Dems Back; GOP Reverses to Cry Austerity

During President Obama’s two terms, Republicans bitterly complained about the national debt, giving that as a reason to vote Republican. While bragging about his wonderful economy, Dictator Donald Trump brags about his “best ever” economy but pushes the U.S. into greater debt, especially with a massive tax cut for his wealthy friend and huge corporations before he completely mismanaged a pandemic and forcing expensive stimulus bills.

Today’s “letter” from Heather Cox Richardson explains the history of Republicans’ faulty policy of tax cuts driving the U.S. into a fiscal hole while in power and then moving to austerity the instant Democrats have any power:

 

“One story jumped out at me today. The Hill reported that as soon as a Democrat is back in the White House, Republicans intend to retrench and be careful about how the country spends money, although during Trump’s term, even before the pandemic, they spent huge sums without worrying about it.

This is a pattern. Since President Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s, Republicans have insisted that tax cuts will pay for themselves by stimulating economic growth, thus increasing tax revenues as everyone gets richer. At the same time, they have dramatically increased military spending without ever suggesting a way to pay for it. Then they complain about the debt and insist that the only way to get our finances back into whack is to cut domestic spending.

There are two important metrics involved in figuring out our national expenses. One is the deficit, which is the difference between the money the government spends every year and the money it takes in. The other is the debt, which is the total amount the government owes.

Until the late twentieth century, the government took on large debt during the Civil War, WWI, WWII and during the Great Depression, when Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated a new kind of government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, and promoted infrastructure. But leaders of both parties believed that deficits should reflect emergencies and that debt should be held at a low percentage of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, used to estimate the growth of the economy. It was to pay down the national debt that the Republican Party created national taxation, including the income tax, during the Civil War, and that Republican Dwight Eisenhower kept the top income tax bracket at 91% during his administration. Eisenhower was the last Republican president to balance a budget.

After the Great Depression, taxes and the social welfare programs they funded created what economists call the “great compression” when economic inequality in America shrank.

But the stagflation of the 1970s drove white families into higher tax brackets without giving them more buying power at the same time that politicians eager to end business regulation and social welfare programs told them that their tax dollars were going to the civil rights protesters that featured so prominently on the evening news. In 1980, they voted for a president who promised to cut the taxes that he insisted were going to “welfare queens” and to put money back in their pockets.

Ronald Reagan promised that cutting taxes would actually produce more revenue. As business leaders—the supply side—had more money, they would invest in businesses which would hire more workers, at better wages. Rather than focusing on the demand side of the equation—the workers—as governments had done since FDR fought the Depression with the New Deal, Reagan said he could jump-start the economy by putting money into the supply side. The man who would become his own vice president, George H.W. Bush, called this idea “voodoo economics,” but who would complain about a plan that enabled Americans to have the government programs they had come to depend on, without having to pay for them?

Unfortunately, it actually was voodoo economics. In 1981, Congress cut $35 billion from the next year’s budget and cut the top income tax rates from 70% to 50%, as well as cutting capital gains and estate taxes. At Reagan’s urging, it also added $17 billion in new defense spending. In the next five years, it would increase defense spending by 40%. As that money (and more, from the deregulation of savings and loan banks, and from lower interest rates) boosted the economy, it seemed that supply-side economics worked.

An up-and-coming Republican spokesman named Grover Norquist insisted that voters did not want to be taxed to pay down deficits, and it was clear they didn’t have to be. When Democrats called for higher taxes and defense cuts to balance the deficit, Republicans accused them of being anti-business and soft on communism.

But the booming economy was paid for by extensive borrowing. During Reagan’s years in office, the federal debt tripled from $994 billion to $2.8 trillion, and America went from being a creditor nation to a debtor nation. Republican leaders insisted that the Democrats were responsible for the rising debt because they would not make sufficient cuts in domestic spending, but in fact increased defense spending meant the administration itself never submitted a balanced budget.

When he took office, George H.W. Bush tried to take on the national debt, which was costing Americans $200 billion a year in interest payments. In 1990, facing a $171 billion deficit for the next year, Bush agreed to raise taxes if Democrats agreed to steep spending cuts. Republicans led by Georgia Representative Newt Gingrich signed onto the deal in private, but in public began to force those willing to raise taxes, people they called RINOs—Republicans in Name Only—out of their party. The belief that economic growth depended on cutting taxes had become the test of Republican purity.

In 1993, to deal with budget deficits, President Bill Clinton convinced Congress to raise tax rates on incomes over $250,000—affecting about 1% of Americans—to 39.6%, increase the highest corporate tax rate by 1%, and increase the gas tax. Not a single Republican voted for the measure, but under it, the economy boomed and the annual deficits began to shrink. In 1997, Clinton expanded domestic programs and cut the capital gains tax rate, but even still, in 1998, the government was producing a budget surplus.

Even before he took office, President George W. Bush prepared a $1.6 trillion tax cut to wipe that surplus out. Norquist explained to a reporter that so long as there was money to spend, it would go to social welfare legislation, and the Republicans were determined to starve the government, not feed it. Bush did not get the full cut he wanted, but in June 2001 Congress passed a bill cutting $1.3 trillion over ten years.

Immediately after 9-11, Congress appropriated $358 billion for security before Bush dramatically increased military spending—by $48 billion—while slashing domestic spending. When the administration launched more tax cuts the following year, Bush’s Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill, worried about a fiscal crisis. Vice President Dick Cheney disagreed: “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.” Bush took the country into war in Afghanistan and Iraq but, for the first time in U.S. history, did not raise taxes to pay for the military actions. Instead, Congress cut taxes again. By 2009, the Congressional Research Service estimated the cost of those wars at $1 trillion.  President Barack Obama took office in early 2009 with the Great Recession in full swing. Deficit spending to restart the economy put the deficit at more than $1.4 trillion that year. As the economy recovered, deficits dropped to $585 billion.

Under Trump, though, they rose dramatically again despite the fact he inherited a growing economy. In 2017, he pushed through a tax cut which increased the 2019 deficit to $984 billion. It was projected to be $1.02 trillion in 2020—a 74% increase in four years of a strong economy—when the coronavirus hit. This meant that interest payments on the federal debt—before coronavirus—were estimated to cost $382 billion, 8.2% of total government spending. [Comparison of deficits for Obama’s last three years with DDT’s first three years. DDT’s tax cuts aren’t paying for themselves.] 

The pandemic, of course, required a huge relief package. The CARES bill appropriated $2.2 trillion, making this year’s deficit projected to be at least $3.7 trillion.

Measured against GDP, our accumulated debt is now higher than at any time except in 1946, during World War II. In June 2020, it was $20.3 trillion.

Economists are of two minds (at least!) about the economic effects of deficits and the federal debt, but there is one very clear political meaning to them. This pattern of government spending and taxation since 1981 has moved wealth upward dramatically. In 1979, the top 1% of Americans held 20.5% of the nation’s wealth. In 1989 the top 1% held 35.7%.

By 2017, the top 1% owned 40% of the country’s wealth, more than the bottom 90% combined. The top 20% in 2017 owned 90% of the wealth, leaving just 10% for the remaining 80%. The bottom 20% of Americans have no wealth; they are in debt.

When Republicans today say they are going to turn their attention back to the deficits and the debt, what they are saying is that they intend to continue to cut taxes. Then they will blame the Democrats for being fiscally irresponsible when they call for the infrastructure and social welfare spending that used to keep the American economic playing field somewhat level.

[Note: As you can see, the U.S. is moving forward on the same circular pattern. Republicans make a horrible mess, and Democrats get elected. Democrats clean up the mess. The minute the country gets in better shape, the Republicans make another mess. And so on.

DDT: Week 201 – The Swamp Gets Swampier

Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) may be tootling off to play golf while he stays at Camp David with his family, but he’s still losing. Today, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed with prejudice DDT’s attempt to invalidate 2.5 million voter. In Pennsylvania, the fight is over unless the Supreme Court takes the appeal after the 3^rd Circuit Court turned him down—highly likely. DDT’s lawyer Jenna Ellis called the situation “a ridiculous political game,” highly accurate because her only evidence of fraud is that people voted for Joe Biden. Yet she isn’t quitting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salam and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to cut a deal between his country and Saudi Arabia, according the conservative Wall Street Journal. MBS backed out because he’s waiting for a Biden administration.

To sabotage any Iran deal, DDT praised the assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Israel blamed him for nuclear weapons and was probably behind the murder although DDT praised the death. Gunmen ambushed Fakhrizadeh’s vehicle near Tehran and killed him; Iranian officials vowed revenge for the attack that they called terrorism and “an act of war.” Former CIA Director John O. Brennan also described the attack as “a criminal act & highly reckless,” recognizing Iran is planning revenge for the “state-sponsored terrorism.” DDT was planning a U.S. attack on Iran a few weeks ago. Iran has not had a nuclear weapons program since 2003 and accepted extensive and intrusive inspections since 2015.

Replacement of DDT’s loyalists for long-term members of foreign policy experts on the Defense Policy Board to advise the Secretary of Defense and his team leaves the new Pentagon leaders ignorant. Gone are former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, serving Democratic President Bill Clinton, and Henry Kissinger, supporter of GOP foreign policy for a half century as well as since the Richard Nixon administration, as well as former leaders of Congress and the Pentagon. Of the 60 department positions requiring Senate confirmation 24 are “acting” DDT supporters.

DDT’s October 21 executive order reclassifying workers and stripping them of job protections may cause mass firings of federal civil servants within the next 53 days. Agencies must finish their reviews for reclassified positions by January 19, the day before Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration. DDT’s goal is to speed employment of political appointees “without regard to merit … including economists, scientists, and data analysts,” according to a letter from 13 Democratic lawmakers. They warn of “a mass exodus” of federal employee before the inauguration, designed to continue the draining of expertise and skills in DDT’s administration. DDT’s Office of Management and Budget wants to reclassify 88 percent of its 425 workers.

In his failure of his pledge to “drain the swamp,” DDT retained special interests while eliminating career federal officials and experts or reducing their influence by undercutting them:

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson decimated his department and established a hiring freeze. Successor Mike Pompeo created controversy and deflated the diplomatic corp.

With at least six directors, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) omitted an emphasis on cybersecurity and counterterrorism with DDT’s total concentration on immigration crackdowns on the southern border and deportations, frequently with illegal actions.

Under Secretary Alex Azar, the Department of Health and Human Services, especially the CDC, has lost almost all public confidence.

Other agencies suffer from DDT’s destruction.

People donating their money to the so-called nonprofit National Rifle Association have funded executives’ personal benefit and enrichment for at least four years in addition to paying multimillion-dollar legal bills, according to a New York state lawsuit. Several departed officers are cooperating with the case against NRA. Although executive Wayne LaPierre paid $300,000 back to the NRA for travel expenses, he charged for many other “not appropriate” expenses. The lawsuit aims to shut down the organization suffering from declining membership dues and other revenue. Last year, the NRA had a $12.2 million operating shortfall, compared to $2.7 million the year before. In 2019, legal costs went to $38.5 million from $25 million in 2018. Another lawsuit questions the relationship between the NRA and its charity, NRA Foundation, which may be used to cover NRA deficits.

While DDT’s Supreme Court protects Christian and Jewish religion, his administration plans to give ownership of an Arizona aboriginal religious site to a copper mining company. The San Carlos Apache tribe has prayed and performed ceremonies on the site for centuries. Like many others, the effort is being rushed before DDT leaves the White House in 53 days. Also at the site is an historical cliff memorializing tribal losses from European immigrants. 

Upset with Pennsylvania’s Gov. Tom Wolf closing essential and limiting gatherings’ size—including DDT’s campaigns—he denied FEMA aid to the state for Tropical Storm Isaias disaster in nine counties.

DDT’s Department of Justice is claiming the right to kill U.S. citizens without any judicial review. The DOJ made the claim in the Washington, D.C. circuit court about two journalists claiming they were wrongly targeted as terrorists in Syria. Withholding information, the U.S. has not confirmed if either one poses any threat.

The FAA has cleared the 737 MAX, responsible for 346 deaths, as safe and ready to fly after being grounded for 20 months. Boeing updated the faulty software and added a backup sensor. Documents about the inconclusive investigation are still not released because of an open investigation into the Ethiopian crash. Without information to formulate questions, families cannot depose key company engineers. Following damning information about the 737 MAX, the House passed a bill to reform FAA oversight over airplane manufacturers, but the Senate hasn’t touched it. David Gelles has an analysis of Boeing’s failures with the 737 MAX.

Wealthy North Carolinian Fred Eshelman donated $2.5 million to the far-right Tea Party group True the Vote on November 5 because it promised to “litigate … the fraud in the 2020 general election.” The group dropped four lawsuits, stating on November 17 it needed “to pursue a different path.” Eshelman is suing to get his money returned. In asking for donations, the group had promised lawsuits in seven states, using “sophisticated data modeling and statistical analysis to identify potential illegal or fraudulent balloting.” For 11 years, the Texas-based True the Vote pushed for stricter voter ID laws with false allegations of voter fraud by Democrats.

YouTube has suspended new videos and demonetized current ones from DDT’s favorite network, One America News (OAN), for a week because of its content guaranteeing a cure for COVID-19. The second strike against OAN would be two weeks, and the Google-owned video service would permanently drop OAN after the third strike within 90 days.

This coming week the Supreme Court hears DDT’s case in which he wants to eliminate undocumented immigrants from the U.S. Census. In two different places, the U.S. Constitution declares that the census is of all “persons.” The question is whether the “originalist” justices who follow only the words of the constitution will find a way to assert humans are not “persons.”

DDT won’t concede, but he’s also said he’ll declare his 2024 presidential candidacy before the end of 2020 with campaign rallies up against Biden’s inauguration.  He’s also trying to figure out how to make money for the next five years. Along with trying unsuccessfully to stay in the Oval Office, DDT is trying to take over the Republican National Committee, turning it into his political subsidiary. Success in this endeavor permits DDT to retaliate against whatever legislators who were not 100 percent loyal to him, perhaps the reason Georgia’s Gov. Kemp asked for another hand recount. Part of DDT’s influence in the RNC is the installation of his supporters in state-level party posts. His maneuvers also delay other 2024 presidential wannabes from campaigning. 

DDT apparently plans a new home in Florida. Secret Service agents have been asked about a permanent move to Florida, and the Miami field office is investigating physical reinforcements to Mar-a-Lago. Living quarters for both DDT and his wife Melania are also undergoing renovations. On January 21, the NYPD will work with the Secret Service to reduce law enforcement at Manhattan’s Trump Tower. DDT wants to maintain Florida as his legal residence for voting and other purposes, keeping the Bedminster (NJ) resort and Trump Tower apartment for visits, but he may run into legal problems.

To tax Mar-a-Lago as a private club in 1993, DDT had to promise Palm Beach County he would not use it for his residence. The club’s website states DDT maintains “private quarters” there. His choice may be to keep the club or keep the property as his residence. Wealthy neighbors oppose the residence idea because DDT could then build a large number of condos in the surrounding area, depreciating their property. History of the conflict.

In the midst of a pandemic causing poverty, DDT’s friend Sean Hannity, whose annual salary is $40 million, talks about the misery of the wealthy. A week ago, he said on his show:

“You know, you say, ‘Oh, rich people have it easy.’ There’s nobody that I know that gets through this life without pain, without difficulty, without striving, without suffering, without things being hard. I don’t care what it is, but for whatever it is, we all go through that.”

Hannity probably comforted the almost one million people with no shelter, the 25 million who filed for unemployment, and the 50 million who are food-insecure. 

DDT has a busy schedule tomorrow: he goes from Camp David to the White House.

DDT: Week 201 – A Time of Contrasts

In a CNN op-ed on Thanksgiving Day, President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill, in a CNN op-ed, thanked people who keep the nation functioning during the pandemic:

“We are grateful for the frontline workers who have never stopped showing up over these long and confusing months, making sure our food is harvested and shipped, keeping our grocery stores stocked, picking up our trash, and keeping our cities and towns safe.

“We are grateful for the health care workers who put in long shifts and isolate themselves from their loved ones, the nurses who comfort and help people say one last goodbye, and the doctors who fight for every breath.

“We are grateful for the educators who learned to teach in virtual classrooms almost overnight, who did extra work to reach families without technology, or who took late-night phone calls from parents on the verge of tears.

“We are grateful for the parents who have carried their families through the chaos, working or searching for a job, navigating childcare and remote learning.

“We are grateful for the researchers and scientists who have spent this year learning everything they can to understand how to fight this pandemic and working tirelessly to find a vaccine and therapeutics.”

On Thanksgiving Day, in the midst of ranting tweets, Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) held a press conference, the first time he has taken questions since his defeat. He claimed proof for election fraud is people voting for Biden. Reuters reporter Jeff Mason asked DDT if he would concede to Biden, and DDT shouted, “Don’t talk to me that way! I’m the president of the United States.” For the first time, he declared he would leave the White House if the Electoral College selects Biden.

DDT paid Wisconsin $3 million for recounts in two counties. One of them, Milwaukee, announced Biden picked up another 132 votes in the recount. About 65 percent finished, Dane County will be done by the state’s certification of ten electoral votes for Biden on Tuesday. DDT still wants to throw out over 238,000 ballots in the two counties.

Unable to win lawsuits to stop voting and certification, DDT tries to decertify existing certifications. He failed in Pennsylvania this morning when a three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit Court rejected the case, writing, “Calling an election unfair does not make it so.” Like the other almost 40 rejections to DDT’s arguments, the ruling determined lawyers had no “specific allegations and … proof.” A DDT-appointed judge wrote the opinion. Jenna Ellis, DDT’s lawyer, wrote, “On to SCOTUS!” Biden won the state’s 20 electoral votes by an 80,000 majority.

A Commonwealth court uncertified Pennsylvania’s certified votes until an evidentiary hearing in the case. The same court has rejected GOP arguments two other times. GOP Rep. Mike Kelly challenged 2.5 million mail-in ballots, accusing the state legislature of constitutionally expanding the process. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman pointed out that lack of certification would eliminate “down-ballot elections”:  

“If [votes are] not certified, we don’t have a House or have our state Senate, and those are controlled by Republicans. So they’re literally trying to make the argument that there was fraud with Joe Biden’s race but my race, there was no fraud in that race. So there’s absolutely no basis in reality, but that’s never stopped them from lying.”

Fetterman said Pennsylvania found only two cases of voter fraud, both from Republicans who tried “to vote for Trump with their relatives, whether they were dead or living.” The Pennsylvania GOP legislature approved mail-in voting over a year ago, but no one objected because they thought it could favor the Republicans.

With QAnon queen Sidney Powell as lawyer, Michigan electors and local GOP officials are using her conspiracy theories against Biden in a federal court case. On Monday, Michigan certified the win for Biden. and Powell’s arguments have already been ruled “not credible” by a Wayne County judge. The lawsuit also demands voting machine and software be impounded for inspection. Powell, dropped by DDT’s campaign, also filed a wacko lawsuit in Georgia with both filings marked by inaccurate spelling. Losing in Pennsylvania, she’s heading to Arizona with allegations already rejected in a court case there.  

Rudy Giuliani receives $20,000 a day for his inept lawyering, but Powell asks for the checks to be made out to her personally. She set up her website on November 11, the day after she appeared on Fox’s Lou Dobbs Show.

DDT had a busy week, at least for him, with two major appearances last Tuesday—each about a minute. One of them was the pardoning of the National Thanksgiving Turkeys, this year named Corn and Cob. Hailing from Iowa, the turkeys are returning to their home state after a time in a luxury hotel. He was kinder to these than Carrot two years ago when he ridiculed Carrots for losing the count and refusing to “concede.” Matt Flegenheimer and Maggie Haberman have a great piece on how DDT had expected his time in the Oval Office to be “a rolling turkey pardon.”

DDT’s bad relationship with birds doesn’t seem to have improved since before his inauguration. Over five years ago, Time’s cover story, “The Donald Has Landed,” featured a photo of him and “Uncle Sam” who evidently didn’t approve of bigots and demagogues. Footage for the photo shoot.

Before Michael Flynn’s ruling, DDT pardoned him. DDT fired Flynn for lying to VP Mike Pence, and Flynn pled guilty to lying twice to the FBI about promising Russia in secret conversations before the inauguration that DDT would remove Russian sanctions. Flynn also secretly worked with Turkey. QAnon members are upset because the pardon means “guilt” when they want “exoneration.”

Still struggling to win by disenfranchising millions of voters, DDT called an informal meeting of Pennsylvania legislators at Gettysburg (PA) despite the state’s formal certification of 20 electoral votes. DDT originally meant to appear in person, but his legal team leader, Rudy Giuliani has again been exposed to COVID-19. Giuliani appeared with the group, most of them not wearing masks.

DDT’s conservative Supreme Court increased the rate of infections and deaths from COVID-19 by agreeing with New York religious organizations claiming they were illegally targeted by virus restrictions. In the 5-4 decision, Chief Justice John G. Roberts joined the three progressive justices, writing:

“It is a significant matter to override determinations made by public health officials concerning what is necessary for public safety in the midst of a deadly pandemic.”

Roberts also noted restrictions were already eased, eliminating the need for court intervention. When Ruth Bader Ginsburg was alive, Roberts’ vote created a majority to treat religious groups the same as others. Justice Sonia Sotomayor added the state treated churches equally or more favorably when compared with other groups; thus it did not discriminate. Cuomo increased restrictions because some religious groups turned areas into “hot spots” of spiking coronavirus cases. Changes were temporary, based on numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths.

In a tweet, Joyce Vance, a federal prosecutor for 25 years, addressed the majority of justices who elevated Christian and Jewish beliefs over public health officials and state laws for other groups:

“Your religious views now give you the right to withhold the services of your business from people whose ‘lifestyle’ you disagree with, withhold healthcare from women & attend superspreader events that let you infect your neighbors with a deadly virus.”

After DDT demanded churches open last summer, the virus surged across areas in which religious groups refused to take precautions. The disease hits not only the people within the church but also others throughout the community as church members become superspreaders. For example, 12 deaths and 213 cases are connected to events at the Charlotte (NC) United House of Prayer for All People earlier this year, and 11 buses brought people for another superspreader event two weeks ago to further spread disease. 

War in the Middle East could add to DDT’s death toll. For the third time in 18 months, he sent several heavy bombers to the Middle East threatening Iran after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s secret meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salam. Pompeo was supposedly on a diplomatic mission. The last threat was when DDT used an airstrike to assassinate top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani. DDT’s “maximum pressure” against Iran led to more nuclear material at higher levels of enrichment. Within the next 54 days before he leaves the Oval Office, DDT plans far more sanctions and “covert actions” against Iran to sabotage Biden’s efforts to rejoin the anti-nuclear deal.

DDT may have killed 33 unaccompanied Guatemalan children by deporting them after a judge ordered them to stop a deportation. Agency officials claimed they didn’t know about the order until the plane landed in Guatemala, but they didn’t bring them back. DDT’s administration claims it’s protecting the public during the pandemic, but the permission for unlimited church gatherings shows no protection from the virus. Coronavirus cases and deaths per capita in Guatemala are far fewer than in the U.S.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has lost another member, Lamar Alexander (TN) to a COVID-19 infection, but McConnell keeps punishing people. He plans a pay freeze for all civilian federal workers in the spending package required to keep the government open after December 11.

Gratitude on Thanksgiving 2020

Today is Thanksgiving, created in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln and now a traditional time for giving thanks. Gratitude—at least a small part of it—I feel today:

• I have a home and food with enough money to keep the status quo.
• I have wonderful friends and a loving partner who share my life.
• I am healthy and hope that my caution continues to keep me safe.
• I have a new president-elect and vice president-elect (I hope!) who will bring back democracy and sanity to our country.
• I am looking forward to the possibility of a successful vaccine. 

I hope you have the same advantages and are willing to keep them through sharing responsibilities and preserving the rights of all, not just a few.

Indifference from the current U.S. leadership has caused tremendous suffering for people. Over 70 million claims for unemployment have been filed in 2020; another 12 million may be forced to file before the end of the year. Of the 50 million people who face food-insecurity, 17 million are children. With long waiting lines, food banks run out of food in a few hours. Twenty-one percent of small businesses are closed, up from 16 percent in June. On January 1, the current administration plans to cut food-stamp benefits to over 8,000 poor senior citizens who live in supportive living facilities because Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue decided they don’t qualify. (Perdue is the brother of Georgia’s senatorial candidate, David Perdue.) The 20-year-old program allows facilities to pool food-stamp benefits and purchase food on the behalf of elderly and disabled residents who cannot get to the grocery stores. Denying these 8,000 people food stamps would save the U.S. less than $25 million a year—about eight trips to Mar-a-Lago for Dictator Donald Trump (DDT).

But DDT leaves the White House in 55 days, and his selfish ignorant Cabinet members will most likely also be gone.

Emily Murphy has tentatively moved forward President-elect Joe Biden’s transition with reluctant permission for a slow start. White House chief of staff and others have given contact positions to a few DDT loyalists, permitting them to talk with Biden’s transition team although all others are blocked from speaking to the “other side.” Next Monday, Biden may begin receiving White House briefings although they may be extremely “brief” because White House aides are accustomed to providing one or two pages with illustrations because DDT dislikes reading. DDT refuses to concede, and some employees are afraid to work with the transition team.

Last Tuesday, however, saw at least 20 meetings between Biden aides and DDT officials in every federal agency for active discussions. Secure facilities for the transition team has been set up in Washington D.C. and Wilmington (DE). The government is finally giving Biden government-mandated $6.3 million for the transition which Murphy denied him for over two weeks. During the delay, donors gave Biden almost $7 million.

Also made available to the team are new email addresses and a website domain linked to the federal government. Members have updates on budgets, upcoming protects, and potential regulations, and the FBI will start background checks on Biden’s nominees. Biden’s team also communicated with Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert earmarked for Biden’s coronavirus task force.

Biden’s new appointees briefly spoke after Biden introduced them in a television presentation, driving some Republicans into rage-filled disapproval. Considering the level of GOP incompetence, their anger bodes well for Biden’s selections. Instead of the mandatory obeisance DDT demanded from his Cabinet in all meetings, Biden’s team talked about what they would do for the people of the United States.

Maintaining his positive demeanor, Biden spoke with NBC’s Lester Holt:

“I think we’re going to not be so far behind the curve as we thought we might be in the past. There’s a lot of immediate discussion, and I must say the outreach has been sincere. [It] has not been begrudging so far, and I don’t expect it to be.”

Discussing his foreign policy and national security team, Biden said:

“America is back. Ready to lead the world, not retreat from it, once again to sit at the head of the table. Ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies.”

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden’s appointment for ambassador to the United Nations, had earlier given the same message:

“My fellow career diplomats and public servants around the world, I want to say to you: America is back, multilateralism is back, diplomacy is back.”

Biden has said that he is willing to meet with DDT, but DDT’s attitude makes that unlikely.

Big business has decided Biden will be president even if DDT is still in denial. GM pulled its name off DDT’s lawsuit to take California’s right to set stricter statewide fuel standards and suggested Toyota and Fiat Chrysler do the same. Mary Barra, GM’s CEO, agrees with Biden “that we can own the 21st century car market again by moving to electric vehicles.” By now almost all world leaders have agreed Biden is the president-elect. The only major holdout is Russian President Vladimir Putin who has said, like DDT, he is waiting for the votes from the electoral college. 

What Biden can immediately do:

• Listen to career officials—even before he gets his own installed—instead of firing them the way that DDT consistently does. For example, Nancy Messonnier warned Congress about COVID-19 nine months ago, and DDT immediately got rid of her.
• Reinstate trust in CDC.
• Resume regular media briefings with information instead of the self-glorification coming from DDT.
• Pay attention to daily White House briefings.
• Restore stability at the Pentagon and overhaul the DHS.

British approval of DDT’s leadership had fallen to 15 percent, two percent lower than that of Russia’s leadership. The UK’s Labour Party leadership called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to condemn DDT’s refusal to concede the election in another example of support for Biden. After rejoicing about Biden’s election, world leaders and international corporations are back to pre-DDT normal. Bank trade groups met with Biden aides about regulation differences; foreign diplomats have shifted their agendas to previous times; and corporate executives say they want the transition to move forward after Biden was “fairly elected as our next president,” according to CVS Health CEO Larry Merlo. Only DDT’s supporters loved his instability and chaos. Business leaders are even trying to persuade DDT to concede.

When Biden’s win was announced on November 7, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel said on MSNBC:

“As the results came through tonight, I started to watch the reaction coming in around the world, and people were reacting like the United States had overthrown a dictator, that democracy has been saved, that America’s reputation had been saved…. [In the wake of Trump’s electoral defeat,] the impression of American democracy, through this experience is actually going to be reinforced. I think the impression of the United States as a believer in democracy will be stronger coming, well, starting right now.”

Geopolitics are shifting for both democracies and autocracies such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and China. Biden stated he will host a “Summit for Democracy” soon after he takes office in a 180-degree turn from favoring demagogues. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu will likely be concerned about where he will fit into the new administration after controlling DDT as will Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The new president has support from over 80 million voters, the largest number for any president.

[Note: Originally I put DDT instead of Biden as the leader of the free world–so sorry!]  Even without being inaugurated, Biden has become the leader of the free world, something the president of the United States never achieved in almost four years. DDT alienated democratic allies, destroyed U.S. intelligence morale, fired respected people, and assisted foreign enemies, even providing them with classified information. Biden’s initial appointments, although not universally approved by the far left, bring experience and leadership. Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary, in particular, has already participated in saving the U.S. people from another recession caused by another U.S. president.

As DDT’s lawsuits continue, ad infinitum, I still worry, but I feel much lighter this Thanksgiving Day than I have for the last four, when DDT’s election brought a darkness to our world.

DDT ‘Salts’ the United States

In 146 BC, the Romans salted the earth at Carthage to destroy any chance of that civilization rebuilding. The ritual of cursing any re-inhabitation of conquered cities started in the ancient Near East and continued in 1299 when Pope Boniface VIII destroyed Palestrina and ordered that it be plowed and salted. Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) is following the tradition with the United States. As the loser of the presidential election, he is trying to destroy the U.S., including its democracy, hoping his successor cannot put together a shattered nation. DDT’s attack on the United States of “salt the earth” so nothing grows may be intended toward Biden, but the people in the U.S. will be the ones directly suffering.

DDT has another 56 days to spread salt. In 2017, DDT struck down many of President Obama’s final rules in a fast-track Congressional Review Act because he had a majority of members in Congress. If the Democrats lose both senators in Georgia on January 5, Joe Biden will need at least two GOP defections to save the U.S. from DDT’s “salt”:

Destructive plans DDT hopes to carry out before January 20:

The Department of Agriculture is rushing the speeding up of chicken factory processing lines, causing more worker injuries and increasing the products’ spread of germs such as salmonella, in a change usually taking about two years. Because meat processors don’t pay sick leave and penalize workers for staying home, employees go to work sick. The USDA claims it is only responsible for food safety; worker safety—or danger of strain injuries and amputations—is the purview of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration which may not have been involved in decisions. Waivers for speeded-up processing led USDA inspectors, unable to find contaminated carcasses, to discard record-low amounts of chicken.

The DOJ is fast-tracking the reintroduction of firing squads and electrocution to accompany DDT’s acceleration of federal executions. One federal prisoner was executed on November 19, and five more are planned before January 20. Introduced in August, the proposal reduced the 60-day public comment time to 30 days and cleared White House review on November 6.

HHS, according to its chief of staff, has a proposal to automatically delete all regulations over ten years old unless the agency decides to keep them.

In a literal decision to “salt the earth,” the EPA is completing rules to block justification of pollution restrictions and lock in soot levels for at least five years despite the links between particulate pollution and additional coronavirus deaths. Other plans are being finalized in as few as five days instead of the normal 90-day timeline.

Pending rules regarding immigration include greater difficulty for refugees to claim asylum. They exclude people with criminal convictions, even when expunged; drastically shorten application times; and allow immigration judges more ability to pick and choose considered evidence.

The Department of Energy is loosening efficiency standards for showerheads and laundry machines, in accord with one of DDT’s favorite talking points. In October, DDT said about himself, “I want that hair to be so beautiful.” The washer manufacturer trade group opposes the proposal because of the machines’ short-cycle options. Water and electric companies warn rules cause higher consumption and waste.

Business groups also oppose DDT’s plan to restrict highly skilled immigration by raising wage and education requirements for H-1B visas, often for information-technology employees. At the same time, DDT pushes for lower wages for “low-skilled” immigrant farmworkers. Both regulations will hurt the U.S. economy.

A rule finalized on November 13 restricts pension managers from considering social and environmental (ESG) impacts when choosing investments. Another Labor Department rule allows companies such as Uber to withhold worker benefits by classifying them as independent contractors instead of employees. Again, the comment period was reduced to 30 days.

Despite low prices and little demand, DDT opened up more federal lands to oil and gas development in areas encroaching on wildlife habitats and national parks. Bids start at $2 per acre for over 445,000 acres of public land with plans for drastically expanding leases in 6.8 million more acres for the wildlife habit of the National Petroleum Reserve. Claiming the GOP 2017 tax bill, the Department of the Interior opened up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The banking regulator at the Office for Comptroller of the Currency announced a proposed rule forcing banks to lend to oil companies or any other companies the banks deem as a reputation risk. The regulator compared a refusal by banks to lend to weapons manufacturers as discrimination. Legal experts question whether that office has the authority for this proposal.

In other issues:

Proving his racism on the way out the door, DDT said he will veto the defense budget if it renames ten military installations named after treasonous Confederate officers.

DDT also has faithful followers who carry his “salt.” Claiming after Biden won the election that DDT will have a second term, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived home from his 10-day, seven-country tip where he sowed diplomatic discord.  Bloomberg wrote that Pompeo “angered Turkey’s leaders, infuriated the Palestinians and befuddled the French.” A few details:

In Paris, Pompeo met with reporters from the right-wing French magazine Valeurs Actuelles, noted for its racism including an image of a Black French lawmaker as a slave.

In the West Bank, Pompeo became the most senior U.S. official to visit an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied territory when he went to a winery built on land claimed by Palestinians. There, he announced the U.S. will permit goods in these occupied areas to use a “Made in Israel” label.

In Syria, Pompeo visited the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Syria called the visit “provocative” and a “flagrant violation” of Syrian sovereignty.

In Saudi Arabia, Pompeo secretly met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, possibly working on an anti-Iran agreement and possibly leading to war.  The meeting was hidden from Israel’s alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi. 

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin plans to shut down over half the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending programs, including on loans to municipalities, assigned as COVID-19 stimulus money and return all unused money, about $429 billion, to Congress for their wishes. Despite the request from the Federal Reserve to leave all the money in the fund, Mnuchin will leave only $80 billion for the Exchange Stabilization Fund unless lawmakers release the rest of the money for its original purpose.   

DDT’s sabotage may shut down the government December 11 in budget negotiations. Lawmakers have agreed to designating the $12.5 billion cost increase in veterans’ health care, making it not subject to spending restrictions. DDT, the man who brags about his love for veterans, now demands it be non-emergency spending.

DDT also wants to end constitutional birthright citizenship before he leaves on January 20. According to the 14^th Amendment, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States … are citizens of the United States …” Last January, DDT restricted visa applications for women traveling to the U.S. primarily to give birth after renting to Russian women with that express purpose.

In a huge danger to the United States, DDT officially pulled out of the Open Skies Treaty, a post-Cold War agreement permitting nations to fly over other allies to collect military data and other intelligence on neighboring foreign enemies. Congress reaffirmed its support for the 18-year treaty and mandated DDT’s justification for a withdrawal before he took any action. As usual, the “lawless and orderless” DDT ignored the law and unilaterally made the withdrawal after he lost the presidential election. His action is a departure present to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.  

DDT not only withdrew from the treaty but also ordered the destruction of the program’s two specially equipped OC-135B planes and removed any option of replacing them. “We’ve started liquidating the equipment,” said one official. The action is reminiscent of USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy deliberately destroying equipment necessary for delivering ballots and other first-class mail on time—shortly before a general election. DDT made no attempt to renegotiate the agreement and decided not to buy replacement for the OC-135Bs.

Last year, DDT withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, an uncontroversial control treaty with Russia. He also took the U.S. out of the international nuclear agreement with Iran and the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Council and the United National Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and, and, and. The businessman in the White House spent his four years tearing down everything instead of building.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also refuses to help the people of the United States with another stimulus act despite one passed by the Democrats in the House six months ago and the willingness of Democratic Congressional leaders to compromise. DDT and McConnell are leaving 25 million unemployed and millions more with reductions in hours and pay.

These plans to “salt the U.S.” prove the GOP and DDT care nothing about the United States: they just want complete power. Today while coronavirus rages unchecked across the nation and the number of homeless and hungry people skyrocket, DDT is calling a group of Pennsylvania in Gettysburg (PA) discussing fruitless ideas to get DDT the Oval Office for another four years. May their success be equivalent to the failure of the treasonous Confederate Army at Gettysburg on July 3-5, 1863.

November 25 – skyrocketing COVID-19 disasters in U.S.: Daily cases – 268,219; deaths 2,302.

DDT’s Flailing Attempts to Get Votes

With 36 losing lawsuits and eight more pending, Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) has not yet found any election fraud. He even admitted that he failed by tweeting he “will” find evidence. For the past month, DDT and other Republicans have thrown lawsuits to block Biden from winning, going from county jurisdictions to the federal circuit courts. Media differ on the number of lawsuits, going as high as the 44 listed above. GOP lawyers have tried to prevent counting and certifying votes while changing the rules and just having the electoral votes given to DDT with no justification. All of the cases declare nothing about widespread voter fraud in court; it appears only in the court of public opinion. Sometimes, attorneys claim in court that no fraud exists. By now, all the lawyers are incompetent.

Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn’s failed lawyer, accused Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp of conspiring with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to steal the election from DDT. Rudy Giuliani, still DDT’s personal lawyer and QAnon member Jenna Ellis said Powell doesn’t work on the election cases, but Ellis described Powell as a member of Trump’s legal team and praised her performance at the press conference. Giuliani said that the press conference was “representative of our legal team.” DDT’s campaign claimed Powell is “practicing law on her own” and “not a member of the Trump Legal Team,” but DDT had tweeted the three of them with Joseph deGenova and Victoria Toensing, who DDT refused to hire years ago, are “a truly great team.”

A taste of the recent cases:

Last weekend, a U.S. District Court judge in Pennsylvania dismissed DDT’s case in federal court. Matthew W. Brann wrote:

“In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws, and institutions demand more.”

Fox showed a pre-recorded segment with DDT’s lawyer Jenna Ellis about a promising case possibly going to the Supreme Court—hours after the judge threw out the lawsuit. The Supreme Court has refused to take the case about counting ballots arriving within three days after Election Day but mailed on time.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed five consolidated appeals yesterday in DDT’s attempt to disqualify a few thousand mail-in ballots. The majority ruled the election code does not disqualify votes with no fraud or irregularity. Justice Christine Donohue wrote:

“Failures to include a handwritten name, address or date in the voter declaration on the back of the outer envelope, while constituting technical violations of the Election Code, do not warrant the wholesale disenfranchisement of thousands of Pennsylvania voters.”

In Pennsylvania, officials asked the 3^rd Circuit Court to end DDT’s challenge of the election because it has been certified and resolved. The case was about rejecting millions—or at least tens of thousands—of legally cast ballots with no evidence to support the surrounding allegations. Parties were given 24 hours to submit arguments; rejecting DDT’s legal team may close down most of DDT’s ability to contest the election in that state, especially after today’s certification for Biden.

When Brann tossed the Pennsylvania case to remove all 6.8 million ballots from consideration last Friday, he described the case as a “Frankenstein’s Monster … haphazardly stitched together” and the GOP solution “unhinged.” That case led Pennsylvania Republicans to file a petition for the state supreme court which rejected it Monday before the 3^rd Circuit Court was willing to take briefs. The same case also led to Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) to declare Biden as the president-elect.

The appeal for the circuit court didn’t ask for a delay in certification or a reversal in the trial court’s motion to grant preliminary relief. All it wants is an order for the district court to decide the case that the judge already called “Frankenstein’s Monster.”

Yesterday, DDT also lost a case in Michigan. A representative from the Brennan Center for Justice said the Michigan decision rejecting DDT’s poll observers to stop the certification could be the end of the road for DDT in that state. Michigan certified its electoral college votes for Biden yesterday. Another Michigan case had been rejected as “defective” for improper filing and was never corrected. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel (Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney’s niece) and state GOP Chair Laura Cox asked Michigan’s state canvassing board to delay certification for 14 days, allowing for a “full audit and investigation.”

Republicans’ Tuesday lawsuit asking the Wisconsin state supreme court to block certification during the recount uses DDT’s typical arguments as well as a repeat of a rejected argument in September that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tried to “illegally circumvent Wisconsin absentee voting laws” through grants awarded by a nonprofit center he funds. It’s slightly less daring than the Pennsylvania case to eliminate all 6.8 million votes based on hearsay, according to the judge.

A Wisconsin judge refused a request to throw out 60,000 mail-in ballots not associated with a written application in Democratic Dane County—all cast during in-person early voting. DDT’s team also lost the request to eliminate all ballots in which clerks added in a witness’ address information on the ballot envelope. In 2016, the state elections commission told municipal clerks to add that information if it was missing and they could reasonably discern it.

A Nevada district judge denied a former senate candidate her request to stop this week’s certification. The judge also denied a motion to strike down Nevada law allowing mail-in ballots and denied the request from a failed GOP congressional candidate for a revote in Nevada’s biggest county, calling it a “shocking ask.” Another Nevada case is still waiting for a decision, but the case probably won’t affect the state’s vote count.

This morning, DDT promised a “big lawsuit” will be filed “soon.” Last week, DDT’s legal team leader Rudy Giuliani also promised “a major lawsuit in Georgia,” but nothing has yet to emerge. The only lawsuit in Georgia, filed the day after the election, was quickly dismissed.

Miserably failing in court, DDT has developed other undemocratic tactics. Thus far, they have gained no traction other than to lead DDT’s gullible cult followers into rejecting democracy.  

Recounts:  Georgia’s Gov. Brian Kemp, elected with his personally chosen and possibly faulty voting machines, is calling for a second complete hand count of all ballots after the first one shows Biden ahead by 12,670 votes. DDT is also calling for a machine hand count although Georgia has already certified its votes for Biden. In the last hand recount, DDT gained about 1,300 votes. Georgia’s taxpayers will have to finance the second recount.

Too cheap to do a total Wisconsin recount, DDT picked the two heaviest Democratic counties. Observers’ sole goal is to delay the recount past the deadline to certify votes for the state. Never mind that certification from other swing states—Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Michigan—put Biden at 280 electoral college votes, ten points over the required 270. Observers not only break social distancing rules by doubling up at tables but also engage in other illegal activity. One of them questioned every ballot for no reason at all. One refused to wear a mask, and another assaulted a ballot counter when she moved his jacket from a chair. Some observers claiming to be independent or nonpartisan later admitted to the media they were present to help DDT.

State legislatures:  DDT’s campaign said Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Michigan will have public hearings on election, but the states disagree. Pennsylvania’s Senate Majority said the “hearing” is an “informational meeting.”  The other two states won’t confirm any hearing.  DDT’s daughter-in-law said about winning by swaying GOP state legislators, “We’re open to anything.” And DDT lobbied Michigan lawmakers in the White House to give the state to himself.

Twitter:  Since DDT’s abdication of any responsibilities, he has unlimited time to rant and rave over Twitter although his tweets are sometimes flagged for “misinformation.” Tomorrow is another day with no public events scheduled after he pardoned two turkeys and had a 63-second press conference today.

Re-vote: DDT retweeted this message from Randy Quaid, adding Republicans should take note:

“We need an in-person-only-paper ballot re-vote, especially in the States where flagrant irregularities have occurred. No accuracy, no democracy!”

AG Bill Barr, DDT’s fixer in the past, has maintained two weeks of silence without taking any action in the fake election fraud accusation. The U.S. Supreme Court has also shown no interest, already turning down one appeal.

Months ago, DDT began his strategy of telling his supporters the election is rigged and filled with fraud. Now those same supporters may boycott the Georgia election on January 5 to select two senators for the 177^th Congress, senators who could give the Senate control to Democrats. The PAC connected to Roger Stone, DDT’s friend who Barr saved from part of his prison sentence, calls for Republicans to avoid the runoffs. On social media Parler are posts such as “Don’t vote! Don’t be part of the corruption.” Lin Wood, a DDT campaign worker in Georgia, tweeted, “I will NOT vote in GA runoff.”

November 24, 2020 – U.S. daily COVID-19: 175,168 cases (hitting over 13 million tomorrow); 2,194 deaths (hitting over 266,000 tomorrow).  

Biden Going Moderate, Republicans Face Litigation

Traditionally, transitions, except for the Florida fight leading to the Supreme Court, produce little news except when the incoming and outgoing administrations sat down together and talked. The year 2020, fitting Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) and his “new normal,” attempts to overcome DDT’s vicious malevolence. Today was a move toward granting President-elect Joe Biden the rights he deserved over two weeks ago.

After Michigan formerly certified its votes for Biden, Emily Murphy, head of the GSA, caved and wrote him she will begin the formal presidential transition—two weeks late. Michigan certified its votes with 16 Electoral College votes for Joe Biden in a 3-0 vote by the Board of State Canvassers. One Republican abstained. DDT lost in Michigan by over 155,000 votes. Murphy said DDT had nothing to do with her decision, but DDT tweeted he told Murphy to write the letter. Murphy had wallowed in self-pity because people were angry about her not following the law.

Fear of appearing before Congress may have frightened Murphy. She said she wouldn’t show up at a briefing, but her deputy could be there next week. She was told she would receive a subpoena if she didn’t appear tomorrow. For two weeks, Murphy failed to meet the law for her to “ascertain” the “likely” winner and hand over mandated funds and facilities for Biden’s transition.

Today’s Michigan vote certification plus Georgia’s certification of 16 electoral college votes last Friday gave Biden over the required 270 votes to take the presidency although DDT is still firing off salvos in the form of lawsuits, bribes, threats, and surrogates making demands. The final electoral college vote is on December 14, but Biden could be officially declared the winner in contested states by December 8 if they certify the votes by then. States must settle their disputes by that date.

Biden will get another 20 electoral college votes from Pennsylvania, another swing state. DDT’s personal lawyer and legal team leader Rudy Giuliani wants GOP-controlled legislatures to disregard the popular vote with the legislator’s own slate supporting DDT. Pennsylvania law prevents that action, and Wisconsin, another swing state with 10 votes for Biden, does not give that role to the legislature.

GOP legislators have largely kept quiet about Biden being the next president with only a few admitting the possibility before today. Fed up with the senators’ complicity with DDT’s refusal to concede, Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward’s sidekick in All the President’s Men, sent out this tweet about “closeted” senators:

“The 21 GOP Senators who have privately expressed their disdain for Trump are: Portman, Alexander, Sasse, Blunt, Collins, Murkowski, Cornyn, Thune, Romney, Braun, Young, Tim Scott, Rick Scott, Rubio, Grassley, Burr, Toomey, McSally, Moran, Roberts, Shelby.”

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) urged Murphy today, before she acquiesced, to begin the transition. Yesterday, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said on Meet the Nation Biden was the “likely” winner although he did it in a blizzard of lies which host Chuck Todd failed to question. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), not running in 2022, issued a statement the election “is rapidly coming to a formal end,” and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), also not running in the next round, admitted Biden was the winner after DDT was the loser in last Saturday’s Pennsylvania court case. Both Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) quit lying today. Earlier, Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AL) openly recognized Biden as winner, and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) was the first to congratulate Biden. That leaves over 80 percent of the senators to stay mum.

Before the election, Fox network pushed GOP support with fake predictions about Biden’s appointments for his Cabinet, should he win, destroying any perception of journalism on a network calling itself “News.” 

Biden has released his first nominees, all seasoned and crisis-tested. Confirmation requires at least half the Senate votes. With a GOP majority until the results of two senatorial contests in Georgia, Biden needs GOP votes. Collins, Murkowski, and Romney said they would vote in favor of Biden’s Cabinet appointments.

Antony Blinken, Secretary of State: Part-time resident of Paris who speaks French like a native and whose stepfather survived the Holocaust; President Clinton’s chief foreign policy speechwriter before serving as staff director for Biden when he was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and then joining VP Biden’s staff. Deputy national security adviser and deputy secretary of state for President Obama. Unified in Biden’s goals of rejoining rejoin the Paris climate agreement, reversing the U.S. exit from the World Health Organization, and resuscitating the Iran nuclear deal with a reputation of a nonideological consensus-builder.

Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security: the first Latino and immigrant for the position dealing with immigration; former director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and former DHS deputy secretary of Homeland Security who oversaw the creation and implementation of DACA. With five DHS directors in fewer than four years and a strict anti-immigration policy, the new DHS goal is to not only build communication with immigrant communities but also return to the department’s other responsibilities of dealing with terrorism and natural disasters.

Avril D. Haines, Director of National Intelligence: the first woman in charge of 17 intelligence agencies who served as deputy director of the CIA and principal deputy national security adviser under former President Obama.

Janet Yellen, Treasury Secretary: former successful leader of the Federal Reserve, earlier confirmed by Senate and willing to challenge corporate power and big banks. In her experience with George W. Bush’s recession, she gave time for the economy to heal and boost employment before raising interest rates.

Jake Sullivan, national security advisor: A Rhodes scholar who worked for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and helped Biden develop the Build Back Better, key to Biden’s economic message.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the UN: A Black woman with a long career of Foreign Service officer; former Secretary of State Madeline Albright was Thomas-Greenfield’s mentor.  

John Kerry, special envoy for climate: Former Secretary of State who successfully negotiated the Paris Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. (This position does not require Senate confirmation.)

Reema Dodin and Schuwanza Goff, Deputy Directors of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs: Dodin – Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) Deputy Chief of Staff; Goff – first Black woman to serve as a Floor Director when she worked for Rep. Steny Hoyer’s (D-MD).

Highly progressive publications have disapproved of some nominations, but the general Democratic approval supports his moderate perspective in policy. An important part of Biden’s policies will be rebuilding the destruction of government and global order from DDT’s ruling.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, smeared by DDT’s lies contrary to her country’s success, has offered to help Biden and VP Kamala Harris tackle the pandemic immediately after the inauguration. She emphasized “the importance of organizations like the World Trade Organisation,” the recipient of more DDT lying smears. Ardern’s country has twice eliminated COVID-19, recording only 5 deaths and 406 cases per 1 million since the virus’s invasion instead of the 795 deaths and 38,465 cases per 1 million in the U.S. With the same rate of coronavirus disasters as New Zealand, the U.S. would have had 134,386 cases and 1,655 deaths instead of its 12,777,174 infections and 263,687 deaths as of November 23, 2020. Last summer, DDT said New Zealand was struggling with the virus on the day it reported nine new cases, compared to the 40,612 in the U.S. on that day.

Michigan’s AG Dana Nessel is exploring officials’ possibility of committing crimes by following DDT’s wishes to block vote certification for Biden, specifically Wayne County’s GOP members of the canvassing board. They tried to rescind their certification of votes after a call from DDT. That was before state GOP legislative leaders accepted a visit to the White House and were royally wined and dined at DDT’s hotel nearby. They seemed to indicate they wouldn’t interfere with the certification, but afterward one of them told the Fox network he wants “transparency” by Republicans looking into “irregularities” and “reports of fraud.” 

On behalf of Black Michigan voters, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund is suing DDT and his campaign in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. for violating the Voting Rights Act. The lawsuit argues DDT is using false allegations about election fraud to push election officials into not certifying votes in Michigan for the purpose of suppressing votes, specifically those of Black voters. DDT’s tactics include “dog whistles,” coded or suggestive language in political messaging, to suggest Black voters’ votes are illegitimate. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 “protects against efforts to intimidate or coerce officials to disenfranchise Black voters,” according to Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

After talking nonstop for almost a month before Election Day, DDT is relatively silent. In 20 days since the election, 13 have no events for him. Tomorrow DDT and Melania add a public event by introducing the National Thanksgiving Turkey at 11:00 PST. Thus far, he has appeared at public events four times, played golf at his own Virginia course six times, and taken no questions from reporters. And he’s gone from speaking 8,398 words per day in 2020, 55,000 words on the last day of his campaign, to a daily average of only 454 words. In 2020, he daily averaged 48 minutes on camera; since November 3, his total camera time has been 50 minutes. Other than the stress of his lawsuits, the quiet has been comforting.

Just 58 more days before DDT can’t even tweet lies!

DDT: Week 200 – Can’t Avoid COVID-19

This past week, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) attacked Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) for asking Sullivan to wear a mask while speaking. The Senate was debating the confirmation of another completely unprepared judicial candidate. On Twitter, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called Brown a “complete ass.” Last month, two GOP senators tested positive for COVID-19, Tom Tillis (NC) and Mike Lee (UT), and this week, two more came down with the coronavirus—Chuck Grassley (IA) last Tuesday and Rick Scott (FL) yesterday. Scott spend last week traveling around Georgia while campaigning for GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. (Grassley displays the GOP mask-wearing technique.)

Grassley’s announced illness came the day after Iowa’s GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds mandated mask wearing. She had ridiculed masks for months and consistently claimed she “trusts” its residents to do the right thing. Iowa now has the third highest number of cases per capita, just behind both Dakotas. Thirteen state governors refuse to issue mask mandates.

Grassley’s missed votes last Tuesday were his first since 1993 when floods in his state kept him from Washington. One vote regarded Judy Shelton. Previously, the GOP Senate considered her inappropriate for the Federal Reserve, but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is pushing through all breathing nominees in case he doesn’t have a Senate majority next year.

McConnell voted “no” in order to bring Shelton’s vote back to the floor, but the Senate is running out of time. It doesn’t return from recess until November 30, giving them only 15 days in session until the end of 2020. Without a budget passed, the government shuts down on December 11. On November 30, Arizona certifies its votes, immediately flipping the GOP seat of Martha McSally to Democratic Mark Kelly. The question is how far McConnell will go to protect DDT who has only 60 days left in office.

In a delusionary state, “journalist” Geraldo Rivera wants the new vaccine named “Trump” because, he believes, Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) is definitely the prime architect of this operation Warp Speed.” Rivera said people can say “Yeah, I got my Trump, I’m fine.” DDT’s only “architecture” was to claim researchers would develop a vaccine before Election Day. Pfizer stated the company didn’t take money from the U.S. government and wasn’t part of Warp Speed. Now “The Trump” is smearing Pfizer because they didn’t announce the vaccine until he lost the election.

Moderna, with what may be a successful vaccine, received government funds and seems to have a more viable product with easier storage and more transparent testing data. DDT donated no personal funds to either company, but country singer Dolly Parton gave $1 million to Moderna for its research. How about “Yeah, I got my Dolly, I’m fine.”  

Another woman, this one a real journalist, may save lives too. On her MSNBC show, Rachel Maddow (right) has presented information about the dangers of COVID-19 and the importance of following CDC guidance like only small gatherings, mask-wearing, and social distancing. After she quarantined for contact with a coronavirus survivor, she started doing her show from her home office. On her first night back, she announced that the survivor was her partner of 21 years, Susan Mikula. In her explanation, Maddow said:

“My relationship with Susan is the only thing, at the end of the day, that I would kill or die for without hesitation. And Susan has been sick with COVID these past couple of weeks. At one point, we really thought that there was a possibility that it might kill her, and that’s why I’ve been away. [Susan’s] not only been positive over this time, she’s gotten sicker and sicker while I tried to care for her while still staying physically apart from her.”

She urged people to be careful, if not for themselves then for the people they love:

“What you need to know is that whoever is the most important person in your life, whoever you most love and most care for and most cherish in the world, that’s the person who you may lose.”

Twitter filled with messages from people writing they changed their holiday plans because of Maddow’s plea. This represents many of the tweets:

  “Your plea for us to think about the people whom we love brought me to my senses.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, constantly denigrated by DDT, will receive an International Emmy Founders Award for his “leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic” and “his masterful use of TV to inform and calm people around the world,” according to the International Emmys. In the early weeks of the coronavirus, while DDT ignored the virus and then blocked help for states needing it, Cuomo gave daily press conferences with information of statistics, successes, and failures.

Litigation against Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reveals how the agency detained more Iranian-Americans at the Canadian border than previously known before deliberately try to cover up its illegal and discriminatory behavior. Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan and other officers lied in a public statement about how Iranian-Americans were not refused permission to return home in the U.S. In fact, U.S. officials were ordered to single out and detail people of Iranian descent after the U.S. killed a top Iranian military official in early January of this year. Of the over 250 people sent to secondary inspection, over 80 were U.S. citizens and detained at least three to four hours—up to nine hours.

After DDT separated over 5,400 children from their parents and guardians, his racist advisor Stephen Miller pushed DOJ to refuse a 2019 settlement connecting reunified families with mental health care. The pro bono public interest firm Public Counsel reached an agreement for the government paying $8 million (fewer than three of DDT’s trips to Mar-a-Lago) for traumatized migrant families. DDT’s six-month delay left children exhibiting “fear, feelings of abandonment, and post-traumatic stress” and parents suffering “elevated levels of mental distress.” The courts’ refusal to ignore the need for mental counseling led to the government paying $14 million (an extra two Mar-a-Lago trips). Many families couldn’t receive care because DDT had deported them during negotiations.

Two independent inquiries, one criminal and one civil, into DDT’s businesses have embroiled his daughter Ivanka. DDT dropped his taxes by deducting $26 million to unidentified consultants, some of the money to Ivanka Trump at her personal consulting business while she was identified as an executive of the Trump Organization. In a meltdown, Ivanka railed against “NYC democrats … 100% motivated by politics, publicity and rage.” DDT cannot pardon himself or his family or anyone else for state convictions.

Militias throughout the states are recruiting to “take back the country,” by armed violence if they choose, with those in Michigan the most visible after threatening to kidnap and kill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. According to the FBI, the group also planned to publicly execute other public officials, including Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Other plans were capturing lawmakers from the Michigan state capitol and televise their executions. Another plan was to lock them inside the capitol and burn it down. Enter neuroradiologist Scott Atlas, DDT’s coronavirus whisperer. To slow the virus spread, Whitmer put in new restrictions for three weeks. Atlas responded:

 “The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept. #FreedomMatters #StepUp.”

Complaints led him to tweet:

“Hey. I NEVER was talking at all about violence… NEVER would I endorse or incite violence. NEVER!!”

Whitmer said she won’t be bullied, but every message like this from DDT or Atlas results in “a surge of vicious attacks sent [Whitmer’s] way. Good of Atlas to say something like “I didn’t mean for you to burn the house down, but gasoline can help.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to a winery on land taken from Palestinian residents marks the first time a top American diplomat visited an illegal Israeli settlement. It also hypes Pompeo’s standing with evangelicals and other supporters of the illegal settlements. The Florida Falic family, a major investor in the winery, donated at least $5.6 million to settler groups in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem over the past decade as well as at least $1.7 million since 2000 to pro-Israel politicians in the U.S., including DDT. Over 680,000 Israelis have illegally settled on Palestinian land.

Jewish peace activists protested the visit and Pompeo’s declaration that the peaceful Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian human rights is “anti-Semitic.” Pompeo’s statements at his visit were two weeks after the Israelis bulldozed a Bedouin village in the Jordan Valley in a storm, an act called a war crime by the UN. Of the scores of homeless Palestinians, over 40 were children.

If DDT opens his 2024 presidential campaign on the day of Biden’s inauguration, he’ll need to build up his campaign team. Everyone is getting fired except those in legal. He may not need less staff at the White House: he’s not doing anything except ranting and tweeting. This morning he called into the G20 Summit but didn’t deliver any message and no one participated in the pandemic conference. He did need help playing golf later at his Virginia course. He’s scheduled to make a virtual appearance to the summit again tomorrow morning before he plays golf. Since the election, he’s had 12 days with no public events, with the few listed being brief.

COVID-19 has made many appearances yesterday in the U.S.—172,839 cases and 1,460 deaths. Several states are also not reporting their statistics.

GOP Definition of Election Fraud: DDT Lost

President-elect Joe Biden:

From Max Moran: 277 policies Biden can enact on his first day.

With the shortening of transition time, Republicans are losing valuable time to smear Cabinet recommendations and the Democrats’ upcoming presidential actions. Instead, the conservative media is filled with conservative stories ad infinitum about the non-existent election fraud and stories of sobbing supporters claiming they will die for Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) or organizing militias to kill anyone who opposes DDT. The GOP is also becoming more split than before the election as some conservatives start to grudgingly reject QAnon conspiracy theories and accept DDT as a loser. GOP lawmakers, conservative lawyers, and right wing media figures admit DDT’s legal team should either back up their claims with evidence or quit.

Tucker Carlson criticized DDT’s lawyer Sidney Powell when she got “angry” because he asked her for proof of election fraud. He reported she told him to stop contacting her for evidence. A QAnon member, Powell shared the lie at yesterday’s press conference about how communist countries installed an algorithm to flip voting machines from DDT to Biden. Like other conspiracy theories, the claim hasn’t been presented in court.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) tweeted:

“Having failed to make even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before any court of law, the President has now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election. It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President.”

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) ridiculed DDT’s legal team for allegations of “grand fraud” without going to court with them. He referenced the legal penalties “for lying to judges.” Even loyal conservative Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said, “This is a time for evidence in court.”

After twice endorsing DDT, the editorial board at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by DDT’s billionaire donor Sheldon Adelson, wrote DDT is doing a “disservice to his more rabid supporters by insisting that he would have won the Nov. 3 election absent voter fraud.” GOP strategist Karl Rove, influential in the George W. Bush administration, wrote at the Wall Street Journal that “this election won’t be overturned.” The editorial board at the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post editorial board told DDT to “stop the stolen election rhetoric” and to “get Rudy Giuliani off TV.” At the conservative National Review, Andrew McCarthy, cataloging DDT’s legal setbacks, asserted the effort is doomed.

Attorney Jonathan Turley, DDT defender through the impeachment trial, commented DDT’s lawyers not filing their “sweeping claims” in court is “breathtaking.

House Democrats wrote Emily Murphy to appear before the Oversight and Appropriations committees on Monday to explain why she has not begun the transition period. The administration followed this law for every other president-elect in modern times except for George W. Bush during the dispute about fewer than 2,000 votes in Florida. Although the Supreme Court stopped the vote and determined Bush the person to be inaugurated, a final vote showed Al Gore won the state and the election by over 600 votes. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) tweeted Murphy with the letter demanding her presence in the House:  

“We have been incredibly patient, @GSAEmily, but we can wait no longer. Your refusal to follow the law is active and existential threat to our democratic norms and institutions. You owe us, and the American people, an explanation. We are demanding you provide one. By Monday.”

In his heartless sabotage of Biden’s economy, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wants to not only refuse people $455 billion from the CARES Act but to also destabilize financial markets by terminating five of nine lending programs. The Federal Reserve objected to recklessly withdrawing emergency programs allowing them flexibility just as COVID-19 is skyrocketing. In his private life, Mnuchin was known for “widow foreclosures,” one of them for $0.27 on a 90-year-old woman.   

DDT:

DDT briefly appeared from hiding today today to claim “I won.”

After top GOP Michigan leaders visited with DDT in the White House, they reported:

They had “not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome.” [They think they may still find some “information”?]

“We will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors, just as we have said throughout this election.” [What do they see as “the law” and “normal”? And as they have “said,” in a state where two Republicans are denying certification for Biden because of their impression of election fraud—i.e., Biden won.”]

“Allegations of fraudulent behavior should be taken serious, thoroughly investigated, and if proven, prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” [What do the Republicans see as “proven”?]

Republicans are good at twisting claims. For example, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said last week he would “step in” if DDT didn’t begin the transition to Biden; this week, he said he didn’t mean he’d really do anything. He just had the ability.

DDT is working through GOP legislators in the swing states, now considering those from Pennsylvania. Too late for Georgia: they certified the vote for the Electoral College today.

DDT Lawsuits:

DDT’s legal team used data from Minnesota as (false) evidence of election fraud in Michigan. Lawyers are also using affidavits as evidence, for example one from a Texas resident working in cybersecurity claiming susceptible tallying machines in Michigan. The same claim reported votes switched from DDT to Biden in “Antium County, Michigan.” No county of this name exists in the U.S., let alone Michigan. Any mistaken voting tallies in “Antrium County” were already corrected. All 83 Michigan counties have certified their results, and the state canvassing board meets Monday, November 23, to determine its certification.

A judge dismissed an Arizona case, the last pending one in the state, based on two voters stating their votes were not correctly counted. The five-member Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, four of five Republicans, voted unanimously to certify the election results.  

Nevada expects to certify its statewide results on Tuesday, November 24, the day before a Carson City judge is scheduled to hear DDT’s request to overturn or annul all Nevada’s votes.  

DDT’s new attempts at litigation in Pennsylvania include a demand that certification of votes be blocked and 1.5 million mail-in ballots in seven counties, the ones he lost, be examined. No one has reported widespread fraud or irregularities in those counties so he wants certification blocked until someone finds evidence. Monday, November 23, is the state deadline to certify votes for the Electoral College. Berks County, which DDT won by eight points, said it won’t do it until the next day. DDT’s goal is to have GOP legislators pick the representatives to vote for DDT in the electoral college meeting on December 14. (Deadlines for state certification of votes.) 

DDT’s COVID-19:

Among those recently posting positive: DDT’s son, Donald Trump Jr; Rudy Giuliani’s son, Andrew Giuliani; and at least three more White House aides. Yesterday Andrew, special assistant to DDT, attended his father’s superspreader two-hour press conference in a tightly-packed room at the RNC. His father didn’t look well. Last night on Fox network’s Sean Hannity show, Giuliani said someone should “cut the head off” Democrat leaders and made a throat-slitting motion. He had added a German company to the list of conspiracy figures to elect Biden.

Yesterday, Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) DHS committee hearing didn’t get much traction against Rudy Giuliani’s meltdown about election fraud, but the event, stacked with hydroxychloroquine advocates, lasted two hours. Johnson is still pushing for approval of DDT’s favorite drug to be given as a cure for COVID-19 although it has been discredited for that purpose. Ashish Jha, the one authority who was invited by a Democrat, called the hearing “a testament to how politicized science has become.” He tweeted:  

“I shared evidence of studies that have failed to find benefit of HCQ. Three other witnesses shared personal experiences. And suggested my testimony was reckless because it would deny people access to lifesaving HCQ. I found myself defending evidence, doctors, and scientists.”

Commenting on the hearing, another doctor said that people may be debating in the future if aspirin is a Republican or a Democratic drug. Fortunately for rational Wisconsinites, Johnson has promised not to run for reelection in two years.

From DDT:

“THE COVID DRUGS NOW AVAILABLE TO MAKE PROPLE BETTER ARE AMAZING, BUT SELDOM TALKED ABOUT BY THE MEDIA! Mortality rate is 85% down!”

Forty-two years ago this week, over 900 people died in Guyana after their cult leader, Jim Jones, encouraged them to kill themselves by drinking a poison-laced liquid similar to Kool-Aid. Yulanda Williams, a survivor who became a police officer, compared DDT’s rhetoric to that of Jones. She said:

“When we say Jonestown is the most tragic incident of a massacre of people, I say don’t forget about the commander in chief who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.” 

She is not alone in her beliefs.

“The American people know how to protect their health. We’ve dealt with COVID for many months,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox News.  On November 20, 2020, the total number of new cases rose above 200,000, the total was over 12 million, and the number of deaths came to almost 2,000 for the day.

Biden Works, DDT Retaliates

President-elect Joe Biden:

Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) told an ally he lost but delays the transition process and sows doubt about the election to retaliate for Democrats’ questioning his own election’s legitimacy, especially with the Russian investigation. He said it’s only fair he not allow the transition and won’t back down. To DDT, his 70+ million votes give him ultimate power and authority. Biden leads by almost six million votes and has 306 electoral votes compared to DDT’s 232. DDT’s niece, Mary Trump, stated:

“He’s never in his life been in a situation that he can’t get out of either through using somebody else’s money, using connections, using power. And not only is he in a unique position, he’s in a position of being a loser, which in my family, certainly, as far as my grandfather was concerned, was the worst possible thing you could be.”

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), the sole Republican to vote against DDT in the impeachment trial, expressed more concern about DDT’s actions during the next 62 days than his not allowing a transition. About taking the troops out of Afghanistan, Romney said:

“We have some 40 coalition members that also have troops there. For us to pull our troops out obviously puts our remaining troops in some danger, as well as their troops. And they wonder, ‘how do we deal in a coalition with the United States leading it if there is a decision taken on a precipitous basis with which we may or may not have been familiar that puts our troops in jeopardy?’”

Newly elected lawmakers are nervous about DDT’s idea that the entire election was corrupt and fraudulent. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), returning for a second term, didn’t like today’s statement from DDT’s lawyer Sidney Powell:

“In terms of the level of corruption we are looking at here, we have no idea how many Republican or Democratic candidates … paid to have the system rigged to work for them.”

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wants to sabotage Biden’s economy. He told Fed Chair Jerome Powell to put Congress in control of reallocating $455 billion originated by law for businesses, nonprofits, and local governments. Almost half the 22.7 million people losing jobs in the U.S. in 2020 because of DDT’s poorly managed pandemic are still out of work, and the economic recovery is fading. The Fed told Mnuchin the CARES programs should be extended. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Chief Policy Officer agreed, saying that action on Mnuchin’s request “unnecessarily ties the hands of the incoming administration.”

Biden might be able to solve the foreign policy issues early in his administration, according to suggested by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies:

• End the U.S. role in the Saudi-led war on Yemen and restore U.S. humanitarian aid to Yemen in accord with the War Powers Resolution passed by Congress but vetoed by DDT.
• Suspend all U.S. arms sales and transfers to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to another DDT-vetoed congressional bill. U.S. laws require the suspension of arms transfers for use in violating U.S. and international law.
• Rejoin the Iran Nuclear Agreement (JCPOA) and lift sanctions on Iran to stop an impending war, and give up regime change in Iran to deescalate Middle East conflicts.
• End U.S. threats and sanctions against officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
• Back the diplomacy of South Korea President Moon Jae-in for a “permanent peace regime,” and formally end the Korean War of the 1950s.
• Renew New START with Russia to freeze the U.S.’s trillion-dollar new nuclear plan.
• Lift illegal unilateral U.S. sanctions against other countries.
• Move to normalize relations with Cuba.
• Restore pre-2015 rules of engagement to stop killing civilians.Freeze U.S. military spending to reduce it. At the end of the Cold War, then-Pentagon officials told the Senate that U.S. military spending could be cut in half over the next ten years. The exploitation of 9/11 made an excuse to create the one-sided arms race in which the U.S. spent 45 percent of global military costs from 2003 to 2011, far more than peak Cold War military expenditures.

Earlier this week, Biden had a conference on COVID-19, attended by healthcare workers who filled him in on the issues, including the lack of PPE. Not to be outdone, DDT had his first coronavirus task force press conference since July, the first time in a week he appeared in an official public event. It did not end well when DDT and VP Mike Pence refused to take questions after the event.

Dr. Deborah Birx showed a map (left) indicating how the virus covered the U.S. A chart (below) showing the increase in cases refutes Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) promise the U.S. will be virus-free after November 3. Dr. Scott Atlas was not present to tell people to invite people for Thanksgiving so that they would die.

DDT: 

The story of Wayne County (MI) GOP canvassing board officials hasn’t stopped. Tuesday, two Republicans refused to certify legal votes for the electoral college before reversing their vote three hours later. Yesterday they tried to rescind their rescinding—after a personal call from DDT who admired the “courage” of the two Republicans because they “refused to certify the election results!” Monica Palmer, GOP chairperson of the board, said DDT’s call to her and board member William Hartmann had nothing to do with her rechange of heart and blamed the state for not living up to its promise of an independent audit.

Today, DDT invited both Republicans to visit him at the White House tomorrow along with Michigan state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield. Shirkey already declared Biden the president-elect, stating an effort to award Michigan’s electoral votes to Trump was “not going to happen.” DDT’s campaign also withdrew its last federal lawsuit in Michigan, falsely claiming that local election officials had declined to certify the votes in Wayne County. CNN attempted a fact check on Giuliani’s statements, including a large number of overvotes. Not only was this statement false, but 2016 also had more overvotes when DDT won the state.

According to the office of the Michigan secretary of state, the state has “no legal mechanism for them to rescind their vote.”  A judge has already ruled against action to block the certification of these votes.

Disgusting images from Hartmann’s public Facebook page about President Obama and other disgusting ones from the man trying to remove 863,000 votes from the Michigan voters. 

DDT Recounts:

After a hand count of all votes, Georgia declared the state for Biden with 12,284 more votes than DDT. Of the 5,800+ uncovered ballots, DDT gained almost 1,400 votes.

DDT Lawsuits:  

Today, state judges in Arizona and Pennsylvania and a federal judge in Georgia rejected election-related lawsuits from Republicans and DDT’s campaign.

Yesterday, DDT’s lawyers demanded all 6.8+ million votes in Pennsylvania be thrown out and the state legislature declare the 20 electoral college votes for DDT. Biden won the state by over 85,000 votes.

With DDT’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in charge, the case isn’t going well. Major media kindly called him “rusty” as he forgot his conspiracy theories can’t replace evidence in a courtroom, and he couldn’t remember which judge was hearing the case. About the opposing attorney, Giuliani said, “I forgot his name.” Tweeting during the case wasn’t a good idea either. In one awkward exchange, he couldn’t remember the definition for “opacity,” believing “it probably means you can see, right?” The judge had to explain that opacity means the opposite: “It means you can’t.” Giuliani responded, “Big words, your honor.”

The judge canceled an evidentiary hearing scheduled for Thursday and gave each side three more days to file arguments. Pennsylvania still has seven active cases, none of which challenge enough ballots to change the state’s and the Electoral College vote. Counties in Pennsylvania must certify their votes by Tuesday, November 24. On Fox network last night, Giuliani explained bogus lawsuits are a “vehicle” to get to the Supreme Court who will give the election to DDT.  

(Credit Image: © Tom Williams/Congressional Quarterly via ZUMA Press)

Because Giuliani couldn’t answer the judge’s question about how he was justifying disenfranchising over 6.8 million voters in the state, his press conference today spouted more “fantasy island” comments about “widespread, nationwide voter fraud.” The plot recited by Giuliani and Michael Flynn’s Fox network lawyer Sidney Powell delivered a vast world conspiracy to elect Biden: Biden’s campaign, George Soros, Antifa, the media, the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez (who died over seven years ago), Germany, China, Cuba, leading social media and technology companies, two voting technology firms, Democratic officials, and cities with mostly Black voters. “Globalist dictators, corporations, you name it! Everybody is against us,” Powell said. NBC host compared Giuliani’s press conference to “a Saturday Night Live skit.” More sordid details here. 

The media pointed out the brown hair dye running down Giuliani’s face in the sweat, and he looks must worse on video–seemingly ill. Fox aired Giuliani’s complete press conference before claiming it wasn’t true—“light on facts” and “simply not true,” according to Kristin Fisher.

Seth Hettena has a well-researched history of how Giuliani, once one of the most respected heroes of the United States, shrank to today’s appearance, a crazy toady of DDT.

Until November 4, 2020, DDT convinced his followers the coronavirus would magically disappear on that day. By November 19, over two weeks later, COVID-19 has worsened every day, hitting over 12 million in the U.S. today with 192,186 new cases and over 2,000 deaths.