Another detail of Bannon’s beheading fantasy:

Speaking on his podcast, the War Room, which was distributed in video form on a number of social media outlets, the far-right provocateur appeared to endorse violence against Wray and the US’s most senior infectious diseases expert.

“Second term kicks off with firing Wray, firing Fauci … no I actually want to go a step farther but the president is a kind-hearted man and a good man,” Bannon said.

Ahhhhhhhh no. No he’s not. That’s the very thing he isn’t. It’s the very worst thing about him – the all too obvious fact that there isn’t the tiniest trace of ordinary normal human sympathy and kindness in him. He could see a … Read the rest

This brave new world…

Twitter permanently suspended an account associated with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon after he suggested in a video posted online Thursday that Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be beheaded.

Bannon made the comments calling for medieval violence during a livestream of his talk show and podcast, War Room: Pandemic.

“I’d put the heads on pikes. Right. I’d put them at the two corners of the White House. As a warning to federal bureaucrats: Either get with the program or you’re gone,” he said in the now-deleted video previously posted on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. However, it has been recirculated through other accounts.

Totally normal, right? We know Fauci … Read the rest

State of play:

Joe Biden appears to be on the cusp of the victory in the US presidential election, as the Democratic nominee grows his leads in Pennsylvania and Nevada.

“Grows his leads”? His leads grow, or increase, but he’s not “growing” them, like a tomato patch. Get a grip.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

Biden now leads Donald Trump by 13,220 votes in Pennsylvania, but the AP has not yet declared a winner in the state. Biden is clearly intending to declare victory, with plans to deliver a primetime address tonight.

Georgia will hold a recount to settle the virtual tie between Biden and Trump in the state. As of now, Biden leads Trump by

Trump has issued another official whine.

“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. This is about the integrity of our entire election process,” Trump said.

Hahaha that’s funny. No it’s not. Nothing Trump does is ever about anything other than Trump.

“From the beginning we have said that all legal ballots must be counted and all illegal ballots should not be counted, yet we have met resistance to this basic principle by Democrats at every turn. We will pursue this process through every aspect of the law to guarantee that the American people have confidence in our government. I

Oh and there’s this.

CNN: Mark Kelly wins AZ senate seat. Arizona will now have two democratic senators. Stunning.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 6, 2020

Arizona. Barry Goldwater country.

The vermin exodus has begun.

Sources close to the White House said some senior officials inside the White House and the campaign are beginning to quietly back away from Trump, in acts of self-preservation, as the returns in Pennsylvania and Georgia indicate the President will not win reelection. https://t.co/Pi50hRjavO

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 6, 2020

There is a battle over strategy right now, according to a source close to WH. Trump is telling people he wants to take these lawsuits up until December when the electors certify. Many around

Trump “has no plans to concede.”

Naturally.

In conversations with allies in recent days, President Trump has said he has no intention to concede the election to Joe Biden, even if his path to a second term in office is effectively blocked by losses in places like Georgia and Pennsylvania. 

That’s Trump for you. Just Say No.

Aides, including his chief of staff Mark Meadows, have not attempted to bring Trump to terms [with] what’s happening and have instead fed his baseless claim that the election is being stolen from him.

Trump’s allies have grown concerned that someone is going to have to reckon with [telling] the President that his time in office is potentially coming to an end, though

It seems that Biden is now far enough ahead in Pennsylvania that it’s game over.

Biden will almost certainly pull off a comfortable win in Pennsylvania with 40,000 to 100,000 votes depending on who’s back of the envelope math you want to believe. But, the state may not be called for a few hours yet.

Speaking at a press conference, Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney was asked for his response to Trump’s baseless accusations of voter fraud in the city.

Kenney replied, “I think what the president needs to do is, frankly, put his big boy pants on. He needs to acknowledge the fact that he has lost, and he needs to congratulate the winner.”

No doubt Princess Ivanka will persuade … Read the rest

Maggie Haberman on that press conference full of lies:

President Trump broke a two-day silence with reporters to deliver a brief statement filled with egregious falsehoods and smears about the election process as workers in a handful of states continued to tabulate votes.

The president painted the election results so far as part of a broad conspiracy to deprive him of a second term by Democrats, election officials in various cities and the news media.

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” Mr. Trump began when he took the podium in the White House briefing room, a false statement that cast aspersion on the rest of the election. He offered no evidence; instead, he listed a series

This is it.

Trump opens his news conference by saying "if you count the legal vote, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us." This is a lie. There is no evidence of election fraud. pic.twitter.com/BAVSazAmLr

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 5, 2020

"It's going to end up, perhaps, at the highest court of the land" — Trump is really gonna try and steal this election. If he succeeds the US will no longer be a democracy. pic.twitter.com/gHp0B0ypjJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 6, 2020

"As you know, I've claimed certain states," Trump says, as though calling dibs means he's won. He then walks off without taking any questions.

Oh god, Trump is giving a speech, a coup-preparing lying violence-inciting nation-undermining speech.

Trump begins by lying that "if you count the legal votes, I easily win." Absolute garbage.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 5, 2020

There is no basis for Trump's regular claims that polls were deliberately inaccurate "suppression polls" designed to deflate his supporters. The wrong polls are just wrong.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 5, 2020

There is no basis for Trump's suggestion there's something nefarious or "miraculous" about him losing his lead in various states.

The votes are being counted, the end.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 5, 2020

Trump lies that mail-in voting is corrupt.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 5, 2020

Trump lies that

Awkward.

America’s friends sighed and exchanged glances as the election results came pouring, then trickling in. They waited for the United States to say something, but it didn’t. “So,” Canada said, then cleared its throat. “So, uh, after that last election, you were pretty —”

“Pretty adamant,” New Zealand said. “Pretty adamant that this whole electing Donald Trump thing was a random fluke, an aberration, and not who you were at all.”

It’s a good joke, and it stings. I have to say, though, that I haven’t been saying that, and I’m far from the only one. This clearly is who we are and that is sickening.

“But you certainly don’t vote for him by mistake a second

Helen Dale points out an interesting fact:

It is reasonably obvious the People’s Republic of China is engaging in genocide—or something close to—of its Muslim Uyghur population. Everything from concentration camps to mass sterilisation to adverts for “beautiful” female slaves in Xinjiang papers has done the rounds. Sometimes the stories are doubted at first—being alert to WWI-style atrocity propaganda is always wise—but in each case, the rumour has been confirmed by reputable news outlets and national governments across the political spectrum and around the world.

It’s also reasonably obvious no Muslim-majority country anywhere has emitted a peep in protest, and that beyond perfunctory diplomatic representations, no Western government—with the partial and limited exception of Donald Trump popping off in

This is one take, but it leaves a lot out.

In the expectations game, the Democratic Party whiffed and whiffed badly. The Biden campaign and its allies managed to drive up turnout — but so did Trump. Republicans put up a hell of a fight, and not just, or even mainly, in the battle for the White House. Democrats have almost certainly failed to win a Senate majority, and so far they have lost some ground in the House as well (while still on track to maintain control of the lower chamber of Congress).

This is one reason it’s so infuriating to me that we ended up with Biden. A less inspiring candidate it’s hard to imagine. The Democratic … Read the rest

Whether Trump goes or not, Trumpism isn’t going anywhere.

Democrats had hoped that four years of turmoil, attacks on norms and institutions and mendacity – plus a pandemic that cost 230,000 lives – would result in a quick, clean and overwhelming repudiation of the 45th president.

…

But on another miserable night for pollsters, it did not turn out that way. Trump proved resilient and increased his vote in Florida, Texas and other states. He found even more white working-class voters than last time and chipped away at Democratic support among Latinos. His cult-of-personality campaign rallies were as enthusiastic and rambunctious as ever.

Weird, isn’t it? His cult of loud boring stupid self-obsessed “personality” remains popular. Why? What’s to … Read the rest

No.

“Blasphemy in garb of freedom of expression is intolerable”

Prime Minister Imran Khan pic.twitter.com/OtoP8tuXP6

— Government of Pakistan (@GovtofPakistan) November 5, 2020

No, chum, that’s wrong. The concept of “blasphemy” is pretty much the reason we need the concept of freedom of expression and speech and thought.

“Blasphemy” is a stupid word, invented to defend stupid ideas about supernatural bullies who are vastly more powerful than we are yet still need us to defend them against rude remarks by non-believers. What sense does that make? Why can’t your god do its own defending or rebuking or punishing? Why does it need you stepping in? Why does it need you all stern and serious telling us what we can’t say?… Read the rest

Still waiting.

Trump still bellowing nonsense.

Donald Trump is again tweeting in all caps, making false claims about the remaining ballots left to be counted.

“ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!” Trump said.

He doesn’t get to make new law via a tweet. He doesn’t get to make new law at all; he’s not a legislator.

Also, this is the guy who deliberately sandbagged the postal service, by appointing a stooge who removed sorting machines and banned overtime, thus causing the mail to back up, thus causing votes to be held up. Now he wants to execute the second arm of this plot by shouting that postmarks don’t matter.

STOP THE COUNT!

National Geographic informs us of the discovery of a 9 thousand year old burial of a hunter of large game in the Andes who turned out to be a woman:

…the remains found alongside the toolkit were from a biological female. What’s more, this ancient female hunter was likely not an anomaly, according to a study published today in Science Advances. The Haas team’s find was followed by a review of previously studied burials of similar age throughout the Americas—and it revealed that between 30 and 50 percent of big game hunters could have been biologically female.

This new study is the latest twist in a decades-long debate about gender roles among early hunter-gather societies. The common assumption was that

CBS is projecting Biden as the winner in Michigan.

We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead. Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact,…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020

Hahahahaha no Donnee that’s not how it works. You can “claim” it all you like but it doesn’t mean anything.

After the random number of …………….. he ranted about secretly dumped ballots. Twitter stamped “DO NOT BELIEVE THIS” all over both of them.

Good point. The Constitution clearly says “A state’s electors can be won if

More attempted election theft, not from the Democrats, again.

They're going with the Brooks Brothers riot method of shutting down the vote. https://t.co/3cFpMOuolo

— digby (@digby56) November 4, 2020

When the Republicans stole the election that way in 2000 the Dems folded. They must not fold this time. (They shouldn’t have folded then either.)… Read the rest

Rudy Giuliani, former top NY prosecutor, is accusing The Wrong Party of stealing votes, on the basis of nothing whatever apart from the fact that he’s a piece of shit.

En route to Philadelphia with legal team.

Massive cheating.@realDonaldTrump up by 550,000 with 75% counted.

Will not let Philly Democrat hacks steal it!

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) November 4, 2020

Quick fact-check on Giuliani’s tweet: there is no evidence of “massive cheating” in Pennsylvania or any other battleground state.

There is also no evidence that Pennsylvania Democratsare trying to “steal” the race. Election officials in the state continue to count valid ballots cast by election day.

This is America, where legal eagles tell lies about their … Read the rest