;)
The Commentariat -- November 17, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Clown Car Driver Demands $20,000/Day Salary. Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has helped oversee a string of failed court challenges to President Trump's defeat in the election, asked the president's campaign to pay him $20,000 a day for his legal work, multiple people briefed on the matter said. The request stirred opposition from some of Mr. Trump's aides and advisers.... Since Mr. Giuliani took over management of the legal effort, Mr. Trump has suffered a series of defeats in court and lawyers handling some of the remaining cases have dropped out. A $20,000-a-day rate would have made Mr. Giuliani ... among the most highly compensated attorneys anywhere.... There is little to no prospect of any of the remaining legal cases being overseen by Mr. Giuliani altering the outcome in any of the states where Mr. Trump is still fighting in court, much less of overturning President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s Electoral College and popular vote victory." Mrs. McC: Tuck in your shirt, Rudy.
Mark Sherman of the AP: "The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is asking the Supreme Court to put off upcoming arguments about whether Congress should have access to secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. The House Judiciary Committee that takes office in January 'will have to determine whether it wishes to continue pursuing the application for the grand-jury materials that gave rise to this case,' Douglas Letter, the top lawyer for the House said in a written filing Tuesday. Letter noted that ... Donald Trump's defeat in his bid for reelection could affect the committee's decision."
Best Headline: "After Big Thanksgiving Dinners, Plan Small Christmas Funerals, Health Experts Warn." Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press: "Mississippians should plan 'to have very small Thanksgiving gatherings' with only nuclear family members this year to stay safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs and other public health officials warned on Friday. 'You're going to have a lot of sick folks who caught (COVID-19) during Thanksgiving. We know this is the perfect milieu, having young folks and old folks and folks with chronic illness around the table -- and then death,' Dobbs said during a sober Mississippi State Medical Association Zoom meeting with fellow physicians on Nov. 12. The state's top health official urged even Mississippians who are having small holiday gatherings to observe 6 feet of social distancing and to hold the gatherings outdoors, where the chance of transmission is lower."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Chuck Grassley [R-Iowa], the oldest Senate Republican, will quarantine after exposure to the virus."
~~~~~~~~~~~
The President-elect
Anne Gearan & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden urged Congress to immediately pass an economic relief package Monday as he warned that the coronavirus pandemic will worsen in the coming months. The incoming Democratic president also criticized President Trump for his refusal to concede his election loss and begin handing over power. Biden called Trump's unprecedented actions 'embarrassing for the country' and irresponsible. The delay in cooperation is setting back plans for a coordinated rollout of a coronavirus vaccine, Biden said. Most of that rollout would fall to the Biden administration next year, but the Trump White House is not sharing details of its distribution plan. Trump falsely claims that he won the Nov. 3 election and is holding up the normal transition process for a new president." The Hill's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden on Monday ratcheted up pressure on the Trump administration to engage in a transition of power, mincing no words on the dire consequences if his incoming team faces further delays in working with federal agencies. 'More people may die if we don't coordinate,' Biden said during a news conference in Wilmington, Del., following remarks on the economic impact of the coronavirus in which he warned of a 'very dark winter' where 'things are going to get much tougher before they get easier.' He also pointed out the absurdity that Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), the vice president-elect, still has access to classified intelligence briefings because she is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. But Biden himself is not able to get those briefings because Trump's administration has yet to acknowledge that Biden won the election."
Dan Merica & Jeff Zeleny of CNN: "Jen O'Malley Dillon will join President-elect Joe Biden's incoming administration as a deputy chief of staff, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN. The expected move, first reported by NBC News [in a tweet from reporter Geoff Bennett], is the latest in a long line of expected senior White House hires as Biden moves to fill out his administration. O'Malley Dillon was Biden's campaign manager, joining his team in March after he consolidated support among most of his primary rivals. She helped transform a shoestring primary organization, which struggled to raise money, into a general election juggernaut that ultimately made Donald Trump a one-term president. She was the first woman to lead a winning Democratic presidential race."~~~
~~~ Steve Peoples & Bill Barrow of the AP: "President-elect Joe Biden is drawing from the senior ranks of his campaign to fill out an increasingly diverse White House leadership team. Sources familiar with Biden's initial decisions confirmed Monday that former campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon will serve as a deputy chief of staff, while campaign co-chair Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond and campaign adviser Steve Ricchetti will play senior roles in the new administration. Richmond will leave his Louisiana congressional seat to fill the White House job.... Richmond, a 47-year-old African American, will take on a public engagement role in the Biden administration that will allow him to deal with Congress along with a focus on the Black community and other minority groups. Richmond's role will be like that of Valerie Jarrett in Obama's administrations, said two Democrats with knowledge of the hire. A former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Richmond was among Biden's earliest high-profile supporters and served as his campaign co-chair."
The Farce
Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump began his third straight week of angry defiance of the election results, brooding behind the scenes about the state of his campaign's legal challenges and of Georgia's hand recount while refusing the pleas of some advisers to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Despite mounting legal losses in courts..., Trump dug in on his false claim that he 'won' the election. The president also assailed Georgia for what he described on Twitter as a 'Fake' and 'MEANINGLESS' recount in that state, which President-elect Joe Biden leads by 14,205 votes and has been projected to win.... As the Trump campaign's losses mount in courts, some of the president's more conspiratorial and polarizing advisers have become ascendant.... [Rudy] Giuliani, [Jenna] Ellis and others, including Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, have embraced more extreme conspiracy theories...."
The Washington Post's live election updates Monday are here. They are free to non-subscribers. President-elect Joe "Biden plans to forge ahead Monday with his transition to the presidency, delivering remarks from Delaware on the economic recovery, his latest in a series of speeches on key issues confronting the country. According to his transition team, both Biden and Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), the vice president-elect, will receive a briefing on the economy, in Wilmington, in advance of a scheduled afternoon address. ~~~
~~~ [POUTUS.] "Trump continued to refuse to accept defeat, tweeting in all caps shortly before midnight on Sunday, 'I WON THE ELECTION.' He repeated his baseless claim on Monday morning, tweeting, 'I won the election,' amid a spate of other tweets airing grievances about the process. Twitter responded by a slapping a warning on the Sunday tweet, reading, 'Official sources called this election differently,' with a link to multiple news accounts of Biden winning the presidency.... Trump, meanwhile, has no public events on Monday." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Which one of these is more like a president? The one practicing to be president or the one who, theoretically, has held the job for almost four years?
Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "The top General Services Administration official who's blocking President-elect Joe Biden's transition team from accessing government resources ahead of his inauguration appears to be looking for a new job, according to a message obtained by ABC News. Emily Murphy, head of the GSA, recently sent that message to an associate inquiring about employment opportunities in 2021, a move that some in Washington interpreted as at least tacitly acknowledging that the current administration soon will be gone.... Congressional Democrats have accused Murphy of undermining the peaceful transition of power and could subpoena her for testimony on Capitol Hill to explain why she's doing so.... Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., a senior member of the House Oversight Committee, insisted that Murphy reaching out privately about future employment opportunities 'exposes the hypocrisy' of the Trump administration's position."
Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "Fifty-nine of the country's top computer scientists and election security experts rebuked President Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud and hacking on Monday, writing that such assertions are 'unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent.' The rebuttal, in a letter to be published on various websites, did not mention Mr. Trump by name but amounted to another forceful corrective to the torrents of disinformation that he has posted on Twitter. 'Anyone asserting that a U.S. election was "rigged" is making an extraordinary claim, one that must be supported by persuasive and verifiable evidence,' the scientists wrote.... 'To our collective knowledge, no credible evidence has been put forth that supports a conclusion that the 2020 election outcome in any state has been altered through technical compromise,' they wrote."
Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Voters in four states who had brought longshot lawsuits to disrupt President-elect Joe Biden's win and went nowhere in court dropped their cases Monday morning. The cases were short-lived in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania federal courts, and fed into a pro-Donald Trump legal strategy to block Biden's presidential win before the Electoral College formalizes it.... Cases seeking to block battleground states' popular vote wins for Biden are getting fewer by the day, with two from the Trump campaign before federal judges in Michigan and Pennsylvania, one from an elector in Georgia, and one from pollwatchers in Michigan. The announcement that the voters are dropping their suits comes three days after a federal appellate court said voters couldn't bring some constitutional claims, essentially shutting down the path the Pennsylvania voters wanted to take in their suit." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Ari Melber put it on MSNBC Monday, Trump's "legal strategy" is pretty much down to Rudy's rantings on Fox "News."
Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "The White House's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, on Monday promised president-elect Joe Biden an orderly transfer of power, a departure from other Trump administration officials who have shunned any perception that ... Donald Trump lost the election. 'If the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner -- and obviously things look that way now -- we'll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council,' O'Brien said in a virtual interview at the Global Security Forum.... O'Brien couched his statements, as Trump's campaign is still pursuing legal challenges to the election results, and he said the transition would commence 'if the current lawsuits don't work out for the president.... If there is a new administration, they deserve some time to come in and implement their policies,' O'Brien said.... [MEANWHILE,] 'The Radical Left Democrats, working with their partner, the Fake News Media, are trying to STEAL this Election,' Trump tweeted [Monday morning]. 'We won't let them!'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "Nearly two weeks after the election, there are signs that Republicans are starting to accept reality.... Most Republicans have been reluctant to contradict Trump's claim that he can still hold the White House, but there's been a steady trickle of GOP lawmakers defecting from Trump's false contention that he was robbed by fraudsters. After Trump tweeted Monday, 'I won the election,' Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) told reporters, 'I wouldn't have advised he put it that way.' Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Trump can and should continue his legal challenges but has 'every confidence on Jan. 20 we're going to inaugurate a president. And it will probably be Joe Biden.'... Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, referred to Biden as the president-elect unprompted, saying 'that's what the results, the preliminary results, seem to indicate, and we certainly have to anticipate that that's the highest likelihood at this point.'... Rubio is among a small minority of Republicans who believe that the General Services Administration should formally certify Biden as the winner...." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I thought Trump -- and Republican "leaders" in general -- were supposed to be brave macho-men who could face any adversity, while they characterized Democrats as weak cowards who let their girly "feelings" guide them. It isn't turning out that way, is it?
** Georgia. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that he has come under increasing pressure in recent days from fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots in an effort to reverse President Trump's narrow loss in the state.... Raffensperger expressed exasperation over a string of baseless allegations coming from Trump and his allies about the integrity of the Georgia results, including claims that Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado-based manufacturer of Georgia's voting machines, is a 'leftist' company with ties to Venezuela that engineered thousands of Trump votes to be left out of the count. The atmosphere has grown so contentious, Raffensperger said, that both he and his wife, Tricia, have received death threats in recent days, including a text to him that read: 'You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it.'... The normally mild-mannered Raffensperger saved his harshest language for Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), who is leading the president's efforts in Georgia and whom Raffensperger called a 'liar' and a 'charlatan.'" ~~~
~~~ Here's the part about Lindsey Graham: "In their conversation, Graham questioned Raffensperger about the state's signature-matching law and whether political bias could have prompted poll workers to accept ballots with nonmatching signatures, according to Raffensperger. Graham also asked whether Raffensperger had the power to toss all mail ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures, Raffensperger said. Raffensperger said he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots." Wowza! The Hill has a summary report here. ~~~
~~~ David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement: "Marc Elias, a top attorney for the Democratic Party who has spent decades defending voting rights, is calling on the Ethics Committee to investigate Senator Lindsey Graham.... Former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa [in a tweet:] 'So this seems like something that would come under the guidance Bill Barr recently gave DOJ to investigate.'... Political scientist David Rothkopf [in a tweet]: 'This demands investigation. If laws were broken, it demands prosecution. Clearly, if true, @LindseyGrahamSC has no business being in the US Senate.'" ~~~
~~~ With Friends Like These.... Mrs. McCrabbie: Might be a good time to remind ourselves, "According to the 2015 version of Sen. Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump is 'a race baiting, xenophobic religious bigot,' while Joe Biden is 'as good a man as God ever created.'"
~~~ Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "Georgia's Republican secretary of state posted several fact checks on his official Facebook page Sunday correcting misinformation about the election promoted by ... Donald Trump and his campaign. Brad Raffensperger, for example, shared an Associated Press story that fact-checked Trump's false claim that Georgia election officials were unable to verify signatures on absentee ballots because of a legal settlement.... Raffensperger also wrote that his office strengthened the absentee ballot process for the first time since 2005, and, in another post, said one of the first things he did as secretary of state was to ban ballot harvesting after the Legislature passed his proposal in 2019. 'Truth matters. Integrity matters,' he wrote." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Aris Folley of the Hill: "More than 2,600 votes have reportedly been uncovered in Georgia amid its recount process that weren't previously included in the state's overall tally of ballots in the presidential election. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the ballots were uncovered in Floyd County. Gabriel Sterling, who serves as Georgia's voting system manager, told the newspaper the mishap was the result of human error, not equipment issues.... According to the newspaper, President Trump could see roughly 800 net votes added to his tally in the state as a result of the discovery.... The paper reports that the mishap has been the 'most significant issue' to come up as the state continues with its closely watched recount." Mrs. McC: Prior to the discovery of the untallied ballots, Biden had a lead of about 14,000 votes. The AJC story is firewalled.
Pennsylvania. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The game of musical chairs among lawyers pursuing ... Donald Trump's court challenges to the election results continued on Monday evening, as the campaign tried to replace the entire team handling the campaign's federal lawsuit seeking to block certification of Pennsylvania's results. A court filing said Marc Scaringi, a Harrisburg, Pa., attorney, conservative talk radio host and former [spectacularly failed] Senate candidate, was taking over the case.... The legal escapade devolved into farce on Monday night as the federal judge rejected a move by the campaign to postpone [a] key [Tuesday afternoon] hearing." Two of the 'new' lawyers the campaign brought in to handle the Pennsylvania case lasted only one business day. Minutes after the campaign assured the judge Scaringi would be ready to meet the court's schedule, Scaringi asked for more time. And so on. Mrs. McC: In fairness to Trump, many of his escapades "devolve into farce" rather quickly. This one has the advantage of having begun as farce.
Fall of the House of Javanka. Frank Bruni of the New York Times: "Just five short years ago Jared and Ivanka were dinner-party royalty here in Manhattan.... They had money, they had youth, they had celebrity. They were thin. I'm told that their manners were impeccable, so you'd never know that his father was an actual felon and her father a de facto one.... [But now.] Jared and Ivanka are about to be held accountable.... They are the Faustian poster couple of the Trump presidency, the king and queen of the principle-torching prom at which so many danced alongside them, although in less exquisitely tailored attire.... Down there, near the border: migrant children in cages. Over here, near the Potomac: Javanka in their gilded tableaux.... They have made their bed. Lucky for them, the sheets have a serious thread count." (Also linked yesterday.)
Paul Krugman of the New York Times writes that in the election, "the big winners were the coronavirus and, quite possibly, catastrophic climate change.... Trump paid less of a penalty than expected for his deadly failure to deal with Covid-19, and few down-ballot Republicans seem to have paid any penalty at all. As a headline in The Washington Post put it, 'With pandemic raging, Republicans say election results validate their approach.' And their approach, in case you missed it, has been denial and a refusal to take even the most basic, low-cost precautions -- like requiring that people wear masks in public." ~~~
~~~ Emily Oster, in a New York Times op-ed inappropriately headlined, "How to deal with people who ignore Covid safety," backs up Krugman. She writes that people are unlikely to change their behavior for their own good, much less for the good of others: "People are often reluctant to do things they might find unpleasant to improve their health. The American government spends millions of dollars every year to educate the public about a healthy diet, for example. And yet most of this advice is ignored." She does write that aggressive testing could somewhat ameliorate that problem.
Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump is expected to order the U.S. military to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia by the time he leaves office in January, using the end of his time in power to significantly pull back American forces from far-flung conflicts around the world.... Shortly before Mr. Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper last week and installed Christopher C. Miller as the acting Pentagon chief, Mr. Esper had sent a classified memo to the White House expressing concerns about accelerating the troop drawdown in Afghanistan, a senior administration official said. Senator Mitch McConnell ... delivered a thinly veiled warning to Mr. Trump from the Senate floor on Monday, suggesting that the president would put himself at risk of squandering his record of accomplishment in the Middle East and repeating the mistakes of former President Barack Obama...."
Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump asked senior advisers in an Oval Office meeting on Thursday whether he had options to take action against Iran's main nuclear site in the coming weeks. The meeting occurred a day after international inspectors reported a significant increase in the country's stockpile of nuclear material, four current and former U.S. officials said on Monday. A range of senior advisers dissuaded the president from moving ahead with a military strike. The advisers -- including Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Christopher C. Miller, the acting defense secretary; and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- warned that a strike against Iran's facilities could easily escalate into a broader conflict in the last weeks of Mr. Trump's presidency."
Going, Going, Gone. Henry Fountain of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would begin the formal process of selling leases to oil companies in a last-minute push to achieve its long-sought goal of allowing oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. That sets up a potential sale of leases just before Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, leaving the new administration of Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has opposed drilling in the refuge, to try to reverse them after the fact."
More on Trump's Legacy. Michael Balsamo of the AP: "Hate crimes in the U.S. rose to the highest level in more than a decade as federal officials also recorded the highest number of hate-motivated killings since the FBI began collecting that data in the early 1990s, according to an FBI report released Monday.... There were 7,314 hate crimes last year, up from 7,120 the year before -- and approaching the 7,783 of 2008. The FBI's annual report defines hate crimes as those motivated by bias based on a person's race, religion or sexual orientation, among other categories."
The Trumpdemic, Ctd.
The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) announced a statewide mask mandate on Monday, months after dismissing such orders as 'feel-good' measures with little impact. Coronavirus infections in the state have doubled over the past month, and the number of hospitalized patients reached a new high on Monday. Stricter public health orders are also being imposed in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Oklahoma and California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said the state needed to slam the 'emergency brake' on reopening."
Elizabeth Cohen of CNN: "The Moderna vaccine is 94.5% effective against coronavirus, according to early data released Monday by the company, making it the second vaccine in the United States to have a stunningly high success rate. 'These are obviously very exciting results,' said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease doctor. 'It's just as good as it gets -- 94.5% is truly outstanding.' Moderna heard its results on a call Sunday afternoon with members of the Data Safety and Monitoring Board, an independent panel analyzing Moderna's clinical trial data." ~~~
~~~ Carl Zimmer of the New York Times provides some data points on "what you need to know about Moderna's Covid vaccine." Mrs. McC: He does leave out a couple of important points that I heard from multiple experts on the TV yesterday: 1. Moderna has not released its testing data; rather, they have issued a press release. (Same with Pfizer.) So there's nothing for outside experts to analyze. 2. Moderna's vaccine has a huge advantage over Pfizer's in that Moderna's product can be transported at normal refrigeration/freezer temperatures, while Pfizer's is more unstable & requires super-freezers to transport & store it. You might think that, for the good of humanity, Moderna would share the trick they've perfected for stabilizing the vaccine. Alas, as we know, capitalism is awesome, and Moderna is keeping its patented formula super-secret. And, BTW, Moderna has received about $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars even as it cossets its secret patent. Seems to me there's something wrong with that picture.
Mrs. McCrabbie: I was kinda wondering what, if anything, the vaunted Hoover Institution would have to say about Scott Atlas. Here's Stanford's statement, in part: "The university has been asked to comment on recent statements made by Dr. Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution who is on leave of absence from that position.... Dr. Atlas has expressed views that are inconsistent with the university's approach in response to the pandemic. Dr. Atlas's statements reflect his personal views, not those of the Hoover Institution or the university." I assume, not necessarily accurately, that Stanford isn't paying him to encourage a revolution against a sitting governor who has already been the subject of a foiled kidnapping/murder plot, but we taxpayers are. ~~~
~~~ Washington Post Editors: "SCOTT ATLAS is a neuroradiologist, not an infectious disease expert, nor an epidemiologist. As President Trump’s leading adviser on the coronavirus pandemic, he continues to make statements that will cause more illness and death. He ought to be fired immediately.... Of [new] Michigan restrictions [imposed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D)], he wrote on Twitter: 'The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept. #FreedomMatters #StepUp.' So, while the governor was desperately trying to save lives by slowing the virus transmission, Dr. Atlas was urging people to disobey and revolt. This is incendiary talk, especially since the governor was the target of a kidnapping plot foiled by the FBI before the election."
Death in De Nile. Kathryn Krawczyk of the Week: "After a Twitter thread of her experiences started circulating, [South Dakota nurse Jodi] Doering appeared on CNN's New Day on Monday to describe how South Dakota hospitals are overwhelmed with coronavirus patients -- and yet some of them don't believe the virus they have is real.... Some COVID-19 patients spend their last moments refusing to call family and friends because they're convinced they're going to be fine, Doering said. 'Their last dying words are, "This can't be happening. It's not real,'" Doering recalled. In some cases, patients even insist they have the flu or lung cancer to avoid acknowledging the coronavirus." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marina Watts of Newsweek: "'The ones that stick out are those who still don't believe the virus is real. The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine and that Joe Biden is Going to ruin the USA. All while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm,' [Jodi Doering] wrote. 'They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that "stuff" because they don't have COVID because it's not real. Yes. This really happens.'" Mrs. McC: These stories harken back to a comment contributor Jeanne wrote in Sunday's thread. Anyway, thanks, Trump! (Also linked yesterday.)
News Lede
Weather Channel: "Hurricane Iota is spreading a dangerous threat of flooding rainfall and damaging winds into Central America after making landfall in northern Nicaragua as a strong Category 4 late Monday night. Iota made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph at 10:40 p.m. EST on Monday near the town of Haulover, Nicaragua, or about 30 miles south of Puerto Cabezas, the National Hurricane Center said. The landfall location of Iota was just 15 miles south of where Hurricane Eta made landfall as a Category 4 earlier this month on Nov. 3. This is the first time on record two major hurricanes - Category 3 or stronger - have made landfall in Nicaragua in the same hurricane season, much less only two weeks apart. NOAA's hurricane database only documented seven such Category 3-plus landfalls in Nicaragua prior from the mid-19th century through 2019."
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Reader Comments (22)
This Emily person who is singlehandedly standing in the way of not just a peaceful transition of power, but of national security and the well being of hundreds of thousands of Americans because SHE hasn’t decided yet whether or not Joe Biden kicked her boss’s fat ass hard enough, is looking for a job?
Well, well.
What is such an unqualified hack fit for? Assistant overnight shift supervisor at McDonalds? Nah. “I’m sorry sir, but I have yet to determine whether you are personally worthy of our special on curly fries. Try Burger King.” Sales rep trainee at Pooper-Scooper? Forget it. Trump hacks do the shitting, not the cleaning up.
Seriously, what do these people, who have signed on to work for Treason & Grifting, LLC think they’re going to do? I’m sure a certain percentage will find cozy, no-show sinecures at some far right douchebag operation, but the simple fact that they were picked by a chiseling traitor to help with the chisel and the treason should make these rat bastards untouchable to any decent business.
And how is it that the head of the fucking GSA has this kind of power? Oh, wait. The expectation was that the job wouldn’t be held by an unqualified, chiseling, treason supporting hack.
But this description now fits every nook, cranny, and unturned rock across the entire government.
And confederates are okay with this. More than okay. They love it.
As I’ve said before. They’d rather “own the libs” and “placate the screaming toddler” than feed a starving child, or keep America safe. Or prevent the death of thousands more Americans.
Perdition for every last one of these smirking fuckers.
So all these ignoramus members of the Trumpen proletariat who don’t believe the coronavirus exists, even as they breathe their last in an ICU filled with others just like them...What shall we put on their headstones to help their grieving (or maybe relieved) relatives?
Joe Blow
Died of a cold. Nothing serious.
"You might think that, for the good of humanity, Moderna would share the trick they've perfected for stabilizing the vaccine. Alas, as we know, capitalism is awesome, and Moderna is keeping its patented formula super-secret. And, BTW, Moderna has received about $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars even as it cossets its secret patent. Seems to me there's something wrong with that picture." says Marie
YES! when I learned of this last night I had the same thoughts, but capitalism is a cruel mistress and in the end it's the old dog eat dog kind of play––could we say it's frozen in time?
Those patients who refuse to acknowledge they are dying of Covid are the same kinds of people who probably never accepted any truth that interfered with their own set of realities. Sounds like someone we know, don't it?
Yesterday morning, I listened to a BBC interview with a spokesperson from Moderna. The interviewer asked questions that elicited useful information. The questions were neither softballs nor pointed jabs aiming towards a gotcha scoop. Can I trust everything the Moderna person said? No, but the interviewer asked the questions and the follow-up questions I would have asked if I had studied up on the subject, and I felt as if I learned something.
I predict that the entire trump crime family will gather at Mar-A-Lago for Thanksgiving and afterward none will return to D.C.
And on December 14, when the electoral college declares Biden the winner, they will establish their own Mar-A-Lago white house employing all those trump sycophants
(psychophants) paid for by millions of trump droolers.
A WEE DITTY FOR DONNY
Donny is delusional
he insists he won the race
Who will break it to him gently
and tell him to his face:
Mr. President, sir, time to accept defeat...
De-feet???? My feet ain't gonna go
I'm staying put and taking it slow!
Then from out of the clouds a voice loud and clear
the words of John McCain, measured and sincere:
"He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Remember that? you small minded piece of shit– Back at you, punk! And by the way–-all us dead military folk here in Combat Haven in Heaven look down upon you every bloody morning and shout––"LOSER! –-gets our engines moving along with sweet revenge–-makes our day.
And bells and whistles were heard throughout the land but the aforementioned "loser" was not at hand to hear: he was found curled up in fetal position underneath the desk in the oval––breathing heavily he begins to whimper, "Fake, all fake.." and we can't be sure he's referring to the usual suspects or to himself but our bet is on the former.
The end––we hope.
PD: you need more candidates for another title, for when your song goes to the Library of Congress?: Ballad for a Paranoid Pipsqueak? Faretheewell to Friggin' Fox Fcker? Ode to Joy #2: Deliverance from 45? This is a good parlor game! I used to think of headlines for ads in my late great job...(prior to being inadvertantly retired...)
Something will break-- it has to. Maybe the angel Gabriel will visit Emily in the night, giving her permission to DO HER JOB...
@Forrest Morris: Somehow, you've managed to come up with a sane prediction for an insane situation. You have a gift!
Something else to think about regarding the Moderna vaccine (and the Pfizer vaccine as well), at least until a peer review, which can exhume more information than can be had from a press release, no matter how glowing and positive.
According to a vaccine expert at the Mayo Clinic, the tests run by both outfits included subjects from countries around the world in addition to Americans. In almost all of those countries, masks and responsible social distancing could have played a big part in the incredible results. Here in TrumpLand, where obstreperous confederates consider such common sense precautions insults to their freeeedom, such is not the case.
The implications are obvious. First, we have no idea how effective either vaccine will be when introduced into a population where substantial numbers of people irresponsibly expose themselves and others, repeatedly, to the pathogen. Second, if the results hold up, it seems more than likely that mask wearing and social distancing could be instrumental to the success of the vaccines.
Such precautions, in conjunction with vaccinations (which many anti-vaxxers will still disregard), could go a long way to controlling the spread of the virus, which in TrumpLand, is now out of control.
There is also no data yet on whether the vaccines work on those who are asymptomatic, but that’s another bridge to cross.
So here we see the potential for yet another example of Trumpism at work. We’re currently seeing how Trumpism is able to attack a long-standing, orderly system of government and, through chaos, misdirection, and lies, nearly cripple it. Now we’ll see if Trumpism can do the same to a promising vaccination and prevention system designed to curtail a deadly pandemic.
The measurement for success of the Trumpists is how many, in the first case, give up entirely on the basic idea of America as a democracy, and, in the second, how many they can kill in a pathologically irresponsible display of their freeeeedom.
Jeanne,
Unfortunately, the job of all Trump appointees is to not do their job. Their only responsibilities are to him personally, not the country, the Constitution, morality, ethics, decency, mom, or apple pie.
Otherwise, they get the heave-ho, and no matter what glowing encomiums were showered on them by the Orange Menace upon the start of their employment. If they don’t serve the master as he feels they must, with servile obeisance, they leave under a fierce flurry of Fatty philippics.
New Randy Rainbow available.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG1eF-O2go4
Always a treat!
Just for the record, the name "Dominion Voting Systems" gives me the willies. The fact that an outfit with and end-times name is being labeled as a soshulist commie cabal is surprising.
Ben Smith's long interview piece with President Macron who " has some bones to pick with the American media: about our 'bias', our obsession with racism, our views on terrorism, our reluctance to express solidarity, even for a moment with his embattled republic."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/15/business/media/macron-france-terrorism-american-islam.html?searchResultPosition=4
NiskyGuy,
Have no fear, had the Fat Fascist won, even if there were voting irregularities and obvious technical glitches, the Droolers would be hossanahing the crap out of Dominion.
Bea,
The Hoover Institution has long been a sore subject for me. For years now, I've delighted (once here, I believe) in calling it Stanford's Crazy Uncle.
Though I'm familiar with the place and the university that houses it, I still do not fully understand their uneasy relationship, tempestuous as it has often been. As best I can tell, Stanford contributes some money to it directly to support its library, which was its orginal, Hoover-inspired purpose. According to Wikipedia, most of its support comes from private sources, much from foundations with familiar robber barron names. (Incidentally back in the day when the university dropped its "Indians" mascot name and adopted "the Cardinal," there was a strong--overruled--movement among the students to become the Stanford Robber Barons, in a smirking nod to the university's founder.).
The very noticeable Hoover phallis has been a campus center piece for more than a century, which makes it seem as if the univeristy and the institution are one when they are not. I do know that the rise of Reagan propelled the Institution to a national prominence it did not have before, and its influence has been growing ever since.
Since Reagan, one of the Institution's purposes seems to be providing a home for former members of Republican administrations. George Schulz is a big name there--he's getting his own building-- and a couple of Bush II's clowns (Rumsfeld) landed there as well. And now, Coni Rice heads it.
While I can't sort out all the details of the Instiution's support, I know the University and the Institution have different boards of directors, so it's sometimes difficult to know who's really in charge of the Hoover Institution fellows who go out in the public and say silly things.
Some months ago, some here may remember, there was a Hoover Institution lawyer who wrote silly things about Covid transmission, mask-wearing and morbidity which were later repeated by the Whitey House as fact. I know that those writings appeared, to what should have been its deep embarrassment, in Hoover Insitution publications.
But then there's little room for embarrassment in right-wing politics, certainly not in its capitalist-funded propaganda generators.
In short, in the Stanford-Hoover Institution relationship it's very hard to tell who's speaking on whose behalf: for the university, for the Institution or for him- or herself.
I suspect the university would prefer to hear from its Crazy Uncle no more than once a year.
Headline on NYT Online:
Can America Restore the Rule of Law Without Prosecuting T[****]?
When Donald T[****] leaves office, his possible criminal liability will create a major dilemma.
I don't see any dilemma at all. He and his "administration" have been breaking laws right and left since January, 2017. Lock 'em up!
In reply to Ken, I have wondered for years why Stanford doesn't simply cut off the offending member, so to speak. The opacity of the relationship between the two institutions -- if they really are distinct and separate -- speaks volumes. Remember, Stanford is also in bed with the Saudi royal family. Robber Barons, indeed.
@NiskyGuy
Right you are, as are many of the Times commenters on the fine piece you link.
Rule of law--or of men? An easy choice, it seems to me.
A further point: Biden's expressed hesitancy about pursuing Pretender administration prosecutions and/or investigations in the interests of "uniting" the country are misplaced at best.
It will unite no one, no more than did Obama's disregard of the massive Bush /Cheney and Wall St. (Iraq and The Crash) defiance of law and truth. It was seen as a sign of weakness by some on the Right, while it inflamed the passions of many former Democrats tired of their party playing nice, making them easy prey for the Pretender's promises to drain the swamp.
More fundamentally, such a stance delivers the wrong message (i.e., corruption is OK when practiced by the powerful) to the wrong people at the wrong time in our nation's history, when we seem about to sink permanently into a deep moral morass, where only money and power determine right and wrong.
I know Biden will have his hands more than full on other fronts, but I hope he finds a little of the moral crusading spirit that might still live, along with Catholic/Christian faith, somewhere inside him.
Biden can no more overlook Fatty’s bet that no one will go after him than Cortez could bet that his men wouldn’t try to mutiny and steal his ships. He burned the ships, and that was that.
Biden needs to burn Fatty’s escape vessels ( and those of squeamish Democrats), or at least empower someone else to do it. The argument that confederate treason supporters will be pissed if the Orange Menace is held accountable for his crimes, including serial manslaughter on a national scale, and craven treason to help line his own pockets, should have no bearing. They would hate us if we resurrected their parents and gave them free healthcare for life, plus no-charge cable for the next fifty years.
Here is a clumsy link to the article cited above:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/magazine/trump-investigations-criminal-prosecutions.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
I am dismayed by the effectiveness of fauxnoos and others, all through the Obama years, decrying his administration's "lawlessness" and yet when their congressional committees spent $Millions they came up with bupkis, nothing, nada.
Over the last four years, as real lawlessness happened, people pointing this out were patted on the head and quickly wiped off the news cycle by something else even more awful. I lost count long ago of the number of truly career-ending political fuckups we have witnessed.
If T**** had been just a tiny bit less awful, he would have been reelected and the confederates would have won. That scares me to my core.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/17/trump-says-us-cybersecurity-chief-chris-krebs-has-been-terminated.html
....for reporting the election was "secure."
I'd say this is the pretend president's version of those delusional Dakota folks dying of Covid believing it's something else that's killing them.
It's what happens when the con man comes to believe his own schtick.
As Bea says, "In-sane."
Last night, Trevor Noah had an interesting show including an interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates. However, the best part was his Moment of Zen, @ ~35:30, as Great Moments of Journalism, where a guest of Anderson Cooper stated, "...We have to pay attention to these tweets now, Anderson, because he's the president*. But after January 20th he just goes back to being another crackpot on the internet..."
Awomen!