Trump gets more and more pathetic

Somehow the Washington Post has obtained a recording of a phone call made yesterday by Trump to Brad Raffensperger (the Republican secretary of state for Georgia) and Ryan Germany (general counsel for the secretary of state) pleading with them to find 11,780 extra votes for Trump so that Biden’s win in that state can be overturned.

Just listen as Trump invokes all manner of vague rumors to support his case. The level of delusional pleading is astounding. Here is a four-minute clip of the hour long call.

Trump has admitted to making the call.

These Georgian officials’ hearts must be sinking whenever they hear that Trump is on the line.

Rise in minimum wage in 2021

2020 has been terrible for people working in the service sector and other low-wage jobs due to the effects of the pandemic. Thanks to various measures that have been passed in states and cities because of pressure by activists and labor unions, minimum wages are due to rise in some areas of the country providing at least some relief.

2020 was a devastating year for underpaid frontline workers.

But even in the face of public health and economic crises triggered by Covid-19, the Fight for $15 movement persisted, and now 24 states and 50 municipalities throughout the U.S. are set to raise minimum wages in 2021.

On New Year’s Day, 20 states and 32 cities will increase their minimum wage, with the wage floor in 27 of those jurisdictions reaching or exceeding $15 per hour. The January 1 raises will be followed by another round of wage floor hikes later in 2021, when four additional states and 18 localities will increase their minimum wage, 13 of them to at least $15 per hour.

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Another Karen to add to the list

Stories of young black men becoming automatic suspects if anything goes awry within a five-mile radius of them are depressingly common. We have this latest example when it appears that a woman unknowingly left her phone behind in her Uber ride. After entering the lobby of the Arlo hotel in Soho in New York City and discovering that her phone was missing, she saw a 14-year old black adolescent who was with his parents using a phone and immediately accused him of stealing it and proceeded to tackle him to the ground. All of this was captured on security videos and also by the boy’s father.
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Pence to Gohmert: Thanks but no thanks

You may recall my post about the crackpot lawsuit brought by crackpot Texas congressperson Louie Gohmert before a federal judge that the president of the senate has broad powers to decide which electoral slates should be counted on January 6th when the joint session of Congress meets to certify the results of the presidential election. The odd thing was that Gohmert was citing as the defendant vice-president Mike Pence, the very person whom, in his role as president of the senate, Gohmert was saying should have these vastly expanded powers.

But the justice department has filed a motion on Pence’s behalf saying that the lawsuit should not be directed at vice president Mike Pence.
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Anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers getting even more aggressive

The Republican governor of the state of New Hampshire has cancelled his public outdoor inauguration swearing-in ceremony scheduled for January 7th because of armed protestors who oppose his mask mandate.

“My first responsibility is ensuring the safety of my family and our citizens,” Gov. Chris Sununu said. “For weeks, armed protesters have increasingly become more aggressive, targeting my family, protesting outside my private residence and trespassing on my property — an outdoor public ceremony simply brings too much risk. We do not make this decision lightly, but it is the right thing to do.”
…

For weeks, protesters have gathered at Sununu’s home in Newfields, calling for an end to the state of emergency. Prompting the town to adopt an ordinance that prohibits residential picketing.

Monday night, a group known as “Absolute Defiance” held what they called a vigil outside Sununu’s home.

“Late Monday night, an individual, an armed individual was arrested in my backyard with over two dozen rounds of ammunition,” Sununu said. “And, as governor, my obligation is to the safety of my family, to the safety of the citizens of this state and so therefore, it was prudent to cancel that event and make further adjustments.”

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TV review: Death to 2020 (2020)

A good way to spend New Year’s Eve or start 2021 would be to watch Death to 2020 on Netflix that gives a humorous review of the year’s events with a biting sardonic tone. One of the creators of the show is Charlie Brooker, a well-known British TV personality known for his sarcastic wit, who along with Annabel Jones also created the dark futuristic series Black Mirror.

Here’s a clip from the show.

Here’s another clip.

Here’s the trailer.

Subdued New Year’s Eve celebrations

My idea of a great New Year’s eve is to spend it at home and go to bed at the usual time. On a few occasions I have been invited to a friend’s house for a party and everyone was given a pointy hat and noisemaker and all watched the TV and waited for the clock to run down and the ball to drop before letting out a cheer and then going around wishing everyone. I took part in these because the people are nice and I did not want to be a grouch but it all seemed so strained and artificial.

This year it looks like much of the world will be cutting back on such celebrations. France has banned gatherings and has assigned 100,000 police to break up parties and enforce a curfew. New York City has announced that Times Square, where revelers usually gather, has been closed and the traditional ball drop has been canceled.
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Wrong predictions in 2020

This is the time of year when people make lists, most of which I ignore. A common sport is to look at the predictions that people made for the year and to see how they panned out. Making predictions is always a tricky business, especially when it comes to politics so we should not be surprised when many of them turn out to be wrong.

This article compiles a list of predictions that went wrong during this year. While it makes for amusing reading, I think it lumps together two different categories.

One category are those predictions that were mistaken but defensible based on the best available knowledge at the time. In this category, I include the prediction by a public health analyst back in May that “We’re not going to see an effective [coronavirus] vaccine proven safe until well into 2021, if then”. Based on the fact that the record for the shortest time for all previous vaccines was four years, this was not an unreasonable prediction.

The people who deserve to be ridiculed are those whose predictions are not based on evidence or even reality but are driven by an ideological agenda or as part of a propaganda effort or are simply wishful thinking about what people hope will happen. In this category is Kayleigh McEnany’s prediction that Trump will keep the coronavirus from coming to the U.S. and Trump’s multiple predictions that the virus would go away ‘soon’.

Get ready for fun and games on January 6th!

We know that January 6th is the day when Congress is scheduled to meet to ratify the Electoral College votes and declare Joe Biden the winner. At his first post-election news conference held just before Thanksgiving, when asked if he would leave the White House if the Electoral College declares Joe Biden the winner, Trump replied, “Of course I will. Of course I will. You know that.” However that was his only concession to reality and since then he has continued to deny the fact that he lost.
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Why this desire to humiliate by the police?

We have seen so many stories this year of deadly violence perpetrated by police on unarmed people, mostly people of color. But there are other kinds of police abuse that, while not ending in the death or injury of the person at the receiving end, also end up being traumatic. Many of these are due to the police barging into people’s homes with no warning, such as this case where a perfectly innocent woman was kept naked in her own home. This happened two years ago but the city tried to block release body-cam video that supported the woman’s version of what happened.
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