In November the United States of America held an election. In what was probably one of the highest voter turnouts in our history we the people voted. We voted by mail or we voted at our election offices, either when they first opened for early voting or on the actual election day. We did all of this despite the fact that we have been living with a raging pandemic that has taken thousands of lives and sickened even more.
According to numerous state election officials and the US Attorney General William Barr it was a fair election. In the state of Georgia the presidential election count was conducted three times. Each time the result was the same. There has been no, and I repeat no, evidence of widespread voter fraud. Yet despite all of this we have a sitting president who chooses not to listen to the will of the people. He insists on furthering baseless claims on his Twitter feed and engaging in what are lawsuits based on no real evidence. These lawsuits have been shot down again and again by state and federal judges. I honestly am not surprised by Donald Trump's actions. But what does surprise me are the actions taken by our other elected Republican officials. They either refused to acknowledge reality or out right deny it by supporting Trump in his claims and in the recent lawsuit out of Texas which was filed in the US Supreme Court against various swing states.
The US Supreme Court ruled that the Texas lawsuit had no standing. That is, Texas did not have the right to file the lawsuit in the first place as they have no say in how other states conduct their elections. It was just another attempt to overturn the popular vote. An attempt that had no basis in fact or legality.
Here are the remarks of one federal judge in the state of Wisconsin pertaining to one of the lawsuits:
Over 100 Republican House members signed on supporting the Texas lawsuit. I am ashamed to say that Minnesota's representatives were among them.
To them I say, when you were elected you took an oath of office to support the United States Constitution. By your actions you have broken that oath. Resign.
And don't get me started on that crazy My Pillow guy!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"It makes me wonder just how low will they go?"
They've accepted campaign assistance from Vladimir Putin. They've shrugged off Trump's attempt to coerce the Ukrainian government into fabricating "evidence" against Joe Biden.
I don't think they have a bottom.
I'm hearing that the White House officials are some of the first in line for the vaccine.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what ever happened to that, "It's all a hoax" thing? And if it's okay to walk around without masks, why on earth do they think they should be prioritized over health care workers or the elderly?
Rather hypocritical if you ask me. But then Minnesota Republicans also felt they should be some of the first in line. There seems to be a trend.
ReplyDeleteIt's also starting to come out that Trump's advocates, notably Ben Carson, Rudy Guiliani, and Chris Christy, so far known, were getting an exclusive "experimental" and very expensive cocktail of drugs and "monoclonal antibodies" at the publics' expense. These are not available to the general public even at the current "research" pricing levels being charged, but they got 'em (as did Trump, of course).
Smartmatic, one of the software suppliers for the election, is starting to push back against the false claims of the right wing media, such as Fox News. They are asking for a retraction of the claims against them or they will consider defamation suits.
ReplyDeleteThese are not available to the general public...
ReplyDeleteA "let them eat cake" moment.
ReplyDelete"… or they will consider defamation suits."
Not a customary response from a public corporation, but in this case I can see the logic of it.
And, of course, the defamers are used to taking their shots at "public figures", where the standard of proof is almost impossibly high. So, the perps may have to swallow their pride and actually make the public retractions this once.
(That would be amusing, but it wouldn't change anything for the dedicated Trumpkins.)
Apparently Mitch McConnell has finally acknowledged Biden's & Harris's win.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"Mitch McConnell has finally acknowledged Biden's & Harris's win."
Only after Vladimir Putin had already done so.
ReplyDeleteThe next step in the Saga of Trump involves congressional refusal to "ratify" the vote of the Electoral College. If any Republican Senator will sign on to the movement by House Republicans (several House Republicans) to officially refuse to accept the election of Joe Biden (the "ratification" is scheduled for 6 January 2021) then the Senate will have to convene and vote on the Republican led effort to re-install Trump as President for another four years--election be damned.
Mitch McConnell really, really doesn't want this to happen. He doesn't want his Republican Senators put in a position where they have to vote, in public, on whether to ignore the election and try to re-install Trump for another four years.
(Just to be clear--there's no chance Trump can win that vote, but McConnell doesn't want his Republican Senators going on record in "betrayal" of Trump and the dedicated Trumpkins. That's gonna complicate their lives tremendously when Trump later declares he was robbed of the Presidency and that the Great Enemy now includes McConnell and the Republicans in the Senate.)
ReplyDeleteTrump chastised Mitch McConnell last evening for referring to Biden as the "President-Elect". Trumptweets
(Vladimir Putin got a pass for doing the same thing.)
Only after Vladimir Putin had already done so.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I heard about that. Intentional or not it certainly doesn't make McConnell look very good.
Trump chastised Mitch McConnell last evening for referring to Biden as the "President-Elect". Trumptweets
No surprised. Kaleigh McEnany is still talking about a continuation of the Trump administration. Jan. 20th can't come soon enough.
(the "ratification" is scheduled for 6 January 2021)
ReplyDeleteAnd the Georgia runoff election date is January 5th. Although early voting has started.
I think those are going to be an interesting two days.
New Covid cases have started to drop here in Minnesota and in my county. The only way to tell if it is because of social distancing (bars & restaurants are closed to indoor customers) and the mask mandate or not. The only way to tell would to reopen everything and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteBut we have started the vaccination campaign like everyone else. But as they have said that will take a while.
ReplyDeleteWe're down a little bit from the hights hit just after the Thanksgiving surge. But, there's the Christmas/New Years' party yet to face.
Like Thanksgiving we will not be getting together for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteChristoper Krebs is warning that our democratic institutions are under attack.
ReplyDeleteOur democratic institutions are facing targeted, calculated threats from without, and from within. This is why we prioritized election security as the primary focus of CISA. I made that mission clear at my confirmation hearing when I took an oath to defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic. Our task was to work with state and local election officials to secure from hacking their election infrastructure, including the machines, equipment and information systems.
While he focuses on disinformation online I think there is also the more old school formats to be concerned about. The Epoch Times seems to be everywhere nowadays and I can't say it is totally unbiased or fact based.
And, of course, our current president is fueling this through his tweeting and his rhetoric.
ReplyDelete"Our democratic institutions are facing targeted, calculated
threats from without, and from within."
It's the ones from within that dismay me the most. I'm not sure enough folks are taking the internal American anti-democratic forces as seriously as their clear intentions warrant.
ReplyDeleteI see that the Swedish King has pronounced the Swedish coronavirus experiment to be an abject "failure". Reuters
I wonder if Marcus is still trying to keep the Trumpkin faith and talk it up into some sort of glorious success?
It's the ones from within that dismay me the most. I'm not sure enough folks are taking the internal American anti-democratic forces as seriously as their clear intentions warrant.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that most people are just clueless. Look at how many still voted for Trump.
I wonder if Marcus is still trying to keep the Trumpkin faith and talk it up into some sort of glorious success?
ReplyDeleteWell, the election is over and Trump lost so there is probably no point.
ReplyDelete"Look at how many still voted for Trump."
I don't think they're generally as clueless as you seem to want to believe. I think they know damn good and well what's what. They've just decided that, for public consumption, they'll pretend to "believe" whatever the official Trumpkin tall tale happens to be.
(The German people damn well knew what was happening in those concentration camps too. They just pretended to not know.)
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
"… so there is probably no point."
Ah, but you forget. Trump didn't lose. It was stolen. That's the story. The faerie tale history continues.
ReplyDeleteJoint statement by the Republican senators now involved in runoff elections in Georgia:
“We adamantly oppose any effort to rename the Atlanta
Braves, one of our state’s most storied and successful sports
franchises. Not only are the Braves a Georgia institution —
with a history spanning 54 years in Atlanta — they're an
American institution. The Braves’ name honors our nation’s
Native American heritage, which should not be erased — and
under no circumstances should one of the most celebrated
teams in sports cave to the demands of the cancel culture and
the radical left.”
GOPtweets
Momentous stuff there.
ReplyDeletePost Script:
The Atlanta Braves had not actually been considering a name change, although that might change now.
Joint statement by the Republican senators now involved in runoff elections in Georgia:
ReplyDeleteIt may be what they don't say that turns out to be their undoing. There is a hidden group of voters who may prove to be pivotal in the runoff election. I am speaking of those voters who have just turned 18 after the general election. There are many young people who are fired up this year. If they turn out for the Democrats it might be a deciding factor.
Question, are we so bad at cyber security or are the Russians that good that we cannot seem to prevent a massive cyber attack?
ReplyDeleteOr did they have help?
ReplyDeleteTrump has kept the intelligence services distracted and busy at other things. I'm not sure how much that had to do with this particular intrusion, but it can't have helped.
Lynnette & Lee,
ReplyDeleteSo I read today that Biden thinks his son Hunter is the most intelligent person he's ever met. What the effing hell is this? You guys voted for this moron?!
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
ReplyDeleteIt occurs to me that one of the eventualities of Trump's conquest of the Republican Party will be the deconstruction of the the Fable of Reagan.
The Republicans learned some time back (long enough back that I don't have a personal recollection of the learning) that there was a value in having their own faerie tale history. By the time Reagan had left office there was a full-tilt endeavor underway to establish the Fable of Reagan, a faerie tale history in which Ronald Reagan played something of the role that Mohammed occupies for those of the Muslim faith. (Maybe one step down, but hardly more than the one step).
The Fable of Reagan (and its early enabling forces--Rupert Murdock, Rush Limbaugh, Roger Ailes, et al.) has brought us inexorably to the present end of the Fable where Trump and the Trumpkins have stolen the Republican Party from the the original enablers and have stolen their storyline. (They were unable to control the forces they'd unleashed.)
So, my guess is that, going forward, the Fable of Reagan, and probably most of that entire faerie tale history, will now begin to fade away. (Trump allows for the positioning of no other gods before him.)
ReplyDelete“The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in
actuality. Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything
happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons,
petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!).”
TrumpTweet
Trump went on to suggest that the Chinese might also have cyber-stolen millions and millions of votes from his totals, thus depriving him of the electoral majority, which he "won big"--so he tweets anyway.
Jeffrey!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you are still alive.
I didn't vote for Hunter Biden, I voted for Joe Biden. I am sure that there are all sorts of fathers out there who would say the same of their sons. He is to be commended for at least giving his son the benefit of the doubt. Coincidentally, the US judicial system does the same.
Something other judicial systems, such as Russia's or China's, don't do.
So, my guess is that, going forward, the Fable of Reagan, and probably most of that entire faerie tale history, will now begin to fade away.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Republican Party along with it.
“The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in
ReplyDeleteactuality. Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything
happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons,
petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!).”
TrumpTweet
Of course that thought could be flipped. That is, Trump, for whatever reason, is always giving Russia a pass. Hmmm...
As for China, I wouldn't be surprised if they too aren't crawling around looking for weaknesses in the US cyber world. But for some reason Russia is the one who gets caught.
Maybe the Chinese are just smarter than Russia?
It sounds like there is an even more contagious strain of Covid making the rounds in Europe. That vaccine can't some soon enough...
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"And the Republican Party along with it."
Reagan's Republican Party is already gone. Even Reagan himself would have no home in the party that now bears the old name. However, they've not quite acknowledged that much just yet. But, a durable "forgetting" is movin' right along, which is how they'll deal going forward with the necessary hiding from what they've become. And, in that process, Reagan, and that whole faerie tale of which he was a central figure, will be forgotten during the larger "forgetting".
It seems that those letters threatening legal action have born fruit.
ReplyDeleteIf President Trump tunes into Fox News this weekend, he may see something unexpected: a point-by-point fact-check to wild election fraud claims made by some of his favorite hosts on the network.
After voting technology company Smartmatic sent Fox News a blistering legal threat that accused the network of participating in a "disinformation campaign" against it, the network has started airing a remarkable news package debunking claims its hosts and guests have propagated.
The package aired for the first time Friday night on Lou Dobbs' show. Fox News said the same package would air Saturday night on Jeanine Pirro's program as well as Sunday morning on Maria Bartiromo's show. All three hosts, who use their platforms to air pro-Trump propaganda, are close with the President.
ReplyDeleteI notice that their two biggest money-makers, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, are so far exempted from the FoxNews' "point-by-point fact-check". Could be that'll hold; could be FoxNews will eventually have to flag their broadcasts as well.
We'll just have to wait and see.
ReplyDelete(The lawyers must have explained to them the difference between libeling "public figures" and libeling non-public figures.)
It looks like the UK is totally locking down. The new Covid-19 variant that is far more contagious has people worried about massive spikes in cases.
ReplyDeleteAt least it doesn't appear to by more deadly than the original.
ReplyDeleteMore people catch it, more people die. But, I know what you're meaning there.
ReplyDeleteNewYorkTimes: Headline: "The Coronavirus Is Mutating. What Does That Mean for Us?"
(Fairly short read, worth a few minutes if ya got a few minutes.)
Lee:
ReplyDelete“I see that the Swedish King has pronounced the Swedish coronavirus experiment to be an abject "failure". Reuters
I wonder if Marcus is still trying to keep the Trumpkin faith and talk it up into some sort of glorious success?“
First off our King is a good man but not a very bright man, although I assume he’s got PR people who are brighter to advise him on what to say.
Second I have admitted long ago that we effed up seriously with the initial response and first and foremost in our elderly homes.
That said, I still believe that a forced lockdown would have hurt society more than this reccomendation regime we’ve had has done. Kids have not missed school, people have not been locked inside their homes etc. The lockdowns themselves cause a lot of suffering not included in the Covid numbers of any country.
And 2020 is set to be the second least deadly year, as in deaths per capita, in Sweden ever. Sure there are deaths by Covid that could have been prevented but on a whole it’s hardly a disaster.
It COULD get hairy if Christmas brings on a new surge as our health care is stretched pretty much to the breaking point by now. Myself I will celebrate Christmas w only 2 other people that I meet on a regular basis anyway, and were usually at least 20 on Christmas, so it’s not like we just say fuckit and go on as usual here.
But I still can’t say, and don’t think, our national strategy has been a failure over all. Whatever our King says. (When did you start to believe Royals had any more sense than common folk Lee? That sounds quite un-American tbh)
ReplyDelete"I still believe that a forced lockdown would have hurt society more…"
I hadn't noticed a world of hurt being inflicted upon the societies of Denmark, Norway, or Finland (in comparison to Sweden).
More people catch it, more people die. But, I know what you're meaning there.
ReplyDeleteYes, and more hospitals and their workers are overwhelmed. At least they are thinking it will react to the vaccines like the original strain.
It appears to be a race between Covid-19 mutations and the vaccine.
(Fairly short read, worth a few minutes if ya got a few minutes.)
ReplyDeleteI'll check it out tonight. Thanks.
Myself I will celebrate Christmas w only 2 other people that I meet on a regular basis anyway, and were usually at least 20 on Christmas, so it’s not like we just say fuckit and go on as usual here.
ReplyDeleteI think every little bit helps. We are usually 14, but we have decided not to all gather. A couple of families who had it around Thanksgiving will still get together. That is fine. I would think their immunity is still in effect and hopefully they can no longer transmit.
Lee
ReplyDelete“ I hadn't noticed a world of hurt being inflicted upon the societies of Denmark, Norway, or Finland (in comparison to Sweden).”
First of all you compare us to countries in our vincinity just because. The main spread in Sweden originated from people skiing in Austria and Italy coming back home infected. Swedes ski in the Alps in many times the numbers than all our neighbors combined. We had a MUCH MORE serious outbreak to begin with.You compare Sweden w Finland when it’s more honest to compare Sweden w the Netherlands or some such country.
Second, the world of hurt due to lockdowns is not yet seen in stats. To deprive youngsters of a year in school is something that takes a generation to get the effects from. We’ve had our hurt, and again it amounted to the second least deadly year in all of our history, now let’s see what the lockdowns amounted to in other places.
ReplyDelete"To deprive youngsters of a year in school is something that
takes a generation to get the effects from."
Kids are resilient and adaptable. Dead teachers are somewhat less adaptable.
Early schooling is mostly a stand-in for government sponsored child-care so that the mother can work for wages. American studies have been done showing that children who start public schooling at the age of 12 or 13 (6th or 7th grade levels) finish up with educational levels and performance equivalent to their kindergarten and preschool going peers by the time they graduate high school.
ReplyDelete"The Netherlands has 16,8 million inhabitants in an area of
41.526 km². It means that around 400 people live within 1
km². This fact makes the Netherlands one of the most densely
populated countries in Europe.
"Meanwhile, Sweden has a population of 9,9 million in an
area of 447.435 km². This means that 22 people live within 1
km²."
DutchReview
Another danger that we may be facing in the future.
ReplyDeleteHumanity faces an unknown number of new and potentially fatal viruses emerging from Africa's tropical rainforests, according to Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, who helped discover the Ebola virus in 1976 and has been on the frontline of the hunt for new pathogens ever since.
"We are now in a world where new pathogens will come out," he told CNN. "And that's what constitutes a threat for humanity."
I know we have discussed this a little before, but it seemed a good time to bring it back to people's attention.
ReplyDelete"…seemed a good time to bring it back to people's attention."
As good a time as any I reckon.
It's not been much discussed in the press, but it seems to me that a large part of the success we've seen in getting a vaccine against the "novel coronavirus" that causes Covid-19 is the result of it being in the same family as the SARS and MERS viri. There had been a bunch of research and experimental work done on both of them and quite a lot of that work was directly transferable to the new virus. We started out with a leg up on this virus, 'cause it was a close relative of a couple of virus that had scared us twice before, and we'd been workin' on that family of virus already.
And then, there's also the advances in molecular biology that helped as well--the ability to quickly sequence the virus' genome to look for weaknesses in the relevant proteins--that sort of thing.
But, it should not escape our attention that we still don't have a vaccine for the AIDS virus. Gettin' out ahead of this new coronavirus in short order ain't necessarily proof that we can handle the next one.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Trump has just tonight denounced the recently agreed upon covid-19 "relief" legislation as a "disgrace" and now he wants stimulus payments to individuals in the $2000 to $4000 dollar range, plus he wants to be President again for four more years. TrumpTweets
The "relief" legislation has already passed both the House and the Senate with a veto-proof majority in each chamber. So, there's not much he can do about it. (Same as with him wanting to be President again for another four years.)
He seems to be comin' gradually unhinged, just sittin' there in the White House goin' a little bit crazier ever day.
ReplyDeleteI ran across a chart of the comparative "mortality rate" for Norway and Sweden over the past year. chart. Turns out the lower Swedish mortality rate that Marcus was promoting earlier (Marcus @ Mon Dec 21, 11:49 am ↑↑) is exclusively the product of an especially low mortality rate accumulating across the six months immediately preceding the appearance of the coronavirus in Sweden in March. If we look at the mortality rate for 2020 instead of backtracking into the last months of 2019 and claiming that death rate for "this year", then his claim of the "second least deadly year ever" collapses under the weight of its own preposterousness.
(We've seen this type of manipulation of statistics in the environmental denialist movement as well.)
ReplyDeleteA more accurate review of Swedish mortality statistics during the pandemic (highest in 150 years) was outlined in an article in TheGuardian back in August.
Hmmm...we seem to be in the midst of a good old fashioned blizzard here. We closed the office early. We have blowing snow with falling temps and the roads are horrible.
ReplyDeleteI snow blowed when I got home even though the storm will continue for some time. I wanted to make sure my snowblower would start. I think I will hibernate for the next 2 days.
Gettin' out ahead of this new coronavirus in short order ain't necessarily proof that we can handle the next one.
ReplyDeleteThis is true. And even this virus is always changing.
And Trump is now threatening the funding needed to distribute the vaccine which we have worked so hard to develop.
He seems to be comin' gradually unhinged, just sittin' there in the White House goin' a little bit crazier ever day.
You can say that again. He is giving anyone who will not support him in his crazy attempt to stay in power the shaft. I hope that those House Republicans who have been misguidedly supporting his attempts will finally see him for the crazy, spiteful little man he is.
And lest we forget Trump has pardoned multiple people, including the four Blackwater guards that were found guilty of murder in the massacre in Iraq in 2007.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall Iraqis actually liked Trump. I hope they now see how misguided that was! The man has only every been out for himself. He cares nothing for anyone else.
Sheesh! I can barely see the neighbors Christmas lights across the street. I'm glad I got home early!
ReplyDeleteMarcus,
ReplyDeleteTo get back to what you were saying about it not being good for children to be out of school for too long, there is one school in Minnesota that tried something a little different. They took the classes outside. This fall we have had some really nice weather which helped. But the kids really liked it. Perhaps that will be a change that will stick even after we get back to normal. At least if the weather cooperates.
ReplyDeleteWell, we're not lookin' at snow (yet). But the temperature has dropped 35° (fahrenheit) since noon, and the wind's howlin' outta the northeast at near 40 mph (that's upwards of 60 kph for the Euroweenies out there) and the weatherman says it's gonna keep that up at least 'til Christmas.
So, I'm lookin' to stay inside tomorrow after I get my necessary perambulations dealt with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8&list=RDj9jbdgZidu8&start_radio=1
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"Three hundred thousand Americans have died from Covid
this year. Well over 200,000 of them died unnecessarily. Had
our government managed this public health crisis in a mature
and rational way, the deaths would be a fraction of what they
are. Our government chose not to do so. Our leering and
stupid leader chose to make the wearing of masks into a
defining political issue – not out of necessity, or for any
financial gain, or out of adherence to any philosophy, but out
of aggressive stupidity, laziness and self-rationalization.
Usually, the Republican party screws regular people because
someone stands to get rich on it. In this case, it was only
because they formed a coward’s puppet line behind an awful
leader with a loud voice. In every community in America,
there are people lying dead because their elected officials
were scared of being tweeted at by a former reality show
host.
"Merry Christmas, America."
TheGuardian