I was driving around Hunter’s Creek, Deerfield, etc. There were a lot of Trump signs before. Today? None. A few Biden-Harris signs still up. LOL.
I guess I have a dirty mind (yeah, definitely I do) but the CNN headlines feel to me like an inept porn narrative in which no one can quite achieve orgasm.
There have been so many “on the brink,” “almost” “so close” “getting nearer” headlines that make me think of a woman gamely trying to concentrate to achieve the big O but not quite making it.
The more recent variations make me think more of the male of the species, who’s working on it … the lead “swells” and it “grows” …
Hilarious. And accurate.
The problem with this plan is that under the Federal Vacancies Act, Biden can only appoint as “Acting” either:
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officials who have been confirmed by the Senate to other positions, or
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certain senior-level civil servants.
If McConnell isn’t letting anyone get confirmed, that shuts down the first route. And while it may be fine to name Dr. Fauci as Acting Secretary of Health and Human Services, to advance his agenda Biden needs to be able to put his people in Cabinet positions and not just promote senior bureaucrats.
Election law varies state by state. In some states, if as long as you’re alive when you cast the ballot, it counts.
Ah…thanks. I learned something today.
The Body Politic “edging” for three days can’t be healthy.
And you all have now planted this idea in association with this election count. No idea how I’ll get back at the bunch of you but I’ll think of something.
“Trump is shrinking.”
I’m fairly certain that Biden will have a much easier time dealing with McConnell et al, than Obama did.
Biden is Caucasian after all.
That would explain why I can’t find it.
Suffered through the same set of commercials about four times on CNN waiting for it, though.
I guess I am unclear on what a properly nominated and confirmed cabinet member can do and what an “acting head” cannot do because they were not confirmed.
Clearly these various departments keep running without an officially appointed and confirmed person at the top. If Biden puts in an acting head then he/she is the boss. How does McConnell stop that?
OK, Nevada is really pissing me off.
“However, fewer votes than expected rolled in on Friday, with Clark County posting tallies for only about 39,000 ballots instead of an anticipated 51,000 after election officials accidentally reported the total number of ballot pages to be counted rather than total ballots.”
“The next batch of election results are expected to be released about 9 a.m. on Saturday.”
ETA: Sorry - cite here: Biden expands narrow lead in Nevada though presidential race remains too close to call – The Nevada Independent
Have they finished counting the ballots from Blue Ball?
Went away for a couple of hours. Came back and Biden’s lead is…exactly the same, in every state. Fuck it, like others I am opening a bottle of wine and declaring victory. Since we’ve been using sports metaphors, will turn it over to Howard Cosell for the final call:
DOWN GOES TRUMP! DOWN GOES TRUMP! DOWN GOES TRUMP!
The point is that he can’t put in anyone he wants as “acting head” – under the law there is a very small pool of people who are eligible to be named as Acting Secretaries. And these are people who have been Senate confirmed to other positions (e.g. an Under Secretary who was confirmed by the Senate could be named Acting Secretary) or senior-level career civil servants (e.g. Dr. Anthony Fauci).
So Biden would have very little discretion over whom he named as Acting Secretaries. And that’s important because he needs people who are fully aligned with his policy agenda and will execute on it at their respective agencies.
I was watching a news conference with the Nevada guy in charge of running the ballot count in the state (sorry…I forgot his name) and he said Nevada made the decision to mail ballots because of COVID but the whole thing is a first for them. They had never done anything like that before and they are experiencing growing pains trying to count all of them because they had never really been setup to do so in the past. Certainly they tried to anticipate what would all be needed but this is a big and complex job and they simply were not prepared as well as they might have been from that inexperience.
I have only seen the guy in a few press conferences but he seems pretty competent. He knows his job and he knows what’s going on and he knows what is needed and he is clearly focused on doing it all properly.
I would like results sooner too. This has been a long week and I’ve lost some hair over it but I’m willing to give them a break.
Well, my fellow dopey Dopers, I think I may have to concede on PA.
I swore up and down that PA would be as red as slutty lipstick this time.
Joey Jojo’s lead has increased to 20,000.
I am quite glad, SO GLAD, that I am wrong.
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And if there are no “acting” people available what happens? Does the agency just shut down?
New side gig for Ron Howard: He records an array of two-word Arrested Delelopment narrator-style sound bites and puts them on a fact-check console, which he sends to the broadcast media outlets.
Then MSNBC can just run a correction after every affirmative statement 45 or his minions put out. “We’re winning the count of legal votes.” They’re not.
“I will prevail in my bid for re-election.” He won’t.
“Mayor Giuliani has damning evidence from Hunter Biden’s laptop!” He doesn’t.
Don’t people who served in the Obama administration qualify?