Today In The Banana Republic of Georgia

Exactly! I've likened it to the Director of the Lottery certifying the balls and the equipment, ensuring there were no other tickets in the system, then yelling "I've won!" That's what Kemp did.
Re-upping @ProfCAnderson Neo-Jim Crow in Georgia https://t.co/rtpCR5lGYm https://t.co/8k3dNQ2adw

— Carol Anderson (@ProfCAnderson) November 17, 2018

A Southern politician changed voting eligibility rules in a way that resulted in **hundreds of thousands** more citizens, disproportionately African American, being stripped of the vote under his governorship. Then he won by 12,000 votes. This feels in line with U.S. history.

— Taniel (@Taniel) November 17, 2018

What's A Little Cover-up Among Friends

The Secretary of State who used to head the intelligence agency that just confirmed what went down?

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) November 16, 2018

NEW: The CIA has concluded Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination. https://t.co/eOhXy4pwcN By me, @gregpmiller, and @jdawsey1

— Shane Harris (@shaneharris) November 16, 2018

wsj has matched wapo’s reporting https://t.co/94pkeAKYiO

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) November 17, 2018

That's life (and death) in a privately-owned compound masquerading as a country. https://t.co/SOSWLjyxzt

— Anomynous Tweeter-1, LLC™ (@KagroX) November 16, 2018

R.I.P., William Goldman

Dammit, William Goldman died. Justly celebrated for his screenwriting, credited and otherwise, but if you haven't read his original novel THE PRINCESS BRIDE, remedy that ASAP. As much as you may love the movie, the book is leagues better. Rest in witty, ironic peace, sir.

— Ty Burr (@tyburr) November 16, 2018

Interesting remembrance here. Among other stories—

I sat with Bill for the last time Monday, in New York City. His friend of 80 years, John Kander, was there, too. With his lyricist Fred Ebb, Kander wrote "Cabaret" and "Chicago" and the song "New York, New York." They had shared an apartment in the 1950s on West 72nd Street along with Bill's older brother, James Goldman, who wrote "A Lion in Winter" and the book for "Follies." Imagine the magic in that apartment, when they were all young and everything was ahead of them.

RIP William Goldman, the screenwriter who brought us this scene: https://t.co/Bk3cgsjbTk

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) November 16, 2018

So sad that William Goldman won’t be here to write All the President's Men Part 2: Dumb and Dumberer.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 16, 2018

Today In Good News

After Dems won in Arizona, they have now flipped 3 GOP-held secretaries of state offices in 2018, & Georgia goes to a Dec. 4 runoff. Dems are also poised to replace New Hampshire's "Dem" SOS who supports GOP voter suppression laws with a mainstream Democrat via legislative vote pic.twitter.com/5RRIp6yZDO

— Stephen Wolf (@PoliticsWolf) November 16, 2018

Repeal And Replace

These are very satisfying updates. https://t.co/Bm98RslAkC

— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 16, 2018

GOP House majority: Repealed and replaced

— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 16, 2018

— who the Democrats elected: a young and diverse slate of women, people of color, Muslims, gays, Native Americans and so on; a true representation of America in 2018
— who the Republicans elected: two white men under criminal indictment and a dead guy who ran a whorehouse

— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) November 15, 2018

Quantifying and Compounding

When you wake up feeling innocent pic.twitter.com/u5rQPBbFGF

— Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) November 15, 2018

Trump's descent into madness, quantified. https://t.co/RF4RFBxJaR

— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 15, 2018

A Little Deal Among Friends

NEW: Exclusive: Trump admin. officials asked federal law enforcement agencies to examine legal ways of removing exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen from US in attempt to persuade Turkish Pres. Erdogan to ease pressure on Saudi gov't, four sources say. https://t.co/klVl1lfwgU

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 15, 2018

The effort includes directives to the US Justice Dept. and FBI that officials reopen Turkey's case for Gulen's extradition, as well as a request to the Homeland Security Dept. for information about his legal status, the four people say. https://t.co/9kz8rJtsU0

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 15, 2018

Add another Democratic House investigation to the pile. https://t.co/QiXDrhPLuQ

— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 15, 2018

If weapons deals aren't his thing, they'll do for paying off backers. More to the point: a lot of Saudi money is dropped at a certain DC hotel. And there was that mysterious "miracle" of Jared's $1.2 billion bailout.

Hillary Demanded, Hillary Supplied

Of course they demanded one. As for the previous version, GOP Central Casting has worked for years on supplying her.

House Democrats are stuck -- between the option of an unpopular Pelosi as speaker who's problematic for many of the House freshmen who just won, and the option of no real Plan B.

This morning's @NBCFirstRead https://t.co/SnvklzzRsX

— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) November 14, 2018

Broadcast "journalists": the blankest slates in America. How could they possibly be expected to remember that it's merely every fucking election that Republicans across this great and exceptional land run against Nancy Pelosi...

Oh, and PS—those freshman WON on the health care plan that ONLY EXISTS bc of Nancy Pelosi. They should probably try to appreciate what she’s brought to the party. Your network isn’t helping with that.

— Maili Bradley (@mailibradley) November 14, 2018

Today In The Banana Republic Of Ohio

When it's the GOP's long game, the familiar players are always brought back.

Ohio, and this again.

People may think that what went down in Ohio in the 2004 presidential election is old news, & that we shouldn’t discuss it. They are wrong. The man at the center of it all, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, is BACK & assisting OH’s new Secty of State. God help us. 1/ https://t.co/xAD1BaBwdJ

— Jennifer Cohn (@jennycohn1) November 14, 2018

Thread.

Today In The Banana Republic of Florida

Hey, you use the tools you've got...

Don't forget that against this backdrop of no mercy for eligible voters, he did everything in his power to help hurricane-stricken voters in the panhandle. His goal was to pick his and his party's electorate, and he did. https://t.co/svdp16JOX6

— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) November 9, 2018

Not to mention this: suing counties where count is not finished, demanding Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigate ballot counting, and using whatever other means of spaghetti flinging Scott finds.

Counting ballots isn't a change in the election results. It *is* the election results. https://t.co/y9IMU4bm2X

— Philip Bump (@pbump) November 9, 2018

Today In The Banana Republic of Georgia

Why, he does declay-ah: Secretary of State? Goodness, gracious not when he is Guvnah! Now that this "resolves" everything...

Brian Kemp is resigning as Georgia secretary of state, claiming victory in the gubernatorial race (and ending a lawuit filed on Election Day seeking to block him from exercising his duties), but his Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams isn't conceding https://t.co/V0JkRuQCSI

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) November 8, 2018

Today In The Banana Republic of Georgia

BREAKING FROM THE @AP: A spokeswoman in Kemp’s office, who has also worked on his campaign, says there are 22,000 provisional ballots. She has shared the county breakdown with only one candidate — Kemp — but has not shared it with the media or the public. #CantTrustKemp #gapol

— Georgia Democrat (@GeorgiaDemocrat) November 7, 2018

.@staceyabrams campaign holding a press call now. "We know our opponent has had the secretary of state’s office declare he is the winner. We are here to say we don't accept that."

— Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) November 8, 2018

And so it continues; thread on
the Abrams campaign's continued efforts to confront Kemp's election tampering.

Today In The Banana Republic Of Georgia

They're not even trying to hide the abuse of power anymore. They think it helps them. Shows who's boss. https://t.co/VkwG1KYYql

— digby (@digby56) November 4, 2018

Brian Kemp: The boy who cried "Omigosh I can't beat this African American woman without cheating" hack

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) November 4, 2018

So old I remember Brian Kemp made baseless accusations of hacking against the Obama administration two years ago at a moment when it was politically advantageous to Trump. Took six months to debunk. https://t.co/9LJD606Wr9 pic.twitter.com/3X1IEgn5RX

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) November 4, 2018

Seriously: has any news outlet gotten this detail correct?

Story should be: "GA SoS* referred suspected breach to DHS and FBI for investigation."

Period. Anything else is just getting played by a known fabricator.

*A candidate in this race

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) November 4, 2018

This "investigation" is announced a day after reporters obtain a letter warning of the Georgia election system's vulnerability to hacking. I don't think it's all that crazy to think Kemp is hacking his own system and planning to blame it on Democrats. https://t.co/RSsILu8l2T

— Lex Alexander (@LexAlexander) November 4, 2018

Fox Viewer-in-Chief

One justification the press should use in covering what Trump does and says a lot less is that he doesn't actually spend much time Presidenting.

Why cover a crazy old man's Fox-watching habit? Would you do it if he were your senile dad?

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) November 3, 2018

Then talk about what the people who are doing the job of the President are doing.

"While Mr. Trump watched his third hour of Fox, John Bolton was dismantling the global legal order based on his own authority, and Stephen Miller was kidnapping brown children."

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) November 3, 2018

Full Resources Of The US Government

Are the facts in a subsequent press release? https://t.co/gGo40YFPXu

— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 2, 2018

A Brilliant Plan of Unfathomably Stable Genius

Scoop: As of yesterday, BP agents have to ask everyone they catch "did you travel as part of the migrant caravan?"

The northernmost group of the caravan is still 6+ weeks away. https://t.co/DCkdT8a6yA

— Dara Lind (@DLind) November 2, 2018

The Soros tattoo, silly.

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) November 2, 2018