I've just been reading the transcript of Trump's phone call to the Georgia election officials -- the one where Trump urges them to overthrow the election in his favor based basically on social media myths and rumors. Honestly, the guy is delusional. He appears to really think he won Georgia because of the size of his rallies! Never mind that those people could have come from anywhere, and that Democrats weren't having equivalent rallies because of the coronavirus. Trump is tangled up in all this mumbo-jumbo about ballot shredding and ballot-box stuffing and blah blah blah, all the baloney that the right-wing Internet is in a rage about, but that state officials have already investigated and have said didn't happen. Trump is literally out of his mind.
It's terrifying to consider that he's been running the country for four years. Even though we all knew he was an incompetent bully, this phone call illumines his darkest, pettiest tendencies. He is weak-minded, he has the vocabulary of a ten-year-old, and he is utterly impervious to reason and the expert assurances of even his fellow Republicans. He has the blustering confidence of a complete idiot. It's astonishing.
Sixteen days. That's all we have to get through before this shitshow is over. Sixteen days.
Meanwhile, not a lot is going on around here. More reading, more dog-walking. I took the dog to the cemetery yesterday, where she was unusually subdued -- there was less squirrel-barking. I think she's a bit achey from our outing to the Heath on Saturday.
I found a perfectly good orange on the street -- it looks like it probably fell out of someone's grocery bag. I thought I'd suspend it from the bird feeder for the parakeets. If they're anything like the parrots in Florida, they ought to love an orange.
Speaking of Florida, I got my January box from my craft gin club, and it contained a brand of gin called "Lakeland Moon." This cracks me up, because as I've mentioned before, I once worked in a town called Lakeland in Florida. It's a mostly working-class city that used to be the heart of the state's citrus production. This label is way too elegant to have anything to do with my Lakeland -- a moon in Lakeland, Florida, would be some guy flashing his butt out the window of his pickup truck. (I think this is from England's Lake District. And what is "snowfell" gin, anyway? That sounds like an invented word.)
Oh, man. That Trump story just made me so cranky.
(Top photo: A door in Hampstead.)
I read the transcript before sitting down to read blog posts. It did the same to me. Un-frickin-believable. So 2 days to get through the electoral college process. And 14 from there to end this part of the shit show. It WILL continue. You must have just mentioned Lakeland because I had never heard of it until that post.
ReplyDeleteIt IS un-frickin-believable. That is exactly how I feel.
DeleteAh, my long comment did not publish.
ReplyDeleteAnd after clicking on traffic light photos, this one did.
ReplyDeleteOh no! I HATE it when that happens! I haven't enabled traffic-light confirmation so that is something Google has decided to do, apparently. I apologize on their behalf.
DeleteThe Hampstead door is wonderful. I like everything about it. The design, the colour and the polished brass work.
ReplyDeleteAs for Trump, life is too short to spend time reading the transcript. However you are certainly justified in feeling cranky as far as I'm concerned.
I find it in unbelievable that at this point in time Trump still thinks he did not lose the election.
Enough said.
Alphie
It IS a beautiful door. As I said, Trump is delusional.
DeleteTrump is calling for supporters to gather for a rally in Atlanta tonight ahead of the Senate re-run election. Has nobody told him that we are still in the middle of a deadly pandemic and large public gatherings are the ideal way of spreading the virus?
ReplyDeleteI just checked the dimwit's Twitter account. He has so far said nothing about his incriminatory phone call to Georgia's Secretary of State.
I haven't read about that Atlanta rally yet this morning, but I'm sure it was also a shitshow.
DeleteThe thing that boggles my mind is that he's now doing these things in plain sight. He's not even trying to hide who he is. Most of the country has seen it right along, granted, but I still do not understand how he has support from anyone at this point. Interfering with an election is a crime. He should be arrested for that phone call, president or not.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's astonishing how many people revere him as some sort of cult figure -- a national savior. It's bizarre.
DeleteWhat will it take to get this son of a bitch arrested? What?! I'm disgusted that he continues to get away with EVERYTHING. Disgusted.
ReplyDeleteI think Congress easily COULD impeach him again over this, although it's probably not worth it. He may find himself arrested when he is once again returned to private life.
DeleteWhat I most wish for the orange idiot is that suddenly absolutely no one will listen to anything he says.
ReplyDeleteThat he will have no followers on his twit account.
That he will fall into anonymity.
Can't think of a better punishment.
Well...maybe a locked cell. Un-padded.
Exactly. That's his worst nightmare -- irrelevance.
DeleteI was cranky all day yesterday because of that story and when I heard it again this morning, it made me cranky again. Worse than our idiot president is his group of elected minions who are also pushing the same load of crap. I never thought I'd see a day when reason and common sense was thrown out by so many people.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing, isn't it? Who ARE these people who think he's so wonderful, after all his reprehensible behavior? What could they possibly be thinking?
DeleteThe "blustering confidence of an idiot" Nailed it. Although you forgot "evil," which I truly believe he is. This morning I read that his (and flunkies') actions on that call were literally against the law.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Lakeland, I think it's also known for strawberries, although I confess I've not been there yet. Beautiful label.
I hesitate to call him "evil" only because I think it implies a degree of planning and intellectual engagement. He's basically just shooting from the hip every time he opens his mouth. (Mixed metaphor?) Plant City is more the epicenter of the strawberry industry, but yeah, Lakeland grows 'em too.
DeleteI read the transcript, too....with a dropped jaw. Now the right wing sites are saying that the Washington Post heavily edited the transcript. But when I read their version, the Cheeto spoke in complete coherent sentences. We all know that’s not how he talks. But it seems that he violated a federal statute regarding election fraud (is that a huge serving of karma or what?!), and in the 16 days we’ve got left of his rule, there WILL be federal charges. I hear he’s refused to give the postmaster a forwarding address but I suggest it be D.Trump, Inmate #01202021, New York Department of Corrections. We all know how he LOVES NY.
ReplyDeleteThe NYT published an unedited transcript, complete with all his sentence fragments and repetition. I wouldn't be surprised if he's eventually indicted for tax crimes.
DeleteI cannot wait for this shitshow to be over. It's unbearable. It keeps getting worse day by day. I am afraid for what he'll do in the next 16 days. I did see an op-ed in the New York Times that was titled "Is It Too Late To Impeach Trump Again?" I was was wondering the same thing. This guy has got to go...NOW.
ReplyDeleteIt IS unbearable, and I share your fear about what he'll do in the next few weeks. We can only hope that there are still enough sane people around him (who aren't complete sycophants) to keep him reigned in.
DeleteSteve when I heard this and they played his phone call I couldn't believe what this man is trying to do. He need to go to jail for the abuse of power because he did literally threaten this man telling him he know he can get in trouble. He scared a lot of his flunkies and they did things and went to jail behind it. I assume these people are waking up and not going to throw their careers in the lake and learn to record everything he is saying. Now Ted Cruz has replaced Rudy and he is fairly new in the Senate and keeping up crap. He barely won his second term over a year ago because he only won Beto by a few votes. We are going to turn his seat blue. Sometimes it take more than one try. I can't explain this crap. Why would the Senate need to authorize a President. The people has spoken and they all are working for us. A lot of those in the Senate has to go. And whoever come over to Steve blog and read my comment and don't like what I am saying can go jump in the lake. My mom told me to tell the truth about anyone and if they deserve a good praise give it to them and if they don't let the world know who they really are. Who ever can support this man is an idiot like he is.
ReplyDeleteI forgot this that the idiot is talking about filing a law suit against Pence if he participate in the inarguration. Since the President is not going to do his job on that day, the Vice President has to do it. I will be glad when the clown show is over.
ReplyDeleteTrump files lawsuits like most of us breathe air. No one should be afraid of Trump's lawsuits. They'll all get thrown out anyway.
DeleteThe smartest thing Raffensberger's office did was to record that phone call. The second smartest thing was to make it public.
I don't think he is out of his mind, I think he always had this kind of mobster mentality. He knows exactly how many votes need to be "found" and that's all that matters to him and his mindset.
ReplyDeleteBut at least he's out of politics for good with that tape.
He definitely does have a mobster mentality. But I really do think he also has mental illness. I don't mean to excuse his behavior -- not by a longshot. He's capable of understanding what he's doing and the danger he's putting all of us (and the nation, and, for that matter, the entire planet) in. But he IS mentally ill.
DeleteTrump is scary but if he wasn't supported he would be a nothing. What's scary are all the loons and their support of lies and conspiracies.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Cruz and Hawley and Meadows and their ilk are the truly astonishing figures in all this.
DeleteI keep thinking about the time DT went on TV to prove that he'd been right about a hurricane's path with that Sharpie-altered map. I mean- what could be more idiotic than that? And he's so much worse than just being an idiot. He's a criminal idiot. Let this be over, please.
ReplyDeleteLove your description of a Lakeland full moon. I know exactly what you're talking about.
In his world, there are no objective facts. There's only reality as he perceives it through his own twisted filter.
DeleteOh man, that door! It would improve anyone's mood . The tape is astonishing, that POW POW POW of the bullying with undercurrents of threat at such a pitch , we had to turn the volume way down. He can do much more damage in the time left we know this for sure,War with Iran is at the top of his list as well as killing as many people he can by ignoring the pandemic, rallying his flock- When I read his followers their take is that he is not lying , about anything, because god does not lie.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that a great door? I couldn't actually listen to the call. I can't stand to hear Trump's voice. It turns my stomach.
DeleteYup, we were cranky all day yesterday. I'm still cranky, this has got to stop. WAPO is now calling the senators who plan to object "the dirty dozen." I've been calling them the Jim Crow caucus which is part of what drives these people.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lovely door.
Absolutely. There's a huge undercurrent of racism beneath all this. When you read the far-right commenters on sites like The Gateway Pundit, they're all talking about white replacement and railing about Chinese communists taking over the country.
DeleteI can't with _____ any longer. I am so ready for the 20th.
ReplyDeleteI might need gin.
Gin always helps!
DeleteI can't wait for the day when we don't have to hear about his latest crazy scheme EVERYday! It has been a loony reality show from day one and I cannot wait for it to go off the air!
ReplyDeleteI started looking at your old posts - you posted a LOT! This is a good project for me because I only made it through 2006 so far! Great COVID time filler! Love your photos! Thanks Steve!
Glad you're enjoying the archives! I had a much smaller digital camera in those days, so the quality isn't quite the same as now.
DeleteI'm cranky about all the people(term used loosely) who still support him. He is a lunatic which makes them what?
ReplyDeleteLunatic-enablers!
DeleteLOL--I read the copy on the Gin of the Month club, and it's all that over-hyped marketing speak.
ReplyDelete"Their olives had us salivating... so to say that we are excited about their pretzels is an understatement!"
Whoa there.
Luckily they're marketing gin, not books.
Ha! They send a monthly magazine with each box (which is perhaps what you were reading?) and it's always hyperbolic. They include recipes for all sorts of peculiar cocktails, but at the end of the day, I just want a gin & tonic. That's all I ever want. (Well, occasionally a martini.)
DeleteI have a blog friend who lives in Lakeland and I'm PRETTY SURE she wouldn't moon like that. Pretty sure. But you never know... Ha!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that call. Well, that's not really true - I wasn't the least bit surprised. In fact, I'm surprised there hasn't been more of that (although maybe there has been, just not recorded).
Oh, I don't mean to suggest that EVERYONE in Lakeland would moon like that. Probably a majority of the population, though. :)
DeleteI suspect Trump has been on the phone with every swing state making similar assertions and demands.
Trump is such an idiot, but what is even more surprising is that he has people who fervently support him. I just don't get it.
ReplyDeleteI don't either. His supporters treat him in an almost messianic way. They honestly think he's saving the country. It's so ridiculous.
Deletelove that doorway!
ReplyDeleteyeah, Don the con, the mob boss, the complete idiot in all his glory, the lying, the cheating. and just winning Georgia would not give him the presidency. he and his supporters in congress make false allegations which are echoed ad nauseum by his core and then the politicians claim that because allegations have been made they must be investigated. just 14 days.
Do you remember the dance music track, James Brown is Dead?
ReplyDelete