Well, that was fun.
This will be a shambles of a GNRU because I’ve been too frightened to look at news since election evening. I’ll be filling this diary with lots of distractions that made me laugh or smile recently.
To get us started, here is a gif of a chicken in pants.
#FuckYouKeepCounting
This is the hashtag from the Lincoln Project. They anticipated that it would turn out like this. Well, not exactly, they also expected better numbers, but you get the point. Fuck you, Donald. We are still counting.
As I’m writing this diary, the Michigan call came through for Joe.
Don't be fooled: the delays in the US election result mean our system is working
Counting early ballots – and some 100 million Americans cast their vote before election day – is labor intensive. Envelopes often need to be hand-opened; signatures need to be checked against those in-state records; and election officials will have to perform these acts while practicing safe-distancing. Some states, such as Colorado, have been counting mail-in ballots since they arrived; others, such as several counties in Pennsylvania, will only begin the task after election day. So patience is the order of the day. The integrity of the electoral system demands no less.
FOX NEWS: TRUMP’S CLAIM OF VICTORY IS ‘BEYOND THE PALE’
‘Beyond the pale’: Fox News reacts to Trump’s false claim he has won the election and call for ballots not to be counted
To comply with Fair Use, I’ll say that some names in the article telling Trump to knock it off are: Chris Christie, Rick Santorum and Representative Adam Kinzinger.
Among those condemning the president was the Fox News political analyst Juan Williams, who said his claim to victory was “beyond the pale”, while political commentator Dana Perino called it “deeply irresponsible."
Trump’s Legal Threats to the Election Are All Bark and No Bite
There are a lot of things to be worried right now, but court cases challenging the election are not yet one of them—and that includes Trump’s wild 2 a.m. demand for “all voting to stop” and the Supreme Court to step in.
More precisely, you don’t need to worry about these cases in court. The legal and factual challenges are either too small, or too unlikely to prevail
Marcy Wheeler tells us we need to chill the fuck out.
Fair Use keeps me from just posting the whole article here, but here is a taste:
Election Day Countdown: There’s Got to be An Afternoon After
We need to snap the fuck out of it. We didn’t get our heads on straight going into the count last night, and we weren’t ready for Trump’s fascist bullshit lie claiming victory.
We are winning the White House. We are going to take back the entire executive branch, including new cabinet members who aren’t wholly corrupt motherfuckers (Jesus, Wilbur Ross is still serving on the board of a Chinese bank even though he’s been called out in the media about it).
We’re going to have a new attorney general and a civil rights division which will do more than sit on its thumbs and spin.
Investigations which have been corruptly shuttered or squelched before they could launch will begin.
Breathe, everybody. Especially me. In…...out…...in…….out.
I think we need a video of a blind dog finding a puddle.
GOOD NEWS FOR DIVERSITY IN CONGRESS
Record number of Native American women elected to Congress
We lost a House seat, but at least it was taken by a Native American woman.
The 117th Congress will have a record number of Native American women after voters elected three to the House of Representatives.
Democrats Deb Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo member representing New Mexico, and Sharice Davids, a Ho-Chunk Nation member representing Kansas, both retained their seats after becoming the first Native American women elected to Congress, in 2018.
They are joined by Yvette Herrell, who is Cherokee. Herrell, a Republican, beat the Democratic incumbent Xochitl Torres Small for her New Mexico congressional seat.
The wins for Herrell and Haaland mean that New Mexico will be the first state to have two indigenous women as congressional delegates. The state also became the first to elect women of color as all three of its delegates in the US House of Representatives.
GOOD NEWS FOR COUNTERING TRUMP’S MESSAGE
Facebook and Twitter take emergency steps against Trump false victory claims
Facebook notably dropped the euphemistic phrasing that had previously accompanied its announcements, which discussed the risk that “candidates” may falsely claim a win.
A company spokesperson cited Trump by name in explaining its decision, saying: “Once President Trump began making premature claims of victory, we started running notifications on Facebook and Instagram that votes are still being counted and a winner is not projected. We’re also automatically applying labels to both candidates’ posts with this information.”
GOOD NEWS ABOUT WILDFIRES
According to Cal Fire, the wildfires in California are about out. Cal Fire seems to leave a fire listed at 98% contained for weeks, so it’s hard to really know. All remaining California fires are listed at 98% contained right now so make of it as you will. I think it means that California is no longer burning. I looked for Washington and Oregon and it seems those wildfires are in a similar state, so maybe we are finished with Mother Nature’s anger for a while.
Here’s a cute link that I saved from a couple weeks ago:
Owl Visits Helicopter Crew Dropping Water Over The Creek Fire In California
Even though at times it may not seem like it, our crazy little world can be truly magical. A Disney movie kind of magical. And we’re pretty sure that a helicopter pilot named Dan Alpiner would totally agree with us on this one.
A few days ago, Dan was flying his aircraft and fighting the massive Creek Fire in the state of California when suddenly, he was visited by an unexpected guest.
The pilot was hovering about 200 feet above the ground when this majestic creature landed on the seat next to him.
The owl stayed there for two refillings and drops and then flew out the window.