Very tiny bit of good news: So, there’s this nazi fuck on twitter that I’ve been keeping an eye on for months, and reporting whenever he posted anything over the line. Well, his account is now suspended.
Small steps, but it honestly made me cheer out loud.
Since we’re starting a new chapter of the thread, here again is the link to today’s Guardian coronavirus world liveblog (support the Guardian if you can!).
“Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, the law firm leading the Trump campaign’s efforts to cast doubt on the presidential election results in Pennsylvania, abruptly withdrew from a federal lawsuit that it filed days earlier on behalf of President Trump.”
In a special report, MSNBC’s Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber debunks Trump’s voter “fraud” claims with the facts and the judges’ own words from court. Melber highlights the fact that Trump’s own lawyer admitted there’s no evidence of voter fraud under oath and that Trump’s own aides are privately acknowledging they’re aware this legal fight is “unsustainable.”
From the Guardian world liveblog (linked @ #3 above):
Hackers working for the Russian and North Korean governments have targeted more than half a dozen organisations involved in Covid-19 treatment and vaccine research around the globe, Microsoft has said.
The software company said a Russian hacking group commonly nicknamed “Fancy Bear” – along with a pair of North Korean actors dubbed “Zinc” and “Cerium” by Microsoft – were implicated in recent attempts to break into the networks of seven pharmaceutical companies and vaccine researchers in Canada, France, India, South Korea, and the United States.
Microsoft said the majority of the targets were organisations that were in the process of testing vaccines. Most of the break-in attempts failed but an unspecified number succeeded, it added.
Few other details were provided by Microsoft. It declined to name the targeted organisations, say which ones had been hit by which actor, or provide a precise timeline or description of the attempted intrusions.
The Russian embassy in Washington, which has repeatedly disputed allegations of Russian involvement in digital espionage, said there was “nothing that we can add” to their previous denials, Reuters reported.
North Korea’s representative to the United Nations did not immediately respond to messages from Reuters seeking comment. Pyongyang has previously denied carrying out hacking abroad.
stroppysays
@9
“Immaculate deception”? Trumpies have become dumber than stupid. Is there even a word for it.
From the PA lawsuit filed by voters to stop certification…”
The highlighted passage reads:
…Voters are currently compiling analytical evidence of illegal voting from data they already have and are in the process of obtaining, some of which must come through expedited discovery (such as the final data on who actually voted). They intend to produce this evidence at the evidentiary hearing to establish that sufficient illegal ballots were included in the results to change or place in doubt the November 3 presidential-election results.
Biden now leads Trump nationally by 5.4 million and is the only candidate to ever hit 78 million votes.
It only felt close because Republicans blocked efforts to count mail-in votes early.”
As I said in the previous chapter, the NYT and the networks have called AZ for Biden now. AZ won’t go to a recount because the lead is too large for an automatic recount and candidates can’t request one there.
The Georgia audit starts today.
Also, China has now congratulated Biden. Still not offering congratulations (as far as I know at the moment): Trump, the Republican “leadership,” Putin, AMLO, Bolsonaro.
“NEW: Following a rough hearing yesterday, the Trump campaign’s lawyer in Arizona has admitted there isn’t a case related to SharpieGate that affects the presidential race.
In the notice of mootness, he indicates there aren’t enough votes at stake to make a difference….”
Dominic Cummings has now decided to leave Number 10 today for good – (subtle hint walking out with a box – Lee Cain also now out from today
There was a conversation btw the 2 of them and the PM at lunchtime today where it was decided after upset in the team and difficult week, best to go immediately
This was all a slow burning fuse but exploded fast when it finally happened! End of a very torrid era
SC @11, Ari Melber did such a good job with that summary. He made his points clearly.
Republicans are flooding Georgia with field operatives ahead of the runoff races. I am worried that their ground game will also worsen the spread of coronavirus in that state.
From info posted by SC, I saw that Peter Navarro was claiming that Trump won the election. Sheesh. He presented that lie in a completely serious way. He was not joking. He is, of course, not the only Republican lying about election results. Here’s another one:
It was close, but several news outlets, including NBC News, have called the race in Illinois’ 14th congressional district, and incumbent Rep. Lauren Underwood (D) has defeated Jim Oberweis (R). The Republican challenger declared himself the winner last week.
tomhsays
@ #17
No location had more than the Atlanta Hawks (NBA) Arena where 40,000 people voted, in an election that had 4,000 vote difference. It could have made the difference, who knows. Pro basketball players, led by Lebron James, made a big push to get people to vote.
“Charles Koch’s regrets: In a rare interview, the libertarian billionaire concedes that his GOP partisanship and activism badly deepened America’s divisions. As he puts it in his new book, ‘Boy, did we screw up! What a mess!'”
“By any fair measure, Alito sounded less like a Supreme Court justice and more like a partisan politician, eagerly sharing his views with like-minded allies.”
[…] Last night Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito publicly criticized restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Associated Press reported:
“The pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty,” Alito said in an address to the conservative Federalist Society, which is holding its annual convention virtually because of the pandemic…. “Whatever one may think about the COVID restrictions, we surely don’t want them to become a recurring feature after the pandemic has passed,” said Alito, who was nominated to the court by President George W. Bush.
And while it was jarring to hear Alito, who has no background in epidemiology or public health, publicly criticize efforts to control the pandemic, that was really just the start of what made his remarks so extraordinary. Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern explained:
Alito abandoned any pretense of impartiality in his speech, a grievance-laden tirade against Democrats, the progressive movement, and the United States’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alito’s targets included COVID-related restrictions, same-sex marriage, abortion, Plan B, the contraceptive mandate, LGBTQ non-discrimination laws, and five sitting Democratic senators…. Flouting his ethical obligations, Alito waded into fierce political debates over public health during a pandemic, reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality, and other issues that routinely come before his court.
[…] And in the process, he did a favor for progressive advocates of reforming — and perhaps expanding — the federal judiciary. For many on the left, a lengthy Republican crusade to stack the courts with far-right ideologues has not only succeeded, it’s also created a crisis of sorts, with much of the country fearing the consequences of an overtly politicized judicial system.
[…] Alito appeared before a conservative group — the Federalist Society has helped tell the Trump White House exactly which conservative ideologues to nominate to the federal bench — and delivered what was effectively a political stump speech, offering fresh evidence that the court’s progressive critics are correct.
“You can’t say that marriage is a union between one man and one woman” anymore, the justice whined, as if he were a social conservative candidate appealing for votes. “Until very recently, that’s what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now it’s considered bigotry.”
He proceeded to chastise five Democratic senators who endorsed “restructuring” the high court, describing it as “wrong,” and an “affront to the Constitution.”
[…] The justice’s speech — which was scripted and pre-recorded — did not go unnoticed in legal circles. “This speech is like I woke up from a vampire dream,” University of Baltimore law professor and former federal prosecutor Kim Wehle wrote. “Unscrupulously biased, political, and even angry. I can’t imagine why Alito did this publicly. Totally inappropriate and damaging to the Supreme Court.”
The L.A. Times’ Harry Litman added that this was “as politically partisan a speech as I’ve ever seen from a justice,” adding that Alito’s remarks were “arrogant, tendentious, and sloppy.”
Also yesterday: “Americans for Prosperity, the Koch ‘grassroots’ political group, received a whopping 86% of its $52.6m 2019 revenue from just TWO donors. Very grassroots then. This is taken from a recently filed auditors report. AFP recently dumped millions in the #2020Elections to help the GOP”
The Republican Party on Capitol Hill doesn’t have to tolerate the QAnon candidates who won their elections. It’s nevertheless choosing to do so.
Over the summer, congressional Republican leaders confronted an awkward realization: if Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene prevailed in her GOP primary runoff, Congress would soon have a fringe proponent of the crackpot QAnon conspiracy theory as an elected federal lawmaker.
Given Greene’s record of radicalism, Politico reported at the time that the House’s highest-ranking Republicans were “racing to distance themselves” from the right-wing candidate. As regular readers may recall, the Washington Post quoted one GOP source soon after saying, “There are a lot of members livid at [House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy] for sitting back and doing nothing to stop this woman from being elected.”
Last week, as expected, Greene won her seat, and as Roll Call noted, she wasn’t alone.
QAnon is heading to Congress, as Marjorie Taylor Greene, a supporter of the baseless and complicated pro-Trump conspiracy theory, won a House seat in Georgia, and Lauren Boebert claimed a House seat in Colorado…. Greene and Boebert were among at least a dozen Republican congressional candidates who had endorsed or given credence to QAnon’s unfounded belief that Trump is the last line of defense against a cabal of child-molesting Democrats who seek to dominate world power.
There may yet be another: In Utah’s most competitive congressional race, Republican Burgess Owens recently suggested the QAnon conspiracy theory — which the FBI has characterized as a possible domestic-terror threat — deserves consideration because it’s something “the left” is “trying to keep us away from.” Owens’ race is still too close to call.
[…] congressional leaders have options as to how best to deal with lawmakers whose views they consider excessively radical. Indeed, the Anti-Defamation League last week specifically requested that congressional leaders deny committee assignments to new members who’ve endorsed the QAnon garbage. It would be the same step GOP leaders took in response to Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) racist controversies. […]
The House Republican leadership doesn’t appear to care. TPM reported yesterday:
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) brushed off concerns over two Republican QAnon supporters who were elected to the House last week during a Thursday news conference. When asked about whether he has concerns about QAnon-aligned Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert — who were both elected to the House GOP in Georgia and Colorado, respectively — McCarthy appeared unbothered by both House GOP-elects who’ve publicly backed the complicated pro-Trump conspiracy theory.
“Our party is very diverse and you mentioned two people who will join our party and both of them have denounced QAnon,” McCarthy said, adding that everyone should “give them an opportunity.”
To the extent that reality matters to the GOP leadership, Colorado’s Lauren Boebert has taken modest steps to distance herself from the ridiculous movement, but as the Washington Post noted yesterday, “Greene has not denounced QAnon. She has called it ‘a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out.'”
[…] On “Meet the Press” last month, NBC News’ Chuck Todd asked outgoing Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) about the message the Republican Party is sending by supporting a congressional candidate accused of using racist and other offensive rhetoric.
The Virginia Republican lamented, in reference to his party, “We’ve lost our way.” Riggleman added, “[W]hen we start to actually represent as a party that’s part of this anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that believes there’s some kind of pedophilic cabal on the Democratic side of the House, I think we’re in for a rough ride.”
SC @32, that woman is danger to herself and others.
In other news, Trump is still not doing his job:
It’s been rumored for years that […] Trump doesn’t actually enjoy being president. And that’s never been more clear than the last week.
Trump has had virtually nothing on his public schedule since the election — besides a few lunches here or meetings there with the vice president or his attorney general or the secretary of state, his seemingly most loyal comrades.
All we’ve seen of [Trump] in recent days is his grievance-filled Twitter presence. He’s not once complained IRL about the results of the election — leaving that duty to his D-list team of “lawyers” to sow nit-picky doubts about an inconsequential number of ballots in various swing states, largely unsuccessfully delegitimizing the free and fair election that was held last week.
And he’s done nothing publicly to maintain his duties of office. The COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. is worse than it has ever been and there is seemingly no longer a federal response to the crisis, leaving states alone to manage the spikes, fund the response and make decisions about shutdowns on their own — all without a federal COVID relief package, thanks to Senate Republicans. [Still no funding for the states!]
Aides have made it clear — though anonymously — that […] Trump knows it’s over. He’s already decided he’s going to run in 2024. But his supporters need to see some sort of fight from him in order to maintain their allegiance for four years of a Democratic presidency.
While we expected Trump would do all he could to pillage the federal government for his own purposes and stonewall a Biden administration from properly transitioning, we didn’t expect this kind of eclipse — both of his duties and of his face.
For Republican liars trying to delegitimize the election, no recount will be enough.
As Georgia’s hand-count audit of its presidential contest gets underway, the state Republican Party is already making misleading complaints about how state is handling the process — a sign of how committed the GOP is to sowing doubt about Joe Biden’s win, regardless of the thoroughness of the verification measures to to confirm his victory.
A letter the state GOP sent to Secretary State Brad Raffensperger Thursday night, as reported by Georgia Public Radio, mischaracterized the audit process and why it was being conducted.
It appears to be a part of the larger ploy by […] Trump and his allies to stave off formal declarations of his defeat, which was projected nearly a week ago. Biden’s margin has only gotten larger in some key states in the days since.
“This letter intentionally makes requests designed to prolong the recount and delay the opportunity to give Georgia voters assurance their votes were counted properly,” Raffensperger’s press secretary Ari Schaffer, who previously worked in the Trump White House, said in a statement to TPM. “It also asks for cumbersome, time-consuming steps, that are not part of any audit or recount procedures in Georgia law or State Election Board rules. This recount is being guided by trusted, nonpartisan national experts following best practices used across the country, and every step is within view of monitors from both parties, the media and the public.”
One of the complaints the Republicans made Thursday is that Georgia’s audit will not involve re-checking the voter signatures on ballot envelopes to verify their identity.
This complaint fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of the audit. The process Georgia is conducting — known as a “risk-limiting audit”— is meant to serve as a back-check to confirm that the state’s computer tabulation reflects who should have won a race.
It involves going through the ballots themselves, batch by batch, and sorting them by the presidential candidate chosen by the voter. Those piles are then tallied and recorded.
Put simply: going back through envelopes that delivered the ballots is not part of the process.
A major reason that election officials are conducting a hand-count of this sort is that Georgia law already has a requirement that at least one of its statewide races be subject to a risk-limiting audit. In theory, the state could have chosen another statewide race — such as its jungle primary for the U.S. Senate — to run through the procedure.
[…] In risk-limiting audits that are done on races that are not particularly tight, only a sample of ballots would be hand-counted, because the goal is just to establish a statistical level of confidence that the computer tabulation produced the correct winner. But because the margin between Biden and Trump is so close, the sample size required to establish that confidence is large enough that it will actually be less administrative work to hand count all the ballots instead.
That means that, in order for the state to make its certification deadline, counties have only six days to sort and count by hand 5 million ballots. […]
Due to inevitability of human error, it’s likely that the audit numbers will be “slightly” different than the initial tally of the ballots, Sterling said.
[…] The count is open to the public, however, with a viewing area for both the media and other observers. Some counties are even livestreaming their audits.
[…] The irony of all this work is that when it’s done, Trump could still ask for an actual “recount,” as envisioned by the state code, which allows for such petitions in races where the margin is .5 percent or less. That recount would require election officials to re-scan the QR codes from the ballots through the tabulators. […]
Sigh. More debunking of claims made by dim-bulb Trump:
On Thursday, Donald Trump posted a tweet falsely claiming a computerized voting system vendor had switched or deleted millions of his votes. The unfounded allegation appears to have originally been concocted by an anonymous poster on a pro-Trump forum, illustrating a common chain of right-wing disinformation: A baseless conspiracy theory is posted anonymously, a right-wing blogger cites it, a conservative news outlet picks it up, and, next, the president of the United States spreads it as supposed fact.
[…] Trump sourced his information to a “report” from One America News Network, a right-wing cable network with a penchant for pumping out propaganda and completely made-up conspiracy theories. […]
The segment featured an OAN anchor saying an “unaudited analysis of data obtained from Edison Research” showed that “states using Dominion voting systems may have switched as many 435,000 votes from President Trump to Joe Biden” and that “the author also finds another 2.7 million votes for Trump were deleted by Dominion, including almost 1 million in Pennsylvania alone.” OAN added that “analysts say the theft and threat and destruction of votes are attributed to so-called glitches in Dominion software.”
[…] the numbers, supposed findings, and rhetoric are nearly identical to a Tuesday post on Gateway Pundit, a right-wing site that regularly publishes falsehoods and hoaxes.
Unlike OAN, Gateway Pundit decided to cite the “analyst” and link to their “research.” As it turns out, it’s an anonymous poster on TheDonald, a pro-Trump web forum. Gateway Pundit admitted that it didn’t verify the poster’s work, calling the analysis “unaudited”—a term of art indicating that the information was found from a random person on the internet.
[…] The New York Times has debunked this, reporting how Dominion software neither caused widespread voting problems nor affected the final counts. Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security released a statement late on Thursday saying there “is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
[…] While anonymous posters can and do find useful data or information that can be verified to form the basis of valuable reporting, here, both OANN and Gateway Pundit openly admit having done no such work to corroborate the data they cite from a forum with a history of posting disinformation along with racist and Islamophobic content.
The anonymous poster’s track record does not inspire journalistic confidence, but includes posts like “IF BIDEN WINS GOODBYE WHITE PEOPLE,” along with others boosting the conspiracy theory that Biden is a pedophile.
[…] Over the last several months, message-board conspiracy theories have reached Trump’s Twitter feed in a matter of days. Today, the pace shows no sign of relenting.
New infections and hospital admissions dropped sharply at the end of the second week of a new nationwide lockdown in France, health ministry data has shown.
The ministry reported 23,794 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours; down from 33,172 on Thursday and compared to 60,486 last Friday. The number of people going into hospital with the virus fell to 24 from 737 on Thursday and the number of people going into intensive care dropped to just four from 96 on Thursday and more than 100 per day every weekday last week.
I’m looking forward to seeing Biden restore National Monuments that Trump trashed. Years ago, I wrote a guidebook to both designated and proposed wilderness areas in Utah. I know these public lands well, and it was painful to see Trump decimate them.
Here are some excerpts from an article by Chris D’Angelo:
[…]Trump‘s legacy on public lands is a four-year war against protected wild places, which has included dismantling Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
[…] President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President–elect Kamala Harris have vowed to not only restore the Utah monuments, but designate new protected sites to safeguard ecologically important landscapes and combat the global climate crisis.
“As President, Biden will take immediate steps to reverse the Trump administration’s assaults on America’s natural treasures, including by reversing Trump’s attacks on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Bears Ears, and Grand Staircase-Escalante,” reads their comprehensive plan for tribal nations, which the campaign released in October.
[…] In late 2017, after a sham review of recent national monument designations, Trump carved more than 2 million acres from the southern Utah sites. The boundary of Bears Ears, a 1.35 million-acre landscape that several tribes consider sacred, was cut by 85 percent. Nearby 1.87 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante, the largest land national monument in the country and rich in both archeological and paleontological resources, was cut roughly in half.
The administration has also finalized plans to open the coastal plain of Alaska’s fragile Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area that the Indigenous Gwich’in people of northern Alaska and Canada call “the sacred place where life begins,” to oil drilling; greenlighted commercial fishing within Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, a 4,900-square-mile protected site off the East Coast; and bulldozed and blasted Indigenous cultural and burial sites within Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, to make way for Trump’s wall along the US-Mexico border.
[…] the Trump administration prioritized undoing President Barack Obama’s legacy […] The pro-industry, anti-conservation crusade came amid dual climate and extinction crises […]
The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, made up of the five Native American tribes that petitioned the Obama administration to grant Bears Ears monument status, has already had intermediary discussions with Biden’s team, according to Keala Carter, the coalition’s public lands specialist.
[…] Biden has committed to signing an executive order to conserve 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030―a goal in line with the United Nations’ plan for protecting biodiversity. […]
Trump was interviewed by Washington Examiner correspondent Byron York:
[…] In a new interview, Trump refused to acknowledge that he had been beaten by President-elect Joe Biden, insisting that his campaign’s election-related legal challenges would reverse the race’s outcome and arguing that Americans should “never bet against me.”
[…] In his interview with York, Trump argued he was still competitive in several key swing states where Biden had already emerged victorious, saying he was “going to win Wisconsin” — a state called for Biden last Wednesday where Trump is currently trailing by more than 20,000 votes.
In Arizona, which was also called for Biden as early as last Wednesday, the race will “be down to 8,000 votes,” Trump said, even though he is behind by more than 11,000 votes there. “If we can do an audit of the millions of votes, We’ll find 8,000 votes easy. If we can do an audit, we’ll be in good shape there,” he said.
Trump went on to say he was “going to win” Georgia, which has not been officially called but where Biden has a lead of more than 14,000 votes. Georgia’s top election official announced Wednesday that the state would conduct a hand recount of every ballot cast in the presidential race.
“Now we’re down to about 10,000, 11,000 votes, and we have hand counting,” Trump told York, incorrectly stating his vote deficit in Georgia. “Hand counting is the best. To do a spin of the machine doesn’t mean anything. You pick up 10 votes. But when you hand count — I think we’re going to win Georgia.”
[…] [Trump] also tweeted Friday afternoon that he “may even try to stop by and say hello” at a series of pro-Trump rallies taking place in Washington, D.C., this weekend in support of his refusal to concede. “Heartwarming to see all of the tremendous support out there,” he wrote.
[…] “The President’s team is undeterred and will move forward with rock-solid attorneys to ensure free and fair elections for all Americans,” [said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh]
California, Oregon and Washington on Friday issued a joint travel advisory discouraging nonessential travel and urging visitors and residents returning from other states to quarantine for 14 days.
Essential travel under the advisory includes “work and study, critical infrastructure support, economic services and supply chains, health, immediate medical care and safety and security,” according to a Friday press release. […]
New: A Michigan judge has rejected a GOP effort to stop the certification of election results in Wayne County pending an audit — “sinister, fraudulent motives were ascribed … Plaintiffs’ interpretation of events is incorrect and not credible”
Order atl. They’re losing these cases at such a clip it’s hard to keep up.
Trump is holding a press conference today to brag about the coronavirus vaccine, an effort for which he can take no credit. The press conference is supposed to begin at 4 p.m. EST.
Donald Trump’s been a sad, little whiny baby ever since losing the election he should’ve always lost because he’s terrible. CNN reports that he feels “dejected” because a majority of American voters “rejected” him. That happened in 2016, as well, but at least he still got to be president. […]
Trump has hidden from the public like a cowardly loser all week, tweeting lies about voter fraud while his bargain-basement lawyers pitifully attempt to overturn the election. […]
Trump is so busy with his ceremonial airing of grievances — he has a personal vendetta right now against Fox News — that he can’t even pretend to president. […] he’s shown zero concern for the escalating coronavirus crisis […]
Fortunately, America has just elected a new president, Joe Biden, who once again demonstrated how real presidents who are functioning adults behave. Thursday, six Americans were killed and one American was injured in a helicopter crash in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Biden responded like a commander in chief who’s also a human being.
I extend my deep condolences to the loved ones of the peacekeepers, including 6 American service members, who died on Tiran Island, and wish a speedy recovery to the surviving American. I join all Americans in honoring their sacrifice, as I keep their loved ones in my prayers.
This is a sharp contrast from President Lame Duck’s Twitter rants Thursday.
.@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime even WORSE. Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!
Trump also retweeted a clip of Jack Nicklaus at the Masters tournament. It’s like he’s already quit. Sources inside the White House claim that Trump is attacking our democratic systems and traditions because he believes the 72 million fascism enablers who voted for him deserve a “fight.” This isn’t a fight. It’s a scream-until-you’re-blue temper tantrum. […]
We have 11 million people in our country who have already had COVID. We should tell them to celebrate. We should tell them to throw away their masks, go to restaurants, and live again because these people are now immune
Commentary:
[…] So far, 242,860 people out of that 11 million have died, and the dead are a drag at parties. Many others are COVID-19 “long haulers” and are still suffering debilitating effects from the disease. And even more are stuck with massive hospital bills because they don’t have the sweet government-funded health care Paul considers tyranny […]
They are not “immune.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that reinfections are possible and states directly that “whether you have had COVID-19″ or not, you should wear a mask in public places and social distance. This is also for the protection of people serving you in restaurants, which you really shouldn’t be going to anyway.
[…] PAUL: I’ve been saying all along that I think the children have some sort of pre-existing immunity. The tests are now backing me up on this.
That’s a goddamn lie. Children have died from COVID-19. You don’t need a medical license to Google.
Just last week, a 5-year-old Texas kindergartner died from the coronavirus.
[…] Tagan, 5, liked reading and spelling. Rand Paul likes being a monster in human form.
[…] Paul has tweeted that “[Joe Biden] wants to lock us down and force everyone to mask up. Doesn’t anyone care to know if mask mandates help? The data on mask mandates actually shows an INCREASED RATE of Covid cases after the mandates.” That’s really bad science. The virus had reached community spread by the time mask mandates — such as they were — were implemented, and also the president’s followers refused to actually abide by them. This doesn’t mean that masks gave people coronavirus. It does mean Paul is a shoddy liar, though.
If you care about your health and the health of others, don’t believe a word that comes out of Rand Paul’s stupid lying mouth.
[…] Trump’s electoral defeat has shaken American followers of QAnon. International believers are mostly keeping faith — and taking the conspiracy in new directions.
In a Telegram channel for believers in Australia and New Zealand this week, a fabricated story about Democrats deliberately infecting tens of thousands of senior citizens with the coronavirus to use their identities to vote sat side-by-side with reports on domestic politics. [JFC!]
Canadian channels are circulating the false claim that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans “immediate military intervention on American soil” if Trump does not concede while also organizing protests against coronavirus measures in Canadian cities.
In Germany, where the pro-Trump conspiracy has found a home with far-right groups, some QAnon influencers are disillusioned by Trump’s defeat, but many are still hopeful. “As the American’s say, in God we trust,” one poster on a German Telegram group wrote. “Now is the time to trust.”
The resilience of QAnon narratives after the election shows just how far and deep this made-in-America conspiracy has spread — and hints at its staying power around the globe.
Q’s central lie — that Trump is secretly fighting a cabal of satanic pedophiles linked to government, the media and the Hollywood elite — may seem quintessentially, almost comically American. But as it spread, spurred by the pandemic, it mixed with local causes, spawning new communities abroad.
By October, Marc-André Argentino, a leading QAnon researcher who is a PhD candidate at Montreal’s Concordia University, had tracked QAnon to more than 70 countries and many types of users, including hardcore extremists and Instagram influencers new to the conspiracy world.
“Some experts out there were thinking that if the president loses the election in November, this might go away,” Argentino said, “but in reality, because it is transnational, it has legs of its own.”
QAnon adherents have marched with far-right groups in Germany and protested lockdown measures in Australia. In England, they warn of vast child-trafficking rings that do not exist. Canadian followers conjure “deep state” plots out of basic public health measures.
They are shaking faith in science, flooding real child welfare hotlines with fake tips and spreading fear and doubt. […]
Mieke Eoyang re the event scheduled today (see Lynna’s #41 above): “Hey, maybe the networks should take the President on a delay in case he calls for inciting a riot and they can cut away before he does so.”
Short of expanding the Supreme Court, when he takes the oath and becomes president in January, Joe Biden won’t be able to do much about any decisions the ever-more conservative majority may make to weaken reproductive freedom. But he can and is expected to quickly make rule changes with executive orders that roll back restrictions imposed as part of the relentless Republican assault on women’s access to abortion and birth control.
Jacqueline Ayers, vice president of government relations and public policy for Planned Parenthood Action Fund, [said] “We think many of these issues actually could be addressed day one, in an executive order that explicitly talks about the new administration’s commitment to sexual reproductive health care. […] I think that this is a great victory but we know that we are going to have a lot of work to do because it’s not just about undoing the harm of the last four years, but really making sure that we’re moving the ball forward and advancing health care through really bold changes.”
Early on, Biden is likely to take on the global gag rule that bars the federal government from funding foreign NGOS that provide abortions or even discusses them with patients. That rule, originally known as the Mexico City Policy, was first imposed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, rescinded by President Bill Clinton, reimposed by President George W. Bush, rescinded by President Barack Obama, and reinstated on the first day Donald Trump began squatting in the White House. In his 1993 memorandum on his rescission, Clinton wrote a gentle admonition that the gag rule “undermined efforts to promote safe and efficacious family planning programs in foreign nations.” True enough. But more to the point, the rule maims and kills women.
It is also counterproductive in that it increases the number of abortions. The Guttmacher Institute reported that U.S. aid for overseas family planning in 2015 alone prevented 2.4 million abortions by averting 6 million unintended pregnancies. When Trump imposed the rule, a major family planning operation, Marie Stopes International, said it would lead to an additional 2.2 million abortions globally each year, 2.1 million of which would be unsafe. The World Health Organization estimates that unsafe abortions cause 13% of maternal deaths globally. […]
“It was debunked months ago. […] it’s still spreading.”
On Thursday, a social media post from Jake Tapper included an odd call to action, at least for a CNN anchor: “could 2 followers please copy and re-post this tweet?”
The rest of the text contained an alarming, if vague, statement about mental health, along with further specific instructions for sharing:
Suicide figures are up. Could 2 followers please copy and re-post this tweet? We’re trying to demonstrate that someone is always listening.
Call 1-800-273-8255 (USA hotline)
Just two. Any two. Copy, not retweet.
As might be obvious, Tapper didn’t write this himself. It’s also not quite accurate.
[…] Back in June, a tweet stating that “suicide figures are up 200% since lockdown,” with the same call to action as Tapper’s and the phone number for a hotline in the U.K., went viral. Shayan Sardarizadeh, who covers disinformation for the BBC, fact-checked that figure at the time, finding no evidence that suicides had gone up—national suicide rates for 2020 in the U.K. had not even been released at that point, given that the year hadn’t ended. (A report from September that has been released since looks at rates in 2019). […]
stating that “suicide figures are up” without specifying what one means by that isn’t a neutral statement. It’s designed to be alarming. Consider what it would mean to share the actual fact that calls to a suicide hotline are up. Yes, that sounds concerning. But it’s worth noting that “suicide hotlines” serve more than just people at immediate risk of harming themselves; you can also reach out to the number in Tapper’s tweet, for example, if you are concerned about a loved one “or would like emotional support,” according to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s website. And increased calls to hotlines—no matter the reason—could be an indication that they are doing exactly what they are designed to do: help people who need it.
While it’s natural—and good—to worry about the mental health effects of the pandemic, the supposition without evidence that lockdown is leading to an actual increase in suicides is a political one (as well as one that goes against recommendations for reporting on suicide—the advice is not to exaggerate statistics). Still-president-for-now Donald Trump claimed in March that there would be “suicide by the thousands” if lockdown continued. In October, E.R. doctor (and Slate contributor) Jeremy Faust, along with colleagues, published a preprint paper evaluating what actually happened with suicides in Massachusetts, where he works. He explained the results in the Washington Post:
No matter how we looked, we kept finding the same thing. Suicide rates did not budge during the stay-at-home advisory period […] in Massachusetts, which had one of the longest such periods of any state in the nation.
The caveat is “studying the effects of stay-at-home advisories is still in its infancy,” as Faust writes in the Post. […] It’s possible that the tweet will at some terrible point come true. But at the moment, it is, in part, a dangerous argument against asking people to stay home. […] On Twitter, the phrase “suicide rates are up” has been posted with a poll on whether we should or shouldn’t have “lockdown”—itself a divisive term for the partial closure of businesses—and as a refrain in response to fears about gathering on Thanksgiving. […]
@Lynna 29
The Rs are rewarding concentrating quite a few toxic behaviors. Conspiracy thinking isn’t new but the flavor is. I think this is politically useful.
[…] Ebola vaccines were kept at -80 in DRC. Here’s my photo from Beni. They go from the big freezers, to the green Arktek canisters, to dry ice canisters in freezer boxes that are transported on motorbike down dirt roads.
Where there’s $$$, political will and a plan, there’s a way.
[…] Greene is the worst kind of fraud, because she doesn’t even believe her bullshit. Cristina Marcos of The Hill reported that Greene did in fact wear a mask inside the House today.
She pushed the hashtag #FreeYourFace while shackling her own with the American flag, just because Nancy Pelosi said she had to if she wanted to come to work. Sad! That’s what she thinks of the rubes who elected her. Let’s hope they see this and realize that she’s a dirtbag but also that it’s well past time they took COVID-19 seriously.
From Paul Waldman, writing for the Washington Post:
There are sins of commission and sins of omission, and right now, when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans are perpetrating both.
There is no polite way to say this: In the coming months, thousands — perhaps even hundreds of thousands — of Americans will die because of the choices that […] Trump and other Republicans have already made, are making right now and will make in the near future.
Let’s begin with the horrifying picture we’re seeing across the country. The pandemic is positively exploding; Thursday saw more than 153,000 new cases identified, the highest total since the pandemic began. More than 66,000 people are currently hospitalized with the disease, and more than 1,000 daily deaths were recorded on eight of the first 12 days of November.
Across large areas of the country, hospitals are at full capacity and health-care workers are strained to their limits. In North Dakota, one of the hardest-hit states, things have gotten so bad that the state is allowing nurses who have the coronavirus to keep working if they’re asymptomatic.
The coming days look so terrifying that public health experts are struggling to find words to describe what awaits us. As Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist Laurie Garrett said this week, “The gates of Hades have opened.”
And what is the federal government doing about it? Pretty much nothing.
Trump spent the last months of the campaign claiming that the virus was disappearing and members of the media were only talking about it to hurt his reelection chances. Now he sulks in the White House, watching TV and tweeting voter-fraud conspiracy theories.
[…] No one expects him to lift a finger to do anything about the pandemic in his remaining time in office, the appalling coda to what may be the most catastrophic failure of any president in American history.
President-elect Joe Biden has a plan to do the things the Trump administration has refused to do, but he won’t be president until more than two months from now. In the interim, there will be no federal response. […]
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans can’t be bothered to pass a stimulus bill. After all, why at this point would they try to solve the country’s problems, if Biden might benefit from it politically?
Republicans are especially opposed to helping state and local governments, which are currently being hammered by the pandemic but have legal requirements to balance their budgets. That means brutal cutbacks just at the moment they need more money to get through this time. […]
Donald Trump expects to see his electoral fortunes turn around in “probably two weeks.” It’s a parody-defying coda to his presidency.
Donald Trump hasn’t spoken much to the media this week, but he apparently called the Washington Examiner yesterday to make a series of exceedingly odd claims — and to tout one amazing time frame.
Much of the outgoing president’s rhetoric was predictably pitiful, including his insistence that he’s “going to win” states like Wisconsin and Georgia — states he’s lost — and his ridiculously untrue claim that Republican poll-watchers and observers were blocked in key locations.
But this was the line that stood out for me:
Whatever the case, Trump is forging ahead. When I asked him how quickly he might turn things around, he said, “I don’t know. It’s probably two weeks, three weeks.”
Oh, c’mon. “Two weeks”? Again?
In late October, [Trump] incumbent acknowledged rising coronavirus cases in “certain areas,” but at a campaign rally, he quickly added, “They’ll go down. They’ll go down very quickly. They’ll be down within two weeks, they’re figuring.”
[…] it’s the familiarity of the “two weeks” line that amazes. […] it was in June 2017 when Bloomberg News made a terrific observation: Team Trump had an unnerving habit of responding to every difficult question by saying the answer was “two weeks” away. Unfortunately, that habit never really went away.
In July, for example, Trump promised Fox News he’d “sign” a “full and complete” health care plan “within two weeks.” That never happened .[…]
Trump has spent four years repeatedly making assurances about elusive answers and solutions, in each case hoping that people, over the course of 14 days, would simply forget what he’d promised.
Now that his presidency is ending, the fact that he believes his electoral fortunes will turn around in “probably two weeks” is a fitting coda to his failed term.
“Sixteen federal prosecutors specially assigned to monitor 2020 election malfeasance told AG Barr in a letter today they saw no evidence of substantial voting irregularities, & asked him to rescind his recent policy change.”
A deflated and low energy […] Trump sought on Friday to relive the glory days of his presidency, trying to use Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine as a bludgeon to get people to be nice to him.
At a briefing in the White House’s Rose Garden, Trump tried to bully New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) by withholding a vaccine for New York state until Cuomo told the President he was sorry for being mean about the vaccine.
“As soon as April, the vaccine will be available to the entire general population with the exception of places like New York state,” Trump said.
He added that he didn’t want New York state to have the life-saving intervention because Cuomo was wrong to have said that he wanted state authorities to review the vaccine and its distribution plan before sending it out.
TPM first reported in September that Cuomo, along with other governors, were considering waiting to distribute a vaccine had the Trump administration approved it before safety and efficacy markers were met.
“For political reasons, the governor decided to say — I don’t think it’s good politically, I think it’s bad from a health standpoint, but he wants to take his time on the vaccine and he doesn’t trust where the vaccine is coming from,” Trump sneered at a Friday briefing on Operation Warp Speed, his administration’s effort to accelerate vaccine development.
“He doesn’t trust the fact that it’s this White House, this administration, so we won’t be delivering it to New York until we have authorization to do so and that pains me to say that,” Trump added. “So Governor Cuomo will have to let us know when he’s ready for it. We can’t be delivering it to a state that won’t be giving it to its people immediately.”
Within an hour of the President’s remarks, New York Attorney General Letitia James said she was prepared to sue to ensure that her state received the vaccine on the same schedule as the rest of the country.
Trump won’t have much time to distribute anything, given that President-elect Biden will take office on Jan. 20.
The current timeline of vaccine approval and distribution suggests that Trump would have a few weeks, max, to withhold it from his home state of New York.
But it’s always fun to reminisce about the good ol’ days when the apparatus of government was just another way to run low-rent extortion schemes.
I’m sorry, but this is just fucking hilarious. Mother fucker, you won’t have a damn bit of say in it because you won’t be president. And dude you’re really gonna want NYers vaccinated being that you’re gonna be spending a lot of time in and out of court in Manhattan.
————————-
It’s actually not up to Trump. I believe Pfizer is planning on working with states and locals to manage the logistics. No one wants the Trump clown show to coordinate the very difficult logistics of deep cold transport and management. This will be for adults only.
—————————-
.@NYGovCuomo on @realDonaldTrump: “He uses the government as a retaliatory tool. That’s what he does.”
—————————
7 states have independent review panels — all intended to build confidence Trump shattered when he politicized this virus and yet he singles out NY His obsession with attacking NY bc of NY’s rejection of him will be analyzed by psychologists for years It’s pathetic https://t.co/F4fd1R59eP
————————
The Coward-In-Chief didn’t take questions
————————–
Well, it won’t be this White House and this administration who will be in charge by the time the vaccine becomes more widely available for distribution. New York doesn’t have to worry about Trump’s lame attempt at extortion.
[…] Trump’s campaign accused four Georgia voters of fraud. Said they voted ‘dead’ in the presidential election. We tracked two of them down, alive & well. We simply knocked on a door and 96-year-old Mrs. James Blalock answered.
lumipunasays
Re: Trump trying to claim credit for the Pfizer vaccine
I don’t know if Operation Warp Speed has been run really competently by usual standards, but it seems to be pretty much the only thing Trump admin has done about the pandemic. For months, Trump has trained his conservative audiences into unrealistically expecting not only the release of a vaccine “real soon now”, but that the pandemic will go away almost instantly after such release. Reportedly, some Trump fans now suspect the Pfizer announcement was deliberately delayed by weeks (?) to hurt Trump in the election.
I heard the Pfizer vaccine project isn’t actually officially affiliated with the OWS, but that hardly matters. It was pretty much like playing lottery anyway, so someone was going to hit the jackpot first, and it doesn’t necessarily mean they were better than the other players in the game. Of course, such nuance will be lost in political arguments.
A couple months ago, it occurred to my cynical mind that when Trump loses the election, he might not only neglect any acute Covid-19 management as well as his regular job duties, but he might actually somehow cripple the OWS, due to sheer neglect or vindictive sabotage or whatever he decides to do in panic. Now, that at least seems increasingly unlikely and also irrelevant, since there’s been good progress outside OWS. It remains unclear whether Trump can still rush the approval process during his last couple months in office, or whether he still feels pressured to do so.
It also occurred to me that when Biden takes office, Republican propaganda industry might jump on the side of anti-vaxxers. They’re already deeply wedded with the position that Covid-19 isn’t that bad, and that scaremongering over the pandemic is a leftist plot for something nefarious – most likely crushing individual freedoms, like leftists are wont to do. Anti-vaxxers have already widely supported Trump, because he’s firmly on the side of not taking the pandemic that seriously, and therefore presumably wouldn’t force any vaccine on people. A lot of conservatives who aren’t outright anti-vaxxers probably think they don’t personally need to take the vaccine because they aren’t “scared” of covid. They might even be led to believe that the vaccine is a scam if it doesn’t solve the pandemic immediately (that is, immediately after Biden takes office, natch).
Surviving a case of COVID-19 that’s bad enough to land you in the hospital is hard enough. But life after the hospital stay – and especially after an intensive care stay – is no bed of roses, either, according to a new study.
Within two months of leaving the hospital, nearly 7% of the patients had died, including more than 10% of the patients treated in an ICU. Fifteen percent had ended up back in the hospital.
…
Of those who had jobs before their bout with COVID-19, 40% said they couldn’t return to work, most because of their health and some because they’d lost their job. And 26% of those who had gone back to work said they had to work fewer hours or have reduced duties because of their health.
Sure, these were the cases bad enough to be hospitalized in the first place, but it goes to show that mortality rate is not the only important number. The emotional and economic fallout is significant and common.
George Papadopoulos tweeted: “The military is with the President”
This is plainly false, but also…this is a Trumper openly suggesting a military coup (ahem!) in the US after an election loss. He’s not even bothering to hide behind bogus fraud claims – just putting it right out there.
(CN) — A Texas appeals court on Friday blocked a local lockdown order in the border city of El Paso, where a dramatic coronavirus surge has killed more than 180 people in just the past month and prompted officials to set up mobile morgues to handle the influx of bodies.
El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego — the region’s top elected official, not a judicial officer — issued the temporary lockdown order just before Halloween when the surge had already begun to overwhelm local hospitals, closing or scaling back most businesses and requiring people to stay home except for essential activities.
A group of restaurants and Ken Paxton, the state’s Republican attorney general, quickly sued, arguing Samaniego overstepped his authority by setting up restrictions that went beyond Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s own pandemic-related rules.
In a 2-1 vote Friday, the state’s Eighth District Court of Appeals ruled that Samaniego did not have the authority to overstep the governor under the state’s Disaster Act, which outlines the powers local officials have to respond to emergencies. The ruling came after the same court had already temporarily blocked parts of the lockdown order.
[…]
The legal wrangling has played out amid a dire public health crisis that shows few signs of easing, as more than 1,100 people remain hospitalized with Covid-19 in the area, which has a population of around 839,000.
Five mobile morgues are currently being used in the El Paso region, a city spokesperson said, while another is available if needed and officials have requested yet another four morgue trailers.
[…]
Samaniego argued the El Paso County order was needed to prevent “unprecedented levels of death” in the community. Others, including El Paso’s mayor, pushed back, saying the lockdown unfairly burdened small business owners and would be too great of an economic hit…
A nationwide nurses’ union filed a court brief this week supporting the lockdown order, saying the “catastrophic nature of conditions inside El Paso hospitals cannot be overstated.”
“More than fifty [registered nurses] in El Paso County have been infected with Covid-19, and one of our members there has died of Covid,” the group National Nurses United wrote.
In an impassioned, 32-page dissent to Friday’s ruling, Justice Yvonne Rodriguez wrote …“In the seven days this expedited appeal was pending, the County has gone from having one refrigerated mobile morgue for the overflow of bodies to six refrigerated mobile morgues,” she wrote. “How many more mobile morgues will come to El Paso before the Texas Supreme Court is able to render a final answer to the deadly riddle of which leader must yield?”
Paxton called the decision “outstanding.”
“I will not let rogue political subdivisions try to kill small businesses and holiday gatherings through unlawful executive orders.”
lumipunasays
Re: my comment above
On Twitter, I see people quibbling that Pfizer did receive whatever financial/regulatory incentives from US government, although no direct funding/research cooperation. As I said, it hardly matters.
For nearly 30 years, Arizona has been a steady and unassailable red.
The Republican stronghold last voted for a Democrat for president in 1996 when Bill Clinton was reelected. Donald Trump won Arizona in 2016 by 4 points. And yet this year, despite a tight contest, The Associated Press and other news outlets including CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post, have all called Arizona for Joe Biden.
Along with the changing demographics of the state, some analysts are pointing to the role of the Navajo Nation in pushing the state blue.
According to Vox, 60% to 90% of the Navajo Nation’s roughly 67,000 eligible voters voted for Biden. Biden is currently leading in Arizona by less than 12,000 votes.
Members of the Navajo Nation often face high barriers to voting. Many people are not assigned a physical address and are unable to register to vote. Tara Benally, field director for the Rural Utah Project, described to NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly about how the organization managed to register 4,000 Native American voters in Arizona.
The project worked with Google to provide GPS coordinates in lieu of physical addresses. Organizers also left thousands of Ziploc bags with voter registration forms on the doors of Native American voters to avoid the spread of COVID-19.
Hoping to increase young Native American voter turnout, Allie Young, a 30 year-old member of the Navajo Nation, started “Ride to the Polls” in October. According to The Washington Post, she led groups of voters, ranging in age from 18 to 30, 10 miles on horseback to reach polling stations in Kayenta, Ariz.
[…] Trump made an early appearance Saturday at the “Million MAGA March” held in his honor in Washington, D.C., with a throng of supporters cheering him on.
Trump stayed in his car but drove slowly past the crowd, waving at supporters. March-goers chanted “USA, USA” as the president’s motorcade approached, with many chasing after him, trying to snap photos. […]
[Video snippets available at the link]
Trump hinted at an appearance Friday, writing on Twitter, “Heartwarming to see all of the tremendous support out there, especially the organic Rallies that are springing up all over the Country, including a big one on Saturday in D.C. I may even try to stop by and say hello. This Election was Rigged, from Dominion all the way up & down!”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had predicted the march would be “quite large.”
Many pro-Trump groups including Stop the Steal DC are participating in the march, which is expected to draw thousands of people to The District.
Supporters of far-right groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are also expected to attend rallies in the nation’s capital on Saturday.
People have been documenting their trip to D.C. for the march, with people coming from across the country to demonstrate on the president’s behalf. […]
Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Friday apologized to viewers after a local Georgia news outlet pointed out that he had made a false claim about a dead individual illegally voting in the state.
[…] the host claimed that someone had cast a ballot on behalf of James Blalock of Covington, Ga., who passed away in 2006.
Blalock, a World War II veteran, had been used by the Trump campaign this week as an example of dead individuals who illegally voted in Georgia […]
Newton County officials said in a statement Thursday that Blalock did not vote, and the record found by the Trump campaign referred to a vote cast by Blalock’s widow, registered under his name as “Mrs. James E. Blalock, Jr.”
[…] NBC’s Atlanta affiliate station, 11Alive, called out Carlson for repeating the claim after it was disputed by county officials. The outlet also confirmed the news with the widow herself, Agnes Blalock.
“He’s not voting. He didn’t vote,” Agnes Blalock told 11Alive. “It was me.”
[…] “We’ve got some good news tonight, and an apology,” Tucker Carlson said. “One of the people who voted in last week’s election isn’t dead. James Blalock is still dead, we told you about him, but it was his wife who voted. She voted as Mrs. James Blalock. It’s old-fashioned and we missed it.”
Carlson then added that “a whole bunch of dead people did vote” but said that “James Blalock was not among them.” [Bullshit]
“It was Mrs. James Blalock. So apologies for that, and of course we’re always going to correct when we’re wrong. And we were,” he said.
Reporters at 11Alive also reported that Linda Kesler, who the Trump campaign also accused of voting in Georgia despite passing away in 2003, did not actually vote. This was confirmed by the Jackson County Board of Elections.
“Linda Kesler of Nicholson was marked deceased in 2003 and did not vote. Lynda Kesler who has a different address, birthday, and zip who is entitled to vote, did vote,” the board of elections told 11Alive. […]
From Wonkette: “Deutsche Bank Wants YOU To Pay For All Their Office Space”
Some very smart economists with Deutsche Bank’s research arm have come up with an idea that’s so innovative that it just might sound stupid at first, but when you look at it more closely, sounds even stupider. They argue that people who work from home have considerable economic savings — no commuting, getting food from the fridge, not having to waste money on “pants” — but are still being paid as if they were clocking in at the office. So how about if those lucky ducky telecommuters paid a five percent tax on their income, since they’re “contributing less to the infrastructure of the economy whilst still receiving its benefits.”
[…] The proposal is just one of 18 essays in a report called “What We Must do to Rebuild,” which offers a bunch of suggestions for reconstructing the post-pandemic world economy. Some of the other pieces sound a little less goofy, like calls for a “fundamental right to connectivity” or shifting to a hydrogen economy.
Lead author Luke Templeman notes that during the pandemic, as many as 56 percent of Americans began working remotely, as opposed to a mere 5.4 percent pre-COVID-19. Since many workers have said they’d like to continue telecommuting, either full time or several days a week, the piece argues,
That is a big problem for the economy as it has taken decades and centuries to build up the wider business and economic infrastructure that supports face-to-face working. If a great swathe of assets lie redundant, the economic malaise will be extended.
The essay envisions the WFH tax (that’s “work from home,” though it might just as well be called a WTF tax) would apply only to people working from home because they choose to, so it wouldn’t be levied when the government mandates remote work to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Along similar lines, if a business doesn’t provide the worker with a permanent desk, the tax would be paid by the employer, But if people decide to keep working from home after the crisis is over, the authors reason, it only makes sense that they pay a little something for the “privilege” of withdrawing from the face-to-face economy. […]
The proceeds from such a tax — the authors suggest it would generate $48 billion a year — would be used to provide a $1500 grant to subsidize the pay of low-income folks working essential jobs that can’t be done remotely. It’s a matter of fairness, because they
assume more ‘old economy’ and health risks,” Jim Reid, global head of fundamental credit strategy and thematic research at Deutsche Bank, said in the report
That part of the proposal actually sounds like a good idea — we’re all for greater economic equity. Also, I too would like to work in “thematic research,” having written more than a few papers on literary themes such as man against man, man against nature, and man against a fucking investment banking oligarchy.
But we’re not sure it makes a hell of a lot of sense to penalize workers who are staying home, not burning fossil fuels, or not crowding public transportation (where it exists). And in practice, we have a sneaking feeling the funds raised by a WFH tax might end up helping out commercial property owners, who would surely cry to lawmakers about how they’re suffering because we selfish home office people aren’t contributing our fair share to the office space infrastructure.
From the Washington Post: “After a summer of protest, Americans voted for policing and criminal justice reform”
[…] Americans backed a string of measures increasing police oversight, elected reform-minded prosecutors, loosened drug laws and passed other proposals rethinking key elements of law enforcement and justice in their communities.
These votes, taken together, signal that after a summer of protest brought renewed scrutiny to the justice system, many Americans were open to rethinking how it functions — particularly on the state and local level, where policies have a stark impact on how people interact with the justice system.
“It was a pretty good day for meaningful change in criminal justice reform,” said Ronald Wright, a law professor at Wake Forest University and a criminal justice expert. “The priorities I was watching didn’t win everywhere, but they won a lot more than they lost.”
[…] Voters in Oakland, Calif., moved to create an inspector general’s office outside the police force to review officer misconduct. In Columbus, Ohio, voters passed an amendment creating a civilian police review board and an inspector general. San Diegans supported replacing a police review board with a commission that would have subpoena power and the authority to investigate police misconduct.
These votes were not exclusively in big cities. In Kyle, Tex., outside Austin, voters overwhelmingly passed a proposition requiring police policies to be reviewed by the city council and put under a committee’s oversight.
In Philadelphia, which was rocked before the election by demonstrations and looting after a police shooting, voters decisively supported ballot questions calling for the city’s police “to end the practice of unconstitutional stop and frisk” and another supporting a police oversight commission.
[…] San Francisco voters chose to ditch a city charter requirement that the police department maintain a certain number of officers, replacing it with regular reviews of its staffing levels.
[…] The reform efforts were not a uniform success, falling short in many places. Voters in California rejected a proposition to eliminate cash bail. Oklahoma voters rejected a measure that would have blocked increased sentences for prior convictions in some cases.
Many conservative sheriffs also easily won reelection. In Pinellas County, Fla., Democrats raised large amounts of money to unseat incumbent Republican Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, but he was reelected with more than 60 percent of the vote, according to Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriffs Association.
[…] In perhaps the most closely-watched district attorney’s race, the reformer George Gascón won in Los Angeles County, taking over the largest prosecutor’s office in the country. Gascón was one of at least 22 reform prosecutors elected last week in places including Orlando, Tucson, and Portland. Several races are still not called. […]
[…] Shortly after 10 a.m., Trump drove down Pennsylvania Avenue in his motorcade, greeting hundreds of cheering protesters — nearly all of them without masks […] Trump, who has refused to concede or allow a formal transition to begin, smiled and waved from a car window as people filled the street to follow behind him.
“He drove right past me. I saw him. He waved right past me,” one man said, squatting to collect himself. “I’m still shaking.”
As his most ardent fans remained in Washington to fight for what many of them considered to be among the most important causes of their lifetimes, the president headed to Trump National in the Virginia suburbs for a round of golf.
[…] the appearance of counter-protesters sparked brief bursts of conflict. When a small group holding bright orange “Refuse Fascism” posters arrived at the corner of Freedom Plaza, they were almost immediately surrounded by Trump fans shouting “USA! USA!” into their faces.
The women leading the tiny march fought their way up 14th Street, repeatedly breaking out of the crowd only to be engulfed again. They yelled into their megaphone, “Trump pack your s—. You’re illegitimate.”
One pro-Trump man attempted to gouge the opposition with a flag bearing the president’s name. Another grabbed a woman’s neon orange poster and hit her with it.
When the women made it to the barrier set up by police across the street, Trump supporters filled the entire intersection, blocking them in. Police arrived on bikes and, after several minutes, moved the crowd back.
[…] The president’s backers, who include white nationalists, conspiracy theorists and far-right activists from across the country, carried Trump flags and signs demanding action that was already being taken: “Count the legal votes.”
One man, dressed in camouflage and a red “MAGA” hat, waved an American flag attached to a baseball bat. After a week in which more than 750,000 Americans were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, almost none of the Trump supporters was wearing masks.
On a day in which the president’s supporters touted a vast array of falsehoods, his spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, offered perhaps the most ludicrous.
“More than one MILLION marchers for President @realDonaldTrump descend on the swamp in support,” she tweeted, exaggerating the crowd size by a factor of about 200.
Among the demonstrators were members of the Proud Boys, an extremist group known for their black and yellow colors and endorsements of violence. Some wore flak jackets and helmets. “Stand Back, Stand By,” read some of their shirts, referencing the president’s directive to them at a September debate.
[…] “They think we’re stupid,” a young White man with a microphone told the crowd. “They’re underestimating the Donald. They’re underestimating the Donald’s supporters.”
“They’re stupid!,” a young White woman replied.
[…] dozens of mostly maskless Trump supporters in red Make America Great Again hats showed up near Lafayette Square and tore down photographs from a memorial honoring Black men and women killed by police. […]
The rallies have garnered support from Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller as well as more fringe figures, including Enrique Tarrio, chairman of the Proud Boys; white nationalist Nicholas Fuentes, who marched in the deadly Charlottesville protest; and Jack Posobiec, who promoted the “Pizzagate” conspiracy that led to a 2016 shooting at D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong. […]
For days after the election, adherents to the QAnon conspiracy movement had been trying to get […] Donald Trump’s attention with constant false claims about voter fraud connected to a company that makes voting machines.
On Thursday, they celebrated. Trump tweeted in all-caps about a conspiracy theory that baselessly alleges that Dominion Voting Systems, a company that makes voting machines, “deleted” millions of Trump votes, citing a report on the far-right cable news outlet One America News Network.
While the theory has already been debunked — including by Chris Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is tasked with national security related to the internet and technology — Trump’s tweet offered a sliver of energy at a time when the QAnon movement had stalled, waiting for its leader, “Q,” to return with guidance from a hiatus that began on the morning of Election Day and lasted more than a week.
[…] Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks misinformation, found that 1 in 7 tweets about “#Dominion” since Nov. 5 originated from accounts that self-identified as QAnon accounts. Tweets featuring the #Dominion hashtag rose from about 75 tweets per day to over 35,700 each day in the last week.
[…] QAnon followers quickly moved past the failed prophecy and began following QAnon influencers on Twitter, […] which led Q believers to push the Dominion conspiracy theory.
The ability for QAnon accounts to shapeshift into ambassadors for brand new political conspiracy theories outlines how the conspiracy movement has built a lasting and unwavering digital army that will work to absolve Trump of any negative outcome, despite the foundations of the conspiracy falling apart.
[…] “It’s a self-sustaining misinformation factory,” View said.
False conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems had been floating around the fringes of the internet, especially the message board 4chan and QAnon-related Twitter accounts, in the days since Biden was announced as the projected winner of the 2020 election.
[…] QAnon followers began idolizing — and even pretending to be — Ezra Cohen-Watnick, a Trump loyalist who was promoted to acting undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security after a series of firings and resignations at the Defense Department this week. Similar to “Q,” they claimed “ECW” had almost mythical powers to aid the president’s fight against a nonexistent cabal and help Trump remain in office.
[…] The theory reached a critical mass when Watkins tweeted that he knew technical details about how the votes could be flipped, and offered to help Trump associate Rudy Giuliani in discovering voter fraud.
Watkins tweeted shortly after midnight on Thursday morning that Chanel Rion, White House correspondent for One America News Network, reached out to him about the claims. About 10 hours later, Rion aired a report on the network that summarized internet conspiracy theories about Dominion. The president tweeted a quote from the segment shortly thereafter.
[…] “Dominion Voting Systems categorically denies any claims about any vote switching or alleged software issues with our voting systems. Dominion systems continue to reliably and accurately count ballots, and state and local election authorities have publicly confirmed the integrity of the process,” the company said in a statement. “Claims about Dominion switching or deleting votes are 100% false.”
[…] “The Q people now are in a very vulnerable place, because they’re looking for a new narrative. They’re trying to figure out how they can still continue their growth and continue their control over this digital army without necessarily believing that there’s a commander in the White House.” [said Fredrick Brennan, who created the 8chan website that was later rebranded as 8kun]
The government has sent billions to drug companies to develop a coronavirus shot but a tiny fraction of that to localities for training, record-keeping and other costs for vaccinating citizens.
With the prospect that a coronavirus vaccine will become available for emergency use as soon as next month, states and cities are warning that distributing the shots to an anxious public could be hindered by inadequate technology, severe funding shortfalls and a lack of trained personnel.
While the Trump administration has showered billions of dollars on the companies developing the vaccines, it has left the logistics of inoculating and tracking as many as 20 million people by year’s end — and many tens of millions more next year — largely to local governments without providing enough money, officials in several localities and public health experts involved in the preparations said in interviews.
Public health departments, already strained by a pandemic that has overrun hospitals and drained budgets, are racing to expand online systems to track and share information about who has been vaccinated; to recruit and train hundreds of thousands of doctors, nurses and pharmacists to give people the shot and collect data about everyone who gets it; to find safe locations for mass vaccination events; and to convince the public of the importance of getting immunized. […]
“President Trump arrived at [T**** N******* G*** C***] in Sterling Virginia at 10:44am. This is the 412th day he has spent at one of his properties and 301st day he’s spent at one of his golf clubs during his presidency.”
Lynna #85
So, because they’re not causing traffic jams, not causing wear and tear on the road net, not using fuel for transport, and paying for their own space, electricity, water, heating, and food, obviously they have to pay extra.
Honestly, it’s like something out of a sci-fi parody dystopia:
Salary: 500 credits
Fee for privilege of working: 600 credits
Please pay on your way out. See you tomorrow!
THIS. Someone should make an ad with films of white people, including politicians, attacking MLK in the ’60s, perhaps interspersed with similar remarks about Warnock.
“The DOJ dropped their investigation into Kelly Loeffler’s insider trading shortly after her husband Jeffrey Sprecher, who owns the New York Stock Exchange, donated $1 million to Trump’s super PAC. Corrupt!…”
Chad Wolf has not been serving lawfully as the acting secretary of Homeland Security, and therefore his suspension of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is invalid, a federal judge ruled on Saturday.
Wolf issued a memo in late July that said DHS would no longer accept new DACA applications and would limit renewals, pending a review of the program. The move came despite the June Supreme Court ruling that said the Trump administration violated federal law when it ended the program, which offers protections from deportation for roughly 649,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
“Wolf was not lawfully serving as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security under the HSA [Homeland Security Act] when he issued the Wolf Memorandum,” Judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote in his ruling.
“Based on the plain text of the operative order of succession, neither Mr. [Kevin] McAleenan nor, in turn, Mr. Wolf, possessed authority to serve as Acting Secretary. Therefore, the Wolf Memorandum was not an exercise of legal authority.”
Garaufis cited the Government Accountability Office, which said in August that Wolf was named to the post “by reference to an invalid order of succession.”
“DHS failed to follow the order of succession as it was lawfully designated. Therefore, the actions taken by purported Acting Secretaries, who were not properly in their roles according to the lawful order of succession, were taken without legal authority,” Garaufis said.
DHS did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment. The Trump administration can appeal Saturday’s ruling.
KGsays
On BBC Radio 4 this morning, on a current affairs/trivia Sunday morning programme “Broadcasting House”, an old crony of Johnson’s named Guto Harri, who worked for him when he was Mayor of London, rejoiced that now, Cummings having departed, Johnson could be the sort of “One Nation Conservative” PM he wanted to be. As if someone else had forced him to emply and give power to Cummings, and to refuse to sack him when he trashed anti-Covid guidelines and told absurd lies about it just a few months ago.
Trump tweeted: “He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more!”
That’s as much of a concession as we’re likely to get.
tomhsays
I thought this was satire but apparently it’s true. There’s no point trying satire with this administration.
A sign of the loyalty-oath atmosphere now at DOD: When Jim Anderson was fired yesterday as Acting Under Secretary for Policy, he was given a “clap-out” as he left the building. The WH called to request names of any political appointees who joined in so they could be fired.
Excerpts from the Washington Post article to which SC referred in comment 102:
[…] Since Election Day and for weeks prior, Trump has all but ceased to actively manage the deadly pandemic, which so far has killed at least 244,000 Americans, infected at least 10.9 million and choked the country’s economy. The president has not attended a coronavirus task force meeting in “at least five months,” said one senior administration official […]
Now, as he fights for his political life, falsely claiming the election was somehow rigged against him, Trump has abdicated one of the central duties of the job he claims to want: leading the country through a devastating pandemic as it heads into a grim winter.
“I don’t know that I think that’s where his focus is,” said one senior administration official. “But I know that’s where our focus needs to get back to.”
This account of Trump’s indifference and inaction on the newly surging coronavirus pandemic is based on interviews with more than a dozen administration officials, Trump allies, health advisers and others familiar with the response, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
On Friday, Trump appeared in the Rose Garden to offer an update on Operation Warp Speed, his administration’s effort to fast-track a vaccine. The president and his team shared some encouraging news: that at least 20 million vaccine doses could be ready as early as December, with 25 million to 30 million doses coming each subsequent month. But Trump seemed deflated, with the dour disposition of a man who understood that the coronavirus progress was too late to help him in the polls. Biden is projected to win with 306 electoral votes, compared with Trump’s 232.
[Trump] lobbed baseless claims of voter fraud […] visit to Arlington National Cemetery for Veterans Day, where he violated the cemetery’s policy requiring all visitors to wear a mask. He also made no mention of the rising toll of the virus […]
In one social media missive, Trump retweeted an angry message that accused CNN of stopping its “ ‘COVID-COVID-COVID!’ drumbeat” after the election.
[…] Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, has proposed several times reducing in-person dining in restaurants and bars, but Trump has dismissed her suggestions […] He has also ignored the calls by Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for more aggressive messaging on the importance of mask-wearing […]
[Trump] rarely reads the daily virus reports prepared by Birx, a senior administration official said. The reports have grown increasingly grim in recent weeks, aides said, but are largely ignored in the West Wing. Several of the administration’s top medical experts — including Birx, Fauci and Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams — have only infrequently visited the White House in recent weeks, administration officials said.
[…] “You would think that now that his presidential campaign is over that he could perhaps leave a legacy of last-minute leadership during this time — an ounce of it, maybe,” [Olivia] Troye said. “He has an opportunity here to focus on the well-being of Americans.”
“The duty of a president is to protect the national security of the United States, and this is the most prominent disease of mass destruction America’s ever faced, and we have a commander in chief who has run away from the problem and has made it worse,” Chow [Jack Chow, a U.S. ambassador for global HIV/AIDS during the George W. Bush administration] said. “We had an opportunity twice over the past eight months to bring it down to safer levels, and we failed. We are on the verge of losing control of this pandemic.”
The White House disputed much of the criticism of Trump’s engagement with the coronavirus pandemic. The president is regularly briefed on the topic by Pence, one administration official said, and Birx has an office in the White House. […]
Although many federal health officials firmly believe more needs to be done to strengthen the country’s virus response, most are too afraid to call publicly for firmer action, two people familiar with task force meetings said. For several weeks, Birx and Fauci pushed to dramatically expand testing, raised concerns about hospital overcrowding and sounded alarms in public and in private about the deadly winter the country is hurtling toward — to no avail.
Trump’s negligence on the pandemic comes at a particularly precarious time, just as his administration is winding down and Biden and his team are preparing to assume power, experts said. But Trump […] is further hindering the process by refusing to start a formal transition. […]
Experts said both the Trump administration and the incoming Biden administration need to send a strong and united message […] the administration needs to assess where personal protective equipment shortages are and direct resources to those areas, as well as rapidly expand testing and share information and resources with the Biden team about how to distribute the expected vaccine.
[…] “Right now, you have two parallel universes with an iron wall in between, and if that persists for much longer, the Biden strategy will be potentially slower and weaker than what is needed to take on the third wave.” [Chow said]
[…] Kavita Patel, a physician and former health adviser in the Obama White House, described “a lot of frustration” at the staff level in the Trump administration. Some Trump officials have reached out to her, she said, saying they want to be helpful to the incoming Biden administration, “but they’re being told very actively to not speak to anybody.”
[…] Two former administration officials put some of the blame for the laggard White House response on Kushner. Scott Atlas — a Trump coronavirus adviser who has espoused the dangerous theory of herd immunity and clashed with the other doctors — was recruited by Kushner and often spent time in Kushner’s office suite before he officially took the job, these officials said. They added that Kushner had been one of the leading voices stressing to Trump the importance of moving on from the virus.
[…] One person present at the [election-night] party, who came in contact with at least two individuals who later tested positive for the virus, said she had not heard from any White House contact tracers. […]
SC @105, that’s a two-part ad, and both are good. I do have some issues with the second ad, which assumes that people have someone with whom they can share quarantine. Not so true for many people.
SC @103, Trump followed up with a tweet stating, in all caps, that he does not concede. Because … of course.
[…] Trump led us into a pandemic leading to more than 245,400 deaths. The racist-in-chief can claim as many times as he wants that a brief election results error in one Michigan county somehow equated to millions of faulty ballots, but the simple truth is that Dominion Voting Systems, the election tech company linked to the error, didn’t trigger school closings throughout the country or send wide swaths of the American population into quarantine. The president’s mismanagement of the coronavirus did.
Also, please note that the brief error in one Michigan county was corrected.
On Thursday afternoon, the Associated Press announced that Illinois Democrat Lauren Underwood would retain her seat in Congress, having won her election to continue representing the 14th district by over 4,500 votes. Yay!
Also on Thursday afternoon, her Republican opponent, Jim Oberweis, the guy whose ice cream we don’t buy because of how he uses that money to fight gay rights and reproductive choice, went ahead and showed up to Congressional orientation anyway. He showed up on Friday, too. Guess he figured everyone would admire his moxie and just let him into Congress without requiring him to win an election. You know what they say — 80 percent of being an elected official is just showing up. Or “I think I am a member of Congress, therefore I am … a member of Congress.” […]
Oberweis’ rationalization for this is that he’s not going to concede the election and will be pursuing a recount, and they only do a new member orientation once — so, hypothetically, if they do a recount and it turns out they somehow misplaced over 4,500 ballots in his favor, he won’t have missed it. […]
[…] Trump, according to the Times, has asked White House advisers about using Republican-controlled legislatures in states like Pennsylvania to hijack the Electoral College, by appointing electors who would ignore official vote counts and return him to power. Even loose talk about such a maneuver suggests how unscrupulous Trump remains as he contemplates his loss of office. […]
Typically, the best way to understand Trump’s actions is to ask what’s in it for him. Four more years in the White House would extend his immunity from New York prosecutors conducting active investigations into possible criminal activity, ease pressure from bank creditors, and further enrich his family businesses: a win-win-win. Assuming that the President fails to rig a second term, he is fashioning a story about how corrupt Democrats foiled his reëlection, which might galvanize followers and donors after he leaves office. According to the Post, the President told advisers last week, “I’m just going to run in 2024. I’m just going to run again.” His campaign has formed a political-action committee, called Save America, which appears designed as a means for him to raise money to influence the Republican Party after his Presidency ends. The pac is eligible to receive funds now for Trump’s “election defense,” but much of that money would likely be spent on other causes and candidates. Leave it to Trump to manufacture a constitutional crisis that also incorporates a fund-raising con.
The sheer theatricality of Trump’s refusal to concede is a distraction from his failure, once again, to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously. […] He did pause to communicate about the pandemic, but only to complain, without evidence, that Pfizer’s announcement of progress on an effective vaccine—a revelation made two days after Biden’s victory—was timed intentionally to hurt his reëlection campaign. […] Trump and his allies are “engaged in an absurd circus right now,” Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, said on Thursday, which is “making it even harder” to combat the coronavirus.
[…] Trump has failed to see that his duty as President requires him to prioritize the safety of all citizens, even when this may not advantage him politically. During the campaign, he tried to delegitimize the form of voting most likely to protect people from the disease that his Administration had failed to contain. He did this because, as he said in April, voting by mail “doesn’t work out well for Republicans.” Now the President seems determined to put the pursuit of his invented claims of vote-rigging before his responsibility to address the economic and health impacts of what may be the most difficult surge of the pandemic yet. Trump’s presumptive last act in the White House is shaping up to be as bankrupt as all that came before.
Trump, after tweeting a bunch of anti-democratic lies, is at his golf club again today. Just a criminal dereliction of duty, abetted by Republicans in power.
The federal government’s chief information security officer is participating in an effort backed by supporters of President Trump to hunt for evidence of voter fraud in the battleground states where President-elect Joe Biden secured his election victory.
Camilo Sandoval said in an interview that he has taken a break from his government duties to work for the Voter Integrity Fund, a newly formed Virginia-based group that is analyzing ballot data and cold-calling voters in an attempt to substantiate the president’s outlandish claims about illicit voting.
Sandoval is one of several Trump appointees in the federal government — some in senior roles — who are harnessing their expertise for the project, according to the group’s leader…
In an interview on Friday, Sandoval defended his involvement in the endeavor as appropriate, saying he had taken vacation time from his government position, which he started last month…
Sandoval is part of a hastily convened team led by Matthew Braynard, a data specialist who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign…
Braynard said in an interview that several other government officials on leave are also assisting the effort, but he declined to identify them.
[…]
In its hunt for fraud, the group has prioritized calling several distinct groups it has identified in its data, according to Braynard: voters who appear to be deceased, voters who appear to have changed their address to another state, people recorded as having requested a ballot but then not recorded as having voted, and people who cast a ballot despite being rated a “low/inactive voter.”
[…]
Multiple Trump appointees have been accused by ethics watchdog groups of violating the Hatch Act.
Why Is This Happening? with Chris Hayes – “What We Got Wrong with Zeynep Tufekci”:
The U.S. just surpassed 10 million confirmed cases of coronavirus as infection rates spike across the country. If you look at the charts tracking the reported cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, it shows the country on a dangerous trajectory. How did we get to this point? Sociologist Zeynep Tufekci has spent time studying the sociology of pandemics and says her alarm bells were going off all the way back in January. She’s spent months writing with an almost unparalleled clarity about the many interlocking aspects of the pandemic, often with insights than turn out to be well ahead of the curve. Tufekci lends her insights on the early missteps in containing this pandemic and what a success story would look like.
(This isn’t updating correctly for some reason, so just Google to find it on whatever player you use.)
Biden wins and Trump tries to un-lose. Naomi Ekperigin is back to cover a week of dumb legal challenges and dumber press conferences. Then Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman talks about how well the vote went in PA and historian Michael Beschloss joins to discuss the unprecedented rejection of democracy by Republicans and what happens next. Plus listeners share high notes and join to play a game as Georgia heads into two make-or-break run offs. What a week.
Does Donald Trump even know what a coup is? Doubtful, which is one of the reasons, in this episode of The New Abnormal, that co-hosts Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast don’t believe whatever nonsense the president is pulling counts as one. That, and the fact that the military needs to support said coup and they won’t. “They may be telling him that [they are], but it is the fake orgasm of coups. They’re making noises that sound real, but it’s not real,” says Rick. Still, the scammer-in-chief and his GOP minions are persistent, and asking for money to help fund these state lawsuits. (“If you wrote this in a Hollywood script about a family of presidential grifters, it would be too on the nose,” adds Rick.) The Beast’s National Security reporter Spencer Ackerman makes his TNA debut to explain the lead up to Mark Esper’s departure and how the Pentagon is basically planning to f*ck Joe Biden. “I’m not the guy who does the comforting stories,” he laughs. Then, columnist and Veep producer Frank Rich tells the crew the ways Trump is much more incompetent than Selina Meyer and Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania John Fetterman makes a very strong case against there being voter fraud in the state. Plus! Rick explains how Trump’s presidency is like a robot floating through space and Molly gives a new name to his followers. Hint: It has the word cult in it.
Virginia Heffernan welcomes back Jacob Weisberg, founder of Trumpcast and CEO of Pushkin Industries, and talks about the outrageousness of Trump’s coup attempt and why we’re still going to be OK, sorting out our feelings after election week, and a bookend to that fateful election night four years ago.
In other news, “Trump’s legal team took to Fox News to defend their election claims. It didn’t go well.”
Last week, Donald J. Trump tapped legal remora and part-time Nosferatu Rudy Giuliani to lead his Crack Legal Team in charge of overturning the results of a United States presidential election.
[…] it was clear only days after the election that the Trump team’s actual legal efforts were mostly imaginary, and that the real battle would be waged on the nation’s television screens.
Courtesy of journalist and human streaming device Aaron Rupar, Let’s check in on how that’s going. [Twitter comments from Rupar, plus video snippets, are available at the link.]
[…] Trump’s legal smeagols are indeed reporting in from the land of cocaine and fairies.
[…] these people are presumably charging Donald Trump some amount of money, possibly, to file actual lawsuits charging that United States’ democracy is in fact illegitimate because it made Donald Trump sad. Surely there is a deeper scheme at work here, a legal strategy beyond appearing on television to do a legal version of the Aristocrats joke.
BARTIROMO: How will you prove that the election was rigged against Trump?
SIDNEY POWELL: I’m not gonna tell on national TV
[…] Well, it’s certainly a good thing we checked in. We can see now that Donald Trump is, ahem, certainly getting his money’s worth, and it’s at least useful to know that there are “lawyers” out their willing to lend their efforts to sabotaging democracy in the United States on behalf of an incompetent mass-murdering buffoon, so long as there as a television camera involved.
Do you think Fox News will go off and form its own country, when this is over? That it will invite all the Trump true believers to decamp to an offshore oil rig, and rename it Trumplandia, and Fox News will strap Sean Hannity to the tallest point on the structure where he will give hourly reads of the state of the new nation, and why everything is Awesome, and inviting Donald to visit if he gets tired of golfing and pushing over television sets?
We’re probably just dreaming. Too bad. In the meantime, this all is beginning to look more and more pathetic. It’s still insanely dangerous, mind you. But it’s mostly pathetic. […]
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is promising to “mobilize an army” to ensure that Black and brown New Yorkers have equal access to any coronavirus vaccines, and threatened a lawsuit against the Trump administration if its distribution plan isn’t overhauled to make that possible.
“The Trump administration is designing the distribution plan, and their plan basically has private health care companies administer the vaccines,” Cuomo said in a speech delivered during services in Manhattan’s Riverside Church on Sunday morning, a rare address in which he relied on a teleprompter.
“The president talks about CVS and Walgreens and national chains. Sure. But they are mainly located in rich communities, not in poor communities. My friends, we cannot compound the racial injustice that Covid has already created. And let me be clear — the Black and brown communities that were first on the list of who died cannot be last on the list of who receives the vaccines, period.”
[…] Cuomo said that the inequities in the distribution plan are exacerbated by the lack of federal aid that could help states ramp up their efforts even while facing budget shortfalls. [Yes!]
If those factors aren’t corrected, New York will join the NAACP and the Urban League in a lawsuit attempting to force changes, the governor announced.
“I’ve tried to work with the Trump administration and argue morality and principle for four years. You’re better of trying to argue with a rock. But it’s not just about morality,” Cuomo told churchgoers. “There can be no more fundamental right in this moment than access to the vaccine. Any plan that intentionally burdens communities of color to hinder access to the vaccine deprives those communities of equal protection under the law and equal protection is enshrined in the Constitution of these United States …
“I tell you today, if the Trump administration does not change this plan and does not provide an equitable vaccine process we will enforce our legal rights , we will bring legal action to protect New Yorkers … and we will fight to make sure very life is protected equally, because enough people have died and enough injustice has been done during Covid. It stops now, it stops with this vaccine.” […]
[…] CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Fauci on “State of the Union” if “once the process is complete, does that mean [people] can take off their masks, they don’t have to social distance, they can just go about their lives as before?”
“I would recommend that that is not the case. I would recommend you have an added area of protection,” Fauci replied.
“Obviously, with a 90-plus percent effective vaccine, you could feel much more confident. But I would recommend to people to not abandon all public health measures just because you have been vaccinated, because even though, for the general population, it might be 90 to 95 percent effective, you don’t necessarily know, for you, how effective it is,” he added.
Fauci added that once he receives the vaccine, he’s “not going to abandon completely public health measures.”
“I could feel more relaxed, in essentially not having the stringency of it that we have right now, but I think abandoning it completely would not be a good idea,” he said.
Asked by Tapper whether it would be safe for Americans to gather for holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving in 2021, Fauci said it “depends on a number of factors.”
“We are not going to turn it on and off, going from where we are to completely normal. It’s going to be a gradual accrual of more normality as the weeks and the months go by, as we get well into 2021,” Fauci said.
Fauci also called Ron Klain, chief of staff to President-elect Joe Biden, an “excellent choice.”
“I worked very closely with Ron Klain during the Ebola outbreak. He was the — they called it a czar. He never liked that word czar. He was the coordinator. But he was absolutely terrific at the Ebola situation, where we had a very successful ultimate endgame with Ebola,” Fauci said.
@Lynna 106
If he is telling the media to change the subject from the pandemic the media is a reputation sensitive spot for Trump. “Fake news” is a defense, and he does not aim it at things he likes.
Tensions ran high after pro-Trump protesters marched through the capital, falsely claiming that the election had been stolen.
Supporters of […] Trump — including members of the militant hate group the Proud Boys — fought with counter-protesters in Washington, DC on Saturday night following the “Million MAGA March” rally that attracted crowds of thousands in the nation’s capital throughout the day.
During the day, the rally was largely peaceful, with minor altercations between demonstrators and counterprotesters. But by evening, the violence reportedly intensified, leading to at least one hospitalization.
The Proud Boys […] are known for inciting violence, and reports from the scene note provocations coming from demonstrators, as well as from counterprotesters at various points. Video footage shows a number of street brawls breaking out in various parts of the city, including some fights that left onlookers asking for a greater police response.
During one such melee near the White House, baton-wielding Trump supporters fought with a group of counterprotesters in a brawl that left one man hospitalized after being stabbed in the back. Separately, an independent journalist said she believed she was stabbed in the ear by a member of the Proud Boys. Four police officers were injured.
DC law enforcement arrested at least 20 people for various charges, including for assault and firearms violations.
The daytime rally and night’s skirmishes reflect an intensifying social movement fueled by Trump’s disinformation efforts and far-fetched, ramshackle legal campaign to contest President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory by a wide margin of Electoral College votes, as Katelyn Burns explained for Vox:
The Million MAGA March is an offshoot of a larger “Stop the Steal” nationwide protest movement, which incorrectly claims Democrats conspired to steal the election from Republicans. The president’s supporters claim this theft was enacted in a variety of ways, from the Dominion voting machines — which are electronic and were used in many states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, among others — changing votes in key states, to a mishmash of false or weak claims about election observers being denied access to vote counts in swing state cities.
All of these claims have been rebutted by evidence — and some cases, by judges — but that has not stopped the president and his supporters from continuing to insist he actually won the election.
The fact that this movement is built upon false information and lies has not stopped it from gaining potency. And it has been stoked by Trump himself […]
[…] The tweet [Trump’s tweet about “Election was Rigged”] came attached to a “Watters’ World” segment in which Jesse Watters claimed that his gut feeling that Trump had been screwed over was like a parent’s feeling that their child had been hurt in some way, which seems legit since Trump is absolutely a child. I watched the whole thing, but you really needn’t bother. It is mostly a lot of “This is just not possible because Joe Biden did not have a catchy slogan and how do you even win an election without a catchy slogan?” Clearly, he vastly overestimated the amount that people just wanted Trump to go the fuck away and also don’t really give a crap about a catchy slogan.
Anyway! Trump wants it to be very clear that he has not conceded and that he still thinks he will win and will continue reenacting the final scene of Sunset Boulevard until he is carted out of the White House by force, which would actually be pretty amusing. I half expect him to start twirling around on a beach singing “I’ve Written A Letter To Daddy.”
[…] Of course, it doesn’t really matter if Trump concedes or not. Concession is not necessary. Frankly, I hope he doesn’t concede because I absolutely do want to see him dragged out all “I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille”-like. It would be highly amusing and also apt.
Now, this is somewhat unrelated to Trump’s loser-y denial phase, but last night he also tweeted out a video from noted phrenology enthusiast Andy Ngo purporting to show a video of mean lefties brutally attacking an innocent Trump supporter who was just minding his own business.
Human Radical Left garbage did this. Being arrested now! [Trump tweeted]
That, of course, was not the case. The Trump supporter attacked first, but that part of the video was cut off.
Andy Ngo purposeful chose to share only one part of a video, retweeted by Trump, which only showed a right wing ‘protestor’ getting punched.
However, here’s the full video where he assaults a protestor first, starts a brawl, and starts attacking women.
Brony @126, nothing Trump does makes good sense; or, it doesn’t make sense for long. He changes his mind a lot. He punches in one direction and then another. Trump is a moment-by-moment toddler-tantrum show. He is even striking out wildly at “fake news,” and failing to hit his mark.
From the Washington Post: “Biden administration will seek to restore stability at Pentagon, analysts say.”
A Biden presidency is expected to strike a relatively steady course at the Pentagon, seeking to restore stability in military decision-making while reemphasizing alliances and pressing ahead with efforts to respond to China’s rise.
But the incoming administration is also likely to face challenges […] as new Defense Department leaders try to wind down counterinsurgent operations and make difficult trade-offs to shift toward Asia.
President-elect Joe Biden and his team “will have the advantage of a new start with some political capital,” said Mark Cancian, a former Marine and White House budget official who is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
But Cancian cautioned that a Biden Pentagon will need to identify a handful of core objectives, or it “will lack the momentum to overcome inertia and partisan opposition.” […]
It seems like a simple way to justify holiday gatherings. But the everyone-has-gotten-tested method is utterly absurd.
[…] We’ll all get together for Thanksgiving, but only after everyone—every last member of the family, no matter where they’re coming from or how they’ll get there—has had the chance to get a proper Covid test.
It isn’t only for the holidays. For months now, I’ve watched various acquaintances and their families decide to break the rules of social distancing in accordance with this same and suspect rule of thumb: It’s totally OK to meet up for a weekend trip … as long as everyone has gotten tested; it’s fine to get together for a barbecue, or a visit with Grandma … just as soon as everyone has gotten tested.
Let me put this as clearly as I can: As a means of eliminating risk in the midst of a pandemic, the everyone-has-gotten-tested method is utterly absurd.
It’s true that getting a positive result tells you some crucial information: It’s time to cancel all your plans and isolate until you’re past the point of infectiousness. A negative test, though, doesn’t guarantee that anyone is Covid-free, and it’s never license to let down your guard. You might, for instance, contract the virus in the interim between being tested and receiving your results, or between getting your results and seeing your friends and family. […] Even if you assume these tests are 100 percent accurate, they’ll only tell you what your status is at the specific time the test is done.
Of course, the tests are not 100 percent accurate. […] getting a negative result won’t give you that much information you didn’t have before. It might only increase your confidence at the margins, say from 95 to 98 percent, that you’re not already sick.
Covid testing is important, as a rule—it’s how we can identify people who have the coronavirus so they can separate themselves and stop the chains of transmission. Where people are coming together repeatedly in shared spaces, as in schools and workplaces or on sports teams, frequent testing can reduce transmission and outbreaks—but only when it’s paired with a robust system for isolation and contact tracing. As I’ve written here previously, testing alone isn’t enough; for disease surveillance to make a difference, it must be used alongside behavioral interventions such as masking and social distancing. If you’re assuming that a negative test means you can give up on those behaviors—that you can safely gather for dinner at a grandparent’s house or spend a weekend in a cabin with your buddies—then you’re asking for trouble.
[…] The everyone-gets-tested strategy makes a bit more sense if you think of it as a form of risk reduction, rather than a guarantee of safety. But even framed that way, it doesn’t make a ton of sense. Life in the pandemic requires making tradeoffs, and you may well decide that getting together with loved ones is worth whatever dangers it may bring. But if you really want to mitigate that danger, you should focus on what works best—and universal, one-off screening within your friend group isn’t it.
The best approach, says Kilpatrick, would be for everyone to go into full quarantine (that means no grocery shopping or other interactions with people) for two weeks prior to the visit, and then travel by car without coming into close contact with anyone else along the way. He acknowledges that this obviously isn’t going to be practical for most people. Short of that, you and your loved ones might each agree to go into full quarantine for several days—which is better than nothing—while continuing to practice masking and social distancing as much as possible.
If you can all add a test on top of that, so much the better. According to Gretchen Snoeyenbos Newman, an infectious disease physician at Wayne State University, the best time for those tests would be five to seven days after your last contact with someone outside your household. (Others have proposed a strict, eight-day quarantine with a Covid test at the tail end of it. Either way, this approach still involves a lot of time in isolation.) But, again, any such strategy requires a lot of assumptions—that getting tested does not itself put you in contact with people who are infected, and that it’s locally available for people without symptoms, and that you’ll get your results in a reasonable amount of time. […]
Instead of relying on a test to give you a green light, it’s better to do all you can to avoid exposures in the first place. With Covid cases climbing fast, and vaccines that may become available in early 2021, the stakes are even higher than they were before. Canceling Thanksgiving with Grandma means you all miss that human contact this year, but it might also ensure that she’s around for the next family gathering.
It’s less than a year since Boris Johnson won a crushing majority. Since then, the Tories’ catastrophic handling of coronavirus – from delayed lockdown to handing Test and Trace to their private contractor cronies – has left tens of thousands dead and the economy in ruins.
This week, Johnson’s top team was plunged into open turmoil as chief advisor Dominic Cummings and chief spin doctor Lee Cain both quit. Tory MPs are increasingly fed up with a man they never respected or liked, but saw as a useful tool to defeat Corbyn’s Labour and Farage’s Brexit Party.
With Britain and the Tories in chaos – are we approaching the end of Boris Johnson’s premiership, or will the ultimate chameleon claw back to political safety with the help of a compliant media?
Join me, Peter Oborne – journalist, broadcaster and former chief political commentator of The Telegraph – and Novara Media’s Ash Sarkar to discuss if Boris Johnson is doomed.
IGNOMINY DOMINIC: As the Prime Minister’s attack weasel Dominic Cummings finally “resigns” to spend more time with his WordPress, Ian Dunt reflects on the meaning and manner of his departure. Can Johnson continue without his external brain, is Carrie Symonds really that powerful, and what are we going to do without SuperDry Gollum to kick around? Includes exciting live radio moments!
“At least his blogs will stay in a little corner of the internet rather than at the heart of the British Government”
“What this has shown us about Boris Johnson, again, is he’s just clothing with no skin in it”
“There is never going to be a point where these guys are going to own Brexit, they will always blame someone else”
More than 82,000 people have come forward with sex-abuse claims against the Boy Scouts of America, describing a decades-long accumulation of assaults at the hands of scout leaders across the nation who had been trusted as role models.
The claims, which lawyers said far eclipsed the number of abuse accusations filed in Catholic Church cases, continued to mount ahead of a Monday deadline established in bankruptcy court in Delaware, where the Boy Scouts had sought refuge this year in a bid to survive the demands for damages.
Paul Mones, a lawyer who has been working on Boy Scouts cases for nearly two decades, said the prevalence of abuse detailed in the filings was breathtaking and might reflect only a fraction of victims…
Although the national organization has more than $1 billion in assets, according to its bankruptcy filing, the organization also has a network of local Boy Scouts councils that own hundreds of camps and other properties across the country where scouts can advance their skills and values along lake shores and in mountain valleys.
As the Boy Scouts seek to reorganize and set up a victims’ compensation fund under the Chapter 11 filing, a judge set Monday as the deadline for victims to come forward with claims that will ultimately undergo a vetting process.
While we are extremely fortunate that Mr. Biden may be the most experienced president-elect ever to take office and brings with him a deep bench of highly qualified, knowledgeable experts, the Trump administration’s continued refusal to execute a responsible transition puts our national security at risk. Without access to critical threat information, no incoming team can counter what it can’t see coming.
If, today, the Trump administration is tracking potential or actual threats — for instance, Russian bounties on American soldiers, a planned terrorist attack on an embassy, a dangerously mutated coronavirus, or Iranian and North Korean provocations — but fails to share this information in a timely fashion with the Biden-Harris team, it could cost us dearly in terms of American lives.
Commentary:
[…] I believe that once Biden’s team does gain access to what is happening from an internal perspective, they are going to be appalled at the degree of inaction and wholesale lack of any efforts whatsoever to address these challenges. They will find instead a network of utter incompetence and indifference to planning, strategy or policy, staggering in its depth, and the Trump people know this. They will find security threats and intel festering, ignored, or shunted aside in favor of groveling to Trump’s every chimerical whim. They will find communications from our overseas allies to have shriveled into nothingness, and our intelligence services put at risk, if not wholly ignored. They will find corruption, graft, kickbacks and politicization to have completely replaced national security policy.
They will find only token measures performed with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic, and all of those measures redounding to the Trump family’s personal coffers and the interests of those still employed within the highest level of the administration. They will find no coherent policies, plans, or measures in place to address the economic calamity facing tens of millions of Americans, and they will find our national security apparatus on the cusp of disaster, with only half-baked plans geared less to satisfy the interests and safety of American citizens than to fulfill the wishlists of foreign adversaries.
The Trump people know this is what they are on track to leave behind for the Biden people, which is why they’re very busy right now, deleting or destroying as much information as they can. They’re trying to stave off the horror they know will ensue when Biden’s team gains access and finds out what really has—and hasn’t—been going on.
Trump’s minions know the dam is about to break and a huge cesspool is waiting, and they seek only to delay the inevitable—and cover their tracks.
I believe that once Biden’s team does gain access to what is happening from an internal perspective, they are going to be appalled at the degree of inaction and wholesale lack of any efforts whatsoever to address these challenges. They will find instead a network of utter incompetence and indifference to planning, strategy or policy, staggering in its depth, and the Trump people know this. They will find security threats and intel festering, ignored, or shunted aside in favor of groveling to Trump’s every chimerical whim. They will find communications from our overseas allies to have shriveled into nothingness, and our intelligence services put at risk, if not wholly ignored. They will find corruption, graft, kickbacks and politicization to have completely replaced national security policy.
They will find only token measures performed with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic, and all of those measures redounding to the Trump family’s personal coffers and the interests of those still employed within the highest level of the administration. They will find no coherent policies, plans, or measures in place to address the economic calamity facing tens of millions of Americans, and they will find our national security apparatus on the cusp of disaster, with only half-baked plans geared less to satisfy the interests and safety of American citizens than to fulfill the wishlists of foreign adversaries.
The Trump people know this is what they are on track to leave behind for the Biden people, which is why they’re very busy right now, deleting or destroying as much information as they can. They’re trying to stave off the horror they know will ensue when Biden’s team gains access and finds out what really has—and hasn’t—been going on.
Trump’s minions know the dam is about to break and a huge cesspool is waiting, and they seek only to delay the inevitable—and cover their tracks.
This is well said and I think precisely right.
Czech Americansays
Lynna @ #135 & SC @ #137:
I’m not sure they are going to find much of anything other than perhaps huge piles of shredded paper and wiped hard drives.
Wow. Trump’s lawyers, bound by reality and ethical rules, are quietly abandoning his claims before a judge can even rule. This is their redlined amended complaint in PA….
To clarify, Trump’s lawyers filed this redlined document — allowing us to see what they’re abandoning. Link here. You’ll notice the Porter Wright firm withdrew altogether….
The dropped part of the case affected 600,000+ votes. Now only a small number are disputed. Trump could win this case and nothing changes.
WaPo had it first. Good reporting by @jonswaine and @eliseviebeck
Now that the case has shrunk so much there’s no need for a hearing on Tuesday, PA officials are arguing (link from @joshgerstein)…
Trump lawyers are really spinning this, as @BradMossEsq explains…
So glad to see reporters aren’t backing down as Trump’s team tries to spin this…
Czech American @ #138, I think Trump and his minions are likely as bad at covering their tracks as they are of doing the work in the first place. They’re devious, but they came in not knowing how things worked and too lazy or inept to find out. I imagine there are roughly a gazillion memos to file, whistleblower reports, computer backups, and witnesses to wrongdoing. US allies probably also have a good deal of evidence.
There is a roughly 12-day lag between rising cases rising hospitalizations.
So the 1.5 million (!!!) confirmed cases from the last 2 weeks have not yet factored into stories about packed emergency rooms….
Thread atl.
Czech Americansays
SC @ #140
One effects of the Trump era is that I say things and then in retrospect am not sure how much I am joking. I was definitely being a smartass to some degree.
You are, of course, 100% correct. No super-shredder event is going to cover up all the wrongdoings of this administration. I suspect that at this point, it is mostly individuals trying to cover their own butts.
BREAKING: Plaintiffs DISMISS Wisconsin lawsuit claiming election officials included illegal results in certain counties and seeking to to stop the certification of election results from these counties.
Trump and allies are now 1-24 in court.
quotetheunquotesays
SC #143
Well, not surprising, but good news. But, wait, they won a case? Which was that?
The Trump administration has called for oil and gas firms to pick spots where they want to drill in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as it races to open the pristine wilderness to development and lock in drilling rights before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
The “call for nominations” to be published Tuesday allows companies to identify tracts to bid on during an upcoming lease sale on the refuge’s nearly 1.6 million acre coastal plain, a sale that the Interior Department aims to hold before Biden takes the oath of office in January. The move would be a capstone of President Trump’s efforts to open up public lands to logging, mining and grazing — something Biden strongly opposes.
A GOP-controlled Congress in 2017 authorized drilling in the refuge, a vast wilderness that is home to tens of thousands of migrating caribou and waterfowl, along with polar bears and Arctic foxes.
[…]
Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, said in an interview Friday that the administration is operating “under a tight timeline,…”
“Our view is that Congress has acted,” Macchiarola said. “Production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a long time coming. It’s overdue, and it’s important to our nation’s energy security.”
The official White House line is simple: everyone should simply pretend that Joe Biden didn’t win the election, reality be damned. Not only does Donald Trump keep tweeting that he “won” the race he lost, but White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the outgoing president will attend the inaugural ceremony in January because it will be “his own inauguration.”
This transparently foolish rhetoric has not persuaded everyone on Trump’s team. NBC News reported this morning:
[…] Trump’s National Security Council is preparing for “a very professional transition,” because it looks like Joe Biden has won the election, national security adviser Robert O’Brien said in comments that aired Monday.
The White House national security adviser spoke last week at a global security forum sponsored by the Soufan Center, but the public saw his comments this morning for the first time when they were aired online.
To be sure, O’Brien, who’s earned a reputation as a Trump loyalist, hedged a bit, and was less than categorical when acknowledging reality. But he also went quite a bit further than anyone else on the president’s team.
“Look, if the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner — and obviously things look that way now — we’ll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council,” O’Brien said. He proceeded to describe the incoming Biden team in complimentary terms, and even bragged about American traditions: “[T]he great thing in the United States of America, we’ve passed the baton and had peaceful successful transitions even in the most contentious periods.”
O’Brien went on to argue that he believes Trump will have an impressive legacy “as he leaves office.” NBC News’ report added, “O’Brien also sprinkled his remarks with references to the president departing Washington.” […]
Well, that’s helpful for his Republican party in Georgia … Not.
[…] Trump is reportedly agitated about having lost the state to Joe Biden, and as a result, the president has begun lashing out at Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — both conservative Republicans previously aligned with Trump — in ways that worry state GOP officials.
It’s like Trump wants Ossoff and Warnock to win those two Senate run-off races.
Jair Bolsonaro – already smarting from Donald Trump’s defeat – has suffered a further setback after candidates he had championed performed dismally in municipal elections.
Sunday’s vote provided the first electoral opportunity to gauge the health of the Brazilian president’s anti-establishment movement since the populist’s shock election victory in 2018.
The results, which included painful defeats for Bolsonarista candidates in key cities and the resurgence of politicians from mainstream parties, suggest it is an ailing force.
“The far-right wave that carried Bolsonaro to the presidency turned into a ripple in 2020,” claimed the political commentator Josias de Souza in his dissection of the vote.
Bolsonaro, who has yet to publicly recognise Joe Biden’s victory over his top international ally, had endorsed rightwing candidates in six state capitals – four of whom suffered heavy defeats.
In the Amazon city of Manaus, Bolsonaro’s pick, a friend of four-decades called Alfredo Menezes, finished fifth. In Recife, Patrícia Domingos – who Bolsonaro had vowed would rid Brazil’s north-east of “communism” – came fourth.
In Belo Horizonte, Brazil’s third city, Bolsonaro’s candidate, a 23-year-old conservative activist called Bruno Engler, was thrashed by the incumbent Alexandre Kalil, who won more than 63% of the vote.
But Souza claimed that “of all the Waterloos inflicted on Bolsonaro on Sunday, the most devastating was in São Paulo”.
There, in Brazil’s largest and most economically powerful city, Bolsonaro’s choice, Celso Russomanno, was trounced by the centre-right incumbent, Bruno Covas, and a rising leftwing star called Guilherme Boulos. Covas and Boulos will face off in a second round on 29 November.
“We have beaten Bolsonaro – we have beaten his project of hatred, backwardness and lies that tried to take root in the city of São Paulo,” Boulos celebrated.
São Paulo’s governor, João Doria, claimed: “Democracy has won and Bolsonaro has lost”.
Rio’s unpopular evangelical mayor, Marcelo Crivella, reached the second round but is widely tipped to lose. One newspaper branded Sunday’s results “the Bolsonarista breakdown”.
Elsewhere, there were humiliating defeats or hiccups for other candidates linked to Bolsonaro.
…
Bolsonaro tried to shift the narrative, claiming the results boded well for his re-election chances in 2022 and were “a historic defeat” for the left. But analysts said the opposite was true, with a new generation of leftwing politicians performing well.
…
The election comes at a testing time for Bolsonaro. Trump’s defeat has robbed his populist project of a key source of legitimacy, corruption investigators are reportedly closing in on two of his politician sons, and polls show support slipping in several major cities.
Meanwhile, more than 165,000 Brazilians have died because of a coronavirus epidemic critics claim Bolsonaro has catastrophically mishandled….
A string of Conservative MPs are self-isolating following a meeting in Downing Street that has forced Boris Johnson to spend a potentially crucial week holed up inside No 10.
The prime minister, who was seriously ill with coronavirus in April, has insisted he is fine and that his body “is bursting with antibodies” after he was ordered to self-isolate following a 35-minute meeting with a group of Tory MPs from the Midlands and north of England on Thursday.
Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, showed some coronavirus symptoms on Friday and received a positive test result on Sunday. A photograph of him and Johnson at the meeting showed them seemingly less than 2 metres apart, and neither wearing a mask.
Since then, five more Tory MPs who were at the event have said they are self-isolating, raising questions about why the meeting was not held virtually and whether proper coronavirus guidelines were followed.
Two Downing Street political aides also attended and were now self-isolating, Johnson’s spokesman said….
…
The advice for Johnson to self-isolate comes at a difficult moment for the government. He is expected to continue to make public statements from inside No 10, including on the government’s green plans. This is also a pivotal week for Brexit, as negotiations with the EU reach their final phase….
The opposition candidate Maia Sandu has won a landslide victory in Moldova’s presidential elections, easily defeating the pro-Russian incumbent, Igor Dodon.
Sandu, a former World Bank economist who has supported closer ties with the EU, won the run-off by harnessing voters’ anger over a long history of political scandals and exhaustion with endemic corruption, including the theft of $1bn from Moldovan banks in 2014-15.
Dodon, who has been accused of having a blase attitude towards the coronavirus pandemic, is a regular guest in Moscow and his defeat is being seen by analysts as a major blow to the Kremlin.
Russia had wanted polarised Moldova to remain in its sphere of influence at a time when several Kremlin-aligned governments are rocked by political unrest and security crises.
Sandu, a former prime minister, brought out diaspora voters in record numbers while Dodon lost support among his largely conservative base in a nearly 58% to 42% loss.
“Moldovans need a state that does not steal, but protects its citizens,” Sandu said in a televised briefing that appeared careful not to alienate Russian-speaking voters or Moldovans who favour closer ties to Moscow.
…
Sandu, who also heads the centre-right Party of Action and Solidarity, will face an uphill battle to fight corruption in Moldova, a parliamentary republic where the president has little control over domestic affairs or oversight of the prosecutors and courts. The next elections must be held by 2023 and she will probably seek snap elections.
As president, Sandu will be more likely to influence the country’s foreign policy….
…
The head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service had claimed that “Americans are plotting a revolutionary scenario for Moldova”, stoking concerns that Moscow could intervene to prevent him from losing.
But on Monday the Kremlin issued its congratulations to the challenger, something it still has not done in the US presidential elections….
Sandu said she would “establish a pragmatic dialogue with all countries, including Ukraine, Romania, European nations, Russia, and the United States”….
The EU is facing a crisis after Hungary and Poland vetoed the bloc’s historic €1.8tn (£1.6tn) budget and coronavirus recovery plan over attempts to link funding to respect for democratic norms.
The move unravels months of negotiations over the scale and terms of the EU’s spending and sets the stage for a stormy videoconference meeting of the bloc’s leaders on Thursday.
Without agreement among the 27 member states, projects financed by the bloc’s seven-year budget will go without funds and the €750bn plan to rebuild Europe’s shattered economy will not be activated.
“I think we have a crisis again,” a senior EU diplomat said. “We’re back in crisis.”…
The top General Services Administration official who’s blocking President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team from accessing government resources ahead of his inauguration appears to be looking for a new job, according to a message obtained by ABC News.
Emily Murphy, head of the GSA, recently sent that message to an associate inquiring about employment opportunities in 2021, a move that some in Washington interpreted as at least tacitly acknowledging that the current administration soon will be gone.
Murphy has the power to decide — or “ascertain” — when election results are evident enough to trigger a transition of power, allowing the winning team access to career staff at federal agencies and internal government information including national security matters and plans for administering a COVID-19 vaccine.
…
Congressional Democrats have accused Murphy of undermining the peaceful transition of power and could subpoena her for testimony on Capitol Hill to explain why she’s doing so.
And while it’s true that there’s often a reshuffling of officials after a presidential election, regardless of whether the incumbent returns, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., a senior member of the House Oversight Committee, insisted that Murphy reaching out privately about future employment opportunities “exposes the hypocrisy” of the Trump administration’s position….
US military commanders are anticipating that a formal order will be given by President Donald Trump as soon as this week to begin a further withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq before Trump leaves office on January 20, according to two US officials familiar.
The Pentagon has issued a notice to commanders known as a “warning order” to begin planning to drawdown the number of troops in Afghanistan to 2,500 troops and 2,500 in Iraq by Jan 15, the officials said. Currently there are approximately 4,500 US troops in Afghanistan and 3,000 troops in Iraq.
The Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Sweeping changes at the Pentagon last week have put Trump loyalists in place and knowledgeable sources told CNN’s Jake Tapper last week that the White House-directed purge at the Defense Department may have been motivated by the fact that former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and his team were pushing back on a premature withdrawal from Afghanistan that would be carried out before the required conditions on the ground were met.
Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller sent a seemingly contradictory message to the force on Friday saying the US must continue its battle against al Qaeda and the terrorist forces behind 9/11 while also saying it was time to bring troops home….
Women make up the majority of staffers on President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team, and people of color are more than 40 percent of the total transition workforce, according to new diversity data obtained by NBC News from the transition.
McClatchy News reported that the Trump campaign is now “downsizing,” parting ways with most of its staffers as of yesterday. That said, some who are “viewed as crucial to supporting the campaign’s legal operations have not been given any end date.”
The Republican National Committee is also reducing staff at its headquarters and in field operations. Employees who have been let go are being paid through the end of the month.
In the middle of the Trump pandemic, in which untold millions of people who survive the disease could end up disabled for life, the Trump administration announced Friday that it’s finalizing rules meant to do nothing but make it harder for disabled people to receive Social Security, and to endanger the Social Security benefits of disabled people who are already approved. In the first regulation, it’s changing the appeals process by replacing impartial, independent administrative law judges (ALJs) with internal agency lawyers, making it much more difficult for people to navigate the process.
They have also sent their proposal that will dramatically increase “continuing disability reviews” (the process during which those receiving disability must prove they’re still disabled) to the Office of Management and Budget for approval as a final rule. The administration admitted it is about dropping people out of the program, “saving” $2.6 billion. It would mean earlier and more frequent reviews for people on disability, likely older people who are physically unable to continue their work. This is simply, in the words of Sen. Ron Wyden, “harassment of people with disabilities” that puts Americans at “greater risk of falling through the cracks.”
House Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee blasted the final rule on cutting out judges, […] “The rule puts unqualified agency staff in control of deciding appeals hearings and contradicts the congressional intent of the law governing such proceedings.”
[…] These two rules are just Trump’s kick in the teeth to vulnerable people. The new Biden administration and/or Congress will have to spend time and energy unwinding these rules, which have no other purpose than making life more difficult for people who are already hurting. As with every goddamned thing with everyone in Trump’s orbit, the cruelty is the point.
From Wonkette: “Fox News A Festival Of Batsh*t As Republicans Hide From Regular Sunday Shows”
Trump, the enemy of the free peoples of the United States, has been defeated, though he refuses to admit that.
But with Trump’s defeat and a lame duck session until Inauguration Day, the Sunday shows continue. This week on the Sunday shows, there was a huge absence of Republicans[…]
So with a president that refuses to concede, other than accidentally before taking it back, the crazy and stupid retreated to their safe space: Fox News. More specifically to the safest of harbors, Maria Bartiromo’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” considering how even Fox News has angered their mob by sorta kinda barely reporting facts. [Video snippet of Trump fans chanting “fox News sucks!” is available at the link.]
Bartiromo hosted Trump’s personal lawyer and head of his campaign’s long-shot post-election legal challenges,[…] Rudy Giuliani: [Video snippet available at the link.]
[…] here we are devoting that time to these people, instead of interviewing the indigenous people who helped win Arizona or Latinos in Nevada or the Black folks (especially Black women) who delivered Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.
The media seems hellbent on proving that systemic racism is not just for the justice system, education and healthcare, as they only care to empathize with the “pain” and “oppression” rural white voters.
[…] a hero in the heartland has found the courage to stand athwart history shouting that it is insane to keep spaces for indoor socializing open during a viral pandemic that is spread mostly by people socializing indoors. That hero is Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who, on Sunday, announced that she is ordering the closure, until Dec. 8, of her state’s restaurants and bars, movie theaters, casinos, and venues for group fitness classes. In-person classes for students in ninth grade and above will also be halted. (Outdoor dining and drinking will be allowed; hair salons, gyms where patrons work out individually, and retail stores can remain open. With Thanksgiving a week-plus away, the order also instructs residents not to gather indoors in groups that include more than 10 people or more than two households, though there do not appear to be plans to enforce that rule aggressively.)
Michigan, which is currently reporting around 7,000 new COVID infections a day, was also one of the states that locked down most dramatically this spring, and was until recently able to prevent widespread outbreaks of the sort seen in other states. Whitmer’s restrictions did trigger a backlash among far-right groups, and in October, federal authorities arrested 13 men for planning to kidnap and potentially murder her.
Politics is often a game of letting someone else to be the first one to see whether something works, so the positive initial response that Whitmer’s order has gotten from public health experts may create a virtuous chain of dominoes among other Democratic governors. […]
Whitmer’s order will cause financial problems for workers, businesses, and the state of Michigan itself. That’s not ideal, but perhaps it will put the imperative to pass another COVID stimulus/relief bill back in the news cycle; negotiations on such a measure in Washington have been stalled since before the election because of Republican senators’ insistence on not spending more than $500 million even though the Trump White House has offered to go as high as $1.8 trillion in an effort to make a deal with House Democrats.
[…] From the long-term perspective, the debate over what the Democratic Party should stand for is a tricky one. In the short term, it has a great opportunity to simply be the party that, like Gretchen Whitmer, will do the things that obviously need to be done.
All told, MAGA-world has secured only two very small wins out of the dozen-plus legal actions it’s brought: an Election week court order that Trump poll watchers get to watch counting at a closer distance and a decision tossing out a very small number of ballots in one Pennsylvania county because voters were allowed to cure those ballots after a certain deadline. None of these lawsuits ever posed a serious threat of overturning Joe Biden’s victory, but they have helped expose just how pathetic the Trump campaign’s attempts to gin up false fraud claims really were.
I think the one Elias was referring to was the one related to ballot-curing, since the other didn’t affect the vote count.
WASHINGTON (CN) — Drawing alarm at the D.C. Circuit, a lawyer for the United States argued Monday that the government has the power to kill its citizens without judicial oversight when state secrets are involved.
“Do you appreciate how extraordinary that proposition is?” U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett asked Justice Department attorney Bradley Hinshelwood, paraphrasing his claim as giving the government the ability to “unilaterally decide to kill U.S. citizens.”
The hearing before the federal appeals court came as the government fights to hold off allegations by two journalists who say it wrongly targeted them as terrorists in Syria.
One of the journalists, U.S. citizen Bilal Abdul Kareem, says his interviews with al-Qaida-linked militants landed him on the U.S. kill list. Just in June and August 2016, Kareem says, the U.S. government targeted him five times, including one drone strike involving a U.S.-made Hellfire missile.
Though the United States has not confirmed whether Kareem or his co-plaintiff, Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, pose any such threat, it has withheld information related to their case on the basis of national security.
Arguing only on the claims brought by Kareem, the Justice Department’s Hinshelwood conceded Monday that a strike against a U.S. citizen is a serious undertaking. Where the judiciary can step in, he said, is in ensuring that the state-secrets privilege was appropriately applied.
Shrugging off Kareem’s claims…the government argued the alleged airstrikes occurred at a time when Syria was wracked by civil war.
“In all of these circumstances, he’s not even the only person present, much less is there anything to suggest that he’s actually the target of any of these specific attacks,” Hinshelwood said…
While [Kareem’s attorney, Tara Jordan] Plochocki did not dispute that cities like Aleppo and Idlib were subject to severe and routine bombings, she argued U.S. attacks on Syrian territory were not indiscriminate.
“These happened with eerie precisions,” the attorney argued, referring to the five alleged strikes against her client.
She later claimed the government was arguing Kareem needed to “provide the make and model of the missiles fired at him.”
Urging the D.C. Circuit to remand the case, she argued such evidence would come out in discovery if the state secrets privilege is lifted.
From Paul Waldman, writing for The Washington Post:
This was probably the way we should have expected […] Trump to finish his time in the White House: whining, lying, ignoring the duties of his office, desperate to keep his scam going and focused only on himself. But that Trump is being Trump should not for one second blind us to what is happening right now and how damaging it is. The destruction of the past four years was apparently not enough for him. So on his way out the door, Trump is salting the earth behind him.
[…] Republican efforts to get courts to shut down counting and invalidate huge numbers of votes are being laughed out of court. This is over.
And what is the president doing? Complaining on Twitter.
[…] He will not prevail, and everyone knows it. The White House staffers desperately spinning on his behalf know it. The Fox News hosts propagating conspiracy theories about stolen votes know it. Every elected Republican knows it. The only ones who don’t know it are the millions of Trump voters who are the targets of this noxious propaganda campaign […]
This White House instructs civil servants across the federal government to refuse to cooperate or even communicate with representatives of the incoming Biden administration, making the already complex task of the transition vastly more difficult. And while the coronavirus pandemic is positively exploding across the country — we’re now averaging more than 150,000 new cases and a thousand deaths per day — his administration has stopped even pretending it cares.
At the current pace, by the time Trump leaves office, more than 300,000 Americans will have died of covid-19. And even after he departs, every day more will die because Trump politicized simple public health measures, convincing his supporters that refusing to wear a mask to protect yourself and those around you is a great way to own the libs.
[…] And what of the Republican Party? They, too, are finishing the Trump presidency the way they started it, with a show of complicity and cowardice.
There are some Republicans, the most repugnant, who are enthusiastically whipping up anger and spreading lies about voter fraud, trying to convince their base that Biden will be an illegitimate usurper. At the other end, there are a few who have grudgingly acknowledged reality, admitting that yes, Biden won the election and will become president in January. […]
What we deserve is to hear Republicans say to Trump, “Stop this right now. You are hurting the country.”
But there are none who will do so. So to them we should say: The leader of your party is pouring poison into our national bloodstream, and if you can’t find the courage to say it’s wrong, don’t ever try to tell us again how patriotic you are. […]
Someone linked to Doering’s Twitter thread, but now I can’t find it. Anyway, here’s more:
A South Dakota ER nurse @JodiDoering says her Covid-19 patients often “don’t want to believe that Covid is real.”
“Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real.’ And when they should be… Facetiming their families, they’re filled with anger and hatred.”
[…] For the first time since 1992, a Democrat has won [Georgia’s] electoral votes, and it will soon host two runoffs that will determine control of the Senate. These remarkable developments followed a massive surge in mail voting, so naturally, the GOP has decided to blame absentee ballots for their loss—and wants to clamp down on them.
Four years ago, about 200,000 Georgia citizens cast their votes by mail. This year, more than 1.3 million did so, an increase of more than 500% and more people than voted on Election Day itself. But we just saw a similar phenomenon play out across the country, in states Donald Trump both won and lost, so no one can seriously think the method voters chose is responsible for Georgia turning blue.
Republicans, however, are not serious thinkers, least of all state Rep. Barry Fleming, who chairs the Judiciary Committee in the Georgia House. His reaction to the newfound popularity of mail voting is so unhinged we must reproduce it in full:
[…] Democrats are relying on the always-suspect absentee balloting process to inch ahead in Georgia and other close states. If elections were like coastal cities, absentee balloting would be the shady part of town down near the docks you do not want to wander into because the chance of being shanghaied is significant. Expect the Georgia Legislature to address that in our next session in January.
This analogy is so bonkers it’s not worth parsing (does he think voters are somehow being tricked into using absentee ballots?), but the real problem is that Fleming has a powerful perch from which he can make voting harder. When he says we should expect Georgia Republicans to find new ways to suppress the vote, we should believe him—and prepare for a fight.
For now, fortunately, there’s nothing Fleming can do to undermine mail voting before the all-important Senate runoffs on Jan. 5.
Scientists are hopeful that the preliminary success of mRNA vaccines could be a “leap forward” for fighting other diseases, including cancer.
The initial success in late-stage trials by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech is the first proof the technology, which is much faster than traditional vaccine development, works.
“Unlike conventional vaccines, which are produced using weakened forms of the virus, RNA vaccines can be constructed quickly using only the pathogen’s genetic code,” the Pfizer website says.
The traditional method typically takes more than a decade – Moderna’s mRNA vaccine went from gene sequencing to the first human injection in 63 days.
“We’ll look back on the advances made in 2020 and say: ‘That was a moment when science really did make a leap forward’,” said Jeremy Farrar, director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, which is backed by the Wellcome Trust.
Moderna and BioNTech are also applying mRNA technology to experimental cancer medicines. None of the potential therapies have reached the critical large-scale Phase 3 trials, however, and experts acknowledges that cancer presents a bigger challenge.
“‘I find this more embarrassing for the country than debilitating for my ability to get started’, President-elect Biden says of President Trump’s lack of concession and lack of transition cooperation”
Our love of country requires us to respect the results of an election even when we don’t like them or wish it had gone differently—the presidency doesn’t belong to any one individual or any one party.
To pretend that it does, to play along with these groundless conspiracy theories—whether for personal or political gain—is to put our country’s health and security in danger. This isn’t a game.
More:
[…] Donald Trump had spread racist lies about my husband that had put my family in danger. That wasn’t something I was ready to forgive. But I knew that, for the sake of our country, I had to find the strength and maturity to put my anger aside.
I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do—because our democracy is so much bigger than anybody’s ego.
So I want to urge all Americans, especially our nation’s leaders, regardless of party, to honor the electoral process and do your part to encourage a smooth transition of power, just as sitting presidents have done throughout our history.
[…] Fauci also kindly and gently and in the politest way possible said Trump’s favorite TV doctor idiot Scott Atlas needs to fuck off […] with his calls to “rise up” against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who literally just had a kidnapping plot against her foiled, in response to the coronavirus safety orders she’s had to issue because the pandemic is growing vertically right now. He was clear he’s not saying anything about Atlas “as a person,” because Fauci is a very nice man, but that Atlas is wrong about all of it. To be as fair and balanced as possible, Wonkette should note that “fuck off […]” is our words, and that Dr. Fauci (probably) would never say anything like that. […]
“The Proud Boys are openly fantasizing about ‘The Day of the Rope’, a white supremacist concept in which ‘race traitors’, including journalists, politicians, and women in mixed-race relationships, will be lynched en masse.”
Imagine if Trump had won.
johnson catmansays
re SC @171: from one of the screen captures:
So what it sounds like to me is the elite are trying to turn all non-whites against all whites. The people who graciously allowed them to migrate to this country and have another life. Time to deport and end all immigration full stop from non white countries. If being here is so hard you can go back to where you came from where your people are the majority.
1) The “elite” are not turning any people against all whites. 2) “Whites” did “graciously” allow anyone to migrate here. A lot of “non-whites” were brought here against their will and enslaved. Native Americans were slaughtered so that “whites” could steal their land and resources. 3) If anyone should be deported, it should be racist fuckwits who refuse to get along with people in a country that has been described as the “melting pot of the world”. 4) “Non-whites” will soon be the majority in this country, so Proud Boys should shut the fuck up.
The leader of Facebook’s largest and most dangerous anti-vaxx Facebook group has gone full QAnon this year. He posts less about vaccines, but constantly about guns and getting ready “for what’s coming.” Now, vibing off the President, he tells his 200,000 members “Shoot them all.”
He posts that Facebook removed the post and gave him a 30-day ban. While he waits for FB to enforce that punishment, he posts more Q content and advertises his other channels.
This group has done so much harm. It’s a hub for harassment campaigns against public health officials & mothers whose children have died from vaccine preventable diseases. It’s spread misinfo that contributed to vaccine hesitancy and resulted in the sickness and deaths of babies.
…Hiding the scientific basis for pandemic policies makes it harder for the public to evaluate what’s being done. That means there’s no good way to audit measures that may be poorly crafted or even dangerous. The risks could be even deeper, though. When health authorities present one rule after another without clear, science-based substantiation, their advice ends up seeming arbitrary and capricious. That erodes public trust and makes it harder to implement rules that do make sense—for this pandemic and any future public health matters. As Zeynep Tufekci observed in March, both the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bungled the early messaging on masks by recommending they be used only by health workers. Perhaps if these agencies had been more forthright in citing the studies they were using to create this guidance, the about-face that followed would have seemed less arbitrary—and provided less fodder for masking skeptics later on.
Yet unsourced rules are everywhere in this pandemic….
There is precedence for public health agencies to provide scientific backing for their advisories. The WHO and CDC do sometimes cite research studies in their guidance documents. The latter, for example, gives specific information on the science behind its hand-washing recommendations—including more than a dozen references to published research papers. The pandemic poses special challenges in this regard, given the unprecedented pace and volume of new research about the novel coronavirus. Even back in the spring, 4,000 new papers on the topic were being published every week; and scientists were said to be “drowning” in the flood of findings. A lot of that new research now appears online before being vetted by reviewers for a science journal. Some of the findings have not stood the test of time, and as the evidence changes, battles will continue to rage about which studies should be the ones that drive policy. But right now we’re not even privy to that debate.
There’s a crisis in transparency in our Covid guidelines, and it needs to be addressed….
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that he has come under increasing pressure in recent days from fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots in an effort to reverse President Trump’s narrow loss in the state.
In a wide-ranging interview about the 2020 election, Raffensperger expressed exasperation with a string of baseless allegations coming from Trump and his allies about the integrity of the Georgia results, including claims that Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado-based manufacturer of Georgia’s voting machines, is a “leftist” company with ties to Venezuela that engineered thousands of Trump votes not to be counted.
The atmosphere has grown so contentious, Raffensperger said, that both he and his wife, Tricia, have received death threats in recent days, including a text to him that read, “You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it.”
[…]
The normally mild-mannered Raffensperger saved his harshest language for U.S. Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), who is leading the president’s effort to prove fraud in Georgia and whom Raffensperger called a “liar” and a “charlatan.”
Collins has questioned Raffensperger’s handling of the vote and accused him of capitulating to Democrats by not backing allegations of voter fraud more strongly…
The recount, Raffensperger said in the interview Monday, will “affirm” the results of the initial count. He said the hand-counted audit that began last week will also prove the accuracy of the Dominion machines; some counties have already reported that their hand recounts exactly match the machine tallies previously reported.
“Raffensperger says @LindseyGrahamSC asked if it was possible to toss out all mail ballots from counties with higher rates of signatures that did not appear to match registration forms – which stunned the Secy of State.”
What Graham allegedly asked here is simply criminal. Intervening with the top election administrator of another state (clearly at Trump’s behest) to throw out a huge number of legally cast ballots to make the President win. You might as well ask him to falsify the numbers.
Hey @LindseyGrahamSC. Time to resign. Pressuring an election official in other state to toss legal ballots on behalf of the President should lose you your law license in addition to your Senate seat.
The vaccine breakthroughs from Pfizer and Moderna are incredible news, for a small sliver of the world.
Wealthy countries like the U.S. have secured their access to those vaccines and others and are increasingly confident they’ll begin mass vaccination this spring. But according to research from Duke University’s Global Health Institute, there likely won’t be enough doses to cover the entire global population until 2024.
Pfizer has agreed to sell at least 1.1 billion doses combined to the U.S., EU, Canada, Japan and U.K. That’s nearly all of the 1.3 billion it aims to produce by the end of 2021.
Its vaccine also has to be stored at -80C, a requirement that few facilities in the developing world are equipped to handle.
Moderna’s announcement today that its vaccine appears to be 95% effective should be better news for countries outside of the U.S. and Europe.
The storage requirements aren’t as onerous and it’s part of the COVAX portfolio of vaccines the World Health Organization and other groups plan to distribute to lower-income countries.
Tal Zaks, Moderna’s chief medical officer, told the Axios Pro Rata podcast today that the 20 million doses it will produce this year will all go to the U.S., which helped fund the vaccine’s development and has purchased at least 100 million doses in total.
Moderna also has deals with the EU and Japan. After today’s news prompted questions over why it hadn’t invested in the Moderna vaccine, the U.K. government announced it was in “advanced talks” to ensure its access.
“There is a dialogue ongoing with COVAX. I don’t think we have quite aligned with them on how many doses and when those doses would be available for the COVAX collaboration,” Zaks said.
The best hope for a vaccine that will be quickly produced at scale for developing countries may lie with Oxford and AstraZeneca, which expect to release efficacy data for their vaccine by year’s end.
That vaccine is also part of the COVAX portfolio and has a deal with the world’s highest-capacity vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India.
The Serum Institute is slated to produce two-thirds of the doses promised to low- and middle-income countries by AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax and Sanofi, per WaPo.
Canada has purchased enough doses to vaccinate its population five times over, according to the Duke study. It’s one of several countries hedging their bets to ensure access even if some vaccines aren’t approved.
[…]
With its bulk orders for six vaccines, the U.S. could find itself in control of around one-quarter of the world’s near-term supply, according to the Duke analysis.
“I think we’re going to see the tension between vaccine nationalism and vaccine diplomacy, where deploying some of our surplus vaccine doses in a strategic way becomes part of the U.S. foreign policy,” says Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, director of Duke’s Global Health Innovation Center.
[…]
Beyond the humanitarian and diplomatic considerations, it’s also clear that the pandemic won’t be over anywhere — as a public health crisis or as a drag on the global economy — until it’s under control everywhere.
Lack of vaccination efforts will lead to a long-lasting human reservoir of virus, increasing the chances it’ll mutate and evade vaccines. We can all look forward to doing this again X years down the line. This is just so stupid.
Here’s a link to the November 17 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Teenage pregnancies rise in parts of Kenya as lockdown shuts schools
Global lockdowns could lead to rising rates of adolescent pregnancy, non-governmental organisations working on reproductive health have warned.
In the far northern town of Lodwar, Kenya, teenage pregnancies among clients of the International Rescue Committee aid group nearly tripled to 625 in June to August this year, compared with 226 in the same period a year earlier, IRC data show.
In the nearby refugee camp of Kakuma, adolescent pregnancies among clients jumped to 51 in the March to August 2020 period, compared with 15 in the same period in 2019.
And more pregnant girls may be skipping doctors’ visits altogether, experts say.
“We know that young girls who get pregnant do not access healthcare services like adult females because of the judgment,” said Ademola Olajide, the United Nations Population Fund representative in Kenya.
That makes them more vulnerable to health complications and unsafe abortions, he added.
Globally, pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death for girls aged between 15 and 19, according to the World Health Organisation.
Greece’s head of state has appealed for citizens to adhere to a ban on public gatherings enforced to curb the spread of Covid-19, as the country marks one of its most hallowed anniversaries: the 1973 student uprising against military rule.
Laying a wreath at the Athens Polytechnic, where the landmark revolt took place, president Katerina Sakellaropoulou said democracy not only meant “freedom but responsibility”.
“The struggle of all of us today is to transcend our individualism for the common good,” she said, citing the unprecedented conditions in which this year’s commemoration takes place.
The uprising, which ushered in the beginning of the end of seven years of brutal dictatorship, is celebrated annually with thousands marching to the US embassy in protest of Washington’s support for the junta. The anniversary is an emblematic event for leftists and communists who resisted the regime.
But in the midst of a second lockdown, the centre-right government, emphasising public health concerns, has refused to bow to calls from opposition parties to allow the traditional rally from taking place.
In a security operation that is expected to see about 6,000 police being seconded around the Greek capital, it has deployed helicopters and drones to ensure that no more than four people gather at any one time. Those who flout the rule will face fines of up to €5,000.
The opposition has deplored the ban as unconstitutional with the leader of the leftist MeRa25 group, Yanis Varoufakis, vowing to commemorate the anniversary by marching to the US embassy with his MPs in a display of “responsible disobedience”.
Anti-establishment leftists and anarchists have also pledged they will defy the ban amid fears of clashes with police later on Tuesday.
Epidemiologists, who have raised the alarm over the potential of rallies being “super-spreader” events, have called the coming weeks critical.
A surge in the number of coronavirus cases has placed mounting pressure on the country’s health system with an estimated 80% of intensive care wards now occupied with patients who have fallen ill with the virus.
In northern Greece, which has been especially hard hit, the rise in numbers is such that only 5% of beds are free in Thessaloniki, the region’s metropolis.
Clashes have broken out in the Greek capital between police and leftists attempting to mark the 47thanniversary of Athens’ Polytechnic uprising against military rule despite a ban on public gatherings because of the pandemic.
Media outlets say at least two people have been injured and dozens arrested. KKE communist party supporters have accused police of using tear gas and stun guns to prevent them commemorating the anniversary.
The news came as the director of the intensive care ward at a hospital in Thessaloniki, the city worst hit by a resurgence in cases, said Covid-19 patients in the units “are dying every half hour.”
“We are losing somebody every half hour,” Dr Nikolaos Kapravelos told Skai news. “We have 200 beds at the disposal of a disease which has never happened before. Two hundred people are fighting for their lives.”
Asked whether Greeks should gather to commemorate the historic anniversary, he retorted: “I’m a fanatic about this historic event but do not confuse it with the situation we are living through now.”
Public health officials (as we reported earlier) have warned of the perils of rallies becoming super spreader events at a time when public hospitals across Greece are under intense pressure to cope with the surge in coronavirus cases.
It’s odd that they don’t refer to specific public health officials or their reasoning concerning masks, outdoor vs. indoor events, etc. The presentation of the issue is pretty convoluted.
German officials have cited security concerns in their decision to ban a series of protests planned Wednesday outside the federal parliament by people opposed to coronavirus lockdown measures.
The unusual move comes amid fears that extremist groups could try to use a rally initially planned for Wednesday to attack the Bundestag, echoing an unsuccessful attempt to storm the parliament building during a similar demonstration in August.
The Interior Ministry said Tuesday it had rejected 12 requests to hold rallies within a specially designated zone around parliament. Unlike elsewhere in Germany, protesters have to seek permission to stage demonstrations within the security perimeter surrounding certain federal buildings.
According to an email sent to German lawmakers Tuesday by a parliamentary security official, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, a risk assessment by Berlin state police “has given rise to the expectation … that attacks on the Bundestag building and on persons” were to be expected if the protest goes ahead.
Gatherings outside the special security perimeter around parliament are unaffected by the decision.
‘Graham called back again and brought up the idea of invalidating absentee ballots from counties with higher rates of signature errors, Mr. Raffensperger said, adding that HE HAD STAFFERS WITH HIM ON THAT CALL’.”
Excerpts from the Washington Post link to which SC referred in comment 178:
[…] Raffensperger expressed exasperation over a string of baseless allegations coming from Trump and his allies about the integrity of the Georgia results, including claims that Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado-based manufacturer of Georgia’s voting machines, is a “leftist” company with ties to Venezuela that engineered thousands of Trump votes to be left out of the count. [This conspiracy theory has been debunked many times. It is bullshit.]
The atmosphere has grown so contentious, Raffensperger said, that he and his wife, Tricia, have received death threats in recent days, including a text to him that read: “You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it.”
“Other than getting you angry, it’s also very disillusioning,” Raffensperger said of the threats, “particularly when it comes from people on my side of the aisle. Everyone that is working on this needs to elevate their speech. We need to be thoughtful and careful about what we say.” He said he reported the threats to state authorities.
The pressure on Raffensperger, who has bucked his party in defending the state’s voting process, comes as Georgia is in the midst of a laborious hand recount of about 5 million ballots. President-elect Joe Biden has a 14,000-vote lead in the initial count.
The normally mild-mannered Raffensperger saved his harshest language for Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), who is leading the president’s efforts in Georgia and whom Raffensperger called a “liar” and a “charlatan.”
Collins has questioned Raffensperger’s handling of the vote and accused him of capitulating to Democrats by not backing allegations of voter fraud more strongly.
Raffensperger has said that every accusation of fraud will be thoroughly investigated, but that there is currently no credible evidence that fraud occurred on a broad enough scale to affect the outcome of the election.
The recount, Raffensperger said in the interview Monday, will “affirm” the results of the initial count. He said the hand-counted audit that began last week will also prove the accuracy of the Dominion machines; some counties have already reported that their hand recounts exactly match the machine tallies previously reported.
Election officials in one county, Floyd, discovered about 2,600 eligible votes that were not included in the initial tallies because of a failure to upload them off a memory stick. The secretary of state’s office said those votes probably would have been discovered, but it called for the resignation of the county election director.
“I’m an engineer. We look at numbers. We look at hard data,” Raffensperger said. “I can’t help it that a failed candidate like Collins is running around lying to everyone. He’s a liar.”
[…] On the same day that Graham spoke to Raffensperger about signature matching, a lawsuit was filed in federal court in Georgia challenging the way county election officials check signatures and allow voters a chance to fix ballots with errors.
The suit, filed by Atlanta lawyer and Trump supporter Lin Wood, seeks to block certification of Georgia’s election until all ballot envelopes are inspected.
Also that day, Trump tweeted about signature-matching in Georgia and criticized Raffensperger for his management of the state elections: “Georgia Secretary of State, a so-called Republican (RINO), won’t let the people checking the ballots see the signatures for fraud. Why? Without this the whole process is very unfair and close to meaningless. Everyone knows that we won the state.”
[…] “I don’t think it’s helpful when you create doubt in the election process,” Raffensperger said. “People might throw up their arms and say, ‘Why vote?’”
SC @202, that’s as good as having tapes. Lindsey Graham’s perfidy is confirmed.
In other campaign news related to Georgia:
Sen. David Perdue (R) is refusing to participate in an upcoming debate against Jon Ossoff (D), but the Atlanta Press Club event is still scheduled to happen: if the Republican incumbent senator fails to show up, Ossoff will apparently be asked to debate an empty podium.
On a related note, Ossoff’s Senate campaign released an interesting direct-to-camera ad this morning, vowing to work with President-elect Joe Biden on combatting the coronavirus pandemic. It suggests Ossoff and his team see Biden as a popular figure in Georgia, a state the president-elect narrowly won.
Speaking of Georgia, a tabulation issue in Floyd County will apparently add roughly 800 votes to Donald Trump’s total in the state, but that won’t be nearly enough to change the outcome.
Steve Benen notes that: “If the Trump campaign is serious about a recount in Wisconsin, it will have to pay the state nearly $8 million, up front, to make it happen. The deadline for Team Trump’s decision is tomorrow.”
As Trump’s response to the election has grown more manic, his fixation on Dominion Voting Systems has gotten creepier.
As the third week of Donald Trump’s defiance of the election results gets underway, the outgoing president is peddling lies at an extraordinary pace, even by his standards. The New York Times noted yesterday that Trump has posted “over 300 tweets attacking the integrity of the 2020 election since election night, unleashing a cascade of false and misleading claims.”
One, however, stands out as especially odd.
Dominion Voting Systems has become a particular target of presidential ire. False conspiracy theories that the “glitches” in the company’s software changed vote tallies have flourished on social media. But Mr. Trump has escalated those inaccurate claims into baseless allegations that Dominion purposefully “rigged” the election and is a “Radical Left” company. He also tweeted a seven-second video in which a Dominion executive, John Poulos, says, “Components in our products that come from China.”
[…] Apparently responding to something he saw on a far-right television station, the outgoing president highlighted a “report” that Dominion “deleted” and “switched” millions of Republican votes. It was the sort of tweet one might expect from a fringe conspiracy theorist with a handful of Twitter followers, except in this case, the missive was published by the ostensible leader of the free world.
Naturally, Trump’s tweet was quickly discredited — the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security has explained that the scenario just isn’t possible — but as the president’s response has grown more manic, his fixation on Dominion has gotten creepier.
Part of what makes this line of attack so strange is how little sense it makes. Among Dominion’s customers are reliably “red” states that Trump won easily. What’s more, Florida and Ohio — two ostensible battlegrounds — also use Dominion equipment, and Republicans cruised to big wins in those states, up and down the ballot. If the company were part of a nefarious election plot, it didn’t execute its scheme especially well.
It’s also strange to see Trump focus on the fact that Dominion equipment includes some Chinese components. The same can be said about the phone the president keeps in his pocket. […]
But that’s not all. NBC News reported, for example, on how adherents of the crackpot QAnon conspiracy theory helped this nonsense reach Trump in the first place.
Making matters just a little worse, Rudy Giuliani was on Fox News the other day, spinning a bizarre tale that tied together Dominion, China, Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and “a big supporter of antifa.” After noting that Giuliani’s argument is “utterly, utterly bonkers,” Jon Chait added:
…Giuliani is arguing not only that ballot machines in numerous states were hacked, but that the software is designed to manipulate totals. And this software was created by an international conspiracy including George Soros, the Chinese Communist Party, and Hugo Chavez (who died in 2013). Glenn Kessler slogs through Giuliani’s six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon conspiracy web — in short, he is stringing together a combination of tenuous associations (Person X once served on a corporate board with a partner of Person Y) and completely imaginary ones…. He is raving about a secret communist computer program to control the U.S. government.
Donald Trump, who’s never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t like, is taking all of this quite seriously. You, however, should not.
Rudi has taken up permanent residence in LaLa Land. The analysis from Jon Chait (above) is particularly spot on.
Follow-up to #s 199 and 200: “Just followed up with Graham: he says he spoke to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and someone else in Nevada, not the Secretaries of State in AZ and NV.”
A discussion of the effects Trump’s denialism about the election results may have on … everyone:
[…] On Monday, Biden spelled out how the failure of the Trump White House to engage with its transition team is having a serious impact on their ability to prepare for handling the greatest crisis facing the nation: the COVID-19 pandemic that is costing over 1,000 lives a day. […] Biden insisted that Trump’s ongoing egopalypse places the nation at extended and unnecessary risk. “More people may die if we don’t coordinate,” said Biden. He warned of a “very dark winter” with a cost to be paid both in lives and in economic impact from Trump’s refusal to share information, or take any action.
Meanwhile Trump … went golfing again. As one does when really concerned about the fate of the nation.
Multiple members of Trump’s team have already demonstrated that they understand he has lost, and that Biden will be president in January. The problem is that they’re making those announcements quietly, off the record, rather than confronting Trump. Instead, Trump is continuing to make baseless claims about “millions” of illegal votes, and continuing to state—not just without evidence, but in contradiction to plain facts—that he “won” the election.
It seems certain at this point that Trump isn’t actually expecting to hold on to power, but is campaigning for the role of king in exile; a role that he can use to punctuate his never-ending golf game by waddling slowly up a ramp to declare “I was wronged!” while his adoring audience screams about how strong he is, and begs for someone, anyone, to be locked up. Which is absolutely a fine occupation for Trump while he waits for an inevitable indictment by the New York attorney general.
The problem is that Trump isn’t just using the sickly orange sunset of his time in office to create the confusion and extra layers of lies necessary to his once-and-future mythology. He’s also using this time to kick America in the … let’s say “gut.” Trump is going out not just with an effort to decrease faith in fundamental institutions, but with a refusal to carry out the most basic, most defining action that has shaped the nation: the peaceful transition of power.
He’s doing so at a time when the nation has not just a pandemic, not just a recession, but also a time when Trump has savagely weakened alliances, destabilized whole regions, and given opponents every possible signal that America is in no position to take coherent action. If Russia were to make a concerted push into the remainder of Ukraine at this moment, America would … If China were to take this moment to claim an expanded region of the South China Sea, the response would be … If North Korea … If Iran … Trump is making it exceptionally clear that at this moment, the nation has no coherent leadership. He’s not interested in anything other than pushing lies and riding around in his little cart.
Biden is pushing ahead with plans. That includes planning for the idea that Trump may never cooperate in sharing information on the pandemic, or national security, or any other area of vital concern. He’s naming staff members, assembling a team, and arranging briefings from experts who have not been cowed by Trump.
But Biden is also done pretending that this is normal. Or that Trump’s actions don’t come with a cost.
For Trump’s part, he’ll just allow those additional lives to go on the tab with more than a quarter million others. Why not? Donald Trump never plans to pay his bills.
For retired radiologist Scott Atlas, this is the best of times. For months, the federal government has not just done nothing, it’s done less than nothing to halt the advance of the pandemic that has so far killed more than a quarter of a million Americans. With Atlas helming Donald Trump’s “coronavirus task force” and everyone who knows even the slightest bit about infectious disease pushed to the sidelines, the task force has become a clearinghouse for misinformation and attacks on states still trying to show they give a damn about the lives of citizens.
Atlas has to be smiling as the number of daily COVID-19 cases rockets upward, even as Republican governors across the country continue to quiver in fear—not because thousands of people in their state will die, but because Trump might say something … unkind about the level of loyalty they’ve displayed to his policies. […] Atlas can smile as he fully engages in his dream of infecting hundreds of millions of Americans. Not only is he encouraging revolts against governors who make even limited rules to protect citizens, Atlas has some very special holiday advice: Families should hold big, festive thanksgivings, says Atlas, because “for many people this is their last Thanksgiving.”
[…] Atlas made his statement on Fox News. Once again beating his chest over the horrors of attempting to save people’s lives, Atlas insisted that it was more important to get together over that turkey than it was to keep elderly people safe.
[…] he’s obviously wanting to make sure that every generation joins in the infection fun.
Don’t think of it as a holiday. Think of it as a culling of the weak. And pass the cranberries, please.
There are some Republican governors who are starting to realize that maybe following Trump’s less-than-nothing policy isn’t the best idea. Unfortunately, they’re achieving this revelation as the hospitals in their states overflow. And most are still mouthing phrases like “acting with caution” that should have been discarded nine months ago.
There’s little doubt that this Tuesday will bring 30,000 to 40,000 more cases of COVID-19 than the previous week. The new barriers that states are now rushing into place won’t have an impact on the raging national outbreak for at least another week, if not two.
Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who have tested positive for COVID-19 is all the way up to 3.4%. Meaning that the United States has made essentially no progress toward achieving herd immunity despite 11 million cases, 252,000 dead, and record levels of hospitalization pushing the healthcare system to the edge across the country. Herd immunity cannot be achieved […] And with at least two effective vaccines just months away, there’s no reason anyone should be pushing this idea at all.
This is the home stretch. The time when hunkering down should get the most … hunkery. And it’s definitely the time when every family should be skipping the big gathering.
When vaccines are widely available and families can gather with relative safety, we can all celebrate another Thanksgiving in March or April. In fact, a new national holiday to commemorate a new hope at the end of this international nightmare seems entirely appropriate.
Manu Raju: “Lindsey Graham told me he doesn’t remember the names of the Nevada officials he spoke with, but Nevada’s Secretary of State says: ‘I have not spoken with Senator Lindsey Graham or any other members of Congress’ about election results.”
Donald Trump still won’t talk about conceding that he lost the election two weeks ago, but he just might leave behind a very special gift for Joe Biden: a shiny new conflict with Iran over that country’s nuclear program. The New York Times reports that in a meeting Thursday, Trump asked his senior advisers whether he had options to attack Iran’s main nuclear site. The advisers, fortunately, “dissuaded the president from moving ahead with a military strike.” Perhaps they pointed out that it’s more traditional for departing presidents to leave their successors a letter of advice, rather than a war.
The advisers — including Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Christopher C. Miller, the acting defense secretary; and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — warned that a strike against Iran’s facilities could easily escalate into a broader conflict in the last weeks of Mr. Trump’s presidency.
Not sure that would really be much of a disincentive for Trump, because after all, it wouldn’t be his problem any more. […]
The Times explains Trump started yearning to push the button down — or at least unleash a cyber attack and then blame it on some 400-pound guy sitting on the edge of his bed in New Jersey — after being briefed on findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which reported Wednesday that Iran now has 12 times as much uranium as allowed under the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement that Trump walked away from in 2018. Trump wanted to know what options he might be able to use against Iran’s main nuclear site at Natanz, where Iran enriches and stores uranium.
Pompeo and Milley played the role of adults in the room, and after they explained “military escalation bad,”
officials left the meeting believing a missile attack inside Iran was off the table, according to administration officials with knowledge of the meeting.
Mr. Trump might still be looking at ways to strike Iranian assets and allies, including militias in Iraq, officials said.
Jen O’Malley Dillon, Deputy chief of staff [female]
Dana Remus, Counsel to the president [female]
Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, Chief of staff to Jill Biden [female]
Steve Ricchetti, Counselor to the president
Rep. Cedric L. Richmond, Senior adviser to the president
Julie Rodriguez, Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs [female]
Annie Tomasini, Director of Oval Office operations [female]
From the Washington Post:
[…] Biden has also announced the members of his coronavirus task force. The 13-member team, staffed wholly with doctors and health experts, will be led by former surgeon general Vivek H. Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler and Yale associate dean for health equity research Marcella Nunez-Smith. […]
We know some of the potential picks for Secretary of Agriculture, of Commerce, of Defense, of Education, of Energy, of the EPA, of Health and Human Services, of Homeland Security, etc., but I’m going to wait to post those until we see firm decisions from Biden. Lots of women and people of color are being considered.
Jodi Doering, an emergency room nurse in South Dakota, was overwhelmed Saturday night. Her patients were dying of covid-19, yet were still in denial about the pandemic’s existence.
It’s like a “horror movie that never ends,” Doering wrote on Twitter.
[…] some front-line workers, like Doering, also face the emotional toll of treating patients who, despite being severely ill, are reluctant to acknowledge that they have been infected with a virus that […] Trump has said will simply disappear.
Doering said she has covid-19 patients who need 100-percent-oxygen breathing assistance and who will also swear they don’t have the illness that has ended the lives of nearly a quarter-million people in the United States since February.
“I think the hardest thing to watch is that people are still looking for something else and a magic answer and they do not want to believe covid is real,” Doering told CNN in an interview Monday.
“Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real,’” Doering said, adding that some patients prefer to believe that they have pneumonia or other diseases rather than covid-19, despite seeing their positive test results. […]
A Brazilian politician has died of Covid-19 just hours after being elected the mayor of his town.
Edilson Filgueira won the race to become the next mayor of Itaguaru, a small town in the midwestern state ofGoiás, during Brazil’s municipal elections on Sunday. But less than 24 hours later the 60-year-old politician was dead.
Filgueira had reportedly been in hospital since the start of October and died on Monday evening after his condition deteriorated.
The Labour party politician is one of more than 5,700 people to have died in Goiás, which surrounds Brazil’s capital, Brasília. More than 166,000 Brazilians have now died, according to the country’s official toll – the second-highest total in the world.
The number of daily Covid-19 deaths has slowed in recent weeks in Brazil but in recent days reports of a rising number of hospital admittances have fuelled fears of a second wave. The president, Jair Bolsonaro, whose handling of the crisis has been widely condemned, has dismissed such fears as “jibber-jabber”.
Other Latin American countries such as Mexico are also witnessing a rise in cases after reopening their economies and relaxing lockdown measures.
Popehat: “[I would fire an employee who appeared for a client in a crucial case and performed as Rudy Giuliani did. The argument, whatever its merits, could have been presented vastly more competently. This was an unprepared C student.]”
An interesting scene on the Senate floor when several GOP senators congratulated Kamala Harris (most Rs still siding with Trump in his fight over election.)
Sens. Tim Scott, Mike Rounds, James Lankford all congratulated her, as did Ben Sasse. Lindsey Graham gave her a fist bump
“How is the food fight behind you in California?” Lankford said to Harris, an apparent reference to the effort to fill her Senate seat.
(Hope she’s keeping far enough away from these potential disease vectors.)
More re #221 – “…Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules 5-2 against Trump campaign in Philadelphia election observers case, says city did not violate the law when instituting social distancing rules for vote watchers”
President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign was powered by a cellphone app that allowed staff to monitor the movements of his millions of supporters, and offered intimate access to their social networks.
While the campaign may be winding down, the data strategy is very much alive, and the digital details the app collected can be put to multiple other uses — to fundraise for the president’s future political ventures, stoke Trump’s base, or even build an audience for a new media empire.
The app lets Trump’s team communicate directly with the 2.8 million people who downloaded it — more than any other app in a U.S. presidential campaign — and if they gave permission, with their entire contact list as well.
Once installed, it can track their behavior on the app and in the physical world, push out headlines, fundraise, sell MAGA merchandise and sync with mass texting operations, according to the app’s privacy policy and user interface.
Yet the enterprise software company that built a tool to propel Trump’s mass movement is in financial distress and has received key support from the administration and the president’s campaign, according to interviews with former employees, financial filings and court documents.
Austin-based Phunware Inc., whose stock is trading for pennies, recently agreed to pay Uber $4.5 million as part of a settlement over claims of fraudulent advertising and earlier this year risked being delisted from the Nasdaq. In April, the company got a $2.9 million loan under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act as it was building the Trump campaign app.
Campaign watchdogs and former employees alike marvel at how a struggling startup known more for building apps for hospitals and a Manhattan-based astrologer became a juggernaut in Trump’s reelection bid, facilitating an ongoing data and fundraising effort that threw the company a financial lifeline.
While activity on the app slowed recently, the enriched data it gathered on Trump’s supporters, which can include everything from their contacts to their IP addresses to their locations, can serve many purposes going forward, said Adav Noti, a former Federal Election Commission attorney now with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center.
Congress and the FEC have not set rules governing how campaigns can use people’s personal data and or to whom the campaign can sell its lists, he added.
“You can definitely buy the data and the campaign can sell it to you, the trickier question is how much do you have to pay for it,” Noti said.
…
Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s former advisor, told The Associated Press that he brokered a relationship between Phunware staff and Trump’s 2016 campaign digital director Brad Parscale….
Neal Katyal re #223: “In actuality, it was 7-0 against Trump. The 2 dissenters made clear they wouldn’t throw out any votes as a result of this litigation.”
SC @228, the parent complaining about the homework assignment that showed Joe Biden won the most electoral college votes … that parent said she went to “OAN” to get the right information. She went to one of Trump’s favorite sources, One America Network (News), in order to push a lie on her poor child.
“The Wayne County Board of Canvassers just deadlocked on certifying the vote on party lines. This is unprecedented in my 20 years covering government here.
The Republican chair of the board, Monica Palmer, literally just said she would be open to certifying the vote in ‘communities other than Detroit’.”
“The nuclear option gets wheeled into view: Trump’s Nevada electors sue to have him declared the winner of a state that he lost, or else the presidential race’s results should be annulled”
“President Trump fires DHS official Chris Krebs after the agency he ran released a statement rejecting Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud. ‘There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised’, the statement read.
Trump directly tied this firing to the statement, which was released along with state and private election officials. Krebs expected to be fired, sources told CNN last week.”
From Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s new Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (the penultimate chapter “Endings,” pp. 222-224):
The authoritarian playbook has no chapter on failure. It does not foresee the leader’s own people turning against him,… It has no pages on how to deal with becoming a national disgrace,… Its discussions of how to control minds and exploit bodies do not extend to the deterioration of the leader’s own…. Nothing prepares the ruler to see his propaganda ignored and his charismatic hold weaken until he loses control of the nation…
For the strongman, such outcomes are unthinkable and yet ever-present. They fuel behaviors that make him feel safer and brush away thoughts of mortality….
It’s not surprising that most authoritarians leave office involuntarily. They are supremely ill equipped to handle the downward arc of leadership and life. They have trouble abandoning personal traits like hubris, aggression, and greed that served them to stay in power, even when these become self-defeating…. Believing their own propaganda can also be lethal….
…
Democratic heads of state often see their departures from office as an opportunity to build on their leadership legacy. The authoritarian regards the end of being adulated by followers and controlling everything and everyone as an existential threat…. Strongmen will do anything to stay in office,… Political scientists call this phenomenon “gambling for resurrection,” and almost all autocrats lose the wager.
“NEW w/ @PaulaReidCBS: At today’s COVID task force meeting doctors told VP Pence the situation is dire and worsening. If nothing changes, there could be 2000 deaths/day by Christmas, overrunning hospitals.
Docs urging VP or POTUS to make remarks from podium to stress mitigation.
Notable: @ScottWAtlas was not at the White House for the meeting.
Health officials believe recommendations should include bars closing and restaurants banning indoor dining, though they believe schools can stay open due to low transmission rate.”
“Watch @NedStaebler completely destroy Monica Palmer and William Hartmann — the two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers — over their racist and partisan refusal to certify the election.”
SC#243, The rethugs decided after protests to certify the Wayne County vote according to MSBC. Michigan’s electors will vote for Biden without delusional idiocy in the way.
One thing I keep hearing from Rudy people tonight: they know they can’t catch up. What they want — in MI, PA, NV, other states — is for the vote to *not* be certified. Their end game: try to force it to the House. Giuliani talking about this privately.
Josh Marshall: “A lot of people showed their colors tonight. The state GOP lauded the decision to throw out the votes of the city of Detroit and maybe 100s of thousands of African-American voters? Trump campaign was ecstatic, President endorsed it. Before they had to back down.”
Here’s a link to the November 18 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
The coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer is 95% effective and has passed its safety checks, according to further data from the firm.
…
Another jab, from US firm Moderna, was shown this week in early data to be almost 95% effective.
We are still waiting for the results of the Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine study
Several thousand protesters have gathered in central Berlin this morning, where the German parliament is due to vote on a new law designed to help enforce coronavirus restrictions and curb the spread of the pandemic.
Demonstrators banged pans, blew whistles and wore goggles rather than face masks as they walked down the Straße des 17. Juli boulevard leading up to the Brandenburg Gate.
Protests directly outside the Reichstag building that houses Germany’s parliament were banned. Berlin police are fearful of a repeat of scenes from August, when protesters had stormed the steps of the Reichstag building.
Delegates of the far-right part Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) also took part in Wednesday’s protests. One MP, Hansjörg Müller, likened the new law to the Nazis’ 1933 Enabling Act, the cornerstone of Adolf Hitler’s seizure of power.
Neonazi groups were also present among the protests, which saw people waving placards likening the treatment of anti-maskers to that of Jewish Germans during the Third Reich.
The upper and lower houses of the Bundestag will vote at noon on a revision of the Infektionsschutzgesetz or “infection protection law”, which hands the health ministry special powers to impose hygiene and social distancing rules if parliament agrees that the country is facing a serious epidemic.
Contrary to claims made by some protesters, today’s revision of the law is designed to hand back more control to parliament: it forces state parliaments to publicly justify restrictions and time-limit most of them for up to four weeks.
Opposition parties that include not just the AfD but also leftwing Die Linke and the pro-business FDP want the revised law to involve parliament even further and may vote against it in parliament today.
The FBI is investigating allegations that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton broke the law in using his office to benefit a wealthy donor, according to two people with knowledge of the probe.
Federal agents are looking into claims by former members of Paxton’s staff that the high-profile Republican committed bribery, abuse of office and other crimes to help Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, the people told The Associated Press. They insisted on anonymity to discuss the investigation because it is ongoing.
Confirmation of the criminal probe marks mounting legal peril for Paxton, who’s denied wrongdoing and refused calls for his resignation since his top deputies reported him to federal authorities at the end of September.
…
Paxton has spent most of his tenure in office maintaining his innocence in the face of an indictment on unrelated securities fraud charges. The case has been stalled for years over legal challenges.
More atl.
quotetheunquotesays
RE: the statements by @NedStaebler linked in SC #242.
Great video, but can someone point out to me what “balanced” means in this context? I’ve never come across this term with respect to election results, and I see some Republicans are throwing it (or, alternatively, “unbalanced”) around as well.
Forget Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Or Trump’s impeachment for asking Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden.
Arguably the biggest political scandal we’ve ever seen in this country is playing right before our eyes: President Trump and his allies are trying to reverse the election results of a contest he lost.
It doesn’t look like the scheme is going to work. The Wayne County (Detroit) Board of Canvassers last night certified its election results after its two Republican members initially withheld support. (Biden won Wayne County, 68 percent to 31 percent, and the state of Michigan by 148,000 votes.)
But being unsuccessful doesn’t erase the magnitude of the scandal — or the fact that the president of the United States has cheered it on every step of the way.
Consider the last 24 hours:
The two Republican members of Wayne County’s canvassing board voted against certifying its election results before reversing course, and Trump praised the action: “Wow! Michigan just refused to certify the election results! Having courage is a beautiful thing. The USA stands proud!”
In Nevada — a state Trump lost by 2.4 percentage points — the president’s campaign team filed a lawsuit asking a judge to either declare Trump the winner or to reject the state’s election results.
In Pennsylvania — which Biden won by more than 82,000 votes — Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was in court asking a judge to overturn the state’s results. (“At bottom, you’re asking this court to invalidate some 6.8 million votes thereby disenfranchising every single voter in the commonwealth,” the judge said.)
And to top it off, the president on Tuesday fired the federal government’s head of cybersecurity, who had debunked many of the conspiracy theories that Trump’s team had been promoting.
Bottom line: Trump’s efforts to overturn the election have stumbled and gained no significant traction yet. But it’s still disturbing to watch, especially with so many elected Republicans staying silent.
And it provides a road map for someone else to do it better next time.
That said, we’re going to find out at 6:00 p.m. ET if Trump is going to put his money where his mouth is — that is, pay the required $7.9 million for Wisconsin’s recount by today’s state deadline.
And this leaves out Lindsey Graham’s attempted fraud and the Republican Party’s silence and complicity.
quotetheunquote @ #251, could you link to a Republican talking about it in context? Are they referring to false claims about not being allowed to have “balanced” representation as observers of vote counting?
“It really is an amazing thing that Trump’s entire life has been just acting like an absolute shameless, bratty entitled asshole about everything and everyone just kind letting him do it for fifty years.”
The Wisconsin Elections Commission tweeted: “The Wisconsin Elections Commission has received a wire transfer from the Trump campaign for $3 million. No petition has been received yet, but the Trump campaign has told WEC staff one will be filed today. We have no further information at this time.”
It’s a smaller amount because it’s for a partial recount (Dane and Milwaukee counties only).
No, I have no sympathy to Emily Murphy, whose craven behavior will likely cost lives and undermine American security.
This is the relevant language for Ms. Murphy under the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 — she has discretion to “ascertain” whether Biden is “apparent[ly] successful.” Nobody else has that discretion. She’s making a choice. The choice undermines her country.
Her sympathizers suggest she is somehow bound to act as she is. It’s a lie. The law gives her the power to make this determination. She hasn’t failed to act; she has affirmatively acted, accepting the mad-emperor-pleasing fiction that Biden was not “apparently successful.”
“BREAKING: Federal court enjoins Trump’s processless expulsions of children under ‘Title 42’ order that Miller, Pence and Redfield issued over the objections of CDC staff…”
More atl.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 257
Only Dane and Milwaukee counties? The two largest and liberal metropolitan regions of the state?
Long before Republican senators began publicly denouncing how Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger handled the voting there, he withstood pressure from the campaign of Donald Trump to endorse the president for reelection.
Raffensperger, a Republican, declined an offer in January to serve as an honorary co-chair of the Trump campaign in Georgia, according to emails reviewed by ProPublica. He later rejected GOP requests to support Trump publicly, he and his staff said in interviews. Raffensperger said he believed that, because he was overseeing the election, it would be a conflict of interest for him to take sides. Around the country, most secretaries of state remain officially neutral in elections.
The attacks on his job performance are “clear retaliation,” Raffensperger said. “They thought Georgia was a layup shot Republican win. It is not the job of the secretary of state’s office to deliver a win — it is the sole responsibility of the Georgia Republican Party to get out the vote and get its voters to the polls. That is not the job of the secretary of state’s office.”
Leading the push for Raffensperger’s endorsement was Billy Kirkland, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign who was a key manager of its Georgia operations. Kirkland burst uninvited into a meeting in Raffensperger’s office in the late spring that was supposed to be about election procedures and demanded that the secretary of state endorse Trump, according to Raffensperger and two of his staffers….
Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has warned scientists to treat “long Covid” with a “degree of humility” until it is fully understood, PA reports.
Speaking remotely at global healthcare summit Wish 2020, Dr Fauci said:
Even on people without symptoms who have recovered virologically, you do MRIs on them on their hearts, you see there’s a degree of inflammation that might even be asymptomatic.
But you’ve got to ask yourself, an asymptomatic inflammatory process now, six months or a year from now, does that lead to arrhythmias, to cardio myopathies? We don’t know that.
That’s why I think we need to take this disease with a degree of humility that we don’t know everything about it yet, that’s why we’ve got to be really committed to preventing infection and the spread of disease
“Some Health and Human Services staffers instructed today that if anyone from President-elect Joe Biden’s team contacts them, they are not to communicate with them and are to alert Deputy Surgeon General Rear Admiral Erica Schwartz of the communication per administration official”
SC @262: “It is not the job of the secretary of state’s office to deliver a win …” So true, and that’s a good summary.
Also, “Kirkland burst uninvited into a meeting in Raffensperger’s office in the late spring …” shows that Trump’s bullying nature has seeped into all levels of the Republican Party.
SC @257, Hopefully, it is meaningful that a Fox News host is describing coronavirus as “a super-contagious disease.” And, I couldn’t help but notice that Ms. McEnany described Trump as “hard at work.” Now, that’s fucking Orwellian.
Hungary is now paying American Twitter troll Dave Reaboi tens of thousands of dollars to, among other things, “engage in debate on social media.”
‘In his defense of Alex Jones, who had just been kicked off of numerous social media platforms, Reaboi wrote: “Say what you will about Alex Jones, he’s as much of a ‘journalist’ as #JamalKhashoggi ever was.”’
Raffensperger: Can I just be a normal Republican?
@GOP: Sure. Steal the election for Trump.
Raffensperger: I said *normal* Republican.
GOP: THIS IS NORMAL FOR US NOW.
Raffensperger: But…
GOP: RINO! RINO ALERT!
Raffensperger: Christ.
This is the culmination of decades of struggle. When I lived in southern Oregon the same fight happened, and over 15 years eight dams were removed from the Rogue River, with spectacular results for the salmon.
(CN) — Bolstering a bid to revive salmon populations that once sustained Native American tribes for thousands of years, California and Oregon agreed Tuesday to help fund a series of long-awaited dam removals on the Klamath River…
Native Americans have inhabited the Klamath River Basin for approximately 7,000 years and relied on the large salmon runs for sustenance and various cultural practices…
With the addition of the states as partners in the demolition of four dams on the river that stretches from Oregon into Northern California, supporters say the plan now has the financial clout needed to gain federal approval. If things go as planned, the largest such dam demolition in U.S. history could begin as soon as 2023.
[…]
“This is the largest river restoration project in the history of this country,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom. “It will restore what once was the third-largest salmon run — 400 miles of habitat.”
[…]
Donald Trump is not much of a note-taker, and he does not like his staff to take notes. He has a habit of tearing up documents at the close of meetings. (Records analysts, armed with Scotch Tape, have tried to put the pieces back together.) No real record exists for five meetings Trump had with Vladimir Putin during the first two years of his Presidency. Members of his staff have routinely used apps that automatically erase text messages, and Trump often deletes his own tweets, notwithstanding a warning from the National Archives and Records Administration that doing so contravenes the Presidential Records Act.
Trump cannot abide documentation for fear of disclosure, and cannot abide disclosure for fear of disparagement. For decades, in private life, he required people who worked with him, and with the Trump Organization, to sign nondisclosure agreements, pledging never to say a bad word about him, his family, or his businesses. He also extracted nondisclosure agreements from women with whom he had or is alleged to have had sex, including both of his ex-wives. […] In 2017, Trump, unable to distinguish between private life and public service, carried his practice of requiring nondisclosure agreements into the Presidency, demanding that senior White House staff sign N.D.A.s. […] The White House counsel, Don McGahn, refused to distribute them; eventually, he relented, and the chief of staff, Reince Priebus, pressured employees to sign them.
Those N.D.A.s haven’t stopped a small village’s worth of ex-Trump Cabinet members and staffers from blabbing about him, much to the President’s dismay. […]
Hardly a day passes that Trump does not attempt to suppress evidence […] He has sought to discredit publications and broadcasts that question him, investigations that expose him, crowds that protest him, polls that fail to favor him, and, down to the bitter end, ballots cast against him. None of this bodes well for the historical record and for the scheduled transfer of materials from the White House to the National Archives, on January 20, 2021. […] It took a very long time to establish rules governing the fate of Presidential records. Trump does not mind breaking rules and, in the course of a long life, has regularly done so with impunity. The Presidential Records Act isn’t easily enforceable. The Trump Presidency nearly destroyed the United States. Will what went on in the darker corners of his White House ever be known?
[…] For many years, there was no alternative for a departing President but to take his papers home with him; there wasn’t really any place to put them. […]
Most of the papers of William Henry Harrison, the log-cabin candidate, succumbed to flames when that log cabin burned down. […]
Calvin Coolidge instructed his private secretary to destroy all his personal files; on Coolidge’s death, the secretary said, “There would have been nothing preserved if I had not taken some things out on my own responsibility.” […]
National archives uphold a particular vision of a nation and of its power, and, during transitions of power in nations that are not democratic, archives are not infrequently attacked. Most attacks involve the destruction of the evidence of atrocity. Brazil abolished slavery in 1888. Two years later, after a military coup, a minister of the new republic ordered the destruction of every document in any archive in the country which related to its history of slavery. […]
Governments that commit atrocities against their own citizens regularly destroy their own archives.
[…] Donald Trump, if he decides that he wants a Presidential library, is far more likely to build a Presidential museum, or even a theme park, and would most likely build it in Florida. “I have a lot of locations, actually,” Trump said on NBC last year. Last month, an anonymous group from New York published its own plans for a Trump library at djtrumplibrary.com. Its exhibits include a Criminal Records Room and a Covid Memorial, just off the Alt-Right Auditorium. [Trump] is likely to run afoul of a struggle over Presidential records that began with Watergate and Nixon’s tapes.
[…] Early in George W. Bush’s first term, his Administration disabled the automated e-mail archive system. Nearly all senior officials in the Bush White House used a private e-mail server run by the Republican National Committee.
[…] In 2001, when the twelve-year restriction on the Reagan papers expired, they did not all become available to the public, because George W. Bush signed an executive order that had been drafted by his young associate counsel, Brett M. Kavanaugh.
[…] Obama’s White House published the logs of more than six million visitors, including the head of the National Security Archive. (Shaking his hand, Obama said, “You know, there’s gonna be a record of this.”) His Administration did not require corporate-style N.D.A.s. Nor had any President until Trump. I asked Don Wilson what he expected of the Trump papers, and he said, “What kind of record will we have other than what he dictates will be a record?”
[…] Ferriero, an Obama appointee, says that the P.R.A. operates, essentially, as an honor system. He wishes that it had teeth. Instead, it’s all gums. Kel McClanahan, a national-security lawyer, told me, “If the President wanted to, he could pull together all of the pieces of paper that he has in his office and have a bonfire with them. He doesn’t view the archivist as an impediment to anything, because the archivist is not an impediment to anything.”
[…] The rules about record-keeping, like so much about American government, weren’t set up with someone like Trump in mind. It’s not impossible that his White House will destroy records not so much to cover its own tracks but to sabotage the Biden Administration.
[…] The obligation, the sober duty, to save the record of this Administration will fall to the people who work under him [Trump]. It may well require many small acts of defiance.
It was almost exactly seven months ago when Trump said the pandemic’s US death toll could be as low as 50,000. Today, it reached 250,000.
Even now, as the United States struggles through a brutal third peak, Donald Trump still likes to blame testing for the heartbreaking trends. And while the president’s rhetoric on this has never made any sense, the fact remains that testing does not, and cannot, explain the rising death toll.
The United States has recorded a quarter-million Covid-19 deaths, the latest NBC News numbers showed Wednesday, and the death rate has been accelerating in recent weeks as cases have been surging across the country. The 250,000th death was logged Wednesday morning, the data revealed.
NBC News’ report added that there’s been a 42% increase in the number of U.S. fatalities over the last four weeks.
By Trump’s own standards, these gut-wrenching figures are emblematic of his administration’s obvious failure.
[…] it was on April 20 — almost exactly seven months ago — when [Trump] said he believed the overall American death toll from the pandemic would be between 50,000 and 60,000 people. […]
Exactly one week later, on April 27, Trump said the overall American death toll would “probably” be between 60,000 and 70,000 people. It took about four days for this projection to be discredited, too.
On April 29, the president suggested the number of fatalities in the United States could be as low as 65,000. […]
On May 3, Trump acknowledged that he was moving the goalposts again. “I used to say 65,000,” [he] said, pointing to a total he promoted just a few days earlier. “And now I’m saying 80,000 or 90,000.” At the same event, [Trump] upped the projection once more: “Look, we’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people.”
A few days later, [Trump] said fatalities could reach 110,000 — a total the United States eclipsed over the summer. In June, Trump decided it was time to move the goalposts much further, declaring his belief that the domestic death toll “could be heading” to 200,000, “depending on how it goes.”
In fact, at one point, [Trump] boasted that if the number of U.S. fatalities could be lower than 200,000, it would be proof that the White House did “a very good job.” Two months ago, on Sept. 16, Trump told reporters that if the U.S. death toll remained below 240,000, that would also be proof that the administration did what he called “the good job.”
As the number of domestic fatalities crosses the 250,000 threshold, it seems inevitable that [Trump] will both move the goalposts again and eagerly boast about how pleased he is with his performance.
Pentagon officials may have to provide incoming officials with information away from the Pentagon, because Trump can’t accept reality.
As Donald Trump continues to pretend he didn’t lose the election, the presidential transition process that was supposed to begin last week is effectively frozen, waiting for a pointless and scandalous tantrum to come to an end. This affects, among other things, national security.
[…] The 9/11 Commission Report explained, “The dispute over the [2000] election and the 36-day delay cut in half the normal transition period. Given that a presidential election in the United States brings wholesale change in personnel, this loss of time hampered the new administration in identifying, recruiting, clearing, and obtaining Senate confirmation of key appointees.”
Twenty years later, the Wall Street Journal reports that some U.S. national-security officials are considering “unofficially meeting at off-site locations” with members President-elect Joe Biden’s team, in the hopes of preventing problems in the near future.
Pentagon officials said Tuesday they hadn’t formally begun the transition process, but have started providing unclassified briefing material, as they are allowed to do. Some officials at the Pentagon said they would be willing to meet off site with members of the Biden team should the standoff extend into December. The officials said that waiting past mid-December and into the holiday season wouldn’t give the incoming team enough time to learn about jobs that could affect the safety of deployed U.S. service members.
One Defense Department official was quoted saying, “January is too late.”
The fact that we’ve reached this point — Pentagon officials would have to provide incoming officials with information away from the Pentagon, because Trump can’t accept reality — is ridiculous on its face.
[…] a poor substitute for an actual, legitimate transition process. As the WSJ’s report added, officials couldn’t share classified information with the incoming team at these off-site discussions, and “the transition process would be inconsistent, the officials warned, as it would be determined by the willingness of individual current officials to share information with his or her successor.”
Ideally, Americans would have a president who’d put his own country’s national security interests above his ego. For the next 63 days, Americans will not have such a president.
“Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs released this statement in response to ongoing and escalating threats of violence directed at her family and her office.”
An update on the economic disaster in the USA, and a look at the stalemate between Republicans (Mitch McConnell) and members of the Democratic Party:
[…] The need for federal policymakers to approve an economic aid package should be obvious right now.[…] without action, roughly 12 million Americans will lose their unemployment insurance benefits the day after Christmas. The impact on those families will be brutal, and it will similarly take a toll on the larger economy.
[…] House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sent a new letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) yesterday, effectively pleading with him to come to the negotiating table to work on a relief bill.
“Millions of unemployed Americans and those facing eviction and hunger demand action from their leaders. The time to act is upon us like never before. The COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession will not end without our help. It is essential that this bill have sufficient funding and delivers meaningful relief to the many Americans who are suffering. For the sake of the country, we ask that you come to the table and work with us to produce an agreement that meets America’s needs in this critical time.”
If McConnell was moved by the appeal, he kept it to himself. […] “After months of stalemate, negotiations have yet to restart.”
[…] McConnell said yesterday that he’s had “no private discussions” lately with Pelosi, though Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said he had connected with Pelosi about a possible relief bill, so perhaps the door isn’t entirely closed.
Under normal circumstances, this would ordinarily be the point at which presidential leadership made a difference, but as we discussed the other day, Donald Trump has largely abandoned efforts to improve the economy, and the work of government “has been reduced to something of a sideshow for the president.” […] he spent the weekend golfing instead of trying to negotiate a deal.
[…] Fresh off his relatively easy re-election win, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) conceded yesterday, “I’m kind of discouraged, frankly, right now.”
That is, to be sure, a relatively common attitude. Perhaps Cornyn can convince McConnell to at least try to work on the issue?
“It’s time to start killing the news media live on air,” opined one Oath Keeper on Parler last month, adding: “It’s time to start executing lefties openly and violently.” The same man, in a recent private chat, wrote: “Either we start fighting back or we lose forever. You bleed a little now or a lot later. … These people will not stop and openly claim as much. Either we kill them or they kill us.”
Take this threat seriously. Don’t assume that these threats come only from far-right fringe groups. Assume that threats like those coming from Oath Keepers will in spire some individuals to act.
“We arnt left with no choice,” was one reply.
When The Hill tweeted out the headline, “Sen. Schumer: ‘No court is going to overturn this election—Joe Biden will be installed as president’,” a notorious Proud Boy from Oregon quote-tweeted it with the reply: “He forgot we have more guns than they do.”
[…] At the private chat room organized by the Oath Keepers at their website […] the pinned message atop the forum called for targeting political and media figures at their homes:
Let’s all take a step back for a moment and understand that the media relishes when one of us fights back. How about we all sit back and “peacefully” start visiting the homes of democratic politicians and media personalities so they can see how it feels when people with differing opinions disrupt their lives.
The comments became openly threatening. “Why hasn’t anyone talked about the Media,” asked a forum participant. “I think they have to be a main target of ours.”
“I agree,” added another. “It’s not freedom of speech when sedition is the goal and lies are the means. If we don’t take action we’ll all be going to the gulag.”
This was when the man—using the nom de plume “bonsaiisuperstar,” but identified by activist/researcher Antifash Gordon as a Trump fan from Lebanon, Ohio, named Michael Wilson—chimed in with his conclusion, similar to his threatening Parler posts, that “either we kill them or they kill us.”
[…] The Oath Keepers have hardly been the only far-right extremists pushing violent rhetoric. The Oregon Proud Boy who threatened armed resistance to a Biden inauguration—Chandler Pappas of Astoria, who participated in numerous Proud Boys events in Oregon […] also recently issued an ominous warning to state officials.
In a tweet in which Governor Kate Brown, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, and Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt were tagged, Chandler—who also participated in the Saturday mayhem in Washington, D.C.—posted:
You are not my master
You are not my leader
You are not untouchable
“Rhetoric within militia spaces I observe has been of high temperature for much of the summer, growing in intensity in and beyond the election. Fantasies of violence became more specific, discussion of lethal force more normalized, and the field of potential ‘targets’ continued to grow,” Hampton Stall of MilitiaWatch, which monitors armed far-right militias in the U.S […]
[…] being mostly full of hot air. Rhodes spouts a lot of pseudo-paramilitary talk and threatens a lot of action that never materializes.
Just before the election, Rhodes went on Alex Jones’ Infowars program and claimed that Oath Keepers would “have men already stationed outside DC as a nuclear option. In case they attempt to remove the President illegally, we will step in and stop it. We will be on the outside of D.C., armed, if the President calls us up.” No such armed militia monitors were ever reported lurking anywhere in the vicinity of the capital city.
However, Rhodes’ rhetoric reflects the broader sentiment within the “Patriot” militia movement regarding the election’s outcome. Moreover, it suggests a violent strain of resistance coming from the far right in the coming weeks and months, largely because its primary premise is that Biden and the Democrats are mere front men for a Communist takeover of the nation […]
Chuck Tanner, a research analyst for the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, agrees that Rhodes and the Oath Keepers are known for spouting a lot of hyperinflated talk. “Even if an organization is dominated by blowhards, however, it only takes one true believer to take their framework to heart and you can have a tragedy,” he warns.
“More to the point though, we have been concerned about the potential radicalizing effect on members of these movements across the transition from opposing COVID-19 restrictions, to responding to protests over police racism and violence, and now to the election being perceived as ‘stolen’ by ‘conspirators’,” Tanner told Daily Kos. “It’s kind of a perfect storm for animating the ideologies that drive these groups. As the COVID-19 insurrection developed, wearing a mask to protect your neighbor was compared by some, ridiculously and offensively, to slavery and the Holocaust. But it became a symbol of unfolding tyranny from above.”
[…] Rhodes can be heard rambling at length about the coming weeks, saying: “[Trump] has a responsibility and duty to suppress that insurrection repel the invasion of the communist Chinese and all their allies…. I’m telling you straight up, guys, if he doesn’t drop the hammer on this communist insurrection, we are going to end up fighting a bloody civil war in this country to defeat them. Horrific. More of us are going to die.”
[…] Rhodes goes on at length:
[…] we’re gonna have a fight. We really can’t get out of this without one. And the best way to do it is for him [Trump] to step up as commander-in-chief and use the authority he has […]
we need to realize that this story of the election is the tip of the iceberg of the corruption has been going on in our political system for decades. It’s been horrific. […] now they’re openly stealing elections.
[…] we can’t let a fraudulent, fake poser Chinese puppet, Chinese agent—Obama, er, Biden—take office in January. So President Trump’s got to stop it. And he needs to use his authority as commander in chief, and we need to support him in doing that, but you need to prepared for whatever may come, and it’s gonna be a rocky month ahead or two months. […]
As Tanner explains: “Groups like Oath Keepers have amped up for years that the ‘constitutional Republic’ is being threatened. In their far right nationalist conspiracy-think, and against basic facts, the election gets cast as it’s overthrown by an essentially satanic force.
“If you hold to a view like that, violence becomes a logical step. It’s always hard to know when any individual, or small group, will move from online rhetoric to violence, but I am very concerned that the conditions for that leap are ripe. So, I think we have to take this kind of rhetoric seriously.”
[…] A new poll from Reuters/Ipsos reports that while 73% of those polled agreed that Biden had won the election, and that only 5% thought Trump won, more than half of the Republicans asked thought that Trump had “rightfully won.” By this “rightfully won” measurement, only 29% of Republicans believed Biden had won. According to the poll, 68% of Republicans worried about the election being “rigged.”
[…] As the conservative movement becomes smaller and smaller in relation to the general American population, the conservative leadership—the people that derive power from it—will continue to lie and spread misinformation about the legitimacy of the democratic process. So far it is working on a large population of their electorate. However, Trump’s attempts at changing the results of the election are not supported, and that’s a good thing.
Fact Check: This Moderna /NIH vaccine is literally the one that President @realDonaldTrump partnered with Moderna to create on January 13, 2020… I repeat January 13th, 2020.
Just be happy. This is great news for America and for the world!
Commentary:
[…] While there is now ample evidence that Trump knowingly downplayed the seriousness of the coming pandemic from the start, Ivanka would have us believe that behind the scenes, her father was taking it super seriously and being astoundingly proactive. So proactive, in fact, that he joined up with a much-hyped yet unproven biotechnology company to kickstart a COVID vaccine one week before the virus had hit American soil and four months before he would announce Project Warp Speed. Trump’s children have ascribed many unlikely qualities to him, but clairvoyance is a new one.
So what exactly was Ivanka talking about? It turns out that Moderna did get started on its COVID vaccine on January 13, two days after China released the virus’ genetic sequence. A document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission explains that on that date, the company’s researchers “finalized the sequence for the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine” and it “mobilized toward clinical manufacture.” That step was taken in collaboration with the Vaccine Research Center, which is under the National Institutes for Health (NIH). Even if Trump wasn’t personally involved, can’t he take credit for his administration’s role in this moment?
It’s not that simple. Moderna’s partnership with the feds to develop messenger RNA technology, which its coronavirus vaccine is based on, began long before the novel coronavirus flared up. The Pentagon funded the company’s mRNA research in 2013, and the federal government gave it $125 million to develop a mRNA-based Zika vaccine in 2016. Its COVID-related work on January 13 appears to have been completed under an already existing research agreement with the NIH […]
In short, Trump didn’t swoop in to launch the Moderna-NIH COVID vaccine partnership. Rather, [the Trump] administration piggybacked on an ongoing collaboration whose initial agreements were signed in—checking the fine print—November 2015. Maybe Ivanka should have added, “Thanks, Obama.”
Ivanka’s friend, Lysandra Ohrstrom, published some anecdotes in Vanity Fair. Here is an example:
One of the earliest memories I have of Ivanka from before we were friends is when she blamed a fart on a classmate. Some time later, she goaded me and a few other girls into flashing our breasts out the window of our classroom in what has since been labelled the “flashing the hot dog man” incident in Chapin lore. Ivanka had basically been the ringleader, but she pleaded her innocence to the headmistress and got off scot-free. The rest of us were suspended.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) said that former President Barack Obama is a “purveyor of untruths.”
Obama wrote in his new memoir “A Promised Land” that the late Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) selection of Palin as his running mate in 2008 ushered in a shift in the Republican Party that McCain himself “abhorred.”
“It seemed as if the dark spirits that had long been lurking on the edges of the modern Republican Party — xenophobia, anti intellectualism, paranoid conspiracy theories, an antipathy toward Black and brown folks — were finding their way to center stage,” he wrote.
During an interview on Fox News’s “Hannity” on Monday, host Sean Hannity read bits from the excerpt and asked Palin to respond.
“There’s proof after proof after proof that he is a purveyor of untruths,” Palin told Hannity. “Our country has to love truth. We have to be seekers of truth. We have to be willing to follow truth. And there are so many untruths that Barack Obama is leading people to still.”
Palin said that Obama, as one of the lead voices in the Democratic party is still leading many people in America towards “untruths” still.
“For instance, a truth is that only law and order will usher in peace and prosperity,” she said, appearing to refer to […] Trump’s platform following months of unrest sparked by the killing of Black Americans this summer.
Palin also cited the “sanctity of life” as a truth that Americans should protect. […]
Charlie Kirk […] founded the rightwing campus group Turning Point USA because the College Republicans were too liberal. [He] ranted about “the Left’s” supposed hatred of Thanksgiving, which he insisted is 1) an established fact; and 2) the real reason The Left wants you to cancel Thanksgiving this year, using the coronavirus pandemic as a handy excuse.
Also, he looked like he’d just come off a multi-day bender, or possibly like he’s doing an Actor’s Studio audition for the role of Steve Bannon Jr.
Here, have some Kirkian rantings!
“The Left has always hated Thanksgiving” and “now they’re using the virus as an excuse for you not to be thankful”
It’s also impressive that he felt the need to refer to notes to say something this utterly stupid. “The Left has always hated Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving can be interpreted as a religious holiday, if you believe in giving thanks to a Creator.”
[…]
But they hate Thanksgiving, because they believe there is nothing you should be thankful for in America. This is an awful place, it is cancerous, rotten to the core, tear it all down, burn it from within, why would you be thankful? Instead, we need a Revolution. [PAUSE TO LOOK AT NOTES]
It’s always so nice of wingnuts to tell me what I really believe! […]
What happens when you’re thankful? By definition, you’re less likely to be involved and engaged in conflict. [LONG PAUSE TO LOOK AT NOTES]
I must raise my hand and again point out that it’s really cute of Kirk to assume other people are absolutely devoted to some ’60s radical text he found on the internet […]
Thanksgiving is supposed to de-escalate any sort of preexisting [PAUSE] issues [PAUSE] in our country.
Here we have confirmation that “Charlie Kirk” has never been to a Thanksgiving dinner with any family in America, ever. Then Kirk gets to his killer point. Because these crazed, conflict-driven radicals on the Left already hate the holiday with every fiber of their tryptophan-intolerant beings, “Now they’re using the virus as an excuse for you not to be thankful.”
[…] Now, as a leftish person whose favorite holidays are Thanksgiving and Molly Ivins’s birthday, I must protest. I believe that Mr. Kirk just may be, as is his habit, completely wrong about this.
Leaving aside his straw-pilgrim stuff about what “the Left” really believes […] I’d just like to make the case that, its literal roots in prayer notwithstanding, Thanksgiving is one dandy secular American holiday. It’s about community, for Crom’s sake, and appreciating the stuff that brings us together, Including the conflict stuff.
[…] It is a time of sullen glares followed by football or a movie. It is a time to make not very subtle digs about your one weird uncle’s politics. […] It is a time for families to get into arguments that may or may not end in fisticuffs, or perhaps just tears.
It is, like any American holiday, a chance for us to recognize exactly how schizoid our national culture is: We know that a lot of the “togetherness and sharing” is a Hallmark fantasy that we’ve been sold, and yet, miracle of miracles, we can also appreciate each other, even as we make fun of the enforced festiveness. […]
And in some cases, when “family” isn’t anywhere close to the Hallmark card fantasy, it’s a time to stay away out of safety and to appreciate the families we’ve constructed with each other. It’s a time to listen again to “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” and listen to William S. Burroughs’s Thanksgiving Prayer […] It’s a time to find whatever peace we can make in the world, even if, for the sake of safety, we can’t make the drive to Montana to see Rebecca and Shy and the babies and the dogs.
That’s the real meaning of Thanksgiving, Charlie Kirk. Take a shower, you look as terrible as the inside of your head must be.
[…] Trump falsely claimed Wednesday there were more votes than people in the city of Detroit.
“In Detroit, there are FAR MORE VOTES THAN PEOPLE. Nothing can be done to cure that giant scam. I win Michigan!” Trump tweeted, later alleging that in Michigan, the number of votes was larger than the number of people who voted, although it’s not clear what [Trump] was talking about.
There has been no evidence of widespread fraud and NBC News has projected Joe Biden to be the winner of Michigan.
Trump’s claim about Detroit is demonstrably false. There are 670,000 people living in Detroit, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent estimate, and the city says that 250,138 ballots were cast there.
Both his tweets about Detroit and Michigan have been flagged by Twitter as misleading.
The state’s largest county, Wayne, which includes Detroit, certified its election results unanimously after an initial deadlocked vote along party lines Tuesday. State canvassers plan to meet next week to certify the state’s results. […]
Trump wants to rehire a white supremacist to preserve “America’s heritage.” Link
On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced their intention to nominate and appoint a slew of new “key administration posts.” One of those new posts to be filled would be by “Dr. Darren Jeffrey Beattie, of Colorado, to be a Member of the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.”
Now, we all know that this administration, beset with white supremacist theologians and hooligans, might make one wonder about any “commission” that would be focused on “Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.” But don’t worry: Dr. Darren Jeffrey Beattie is [looking at notes] a suspected white supremacist and noted bigot!
You might recall that Beattie left his position as one of Trump’s speechwriters back in August 2018, after it was revealed that he had egregious ties to the Mencken conference—a white supremacist hangout of sorts. That combined with his general anti-immigration attitude was just too obvious for the incoherent Trump administration to field. […] But Beattie stuck around and has ingratiated himself with the QAnon conspiracy types by arguing, on Tucker Carlson’s news show over the past couple of months, that secret forces were attempting to oust Trump from office.
In the clip below [video clip is available at the link], promoted by Darren himself the day after the elections, Beattie tells Tucker that “What’s unfolding before our eyes is a very specific type of coup called the ‘Color Revolution.'” […] Beattie explains the concept of a “color revolution” and it sounds almost exactly like what Donald Trump is attempting to do right now: by contesting an election, sowing division and doubt in the process, promoting civil disobedience about the legitimate results of election, he hopes to wrestle anti-democratic control of a country.
“McConnell called the Senate into session to confirm a bunch more judges, attempt to confirm an all-out crank to the Fed, and then is going into recess as the plague ravages the country and people line up at food banks. Nice work.”
Instead, they seek to give ‘credence to the conspiracy theories that call into question the integrity of our elections & undermine our democracy’.
This, in Detroit’s just-filed brief, captures Trump’s lawsuits perfectly.”
John Moralessays
quotetheunquote, re #151:
The Republicans’ stated reason was that there were discrepancies between precincts’ counts of how many named people voted and the actual count of votes. This is known as precincts being “out of balance.”
But though many precincts were out of balance, the discrepancies were usually very small. “Most of the unbalanced Wayne County precincts reported to the board Tuesday were off by three or four votes,” Zahra Ahmad and Lauren Gibbons of MLive report. Small mistakes like that suggest clerical error rather than a massive fraud scheme — and certainly they don’t add up to anything close to Biden’s 145,000 vote lead in the state.
Regardless, Palmer and Hartmann said, they couldn’t certify the results. “Based on what I saw and went through in poll books in this canvass, I believe that we do not have complete and accurate information in those poll books,” Palmer said, according to the Detroit Free Press.
There has to be something people can do to protect them. Maybe flood the pastor’s Twitter posts with pictures of and tributes to people who’ve died from coronavirus (especially those infected at church gatherings)?
A grim dispatch from the US. Overwhelmed hospitals are converting chapels, cafeterias, waiting rooms, hallways, even a parking garage into patient treatment areas.
Staff members are desperately calling around to other medical centers in search of open beds. Fatigue and frustration are setting in among front-line workers. Conditions inside the nation’s hospitals are deteriorating by the day as the coronavirus rages across the U.S. at an unrelenting pace and the death toll closes in on a quarter-million. “We are depressed, disheartened and tired to the bone,” said Alison Johnson, director of critical care at Johnson City Medical Center in Tennessee, adding that she drives to and from work some days in tears. The number of people in the hospital with Covid-19 in the U.S. has doubled in the past month and set new records every day this week. As of Tuesday, nearly 77,000 were hospitalized with the virus.
Having lost the commonwealth by more than 82,000 votes, the Trump Campaign is openly trying to get Pennsylvania’s electors by judicial fiat. Not through a recount or the state legislature or anything–just a bald court order saying Trump wins.
This enormous demand to overturn popular sovereignty was signed by Rudy Giuliani and Marc Scaringi.
(Brian C. Caffrey is also listed in Scaringi’s signature block.)”
SC @290, Hey, SC, I’m a great aunt too! Congrats to you. My great nephew thought that “great” used in conjunction with “Aunt Lynna” just meant the obvious: she’s great.
A broad spectrum of national-security experts support the immediate and total withdrawal of Donald J. Trump from the United States.
In an open letter signed by over three hundred members of the military and intelligence communities, the experts wrote that Trump’s withdrawal is “long past due.”
“After nearly four years, this conflict is over,” they wrote. “It is time to reduce the troop level from one to zero.”
“It is no longer in the interest of the United States for Trump to be stationed here,” they added.
The experts recommended that further steps be taken to reduce Trump’s footprint on U.S. soil, and called for the immediate withdrawal of Ivanka, Jared, Eric, and Don, Jr.
North Dakota had the highest COVID-19 mortality rate of any other state or even any other country in the world last week, according to a shocking analysis by the Federation of American Scientists. South Dakota ranked third-worst in the world. Both states also have the lowest rates of face mask use in the nation. The rates are what health experts would expect in a war-torn nation — but not in the U.S., the scientists said.
Nationwide, authorities have pointed to multiple weddings as super-spreader events, including an event in Maine in August that has been tied to almost 200 cases and seven deaths and a Washington wedding attended by more than 300 people earlier this month where at least 17 guests have tested positive, sparking two separate outbreaks.
Think about that … and then cancel plans to meet indoors with groups of people for Thanksgiving. You could meet outdoors with fewer people to have a drink. Stay socially distant.
Also from The Washington Post:
[…] seven sitting governors, including two Republicans, wrote a joint op-ed urging Americans to stay home this Thanksgiving. That’s very good advice.
quotetheunquotesays
@SC #253;
(Actually, my original post referred to #241, but I imagine you knew that…)
I’ve quite forgotten where I came across the R’s using the word, unfortunately; it was in some other Twitter thread, referred to in a Twiter thread about the video at 241, and I’ve quite lost track…
But in the original video here, I think he says, referring to a previous count that they (the certification board, or whatever it’s called) certified, that “..58% of them were even balanced, when it was less than 30% last time…”
Unless I’m mis-hearing “balanced” for “ballots” here, but that doesn’t make any sense then…
To the people of Afghanistan, on behalf of the Australian Defence Force, I sincerely and unreservedly apologise for any wrongdoing by Australian soldiers. I have spoken directly to my Afghan counterpart, General Zia, to convey this message.
[…]
This shameful record includes alleged instances in which new patrol members were coerced to shoot a prisoner to achieve the soldier’s first kill, in an appalling practice known as “blooding”.
Further to this, “throwdown” weapons and radios were also reportedly planted to support claims that people killed were “enemy killed in action”.
Thanks, that’s a brilliant – and alarming – essay by O’Toole. Here’s a brief quote from the more straightforwardly factual content, as opposed to the extended metaphor on Trump and Trumpism as the undead:
The electoral college, the massive imbalance in representation in the Senate, the ability to gerrymander congressional districts, voter suppression, and the politicization of the Supreme Court—these methods for imposing on the majority the will of the minority have always been available. Trump transformed them from tactical tools to permanent, strategic necessities.
It seems clear Biden does not have the will to drive the stake through Trumpism’s heart; that’s going to require popular mobilization and solidarity on a huge scale.
KGsays
SC@290,
I became a great uncle some 15 years ago – but only met my great nephew a couple of months ago (unfortunately at my sister-in-law’s funeral).
KGsays
SC@290
Oh – congratulations on your geat-aunthood!
Here’s a link to the November 19 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Hungary’s plans to import and possibly use Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine raise safety concerns and could damage trust in potential shots, the European Commission has warned.
Reuters says the issue opens up a new front in the fraught relations between Brussels and Budapest:
A new showdown is expected when EU leaders hold a video conference today that may address the bloc’s Covid rescue plan and seven-year budget, which Hungary and Poland’s nationalist governments are blocking because they make access to money conditional on respecting the rule of law.
Hungarian plans to conduct trials of and possibly produce the Russian vaccine, an unprecedented step for an EU member state, add to existing frictions with Brussels.
Asked about these plans, a spokesman for the Commission, the EU’s executive, said:
The question arises whether a member state would want to administer to its citizens a vaccine that has not been reviewed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
This is where the authorisation process and vaccine confidence meet. If our citizens start questioning the safety of a vaccine, should it not have gone through rigorous scientific assessment to prove its safety and efficacy, it will be much harder to vaccinate a sufficient proportion of the population,”
Under EU rules, Sputnik V must be authorised by the EMA before it can be marketed in any state of the 27-nation bloc.
Orban’s government has said it plans to trial and licence Sputnik V, and this week would begin importing a small number of doses that could lead to larger imports and mass-production in Hungary next year if the shot proved safe and effective….
A leading Covid-19 vaccine candidate has shown to safely produce a robust immune response in healthy older adults, its British makers said Thursday as it released its phase 2 trial results.
The vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, produced fewer side effects in people aged 56 and over than in younger people – a significant finding given that Covid-19 disproportionately causes severe illness among seniors.
The manufacturers said the vaccine was undergoing larger, more comprehensive phase 3 trials to confirm the results.
Immune responses from vaccines tend to lessen as people get older as the immune system gradually slows with age.
This leaves older adults more vulnerable to infection from a variety of illnesses.
“As a result, it is crucial that Covid-19 vaccines are tested in this group who are also a priority group for immunisation,” Andre Pollard, an Oxford professor and lead author of the study results, published in The Lancet.
The phase 2 trial saw 560 participants, 240 of whom were over 70, split into groups that received either one or two doses of the vaccine, or a placebo.
Fresh lockdowns in Europe are avoidable, including through near-universal mask-wearing, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe office said.
Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, told a press conference: “Lockdowns are avoidable, I stand by my position that lockdowns are a last resort measure. If mask use reached 95%, lockdowns would not be needed.”
Primary schools should be kept open, he said, adding that children and adolescents are not driving the spread of the new coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 and school closures are “not effective”.
Raphael Warnock: “The only thing Kelly Loeffler has represented well is her stock portfolio.”
The episode of Lovett or Leave It I linked to @ #119 features a segment where a woman from Georgia plays a game in which she’s presented with a fact about a person and has to guess if it’s describing Loeffler, Perdue, or Mr. Burns. I knew Loeffler and Perdue were corrupt, but am still shocked at the extent of it. It’s like every day there’s a new report.
The latest post Brexit trade talks between the UK and EU have been paused at a crucial stage after one of the EU team tested positive for Covid.
The health of Brexit negotiators is the top priority, Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost, said after his EU counterpart, Michel Barnier announced the suspension of the talks.
The suspension comes as time is rapidly running out to agree a deal before the end of the year when the current extension arrangements are due to come to an end….
DETROIT — President Trump called a GOP canvassing board member in Wayne County who announced Wednesday she wanted to rescind her decision to certify the results of the presidential election, the member said in a message to The Washington Post Thursday.
“I did receive a call from President Trump, late Tuesday evening, after the meeting,” Monica Palmer, one of two Republican members of the four-member Wayne County canvassing board, told The Post. “He was checking in to make sure I was safe …”
The call came after an hours-long meeting on Tuesday in which the four-member canvassing board voted to certify the results of the Nov. 3 election, a key step toward finalizing President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
In affidavits signed Wednesday evening, the two GOP members of the board allege they were improperly pressured into certifying the election and accused Democrats of reneging on a promise to audit votes in Detroit.
In an interview, Palmer estimated that she talked with Trump for about two minutes Tuesday. She said she felt no pressure to change her vote…
“His concern was about my safety and that was really touching. He is a really busy guy and to have his concern about my safety was appreciated,” she told The Post…
Jonathan Kinloch, a Democrat and the board’s vice chairman, told The Post it’s too late for the pair to reverse course, as the certified results have been sent to the secretary of state in accordance with state rules…
Joe Biden’s popular vote total is approaching 80 million. That is nearly 6 million more votes than Trump. Voter turnout was 65%, the highest since 1908. California and New York are still counting. AP News link
[…] Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University, has compared Biden’s still-growing popular vote and Electoral College margins to those of every winner of a presidential election since 1960. His finding: Biden’s win was right in the middle — tighter than landslides like Barack Obama’s 2008 win or Ronald Reagan’s 1984 wipeout reelection, but broader than Trump’s 2016 victory or either of George W. Bush’s two wins.
The closest analogy was Obama’s reelection, which he won by virtually the same margin as Biden has now.
“Did anyone think 2012 was a narrow victory? No,” Naftali said. […]
“Non-lawyer followers: this litigation (in all the states) is truly blowing my mind. It’s as if you’re playing chess and your opponent lets off a whoopie cushion, throws a Zebra Cake on the board, and then runs off without pants and says they won. I don’t know what else to say.
I could never have imagined the President of the United States would litigate like this. It’s impossible that this is happening. And yet.”
Further to the news from earlier that confirmed cases in Africa have passed the two million mark, Emmanuel Akinwotu, our west Africa correspondent, writes:
Confirmed cases in Africa account for less than 4% of the global total, with 48,000 deaths registered. But just 20 million tests have been administered on the continent, with testing rates among the lowest in the world, and health officials estimate cases may be significantly under reported.
Yet experts have also praised outbreak responses in several African countries that have helped to contain the virus and protect more at-risk health systems, compared to other parts of the world where the impact has been much greater.
Stringent measures adopted early on by governments in Africa helped protect the majority of its 1.3 billion people, according to the World Health Organization, as well as effectively redeploying disease response systems to focus on coronavirus.
On the flipside, lockdown measures, now largely eased, increased economic suffering across the continent, and outbreaks of polio, yellow fever, measles and malaria have risen as resources have been focused on the pandemic. In Nigeria, a sharp rise of yellow fever has killed at least 72 people in two months according to government officials, sparking a new wave of immunisation campaigns.
In recent months health bodies around Africa have begun to raise the alarm over rising cases. South Africa, Morocco, Egypt and Ethiopia are the countries in Africa most affected by the virus, with 70% of the continent’s cases.
Kenya is among a number of countries in Africa where cases are rising steeply. Daily confirmed infections have jumped ten-fold from September to 1,000. At least four doctors died on Saturday, leading a major health union in the country to threaten a nationwide strike from next month.
Whilst the progress of a number of potential vaccines have raised hopes around the world, significant concerns remain that availability in Africa could be a challenge.
Emily Murphy should know, there’s a difference between a difficult decision and easy decision that generates politically inconvenient consequences.
General Services Administrator Emily Murphy is probably unfamiliar to most Americans, though her name has popped up in a handful of recent controversies. When Donald Trump, for example, tried to block the relocation of the FBI’s headquarters to help one of his businesses, Murphy was accused of providing Congress with incomplete information.
Yeah, I remember that. We knew then that she was a trumpian appointee for sure. Corrupt. Lacking in good judgement.
Now, however, the GSA chief is quickly becoming known for something else entirely.
As federal offices go, the General Services Administration is admittedly obscure, largely because its work is entirely administrative, working on behind-the-scenes tasks such as getting office space for federal officials. But part of the GSA’s administrative tasks is making a presidential transition process possible: Emily Murphy has to sign a letter acknowledging President-elect Joe Biden’s victory and allowing the incoming administration’s transition team to formally get to work.
It may seem like a mundane procedural task, and after most elections, it is. But this routine paperwork is actually important: without it, there can be no transition process and no smooth handoff from one administration to the next. The incoming team can’t even access federal resources set aside for this purpose without a green light from Emily Murphy.
At a public event yesterday, Biden explained that it’s time for the General Services Administration to acknowledge the election results and allow the transition process to move forward. As CNN reported, Murphy still doesn’t want to.
…Murphy is struggling with the weight of the presidential election being dropped on her shoulders, feeling like she’s been put in a no-win situation, according to people who have spoken to her recently…. Facing mounting pressure from both sides, and even death threats, the sources say Murphy is working to interpret vague agency guidelines and follow what she sees as precedent to wait to sign off on the election result, a process known as “ascertainment” that would allow the official presidential transition to begin.
It may be tempting to feel a degree of sympathy for the Trump-appointed GSA administrator. After all, no matter how she proceeds, she’ll be infuriating a sizable group of people. If she acknowledges reality, signs the letter, and allows the transition to proceed, the outgoing president and his allies would be enraged. Trump would likely even fire her.
But if she refuses to sign the letter, and continues to block the transition process, Murphy will be standing in the way of her own country’s capacity to govern effectively.
The trouble is, those two competing concerns are not equal.
Inspiring yet another Trump tantrum may be unfortunate, but it’s not altogether relevant when compared to the effects of a delayed presidential transition. There’s a difference between a difficult decision and easy decision that generates politically inconvenient consequences.
The Washington Post’s Dan Drezner added in a column yesterday:
Without [Murphy’s] ascertainment, Trump can continue to block Biden’s landing teams from engaging with their departments, deny Biden access to intelligence briefings that would allow a seamless transfer of power, and sabotage any effort to bring an end to the pandemic. Right now, without any apparent logic, Murphy is guaranteeing to make the federal government less efficient, less effective and much less responsive to the American people. I feel her pain. But she seems oddly unaware that it is self-inflicted.
The law says that the transition process moves forward once the GSA ascertains the “apparent successful candidate” in the general election. There are no credible doubts about who the apparent successful candidate is in the 2020 presidential election. The sooner Murphy acknowledges this, the better it will be for everyone.
Postscript: If Murphy is concerned about the outgoing president firing her for making the obvious call, she can take some solace in the fact that she’s going to lose her GSA job after Inauguration Day anyway.
“MORE NEWS: The top two Republicans in the Michigan Legislature are expected to visit the White House amid the fight over the state’s election results, a source tells me:…”
The Census Bureau has identified issues in the data from the 2020 decennial census that will take an additional 20 days or so for it to fix, and thus delay the release of […] apportionment data until after […] Trump leaves office […]
the additional time it will take to reprocess the data in question has pushed back the target date for release of the state population counts until Jan. 26 – Feb. 6.
That would mean President-elect Joe Biden will be in the White House when the Census Bureau delivers to him the numbers for him to transmit to Congress for the purposes of determining how many House seats each state will get for the next decade.
[…] Trump had been seeking to exclude undocumented immigrants from that count, with a policy that several lower courts have deemed illegal in rulings Trump is hoping the Supreme Court will overturn. Excluding undocumented immigrants from that count would decrease the House seats given to immigrant-rich states like California, and increase the representation for whiter, more Republican parts of the country.
The issues that the Census Bureau has identified in the data are standard for any census […] and it is routine for the Census Bureau to have to do this kind of reprocessing. […]
“During post-collection processing, certain processing anomalies have been discovered. These types of processing anomalies have occurred in past censuses. […]”
not clear whether the White House will try to get in the way of the Bureau being given the extra time that will ensure the quality of the count.
Usually, the Census Bureau has about five months for this final phase of processing and quality checks on the data, and these hiccups are not a big deal. […]
The delay of the release of the data would be a devastating blow to Trump’s years-long quest to hijack the 2020 census to further his political agenda. […] the data would be used to fundamentally change how political power is doled out in the country.
[…] “We are trying to maintain the flexibility to get the job done in a quality way,” Fontenot [Al Fontenot, the associate director of decennial census programs] said […]
There is new and disturbing information in the alleged militia plot against the governor of Michigan.
The 14 men charged had far more violent plans than just a kidnapping, according to federal and state authorities.
New filings claim there was a Plan B the militiamen had drawn up, that involved a takeover of the Michigan capitol building by 200 combatants who would stage a week-long series of televised executions of public officials.
And, according to government documents now on file in lower Michigan court, there was also a Plan C — burning down the state house, leaving no survivors.
…
In an interview with the ABC 7 Chicago I-Team last week, Michigan’s attorney general, who’s prosecuting some of the militiamen, discussed the domestic terror threat.
“We are one of the few states that does not ban guns in our state capitol building, and clearly there have been threats made on the lives of our legislators; you probably saw the pictures back from in April, where we had armed gunman, some of them, same defendants in this case, that were hovering over state senators with long guns, screaming and yelling at them as they were deliberating, as they were discussing legislation and as they were voting, so that remains a big concern to me in a very scary scenario,” said Dana Nessel.
That fear bleeds over to Illinois. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker mentioned the Michigan case during Tuesday’s COVID-19 update.
“We have threats that stream into my office daily, while we have watched the kidnapping plot against the Michigan governor unfold just a state away,” said Pritzker.
Despite the violent nature of the charges, including an alleged plan to hold a mock treason trial for the governor of Michigan once she was kidnapped, several of the defendants have had bond reductions and are now free [!!! – SC]….
From Mark Sumner: “Trump is purposely piling on additional disasters in hopes of ruining Biden’s presidency.”
[…] In 2020, Donald Trump is not just continuing to place the nation at risk of absolute dissolution by attacking its most fundamental institution, he has a backup plan that’s almost as terrible. If Trump fails to convert the nation into another of the single-party dictatorships he has so admired around the world, he intends to leave behind a system so broken that no one can fix it. […]
Through the simple expediency of not getting off his ass for months, Trump has continued to scale the coronavirus from disaster to catastrophe to just short of existential threat, none of which was preordained. Just a few short weeks ago, the news was full of stories about how countries like France, which suffered so greatly in the pandemic’s initial surge, were once again seeing a flood of new cases. Then those stories disappeared. That’s because prompt action on the part of the French government cut their rate of daily cases by more than two-thirds in just a couple of weeks. But in the United States, cases have continued to explode exactly because Trump has done less than nothing. He has not only refused to issue any new guidelines, but has undermined vaccine news with talk of conspiracies while the head of his coronavirus task force has urged people to defy social distancing mandates set by states.
[…] creating hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths may seem like a pretty big fire, but it’s not the only one that Trump intends to set. Trump is making moves in Afghanistan, and Iraq, and potentially in Iran, not out of an intention to deliver increased national security, but to intentionally create instability. Trump has ordered the latest acting defense secretary to engage in cyber warfare with China. He’s looking to make new terrorist designations that would hogtie future diplomatic actions. And, of course, he’s rushing through massive arms sales to the UAE and Saudi Arabia that could completely upset the balance in a region that’s been notoriously fragile.
All of this reflects something that Trump did immediately after the 2016 election—he began running for 2020. That’s exactly what Trump is doing again. Except this time he is using his ability to wreck the government to position himself for a run in 2024. Trump’s plan breaks down to: try to destroy democracy now, but if that doesn’t work, make sure the nation is so broken that you can destroy democracy next time. How Republicans will handle this is best summed up by what the Senate did in its last hours before going on a break—completely shatter past traditions by continuing to hand lifetime appointments to unqualified judicial nominees put forward by the loser of the national election.
Trump is doing everything he can to leave Joe Biden a nation that is sick and divided at home, weak and besieged abroad. And he’s doing it for the same reason he decided to not engage in a serious attempt to stop COVID-19. He believes that a little death and disaster will be good political strategy.
[…] “We are issuing strong recommendations to not travel over the Thanksgiving holiday,” said Erin Sauber-Schatz, the lead of the CDC’s Community Intervention and Critical Population Task Force.
The agency also urged Americans to avoid mingling with people who haven’t resided in their same household in the past 14 days. That could include college students returning home for the holidays.
The CDC recommended wearing masks, observing social distancing and having a single person serve food at gatherings, if possible, while making guests use separate bathrooms. […]
In the middle of March, while many Americans were panic-buying milk and toilet paper, Michael Redmond had other things on his mind: how to safely house the dozens of people who rely on his organization for a bed to sleep in every night.
The executive director of the Upper Valley Haven social service agency in White River Junction, Vermont, had read the reports that the new coronavirus could easily circulate among people living in close proximity — retirement homes, prisons, or homeless shelters like his.
So he contacted the state to ask for advice. “‘Don’t worry,’” he recalls an official telling him. ‘“We’ve entered into contracts with local motels. If you feel you can’t operate your shelter, everyone can be given a room in a motel.’”
Within days, Remond was able to cut the number of beds in his shelter to reduce crowding and divert additional clientele to state-subsidized motel rooms. His nonprofit also organized outdoor dining and meal deliveries to further support social distancing.
Eight months into the pandemic, Redmond has seen no Covid-19 cases among his patrons. Overall, there have been fewer than six cases among Vermont’s homeless population, according to the state health department. That’s less than a 1 percent infection rate — a stark contrast with the 25 percent infection rate among the homeless across the US.
Vermont has also remained an island of low coronavirus spread generally. Even with a recent surge — from fewer than 10 cases per day in September to 57 on November 18 — it’s consistently had one of the lowest infection rates in the continental US: 14.6 cases per 100,000 in the last seven days compared to 27 in New York, 74 in Georgia, 84 in Colorado, and 185 in North Dakota. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor, has called Vermont “a model for the country.”
Researchers studying Covid-19 policy say Vermont’s successes are inextricably linked to its approach to helping at-risk groups avoid the virus. “Vermont’s prioritization of its vulnerable populations has helped both to protect those [people] from the worst outcomes we’ve seen in other settings but also contributed to the much lower transmission rates in the state,” said Anne Sosin, the program director of Dartmouth University’s Center for Global Health Equity.
“If we look globally,” Sosin continued, “the countries that have done better [with Covid-19] prioritized their vulnerable populations.”
Vermont’s health leaders recognized this very early in the pandemic. And instead of relying only on stay-at-home orders or curfews — which tend to benefit people who can work from home or fully isolate if they test positive — the government designed a response with the needs of high-risk groups in mind. […]
The package of measures now includes state-supported housing for the homeless, hazard pay, meal deliveries, and pop-up testing in at-risk communities. The state’s Republican governor, Phil Scott, is even proposing $1,000 stipends for people who’ve been asked to self-isolate.
Most states have “been using really blunt public health and policy measures to respond to the pandemic,” Sosin said. Vermont highlights a different way. When governments “tailor responses to the needs of our most vulnerable populations,” Sosin added, “we can stop the virus and save lives.” […]
Some excerpts from the Aaron Rupar coverage that SC highlighted in comment 336:
Sidney Powell, who is ostensibly a lawyer, is out here providing a Hannity-style rant about how they’re going to “take the country back” because “President Trump won by a landslide.”
———————
Jenna Ellis takes the mic and starts preemptively castigating the media for calling this press event too long and devoid of evidence
————————-
“This is an elite, strikeforce team”
————————
Giuliani is still melting [He was sweating a lot and mopping his brow with a handkerchief]
———————-
Giuliani is explicitly saying that Trump’s goal is to “overturn the election”
————————
We’ve reached the antisemitic dogwhistle portion of this press conference [Video snippets illustrating each point are available at the link]
———————–
Giuliani says “there is nobody here that engages in fantasy,” then details his fantasy about how Trump won Pennsylvania by 300,000 votes and Michigan by 50,000 votes when he in fact decisively lost both of those states
————————
Asked by OAN about “where is the FBI,” Giuliani pretends to look around the room for microphones, then bashes the FBI [Then he looks sick and mops his face some more]
———————
“In the middle of the night, after they’ve supposedly stop counting, and that’s when the Dominion operators went in and injected votes” — the conspiracy theories about “globalists dictators” being pushed by Sidney Powell would make Alex Jones blush. They are absolutely insane.
—————————
“Your question is fundamentally flawed, when you’re asking, ‘where’s the evidence?’ You clearly don’t understand the legal process” — Jenna Ellis
————————
“You’re a totally discourteous person” — Giuliani gets mad at a reporter who asks why so many lawsuits brought by the Trump campaign have been dropped
————————-
“We’re headed to a very bad place,” Giuliani says. And with that the news conference is finally over.
Forget Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Or Trump’s impeachment for asking Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. Arguably the biggest political scandal we’ve ever seen in this country is playing right before our eyes: President Trump and his allies are trying to reverse the election results of a contest he lost.
Commentary from Steve Benen:
[…] the political world tends to resist calling the presidential effort a “scandal” for a variety of reasons. For one thing, everyone involved in the process seems to understand that Trump’s gambit will inevitably fail, which in turn makes the attack on our democracy less scary.
For another, the effort, which we all saw coming, is based on hapless and embarrassing tactics — including lawsuits that are impossible to take seriously — that more closely resemble a Three Stooges routine […]
But as cringeworthy as Team Trump’s ineptitude may be, the underlying scandal remains painfully real. […]
An outgoing president really did cheer on his partisan allies in Michigan when they balked at certifying legitimate vote tallies. In Nevada, Trump’s lawyers really did file a lawsuit asking a judge to either declare the Republican president the winner — Joe Biden won Nevada by 2.4% — or to annul the election results Trump doesn’t like. In Pennsylvania, a related effort is underway.
[Trump] really did fire the head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency because he dared to tell the public the truth about the integrity of the election results. His lawyers really are targeting the vote-certification process in several areas. […]
Trump and his team have convinced themselves that it’s a legitimate use of presidential power to fight tooth and nail against the United States’ electoral process, for the express purpose of overturning unsatisfying results. If that’s not a proper “scandal,” what is?
The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie added this morning, “[T]he fact that this is haphazard doesn’t make it any less serious.”
One of the saddest parts of the conservative movement is how full of bullshit it is. Republican officials fan the fires of freedom, while offering nothing to ameliorate the crisis conditions of the Americans they pretend to represent. In so doing, they get their base all frothed up, carrying guns, calling elections fraudulent, practicing unsafe public health habits, only to then leave them out in the lurch when the proverbial shit hits the fan. We are now in an unchecked pandemic and Republican officials have finally begun ripping away all of those “individual freedoms” they pretended they cared about when there was still an election to win.
Unfortunately, their voting base is still under the impression that surging COVID-19 cases and our stressed medical infrastructure are all secondary concerns […] The Washington Post reported that a Virginia gun show organizer was trying to get an exemption from the state’s newly tightened COVID-19 restrictions. Showmasters, Inc. argued that these new restrictions will shut down their weekend-long “Nation’s Gun Show” exhibition, which is scheduled to start on Friday at Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly. […] Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring successfully trod all over their silly dangerous madness. On Thursday he tweeted out that “I have successfully BLOCKED a massive gun show from operating at full capacity this weekend in NOVA. Putting hundreds or even thousands of Virginians at risk for the sole purpose of selling guns is just not worth it and I’m pleased that the Judge agreed with me.” […]
Showmasters, Inc. is argueing that the state was regulating their gun show while Virginia’s AG explained that Northam’s executive order only regulates the Dulles Expo Center. The point being, you can still have your gun show, you just have to conduct it in a much safer way, with certain parameters put around you. […]
Meanwhile, South Dakota’s Republican governor—the one who pooh poohed all talk of social distancing and mask mandates, the one who allowed the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally to go on and infect her state and dozens of others—is busy scamming Trump’s fraud MAGA-mites into giving her money for her reelection campaign while her state sees the fastest-growing cases in months of the virus.
More details confirming that Stephen Miller is evil:
The White House, led by top aide and noted white supremacist Stephen Miller, initially blocked an $8 million deal paying for mental health services for children and parents traumatized by the Trump administration’s family separation policy […] The court eventually forced the administration to pay—and for millions more than originally negotiated—but advocates say Miller’s delay wasted precious time.
“Lawyers and counselors for the families say the delay meant extended trauma for children, some of whom thought their parents ‘had deliberately abandoned them,’” journalist Julia Ainsley tweeted. […] a White House official is denying Miller’s involvement, but another official says that’s bullshit. “Ultimately, it was Stephen who prevailed,” they said in the report. “He squashed it.”
Geoff Bennett, Jacob Soboroff, and Ainsley report for NBC News that the Justice Department had been in negotiations for months when the Office of White House Counsel, with backing from Miller, rejected a deal in October 2019 that would have covered screenings and counseling for families ripped apart under the policy. The advocates who had negotiated in good faith were understandably outraged, but their main concern was what Miller’s sabotaging would mean for the families.
[…] Miller initially squashed it but he was still ultimately a loser when a federal judge the next month ordered the administration to pay up […] “The nonprofit Seneca Family of Agencies was awarded a $14 million contract in March to provide screenings and counseling to migrant families,” the report continued.
[…] while hundreds of reunited families are receiving mental healthcare services thanks to tireless work from advocates, Seneca’s Johanna Navarro-Perez told Madan that other families “are unfindable; they go off the grid and become ghosts.” Hundreds of others separated when the administration was “piloting” family separation in 2017 are still separated, after officials deported parents essentially without a trace.
[…] we have a long way to go before these families begin to see justice—and every day of delay continues to cause enduring harm.
“Reunification does not erase the trauma caused by the separation. It is just the first step in the healing process,” Seneca Executive Director Paige Chan told NBC News. “The need to connect families to services is urgent, because when treatment is delayed, it may exacerbate and compound the trauma of the separation.”
[…] Sen. Tom Cotton is letting his racism show again just in time for the holiday season. In a speech Wednesday, the Arkansas Republican spent nearly 15 minutes chastising those of us whose knowledge of the history of Thanksgiving goes a bit beyond third-grade textbooks.
Cotton started his speech innocently enough. “Now the Thanksgiving season is upon us, and once again, we have much to give thanks for,” he said before launching into a tirade devoid of historical accuracy. “But this year we ought to be especially thankful for our ancestors, the Pilgrims, on their four hundredth anniversary. Their faith, their bravery, …” Their murderous plot to wipe out entire villages of people. Oh wait, that wasn’t in the speech.
Instead, Cotton relished in the kind of alternative facts that rivaled even the most conservative history textbooks. “There appear to be few commemorations, parades, or festivals to celebrate the Pilgrims this year,” he noted, [snipped statements blaming “the radical left]
Cotton even had the audacity to bring into the mix The New York Times’ 1619 Project, which contended, accurately I might add, that “the essence of America is entwined with slavery and racism.”[…] Cotton only referenced the project in passing to offer more direct criticism of another New York Times piece entitled “The Thanksgiving Myth Gets a Deeper Look This Year.”
In the piece, writer Brett Anderson stated: “The caricature of friendly Indians handing over food, knowledge and land to kindhearted Pilgrims was reinforced for generations by school curriculums, holiday pageants and children’s books.”
That part apparently didn’t sit right with Cotton. “Some—too many—may have lost the civilizational self-confidence needed to celebrate the Pilgrims. Just today, for instance, The New York Times called this story a ‘myth’ and a ‘caricature’—in the Food Section, no less,” Cotton said in his troubling speech. “Maybe the politically correct editors of the debunked 1619 Project are now responsible for pumpkin-pie recipes at the Times, as well.” […]
Teen Vogue featured six Native American girls in a video rebuttal to Thanksgiving myths:
Happy Thanksgiving, America. I’m Daunnette and I’m here with my friends to tell you the real history behind this holiday,” one of the girls begins in the video.
“Growing up, I knew that what they told you in school about Thanksgiving wasn’t true. That’s not the true story. The true story behind Thanksgiving was, after every killing of a whole village, these European settlers celebrated it and they called it Thanksgiving.
But it wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln became president that it became an official holiday. He ordered 38 Dakota men to be hung for war crimes. After the sacred holiday, Christmas. We take this time to remember our elders, who lost their lives due to what really happened.
Usually my mom makes a Native American dish for us and we pray. […] they’re actually celebrating the deaths of many people and many tribes that were lost. Whether it’s to give thanks or to be with your family, you should learn how the holiday was established in the first place. I’m thankful for being born indigenous to this continent. I’m thankful that I still have my culture. I’m thankful that my elders kept our culture alive all these years. I’m thankful to be indigenous, resilient, and alive. I’m thankful for us all to be able to stand together, stand strong, and stand as one. Happy Thanksgiving, America.
See this link for more details, including a transcript of Tom Cotton’s delusional Thanksgiving history speech.
[…] Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani invoked the 1992 comedy “My Cousin Vinny” during a press conference Thursday organized to highlight the Trump campaign’s various legal challenges across the country.
Giuliani quoted the film while arguing that representatives of the Trump campaign were not allowed close enough to observe ballot counting in Pennsylvania for the presidential election.
He compared the distance to a scene in the movie in which Joe Pesci’s character, Vincent Gambini, demonstrates that a witness in a murder trial with poor eyesight was too far away from the scene to be a reliable witness.
“How many fingers do I got up?” Giuliani asked, imitating Pesci, as he held up two fingers. He went on to describe how, in the film, the witness incorrectly identifies the number of fingers as three.
The film, which Giuliani described as one of his “favorite law movies,” won Marisa Tomei the Academy Award for best supporting actress. Although it is a comedy, it is frequently praised by legal experts for its accurate depiction of trial proceedings. It has been used in legal textbooks and law courses to demonstrate legal concepts such as witness cross-examination.
The Trump campaign’s legal team has argued in court that they were not given sufficient access to the Philadelphia tabulation procedures, while Trump himself has repeatedly and falsely claimed his team’s observers were outright barred. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected the argument in a 5-2 ruling Tuesday.
“We conclude the Board did not act contrary to law in fashioning its regulations governing the positioning of candidate representatives during the precanvassing and canvassing process, as the Election Code does not specify minimum distance parameters for the location of such representatives,” the court ruled.
Paul Danahar: “Rudy Giuliani’s press conference today on ‘voter fraud’ was one of the wildest, most unsubstantiated diatribes I’ve ever listened to and I say that as someone who has sat in a room with Col Gaddafi for three hours.”
Chris Krebs (recently of CISA): “That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history. And possibly the craziest. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re lucky.”
A second local prosecutor on Thursday asked the U.S. Justice Department to have his name removed from a controversial report on policing reforms, saying he feared it would fail to address systemic racism in the criminal justice system.
Mark Dupree, the district attorney in Wyandotte County, Kansas, told U.S. Attorney General William Barr in a letter seen by Reuters he felt the work of the department’s special law enforcement commission had been “smothered by a pernicious political agenda.”
…
Dupree, an African American, is the second person who worked on the commission to resign.
He is also at least the third person involved with the commission known to voice concerns the Justice Department was not adequately considering feedback from all interested parties on improving policing practices in America.
Reuters previously reported that Gina Hawkins, a commissioner and a police chief in North Carolina, had raised similar concerns.
…
In October, a federal judge temporarily halted the Justice Department from publishing the commission’s report, saying it had violated federal open meetings laws.
The ruling came after the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (NAACP LDF) sued the panel, alleging it lacked diverse membership, allowed police interest groups to have undue influence on the commission’s work, and failed to give ample access to open meetings.
The commission had planned to deliver a slate of proposals recommending sweeping new powers for police shortly before the November presidential election.
Attorney General William Barr in January said the commission would recommend best practices at a time when “criminal threats and social conditions have changed the responsibilities and roles of police officers.”
Draft chapters of the report obtained by Reuters show the report calls for bolstering due-process protections for officers accused of wrongdoing and expanding police surveillance powers. But none of them address any concerns about systemic racism in policing.
Earlier this month, the judge told the Justice Department it could only release the final report if it includes a disclaimer saying it was written in violation of federal open meeting laws.
A court filing this week indicated the Justice Department may release the report in the coming weeks, though the NAACP LDF is still fighting for all drafts and internal communications to be made public.
History has come for Speaker Chatfield and Senator Shirkey, who have been summoned to the White House, ahead of Monday’s State Board of Canvassers’ meeting meant to certify Michigan’s results.
These two men will soon have to choose between our democracy, and fealty to one man.
Gentlemen, this may be the thing you are remembered for.
President Donald Trump’s strategy [so to speak – SC] for retaining power despite losing the U.S. election is focused increasingly on persuading Republican legislators to intervene on his behalf in battleground states Democrat Joe Biden won, three people familiar with the effort said.
Having so far faced a string of losses in legal cases challenging the Nov. 3 results, Trump’s lawyers are seeking to enlist fellow Republicans who control legislatures in Michigan and Pennsylvania, which went for Trump in 2016 and for Biden in 2020, the sources said.
Michigan’s Republican House Speaker Lee Chatfield has said the person who wins the most votes will win the electoral votes of his state, where Trump trails by more than 150,000 votes.
But Chatfield and Michigan’s Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey will on Friday visit the White House at the president’s request, a source in Michigan said, adding they were going to listen and see what Trump had to say.
…
A senior Trump campaign official told Reuters its plan is to cast enough doubt on vote-counting in big, Democratic cities that Republican lawmakers will have little choice but to intercede. The campaign is betting that many of those lawmakers, who come from districts Trump won, will face a backlash from voters if they refuse to act. The campaign believes the longer they can drag this out, the more they will have an opportunity to persuade lawmakers to intervene, the official said.
A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll published this week suggested the Trump campaign had succeeded in stirring doubt — however unfounded — about the presidential election. The survey found about half of Republicans think Trump “rightfully won” the election he lost.
…
Legislators in Michigan and Pennsylvania have sought not to become involved. Several leading Republicans in Michigan privately express dismay at the extent to which Trump has tried to game the election results, believing it will irreversibly tarnish the party’s image in the state for years to come.
…
Election officials and experts believe the Trump campaign has little chance of success.
“The results in Michigan and Pennsylvania are not particularly close, and the Trump campaign has come forth with no facts or legal theory that would justify disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters or throwing out the election results,” said Rick Hasen, an expert on election law at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law.
“This is a dangerous though almost certainly ineffective attempt to thwart the will of the voters or to delegitimize a Biden presidency based upon false claims of a stolen election,” he said.
Biden is speaking following a discussion with a bipartisan group of governors. He’s now describing, in detail, the steps ahead for addressing the virus and distributing vaccines.
Biden has chosen a Treasury Secretary, who will be announced before Thanksgiving. He says it’s someone who’ll meet with the approval of both wings of the party.
The actual Republican Party tweeted: “‘We will not be intimidated…We are going to clean this mess up now. President Trump won by a landslide. We are going to prove it. And we are going to reclaim the United States of America for the people who vote for freedom’.—Sidney Powell”
Talia Lavin in The Cut (New York magazine) – “The Future of the GOP: Madison Cawthorn is 25, far-right, and already faces accusations of racism and sexual misconduct. And he’s headed to Congress.”
R. Daniel Kelemen in Politico – “Time to call Hungary and Poland’s bluff”: “…Only once the EU demonstrates the resolve to defend democracy and the rule of law can it begin to escape the trap that its years of appeasement have created.”
BREAKING: Georgia Federal Court REJECTS Republican effort to block certification of election results. There are no remaining lawsuits currently pending in Georgia.
Trump and his allies are now 1-32 in post-election litigation.
“Developing next live at 5 on @wsbtv – @GaSecofState tells me the statewide audit results are in and there’s ‘not a thimble full of difference’ between the hand & manual recount. He says he has no doubt Joe Biden has won Georgia”
“Sidney Powell: ‘The entire election, frankly, in all the swing states should be overturned and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for Trump'”
Rep. Fred Upton, a senior Michigan Republican, told me it’s time for Trump to concede — and he said there’s no evidence to back-up widespread voter fraud allegations that would change MI outcome.
“No one has seen any real identification of any real fraud,” Upton said of Detroit
Asked if Trump should concede, Upton said: “Yeah. I think it’s all said and done.”
“Sad day in Texas, where we had the worst day of new cases on record: 12,293. Death toll tops 20 thousand. Governor Abbott refuses to alter course.”
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Ex-President Obama has a new book coming out. MSNBC will have Jonathon Capehart interview President Obama at 10 pm EST (in lieu of the Last Word). Should be interesting.
COVID Tracking Project: “<a href="https://twitter.com/COVID19Tracking/status/1329589465573187587".Our daily update is published. States reported 1.8 million tests, 183k cases, and 81k people currently hospitalized with COVID-19. Reported deaths were 1,971, the highest since May 7. Test, case, and hospitalization counts broke all-time records today.”
From Wonkette: “The 648,382 Funniest Parts Of Rudy’s Press Conference, From ‘Elite Strike Force’ To ‘Rudy Is Leaking'”
Rudy Giuliani and the only four other lawyers in the country clownstupid enough to represent Donald Trump at this point did another press conference, y’all. It was very important, obviously, because they have one million secret evidences of voter fraud, and nine gabillion secret affidavits from people who swear they saw Biden steal Trump votes, and they would show them to you, except for how if they show you, then they won’t be a secret anymore do you even know how secrets work, STUPIDHEAD?
We have zero time or bandwidth to engage with the particulars of this clownshow, because if we’re going to dive deep into something that doesn’t matter, it’s going to be a time-waster we care about. Also Rudy Giuliani’s track record with “law” is not great; if Mike Flynn’s redneck lawyer Sidney Powell doesn’t huff paint, she needs to see a neurologist; Victoria Toensing and Joe DiGenova are the same Fox News hairballs Donald Trump deemed too ugly and stinky to represent him a couple years ago, in perhaps his only correct decision as president; and Jenna Ellis — what can one say of Jenna Ellis’s brain that hasn’t been said of any tattered windsock after a hurricane?
Point is, the second a real lawyer says one of these chucklefucks has a point, or if they — ELL-OH-ELL — win a case or something, we’ll listen. Until then, let’s point and laugh.
Oh, by the way, you will note that this press conference was held at the Republican National Committee. We are left to assume Four Seasons Total Landscaping was booked.
Here are the best parts: [See the link for photos]
[…] The law firm of Wackass, Jackass, Windsock and Hairball, everyone!
[…] In this clip, you will learn that Rudy literally believes that “Mickey Mouse” and “a dead person” and “the same person 30 times” voted, and says the recount in Georgia is meaningless, because they are just going to count Mickey Mouse 30 times again. You know, in Georgia, which is run by Republicans. [Video available at the link.]
[…] This whole video is wonderful. Ellis is MADSOMAD at the journalists for what they are going to write tomorrow (or right now, dumbass!) about this press conference. She just knows journalists are going to write that they provided “insufficient evidence” (check!) and that they “spoke too long.” (Check check!)
She then LAWSPLAINED LIKE A LAWYER that today’s clownshow was merely an “opening statement” and that the trial comes later. THIS IS NOT “LAW & ORDER,” OK? IT TAKES THEM MORE THAN ONE HOUR TO MAKE THIS EXCREMENT-FILLED LEGAL SAUSAGE!
[…] The Part Where Rudy Admitted That All They Really Want To Do Is Delete All Black People’s Votes
“It changes the result of the election in Michigan if you take out Wayne County.” [Video at the link]
[…] Rudy’s point, as far as we can tell, is that he is a demented racist.
Anyway, Rudy also said out loud with his mouth that he’s trying to “overturn the election.” Yep, out loud! With his mouth!
Keep talking, dumbshit.
The Part Where Michael Flynn’s Redneck Lawyer Said Hugo Chavez Stole The Election For Joe Biden … FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE!
No, we are not goddamn kidding.
COMMUNIST MONEY! DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS! CREATED IN VENEZUELA! AT THE DIRECTION OF HUGO CHAVEZ! [Vido at the link.]
[…] Fox News can’t even do this with a straight face anymore. The reporter calls Giuliani’s “voter fraud” claims “baseless,” and points out that he provided no evidence that there was some kind of nationwide voter fraud conspiracy in cities with lots of Black people, as he alleged. She notes that Rudy is leaking out of both sides of his head when he screams about voter fraud, since he’s already said in court that these cases aren’t about fraud, since they can’t find any. She notes that Rudy was wrong — lying or stupid? yes — when he said Michigan’s election has now been decertified because a couple Republican elections board members in Wayne County are screaming “I RESCIND!” It’s still certified, dumbass.
Oh yeah, and the Fox News reporter said Rudy’s “Multiple Paths to Victory” map was bad, since he never actually showed “multiple paths to victory.” Or any paths to victory.
If the enraged Trump tweet about Fox News isn’t up by the time we post this, it’s coming.
In summary and in conclusion, this was a very good press conference, the libs have been totally owned, and with lawyers like these, Donald Trump will obviously be president for life.
After Obama made it his “number-one priority” to “facilitate a transition that ensures our President-elect is successful,” Trump’s doing the opposite.
[…] While we wait to see if the Republican’s efforts to nullify the election results and tear down our democracy work out, the incumbent president and his team seem a little too eager to undermine Joe Biden before he can even take office. CNN reported this week that a Trump administration official said “their goal is to set so many fires that it will be hard for the Biden administration to put them all out.”
It’s against this backdrop that Team Trump is trying to overturn Biden’s victory, blocking a smooth transition process, and even taking steps that will make it more difficult for the incoming administration.
Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, had an informative New York Times op-ed on Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin ending several emergency lending programs, which had been approved as part of the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The programs, part of the CARES Act, include the allocation of hundreds of billions of dollars to the Treasury Department in partnership with the Federal Reserve. As the economy foundered in the spring, those programs helped keep companies and municipalities afloat. They were set to expire on Dec. 31, and Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, and Mr. Mnuchin had the option of extending them. Instead, the Treasury secretary has made the reckless political decision to terminate them, thereby pulling the plug on these vital programs and potentially destabilizing fragile financial markets.
Barofsky added, “The decision appears intended to limit the incoming Biden administration’s options to deal with the continuing crisis.” It does, indeed. In fact, the Federal Reserve explicitly requested that the Trump administration extend these emergency lending programs.
As of yesterday, Team Trump’s answer is, “No.”
[…] Or as Paul Krugman put it, “[B]asically we’re looking at more sabotage by an administration on its way out.”
The only thing missing from Team Trump’s press conference was references to the saucer people and reverse vampires.
In 1994, there was a memorable episode of The Simpsons called, “Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy.” In the episode, Grampa Simpson came up with a sexual elixir, and couples throughout Springfield eagerly bought the tonic.
It wasn’t long, however, before the children of Springfield started wondering why their parents kept going to bed much earlier than usual, so the kids held a treehouse meeting in the hopes of coming up with a credible explanation.
After some discussion, Milhouse stood at a chalkboard and presented the prevailing theory: “OK, here’s what we’ve got: the Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people, under the supervision of the reverse vampires, are forcing our parents to go to bed early in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner! We’re through the looking glass here, people.”
[…] The episode came to mind yesterday afternoon watching Team Trump’s lawyers hold a bewildering press conference at the Republican National Committee.
[…] Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, took the president’s voter fraud claims even further on Thursday, baselessly alleging during a frenzied news conference that the fraud was nationally coordinated. Trump’s legal team alleged already debunked claims of voter fraud, baseless allegations of corrupted and hackable voting machines, election interference by foreign communists, and even references to antifa.
Giuliani’s central claim — detached from reality — is that there’s a “pattern” of fraud emanating from “a centralized place,” as part of a nefarious “plan” that apparently exists only in his imagination.
And then it got worse. Sounding every bit as unhinged as Milhouse in the treehouse, [Trump’s] lawyers concocted a hysterical tale involving George Soros, “communist money,” the Clinton Foundation, Venezuela, antifa, Cuba, and possibly China. Apparently, all of this also has something to do with Hugo Chavez, who’s been dead for seven years.
Team Trump didn’t get around to referencing the saucer people or reverse vampires, but I can only assume they’re holding onto this for the attorneys’ next press conference.
[…] Christopher Krebs, who led the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency until a few days ago, described the press conference as “the most dangerous [1 hour and 45 minutes] of television in American history. And possibly the craziest.”
[…] But after the crazypants event ended, and much of the political world pondered the strange liquid that poured down both sides of Giuliani’s face during the press conference, the Republican National Committee published a tweet claiming that Donald Trump won the 2020 election “by a landslide.” And to a very real degree, this was every bit as alarming as the press conference itself.
It served as evidence that a once-great American political party has arrived at a bonkers point in history, publicly declaring that a president who lost a free and fair election should hold onto power because reality has no meaning.
And perhaps worst of all, many rank-and-file Republicans will believe the stark-raving-mad lies, assuming their party and its president are reliable and trustworthy.
To soften the blow of defeat Fox’s Geraldo proposes naming the vaccine after Trump. “It would be a nice gesture to him and years from now it would become kind of a generic name. Have you got your trump yet, I got my trump, I’m fine. I wished we could honor him in that way.”
Details from a different section of Trump’s wildly delusional brain: the pretend-COVID-19-isn’t-bad lobe:
In the middle of pretending he didn’t lose the election, […] Trump resumed his attempts to put a rosy spin on his disastrous response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has now killed more than a quarter of a million Americans […]
[Today] Trump retweeted a chart from a Twitter account named “Hydroxychloroquine News” showing that the U.S. had a smaller “case fatality rate” on October 9 than six other countries.
“I have seen the claim that the United States has a higher fatality rate from Covid-19 than other wealthy nations. This claim appears to be entirely false and perhaps politically motivated,” the account, named after the antimalarial drug Trump falsely touted as a miracle cure for COVID-19, tweeted.
However, the U.S. indisputably has the highest COVID-19 death toll in the world, and even the description of the chart Trump retweeted notes that its data is a “poor measure of the mortality risk of the disease.”
Trump also tweeted that “[t]here will be no lockdowns other than those done by certain Democrat governors!” indicating yet again the President’s refusal to take a firm hand with the pandemic.
As part of his refusal to recognize his electoral defeat, Trump has blocked President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team from accessing the government’s material on COVID-19, including plans for distributing the vaccine.
[…] Rudy Giuliani and the rest of Trump’s crack legal team had expanded their claims to include a vast international conspiracy that moved against Trump in state after state. This conspiracy reached across time, space, and the barrier of death to bring together Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and former Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez in a scheme that includes “Democrat run cities,” secret vote-counting servers in foreign countries, and garbage cans filled with pre-filled Biden ballots. It’s at once patently ridiculous, and outrageously threatening to the continued existence of the United States. And to underscore that, members of Trump’s team—and the official voice of the Republican Party—are openly calling for the overthrow of democracy.
[…] Trump is exerting the full power of his office for no purpose other than to remain in office. […] The White House offers tremendous access to both power and information that provides leverage for any occupant. Trump used that power in his attempt to demean Biden and his family before the election. Now he’s using it even more blatantly in his attempt to simply stay, no matter what the voters want.
And Republicans are doing … nothing. Nothing except encouraging him.
[…] Trump was caught using that same power of office to extort a foreign government into providing false information he could use in this same election. The House of Representatives rightly impeached him for this act. Republicans in the Senate then decided they didn’t even need to speak to witnesses to give Trump a pass. What’s happening now is a direct result of what happened then: Republicans put Trump above the law, and have shown no sign of attempting to bring him down.
[…] Trump has invited the Republican leaders of Michigan’s House and Senate to join him Friday in Washington. The purpose of that meeting is expressly to discuss the proposal that Powell bellowed about on Dobbs—replacing the electors selected by the voters with a slate guaranteed to vote for Trump, despite his losing the state by 155,000 votes. Why start with Michigan, when that state was not even close? Exactly. If Trump can convince the Republican legislatures of Michigan to join him in a coup, then states with a narrower margin should be a pushover.
Trump’s direct manipulation of the electoral outcome has already been evident in the state, as electoral canvassers got calls directly from the White House telling them to refuse to certify the vote, regardless of the information. This is the very top of the political pyramid, reaching down to the very base, to deliver a literal order from on high to subvert democracy.
[…] Giuliani might as well have stood before the microphones and said “we don’t care about the evidence, we’re here to steal this thing for Trump.” The effect would be the same. Ridiculous doesn’t always equal frivolous. There’s no evidence for anything Trump’s team is saying, but there’s very much a point.
If Michigan lawmakers come to talk to Trump today, it will be one of the darkest moments in the nation’s history […]
[…] “I am experiencing mild symptoms, and am following all appropriate protocols, including being in quarantine and conducting contact tracing,” Giuliani tweeted. […]
Rudy Giuliani has been exposed to numerous people who later tested positive for coronavirus, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), Corey Lewandowski and Trump himself. […]
[…] Giuliani’s news conference meandered from debunked claims about Dominion Voting Systems to a scheme somehow involving Hugo Chávez (dead since 2013). The event had virtually nothing to do with post-election lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign, of which Trump has so far lost 32 […]
Let us not dwell on the details. Or on the shamefulness of state bar authorities in failing to sanction such unprofessional conduct. Or on Giuliani’s hair dye that ran down from each sideburn. What is clear is that this is the level of sheer insanity and irrational propaganda that passes for Republican “thinking.” Plainly, Giuliani is representing the president’s views, and because the vast majority of Republicans say Trump should be allowed to exhaust his legal claims, his performance has, in effect, been endorsed by Republican House and Senate leadership, much of right-wing media and the Republican National Committee.
[…] We may not be able to prevent Giuliani from spouting crazy allegations, but there is plenty that responsible, patriotic Americans can do.
First, respectable networks should not cover live any of the Trump lawyers’ events. […]
Second, news outlets must hound every Republican lawmaker, official and candidate either to denounce or condone the abuse of the courts to disenfranchise voters. The two Senate Republican candidates in Georgia, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, have joined in the spurious claims of fraud with baseless attacks on the state’s Republican secretary of state; their opponents should tie them to Trump and Giuliani’s antics.
Third, state and federal officials and the Biden transition team should vow to investigate any efforts by Trump, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) or any other Republican politician who attempts to sway election officials or otherwise undermine free and fair elections.
[…] Trump’s tweets and Facebook posts should be removed for habitual violation of the platforms’ self-imposed terms of service.
Business leaders must recognize Biden as president-elect (as Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others have done), deplore abuse of the courts and pull financial support from Republicans who refuse to accept the results of a lawful election.
The horrifying spectacle playing out before our eyes should leave little doubt of how far down the rabbit hole the Republican Party has gone and how cowardly and detached from reality Republican elected leaders have become. […].
Bits and pieces of campaign news from Steve Benen:
As expected, Georgia’s hand tally of votes in the presidential race confirmed Joe Biden’s victory in the state over Donald Trump. According to the Georgia secretary of state’s office, the incoming president ended up winning Georgia by 12,284 votes, instead of 13,558 votes, which was his lead before the recount. [Trump is a loser … again.]
Speaking of Georgia, Republicans have spent much of the week targeting the religious views of the Rev. Raphael Warnock, one of the Democratic Senate hopefuls, pointing specifically to a 2011 sermon in which Warnock invoked the Gospel of Matthew. It is a little weird to see the GOP blast a Christian minister for citing the Sermon on the Mount, but I guess it’s a weird year.
[…] Joe Biden probably thought he wouldn’t have to worry about fundraising again for a while, but Politico reports that the incoming president “is appealing to its high-dollar donors to help raise millions of dollars more for his presidential transition, amid concerns the Trump administration will continue to block public funding.”
Vox took a look yesterday at the higher-than-expected percentage of Latino voters who supported Trump this year: “One factor that many believe played a role: online misinformation about the Democratic candidate.”
No other members of Trump’s family have held elected office, but Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law is reportedly eyeing a U.S. Senate campaign in North Carolina in 2022, as Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) retires from politics. Lara Trump has no background in public service, but she’s worked as a personal trainer and a producer for a tabloid television program. […]
From Joan McCarter: “Trump’s legal coup is in a shambles, so now he’s turning to his mob.”
While Rudy Giuliani was melting down in front of cameras Thursday, Donald Trump and fellow Republicans were losing in the courtrooms as usual. They did get one small win setting aside 2,349 absentee ballots in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. They went into the day with a 1-28 win/loss record and finished it 2-31. Oh, and they lost the recount in Georgia.
While Trump was losing the Georgia recount, a federal court there rejected an attempt by high-profile conservative attorney, L. Lin Wood Jr. to block certification of the election results. That’s good. What makes it even better is this: Wood was arguing—in Georgia—that he could prove voter fraud because it happened in Michigan. […] He alleged that more people voted in certain Michigan precincts than lived in those Michigan precincts and that there were affidavits to prove it. Except (and this gets richer by the minute) the affidavit he was talking about was from a cyber security “expert” from Texas, who mixed up Minnesota and Michigan. […]
But wait! There’s more! That happened after another “expert,” a Dr. Christos Makridis who apparently publishes a lot in right-wing outlets was absolutely skewered by another professor, Jonathan Rodden of Stanford. “Dr. Makridis includes a discussion of provisional ballots in Mercer County,” Rodden told the court. “It is difficult to know what Dr. Makridis might be referring to, since there is no county called Mercer in Georgia.”
And these are the arguments coming from Trump’s “real” lawyers, not the ones crammed into Rudy’s clown car! It’s almost even better than Hugo Chavez rising from the grave to steal the 2020 election for Joe Biden. Well, almost. There are still 18 active cases in 6 states. Not all of them are as hilarious as those, but they are all pretty much nuisance suits, none of which can actually result in changing the vote totals and overturning it.
This is where the hilarity ends, though. The legal case, in any state, is a total loser for Trump. He knows it, Giuliani knows it and has all but admitted it in court and in interviews. The strategy is to foment chaos, to attempt to disrupt and delay certification in the states and try somehow to either get Trump-friendly electors to overthrow the election results or deadlock and throw it to the House. That’s where Republicans have the majority of state delegations.
We are in the midst of a coup attempt that two powerful Michigan Republicans are participating in, meeting with Trump to talk about how to steal the state for him. As batshit as Rudy’s Thursday press conference was, it was a direct message to the rabid and dangerous Trump mob—from communists to antifa—to get them primed to act. The threat to state Republican lawmakers is hardly subtle.
“Throwing a wicked pout fest” is a good description.
Actor Edward Norton took to Twitter on Friday to weigh in on why […] Trump is not conceding the election to President-elect Joe Biden, saying Trump is “throwing a wicked pout fest” over the results.
Norton, 51, said that Trump is trying to create enough chaos about a peaceful transition of power to where he can cut a “Nixon-style” deal in exchange for his eventual concession, noting that the president is in “multi-dimensional legal jeopardy.”
However, the actor wrote that Trump’s “bluff” has already been called in court.
[…] “The USA cannot let this mobster bully the USA into a deal to save his ass by threatening our democracy,” Norton said.
[…] He added that Trump is “throwing a wicked pout fest & trying to give a tiny-hand middle finger to the whole country for pure spite, without a single thought for the dead & dying.” […]
[…] It’s just now starting to become clear that Trump is serious. He intends to overturn an election in which he was defeated. We should, in the words of Masha Gessen, “Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. Whenever you find yourself thinking, or hear others claiming, that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a rationalization.”
And so, as the political world confronts another first-of-its-kind crisis, brought on by yet another radicalized Republican, stark realizations are coming into view. The front page of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis features a striking headline in a large font this morning: “Trump trying to nullify election: He wants GOP lawmakers to ignore will of voters.”
The front page of the New York Times included an all-caps headline that told readers, “Trump targeting Michigan in ploy to subvert vote.” The lede on the front-page article alerted readers to the president’s attempts “to overturn the 2020 election” through an “audacious use of brute political force.”
The Washington Post ran a front-page headline that read, “Trump wages full assault to overturn election.” The accompanying article reads:
[…] Trump is using the power of his office to try to reverse the results of the election, orchestrating a far-reaching pressure campaign to persuade Republican officials in Michigan, Georgia and elsewhere to overturn the will of voters in what critics decried Thursday as an unprecedented subversion of democracy. After courts rejected the Trump campaign’s baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud, the president is now trying to remain in power with a wholesale assault on the integrity of the vote by spreading misinformation and trying to persuade loyal Republicans to manipulate the electoral system on his behalf.
Note, this isn’t an opinion column; it’s just a factual description of what’s unfolding. The United States is, in fact, currently led by a man “trying to remain in power with a wholesale assault on the integrity of the vote.”
[…] Trump and his team don’t want to count ballots; they want election results in some states to be invalidated. A member of the president’s legal team was explicit on this point yesterday on Fox Business, arguing, “The entire election, frankly, in all the swing states should be overturned and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for Trump.”
Reuters reported that Trump’s strategy for “retaining power despite losing the U.S. election is focused increasingly on persuading Republican legislators to intervene on his behalf in battleground states Democrat Joe Biden won.” The Post’s report added the president’s hopes that Republicans in some states will simply “flip” results in his favor, voters’ will be damned.
“These are the words and actions of an attempted coup, according to historians and other experts,” the article said.
It matters, of course, that Trump will almost certainly fail. But the fact that he’s making such an attempt is itself a scandal of historic proportions, and he’s creating new norms, standards, and strategies that will outlive what remains of his failed term.
As with the GOP’s debt-ceiling crisis in 2011, few wanted to believe this would happen. But here we are.
Having failed to make even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before any court of law, the President has now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election. It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President.
From Republican Senator Ben Sasse:
Wild press conferences erode public trust. So no, obviously Rudy and his buddies should not pressure electors to ignore their certification obligations under the statute. We are a nation of laws, not tweets.
Based on what I’ve read in their filings, when Trump campaign lawyers have stood before courts under oath, they have repeatedly refused to actually allege grand fraud—because there are legal consequences for lying to judges […] being unable to produce any evidence.
tomhsays
@ #399 Re: Trump’s failed coup
As a Wash Post editorial from a few days ago pointed out:
Mr. Trump’s coup might not work this time. But he, Mr. Graham, Mr. McConnell and far too many others may be softening the ground for the next failed candidate who has no scruples about torching American democracy.
Here’s a link to the November 20 Guardian (support the Guardian if you can!) coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Far-right militants in Europe and the US are increasingly forming global links and using the coronavirus pandemic to attract anti-vaccine activists and conspiracy theorists to their cause, research commissioned by the German foreign ministry has found.
The study carried out in Germany, France, Britain, the US, Sweden and Finland by the Counter Extremism Project documents the emergence of a new far-right movement since 2014 that is “leaderless, transnational, apocalyptic and oriented towards violence”.
The extremists believe in the nationalist theory of “great replacement” being orchestrated to supplant Europe’s white population.
And they are increasingly networking across national borders with other like-minded militants, including with Russian and eastern European extremists.
Music festivals and mixed martial arts fights are rallying points, where extremists also seek to draw new members, the study notes.
The pandemic has also become an opportunity seized on by the extremists to “expand their mobilisation efforts around anti-government conspiracy myths criticising the current restrictions”, it says.
Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, tweeted: “Rightwing extremism is the biggest threat to our security across Europe.”
Voicing alarm that the movement was “increasingly acting and networking internationally”, Maas said Germany was seeking to counter the menace through coordinated action with other EU members.
During a rally of almost 10,000 opponents of government-imposed social restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19 in Berlin this week extremists mingled among a motley crew of protesters.
About a dozen demonstrators shouted “Sieg Heil” while performing the stiff-armed Hitler salute in the presence of police, according to an AFP reporter.
Antisemitic slogans have been used at some of the demonstrations against coronavirus policies in Germany.
Canada is seeing a big rise in Covid-19 cases that could overwhelm the hospital system, an emotional prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said on Friday, imploring Canadians to stay home as much as possible.
A second wave is ripping across the country, forcing several provinces to reimpose restrictions on movement and businesses. Cases continue to increase and authorities say some people are being more careless about taking precautions.
Trudeau, who said “a normal Christmas is quite frankly right out of the question”, spoke shortly after Theresa Tam, the chief public health officer, predicted new daily cases could soar to 60,000 by the end of the year from less than 5,000 now.
Cases across the country are spiking massively. We are facing winter, that’s going to drive people inside more and more, and we’re really at risk of seeing case loads go up and hospitals get overwhelmed,” said a clearly upset Trudeau.
“So we need to do everything we can, right now, to slow the spread of Covid-19,” he told reporters, stressing the need to curb personal contacts as much as possible.
a_ray_in_dilbert_spacesays
You know, after the 2016 election, in which Moscow made unprecedented efforts to undermine the democratic process and ensure Trump was elected, and after all the results from the Meuller and Senate Intelligence Committee investigations, it is very difficult to contend that Mr. Trump is not a Russian intelligence asset.
After the 2020 election, in which he is trying to uproot 240 years of Democracy in America, much to the joy of Mr. Putin, how can you look at what he is done and suggest he is anything but a Russian Agent.
The US is now averaging over 1,300 Covid-19 deaths per day — the highest rate since May.
The overall death toll has reached about 253,000, by far the highest in the world. Total confirmed infections have eclipsed more than 11.7 million, after the biggest one-day gain on record Thursday — almost 188,000.
And the number of people in the hospital with Covid-19 hit another all-time high at more than 80,000.
With health experts concerned that Thanksgiving travel and holiday gatherings next week will fuel the spread of the virus, many states and cities are imposing near-lockdowns or other restrictions.
California ordered a 10pm to 5am curfew starting Saturday, covering 94% of the state’s 40 million residents.
The Texas border county of El Paso, where more than 300 people have died from COVID-19 since October, is advertising jobs for morgue workers capable of lifting bodies weighing 175 pounds or more.
Officials are offering more than $27 an hour for work described as not only physically arduous but “emotionally taxing as well.”
“SCOOP: Rudy Giuliani and other key members of Trump’s outside legal team won’t be attending today’s meeting with two Michigan lawmakers because they’ve been exposed to the coronavirus, two sources familiar with the internal discussions tell Axios.”
“Well this is new: The Federal Trade Commission is investigati[ng] Steve Bannon’s efforts for Cambridge Analytica–whether ‘he may be held individually liable for the deceptive conduct’.”
Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has suggested that criticism of the country’s pandemic polices are political attacks and compared critics to “vultures.”
Mexico passed the 100,000 mark in confirmed COVID-19 deaths, becoming only the fourth country to do so.
His administration has cast doubt on the usefulness of face masks — the president almost never wears one — and defended its low rate of testing.
Obrador [sic] said: “Why change?”
Just because the ones who used to steal and loot don’t like what we are doing, or don’t like seeing us in power?
“#BREAKING This time for real:
Georgia Secretary of State has officially certified the election results. Gov. Kemp news conference in one hour will announce that he will add his certification as required by state law.”
It is beyond pathetic for a sitting president to try to subvert the results of an election. It is even worse when the Republican Party, with few exceptions, remains silent over this outrageous attack on democracy. The GOP has ceased to be a political party. It is now a cult.
KGsays
And perhaps worst of all, many rank-and-file Republicans will believe the stark-raving-mad lies, assuming their party and its president are reliable and trustworthy. – Lynna, OM quoting Rachel Maddow@389
There I think she’s wrong. Any rank-and-file Republicans who are even approximately sane must know these are lies. Those among them who are claiming to believe Trump won are themselves liars who are supporting Trump’s attempted coup.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Just saw something that may change my plans. Wisconsin Governor is ordering an indoor mask mandate for 60 days. That is giving me time to do a quick, safe, run to procure some oatmeal stout and other dark beer that aren’t available locally which might last me until a vaccine is truly available.
Rep. Pascrell: “I’ve just filed legal complaints with the AZ, MI, NV, NY, and PA bars against Rudy Giuliani and 22 other lawyers seeking their disbarments for filing frivolous lawsuits and trying to help Trump steal the election and dismantle democracy.”
NEW: MI GOP leaders issue statement on Trump meeting:
“We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors, just as we have said throughout this election.”
“Michigan’s certification process should be a deliberate process free from threats and intimidation. Allegations of fraudulent behavior should be taken seriously, thoroughly investigated, and if proven, prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And the candidates who win the most votes win elections and Michigan’s electoral votes. These are simple truths that should provide confidence in our elections.”
they also lobbied Trump on COVID relief:
“We used our time in the White House to deliver a letter to President Trump making clear our support for additional federal funds to help Michigan in the fight against COVID-19. We have since sent the same correspondence to congressional leaders.
“Months ago, Michigan received funds through the federal CARES Act, and we used that funding to quickly support front line workers, improve testing, ensure adequate PPE, provide additional support to out-of-work Michiganders, and deliver assistance to local businesses that are struggling through no fault of their own. We once again face a time in our state when additional support would go a long way to help those same residents who need our help.”
“Twitter confirming this evening that accounts like @POTUS, @FLOTUS, @PressSec will all be handed over to the Biden administration on Inauguration Day.
‘Twitter is actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20th, 2021. As we did for the presidential transition in 2017, this process is being done in close consultation with the National Archives and Records Administration’.
FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub: “I can’t believe I need to say this, but: Electors are selected based on the popular vote in each state. Any attempt to circumvent that process should be forcefully condemned by every public official who cares at all about democracy. Every. Single. One.”
“Confirming his positive COVID test, Rick Scott urges people to mask up, social distance, and heed the advice of health officials. All things he did not do when he campaigned last week for Sens. Perdue and Loeffler in a crowded sports bar, without a mask:…”
Scott is 67. I thought he was younger.
John Moralessays
“I can’t believe I need to say this, but: Electors are selected based on the popular vote in each state. […]”
Hm, surely that could be even more convoluted.
Instead of merely having the Electors selected based on the popular vote, and then voting based on the popular vote, the Electors could select an ArchElector, who would then vote based on the popular vote.
<snicker>
quotetheunquotesays
RE: the video @SC 383.
What a powerful statement! Should be required viewing, etc.
I knew absolutely nothing, before today, about Maddow’s life away from the news desk. Now, I feel like she’s speaking right out of my own head, although with much better articulation than I could ever achieve.
When she talked about how much she wished it had been her who had gotten it, “but the virus doesn’t let you choose” (I’m paraphrasing), I immediately thought, yeah, that’s what I would be going through. (Luckily my s/o and I have both been spared, so far… but S. Ontario, where I live, is not looking so good right now.)
lumipunasays
Re: 391 Trump cheerleading on the “low case fatality rate” of Covid-19 in US
This seems to happen every time the US epidemic is surging, and countless newly diagnosed people haven’t died yet, so there’s few deaths in proportion to diagnosed cases.
(Also, in the early part of a surge, the cases tend to be more socially active younger people, rather than their older family members, who are more likely to die.)
lumipunasays
Re: 418
Kyle Rittenhouse has been released on bond. People raised $2 million to get this murderer out.
@ #429
An organization called FightBack, a right-wing non-profit took credit for posting the $2 million bond for Rittenhouse. I assume it will be returned to them. Pretty good deal.
They gave special thanks to Trump’s pal, Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO, for his contribution.
On Friday, Michigan Republican House Speaker Lee Chatfield and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey answered Trump’s call. As they were chatting, Trump’s legal team was literally calling for the vote to be overturned in all swing states, and for legislators like Chatfield and Shirkey to seat a slate of electors who would return Trump to office, no matter what the voters said. But as the Michigan legislators emerged from their meeting with Trump, they insisted that there was no reason to be concerned about democracy getting a shiv in the back. In fact, they claimed that they didn’t even talk to Trump about the election, and spent their time insisting that the state needed more money to fight COVID-19. Chatfield and Shirkey then made a statement that they would “follow the law and the normal process” to seat Michigan’s electors.
Except … that makes what happened next seem pretty damn strange.
What happened next is that the two Michiganders did not hustle back to their home state. Instead, Chatfield spent the night at Trump’s D. C. hotel, sleeping off what appeared to be a big celebration.
If all Michigan’s legislators achieved in the day was not talking about the election, and not getting anything from Trump. Then …. WTF? This little coda to yesterday’s statement all about their “faith in the process” and “simple truths” is very, very not comforting.
Also, who covered the cost of that champagne? Who paid for those rooms? If it was Donald Trump, that’s definitely not a good look. If it was Michigan taxpayers, that is also not a good look.
The best possible outcome is that Chatfield wasted time and money on a pointless expedition to put some money in Trump’s pocket through his hotel. The worst possible outcome … is pretty awful.
Concerning the reassuring statement from Chatfield and Shirkey, Trump tweeted on Saturday morning that it is “… much different than reported by the media” while repeating claims that “we will show massive and unprecedented fraud!”
The question isn’t whether Trump is lying. Trump is alway lying. The question is what was actually discussed between Trump and the Michigan legislators, and what if any arrangements were reached.
Scroll down to read a summary of the study done in Kansas; and of the study done in St. Louis.
[…] Mask mandates in St. Louis and St. Louis County quickly and drastically slowed coronavirus infection rates this summer compared with outlying counties. […]
Yeah, it’s a million marchers in D.C. peacefully now. Yeah, it’s going to be thousands of people peacefully in Atlanta this weekend. But let me tell you: If you steal this election from us and you put in a U.N. communist corrupt criminal Joe Biden in the White House, it’s not going to be a million peaceful marchers in D.C. No, no, no. No, it’s not. No, it’s not. And you know, quite frankly, that’s not a threat because I’m to the point where—I mean, we can lead marches all day long, but I know I won’t have to be the one to get my hands dirty. I can sit right here in studio and just broadcast the whole thing. It’s going to be 3 million veterans, it’s going to be 3 million fathers that have been fed up and at the end of their rope for a long, long time, who have been screwed over by this system and are done.
[…] you know what? Maybe you deserve what’s coming. You ever thought about that?[…]
Media Matters link to “Infowars’ Owen Shroyer: Democrats and mainstream media ‘deserve’ mass violence if Trump is not allowed to continue as president.”
[…] A defeated Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate—Lauren Witzke of Delaware, a QAnon fanatic who also has deep ties to white nationalists—indulged in similar eliminationist rhetoric, the kind that creates permission for mass violence in the minds of their followers. On Thursday, Witzke tweeted:
The Democratic Party is a crime syndicate and must be eradicated from America entirely.
Predictably, there was a flood of even more explicitly bloodthirsty rhetoric directed at “the left”—with antifascists, Marxists, socialists, and anarchists blurred and bundled together with liberal Democrats and Biden—on social media, including Facebook, which despite having supposedly cracked down on the conspiracist “Stop the Steal” pages that flourished there after the election, remains home to hundreds of such pages.
The rhetoric became even more hysterical and violent at Parler, the social-media platform that caters to the far right. Journalist Nicholas Lee collected a number of examples of violent posts there, including such comments as:
“We need a civil war to cleanse these vipers out of America.”
“The tree of liberty needs to be refreshed at this point.”
“It’s time to go to all state capitals and DC and start building gallows. Public trials with public juries. No wait time if found guilty of treason.”
“Someone needs to post up near [a Michigan vote-certification official’s] house to make sure he has a nife accident. Soon American Patriots like myself are gonna start poppin these fools. I give credit to Americans in the 50s and 60s. They had the balls to shoot politicians in public. Its time we start using Pablo Escobar tactics.”
It’s gonna be interesting to dig through what Barr was trying to do. If there’s a paper trail for real insurrectionary organization with his ad hoc prison cop militia and / or coordination with armed right wing militias that’ll be something.
——————-
get a bunch of them together, egging each other on, and you have a mob.
Don’t discount these people. We (collectively, not necessarily here) trivialized trump for too long and look where we are now.
——————–
This horrible ignorant hate speech is why the silence of the Republicans in Washington is so very damning. Their silence in this serious moment is criminal.
lumipunasays
tomh:
An organization called FightBack, a right-wing non-profit took credit for posting the $2 million bond for Rittenhouse. I assume it will be returned to them. Pretty good deal.
“Trump appears to be skipping a side-event at the G20 virtual summit focused on pandemic preparedness. The President has just arrived at his golf course in Virginia.”
World leaders stressed the importance of having a comprehensive and international response to the coronavirus as the pandemic forced them to conduct this year’s Group of 20 summit virtually.
Leaders who spoke during the online confab underscored the importance of working together to combat a historic pandemic that has put virtually every country at risk, killing over 1.37 million people and infecting nearly 58 million.
“This has been an extraordinary year. The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented shock that affected the entire world within a short period of time, causing global economic and social losses. Our peoples and economies are still suffering from this shock,” Saudi Arabia King Salman, who hosted the conference, said in his opening remarks. “However, we will do our best to overcome this crisis through international cooperation.”
“We have a duty to rise to the challenge together during this summit and give a strong message of hope and reassurance,” he added.
[…] The International Labor Organization estimates roughly 225 million full-time jobs were lost in G-20 countries just during 2020’s third quarter.
[…] The speed with which the virus has spread in recent weeks has alarmed public health experts, who note that the current crisis could be exacerbated during the winter months when social events are moved to indoor settings where the virus can spread more easily spread.
The World Health Organization reported that more cases of COVID-19 have been tallied in roughly the past month than in the first six months of the outbreak. […]
Michael Beschloss: “In summer 1974, during Watergate, Nixon called George Wallace and asked for help swaying a crucial Alabama member of Congress—he asked if Wallace was still with him. Wallace said, ‘No, Mr. President, ’m afraid I’m not’. After hanging up, Nixon said, ‘There goes the Presidency’.”
Bill Newman, who is the Mayor of Lincoln County, Tennessee […] has not issued a mask mandate, despite the recent surge in cases across the country. Is it because the county has not had that many cases and is relatively fine right now? Not so much. 1,300 of the 34,000 people who live in the county have had the virus so far, and with the way things are going right now, that number will likely go up.
So why isn’t he issuing a mandate just yet? Well, he says he believes that masks stop the spread of the virus, so it isn’t that. Heck, as a veterinarian, he is a man of science. It is because the Holy Ghost has not personally come to him and said “Hey Bill Newman, Mayor of Lincoln County, Tennessee and not Mr. French, you should issue a mask mandate!”
No, really.
Via AL.com:
“(The virus) is science and it’s true and I do believe masking helps prevent the spread of it,” Newman said. “But I don’t feel I should mandate people wearing masks at this time.”
Newman said he keeps up with the COVID-19 numbers in Lincoln County, directly north of Huntsville, Ala., where he is chief executive in a Tennessee system that has county mayors to run the state’s smaller counties.
Lincoln County is mostly rural with about 34,000 residents, and Newman said about a third of those head south to Huntsville and Madison County every day for work. It is Trump Country with 78 percent of its vote on Nov. 3 going to the president and it has had 1,322 COVID cases since the pandemic began, according to state numbers.
Newman said he takes any big decision to God for guidance. And in his Baptist denomination, Newman said, that guidance comes from the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit dwells within us,” Newman said. “It’s a heart thing. It’s not a mind thing. But you’re using all your God-given (talents), your physical or mental or spiritual, all those things. When I pray for guidance, I may not know the answer immediately.”
Now, I don’t know a whole lot about religion. I had to Google to find out if there is a difference between the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost […] and there is not (I am sticking with Holy Ghost because it sounds more fun than Holy Spirit). But if there is one thing I do know about the Holy Ghost, it is that it basically invented social distancing. [Image at the link shows a man and a woman dancing to “Christian rock” with a lot of space between them, and with instructions to “Insert Holy Spirit here” between their hips.]
[…] I am fairly ignorant on these subjects, but it does seem super weird to me that people who follow a religion founded by a dude who got nailed to a cross — and willingly! — are such wusses about wearing a mask. What Would Jesus Do, indeed! I mean, didn’t Christians used to wear hair shirts and things to prove how holy they were? […]
Some other Christians seemed to agree with me, and questioned why Newman would think the Holy Spirit/Ghost/Poltergeist/Whatever would want people to get sick in the first place.
VIA CBS News19:
“I don’t feel comfortable at all and yes it’s very worrisome,” said Brad Bates of Fayetteville. “Not following the science, and taking actions to protect other people, doesn’t feel very Christian to me.”
Meanwhile on social media, a Facebook Group called MaskUpLincolnCounty has amassed over 280 followers and is on a mission to change people’s attitudes. One person posting about the mayor said, “The Holy Spirit will never advise us to do anything harmful to others. He is making a mockery of it.”
I mean … it does seem odd. Like what does Newman think the Holy Ghost’s motive would be, re: opposing a mask mandate? Also isn’t the Holy Ghost supposed to be the same thing as Jesus? Which would mean that Newman thinks it would maybe say “Hmmm… I don’t know. Crucifixion is one thing, but wearing a mask? Little uncomfortable, don’t you think?”
A discussion of Donald Junior’s COVID-19 diagnosis, from Wonkette:
Donald Trump Jr., as you may have heard, has been diagnosed with COVID-19, which must have come as a huge surprise to him, given that he was so certain it would be totally over after the election.
He gave a little speech about it last night on Instagram, […] asking for Netflix recommendations because of how he can only clean so many guns. [Video at the link.]
Apparently, he was planning on going on a special trip with his kid and got tested out of “an abundance of precaution” and tested positive. He says he is asymptomatic, which probably means that he will assume that everyone else’s experience with COVID-19 is exactly like his, and continue being an asshole about things because that is just how he rolls.
(Slightly off topic, but can I just say that my throat actually hurts from listening to him speak? He is straining so hard to make his voice lower that it is legitimately painful to listen to. He’s gonna get polyps on his vocal cords if he keeps that up.)
You know what’s generally a bad idea though? Going around making fun of a virus and acting like it’s nothing and you will never get it, probably because the mean scientists all made it up to make your dad look bad. Because then if you do get it, it will seem very poetic.
[…] Don Junior absolutely does. And he is actually religious! Supposedly! Shouldn’t he be worried that God will strike him in the neck with a lightning bolt for half of the things he says? I mean, look at these Instagram posts. They’re basically just screaming “Come and get me, universe!” into the void. They’re a legit death wish. [Image Junior posted that says, “THE REAL VIRUS IS COMMUNISM, COVID-19 IS JUST HOW IT SPREADS.”
[snipped some other examples]
“Exactly as predicted. Democrats used the pandemic panic as a political tool.”
[…] It is possible that Junior contracted the virus at the same event where all of the other Trump people who didn’t take the virus seriously contracted it — their election night party.
Via CNN:
Trump Jr. was among the roughly 250 guests who attended the White House’s indoor election night party, where nearly every attendee was seen not wearing a mask. Other party attendees have since tested positive, including Meadows, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and White House political affairs director Brian Jack. A source familiar with the matter had told CNN at the time that all guests were to receive a rapid test for Covid-19.
Guess that didn’t work out! But hey, it’s not certain he got it there. He could have gotten it being while irresponsible in myriad other ways. […]
“I MYSELF have held the hand of dying patients who are crying out for their family that they can’t see. I’ve taken care of co-workers as they fight for their lives on a ventilator, and knowing that they got sick because the hospital or their government hasn’t protected them.” Those words from Minnesota nurse Mary Turner about her experiences on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic were delivered on a day when nearly 2,000 Americans died from the virus and during the week when the United States reached the grim milestone of 250,000 people dead. She cried talking about the suffering during a conference call Wednesday with President-elect Joe Biden. He too seemed near tears.
More and more Americans are crying for lives lost. For people such as Tony Stempeck, 63, a restaurateur in Reno, Nev., who was an unfailing volunteer at his daughters’ schools. Amanda Bouffioux, 44, an administrative assistant in Alaska who was taking community college courses in hopes of one day owning her own business. Elvia Ramirez, just 17 and starting her senior year of high school on an Indian reservation in North Dakota. Choua Yang, 53, a Hmong refugee who fled Laos when the government fell to the communists and built a life in Minnesota as an educator helping other Hmong immigrants. Fred Dean, 68, renowned National Football League defensive end who helped lead the San Francisco 49ers to two championships. Rebecca Cryer, 73, who survived the explosion of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City to continue her legal career and become a judge. Jeannette Williams-Parker, 48, the first — but tragically not the last — nurse to die in West Virginia from coronavirus complications.
In March, when the virus was still mainly limited to hot spots such as New York City, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted that it might kill up to 240,000 Americans. That mark, almost unimaginable at the time, has been passed as the pandemic rages across the country. No state is untouched; particularly hard hit have been the Midwest and the South.
The United States is not alone in the world in suffering the deadly health and economic effects of the pandemic, but it is almost singular in its government’s failure to mount a concerted effort to contain the virus. […] Trump’s ineptitude borders on the criminal, and governors who went along with his happy talk about the virus just one day disappearing are now seeing residents in their states pay the price. Only now are some of them coming around to action, such as mask mandates.
There is promising news about coronavirus vaccines, but relief remains months away at best. With 253,000 dead — and the number sure to climb — health-care professionals on the front lines still don’t have the equipment they need or the cooperation from the public for whom they risk their lives. “We’re seeing the worst of the worst and these patients are dying, and you go home at the end of the night and you drive by bars and you drive by restaurants and they’re packed full and people aren’t wearing masks,” said Michelle Cavanaugh, a nurse at the Nebraska Medicine medical center in Omaha. “I wish that I could get people to see covid through my eyes.”
A lawsuit brought by President Trump’s campaign that sought to block the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results was dismissed by a federal judge on Saturday evening.
U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann granted a request from Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar to dismiss the suit, which alleged that Republicans had been illegally disadvantaged because some counties allowed voters to fix errors on their mail ballots.
The judge’s decision, which he explained in a scathing 37-page opinion, was a thorough rebuke of the president’s sole attempt to challenge the statewide result in Pennsylvania.
Brann wrote that Trump’s campaign had used “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations” in its effort to throw out millions of votes.
“In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state,” Brann wrote.
[…]
In Pennsylvania, Trump’s campaign sued Boockvar and a group of counties won by Biden, alleging that they had violated the campaign’s constitutional rights by allowing voters to “cure” administrative errors on their mail ballots.
Brann wrote on Saturday that Trump’s attorneys had haphazardly stitched this allegation together “like Frankenstein’s Monster” in an attempt to avoid unfavorable legal precedent.
[…]
Earlier on Saturday, a group of Republicans, led by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), filed a lawsuit in the state’s Commonwealth Court that seeks to block certification of the results on the grounds that the 2019 state legislation creating a universal vote-by-mail system was unconstitutional.
Trump said in a tweet on Saturday that Kelly’s legal effort was “not at all frivolous.”
Although appointed by Obama, Judge Matthew W. Brann is no wild-eyed liberal. Brann is a registered Republican and a former member of the Federalist Society. Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), who played an influential role in his appointment, said Brann was “a longtime conservative Republican whom I know to be a fair and unbiased jurist.”
KGsays
SC@446,
In the comments at your link, I’m seeing quite a number saying the Trumpist actions are all about bringing in money. I’m sure that is one aspect of it, but (admittedly without using the word), Trump’s lawyer herself, Sidney Powell, announced that what’s going on is an attempted coup. It reminds me of Max Frisch’s The Fire-Raisers. Biden needs to stop faffing about, denounce the attempt to overturn the election, and launch legal actions against those involved, while the left needs to get large-scale (masked and distanced) demonstrations underway and prepare for a general strike.
Summarizes much of what’s been discussed here, and includes the news that Kelly Loeffler has now tested positive. She received positive results from a PCR test later Friday after campaigning maskless all day with Perdue and Pence, but her staff say the results of a second test yesterday came back “inconclusive,” so she’s being tested more.
“Jeb Bush is picking a fight with @ratemyskyperoom & the replies are incredible & I don’t even know where to begin but John Fetterman got involved & ‘please clap’ is happening & I really really needed these laffs…”
The chief executive over the Voice of America and its sister networks has acted unconstitutionally in investigating what he claimed was a deep-seated bias against President Trump by his own journalists, a federal judge has ruled.
Citing the journalists’ First Amendment protections, U.S. Judge Beryl Howell on Friday evening ordered U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Michael Pack to stop interfering in the news service’s news coverage and editorial personnel matters. She struck a deep blow at Pack’s authority to continue to force the news agency to cover the president more sympathetically.
Actions by Pack and his aides have likely “violated and continue to violate [journalists’] First Amendment rights because, among other unconstitutional effects, they result in self-censorship and the chilling of First Amendment expression,” Howell wrote in her opinion. “These current and unanticipated harms are sufficient to demonstrate irreparable harm.”
Trump nominated Pack to be chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media more than two years ago, and the U.S. Senate finally confirmed him in June. Pack has since turned the agency upside down, firing and suspending top executives, reassigning Voice of America’s top standards executive and initiating investigations of journalists for individual stories about the political campaign between Trump and Joe Biden, now the president-elect. Several contractors were dismissed; an editor was suspended.
…
“The Court confirmed that the First Amendment forbids Mr. Pack and his team from attempting to take control of these journalistic outlets, from investigating their journalists for purported ‘bias,’ and from attempting to influence or control their reporting content,” Lee Crain, a lead attorney for the executives who sued Pack, said in a written statement. “We are deeply grateful for Chief Judge Howell’s opinion, which ensures that the journalists at Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and their sister networks can rest assured that the First Amendment protects them from government efforts to control editorial and journalistic content.”
In several instances, those investigations were conducted by two political appointees at USAGM: Frank Wuco, who circulated conspiracy theories as a conservative radio talk show host before becoming a Homeland Security official under Trump, and Samuel Dewey, an investigative attorney who previously worked for Republicans on Capitol Hill and has a strong pro-Trump Twitter feed. Dewey also made specific demands over coverage of fraught political issues, including the Black Lives Matter movement, according to materials in the legal challenge.
…
Attorneys from the U.S. Justice Department last week argued that the free speech protections of the First Amendment don’t apply to employees of Voice of America, despite its mission, as they work for the government.
“Voice of America is a government agency; its speech, even in a journalistic capacity, is government speech,” a team of federal attorneys led by acting U.S. Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark wrote. “In sum, it is consistent with the Constitution for the CEO to control the content of the networks’ broadcasts. The networks are not protected by the First Amendment, and Congress has not extended those protections to the networks by statute.”
Howell, the chief U.S. District Court judge for the District of Columbia, rejected that reasoning and issued a preliminary injunction against Pack and USAGM from taking or influencing any editorial decisions or personnel. A half-dozen current employees at the agency and at Voice of America have told NPR they are concerned about what actions he might take before the Trump administration ends. They spoke on condition they not be named, pointing to the firings and suspensions under Pack.
In June, the Biden campaign told Vox that it intended to fire Pack; its ability to do so was cemented in part by a Supreme Court ruling won by the Trump administration to dismiss the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, even though it is an independent agency.
Georgia Voting System Implementation Manager (and Republican) Gabe Sterling: “So this is fun…multiple attempted hacks of my emails, police protection around my home, the threats. But all is well…following the the law, following the process…doing our jobs.”
NOW: Sidney Powell on Judge Brann’s ruling, speaking on @Newsmax: “This particular judge was appointed by President Obama, we really don’t expect to win a lot of the district court cases but ultimately the Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court will have to get it right.”
More Powell: “We haven’t even begun to present the big fraud case yet that I’m still working on, and it’s going to be a blockbuster.”
Sidney Powell is now on Newsmax alleging that “thousands” of people participated in a conspiracy that has been going on for decades.
Powell: “Georgia is probably going to be the first state I’m going to blow up and, and Mr Kemp and the Secretary of State need to go with it.”
Powell now accusing Kemp and Raffensperger of receiving financial benefits in exchange for using Dominion voting machines. Newsmax host asks her to clarify, she says: “We have certainly been told that there is evidence of that.”
Newsmax host to Powell: “Everything you’re alleging, frankly, is nuts…”
Powell now telling Newsmax that Bernie Sanders actually won the Democratic primary in 2016 but the machines were rigged to give Hillary Clinton the win, says Sanders knows but he was paid off to keep quiet.
As the United States recorded its 12th million Covid-19 case, the Trump administration’s vaccine program adviser predicted that life in America could be back to normal around May of 2021 as immunisation is set to begin.
The note of optimism came even as millions of Americans were expected to travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday this week and many appeared to be ignoring warnings from health officials about furthering the spread of the infectious disease.
Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser of the government’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine development and distribution program, which involves the military and the private sector as well as government health experts, said that pending regulatory approval for the first vaccine means the first Americans could be vaccinated outside of clinical trial by mid-December.
And Slaoui said that if the vaccination distribution and immunisation plan goes well, enough Americans should be vaccinated by “May or something like that” of 2021 to allow life to go back to normal.
A video has gone viral of a confrontation at a coronavirus lockdown protest in Hannover, Germany, where a young woman compared herself to a famous Nazi resistance fighter and then was accused by a security guard of “trivialising” the Holocaust.
The Associated Press reported that the woman spoke on stage and told fellow protesters “I feel like Sophie Scholl, since I’ve been active in the resistance, giving speeches, going to protests, distributing flyers.”
Scholl fought the Nazis with her brother and other members of the resistance group White Rose. After distributing flyers at a Munich university, she was convicted of high treason and was executed aged 22 by the Nazis in 1943.
While the female [not sure why this is necessary here – SC] protester was talking, a security guard approached the stage, saying repeatedly that “I’m not going to be a security guard for this kind of idiocy.” and calling her speech “a trivialisation of the Holocaust.” He was ushered away and she threw down the mic.
German foreign minister Heiko Maas tweeted that the comparison with Scholl “mocks the bravery that was needed to take a stand against the Nazis.”
“Nothing connects the corona protests with the resistance fighters. Nothing!” he wrote.
There have been just over 14,000 coronavirus-related deaths in Germany, about a quarter of those in the UK.
Here’s a tweet with the video. Seems like she starts crying before she throws down the microphone and walks off.
“Top vaccine official says it’d help if they could speak to Biden team. ‘Of course smoothness is what we all aim for and therefore it would be better’, Moncef Slaoui of Operation Warp Speed says on @CNNSotu. ‘I hope transitions will happen smoothly and things will be into order’.”
Ron Klain: “I agree with Dr. Slaoui on this point. I’m sure most Americans do.”
South Dakota vs Vermont: 2 small states w big differences
-SD: heartless/headless— governor & Hosp ceo say masks are just symbols, no actions
-VT: heart & head— found hotels for homeless, pay low income ppl to isolate…
I remember in the spring I kept seeing all sorts of data about population density, implying that many states would see little impact simply because they were relatively rural. But it’s been about public policy and leadership all along. Many towns, states, and countries that are much more densely populated have done much better than many rural places because the people in charge followed the science, led responsibly, and focused on protecting vulnerable people (including homeless people and those whose jobs put them at greater risk) and supporting people financially/practically so they could keep themselves and others safe.
“‘It’s working!’ Check out the critters big and small who are using Utah’s first wildlife overpass to cross Interstate 80. The @UtahDWR shared this video on Thursday.”
SC @470, those are very good points. Thanks for posting that. The relatively rural, less densely populated area where I live now has alarmingly high rates of COVID-19 infection, and problems with hospitals being overwhelmed. Low population density did not protect my community. Political leadership in this state has been terrible and/or inconsistent. Our political leaders have made things worse. The messaging is mostly about freedom and not wearing masks. People do not practice social distancing. Leadership has failed.
The Trump campaign on Saturday requested a formal recount of the 5 million presidential votes in Georgia in an apparent effort to exhaust its options for challenging the result in a state that narrowly backed President-elect Joe Biden.
Biden’s victory in Georgia was certified Friday by the secretary of state and governor after a painstaking audit that involved a manual hand recount. It found no evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities that would change the outcome of the race. But because Biden’s margin of victory was less than 0.5 percent of votes cast, the losing candidate can request a recount of the results under state law.
[…]
The rescanning of ballots through counting machines will probably take less time than the week-long audit, which was the largest of its kind in U.S. history in terms of ballots manually recounted…
Georgia state law does not require the campaign to pay for the recount, meaning the state’s taxpayers are set to finance the recount for the second time.
President Donald Trump has spent the three weeks since he lost the election savaging a pair of GOP governors for not backing his claims he was robbed.
Republicans are worried it’s just the start of what’s in store from the soon-to-be-former president.
Trump’s attacks on Govs. Brian Kemp of Georgia and Mike DeWine Ohio — both of whom are up for reelection in 2022 — has led to broader concerns within the party that he will use his post-presidency to exact revenge on perceived enemies and insert himself into races in ways that are not helpful.
While the 2022 midterm elections are a ways off, the president’s broadsides are giving fuel to would-be primary challengers in both states — raising the prospect that Republicans will be forced into ugly and expensive nomination fights that could jeopardize their hold on the two governors’ mansions.
Trump’s intrusions into Georgia and Ohio provide an early test case for how he might use his stranglehold on the conservative base to control the party long after he leaves the White House. Never mind that Trump will no longer be in power: Cross him, and you will pay.
“The president’s jabs at Govs. Kemp and DeWine could invite primaries, and that’s exactly the chatter he wants to start,” said Republican strategist Mike DuHaime, who oversaw Chris Christie’s successful New Jersey gubernatorial campaigns.
“The power the president holds over elected Republicans is due to his strength among GOP primary voters in every state and district right now. He may be able to make or break candidates in GOP primaries for years to come,” added DuHaime, who formerly served as a senior adviser to the Republican Governors Association.
Trump lashed out at DeWine after the governor’s appearance on CNN on Nov. 15, when the Ohio Republican called Joe Biden the president-elect and said that for “the country’s sake it’s important for a normal transition to start.”
Trump responded on Twitter, writing: “Who will be running for Governor of the Great State of Ohio? Will be hotly contested!”
The president has repeatedly gone after Kemp, imploring him to intervene to stop what Trump has baselessly claimed are irregularities in the state’s vote count. Trump complained on Twitter that “the whole process is very unfair and close to meaningless,” adding: “Where is @BrianKempGA?”
He also retweeted polling that show Kemp’s approval rating taking a hit. “Wow! Governor Kemp will hopefully see the light before it is too late. Must finally take charge!” he wrote.
Then he tagged Kemp in a tweet in which he demanded that Republicans “get tough.”
Trump allies have joined the pile-on. Fox News host Sean Hannity said Kemp is “cowering in fear,” and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz accused the governor of failing to ensure the integrity of the election.
…
Trump’s influence in Republican primaries could extend beyond Georgia and Ohio. He has already vowed to campaign against Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a sometime Trump critic who said in June that she was “struggling” with the question of whether she supported Trump.
“Few people know where they’ll be in two years from now, but I do, in the Great State of Alaska (which I love) campaigning against Senator Lisa Murkowski,” Trump tweeted at the time.
He added: “Get any candidate ready, good or bad, I don’t care, I’m endorsing. If you have a pulse, I’m with you!”
Republicans view Kemp as more vulnerable to a primary challenge than DeWine, noting that the Georgian has seen an erosion in support among conservatives….
…Saudi Arabia, the venue for Trump’s first overseas visit as a President, appears to be the hill on which his overseas influence has finally collapsed.
As best we know, no G20 participants told Trump to his virtual face that his time is up, and no one here will write him off until he is finally gone.
But he seemed to make the point himself as the G20 wrapped and the King delivered the final communique while surrounded by leaders in their zoom boxes, Trump was not in his chair — instead a disinterested underling, an apparent final gesture of contempt.
For many Trump’s exit from the top table of global decision-making will be a welcome break from four stormy years of bullying and lies. The metaphor was completed during the final G20 communique.
The world is ready for President-elect Joe Biden; the bar for success is low, but expectations are high.
Includes this description: “In a room full of reporters and officials in Riyadh, as Trump’s speech was played on a massive screen almost no one paid attention, unlike when the other leaders spoke.”
Yeah, I’m going with “NOT.” I think that both the speed of vaccine distribution, and the rate of vaccination will vary a lot by state. I think the prediction of “herd immunity” by the month of May thanks to a vaccination program paints too rosy a picture. July is more likely.
White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser of Operation Warp Speed, offered conflicting takes on Sunday regarding herd immunity as a result of COVID-19 vaccines.
Herd immunity has been pushed by Dr. Scott Atlas, Trump’s favorite COVID-19 adviser who opposes lockdowns and often espouses Trump rosy view on the pandemic that has killed more than 250,000 Americans thus far.
Last week, President-elect Joe Biden rebuked Trump on Wednesday for standing in the way of his formal transition, especially because the sitting president’s refusal to concede will put the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine during the Biden administration “behind by weeks or months.” […]
On Sunday, Slaoui was asked on CNN when the first vaccination in the country will happen.
“I would expect maybe on day two after approval, on the 11th or on the 12th of December, hopefully, the first people will be immunized across the United States, across all states, in all the areas where the state departments of health will have told us where to deliver the vaccine,” Slaoui said.
Pressed on how many Americans need to be immunized before normalcy returns, Slaoui replied that given the nearly 95% efficacy from COVID-19 vaccine trials thus far, it would take “95 percent, 70 percent or so of the population being immunized” to “allow for true herd immunity to take place.”
Slaoui claimed that such a scenario is “likely to happen somewhere in the month of May or something like that” based on Operation Warp Speed’s plans.
“I really hope and look forward to seeing that the level of negative perception of the vaccine decreases and people’s acceptance increase,” Slaoui said. “That’s going to be critical to help us. Most people need to be immunized before we can go back to a normal life.”
Fauci, who the White House has launched efforts to discredit as his public statements often don’t feed into Trump’s happy tune of downplaying the COVID-19 pandemic, refuted Slaoui’s optimistic projection for herd immunity as a result of a vaccine.
During an interview on CNN, Fauci was asked about Slaoui saying that herd immunity in the country could be achieved in May when the vaccine is distributed.
“You know, I don’t think so,” Fauci said, before adding that he “totally agrees” with Slaoui. “But there are a couple of things that go into the effectiveness of a vaccine program, a highly efficacious vaccine, and we’re there. We have two of them that have a 95% efficacy.”
Fauci added that the “other part of the equation” is how many people get vaccinated.
“So if you have a highly efficacious vaccine and only a relatively small 40-50% of the people get vaccinated, you’re not going to get the herd immunity you need,” Fauci said. “What we do need is we need to get as many people as possible vaccinated.”
Dominion spokesman: ‘It is not physically possible for our machines to switch votes from one candidate to the other.”
[…] “This is a nonpartisan American company. It is not physically possible for our machines to switch votes from one candidate to the other,” Michael Steel said on Fox News’ “America’s News HQ” Sunday.
“Let’s be very clear, our election system is run by local elected officials and nonpartisan poll watchers. We simply provide a tool to count the ballots and to print and count ballots,” he added. “There is no way such a massive fraud could have taken place and there are no connections between our company and Venezuela, Germany, Barcelona, Kathmandu, whatever the latest conspiracy theory is.” […]
More details about how the Dominion machines, and the associated printed copies of ballots work is available at the link.
MAGA fanatics are still pushing the Dominion conspiracy on Parler (their replacement for Twitter after Twitter kicked them off the platform, or flagged them, for posting disinformation). Parler identifies itself as a “free speech” social network, but it is really a bubble of misinformation inhabited by dunderheads who are now talking mostly to each other. It is a fever swamp.
Trump’s legal team is now asserting that DOUG COLLINS, not KELLY LOEFFLER would be participating in the January 5 runoff if Brian Kemp hadn’t rigged the voting machines.
Does LOEFFLER agree? Or will she admit that the Trump campaign’s claims of voter fraud are BS.
“We don’t know who bought their election.. I’m sure it crosses party lines.. I’m reasonably certain John James was ripped out of his seat, and he was entitled to have won that election by the real vote, and the same thing is true for Doug Collins in Georgia.” — @SidneyPowell1
Trump’s legal strategy has never made any sense but, over the last few days, it has managed to become even more unhinged….
More details concerning one of Trump’s losses in the courts:
Last Tuesday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared in federal court for the first time in 30 years, representing the Trump campaign in its efforts to prevent Pennsylvania from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in that state.
It was a disaster for Giuliani. The one-time mayor and senior federal prosecutor struggled to articulate what, exactly, was the basis of Trump’s legal claims. And he admitted that he was unfamiliar with basic legal terms such as “strict scrutiny,” one of the rudimentary vocabulary terms taught to every law student during their introduction to constitutional law.
On Saturday evening, Judge Matthew Brann released his opinion in this suit, Donald J. Trump for President v. Boockvar, and the judge did not pull punches. Brann didn’t just reject the Trump campaign’s legal arguments, he mocked the campaign for its inability to present a coherent argument — or to provide any legal support whatsoever for crucial elements on their claims.
Referring to the Trump campaign’s primary legal argument, Brann writes that “this claim, like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together from two distinct theories in an attempt to avoid controlling precedent.” And that’s just one of many scathing lines from a judge who is clearly frustrated with the incompetent lawyering on display in his courtroom.
It’s worth noting that, while Brann was appointed to the federal bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, the judge held multiple leadership positions within the Republican Party. […]
[…] Early in his opinion, Brann summarizes the lawsuit in ten damning words: “Plaintiffs ask this Court to disenfranchise almost seven million voters.” […] As Brann notes, “this Court has been unable to find any case in which a plaintiff has sought such a drastic remedy in the contest of an election, in terms of the sheer volume of votes asked to be invalidated.”
[…] “One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption,” Brann writes. But “that has not happened. Instead, this Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence.”
[…] At other points in his opinion, Brann calls out the Trump legal team’s inability to explain essential parts of their legal argument. In order to bring a case in federal court, for example, a plaintiff must show that they were injured in some way by the defendant — a requirement known as “standing.” Yet, as Brann writes, “the standing inquiry as to the Trump Campaign is particularly nebulous because neither in the [campaign’s amended complaint] nor in its briefing does the Trump Campaign clearly assert what its alleged injury is.”
[…] despite the harsh rhetoric in his opinion, Brann was extraordinarily generous to the Trump campaign and its lawyers. Rather than simply taking the incompetent arguments that were presented to him and rejecting them out of hand, the judge took the time to construct a coherent version of Trump’s arguments — and then he rejected that better version.
I could continue to beat this horse, but it’s already dead. Election law professor Rick Hasen said of Giuliani’s appearance in Brann’s courtroom, “I’ve never seen worse lawyering in an election law case in my life.” And Brann’s opinion makes it clear just how bad the Trump campaign’s lawyering was.
Trump attorney in 2020: Frank Luntz has a micropenis.”
Tweets atl. As I’ve said all through this whole woeful episode, I hate the gleeful humiliation or attempted humiliation of people around Trump or his real or perceived political enemies. That’s included Sessions, Tillerson, Ryan, Romney, and many others. It makes me sick, even when it’s people I loathe. Ruth Ben-Ghiat discusses in Strongmen how a common aim of these sorts of personalist regimes is to desensitize people to public humiliation, harassment, threats, and violence. They also want people to become accustomed to someone holding power one day and being turned out and dispatched by the leader the next for a perceived lack of personal loyalty, and to turn on a dime to believe people they were led to hold in high esteem were actually criminals and plotters all along.
Difficult to believe with representation like this that the president has lost so many cases in court.
In other news, “Cleveland coronavirus cases up 1,200 percent since early October.”
The Cleveland area has seen its number of coronavirus cases skyrocket by 1,259 percent in the past seven weeks according to the Ohio Department of Health, as cases across the country continue to climb.
On Oct. 1, when Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) released an advisory alert map, the Cleveland/Akron area was reporting an average of 83 cases a day, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Now, the area is averaging 1,134 cases a day.
The Buckeye State, like many states in recent weeks, on Friday broke its record for new cases in a single day, reporting 8,808 cases. So far, 343,286 coronavirus cases and 5,984 deaths have been reported in Ohio. […]
Last week, Columbus health officials announced a month-long health advisory, urging residents to only leave the home for essential needs, work and school.
“I’m not going to mince words: We have entered a dangerous time in our fight against COVID-19. This surge is much scarier than we saw in the spring or again in the summer,” Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther (D) said after the advisory was announced. […]
Three dozen Texas National Guard troops were deployed to El Paso County to aid in “mortuary affairs support” amid a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths in the state.
The Texas Division of Emergency Management said a total of 36 troops had been deployed, according to CNN. El Paso Mayor Dee Margo (R) said city and county officials have established a central location for a morgue in the city.
The troops are set to replace the jail inmates the county previously deployed to transport the bodies of those who died from the virus in the area, CNN reported.
Chris Acosta, a spokesperson for El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed last week that while inmates are typically not compensated for such work, the inmates in question volunteered on the condition that they be compensated.
“As we’ve seen a rapid increase in cases and hospitalizations, we are unfortunately also seeing a spike in deaths,” Margo tweeted Friday. “We have been working closely with funeral homes and mortuaries to assist with increased capacity and coordination of resources.”
“The Texas Military will provide us with the critical personnel to carry out our fatality management plan and we are very grateful to them for their ongoing support,” Margo added. […]
[…] James Stavridis wrote in an op-ed for Fortune magazine that the U.S. government must task more than one company with distributing the COVID-19 vaccine if it hopes to succeed in immunizing enough of the population.
“A key tenet in the military’s operational planning for any contingency is to never allow for a single point of failure,” Stavridis wrote. “Our military regularly scrutinizes each part of an operation to ensure every contingency has been considered and no resources are left on the sideline. The scale and importance of a COVID-19 vaccination program demands the U.S. government focus on resilience.”
Stavridis notes that the U.S. government hopes to provide enough vaccines for at least 300 million people and has so far only hired one drug distributor, McKesson, to handle this enormous task.
“Putting all of our eggs in a single basket exposes our vaccination process to the potential for what we in the military call a single point of failure risk,” writes Stavridis.
[…] “The parameters around who will receive the vaccine, when, and how are still murky. The sooner the process is made more transparent, the more trust and confidence the public will feel.”
The former U.S. Navy admiral suggested that the government use the military, which is already running exercises in case of distribution failures, to test how effectively multiple companies could distribute the vaccine.
“The U.S. has the most professional military in the world. I have no doubt that with the Defense Department supporting the development, production, and distribution of COVID vaccines, America can carry out an effective vaccination program,” Stavridis wrote. […]
A spike in coronavirus cases has brought the Washington region to the brink of the toughest season of the pandemic so far, experts say, with the coming winter poised to eclipse the virus’s impact in the spring.
“This is probably the worst” of the pandemic, Joshua Sharfstein, a former top FDA official and Johns Hopkins University public health professor, said of the next three months. “We’re staring at the big battle with covid right now.”
Already, the past two weeks brought record caseloads and a test positivity rate that climbed well past 5 percent and into territory that experts consider widespread community transmission of the virus.
Public health experts and hospital administrators say the abrupt rise in new cases is unlikely to abate in the next few weeks and could foreshadow a more difficult December, followed by an even rougher January and a darker February.
[…] Part of the surge was expected, as colder weather pushed people indoors into environments more hospitable to spreading the virus. But small social gatherings — places where people may feel lax about distancing or mask-wearing — have become a primary source of transmission, according to contact tracing data.
[…] The record numbers the region posted over the past few weeks suggest a large amount of the virus is coursing through the area undetected, experts said.
“Even if everybody immediately — today — complied with everything the governor said … we’d still see several weeks of increases,” said Clifford S. Mitchell, the director of Maryland’s Environmental Health Bureau.
“Obviously, holidays have some impact, but honestly, much more of it has to do with everyday activity that people are doing,” Mitchell said. “That’s the thing that day after day is driving transmission.”
[…] The coronavirus pandemic has caused such upheaval in the region’s hospital network that 30-year-olds now are being admitted to the region’s preeminent children’s hospital to help lighten the load. […]
Grifting a free vacation? Going the extra mile—or extra 8,000 miles—to pretend there’s no presidential transition from Donald Trump to Joe Biden? Whatever it is, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler is packing on the official travel miles in his final weeks in government before he presumably heads back to being a fossil fuel lobbyist.
Wheeler will be traveling to Taiwan in December and Latin America in January. The Taiwan trip will involve a $250,000 charter flight as a coronavirus precaution, and, The New York Times reports, “Two people knowledgeable about the trip said meetings with top officials in Taiwan were not planned far in advance as is typical of such trips, and instead were hurriedly cobbled together.”
Wheeler’s EPA defended the planned trip by noting that Obama-era EPA head Gina McCarthy went to Taiwan. In 2014, in the middle of President Obama’s second term. Not during a pandemic.
The Taiwan trip is “to collaborate on issues including the Save our Seas initiative and marine litter, air quality, and children’s health,” an EPA spokesman said. But of course the about-to-be-replaced EPA head is not an essential participant in such efforts.
As for the Latin America trip, it’s even sketchier, somehow. The “people knowledgeable about the trip” told the Times there were no concrete plans, “only a preference for countries to visit.” Stated policy goals? Nah, there aren’t any of those.
[…] getting in a few last expensive, unnecessary trips while pretending the Biden presidency isn’t about to begin is just what you’d expect for the last gasps of Trumpian grifting.
It must really be something for Republicans and Fox News to realize with chilling clarity that they have been so successful at radicalizing their base that their base is now moving beyond them in a desperate search of further radicalization.
Here’s video of # 467 with English subtitles. The security guard should get an award. The speaker is young and has time to learn and grow. Sophie and Hans Scholl had Kurt Huber. These people have YouTube and Facebook.
NEW statement from Rudy Giuliani & Jenna Ellis: “Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.”
Powell, Giuliani & Ellis all spoke at this week’s presser at the RNC.
The article is everything you might expect, she appeared on the QAnon youtube channel, spread all the conspiracy theories, etc. This has gone on for several years. Perfect lawyer for Michael Flynn.
Hey! Check out our Halloween fundraiser!
“So [Trump’s legal team] filed their complaint in the wrong court. After the judge fixed the problem, they nonetheless filed the wrong kind of motion to fix it, which the judge had to write another order about.
To be clear, these are not complicated things for lawyers to do….”
Democracy Now! has some responses to Biden’s election from around the world. They’re all worthwhile.
“Brazil: Trump Ally Bolsonaro Refuses to Acknowledge Biden Win & Downplays COVID as Death Toll Mounts.”
“‘More of an Exorcism Than an Election’: Priya Gopal on What Biden Win Means for Britain & Ireland.”
“South African Activist Kumi Naidoo: Trump is Attempting a Coup to Install Minority Rule.”
Very tiny bit of good news: So, there’s this nazi fuck on twitter that I’ve been keeping an eye on for months, and reporting whenever he posted anything over the line. Well, his account is now suspended.
Small steps, but it honestly made me cheer out loud.
Since we’re starting a new chapter of the thread, here again is the link to today’s Guardian coronavirus world liveblog (support the Guardian if you can!).
Horrifying and despicable.
“Adding smirking insult to injury vis-à-vis the Palestinians, @SecPompeo is slated to visit a West Bank winery that last February, in a naked PR move, named a bottle after him.”
The bottle’s label, pictured at the link, says “#madeinlegality,” which is a lie.
LykeX @ #2, well done!
“Still maintain the craziest thing about this election is that Corn Pop turned out to be real.”
“The best thing us deep-blue-staters can do to help the Georgia runoffs is give them all the money and none of the advice.
Stacey Abrams, et al, know what they’re doing….”
Donation links atl.
“Navarro pulls a Pompeo. Neither man is telling a joke despite what you might have heard.”
Video atl.
“Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, the law firm leading the Trump campaign’s efforts to cast doubt on the presidential election results in Pennsylvania, abruptly withdrew from a federal lawsuit that it filed days earlier on behalf of President Trump.”
NYT link atl.
Ari Melber yesterday – “After Trump Lost Election, See How He’s Losing In Court”:
7-minute YT video atl.
From the Guardian world liveblog (linked @ #3 above):
@9
“Immaculate deception”? Trumpies have become dumber than stupid. Is there even a word for it.
Marc Elias: “I must say, I have never seen this before. Typically, you have evidence first and then file a lawsuit.
From the PA lawsuit filed by voters to stop certification…”
The highlighted passage reads:
“SCOOP: More than 130 Secret Service officers are said to be infected with coronavirus or quarantining in wake of Trump’s campaign blitz… ”
WaPo (Carol Leonnig and Josh Dawsey) link atl.
“Friday morning update on Biden’s leads:
AZ: 12K
GA: 14K
WI: 21K
NV: 37K
PA: 60K
MI: 146K
Biden now leads Trump nationally by 5.4 million and is the only candidate to ever hit 78 million votes.
It only felt close because Republicans blocked efforts to count mail-in votes early.”
As I said in the previous chapter, the NYT and the networks have called AZ for Biden now. AZ won’t go to a recount because the lead is too large for an automatic recount and candidates can’t request one there.
The Georgia audit starts today.
Also, China has now congratulated Biden. Still not offering congratulations (as far as I know at the moment): Trump, the Republican “leadership,” Putin, AMLO, Bolsonaro.
“USA TODAY Sports found that at least 298,000 Americans voted at a pro sports arena or stadium in the 2020 election.
‘When (those venues) made themselves available, that solved major problems for election officials’.”
“Q is back, in the most vague and pathetic way possible….”
Oh, good grief.
I’m just going to leave this here:
“NEW: Following a rough hearing yesterday, the Trump campaign’s lawyer in Arizona has admitted there isn’t a case related to SharpieGate that affects the presidential race.
In the notice of mootness, he indicates there aren’t enough votes at stake to make a difference….”
Laura Kuenssberg, BBC:
Congratulations to Josh Marshall and the talented and dedicated people at TPM!
SC @11, Ari Melber did such a good job with that summary. He made his points clearly.
Republicans are flooding Georgia with field operatives ahead of the runoff races. I am worried that their ground game will also worsen the spread of coronavirus in that state.
From info posted by SC, I saw that Peter Navarro was claiming that Trump won the election. Sheesh. He presented that lie in a completely serious way. He was not joking. He is, of course, not the only Republican lying about election results. Here’s another one:
@ #17
No location had more than the Atlanta Hawks (NBA) Arena where 40,000 people voted, in an election that had 4,000 vote difference. It could have made the difference, who knows. Pro basketball players, led by Lebron James, made a big push to get people to vote.
“Charles Koch’s regrets: In a rare interview, the libertarian billionaire concedes that his GOP partisanship and activism badly deepened America’s divisions. As he puts it in his new book, ‘Boy, did we screw up! What a mess!'”
GO. FUCK. YOURSELF.
Alito drops pretense of impartiality, delivers political remarks
“By any fair measure, Alito sounded less like a Supreme Court justice and more like a partisan politician, eagerly sharing his views with like-minded allies.”
Yesterday: “Charles Koch’s machine is pouring cash into David Perdue’s Georgia Runoff”
Also yesterday: “Americans for Prosperity, the Koch ‘grassroots’ political group, received a whopping 86% of its $52.6m 2019 revenue from just TWO donors. Very grassroots then. This is taken from a recently filed auditors report. AFP recently dumped millions in the #2020Elections to help the GOP”
SC @25, Charles Koch could have done some good with all that money. The damage he did instead is decades long.
Koch bemoaned the fact that he deepened divisions in the USA, and here’s House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy still digging in that same trench: GOP leaders seek acceptance for Congress’ new QAnon adherents
The Republican Party on Capitol Hill doesn’t have to tolerate the QAnon candidates who won their elections. It’s nevertheless choosing to do so.
@ 24
Oops, I meant 14,000 in Georgia.
Marc Elias:
Marjorie Taylor Greene (discussed in Lynna’s #29 above) tweeted:
Congress has a mandatory mask policy.
SC @32, that woman is danger to herself and others.
In other news, Trump is still not doing his job:
Link
For Republican liars trying to delegitimize the election, no recount will be enough.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/georgia-hand-count-audit
More at the link, including photos.
Sigh. More debunking of claims made by dim-bulb Trump:
Link
Guardian world liveblog:
I’m looking forward to seeing Biden restore National Monuments that Trump trashed. Years ago, I wrote a guidebook to both designated and proposed wilderness areas in Utah. I know these public lands well, and it was painful to see Trump decimate them.
Here are some excerpts from an article by Chris D’Angelo:
Trump was interviewed by Washington Examiner correspondent Byron York:
Link
West Coast states issue travel advisory ahead of Thanksgiving week
Zoe Tillman:
Order atl. They’re losing these cases at such a clip it’s hard to keep up.
Trump is holding a press conference today to brag about the coronavirus vaccine, an effort for which he can take no credit. The press conference is supposed to begin at 4 p.m. EST.
NBC has called Georgia for Biden.
From Wonkette:
“NEW: @NYGovCuomo & governors from other northeastern states will have an emergency summit this weekend to address COVID spread.
Gov Cuomo: ‘We believe we’re going to have to be taking additional steps and to the degree we can share information & align action, we’ll do that’.”
From Kentucky Senator Rand Paul:
Commentary:
Link
NYT and CNN also calling Georgia for Biden, bringing him to 306 EC votes.
In the United States, QAnon is struggling. The conspiracy is thriving overseas.
Washington Post link
More at the link.
SC @46, Yay! And now I wonder how many more of Trump’s lawyers will just jump ship.
Mieke Eoyang re the event scheduled today (see Lynna’s #41 above): “Hey, maybe the networks should take the President on a delay in case he calls for inciting a riot and they can cut away before he does so.”
There are reports of a hostage situation at the video game company Ubisoft in Montreal.
SC @49, I was thinking the same thing. We cannot depend on Trump to only, to simply deliver an update on the status of the vaccine.
In other news: Joe Biden expected to roll back abortion restrictions early on in his administration
That Viral Tweet About Suicide Rates in the Pandemic Is Wrong and Dangerous
“It was debunked months ago. […] it’s still spreading.”
On Thursday, a social media post from Jake Tapper included an odd call to action, at least for a CNN anchor: “could 2 followers please copy and re-post this tweet?”
The rest of the text contained an alarming, if vague, statement about mental health, along with further specific instructions for sharing:
As might be obvious, Tapper didn’t write this himself. It’s also not quite accurate.
[…] Back in June, a tweet stating that “suicide figures are up 200% since lockdown,” with the same call to action as Tapper’s and the phone number for a hotline in the U.K., went viral. Shayan Sardarizadeh, who covers disinformation for the BBC, fact-checked that figure at the time, finding no evidence that suicides had gone up—national suicide rates for 2020 in the U.K. had not even been released at that point, given that the year hadn’t ended. (A report from September that has been released since looks at rates in 2019). […]
stating that “suicide figures are up” without specifying what one means by that isn’t a neutral statement. It’s designed to be alarming. Consider what it would mean to share the actual fact that calls to a suicide hotline are up. Yes, that sounds concerning. But it’s worth noting that “suicide hotlines” serve more than just people at immediate risk of harming themselves; you can also reach out to the number in Tapper’s tweet, for example, if you are concerned about a loved one “or would like emotional support,” according to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s website. And increased calls to hotlines—no matter the reason—could be an indication that they are doing exactly what they are designed to do: help people who need it.
While it’s natural—and good—to worry about the mental health effects of the pandemic, the supposition without evidence that lockdown is leading to an actual increase in suicides is a political one (as well as one that goes against recommendations for reporting on suicide—the advice is not to exaggerate statistics). Still-president-for-now Donald Trump claimed in March that there would be “suicide by the thousands” if lockdown continued. In October, E.R. doctor (and Slate contributor) Jeremy Faust, along with colleagues, published a preprint paper evaluating what actually happened with suicides in Massachusetts, where he works. He explained the results in the Washington Post:
The caveat is “studying the effects of stay-at-home advisories is still in its infancy,” as Faust writes in the Post. […] It’s possible that the tweet will at some terrible point come true. But at the moment, it is, in part, a dangerous argument against asking people to stay home. […] On Twitter, the phrase “suicide rates are up” has been posted with a poll on whether we should or shouldn’t have “lockdown”—itself a divisive term for the partial closure of businesses—and as a refrain in response to fears about gathering on Thanksgiving. […]
@Lynna 29
The Rs are rewarding concentrating quite a few toxic behaviors. Conspiracy thinking isn’t new but the flavor is. I think this is politically useful.
Interesting Twitter thread about the cold storage requirements for vaccine:
https://twitter.com/amymaxmen/status/1326715250268385285
More, including photos, at the link.
Follow-up to SC’s comment 32.
>Link
She wore an American flag mask.
From Paul Waldman, writing for the Washington Post:
Link
JFC.
Trump sees electoral turnaround in ‘probably two weeks’
Donald Trump expects to see his electoral fortunes turn around in “probably two weeks.” It’s a parody-defying coda to his presidency.
Peter Alexander on MSNBC saying they’re ready to break away if Trump starts making false claims about the election, vaccine, pandemic.
@Lynna 55
So not conspiracy thinking, but still politically useful for the ones who see the grift.
“New statement from @JoeBiden, after meeting with leaders of his covid task force here in Rehoboth:
‘Urgent action is needed today, now, by the current administration — starting with an acknowledgment of how serious the current situation is’.”
“BREAKING: Awkward moment as Trump almost inadvertently admits he knows he lost and has to vacate the White House.”
Video atl.
“Sixteen federal prosecutors specially assigned to monitor 2020 election malfeasance told AG Barr in a letter today they saw no evidence of substantial voting irregularities, & asked him to rescind his recent policy change.”
WaPo link atl.
I’m hoping the near-concession @ #62 puts a damper on the ridiculous “Million MAGA March” scheduled for tomorrow.
Marc Elias (emojis removed):
Update to #50: Fortunately, it appears to have been a hoax or false alarm. Everyone’s safe.
Cases are growing much faster than testing. Case increase is NOT an artifact of testing increase.
Twitter link
“BC-US–APNewsAlert_ Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak says he has tested positive for COVID-19″
He’s 66.
“K-Pop stans from TikTok are flooding the #MillionMAGAMarch hashtag with pictures of pancakes. It’s basically unusable right now.
@SheaDepmore appears to have kicked it off.”
LOL it really is all pancakes.
Sad! Disgraced Trump Demands Fealty From Cuomo Before New York Gets COVID Vaccine
Follow-up to comment 71.
From comments posted by readers of the article:
The New York Times says that Trump put Giuliani in charge of his lawsuits challenging election results.
From Brendan Keefe:
Re: Trump trying to claim credit for the Pfizer vaccine
I don’t know if Operation Warp Speed has been run really competently by usual standards, but it seems to be pretty much the only thing Trump admin has done about the pandemic. For months, Trump has trained his conservative audiences into unrealistically expecting not only the release of a vaccine “real soon now”, but that the pandemic will go away almost instantly after such release. Reportedly, some Trump fans now suspect the Pfizer announcement was deliberately delayed by weeks (?) to hurt Trump in the election.
I heard the Pfizer vaccine project isn’t actually officially affiliated with the OWS, but that hardly matters. It was pretty much like playing lottery anyway, so someone was going to hit the jackpot first, and it doesn’t necessarily mean they were better than the other players in the game. Of course, such nuance will be lost in political arguments.
A couple months ago, it occurred to my cynical mind that when Trump loses the election, he might not only neglect any acute Covid-19 management as well as his regular job duties, but he might actually somehow cripple the OWS, due to sheer neglect or vindictive sabotage or whatever he decides to do in panic. Now, that at least seems increasingly unlikely and also irrelevant, since there’s been good progress outside OWS. It remains unclear whether Trump can still rush the approval process during his last couple months in office, or whether he still feels pressured to do so.
It also occurred to me that when Biden takes office, Republican propaganda industry might jump on the side of anti-vaxxers. They’re already deeply wedded with the position that Covid-19 isn’t that bad, and that scaremongering over the pandemic is a leftist plot for something nefarious – most likely crushing individual freedoms, like leftists are wont to do. Anti-vaxxers have already widely supported Trump, because he’s firmly on the side of not taking the pandemic that seriously, and therefore presumably wouldn’t force any vaccine on people. A lot of conservatives who aren’t outright anti-vaxxers probably think they don’t personally need to take the vaccine because they aren’t “scared” of covid. They might even be led to believe that the vaccine is a scam if it doesn’t solve the pandemic immediately (that is, immediately after Biden takes office, natch).
Update: they’re now trying to use #MarchForTrump, but it’s already buried under stacks of pancakes.
Life after COVID-19 hospitalization:
Sure, these were the cases bad enough to be hospitalized in the first place, but it goes to show that mortality rate is not the only important number. The emotional and economic fallout is significant and common.
George Papadopoulos tweeted: “The military is with the President”
This is plainly false, but also…this is a Trumper openly suggesting a military coup (ahem!) in the US after an election loss. He’s not even bothering to hide behind bogus fraud claims – just putting it right out there.
Court Blocks El Paso Lockdown Order as Virus Deaths Rise
November 13, 2020TRAVIS BUBENIK
Re: my comment above
On Twitter, I see people quibbling that Pfizer did receive whatever financial/regulatory incentives from US government, although no direct funding/research cooperation. As I said, it hardly matters.
NPR – “How The Navajo Nation Helped Flip Arizona For Democrats”:
Follow-up to SC @64.
Link for quoted text in comment 82.
In other news, Tucker Carlson apologized:
Link
See also: https://twitter.com/MikaelThalen/status/1327402707838124033
Why is the Republican “voter fraud” smear campaign so effing sloppy?
https://twitter.com/HannahAllam/status/1327625910724546568
Video at the link.
A opportunity for White Supremacists, racists and other dunderheads to party in D.C.
From Wonkette: “Deutsche Bank Wants YOU To Pay For All Their Office Space”
https://www.wonkette.com/deutsche-bank-work-from-home-tax
From the Washington Post: “After a summer of protest, Americans voted for policing and criminal justice reform”
Link
This is law enforcement reform, and does not fit the “defund” label, a label which was often applied inaccurately.
From the Washington Post:
Link
All the best people. But certainly not a million of them.
Follow-up to comments 35 and 82.
QAnon’s Dominion voter fraud conspiracy theory reaches the president
“Trump could’ve delivered a rousing speech to his followers at the Million MAGA March but instead he opted to drive through them so he could play golf.”
And probably sit around at the club house and watch the Masters. While hospitals are overwhelmed and thousands of people die. A disgrace.
Missing From State Plans to Distribute the Coronavirus Vaccine: Money to Do It
The government has sent billions to drug companies to develop a coronavirus shot but a tiny fraction of that to localities for training, record-keeping and other costs for vaccinating citizens.
Coronavirus update: On November 13 the USA had 181,194 new cases, an increase of 76% over the last 14 days.
On November 13, the USA recorded 1,389 deaths, and increase of 34% over the last 14 days.
Trump is playing golf.
“President Trump arrived at [T**** N******* G*** C***] in Sterling Virginia at 10:44am. This is the 412th day he has spent at one of his properties and 301st day he’s spent at one of his golf clubs during his presidency.”
Lynna #85
So, because they’re not causing traffic jams, not causing wear and tear on the road net, not using fuel for transport, and paying for their own space, electricity, water, heating, and food, obviously they have to pay extra.
Honestly, it’s like something out of a sci-fi parody dystopia:
Tweet (thread) o’ the day.
“Trump won’t concede so I decided to do it for him….”
Very good.
THIS. Someone should make an ad with films of white people, including politicians, attacking MLK in the ’60s, perhaps interspersed with similar remarks about Warnock.
LOL.
Hahahahahahahahaha.
“The DOJ dropped their investigation into Kelly Loeffler’s insider trading shortly after her husband Jeffrey Sprecher, who owns the New York Stock Exchange, donated $1 million to Trump’s super PAC. Corrupt!…”
Federal judge invalidates DACA suspension
Axios
On BBC Radio 4 this morning, on a current affairs/trivia Sunday morning programme “Broadcasting House”, an old crony of Johnson’s named Guto Harri, who worked for him when he was Mayor of London, rejoiced that now, Cummings having departed, Johnson could be the sort of “One Nation Conservative” PM he wanted to be. As if someone else had forced him to emply and give power to Cummings, and to refuse to sack him when he trashed anti-Covid guidelines and told absurd lies about it just a few months ago.
Actual Washington Post headline: “Trump and his White House minimize pandemic surge as he focuses on denying election loss.”
Link to the article atl.
Trump tweeted: “He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more!”
That’s as much of a concession as we’re likely to get.
I thought this was satire but apparently it’s true. There’s no point trying satire with this administration.
From Bill Kristol
“This German Covid ad, now subtitled in English, is absolutely superb”
Video atl.
Excerpts from the Washington Post article to which SC referred in comment 102:
Washington Post link
Kushner and Atlas! Evil.
tomh @104, OMFG! It’s North Korea.
SC @105, that’s a two-part ad, and both are good. I do have some issues with the second ad, which assumes that people have someone with whom they can share quarantine. Not so true for many people.
SC @103, Trump followed up with a tweet stating, in all caps, that he does not concede. Because … of course.
From Stephen Colbert:
“@chucktodd: ‘We invited every single Republican senator to appear here on @MeetThePress this morning. They all declined’.”
Follow-up to SC @203.
Trump takes it all back:
SC @109, that’s telling. Republican senators usually love to get some camera time on Meet the Press.
Re comment 203 and the subsequent flurry of Trump tweets:
https://twitter.com/WordswithSteph/status/1327983709052674055
And there’s this from Lauren Floyd:
Also, please note that the brief error in one Michigan county was corrected.
At the age of 15, Esperanza Spalding picked up a bass. She’s never put it down
I am posting this link because listening to the video snippets posted with the article proved to be a good antidote to all of Trump’s nastiness.
Upbeat. :-)
Sheesh!
From Steve Coll, writing for The New Yorker:
Link
More at the link.
“If you’re having a hard time with glasses fogging or keeping your mask up over your nose, a simple bandaid does wonders. Learned it in the OR.
Feel free to share, it may save lives!”
Photo atl.
For a moment, I was imagining a delightful story about a young girl and her friendship with a slowly rotting fish.
Trump, after tweeting a bunch of anti-democratic lies, is at his golf club again today. Just a criminal dereliction of duty, abetted by Republicans in power.
WaPo:
The federal government’s chief information security officer is helping an outside effort to hunt for alleged voter fraud
By Jon Swaine and Lisa Rein
November 15, 2020
Some podcast recommendations:
Why Is This Happening? with Chris Hayes – “What We Got Wrong with Zeynep Tufekci”:
(This isn’t updating correctly for some reason, so just Google to find it on whatever player you use.)
Johns Hopkins’ Public Health On Call – “Overdispersion of COVID-19: Why A Small Percentage of People May Be Responsible for the Majority of Transmission.”
This is a short (11-minute) podcast. It’s #201 at the link (November 13, 2020)
Lovett or Leave It – “No Coup for You”:
The New Abnormal – “Trump’s Election ‘Coup’ Is More Like a Fake Orgasm”:
Slate’s Trumpcast – “A Clownish Attempt at a Coup”:
SC @115, that’s a good tip.
Unfortunately, there are some stupid comments below the post, including this one:
It is unbelievable that the anti-mask nonsense is still being passed around.
Like @116, LOL!
In other news, “Trump’s legal team took to Fox News to defend their election claims. It didn’t go well.”
Link
Cuomo threatens to sue Trump for equitable vaccine distribution
Comments from Dr. Fauci:
Link
@Lynna 106
If he is telling the media to change the subject from the pandemic the media is a reputation sensitive spot for Trump. “Fake news” is a defense, and he does not aim it at things he likes.
Violence followed the “Million MAGA March” in Washington, DC
Tensions ran high after pro-Trump protesters marched through the capital, falsely claiming that the election had been stolen.
Twitter cares what the media says but does not care about how he appears on Twitter. He hires fixers. I’m trying to figure out his reputation sense.
That should have “Trump” and not “Twitter” at the start in 126.
Brony @124, too true.
From Wonkette:
See https://twitter.com/JulienHoez/status/1327950957422972929 Yep, he attacked several women and men before a protester finally fit him hard enough to make him fall.
Brony @126, nothing Trump does makes good sense; or, it doesn’t make sense for long. He changes his mind a lot. He punches in one direction and then another. Trump is a moment-by-moment toddler-tantrum show. He is even striking out wildly at “fake news,” and failing to hit his mark.
From the Washington Post: “Biden administration will seek to restore stability at Pentagon, analysts say.”
Link
That Pre-Thanksgiving Covid Test Won’t Really Keep You Safe
It seems like a simple way to justify holiday gatherings. But the everyone-has-gotten-tested method is utterly absurd.
Related to KG’s #101 above – The Owen Jones Show – “Is Boris Johnson Doomed?”:
Also related to KG’s #101 above – Oh God, What Now? (formerly Remainiacs) – “EmergencyCast: Ground Control to MAJOR DOM”:
Sex-Abuse Claims Against Boy Scouts Now Surpass 82,000
By Mike Baker, Nov. 15, 2020
From Former Ambassador Susan Rice:
Commentary:
Link
“A second vaccine, this one by Moderna, is 94.5% effective, wayyyy better than the 50% researchers had hoped for”
NYT link atl.
Quoted by Lynna @ #135:
This is well said and I think precisely right.
Lynna @ #135 & SC @ #137:
I’m not sure they are going to find much of anything other than perhaps huge piles of shredded paper and wiped hard drives.
Jan Wolfe, Reuters:
Several links atl.
Czech American @ #138, I think Trump and his minions are likely as bad at covering their tracks as they are of doing the work in the first place. They’re devious, but they came in not knowing how things worked and too lazy or inept to find out. I imagine there are roughly a gazillion memos to file, whistleblower reports, computer backups, and witnesses to wrongdoing. US allies probably also have a good deal of evidence.
Ed Yong:
Thread atl.
SC @ #140
One effects of the Trump era is that I say things and then in retrospect am not sure how much I am joking. I was definitely being a smartass to some degree.
You are, of course, 100% correct. No super-shredder event is going to cover up all the wrongdoings of this administration. I suspect that at this point, it is mostly individuals trying to cover their own butts.
Marc Elias:
SC #143
Well, not surprising, but good news. But, wait, they won a case? Which was that?
“the”
WaPo:
Trump officials rush to auction off rights to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before Biden can block it
By Juliet Eilperin
November 16, 2020
tomh @145, such bad news!
In other news:
Link
Trump will have an impressive legacy of lying.
Well, that’s helpful for his Republican party in Georgia … Not.
It’s like Trump wants Ossoff and Warnock to win those two Senate run-off races.
Guardian – “Setback for Bolsonaro after poor results in Brazil local elections”:
Guardian – “Covid: Boris Johnson and Tory MPs forced to self-isolate after No 10 event”:
Guardian – “Moldova election: blow to Kremlin as opposition candidate sweeps to victory”:
Here’s a link to the November 16 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
Also in the Guardian, “EU faces crisis as Hungary and Poland veto seven-year budget”:
ABC – “GSA official blocking Biden’s transition appears to privately plan post-Trump career”:
CNN – “US military anticipates Trump will issue order to plan for further troop withdrawals from Afghanistan and Iraq”:
From NBC News:
It’s a long, slow denouement:
McClatchy link
Trump gives disabled people one more kick in the teeth on his way out
From Wonkette: “Fox News A Festival Of Batsh*t As Republicans Hide From Regular Sunday Shows”
https://www.wonkette.com/its-a-new-america-or-is-it
More at the link.
From the conclusion of the article:
Gretchen Whitmer Shuts Michigan Restaurants, Bars in Stirring Reminder That Democrats Can Actually Do Things
quotetheunquote @ #144, this is from TPM:
I think the one Elias was referring to was the one related to ballot-curing, since the other didn’t affect the vote count.
Justice Department Asserts Unreviewable Discretion to Kill US Citizens
November 16, 2020 MEGAN MINEIRO
From Paul Waldman, writing for The Washington Post:
Link
Someone linked to Doering’s Twitter thread, but now I can’t find it. Anyway, here’s more:
Video atl.
Georgia Republicans are pissed they lost after a surge in mail voting, so now they want to curb it
From the Guardian world liveblog:
Biden just said world leaders are calling him “with some degree of enthusiasm.”
“‘I find this more embarrassing for the country than debilitating for my ability to get started’, President-elect Biden says of President Trump’s lack of concession and lack of transition cooperation”
“Biden making an effort to specifically praise Republican governors who have taken steps to impose mask mandates & other Covid restrictions”
From Michelle Obama:
More:
From Wonkette:
Link
Cartoon: “How much longer to we have to keep this up?’ [Trump balancing act.]
New Yorker link
“The Proud Boys are openly fantasizing about ‘The Day of the Rope’, a white supremacist concept in which ‘race traitors’, including journalists, politicians, and women in mixed-race relationships, will be lynched en masse.”
Imagine if Trump had won.
re SC @171: from one of the screen captures:
1) The “elite” are not turning any people against all whites. 2) “Whites” did “graciously” allow anyone to migrate here. A lot of “non-whites” were brought here against their will and enslaved. Native Americans were slaughtered so that “whites” could steal their land and resources. 3) If anyone should be deported, it should be racist fuckwits who refuse to get along with people in a country that has been described as the “melting pot of the world”. 4) “Non-whites” will soon be the majority in this country, so Proud Boys should shut the fuck up.
2) should be “did not”.
Brandy Zadrozny:
Wired – “A Lack of Transparency Is Undermining Pandemic Policy”:
More atl.
Guardian world liveblog:
Georgia’s secretary of state says fellow Republicans are pressuring him to find ways to exclude legal ballots
By Amy Gardner, November 16, 2020
“NEW: Georgia’s secretary of state says fellow Republicans are pressuring him to find ways to exclude legal ballots”
WaPo link atl.
tomh @ #177, :).
Raffensperger is a whistleblower at this point. What Collins, Graham, and others are doing is illegal.
True. But given Graham’s pressure on Raffensperger maybe people should be taking a second look at his own race…
Marc Elias re Graham’s actions toward Raffensperger: “This is both outrageous and should be investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee.”
It’s election fraud!
“Raffensperger says @LindseyGrahamSC asked if it was possible to toss out all mail ballots from counties with higher rates of signatures that did not appear to match registration forms – which stunned the Secy of State.”
Lordy, I hope there are tapes.
“NEWS: President-elect Joe Biden is expected to name Jen O’Malley Dillon as a Deputy Chief of Staff, two sources familiar tell @kwelkernbc and @carolelee.
Dillon served as Biden’s winning campaign manager.”
Tweet o’ the day.
Josh Marshall:
YEAH.
“New: All three attorneys representing the Trump campaign in its federal lawsuit in Pennsylvania have filed to withdraw from the case. A filing says attorney Marc A. Scaringi will now represent the campaign.”
Rich countries are taking the vaccine fast lane. Others could wait years
Dave Lawler
Lack of vaccination efforts will lead to a long-lasting human reservoir of virus, increasing the chances it’ll mutate and evade vaccines. We can all look forward to doing this again X years down the line. This is just so stupid.
Here’s a link to the November 17 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Jon Ossoff:
Link atl.
“Sweden abandons the Swedish model.”
How does Tegnell still have a job?
Guardian world liveblog:
It’s odd that they don’t refer to specific public health officials or their reasoning concerning masks, outdoor vs. indoor events, etc. The presentation of the issue is pretty convoluted.
Oh dear god.
Walter Shaub with a good question: “Who else did Graham call?”
More re #195 – “According to PACER, the last time Rudy Giuliani entered an appearance in federal court was 1992″
The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 PM ET today.
“INBOXL Chuck GRASSLEY, 87, says he’s been exposed to someone who has coronavirus.”
!!!: “Graham tells reporters he’s also spoken to election officials in Arizona and Nevada”
AZ SoS Katie Hobbs says she hasn’t spoken with Graham.
Guardian world liveblog:
“Sounds like corroboration.
‘Graham called back again and brought up the idea of invalidating absentee ballots from counties with higher rates of signature errors, Mr. Raffensperger said, adding that HE HAD STAFFERS WITH HIM ON THAT CALL’.”
WSJ link atl.
Excerpts from the Washington Post link to which SC referred in comment 178:
Washington Post link
“Also that day, Trump tweeted about signature-matching in Georgia.” It was a coordinated effort, involving Graham, Trump, Lin Wood and Collins.
SC @202, that’s as good as having tapes. Lindsey Graham’s perfidy is confirmed.
In other campaign news related to Georgia:
Steve Benen notes that: “If the Trump campaign is serious about a recount in Wisconsin, it will have to pay the state nearly $8 million, up front, to make it happen. The deadline for Team Trump’s decision is tomorrow.”
Why Trump’s Dominion conspiracy theory is so deeply odd
As Trump’s response to the election has grown more manic, his fixation on Dominion Voting Systems has gotten creepier.
Rudi has taken up permanent residence in LaLa Land. The analysis from Jon Chait (above) is particularly spot on.
“Inbox: Secretary Raffensperger Announces Completion of Voting Machine Audit Using Forensic Techniques: No Sign of Foul Play”
Follow-up to #s 199 and 200: “Just followed up with Graham: he says he spoke to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and someone else in Nevada, not the Secretaries of State in AZ and NV.”
A discussion of the effects Trump’s denialism about the election results may have on … everyone:
Link
Say what now? What the fuck is this?
Trump’s coronavirus chief urges Americans to gather for ‘their last Thanksgiving’
Manu Raju: “Lindsey Graham told me he doesn’t remember the names of the Nevada officials he spoke with, but Nevada’s Secretary of State says: ‘I have not spoken with Senator Lindsey Graham or any other members of Congress’ about election results.”
This needs to be investigated.
From Wonkette:
Link
Biden’s White House and Cabinet staff so far:
White House chief of staff, Ronald A. Klain
Anthony Bernal, Senior adviser to Jill Biden
Mike Donilon, Senior adviser to the president
Jen O’Malley Dillon, Deputy chief of staff [female]
Dana Remus, Counsel to the president [female]
Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, Chief of staff to Jill Biden [female]
Steve Ricchetti, Counselor to the president
Rep. Cedric L. Richmond, Senior adviser to the president
Julie Rodriguez, Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs [female]
Annie Tomasini, Director of Oval Office operations [female]
From the Washington Post:
We know some of the potential picks for Secretary of Agriculture, of Commerce, of Defense, of Education, of Energy, of the EPA, of Health and Human Services, of Homeland Security, etc., but I’m going to wait to post those until we see firm decisions from Biden. Lots of women and people of color are being considered.
South Dakota nurse says many patients deny the coronavirus exists — right up until death.
Washington Post link
Zoe Tillman is livetweeting the PA hearing.
Guardian world liveblog:
Popehat: “[I would fire an employee who appeared for a client in a crucial case and performed as Rudy Giuliani did. The argument, whatever its merits, could have been presented vastly more competently. This was an unprepared C student.]”
“With what’s left outstanding, Biden is on pace to cross 80 million votes before Trump crosses 74 million.”
Tweet o’ the day.
Steven Dennis:
Marc Elias:
Manu Raju:
(Hope she’s keeping far enough away from these potential disease vectors.)
More re #221 – “…Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules 5-2 against Trump campaign in Philadelphia election observers case, says city did not violate the law when instituting social distancing rules for vote watchers”
“Biden transition readouts of his calls with Chile president, India’s Modi, Israeli PM Netanyahu and President Rivlin, South African President”
Readouts atl.
AP – “Financially troubled startup helped power Trump campaign”:
More atl.
From the PA hearing: “Defense now leafing through the parts of the complaint the plaintiffs have deleted out of their amended complaint.
[paper shuffling sounds] Deleted, Deleted, deleted, deleted.”
Neal Katyal re #223: “In actuality, it was 7-0 against Trump. The 2 dissenters made clear they wouldn’t throw out any votes as a result of this litigation.”
Truth!
SC @228, the parent complaining about the homework assignment that showed Joe Biden won the most electoral college votes … that parent said she went to “OAN” to get the right information. She went to one of Trump’s favorite sources, One America Network (News), in order to push a lie on her poor child.
The latest episode of The New Abnormal – “My Twitter War With the Congresswoman from QAnon” – features an interesting interview with Carl Zimmer about vaccines (it’s the last segment).
Chuck Grassley has tested positive. As noted above, he’s 87.
LOL.
These fascist fucks:
“The Wayne County Board of Canvassers just deadlocked on certifying the vote on party lines. This is unprecedented in my 20 years covering government here.
The Republican chair of the board, Monica Palmer, literally just said she would be open to certifying the vote in ‘communities other than Detroit’.”
“The nuclear option gets wheeled into view: Trump’s Nevada electors sue to have him declared the winner of a state that he lost, or else the presidential race’s results should be annulled”
“The judge is having to teach Rudy basic constitutional law. That’s not hyperbole. This is a description of what is happening at this hearing.
I’ve never seen worse lawyering in an election law case in my life.”
“Trump lawyer [Jenna Ellis] lauds decision to exclude votes from Detroit, predicts this will allow the GOP state legislature to award the state’s electors to Donald Trump.”
“Blunt says Grassley attended their GOP leadership meeting yesterday, with McConnell & others.
Asked if they will quarantine, Blunt tells me ‘I was about 12 ft away from him, maybe that’s why we’re in that big room’.
Adds Grassley has ‘done everything he can’ to protect himself.”
(Please keep Harris and Biden at a distance after she was in the Senate today.)
“President Trump fires DHS official Chris Krebs after the agency he ran released a statement rejecting Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud. ‘There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised’, the statement read.
Trump directly tied this firing to the statement, which was released along with state and private election officials. Krebs expected to be fired, sources told CNN last week.”
From Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s new Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (the penultimate chapter “Endings,” pp. 222-224):
Chris Krebs tweeted: “Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomrorow. #Protect2020”
“NEW w/ @PaulaReidCBS: At today’s COVID task force meeting doctors told VP Pence the situation is dire and worsening. If nothing changes, there could be 2000 deaths/day by Christmas, overrunning hospitals.
Docs urging VP or POTUS to make remarks from podium to stress mitigation.
Notable: @ScottWAtlas was not at the White House for the meeting.
Health officials believe recommendations should include bars closing and restaurants banning indoor dining, though they believe schools can stay open due to low transmission rate.”
“Watch @NedStaebler completely destroy Monica Palmer and William Hartmann — the two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers — over their racist and partisan refusal to certify the election.”
Marc Elias:
William Hartmann.
Monica Palmer.
SC#243, The rethugs decided after protests to certify the Wayne County vote according to MSBC. Michigan’s electors will vote for Biden without delusional idiocy in the way.
Brianna Keilar: “No recent presidency with legacy as dark as Trump’s.”
Mehdi Hasan: “In this 2-minute clip on tonight’s @MehdiHasanShow, I sum up almost everything Ivanka’s father, the president, has done to incite violence and terror here in the U.S. since 2015…”
Nerd @ #244, I just saw it now, too! Good on everyone for the backlash.
Robert Costa:
WaPo link atl.
Josh Marshall: “A lot of people showed their colors tonight. The state GOP lauded the decision to throw out the votes of the city of Detroit and maybe 100s of thousands of African-American voters? Trump campaign was ecstatic, President endorsed it. Before they had to back down.”
Here’s a link to the November 18 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
AP – “AP Sources: FBI is investigating Texas attorney general”:
More atl.
RE: the statements by @NedStaebler linked in SC #242.
Great video, but can someone point out to me what “balanced” means in this context? I’ve never come across this term with respect to election results, and I see some Republicans are throwing it (or, alternatively, “unbalanced”) around as well.
NBC – “Trump’s effort to overturn the election results may be inept. But it’s still a scandal.”:
And this leaves out Lindsey Graham’s attempted fraud and the Republican Party’s silence and complicity.
quotetheunquote @ #251, could you link to a Republican talking about it in context? Are they referring to false claims about not being allowed to have “balanced” representation as observers of vote counting?
“Brian @Kilmeade [on Fox & Friends this morning]: ‘It’s in the country’s best interest if he starts coordinating on the virus and starts coordinating on security with the Biden team’.”
“It really is an amazing thing that Trump’s entire life has been just acting like an absolute shameless, bratty entitled asshole about everything and everyone just kind letting him do it for fifty years.”
Longer than 50 years.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission tweeted: “The Wisconsin Elections Commission has received a wire transfer from the Trump campaign for $3 million. No petition has been received yet, but the Trump campaign has told WEC staff one will be filed today. We have no further information at this time.”
It’s a smaller amount because it’s for a partial recount (Dane and Milwaukee counties only).
“McEnany dismisses public health guidelines to slow the spread of coronavirus as ‘Orwellian'”
Video, and quite a thread, atl.
Popehat re CNN piece on the difficulties of Emily Murphy:
“BREAKING: Federal court enjoins Trump’s processless expulsions of children under ‘Title 42’ order that Miller, Pence and Redfield issued over the objections of CDC staff…”
More atl.
@ 257
Only Dane and Milwaukee counties? The two largest and liberal metropolitan regions of the state?
That’s $3 million wasted.
Whoops! Typo. My last was regarding post 256.
TPM/ProPublica – “Trump Campaign Officials Started Pressuring Georgia’s Secretary of State Long Before the Election”:
Much more atl.
Twitter needs to shut Trump down.
Guardian world liveblog:
“Some Health and Human Services staffers instructed today that if anyone from President-elect Joe Biden’s team contacts them, they are not to communicate with them and are to alert Deputy Surgeon General Rear Admiral Erica Schwartz of the communication per administration official”
SC @262: “It is not the job of the secretary of state’s office to deliver a win …” So true, and that’s a good summary.
Also, “Kirkland burst uninvited into a meeting in Raffensperger’s office in the late spring …” shows that Trump’s bullying nature has seeped into all levels of the Republican Party.
SC @257, Hopefully, it is meaningful that a Fox News host is describing coronavirus as “a super-contagious disease.” And, I couldn’t help but notice that Ms. McEnany described Trump as “hard at work.” Now, that’s fucking Orwellian.
Casey Michel:
Elie Mystal:
“In Bucks County, PA litigation, Trump campaign agrees to joint stipulation saying no fraud.”
No fraud, misconduct, impropriety, or undue influence in connection with the challenged ballot.
ballots
This is the culmination of decades of struggle. When I lived in southern Oregon the same fight happened, and over 15 years eight dams were removed from the Rogue River, with spectacular results for the salmon.
California, Oregon, Tribes Join Plan to Restore Klamath River
November 17, 2020 MATTHEW RENDA
“BREAKING: NYC school system will temporarily close tomorrow. [For in-person learning.] Chancellor Carranza just announced in email to principals.”
From Jill Lepore, writing for The New Yorker:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/23/will-trump-burn-the-evidence“>New Yorker link
Much more at the link.
“Donald Trump is now targeting electors with baseless, frivolous lawsuits for doing their sworn duty.
Because he doesn’t believe in American democracy.”
As death toll tops 250,000, Trump has failed by his own standards
It was almost exactly seven months ago when Trump said the pandemic’s US death toll could be as low as 50,000. Today, it reached 250,000.
That’s a sickening progression of lies.
Marc Elias:
Pentagon officials eye ‘off-site’ meetings with Joe Biden’s team
Pentagon officials may have to provide incoming officials with information away from the Pentagon, because Trump can’t accept reality.
“Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs released this statement in response to ongoing and escalating threats of violence directed at her family and her office.”
Statement atl. Good for her.
An update on the economic disaster in the USA, and a look at the stalemate between Republicans (Mitch McConnell) and members of the Democratic Party:
Link
Far-right rhetoric around election ratchets into violent threats against political, media figures.
Take this threat seriously. Don’t assume that these threats come only from far-right fringe groups. Assume that threats like those coming from Oath Keepers will in spire some individuals to act.
Tweet o’ the day.
New polls show Trump’s delusions of election fraud have infected a majority of Republicans
What Ivanka Trump tweeted:
Commentary:
Link
Ivanka’s friend, Lysandra Ohrstrom, published some anecdotes in Vanity Fair. Here is an example:
Orwellian:
Link
From Wonkette:
Link
Today, Joe Biden is meeting virtually with health care workers. Trump has no public events on his schedule.
Fact check: Trump’s bogus claim of more votes in Detroit than people.
NBC News link
Trump wants to rehire a white supremacist to preserve “America’s heritage.”
Link
In other news, I’m a great aunt!
@ SC #290
That’s terrific! Sadly, I’m only a pretty good uncle.
“McConnell called the Senate into session to confirm a bunch more judges, attempt to confirm an all-out crank to the Fed, and then is going into recess as the plague ravages the country and people line up at food banks. Nice work.”
tomh @ #291, :D! I feel like the title offers a fresh start and the opportunity to live up to it!
“‘The Plaintiffs in this lawsuit do not expect to win’.
Instead, they seek to give ‘credence to the conspiracy theories that call into question the integrity of our elections & undermine our democracy’.
This, in Detroit’s just-filed brief, captures Trump’s lawsuits perfectly.”
quotetheunquote, re #151:
(https://www.vox.com/2020/11/18/21572409/michigan-wayne-county-trump-certification-balance)
There has to be something people can do to protect them. Maybe flood the pastor’s Twitter posts with pictures of and tributes to people who’ve died from coronavirus (especially those infected at church gatherings)?
Guardian world liveblog:
Fintan O’Toole in the NYRB – “Democracy’s Afterlife: Trump, the GOP, and the rise of zombie politics.”
“It’s just so mind-blowing to see it in print. The audacity of it.
Having lost the commonwealth by more than 82,000 votes, the Trump Campaign is openly trying to get Pennsylvania’s electors by judicial fiat. Not through a recount or the state legislature or anything–just a bald court order saying Trump wins.
This enormous demand to overturn popular sovereignty was signed by Rudy Giuliani and Marc Scaringi.
(Brian C. Caffrey is also listed in Scaringi’s signature block.)”
Sen. Booker: “Wearing a mask is not a surrender of liberty. It is an affirmation of love.”
Probably not that important a distinction, but I note that in Spain, they’re referred to as “mascarillas”, not “mascaras”. A diminutive form.
In English, it would be something like ‘masklet’ or ‘maskie’.
Marc Elias:
SC @290, Hey, SC, I’m a great aunt too! Congrats to you. My great nephew thought that “great” used in conjunction with “Aunt Lynna” just meant the obvious: she’s great.
Humor/Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
From the Huffington Post:
From The Washington Post:
Think about that … and then cancel plans to meet indoors with groups of people for Thanksgiving. You could meet outdoors with fewer people to have a drink. Stay socially distant.
Also from The Washington Post:
@SC #253;
(Actually, my original post referred to #241, but I imagine you knew that…)
I’ve quite forgotten where I came across the R’s using the word, unfortunately; it was in some other Twitter thread, referred to in a Twiter thread about the video at 241, and I’ve quite lost track…
But in the original video here, I think he says, referring to a previous count that they (the certification board, or whatever it’s called) certified, that “..58% of them were even balanced, when it was less than 30% last time…”
Unless I’m mis-hearing “balanced” for “ballots” here, but that doesn’t make any sense then…
Maybe not much, but something. However weaselly.
In Australia: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-19/defence-chief-angus-campbell-afghanistan-apology-transcript/12899854
BTW, they refer to the SAS specificaly.
SC@298,
Thanks, that’s a brilliant – and alarming – essay by O’Toole. Here’s a brief quote from the more straightforwardly factual content, as opposed to the extended metaphor on Trump and Trumpism as the undead:
It seems clear Biden does not have the will to drive the stake through Trumpism’s heart; that’s going to require popular mobilization and solidarity on a huge scale.
SC@290,
I became a great uncle some 15 years ago – but only met my great nephew a couple of months ago (unfortunately at my sister-in-law’s funeral).
SC@290
Oh – congratulations on your geat-aunthood!
Thanks for the congratulations! One bit of joy in this dismal year.
“Tyson Foods ordered employees to report for work while supervisors privately wagered money on the number of workers who would be sickened by the deadly virus.”
Here’s a link to the November 19 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Marc Elias:
Good news – Dave Wasserman:
Raphael Warnock: “The only thing Kelly Loeffler has represented well is her stock portfolio.”
The episode of Lovett or Leave It I linked to @ #119 features a segment where a woman from Georgia plays a game in which she’s presented with a fact about a person and has to guess if it’s describing Loeffler, Perdue, or Mr. Burns. I knew Loeffler and Perdue were corrupt, but am still shocked at the extent of it. It’s like every day there’s a new report.
Wajahat Ali: “My latest for the @nytimes on ‘reaching out’ to Trump voters. I tried. Don’t waste your time.
Now, I will look forward to all the lovely, totally not racist emails in my inbox that will prove my article.”
NYT link atl.
@John Morales #295 – thank you. I managed to skip right by that yesterday.
Marc Elias:
Guardian world liveblog:
Wayne County Republican who asked to ‘rescind’ her vote certifying election results says Trump called her
By Tom Hamburger, Kayla Ruble and Tim Elfrink
November 18, 2020
Ruth Ben-Ghiat: “The Transition. Lawfare: How Democracy Dies Today”
2-minute video atl.
Linda Kerns has now withdrawn from Trump’s PA suit.
Joe Biden’s popular vote total is approaching 80 million. That is nearly 6 million more votes than Trump. Voter turnout was 65%, the highest since 1908. California and New York are still counting.
AP News link
“Non-lawyer followers: this litigation (in all the states) is truly blowing my mind. It’s as if you’re playing chess and your opponent lets off a whoopie cushion, throws a Zebra Cake on the board, and then runs off without pants and says they won. I don’t know what else to say.
I could never have imagined the President of the United States would litigate like this. It’s impossible that this is happening. And yet.”
Guardian world liveblog:
SC @328, Ha! That is so well put. That’s it exactly. (Although I don’t want to see either Trump or Giuliani running off without pants.)
In other news: Official blocking the transition process has an easy decision to make
Emily Murphy should know, there’s a difference between a difficult decision and easy decision that generates politically inconvenient consequences.
Yeah, I remember that. We knew then that she was a trumpian appointee for sure. Corrupt. Lacking in good judgement.
“MORE NEWS: The top two Republicans in the Michigan Legislature are expected to visit the White House amid the fight over the state’s election results, a source tells me:…”
“EXCLUSIVE: New Delays In Final Stage Of Census Could Foil Trump’s Plan To Rig It”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-delay-census-apportionment
ABC7 (Chicago) – “Disturbing new details in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer”:
From Mark Sumner: “Trump is purposely piling on additional disasters in hopes of ruining Biden’s presidency.”
Guidance from the CDC:
Link
Aaron Rupar’s livetweeting of the Trump “legal team” news conference.
Social distancing is a luxury many can’t afford. Vermont actually did something about it.
More at the link.
Some excerpts from the Aaron Rupar coverage that SC highlighted in comment 336:
From NBC News:
Commentary from Steve Benen:
Link
Virginia attorney general ends gun group’s attempt to hold convention during pandemic
More details confirming that Stephen Miller is evil:
Link
Yikes. The Stupid, it burns.
Teen Vogue featured six Native American girls in a video rebuttal to Thanksgiving myths:
See this link for more details, including a transcript of Tom Cotton’s delusional Thanksgiving history speech.
Follow-up to comment 338.
Giuliani quotes ‘My Cousin Vinny’ while discussing election lawsuits
“Schumer says McConnell has agreed to resume negotiations over Covid-19 stimulus”
Paul Danahar: “Rudy Giuliani’s press conference today on ‘voter fraud’ was one of the wildest, most unsubstantiated diatribes I’ve ever listened to and I say that as someone who has sat in a room with Col Gaddafi for three hours.”
Chris Krebs (recently of CISA): “That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history. And possibly the craziest. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re lucky.”
Reuters – “Second prosecutor resigns from Trump’s police commission”:
Rep. Slotkin re #331:
Tweet o’ the day.
Reuters – “Trump’s election power play: Persuade Republican legislators to do what U.S. voters did not”:
“I’ve been watching more OAN and Newsmax lately to see what the Trump die-hards are being fed, and man, it is grim….”
Examples atl.
LOL.
Biden is speaking following a discussion with a bipartisan group of governors. He’s now describing, in detail, the steps ahead for addressing the virus and distributing vaccines.
Biden has chosen a Treasury Secretary, who will be announced before Thanksgiving. He says it’s someone who’ll meet with the approval of both wings of the party.
The actual Republican Party tweeted: “‘We will not be intimidated…We are going to clean this mess up now. President Trump won by a landslide. We are going to prove it. And we are going to reclaim the United States of America for the people who vote for freedom’.—Sidney Powell”
Marc Elias:
Marc Elias:
Follow-up to comments 338 and 343.
Hair dye ran down Rudy Giuliani’s face, along with the sweat.
Talia Lavin in The Cut (New York magazine) – “The Future of the GOP: Madison Cawthorn is 25, far-right, and already faces accusations of racism and sexual misconduct. And he’s headed to Congress.”
Sen. Warren: “There are lots of big changes that a Biden-Harris administration can achieve through executive orders and agency action on day one.
Here are some bold steps the new administration can take immediately using existing legal authority:…”
Oh, for the love of…
R. Daniel Kelemen in Politico – “Time to call Hungary and Poland’s bluff”: “…Only once the EU demonstrates the resolve to defend democracy and the rule of law can it begin to escape the trap that its years of appeasement have created.”
Marc Elias:
“Developing next live at 5 on @wsbtv – @GaSecofState tells me the statewide audit results are in and there’s ‘not a thimble full of difference’ between the hand & manual recount. He says he has no doubt Joe Biden has won Georgia”
SIT DOWN, Nikki Haley.
“The White House press corps has relocated to Wilmington, it appears.”
And they seem understandably relieved.
What a shot.
“In case you’re wondering, this is what an un-American coward looks like…”
Video atl. Wow, the journalists have had it.
OT, Rachel returns from Covid exposure quarantine. Ahhhh…
We are all Ben Collins.
AOC is going at ’em tonight.
“Sidney Powell: ‘The entire election, frankly, in all the swing states should be overturned and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for Trump'”
She said this! On television!
Video atl.
Manu Raju:
“Sad day in Texas, where we had the worst day of new cases on record: 12,293. Death toll tops 20 thousand. Governor Abbott refuses to alter course.”
Ex-President Obama has a new book coming out. MSNBC will have Jonathon Capehart interview President Obama at 10 pm EST (in lieu of the Last Word). Should be interesting.
“If you are in a position of power and you are wondering if now is the time to show some courage, the answer is unequivocally yes.“
COVID Tracking Project: “<a href="https://twitter.com/COVID19Tracking/status/1329589465573187587".Our daily update is published. States reported 1.8 million tests, 183k cases, and 81k people currently hospitalized with COVID-19. Reported deaths were 1,971, the highest since May 7. Test, case, and hospitalization counts broke all-time records today.”
From Wonkette: “The 648,382 Funniest Parts Of Rudy’s Press Conference, From ‘Elite Strike Force’ To ‘Rudy Is Leaking'”
Link
OMG Rachel Maddow. Her partner Susan could have died.
Yup.
SC#379 I had a fear who the close contact could be, and it turned out to be right, but it’s great to hear that things are going well.
Ashish Jha:
More atl. This is insanity.
Here’s Rachel Maddow’s opening segment from last night that Nerd and I were talking about above.
LOL.
Anyone who gets their medical advice from Ron (Russia Times) Johnson deserves their fate.
“With @SenRickScott testing positive for COVID-19, the positivity rate among members of the Senate is 9%. In the House, it’s 5.9%.”
SC@386–well, it looks like the herd immunity strategy is getting a trial among Rethug lawmakers.
Before exiting, Team Trump takes deliberate steps to undermine Biden
After Obama made it his “number-one priority” to “facilitate a transition that ensures our President-elect is successful,” Trump’s doing the opposite.
Why the ‘dangerous’ press conference from Trump’s lawyers matters
The only thing missing from Team Trump’s press conference was references to the saucer people and reverse vampires.
From Josh Marshall:
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1329776726726111233
Video is available at the link.
Details from a different section of Trump’s wildly delusional brain: the pretend-COVID-19-isn’t-bad lobe:
Link
From Mark Sumner:
Link
Giuliani’s son, Andrew, a White House staffer, tested positive for coronavirus.
Link
From the Washington Post:
Washington Post link
Bits and pieces of campaign news from Steve Benen:
Link
Biden is considering Merrick Garland for Attorney General.
From Joan McCarter: “Trump’s legal coup is in a shambles, so now he’s turning to his mob.”
Link
“Throwing a wicked pout fest” is a good description.
Link
Link
From Republican Senator Mitt Romney:
From Republican Senator Ben Sasse:
@ #399 Re: Trump’s failed coup
As a Wash Post editorial from a few days ago pointed out:
Here’s a link to the November 20 Guardian (support the Guardian if you can!) coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
You know, after the 2016 election, in which Moscow made unprecedented efforts to undermine the democratic process and ensure Trump was elected, and after all the results from the Meuller and Senate Intelligence Committee investigations, it is very difficult to contend that Mr. Trump is not a Russian intelligence asset.
After the 2020 election, in which he is trying to uproot 240 years of Democracy in America, much to the joy of Mr. Putin, how can you look at what he is done and suggest he is anything but a Russian Agent.
Guardian world liveblog:
“SCOOP: Rudy Giuliani and other key members of Trump’s outside legal team won’t be attending today’s meeting with two Michigan lawmakers because they’ve been exposed to the coronavirus, two sources familiar with the internal discussions tell Axios.”
“We should be clear that the defeated president’s efforts are in a new phase. He lost a free and fair election. He has almost entirely lost his court challenges, reinforcing the reality of his defeat. Now he’s asking fellow partisans to simply hand him the presidency.”
After stumping for corrupt Georgia senators without a mask, Sen. Rick Scott tests positive for COVID
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/20/1997171/-After-stumping-for-corrupt-Georgia-senators-without-a-mask-Sen-Rick-Scott-tests-positive-for-COVID
“Well this is new: The Federal Trade Commission is investigati[ng] Steve Bannon’s efforts for Cambridge Analytica–whether ‘he may be held individually liable for the deceptive conduct’.”
Guardian world liveblog:
Anthony Tata, the main Trump stooge at DoD, has tested positive. He’s 61.
JFC.
“#BREAKING This time for real:
Georgia Secretary of State has officially certified the election results. Gov. Kemp news conference in one hour will announce that he will add his certification as required by state law.”
Bernie Sanders:
There I think she’s wrong. Any rank-and-file Republicans who are even approximately sane must know these are lies. Those among them who are claiming to believe Trump won are themselves liars who are supporting Trump’s attempted coup.
Just saw something that may change my plans. Wisconsin Governor is ordering an indoor mask mandate for 60 days. That is giving me time to do a quick, safe, run to procure some oatmeal stout and other dark beer that aren’t available locally which might last me until a vaccine is truly available.
Trump Jr. tested positive. He’s 42.
Kyle Rittenhouse has been released on bond. People raised $2 million to get this murderer out.
“Michigan GOP lawmakers after Oval meeting with Trump, in sum: There is no evidence Biden won’t be the winner, he will receive Michigan’s electoral votes, please pay attention to the pandemic ravaging the country.”
re SC @416: I hope the taxpayers don’t have to foot the bill for his treatment like we did for his idiot father.
Rep. Pascrell: “I’ve just filed legal complaints with the AZ, MI, NV, NY, and PA bars against Rudy Giuliani and 22 other lawyers seeking their disbarments for filing frivolous lawsuits and trying to help Trump steal the election and dismantle democracy.”
Announcement and Giuliani letter atl.
“ATLANTA (AP) — Spokesman: Georgia governor certifies presidential electors following certification of results showing Biden victory.”
More re #418:
“Twitter confirming this evening that accounts like @POTUS, @FLOTUS, @PressSec will all be handed over to the Biden administration on Inauguration Day.
‘Twitter is actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20th, 2021. As we did for the presidential transition in 2017, this process is being done in close consultation with the National Archives and Records Administration’.
What happens to the old accounts?
They get archived — like @POTUS44 and @FLOTUS44.”
FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub: “I can’t believe I need to say this, but: Electors are selected based on the popular vote in each state. Any attempt to circumvent that process should be forcefully condemned by every public official who cares at all about democracy. Every. Single. One.”
“Confirming his positive COVID test, Rick Scott urges people to mask up, social distance, and heed the advice of health officials. All things he did not do when he campaigned last week for Sens. Perdue and Loeffler in a crowded sports bar, without a mask:…”
Scott is 67. I thought he was younger.
“I can’t believe I need to say this, but: Electors are selected based on the popular vote in each state. […]”
Hm, surely that could be even more convoluted.
Instead of merely having the Electors selected based on the popular vote, and then voting based on the popular vote, the Electors could select an ArchElector, who would then vote based on the popular vote.
<snicker>
RE: the video @SC 383.
What a powerful statement! Should be required viewing, etc.
I knew absolutely nothing, before today, about Maddow’s life away from the news desk. Now, I feel like she’s speaking right out of my own head, although with much better articulation than I could ever achieve.
When she talked about how much she wished it had been her who had gotten it, “but the virus doesn’t let you choose” (I’m paraphrasing), I immediately thought, yeah, that’s what I would be going through. (Luckily my s/o and I have both been spared, so far… but S. Ontario, where I live, is not looking so good right now.)
Re: 391 Trump cheerleading on the “low case fatality rate” of Covid-19 in US
This seems to happen every time the US epidemic is surging, and countless newly diagnosed people haven’t died yet, so there’s few deaths in proportion to diagnosed cases.
(Also, in the early part of a surge, the cases tend to be more socially active younger people, rather than their older family members, who are more likely to die.)
Re: 418
What will happen to this money after his trial?
Link
@ #429
An organization called FightBack, a right-wing non-profit took credit for posting the $2 million bond for Rittenhouse. I assume it will be returned to them. Pretty good deal.
They gave special thanks to Trump’s pal, Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO, for his contribution.
Follow-up to SC @418 and 422.
hmmm, I think we need to know more.
Masks work: Show this to the mask skeptic in your life
Link
Scroll down to read a summary of the study done in Kansas; and of the study done in St. Louis.
From Infowars host Owen Shroyer:
Media Matters link to “Infowars’ Owen Shroyer: Democrats and mainstream media ‘deserve’ mass violence if Trump is not allowed to continue as president.”
Link
From comments posted by readers:
tomh:
OK, thanks.
“Trump appears to be skipping a side-event at the G20 virtual summit focused on pandemic preparedness. The President has just arrived at his golf course in Virginia.”
Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris transition tweeted:
Follow-up to SC @437.
G-20 leaders stress importance of united response to coronavirus pandemic
Mask mandate in Kansas helped slow the spread of COVID-19, CDC research finds.
Link
Michael Beschloss: “In summer 1974, during Watergate, Nixon called George Wallace and asked for help swaying a crucial Alabama member of Congress—he asked if Wallace was still with him. Wallace said, ‘No, Mr. President, ’m afraid I’m not’. After hanging up, Nixon said, ‘There goes the Presidency’.”
And he hadn’t just lost an election.
Yesterday’s tweet o’ the day.
LOL.
Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
“I guess MI House Speaker @LeeChatfield + @RepJimLillyMI were in a celebratory mood last night, drinking Dom Perignon at the Trump Hotel til midnight”
Photos atl. Their focus on the pandemic is evident. Who paid for this junket?
“@GOPChairwoman and @MIGOPChair send a letter to state Board of Canvassers asking to delay certification for 14 days.”
This is what they’re up to in Wisconsin.
From Pete Buttigieg:
Tennessee Mayor Won’t Issue A Mask Order Until The Holy Ghost Tells Him To
Link
A discussion of Donald Junior’s COVID-19 diagnosis, from Wonkette:
Link
From the Washington Post Editorial Board:
Link
WaPo:
In scathing opinion, federal judge dismisses Trump campaign lawsuit in Pennsylvania
By Jon Swaine, November 21, 2020
Although appointed by Obama, Judge Matthew W. Brann is no wild-eyed liberal. Brann is a registered Republican and a former member of the Federalist Society. Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), who played an influential role in his appointment, said Brann was “a longtime conservative Republican whom I know to be a fair and unbiased jurist.”
SC@446,
In the comments at your link, I’m seeing quite a number saying the Trumpist actions are all about bringing in money. I’m sure that is one aspect of it, but (admittedly without using the word), Trump’s lawyer herself, Sidney Powell, announced that what’s going on is an attempted coup. It reminds me of Max Frisch’s The Fire-Raisers. Biden needs to stop faffing about, denounce the attempt to overturn the election, and launch legal actions against those involved, while the left needs to get large-scale (masked and distanced) demonstrations underway and prepare for a general strike.
CNN – “Donald Trump’s attempt to steal the election unravels as coronavirus cases surge.”
Summarizes much of what’s been discussed here, and includes the news that Kelly Loeffler has now tested positive. She received positive results from a PCR test later Friday after campaigning maskless all day with Perdue and Pence, but her staff say the results of a second test yesterday came back “inconclusive,” so she’s being tested more.
Here’s a link to the November 22 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
“This is a really interesting point by @aaron_con_choco.
In the 2020 primary, Bernie won all of (and basically only) the Rio Grande Valley against Biden.
Those same exact counties broke more heavily toward Trump than any others in Texas.”
Maps atl. Seems like looking at the covert and overt propaganda targeting certain groups is going to be important going forward.
So while I was away from Twitter this happened.
“Jeb Bush is picking a fight with @ratemyskyperoom & the replies are incredible & I don’t even know where to begin but John Fetterman got involved & ‘please clap’ is happening & I really really needed these laffs…”
Yesterday’s tweet o’ the day.
Sorry, Vietnam. (They’ll be out soon.)
Great news – NPR – “Trump Appointee Unconstitutionally Interfered With VOA, Judge Rules”:
Another low point for the DoJ.
Georgia Voting System Implementation Manager (and Republican) Gabe Sterling: “So this is fun…multiple attempted hacks of my emails, police protection around my home, the threats. But all is well…following the the law, following the process…doing our jobs.”
I have to think this isn’t helping their position in the Flynn case:
The two most recent episodes of QAnon Anonymous are useful:
“Episode 116: QAnon VS President-Elect Joe Biden” (November 10)
“Episode 117: MAGA Dominion Lost feat Will Sommer” (November 17)
“Republican Congressman Fred Upton tells Trump that ‘it’s over’.
‘You know, the voters spoke. And here again, in Michigan, it’s not a razor-thin margin. It’s 154,000 votes. You got to let those votes stand’.”
“‘We’re beginning to look like a banana republic’, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan says on CNN about Trump seeking to overturn the election. ‘Frankly I’m embarrassed more people aren’t speaking up’.”
“long time supporter of Pres Trump, @GovChristie says it’s time for him to accept that Biden has won, calls Trump legal defense ‘a national embarrassment’ @ThisWeekABC”
The Trump cultists today are menacingly protesting outside…Brian Kemp’s mansion.
Guardian world liveblog:
“Devin Nunes acknowledges that Trump lost”
Video clip atl.
“Walter Cronkite reports on working from quarantine”
Guardian world liveblog:
Here’s a tweet with the video. Seems like she starts crying before she throws down the microphone and walks off.
“Top vaccine official says it’d help if they could speak to Biden team. ‘Of course smoothness is what we all aim for and therefore it would be better’, Moncef Slaoui of Operation Warp Speed says on @CNNSotu. ‘I hope transitions will happen smoothly and things will be into order’.”
Ron Klain: “I agree with Dr. Slaoui on this point. I’m sure most Americans do.”
Here are some upcoming certification deadlines:
Pennsylvania: Nov. 23 (tomorrow)
Michigan: Nov. 23 (tomorrow)
Nevada: Nov. 24 (Tuesday)
Arizona: Nov. 30
Wisconsin: Dec. 1
Andy Slavitt:
Graphs and more atl.
I remember in the spring I kept seeing all sorts of data about population density, implying that many states would see little impact simply because they were relatively rural. But it’s been about public policy and leadership all along. Many towns, states, and countries that are much more densely populated have done much better than many rural places because the people in charge followed the science, led responsibly, and focused on protecting vulnerable people (including homeless people and those whose jobs put them at greater risk) and supporting people financially/practically so they could keep themselves and others safe.
“‘It’s working!’ Check out the critters big and small who are using Utah’s first wildlife overpass to cross Interstate 80. The @UtahDWR shared this video on Thursday.”
SC @470, those are very good points. Thanks for posting that. The relatively rural, less densely populated area where I live now has alarmingly high rates of COVID-19 infection, and problems with hospitals being overwhelmed. Low population density did not protect my community. Political leadership in this state has been terrible and/or inconsistent. Our political leaders have made things worse. The messaging is mostly about freedom and not wearing masks. People do not practice social distancing. Leadership has failed.
“President Trump has arrived at his golf course, per pool.”
Of course they are, it’s free.
Trump campaign requests recount of hand-recounted results in Georgia
By Michelle Ye Hee Lee
November 21, 2020
Politico – “Trump threatens to wreak havoc on GOP from beyond the White House”:
CNN – “Donald Trump has left the world stage. Few will miss him”:
Includes this description: “In a room full of reporters and officials in Riyadh, as Trump’s speech was played on a massive screen almost no one paid attention, unlike when the other leaders spoke.”
WH Vaccine Czar Predicts Herd Immunity From COVID Vaccine By May. Fauci Thinks Not
Yeah, I’m going with “NOT.” I think that both the speed of vaccine distribution, and the rate of vaccination will vary a lot by state. I think the prediction of “herd immunity” by the month of May thanks to a vaccination program paints too rosy a picture. July is more likely.
“The FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are investigating threats to Georgia’s top elections official and his deputies, the secretary of state’s office said.”
AJC link atl.
Dominion spokesman: ‘It is not physically possible for our machines to switch votes from one candidate to the other.”
Link
More details about how the Dominion machines, and the associated printed copies of ballots work is available at the link.
MAGA fanatics are still pushing the Dominion conspiracy on Parler (their replacement for Twitter after Twitter kicked them off the platform, or flagged them, for posting disinformation). Parler identifies itself as a “free speech” social network, but it is really a bubble of misinformation inhabited by dunderheads who are now talking mostly to each other. It is a fever swamp.
Judd Legum:
Link to his newsletter atl.
More details concerning one of Trump’s losses in the courts:
Link
LOL.
“Trump attorney [Jenna Ellis] in 2016: Name calling, foul language, personal attacks won’t be tolerated.
Trump attorney in 2020: Frank Luntz has a micropenis.”
Tweets atl. As I’ve said all through this whole woeful episode, I hate the gleeful humiliation or attempted humiliation of people around Trump or his real or perceived political enemies. That’s included Sessions, Tillerson, Ryan, Romney, and many others. It makes me sick, even when it’s people I loathe. Ruth Ben-Ghiat discusses in Strongmen how a common aim of these sorts of personalist regimes is to desensitize people to public humiliation, harassment, threats, and violence. They also want people to become accustomed to someone holding power one day and being turned out and dispatched by the leader the next for a perceived lack of personal loyalty, and to turn on a dime to believe people they were led to hold in high esteem were actually criminals and plotters all along.
“So I’ve posted TikToks from this woman before…she rescued a beaver and is rehabilitating him for eventual reintegration into the wild
But he can’t stop being a beaver, so he keeps trying to build a dam in her house using her furniture and other items….”
Videos atl.
SC @482, I liked Jake Tapper’s take on this:
In other news, “Cleveland coronavirus cases up 1,200 percent since early October.”
Link
National Guard members sent to El Paso to help at overwhelmed morgue
Former NATO commander: More than one company needed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines
Coronavirus cases are soaring in the D.C. region. Experts say the worst is yet to come.
Washington Post link
Tweet o’ the day.
Grifting to the end, top Trump official plans last-minute foreign travel
Another spot-on tweet:
https://twitter.com/JYSexton/status/1330275989163827204
Tagline of the Trump era.
Here’s video of # 467 with English subtitles. The security guard should get an award. The speaker is young and has time to learn and grow. Sophie and Hans Scholl had Kurt Huber. These people have YouTube and Facebook.
Uh…Trump has suddenly fired and disowned Sidney Powell?
Re #494:
Just amazing. (And not at all normal – see #483).
Really just incredible. Every Trumper should realize they’re a nanosecond away from this.
Crazy as she is, I didn’t realize this. (Apologies if this has been on before and I missed it.)
Business Insider:
An attorney leading Trump’s attempt to subvert the election results is a longtime QAnon supporter
Tom Porter Nov 20, 2020
The article is everything you might expect, she appeared on the QAnon youtube channel, spread all the conspiracy theories, etc. This has gone on for several years. Perfect lawyer for Michael Flynn.
Oops, wrong URL for # 498
This is the right one