TGIF 11/6/20

Is it really only the Friday after the Tuesday after the first Monday in November? 

It seems like Friday has taken a month or more to get here, right? 

Obviously, if I'm trying to come up with good week and bad week lists, I would have to say the good week list would consist almost entirely of the tireless health care workers who continue to care for our ever-growing list of COVID patients, especially those who are with our loved ones in our absence when they pass from the virus, and to the tireless poll workers and state election officials who are doing their level best to count the votes that are eligible for counting. All of those folks deserve our thanks, and our respect, regardless of where we stand on the COVID battle or the election battle.

Let me assure you, I'm on the side of COVID is real and so will the election outcome be real - neither of these are hoaxes - and I surely hope that you're with me on both of those. If not, let's talk.

Also on the good week side? Assuming things hold, Kamala Harris has to be up there on the list. She's on the verge of being the first female VP, the first African American VP, the first South Asian American VP, and more. And Joe Biden also had a good week, and it could get better before the end of the week, if we see the end of at least some of the counting...

People who exercised their right to vote are having a good week, because votes are being counted. That's what we expect when we vote - we don't expect anyone to steal our votes out from underneath us, and at least so far, we're winning that fight. 

Also, Nevada meme makers.

On the bad week list? Well, pollsters, certainly. Not because, as the president claimed, they were all a coordinated voter suppression effort designed to keep Trump supporters from voting because it was a lost cause. This is patently ridiculous. That the polls were SO wrong, across SO many races, and that this is the second presidential vote in which they were SO wrong should be sending a shudder through the polling industry. I don't want them to tell me what they did right, I want them to explain how they got it SO wrong, AGAIN, and what they have to offer going forward.

Who else? Republicans who are standing by the president as he makes a mockery of the integrity and sanctity of our election process, that integrity and sanctity which he's been calling into question almost daily since February. Those who are standing with him have nothing to gain - literally, nothing to gain. He cannot hurt them anymore. He cannot threaten them anymore. He cannot denigrate them, or call their spouses ugly, say hateful things about them, and endorse their opponents instead of them. It's time for them to stand up, to stand up to him, and to help him slink away.

And of course, the president himself is not having a good week. In fact, he is the personification of a bad week, this week and most other weeks. His tweets are being heavily flagged; his court challenges to the election are so far failing; a few Rs are turning on him and saying publicly that he should shut up and stand down, and he is very, very likely to be less than 75 days away from heading back to wherever he came from. 

As I said last week, there's a picture  0f the president I want to be the one that I remember from his White House occupancy, and I might get my wish. If that's the case, you can be sure I'll be putting myself on the good week list in a heartbeat. 

TGIF, everyone. Stay patient.