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

Biden’s won Wisconsin. We’re not dead yet.

The announcement from Wisconsin aligns with the Biden campaign’s statements that they are optimistic the race is moving in their direction. Biden’s electoral vote count is now up to 248, meaning he will win the election if he can maintain his leads in Nevada and Michigan.

Trump is demanding a recount but it’s unlikely to make a difference.

Nevada says it will update its count tomorrow. That’s fine, you guys take your time, we’re in no hurry.… Read the rest

These two were a pair in my feed. A dismal truth.

We can’t underestimate the role disinformation played in this campaign, but if we don’t face the fact that this country is really fucking racist, nothing will change.

— Mary L. Trump (@MaryLTrump) November 4, 2020

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1324050905604542464

Trump is an actual literal criminal on a massive scale, but it doesn’t matter because he’s a racist and he empowers racists.

It’s shameful being an American at this point.… Read the rest

Lots of heavy breathing about this hot item:

Sarah McBride has won her Delaware State Senate race, NBC News projects, poising her to become the first and only openly transgender state senator in the U.S. and the country's highest-ranking transgender official. https://t.co/0g1O6n4FZ0

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) November 4, 2020

In other words a man was elected state senator. Big first; much excite.… Read the rest

A distraction while we wait. Yaniv sues again!

A Canadian transgender woman is suing a beauty pageant company for refusing to allow her to compete in its contest, according to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom, which represents the business.

But it’s a beauty pageant. It’s selective by its nature. Personally I don’t think the damn things should exist at all, but they do exist, and nobody expects them to include Joe of the beer belly and jowls to be able to participate.

Jessica Yaniv, a transgender LQBTQ rights activist, filed a human rights complaint against Toronto’s Canada Galaxy Pageants alleging it is in violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code, the conservative legal policy organization announced Monday.

In

So now I’m picturing the Supreme Court justices huddling in their huddle room with Amy Coney Barrett all enthusiastic saying come on guys it’s time to stop the vote count the way Trump said to, that’s what I’m here for, what’s the holdup?

In any case, the fact that it’s this close after the past four years is absolutely disgusting. Who ARE these people?

At 2:30 in the morning his time Trump told some cheering people in the East Room that he had more votes in Pennsylvania at that moment so he wanted the vote counting terminated so that he could claim to have won. The cheering people duly cheered. There’s a slight technical problem with that which is he … Read the rest

Another from Pliny:… Read the rest

I see last time I stopped posting at 3:40 in the afternoon (Pacific time). It’s 5:15 now and it’s not looking good for Florida, which is important.

Last time my first post on the day after was…not happy.

I want him gone.… Read the rest

Rep. Clyburn: "I voted for Joe because I thought Joe would restore goodness to the American system. He's a good man and Donald Trump is not."

Neil Cavuto: "Well, that's a little extreme." pic.twitter.com/y34IAiocmj

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 3, 2020

No it isn’t. It isn’t extreme at all. Trump is a very very very very VERY bad man. I can believe Bush junior is a decent guy in private. I think he probably has some redeeming qualities. Trump has none, and believe me I’ve looked. I’ve said for the past four years that I’ve never seen anything like it – anyone so thoroughly bad in every single detectable category. He doesn’t even have charm, he’s not funny… Read the rest