Prickly City by Scott Stantis for January 03, 2021

It can always get worse.

Say “It can’t get worse” – will be taken as a dare!

Things are NEVER so bad they can’t get worse, and luck is never so good that things won’t get worse.

Trump and His Disciples in and out of government will make it the worst they possibly can.

“We want them infected!” is just one effort of hundreds. 17 days.

.

#TraitorTrump

TOO LATE! You already said that! https://www.gocomics.com/pricklycity/2020/12/28

New Year, same old complaints, from the same old sources.

If, in the new year, pandemic vaccines aren’t available as promised, Americans can’t return to work because economic relief isn’t delivered or an adversary successfully attacks the United States because national security agencies couldn’t pay for new defenses, a hefty share of the blame should be placed on a man you’ve probably never heard of: One Russell Thurlow Vought.

As President Trump’s budget director, he conspicuously failed in his stated goal of controlling the debt. Despite his efforts, the debt increased by $6 trillion on his two-year watch as director of the Office of Management and Budget, the biggest jump in history.

He also has been disastrous in his fiscal forecasts. On Feb. 10, he predicted 2.8 percent growth for the year, saying, “our view is that, at this point, coronavirus is not something that is going to have ripple effects.” A few weeks later, the economy collapsed.

But what Russ Vought is very good at is sabotage. He’s sabotaging national security, the pandemic response and the economic recovery — all to make things more difficult for the incoming Biden administration.

That he’s also sabotaging the country seems not to matter to Vought, who has spent nearly two decades as a right-wing bomb thrower.

He has blocked civil servants at OMB from cooperating with the Biden transition, denying President-elect Joe Biden the policy analysis and budget-preparation assistance given to previous presidents-elect, including Barack Obama and Trump himself.

Transition figures warn that it will likely delay and hamper economic and pandemic relief and national security preparation (the Pentagon is the other key agency resisting transition cooperation with the incoming administration).

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/31/russell-vought-trump-saboteur-undermine-biden-america/

In public, American officials have said they do not believe Russia’s SVR intelligence agency “pierced” classified systems and stole sensitive communications and plans during an alleged cyberattack on what may have been hundreds of networks in the United States, The New York Times reports.

But privately, per the Times, those same officials reportedly say they still aren’t sure exactly what was or was not taken.

There are concerns that the SVR — which the U.S. intelligence agency and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are confident was behind the breach, despite President Trump suggesting China may have been involved instead of Moscow — was able to get its hands on delicate, albeit unclassified information from victims like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

For example, it’s reportedly possible the hackers accessed Black Start, the detailed technical blueprints for how the U.S. would restore power if there was a major blackout.

If that was indeed the case, Russia would theoretically have a list of systems it could target to keep power from turning back on.

The Times report sheds more light on the cyberattack, which may not be fully understood for months or even years.

Some of the revelations include the fact that the hack appears to have been much broader in scope than originally thought and that the hackers “managed their intrusion from servers inside” the U.S. by “exploiting legal prohibitions on the National Security Agency.” Read more at The New York Times. Tim O’Donnell

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https://theweek.com/speedreads/958419/officials-are-reportedly-privately-worried-russia-stole-blueprints-blackout-restoration

“It can’t get any worse”

repugs: “hold my beer”

…And there will be long term fallout effects from the R/W’s deliberate sabotage…

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The departing education secretary, Betsy DeVos, will be remembered as perhaps the most disastrous leader in the Education Department’s history.

Her lack of vision has been apparent in a variety of contexts, but never more so than this fall when she told districts that were seeking guidance on how to operate during the coronavirus pandemic that it was not her responsibility to track school district infection rates or keep track of school reopening plans.

This telling remark implies a vision of the Education Department as a mere bystander in a crisis that disrupted the lives of more than 50 million schoolchildren.

If the Senate confirms President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee, Miguel Cardona, as Ms. DeVos’s successor, he will face the herculean task of clearing away the wreckage left by his predecessor — while helping the states find a safe and equitable path to reopening schools.

Beyond that, the new secretary needs to quickly reverse a range of corrosive DeVos-era policies, including initiatives that rolled back civil rights protections for minority children as well as actions that turned the department into a subsidiary of predatory for-profit colleges that saddle students with crushing debt while granting them useless degrees.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/opinion/sunday/education-department-cardona-biden.html

Lets not have pity on Fox because NewsMax is worse.

• Misinformer of the Year: Fox News The right-wing network has promoted coronavirus misinformation an estimated 13,551 times on its weekday programs over the course of the pandemic. No one contemplated that a major national news source would try to stymie the response — or that the outlet could convince the president to take its side against the government’s public health experts. That’s what Fox News did this year. And its lies had a deadly impact. (Media Matters) https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/misinformer-year-fox-news

Anything not better is worse!

It probably will… Nothing magical happened at the stroke midnight on 31 December 2020. No carriages turned back into pumpkins and the corona virus did not go away.

I call “JINX!”

I whistle a happy tune, and no one will suspect, I’m afraid.

Congress expelled 14 members in 1861-

“The resolution for expulsion cited their failure to appear in the Senate and alleged that members “engaged in said conspiracy for the destruction of the Union and Government, or, with full knowledge of such conspiracy, have failed to advise the Government of its progress or aid in its suppression.”

It’s crazy that in 1861 the division was over something as impactful as slavery, in 2021 there isn’t even a real impetus for the division.

Though it also is telling that the real through line is what benefits the rich. The rich benefitted from slavery the most in 1861 and the rich benefit the most from Republican tax cuts today. Somehow, poor saps keep getting convinced that what’s in the interest of the wealthy is in their interest too and they will fight to the death to make a rich person richer.

We have to get by Jan 6th. That is the day Congress accepts and certifies the Electoral College votes. Trump has called on his brain dead followers in Congress and on the streets, the Proud Boys, to reject the votes and declare him President. I am afraid that there is nothing Trump won’t do to keep from being a Loser. I am afraid that could get violent, both in the House Chamber and on the streets.

Is there still a Trump involved? ’Nough said.

Yes Winslow, just invite more of 2020 into the new year, though admittedly 2021 isn’t looking all that much different at this time.

Yes, Winslow. Yes, it can.

Dr. Fauci has already told it will before we gain control of it.

Eh. No content, no comment. I’m off to play the grand piano.