I'm getting a big kick out of all the Democrats running around wagging their fingers at the Republicans who blocked Obama nominating Garland.

You mean the ruthless Republican political machine that has spent the last 40 years only caring about consolidating power in order to keep billionaires happy doesn't care if you point out they're being hypocritical? Shoot, next thing you'll tell me that nice wallet inspector I just met isn't coming back. 

I was trying to find something that explains Trump. Some kind of deeper understanding of his motivations and influences, his rationale, the way he processes information and makes decisions. 

When I read the equivalent books about Obama, they shed a lot of light on things that were not always apparent in his administration, but you could sometimes see in his decisions. He was almost cripplingly conflict averse. He cared so much about his image as an intelligent bipartisan leader that he pretty much abandoned most of the ideological platform that got him elected in the first place. 

You pick up these little quirks about the presidents themselves from books written about their presidencies, especially when the writer can interview the subject and their inner circle. W Bush valued decisiveness, even when it morphed into stubbornness. Clinton fetishized compromise. HW Bush felt alienated. Reagan was a chronic delegator. Carter was a micro-manager and meddled in his cabinet. 

As I read through the second Woodward book, I'm left with the truth I was looking for in the other books all along: There is nothing deeper. There is no complexity. There is no deeper ideology or belief system or quirk to be found. Trump is a giant oafish dumbass. That's all there is. 

He was born into a wealthy family and has stumbled upwards his entire life. He's literally never been told no. His father semi-legally gave him hundreds of millions of dollars at a young age. He almost assuredly used money and someone taking standardized tests for him to get into Wharton considering his awful educational record up to that point. He was given fake property development jobs by his father and somehow failed, consistently, at nearly everything he ever tried. His own ventures consistently fail and go bankrupt. He has never had to face any consequence for any of these failures and bankruptcies because the banks realize they'll never be paid back if he does, so he keeps getting loans. 

The consistencies pile up in every book -- meaning, either Bob Woodward, John Bolton, Mary Trump and Michael Wolff all got together and coordinated, or these are likely true: Trump has almost no capacity for intelligent thought. His perspective of the world mostly comes from watching upwards of five hours of Fox News and OANN each day. He does not read and might be semi-illiterate. His staffers have to highlight his own name in briefing packets for him to give the information even the slightest bit of attention. He does not pay attention during meetings, instead going around the room and poking each member of whatever meeting it happens to be into complimenting him. He is a chronic liar. He has zero understanding of basic civics and government operation. 

About 70% of Woodward's new book is a near-transcript of his interviews with Trump. It's chilling, not because of anything evil Trump is saying, but because it finally begins setting in -- he's just a dumbass. Every time Woodward asks Trump about anything involving planning, or motivation, or deeper thought, Trump's response is either 1) A campaign slogan non-sequitur, 2) Something he heard on television, or 3) A lie. 

Oh I'm aware. If climate change wasn't enough reason for me to move, the unattainable housing prices will.

Pennsylvania is leaning Trump right now, but they only have ~65% of their vote counts in vs. Michigan and Wisconsin, who have both already reported over 95%. I think most of the votes left to count in Pennsylvania are from the Philadelphia metro area, which should lead Biden, but I don't know the volume. 

Arizona passed legal weed too, wish that happened when I used to partake haha.

Happy to see Oregon is treating addiction as a health issue, not a criminal issue.

There are weird dynamics in play that, to me, represent how bad the current Democratic Party is at running candidates who can campaign primarily on policy issues and not just not being the Republican. 

Trump easily won Florida for a Republican Party that would do away with the minimum wage if it could. 

Those exact same Florida voters passed a $15 minimum wage amendment at 61%. 

Give people a reason to vote for their own economic interests and they'll do it, but that only works if you actually build a serious policy-driven campaign. 

I also think Trump is going to begin immediately running for re-election as soon as his lame duck session is over. He'll campaign for four straight years. The big rally events were the only part of being president he liked. He's got his base that will probably never lose their loyalty to him as long as he's around. The GOP will probably run a big crowd again in 2024, and I have no idea what a second Trump primary is like, but I can't imagine it's much different from the first time. It's going to leave a lot of turds who barnacled themselves to Trump and his base in a weird spot, because they likely have already started setting up 2024 runs. Guys like Matt Gaetz, Dan Crenshaw and Tom Cotton. With Trump still in it for 2024, running against him could cost them dearly, and they might delay because of it. That would leave 2024 as Trump vs. the "moderate" Republicans.   

This election season will never goddamned end. 

I understand that, but amazing how far this country has fallen.

My entire research agenda involves researching right-wing extremism online. I am currently working on two studies looking at the spinoff /r/TheDonald website, how message framing shifts during the lame duck session (paper 1) and then after inauguration (paper 2, gotta get them pubs for tenure). 

These folks have been yelling for weeks that they were going to cause a ruckus and storm the capitol building on Jan. 6. Ever since Trump tweeted on Dec. 19 that there would be a big protest and it would "be wild." 

So on one hand I was super not surprised by anything yesterday. That hoard did exactly what they've been saying they were going to do for weeks. 

But on the other hand, I am kinda surprised still. You don't usually see online ruckus turn into real-world ruckus that cleanly. 

At least it's easier to argue the relevancy of my work now maybe who knows. 

Trump banned from twitter, Google pulled the plug on Parler, and apple is soon to follow. 

They are the biggest snowflakes and hypocrites.