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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

[oilcan]

All the new appointments is the equivalent of urinating all over the Oval Office so the next occupant has to waste time and delay important tasks cleaning up the mess.   What a malignant child 45 is.   

Scroll down to the section titled Burrowing...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/politics/trump-officials-ousted-burrowing/index.html

[bodiddley]

Some of the names kicking around for Biden Cabinet:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/us/politics/biden-cabinet.html
(I simply stop it from loading before the paywall drops)

A woman as Sec. of Defense is interesting.
Michele Flournoy has been the rumored frontrunner.
They also mention Sen Duckworth

Keisha Lance Bottoms could use a bigger more high profile role on the national stage.  I like the idea of rewarding losing senate candidates such as Doug Jones & Steve Bullock (especially since they won before, so aren't just losing candidates).

Lots of names I'm not familiar with.
Biden really needs to do a good job with Health and Surgeon General.
Don't want to continue with the same mediocre and Trump complicit crowd that have largely failed during the pandemic.

Not likely, but if GA comes through and we get to a 50-50 Senate, then the calculus on selecting Senators for Cabinet positions could change significantly.  You'd need to make sure that the appointees would be staunch Dems and Biden supporters.  And you want to retain strong voices in the Senate and not lard up on novices.  For instance with a 50-50 Senate, I'd probably want Liz Warren there rather than in the Exec branch ... depending upon who might replace her.

Plus need to figure in the need for special elections that would come up sooner than a complete term, and could provide the GOP with a early opening to get the Senate back.  50-50 and my guess would be few senators would be nominated by Biden for his cabinet.

[bodiddley]

On Wednesday, Chinese officials described a new measure designed to keep the Legislative Council in line. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislative body, said that lawmakers who support Hong Kong independence, refuse to recognize the country’s sovereignty over the city, seek out foreign or external forces to interfere with domestic affairs, or engage in acts that endanger national security will face immediate disqualification.

Lawmakers who fail to meet the statutory requirements for upholding the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s local constitution, and swearing “allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China” will also be ousted, it added.

Not good.
4 lawmakers ousted.  Another 13 in their party quit in solidarity.
And the HK gov't is happy it'll be able to pass China-approved laws easier.
Wonder if they made the move now to hide the news during the American transition/tumult.

[kidcarter8]

Lots of names I'm not familiar with.
Biden really needs to do a good job with Health and Surgeon General.
Don't want to continue with the same mediocre and Trump complicit crowd that have largely failed during the pandemic

What do you think the odds are that Republicans hire only the "bad" health people, while Biden will find and hire the "good"?

Child.

[Hairy Lime]

I think Biden should appoint one or two sitting Republican senators from states with Democratic governors, and then fire them in two or three months.

[REDSTATEWARD]

Supreme Court appears ready to uphold Affordable Care Act over latest challenge from Trump, GOP

Alito and Breyer and others questioning whether the states have standing.
That is, how are they harmed?

Kavanaugh sees this as a simple severability case if the $0 mandate is deemed unconstitutional (ie not a tax because it doesn't raise any revenue anymore).

Roberts thinks it's bunk in many ways.

Right now, Thomas probably the only justice ready to strike down the entire ACA.
Possibly Barrett too, but would she want to start off so harsh and strident?

I'm guessing SCOTUS might just dump the case of lack of standing.
And if there are 5 or 6 votes agreeing the $0 mandate is not a tax and therefore beyond Congress' power, they'll likely be 6 or more votes for severability, just cutting out the mandate and leaving the law in place.

Not surprising.  Pandemic raging and the SCt is going to take insurance away from 23M Americans?  Not likely.  Roberts is going to keep things under control for a while longer, until the other 5 conservatives start ignoring him and doing as they please.

Questioning by justices is a rather unreliable guide as to how they will vote.

Probably not in this case.
CJ Roberts made the point

“It’s hard for you to ar­gue that Con­gress in­tended the en­tire act to fall if the (tax)man­date were struck down when the same Congress that low­ered the penalty to zero did not even try to re­peal the rest of the act,
Obviously Congress hoped SCOTUS would do the work for them.
This version of SCOTUS, with Amy Barrett aboard,now is flipping the script and telling Congress  to put its big boy pants on.

[bankshot1]

I think Biden should appoint one or two sitting Republican senators from states with Democratic governors, and then fire them in two or three months.

I think that's an excellent idea. In Louisiana, Sen John Kennedy, would make a fine addition to the Biden cabinet. In addition to bringing back a hallowed name to Dem-national prominence , Sen Kennedy, fondly known as Gomer amongst friends, would make a fine Secretary of "Aw shucks" or Country and Western music.

[facilitatorn]

Lots of names I'm not familiar with.
Biden really needs to do a good job with Health and Surgeon General.
Don't want to continue with the same mediocre and Trump complicit crowd that have largely failed during the pandemic

What do you think the odds are that Republicans hire only the "bad" health people, while Biden will find and hire the "good"?

Child.

It is a certainty (do you know the odds that something certain will happen?) republicans hire only the "bad" health people, while Biden will find and hire the "good".

Veijo travieso.

[bankshot1]

So Esper is out at Defense, and Darth Vader is pinch-hitting.

Who remembers when "junta" used to refer to a banana republic's abuse of power and the cessation of democracy? 

and I'm only being semi-facetious.

[josh]

Lots of names I'm not familiar with.
Biden really needs to do a good job with Health and Surgeon General.
Don't want to continue with the same mediocre and Trump complicit crowd that have largely failed during the pandemic

What do you think the odds are that Republicans hire only the "bad" health people, while Biden will find and hire the "good"?

Child.

Given the job that Trump did hiring cabinet members, the chances are hire than I would have expected in 2015.

Given their refusal to listen to science, it's pretty high, "child."

[bodiddley]

What do you think the odds are that Republicans hire only the "bad" health people, while Biden will find and hire the "good"?

Child.

First off, Trump made lots of bad and terrible hires and then fired them and trashed them on the way out.

Secondly, it's not that Fauci or Birx were necessarily bad, it's just that they got steamrolled and weren't up to the task of defending science in the wake of Trump's anti-science assault.  They made mistakes (especially with regards to masks; and were cowed by Trump).  They are tainted and need replacing.  Fauci will be 80 before Biden starts. 

Now Scott Atlas, he goes directly into the bad category.  But he was never a serious epidemiologist or public health expert, just a hack who supported fringe policies of doing nothing/herd immunity which provided cover for Trump. 
Jerome Adams was a non-entity.  Redfield incompetent and in over his head.  Azar useless.

The question for you is why did Trump sideline his initial CV team of Redfield. Azar, Adams?  

And then later why did Trump marginalized Birx (who was disappeared) and muzzled Fauci (not allowed on TV)?

Basically Trump politicized every aspect of the Virus and its handling to the detriment of the country.  Pence and Jared seem to be the main advisors on CV-19.

In short, Biden will choose competent experts and follow the science.
Not political hacks.  And won't muzzle and sideline experts.
So half of it is HOW Biden will use health experts.
And the other half is Biden won't pick partisan outlier hacks such as Atlas.

A much more thorough and considered response than your childish post merited.

Idiot.

[barton]

George Monbiot on Biden...

It brought a tear to the eye and a hand to the heart. Joe Biden, in his acceptance speech, called for unity and healing. He would work “to win the confidence of the whole people”. I just hope he doesn’t mean it. If he does, it means that nothing has been learned since Barack Obama made roughly the same speech in 2008.

The United States of America is fundamentally divided. It is divided between exploiter and exploited, oppressor and oppressed. There is no unity to be found with kleptocrats and oligarchs. Any attempt to pretend there is will lead to political failure. It will lead not to healing but to a deflected polarisation. If Americans are not polarised against plutocrats, they will be polarised against each other.

I understand that, in a sentimental nation, bromides like Biden’s might be considered necessary. But I fear he believes what he says. When he spoke to wealthy donors at the Carlyle hotel in Manhattan last year, he told them not only that “no one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change”, but also that “you have to be able to reach consensus under our system”. In this context, consensus looks like appeasement....   

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/11/us-trump-biden-president-elect

[josh]

Biden now has a bigger lead over Trump in Pennsylvania than Trump did over Clinton, by percentage of votes cast, not just raw numbers.

Mind you, it's miniscule so far: 0.00099% of the vote!

But it's been growing and will continue to do so as the counties (18 of them!)that haven't done their provisional ballots count and report them.

[kidcarter8]

Democrats did not pick up a single state legislative chamber, and their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives has narrowed, sparking calls for a change in leadership.

Moderates such as Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., Rep. Marc Veasy, D-Texas, and Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, joined a chorus of others who complained about calls by colleagues to defund law enforcement.



https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tlaib-fires-back-at-dems-who-said-progressives-hurt-them-in-election-i-cant-be-silent

[kidcarter8]

Republican Leader McCarthy may actually have an ability to form an alliance with 10 or 12 Democrats, who literally are in districts where they're going to get wiped out in '22 unless they find some way to separate," Gingrich told "America's Newsroom."

"If that happens, McCarthy actually will have more maneuvering on the floor than will Speaker Pelosi," he added.


https://www.foxnews.com/politics/congress-house-representatives-democrats-pelosi-mccarthy-election-2020-newt-gingrich