Five Alarms

Clusterf-ck:  First the good news, the Trump legal team continues to rack up loss after loss in the courts and the Georgia recount results are in, Trump gained a few more votes but Joe Biden is still the winner. Since the margin of Biden’s factory remains below the .5% threshold, Trump is entitled to request another recount, but that recount would be done by machines and no one expects it to change the results. Georgia is one step closer to certification, ready to move on to focus on those contentious Senate runoffs.  Now the bad news, Trump and his nefarious cronies are working to disrupt the certification of both Michigan and Pennsylvania’s election results.  While that sounds and is both anti-democratic and insane, they are making progress.  My suggestion yesterday that someone should check the phone records of the Wayne County, Michigan Republican board members who tried to rescind their votes to certify their county’s election results to see if they had spoken with Lindsey Graham or Trump was meant as a joke. Well it turns out that the joke is on us, Trump has spoken with them and with the Republican leaders of the Michigan House and Senate, Speaker Lee Chatfield and  Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, and both have accepted an invitation to meet with Trump today in Washington. Last week Leader Shirkey reassured everyone that there was nothing to worry about, that the Michigan legislature would certify the state’s election results, and that Joe Biden who won the state’s popular vote by 154,000 would be awarded the state’s 16 electoral college votes. Don’t be surprised if he backtracks on that comment because Trump didn’t invite him to the White House to exchange green bean casserole recipes.  Its not just Michigan that’s at risk, last night the Republican led Pennsylvania House voted to move forward with an audit of their state’s election results, presidential race only naturally.  To be clear they don’t really expect that the audit will change the outcome of the election, their intent is to permanently delay the awarding of  Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral college votes to Biden.  Without Pennsylvania and Michigan in his column, Biden would still have the 270 votes he needs but barely, which explains why the Trump team is questioning the legitimacy of the Nevada electors as they only need to eliminate  one more Biden elector to throw the whole election to Congress where the rules would favor Trump despite the Democratic majority since Republicans control more state delegations than Speaker Pelosi’s Democrats.  Yeah, I get it, this is farfetched and nutzoid but it’s 2020 and anyway, what about Trump isn’t?  A few, just a few Republicans have spoken out. Senator Mitt Romney who no one who matters listens to tweeted “Having failed to make even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before any court of law” Trump “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.”  Ben Sasse also weighed in as did Maryland’s Governor Hogan, but largely crickets from Republican leadership. Senate Leader McConnell who sent the Senate home early for Thanksgiving remains silent and the snarky House Minority Leader McCarthy appears to find the whole subversion thing entertaining.      

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy: As to the legal shenanigans, Rudy Giuliani hasn’t shown any of the courts any examples of that wide spread fraud that he keeps asserting happened so judges in Arizona, Pennsylvania and almost everywhere else keep throwing his cases out but that hasn’t stopped him from ranting at press conferences. Yesterday, with either hair dye or his pickled insides oozing down his face, no one is sure which though the NY Times published a whole article on the hair dye conspiracy, he quoted a scene from My Cousin Vinny, alleged that Venezuela’s long dead former president Hugo Chavez and a group consisting of antifa, Communists and George Soros had teamed together to cheat Trump out of his election victory. Though Giuliani’s performance was crazy, don’t assume that he is, also don’t discount the impact of his remarks, he knows that he has no viable legal arguments but his show is for the public, those 70 million plus who voted for Trump. Neither CNN nor MSNBC covered his charade in its entirety but everyone showed parts of it because who could resist those clips of his melting head. The remarks from his co-counsel, Flynn attorney Sidney Powell also got air time.  Last night she told Fox Business host/conspiracy theorist Lou Dobbs that “the entire election, frankly, in all the swing states, should be overturned and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for Trump.” She’s horrific, but let’s give her credit for admitting what she and her Orange idol are trying to do:  get rid of Democratic votes, particularly those from people of color, and then declare Trump king. To amplify her message the GOP’s official twitter account tweeted out her assertion that Trump won by a “landslide” and that it’s “time to reclaim the USA for the people who voted for freedom.” And by people, she means MAGAs.       

Et Cetera: Last night the NY Times reported that NY investigations are focusing in on those questionable tax deductions that Trump’s businesses took for consulting fees paid to family members including first daughter Ivanka.  The Princess appears distressed, she responded by tweeting “This ‘inquiry’ by NYC democrats is 100% motivated by politics, publicity and rage. They know very well that there’s nothing here and that there was no tax benefit whatsoever. These politicians are simply ruthless.”  Of course, she is not at all concerned about her father’s autocratic antics.  Her apparent soulmate @GSAEmily still hasn’t budged though the pressure on her to release that all important ascertainment letter continues to mount as it should. Yesterday, Mike Pence and his virus task force held a press conference to “update” us on the virus during which Pence actually said “We approach this moment with the confidence of experience. We know the American people know what to do.” Really, he said that.  Separately, the CDC warned against holiday travel while HHS Secretary Alex Azar warned his staff that they’d better not cooperate with anyone on Biden’s staff.  And before heading off on vacation the Ron Johnson chaired Senate Homeland Security Committee held a hearing on hydroxychloroquine where Republican committee members attacked the scientists and medical experts for questioning the drug’s effectiveness as a COVID treatment.  We are screwed.  

61 Days, maybe.