Welcome to Friday, November 6, 2020: National Nachos Day, celebrating a dish whipped up in 1940 by a Mexican chef just beyond the U.S. border to feed four hungry American women. Back then, nachos (the nickname of Ignacio, the chef) consisted of fried corn tortilla strips, pickled jalapeños, and cheese, but they’re gotten a lot more elaborate. Meet “Nachos Supreme“—just the ticket to accompany (along with a good brewski), the election returns.
It’s also National Saxophone Day (in honor of Adolphe Sax’s birthday), Fountain Pen Day, Basketball Day, and International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict.
News of the Day:
As of this moment (Thursday night), the NYT isn’t pulling any punches in its news articles about the election:
If you want to see the lies, here’s Trump’s bloviating. If you didn’t see this, you need to:
This is a real trip: Paula White, Trump’s spiritual advisor, prays for his victory, casting out election demons and summoning angels from Africa and South America. She also speaks in tongues. What a loon! (h/t Michael).
A depressing but probably accurate op-ed in the Washington Post by Paul Waldman: “Mitch McConnell’s Senate may be where the Biden Presidency goes to die“. The title tells it all. An excerpt:
As of now, Democrats lost one Senate seat and gained two, giving them 48. While it’s theoretically possible for them to get to 50 given the races where votes are still being counted, it looks extremely unlikely. Which means McConnell will remain as majority leader.
What does that mean? For starters, you can take all those meticulously prepared policy plans Biden and his team devised during the campaign and toss them in the trash. There will be no expansion of health coverage, no aggressive legislation to address climate change, no move toward universal child care, no increase in the minimum wage, no new Voting Rights Act and no infrastructure spending. None of it.
Nor will there be a new stimulus bill to help the economy recover from the pandemic, since McConnell knows that Biden will be blamed if the economy continues to struggle. At most — and even this is no guarantee — McConnell may allow continuing resolutions that keep the government open at its current funding levels. There will be no other significant legislation as long as Republicans retain control.
Some stress relief: meet Mr. and Mrs. White-Christmas. Over in Dorset, Tilly Christmas wed her childhood sweetheart, Kieran White, and the couple are taking the name White-Christmas. Here they are: (h/t: Jez)
Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 235,331, a big increase of about 1,100 from yesterday’s figure. The world death toll is 1,241,143, another big increase of about 9,000 over yesterday’s report.
It was a thin day in history. Stuff that happened on November 6, 2020 includes:
- 1869 – In New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers College defeats Princeton University (then known as the College of New Jersey), 6–4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game.
- 1947 – Meet the Press, the longest running television program in history, makes its debut.
- 1986 – Sumburgh disaster: A British International Helicopters Boeing 234LR Chinook crashes 21⁄2 miles east of Sumburgh Airport killing 45 people. It is the deadliest civilian helicopter crash on record.
- 2012 – Barack Obama is reelected President of the United States
- 2012 – Tammy Baldwin becomes the first openly gay politician to be elected to the United States Senate.
And that’s about it.
Notables born on this day include:
- 1814 – Adolphe Sax, Belgian-French instrument designer, invented the saxophone (d. 1894). [See above.]
- 1854 – John Philip Sousa, American composer and bandleader (d. 1932)
- 1946 – Sally Field, American actress
And that’s about it.
Finally, those who drew their last breath on this day include just one notable death:
- 1816 – Gouverneur Morris, American scholar, politician, and diplomat, United States Ambassador to France who died a bizarre death (b. 1752)
Well, we have to look that up, don’t we? Here’s what Medium says:
When he died on November 6, 1816 at the age of 63, Morris was one of the most respected figures in the country. Sadly, his demise was caused by a bizarre set of circumstances that was ultimately caused by his own hand.
Suffering from a possible urinary tract infection, he took the almost unimaginable step of inserting a piece of a whale bone as a homemade catheter into his penis in an attempt to clear the blockage. In doing so, he caused serious internal injuries, which transitioned into an infection. He declined quickly, passing away at his family home back in New York (what is now the Bronx) in the same room in which he was born.
The home surgery was a last-ditch effort for relief. Leading up to that extreme step, he had tried a variety of treatments, including laudanum, bleeding, cupping and a veritable cornucopia of homeopathic concoctions. Nothing significantly helped with his ability to urinate, which must have taxed him as much mentally as it did physically.
And that’s it. These are the fewest events I’ve reported for any day of the year so far.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is deeply concerned. When I asked why, Malgorzata said this, “Well, the situation is not good. Yesterday we had over 27,000 Covid-19 cases and almost 400 fatalities. Our neighbours are in the same (or in an even more leaky boat). Women in Poland are still protesting about the abortion restrictions but they seem to have a chance to achieve a fat zero. Islamic terrorists are killing people in droves in Africa and Asia. Terrorists are threatening Europe (France, Austria). I could continue… ”
Hili: This is a very serious situation.A: Where?Hili: Everywhere.
Hili: To jest bardzo poważna sytuacja.Ja: Gdzie?Hili: Wszędzie.
From Divy:
From reader Pliny the in Between’s site The Far Corner Cafe, posted the day after election day. Be sure to look at toes:
Also from Jesus of the Day: (this could be real baby food in Sweden!)
From reader Ken, who comments, “Donald John Trump, soi-disant leader of the free world, actually tweeted this mash-up of himself dancing to the Village People’s ‘YMCA.’ At 2:57 am on the day of the election. I shit you not.”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1323534663453913093
From Dom: Harry the Jackdaw talks to England on the eve of its second lockdown:
Lockdown take 2 & my message is still the same…#CorvidAgainstCovid #StayHome pic.twitter.com/YMdmscPO8M
— Harry the Jackdaw #CorvidAgainstCovid (@HarryJackdaw) November 2, 2020
From Luana: The people who had to admit they were racists included the Dean of Northwestern University Law School, James Speta (click on photo), and now the Department of Education has been asked to investigate the law school for structural racism. This is one byproduct of the ritual confessions and self-denunciations of some “antiracist training”.
Northwestern U. law school had a town hall meeting online recently. Everybody began w/ a ritual denunciation of themselves as racist. Reader: "Prof. Speta is not a racist. He is a wonderful man universally loved by students. It makes me sad that he is forced to say otherwise." pic.twitter.com/O45UX8ver2
— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) September 1, 2020
From Barry: Why is this guy putting a harness on a squirrel. But that rodent really wants his nut!
This is ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/nfZ3HB2hiV
— jamie (@gnuman1979) November 4, 2020
Tweets from Matthew. In the first one, Greta gets her own back:
How it started How it's going pic.twitter.com/dmPCgyCiO2
— Steve Peers (@StevePeers) November 5, 2020
A scale diagram of this year, even though it’s not yet over:
https://twitter.com/pwnallthethings/status/1324454640906342400?s=11
Crikey, this country has elected some morons!
I stopped breathing. I watched in shock and horror. And we wonder how we got to where we are. pic.twitter.com/g1esh4RDjv
— Dr. Pragya Agarwal (@DrPragyaAgarwal) November 5, 2020
Back when stuntmen (and stuntwomen) were insane:
Silent movies did some pretty wild things with trains pic.twitter.com/Njs2qK044p
— Silent Movie GIFs (@silentmoviegifs) November 3, 2020
I’m a bit more sanguine about the Senate than I think the doomsayers. True, Biden won’t get any big ticket Dem items through initially. But Class 3 (2022) has 22 GOP senate seats up while there are only 12 Dem senate seats up. The GOP seats include Burr (NC) and Toomey (PA) who are retiring and thus may be somewhat ‘loose guns’, plus Johnson (WI) and Loeffler (GA) who now find themselves republican senators in highly purple, if not slightly blue, states. On the Dem side, the only arguably vulnerable seat is Masto (NV), which we should probably consider just as purple as WI and GA, even if it eventually goes to Biden in the 2020 race.
So (a) Mitch’s blockade may only last 2 years, not 4, and (b) he may compromise more than the doomsayers claim, because he’s going to want the midterms to be about Biden, not about how the GOP Senate refuses to pass legislation.
On that last paragraph, I hope so. But that possibility has never seemed to bother Mitch before. He has led the RP in the Senate in a all but complete blockade against the DP for his entire tenure so far. And people like us pointing out that the RP has been refusing to pass or even consider legislation with any whiff of the DP about it, for years, has not yet fazed RP / Trump supporters. Heck, Mitch and his ilk turn it around and blame the DP for not working with them, and their supporters believe it.
The NYT finally finds the courage to put the word “Lie” in a headline about Trump the exact moment it looks like he’s on the way out.
Oh wait, that’s not courage. That’s cowardice. They equivocated for four years to keep their precious insider access and turned large swathes of their paper into a trash rag in the process.
Couldn’t agree more. That precise thing has been pissing me off for years. Decorum and respect for the office be damned, say it like it is. To actually respect the office would be to not mince words about Trump’s behavior. He has defiled the office. He’s a lying liar that lies all the time, and every time he does the press should say so and provide the facts to demonstrate it.
Gouverneur Morris played a major role in the making of the Constitution. As a delegate from Pennsylvania and skilled writer, he took all the drafts and tangled language put it in final form. What you see today in the document is what Morris did back in 1787.
I would not give up on the final set of the Senate just yet. Likely that both seats in Georgia will go to a run off election.
Didn’t Morris write the Preamble, the most harmonious section of the Constitution?
“Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 235,331, a big increase of about 1,100 from yesterday’s figure.” Yes, and the number of new confirmed cases in the US was a record, too. According to The Guardian
Likely, in part, because Trump told his followers not to use mail-in ballots.
Though that’s just a guess. I’d be very interested in an analysis that mapped where the new cases were reported compared to per capita in-person voting rates.
On the lighter side, we made jumbo lump crab grand nachos for a simple election night dinner tuesday here on the chesapeake bay. It was a highlight (along with local congresswoman elaine luria and our senator mark warner handily winning re-election) on an otherwise extremely stressful day.
And you didn’t invite me?
Please describe these nachos in more detail. What fix’ns? What kind of sauce / salsa? Any cheese? Not sure cheese and good crab quite go together.
Sorry for delay, darrelle. Nothing fancy. As i recall: spread a thick layer of nacho chips on parchment sheet on cookie sheet pan. Cover with fixins…shredded chedder, sliced black olives, chopped tomatoes, homemade salsa, sliced jalapenos, jumbo lump crabmeat (used 1/2 lb crabmeat for large nacho to serve two). Put into 400degree oven for ten minutes to melt cheese. Top with sour cream and addition salsa to taste.
Thanks Jim, sounds great!
Whoops. Forgot one item: top with shredded lettuce along with extra salsa and sourcream. Also, we did not have avocado in house, but if we had i might put afew dollops of quacamole or pieces of avocado on top…that’s it!
Your recipe sounds excellent!
Mebbe so. But it’s gonna be a while before I can unclench from that demise-of-Gouverneur-Morris story. I suspect I’m not the only fella around here.
The presidential election has just been called for Biden after he flipped Pennsylvania.
But to make the result court-proof, he really needs more states.
Correction: the reported totals in Pennsylvania do not include the ballots that were the subject of the Supreme Court challenge, so Biden’s lead in the state is court-proof.
I should add this was called by Nate Silver etc at 538:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/2020-election-results-coverage/
post at 8:56am
Greta Thunberg’s repurposing of Trump’s “anger management” tweet got twice as many likes in two hours as his original version did in total. Still, he better get used to losing…
Trump can do all the crying and complaining until January. But he better call the moving company and get all of his household goods out by the 19th. If eviction is required a big property owner like Trump should know the goods will go out on the front lawn of the white house.
I’m more concerned about him taking stuff he DOESN’T own.
Next ? If the R’s don’t use the 25th to get rid of him beforehand, will he attend the inauguration?
Expect to hear of LV odds on both of these before long.
After seeing Mcconnell with purple hands and lips, there’s always the hope he has something debilitating. Kentucky has a democratic governor so that would be another seat.
And if anything, the strong Blue poll predictions would’ve kept Democrats home, expecting their vote not to be needed.
Before we give in to that kinda doom’n’gloom, let’s get behind the Democrats in the two Georgia US senate run-off races coming up on January 5th.
One race pits John Ossoff, the quick-witted young Jewish fella with the normal-sized nose who stomped his opponent, David Perdue, like a red-headed mule in their last debate (beat Perdue so damn bad he chickened out from even showing face for their final debate scheduled for this past Sunday).
The other Georgia run-off race pits Raphael Warnick, the current pastor of Daddy King’s Ebenezer Baptist church, against Stock-Fraud Barbie (aka Kelly Loeffler), the wife of the American Stock Exchange chairman, who dumped several million bucks in shares of vulnerable companies immediately after receiving confidential congressional briefings on the impending COVID-19 crisis early this year. Loeffler, a big-dollar Republican campaign donor, who was gifted with her current US senate seat last December by Georgia’s yahoo governor, Brian Kemp, despite being a complete political neophyte.
If Joe Biden can carry formerly red Georgia, then these two Democratic senatorial candidates stand at least a fightin’ chance, especially if Biden, Barack, Stacey Abrams, and every other heavyweight Democrat across the land comes out swinging behind them.
It’s the one way left to pry the senate gavel from Moscow Mitch’s chelonian flippers.
I think I said that above but you said it so much better.
At least in regard to the Perdue-Ossoff Senate runoff, I fear that Ossoff’s chances are slim for the following reasons.
1. Perdue holds about a 100,000 vote lead in the current election. He is just slightly below the 50% bar needed to avoid a runoff.
2. In a special election, it will be harder for Democrats than Republicans to maintain their enthusiasm.
3. In the current election, the libertarian candidate has 2.3% of the vote. In the runoff election, these votes are likely to go to Perdue.
Nobody wants to use the word ‘Trump coup’ politely.
Fortunately, the United States is still too strong in the coup d’etat, and Trump is still too weak.
However, bad things have happened and the country’s reputation is being destroyed on purpose. It was unthinkable, for example 6 years ago. If the climate crisis deepens (I have to call it that), obvious evidence will emerge. US will need unity and Joe Biden. It is a difficult task.
Who needs CGI?
Some Trump allies are really showing their ugly side after all of this. Steve Bannon called for Fauci and Christopher Wray to be beheaded, and was subsequently banned from twitter. This is the type of thing they would like when they lose. This isn’t an average Trump supporter, this is someone close to the top of the whole thing.
Simon Conway Morris was born on November 6.
Indeed: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Conway_Morris
I believe if anybody could investigate what tRump&family did in these years they really will end keeping company to Weinstein and Madoff. That’s why he fights and will fight to the death.