The Ledes

Thursday, October 10, 2024

The New York Times' live updates of Hurrucane Milton consequences Thursday is here: “Milton was still producing damaging hurricane-force winds and heavy rainfall to parts of East and Central Florida, forecasters said early Thursday, even as the powerful storm roared away from the Atlantic coast and left deaths and widespread damage across the state. Cities along Florida’s east coast are now facing flash flooding, damaging winds and storm surges. Some had already been battered by powerful tornadoes spun out by the storm before it made landfall on the Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane. In [St. Lucie] county [Fort Pierce], several people in a retirement community were killed by a tornado, the police said.... More than three million customers were without power in Florida as of early Thursday.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here are the Weater Channel's live updates.

CNN: “The 2024 Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to Han Kang, a South Korean author, for her 'intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.' Han, 53, began her career with a group of poems in a South Korean magazine, before making her prose debut in 1995 with a short story collection. She later began writing longer prose works, most notably 'The Vegetarian,' one of her first books to be translated into English. The novel, which won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, charts a young woman’s attempt to live a more 'plant-like' existence after suffering macabre nightmares about human cruelty. Han is the first South Korean author to win the literature prize, and just the 18th woman out of the 117 prizes awarded since 1901.”

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The Ledes

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Washington Post: “Hours before Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, a spate of unusually strong and long-lived tornadoes touched down across the state, flipping tractor-trailers and ripping off roofs. The twisters surprised anxious residents, even as the storm’s eye still loomed. Authorities said there had been 'multiple' deaths after the intense and destructive tornadoes.” MB: I'm still on Florida's emergency-call list, and I received several calls from Lee County, urging me to shelter in place.

The Washington Post's live updates of Hurricane Milton developments are here: “Hurricane Milton, which has strengthened to a 'catastrophic' Category 5 storm, is closing in on Florida’s west coast and is expected to make landfall Wednesday night or early Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane, which could bring maximum sustained winds of nearly 160 mph with bigger gusts, poses a dire threat to the densely populated zone that includes Tampa, Sarasota and Fort Myers. As well as 'damaging hurricane-force winds,' coastal communities face a 'life-threatening' storm surge, the center said.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here: “Milton carved a path of destruction after crashing ashore Wednesday evening on Florida’s Gulf Coast, making landfall near Sarasota as the second powerful hurricane to pound the region in less than two weeks. The storm battered the state for much of the day, with heavy winds, pelting rain and a spate of tornadoes.... By around midnight, the storm had destroyed more than 100 homes, killed several people in a retirement community and ripped the roof off Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays.”

Washington Post: “The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to David Baker at the University of Washington and Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper of Google DeepMind.... The prize was awarded to scientists who cracked the code of proteins. Hassabis and Jumper used artificial intelligence to predict the structure of proteins, one of the toughest problems in biology. Baker created computational tools to design novel proteins with shapes and functions that can be used in drugs, vaccines and sensors.”

Sorry, forgot this yesterday: ~~~

Reuters: “U.S. scientist John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for discoveries and inventions in machine learning that paved the way for the artificial intelligence boom. Heralded for its revolutionary potential in areas ranging from cutting-edge scientific discovery to more efficient admin, the emerging technology on which the duo worked has also raised fears humankind may soon be outsmarted and outcompeted by its own creation.”

Help!

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Monday
Jan042021

The Commentariat -- January 5, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday escalated his efforts to force Vice President Mike Pence to overturn President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory, falsely asserting that Mr. Pence had the power to unilaterally throw out electoral votes on Wednesday when Congress meets to certify the election results.... 'The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,' the president tweeted on Tuesday. That's not how it works."

William Booth & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "... on Tuesday, the leader of Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, was asked if Trump was headed her way and what might be her message to him?... Sturgeon warned Trump he might be breaking the law if he came: 'We are not allowing people to come into Scotland now without an essential purpose, which would apply to him, just as it applies to everybody else. Coming to play golf is not what I would consider an essential purpose.' Scotland, alongside Northern Ireland, Wales and England are in lockdown, with stay-at-home orders...." See Patrick's comment in today's thread. Patrick suspects it is not Trump who will be traveling to Scotland on January 19th, but some of his secret, incriminating presidential* papers White House staff have refused to shred.

Trump Relies on QAnon for Election Fraud "Research." Ben Collins, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump cataloged a series of false conspiracy theories during an hourlong call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday in which he sought to overturn the state's election results, and they were familiar to anyone following the far fringes of the internet. Trump floated fragments of several baseless conspiracy theories that were primarily pushed by QAnon followers over the last two months, including a widely debunked theory about voting machines from Dominion Voting Systems. The wide-ranging slew of theories, spawned on extremist forums like 4chan, were repeatedly referred to by Trump as 'rumors' that are 'trending on the internet.' He claimed they were reasons Raffensperger should 're-examine it [the election] with people that want to find answers.' Saturday's call offered a look at just how much he is now relying on some of the most outlandish theories from obscure corners of the internet to make his case for election fraud."

Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Attorneys for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday lit into a 'thirteenth hour' effort by ... Donald Trump to decertify the results of the state's Nov. 3 election, calling it a belated bid to nullify the ballots of millions of voters."

Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Following the abrupt Monday resignation of Byung Jin 'BJay' Pak, the U.S. attorney in Atlanta, President Trump is bypassing his first assistant, a career prosecutor, to name a new acting leader from outside the office. The announcement came early Tuesday morning in an internal email obtained by TPM. The new acting U.S. attorney in Atlanta will be Bobby Christine, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, according to the email. Christine will continue simultaneously in both roles, according to the email."

Teo Armus of the Washington Post: "The activists said they had staged a peaceful vigil on Monday night to protest a GOP plan to object to Congress's certification of the presidential electoral vote this week. On the sidewalk in a Northern Virginia suburb, a group of 15 people chanted while holding candles and signs saying, 'Protect democracy.' But Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) had a different description for the scene outside his family's home in Fairfax County: 'leftwing violence.' 'Tonight while I was in Missouri, Antifa scumbags came to our place in DC and threatened my wife and newborn daughter,' he wrote on Twitter late Monday. 'They screamed threats, vandalized, and tried to pound open our door.' Demonstrators with ShutDownDC, which organized the protest, told The Washington Post that they did not engage in vandalism or even knock on Hawley's door." The Hill's story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Georgia Senate Races

Steve Peoples & Bill Barrow of the AP: "Georgia voters are set to decide the balance of power in Congress in a pair of high-stakes Senate runoff elections that will help determine President-elect Joe Biden's capacity to enact what may be the most progressive governing agenda in generations.... At a rally in northwest Georgia on the eve of Tuesday's runoffs, Trump repeatedly declared that the November elections were plagued by fraud that Republican officials, including his former attorney general and Georgia's elections chief, say did not occur. The president called Georgia's Republican secretary of state 'crazy' and vowed to help defeat him in two years. At the same time, Trump encouraged his supporters to show up in force for Georgia's Tuesday contests. 'You've got to swarm it tomorrow,' Trump told thousands of cheering supporters, downplaying the threat of fraud." MB: One of the many ways to tell Donald Trump is crazy: he described a supposed opponent as crazy. Trump usually projects his most serious shortcomings onto people he doesn't like. More on Trump's Georgia rally linked under "Last Days."

Georgia, the whole nation is looking to you. The power is literally in your hands. One state can chart the course, not just for the next four years, but for the next generation. -- President-elect Joe Biden, at an Atlanta rally Monday

The Washington Post's presidential transition liveblog for Monday is here: Reis Thebault: "Georgia elections officials, who have been beating back unfounded claims of fraud and malfeasance since the November election, say they're prepared to be in the spotlight once again after Tuesday's runoffs. 'All the counties in Georgia are in the spotlight right now, so we are all prepared for this as well as we can be,' Richard Barron, Fulton County's elections director, said at a news conference Monday afternoon. Trump has attacked Fulton County, the most populous in Georgia, repeatedly since he lost the state two months ago in the presidential election -- including in his call to the secretary of state. Barron said his staff has endured a bomb threat, death threats and repeated racial slurs in the run-up to Tuesday's vote." ~~~

~~~ Michelle Lee: "On the eve of the Senate runoff elections in Georgia, Biden emphasized the importance of the election in determining party control of the upper chamber and the fate of the negotiations in Congress over a third coronavirus stimulus package. Biden urged Georgians to vote for the two Democrats running in Tuesday's contests, Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, noting that a Democratic-controlled Senate would support the $2,000 covid-19 stimulus checks that Senate Republicans have opposed."

Once Again, It's the Whistleblower's Fault. Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "Sen. David Perdue tore into Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday for recording a phone call with President Donald Trump over the weekend, calling it 'disgusting' to do so. 'I guess I was raised differently,' Perdue, a Republican, said on Fox News. 'To have a statewide elected official, regardless of party, tape without disclosing a conversation -- private conversation -- with the president of the United States, and then leaking it to the press is disgusting.'... Perdue and fellow Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler have gone all-in with Trump as they seek to save their seats ahead of Tuesday's run off." MB: Perdue is an odd person to question anybody else's morals: he has used his Senate seat to gain insider knowledge to enhance his stock portfolio, and he has a long professional history of underpaying American employees and outsourcing labor to Asia. By anyone's standards, these are far more immoral than blowing the whistle on a corrupt president* who falsely defamed him.

Faker's Dozen. Loeffler to Join Dirty Dozen. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) said Monday that she will object to the presidential election results when Congress convenes a joint session on Wednesday to formally count the Electoral College vote.... Former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) has also endorsed challenging the election results, but, unlike Loeffler, he will forfeit his seat until the Georgia races are certified, meaning he will not be in Congress on Wednesday."

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

Astead Herndon & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump used a campaign rally on the eve of two critical Senate runoffs in Georgia to once again vent his debunked grievances about the outcome of November's presidential election, as he continued his assault on the peaceful transfer of power. In an appearance that was supposed to bolster the fortunes of the two Republican candidates ... Mr. Trump instead turned the nearly 90-minute rally into a rambling lecture filled with conspiracy theories, rumors, unproven assertions and personal attacks on Democrats, the news media and Georgia's Republican officials. 'There's no way we lost Georgia,' Mr. Trump said just after taking the stage. 'I've had two elections. I've won both of them. It's amazing.' Moments later, after briefly mentioning the two Republican senators, he shifted back to his own, losing election: 'They're not going to take this White House. We're going to fight like hell, I'll tell you right now.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's impossible to guess what Trump will do January 20 because he doesn't know from moment to moment what stunt he may pull. There was his Churchillian "We will fight them on the beaches" remark last night (see above); on the other hand, there are indications he will flee the country on your dime (see story linked below).

~~~ Glenn Kessler & Meg Kelly of the Washington Post: "President Trump's campaign rally Monday night in Dalton, Ga., on behalf of Sen. Kelly Loeffler and David Purdue, whose Senate term expired Sunday, was filled with his usual collection of scores of falsehoods. We will focus mostly on his election-related claims, along with a selection of statements that turn up at virtually all his recent rallies, as documented in our database of Trump's false or misleading claims. (We are still trying to catch up but as of Nov. 5, the count stands at 29,508 claims.)"

Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump on Monday continued his public meltdown over the results of the 2020 presidential election with yet another angry broadside against members of the Republican Party who aren't supporting his efforts to launch a coup against President-elect Joe Biden. Writing on Twitter, the president called out Republicans who are refusing to go along with plans to block the certification of Biden's victory in Congress this week. 'The "Surrender Caucus" within the Republican Party will go down in infamy as weak and ineffective "guardians" of our Nation, who were willing to accept the certification of fraudulent presidential numbers!' the president wrote.... Earlier on Monday, Trump warned Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) that his voters would 'NEVER FORGET' that he declined to help Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) in their plans to block Biden's win from being certified."

Mike's Dilemma. Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "'I know we all have got our doubts about the last election,' Mr. Pence said Monday [at a rally] in Georgia, attempting to assuage Trump supporters. 'I want to assure you that I share the concerns of millions of Americans about voting irregularities. I promise you, come this Wednesday, we will have our day in Congress.' It was not clear, perhaps by design, what he meant. Mr. Pence does not have unilateral power to affect the outcome of Wednesday's proceedings. But he has carefully tried to look like he is loyally following the president's lead even as he goes through a process that is expected to end with him reading out a declaration that Mr. Biden is the winner.... Two people briefed on the discussions said Mr. Trump had directly pressed Mr. Pence to find an alternative to certifying Mr. Biden's win, such as preventing him from having 270 electoral votes and letting the election be thrown to the House to decide. In Georgia on Monday night at a rally for Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, Mr. Trump openly pressured the vice president, saying, 'I hope Mike Pence comes through for us, I have to tell you.' He added, 'Of course, if he doesn't come through, I won't like him as much.'... Mr. Pence ... met with Senate parliamentarians for hours on Sunday to prepare himself and the president for what he would say while on the Senate floor."

Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Almost 200 of the country's top business leaders urged Congress to certify the electoral results for President-elect Joe Biden in a letter Monday, arguing that 'attempts to thwart or delay this process run counter to the essential tenets of our democracy.' The letter marked the business community's most significant push yet to ensure President Trump's efforts to overturn the November election are unsuccessful. Signers included a wide array of executives of Fortune 500 companies, from the leaders of banks, airlines, investment firms, pharmaceutical companies, professional sports leagues, real estate conglomerates, top law firms and media companies."

The Cost of a Failed Impeachment. David Graham of the Atlantic: "The memory of impeachment is back with a vengeance this week.... The president continues to try to overturn Biden's victory. In a phone call on Saturday that was eerily reminiscent of Trump's July 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump tried to pressure Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of Georgia (the state, not the country) to do something, anything, to throw the state's results back to him.... The president's MO has not changed since July 2019 -- in fact, it has scarcely changed over the course of his career.... [In his call to Raffensperger,] Trump speaks like a mob boss, making his desire clear but never saying explicitly what he wants, so as to maintain deniability.... Trump's current, shambling coup attempt is the price of the Senate's failure to remove him.... The post-election moves, and especially the coup call, are the most brazen and direct echo of the Ukraine plot, and they show why acquittal was so dangerous to the republic.... All of this could have been prevented." Firewalled. ~~~

~~~ Marie: Contributor RAS reminded me yesterday of Rep. Adam Schiff's (D-Calif.) remarkable closing argument for impeachment of Donald Trump, which I re-watched in its entirety yesterday. By contrast, here's Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in February 2020, whom Mainers in their collective wisdom returned to her job: ~~~

~~~ Neal K. Katyal & Sam Koppelman in a New York Times op-ed: "Whether he acknowledges it or not, President Trump is leaving the White House on Jan. 20 -- but right now, there is nothing stopping him from running in 2024. That is a terrifying prospect, because the way he has conducted himself over the past two months, wielding the power of the presidency to try to steal another term in office, has threatened one of our republic's most essential traditions: the peaceful transfer of power. Fortunately, our founders anticipated we would face a moment like this, which is one reason Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution entrusts Congress with the power not only to remove a president but also to prevent him or her from ever holding elected office again. Mr. Trump's conduct over the past two months has left our legislators with no choice but to use it. That impeachment inquiry would take time, far more than Mr. Trump has left in office. But it would be well worth it.... We must establish a precedent that a president who tries to cheat his way to re-election will be held accountable.... We also need to set a precedent that a lame duck president can still be held accountable.... We cannot risk Mr. Trump's becoming president again...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I guess I like this op-ed because it jibes with what I wrote yesterday, even if Katyal & Koppleman write far more elegantly, convincingly & completely than I did. ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Taken on their own, most excuses for not investigating or prosecuting Trump make at least some sense.... Yet if there is no penalty for Republican cheating, there will be more of it. The structure of our politics -- the huge advantages wielded by small states and rural voters -- means that Democrats need substantial majorities to wield national power, so they can't simply ignore the wishes of the electorate. Not so for Republicans, which is why they feel free to openly scheme against the majority. During impeachment, Republicans who were unwilling to defend the president's conduct, but also unwilling to penalize him, insisted that if Americans didn't like his behavior they could vote him out. Americans did, and now Trump's party is refusing to accept it. It's evidence tha you can't rely on elections to punish attempts to subvert elections. Only the law can do that, even if it's inconvenient."

~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump's relentless effort to overturn the result of the election that he lost has become the most serious stress test of American democracy in generations, led not by outside revolutionaries intent on bringing down the system but by the very leader charged with defending it. In the 220 years since a defeated John Adams turned over the White House to his rival, firmly establishing the peaceful transfer of power as a bedrock principle, no sitting president who lost an election has tried to hang onto power by rejecting the Electoral College and subverting the will of the voters -- until now. It is a scenario at once utterly unthinkable and yet feared since the beginning of Mr. Trump's tenure. The president has gone well beyond simply venting his grievances or creating a face-saving narrative to explain away a loss, as advisers privately suggested he was doing in the days after the Nov. 3 vote, but instead has pressed the boundaries of tradition, propriety and the law to find any way he can to cling to office beyond his term that expires in two weeks. That he is almost certain to fail does not mitigate the damage he is doing to democracy by undermining public faith in the electoral system." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When Peter Both-Sides-Do-It Baker is as alarmed as this, you can be assured the situation is alarming.

Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump is effectively sabotaging the Republican Party on his way out of office, obsessed with overturning his election loss and nursing pangs of betrayal from allies whom he had expected to bend the instruments of democracy to his will. Trump has created a divide in his party as fundamental and impassioned as any during his four years as president, with lawmakers forced to choose between certifying the results of an election decided by their constituents or appeasing the president in an all-but-certain-to-fail crusade to keep him in power by subverting the vote. As Republican lawmakers took sides ahead of Wednesday's joint session of Congress to certify the electoral college results, some on Monday voiced rare criticism of Trump for his attempt to pressure Georgia elections officials to change vote totals there during a Saturday phone call.... Even one of Trump's most loyal defenders, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), said it was 'not a helpful call.'... The president is ... exhorting his supporters to travel to Washington for mass protests Wednesday. He is planning to speak to the crowd on the Ellipse around midday Wednesday...." ~~~

~~~ AP: "Bracing for possible violence, the nation's capital has mobilized the National Guard ahead of planned protests by ... Donald Trump's supporters in connection with the congressional vote expected Wednesday to affirm Joe Biden's election victory. Trump's supporters are planning to rally Tuesday and Wednesday, seeking to bolster the president's unproven claims of widespread voter fraud. 'There are people intent on coming to our city armed,' D.C. Acting Police Chief Robert Contee said Monday.... With downtown D.C. businesses boarding up their windows, Mayor Muriel Bowser ... Monday ... asked that local area residents stay away from downtown D.C., and avoid confrontations with anyone who is 'looking for a fight.' But, she warned, 'we will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city.'... On Monday, Metropolitan Police Department officers arrested the leader of the Proud Boys, Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio, 36, after he arrived in Washington ahead of this week's protests. Tarrio was accused of burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was torn down from a historic Black church in downtown Washington during the December protests."

"Yet the President* Persists." Paulina Firozi of the Washington Post (from the WashPo's live transition updates, also linked above): "Gabriel Sterling, Georgia&'s voting systems manager, pulled no punches during a Monday news conference as he point by point dismissed numerous unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, some of which Trump repeated during an hour-long phone call with Georgia's secretary of state Saturday. Sterling called it 'anti-disinformation Monday' and said he wanted to set the record straight, especially ahead of a pair of Senate runoff elections, because 'we want to make sure people understand their votes count.... The secretary wants me to make clear that everybody's vote is going to count and everybody's vote did count,' Sterling said." The New York Times' story is here. Sterling's full remarks are recorded in this YouTube video.

Marie: What if the GOP state official Trump called was not straightlaced Brad Raffensperger but former Kansas secretary of state & voter suppression aficionado Kris Kobach? Or for that matter, former Missouri attorney general & Electoral College challenger Josh Hawley? The Republican party is littered with officials who didn't need Donald Trump to teach them how to undermine or even overturn the voters' will.

In a Twitter thread, NBC News' Geoff Bennett writes that Trump had tried to telephone Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger 18 times during the past two months. People in Raffensperger's office recorded the call, and he told them not to release it unless Trump mischaracterized the call. MB: Trump did mischaracterize Raffensperger's responses in a tweet, which Ryan Nobles of CNN reported in a story linked below. None of these previous efforts has been previously reported, so I this implies an answer to a question I asked below: has Trump called other state officials around the country trying to overturn the results in their states? I'd guess yes, yes and yes. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Allan Smith & Alex Moe of NBC News: "A pair of House Democrats are asking FBI Director Christopher Wray to open a criminal probe into ... Donald Trump after a leaked phone call showed him pleading with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn his state's election. 'As members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes,' Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., wrote in a letter to Wray on Monday. 'We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the president.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: “The district attorney overseeing Atlanta said Monday that she will 'enforce the law without fear or favor' if a case is referred to her office regarding President Trump's controversial phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R.) In a statement obtained by local outlet WSBTV, Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis said she found news reports about the weekend phone call 'disturbing.' 'Anyone who commits a felony violation of Georgia law in my jurisdiction wil be held accountable,' Willis said. 'Once the investigation is complete, this matter, like all matters, will be handled by our office based on the facts and the law.'"

Worse Than Watergate: ~~~

Marie: Andrew Weissmann, a former Mueller prosecutor appearing on MSNBC, made a point that supports the illegality of Trump's ask of Raffensperger. According to Weissmann, Trump attorneys who were on the call repeatedly asked Raffensperger to provide them with data and other information to back up Georgia's contention that the election count was proper. Trump, however, shut down his lawyers and told Raffensperger what he wanted was not information but a "recalculated" vote count that would give him at least one more vote than they credited to Biden. That is, Trump's lawyers were not asking the secretary of state to overturn the election results; Trump was. ~~~

~~~ Nevertheless.... Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "A Milwaukee-based law firm is distancing itself from one of the attorneys involved in ... Donald Trump's disturbing call trying to overturn the results of the Georgia election. Cleta Mitchell, a partner at Foley & Lardner, participated in the Saturday call in which Trump pressured the Georgia secretary of state to 'find' 11,780 votes to help Trump win that state's election. In a statement, a spokesman for Foley said the firm does not represent 'any parties seeking to contest the results of the presidential election.... We are aware of, and are concerned by, Ms. Mitchell's participation in the Jan. 2 conference call and are working to understand her involvement more thoroughly,' Dan Farrell, director of communication for Foley, said in a statement Monday. Farrell added that the firm made a decision in November not to take on any clients involved in any matters related to the November presidential election."

Coincidence??? Tierney Sneed of TPM: "The U.S. attorney in Atlanta departed his post Monday, TPM has learned, after previously indicating that he would not leave until Inauguration Day. The reason for U.S. Attorney Byung 'BJay' Pak's change of plans are not clear. In an internal email announcing his departure obtained by TPM, Pak cited only 'unforeseen circumstances' as the reason he was leaving Monday rather than Jan. 20." MB: Seems likely the "unforeseen circumstances" were Trump's call to Raffensperger & having to decided whether or not to prosecute Trump. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump to Flee U.S.? Peter Swindon of the Dundee, Scotland, Sunday Post: "... Donald Trump could be planning a trip to Scotland to avoid attending his successor Joe Biden's inauguration, according to aviation sources. Prestwick airport has been told to expect the arrival of a US military Boeing 757 aircraft, that is occasionally used by Trump, on January 19 -- the day before his Democratic rival takes charge at the White House. Speculation surrounding Trump's plans has been fuelled by the activity of US Army aircraft, which were based at Prestwick airport for a week and said to be carrying out 3D reconnaissance of the president's Turnberry resort." MB: The new AG should be checking our extradition treaties with Scotland. I don't think Trump is going to play golf. The average high temp in Ayrshire in January is 43 degrees & the average low is 34. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dan Primack of Axios: "Dominion Voting Systems plans to sue attorney Sidney Powell 'imminently' for defamation, and it's continuing to explore similar suits against President Trump and others, company founder and CEO John Poulos told the Axios Re:Cap podcast on Monday.... Dominion, which makes the voting machines used in Georgia and elsewhere, has been the subject of baseless accusations of malfeasance during last November's elections. Trump, during his leaked call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, called the U.S.-based company 'corrupt' and had to be corrected by Raffensperger after claiming machines had been recently removed and/or altered by Dominion employees."

The Radical Right. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "... the true radicals are the enablers of President Trump's ongoing attempted coup: the media bloviators on Fox News, One America and Newsmax who parrot his lies about election fraud; and the members of Congress who plan to object on Wednesday to what should be a pro forma step of approving the electoral college results.... But instead of being called what they are, these media and political figures get a mild label: conservative.... In applying this innocuous-sounding description, the reality-based media does the public a terrible disservice. Instead of calling out the truth, it normalizes; it softens the dangerous edges.... I'd call them members of the radical right." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "More than 128,000 people across the United States are currently hospitalized with covid-19 on Monday, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. That number is a record and represents an increase of 2,800 patients in a single day."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "California's daily coronavirus case tallies remain around four times what they were during the state's summer surge, and officials predict that the aftereffects of a December surge linked to holiday gatherings will worsen as the winter drags on.... Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles said on Sunday that the county's latest surge was infecting a new person every six seconds, and that many transmissions were occurring in private settings." MB: Heard on MSNBC this morning: in Los Angeles County, someone is dying of Covid-19 every 15 seconds. Update: CNN is reporting that a person dies in L.A. County every 15 minutes. That's bad, but it's different.

Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "The U.S. government's top infectious-disease doctor, a leading drug regulator and the Health and Human Services secretary are dismissing suggestions that the second shot of authorized coronavirus vaccines could be delayed to make more doses available faster to more people. In recent days, some public health experts have debated whether it is worth taking a scientific gamble by altering the two-dose regimen that proved highly effective in trials to maximize the number of people partially protected with at least one shot as the pandemic surges. The debate is playing out as the United States struggles with administering the doses it already has. More than 15 million doses of vaccine have been distributed, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data updated Monday morning, but only about 4.5 million have been administered." MB: IMO, this decision is a relief. Having most Americans half-vaccinated did not seem like a very smart decision.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "Several health experts in recent days have suggested delaying the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine in order to inoculate more people, to at least some extent, sooner rather than later. The advice comes amid concerns about the highly transmissive U.K. variant which has been reported in more than 30 countries, including the United States." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wisconsin. Shaila Dewan & Kay Nolan of the New York Times: "A pharmacist who was arrested on charges that he intentionally sabotaged more than 500 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine at a Wisconsin hospital was 'an admitted conspiracy theorist' who believed the vaccine could harm people and 'change their DNA,' according to the police in Grafton, Wis., where the man was employed. The police said Steven Brandenburg, 46, who worked the night shift at the Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wis., had twice removed a box of vials of the Moderna vaccine from the refrigerator for periods of 12 hours, rendering them 'useless.'... Although the Moderna product is sometimes described as a 'genetic' vaccine, it does not alter a person's genes in any way." The AP's story is here.

U.K. AP: "England is facing a third national lockdown that will last at least six weeks, as authorities struggle to stem a surge in COVID-19 infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals around the U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday announced a tough new stay-at-home order for England that won't be reviewed until at least mid-February to combat a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus. It takes effect at midnight Tuesday. Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon imposed a lockdown that began Tuesday. Johnson and Sturgeon said the lockdowns were needed to protect the National Health Service as a new, more contagious variant of COVID-19 sweeps across Britain. On Monday, hospitals in England were treating 26,626 coronavirus patients, 40% more than during the first pandemic peak in April."


Kate Conger of the New York Times: "More than 225 Google engineers and other workers have formed a union, the group revealed on Monday, capping years of growing activism at one of the world's largest companies and presenting a rare beachhead for labor organizers in staunchly anti-union Silicon Valley. The union's creation is highly unusual for the tech industry, which has long resisted efforts to organize its largely white-collar work force. It follows increasing demands by employees at Google for policy overhauls on pay, harassment and ethics, and is likely to escalate tensions with top leadership." The Hill's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Comments Off
Sunday
Jan032021

The Commentariat -- January 4, 2021

Afternoon Update:

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "Several health experts in recent days have suggested delaying the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine in order to inoculate more people, to at least some extent, sooner rather than later. The advice comes amid concerns about the highly transmissive U.K. variant which has been reported in more than 30 countries, including the United States."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump's relentless effort to overturn the result of the election that he lost has become the most serious stress test of American democracy in generations, led not by outside revolutionaries intent on bringing down the system but by the very leader charged with defending it. In the 220 years since a defeated John Adams turned over the White House to his rival, firmly establishing the peaceful transfer of power as a bedrock principle, no sitting president who lost an election has tried to hang onto power by rejecting the Electoral College and subverting the will of the voters -- until now. It is a scenario at once utterly unthinkable and yet feared since the beginning of Mr. Trump's tenure. The president has gone well beyond simply venting his grievances or creating a face-saving narrative to explain away a loss, as advisers privately suggested he was doing in the days after the Nov. 3 vote, but instead has pressed the boundaries of tradition, propriety and the law to find any way he can to cling to office beyond his term that expires in two weeks. That he is almost certain to fail does not mitigate the damage he is doing to democracy by undermining public faith in the electoral system." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When Peter Both-Sides-Do-It Baker is as alarmed as this, you can be assured the situation is alarming.

In a Twitter thread, NBC News' Geoff Bennett writes that Trump had tried to telephone Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger 18 times during the past two months. People in Raffensperger's office recorded the call, and he told them not to release it unless Trump mischaracterized the call. MB: Trump did mischaracterize Raffensperger's responses in a tweet, which Ryan Nobles of CNN reported in a story linked below. None of these previous efforts has been previously reported, so I this implies an answer to a question I asked below: has Trump called other state officials around the country trying to overturn the results in their states? I'd guess yes, yes and yes. ~~~

~~~ Allan Smith & Alex Moe of NBC News: "A pair of House Democrats are asking FBI Director Christopher Wray to open a criminal probe into ... Donald Trump after a leaked phone call showed him pleading with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn his state's election. 'As members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes,' Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., wrote in a letter to Wray on Monday. 'We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the president.'" ~~~

~~~ Worse Than Watergate: ~~~

~~~ Coincidence??? Tierney Sneed of TPM: "The U.S. attorney in Atlanta departed his post Monday ... after previously indicating that he would not leave until Inauguration Day. The reason for U.S. Attorney Byung 'BJay' Pak's change of plans are not clear. In an internal email announcing his departure obtained by TPM, Pak cited only 'unforeseen circumstances' as the reason he was leaving Monday rather than Jan. 20." MB: Seems likely the "unforeseen circumstances" were Trump's call to Raffensperger & having to decided whether or not to prosecute Trump.

Trump to Flee U.S.? Peter Swindon of the Dundee, Scotland, Sunday Post: "... Donald Trump could be planning a trip to Scotland to avoid attending his successor Joe Biden's inauguration, according to aviation sources. Prestwick airport has been told to expect the arrival of a US military Boeing 757 aircraft, that is occasionally used by Trump, on January 19 -- the day before his Democratic rival takes charge at the White House. Speculation surrounding Trump's plans has been fuelled by the activity of US Army aircraft, which were based at Prestwick airport for a week and said to be carrying out 3D reconnaissance of the president's Turnberry resort." MB: The new AG should be checking our extradition treaties with Scotland. I don't think Trump is going to play golf. The average high temp in Ayrshire in January is 43 degrees & the average low is 34.

The Radical Right. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "... the true radicals are the enablers of President Trump's ongoing attempted coup: the media bloviators on Fox News, One America and Newsmax who parrot his lies about election fraud; and the members of Congress who plan to object on Wednesday to what should be a pro forma step of approving the electoral college results.... But instead of being called what they are, these media and political figures get a mild label: conservative.... In applying this innocuous-sounding description, the reality-based media does the public a terrible disservice. Instead of calling out the truth, it normalizes; it softens the dangerous edges.... I'd call them members of the radical right."

Kate Conger of the New York Times: "More than 225 Google engineers and other workers have formed a union, the group revealed on Monday, capping years of growing activism at one of the world's largest companies and presenting a rare beachhead for labor organizers in staunchly anti-union Silicon Valley. The union's creation is highly unusual for the tech industry, which has long resisted efforts to organize its largely white-collar work force. It follows increasing demands by employees at Google for policy overhauls on pay, harassment and ethics, and is likely to escalate tensions with top leadership." The Hill's story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

** Lordy, There's a Tape.* Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to 'find' enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that election experts said raised legal questions. The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking 'a big risk.' Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office's general counsel rejected his assertions, explaining that Trump is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden's 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate. Trump dismissed their arguments.... At [one] point, Trump said: 'So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.' The rambling, at times incoherent conversation, offered a remarkable glimpse of how consumed and desperate the president remains about his loss, unwilling or unable to let the matter go and still believing he can reverse the results in enough battleground states to remain in office. 'There's no way I lost Georgia,' Trump said, a phrase he repeated again and again on the call." *Thanks to Shakezula for the headline. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mother Jones has a summary report here. The Guardian's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Shear & Stephanie Saul of the New York Times now have a non-derivative story up. My favorite criticism of the phone call: "David Shafer, the chairman of the Republican Party in Georgia, tweeted that the decision to release the audio was 'lawlessness.'" MB: That's right: the POTUS* is exposed for trying to intimidate an official into overturning the results of a presidential election, & the "lawless" one is the person who provided the evidence. There is something really wrong with these people. ~~~

     ~~~ Full audio, via the Washington Post, is here. Includes transcript. Update: The New York Times, subscriber-firewalled like the WashPo, now has audio of the full conversation & a transcript here. Update Update: CNN now has audio & a transcript of the full call here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is astounding. One of the most powerful people in the world is threatening a relatively insignificant state official that if he doesn't manufacture votes to throw an important election, he and his attorney will suffer dire consequences. This smoking gun is a fitting end to Trump's thoroughly corrupt presidency*. Another perfect call, one that will go down in history. ~~~

     ~~~ Leading up to the WashPo Report. Ryan Nobles of CNN: "Just days before the crucial Georgia runoffs that will determine control of the US Senate, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger delivered a strong message to Donald Trump as the President persists in attacking the Peach State's electoral process and the Republican leaders in charge of administering the system. 'Respectfully, President Trump: What you're saying is not true. The truth will come out,' Raffensperger tweeted. Raffensperger's comment was in response to a tweet Sunday morning by the President, in which Trump said he spoke to Raffensperger on the phone in an attempt to convince Raffensperger to look into unfounded conspiracy theories about the vote in November. According to Trump, Raffensperger refused to do so. 'I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia. He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the 'ballots under table' scam, ballot destruction, out of state 'voters,' dead voters, and more. He has no clue!' Trump wrote." MB: Sure enough, the truth did come out. It could not look worse for Trump. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that it was unlikely his office would open an investigation into his weekend phone call with ... Donald Trump, but suggested a criminal probe could still be launched by an Atlanta-area district attorney. Because Trump personally spoke with the secretary on Saturday and recently had a conversation with the secretary of state office's chief investigator, Raffensperger told ABC's 'Good Morning America' in an interview Monday morning that 'there may be a conflict of interest' that would inhibit any potential investigation." ~~~

~~~ Allie Bice, et al., of Politico: "Legal experts say the combination of Trump's request to 'find' a specific number of votes -- just enough to put him ahead of Biden -- and his veiled reference to criminal liability for Raffensperger and his aides could violate federal and state statutes aimed at guarding against the solicitation of election fraud. The potential violations of state law are particularly notable, given that they would fall outside the reach of a potential pardon by Trump or his successor.... 'I've charged extortion in mob cases with similar language,' said Daniel Goldman, a former prosecutor who helped lead the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment inquiry in 2019.... Georgia state law includes two provisions that criminalize 'solicitation of election fraud' and 'conspiracy to commit election fraud.' Trump’s detractors also pointed to a federal statute that criminalizes 'the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent.' Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University law professor, said: '... "Soliciting or requesting" is the key language. The president asked, in no uncertain terms, the secretary of state to invent votes, to create votes that were not there. Not only did he ask for that in terms of just overturning the specific margin that Joe Biden won by, but then said we needed one additional vote to secure victory in Georgia.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The call by President Trump on Saturday to Georgia's secretary of state raised the prospect that Mr. Trump may have violated laws that prohibit interference in federal or state elections, but lawyers said on Sunday that it would be difficult to pursue such a charge.... At the federal level, anyone who 'knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a state of a fair and impartially conducted election process' is breaking the law." ~~~

~~~ David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "However difficult it might be to prosecute Trump for this as a private citizen, more pointedly this sort of transgression is exactly what impeachment was designed to cover.... Of course the Republican Senate would not vote to remove him, and of course Trump is leaving in just two weeks. But there must be some sort of official accountability for this behavior. If neither the Congress nor the criminal courts register any significant objection to it beyond a strongly worded letter, it will happen again and again until a would-be dictator succeeds in destroying what remains of American democracy." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Atkins may be wrong about Senate Republicans. Most senators look in the mirror & see a president. Yet as long as Trump threatens to run again in 2024, he is an impediment to the senators' ambitions. One of the penalties of impeachment is "disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States," rendering Trump an awfully attractive candidate for Senate conviction. ~~~

~~~ Steve M.: "Trump tries to intimidate Raffensperger just the way you'd expect from a prize pupil of Roy Cohn. But he's also just another old white crackpot who consumes massive amounts of right-wing 'news,' and who believes every absurd story that confirms his prior assumptions.... He seems genuinely convinced that he won a massive victory in the state -- 'I think I probably did win [Georgia] by half a million,' he says at one point, which would be a ten-point blowout and a margin more than twice the size of his 2016 margin in the state.... I'm not sure he's guilty of the crimes some people say he committed...[.] At least on some level, I don't think he's lying. He believes crazy things." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Steve is essentially saying what some of the lawyers cited in the Bice & Lipton articles are arguing. What they're all saying, more or less, is that the POTUS* is not guilty by reason of insanity. That's the quality of person the Trumpenlumpen chose for a president*. ~~~

~~~ Dan Balz of the Washington Post is indignant: "There are but 16 days left in President Trump's term, but there is no doubt that he will use all of his remaining time in office to inflict as much damage as he can on democracy -- with members of a now-divided Republican Party acting as enablers.... [In his call to Raffensperger,] The president was not arguing facts or offering evidence.... He was trolling with rumor, innuendo (and the muscle that comes with calling from the White House), attempting one more time to bully and intimidate Raffensperger.... The president ... continues to gather support from members of a party he has remade in his own image.... The Republicans who will object [to the court of Electoral College votes] are acting on the basis either of fear of the president or sheer political opportunism, or both." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Here's my question. Obviously, flipping the Georgia election results wouldn't cut it for Trump. For a win, he has to change the results in several states that went for Biden. So has he sought out & bullied GOP election officials in other states & we just haven't heard about it?

** Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The time to question election results has passed, and there is no role for the military in changing them, all of the living former defense secretaries said in an extraordinary rebuke to President Trump and other Republicans who are backing unfounded claims of widespread fraud at the ballot box. The former Pentagon chiefs issued their warning Sunday evening in an opinion piece that they co-authored and published in The Washington Post. Its authors include Trump's two former defense secretaries, Jim Mattis and Mark T. Esper, as well as each surviving, Senate-confirmed Pentagon chief dating back to former Vice President Dick Cheney, who was defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush. The article was published as some Republicans plan to take the controversial step of contesting the electoral college vote certification on Wednesday, even after the president's repeated attempts to challenge election results in court have failed. It also comes as concerns persist that Trump might seek to use the military to keep him in office despite his electoral loss.... [The] genesis [of the essay was] a conversation between Eric Edelman, a former U.S. ambassador and defense official in Republican administrations, and Cheney about how the military might be used in coming days, Edelman said in an interview." An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Mark Esper, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, James Mattis, Leon Panetta, William Perry & Donald Rumsfeld in a Washington Post op-ed: "As former secretaries of defense, we hold a common view of the solemn obligations of the U.S. armed forces and the Defense Department.... American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that result are hallmarks of our democracy. With one singular and tragic exception that cost the lives of more Americans than all of our other wars combined, the United States has had an unbroken record of such transitions since 1789, including in times of partisan strife, war, epidemics and economic depression. This year should be no exception. Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.... Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory."

Summer Concepcion of TPM: "Living in complete denial that President Trump's one-term presidency is coming to a close, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro took to Fox News on Saturday night to falsely proclaim that President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20 can be delayed. The loyal Trump foot soldier pushed the President's voter fraud delusions while appearing on Fox News on Saturday night as he piled onto the Trumpworld's meltdown over baseless assertions of Democrats 'stealing' the election.... When Fox News anchor Jeanine Pirro cited the Constitution -- which clearly states that the term of the outgoing president ends on Jan. 20 -- while mentioning that Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20 can't be change, Navarro continued being in denial of reality. 'Well it can be changed, actually. We can go past that date, we can go past that date if we need to,' Navarro said. Pirro, who has a law degree, did not challenge Navarro's unsubstantiated claims as she raised her brows and quipped: 'Oh, okay.'" MB: Navarro, who has a Ph.D. in econ, thinks a doctorate in one field makes him an expert on everything from Covid to the Constitution. (Also linked yesterday.)

Kyle Cheney & Melanie Zanona of Politico: "The rules of Congress' Jan. 6 session governing he counting of Electoral College votes will remain identical to those used for decades, under a resolution adopted Sunday by the House and Senate. The rules ... were passed on voice votes in both chambers, in keeping with recent history in which they've been uncontroversial afterthoughts in the process of finalizing the results of presidential elections. As dozens of Republicans in the House and Senate threaten to challenge President-elect Joe Biden's victory..., the rules have taken on new prominence, but none of those Republicans sought to block the adoption of the rules, even though some had supported an effort to block them in court.... [Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) forced] a vote on whether to allow Speaker Nancy Pelosi to seat the House members in the states Trump is challenging. The move forced Republicans on the record validating the results of the House elections that occurred on the same ballots that resulted in Biden's win in November. The result was a 371-2 vote in favor of seating all of the members."

Orion Rummler of Axios rounds up some statements from Republicans who are slamming Ted Cruz & his gang from their stunt to challenge the Electoral College votes. They include Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) & Bill Cassidy (La.) ~~~

~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a possible contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, broke with his rivals Sunday night by announcing he will not object to the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6. Cotton warned that an effort spearheaded by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), two other 2024 White House hopefuls, to challenge the electoral votes of several swing states that went for President-elect Joe Biden could 'establish unwise precedents.' While Cotton said he is concerned about how the 2020 presidential election was carried out, such as changes to election law allowing mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day to be counted, he argued it is up to the states and the courts -- not Congress -- to handle election laws." ~~~

~~~ Chuck Todd Takes on Stupidest Senator. An Even Match-up. David Cohen of Politico: "In a contentious interview, NBC host Chuck Todd and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson on Sunday accused each other of hypocrisy, double standards and working to undermine faith in democracy. On 'Meet the Press,' Todd attacked Johnson for joining a GOP effort to challenge the certification of Joe Biden's presidential election victory on Jan. 6; Johnson responded by saying the press had spent four years trying to destroy ... Donald Trump. At one point, a frustrated Todd asked Johnson, 'How about the moon landing? Are you going to hold hearings on that?'... 'You're the arsonist here,' Todd said to Johnson in discussing battles over election fraud. 'President Trump is the arsonist here. You started this fire and now you're saying whoa, look at this, oh my god, all these people believe what we told them because you didn't have the guts to tell the truth that this election was fair.' Johnson responded by accusing the mainstream media of working to overthrow Trump throughout his administration. 'This fire was started back in, you know, January of 2017,' he said. Both told each other they've 'had enough' of those arguments, but then rapidly circled back to them."

Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday is expected to give Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, according to someone familiar with the plans.... Nunes has long supported some of Trump's more outlandish conspiracy theories, including claiming that the intelligence community improperly 'unmasked' the identities of several officials working on Trump's presidential transition. Trump -- who is using his final days in the White House in part to reward friends and allies with pardons and other decorations -- is also expected to give Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), another confidant, the same award next week, although those plans have not yet been finalized."; Axios has an item here.


Heather Caygle & Sarah Ferris of Politico: "Nancy Pelosi was elected speaker of the House for the 117th Congress, clinching the gavel for the fourth and potentially final time. Pelosi won 216 votes to secure the speakership with five Democrats breaking ranks to support someone else or vote present. All Republicans voted for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Pelosi remains the only woman to ever lead the House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) NPR's story is here.

The New York Times' live updates of the federal government's transition Sunday are here: "Lawmakers of the 117th Congress will take the oath of office on Sunday, officially convening for the first time as the capital prepares for a new president, feuds over the mendacious claims of victory by the departing one and continues to battle a deadly pandemic. In the House, Democrats are poised to re-elect Nancy Pelosi of California as speaker, handing her control of an exceedingly narrow majority for what may be her final term." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Transition Proceeds Apace

Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s inaugural committee released new details on Sunday about his trip to the White House after his swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol that further underscore the downsized and largely virtual nature of his Inauguration Day plans. After taking the oath of office, Mr. Biden will conduct a traditional review of military troops meant to highlight the peaceful transfer of power, the Presidential Inaugural Committee said in a statement. The committee also said Mr. Biden would receive an official escort, with representatives from every branch of the military, for one city block before arriving at the White House. The statement left many details unclear, including the nature of the rest of Mr. Biden's trip of about 1.5 miles to the White House from the Capitol. By long tradition, a huge presidential motorcade rolls slowly down Pennsylvania Avenue past thousands of cheering spectators, with the newly inaugurated president walking some of the route." The Hill's story is here.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Jemima McEvoy of Forbes: "As the U.S. hit its latest grim milestone early Sunday morning in the coronavirus pandemic -- 350,000 Americans dead -- President Trump claimed the country's high numbers of cases and deaths have been 'exaggerated,' maligning the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's statistics.... 'The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of @CDCgov's ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low. "When in doubt, call it Covid." Fake News!,' [Trump tweeted Sunday morning]." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Devan Cole of CNN: "US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on Sunday said he has 'no reason to doubt' the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Covid-19 death toll, contradicting ... Donald Trump's claim that the agency has 'exaggerated' its numbers.... 'And I think people need to be very aware that it's not just about the deaths...," he added. "It's about the hospitalizations, the capacity. These cases are having an impact in an array of ways...,' [Adams said on CNN Sunday]." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Appearing on ABC's 'This Week,' [Dr. Anthony] Fauci was asked by ... host Martha Raddatz about a tweet by the president calling the coronavirus case and death toll 'fake news' and blaming it on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention methodology. 'Well, the deaths are real deaths. I mean, all you need to do is to go out into the trenches, go to the hospitals, see what the health care workers are dealing with. They are under very stressed situations in many areas of the country. The hospital beds are stretched,' Fauci responded." MB: Of course, Trump has not been "in the trenches." He doesn't give a rat's ass about the loss of life, the devastating illness, the strain on medical workers and on the rest of us whose lives have been put on hold, or worse. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

African Countries. How Many Africans have Succumbed to Covid-19? We'll Never Know. Ruth Maclean of the New York Times: "As the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world in 2020, it became increasingly evident that in the vast majority of countries on the African continent, most deaths are never formally registered.... Covid-19 is often said to have largely bypassed Africa.... But like other diseases, its true toll here will probably never be known.... In 2017, only 10 percent of deaths were registered in Nigeria, by far Africa's biggest country by population -- down from 13.5 percent a decade before. In other African countries, like Niger, the percentage is even lower." MB: Well, see, Trump was right about African countries like Namibia. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

South Africa. Jason Burke of the Guardian: "Across the continent Covid has hit South Africa the hardest with more than a million confirmed cases and 29,000 deaths according to official figures. As elsewhere in Africa, the pandemic has wreaked massive economic damage.... South Africa's 500 or so private game reserves are often in more remote and impoverished parts of the country. They spend considerable amounts each month to feed and care for the animals. Many have been forced to close permanently, lay off staff and sell, or even shoot, animals.... Many fear that if the crisis continues for many more months, hundreds of thousands of hectares across South Africa that have been converted to more lucrative game reserves in recent decades will revert to cattle or cereal farming -- with a massive loss of habitat for endangered animals and other species." --s

Israel. Racist AND Stupid. Oliver Holmes & Hazem Balousha of the Guardian: "Israel is celebrating an impressive, record-setting vaccination drive, having given initial jabs of coronavirus shots to more than a 10th of the population. But Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza can only watch and wait. As the world ramps up what is already on track to become a highly unequal vaccination push -- with people in richer nations first to be inoculated -- the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories provides a stark example of the divide. Israel transports batches of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine deep inside the West Bank. But they are only distributed to Jewish settlers, and not the roughly 2.7 million Palestinians living around them who may have to wait for weeks or months.... Benjamin Netanyahu has told Israelis that the country could be the first to emerge from the pandemic. As well as a highly advanced healthcare system, part of the reason for the speed could be economics. A health ministry official said the country had paid $62 a dose, compared with the $19.50 the US is paying." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Ben Quinn of the Guardian: "Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US to face charges of espionage and of hacking government computers, a British judge has decided. Lawyer for US authorities are to appeal against the ruling, which was delivered at the central criminal court by the district judge, Vanessa Baraitser. Delivering her ruling the judge said said the WikiLeaks founder was likely to be held in conditions of isolation in a so-called supermax prison in the US and procedures described by US authorities would not prevent him from potentially finding a way to take his own life. 'I find that the mental condition of Mr Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America,' she said." MB: IOW, the U.S. federal prison system is too harsh & too careless to humanely incarcerate prisoners.

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Saturday
Jan022021

The Commentariat -- January 3, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Heather Caygle & Sarah Ferris of Politico: "Nancy Pelosi was elected speaker of the House for the 117th Congress, clinching the gavel for the fourth and potentially final time. Pelosi won 216 votes to secure the speakership with five Democrats breaking ranks to support someone else or vote present. All Republicans voted for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Pelosi remains the only woman to ever lead the House."

** Lordy, There's a Tape.* Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to 'find' enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that election experts said raised legal questions. The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking 'a big risk.' Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office's general counsel rejected his assertions, explaining that Trump is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden's 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate. Trump dismissed their arguments.... At [one] point, Trump said: 'So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.' The rambling, at times incoherent conversation, offered a remarkable glimpse of how consumed and desperate the president remains about his loss, unwilling or unable to let the matter go and still believing he can reverse the results in enough battleground states to remain in office. 'There's no way I lost Georgia,' Trump said, a phrase he repeated again and again on the call." *Thanks to Shakezula for the headline. ~~~

     ~~~ Mother Jones has a summary report here. The Guardian's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is astounding. One of the most powerful people in the world is threatening a relatively insignificant state official that if he doesn't manufacture votes to throw an important election, he and his attorney will suffer dire consequences. This smoking gun is a fitting end to Trump's thoroughly corrupt presidency*. Another perfect call, one that will go down in history. ~~~

     ~~~ Leading up to the WashPo Report. Ryan Nobles of CNN: "Just days before the crucial Georgia runoffs that will determine control of the US Senate, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger delivered a strong message to Donald Trump as the President persists in attacking the Peach State's electoral process and the Republican leaders in charge of administering the system. 'Respectfully, President Trump: What you're saying is not true. The truth will come out,' Raffensperger tweeted. Raffensperger's comment was in response to a tweet Sunday morning by the President, in which Trump said he spoke to Raffensperger on the phone in an attempt to convince Raffensperger to look into unfounded conspiracy theories about the vote in November. According to Trump, Raffensperger refused to do so. 'I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia. He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the 'ballots under table' scam, ballot destruction, out of state 'voters,' dead voters, and more. He has no clue!' Trump wrote." MB: Sure enough, the truth did come out.

The New York Times' live updates of the federal government's transition Sunday are here: "Lawmakers of the 117th Congress will take the oath of office on Sunday, officially convening for the first time as the capital prepares for a new president, feuds over the mendacious claims of victory by the departing one and continues to battle a deadly pandemic.In the House, Democrats are poised to re-elect Nancy Pelosi of California as speaker, handing her control of an exceedingly narrow majority for what may be her final term."

Jemima McEvoy of Forbes: "As the U.S. hit its latest grim milestone early Sunday morning in the coronavirus pandemic -- 350,000 Americans dead -- PresidentTrump claimed the country's high numbers of cases and deaths have been 'exaggerated,' maligning the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's statistics.... 'The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of @CDCgov's ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low. "When in doubt, call it Covid." Fake News!,' [Trump tweeted Sunday morning]." ~~~

~~~ Devan Cole of CNN: "US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on Sunday said he has 'no reason to doubt' the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Covid-19 death toll, contradicting ... Donald Trump's claim that the agency has 'exaggerated' its numbers.... 'And I think people need to be very aware that it's not just about the deaths...," he added. "It's about the hospitalizations, the capacity. These cases are having an impact in an array of ways...,' [Adams said on CNN Sunday]." ~~~

~~~ Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Appearing on ABC's 'This Week,' [Dr. Anthony] Fauci was asked by ... host Martha Raddatz about a tweet by the president calling the coronavirus case and death toll 'fake news' and blaming it on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention methodology. 'Well, the deaths are real deaths. I mean, all you need to do is to go out into the trenches, go to the hospitals, see what the health care workers are dealing with. They are under very stressed situations in many areas of the country. The hospital beds are stretched,' Fauci responded." MB: Of course, Trump has not been "in the trenches." He doesn't give a rat's ass about the loss of life, the devastating illness, the strain on medical workers and on the rest of us whose lives have been put on hold, or worse.

How Many Africans have Succumbed to Covid-19? We'll Never Know. Ruth Maclean of the New York Times: "As the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world in 2020, it became increasingly evident that in the vast majority of countries on the African continent, most deaths are never formally registered.... Covid-19 is often said to have largely bypassed Africa.... But like other diseases, its true toll here will probably never be known.... In 2017, only 10 percent of deaths were registered in Nigeria, by far Africa's biggest country by population -- down from 13.5 percent a decade before. In other African countries, like Niger, the percentage is even lower." MB: Well, see, Trump was right about African countries like Namibia.

Summer Concepcion of TPM: "Living in complete denial that President Trump's one-term presidency is coming to a close, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro took to Fox News on Saturday night to falsely proclaim that President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20 can be delayed. The loyal Trump foot soldier pushed the President's voter fraud delusions while appearing on Fox News on Saturday night as he piled onto the Trumpworld's meltdown over baseless assertions of Democrats 'stealing' the election.... When Fox News anchor Jeanine Pirro cited the Constitution -- which clearly states that the term of the outgoing president ends on Jan. 20 -- while mentioning that Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20 can't be change, Navarro continued being in denial of reality. 'Well it can be changed, actually. We can go past that date, we can go past that date if we need to,' Navarro said. Pirro, who has a law degree, did not challenge Navarro's unsubstantiated claims as she raised her brows and quipped: 'Oh, okay.'" MB: Navarro, who has a Ph.D. in econ, thinks a doctorate in one field makes him an expert on everything from Covid to the Constitution.

Israel. Racist AND Stupid. Oliver Holmes & Hazem Balousha of the Guardian: "Israel is celebrating an impressive, record-setting vaccination drive, having given initial jabs of coronavirus shots to more than a 10th of the population. But Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza can only watch and wait. As the world ramps up what is already on track to become a highly unequal vaccination push -- with people in richer nations first to be inoculated -- the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories provides a stark example of the divide. Israel transports batches of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine deep inside the West Bank. But they are only distributed to Jewish settlers, and not the roughly 2.7 million Palestinians living around them who may have to wait for weeks or months.... Benjamin Netanyahu has told Israelis that the country could be the first to emerge from the pandemic. As well as a highly advanced healthcare system, part of the reason for the speed could be economics. A health ministry official said the country had paid $62 a dose, compared with the $19.50 the US is paying."

~~~~~~~~~~

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: A new Congress convenes for the first time today. "The House meets at noon, and after the vote for speaker, members of the 117th Congress will be sworn in. Across the Capitol, Vice President Pence will administer the oath to the senators reelected on Nov. 3 and the newest members -- four Republicans and two Democrats. Two runoff elections in Georgia on Tuesday will decide the final contests of 2020."

Will Sommer & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Many of Donald Trump's most dogmatic supporters see a mass protest in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 ... as their last chance to disrupt President-elect Joe Biden's win.... 'Be there, will be wild!' Trump tweeted on Dec. 19.... 'I'm thinking it will be literal war on that day,' one popular comment posted last Wednesday read. 'Where we'll storm offices and physically remove and even kill all the D.C. traitors and reclaim the country.'... Two people familiar with the matter say that in recent days, Trump has told advisers and close associates that he wants to keep fighting in court past Jan. 6 if members of Congress, as expected, end up certifying the electoral college results." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Dirty Dozen. Alayna Treene of Axios: "A growing number of Republican senators -- led by Ted Cruz -- announced [Saturday] they also will object to certifying state Electoral College votes on Wednesday and called for resurrecting an Electoral Commission to conduct an emergency audit of the results.... Republicans involved include Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.), as well as Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)." Plus Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) who began this stunt among senators. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Colby Itkowitz & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Nearly a dozen Republican senators and senators-elect led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said Saturday they will reject electors from certain states won by President-elect Joe Biden, citing unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and calling for an emergency 10-day audit of the results, an unprecedented attempt to thwart the democratic process. The senators contend they are not trying to reverse the election results, but rather give voice to those who don't believe it was conducted fairly, despite no investigation nor court finding any evidence of wrongdoing." ~~~

     ~~~ Mikey Likes It. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Vice President Mike Pence signaled support on Saturday for a futile Republican bid to overturn the election in Congress next week, after 11 Republican senators and senators-elect said that they would vote to reject President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory when the House and Senate meet to formally certify it. The announcement by the senators -- and Mr. Pence's move to endorse it -- reflected a groundswell among Republicans to defy the unambiguous results of the election and indulge President Trump's attempts to remain in power with false claims of voting fraud. Every state in the country has certified the election results after verifying their accuracy, many following postelection audits or hand counts. Judges across the country, and a Supreme Court with a conservative majority, have rejected nearly 60 attempts by Mr. Trump and his allies to challenge the results. And neither Mr. Pence nor any of the senators who said they would vote to invalidate the election has made a specific allegation of fraud, instead offering vague suggestions that some wrongdoing might have occurred and asserting that many of their supporters believe that it has."~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Anyone surprised that mike has joined the suck-up senators has not been listening to mike. Akhilleus, invoking Sherlock Holmes, writes appropriate commentary on mike's character in today's thread. ~~~

     ~~~ Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Saturday offered blistering criticism of a plan by at least 12 Republican senators to challenge the results of the election next week, warning that they 'imperil' public trust. 'The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic. The congressional power to reject electors is reserved for the most extreme and unusual circumstances. These are far from it,' Romney said in a statement." MB: Frankly, Mitt did a better job of belittling the Dirty Dozen than these guys did: ~~~

     ~~~Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Senate Democrats criticized their GOP colleagues after a group of 11 Republicans announced they would oppose the Electoral College results when Congress meets on Wednesday."

John Kruzel of the Hill: "A federal appeals court on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and other Republicans that sought to expand Vice President Pence's legal authority to effectively overturn President-elect Joe Biden's electoral win. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court judge's decision from Friday that the GOP plaintiffs lacked a legal right to sue."

Gillian Brockell of the Washington Post: When Vice Presidents Richard Nixon & Al Gore presided over a joint session of Congress to announce their own defeats. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here: "As distribution of Covid-19 vaccines begins to open up to wider segments of the United States population, there have been scenes of chaos across the country. The initial vaccine deliveries were mostly for frontline medical workers and nursing home staff members and residents. But there was less of a clear consensus on how to distribute the second round of doses, and public health and elected officials had warned the process would become messier. Those warnings appear to have been borne out, leaving the U.S. inoculation campaign behind schedule and raising fears about how quickly the country will be able to tame the epidemic."

AP: "The COVID-19 death toll in the United States has surpassed 350,000 as experts anticipate another surge in coronavirus cases and deaths stemming from holiday gatherings over Christmas and New Year's. Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows the U.S. passed the threshold early Sunday morning. More than 20 million people in the country have been infected."

Ben Tobin of the Louisville Courier Journal: "United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Louisville home has been vandalized following his blocking of $2,000 stimulus checks to most Americans. As of Saturday morning, messages like 'where's my money' and other expletives were written with spray paint across the front door and bricks of the Kentucky Republican's Highlands residence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Kayla Galloway of ABC-7 Los Angeles: "A home in San Francisco belonging to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was vandalized early Friday morning with an apparent reference to lawmakers' failed efforts to provide Americans with $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks. The graffiti was found on the garage door of Pelosi's home overnight with the phrases '$2K', 'Cancel rent!' and 'We want everything.' As of early Friday afternoon, the garage door was covered with black garbage bags. The vandals also left fake blood and what appears to be a pig head outside the House Speaker's San Francisco home." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "Three weeks after the [Russian hacking] intrusion came to light, American officials are still trying to understand whether what the Russians pulled off was simply an espionage operation inside the systems of the American bureaucracy or something more sinister, inserting 'backdoor' access into government agencies, major corporations, the electric grid and laboratories developing and transporting new generations of nuclear weapons. At a minimum it has set off alarms about the vulnerability of government and private sector networks in the United States to attack and raised questions about how and why the nation's cyberdefenses failed so spectacularly.... The breach was not detected by any of the government agencies that share responsibility for cyberdefense -- the military's Cyber Command and the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security -- but by a private cybersecurity company, FireEye." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Diane Francis of The Atlantic Council: "The US Senate began 2021 by delivering a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin by passing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes sanctions designed to kill off the Kremlin's strategically important Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. The geopolitical significance of this legislation cannot be overstated. It means almost certain doom for Putin's most important energy project and prevents Russia from tightening its control over EU natural gas supplies.... In fall 2020, a proposed round of additional Nord Stream 2 sanctions received overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress and was included in the NDAA for consideration in December. In mid-December, both the House and Senate gave final approval, but President Trump then vetoed it. This required the House and Senate to override the veto by a two-thirds majority, which was finally accomplished on January 1, 2021." --s

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday steered clear of the controversy concerning President Trump's reelection loss and his continued demands for Supreme Court intervention, instead using his annual report to thank the judiciary for its performance during the pandemic..... 'This year, more than ever,' he wrote, 'I am privileged and honored to thank all of the judges, court staff, and other judicial branch personnel throughout the Nation for their outstanding service.'"

Andrew Latham in Informed Comment: "People are beginning to understand that the little changes COVID-19 has already ushered in or accelerated -- telemedicine, remote work, social distancing, the death of the handshake, online shopping, the virtual disappearance of cash and so on -- have begun to change their way of life.... Three previous plagues could yield some clues about the way COVID-19 might bend the arc of history As I teach in my course 'Plagues, Pandemics and Politics,' pandemics tend to shape human affairs in three ways. First, they can profoundly alter a society's fundamental worldview. Second, they can upend core economic structures. And, finally, they can sway power struggles among nations." --s (First published in the Conversation, Oct. 1, 2020.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Iran. AFP: "The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, General Hossein Salami, has vowed to respond to any 'action the enemy takes' during a visit to a strategic Gulf island amid tensions with the US. Salami was speaking on Saturday, on the eve of the first anniversary of the US killing of top Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani in a Baghdad drone strike. In the Iraqi capital, a mock funeral procession was held, with mourners visiting the site of the attack. Salami inspected troops stationed on Abu Musa island, accompanied by the Revolutionary Guard Corps navy commander, Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri."

U.K. Jamie Howard of the Guardian: "The government is under pressure to explain why a series of air strikes in Yemen, many involving civilian casualties, have not been recorded in its confidential log of alleged breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL). The existence of the database, which has been kept by the Ministry of Defence since 2015, emerged only when the government became embroiled in a legal challenge over its decision to grant UK arms manufacturers export licences to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen.... By last July more than 500 possible breaches had been recorded in the database. But human rights groups allege that the true number of breaches in a conflict in which Saudi-led forces have conducted more than 20,000 air strikes must be much higher." --s

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