Batty Signals

The Never Ending Saga: Yesterday, while President-elect Biden and his team were talking about the difficult challenges ahead, Trump celebrated “his” vaccine accomplishments without the vaccine companies or any members of the incoming administration, the team that will be responsible for getting those vaccines into our collective arms, present.  Bizarrely enough, Trump also noted what a “terrific development” it was that such a huge percent of Americans have turned up COVID positive, he cited 15%, it’s not clear if that’s a real statistic or if he pulled it out of the air but whatever the figure is, it’s bad, really bad.  Herd advocate Scott Atlas may be gone from the virus task force, but the mango maniac is still trying to kill off as many of us as possible, not that he talks about those who’ve died or expresses compassion to their families.  When asked why no one from the next administration had been invited to his summit, the delusional and deceitful Trump insisted that since he’d won the “rigged” election, that next administration would be his, adding "Let's see whether or not somebody has the courage, whether it's legislators or legislatures or a justice of the Supreme Court or a number of justices of the Supreme Court. Let's see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right." And by right he means, overturn all those Biden blue state certified election results.  After his vaccine summit he tweeted out a picture of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, one of his hoped for saviors, depicting her with rays of lights emanating from her head. Unfortunately for Trump, Judge Amy missed his bat signal, neither she nor any of the other Justices were moved by his plea or that offer from Texas Senator Ted Cruz to argue in front of their court on his behalf. Yesterday afternoon SCOTUS denied a Republican request to block certification of Pennsylvania’s election results, delivering a near fatal blow to Trump and his abettors’ long-shot bid to invalidate Biden’s victory. Not that those persistent Republicans have given up yet, shortly after SCOTUS issued its dissent-free terse, one line order, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton jumped in, asking the Supreme Court to block Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan from casting their "unlawful and constitutionally tainted votes" in the Electoral College.  To be clear, the not so honorable Paxton, who has been under indictment for years for several crimes that he allegedly committed and who is currently being investigated by the FBI for helping one of his major donors get out from under some legal problems of his own, wants those blue votes thrown out because obviously only red state ones should count. His argument is absurd, the fraud and statistical anomalies he cites are nonexistent but he’s now not alone, reports are that overnight other red states including Louisiana and Alabama plan to join his suit.  No one rational expects Paxton’s case to make any more headway with the Supremes than the Pennsylvania case did, but in the unlikely chance that his suit makes it to the argument stage, no doubt Ted Cruz will extend his offer to help out and with all the remaining members of Trump’s elite legal force hospitalized and/or in quarantine, including Jenna Ellis who, like Rudy, is now COVID positive, but unlike Rudy doesn’t appear to have been offered any of those Trump miracle cures, maybe someone will take him up on his offer.  The continuing clown show isn’t limited to the legal arena, yesterday Republican leaders Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy and Roy Blunt voted against a routine statement acknowledging that their six member inaugural committee was preparing for the inauguration of President-elect Biden and VP-elect Harris.  Of course, the three other members of the committee, Democrats Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congressman Steny Hoyer and Senator Amy Klobuchar all signed on.  This charade is not only tiresome, it feeds election distrust and damages our country’s democratic underpinnings, but apparently few Republicans care because if they can’t keep control of the Oval Office, they’d rather burn the whole White House down and anyone else who gets in the way.

Other Legalities:  Trump and the Republicans aren’t the only ones suing, Chris Krebs, Trump’s former cybersecurity official, who was fired for infuriating Trump by saying that the election had been the most secure in American history is suing the Trump campaign and Trump lawyer Joe diGenova accusing them of defamation. Maybe diGenova calling for him to be “drawn and quartered and taken out at down and shot” on Newsmax TV wasn’t such a good idea?  It’s not just Washington, something very peculiar is going on in Florida, where state police with guns drawn raided the home of former state data scientist Rebekah Jones grabbing her computer, phone and the other hardware that supports the coronavirus website that she’d set up after being ousted earlier in the year for pointing out that Governor DeSantis was intentionally downplaying Florida’s virus situation by keeping key hospitalization and mortality statistics from seeing the light of day.  Local law enforcement claims that Jones hacked into the state’s health department website in November to send an unauthorized message to Florida emergency personnel, calling on them to speak out against the state’s negligent pandemic response.  She denies that she’s responsible for that email, the password used to access the site is shared by all of the state’s staff so anyone could have sent the note in question but whether she sent it or not, she’s right, DeSantis has been downplaying the virus, the Florida situation is out of control and the assertions in the email were correct.  Also, armed police over an errant email.  Really?   

Et Cetera:  Democrats are doing what they always do, fighting with each other, now over cabinet appointments.  Quite a few aren’t all that pleased that Biden has selected retired General Lloyd Austin to serve as his Defense Secretary because he’s only been out of the military for four rather than seven years and a number of those in opposition are women who’d been hoping that he would have chosen Michele Flournoy the woman who they wanted to see appointed instead. So far Biden is sticking with his pick.  Though its not a done deal yet, it’s thought that he’s likely to pick soon to be former Alabama Senator Doug Jones who though white has real Civil Rights chops as Attorney General, Black Congressional leader Marcia Fudge as HUD Secretary and former Obama Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise his role.  Biden isn’t the only one busy appointing, as a parting gesture, and by gesture think birds not waves, Trump is loading the government with his fans.  Yesterday he appointed a slew of loyalists including Kellyanne Conway, Mitch McConnell spouse/Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Conservative PAC head Matt Schlapp to some government board positions.  Funny moves for someone who is so sure that he’s not a LOSER.  No virus aid package agreement yet but we may get more petulance from Trump soon, Congress is moving ahead with the annual defense bill, the one that Trump said he would veto.    

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