Must read: Yesterday, Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post listed 50 things that are better since Biden took office. The list is great, so I encourage you to read it all, but here are a few highlights:

• You can ignore Twitter
• The White House briefing room is not an Orwellian nightmare of lies
• We have not heard a word from presidential children
• You feel calmer after hearing the president
• The president is able to articulate policy details, coherently even
• Fauci, not the president, briefs on the science of covid-19 and efficacy of vaccines
• The president will talk more to our allies than to Russian President Vladimir Putin

Enjoy the list.

You remember all those scandals under Obama, right?  You know the ones – Obama’s tan suit scandal, Michelle’s bare armed dress scandal, Obama’s “Religion and Guns” scandal.  Those “scandals” occupied weeks and hundreds of hours of air time in RW media, breathlessly reporting on how so many Bible thumping “Christians” we aghast at how the Obamas could be so tone deaf and insensitive to them and white supremacists.  During the Rein of Trump, all those outrages were explained away when Trump (an actual criminal) did everything from extorting a foreign government to leading an insurrection to take down the federal government.  Now that he’s off to Mar a Lago, the outrage switch has been turned back on.  Here are this week’s “scandals” caused by the Biden presidency:

1. The “Chinese handler” scandal:  Rumors began circulating on Twitter and RW media on inauguration day when talk started about an Asian man who was everywhere Biden went, telling him what to do at every step.  He was immediately dubbed the “Chinese handler” with all kinds of talk about how Biden was being controlled by “Communist China”.  Turns out that this Asian man was not Chinese at all, but of Korean descent, and the head of the Secret Service presidential detail on Inauguration day.  His name is David Cho, and, funny enough, he received the Department of Homeland Security’s exceptional service gold medal. The award was given to him “for tireless and direct participation in high-level negotiations” during the second summit between former President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam.  What a scandal.
2. The Rolex watch scandal: The NYTimes pointed out that, rather than a Timex or other cheap watch, Biden dared to break presidential tradition and wear a Rolex.  Gasp.  #bidenrolex and #bidenwrist starting appearing on Twitter and other social media, shocked that Biden would wear such an elite watch.  Never mind that Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ, Reagan, and latter day Obama also wore Rolex watches.
3. The Biden wears an earpiece scandal returns:  On Inauguration day the stupidest rumor mongering returned on Twitter, claiming that, because he’s in rapid mental decline, he must wear an earpiece where a handler instructs him how to behave.  There was some video floating around social media where Biden is walking through a door at the Capitol with Dr. Jill when, spotting Marines at the door says off-handedly to her, “Those are good looking Marines”.  That was immediately picked up by the Q-types who interpreted that he said, “Salute the Marines”.  When he didn’t salute, they immediately concluded that he just repeated the instructions in his earpiece but didn’t actually do it, obviously because of his mental decline.  Stupid, right?  Again, Twitter and other social media blew up to the point that the Washington Post Fact Checker debunked it and gave it 4 Pinocchios.

This is only the beginning.  As the Q types have now figured out that Trump actually did play them for chumps, rather than disowning RW bullshit, they have just shifted back to old, pre-Trump bullshit.  If it’s anti-Dem, they just assume it must be right.  And here we go again, round and round to nowhere.

The end of our long national nightmare.  Now the work begins.

OK, kids, the game plan is now as obvious as my pointy toed cowboy boots on the beach.  The Texas GOP’s voter suppression efforts are now in overdrive, throwing up lawsuit after lawsuit (led by Abbott and Paxton) to stop drive-in voting, and eliminate thousands of mail in ballot drop boxes around the state.  And, this is happening all over the country.  Why, you ask?  Here’s why.

It’s become clear that Republicans have now realized that, even with their usual voter suppression tactics (removing polling locations, strict ID laws, complex and confusing mail-in ballot procedures, shifting times and places for early voting, etc.) are not going to be enough to eek out a win.  Turnout in 2018, and now in 2020 is unprecedented.  There well over 1 million more voter registrations this year than in 2016.  Biden is leading nationally by double digits and in all of the battleground states, though by only a few points in NC and FL.  The normal point shaving that is a trademark Republican tactic won’t be enough.

So, the new tactic?  Attempting to invalidate millions of votes.  It started last June when Trump’s new Postmaster General started sabotaging the Post Office by eliminating overtime, removing hundreds of mail sorting machines from primarily Democratic districts, and issuing ominous warnings to states that the Post Office my not be able to deliver mail-in ballots on time.  It’s now moved to the courts, starting with Abbott’s order to eliminate all but one mail-in ballot dropbox per county.  That order is now winding through the courts with Paxton leading the way.  NOW, Republicans have sued counties that have implemented drive through voting, calling all votes obtained with that method as “illegal”.

So here’s how it’s going to go – because of the huge turnout, Biden has a chance to win Texas by a narrow margin.  That win will be challenged by Republicans claiming that votes delivered to drop boxes and votes through drive in voting locations are “illegal” and therefore invalid.  They will seek to invalidate MILLIONS of votes to keep Texas in the red column for Trump.  Why?  Texas has 38 electoral votes.  If Biden wins Texas, it’s game over for Trump, and that could happen on election night.

That is what Republicans are trying to stop.  Even though I’m eligible to vote by mail, I’m going to drag my happy ass down to a polling location to vote in person.  I’ll do that with a big middle finger to Abbott and the rest of the criminals enabling him.

Amy Klobuchar is ending her bid for the presidency and will endorse Joe Biden.  She is joining other mainstream Democrats in coalescing around Biden to head off the potential for Sanders to lead the ticket which could be disastrous not only at the presidential level, but also in many down ballot races.

In the first actual primary of 2020, Joe Biden smoked the opposition, taking 49% of primary voters in South Carolina.  Bernie’s showing was lame, at less than 20%;  the Zero Percenters trailed far behind him.  Steyer has already dropped out.  Time for Mayor Pete, Warren, Klobuchar, and all the rest to do the same.  This is between Biden, Bloomberg, and Sanders.  Everyone else needs to go home.