Monster Mash

Frankenstein and Dracula:  Joe Biden won the election.  He has 306 electoral college votes to Trump’s 232 and received 6 million more popular votes but Trump is still waging war and, though he continues to lose in the court, he’s succeeding in other more nefarious ways.  Remember those two Republican members of the Michigan Board of Canvassers who traveled to Washington to meet with Trump on Friday, though they claim that all they discussed during their tete-a tete was Michigan’s PPE needs and the like, we all know that’s a bunch of bunk.  After their meeting, the two overnighted at Trump International where they were photographed downing Dom Perignon champagne in the hotel’s bar. It’s fair to assume that they didn’t pay for either, well didn’t pay in cash. Expectations are that they will compensate Trump later today by voting against certifying Michigan’s vote count.  One of them, Norman Shinkle, whose wife was one of the Republican Detroit poll watchers who claimed to have seen election irregularities, things like Black people actually being allowed to vote, told a Republican Congressman that he plans to vote against certification and though the other one, Aaron Van Langevelde, hasn’t yet revealed how he’ll vote he’s being pressured by Michigan’s Republican House Chair and RNC Chair/Michigander Ronna Romney McDaniel to vote no as well.  They are expected to instead insist on a precertification audit which is just a Trumpian delay tactic, more of his effort to get election results thrown out the window in order to replace Democratic electors with Republican ones.  Audits take place after certification not before because the ballots can’t be released to outsiders until after they are certified. Michigan’s Democratic lawmakers, including Governor Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, insist that there are ways for them to legally dispense with this mess, but it won’t be pretty.  It’s not just Michigan, though US District Judge Michael Brann, an Obama appointee who is also a member of the conservative Federalist Society, tossed Trump’s latest suit against Pennsylvania with prejudice, likening his legal team’s claims to a Frankenstein’s monster haphazardly stitched together and the case full of  "strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations," the Trump legal team filed an appeal last night in an effort to stall Pennsylvania’s certification.  That legal team no longer includes Michael Flynn lawyer Sidney Powell. Although she appeared with Rudy Giuliani at his head oozing press conference and Trump previously tweet touted her as a member of his elite legal strike force, yesterday, during a moment when he wasn’t golfing or participating in that G 20  virtual coronavirus meeting with other world leaders, Trump kicked her off his team.  To be clear he was okay with her claiming that the very dead Venezuela strongman Hugo Chavez conspired with George Soros and the forces of antifa to manipulate election counting machines to make it look like he lost when he really won resoundingly, he just had a problem with her discussing her plans to “biblically” blow up Georgia, or more likely the blood sucking Mitch McConnell, who thus far has tolerated Trump’s legal machinations, made it clear that going postal on Georgia in the run up to those two pivotal January Senator elections is a step too far.  As to Georgia, on Friday with the support of Republican Governor Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, another Republican. made it clear that though he voted for Trump and loves his policies, “numbers don’t lie.”  He certified Georgia’s votes awarding the state’s 16 electoral college votes to Biden.  Trump responded by tweet attacking both of them while his campaign immediately called for a recount, in case you’re counting that will be recount number two.  By the way that two county recount in Wisconsin is going very slowly, Republicans there are doing their very best to toss minority votes and/or miss the certification deadline.    

The Invisible Man:  Over twelve million American have or have had COVID, more than 255,000 Americans have died and the daily infection count is now running above 200,000.  Included in that count and now in quarantine are Florida’s Republican Senator Rick Scott, Donald Trump Jr, Andrew Giuliani and, depending on which of her many tests “count,” Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler. On Friday, before she received her positive test result, Loeffler, who Trump’s crazed former lawyer Sidney Powell insists only made it to the Senate runoff over soon to be former Congressman Doug Collins because of that Chavez, Soros, antifa conspiracy, was on the campaign trail with VP Pence and Georgia’s other Republican Senator David Perdue. None of them were wearing masks during their time together, no indication if either of them or Pence’s fly have been tested or plan to quarantine. Though more Republican politicians than Democrats seem to be engaged in risky behavior, hypocrisy is alive and well across the aisle too.  California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom has been hit with well-deserved criticism for attending an unmasked fancy dining extravaganza in his home state which makes his newest state virus restrictions more difficult to implement.  He is now in quarantine, not because of that dining shindig but because one of the state troopers providing protection to his children has turned up positive.  On the vaccination front preliminary results are in from Astra Zeneca, it looks like one dose of their vaccine is 70% effective while two doses are somewhere around 90% effective.  That’s good news but unfortunately @GSAEmily still hasn’t provided that ascertainment letter needed to trigger the transition and as a result no one is coordinating  vaccination plans, or anything else, with the Biden team.  That isn’t to say that Biden’s team hasn’t been busy.  In addition to meeting with both red and blue state governors to discuss their virus needs, Biden has been working on firming up his cabinet.  He is expected to announce that he will be appointing Antony Blinken, a defender of global alliances, as Secretary of State, Jake Sullivan as national security advisor and Linda Thomas Greenfield as UN Ambassador.  Biden also indicated that he has picked a Treasury Secretary.  We should hear more tomorrow.  It appears that Susan Rice lost out on the Secretary of State position over concerns that some of those Republican Senators who have had no problem confirming Trump’s cast of misfit malevolents “President Trump has had the opportunity to litigate his claims, and the courts have thus far found them without merit. A pressure campaign on state legislators to influence the electoral outcome is not only unprecedented but inconsistent with our democratic process. It is time to begin the full and formal transition process.” still hold her responsible for Benghazi.   

The Mummies:  Watergate journalist/CNN Contributor Carl Bernstein has reached his limit.  Saying that with few exceptions, their “craven public silence has helped enable Trump’s most grievous conduct, including undermining and discrediting the US the electoral system," he outed the twenty-one Republican Senators who have privately expressed their disdain for Trump to him.  That list includes Ohio's Rob Portman, Tennessee's Lamar Alexander, Nebraska's Ben Sasse, Missouri's Roy Blunt, Maine's Susan Collins, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, Texas's John Cornyn, South Dakota's John Thune, Utah's Mitt Romney, Indiana's Mike Braun, Indiana's Todd Young, South Carolina's Tim Scott, Florida's Rick Scott, Florida's Marco Rubio, Iowa's Chuck Grassley, North Carolina's Richard Burr, Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey, Arizona's Martha McSally, Kansas's Jerry Moran, Kansas's Pat Roberts, and Alabama's Richard Shelby.  A few of these Senators including Romney, Toomey, Collins and Murkowski have called for the transition to begin. To that end, Murkowski “bravely” issued a statement last night where she indicated that she’s had it with Trump’s machinations.  Her statement:  “Trump has had the opportunity to litigate his claims, and the courts have thus far found them without merit. A pressure campaign on state legislators to influence the electoral outcome is not only unprecedented but inconsistent with our democratic process. It is time to begin the full and formal transition process.” Unfortunately, unless the rest of these jokers come forward forcefully, something they are unlikely to do without the support of their manipulative, power hungry leader Mitch McConnell, Trump will continue his evil games. 

58 Days