Election Day, Again

Peach Trees: It’s election day in Georgia today so naturally Senator Kelly Loeffler announced her intention to join the twelve Senators and 140 or so Congresspeople who plan to disrupt the official counting of the already state certified Electoral College votes from all or some of those swing states that Trump lost but insists that he really won during tomorrow’s Joint Session of Congress. Her run-off partner David Perdue was spared from having to announce his intentions because he’s in limbo, his term ended with the swearing in of the new Congress but since Loeffler was an appointed mid-term replacement, her term runs until the winner of today’s election is sworn in, and given all the hoopla around elections these days no one knows when that will happen.  Despite Loeffler’s kowtowing, Trump, who like President-Elect Joe Biden was in Georgia yesterday, spent most of what will hopefully be his last tax payer funded rally talking about himself, complaining about that horrible woman/former and probably future Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and calling for VP Mike Pence to do the right thing on Wednesday because as he put it: “The fact is we won the presidential election, we won it big…..The Democrats are trying to steal the White House. You just cannot let them steal the Senate." As to that right thing he wants Pence to do, of course Trump doesn’t want his lapdog to do anything legit, instead he wants Pence, who is nothing more than the designated emcee for Wednesday’s Electoral College confirmation event to dump the certified results from states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin, replacing them with the alternative slates presented by those  rogue Republican state legislators. Feeding Trump’s fury, a few more Republican Senators, including Tom Cotton, Mike Lee, Shelly Moore Capito, Rob Portman and Bill Cassidy found their voices yesterday, putting country over party or at the very least concluding that appearing to do so would suit their long term political prospects despite the current Trump infested environment.  Arkansas’ Cotton, a presidential aspirant who is one of the most conservative members of the Senate, published a formal statement where among other things he pointed out that honoring  Electoral College results is important because without the institution it’s unlikely that Republicans could ever win a presidential election again, a stunning but true admission that his party holds little appeal to the increasingly diverse parts of the country’s population.  Trump’s response, of course, was to issue a threat, telling Cotton that he’ll make sure that voters never forget that he didn’t stand up for him.  Expectations are that Wednesday will go on forever, bleeding into Thursday, that there will be lots of ranting and raving inside and that will be the calm part.  Outside Washington DC officials are gearing up for demonstrations, they’ve already called out the National Guard to help manage what is expected to be a large confrontational crowd, dominated by white supremacists with a fair share of counter protestors who should stay home but won’t.  As of now it doesn’t appear that Proud Boys leader/Trump fan Enrique Tarrio will be able to attend the Wednesday hoopla/slugfest, he was taken into custody yesterday, arrested for some of that destruction of property he did during December’s Washington DC Proud Boy rally.  He now faces weapons charges too because he was carrying two high-capacity firearm magazines when he was arrested, a bigly no no in Washington DC.  It really sucks when you forget to hand off your illegal ammunition to the gang member smuggling in the rest of your arsenal.  By the way Trump plans to attend the rally, though its fair to assume that he’ll leave once things getting heated, as his heel spurs are likely to act up.

Enough Already: Trump and Biden and their contingents weren’t the only ones taking to the Georgia microphones yesterday.  Gabriel Sterling, the Georgia election official who entertained us with his impromptu tirade last month held a presser of his own, the outspoken Sterling fact checked and debunked each of the Kraken inspired assertions that Trump made during his now infamous hour long Saturday phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (or Raffensberger, whatever).  The exasperated Sterling made it clear that most, if not all of what Trump said was easily, provably false, calling him out for persisting to “undermine Georgian’s faith in the electoral system,” something that Sterling, who insists that he’s always been and still is a Republican, finds totally infuriating. Of course, if Trump has anything to do with it all of Georgia’s current officials from Governor Kemp on down will be replaced by more suitable, Trump toadies during the next election cycle. Cleta Mitchell, the lawyer who represented Trump on his Raffensperger call may be replaced soon too, by her law firm. Her colleagues at Foley & Lardner claim that they had no idea that she’d been doing work for Trump, an assertion that’s hard to believe given her well known political beliefs and her prior client roster.  To the extent that she’s ousted she won’t be the only Republican lawyer looking for a new position, yesterday Byung Pak who as the US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia was the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta announced his resignation, something to do with “unforeseen circumstances.”  Though Pak hasn’t disclosed the reason for his departure, or what he plans to do next, it’s worth noting that Trump was referring to him when he kvetched about that “never Trumper US Attorney” on his contentious Saturday call with Raffensperger. Quite possibly, better yet probably, Trump demanded that Pak take an action or two to upend those Fulton County, election results, the ones that led to Biden carrying Georgia and Pak refused, packed up his brief case and skadoodled rather than see his reputation and license go up in smoke.  Pak, who was involved in some important legal cases, had previously said that he planned to stay until his replacement was confirmed. 

Viral Musings:  Los Angeles ambulance drivers have been told not to bother transporting patients with little chance of survival to local hospital emergency rooms as there is no room at the inn and the delayed effects of what is expected to be a significant post New Year’s surge haven’t hit, yet. The US death count stands at 353,628 and while blaming the states for their inadequate vax rollout and asserting that he never said that twenty million shots would be administered by year end, even though he did, Operation Warp Speed’s Moncef Slaoui said that he would like to see doses of the Moderna vaccine cut in half to allow for the vaccination of twice as many people.  According to Slaoui, research shows giving half the dose to people between ages 18-55 results in the same immune response as the higher dose that is currently being administered.  Presumably, those above 55 would continue to get the “regular” amount or not, who knows.   Anyway, Slaoui’s suggestion which is being considered by both Moderna and the FDA, is not without precedent, to provoke an adequate immune response flu shots given to those 65 and older have four times as much antigen as the standard one.

Fifteen days although today and tomorrow are going to be exceptionally long ones, or at least feel that way.