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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[facilitatorn]

http://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/21/north-carolina-ballot-extension-430662

Walk them in if you can when you vote.

The republicans are burning the house down to keep you from seeing how much of the furniture and the pipes they have already stolen.

[bambu.]

Wrong.
It is others who are burning down America.

[bodiddley]

Let’s check in with that 30,000-job $10bn Trump-Foxconn Wisconsin plant. Wow, way worse than we'd imagined:
Surreal tales from the Midwest

The 30,000 -> 13,000 -> 5,200 jobs? They currently stand at 281. And ... most of those workers sit around watching Netflix all day because they have literally nothing to do.

Phoney promises
It gets worse: in order to qualify for the massive incentives Wisconsin approved back in 2017, Foxconn had to meet minimum job hires. But those hires are only counted at the end of the year, which led to the company mass hiring in the last three months of the year and then laying most of the new workers off in January. The $100m grant to the Wisconsin-Madison University? It stopped at $700,000.

There is no LCD plant. In large part because the economics of it just don’t make sense: even when hiring people at $30,000 a year when Wisconsin’s median household income is about $60,000, it’s not possible to make a profit thanks to razor-thin margins. Of the $10bn promised, 2.8 per cent has been spent, and two per cent of the 20 million square-feet of promised factory has been built, according to Foxconn's own figures in its subsidy submissions.

The Wisconsin project may go down as one of the biggest political and economic con-jobs the US has ever witnessed, with both Trump and Scott pushing hype and big claims over reality.

[bodiddley]

Actually you go to the source article and it's even worse:
https://www.theverge.com/21507966/foxconn-empty-factories-wisconsin-jobs-loophole-trump

Even the handful of jobs the company claims to have created are less than real: many of them held by people with nothing to do, hired so the company could reach the number required for it to get tax subsidy payments from Wisconsin. Foxconn failed at that objective, too: last week, Wisconsin rejected the company’s subsidy application and found it had employed only 281 people eligible under the contract at the end of 2019. Many have since been laid off.

That illusion has had real costs. State and local governments spent at least $400 million, largely on land and infrastructure Foxconn will likely never need. Residents were pushed from their homes under threat of eminent domain and dozens of houses bulldozed to clear property Foxconn doesn’t know what to do with.

The building Foxconn calls an LCD factory — about 1/20th the size of the original plan — is little more than an empty shell. In September, Foxconn received a permit to change its intended use from manufacturing to storage.

Foxconn raced to finish buildings and set up an assembly line in time for a visit from Trump during the 2020 campaign.

All this in a key battleground state Trump needed to win.  And in the home district of  then House Speaker Paul Ryan  and Wisconsin State assembly leader Vos.  Fishy.

[josh]

http://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/10/20/1988202/-BREAKING-DeJoy-Pulling-All-Postal-Cops-Off-Duty-2-Weeks-Before-Election

Tuesday has come and gone. Now you Impeach DeJoy and that becomes the presiding Senate business.

Fuck with the mail, it costs you a Justice.

GOP: OH NOES! MAIL-based election fraud!

GOP, too: Let's take the postal police off the job these two weeks before the election.

[bodiddley]

As far as I can tell the whole Foxconn sham/charade was intended to promote their CEO Guo in a bid for Taiwan President (he didn't win). Getting him photo ops with Trump and the WI Gov, a lot of US fawning press, etc. 

There never seems to have really been a business plan or much intention of following through.  I guess it also put Trump in debt to Guo/Foxconn since they helped boost Trump.  Which could help shield their exposure to a US-China trade war.

Nothing good when Fox and con are linked up.
Be interesting to see who profited from this grift.
At least it helped take down Scott Walker, and might tip WI to Biden.

[kidcarter8]

I really should have arranged to vote in Florida where my family has an empty apartment (from an old aunt who died nearly  a decade ago).  But that would have involved going back to the US in 2019, which I thought about but didn't arrange.        I probably could have also arranged to vote in PA where my sister lives.  I could legitimately make the FLA apt my residence in the US.  Saying I lived with my sister or registering to vote from there might not be kosher.  But I haven't lived in NJ in nearly 3 decades, so not much difference and I am entitled to vote from somewhere.  Not much difference than the Trumps voting in Florida instead of NY.  Some venue shopping is legit.  But voting in NJ is rather a waste.  I'd never heard of the guy running against Cory Book.  And the presidential race isn't contested.  Only thing useful in NJ is to vote for marijuana this go round, to vote any primary challenger to Sen Menendez next time he runs, and to vote NJ Guv, where the GOP often runs well after some ridiculous Dem Guv scandal.

What's your beef with Menendez?

[Yankguy1]

I think the word "sleazy" was invented for Senator Menendez.

[kiidcarter8]

And you prefer the "cleaner" guys/gals that don't do particularly good work

Got it

[kiidcarter8]

Bo did sort of tip his hand that he would never vote for a Republican for NJ Senate

Meanwhile I vote for Booker and Menendez most every time out - til my party runs someone to my liking.

[Yankguy1]

And you prefer the "cleaner" guys/gals that don't do particularly good work

Got it

Did I say that?

[Hairy Lime]

Turns out that Biden Ad during Monday Night Football about a COVID-19 struggling Bar in Ann Arbor Michigan was False advertising.

In fact the Bar owner who blames the Trump Administration’s handling of the pandemic for his business struggles is actually a wealthy tech investor who made contributions to the former vice president’s campaign. He also supported Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home orders that kept businesses shuttered longer.

Apparently you CAN make this shit up.



http://www.foxnews.com/apps-products/index.html.

The bar owner may be wealthy but he can’t kerp his business open if customers are afraid for their lives.

This guy should dig in his own pocket and pay his employees until we get through the pandemic, right?

Yeah, and so should the US Senate that has been sitting on a relief bill since May.

PS...

When you’re trying to work the refs you know you’re losing.

When you post what you just you admit your cluelessness.

I'm going to parse this out... no, I cannot. Literally.

I'll just ponder the newsworthiness of the fact that a political ad features a politician's supporter.  Stop the presses!

[kidcarter8]

Trump's team did a horrible job negotiating with the partisan debate committee, of which in agreement with Sarah Sanders I feel should be disbanded

Would have liked to see at least a lengthier debate - with the last 30 minutes being sans moderator.

Ratings bonanza!

[bodiddley]

Pretty sure I never voted for a Republican for anything.
Hope to keep that a lifelong streak.
In the abstract I could vote for a moderate competent GOPer over Menendez.  But I wouldn't because the Senate balance is too important.

Too many corrupt politicians in NJ.
During the last Dem governor scandal, or maybe it was the one before that -- most news articles would say something to the effect of: NJ, the most corrupt state in the nation, except for Louisiana.  I mean NJ can't even manage to be first in anything ...

Kidding with that last line.  But really, NJ is the home of corruption and sleazy dealings, and mob influence, overly-corrupt unions that get taken over by the feds. Actually NJ probably leads the nation in politicians in jail -- though Illinois had an impressive run of governors going to the big house. 

I think I've documented here all of the crimes the local police in my old hometown have been engaged in the past two decades -- notably the officer who firebombed his chief's house at 2:AM, with the runner-up the officer who robbed a bank while on duty but was easily caught since he used his wife's car.  The most recent abuses involved a half dozen or so who were getting paid for no-show security jobs -- one officer actually got paid for working three different jobs during the same 8-hour shift.  Mighty shifty indeed.

Americans shouldn't put up with corruption.  But NJ especially needs to stamp it out.  Menendez was caught getting illegal contributions, doing political favors for his donor pal who was scamming Medicare, and credibly accused of sex with Dominican minors.   Should have been convicted.  Fuck him.  I'll take any honest Dem instead.  If it were any state office (besides Guv) I'd probably vote for any honest Repub over Menendez.  But isn't it possible to find an honest competent Dem pol to replace Menendez?

[Hairy Lime]

Yeah, and so should the US Senate that has been sitting on a relief bill since May.


Have they amended it from the latest 2.2 tril bill proposed?

Trump wants a LARGER bill than Pelosi has put forth - just making sure the cash goes to more reasonable spots.

You follow the news every day, right?

Right?

Do you? Trump wants a larger bill, a smaller bill, the amount the Repos proposed, more.than that and less that, no bill until after the election,  a d a bill right now, depending on the day of the week, and the time of the day. His having the consistency and attention span of a cocker spaniel puppy is one of the issues. As is the fact that McConnell has already signaled that the stimulus is not.even going forward in the senate. And that the definition of reasonable spots is highly political on Trump's part and neglects the strain on the public sector.