktla.com/news/california-voters-have-decided-on-all-12-state-propositions-heres-what-passed-and-failed/

That’s it this week for Top 10 Investigates. Good day.

[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Gather around my fair brothers and sisters! It’s time to take a seat in the virtual pew make an online donation in the LAWRD’s virtual collection plate, for the Holy Church Of The Top 10 has convened and it’s time to remind you that the holiest among us are the most full of:

My fair virtual congregation!! Well we can’t have any real congregations congregating until we deal with this virus. And in case you’re wondering why cases aren’t going down where you live, you have two people to thank – Sean Feucht and Lauren Daigle. Who are these people you might ask? Well us Californians are well aware of Mr. Feucht’s shenanigans as he runs the notorious Bethel Church in Redding – a church that got busted for ponzi schemes and runs lunatic fringe representative candidates among other things. And Lauren Daigle is an inexplicably popular Christian music star. Which is what the good LAWRD JAYSUS would want! So if you see a “Let Us Worship” event coming to your city, since we are still at the height of COVID-19, you should absolutely run the other way!

What in God’s name were they thinking?

On Saturday afternoon, Lauren Daigle, the hugely popular contemporary Christian pop singer from Lafayette, joined California-based worship leader, activist, musician and shrewd self-promoter Sean Feucht near Jackson Square for one of his “Let Us Worship” rallies/concerts.

Feucht, who operates out of the 11,000-member nondenominational charismatic Bethel Church in Redding, Calif., apparently believes coronavirus restrictions represent an existential threat to organized religion. He also seems to think Christians who gather, unmasked, in large crowds are somehow immune from the virus.

The many thousands of dead Christian COVID-19 victims might beg to differ.

Undeterred, Feucht has presided over meticulously filmed and social media-shared “Let Us Worship” events around the country. Thousands of folks showed up Oct. 25 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/keith_spera/article_44b2ea74-2380-11eb-b0e3-87e81927bff8.html

That is a good point, guy with unusually large angel wings! But here’s the thing about this guy – this isn’t the first time he’s been caught doing this sort of thing during this pandemic. Look, you idiots just don’t get it – nobody is trying to cancel church. We’re just canceling mass gatherings until this virus is dealt with and goes away. So until you realize that, stay away from stuff like this. Because that’s what the good LAWRD JAYSUS would want!

Organizers of an unauthorized Christian music festival that drew thousands of mostly unmasked attendees to Tempe Town Lake earlier this month could face thousands in fines.

Tempe seeks to charge organizers with violating several city codes, the city’s mask mandate and state guidelines on large gatherings.

The city also seeks to recover costs related to police, fire and parks staff that responded to the event. A cost estimate is not yet available.

People from across the Valley and out-of-state gathered at Tempe Town Lake on Nov. 1 for the event, Let Us Worship, hosted by California-based Christian worship leader Sean Feucht.

Organizers didn’t obtain an event permit from Tempe and held the event even after city staffers told them they could not. They flouted the city’s mask mandate that requires people to wear masks in public when social distancing isn’t possible during the new coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2020/11/11/tempe-may-charge-christian-concert-organizers-let-us-worship-covid-19-violations/6228698002/

Yes, Mr. Feucht is the devil!!! He is a DAYMON!!! His church fully embraces and supports the unholy, ungodly Dark One, a man who is so disgusting that his name shall not be mentioned in my church, even if it is online for the time being! What’s even crazier is that somehow this album got to the top of the iTunes charts. In case you’re wondering why this evil virus is spreading out of control, thank this guy!

Thousands of people are expected to gather on the National Mall on Sunday for a prayer rally, and participants are not required to wear masks, triggering concerns this could become a super spreader event.

Up to 15,000 people are expected to attend Let Us Worship from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday.

Dr. Glenn Wortmann, chief of infectious diseases at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, says it’s very difficult to protect yourself from COVID-19 at these types of large gatherings.

“It’s concerning,” he said. “I mean, anytime there's a group of a large number of people in one area, there is a potential for spread. The fact that the event is happening outside makes the risk lower.”

The D.C. event is the last stop on a national tour that has drawn controversy. Event leader and evangelist Sean Feucht has said he’s holding worship protests in defiance of coronavirus restrictions. At those events, many attendees could be seen not wearing masks.

Feucht’s group did submit a COVID-19 mitigation plan outlining precautions for those working the event, not for those attending.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/worship-protest-planned-on-national-mall-without-mask-requirement-prompts-super-spread-concerns/2452538/

Well now of course they didn’t! They don’t care! They support the Dark One and have been busted for fraud multiple times! So of course leave it up to this mad man to skirt the laws and make a dangerous situation that much worse. And that’s divided even his own congregation who has mixed feelings on this subject. Just ahh!!! The stupid boggles my mind!

At least two Shasta County supervisors are losing their patience with the leadership at Bethel Church over its messaging amid the recent COVID-19 outbreak at its School of Supernatural Ministry.

At Thursday’s special board meeting, Supervisors Les Baugh and Leonard Moty said the tipping point for them came this week, when they learned Kris Vallotton, a church leader who co-founded the evangelical school, hosted a large family outdoor wedding last weekend in Shingletown.

The wedding also came up at Tuesday’s regular board meeting.

“I’m not convinced they’re really hearing (us),” said Baugh, a pastor at Anderson Community Church in Anderson.

“Supervisor Moty, you mentioned the wedding (Tuesday) and I didn’t know at the time the wedding actually had been a personal wedding of one of the leaders of the Bethel community, and I do say, as a community, that’s wrong. That should not have happened,” Baugh said on Thursday.
https://www.redding.com/story/news/local/2020/10/24/shasta-county-covid-outbreak-bethel-church-coronavirus-cases/3744308001/

I’m done ranting about this moron. Seriously how does that guy have 11,000 followers and we barely fill a small theater? It boggles the mind! Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Beating A Dead Horse
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Well here’s a dead horse that’s been beaten since the days of ancient Greece! If you don’t know conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, he’s the darling of the campus wing of the alt right with his constant attacks on “safe spaces” and “triggered liberals”. But he might be the triggered one here since he’s got a major problem with Harry Styles (of One Direction fame) wearing a dress in his latest music video. Yes you heard that right – Harry Styles channels his inner David Bowie on this one! You might remember that famous cover from “The Man Who Sold The World”, right? Or literally anything that Elton John has ever done? Or ever seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show? I could go on and on about this, but really, Ben Shapiro needs to get out of his bubble and experience the world. But we all know that he won’t do that.

We live in an age of professional internet trolls. It’s a bustling industry. One is currently POTUS. The current Senate Majority Leader’s soul has been replaced with enough nuclear-strength trollishness that his flesh is starting to rot off his body like he tried to wear a cursed horcrux or something. There’s an entire network devoted to trolling, and it’s one that a significant portion of the population of the United States considers a reliable source for news.

Yes, this is a troll’s world, and we’re just living in it. But every so often a troll’s powers can be turned into a force for good. Bossip headlines are a fine example. Last Week Tonight’s “Eat Shit, Bob” is another. A drag queen roasts some homophobe and the world grows a little brighter. And today, November 16, we got another such instance, when professional trolls Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens decided to get performatively distressed by Harry Styles wearing selling the shit out of a dress on the cover of Vogue.

First, here’s the shocking development that’s so riled up Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, and other hate-fueled buttholes of the internet: A Vogue cover, a.k.a. an assault on contemporary masculinity.

Set aside the stupidity of these tepid takes—and boy howdy, are they ever stupid. The important thing here is not that two adult humans had nice little snit fits about a pop star wearing a dress on the cover of a magazine. The important thing is that the pop star in question is Harry Styles, and anyone with even a modicum of knowledge of how the internet and fandom intersect knows better than to willfully pick a fight with the Stylers.
https://news.avclub.com/grab-your-popcorn-ben-shapiro-and-candace-owens-just-p-1845691538

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear – Ben Shapiro is a professional troll. He gets paid to say stupid shit like this. But then again so do we. The only difference is our ridiculous claims are based in reality. Ben Shapiro on the other hand lives in conservative fantasy world. But then another professional troll – Candace Owens – also had to chime in on the subject. You might be asking yourself “don’t these people have anything better to do?” and I answer you “no they do not.”.

Owens only doubled down after she was criticized for the comment, backed by the likes of Ben Shapiro and a handful of others on social media. But in his interview, Styles told Vogue that a good outfit was armor enough against the barbs.

“I think if you get something that you feel amazing in, it’s like a superhero outfit,” he told Vogue. “Clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with. What’s really exciting is that all of these lines are just kind of crumbling away. When you take away ‘There’s clothes for men and there’s clothes for women,’ once you remove any barriers, obviously you open up the arena in which you can play. I’ll go in shops sometimes, and I just find myself looking at the women’s clothes thinking they’re amazing. It’s like anything—anytime you’re putting barriers up in your own life, you’re just limiting yourself. There’s so much joy to be had in playing with clothes. I’ve never really thought too much about what it means—it just becomes this extended part of creating something.”

Even if he doesn’t think much about what he wears, the star’s choices are significant. LGBTQ+ advocates applauded the fashion choice featured on one of the world’s largest platforms for fashion as a win for greater acceptance of gender fluidity. Still others pointed out that it took a cisgender, heterosexual white man to make this statement.

"Am I happy to see Harry be celebrated for openly flouting gendered fashion norms? Yes. Do trans femmes of color receive praise for doing the same thing every day? No," wrote author and activist Alok Menon on Instagram.
https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/diversity-inclusion/526180-candace-owens-might-not-like-seeing-harry-styles

Excuse me a minute… Now I’m not saying go as far as Bender here, but you know we are living in strange times indeed. So to put this in perspective, a normal person would look at this and think that Mr. Styles’ reasons for wearing a dress would seem perfectly normal and innocent. But not in conservative batshit land, where they think he’s a demon and sets men back 100 years! No the only people who set men back 100 years are well, men like Ben Shapiro!

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro mostly discusses politics, but sometimes he ventures out into entertainment. Most famously in recent days, he was taken aback by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP,” and a video of him reciting the song’s lyrics went viral. Now he has focused his attention on Harry Styles and his affinity for women’s clothing.

Styles and Candace Owens went viral today after Owens criticized Styles recent dress-filled Vogue photo shoot. Owens tweeted, “There is no society that can survive without strong men. The East knows this. In the west, the steady feminization of our men at the same time that Marxism is being taught to our children is not a coincidence. It is an outright attack. Bring back manly men.” Shapiro showed support for Owens’ perspective, tweeting this morning, “This is perfectly obvious. Anyone who pretends that it is not a referendum on masculinity for men to don floofy dresses is treating you as a full-on idiot.”

Meanwhile, Owens has since expanded upon her original comments. Fellow conservative commentator Matt Walsh tweeted, “Candace Owens is trending because a bunch of whiney idiots are mad that she said men who wear dresses aren’t manly. Her statement, of course, is true and utterly self-evident, and would have provoked no reaction as recently as a decade ago.” Owens shared the tweet and responded, “Wait until they find out that I also think women should be feminine — and I enjoy cooking for and taking care of my husband. DEFCON 1.”
https://uproxx.com/pop/harry-styles-womens-clothes-ben-shapiro-candace-owens/

Well Harry is maybe not full drag queen yet like Billy Porter is. I mean come on I’m not knocking Billy Porter, that dude has style! I mean it takes a real man to wear a dress in public! But really Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens went too far. It’s not all doom and gloom though. At least people are stepping up to defend Harry Styles’ choice of clothing. So let’s leave it at least on a positive note, shall we? Because last I checked it’s still the shittiest year ever, 2020 and we do need good news once in a while!

Nobody's going to drag Harry Styles down.

Last week, the former One Direction singer made history by becoming the first man to appear solo on the cover of Vogue. In fact, the 26-year-old chose to wear a Gucci jacket layered over a dress for part of his photo shoot.

While many fans were quick to applaud the singer, others like New York Times best-selling author Candace Owens chose to put down the look.

"There is no society that can survive without strong men," Candace wrote on Twitter. "The East knows this. In the west, the steady feminization of our men at the same time that Marxism is being taught to our children is not a coincidence. It is an outright attack. Bring back manly men."

While some Twitter users agreed with the sentiment, others quickly called Candace out. Olivia Wilde, who is directing Harry in the upcoming film Don't Worry Darling, replied writing, "You're pathetic" while Kathy Griffin warned her there's nobody stronger than Harry's fans. As the comedian explained, "Candy Owens doesn't know what she in for going up against the Harry Styles stans."
https://www.eonline.com/news/1209182/olivia-wilde-and-more-stars-defend-harry-styles-after-candace-owens-slams-vogue-dress

[font size="8"]People Who Somehow Got Re-Elected
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Politicians at the state and local levels who are so toxic, you wonder how they’re able to get away with the things they get away with. This is:

This week’s person who somehow got re-elected is none other than our current Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell. Mitch Mitch Mitch. What are we going to do with you? In a world where the guy who lost the presidential elections won’t contest the results, he has enablers. One of those enablers is the current Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell. He has been a hard supporter of the Trump train and won’t accept the results. Trump is an abuser, and every abuser has their enabler. Trump has his enabler and that’s Mitch McConnell. How do we deal with an abuser and enabler even after the abuser has been kicked to the curb? It’s going to be difficult.

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused in a speech to acknowledge that President-elect Joe Biden had won the election, echoing President Trump’s suggestion that voter fraud—which is so rare as to barely exist—delegitimized the former vice president’s victory.

“President Trump is 100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options,” McConnell said in a statement on the Senate floor. But so far, the “allegations of irregularities” lack any evidence. They are so off-base that even one Fox News host refused to air them.

Trump’s attempts at suing his way to victory are unlikely to work. Biden won both the popular vote and the Electoral College by large enough margins that even the alleged fraud is unlikely to make up the deficit. Still, McConnell is sticking by Trump’s side. His unblinking deference to Trump not only strokes the president’s ego—it allows for a scenario in which Trump could refuse to leave the White House even if he lost, potentially endangering the sanctity of the United States’ democratic process.

During the Watergate scandal, when a trio of Republicans—House Minority Leader John Rhodes, Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott, and Senator Barry Goldwater—told Richard Nixon that he was certain to be impeached, he resigned the next day. Today, conversely, a sizable portion of Republican leadership refuses to accept reality. And rather than packing his bags, Trump is out planning rallies.
https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/11/mitch-mcconnell-wont-accept-that-biden-won-the-election/

So Trump has lost and Mitch McConnell won’t accept the election results. He’s one of the most powerful men in the country, we might add. Now you can boo. So if you can’t accept the election results, even though you lost by a huge margin, what do you do? Well you sue until you get your way. Think of it like the toddler who screams out of control at the department store until he gets his toy. And yes, Mitch is helping the toddler get his way!

In a short but extraordinary speech Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stood behind President Donald Trump, who is baselessly alleging widespread voter fraud after losing the presidential election to Joe Biden.

Trump continues to vow he will fight the election results in the courts, despite judges repeatedly tossing out his legal team’s claims on the evidence. On the Senate floor Monday afternoon, McConnell defended Trump’s right to question the election results and repeated talking points used by Trump’s team.

“In the United States of America, all legal ballots must be counted. Any illegal ballots must not be counted,” he said. “The process should be transparent or observable by all sides and the courts are here to work through concerns.”

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, or that “illegal” votes swung the election for Biden. Trump’s team conceded in court that their observers are overseeing the ballot counts.

McConnell, the most powerful Republican in Congress, is well versed in crafting statements that do not anger President Trump. But in the midst of a contested election, his speech is a sign the Republican establishment may refuse to acknowledge the reality that Trump lost the election. McConnell even mocked news outlets for projecting that Biden was the winner after the numbers showed he had won the Electoral College, saying the Constitution gives the media no role in selecting the president.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/paulmcleod/mitch-mcconnell-backs-trump-contest-election-results

Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump are just like Bruce Banner – don’t make them angry, and when they do, they turn into giant monsters capable of doing enormous and untold damage. So how does Mitch McConnell keep winning time and time again despite that he polls negatively every single time? It is totally baffling to the mind. And Trump’s chief enabler is going to do some serious damage if we’re not careful.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is walking a fine line with his handling of President Trump’s refusal to concede the election.

The GOP leader is defending Trump’s right to challenge the vote counts in several key battleground states, arguing the courts are meant to handle disputed election results and that “wealthy media corporations” should not project the winner.

But McConnell is also keeping his distance from the president’s claims of voter fraud that his campaign has yet to back up with any hard evidence.

“What I’m going to do here in the Senate is concentrate on the business that we have left to do,” he told reporters Tuesday, adding he would “let the presidential election go through the various stages that it goes through under the Constitution.”

Asked if there were any signs of fraud in his own reelection race in Kentucky or any Senate races, McConnell responded: “I don’t know — at the risk of bragging, it wasn’t very close.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/525612-mcconnell-treads-cautiously-in-trumps-post-election-fight

Yes, they do suck all right! We’re venturing into uncharted territory if Trump will not concede the election and he has Mitch McConnell to back him. And let’s not forget that we have two senate runoff elections that could favor democrats and flip the senate toward President Biden’s favor. The election may be over, but we’re not done yet, and come January 20th, here’s what is on McConnell’s agenda if he remains the Senate Majority Leader.

Mitch McConnell doesn't think Donald Trump needs to concede the 2020 election -- even days after the race has been called for former Vice President Joe Biden.

"In the United States of America, all legal ballots must be counted. Any illegal ballots must not be counted. The process must be transparent or observable by all sides, and the courts are here to work through concerns," McConnell said on the Senate floor on Monday. "Our institutions are actually built for this. We have the system in place to consider concerns, and President Trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options."

Which is an interesting take -- especially given that McConnell is perhaps the biggest institutionalist in the Senate, a believer in the "way things are supposed to work" and mindful of the ways in which precedents are set, met and heeded.

So why is McConnell defending Trump's right to hold out on admitting defeat despite the total and complete lack of evidence of any sort of widespread voter fraud? Well, politics.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/politics/mitch-mcconnell-donald-trump-conceding/index.html

So Mitch McConnell would waste time going after mail in voting despite that this was one of the most secure elections ever. That’s Mitch McConnell, yet another inexplicable candidate who is one of the:

[font size="8"]I Need A Drink
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Hey everyone, I don’t know about you but I could really use a drink!

Of course you know by now that the idea is that there’s so much dark shit out there that we have a few drinks and discuss literally anything in the news as long as it doesn’t relate to politics. And hell I’m going to add a provision to this topic in that we also don’t talk about COVID-19. Because seriously it’s on the news 24 hours a day. This week we’re going to talk about celebrities and football teams. And I don’t mean American football. I’m talking European football. And how this got started is that Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhanny of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia fame have teamed up to buy EFL teams on the cheap. So tell me virtual bartender, what goes well with a story about soccer? A cranberry grapefruit vodka? Well that is Deadpool’s favorite drink, but don’t call it a seabreeze! I’ll just stick to my usual Jack Daniels mixed with Jack Daniels. It’s all I’ve got in the studio right now. Anyway here’s more.

A new era of Hollywood glitz and glamour is coming to the fifth tier of the English football pyramid where Wrexham AFC -- the third-oldest professional soccer club in the world -- are now under the ownership of "Deadpool" star Ryan Reynolds and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" creator Rob McElhenney.

As you're no doubt aware, the two actors this week completed their unlikely takeover at the Racecourse Ground after initially submitting their plans in September. The bid garnered backing from the 156-year-old Welsh club's supporters, which includes plans for an immediate cash injection of £2 million ($2.65m) on completion of the deal.

Wrexham sit 14th in the 23-team National League, the division in which they've played since their relegation from the Football League in 2008. However, Reynolds and McElhenney have vowed to reawaken what Reynolds has branded a "sleeping giant" with the goal of transforming the Red Dragons into a "global force" like never before.

As things stand, the venerable club's highest ever league finish was 15th in the old Second Division (now the Championship), which they achieved in 1978-79.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/blog-the-toe-poke/story/4112007/ryan-reynolds-and-rob-mcelhenney-join-lebrondurantelton-john-and-will-ferrell-as-celebrity-football-owners

Ah, I needed that! And that is an unusually large glass of wine by the way! So A list celebrities are buying D list teams. It’s pretty much the reverse of that Will Ferrell basketball movie where a D list celebrity owned a D list team. And Ryan Reynolds isn’t the only one who’s buying football clubs. No sports can have audiences right now, so they are being bought on the cheap.

The gang has bought a soccer club.

You may have never heard of Wrexham AFC, but you might do soon.

Actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney moved a step closer to becoming investors in the Welsh soccer team -- one of the world's oldest professional soccer clubs and currently playing in English soccer's fifth tier -- after their takeover bid was overwhelmingly approved by the club's board.

The Wrexham Supporters Trust Board, which currently owns the club, voted in favor of the deal that would see the celebrity duo take complete ownership of the club.

The bid is still subject to final agreement and official confirmation from governing bodies, but the stars have said they already have lofty ambitions to turn Wrexham into a "global force."

Reynolds, known for appearing in blockbusters such as "Deadpool," and McElhenney, co-creator and star in US sitcom "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," first expressed their interest in a takeover back in September.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/16/football/ryan-reynolds-rob-mcelhenney-wrexham-takeover-approved-spt-intl/index.html

I can’t wait to see that episode – The Gang Buys A Soccer team! I can just imagine them purchasing a like Z grade club in the garbage part of Philadeliphia, and then Frank tries to become a coach and uses his own dirty tricks to win games. That would be hilarious! And of course Ryan Reynolds is a guy who knows advertising. So leave it to him to do something funny and self-deprecating!

As if 2020 wasn't weird enough, Ryan Reynolds and his actor pal, Rob McElhenney, have had their takeover bid for a football team in Wales approved and to mark the occasion they have produced an advert for a trailer company. Yes, really.

Reynolds and McElhenney, best known for his work in the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, registered their interest in the team, which plays in the National League, the fifth tier of English football, in September. The news came literally out of nowhere and caught many people completely unaware.

Was this another one of Reynolds' elaborate pranks or the plot of a new movie? The answer to both of those is no, as their interest was 100 per cent genuine and on Monday they confirmed that fans of the club had voted overwhelmingly in support of the proposed takeover bid. The club has been fan-owned since 2011 and 98 per cent of the Wrexham Supporter's Trust voted in favour of Reynolds and McElhenney's $2.5 million takeover, which is expected to bring in £2m worth of investment into the team.

Their big unveiling came on Monday afternoon when the pair put together an advert for Ifor Williams, a trailer company (the kind that you tow behind your car, not the movie kind) which is the current sponsor of the club.
https://www.indy100.com/article/ryan-reynolds-rob-mcelhenney-wrexham-football-9725380

Ah that’s good stuff! So if you don’t know the Wrexham AF football club, you soon will! And when we can get back to having audiences again, Mr. Reynolds and Mr. McElhanny will be there watching the games with you. Also just like being a Patreon subscriber you can get more perks the more you pay for tickets, and you’ll even be able to watch games with the guys themselves!

Vancouver native and Whitecaps FC supporter, Ryan Reynolds made global soccer news on Monday, becoming part-owner in Welsh side Wrexham Football Club, which plays in the fifth tier of English soccer.

Reynolds joined forces with fellow actor Rob McElhenney, who take over the club with the blessing of the Wrexham Supporters Trust. An overwhelming 98 percent of the supporters voted in favor of the takeover by the Hollywood duo.

Vancouver native and Whitecaps FC supporter, Ryan Reynolds made global soccer news on Monday, becoming part-owner in Welsh side Wrexham Football Club, which plays in the fifth tier of English soccer.

Reynolds joined forces with fellow actor Rob McElhenney, who take over the club with the blessing of the Wrexham Supporters Trust. An overwhelming 98 percent of the supporters voted in favor of the takeover by the Hollywood duo.

“We want to be great ambassadors for the club, to introduce the club to the world and be a global force,” Reynolds reportedly told Wrexham supporters at a November 8 meeting.

Reynolds and McElhenney have already announced plans for a behind-the-scenes documentary. Formed in 1864, Wrexham are the oldest club in Wales and the third oldest club in the world.

Reynolds has never been shy about sharing his love for soccer, including for his hometown Whitecaps. He said that his "heart belongs to the Vancouver Whitecaps" in a 2018 Facebook post on the heels of a promotional visit to the Santiago Bernabeu:
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020/11/16/vancouver-whitecaps-supporter-ryan-reynolds-becomes-owner-wrexham-football-club

[font size="8"]Road To The White House
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Welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the 2020 election to end all elections in… *cue reverb* ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE!!! Ooh that was some good reverb there! So this week there’s some shenanigans happening. Yes, Biden finally settled the election with a whopping 306 electoral votes and kicked Trump’s fat ass to the curb. But Trump isn’t willing to go quietly! It’s going completely insane and about as well as you’d expect. But you know what? We’ve already covered that for the beginning of this edition and now we’re going to talk about what we should be talking about – President Biden’s transition team. So who is going to be on the team?

President-elect Joe Biden is building out the staff that will surround him in the White House, announcing Tuesday that he is tapping two long-time advisers for top roles and naming several other veterans of his presidential campaign to senior positions.

Among Tuesday's announced hires: Mike Donilon, the chief strategist for Biden's campaign who played a leading role in crafting his speeches and advertising as he framed the 2020 race as a "battle for the soul of the nation," will be a senior adviser to the president. And Steve Ricchetti, the Biden campaign chairman and a veteran of the Barack Obama and Bill Clinton White Houses, will be a counselor to the president.
The announcements come days after Biden tapped veteran Democratic operative Ron Klain as his chief of staff, and show that Biden is first filling out the staff that will surround him in the White House before moving on to Cabinet announcements.

News of at least two of the appointments had already broken Monday: Jen O'Malley Dillon, the campaign manager who took over after Biden limped through the Democratic primary and turned his campaign into the biggest fundraising juggernaut in history, is Biden's deputy chief of staff.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/17/politics/biden-white-house-senior-staff/index.html

So unlike Trump, Biden isn’t packing his administration with partisan and divisive hacks. He’s actually packing the posts with qualified people! Which is what should be done! Though just like the election, there are shenanigans. Which is why Trump needs to be kicked to the curb. Because we need to get through COVID and through this administration. But we can’t do either as long as shit like this is being pulled!

The top General Services Administration official who's blocking President-elect Joe Biden's transition team from accessing government resources ahead of his inauguration appears to be looking for a new job, according to a message obtained by ABC News.

Emily Murphy, head of the GSA, recently sent that message to an associate inquiring about employment opportunities in 2021, a move that some in Washington interpreted as at least tacitly acknowledging that the current administration soon will be gone.

Murphy has the power to decide -- or "ascertain" -- when election results are evident enough to trigger a transition of power, allowing the winning team access to career staff at federal agencies and internal government information including national security matters and plans for administering a COVID-19 vaccine.

Donald Trump appointed Murphy in 2017, and she's so far refused to certify Biden as the election's winner as Trump attempts to overturn the election result in court.

A White House spokesperson referred ABC News to the GSA when reached for comment.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gsa-official-blocking-bidens-transition-privately-plans-post/story?id=74234794

Ha we’ve already had one Apprentice host, last thing we need is another one. So looking for a new job is probably the right move. And while the Trump administration has declared war on “Big Tech”, Biden’s team is actually embracing it. Because unlike Trump trolls, we can say stuff online that doesn’t get immediately flagged! And yes the next time we’ll go into them grilling Mark Zuckerberg (again) about censorship. So here’s what to expect from that!

When it comes to Silicon Valley, Joe Biden is something of a blank slate. And for Silicon Valley, that means Joe Biden is something of an opportunity.

So Big Tech reformers and Big Tech allies are gearing up for a spirited fight in the coming months over the types of people who will staff the Biden administration. Those personnel decisions will offer some of the first revelations into how exactly the president-elect will regulate the tech industry and its titans, a high-stakes question about the American economy that he mostly avoided answering during his campaign.

That ambiguity is making the transition period all the more important, a dozen people with ties to the Biden team tell Recode. Reformers want to make sure they at least have a seat at the table and that they aren’t boxed out by well-paid industry interests. Forces aligned with the industry, meanwhile, want to make sure that a Biden administration isn’t too captive to the online left, even though they know it won’t resemble the halcyon days of Barack Obama.

Back then, Silicon Valley was a celebrated part of America’s innovation economy. Since Obama left office, though, the tech industry has become radioactive to parts of both the left and the right, part of a “techlash” that has culminated in calls to break up Big Tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. Tech critics worry that these companies and their leaders have amassed too much control over Americans’ lives when it comes to privacy, the economy, and politics. Now Obama’s former No. 2 will have to answer these important questions on dicier terrain: Will he pursue this breakup? Will he inflame the tensions or cool them? Will he side more with the reformers or the industry?
https://www.vox.com/21561878/joe-biden-transition-silicon-valley-personnel-eric-schmidt

The other thing that makes Biden’s transition team worth noting is that unlike Trump – whose transition team and cabinet was mostly white, Biden’s is far more diverse. In fact he’s embracing diversity while Trump thinks of diversity as being a very old wooden ship from the Civil War era. And that’s precisely why Biden won and Trump lost – people are rejecting his ideas of hate and racial supremacy.

As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office in January, nearly half of the transition team laying the groundwork for his administration is made up of people of color, and women are in the majority.

Forty-six percent of the transition staff are people of color, according to new diversity data of the transition team provided to CNN, and 41% of the senior staff are people of color. The majority of transition staff -- 52% -- are women, and 53% of the senior staff are women.

The new diversity figures come as Biden is set to announce his Cabinet picks and senior staff for the White House in the coming weeks -- one of the first tests of his campaign pledge to build an administration that will "look like America."

Biden's first major step toward diversity in his administration came when he selected Kamala Harris, a Black and South Asian woman, as his vice president. In his first staffing announcement, Biden chose a White man and longtime adviser -- Ron Klain -- as his chief of staff for the White House.
https://www.kmov.com/news/people-of-color-make-up-nearly-half-of-biden-transition-team/article_84bb56e1-19ed-531c-9014-40e5c62a57d6.html

Programming note: We are off next week for Thanksgiving. We will be running a viewer mail bag Best Of. We will be back in two weeks and beginning our sendoff to this nightmare year that was 2020! And when we come back on 12/2, we will announce the winner of the Trumper Games!

See you in two weeks!

Credits

Host: Initech
Top 10 Conservative Idiots Recorded At: Flappers Comedy Club, Burbank, CA
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November 11, 2020

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-16: Happy Days Are Here Again Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-16: Happy Days Are Here Again Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! How’s everybody doing? I know, this has been quite a week, hasn’t it? For the first time in five years I feel like I can finally sleep easier at night. Why is that you might ask? WE GOT HIM!!! Holy shit we actually got him! That’s right ladies and gentlemen, Kanye West finally conceded! Oh I am kidding. But for this week we’re actually breaking with California protocols and having an audience! It’s a small one but we actually have a live audience for the first time since March and boy does it feel good! Now you might be asking because we have a competent president, what the hell are we going to talk about? Well you know the Top 10 began when Obama was president, because remember when we used to have a competent president? Now, we have a Biden presidency to look forward to. Unfortunately Fox News still exists. And unfortunately even under a Biden presidency conservative idiocy is not going away any time soon. Especially because Trump is hopping mad and he’s planning on stealing the election if he hasn’t already! But yes we finally have new leadership and it’s very much happening. OK enough of the intro, we have a lot of idiocy to get to. But first John Oliver is back and his latest show is actually taking the concept of “Last Week Tonight” and making it actually about last week:

We did it!!! And we have a massive Top 10 to celebrate! In the first slot this week is the triumphant return of a fan favorite Top 10 segment – the Trumper Games! And oh boy, I have been waiting four long, excruciating years but we finally get to add @realDonaldTrump (1) to the list of tributes who get eliminated from the contest! Who will be the last left standing? Taking the second slot this week is the 2020 Election (2) and we’re going to profile some of the biggest winners and losers – most notably the state of Kentucky because we are unfortunately stuck with Moscow Mitch for another term. In the third slot this week is the Donald Trump Campaign (3) because oh man this might be one of the biggest presidential screw ups in the history of presidential screw ups! In the #4 slot this week we have another entry in the ever-growing list of People Who Somehow Got Elected, and the first is Alabama’s new Congressman and former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville (4) – seriously how did this guy beat Doug Jones? It boggles the mind! In the #5 slot this week is Kanye West (5). Oh Yeezy, give it a rest. You had your fun running for president, but you’re an entertainer, stay in your lane! In the #6 slot this week, we’re giving Top 10 Investigates a week off because we have to talk about the insanity coming from the right called “Stop The Steal” – you lost, get over it! That’s what you have told us for the last 4 years anyways! In the number 7 slot this week is our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit”, and this week our resident pastor is going to show what members of the Christian right are taking sides, and well, it’s going to get ugly the next time you’re actually able to go to church! In the number 8 slot this week is Steve Bannon (8) and people, threatening to murder someone is not cool, so don’t do it! Taking the number 9 (NEIN!!) slot this week we have a new election edition of People Are Dumb, because even the election hasn’t stopped the stupid from being stupid! Finally this week in Road To The White House, we have even more thoughts on what has been an absolutely insane election season. Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

[div style="padding: 20px; background-color: #ffffff; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 1px #aaa;"][div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999; padding-bottom: 8px;"]

[font size="8"]The Trumper Games
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Hey everybody! I am baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!! I am baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Yes we are defying orders because we haven’t done this since Top 10 7-3. Yes, it has been a while and there have been some departures but we couldn’t do this segment because well COVID. But this week there has been an absolutely shocking turn of events – there has been an elimination! Yes, there has been one man who everyone has been dying to eliminate. That man is the president himself! Mmmm… yes… this champagne has never tasted so good! But where is my humble man servant Nathaniel? Yes, come on out here, Nathanial! We are celebrating today! Because as of November 7th – our long national nightmare is finally over! But the president himself is refusing to go quietly!

Joe Biden won the presidential election on Saturday after the Associated Press called him the winner in Pennsylvania, pushing the former Vice President past the 270 electoral college votes needed to clinch the White House.

Less than half an hour after the news, President Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, alleged without any evidence that the electoral system in Philadelphia, which had contributing to Biden’s victory, was riddled with fraud. It was the latest indication that, even as Trump’s path to victory evaporates, his campaign will continue to fight the outcome in court.

In the past week alone, the Trump campaign blitzed state and federal courts with roughly a dozen new lawsuits, most attempting to halt the vote-counting process or disqualify tranches of ballots. The majority of the Trump campaign’s lawsuits were filed in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, and Michigan—states where either Biden’s margin of victory is relatively slim, or where a winner has yet to be called.

After Biden declared victory on Saturday, President Donald Trump seemed poised to continue to fight in court. In comments from the White House, he vowed to pursue a lawsuit in Pennsylvania. But legal experts say his chances of meaningfully challenging the election are dwindling. Many of his campaign’s lawsuits filed this week have been dismissed on lack of merit, and the ones that have gained some traction are unlikely to change the outcome of the Presidential race.
https://time.com/5908505/trump-lawsuits-biden-wins/

Oh that’s fierce! And the president is hopping mad, people! He is not going to go quietly! Damn it Nathaniel, where is my champagne? Ah here it is! Next time don’t keep me waiting! So how did the President himself get eliminated from the Trumper Games? Well it’s a matter of the fact that well, he’s a raging asshole. And two, there’s nothing graceful about him. But really the president’s biggest victim in all of this is the president himself.

It all finally caught up to him. The lies, the outrageous boasts, the disorder and disastrous management, the rants and the race-baiting, the predatory instincts and compulsion to dominate—all the things that made President Donald Trump the ringmaster of the American political circus at last compelled a majority of voters to drive him out of the tent.

Few other Presidents in modern history so inflamed the nation or exposed the cracks in our democracy as Trump. In the end, Trump’s pride didn’t just precede his fall, it precipitated it. Until the final months, his campaign was managed by a novice who burned through millions of dollars. Trump thought he could wish away a deadly virus. He dismissed his legions of critics, preferring to bask in the adulation of fans. He governed as President only of his base, and he ran for re-election without pivoting toward the center. He barely articulated a policy vision for a second term. He campaigned hard, jetting to dozens of rallies on Air Force One in the final weeks of the campaign, and outperforming the expectations of many thanks to a formidable ground game, a sophisticated campaign data operation and a passionate base of support.

But in the end, the Trump presidency ended much as it began: with a thin margin in key states separating two candidates in an anxious nation, and Trump appealing to America’s demons over its better angels, hurling baseless claims that he’d been robbed.
https://time.com/5907973/donald-trump-loses-2020-election/

Yes, I love it too! And come on people, do you know the President like we do here at the Trumper Games? Well even members of the president’s own family are telling him that he needs to step down and end this charade. It’s madness. But he won’t. Come on Trump just admit that you lost and you hate being the president so we can get on with our lives already! Seriously – Jim Carrey said it best – Trump is a grade A LOO-HOO-SE-HER.

President Donald Trump's inner circle is beginning to split over his ongoing refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election, as Jared Kushner and first lady Melania Trump advised him to come to terms with President-elect Joe Biden's victory and his adult sons pressed him and allies to keep fighting.

Kushner, the President's son-in-law and senior adviser, has approached him to concede, two sources told CNN. The first lady, according to a separate source familiar with the conversations, has privately said the time has come for him to accept the election loss.

Meanwhile, Trump's two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have urged allies to continue pressing on and they have pushed Republicans and supporters to publicly reject the results even as CNN and other news organizations projected the race for Biden on Saturday.

Trump's campaign is planning a messaging blitz to fuel its argument -- unsupported by any evidence to date -- that the President's second term is being stolen from him through corrupt vot
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/08/politics/jared-kushner-donald-trump-concession/index.html

Yes and anything goes during one of the biggest elections in the deeply divided America that we currently live in. Now kids, I am going to draw a line down the center of the house, and you live on your side and we’ll live on ours. Got that? But as much damage as the President is doing, one thing is for certain – he’s going to burn it all down in a blaze of glory before he goes! But for now consider the President – originally a tribute from the First District – ELIMINATED!!!

Donald Trump came to use the line often at his campaign rallies. “Can you imagine if you lose to a guy like this?” he would say of Joe Biden. “It’s unbelievable.”

It’s not so unbelievable now. Despite record turnout, and a tighter than expected race, the US president’s blind faith in the power of positive thinking appears to have collided with the reality of a coronavirus pandemic, a chaotic campaign and the uprising of a democratic and Democratic resistance. He is the first incumbent to lose a bid for re-election since George H W Bush in 1992.

More successful incumbents have made elections about their challengers rather than themselves. But Trump could neither escape the pandemic and its economic fallout nor find a way to define Biden. With more than 225,000 Americans dead after contracting the virus, his closing rallies were held largely in midwestern states enduring record infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/07/joe-biden-rode-resistance-wave-donald-trump-imploded

[font size="8"]2020 Election Highlights
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We need some music for this one!

Yes at long last happy days are here again! One thing is for certain – Trump lost!! First incumbent in more than 30 years to not be awarded a second term! And rightfully so. But for this entry we’re going to talk about the highlights of this election – well besides Joe Biden winning and Trump losing, there’s plenty of other hot voting action going on throughout the country. Like senators and always the laughing stock of every single election – the propositions on the ballot in my home state of California. Of which there were many. But before we get into that – let’s talk about Joe Biden winning for a minute. This is truly a momentous occasion that should be celebrated.

Joseph R. Biden Jr. addressed the nation for the first time as president-elect on Saturday night, delivering a message of unity and trying to soothe the extraordinary divisions that defined the last four years in American politics.

“Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end here and now,” he said.

In remarks before a drive-in audience in Wilmington brimming with longtime friends from Delaware, his home state, he directly appealed to the tens of millions of Americans who backed President Trump’s re-election, seeking to make good on his central campaign promise of bringing the country together.

“For all those of you who voted for President Trump, I understand the disappointment tonight,” Mr. Biden, speaking at the conclusion of his third run for the presidency, said. “I’ve lost a couple times myself. But now, let’s give each other a chance. It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again.”
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/11/07/us/biden-trump

That’s right – Trump is one pathetic loser and he’s trying to steal what little he has left in the election – and don’t worry – we will cover that in full next week. But now let’s move on to the second biggest election in the entire country – the Kentucky senate election between Mitch McConnell and Amy McGrath. Don’t boo yet – I can already preemptively hear your boos – but there really wasn’t much of a contest there.

Regardless of who controls the Senate next year, Republicans and Democrats will have the same leaders they do now.

The Senate GOP on Tuesday unanimously reelected Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as the caucus’ leader. Likewise, all Senate Democrats chose Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to head their caucus.

The election results have not yet indicated who will enter the next Congress with a Senate majority. Republicans and Democrats will both come out of the 2020 election with at least 48 Senate seats, a net gain of one for Democrats, NBC News projects.

NBC has not called the winner of four Senate races. At least one outstanding race, and potentially two, in Georgia will get decided by a runoff in January.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/10/mcconnell-and-schumer-reelected-senate-leaders-after-2020-election.html

That’s right – Mitch McConnell will remain the leader of the GOP senate unfortunately which means that if the Democratic elections in Georgia prevail, he still could be the deciding vote. Now let’s switch gears and talk about my home state of California. Because no matter what state you’re from, you will have measures on the ballot. But your measures don’t measure to California’s propositions of which there were many. They were varied, and both the yes and no had big money behind them. So what were the big winners and losers?

The message that California voters sent in the presidential election was unequivocal: With almost two-thirds of ballots counted so far going for Joseph R. Biden Jr., the nation’s most populous state put up mammoth numbers for the Democrats. But dig a little deeper into the results and a more complex picture of the Golden State voter emerges, of strong libertarian impulses and resistance to some quintessentially liberal ideas.

In a series of referendums, voters in California rejected affirmative action, decisively shot down an expansion of rent control and eviscerated a law that gives greater labor protections for ride-share and delivery drivers, a measure that had the strong backing of labor unions. A measure that would have raised taxes on commercial landlords to raise billions for a state that sorely needs revenue also seemed on track for defeat.

The full force of the election results provided something of a gut check for liberals in a state that plays a big role in the Democratic Party and often offers insights into where the rest of the nation might be headed.

“The results in California show the Democrats that you can go too far,” said Bob Shrum, a former Democratic strategist and the director of the Dornsife Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California. “California is a very liberal state that is now resistant to higher taxes and welcoming to the new gig economy, which is where the industry was created.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/us/california-election-results.html

Yes unfortunately the “gig economy” will stay just that – a gig economy. And don’t worry next week we will dive more into the like 20 or so propositions that were on California’s ballot. But one that we will discuss was the controversial Dialysis measure that required doctors or trained nurses to be on site at all deregulated clinics. That would seem like a no brainer right? WRONG!

A $100-million effort to impose new regulations on the dialysis industry was defeated Tuesday.

Proposition 23 would have required dialysis clinics to employ at least one doctor who would be on site whenever patients are receiving treatment. Supporters of the measure, including the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, said dialysis clinics were putting profits over patient care by not having a doctor available in the event of complications or an emergency.

Opponents, however, argued the measure was the latest attempt by SEIU-UHW to weaponize the ballot box to try to force the dialysis industry to spend millions to defend itself when the union’s real interest is getting clinic workers to unionize. The dialysis industry put more than $100 million into fighting the measure, saying the unnecessary added cost would lead to dialysis clinics closing, which would put patients at risk.

Proposition 23 was opposed by 64% of voters, according to the state’s unofficial election tally Wednesday morning.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-03/2020-california-election-tracking-prop-23

[font size="8"]Rudy Guiliani
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OK I’ll admit it – I’ve only seen 3 episodes of VEEP. And I just finally got around to finishing Parks & Recreation. And I’m aware no campaign – whether it’s for city council or POTUS – is immune from blunders. But this blunder ranks as about one of the biggest blunders in history. I mean no one could have fucked things up the way this turned out am I right? In case you don’t know what I am talking about – on Saturday, while the whole world was celebrating the downfall of Twitter’s @realDonaldTrump, Trump’s attorney Rudy Guiliani gave a press conference and they had an incredibly interesting choice of venue.

On Saturday morning, shortly before the AP and other news outlets called the election for Joe Biden, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to announce that his lawyers would be holding a “big press conference” in Philadelphia. But there seems to have been some major confusion about where it would be held. First Trump tweeted it would take place at the “Four Seasons, Philadelphia.” Trump later corrected himself and said that the news conference was going to be held at the Four Seasons Total Landscaping. And the Four Seasons Hotel sent out its own tweet, making sure everyone knew that the news conference would not be held there but rather at the landscaping business that has “no relation with the hotel.”

When journalists arrived at the site of the news conference, they were flabbergasted by the scene and many quickly speculated that someone in the Trump campaign made a serious mistake. After all, the parking lot of a landscaping business in the outskirts of the city in an industrial part of town was a drab backdrop for a news conference by a president who wanted to convince Americans he still had a chance of winning. And making matters even stranger, the landscaping business was between an adult bookstore and a cremation center. The location led to lots of mockery online, and many people were very happy with the scene that was ripe for mockery, and some saw as a poignant metaphor of the failure of the Trump campaign.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/four-seasons-total-landscaping-trump-team-news-conference.html

I have to say I'm really liking this new direction for Veep, I think the writers are... oh wait I am being told this is real! Seriously??? This actually happened? Someone is getting fired! Yeah that happened! In all seriousness, the Trump campaign started on a gold escalator. Now it’s going to end in the parking lot of a landscaping company next to an adult bookstore. Well the good news is that the shit is being mocked out of this event. Like for instance VR furries!

Four Seasons Total Landscaping, the Philadelphia business smack dab between a crematorium and a sex shop, is in many ways the heart and soul of America.

It also happens to be the place where former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and other supporters of President Donald Trump's failed reelection campaign addressed the press after media outlets called the race for his Democratic opponent Joe Biden.

Now, it exists in VR — complete with weathered detailing and a last-minute Trump 2020 podium. And rejoicing furries.

Coopertom, a fursuiter and popular YouTuber, posted a video on Twitter on Monday morning of furries circling the scene in joy on the massively multiplayer virtual reality platform VRChat.

According to a tweet, virtual versions of a neighboring crematorium and sex shop are “in the works.”
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolinehaskins1/furries-four-seasons-total-landscaping

That’s right you VR explorers can now get your picture taken in front of the now famous landscaping company with people dressed like rabbits and dogs! I mean seriously people are going to look at the year 2020 and go “people lived this way????”. And that guy was president? Oh and here’s where it gets weird – you knew it was going to. You know that guy Guiliani brought up on stage claiming to have evidence of voter fraud? Guess what? He’s a registered sex offender! No shit!

During the now-infamous Saturday Trump campaign press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Northeast Philadelphia, Rudy Giuliani called upon three witnesses who he said could prove voting fraud in the presidential election.

The first witness was a convicted sex offender who has been a consistently unsuccessful candidate in New Jersey for several years, as first reported by Politico.

“It’s such a shame. This is a democracy,” Daryl Brooks, who said he served as a GOP poll watcher, said at the press conference outside the landscaping business after shaking Giuliani’s hand. “They did not allow us to see anything. Was it corrupt or not? But give us an opportunity as poll watchers to view all the documents—all of the ballots.”

Brooks served three years and eight months in prison in 1998 after he was convicted on several charges of lewdness, sexual assault, and endangering the welfare of a minor for allegedly exposing himself in front of two girls who were ages 7 and 11. According to NJ.com, Brooks maintained his innocence, claiming he was set up by Trenton police and other elected officials because of his work as a city activist.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/daryl-brooks-giulianis-vote-fraud-witness-at-four-seasons-total-landscaping-is-a-convicted-sex-offender

Yeah I think even Jesus would roll his eyes at this one! But in case you’re wondering – yes the Four Seasons Total Landscaping company is having a sense of humor about the incident. That’s right – they’re merchandising the SNAFU! Merchandising, merchandising – that’s where the real money from the political SNAFUs are made! Hell there’s even a fun run for Philly fun runners!

If you're not over the fact that the Trump campaign held a press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping off I-95 and NOT the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia in Center City, then you should probably sign up for this fun run on Sunday, Nov. 29.

Called the "Fraud Street Run," it's one mile longer than the Broad Street Run. Participants start at the now-famous Philadelphia business Four Seasons Total Landscaping – located between a crematorium and a sex shop, if you need help finding it – and race to the Four Seasons luxury hotel at the Comcast Center.

President Donald Trump said in a since-deleted tweet Saturday that his legal team would host a press conference at the Four Seasons. He then tweeted out clarification that it would be at a Philadelphia landscaping business called Four Seasons. The hotel Four Seasons then tweeted out further clarification that they were not involved at all.

At the press conference, Rudy Giuliani tried to push Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud.
https://www.phillyvoice.com/four-seasons-total-landscaping-race-fraud-street-run/

[font size="8"]People Who Somehow Got Elected: Tommy Tuberville

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Politicians at the state and local levels who are so toxic, you wonder how they’re able to get away with the things they get away with. This is:

This week – Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville. How did this guy beat Doug Jones? Well it is Alabama and they can never elect anybody blue. And if someone who happens to have a “D” next to their name in the Yellowhammer State manages to survive an election, chances are that they do not last very long. So who is Tommy Tuberville if you don’t know? Well he’s the former football coach who took Auburn University from zeroes to heroes. That’s right – a football coach is now a United States senator. God bless America, right? Right?

Former Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville won election to the U.S. Senate Tuesday night, defeating Democratic incumbent Doug Jones with pledges of loyalty to President Donald Trump.

As of 8:45 a.m. Wednesday, Tuberville had 1,375,794 votes (61%) in incomplete, unofficial returns listed by the Alabama Secretary of State's office. Jones had 898,243 votes (39%). The Associated Press called the race at 9:11 p.m. Tuesday.

The first-time candidate's campaign focused on Tuberville pledging his loyalty to President Donald Trump, and his victory speech repeated that theme.

"I want to thank President Donald Trump," Tuberville said in an 18-minute speech. "He is without a doubt in my lifetime the guy who’s done more for the United States of America than any other man."
https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2020/11/03/alabama-election-results-tuberville-jones-us-senate-race/6048147002/

Well at least Nelson has a sensitive side. But in case you are wondering what Tuberville’s former players and staff think of him running for senate, well it’s about as mixed of a bag as you can possibly get. Some of course are for it, and others are against it. But of course his loyalty to Donald Trump will always be the 800 pound gorilla in the room. And Tuberville is very much on board the Trump train.

Tommy Tuberville, the Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama, is leading incumbent Sen. Doug Jones by 14 points in the polls. The highly watched race has attracted huge outside spending, and pundits have speculated about what it might take for the country’s most vulnerable senator to hold onto his seat. But the reality is the race can be boiled down to two of Alabama’s favorite things: Trump and football.

Tuberville has clung close to President Donald Trump throughout the campaign. Trump endorsed Tuberville in the primary over Jeff Sessions—Trump’s former attorney general and an Alabama senator from 1997 to 2017. In return, Tuberville has said that his number one priority was “taking that stick out of [Trump’s] hand and giving [him] a baseball bat.” He has also promoted birtherism, complained bitterly about environmentalists, said immigrants were bringing “drugs” and “diseases,” and stoked fear about the socialist and communist “indoctrination” of the education system.

Tuberville has never held elected office, but he gained fame in the state from nearly a decade as head coach of the Auburn Tigers. In 2004, Tuberville led the team to a 13-0 season and an SEC championship. He also led Auburn to six straight victories over the University of Alabama in its longest winning streak against the in-state rival. (Remarkably, Crimson Tide fans do not seem to hold this against him.) Jones’ campaign has attacked Tuberville’s team loyalty (highlighting one story from Tuberville’s time as coach of Texas Tech, when he ditched a dinner with recruits after getting offered a job at Cincinnati). Tuberville, meanwhile, has continued to cite his leadership experience as a coach, and his outsider status, as the reason he should represent the state.
https://slate.com/culture/2020/10/tommy-tuberville-senate-auburn-players.html

So Tuberville may have had the longest streak of beating the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide – which would be like the Miami Marlins beating the New York Yankees to win the World Series – and his platform is just about as Trumpian as you can get. In fact you could also see that he’s like a mini me version of Trump. But will Tuberville’s plan of avoiding every issue play out in the Senate? Probably not.

Back when Tommy Tuberville worked as a swashbuckling young coach at Ole Miss in the late 1990s, he earned the nickname “Riverboat Gambler” for his propensity to onside kick and ignore the odds on fourth downs. He’d often press his luck on national television games, hoping to capture viewers.

Nearly a quarter-century and a few coaching jobs later, Tuberville is running for the U.S. Senate in Alabama. And his campaign strategy is much different than the high-risk bravado that formed his early coaching reputation.

In football parlance, Tuberville’s first political campaign is operating on a “punt to win” mantra, as he’s avoided debate, shown little expertise on issues and generally avoided any exposure that would have him expound on issues in a public forum. His Republican candidacy has drafted off the popularity of President Trump in Alabama, putting him comfortably ahead in the polling heading into Tuesday’s election.

With the political direction of the United States Senate in flux, a race between a football coach who has never held public office and an incumbent, Doug Jones, with a nationally recognized name would be the kind of local race that emerges as national fodder. Especially with the possibility that Tuberville’s potential election could swing the Senate to the Republicans.
https://sports.yahoo.com/will-tommy-tubervilles-strategy-of-avoiding-issues-win-senate-seat-040920430.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANY9LhW1FSXv7ckFW9GCv1bgAFR271ZAZfqx_D9yD_ryTUVwf24nwwgvXTZmZGN3hMrjH7NN0y92kzmz-Ho-ilB2vWiwcMPuVJhee_ND-QoYU3G9tIvlkIcYT7xLECOLQYLOl5D_cyn3_WLLhH0E-ehfhlnnl_ziJQi42EF767Gg

Yeah probably. Well now that Tuberville has become a senator – there’s his record on the field which is spectacular, if you’re into that sort of thing. Then there’s his record off the field – which like most athletes supporting far right policies, is questionable. And if you dig deeper, Tuberville is quite the shady businessman. Which makes him a perfect representation of the GOP!

Tax returns from a charity founded by U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Tuberville show that in 2015 and 2016 about one-third of its spending went to the veterans’ causes the charity was set up to benefit.

The foundation’s tax returns don’t make clear the amount the organization spent on charitable purposes in 2017 and 2018.

The Tuberville campaign sent AL.com documents from the foundation showing it spent money on a program for veterans in 2018 that was not included in the tax return for that year. Including that amount, 50% of the foundation’s expenditures were for charitable purposes in 2018.

Charity watchdog groups generally say at least 65% of expenses should go to the programs for which charities receive their tax-exempt status.
https://www.al.com/news/2020/10/tax-records-not-clear-on-tuberville-veterans-charitys-spending.html

So questionable choices on and off the field, defrauding a charity, and actively avoiding the issues. That’s Tommy Tuberville, yet another to add in the ever-growing list of:

[font size="8"]Kanye West
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Did anyone really think that Kanye West had a legitimate chance to become president? We’ve spent the last four months covering his batshit crazy attempt to become leader of the free world. And he’s going about doing this the same rate as Wiley Coyote trying to catch the Road Runner. And you might be asking what was the point of Kanye’s campaign? Well we pointed out in Top 10 #9-11 that the whole point of Kanye’s campaign was to siphon votes from Biden to help Trump. But it turns out that plan backfired on him spectacularly. Although you know the real sad thing? People actually voted for him! That’s right – hold your boos!

US Presidential candidate Kanye West conceded his run in the race early this morning (November 4), taking to Twitter to announce his withdrawal – Kanye style.

West formally ended his campaign shortly after midnight local time today by posting an image of a map of the United States with its states shaded in according to those that have thus far been won by fellow candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

The caption accompanying the image simply said “WELP”.

The rapper-cum-presidential candidate appears to be keeping the door to a 2024 election campaign open, however, also including that year in the caption.
https://www.nme.com/news/music/kanye-west-concedes-2020-presidential-election-2808637

OK Kanye we get it! So what was the point of this whole experiment? If he runs third party you know that he doesn’t have a chance in hell. So who is the Kanye voter? Everyone knows how toxic and dangerous Trump is, and then there’s a certain group of people who will never vote Democratic no matter how hard you convince them. But here’s what people who voted for Yeezy actually had to say about voting for him.

There is no plausible reality in which Kanye West becomes the next president. And yet people disenfranchised with the electoral system say they’re voting for him anyway.

“Do I think he's going to win? No. Do I think we need change? Yes. Am I voting for change? Am I voting for my interests? Yes,” 33-year-old Quentin Jones told BuzzFeed News.

After officially announcing his candidacy in mid-July and reportedly spending nearly $12 million on his own campaign, West is only on the ballot in 11 states, making it mathematically impossible for him to earn enough votes to become the next president of the United States. In August, a survey by Morning Consult/Politico showed that only 2% of 2,000 registered voters in the US supported West.

BuzzFeed News spoke to seven people who said they plan on voting for or have already voted for West, ranging from ages 19 to 42 in states across the country, including Florida, Colorado, Utah, Texas, and California. In the past, some of them had only cast ballots for either Republicans or Democrats; others are first-time voters.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/krystieyandoli/kanye-west-presidential-campaign-voters

That’s the last thing America needs – is another unstable jackass with questionable mental health and ties to the extreme religious right running the White House. I mean come on, how badly do we need to be punished here? And what did we do wrong? I want to know!!! But the thing is, as unorganized and unplanned as Kanye’s clusterfuck of a campaign was, there’s no denying he had some influence on how future campaigns will be run. Yeah, we’re screwed.

Kanye West’s presidential campaign may be the future of American politics. This is not to detract from the fact that it was a shambolic, hastily organized ego trip undertaken by a political neophyte of questionable mental health. But as Election Day approaches, what seemed like a minor summer subplot to the 2020 presidential campaigns feels more and more like the precursor to the next phase in American politics.

Through covering Kanye West’s presidential campaign over the nearly two-month period between when he first announced his run to when he changed his focus to urinating on one of his Grammy Awards, it served as a testament to how easy it is to run for president when you’re rich. West has no real constituency, no grassroots support, and no idea what he was doing. But simply spending around $10 million, he’ll be on the ballot in a dozen states.

The failures of Kanye West’s campaign should not be attributed to laws written to perpetuate the two-party duopoly, to crafty legal maneuverings by Democrats set to thwart him, or to even just the sheer indifference of voters toward the presidential candidacy of a celebrity who has built an entire persona around unorthodox behavior. Instead, there’s one simple reason behind them all: Kanye West himself.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/10/2020-election-kanye-wests-white-house-run-is-the-future.html

Yeah that’s the kind of guy we need running the free world. And if you think that he’s going away anytime soon, well, you don’t know Kanye. And if you think that it’s easy to make fun of Trump, just think of the material that a Kanye administration will provide! Oh and by the way, people who say it’s their “calling” to be the leader of America, are the ones who probably shouldn’t be anywhere near the White House.

Within the first five minutes of Kanye West’s appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, West tells Rogan, “I believe my calling is to be the leader of the free world,” meaning the president of the United States, and that the calling was given to him by God. Rogan responds, “What does that mean, to you? Does that mean you have a plan that’s different that’s been implemented before? What would you do if you were the leader of the free world? What would be different about the way you would handle things? If that’s your plan, what is it about that that is your calling?” What Rogan is asking is, essentially: What’s your platform?

West proceeds to speak mostly uninterrupted for the nearly three-hour length of the episode, but does not clearly lay out a presidential platform. West does talk about some other plans, though, which include “building a monastery that will then be the future of monasteries,” founding a “gospel university” that will seat 100,000 people in an arena and train them “like Russian swimmers” to recite his hymns, and his outlines for a sustainable community that will harness the four elements to produce power, but that won’t use solar, because of something about Tesla vs. Edison. Don’t call any of these thoughts tangents, though; West says when he speaks, it’s a “symphony of ideas.” Some other things he references before he gets to policy: the sinking of the Titanic, the inventor of the keyboard, whether or not Brandon Lee’s death was a murder conspiracy, Edna Mode from The Incredibles, the Disney movie Maleficent, the Disney movie Tron, and the scene where Jim Carrey is under the table in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. After all of this, a little over halfway through the interview, West reveals that he is flying to Atlanta multiple times a week, where he is building a soundstage. Despite whatever may be in the works for that soundstage, West admits, “I go back and forth on content. Should I work in content?” It’s the most relatable thing he’s ever said.
https://www.vulture.com/2020/10/kanye-west-on-joe-rogan-experience-talks-calling-to-campaign.html

[font size="8"]Stop The Steal
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Holy shit, Trump super fans are going to provide me with no shortage of material through the remainder of the Trump presidency and beyond. There’s still five states that are inexplicably unaccounted for – Alaska, North Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia. Now depending on what state you go to – Trump fans have conflicting messages but both want the same outcome – they think that Democrats are attempting to steal the election. Even though Trump himself is the one stealing it, and the New York Times polled all 50 states and found no evidence of voter fraud. Ah, who am I kidding? This is the Trump administration! Facts don’t matter, only unfiltered outrage does! So who are they accusing of what exactly?

Facebook has taken down a group that had amassed more than 300,000 members and was sharing misinformation and organizing around false allegations of impropriety during the 2020 elections.

The group, called “Stop the Steal 2020,” was organizing protests targeting the election officials currently counting ballots cast in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

“In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the Group ‘Stop the Steal,’ which was creating real-world events,” said a Facebook spokesperson in a statement emailed to TechCrunch. “The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group.”

Protestors advocating for votes to be counted and for vote counting to cease are cropping up across the country as Republican Party organizers and campaign officials try to derail the count of mail-in ballots and absentee votes cast in the 2020 race and Democratic supporters organize counter-protests.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/05/facebook-takes-down-stop-the-steal-2020-group-organizing-around-false-claims-of-election-chicanery/

Oh god what are you people rabbling about again? Seriously it’s time for you to shut up and let the adults run the country again. You snowflakes can go run to Parler and engage in white supremacist circle jerks for the rest of time. So one state in particular – has been the product of conservative anger and that’s Nevada, even though Joe is leading by a sizable margin there and they have the least amount of votes. I mean come on really, grow up guys.

Politically right-leaning demonstrators gathered for a second night of "Stop The Steal" protests outside of the Clark County Election Department building in North Las Vegas Thursday night.

Conservative activist and Donald Trump supporter, Michael Couldrey, announced a "call to action" on social media earlier in the afternoon asking supporters to bring signs outside of the building.

The protest grew to more than 150 individuals in attendance, many carrying pro-Trump signs that included messaging that alleges election officials are "stealing the election" for Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

News 3 crews on scene spoke to a couple of demonstrators, who said they wanted to keep the event peaceful and just wanted to make their voices heard.

The protests come as the president and several conservative outlets highlight concerns of election irregularities in several states, including Nevada.
https://news3lv.com/news/local/stop-the-steal-protesters-gather-outside-clark-co-election-department-for-second-night

Well that is a good point! So who’s organizing these protests and what do they hope to accomplish? So one of these guys is Ali Alexander, a high profile Trump troll who is the very definition of a guy who is voting against his best interests. And the way he’s being funded is by people who willfully give him some money through online payment apps like Paypal and Venmo. Yeah this guy is a real piece of work, we may have to profile him for a future “This Fucking Guy”.

Right-wing “Stop The Count” protests that have sprung up in the last 72 hours to attempt to manipulate the vote-counting process in favor of Donald Trump appear to be at least partially artificially bolstered by paid Republican operatives. But unlike previous coordinated protests that have been revealed to be supported well-funded and organized conservative interests, the demonstrations have been organized largely by a collection of disgraced right-wing internet figures. Some have been all but discarded from mainstream Republican circles for being too extreme, too inept, or some combination of the two. Despite this, they’ve been good at one thing: figuring out how to spin never-ending mishaps into continued careers.

The protests have grown since Election Day, with FreedomWorks and Trump’s 2020 digital director getting involved in the events, according to The Guardian and Washington Post. Here’s a smattering of some of the more compelling characters involved:
Ali Alexander

After one of the first 2020 primary debates, Alexander went viral claiming that Kamala Harris wasn’t an “American Black,” because she was of Jamaican and Indian heritage, instead of descending from African-Americans who had been forced into Antebellum-era slavery. Alexander was convicted of two felonies in 2007 and 2008, and has a track record of publicly noting people for are Jewish. He made a sensationalist video with right-wing snafu generator Jacob Wohl and Laura Loomer, the Islamaphobic failed Congressional candidate, wherein Wohl seemingly fakes the group receiving death threats during filming.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/11/stop-the-steal/

Seriously where is that guy when you need him? And by the way in case you were wondering, yes, the group is advocating for violence. And yes, Facebook banned them. But you can only keep trolls banned for so long before they start coming out of the woodwork. And they keep popping up elsewhere. Of course think of this as playing a game of Whack-A-Troll. These morons aren’t going away, they’re just getting both louder and dumber.

Facebook on Thursday banned a large group called “Stop the Steal” that supporters of President Donald Trump were using to organize protests against the presidential vote count. Some members had called for violence, while many falsely claimed that Democrats are “stealing” the election from Republicans.

Though the group amassed more than 350,000 members before Facebook took it down, it was just one of several smaller groups that popped up as vote counting extended for days in several battleground states. Inside the groups, members and organizers tried to ensure they would get around Facebook’s moderators and “trolls” who might report or mock them.

“In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the Group ‘Stop the Steal,’ which was creating real-world events,” Facebook said in a statement. “The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group.”

Facebook said it will continue to watch for activity that violates its rules and will take action if it does. As of Thursday afternoon, a copycat “Stop the Steal” group was growing steadily, nearing 13,000 members, and others were easily searchable on Facebook.

Inside the groups, members posted baseless claims of voter fraud and organized protests. Calls for violence were not immediately apparent, although the the Center for Countering Digital Hate shared a screenshot of one post in the now-banned group that read “Neither side is going to concede. Time to clean the guns, time to hit the streets.”
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-misinformation-violence-elections-d5c9bd5fe6a799fd627c50521b6cbb36

My fair congregation! You know this has been a trying time but we have finally emerged victorious! That is right! For one thing we are no longer virtual! We have a church again! Of course we lack things like an actual collection plate and our famous gospel choir, but we are slowly getting back to normal! That said we are once again going to test the religious requirements of IRS 501(c) because that’s what our brothers and sisters on the right are doing. And they are getting weirder, crazier, and more violent with their rhetoric. Which is what I’m sure the GOOD LAWRD JAYSUS had intended! Oh wait, he didn’t intend this. Let’s start with someone who I think is one of the craziest people on the religious right – Mark Taylor, that’s right, the Liberty University fake profit just won’t shut up.

During an appearance on the “Up Front In The Prophetic” YouTube program last Wednesday, QAnon conspiracy theorist and so-called “firefighter prophet” Mark Taylor declared that any Christian who voted for Joe Biden in the presidential election has cursed their family for generations to come.

After repeating his assertion that many of President Donald Trump’s critics are so thoroughly possessed by demons that they “aren’t human” any longer, Taylor attacked Christians who dared to vote against Trump.

“Let me tell you something,” Taylor fumed. “Every Christian, every pastor out there that voted for Joe Biden last night, you have brought a curse upon yourself and your family, your children, and your children’s children down to the third and fourth generation, and you need to repent.”

“You cannot call yourself a Christian and call yourself a [Democrat] and vote for Biden,” he continued. “You are implementing the dark agenda. Satan’s agenda. The kingdom of darkness. You are not supporting the kingdom of God. And if you cannot see that, if you do not repent, judgment will fall upon you, I believe, and your family and your children’s children down the third and fourth generation.”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/mark-taylor-says-christians-who-voted-for-biden-have-cursed-their-families-for-generations-to-come/

That’s right – the Devil walks among us!!! Or does he? Apparently according to these weirdos, we’re the ones to blame for America not voting the way GAWD intended! But the unholy Dark One, whose name shall not be mentioned in my church, has a spiritual advisor. I mean come on really, that is so hilarious but is not that unexpected! Oh and in case you are wondering she’s as crazy as he is!

Trump spiritual adviser and campaign surrogate Paula White hosted a second post-election prayer service Thursday night, during which she once again declared God’s intention to put President Donald Trump back in the White House and denounced the demonic forces she said are trying to derail God’s plans and Trump’s reelection. As on Wednesday, she was joined by her son Brad Knight.

“God has already settled his mind” about the election, White said. “We will override any will of man over the mind of God.”

White explained that “the Lord has already made his decision” but that there is a “spiritual battle” going on. She said that she was going to lead people in spiritual warfare to overturn “every evil wickedness” that was coming “against this nation and beyond this nation, what this nation is assigned to, what this nation has to carry forth with the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the prosperity of other nations, with the alignment of the church.”

“You said you will mow down the wickedness,” White prayed, adding:
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/paula-white-asks-god-to-override-will-of-man-and-keep-trump-in-office-her-son-urges-god-to-bring-rage-and-fury-against-those-who-resist-him/

That’s right – he’s the devil!!! But that isn’t stopping those who claim to be righteous from openly supporting the unholy Dark One! In fact this is the hill on which they are willing to die. And they’re not going away folks. Oh no. expect the rhetoric coming from our brothers and sisters on the right to get more violent and more crazy in the coming months! This is the kind of thing that their hard earned dollars get collected on Sunday for!

During Sunday services at televangelist Kenneth Copeland’s Eagle Mountain International Church, Copeland’s daughter and Eagle Mountain senior pastor Terri Pearsons called on God to arrange “another election” so President Donald Trump can be reelected to the White House.

Pearsons, who last week called on God to give Republicans control of the House of Representatives, reacted to the news that Joe Biden had been declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election by praising God for giving the Trump campaign legal strategies to expose the supposedly rampant voter fraud that caused Trump to lose and urging God to remedy this travesty by scheduling a new election.

“You’re giving our administration legal strategies,” Persons preached. “You frustrated the enemy. You caused them to turn on themselves. You caused them to reveal their hands. You caused their plots to be exposed. You caused their plans to be exposed. You caused those who worked evil and inequity to be exposed. And you sent the host of the angel armies, and you cooperated, Lord, from Heaven with your armies in the Earth. In Jesus’ name, we thank you that Heaven and Earth are working together. Thy will be done! Thy will be done. Thy will be done! Thy will be done! Thy will be done!”

“Lord, we don’t just look to the presidency,” she continued. “We’re asking you to straighten out every Senate race, straighten out every House race, straighten out every governorship, straighten out every state legislature, straighten out every mayoral election, straighten out every city council. Straighten ’em out. Straighten ’em out. Straighten ’em out. Expose it all. Expose it all. Expose it all, Lord.”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/another-election-terri-pearsons-calls-on-god-to-do-whatever-it-takes-to-ensure-trumps-reelection/

Whoa, the Reverend is getting uppity! And here’s the thing guys – you’re not prophets! And you deserve to be mocked because you say some unbelievably stupid and crazy shit. Yes, we’re allowed to swear in my church. I make the rules. So maybe if you stop saying stupid things and stop supporting batshit crazy ideologies, maybe we might take you seriously for a change!

Right-wing pastor Curt Landry streamed an emergency broadcast on his YouTube channel Wednesday in which he declared that President Donald Trump would be reelected because God will not allow prophets such as himself to be mocked by critics and unbelievers.

“Son of man, do you think that I am going to allow my prophets who prophesied Trump’s second term and prophesied all this goodness coming to this nation to be mocked by a mass media manipulation?” Landry asked rhetorically, speaking on behalf of God. “The Lord says, ‘No, I shall not. For my namesake, I shall protect my word, I shall protect my people, I shall protect my prophets from this evil destruction. For I shall pull back the veil and I shall reveal that which is done in darkness. For they who shift the votes and move the boxes around, those who raised the dead and the dead vote, I will expose them says the Lord. For they may be tricky men, but they shall not trick me,’ says the Lord.”

Landry then began to prophesy that Trump would win the states in which the vote count between the two major candidates was close.

“And the Lord says, ‘Son of Man, prophesy onto Wisconsin, that it will go red for Trump,'” Landry declared. “‘Prophesy onto Michigan that it will go red for Trump. Prophesy onto Pennsylvania that it goes red for Trump. Prophesy onto North Carolina that it goes red for Trump. Prophesy onto Georgia that it goes red for Trump. Prophesy onto to Nevada that it goes red for Trump. Prophesy for recounts in places where the corruption is there. Prophesy that the media will cancel the assignment to call the election.'”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/curt-landry-declares-trump-will-win-because-god-will-not-allow-his-prophets-to-be-mocked/

Oh if you think we will stop mocking you, you are wrong! You deserve every bit of it! Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Conspiracy Corner
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Hello again everyone and welcome back to the segment where we attempt to explain the things that cannot be explained, Conspiracy Corner! We of course are broadcasting this from an underground Doomsday Prepper shelter from deep in the alkalai flats of the New Mexico badlands – undisclosed location of course! Well our favorite crazy pseudo-religious cult known as Q Anon just refuses to go away. Even when Dear Leader does not get reelected. But they are getting out of the basement and going to Congress! Well of all the Q supporting candidates that ran in states like Florida, Georgia, and Colorado, one won. That is Marjorie Taylor Green. And if they actually got into Congress they could do some damage.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to condemn the pro-President Donald Trump online conspiracy theory known as “QAnon.” But multiple QAnon-friendly lawmakers may soon be taking seats in the House chamber.

More than two dozen candidates for Congress in the Nov. 3 elections have endorsed or given credence to QAnon or promoted QAnon content online, the non-profit watchdog group Media Matters says. Two are independents; the rest are Republicans.

At least one of them is expected to be elected to the House of Representatives next week, and a second has a good chance.

The FBI has listed QAnon as a domestic terrorism threat.

The unfounded conspiracy theory, which began in 2017 with anonymous web postings from “Q,” posits that Trump is secretly fighting a global cabal of child-sex predators that includes prominent Democrats, Hollywood elites and “deep state” allies.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-house-qanon-idUSKBN27B14J

You have to be crazy to believe in Q Anon. But of all the candidates who ran, one stands out above the rest and that is Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene. How did Greene worm her way into Congress? Well of course I don’t have to remind you that Q Anon believes in a baseless conspiracy theory about a secret society of Satanic pedophiles that rule the landscape and they’re all about to be doxed. But there’s no doxing going on here.

The apparent inevitable ascent to Congress of a Georgia Republican who has promoted the outlandish conspiracy theories of QAnon could be a bellwether for American politics, in which extreme views creep increasingly into the mainstream, experts on extremism told CNN.

Marjorie Taylor Greene -- who, in addition to promoting QAnon theories, has also suggested that President Barack Obama is Muslim, called Jewish billionaire and liberal philanthropist George Soros a Nazi, and questioned whether a plane really crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11 -- beat neurosurgeon John Cowan in a primary runoff on August 11.

A month later, her longshot Democratic challenger, Kevin Van Ausdal, dropped out of the race in the Republican stronghold, citing personal and family reasons, all but clinching Greene's victory for the 14th district congressional seat in northwest Georgia.

QAnon adherents believe in a baseless conspiracy theory that there is a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who have infiltrated the highest reaches of American government and are working hand-in-hand with other elites in business and Hollywood. They believe President Donald Trump is secretly fighting to destroy this cabal and that messages are being delivered to them in code by an anonymous central character called Q.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-qanon-congress-invs/index.html

Yeah probably! But here’s the thing – MIT’s Technology review pointed out that Congress actually had a hearing on how dangerous Q Anon was becoming. They started out as just a group of people we could laugh at. But now it’s getting real. In fact so real that they’ve actually got a foot in the door. And this is a reason why nobody should pay attention to conspiracy theorists. And when you do you probably shouldn’t have.

The news: In a 90-minute virtual US congressional hearing hosted by the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, representatives took stock of the state of misinformation in America and sought advice from some of the leading experts in the field. What they heard were urgent, alarming warnings about the state of truth, political fragmentation, and the spread of conspiracy theories, specifically QAnon.

Later that day during a televised town hall meeting, President Trump said he knew “nothing” about QAnon, before saying that he agreed with one of its central beliefs.

Who was there: The committee, headed by Democrat Adam Schiff, heard from four disinformation experts: Joan Donovan (a regular contributor to MIT Technology Review), Nina Jankowicz, Cindy Otis, and Melanie Smith. They discussed the proliferation of malign actors and misinformation around the election campaign, noting that they were the result of largely domestic forces. Otis remarked that they “embrace and deploy tactics that sound much more like foreign influence operations than the tactics of good digital campaigning.”

Who wasn’t: No Republicans attended the hearing. In fact, Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee have been boycotting almost all meetings for months. Jankowicz urged the depoliticization of online disinformation, saying that “disinformation is a threat to democracy no matter what political party it benefits.” Several witnesses and Chairman Schiff pointed out that President Trump regularly creates, shares, and amplifies disinformation.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/16/1010606/congress-was-warned-over-qanon-hours-later-trump-boosted-it/

We’re not surprised at all that nobody from the conservative side attended that hearing. Getting in bed with Q Anon is like eating that monster party sub. Sure it starts out to potentially be great. By the time you’re three feet in, the lettuce has wilted and the mayo is starting to turn. And then by the time you’re halfway through you’re already sick of it. Then nobody gets to the end of the sandwich and you wind up throwing it in the dumpster. But that said, Q Anon should probably be ignored.

Georgia’s Fourteenth Congressional District was created by Republican legislators about a decade ago, after the 2010 census. It’s bordered by Tennessee to the north and Alabama to the west, with jagged lines in between—which reflect, in part, an effort to redraw the neighboring Ninth District around the home of a Republican congressman, Doug Collins. Except for Athens, where the University of Georgia is based, north Georgia is highly Republican, “largely because it has very few minorities, and if you don’t have minorities you have a Republican district there,” Charles Bullock III, a political-science professor at U.G.A., told me. “But the kinds of Republicans there may have changed.” The Fourteenth incorporates some of the old Seventh District, which, in the seventies and eighties, was represented, as Bullock put it, by a “paranoid urologist” named Larry McDonald. McDonald was a Democrat, but he was also one of the most conservative members of Congress and the second president of the John Birch Society, a group committed to the idea that the civil-rights movement was a Communist plot. In 1983, McDonald was on a Korean Airlines flight to Seoul that accidentally flew into Soviet airspace. “He was very much a Russian conspiracist,” Bullock said. “And, sure enough, the Russians shot down a plane he was on, and killed him.” An investigation concluded that the Soviets had most likely misidentified the aircraft as a U.S. spy plane.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/how-the-qanon-candidate-marjorie-taylor-greene-reached-the-doorstep-of-congress

[font size="8"]People Are Dumb

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Hit it!

Of course you know by now that people are people and people are dumb. It’s been a while since we have done one of these, but there’s no shortage of stupid people. That’s one thing that will be a constant even in the Biden administration. First off, everyone should know that impersonating a police officer is a felonious offense right? Hell I learned that from the Simpsons episode where Marge is a police officer. And even if you do abuse your fake police officer privileges, is using it for fast food really the way you should go? Well that said, this might be one of the dumbest examples we’ve seen of someone abusing their right to be a fake police officer.

In a harebrained and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to score some free food, a Georgia woman posed as an FBI agent while demanding gratis grub from Chick-fil-A workers, cops allege. Late Thursday morning, police received a suspicious person call from employees at the eatery in Rockmart, a city 45 miles from Atlanta. A 911 caller reported that the suspect, who was in a white van, was “identifying themselves as a federal agent to try and get free food.”

When cops arrived at the Chick-fil-A around noon, they approached a white Dodge Grand Caravan whose driver was later identified as Kimberly Ragsdale, 47, who lives about 20 miles from the restaurant. Asked by an officer if she had been identifying herself as a federal agent, “Ragsdale stated that she was a federal agent,” according to a Rockmart Police Department report. In response to a police request to see her credentials, Ragsdale replied that she “did not have one that it was electronic.”

Ragsdale refused to exit her van until an officer displayed his taser and warned that it would be deployed unless she got out of the Dodge. After being handcuffed, Ragsdale continued her charade. “Ms. Ragsdale then began to talk into her shirt like she was talking into a radio telling someone that we were arresting her and to send someone to Rockmart PD,” reported Officer William Gilstrap.

Chick-fil-A workers told another cop that Ragsdale had been coming to the restaurant (seen below) “for several days saying she worked with the FBI and requested free food.” Ragsdale was charged with impersonating a public official.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/chick-fil/chick-fil-a-masquerade-021749

Maybe don’t give that guy a badge. Next up – remember that episode of the Simpsons where Homer buys a Monkey’s Paw and it gives him three wishes? Well in India there’s a story of men who were tricked into buying Aladdin’s lamp. Now come on really this is a special kind of stupid here because everyone knows that’s fake and Robin Williams won’t pop out of the lamp when you rub it, right?

Two men have been arrested in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly duping a doctor into buying an "Aladdin's lamp" that they promised would bring him wealth and health.

As part of the con, they even pretended to conjure up spirits from the lamp, in line with the tale from The Arabian Nights, Indian media report.
"during one visit 'Aladdin' actually made an appearance

The men had reportedly wanted more than $200,000 for the lamp but settled for a down payment of $41,600.

A third, female, suspect is at large.

The doctor reportedly filed a complaint with local police in Meerut, western Uttar Pradesh, earlier this week.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54759863

Yes, please clap! Next up – we go to the Land Down Under. That’s Australia don’t you know? Well there’s stupid criminals as much as there are stupid police. And by stupid police I mean cops who do dumb shit. Let’s be clear here. Here’s the thing too – everyone is afraid of being involved in violence, but would you ever mistake a plant for a weapon? I mean come on when plants are outlawed…

Police called out to investigate reports a masked man was armed with a machete discovered he was carrying a bag of leeks.

The alarm was raised by a member of the public on Thursday evening who thought a man in Aberdeen's Provost Watt Drive was carrying a weapon.

Officers attended and CCTV showed a man in a shop buying the mask and leeks.

Police Scotland said it had been established no crime took place and no further action was needed.

A spokeswoman confirmed: "A witness reported a man wearing a mask and carrying an item shaped like a machete.

"Officers conducted enquiries in the area and CCTV from a nearby premises showed a man in a shop buying a mask and leeks, which were put in a bag and are what the witness reported to police as being a potential weapon."
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-54746440

Next up – remember that scene from Vegas Vacation when Randy Quaid’s cousin Eddie cooks chicken on some hot desert rocks instead of a grill? Well just because they’re called “hot springs” doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re meant for cooking safely or sanitarily. After all we’re in one pandemic and the last thing we need is another one! Seriously people cook your food safely!

This is weird, even by 2020 standards. A group of people, including a man from Idaho Falls, was recently busted in Yellowstone National Park while they were cooking a chicken in one of the park's geothermal hot springs.

The culinary event happened in early August, according to Nate Eaton at East Idaho News, when park authorities were given reports of a group carrying cooking gear towards a hot spring. Rangers arrived and found the group had two chickens cooking in the hot waters of a spring. The Idaho Falls man was given a citation for walking in the thermal area, to which he plead guilty. He was also given a $600 fine, probation, and he is banned from Yellowstone for the next two years.

I can't imagine that chicken boiled in sulfur heated water can be very delicious, and while Yellowstone may be doing many things to improve the park for visitors, cooking stations at the geysers isn't part of the plans. Yet. Travelling off the designated paths is dangerous at Yellowstone as ground can be brittle and home to a body of hot water underneath. Many of the geysers and hot springs are unpredictable, so park rangers take the off-trail excursions very seriously. Plus, you don't need to leave the pathways to have an amazing vacation at Yellowstone and you also don't need a lot of time. A nice weekend vacation to Yellowstone is possible for residents of Southern Idaho.
https://kezj.com/idaho-man-busted-cooking-chickens-in-yellowstone-hot-spring/

I like how even the bottle and glass get deep fried! Finally this week – we go of course to the Sunshine State, America’s most penis-shaped state, the state of Florida. Seriously where would this segment be without the state of Florida? They never fail to provide the crazy. And someone who eats fast food, I love a good fast food rage story. Give me a story about a guy who calls 911 because McDonalds didn’t give him the right chicken nugget sauce and I’m in! Here’s one where a guy melted down because Checkers ran out of lettuce. Come on!

Lettuce calm you down, sir.

A Florida man was arrested this week after allegedly suffering a lettuce-related meltdown, The Smoking Gun reported Friday.

Henry Arce-Cabellero, 49, has been hit with misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct in an establishment as well as resisting an officer without violence, for the incident late Wednesday when he hit the windows of a Tampa Bay-area Checkers restaurant.

A criminal complaint notes that the man was “yelling and screaming” at employees — who then had “fear for their safety” — because, as authorities say, “he was upset that the store had no more lettuce for their sandwiches.” ...........(more)

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-florida-man-arrested-lettuce-meltdown-20201107-nu6b4hihgndj3ai2vjxv7sm574-story.html

That’s it this week for:

[font size="8"]Road To The White House
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Welcome back to our ongoing segment covering our now 46th president’s historic election in… *cue reverb* THE ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE!!! Ooh that was some good reverb there! We did it! Joe Biden is our 46th president! Or is he? He may have got 279 electoral votes but Trump is still refusing to concede. And it’s quite possibly the stuff of pure insanity. Remember during the beginning of his term I said that he’d go full Howard Hughes? Well that distinct possibility still remains. Well Trump of course is the egomaniacal narcissist everyone thought he was. And he’s attempting to stall and delay what is ultimately going to be the inevitable – he lost! And he’d better get used to losing because I forsee a lot of that in his future!

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a frequent GOP critic of President Trump, says it is “wildly inappropriate” for the administration to stonewall President-elect Joe Biden on the transition of power following last week's election.

“This latest move to employ the Department of Justice in all of this is so wildly inappropriate and stalling an orderly transition process especially at a time like this is equally unacceptable," Baker said in a statement Tuesday after Attorney General William Barr authorized the Justice Department to probe any "substantial allegations" of voter fraud, despite no evidence of widespread wrongdoing having been presented. "I can't think of a worse time to stall a transition than amid a deadly pandemic that the federal government continues to own primary responsibility for responding to."

Baker added that “if the Trump campaign has legitimate legal challenges” to the voting process, “they should bring them to court,” but he added, “I’m aware of no legitimate claims of wrongdoing anywhere near the scale of what it would take to change this outcome and there’s no credible third party entity that has verified the president’s claims in any way.”

Baker has previously criticized the president for his baseless claims about the reliability of mail-in voting, leading Trump to blast him as a “RINO,” or "Republican in name only."
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/525478-gop-massachusetts-governor-unacceptable-for-trump-to-stall-transition

Yeah probably. Trump blames everybody but himself for the things he’s done and it’s not surprising that we’re here now. And not only did we predict that Trump is going full Howard Hughes, he’s also going full dictator in his quest to hang onto the White House. But it’s slipping. And we want to know what Trump’s end game is. He has no path to reelection and like we said it’s just delaying the inevitable.

President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday dismissed President Donald Trump's refusal to concede the election as not very consequential to his efforts to begin transition planning and said it did not reflect well on Trump.

"I just think it's an embarrassment, quite frankly," Biden said. "How can I say this tactfully? I think it will not help the president's legacy."

Biden, the Democratic nominee, racked up the 270 Electoral College votes to clinch presidency on Saturday. Trump has falsely claimed the election was stolen, as his campaign mounts legal challenges in several states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada.

More:'Time to heal in America': President-elect Joe Biden, VP-elect Kamala Harris talk of unity

Biden is preparing for his Jan. 20 inauguration, including assembling an advisory panel to guide his efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he would likely make his first Cabinet announcements by Thanksgiving. Biden on Tuesday spoke to leaders of the United Kingdom, Germany, France and other European nations who congratulated him on a victory.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/10/joe-biden-reacts-trump-refusal-concede-its-embarrassment/6234083002/

Yes, run along Trump. It’s time to get the adults back in charge. Because if you don’t concede not only does it make you look bad, it makes your whole party look bad. Oh who am I kidding? This is the republicans we are talking about here – there’s nothing you can do to make them look embarrassing despite that they constantly look embarrassing!

The Department of Justice is “looking into” allegations by Republicans that illegal votes were cast in Nevada and Pennsylvania, NBC News reported Tuesday.

The investigations were disclosed after Attorney General William Barr, in a memo, authorized federal prosecutors to probe “specific” claims of voter fraud even before the election results of the race between President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden are certified.

Barr’s Justice Department is eyeing GOP claims that ineligible voters cast ballots in Nevada, and that there was backdating of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, a department source told NBC News.

After Barr’s memo, issued Monday, the head of the DOJ division that prosecutes election crimes resigned, in apparent disagreement with the new policy and its ramifications. The official, Richard Pilger, will continue to work within the DOJ.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/10/presidential-election-doj-eyes-nevada-and-pennsylvania-in-trump-biden-race.html

I’m not sure that’s quite how that works. But never the less we are going to keep an eye on the situation as it develops because Trump is going full dictator and that’s not a good thing. And if he somehow flips the election, he could install a dictatorship. And he’d have the Supreme Court backing him. But they’re going about finding voter fraud in the same way that Wiley Coyote chases the Road Runner. And they’re bringing in their arsenal of defective Acme products to do so!

Facebook on Wednesday announced an extension on its political advertising ban for at least another month, citing delays in election results due to COVID-19 and unprecedented rates of mail-in and absentee voting. The extension was announced in an update posted to its original blog post on the topic.

“The temporary pause for ads about politics and social issues in the US continues to be in place as part of our ongoing efforts to protect the election. Advertisers can expect this to last another month, though there may be an opportunity to resume these ads sooner,” the update reads. “Getting the US election results this year may take longer than in previous elections due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and more people voting by mail. We’ve introduced a range of policies and products to help protect the integrity of the election and reduce opportunities for confusion or abuse.”

What Facebook does not explicitly mention is that the current US presidential race has already been called in favor of President-elect Joe Biden, while President Donald Trump has refused to concede and is using claims of election fraud to dispute the results and mount legal challenges in battleground states.

That means Facebook’s ad ban is in effect preventing Trump from falsely declaring victory through ads or using its network to make other false or misleading claims (although he may still do so by posting through his page or other White House accounts). And because Trump’s refusal to concede and the fallout from that decision may only drag on well into next month and possibly January ahead of Inauguration Day, Facebook’s ad ban appears to be one tool the company thinks it will need to prevent further spread of misinformation on its social network.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/11/21560969/facebook-political-ad-ban-extended-trump-2020-election-concede-misinformation

See you next week!

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This is the official DU account for the new format Top 10 Conservative Idiots separate from the host account Initech. The new format Top 10 will launch June 13th, 2018 and all posts related to the Top 10 (promos, etc) will be posted from this account only. The Top 10 is posted once a week on Thursdays at 2:00 PM. There is a full archive of all past, present and future Top 10 editions that can be found here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218599098\ Announcements for our current season schedule are posted in our Best Of editions that appear at the end of each season. Updates are posted regularly on the official Top 10 Mastodon account and the official Holy Shit Mastodon account. The Mastodon accounts are used to announce what's going to be in next week's edition, new content, advertising our segments, and so on. This account will post official Top 10 editions, and any related content including our spinoff series: Holy Shit The Sunday Sermons. If you wish to contact the Top 10 you may do so here: E-mail (all questions, concerns, suggestions, and hate mail welcome): Top10ConIdiots@gmail.com Follow the Top 10 on Mastodon: Top10ConIdiots@mstdn.party Follow The Holy Church Of The Top 10 on Mastodon: ChurchOfTop10@mstdn.party **This account will ONLY be used to post official Idiots editions, promos, and things related to the Top 10. No other posts will come from this account** Top 10 Wiki: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211322508