I saw a joke about whether the Secret Service will continue to protect a former president in prison and I keep thinking how that is a legitimate question that I very much hope we find out the answer!

According to my dad, when these questions arose with Nixon the understanding was that the Secret Service would go to prison with him.

Oh deer loward what a thankless job. Speculation and rumors have it he's a terrible person to work with--refuses measures for his own safety and puts everyone around him in jeopardy just by existing through his day. I can't imagine being expected to protect him in prison. Solitary and a long game of checkers every day, maybe. DNW.

Matt, ma to your mom and the cats.

sj, she's probably exhausted and a little frightened of her own behavior, and maybe seeking comfort and reassurance. I'm spitballing, having raised a challenging child. But for your sake I'm glad she's calmer today.

Like clockwork, every time I start feeling better about finances a bunch of medical expenses crop up to kneecap us.

Hello Buffistas. I have been through the whole roller-coaster and now I'm at the halfway-down-the-ride mark. Biden will win despite lots of bullshit challenges. We may get really lucky with some downballot House races but it looks like we lost a few seats. Turns out people don't necessarily vote a solid Dem ticket after all. (Plenty of Mainers voted for Biden and Collins after all.)

That said, it also looks like there will be two Senate runoffs in Georgia in January, and so there's a (very slim) chance we can flip the Senate. Slim.

If we can't flip the Senate I really want Mitch McConnell to have a stroke on the john. Because he's so fucking terrible. If voodoo were a thing I'm sure the man would be gone by now.

If we can't flip the Senate I really want Mitch McConnell to have a stroke on the john. Because he's so fucking terrible. If voodoo were a thing I'm sure the man would be gone by now.

Kentucky has a Democratic governor now, so that would work out well in terms of replacing that motherfucker McConnell.

... oh, and holy shit, Georgia is TIED.

OTOH that fucker Devin Nunes held his seat by a wide margin. BAH.

I've been so focused on the federal races I haven't paid attention to California, except I did see that Uber & Lyft won their ballot measure, which is bullshit.

This country seriously needs election-financing reform. You shouldn't be allowed to just buy the results you want.

It’s kind of sick that if we took all the money spent on this election on the various seats and just spent it on social issues we’d be so far ahead of where we are.

Decided to stay in Portland another night. Neighbors picked up my new kitchenaid and I promised cookies in return

In these times you need to look for moments of joy.

Mine today is a friend and his wife who each posted videos of a Sacramento city council meeting. The chairman of the council went on a long rant about a handful of uneducated, non-medical people who come back week after week to insist we just need to "learn to live with COVID" and how offensive that is to people who've been touched by it, and FYI, this IS learning to live with it.

The offensive crackpot in question is my friend's wife and he might as well have called her out by name and holy cow she is BIG MAD and I'm living for it. They're horseshoe types - middle or upper class lefties turned anti vaxxers turning into rightwing nutters who might as well just move to Idaho at this point. (You can track their evolution in their language: they lived in California then CaliPHARMA and now Commie-PHARMA, if you ask them.)

I've spite-watched the video several times and likely will again.

I kind of enjoy the few moments this morning -- as I catch up on my online games and wake up -- where I have a Schrodinger's Presidency, and can peacefully pretend that all is well.

It's kind of soothing to start my social media participation here, where it gets broken to me gently.