Twenty-nine Bumpy Days

Basta: Evangelist Pat Robertson, appears to have thrown in his Trump towel, saying that Trump lives in an alternative reality, Robertson recognized Biden’s win and said that he’ll be president come January 20. Though he applauded what he called Trump’s accomplishments, he noted that the mango maniac is erratic and has had his day, and then said that it was time for him to move on.  Geraldo Rivera agrees, he called on Trump and his followers to stop talking nonsense about “crossing the Rubicon” towards civil war and dictatorship, adding “Biden won, Trump lost. Stop acting like spoiled brats, or worse the lunatic fringe. Enough basta.”  Though Attorney General for a few more days Bill Barr didn’t yell basta, he made it clear that he too has had enough.  Yesterday he said that he saw no basis for appointing special counsels to investigate Hunter Biden or election fraud, that he believes that the cyber breach that Trump suggested came from China came from Russia and that there was no basis for seizing election machines from state election authorities. As to those election machines, Trump continues to hold dead Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez responsible for conspiring with George Soros and election machine companies Dominion and Smartmatic for that alleged massive flipping of votes to Biden. However, facing lawsuits from the machine manufacturers, particularly from Smartmatic whose machines weren’t even used in any of the swing states, Fox and Newsmax have forced their “stars” to walk back their stories on the subject.  As much as they love Trump, losing boatloads of money in a libel suit is bad business model, especially for Newsmax, the company that hopes to usurp Fox’s position as the official  Trump station.  Even Giuliani is in the action, well a little.  Rudy issued a statement distancing himself and Trump from Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell yesterday going on Newsmax to announce that “Sidney Powell is not part of our legal team, she hasn't been for five weeks, she speaks for herself."  That’s probably news to both Powell and Trump as Kraken Sidney was seen entering the White House yesterday. That said, it’s fair to assume that Rudy whose emails are being sought by SDNY prosecutors, something to do with his Ukrainian shenanigans, wouldn’t do anything to make Pardon King Trump unhappy. As to Trump, he’s told everyone working the Biden transition to make sure to hold back anything that can be used against him even if that means withholding critical information, a message consistent with reports that he’s laying as many traps, international and domestic, as he can in an effort to doom Biden’s presidency.    

Lunatic Fringe: Despite these “minor” setbacks Trump is nowhere near giving up on upending the election.  To that end he hosted a crowd of his most avid Congresspeople yesterday.  Led by Alabama’s Mo Brooks, who is spearheading the effort to turn the January 6 Electoral College certification process into a sh-t show, the group included Georgia’s Jody Hice, Ohio’s Jim “Gym” Jordan, Arizona’s Andy Biggs and QAnon’s Marjorie Taylor Greene. The group of insurrectionists also met with VP Pence, who in his role as President of the Senate will be presiding over the Electoral College confirmation as well as members of Trump’s legal team.  Senator John Thune, a member of Republican leadership says that Brook’s effort is “going down like a shot dog.” But even if he’s right, it won’t be pretty as Brooks says that his growing crowd plans to challenge the results in six of those states that went for Biden. That could result in 18 hours of debate, stretching the vote-counting process into the “wee hours” of January 7.  Just what we need, more must see TV?  Also, Trump has officially turned on Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.  Late yesterday he shared a slide with Republican legislators in which he slammed Mitch for being the first one off the ship, a criticism of the Senate Leader’s recognition that Joe Biden is the President-elect.  Trump called Mitch out for forgetting how he stepped up to save his reelection with a “robocall” and an endorsement tweet, as if that was the sole reason that McConnell trounced Amy McGrath by 20 points.  That broadside is intended as a message to any other Republicans who ever hope to seek reelection that Trump expects them to step up on January 6.   

Viral Musings:  The good news first, Joe Biden got his first vaccination on live TV yesterday and didn’t go into anaphylactic shock.  Virus guru Fauci is due to get a Moderna shot today as the State of Maryland has decided NIH employees like him are critical workers.  Now the bad news, the US COVID death count is up to 320,663 and though no one is suggesting that the mutated coronavirus strains will be immune to the current crop of vaccines, they are being taken seriously, studies on their response to the vaccines are being initiated.  It’s not just the British uber contagious strain that has people concerned, there is also a possibly more virulent one making the rounds in South Africa. So far at least the Feds don’t seem all that concerned about travelers coming into the US from the UK, but Governor Cuomo, whose authority is limited, has persuaded British Air, Delta and Virgin Air to require that any travelers flying to JFK Airport show proof of a negative COVID test before boarding their flights.  NJ’s Governor Murphy hasn’t done the same for Newark, but is thinking about it. What’s to think about, frankly anyone getting on a plane to anywhere should first show proof that they’ve tested negative for COVID.  Ask those passengers who were on that United Orlando to Los Angeles flight, the one where a patient keeled over from what was initially assumed to be a heart attack but what turned out to be a COVID related incident.  The good Samaritan who gave him CPR is now symptomatic awaiting the results of a test.  The deceased passenger claimed to be just fine before boarding his “last” flight even though he knew he wasn’t.  Who would have guessed, the honor system doesn’t work.