News Avoiding the Election, Mostly

Great news for Arizona and democracy! Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, endorsed by Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), lost her election to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. Bad news for Arizona: after the losses of her and two other major DDT candidates, Mark Finchem for secretary of state and Blake Masters for U.S. senator, election liars may try to burn the state down. DDT wants an entire new election for the state because Democrats won some of the races, and some of the losers refuse to concede, saying that they will ensure that they win. With a little over 100,000 ballots still to be counted, Kris Mayes is only 3,000 votes ahead of GOP Abe Hamadeh, another DDT election liar who can bring lawsuits for the state.

In a three-hour face-to-face meeting, President Joe Biden and Chinese President XI Jinping looked for ways to work together. Biden said there will be no “new Cold War” and believes China has no imminent plans to invade Taiwan. The leaders were in Bali for the G20 summit, and the meeting came after months of quiet negotiations. Biden asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to follow up on the discussion in Beijing as part of a long process to thaw a tense relationship. Biden kept DDT’s tariffs and restricted selling semiconductors and chip-making equipment to China.

For the first time, Xi warned against nuclear weapons in Russia’s war when he met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a clear signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin. A Chinese senior official said on the condition of anonymity:

“I think there is undeniably a discomfort in Beijing about what we’ve seen in terms of reckless rhetoric and activity on the part of Russia. I think it is also undeniable that China is probably both surprised and a little bit embarrassed by the conduct of Russian military operations.”

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was absent for part of the summit after he was taken to the hospital for a heart problem. He said he is fine. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), possibly the biggest liar in the Senate, feels that Biden is compromised by China. No evidence, just a “feeling.”

The House January 6 investigative committee may subpoena the phone records of Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward according to a Supreme Court ruling. She had claimed the request for her phone records violated the First Amendment. The committee requested call records, phone numbers, text messages, and IP addresses communicating with Ward’s number between November 2020 to January 2021 when she was connected to the scam of an Arizona alternate electors’ slate to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.      

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the decision without explanation. Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas, had taken part of the attempted coup by writing 29 Arizona lawmakers, urging them to choose “a clean slate of electors” instead of the state electors pledged to Biden in support of the popular vote. Ward and her husband were “fake electors” from Arizona, lying about the 2020 presidential election in their state. Both the state district court and the 9th Circuit Court disagreed with Ward’s arguments, one of the three-judge panel a DDT appointee.

Ginni Thomas is working on another coup, this one to get rid of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for congressional leaders. She joined almost 60 far-right politicians, some of them like Thomas investigated by the House January 6 investigative committee, in signing a letter to delay the choice of GOP leadership in the 118^th Congress.  The American Independent’s senior political reporter Emily C. Singer called it a “who’s who of insurrection supporting Republicans.”

A DDT-supported federal judge in the U.S. District Court for D.C. dismissed a year-old lawsuit by Mark Meadows, DDT’s former chief of staff, to block the House investigative committee to subpoena him. He will likely appear and run the clock out to the end of the 117^th Congress, but the ruling is a precedent for many other suits in the same court. Meadows was on the telephone when DDT tried to persuade Georgia election officials to “find” sufficient votes for his victory and with DDT on January 6, 2021 when insurrections illegally entered the Capitol.

A federal judge blocked attempts by Rudy Giuliani to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. Giuliani’s accusation of election fraud by the mother/daughter pair caused serious threats and harassment against them; Freeman even had to leave her home for months. Giuliani had falsified a video for his lies.

The Senate returns next week, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), also elected for that position in the 118^th Congress, scheduled a Wednesday vote on the bill to codify the right to same-gender and interracial marriage. Democratic leader Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) said she thinks the bill has the 60 votes to overcome a filibuster and has reached an agreement on “commonsense” changes to protect religious freedom with Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Susan Collins (R-ME), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ, and Thom Tillis (R-NC). In July, almost 50 House Republicans joined Democrats to pass the bill.  

When Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) politely protested Elon Musk’s allowing Twitter impersonation of him—and many others—Musk responded by saying Marky’s own account “sounds like a parody.” Marky tweeted back:

“One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree. Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online. Fix your companies. Or Congress will.”

A fake tweet from Eli Lilly about free insulin in a supposedly verified account brought outrage after Lilly’s “apology” that it was false, including from a parody imitating Lilly:

“We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account about the cost of diabetic care. Humalog is now $400. We can do this whenever we want and there’s nothing you can do about it. Suck it. Our official Twitter account is @LiIlyPadCo.”

About 37.3 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, and 8.4 million need insulin to survive. To manufacture, a vial costs under $10, but Lilly’s list price is $274.70, the generic at $82.41. Most people on insulin require 2-3 vials a month so at least 1.3 million people risk their lives by rationing their insulin. The Inflation Reduction Act caps insulin out-of-pocket costs at $35 per month for Medicare participants, but Republicans blocked all other price caps.  

In the midst of ballot-counting, the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel released the newly declassified summary of a joint interview with George W. Bush and his VP Dick Cheney regarding the September 11 attacks. Members of the 9/11 Commission, did not record the event on April 29, 2004, and the released summary document is the only official record, a “memorandum for the record.”

Bush evidenced no sense about the death and destruction set free by his global war; the interview was at the same time as a massive insurgency in Iraq against a U.S. occupation which would kill thousands of U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Seeing the first plane hit the World Trade Center, he thought what a terrible pilot. When his chief of staff Andy Card told him the U.S. was under attack, he stayed in the classroom where he had been reading My Pet Goat to children. He tried to “collect his thoughts” and decided he should “project calm and strength.”

Communications equipment kept failing, including the secure phone line between Bush and Cheney. Bush couldn’t find Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and complained about not having “good television” on Air Force One. Cheney was responsible for authorizing the military to shoot down civilian aircraft. Bush also claimed he didn’t know anything about Saudi nationals receiving permission to leave the country after 9/11.

Bush said he got no “actionable intelligence” About Osama Bin Laden and preparation for hijackings or other attacks in the U.S. and claimed CIA Director George Tenet said “the threat was overseas.” Cheney criticized congressional oversight of covert operations, especially by the CIA, because it weakened the agency. To make the U.S. less vulnerable to attack, Bush said, “We had to kill them before they kill us.” Working with Putin was important to use U.S. military and intelligence of bases in central Asia.

Inflation dropped to an annual rate of 7.7 percent in October, down a half percent. The biggest inflationary contributors were shelter, gasoline, and food, the first two items raising historic profits for companies. Buyers will find less inflation in used cars prices, household supplies, clothing and accessories, household gas, and some food items.

Biden gave all veterans and Gold Star families lifetime passes to national parks.

New drugs could restore a woman’s period using the same medication as used in medical abortion, misoprostol or in combination with mifepristone. The process might not be classified as abortion because the woman doesn’t know whether she is pregnant. Misoprostol is also used for gastric ulcers in nonpregnant people but have become more difficult to obtain because of its connection to abortions. The courts, however, have described abortion as related to “knowledge of a confirmed pregnancy” or “intent to end a confirmed pregnancy.” Menstrual regulation doesn’t rely on a confirmed pregnancy, and no states ban or restrict this regulation with an unknown pregnancy status.

Biden Works, DDT Sulks

President-elect Joe Biden:

Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) tries to block any resources from Biden’s transition, going so far as to tell his employees to have no contact with the team. Transition members can’t even enter agency buildings. Without a secure government telephone line or language interpretation services customarily provided by the State Department, Biden solved part of the problem by communicating with recently departed government officials and other experts, relying on a team led by a former senior State Department official. They’re trying to get information about ongoing projects, budgets, trouble spots, technology, and personnel, but they still need to obtain data about personnel vacancies, pending litigation, contracts, and procurement. DDT’s frequent terminations of personnel and people quitting in frustration provide a rich lode of material. The flawed process is better than nothing.

Biden is still receiving congratulatory calls from foreign leaders, one from Pope Francis. Of the 46 presidents, Biden is only the second Catholic president; John F. Kennedy was the first. Biden has talked with eight other world leaders: Australian PM Scott Morrison; Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga; South Korean President Moon Jae; Canadian PM Justin Trudeau; British PM Boris Johnson; French President Emmanuel Macron; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; and Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is keeping foreign government congratulation messages from Biden. Biden is following the law by providing readouts, something DDT failed to do. Only four U.S. GOP senators have congratulated Biden for being president-elect: Lisa Murkowski (AK), Mitt Romney (UT), Susan Collins (ME) and Ben Sasse (NE). Two major foreign leaders, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, don’t recognize Biden’s win.

Pompeo leaves tomorrow for an 11-day, seven-country trip in Europe and the Middle East. All their leaders publicly congratulated Biden although Pompeo announced that DDT had won. The schedule includes France, Turkey, Georgia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia

GOP Sens. James Lankford (OK), Chuck Grassley (IA), Lindsey Graham (SC), and John Thune (SD) have said Biden should have access to classified briefings but don’t recognize him as president-elect.

Biden’s coronavirus transition team has 52 members laying the groundwork for a permanent task force in February to coordinate a comprehensive virus response throughout federal agencies. Transition members include representatives to review almost all agencies along with academics and state-level health experts for subject-matter authorities assisting specific policy efforts. Three leaders will concentrate on domestic, national security/foreign, and tech strategy delivery policies.

DDT:

The White House actually had a coronavirus task force meeting, but it concentrated on DDT’s accusation that Pfizer waited until after Election Day to announce the possibility of a vaccine. Following DDT’s orders, HHS Secretary Alex Azar grilled members about DDT’s false claim and blamed the FDA for the delay, despite FDA Director Stephen Hahn’s assertions to the contrary. DDT’s “screaming” at Hahn after Pfizer’s announcement may mean another termination. Pfizer didn’t have the data until the Sunday after the election.

DDT Fires:

Bryan Ware, assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA, was terminated after his DHS Committee, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), announced the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.” CISA director Christopher Krebs expects to be fired after the report’s release.

DHS assistant secretary for international affairs Valerie Boyd also left after being pressured.

DDT Hires:

DDT hired the same lawyers to challenge Georgia’s election results as those defending the state’s voting system, a potential conflict of interest.   

DDT’s Superspreader:

DDT’s adviser and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski tested positive for COVID-19 after attending campaign events before and after the election, including the Election Night speech at the White House. Three unnamed White House aides who attended the event also tested positive for the virus.

Republican National Committee chief of staff Richard Walters, who co-hosted Rudy Giuliani’s Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference, tested positive for coronavirus.

One of about two dozen House members contracting COVID-19, Alaska’s GOP Don Young, at 87 the oldest member of the House, tested positive for coronavirus. In early March, he ridiculed the virus as the “beer virus” and told Alaskans to “go forth with everyday activities.” He continued hosting in-person fundraisers and didn’t require masks.

DDT’s Lawsuits:

One election fraud lawsuit featured Richard Hopkins, who signed an affidavit he had heard an Erie (PA) postmaster ordering workers to backdate mail-in ballots for the Election Day deadline. The statement was also used as a talking point for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and an excuse for AG Bill Barr to allow federal prosecutors to interfere in the election. Hopkins has not only withdrawn his sworn affidavit but also said Project Veritas, the conservative group legendary for manipulating media for falsehoods, wrote the affidavit. Hopkins can’t remember its contents.

Republicans are covering their inaction to declare Biden the president-elect by claiming there’s no downside in refusing to concede the election despite the evidence DDT has lost. A senior GOP official allegedly said:  [visual – Trump humoring]

“What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change…He’s tweeting about filing some lawsuits, those lawsuits will fail, then he’ll tweet some more about how the election was stolen, and then he’ll leave.”

The frivolous, possibly illegal, litigation by DDT and the GOP can be identified by these characteristics:

• The evidence Is so weak that judges dismiss claims as having no merit.
• None of the cases will change the outcome of the election.
• The arguments are “legal Hail Marys”—not even as good as long shots.
• Cases attack votes only in places where DDT lost.

The purpose for the frivolous lawsuits:

• Delaying the announcement of the results to make the transition harder for the next president.
• Disrupting the Electoral College process to move the presidential election in control of state GOP legislatures instead of the state’s popular vote.
• Hoping the declaration of “election fraud” will keep DDT from being called a “loser.”
• Raising money for future GOP candidates—mostly DDT.

Republicans enabling DDT in his petulant “Custer’s Last Stand” are damaging the Republic. Former GOP Arizona AG Grant Woods summarized part of the problem with DDT’s continuing lawsuits and GOP lawmakers’ silence:

“They’ve caused a substantial portion of Americans to lose faith in our institutions, and one of those is our electoral system.”

Bipartisan audits in Arizona countries comprising 86 percent of the ballots found no discrepancies or other issues affecting the election outcome. The GOP did not request audits in the Republican countries. Biden is ahead in Arizona by 11,434 votes with fewer than 11,600 ballots to count. Tonight, NBC has finally called Arizona for Biden, a week after Fox network alienated DDT by doing the same.

A British newspaper described the ways DDT is undermining democracy:

• Litigation with a “slew of baseless lawsuits in swing states.”
• Undermining the media, even railing against Fox network.
• Federal investigation using the supposedly independent Department of Justice through AG Bill Barr.
• Calling on enablers such as Ken Starr and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to continue his crusade.

(Visual from a coup watcher.) 

Dana Milbank writes:

“So this will be President Trump’s parting gift to the nation: He is deliberately sabotaging the national security of the United States.”

Milbank addresses how the 9/11 Commission determined a truly-delayed transition in 2000 “hampered the new administration in identifying, recruiting, clearing, and obtaining Senate confirmation of key appointees.” It recommended “we should minimize as much as possible the disruption of national security policymaking during the change of administrations” so that “transitions can work more effectively and allow new officials to assume their new responsibilities as quickly as possible.”

In his attempt to salve his ego, DDT undermines the Commission’s recommendation with a multitude of falsehoods. He has already failed to comply with the Commission’s recommendation “the outgoing administration should provide the president-elect, as soon as possible after election day, with a classified, compartmented list that catalogues specific, operational threats to national security; major military or covert operations; and pending decisions on the possible use of force.”

Emily Murphy is the face of the delay; DDT is the cause—the cause of deliberately killing hundreds of thousands of people from COVID-19 and the cause of deliberating infecting millions of people with COVID-19 that can result in  lifelong damaging health effects. All for attention and his drive to not look like a loser.

A new Reuters poll shows 79 percent of U.S. adults think Biden won the election although three percent think DDT won and another 13 percent believe the outcome is still uncertain. Of the Republicans, 59 percent believe Biden is the winner. Seventy percent of people, including 59 percent of Republicans, trust their local election officials to “do their job honestly.” Another 72 percent think the election’s loser should concede defeat.

COVID-19:

As the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths skyrocket throughout the nation, so do hospitalizations—now 67,096, doubled in five weeks. North Dakota still doesn’t have a mask requirement, but hospitals are at full capacity. Gov. Doug Burgum now allows infected health care workers to care for people with coronavirus. Missouri is on the cusp of deciding which severely ill people will be permitted to use hospital facilities. New cases in the U.S. today were 161,541 with an estimated total tomorrow over 11 million. The number of deaths in the U.S. from the virus will likely surpass 250,000 by Saturday with 1,190 today.

DDT has 69 more days in the Oval Office.