The Ledes

Friday, October 11, 2024

Washington Post: “Floridians began returning to damaged and waterlogged homes on Thursday after Hurricane Milton carved a path of destruction and grief across the state, the second massive storm to strike Florida in as many weeks. At least 14 storm-related deaths were attributed to the hurricane, which made landfall south of Sarasota at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, officials said. Six of them were killed when two tornadoes touched down ahead of the storm in St. Lucie County on Florida’s central Atlantic coast. The deadly tornadoes, rising waters, torrential rain and punishing winds battered the state from coast to coast as Milton churned eastward before heading out to sea early Thursday.”

Washington Post: “Twelve people were rescued from an inactive Colorado gold mine after they were trapped 1,000 feet underground for about six hours following an elevator malfunction. One person was killed in the accident, which happened about 500 feet underground at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine near Cripple Creek, Colo., Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said at a Thursday news conference. The site is a tourist attraction. Eleven other people aboard the elevator at the time, including two children, were rescued shortly after the mechanical malfunction, which Mikesell said 'created a severe danger for the participants.' He said four suffered minor injuries.... Twelve others in a separate group remained trapped in a mine shaft 1,000 feet underground for several hours after the incident, before they were rescued Thursday evening, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said.”

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The Ledes

Thursday, October 10, 2024

CNBC: “The pace of price increases over the past year was higher than forecast in September while jobless claims posted an unexpected jump following Hurricane Helene and the Boeing strike, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The consumer price index, a broad gauge measuring the costs of goods and services across the U.S. economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Both readings were 0.1 percentage point above the Dow Jones consensus. The annual inflation rate was 0.1 percentage point lower than August and is the lowest since February 2021.”

The New York Times' live updates of Hurrucane Milton consequences Thursday are 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.” The New York Times story is here.

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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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The Commentariat -- Nov. 21, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here: "The United States passed 11 million total coronavirus cases on Sunday, and its caseload has now soared past 12 million. New daily cases are approaching 200,000: on Friday, the country recorded more than 198,500, a record. As the nation reconsiders the usual winter holiday travel and cozy indoor gatherings, new cases are being reported at an unrelenting clip. The seven-day average has exceeded 100,000 cases a day every day for the last two weeks...." AND Donald Trump is golfing today.

Michigan. Another GOP Effort to Disenfranchise Black Voters. Beth LeBlanc of the Detroit News: "The state and national Republican parties have asked the Board of State Canvassers to delay certification of the state's election results in a bid to investigate 'anomalies and irregularities' alleged to have occurred in Michigan's Nov. 3 election. Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna [Romney] McDaniel asked the state to conduct a 'full, transparent audit' before certification.... The Board of State Canvassers is scheduled to meet Monday to consider certification. The request comes a day after Republican U.S. Senate candidate John James requested the same delay. James ... trails U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, by more than 92,000 votes in unofficial results after the 83 counties turned in their certified results, a gain for Peters of 9,000 votes from the preliminary results. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Friday an audit could not be completed prior to the certification of results because 'election officials do not have legal access to the documents needed to complete audits until the certification.' Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons, a Republican, echoed those concerns when testifying Thursday before a joint legislative committee.... Republican state canvasser Norm Shinkle told The Detroit News Friday he ... wasn't convinced the Wayne County Board of Canvassers had successfully certified the election after GOP canvassers there attempted to rescind their affirmative votes after the 14-day deadline. The canvassers were unsuccessful in their attempt, Wayne County's legal counsel said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: According to CNN, McDaniel & Cox are requesting an audit of only Wayne County.

~~~ Ashley Nguyen, et al., of the Washington Post: "Though Trump courted Black voters -- and improved his showing over 2016 -- he and his allies are now trying to deny President-elect Joe Biden's victory in key battleground states by targeting ballots cast in heavily Black cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta and Milwaukee, arguing that these Democratic strongholds are hotbeds of fraud.... The president shows no signs of backing down [despite his multiple losses in court], prompting Black leaders, political analysts and historians to cry foul at what they described as tactics reminiscent of those used to suppress the voice of Black voters following the Civil War.... 'It is a way to create this aura that something went wrong in this election, to play to an audience that is hyped up on white supremacy,' [Prof. Carol] Anderson [of Emory University] said. 'They need to understand how did this happen? How did our savior lose?... And the answer is, as the answer always is, "Those Black people stole it from us."'"

Zach Montellaro of Politico: "... as a lame duck, [Donald Trump is] launched a new campaign against GOP election officials who won't bend to his will. Trump's drive to discredit the results of an election he lost has put him at odds with the Republican elected officials and administrators who oversaw the vote in key states -- and called it what it was: a free and fair election.... No GOP official has caught more flak than Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fairly conventional Republican who won the job as Georgia's top election official two years ago running as a rock-ribbed, anti-voter fraud conservative -- with Trump's endorsement.... Even those who took the relatively prosaic step of making it easier to vote in the midst of a pandemic -- like Kentucky's Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams == were not immune."

Seung Min Kim & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is injecting new demands into congressional negotiations over a government spending bill that threaten to sink the must-pass package, people familiar with the discussions said. The disagreement concerns how to classify $12.5 billion in cost increases in veterans' health care, expenses that are part of veterans' care changes signed into law by President Trump in 2018 with much fanfare. The impasse could complicate the ongoing negotiations over legislation to fund the government, which if not resolved would lead the federal government to shutdown on Dec. 11 in the middle of the pandemic -- a dangerous scenario lawmakers are working to avoid. Months ago, lawmakers agreed to designate the increased cost of veterans' health care as emergency spending. Emergency spending isn't subject to certain spending restrictions. But on Friday, administration officials insisted to congressional officials that the $12.5 billion in veterans' care cost increases be considered non-emergency spending, said people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details about the private negotiations."

Dan Hinkel of the Chicago Tribune: "Kyle Rittenhouse was released from jail in Wisconsin on Friday afternoon after his attorneys posted $2 million bail, setting the teenager free as he awaits trial for fatally shooting two men and wounding a third during summer protests in Kenosha, police said. His release came over the objections of family members and lawyers for two of the men he shot. They had asked for higher bail and voiced concerns Rittenhouse would flee.... The 17-year-old's release was funded by donations sought by his attorneys, who appealed to the political right, where Rittenhouse is popular. Those lawyers also are seeking to overturn Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's victory."

~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Friday announced new staff appointments and met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, maintaining his focus on the economy and the coronavirus pandemic while ignoring President Trump's continued efforts to subvert the election results.... Friday was Mr. Biden's 78th birthday, and Ms. Pelosi gave the president-elect a white orchid in celebration, according to an aide.... In a joint statement [after their meeting] they said they 'agreed that Congress needed to pass a bipartisan emergency aid package in the lame duck session,' including money to fight the coronavirus and to support struggling families, businesses and state and local governments.... Underscoring the strange limbo Mr. Trump has created, Mr. Biden on Friday posted on Twitter a plea for private donations to fund his transition activities." The story names four White House staff the President-elect announced.

From the New York Times' live business updates Friday: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s transition team criticized the Trump administration's decision to pull the plug on several Federal Reserve programs introduced during the pandemic, saying it smacked of politics and would hurt the economy. 'The Treasury Department's attempt to prematurely end support that could be used for small businesses across the country when they are facing the prospect of new shutdowns is deeply irresponsible,' Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for the transition, said in a statement. (The statement was not by Mr. Biden, as was previously reported here.) 'At this fragile moment, as the Covid and economic crises are reaccelerating, we should be reinforcing the government's ability to respond and support the economy -- not undermining it.'" ~~~

~~~ Heather Long of the Washington Post: "On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stunned many by sending a letter to the Fed insisting the central bank return all unused emergency Cares Act funds to Treasury by the end of the year.... Mnuchin wants to take that support away just as the economy appears to be heading into a very rough winter -- and a transition of power to the Biden administration.... Numerous Wall Street analysts and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued statements condemning Mnuchin's actions as 'political machinations' and supporting the Fed's stance that this is not the time to remove any supports."

Kate Sullivan of CNN: "President-elect Joe Biden's margin of victory over ... Donald Trump surpassed 6 million votes on Friday, as ballots continue to be counted across the nation. Trump has refused to accept defeat in the 2020 election, despite Biden's decisive win in the Electoral College and the popular vote. The former vice president has won nearly 80 million votes, which is more votes than any US presidential candidate in history by a considerable margin. Trump has received nearly 74 million votes."

Nancy Scola of Politico: "The presidential @POTUS Twitter handle will automatically transfer to President-elect Joe Biden the moment he's sworn in at noon on Inauguration Day -- whether or not ... Donald Trump has conceded.... Same goes for @whitehouse, @VP, @FLOTUS, and a handful other official accounts associated with the presidency. All existing tweets on those accounts will be archived and Twitter will transfer the accounts -- reset to zero tweets -- to the Biden White House that day.... It might not matter [because] President Trump has used his personal account, @realDonaldTrump, for most of his tweeting even while president. Trump, as a private citizen, will keep control of that account. That said, the account will lose the protections it carries under Twitter's 'world leaders' policy -- which allows rule-breaking tweets to remain up, with warning labels -- the moment that Biden is sworn in to office."

Boris Tries to Keep the U.K. Relevant. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson rolled out ambitious, back-to-back initiatives on military spending and climate change this week, which have little in common except that both are likely to please a very important new person in Mr. Johnson's life: President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. The prime minister, whom President Trump has embraced as a like-minded populist, is eager to show he can work with the incoming president as well as he did with the outgoing one. Building more warships and phasing out new gas- and diesel-powered cars within a decade demonstrates to Mr. Biden that Britain can be a useful and relevant partner, even if it no longer belongs to the European Union. That is important, analysts said, because Brexit will deprive Britain of what had historically been one of its greatest assets to the United States: serving as an Anglophone bridge to the leaders of continental Europe." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Clown Car Gets Two Flats

     ~~~ Many thanks to PD Pepe for the link.

Trump Fundraises Off Rudy's Bad Hair Day Dye. Greg Clary & Fredreka Schouten of CNN: "The Trump campaign sent out another fundraising email to supporters on Friday, signed by ... Donald Trump, praising his attorney Rudy Giuliani's widely panned news conference this week and featuring a photo of Trump taken when he was a coronavirus patient in the hospital. 'Did you watch my legal team's press conference yesterday? They were SPECTACULAR,' the email read, discussing Giuliani and other members of the Trump campaign's legal team peddling conspiracy theories and lies for over 90 minutes Thursday in front of reporters.... In the fine print of the Friday's solicitation, Team Trump has upped the share of the money that goes to Trump's leadership PAC, Save America. Now, 75% of each contribution goes to Save America. It had been a 60% cut last week.... The recount and legal accounts are not the first beneficiaries of Trump's avalanche of fundraising requests. The first cut of the money that Trump is raising will help fund his post-White House political life."

Lisa Rein, et al., of the Washington Post: "Emily Murphy, head of the General Services Administration, has refused to declare [President-elect Joe] Biden the 'apparent' winner, as the law requires for the transition to begin. And she still has not determined when she will, her aides and associates say, leaving the changeover in a vacuum that threatens essential functions of government. Day after day, Murphy ... weighs her options but declines to say what fact or development she is waiting for. She has told agencies that the first step in the transfer of power ... may be weeks away. Murphy's silence has plunged a normally apolitical, ministerial process into precedent-setting territory as Democrats target her in nasty, personal tones and even some high-profile Republicans -- among them former president George W. Bush, whose administration she served -- urge her to get on with it.... Late Thursday, House Democrats summoned Murphy to brief them immediately on her continued blocking of the transition and threatened to bring her, her deputy, her chief of staff and her general counsel to testify before Congress at a public hearing.... Federal agencies have received instruction to prepare briefing materials but not provide them or take any calls from Biden's team."

Paul Kane, et al., of the Washington Post: "Three Senate Republicans have publicly criticized President Trump's effort to overturn election results in states that he lost. A couple more have acknowledged that President-elect Joe Biden is likely to be sworn in as the 46th president on Jan. 20, without addressing Trump's actions. The rest did what many Republicans have done for four years when faced with Trump's brazen, sometimes outlandish actions: They said nothing, or tried to avoid the issue. Their response, or lack of it, served to harden one of the party's legacies of the Trump years: its complicit silence, which has not only made GOP lawmakers appear subservient to the president, but has contributed to a notable shift in the party toward conspiracy and away from facts. Only this time, their collective refusal to speak up comes at an unusually perilous moment for American democracy -- as a president takes the unprecedented step of wielding the powers of his office to try to subvert the will of the voters."

Richard Fausset, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump's attempt to undo the election results was undercut twice by fellow Republicans on Friday, as Georgia became the first contested state to certify Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory and Michigan lawmakers -- after meeting with the president -- said they would not intervene in their state's election certification process." ~~~

~~~ ** Bada-bing. Michigan. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Two top Michigan state lawmakers said following a meeting with President Trump on Friday that they had not seen anything that would change the election outcome in their state and pledged to follow the normal process amid a push from the president and his allies to overturn the result. 'We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors, just as we have said throughout this election,' Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirley and Speaker of the Michigan statehouse Lee Chatfield, both Republicans, said in a joint statement. 'Michigan's certification process should be a deliberate process free from threats and intimidation,' they added. 'Allegations of fraudulent behavior should be taken seriously, thoroughly investigated, and if proven, prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And the candidates who win the most votes win elections and Michigan's electoral votes....'" Mrs. McC: According to CNN, the legislators met with Trump for about an hour. The NYT story linked above reports that seven Michigan officials met with Trump. It would seem these guys did stand up to Trump. Good for them. (Hope at least one of them wore a wire.) ~~~

     ~~~ Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Rudy Giuliani and other key members of President Trump's outside legal team [did not attend Friday's] meeting with two Michigan lawmakers because they've been exposed to the coronavirus, two sources familiar with the internal discussions tell Axios.... 'It's just a shitshow, it's a joke,' said a Trump campaign adviser.... Trump's campaign lawyers have been holed up for days in a conference room at Trump campaign headquarters in Arlingon, Va., one of the sources said, Andrew Giuliani [-- who tested positive for the coronavis (story linked below) --] had been around all of them." ~~~

~~~ Dave Boucher & Clara Hendrickson of the Detroit Free Press: "Michigan Republican legislative leaders under a national spotlight for agreeing to meet with ... Donald Trump said late Friday they focused on COVID-19 assistance, not the president's ongoing efforts to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election.... In stating they focused on requests for additional COVID-19 assistance, the leaders echoed a call made earlier this week from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. On Thursday, Whitmer said she sent a letter to Trump and federal legislative leaders asking for additional federal aid for unemployment benefits and small business relief. She said she asked the Republican legislative leaders to sign onto the letter but they declined. In their own letter, Republican leaders said 'we feel it is important to represent our position distinctly from the governor's.'... Barbara McQuade, the former U.S. attorney in Detroit..., [said,] 'One of the things that I see as a prosecutor is a candidate for elected office calling on state and local officials to discuss an election and try to bully them into overturning the will of the people. That is potentially criminal under federal statutes and state statutes and so I think in that way, to be soliciting people to commit crimes is incredibly shocking for someone who is the president of the United States.'..." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Jan Wolfe of Reuters: "Lawyers for the city of Detroit have asked a judge to reprimand ... Donald Trump's campaign for spreading 'disinformation' in a court filing about the certification of a Michigan county's election results. Trump's campaign on Thursday said they were voluntarily dropping a lawsuit contesting Michigan's election results because election officials in Wayne County 'met and declined to certify the results of the presidential election.'... Detroit's lawyers said on Thursday that the campaign included 'impertinent and false language' in the filing and asked a federal judge to strike the disputed document from the case record."

~~~ Bada-boom. Georgia. Jason Morris & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday that will 'follow the law' and sign the paperwork that officially grants Georgia's 16 electoral electors to President-elect Joe Biden. State law requires Kemp, a Republican, to award Georgia's electoral votes to the certified winner of the presidential election. A federal judge on Thursday rejected a last-ditch lawsuit that tried to block certification, and Biden's victory was certified Friday afternoon by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live election updates Friday are here: "Georgia's top election official will certify President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory in the state on Friday, dealing a blow to President Trump's Hail-Mary bid to overturn the vote in a half-dozen battleground states and with it the national election that Mr. Biden won decisively. The Georgia certification will be an early milestone in the state-by-state process of finalizing Mr. Biden's victory in the coming days, a process that appears set to unfold as Mr. Trump continues to deny his defeat and cry fraud and his campaign and its surrogates inundate the courts with largely baseless lawsuits that have so far been unsuccessful.... [Georgia Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger is expected to formally certify the state's presidential election results before noon Eastern time, ensuring that Mr. Biden receives Georgia's 16 electoral votes.... The Trump campaign has one more bite at Georgia's results: State law allows the loser of an election to request a recount done by high-speed scanning machines if the winner is ahead by than half a percentage point, as is the case here, with Mr. Biden ahead by 0.25 percent. Mr. Trump will have two business days to request the recount." ~~~

    ~~~ Update from the Washington Post's live election updates Friday. Free to non-subscribers: "Despite an earlier announcement, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) said the office is still completing its certification. The office issued a correction, reversing an earlier announcement that had declared the certification was complete. Raffensperger said he expects certification to be completed later Friday. ~~~

~~~ Update Update: "On Friday afternoon, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) certified the state's general election results, including Biden as the winner of the state's presidential vote. The secretary of state's office had erroneously sent an alert earlier in the day saying the vote had been certified." (Also linked yesterday.)

Doo Dah Parade. From the New York Times report, also linked above, by Fausset & others: "Mr. Trump's legal challenges have so far produced mostly losses and embarrassing missteps. An affidavit filed by Mr. Trump's legal team intended to prove voter fraud in Michigan apparently used data taken from counties in Minnesota, the latest in a series of embarrassments that have made the president's uphill legal fight even steeper. In Wisconsin this week, the president turned to a reality-warping tactic he has used more commonly in attacks against news organizations, falsely describing a routine meeting of the state elections commission about recount rules and manuals as a shadowy, back-room ploy against him. The event, a standard step in the electoral process, was livestreamed." ~~~

~~~ Jack Nicas of the New York Times: "On Friday morning, President Trump shared a seemingly innocuous article on Twitter. The piece said that his sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, had publicly voiced her support for her brother amid his baseless claims that he won the 2020 election. 'Thank you Elizabeth,' Mr. Trump wrote to his sister, who has long avoided the spotlight. 'LOVE!' There was just one problem: Ms. Trump Grau had not said what the article claimed. In fact, the article Mr. Trump shared was based on a fake Twitter account that posed as his sister.... The account had tweeted increasingly bizarre messages, sharply criticizing Democrats, journalists and Republicans who had questioned the false claim that Mr. Trump was re-elected. 'If someone pours gravy down Chris Wallace's pants at Thanksgiving dinner, I promise, I will take care of the legal fees!' the account said.... The bizarre episode illustrates how easily misinformation spreads online, often with the help of the president himself." ~~~

~~~ Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "For more than a week, a plain-spoken former federal prosecutor named Sidney Powell made the rounds on right-wing talk radio and cable news, facing little pushback as she laid out a conspiracy theory that Venezuela, Cuba and other 'communist' interests had used a secret algorithm to hack into voting machines and steal millions of votes from President Trump.... [Comes now Tucker Carlson, who said on his Fox 'News' show Thursday night,] 'What Powell was describing would amount to the single greatest crime in American history....' But, he said, when he invited Ms. Powell on his show to share her evidence, she became 'angry and told us to stop contacting her.' The response was immediate, and hostile. The president's allies in conservative media and their legions of devoted Trump fans quickly closed ranks behind Ms. Powell and her case on behalf of the president, accusing the Fox host of betrayal.... The backlash against Mr. Carlson and Fox for daring to exert even a moment of independence underscores how little willingness exists among Republicans to challenge the president and his false narrative about the election he insists was stolen."


Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday announced two major actions aimed at lowering the price of prescription drugs, as he seeks to make a mark on the issue in the final months of his administration. One rule announced Friday would lower drug prices in Medicare Part B to match the lower prices paid in other wealthy countries, a proposal known as 'most favored nation.' The second action would eliminate the rebates that drugmakers pay to 'middlemen' known as pharmacy benefit managers, in a bid to simplify the drug pricing system and pass the discounts on to consumers instead. Trump touted the moves while speaking in the White House briefing room on Friday, one of few public appearances by the president since his electoral defeat earlier this month. The president took no questions during the appearance as he continues to contest election results showing a win for President-elect Joe Biden.... The future of Trump's moves also could depend on whether the Biden administration decides to keep them, which Trump seemed to acknowledge.... 'I hope they have the courage to keep it,' Trump said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

You wouldn't have a vaccine, if it weren't for me, for another four years because FDA would’ve never been able to do what they did -- what I forced them to do. And Pfizer and others even decided to not assess the results of their vaccine; in other words, not come out with a vaccine until just after the election.... What I'm doing here -- I don't know if anybody is going to appreciate it. These people can't even believe it.... So they waited and waited and waited. And they thought they'd come out with it a few days after the election. And it would've probably had an impact. Who knows? Maybe it wouldn't have. I'm sure they would've found the ballots someplace -- the Democrats and the group. -- Donald Trump, in public remarks Friday ~~~

~~~ Margot Sanger-Katz & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "Health officials on Friday finalized a policy that would base the price Medicare pays for certain drugs on the lowest price paid in some other developed nations. It is the most ambitious of several drug-pricing rules issued in the final months of President Trump's term, but is likely to be vulnerable to legal challenges.... The idea is anathema to the pharmaceutical industry, which has fought hard against any price controls on its products and has advertised heavily against the policy. And it runs counter to the policy preferences of lawmakers in Mr. Trump's own party.... Though Mr. Trump described the policy as transformational, it may have very limited impact for most Medicare beneficiaries [because of the ways Medicare recipients purchase drugs].... Mr. Trump's news conference was dotted with grievances against the pharmaceutical industry.... (The president at one point baselessly said he had won the election.)"

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech applied Friday for emergency authorization of their coronavirus vaccine, a landmark moment and a signal that a powerful tool to help control the pandemic could begin to be available by late December. The U.S. race to develop a vaccine has set scientific speed records since it launched in January, and the submission of a first application to regulators cements that. Now, that effort will move to its next, deliberative phase -- a weeks-long process in which career scientists at the FDA to scrutinize the data and determine whether the vaccine is safe and effective to be used in a broad population." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here: "Maps tracking new coronavirus infections in the continental United States were bathed in a sea of red on Friday morning, with every state showing the virus spreading with worrying speed and health care workers bracing for more trying days ahead. More than 250,000 people have died in the United States, a number that grew by another 1,962 on Thursday. The Covid Tracking Project reported that more than 80,000 people were in the hospital, the highest number since the pandemic began.... As the picture across the country grew more dire, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned people against traveling and visiting family for the Thanksgiving holiday, the White House coronavirus task force appeared in public for the first time in months, along with Vice President Mike Pence, who said the country was in fine shape.... More than 187,000 cases were announced nationwide on Thursday, another single-day record, and daily tallies have been rising in 47 states, according to a New York Times database." (Also linked yesterday.)

All Their Children. Kaitlin Collins of CNN: "President Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., has tested positive for Covid-19, his spokesperson said. 'Don tested positive at the start of the week and has been quarantining out at his cabin since the result. He's been completely asymptomatic so far and is following all medically recommended COVID-19 guidelines,' his spokesperson said." This is a breaking story. Update: The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Junior has repeatedly underplayed the virus & mocked those who take it seriously. As the Times report notes, "In recent months, Mr. Trump has questioned the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic, saying in a Fox News interview that since deaths from the virus had dropped to 'almost nothing' the outbreak had come under control. That day deaths in the United States topped 1,000."

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "Andrew Giuliani, a special assistant to ... Donald Trump and the son of Rudy Giuliani, announced Friday that he had tested positive for coronavirus. Giuliani received his results Friday morning, he wrote on Twitter, and reported 'experiencing mild symptoms.' He also wrote that he was 'following all appropriate protocols, including being in quarantine and conducting contact tracing.'... Andrew Giuliani stood in the back of the packed room of reporters as his father [delivered a rambling monologue Thursday].... Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis tweeted Friday afternoon that she and Rudy Giuliani both tested negative for Covid-19, and that the 'entire legal team will continue to follow the advice and protocols of our doctors.' Andrew Giuliani also was one of the few White House staffers seen without a mask in the Rose Garden last Friday as Trump delivered remarks on the administration's Operation Warp Speed vaccine development efforts." CNN reported on-air that Rudy was "self-isolating."

Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said Friday he became 'desperately ill' from Covid-19, but now believes he is 'out of the woods' after receiving an antibody treatment. Carson, 69, was among the latest Trump administration officials or campaign advisers who have tested positive for Covid-19. Carson tested positive last Monday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. In a Facebook post Friday giving an update on his condition, Carson shared that he was 'extremely sick' with the virus and that he initially saw 'dramatic improvement' from a product he took, which is not FDA-approved or a proven treatment for Covid-19. 'However, I have several co-morbidities and after a brief period when I only experienced minor discomfort, the symptoms accelerated and I became desperately ill,' Carson wrote. Carson claimed that ... Donald Trump was monitoring his condition and cleared the secretary to receive a monoclonal antibody therapy given to Trump in October when he was diagnosed with Covid."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said on Friday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus, roughly a week after he started self-quarantining. Scott, in a statement, said that after getting multiple negative results, a test that he took on Tuesday came back positive on Friday morning.... Scott announced on Saturday that he was going to self-quarantine after being exposed to an individual in Florida the previous day who subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus." (Also linked yesterday.)

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Reader Comments (22)

Soooo...Junior has the Trump virus. Good thing it’s all a hoax. Will he still be whining about how it’s a big nothing cooked up by Democrats when he’s being ventilated? Hey, if he kicks, at least he won’t have to worry about all those grand juries in NY investigating his family’s many crimes. See? There’s a bright side to everything. Do they allow fake big game hunting in the afterlife (I almost wrote “heaven”, but we know better...).

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: Isn't there a canto in L'Inferno where the beasts hunt the hunters with bows & arrows, and it hurts like, well, hell?

November 21, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie,

That’s a great image. I don’t recall that exact transmutation of hunters and hunted, but there is that famous scene late in the poem where Virgil and Dante come upon a river of boiling blood in which is immersed the bodies of those who hurt others during their life on earth. The river is guarded by centaurs who shoot arrows into any who try to rise out of the boiling blood.

This is one of those (many) places where Dante sticks it to evil tyrants and political families who cause the death of their subjects and steal from them (sound familiar?). Dante names specific tyrants and political crime families from his own time and although I don’t recall a mention of a famiglia Trumpia, they would make welcome targets for the centaurs.

There is another scene (I forget where now, the damn thing is so dense) in which sinners are pursued by hell hounds looking to chow down on their bones. Dante, a true man of his time, was familiar with all kinds of torture and terrible mythological beasts used to inflict pain and suffering, one reason I tend often to wish to deliver so many confederate traitors to his tender care. For a place with so much political murder and backstabbing, Italians, going back to the Romans, didn’t exactly hold traitors in high regard. In Ancient Rome, it was one of the few crimes punishable by death. We can appreciate their point.

One other animal reference comes to mind, in which the animal turns on its handler, or in this case, simply ignores him. Dante notes that, in this upside down, bizarre place, the inferno, the falcon no longer obeys the falconer, which many years later becomes the omen that opens Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming” which prophesies a rough beast slouching toward the White House, er, well, not exactly the White House, but you get my drift.

In any event, I’m happy with the idea of centaurs from a reconstructed CDC shooting Junior in the ass with a volley of arrows.

(Funny, I was just running through my copy of “The Inferno” tonight looking for a reference to a couple of other miscreants. I always thought it was funny that Dante stuck Alexander the Great in his River of boiling blood, but hey, sic semper tyrannis, right? In any event, I’ll see if I can find the hunter/hunted image. I’m about due for a full reread anyway.)

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

In other news, Princess Ivanka, she who got daddy to shake down the Chinese to help make her a few extra million, is outraged, outraged I tells ya, that her crime family is being investigated for their many, well, crimes. She calls this harassment. Boo fucking hoo, Vanky. You mean harassment like splitting up families and shoving babies into cages? Like firing people who refuse to do your dirty work? Like telling an entire state stricken with dear old dad’s virus that, nyah, nyah, they ain’t gettin’ any vaccine? That kind of harassment?

Do I care? Hmmmm. Let’s see. Call me if the warden gives you telephone privileges. I’ll let you know.

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: I was kidding! But, as you so brilliantly point out, if Dante had known la familia Trumpia, he had at the ready all the ingredients for the beasts hunting the hunted. (I once heard a recording of my husband reading some part of The Divine Comedy -- don't know which part because he read it in Italian, of course -- and it was the first time I noticed he had an incredibly sexy voice. Especially in Italian.)

November 21, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie,

Well that was some pretty accurate kidding. Nonetheless, the image of Fatty and his greedy, whiny, bloodsucking brood submerged in a river of boiling blood, guarded by centaurs with bows and arrows is a very pleasant thought on a Saturday morning.

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

When Kayleigh McNinny first stood behind that podium as press secretary she said:

"I promise I will never lie to you."

Yowza! thought all those reporters–-something new doth shew in this department. What they soon found out was what the Ninny meant by a "lie" was really an alternative fact not recognized as a lie by those who peddled all those lies. So laying the playing field for more pressers that followed all the others, the Ninny carried on unabashed and always cute as can be. But this week she might have gone a tad too far.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kayleigh-mcenany-fact-checked-donald-trump-lie_n_5fb8c21dc5b67493dd36a97e

Now whether she––there are so many–-would be in Dante's boiling blood stuff is up for grabs, but I'd like to see that pert little ass of hers stuck in something–– hot or not.

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

FIFTY WAYS TO LEAVE THE WHITE HOUSE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QybcBH6rSw

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Fatty is having a yuuuge sad. He’s not getting enough credit for inventing a vaccine for the Trump virus, an effort undertaken by pharmaceutical corporations because he had done nothing to stave off the first, second, and third waves of the pandemic. In fact, rather than just doing nothing, which would have been preferable, he used his giant bull(shit)horn to spread dangerous, deadly lies which contributed to thousands of deaths.

And now, like a demented arsonist who burned down the town, he demands credit for calling the fire department, months too late, to save what’s left of the smoking ruins.

The self-serving temerity of this criminal is boundless. He’s Pandora, who wants everyone to bow before him for asking someone else to close the box.

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Seen in YouTube comments: Kayleigh, you're not McEnany sense.

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

NATO or Maginot?

It appears, at least for the nonce, that election laws and regulations, as varied as they might be from state to state, are staving off a coup from the Trump crew of brigands, liars, incompetents, and dye-hard (or is that hardly dyed?) clowns.

Good for all of us. The system bent but didn’t break.

But what if the election really had been close? Razor thin close? What if only a few hundred thousand votes made the difference between a democracy and a full-fledged authoritarian state? Could the present barriers to election stealing hold? Tens of millions already believe the lies (it’s easier than accepting the truth, that their god-chosen warrior against minorities and socialists, and the gay horde ready to convert their kids, got his ass licked in a substantial rejection at the polls—and the poles, too!) and many are primed for violence.

This has the immediate benefit of “justifying” their fury and hatred. Someone is wrong! Someone has to pay! It can’t be them! Jesus would never stand for it.

But the longer term effect is terrifying. If the next election is really close, even if the Democrat wins, what’s to stop the Trump tutored traitors from tearing the place down because they’re not going to allow “another election to be stolen from real Americans, dammit!”?

There will be a Second Coming. Something brutish, if not quite so rough (Pompeo? Cotton?, some other traitor?) is waiting for their hour to be at hand. Trump and his supine, cowardly, treasonous enablers have plowed the road. Can we, as a nation, keep that monster from the seat of power?

Will our election laws (and look for McConnell’s senate and R controlled legislatures around the country to try to put the kibosh on early voting and mail-in ballots), the Constitution, and our shaky democratic institutions be NATO, or the Maginot Line?

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

For a bit of whimsy to make you laugh –––a good way to start the day before the day dampens, either with rain or that other reign. And AK, you are so right to worry––that second coming comes with so much rotten baggage its stink can be smelled before it even begins.


The NILE Virus (Type C)

I thought you would want to know about this virus.
It appears to target those who were born prior to 1950.
The lockdown seems to be increasing the chances of being affected!

Virus Symptoms
1. Causes you to send the same E-Mail twice.
2. Causes you to send a blank E-Mail.
3. Causes you to send an E-Mail to the wrong person.
4. Causes you to send it back to the person who sent it to you.
5. Causes you to forget to attach the attachment.
6. Causes you to hit SEND before you've finished.
7. Causes you to hit DELETE instead of SEND.
8. Causes you to hit SEND when you should DELETE.

This virus is called the C-NILE virus!

A lot of us have already been infected and, unfortunately, as we age it gets worse.

And if you can't admit to doing any of the above, you've obviously caught the other strain: the D-NILE virus.

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

PD,

Thanks. Your post (as good words do) explains so much.

Definitely have the C-Nile. Had it for some time.

Still trying to fend off the D-.

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@PD Pepe: Interesting. I think I've only done one of these: forgetting to attach the attachment (or a photo or a link). I haven't done that often, but I've almost done it many times. But there's another that's not specifically mentioned here & that I've done more than once: sending an email to myself by mistake. That happens when I'm responding to a long back-and-force thread & I don't realize the person in the thread I'm responding to is I. So I guess I have a mild case.

November 21, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

PD,

I remember McAninny’s opening salvo. So often the crap spewed by these knuckleheads reads like the sort of paradoxes and word games you always see in books on the introduction to logic (“Everything I say is a lie”, eg, or Russell’s formulation about definite descriptions, “The present king of France is bald”).

“I promise I will never lie to you” was, in fact, her first lie. There were many more. Shitloads more. Oops...here comes another...duck! ”Trump didn’t get an orderly transition of power!”

Jesus. Give it up, willya?

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I hope it's not much longer before the Lincoln Project or some other worthy group posts a video of a line of "Two Guys and a Truck" units parked and waiting at Trumps White House.

Maybe a mailing campaign to "Occupant" would be in order?

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Nothing new in this Egan column, but as usual he says it very well.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/opinion/trump-democracy.html?

The highlight? An ungodly number of Republicans clearly have no interest in, in fact a visceral hatred of democracy.

An acceptance of autocracy has been part of the Republican mindset for a long time, and now it's pretty much all that's left of the once proud Party of Lincoln.

Both deeply frightening and very sad.

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Ken, et al.,

And leave us not overlook the fact that the same MSM (never mind the wingnut fascist press) will be on the attack minutes after Biden’s inauguration, taking him to task for not fixing all the horrible problems created by the Orange Menace, which they largely shrugged off as no big deal when the Fat Fascist was in the White House.

We will also be inundated with stories about how Democrats need to be kind to all those bereft Trumpists, and must try to understand their plight.

Of course, when the Fat Fascist stole power in 2016, we were instructed that it was necessary to “understand” all those white supremacists, because they lived in the “real America” as opposed to the Village, or the upper west side, or Chicago, or LA, or Boston and Cambridge, places populated by namby-pamby non-Americans who had no idea who was number one on the country charts that week or where to go to buy a semi-automatic rifle with which to threaten scary BLM darkies and Democrat nigger lovers.

The media will be sure to hound Biden and Harris in ways they were petrified to do to the Fat Russian puppet and the half-pence bobble head doll.

It’s a lead pipe cinch.

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Ken, a sad part of that visceral hatred is that they (GOP folk) don't and can't see it as hatred of democratic practice. After over 40 years of brainwashing (yes, brainwashing) most of them (the voters) believe that Democrats can't be allowed to run the country because they would ruin it irrevocably. They believe they are burning down democracy in order to save it from us. "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" became a watchword in the Goldwater campaign and is self-justification since.

As for the GOP leadership, I suspect most of the more junior are true believers but only the more senior initiates know that it is all a scam -- use tactics and language to maximize fear and disgust, which maximizes cultic fealty and donations.

We all (here) know this, but it is sad to see these folks continue to put on their track outfits to go meet the comet, over and over and over. And when they're dead they don't know it.

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Patrick, you said it so well.

Graduated from high school in the year Goldwater ran for presidettt in a home over stocked with Goldwater, Schlafly and Stormer tracts.

Before the end of that year when I had apparently already been trainted for life by those liberal university intellectuals, I asked my father whose liberty Goldwater was referring to.

Don't remember his answer (don't think he was honest enough to say, "Mine"), but whatever it was, it didn't wholly satisfy me then--or now.

November 21, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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