DIVE BARR
Attorney General William Barr set to leave before Christmas in latest (last?) cabinet shakeup
The attorney general who presented the Mueller investigation findings. Protected an investigation into the investigation itself. Became a lightning rod of scorn for the left who believed him to be a Trump toady. That man, will be home for the holidays.
Bill Barr, welcome to #TheResistence.
This comes a week after he said that he’s seen no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election and days since a Wall Street Journal report claiming he hid the Hunter Biden probe from the public before the election.
And now, he’s gone.
Is this the last time we see such an from-outta-nowhere Trump firing?
It’s undeniable catnip for the social media and cable news. Despite the real world ramifications of Bill Barr spending his final weeks of the Trump administration in or out of power being very small, it immediately chased anything non-Barr related off the airwaves.
At least nothing big happened.
Joe Biden wins Electoral College
NPR
Gov. Cuomo denies sexual harassment accusation from former staffer
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Accusation of years-long harassment came via Twitter among rumors that Cuomo could be Biden’s pick for Attorney General.
Bipartisan, Bicameral COVID relief proposal splits wish list in two
THE HILL
All of the agreed upon stuff in one bill including unemployment insurance, PPP refill and vaccine distribution money.
State and Local support and COVID liability protection in another.
This is basically what Mitch McConnell suggested doing last week before being shredded by Pelosi and Schumer. How will those three react to something that might well be able to pass?
US passes 300,000 COVID deaths
AXIOS
This according to Johns Hopkins data.
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So I’ve been a subscriber/reader of this newsletter for somewhere between the last 1-2 years. And I now feel compelled to share that up until last week, when Justin replied to a comment about Gmails filter with something about the A.I.’s mysterious behavior, I have been reading AI Doritos with an “L” as AL Doritos. Since it was obvious I had missed the beginning of the inside joke I did my best to read the context. What I had eventually ascertained was that it was Justin‘s alter ego, who creeped up whenever Justin was reaching the edge of his calmer sanity. Now that I know the truth I’m just sad to know that AL Doritos was never real... - WEST COAST WES
You weren’t wrong Wes. AL DORITOS was a mispronunciation of ALGORITHIM. It became a meme and the rest is history.
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On Wednesday January 20th 2021 someone, most likely Joseph Robinette Biden Junior, will be sworn in as the next president of the United States of America.
Until that time it is indeed... not over.
Don’t rule anything out. Brace yourselves for the unexpected.
Source: It’s fkn 2020.
As for dismissing Barr... that would be a disappointing. The honey badger did the best he could within the confines of his job and he seemed, to me at least, like a straight shooter. Which is something that the US needs more of, not less. - SCALE
Yes and… it’s over.
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In response to Richard's question about why conservatives want to remove protections for social media, I think part of it is just a fundamentally different (some would say simply incorrect) understanding of how section 230 works.
Among conservative circles, the understanding is more or less that in order to receive the protections of section 230, a social media company needs to be acting as a neutral "platform" rather than an editorializing "publisher". Since the social media companies are making editorial decisions when choosing which content to flag (and tbh I think there's a case to be made that they ARE harder on comservatives, see Nypost Hunter story getting censored vs plenty of similarly dubious anti-Trump stories getting a free pass), the argument goes that they are not being "platforms" per section 230 and should thus be subject to liability OR start acting like "platforms" by only removing content that legit breaks the law and leaving the rest up.
Now, to the best of my knowledge, this is sort of folk wisdom among conservative commentators and doesn't really have any grounding in the actual meaning of the statute. But I'm not a lawyer, so I won't say more about that. What I CAN say is that as long as social media companies are A) dominated by a far-left rank and file workforce and B) making editorial/censorship decisions based on squishy guidelines that they don't really clarify, conservatives are going to feel like they aren't getting a fair shake. That's not a position social media companies want to be in, especially when the left is also mad at them. - MATT
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Any idea of the percent of Rs who thought the Nixon election was stolen vs percentage to today? - PAYNE
Nope. But my guess (considering how long the conspiracy has lasted) would be a bunch. That being said, Nixon wasn’t as popular within his party as Trump is.
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I’ve known about the Smart Folders for the google, but I liked all that stuff not bugging me all day. But turning it off has made me unsubscribe from a lot of garbage you forgot to not subscribe to in the first place. - JIM
It’s ultimately better for you to clear those things out.