The Commentariat -- December 6, 2020

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.

Felicia Sonmez & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, has contracted the coronavirus, the president said Sunday in a tweet.... Giuliani traveled to states including Michigan and Georgia last week and met indoors with state legislators in an effort to persuade them to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Videos of the appearances showed Giuliani was not wearing a mask during the meetings. Hours before Trump's tweet, Giuliani appeared on Fox News's 'Sunday Morning Futures,' where he repeated the president's false claims of election fraud.... When he has been around others who have tested positive, Giuliani has not quarantined, including after a news conference last month at the Republican National Committee's headquarters when his son tested positive."

Harry Enten of CNN: " A new Gallup poll finds that President-elect Joe Biden has a 55% favorable rating and a 41% unfavorable rating. The same poll gives ... Donald Trump a 42% favorable rating and a 57% unfavorable rating.... Biden is more popular than Trump has been at any point since he started running for president in June 2015."

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Fox News viewers expressed outrage at ... Chris Wallace on Sunday after he repeatedly insisted that Joe Biden is the rightful president-elect. Wallace made the remarks during an interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who referred to Biden as a former vice president. 'He's president-elect,' Wallace told Azar multiple times."

Matthew Choi & Daniel Lippman of Politico in Politico Magazine: "Presidents have generally succeeded in ... managing to project an image of executive competence no matter how absurd the backstage dynamics. And then came Donald Trump. 'Every day was like a Veep episode,' said one former senior administration official, recounting his time working for Trump. 'You tried to win each day, but like most Veep episodes, it typically ended in disaster.' Maintaining the normal veneer of smooth competence proved impossible in a White House that struggled from the start to find disciplined aides, and where the boss's whims and ego made even Veep's Selina Meyer seem levelheaded. As for keeping it hidden, not even close: Trumpworld's constant leaks and backstabbing ensured that all of America saw its dirty laundry.... From the administration's very first press conference to its last ham-handed attempts to reverse its loss at the polls, the Trump show kept delivering nuggets that could easily have slid into a Veep script -- and in at least one case literally replicated a Veep plot point.... Here's Politico Magazine's unscientific, non-exhaustive reconstruction of Trump's four years in office, told through its most Veep-worthy moments."

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The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Christopher Rowland, et al., of the Washington Post: "Federal officials have slashed the amount of coronavirus vaccine they plan to ship to states in December because of constraints on supply, sending local officials into a scramble to adjust vaccination plans and highlighting how early promises of a vast stockpile before the end of 2020 have fallen short. Instead of the delivery of 300 million or so doses of vaccine immediately after emergency-use approval and before the end of 2020 as the Trump administration had originally promised, current plans call for availability of around a tenth of that, or 35 to 40 million doses. Two vaccines, from manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna, which both use a novel form of mRNA to help trigger immune response, are on the verge of winning Food and Drug Administration clearance this month. Approval would cap an unprecedented sprint by government and drug companies to develop, test and manufacture a defense against the worst pandemic in a century -- part of the Operation Warp Speed initiative that promised six companies advance purchase orders totaling $9.3 billion.... Lower-than-anticipated allocations have caused widespread confusion and concern in states, which are beginning to grasp the level of vaccine scarcity they will confront in the early going of the massive vaccination campaign."

Jocelyn Gecker of the AP: "The vast region of Southern California, much of the San Francisco Bay area and a large swath of the Central Valley are about to be placed under a sweeping new lockdown in an urgent attempt to slow the rapid rise of coronavirus cases. The California Department of Public Health said Saturday the intensive care unit capacity in Southern California and Central Valley hospitals had fallen below a 15% threshold that triggers the new measures, which include strict closures for businesses and a ban on gathering with anyone outside of your own household. The new measures will take effect Sunday evening and remain in place for at least three weeks, meaning the lockdown will cover the Christmas holiday.... Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the new plan Thursday. It is the most restrictive order since he imposed the country's first statewide stay-at-home rule in March. But the situation is bleaker than in March.... Under the new order, schools that are currently open can continue to provide in-person instruction; retailers including supermarkets and shopping centers can operate with just 20% customer capacity.... With a new lockdown looming, many rushed out to supermarkets Saturday and lined up outside salons to squeeze in a haircut before the orders kicked in."

Brianna Ehley of Politico: "The CDC on Friday for the first time recommended that people wear masks at all times when they're not home, saying the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. has entered a phase of 'high level transmission.' The guidance, included in a new report, advised state and local officials to impose mask mandates for indoor settings as part of broader mitigation efforts to control the spread of the virus. It echoes President-elect Joe Biden's call for mask orders that a number of red state governors have rejected. This is the first time the CDC has recommended universal mask-wearing, including indoors. The agency for months has endorsed face coverings, and in July released a study touting their effectiveness in community settings to reduce transmission of the virus."

Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "Deriding mask-wearing, Steven LaTulippe has touted his credentials as a 'practicing physician.' Last month, he urged Trump supporters gathered in Salem, Ore., to 'take off the mask of shame' -- though hardly a covered face was in sight -- and said proudly, to claps and cheers, that none of his clinic staff wore the simple accessories shown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.... LaTulippe's license to practice medicine has now been suspended. Explaining the suspension in a written order Friday, the Oregon Medical Board said LaTulippe's disdain for public health measures went far beyond staff going maskless. The Dallas, Ore.-based doctor not only fails to take basic precautions, the board said, but 'actively promotes transmission of the virus within the extended community' by his poor example." MB: Wake up, California Medical Board. There's this guy at Stanford named Scott Atlas....

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Over the past week, President Trump posted or reposted more than 130 messages on Twitter lashing out at the results of an election he lost. He mentioned the coronavirus pandemic now reaching its darkest hours four times -- and even then just to assert that he was right about the outbreak and the experts were wrong. Moody and by accounts of his advisers sometimes depressed, the president barely shows up to work, ignoring the health and economic crises afflicting the nation and largely clearing his public schedule of meetings unrelated to his desperate bid to rewrite the election results. He has fixated on rewarding friends, purging the disloyal and punishing a growing list of perceived enemies that now includes Republican governors, his own attorney general and even Fox News. The final days of the Trump presidency have taken on the stormy elements of a drama more common to history or literature than a modern White House.... He has been enabled by Republican leaders unwilling to stand up to him, even if many privately wish he would go away sooner rather than later.... Only 25 of 249 Republican members of Congress surveyed by The Washington Post publicly acknowledged Mr. Biden's victory." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A good dramatist could make something of this farce, but her work necessarily would be fiction because the character Trumpo would have no have some, well, character. The @RealDonaldTrump has no redeeming qualities. ~~~

~~~ The Cowardly Courtiers. Paul Kane & Scott Clement of the Washington Post: "Just 27 congressional Republicans acknowledge Joe Biden's win over President Trump a month after the former vice president's clear victory of more than 7 million votes nationally and a convincing electoral-vote margin that exactly matched Trump's 2016 tally. Two Republicans consider Trump the winner despite all evidence showing otherwise. And another 220 GOP members of the House and Senate -- about 88 percent of all Republicans serving in Congress -- will simply not say who won the election.... More than 70 percent of Republican lawmakers did not acknowledge The Post's questions as of Friday evening. In response to the congressional Republicans who have called Biden president-elect identified in the Post survey, Trump tweeted Saturday: 'I am surprised there are so many. We have just begun to fight. Please send me a list of the ... RINOS.'..."

Jonathan Martin & Astead Herndon of the New York Times: "One month before a pair of Georgia runoffs that will determine the Senate majority, President Trump used a rally for the Republican senators on Saturday to complain about his own loss last month, insisting he would still prevail and, with notably less ardor, encouraging voters here to re-elect the two lawmakers. Taking the stage for his first rally as a lame duck president, Mr. Trump immediately, and falsely, claimed victory in the presidential race. 'You know we won Georgia, just so you understand,' he said.... Speaking for an hour and 40 minutes, the president did read a series of scripted lines about the two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, and repeatedly urged his supporters in Georgia to vote next month, even mentioning the deadlines for the mail-in ballots he has so often scorned. Yet he embedded those dutiful remarks of support in a deep thicket of conspiracy-mongering about his defeat and even aired a lengthy montage of video of clips from the conservative news outlets Newsmax and One America News Network, which also depicted a sinister plot of electoral theft." ~~~

~~~ Cleve Wootson, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Trump spent most of his time airing grievances and falsehoods about the presidential race, occasionally weaving in mention of the Senate runoffs. He knocked [Democrats Jon] Ossoff and [Raphael] Warnock as 'radical Democrats' who would be 'total pawns' of Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). He also attacked Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Georgia Republicans who have repeatedly vouched for the integrity of the state's elections.... Trump was introduced Saturday night by a surprise guest -- first lady Melania Trump -- who seemed to stick to prepared remarks, encouraging the crowd to vote for [Kelly] Loeffler and [David] Perdue without mentioning her husband's claims of a 'rigged' election." MB: Read "pawns of elite New York City Jew." The AP's story is here.

Kristen Holmes & Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "... Donald Trump on Saturday called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, pushing him to convince state legislators to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's win in the state, a source familiar with the conversation told CNN. Trump asked Kemp to call a special session and convince state legislators to select their own electors that would support him, according to the source. He also asked the Republican governor to order an audit of absentee ballot signatures. Kemp explained that he did not have the authority to order such an audit and denied the request to call a special session, the source said.... The President appeared to reference the call in a tweet Saturday, attacking Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and calling for a signature audit of the absentee ballot envelopes in the state -- while making false or misleading claims about the potential process. The governor, in response, tweeted that he has already 'publicly called for a signature audit three times' -- leading Trump to then double down on his request for Kemp to call for a special session of the state's Legislature." A Washington Post story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: While we have the luxury to laugh at Trump's (and his supporters') hamfisted attempts to overturn the results of this year's presidential election, we must bear in mind that this election could have been much closer, with only one state determining the winner. That's not at all unlikely in a future presidential election. And in that case, a Trumpian-style pressure campaign could break state & local officials. Some new laws might serve to further discourage Trumpish behavior, but the most effective way to minimize such stunts might be a Constitutional Amendment to select the president & veep by popular vote, eliminating the pesky, outdated Electoral College altogether. It would be a lot more difficult to take every bite out of a half-million- or million-vote difference in the national count. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Ben Ginsberg, the bad boy of the 2000 Florida recount, agrees in a Washington Post op-ed: "The country was lucky that President Trump and his reelection campaign were so inept. He ultimately lost by a wide margin, and his challenges to the results have been farcical. His rhetoric ramped up in inverse proportion to his ability to produce evidence supporting his charges of systemic 'fraud' or 'rigged' elections. The United States might not be so lucky next time. What if the 2020 election had been as close as it was in 2000, and the outcome hinged on a state (or states) with a truly narrow margin? How would the country have fared under a Trump-style assault on democracy's foundations?" Ginsberg has suggestions for measures that would strengthen election law.

Right before the election, the fake populist Kaiser found his inner fake Johnny Cash. (The real Johnny Cash was an actual populist.) Thanks to PD Pepe for the link:

Georgia. Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post is amused by the Fox "News" conspiracy theory "proving" "suitcases full of ballots" were pulled out from hiding places under tables in the Fulton County, Georgia, elections processing room & counted in the dead of night.

Pennsylvania. Dueling Letters. Stephen Caruso of the Pennsylvania Capital-Star: "Repeating a point they have made for the past month, Pennsylvania's Republican legislative leadership released a letter Thursday affirming that the General Assembly cannot overturn the results of the 2020 election in the Keystone State.... GOP legislative leadership -- including House Speaker Bryan Cutler, of Lancaster County, and Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, of Centre County, publicly rejected the argument that they could appoint pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College, overriding the popular vote this week.... But, just 24 hours later, the top two House Republicans turned around and signed a letter calling for Congress to reject Pennsylvania's electors sent to the state's 18 representatives and two U.S. senators.... The same concerns in the congressional lette[r] have been included in [a] Trump campaign [lawsuit] to delay the certification of Pennsylvania's results. A federal judge rejected the claims, and tossed the suit. It is now on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court."

Arizona. Ryan Randazzo, et al., of the Arizona Republic (in USA Today): "Republican Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives Rusty Bowers said Friday that pleas from some GOP lawmakers to overturn the results of the state's presidential election are illegal and 'cannot and will not' happen. Republican state Reps. Mark Finchem and Kelly Townsend spent much of the day imploring their fellow legislators on social media to overturn the election results in favor of ... Donald Trump. Bowers said such action would be both illegal and inappropriate. 'As a conservative Republican, I don't like the results of the presidential election,' Bowers said in a prepared statement. 'I voted for President Trump and worked hard to reelect him. But I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election.'"

Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times: "... "S.N.L." faithful couldn't help but draw comparisons between [Rudy Giuliani's 'simply not credible' witness Melissa] Carone's distinctive cadence and the speech patterns of the Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a Party, the recurring character played by Cecily Strong. And sure enough, Strong took center stage in this weekend's opening sketch, playing Carone in a parody of the Michigan hearing." The sketch is here (and is embedded in the story). (MB: I didn't think the opener was funny enough to embed, but to each her own.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: Just in case you think maybe Strong didn't get Carone quite right, here's a clip of the real Carone:

The Punk Behind a Trumpian Attack on National Security. Courtney Kube & Carol Lee of NBC News: "A Trump loyalist who was recently appointed as Pentagon chief of staff is controlling the Biden transition's team access to Pentagon officials, even blocking some career officials and experts from giving information about key defense issues to the transition team and telling political appointees to take the lead instead, say two current and two former U.S. officials. In some instances, the chief of staff, Kash Patel, who was assigned to the Pentagon after last month's election, has recast policy descriptions to include content that reflects favorably on Trump's policies before the information is shared with the Biden transition, two of the officials said. 'He told everybody we're not going to cooperate with the transition team,' one of the former officials said of Patel, and he has 'put a lot of restrictions on it.'" Patel is a protégé of Rep. Devin Nunes (or possibly Devin Nunes' cow). ~~~

~~~ Greg Miller & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "Pentagon officials said Saturday that leaders of the military's intelligence services will begin meeting with members of President-elect Joe Biden's transition team Monday, ending what some current and former officials said was an impasse that undermined the transfer of control. Officials said that advisers to the incoming Biden administration are scheduled to meet with officials at the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other spy services at their headquarters. The Defense Department and acting defense secretary Christopher Miller issued statements Saturday denying that the Pentagon had resisted giving the Biden team access to the agencies or information about their operations and budgets." This is a follow-up to a story by Miller & Ryan linked yesterday.

Gillian Brockell of the Washington Post: "Two historian groups, an independent archive and a watchdog organization are suing President Trump and other administration officials to ensure compliance with records laws, the groups announced this week. With Trump facing 'potential legal and financial exposure once he leaves office,' the groups said, 'there is a growing risk that he will destroy records of his presidency before leaving.' The American Historical Association, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the National Security Archive and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington -- a frequent plaintiff in Trump-related legal challenges -- joined in the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia."

The Commentariat -- December 5, 2020

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Kate Sullivan of CNN: "President-elect Joe Biden said Friday that the Trump administration had shared information with his transition team about distributing a vaccine to various states, but Biden said his team had not seen a 'detailed plan.' 'There is no detailed plan that we've seen, anyway, as to how you get the vaccine out of a container, into an injection syringe, into somebody's arm,' Biden said at an event in Wilmington, Delaware. 'It's going to be very difficult for that to be done and it's a very expensive proposition,' Biden said. He noted, 'There's a lot more that has to be done.' Biden stressed the importance of distributing the vaccine in an equitable manner across the country, noting that Black and Hispanic people infected with the virus have died& at disproportionately higher rates than White people. He said his team is also looking at getting health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities the vaccine first, as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently advised." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: No one should be surprised by this, of course, but here's where we stand: (1) Trump is taking credit for the rapid development of anti-Covid vaccines (and urging the public not to give Biden credit). But of course it was drug companies who developed vaccines. (2) The Trump administration has no "detailed plan" to coordinate & facilitate distribution of vaccination units. That's the government's job. That is, Trump wants credit for something he didn't do, and isn't doing what he must do. You can bet that before the end of January, Trump will be down at Mar-a-Lago complaining that Biden hasn't distributed the vaccinations that He Trump developed. Congressional Republicans will amplify the fake complaint, reporters will report it, and millions of Republicans will buy into the lie.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here: "'We have not yet seen the post-Thanksgiving peak,' Anthony S. Fauci said Friday. 'That's the concerning thing, because the numbers in and of themselves are alarming.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Axios: "The government's top infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci said Friday that he 'absolutely' will accept the offer from President-elect Joe Biden to serve as his chief medical adviser, telling NBC's 'Today' that he said yes 'right on the spot.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Real Political News

Michael Blood & Nicholas Riccardi of the AP: "California certified its presidential election Friday and appointed 55 electors pledged to vote for Democrat Joe Biden, officially handing him the Electoral College majority needed to win the White House. Secretary of State Alex Padilla's formal approval of Biden's win in the state brought his tally of pledged electors so far to 279, according to a tally by The Associated Press. That's just over the 270 threshold for victory. These steps in the election are often ignored formalities. But the hidden mechanics of electing a U.S. president have drawn new scrutiny this year as ... Donald Trump continues to deny Biden's victory and pursues increasingly specious legal strategies aimed at overturning the results before they are finalized."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President-elect Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to pass a $900 billion coronavirus relief bill during the lame-duck session as a starting point in public remarks notable for their care in dealing with GOP and Democratic objections to the emerging compromise. Biden said it was critical to get a bill passed soon to provide relief to Americans hours after a new labor report showed slowing job growth as coronavirus cases spike across the country. He repeatedly dodged questions about whether he's spoken to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), while deflecting questions about progressive concerns that the legislation does not provide enough immediate help to families in need."

Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "President-elect Joe Biden says he thinks it's important for the sake of appearances that President Trump attend his inauguration -- although as far as he's concerned 'it's of no personal consequence.'... In an interview that aired on Thursday night, Biden told CNN's Jake Tapper that the gesture would be 'important in the sense that we are able to demonstrate, at the end of this chaos that he's created, that there is peaceful transfer of power, with the competing parties standing there, shaking hands and moving on.'"

Greg Miller & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has refused to allow members of President-elect Joe Biden's transition team to meet with officials at U.S. intelligence agencies that are controlled by the Pentagon, undermining prospects for a smooth transfer of power, current and former U.S. officials said. The officials said the Biden team has not been able to engage with leaders at the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other military-run spy services with classified budgets and global espionage platforms.... The delays came even as Biden advisers spent much of this week meeting with officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA, intelligence agencies that are independent of the Defense Department." CNN's story is here.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, who enjoys thumbing her nose at Trump as much as anyone, now takes on Mitch & his confederate mob with a dose of reality: "The refusal by Republicans to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden's election victory is remarkable in its contempt for democracy and defiance of reality.... Biden not only received a majority of the popular vote, but also cleared 51 percent -- the largest vote percentage obtained against an incumbent president since 1932 and a bigger percentage of the popular vote than any Republican president since George H.W. Bush in 1988, when Bush was essentially running for a third Ronald Reagan term. In the process, Biden amassed the largest total number of ballots in U.S. history. He pummeled Trump by more than 7 million votes (and exceeded Barack Obama's 2008 vote total by more than 11 million).... Biden's victory..., far from narrow..., represents the overwhelming verdict of the voters. If there is such a thing as a mandate, Biden has one.... Treating Biden as anything but the president-elect and denying him ample latitude to compile the Cabinet and senior staff of his choosing represents an outlandish attempt to preempt the will of more than 80 million Americans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ To be fair, Senate Republicans have cobbled together a swell abdication excuse: it's not in their job description to call elections.

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The final draft of the bicameral, bipartisan-approved defense authorization bill contains a number of rebukes of President Trump's actions as commander in chief, in addition to defying him over both of the grounds on which he has threatened to veto the legislation. Topping the list is a prohibition on reducing the number of troops stationed in Germany and South Korea below current levels unless Congress receives certain guarantees that it is strategically safe and lawmakers are given ample time to consider the drawdown. The proscription against troop movements was written in response to the Trump administration's summer announcement that it planned to move about 12,000 U.S. troops out of Germany.... The defense bill directs the president within 30 days to impose sanctions against Turkey for its purchase of S-400 missile systems from Russia, a reflection of how both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been frustrated by the administration's reluctant approach to addressing Ankara's challenges to NATO. It also orders the defense secretary to submit an annual report about any Russian-sponsored bounties for attacks against U.S. military personnel. Trump came under fire this summer for dismissing intelligence about such a scheme in Afghanistan as 'not credible.'"

Natalie Fertig of Politico: "The House on Friday passed a landmark bill that would remove federal penalties on marijuana and erase cannabis-related criminal records. The bill passed by a vote of 228-164, with several Republicans on board. While the MORE Act is not expected to come up in the Senate this year, and likely won't in the next session of Congress either, its passage nevertheless marks a monumental step in marijuana policy.... Friday's vote reflects the shift in American and global views on marijuana over the past decade...." The New York Times report is here.

Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to fully restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors from deportation, scoring a key win for immigrant advocacy groups. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, a Clinton appointee, restores the Obama-era program and also mandates that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) post a public notice by Monday saying it is accepting new applicants. It would mark the first time since 2017 that the government has admitted new immigrants into the program." This is a developing story. The Washington Post's story is here. The New York Times' story is here.

** Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dan Froomkin, a great critic of U.S. journalism, excoriates the major media for their failure to call out Trump's lies & for giving major kudos to the few reporters who occasionally, in hit-or-miss fashion, manage to write a sentence or two that point to Trumpian mendacity. "Acting with courage and integrity would have entailed news reporters and organizations calling Trump out when they would have taken some heat for it, rather than now, when Trump is quite literally a loser. And it would not reserve truth-telling for the leader alone, but for his entire movement." MB: The way I see it, we're moving almost seamlessly from he-said/she-said Trump "journalism" to he-said/she-said Biden "journalism," with a few reporters taking a short break to lick their wounds after Trump -- for five years -- called them "fake news" and "enemies of the state" and lashed out at some individual reporters.

The Last Days of the Kaiser

Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump and his legal allies earned a platinum sombrero Friday, striking out five times in a matter of hours in states pivotal to the president's push to overturn the election results -- and losing a sixth in Minnesota for good measure.... Several of the most devastating opinions, both Friday and in recent weeks, have come from conservative judges and, in some federal cases, Trump appointees. The losses included a rejection in Wisconsin from the state Supreme Court, where the majority was gobsmacked at the effort by a conservative group to invalidate the entire election without any compelling evidence of voter fraud or misconduct." The Washington Post's story is here.

The Party of Weanies. Amanda Carpenter, a serious winger, of the Bulwark: "Why aren't more Republicans standing up and speaking out about Donald Trump's reprehensible acts?... They're fine with it. All of it.... Take your pick of the worst events of the Trump presidency. Charlottesville, Lafayette Square, kids in cages, Trump's egging on of militiamen, pipe bombers, mass shooters, and vigilantes. None of it led to a significant break between Trump and elected Republicans.... [In Georgia,] two Republican elections officials are speaking out against Trump for the looney conspiracy theories he's pushing about how the election was supposedly stolen from him. But, one has to ask, would they be saying anything if they weren't the ones being targeted?... You see, I remember Trump calling lots of other Americans 'an enemy of the people' and putting them in danger before he attached that label to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. For some reason, though, it didn't matter to Raffensperger until it happened to him." ~~~

~~~ Georgia. Where There's Smoke, There's Smoke. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "To date, the [Trump] campaign has done little more than throw smoke bombs and insist there's a fire. In a triumphant appearance on Sean Hannity's Fox News program Thursday night, however, Giuliani announced that all of that had changed. 'Today's video was really explosive,' he said.... The video at issue is a collection of feeds from security cameras apparently recording a ballot-counting operation in Fulton County, Ga. In it, an individual is seen directing others to pull black containers from either a shelving unit or from under a table. The containers are then taken to nearby tables, opened and apparent ballots removed. It's hard to tell what happens next, but a voice-over suggests that the half-dozen individuals in the room then scanned the ballots. What Giuliani and others claim happened is that observers were cleared from the room and that ballots hidden in suitcases were then brought out to be counted without oversight.... The fact-checking site Lead Stories dug into the claims, speaking with several Georgia officials about what the video showed. '... the work you see is the work you would expect,' said Gabriel Sterling, the state's voting systems manager, 'which is you take the sealed suitcase-looking things in, you place the ballots on the scanner in manageable batches and you scan them.'... Another official ... also denied that anyone had been told to leave the room. A monitor from the state election board also told Lead Stories that he was present the entire time." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "The Georgia Kraken, when arguing on Friday that the Eleventh Circuit has jurisdiction to hear its appeal, said Dominion Voting Systems rigged the election against Joe Biden. The assertion can be found in the first paragraph of Sidney Powell and Lin Wood's background presentation of their case.... '[T]here were all imaginable varieties of voting fraud,' appellants said, 'including machine-controlled algorithms deliberately run by Dominion Voting Systems that generally took more than 2.5% of the votes from Mr. Biden and flipped them to Mr. Trump for a more than 5% fraudulent increase for Mr. Biden.' To be clear, this line says that Dominion took votes from Biden and gave them to Trump -- to increase Biden's vote. That's an ... interesting theory and 'epic fail.'" Thanks to NiskyGuy for the laugh. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Matt Naham: "A federal appellate court bookended a roller coaster of a week by rejecting Sidney Powell and Lin Wood's appeal in the so-called Kraken case that they filed in the state of Georgia. First Powell and Wood ran to the U.S. District Court over the weekend and asked for a temporary restraining order so they could conduct forensic analyses of Dominion Voting Systems machines in 10 Peach State counties. When they didn't get the order they really wanted, they went to the Eleventh Circuit with an interlocutory appeal and filed a brief just before midnight on Wednesday, asking the appellate court to decertify the presidential election. On Friday morning, Powell et al. managed to claim that Dominion had actually rigged the election against Joe Biden. By Friday evening, a ... Trump-appointed circuit judge penned the opinion of the court flatly denying their appeal on grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction."

Georgia Senate Race. Allan Smith & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Former President Barack Obama and Vice President Mike Pence held dueling rallies courting Georgia voters on Friday, seeking to drum up support in the battle for control of the Senate. Obama joined 2018 gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams and the two Democratic Senate candidates, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, for a virtual rally Friday afternoon. At roughly the same time, Pence joined Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., for an in-person rally in Savannah. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., was slated to attend as well but changed plans after a campaign staffer, Harrison Deal, died in a car accident, she announced in a statement.... Donald Trump will hold a rally on Saturday in Valdosta with the two Republicans in the runoff, which is about a month away."

~~~ Marie: I didn't link this story yesterday because a U.S. senator accidentally "admitting" Joe Biden won the presidential election is no longer remarkable. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) appeared to tacitly acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden's victory in a video recording obtained by The Washington Post on Thursday.... In a video meeting recorded Wednesday with members of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), Perdue spoke pragmatically about the role a GOP-controlled Senate could play as a check on the Biden administration." BUT there is something remarkable in Gardner's story: the walk-back: "Perdue spokesman John Burke called the video a 'non-story,' adding: 'Senator Perdue totally supports President Trump and his fight for transparency and accuracy in this election.'" The state of the federal government is that a U.S. senator has to have a staffer go out & self-pretzelize in order to downplay a fact that everyone but the Mad Kaiser accepts.

Making the World Less Safe for Democracy. Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "President Trump, pressing his end-of-term troop withdrawals from conflicts around the world, will pull American forces out of Somalia, where they have been trying to push back advances by Islamist insurgents in the Horn of Africa. The Pentagon announced on Friday that virtually all of the approximately 700 troops in Somalia -- most Special Operations forces who have been conducting training and counterterrorism missions -- will be leaving by Jan. 15, five days before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is scheduled to be inaugurated. The withdrawal from Somalia followed Mr. Trump's orders to reduce the American presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, and reflected the president's longstanding desire to end long-running military engagements against Islamist insurgencies in failed and fragile countries in Africa and the Middle East, a grinding mission that has spread since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.... Mr. Trump's push to leave Somalia before he leaves office comes at a delicate time for the East African nation: It is preparing for parliamentary elections next month and a presidential election scheduled for early February.... Many of the American troops will be 'repositioned' to nearby Kenya, a Defense Department official said Friday." MB: Looks like "deep-state" Pentagon push-back. An AP story is here.

Lara Seligman, et al., of Politico: "The White House removed nine members of the Pentagon's Defense Business Board on Friday and installed people loyal to ... Donald Trump in their place, including presidential allies Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie. The firings marked the latest effort by the Trump administration to clean out the Defense Department in the final weeks of the president's term.... 'A number of board members have been terminated with a form letter. In my experience, I was very surprised that the White House would, at the eleventh hour, adjust an advisory board that for 19 years has had a record of nonpartisan support with the department,' Michael Bayer, who until today was board chair, told Politico. 'This kind of a move really will weigh heavily on people in the future and their willingness to serve on these outside advisory boards if they're going to be subjected to political loyalty tests. It's unprecedented. I'm just saddened,' he added."

Nathan McDermott, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump's nominee to become a senior Pentagon official spread debunked conspiracies on Twitter that called Trump's election loss to Joe Biden a 'coup' attempt and shared tweets that suggest Trump should declare martial law. Scott O'Grady, a former fighter pilot and Trump loyalist, repeatedly retweeted tweets that falsely stated Trump won the election in 'landslide fashion' and that millions of votes were stolen from the President.... O'Grady was nominated by the White House to become an assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs at the Pentagon.... CNN's KFile reviewed O'Grady's tweets and media appearances and found that O'Grady shared other debunked election conspiracies and that he also degraded top military and intelligence officials. In a radio interview, he called former President Barack Obama and military generals 'sworn socialists,' and advocated that the military justice system should bring back treason charges. He retweeted a tweet that called former Defense Secretary James Mattis a 'traitor.'" And so forth. Lotsa so-forth. MB: I'm just thinking top DOD jobs should go to people who are (1) fairly apolitical and (2) fairly sane. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to cancel several holiday parties, saying they violate his own guidelines against holding 'non-mission critical' gatherings during a raging pandemic and needlessly jeopardize the health of federal employees. 'I am concerned that these parties pose a significant health risk, not only to attendees, but to the employees and workers who must staff these events, as well as to State Department employees who may feel pressured to attend,' Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey said in a letter addressed to Pompeo on Thursday.... 'We plan to fully enforce social distancing measures at this reception, and face coverings are mandatory for admittance,' said a State Department spokesman.... When asked how he could expect attendees to keep masks on at a reception that includes food and drinks, the spokesman did not offer a response. He also did not explain how the department would enforce social distancing, if even a fraction of the 900 guests [for one event] show up." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's something I really don't get: why are the Pompeos doing this? There is ample evidence that most Republicans are sadists. But still.

Betsy DeVos Does Something Decent. Michael Stratford of Politico: "The Trump administration on Friday granted an extra month of student loan relief to the 41 million Americans who have been benefiting from a freeze on monthly payments and interest that was set to expire at the end of the year. That relief was set to expire on Dec. 31 but will now end on Jan. 31. The last-minute extension averts what could have been a potentially chaotic resumption of payments just weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.... Biden has not committed to any specific executive action on student loans, but he is widely expected to further continue in some form the same freeze on monthly payments and interest the Trump administration has now twice extended through executive action." MB: The full loan repayments will still come due, so the government is losing no more than the use of the money for a period of time. But still, it's something. My guess is that Betsy doesn't want to be bothered with making the effort to to dun the loan recipients.

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "The Republican National Committee paid more than $300,000 in October to a company owned by Donald Trump Jr. to purchase copies of his new, self-published book. Autographed copies of the book, Liberal Privilege, were given out to donors who contributed between $50 and $100 to the RNC, according to a source familiar with the arrangement.... It's common for political groups to buy books written by prominent public officials and offer them as gifts for their financial supporters.... But the RNC's payment to Trump Jr.'s company in October was the largest single payment -- out of more than 700 -- that the committee has ever reported for donor 'mementos' or 'gifts,' according to Federal Election Commission filings." MB: Darn! I didn't contribute to the RNC, but I sure could use an autographed copy of Junior's book. I lost a back foot on a small refrigerator, & Junior's book might be just right to "stand in" for the foot.

The Commentariat -- December 4, 2020

Afternoon Update:

From Friday's WashPo Covid-19 updates, also linked below: "'We have not yet seen the post-Thanksgiving peak,' Anthony S. Fauci said Friday. 'That's the concerning thing, because the numbers in and of themselves are alarming.'"

Axios: "The government's top infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci said Friday that he 'absolutely' will accept the offer from President-elect Joe Biden to serve as his chief medical adviser, telling NBC's 'Today' that he said yes 'right on the spot.'"

Where There's Smoke, There's Smoke. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "To date, the [Trump] campaign has done little more than throw smoke bombs and insist there's a fire. In a triumphant appearance on Sean Hannity's Fox News program Thursday night, however, Giuliani announced that all of that had changed. 'Today's video was really explosive,' he said.... The video at issue is a collection of feeds from security cameras apparently recording a ballot-counting operation in Fulton County, Ga. In it, an individual is seen directing others to pull black containers from either a shelving unit or from under a table. The containers are then taken to nearby tables, opened and apparent ballots removed. It's hard to tell what happens next, but a voice-over suggests that the half-dozen individuals in the room then scanned the ballots. What Giuliani and others claim happened is that observers were cleared from the room and that ballots hidden in suitcases were then brought out to be counted without oversight.... The fact-checking site Lead Stories dug into the claims, speaking with several Georgia officials about what the video showed. '... the work you see is the work you would expect,' said Gabriel Sterling, the state's voting systems manager, 'which is you take the sealed suitcase-looking things in, you place the ballots on the scanner in manageable batches and you scan them.'... Another official ... also denied that anyone had been told to leave the room. A monitor from the state election board also told Lead Stories that he was present the entire time."

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "The Georgia Kraken, when arguing on Friday that the Eleventh Circuit has jurisdiction to hear its appeal, said Dominion Voting Systems rigged the election against Joe Biden. The assertion can be found in the first paragraph of Sidney Powell and Lin Wood's background presentation of their case.... '[T]here were all imaginable varieties of voting fraud,' appellants said, 'including machine-controlled algorithms deliberately run by Dominion Voting Systems that generally took more than 2.5% of the votes from Mr. Biden and flipped them to Mr. Trump for a more than 5% fraudulent increase for Mr. Biden.' To be clear, this line says that Dominion took votes from Biden and gave them to Trump -- to increase Biden's vote. That's an ... interesting theory and 'epic fail.'" Thanks to NiskyGuy for the laugh.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, who enjoys thumbing her nose at Trump as much as anyone, now takes on Mitch & his confederate mob: "The refusal by Republicans to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden's election victory is remarkable in its contempt for democracy and defiance of reality.... Biden not only received a majority of the popular vote, but also cleared 51 percent -- the largest vote percentage obtained against an incumbent president since 1932 and a bigger percentage of the popular vote than any Republican president since George H.W. Bush in 1988, when Bush was essentially running for a third Ronald Reagan term. In the process, Biden amassed the largest total number of ballots in U.S. history. He pummeled Trump by more than 7 million votes (and exceeded Barack Obama's 2008 vote total by more than 11 million).... Biden's victory..., far from narrow..., represents the overwhelming verdict of the voters. If there is such a thing as a mandate, Biden has one.... Treating Biden as anything but the president-elect and denying him ample latitude to compile the Cabinet and senior staff of his choosing represents an outlandish attempt to preempt the will of more than 80 million Americans."

Nathan McDermott, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump's nominee to become a senior Pentagon official spread debunked conspiracies on Twitter that called Trump's election loss to Joe Biden a 'coup' attempt and shared tweets that suggest Trump should declare martial law. Scott O'Grady, a former fighter pilot and Trump loyalist, repeatedly retweeted tweets that falsely stated Trump won the election in 'landslide fashion' and that millions of votes were stolen from the President.... O'Grady was nominated by the White House to become an assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs at the Pentagon.... CNN's KFile reviewed O'Grady's tweets and media appearances and found that O'Grady shared other debunked election conspiracies and that he also degraded top military and intelligence officials. In a radio interview, he called former President Barack Obama and military generals 'sworn socialists,' and advocated that the military justice system should bring back treason charges. He retweeted a tweet that called former Defense Secretary James Mattis a 'traitor.'" And so forth. Lotsa so-forth. MB: I'm just thinking top DOD jobs should go to people who are (1) fairly apolitical and (2) fairly sane.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Stuart Thompson in a New York Times op-ed: "A vaccine may be around the corner, but how long will it be until you get the shot? Health officials are considering vaccine timelines that give some Americans priority over others. If you're a healthy American, you may wait many months for your turn. To put this in perspective, we worked with the Surgo Foundation and vaccine tool to calculate the number of people who will need a vaccine in each state and county -- and where you might fit in that line." MB: The article includes a swell interactive feature that allows you to enter some personal information to find out where you stand in line, according to parameters identified by the researchers.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here: "Nearly 213,000 new coronavirus cases were reported across the United States on Thursday, the highest number yet. And at least 2,500 covid-19 deaths were reported for the third consecutive day -- the deadliest stretch since the pandemic began."

Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Nonfarm payrolls increased by just 245,000 in November, well below Wall Street estimates as rising coronavirus cases coincided with a considerable slowdown in hiring.... Though the U.S. is coming off its fastest growth quarter ever, economists worry that the next quarter or two could see flat or even negative growth before rebounding strongly in the latter part of 2021. The November job gains would be considered strong under normal circumstances, but the pandemic has left millions of Americans out of work from jobs lost in the early stages of the crisis. The total represents the slowest job growth since the employment recovery began in May." The Washington Post's report is here.

Dan Merica of CNN: "President-elect Joe Biden told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday that he will ask Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days after he takes office, in a sign of how Biden's approach to the virus will be dramatically different to ... Donald Trump's response. 'Just 100 days to mask, not forever. 100 days. And I think we'll see a significant reduction,' Biden told Tapper during his first joint interview with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris since winning the election. The full interview will air at 9 p.m. ET [Thursday]. Biden said that where he has authority, like in federal buildings or in interstate transportation on airplanes and buses, he will issue a standing order that masks must be worn.... Biden also said he has asked Dr. Anthony Fauci to be a chief medical adviser and part of his Covid-19 response team when his administration begins next year."

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, talked on Thursday about reaching agreement on must-pass government funding legislation and on another coronavirus relief package, amid pressure from rank and file members for a bipartisan compromise.... But Mr. McConnell appeared to be [interested in] a much smaller stimulus proposal he began circulating earlier this week that he said would be able to secure President Trump's signature, not the compromise measure being developed by a group of moderate senators in both parties.... Mr. McConnell has been largely removed from discussions with Ms. Pelosi over another stimulus bill since the two chambers enacted a sweeping $2.2 trillion stimulus law in March.... Later on Thursday, more Republican senators signaled openness to embracing the $908 billion framework that Democratic leaders had endorsed as a baseline for restarting negotiations." This is an item in the Times' Biden transition live updates. ~~~

~~~ Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "The coronavirus pandemic has inflicted an economic battering on state and local governments, shrinking tax receipts by hundreds of billions of dollars. Now devastating budget cuts loom, threatening to cripple public services and pare work forces far beyond the 1.3 million jobs lost in eight months. Governors, mayors and county executives have pleaded for federal aid before the end of the year. Congressional Republicans have scorned such assistance, with the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, calling it a 'blue-state bailout.' But it turns out ... six of the seven states that are expected to suffer the biggest revenue declines over the next two years are red -- states led by Republican governors and won by President Trump this year, according to a report from Moody's Analytics."

Best Excuse Ever for Holding Crowded Parties. Lydia O'Connor of the Huffington Post (12/2): "The White House plans at least 25 indoor holiday parties this month. All will include more than 50 guests, The Washington Post reported, and few attendees will be tested in advance. Invitations make no mention of coronavirus precautions.... A reporter who asked [White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany] at a news briefing how the White House could continue with planned holiday parties while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asks Americans to forgo celebrations to slow the spread of COVID-19. 'If you can loot businesses, burn down buildings, engage in a protest, you can also go to a Christmas party,' McEnany responded. 'You can celebrate the holiday of Christmas, and you can do it responsibly.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Love the way Mac-a-Ninny equates protests with looting & burning down buildings. Perhaps more important: equating looting & burning down buildings with hosting unprotected, crowded parties may be a fair comparison, but it's not a great argument.

Ariane de Vogue of CNN: "The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a California ministry that argued the state's Covid-related restrictions on indoor services violated its religious liberty rights, the court's second such ruling on pandemic guidelines for churches in two weeks. In an unsigned order, the justices sent the dispute between the Harvest Rock International Ministry and California Gov. Gavin Newsom back to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to further consider the case in light of its ruling from last week when the court blocked similar restrictions in New York. There were no noted dissents.... To make their point [the ministry] included in the legal filing a picture of Newsom at a restaurant with a large gathering where no one was wearing masks." (Also linked yesterday.)

Return to Normality

Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "President-elect Joe Biden pledged Thursday that the Justice Department will be run independently and not be influenced by politics when he takes office. 'It's not my Justice Department. It's the people's Justice Department,' Biden told CNN's Jake Tapper. The president-elect said the officials he chooses to lead the Justice Department will have the 'independent capacity to decide who gets prosecuted and who doesn't.'"

Toluse Olorunnipa & Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden has selected a close adviser to help lead the nation's response to the coronavirus crisis, tapping a veteran of the Obama administration to serve as America's top doctor as the country suffers from a surging pandemic. Vivek H. Murthy, a former U.S. surgeon general, has been asked to reprise the role in an expanded version in the new administration, according to an individual familiar with the decision. Murthy is expected to be part of a team of health-care officials charged with tackling the issue Biden has said would be his top priority upon taking office, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because decisions have not been officially announced. On Thursday, Biden told CNN that Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, would serve as a chief medical adviser and help his administration with its coronavirus response plan. Fauci, who served on President Trump's coronavirus task force, has been attacked by the president in recent months as he has contradicted the White House's message that the pandemic is under control and on the verge of disappearing."

Jim Tankersley & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has officially selected Brian Deese, who played a leading role in bailing out the automotive industry and negotiating the Paris climate agreement under President Barack Obama, to head the National Economic Council, his transition team said Thursday. The appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, highlights Mr. Biden's plans to use economic policy initiatives to drive climate policy. It also defies pre-emptive criticism from some environmental groups, which have targeted Mr. Deese for his work in recent years as the sustainability director for the asset-management giant BlackRock."

Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post: "Vice President-Elect Kamala D. Harris will name Tina Flournoy Chief of Staff, the transition team announced Thursday, tapping a trailblazer with decades of Washington experience to help run the vice presidential operation. Harris's longtime aide Rohini Kosoglu will serve as domestic policy advisor, and former ambassador to Bulgaria Nancy McEldowney will advise her on national security. Flournoy had been serving as Chief of Staff to former President Bill Clinton, hovering out of the direct Washington spotlight for a few years after serving in several prominent roles in the Democratic party throughout the 1990s and 2000s."

The Last Days of the Kaiser

Pardon Us. All of Us. Anita Kumar & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "... Donald Trump is considering preemptively pardoning as many as 20 aides and associates before leaving office.... Still, Trump is hesitant to pardon any of them, particularly [Rudy] Giuliani, because it may appear that members of his inner circle are criminals, said one of the three people, who spoke to Trump this week. The Giuliani pardon has been discussed more seriously, the person added." MB: Much of this story is dedicated to how upset "Republicans" are about Trump's wholesale (well, okay, he likely charges retail) pardons. Upset? Seems like the reporters' wishful thinking. The senators they cited hardly expressed outrage. ~~~

~~~ Pardons for Dollars. Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "The Justice Department investigated as recently as this summer the roles of a top fund-raiser for President Trump and a lawyer for his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in a suspected scheme to offer a bribe in exchange for clemency for a tax crimes convict, according to two people familiar with the inquiry. A federal judge in Washington unsealed heavily redacted court documents on Tuesday that disclosed the existence of the investigation into possible unregistered lobbying and bribery. The people said it concerned efforts by the lawyer for Mr. Kushner, Abbe Lowell, and the fund-raiser, Elliott Broidy, who pleaded guilty in October to a charge related to a different scheme to lobby the Trump administration. A billionaire real estate developer from the San Francisco area, Sanford Diller, enlisted their help in securing clemency for a Berkeley psychologist, Hugh L. Baras, who had received a 30-month prison sentence on a conviction of tax evasion and improperly claiming Social Security benefits.... Mr. Diller ... died in February 2018, and there is no evidence that the effort continued after his death.... Mr. Baras did not receive clemency."

"Very Bad Criminal Stuff." Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump said Thursday he is disappointed in Attorney General William Barr for saying that the Justice Department had not uncovered evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.... 'He hasn't done anything, so he hasn't looked. When he looks, he'll see the kind of evidence that right now you are seeing in the Georgia Senate. They are going through hearings right now in Georgia and they are finding tremendous volumes,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. 'So, they haven't looked very hard. Which is a disappointment, to be honest with you, because it's massive fraud.' The president also declined to offer a vote of confidence in Barr when asked. 'Ask me that in a number of weeks from now. They should be looking at all of this fraud,' he said. 'This is not civil. He thought it was civil. This is not civil. This is criminal stuff. This is very bad criminal stuff.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ DOJ Throws Trump Aide Out of the Building. Michael Balsamo & Zeke Miller of the AP: "The official serving as ... Donald Trump's eyes and ears at the Justice Department has been banned from the building after trying to pressure staffers to give up sensitive information about election fraud and other matters she could relay to the White House, three people familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press. Heidi Stirrup, an ally of top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, was quietly installed at the Justice Department as a White House liaison a few months ago. She was told within the last two weeks to vacate the building after top Justice officials learned of her efforts to collect insider information about ongoing cases and the department's work on election fraud, the people said. Stirrup is accused of approaching staffers in the department demanding they give her information about investigations, including election fraud matters...." ~~~

    ~~~ Marie: In case you're thinking, "But maybe Heidi is a good person," there's this near the end of the AP story: "Stirrup, a close ally of [Stephen] Miller, previously served as the acting director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement...." Nuf said. ~~~

     ~~~ So Then. Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump has rewarded some of his top fundraisers [& other loyalists] with plumb federal positions that will outlast his single term in office.... [Among] 24 appointments to various federal bodies announced on Thursday: Heidi Stirrup, a White House liaison to the Department of Justice, landed a spot on the Board of Visitors to the United States Air Force Academy."

"Incontrovertible Evidence" of Election Fraud! Jeffrey Martin of Newsweek: "Former Trump adviser Roger Stone claimed on Wednesday that North Korea had interfered in the U.S. presidential election.... 'I just learned of absolute incontrovertible evidence of North Korean boats delivering ballots through a harbor in Maine, the state of Maine,' Stone said. 'If this checks out, if law enforcement looked into that and it turned out to be true, it would be proof of foreign involvement in the election.'" MB: Wait, wait, Roger; I'm all confused. If the evidence is "incontrovertible," why does it need to be "checked out" to see if "it turned out to be true"? Sounds a tad "controvertible" to me. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trump Clown Car Takes on Excellent Ghostbuster Witness. Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "Truck driver Jesse Morgan thrust himself into the middle of the post-2020 election drama on Tuesday when he claimed at a press conference that he had unwittingly driven a truck full of suspicious mail-in ballots from New York to Pennsylvania ahead of Election Day.... The appearance at a voter fraud event hosted by the right-wing Thomas More Center turned Morgan into the latest viral star on the Trumpist right. And, soon enough, his claims were being amplified by the president, his legal team, conservative groups unaffiliated with the campaign, and Trump supporters themselves all of whom have argued that nearly 300,000 bogus mail-in ballots were used in Pennsylvania, Morgan's home state, to put Joe Biden over the top.... In addition to witnessing supposed voter fraud, the man believes his family has been stalked cross-country by ghosts. Before he became a hero in MAGAworld, Morgan was an amateur ghost-hunter." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ So that's Trump's star witness in Pennsylvania. But what about Michigan? you ask. ~~~

~~~ Teo Armus of the Washington Post: "Weeks after Melissa Carone was tapped by the Trump campaign as a star witness in Michigan, little appeared to be going as planned with the contract IT worker's testimony -- an unverified series of claims about ballot fraud at Detroit's vote-counting center. In interviews with conservative-leaning media, last month, her offbeat tale suggesting ballots were being smuggled inside food vans seemed to baffle even Fox Business host Lou Dobbs. Two days later, a Wayne County judge ruled that her allegations 'simply are not credible.' Yet, there she was in front of a Michigan House panel on Wednesday, dressing down a Republican lawmaker as she loudly insisted, without proof, that tens of thousands of votes had been counted twice. At one point, she was audibly shushed by ... Rudolph W. Giuliani.... On social media, her pointed declarations, Midwestern lilt and poofy, blond updo drew comparisons to 'Saturday Night Live' characters played by Victoria Jackson and Cecily Strong." (Also linked yesterday.)

Wisconsin. State Supremes Throw Trump Out of Court. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday declined to take up a challenge to the presidential election filed by President Trump's campaign, finding that under state law, it should have sought a hearing first in a lower-level court. Trump's campaign could still seek to challenge President-elect Joe Biden's more than 20,000-vote lead in the state in Wisconsin circuit court. But the refusal of the state's highest court to take up Trump's petition is a new blow to Trump's foundering efforts to overturn the election -- and a particularly stinging rebuke, given that conservatives hold a 4-to-3 majority on the elected panel. One conservative member of the panel, Brian Hagedorn, joined the court's three more liberal members in declining to take the case." An AP story is here. The New York Times' story is here.

Georgia Senate Race. A Florida Man Is up to No Good Again. Nicole Carr of WSB-TV Atlanta: "A Florida attorney is at the center of a new state investigation after elections officials say he recently attempted to register to vote in Georgia and instructed other Florida Republicans on how to do it. Bill Price is seen in a now-deleted Facebook Live video, speaking to the Bay County GOP members in Florida on Nov. 7th. It was about half an hour after the election was called for the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirmed the video is being investigated....'Those who move to Georgia just to vote in the Senate runoffs with no intention of staying are committing a felony that is punishable with jailtime and hefty fines....' ''We absolutely have to hold the Senate and we have to start fighting back, and we have to do whatever it takes,' Price said in the video. 'And if that means changing your address for the next two months, so be it. I'm doing that. I'm moving to Georgia and I'm gonna fight and I want you all to fight with me.' Price told the group he's moving to his brother's address in Hiram, Georgia in order to register to vote in the January runoff. He repeats and spells and his brother's name and address, as members of the group jot it down."

~~~ Marie: In case you have any friends who are Georgia voters & who think "divided government" will lead to "moderate" outcomes, send them E.J. Dionne's Washington Post column to disabuse them of that idea. (Also linked yesterday.)

Russ Buettner of the New York Times: "President Trump will face a raft of potential legal challenges when he leaves office.... Now add to that Leonie Green of the Westminster Apartments in Brooklyn. Ms. Green is among a group of tenants in rent-regulated apartments once owned by Mr. Trump's father who have filed a lawsuit against the president and his siblings, accusing the Trumps of a decade-long fraud to win artificially high rent increases through an invoice-padding scheme. The scheme, first revealed in a 2018 investigation by The New York Times, involved tacking at least 20 percent onto the cost of materials purchased for the apartments, with Mr. Trump, his siblings and a cousin splitting the extra proceeds. The maneuver generated millions of dollars for each sibling, with no work required. While the siblings were still liable for income taxes, the maneuver allowed them to evade far-higher gift and estate taxes on part of the fortune they received from their father. But the tenants paid a price. New York laws governing rent-regulated apartments allow owners to increase rents based on the costs of major capital improvements.... The new lawsuit ... seeks the extra rent paid, plus interest and triple damages, for current and former tenants in more than 30 apartment complexes that belonged to the president's father, Fred C. Trump."

Jacqueline Alemany & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Ivanka Trump was questioned for more than five hours this week by investigators from the D.C. attorney general's office, which has accused President Trump's Inaugural Committee of wasting donated money on an overpriced ballroom at the president;s D.C. hotel, Ivanka Trump said on Twitter Thursday.... On Twitter on Thursday, D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D) replied to Ivanka Trump's post with a message calling the Trump hotel's bills 'grossly overpriced.' 'Our investigation revealed the Committee willfully used nonprofit funds to enrich the Trump family. It's very simple: They broke the law. That's why we sued,' Racine wrote in another tweet. In a lawsuit filed in January, Racine said that the Trump Inaugural Committee -- legally a nonprofit, using donated money -- and the Trump hotel took advantage of that arrangement. Racine said the Inaugural Committee spent more than $1 million on a ballroom at the hotel over several days. The rate was $175,000 per day, plus about $300,000 in charges for food and beverages." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to Emily Fox of Vanity Fair, who appeared on MSNBC, Ivanka was responsible for approving the price charged to the inaugural committee, which Fox said was 35 times the price the hotel normally charges to non-profits.

Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "White House communications director Alyssa Farah resigned from her post Thursday after 3½ years in the Trump administration. Farah, 31, began her White House tenure as press secretary under Vice President Pence before joining the Defense Department as press secretary last September, and she returned to the White House as communications director in April. She is the first person to serve in these three roles in one administration, and the youngest Pentagon press secretary. Farah's departure, with little over a month remaining in President Trump's administration, amounts to a tacit acknowledgment that ... Trump lost the 2020 election, and much of his team is now pondering their post-White House future." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I wondered why Farah would resign with fewer than seven weeks left of this pathetic administration. Then, I saw this near the end of Parker's report: "Much of Farah's final months focused on the coronavirus pandemic...." So I'm guessing Farah has nothing to do and is not that enthusiastic a thumb-twiddler.

That's the Way It Always Goes. Matt Bonesteel of the Washington Post: "In September, prosecutors in Florida dropped misdemeanor prostitution charges against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft after a state appeals court ruled that footage of Kraft from a police-installed video camera inside the Orchids of Asia spa had been obtained using unconstitutional methods and would be inadmissible at trial. The case didn't end there, however. Three Orchids of Asia employees, including two women Kraft was accused of patronizing, have pleaded guilty to prostitution-related charges. They must pay thousands of dollars in fines, court fees and cash forfeitures and face months of probation. One other employee already had pleaded guilty in February and was sentenced to the 60 days she had spent in custody awaiting an outcome of her case."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Mystery Monolith Updates. Samir Ferdowsi of Vice: "Another unexplained monolith has been spotted, this time in Atascadero, California. The ever-familiar silver silhouette stands atop Pine Mountain, which is located between the Bay Area and Los Angeles. It closely resembles the first monolith found in Utah, but the haste at which it was seemingly placed mimics that of its Romanian counterpart." ~~~

~~~ Samir Ferdowsi: "The new California monolith was torn down overnight by a group of right-wing young men who livestreamed their vandalism in a grainy video posted on the blockchain streaming site DLive. In the video, a group of three men are seen pushing the statue over and chanting 'America First' and 'Christ is King.' The men, one of whom was wearing a 'Make America Great Again' headband, called part of the monolith's construction 'gay' then replaced it monolith with a wooden cross.... Throughout the video they mentioning burning crosses and white power.... It is a decidedly bleak turn in the ongoing monolith saga that has generally been a delightful distraction for a world wracked by a pandemic."

News Lede

New York Times: "Betsy Wade, the first woman to edit news copy for The New York Times and the lead plaintiff in a landmark sex discrimination lawsuit against the newspaper on behalf of its female employees, died on Thursday at her home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She was 91. Her death was confirmed by her husband, James Boylan, who said she had learned in 2017 that she had colon cancer. In a 45-year Times career, Ms. Wade also became the first woman to lead the Newspaper Guild of New York, the largest local in the national journalism union (now known as the NewsGuild). She was revered among peers for her role in the 1974 class-action suit against The Times, one of the industry's earliest fights over women's rights to equal treatment in hiring, promotion, pay and workplace protections under federal antidiscrimination laws."