That is awful. Those are very nice people. I would have been arrested for beating the shit out of my neighbors if that happened at my home and I saw them or caught on video. 100%
Yeah I’d beat her ass I don’t care if she’s a woman you threaten my kids I’m fighting you period!
Things do not get much more idiotic than this lady trying to terrorize her neighbors like this. Does she not like them because they are lesbians? Not white? Have 5 kids?
The family sleeps in the living room, in fear, all together, because there are no windows there.
Really?
Now this lady's info is a click away -- address, phone numbers,email, etc...I hope she gets messed with by people all over the country who read about this. Mail her some boxes of shit, call her to tell her what a piece of shit she is, sign her up for interracial porn emails or stuff like that.
But, yeah, I would destroy anyone who did that to my family. Awful stuff.
That is awful. Those are very nice people. I would have been arrested for beating the shit out of my neighbors if that happened at my home and I saw them or caught on video. 100%
Yeah I’d beat her ass I don’t care if she’s a woman you threaten my kids I’m fighting you period!
Things do not get much more idiotic than this lady trying to terrorize her neighbors like this. Does she not like them because they are lesbians? Not white? Have 5 kids?
The family sleeps in the living room, in fear, all together, because there are no windows there.
Really?
Now this lady's info is a click away -- address, phone numbers,email, etc...I hope she gets messed with by people all over the country who read about this. Mail her some boxes of shit, call her to tell her what a piece of shit she is, sign her up for interracial porn emails or stuff like that.
But, yeah, I would destroy anyone who did that to my family. Awful stuff.
But would you hire her to be on your sales team? Flip pizzas? Greet and sit folks at your restaurant? Bartend? Work for your law or accounting firm? Real estate agency?
For as much as we all romanticize John McCain now... he played a large part in turning the corner to Trumpism. Him agreeing to the Sarah Palin clown show normalized and main-streamed a lunatic fringe of the Republican party.
He was also a horrific war-hawk, the likes of which we have never seen.
I disagree. While the Palin pick was a mistake, he pushed back on the birth certificate nonsense publicly and directly. There's a reason Trump hated McCain and it wasn't because he was at the Hanoi Hilton. McCain very publicly rebuked Trump AND saved Obama care. Being a hawk didn't engender him to Trump either.
agreed
I have always liked McCain....but yeah, Mayday is right. Palin was such a fucking disaster. It accelerated the dumbing down of the republican party tenfold.
People like Palin are the symptom, not the disease. The GOP was already dumb, this is who they are.
She's a symptom, agreed. But McCain didn't have to go "full batshit" on his pick. He probably did so because the party essentially told him "you're a reasonable guy that works across the aisle and you're losing some of the hard-core nutjobs. You'd better pick a crazy person." That probably says something about the party and about America. But McCain still ran with her.
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For as much as we all romanticize John McCain now... he played a large part in turning the corner to Trumpism. Him agreeing to the Sarah Palin clown show normalized and main-streamed a lunatic fringe of the Republican party.
He was also a horrific war-hawk, the likes of which we have never seen.
I disagree. While the Palin pick was a mistake, he pushed back on the birth certificate nonsense publicly and directly. There's a reason Trump hated McCain and it wasn't because he was at the Hanoi Hilton. McCain very publicly rebuked Trump AND saved Obama care. Being a hawk didn't engender him to Trump either.
agreed
I have always liked McCain....but yeah, Mayday is right. Palin was such a fucking disaster. It accelerated the dumbing down of the republican party tenfold.
People like Palin are the symptom, not the disease. The GOP was already dumb, this is who they are.
She's a symptom, agreed. But McCain didn't have to go "full batshit" on his pick. He probably did so because the party essentially told him "you're a reasonable guy that works across the aisle and you're losing some of the hard-core nutjobs. You'd better pick a crazy person." That probably says something about the party and about America. But McCain still ran with her.
If you remember, 'batshit' right wing wasn't really the knock on her at the time. She was considered a young, attractive governor and it would counter the splash of Obama on the ticket. It was a hail mary in some ways. The knock on her was that she was unqualified and stupid, not that she was a conspiracy theorist. That metamorphosis happened after the election.
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F Me In The Brain
this knows everybody from other commets Posts: 30,818
That is awful. Those are very nice people. I would have been arrested for beating the shit out of my neighbors if that happened at my home and I saw them or caught on video. 100%
Yeah I’d beat her ass I don’t care if she’s a woman you threaten my kids I’m fighting you period!
Things do not get much more idiotic than this lady trying to terrorize her neighbors like this. Does she not like them because they are lesbians? Not white? Have 5 kids?
The family sleeps in the living room, in fear, all together, because there are no windows there.
Really?
Now this lady's info is a click away -- address, phone numbers,email, etc...I hope she gets messed with by people all over the country who read about this. Mail her some boxes of shit, call her to tell her what a piece of shit she is, sign her up for interracial porn emails or stuff like that.
But, yeah, I would destroy anyone who did that to my family. Awful stuff.
But would you hire her to be on your sales team? Flip pizzas? Greet and sit folks at your restaurant? Bartend? Work for your law or accounting firm? Real estate agency?
Looking at her house she must have some job to pay her reasonably well.
For as much as we all romanticize John McCain now... he played a large part in turning the corner to Trumpism. Him agreeing to the Sarah Palin clown show normalized and main-streamed a lunatic fringe of the Republican party.
He was also a horrific war-hawk, the likes of which we have never seen.
I disagree. While the Palin pick was a mistake, he pushed back on the birth certificate nonsense publicly and directly. There's a reason Trump hated McCain and it wasn't because he was at the Hanoi Hilton. McCain very publicly rebuked Trump AND saved Obama care. Being a hawk didn't engender him to Trump either.
agreed
I have always liked McCain....but yeah, Mayday is right. Palin was such a fucking disaster. It accelerated the dumbing down of the republican party tenfold.
People like Palin are the symptom, not the disease. The GOP was already dumb, this is who they are.
She's a symptom, agreed. But McCain didn't have to go "full batshit" on his pick. He probably did so because the party essentially told him "you're a reasonable guy that works across the aisle and you're losing some of the hard-core nutjobs. You'd better pick a crazy person." That probably says something about the party and about America. But McCain still ran with her.
If you remember, 'batshit' right wing wasn't really the knock on her at the time. She was considered a young, attractive governor and it would counter the splash of Obama on the ticket. It was a hail mary in some ways. The knock on her was that she was unqualified and stupid, not that she was a conspiracy theorist. That metamorphosis happened after the election.
I thought she was nuts immediately. But maybe it was more of a continuation of "W." Stupid but not toooo stupid. There was definitely an element of McCain's working across the aisle needing to be offset by someone who would dig their heels in a bit more on conservatism.
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You have to wonder of Trump will ever concede. The odd's of having a single states outcome flipped would be challenging. Get the results flipped on 3 or 4 states would seem downright impossible?
You have to wonder of Trump will ever concede. The odd's of having a single states outcome flipped would be challenging. Get the results flipped on 3 or 4 states would seem downright impossible?
I think they may have a strategy we aren’t expecting. Stall the EC and see what happens in the chaos
You have to wonder of Trump will ever concede. The odd's of having a single states outcome flipped would be challenging. Get the results flipped on 3 or 4 states would seem downright impossible?
I think they may have a strategy we aren’t expecting. Stall the EC and see what happens in the chaos
he is absolutely counting on electors where biden won to give trump the victory. and they could. i just can't see it. trump has very, very few supporters in the party right now.
You have to wonder of Trump will ever concede. The odd's of having a single states outcome flipped would be challenging. Get the results flipped on 3 or 4 states would seem downright impossible?
I think they may have a strategy we aren’t expecting. Stall the EC and see what happens in the chaos
he is absolutely counting on electors where biden won to give trump the victory. and they could. i just can't see it. trump has very, very few supporters in the party right now.
Not happening. In PA, you need the governor. Also there's a19th century law that would prohibit such "faithless electors".
You have to wonder of Trump will ever concede. The odd's of having a single states outcome flipped would be challenging. Get the results flipped on 3 or 4 states would seem downright impossible?
I think they may have a strategy we aren’t expecting. Stall the EC and see what happens in the chaos
he is absolutely counting on electors where biden won to give trump the victory. and they could. i just can't see it. trump has very, very few supporters in the party right now.
Not happening. In PA, you need the governor. Also there's a19th century law that would prohibit such "faithless electors".
so the article i posted from the washington post is incorrect? because it states that, while highly unlikely, it is still possible
You have to wonder of Trump will ever concede. The odd's of having a single states outcome flipped would be challenging. Get the results flipped on 3 or 4 states would seem downright impossible?
I think they may have a strategy we aren’t expecting. Stall the EC and see what happens in the chaos
he is absolutely counting on electors where biden won to give trump the victory. and they could. i just can't see it. trump has very, very few supporters in the party right now.
Not happening. In PA, you need the governor. Also there's a19th century law that would prohibit such "faithless electors".
so the article i posted from the washington post is incorrect? because it states that, while highly unlikely, it is still possible
Sure anything is possible. But the electors must be "ascertained" by the governor after the selection. Otherwise they're invalid according to the Electoral College Act. So if the legislature In PA over ride the vote (which would be subject to litigation right away, since the PA constitution requires the popular vote determines the electoral votes), then the Democratic governor would have to sign the electoral vote. That's a federal law and WI and MI also have D governors.
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 36,478
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 36,478
Joe Biden socks and Kamala Harris scrunchies: Washington’s gift shops prepare for a new administration
White
House Gifts, where manager Mirian Aquino was setting up a display on
Nov. 13, is among the D.C.-area souvenir vendors overhauling their
inventory in advance of Joe Biden's inauguration. (Michael Robinson
Chavez/The Washington Post)
Also on sale at White House Gifts in downtown Washington: Biden-Harris candy jars, celebratory hair scrunchies
and plush German shepherds with “First Pet” bandannas honoring Major
and Champ. The Donald Trump merchandise, meanwhile, has been moved to
the back of the store, marked down 75 percent.
After
presidential elections every four or eight years, Washington’s gift
shops and souvenir stands undergo an overnight transformation. Barack
Obama action figures made way for “Make America Great Again” gear in
2016, and now Biden-Harris face masks and T-shirts are pushing MAGA hats
to the clearance racks.
“Whenever
you have a change in administration, no matter who it is, there are new
customers and all new energy,” said Alesia Jones, vice president of the
longtime Washington store. “It’s like you flip a switch and have a
completely new store.”
Sales
are typically steady regardless of who’s in the White House, thanks to a
dependable stream of political supporters and tourists who want
keepsakes from the nation’s capital. But this year is different.
At White House Gifts, revenue has fallen 80 percent since the coronavirus
pandemic took hold in March, and tourism — especially lucrative
international travel — ground to a halt. Most of the people who wander
in are regional, traveling from Maryland or Virginia. The store, which
once had 32 workers, now employs seven.
Still,
souvenir sellers across the city say they are hopeful that the
Biden-Harris win will create enthusiasm for their products. Harris — the
country’s first elected female, Black and Asian vice president — holds a
special appeal to girls and women that they’re hoping to capitalize on.
White House Gifts is already selling girls’ T-shirts that say “Kamala
is my VP” and “That little girl was me,” a reference to Harris’s viral
exchange with Biden during a Democratic presidential debate last year.
Other shop owners say they’re hoping to replicate the kind of success
they’ve had with products commemorating former first lady Michelle Obama
and late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
After a costly mistake in 2016
— in which owner Jim Warlick bought $100,000 worth of Hillary Clinton
T-shirts, mugs and wine glasses before the election — executives this
time waited until Sunday, one day after Biden was named the winner of
the presidential race, to place their orders. Jones says she’s still
parsing speeches and appearances by Biden and Harris to pick up on
quotes and ideas for new merchandise.
“Each
president has their own theme,” said Jones, who said designers
typically start creating products six months before an election. “For
Trump, it was ‘Make America Great Again’ and ‘Keep America Great’ that
kind of took over. This time around, we’re picking up on cues such as
Joe Biden’s aviator glasses and, of course, the fact that Kamala Harris
is breaking a huge glass ceiling for women.”
The
official White House Gift Shop is offering preorders on an official
Biden-Harris inauguration coin for $100. Elsewhere on the Internet,
businesses are selling Biden-scented candles (“a captivating blend of
musk and honey”) for $25, Harris-theme coloring books ($17) and
life-size cardboard cutouts of both ($40). For those on the other side
of the political spectrum, there are “Impeach Biden” bumper stickers
($5) and bath mats ($20).
The
change in administration, shop owners say, often also means a change in
tone. At Chocolate Moose, a novelty gift shop where Trump toilet paper
has been the top-seller for four years, owner Michele Cosby said she’s
preparing for more earnest products this time around.
“We
carry merchandise for every administration, but obviously some
administrations offer more material than others,” she said. “Trump has
definitely been our biggest-selling administration.”
In
addition to $8 rolls of toilet paper bearing Trump’s face, other
popular items include a squeaky Trump dog toy for $22 and a $15 talking
pen with eight catchphrases, including “I don’t wear a toupee” and
“Look, I’m really rich.”
Cosby
said she isn’t sure what types of Biden-Harris merchandise she’ll
stock, because vendors have been slow to design, manufacture and ship
products during the pandemic. The 42-year-old shop in downtown D.C. has
been closed during the pandemic, so the business has shifted to online.
Still, Cosby said, about 85 percent of the orders are from locals who
tend to lean Democratic.
“Covid has put a halt to so much production,” she said. “We’ll try to get what we can.”
Also
in question is the upcoming presidential inauguration, which typically
generates more than $1 billion for local shops, restaurants and hotels.
It’s unclear how many people will show up for the Jan. 20 event during a
pandemic and whether there will be the usual gaggle of inaugural balls
and receptions that bring thousands of tourists to the area.
“The
inauguration is like a Super Bowl for us,” Jones said, making up as
much as 20 percent of White House Gifts’ annual sales. “This year we
don’t really know how to plan. How many people will come? What will the
events look like? Will there be a parade? We just don’t know.”
Some
tourism experts, though, say there is reason for optimism. Despite the
pandemic, Maggie Daniels, a professor of tourism at George Mason
University, said the Biden-Harris inauguration “will mark the beginning
of a significant and lasting boost” to Washington businesses.
“This
is perhaps the first time in the history of the United States that the
excitement associated with our incoming vice president is as palpable as
that of our incoming president,” she said.
Executives
at America! sprang into action within minutes of the Biden-Harris win.
Managers at the national gift shop chain kicked off a group text to
figure out logistics. By Saturday evening, commemorative T-shirts
bearing the faces of Biden and Harris were on display at the company’s
Baltimore and D.C.-area stores, including the Reagan National Airport
and Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport and at National
Harbor and Old Town Alexandria.
As
of Tuesday morning, all 13 of the company’s stores were stocked with
inauguration T-shirts, coffee mugs, buttons and magnets. Trump
merchandise had been relocated to the back.
“Trump
was a very successful brand for our stores these past years, and we’re
excited to move forward now that we have a new president-elect,” said
Tara Towers, vice president of merchandising for the company’s parent
company, Marshall Retail Group. “Sales of inauguration T’s have already
been really promising, and that momentum will continue until the
inauguration.”
“Make
America Great Again” baseball caps were the best-selling product during
the Trump years. This time around, Towers said, the company has two
areas of focus: uniting Americans with a new line of red-white-and-blue
merchandise and creating Harris-related products geared toward women and
girls.
“We want to bring a sense of empowerment to our stores, the idea that the world is full of endless possibility,” she said.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
GOP leaders in 4 states quash dubious Trump bid on electors
BOB CHRISTIE and NICHOLAS RICCARDI
Sat, November 14, 2020, 12:34 AM EST
Republican leaders in four critical states won by President-elect Joe Biden say they won’t participate in a legally dubious scheme to flip their state’s electors to vote for President Donald Trump. Their comments effectively shut down a half-baked plot some Republicans floated as a last chance to keep Trump in the White House.
State GOP lawmakers in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have all said they would not intervene in the selection of electors, who ultimately cast the votes that secure a candidate's victory. Such a move would violate state law and a vote of the people, several noted.
“I do not see, short of finding some type of fraud — which I haven’t heard of anything — I don’t see us in any serious way addressing a change in electors,” said Rusty Bowers, Arizona’s Republican House speaker, who says he’s been inundated with emails pleading for the legislature to intervene. “They are mandated by statute to choose according to the vote of the people.”
The idea loosely involves GOP-controlled legislatures dismissing Biden's popular vote wins in their states and opting to select Trump electors. While the endgame was unclear, it appeared to hinge on the expectation that a conservative-leaning Supreme Court would settle any dispute over the move.
Still, it has been promoted by Trump allies, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and is an example of misleading information and false claims fueling skepticism among Trump supporters about the integrity of the vote.
The theory is rooted in the fact that the U.S. Constitution grants state legislatures the power to decide how electors are chosen. Each state already has passed laws that delegate this power to voters and appoint electors for whichever candidate wins the state on Election Day. The only opportunity for a state legislature to then get involved with electors is a provision in federal law allowing it if the actual election “fails.”
If the result of the election was unclear in mid-December, at the deadline for naming electors, Republican-controlled legislatures in those states could declare that Trump won and appoint electors supporting him. Or so the theory goes.
The problem, legal experts note, is that the result of the election is not in any way unclear. Biden won all the states at issue. It's hard to argue the election “failed” when Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security reported it was not tampered with and was “the most secure in American history.” There has been no finding of widespread fraud or problems in the vote count, which shows Biden leading Trump by more than 5 million votes nationally.
Trump's campaign and its allies have filed lawsuits that aim to delay the certification and potentially provide evidence for a failed election. But so far, Trump and Republicans have had meager success — at least 10 of the lawsuits have been rejected by the courts in the 10 days since the election. The most significant that remain ask courts to prevent Michigan and Pennsylvania from certifying Biden as the winner of their elections.
But legal experts say it’s impossible for courts to ultimately stop those states from appointing electors by the December deadline.
“It would take the most unjustified and bizarre intervention by courts that this country has ever seen,” said Danielle Lang of the Campaign Legal Center. “I haven’t seen anything in any of those lawsuits that has any kind of merit — let alone enough to delay appointing electors.”
Even if Trump won a single court fight, there's another major roadblock: Congress would be the final arbiter of whether to accept electors submitted by Republican legislatures. If the Democratic-controlled House and GOP-controlled Senate could not agree on which electors to accept and who becomes president, the presidency would pass to the next person in line of succession at the end of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence’s term on Jan. 20. That would be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.
“If this is a strategy, I don’t think it will be successful,” said Edward Foley, a constitutional law professor at Ohio State University. “I think we’re in the realm of fantasy here.”
But unfounded claims about fraud and corruption have been circulating widely in conservative circles since Biden won the election. Asked this week if state lawmakers should invalidate the official results, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said, “Everything should be on the table.”
DeSantis urged Pennsylvania and Michigan residents to call state lawmakers and urge them to intervene. “Under Article 2 of the Constitution, presidential electors are done by the legislatures and the schemes they create and the framework. And if there’s departure from that, if they’re not following the law, if they’re ignoring law, then they can provide remedies as well," he said.
Republican lawmakers, however, appear to be holding steady. “The Pennsylvania General Assembly does not have and will not have a hand in choosing the state’s presidential electors or in deciding the outcome of the presidential election," top Republican legislative leaders, state Sen. Jake Corman and Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, wrote in an October op-ed. Their offices said Friday they stand by the statement.
The Republican leader of Wisconsin's Assembly, Robin Vos, has long dismissed the idea, and his spokesperson, Kit Beyer, said he stood by that position on Thursday.
In Michigan, legislative leaders say any intervention would be against state law. Even though the GOP-controlled legislature is investigating the election, state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey told radio station WJR on Friday, “It is not the expectation that our analysis will result in any change in the outcome.”
I'll ride the wave where it takes me......
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brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 41,077
Biden
Now even Charles Koch has congratulated Biden and Harris. Yet STILL Trump claims voter fraud. And puts the country at risk doing so. This is unsettling.
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Now even Charles Koch has congratulated Biden and Harris. Yet STILL Trump claims voter fraud. And puts the country at risk doing so. This is unsettling.
He has such a deep love of America, though.
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The Juggler
Behind that bush over there. Posts: 47,562
Biden
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brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 41,077
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Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
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There are no kings inside the gates of eden
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Joe Biden socks and Kamala Harris scrunchies: Washington’s gift shops prepare for a new administration
There are socks emblazoned with President-elect Joe Biden’s face and wine glasses honoring Kamala D. Harris.
Also on sale at White House Gifts in downtown Washington: Biden-Harris candy jars, celebratory hair scrunchies and plush German shepherds with “First Pet” bandannas honoring Major and Champ. The Donald Trump merchandise, meanwhile, has been moved to the back of the store, marked down 75 percent.
After presidential elections every four or eight years, Washington’s gift shops and souvenir stands undergo an overnight transformation. Barack Obama action figures made way for “Make America Great Again” gear in 2016, and now Biden-Harris face masks and T-shirts are pushing MAGA hats to the clearance racks.
“Whenever you have a change in administration, no matter who it is, there are new customers and all new energy,” said Alesia Jones, vice president of the longtime Washington store. “It’s like you flip a switch and have a completely new store.”
Washington-bound travelers finding higher airfares, hotel rates for Jan. 20 presidential inauguration
Sales are typically steady regardless of who’s in the White House, thanks to a dependable stream of political supporters and tourists who want keepsakes from the nation’s capital. But this year is different.
At White House Gifts, revenue has fallen 80 percent since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in March, and tourism — especially lucrative international travel — ground to a halt. Most of the people who wander in are regional, traveling from Maryland or Virginia. The store, which once had 32 workers, now employs seven.
Still, souvenir sellers across the city say they are hopeful that the Biden-Harris win will create enthusiasm for their products. Harris — the country’s first elected female, Black and Asian vice president — holds a special appeal to girls and women that they’re hoping to capitalize on. White House Gifts is already selling girls’ T-shirts that say “Kamala is my VP” and “That little girl was me,” a reference to Harris’s viral exchange with Biden during a Democratic presidential debate last year. Other shop owners say they’re hoping to replicate the kind of success they’ve had with products commemorating former first lady Michelle Obama and late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
After a costly mistake in 2016 — in which owner Jim Warlick bought $100,000 worth of Hillary Clinton T-shirts, mugs and wine glasses before the election — executives this time waited until Sunday, one day after Biden was named the winner of the presidential race, to place their orders. Jones says she’s still parsing speeches and appearances by Biden and Harris to pick up on quotes and ideas for new merchandise.
“Each president has their own theme,” said Jones, who said designers typically start creating products six months before an election. “For Trump, it was ‘Make America Great Again’ and ‘Keep America Great’ that kind of took over. This time around, we’re picking up on cues such as Joe Biden’s aviator glasses and, of course, the fact that Kamala Harris is breaking a huge glass ceiling for women.”
The official White House Gift Shop is offering preorders on an official Biden-Harris inauguration coin for $100. Elsewhere on the Internet, businesses are selling Biden-scented candles (“a captivating blend of musk and honey”) for $25, Harris-theme coloring books ($17) and life-size cardboard cutouts of both ($40). For those on the other side of the political spectrum, there are “Impeach Biden” bumper stickers ($5) and bath mats ($20).
What’s selling at the 2016 inauguration: Socks, mugs and Trump-scented candles
The change in administration, shop owners say, often also means a change in tone. At Chocolate Moose, a novelty gift shop where Trump toilet paper has been the top-seller for four years, owner Michele Cosby said she’s preparing for more earnest products this time around.
“We carry merchandise for every administration, but obviously some administrations offer more material than others,” she said. “Trump has definitely been our biggest-selling administration.”
In addition to $8 rolls of toilet paper bearing Trump’s face, other popular items include a squeaky Trump dog toy for $22 and a $15 talking pen with eight catchphrases, including “I don’t wear a toupee” and “Look, I’m really rich.”
Cosby said she isn’t sure what types of Biden-Harris merchandise she’ll stock, because vendors have been slow to design, manufacture and ship products during the pandemic. The 42-year-old shop in downtown D.C. has been closed during the pandemic, so the business has shifted to online. Still, Cosby said, about 85 percent of the orders are from locals who tend to lean Democratic.
“Covid has put a halt to so much production,” she said. “We’ll try to get what we can.”
More than 100,000 small businesses have closed forever as the nation’s pandemic toll escalates
Also in question is the upcoming presidential inauguration, which typically generates more than $1 billion for local shops, restaurants and hotels. It’s unclear how many people will show up for the Jan. 20 event during a pandemic and whether there will be the usual gaggle of inaugural balls and receptions that bring thousands of tourists to the area.
“The inauguration is like a Super Bowl for us,” Jones said, making up as much as 20 percent of White House Gifts’ annual sales. “This year we don’t really know how to plan. How many people will come? What will the events look like? Will there be a parade? We just don’t know.”
Some tourism experts, though, say there is reason for optimism. Despite the pandemic, Maggie Daniels, a professor of tourism at George Mason University, said the Biden-Harris inauguration “will mark the beginning of a significant and lasting boost” to Washington businesses.
“This is perhaps the first time in the history of the United States that the excitement associated with our incoming vice president is as palpable as that of our incoming president,” she said.
Executives at America! sprang into action within minutes of the Biden-Harris win. Managers at the national gift shop chain kicked off a group text to figure out logistics. By Saturday evening, commemorative T-shirts bearing the faces of Biden and Harris were on display at the company’s Baltimore and D.C.-area stores, including the Reagan National Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport and at National Harbor and Old Town Alexandria.
As of Tuesday morning, all 13 of the company’s stores were stocked with inauguration T-shirts, coffee mugs, buttons and magnets. Trump merchandise had been relocated to the back.
“Trump was a very successful brand for our stores these past years, and we’re excited to move forward now that we have a new president-elect,” said Tara Towers, vice president of merchandising for the company’s parent company, Marshall Retail Group. “Sales of inauguration T’s have already been really promising, and that momentum will continue until the inauguration.”
“Make America Great Again” baseball caps were the best-selling product during the Trump years. This time around, Towers said, the company has two areas of focus: uniting Americans with a new line of red-white-and-blue merchandise and creating Harris-related products geared toward women and girls.
“We want to bring a sense of empowerment to our stores, the idea that the world is full of endless possibility,” she said.
https://www.whitehousegifts.com/collections/inauguration-2017
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-win-fantasy-electors-bid-053422014.html
GOP leaders in 4 states quash dubious Trump bid on electors
Republican leaders in four critical states won by President-elect Joe Biden say they won’t participate in a legally dubious scheme to flip their state’s electors to vote for President Donald Trump. Their comments effectively shut down a half-baked plot some Republicans floated as a last chance to keep Trump in the White House.
State GOP lawmakers in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have all said they would not intervene in the selection of electors, who ultimately cast the votes that secure a candidate's victory. Such a move would violate state law and a vote of the people, several noted.
“I do not see, short of finding some type of fraud — which I haven’t heard of anything — I don’t see us in any serious way addressing a change in electors,” said Rusty Bowers, Arizona’s Republican House speaker, who says he’s been inundated with emails pleading for the legislature to intervene. “They are mandated by statute to choose according to the vote of the people.”
The idea loosely involves GOP-controlled legislatures dismissing Biden's popular vote wins in their states and opting to select Trump electors. While the endgame was unclear, it appeared to hinge on the expectation that a conservative-leaning Supreme Court would settle any dispute over the move.
Still, it has been promoted by Trump allies, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and is an example of misleading information and false claims fueling skepticism among Trump supporters about the integrity of the vote.
The theory is rooted in the fact that the U.S. Constitution grants state legislatures the power to decide how electors are chosen. Each state already has passed laws that delegate this power to voters and appoint electors for whichever candidate wins the state on Election Day. The only opportunity for a state legislature to then get involved with electors is a provision in federal law allowing it if the actual election “fails.”
If the result of the election was unclear in mid-December, at the deadline for naming electors, Republican-controlled legislatures in those states could declare that Trump won and appoint electors supporting him. Or so the theory goes.
The problem, legal experts note, is that the result of the election is not in any way unclear. Biden won all the states at issue. It's hard to argue the election “failed” when Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security reported it was not tampered with and was “the most secure in American history.” There has been no finding of widespread fraud or problems in the vote count, which shows Biden leading Trump by more than 5 million votes nationally.
Trump's campaign and its allies have filed lawsuits that aim to delay the certification and potentially provide evidence for a failed election. But so far, Trump and Republicans have had meager success — at least 10 of the lawsuits have been rejected by the courts in the 10 days since the election. The most significant that remain ask courts to prevent Michigan and Pennsylvania from certifying Biden as the winner of their elections.
But legal experts say it’s impossible for courts to ultimately stop those states from appointing electors by the December deadline.
“It would take the most unjustified and bizarre intervention by courts that this country has ever seen,” said Danielle Lang of the Campaign Legal Center. “I haven’t seen anything in any of those lawsuits that has any kind of merit — let alone enough to delay appointing electors.”
Even if Trump won a single court fight, there's another major roadblock: Congress would be the final arbiter of whether to accept electors submitted by Republican legislatures. If the Democratic-controlled House and GOP-controlled Senate could not agree on which electors to accept and who becomes president, the presidency would pass to the next person in line of succession at the end of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence’s term on Jan. 20. That would be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.
“If this is a strategy, I don’t think it will be successful,” said Edward Foley, a constitutional law professor at Ohio State University. “I think we’re in the realm of fantasy here.”
But unfounded claims about fraud and corruption have been circulating widely in conservative circles since Biden won the election. Asked this week if state lawmakers should invalidate the official results, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said, “Everything should be on the table.”
DeSantis urged Pennsylvania and Michigan residents to call state lawmakers and urge them to intervene. “Under Article 2 of the Constitution, presidential electors are done by the legislatures and the schemes they create and the framework. And if there’s departure from that, if they’re not following the law, if they’re ignoring law, then they can provide remedies as well," he said.
Republican lawmakers, however, appear to be holding steady. “The Pennsylvania General Assembly does not have and will not have a hand in choosing the state’s presidential electors or in deciding the outcome of the presidential election," top Republican legislative leaders, state Sen. Jake Corman and Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, wrote in an October op-ed. Their offices said Friday they stand by the statement.
The Republican leader of Wisconsin's Assembly, Robin Vos, has long dismissed the idea, and his spokesperson, Kit Beyer, said he stood by that position on Thursday.
In Michigan, legislative leaders say any intervention would be against state law. Even though the GOP-controlled legislature is investigating the election, state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey told radio station WJR on Friday, “It is not the expectation that our analysis will result in any change in the outcome.”
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Caption?
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin