Lordy, There are Tapes

Déjà vu:  So here we are, it’s a new year, unfortunately nothing has changed, same sh-t, on steroids.  December was the deadliest month so far with a COVID death count of 77,572, even higher than April’s 60,738, notable because back in April we didn’t understand the full force of the virus and knew little about mitigation, now we know but an increasing number seem to think that ignoring the virus, traveling and socializing willy-nilly, and refusing to wear face coverings is the way to go.  The total US death count stands at 352,340  With positivity rates up, and with the holidays still clearly visible in our rear view windows, January’s mortality is likely to be even worse. The vaccination is here, kind of, but unfortunately more doses remain in the deep freeze than in arms because, surprise not, the administration that still doesn’t test adequately, never bothered to develop a national rollout plan and, whether it’s because of a lack of funding or because they too are incompetent, most of our state governors aren’t doing much better. The good news, because there has to be some, is that more shots are being delivered to states, and though the vax start has been slow and discombobulated, as programs ramp up, things will get better.  I hope.

Peaches and Mangoes: As to politics, welcome to hell week: the Georgia Senate runoff takes place tomorrow and the Electoral College confirmation session is on Wednesday.  The outcomes of both events are likely to take forever to come to fruition, or at least feel like they are taking forever.  Around three million votes have already been cast in Georgia, one million by mail.  The mail-ins, which likely tilt blue can’t be opened until the polls close, and if we’ve learned anything from November, we know that the counting of mail-in ballots is contentious even when done according to the book so we could have another red mirage situation and depending on the results, lots of ugly tweets and a few recounts in our future.  Polls now show Democratic duo Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff with small, within the margin of error, leads over their Republican opponents Senators Loeffler and the quarantined Perdue, but given November who believes polls?  And then of course, there is the wild card, the increasingly insane mango maniac who spent part of his Saturday pressuring Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger to publicly “admit” that the thrice counted, signature tested Georgia presidential votes hadn’t resulted in a Biden victory but really showed that he, Trump, had won overwhelmingly because, after all, far more people showed up to his super spreader rallies than for Biden’s distanced car events, the innards of the Dominion voting machines had been exchanged with Kraken entrails, and because of all those dead people from other states who had fraudulently voted among the peaches. We know Trump tried to intimidate Raffensberger because the weary Secretary of State, who has been repeatedly threatened  Trump’s base for sticking with reality, taped the call, leaking it in its hour long entirety to the Washington Post for all of us to hear.  Not that we doubted it, but we now know for sure that Trump’s “perfect” call with Ukraine President Zelensky wasn’t an outlier, that it’s just the way he rolls and who doesn’t think that Trump made a call or two, or at least tried to get through to Arizona’s Republican leadership to have a similar conversation.  By the way neither player was alone on the Georgia call, Raffensberger had his general counsel by his side and Trump had his lawyer, a new to this saga attorney named Cleta Mitchell from Foley & Lardner, her performance on the call should put her bar membership in jeopardy or at the very least lose her firm a few high ticket clients.  Trump was also accompanied by Chief of Staff Mark Meadows whose urging that they all “find a path forward that doesn’t involve the courts,” wink, wink, should earn him an election tampering indictment but will probably get him a pardon.  In any case, though Trump insists that he won Georgia by hundreds of thousands of votes, he “only” wanted Raffensberger to throw 11,000 his way, or at least enough votes to show him topping Biden by one. Trump also asked Raffensberger to make sure that the run-off election turns out okay, but that didn’t seem to be his priority.

Cherry on Top:  Moving on to Wednesday, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley now has the support of eleven of his colleagues including Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Steve Daines, John Kennedy, Marsha Blackburn, Mike Braun, Cynthia Lummis, Roger Marshall, Bill Haggerty and Tommy Tuberville.  All of them plan to support the efforts of the 140 House Republicans who, following the lead of Alabama’s Mo Brooks and with the support of House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy, but over the objections of Senate Majority Leader McConnell, plan to question the legitimacy of the Electoral College votes from Pennsylvania and any other of the swing states that suit their collective fancy.  In a normal world Trump’s Georgia call would cause these clowns to rethink their collective decision to oppose the certification of the Electoral College votes but since nothing, least of all the increasingly right wing, off the rails Republican party is normal, thus far the call hasn’t changed their intentions. Senators Hawley and Cruz harbor presidential aspirations and believe that questioning the legitimacy of the Electoral College vote is the best way to lock up Trump’s base, which is why Cruz has added a wrinkle to their plans, at his urging the group is now insisting that the House and Senate agree to hold up the Electoral College confirmation process for ten days  while a commission evaluates the legitimacy of the votes, those are the votes that have already been signed off on by all the states and countless courts.  That’s not going to happen, but Cruz needed to do something, anything to steal back some of the limelight and Trump’s favor from Hawley.  In case you are wondering, through his spokesmen Marc Short, VP Mike Pence who is due to preside over Wednesday’s session, “welcomes the efforts to raise these objections.” As to that law suit by Texas Republican Louis Gohmert that claimed that Pence could and should choose the Electoral College slates he likes best, it’s been dismissed, something that so upset Gohmert that he’s calling for violent protests.  Some Republicans including Senators Romney, Sasse, Collins, and Toomey have spoken out against this seditious behavior as has Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who sent her colleagues a twenty page diatribe on the illegality and shortsightedness of their maneuvering, not that any of them made it past the first paragraph. One House Republican the very conservative Chip Roy, was so offended by all this crap that he objected to the seating of any of those elected from the so called disputed states, arguing that if his Republican colleagues questioned Biden’s victory than their elections must be fraudulent too.  All ten of the living former Defense Secretaries weighed in too. The group which includes Liz Cheney’s father, former VP Dick Cheney and two of Trump’s former Secretaries, Mattis and Esper, said enough already, this questioning of the election results is putting the country in jeopardy, not that any of that concerns Trump and his crowd.  Even former House Speaker Paul Ryan who has remained largely silent came out from under his rock to call subverting the election results anti-democratic, particularly ironic since Ryan, a member of the Fox board seems copacetic with Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro egging Trump’s crowd on nightly.  As to that crowd, the guys that Fox provokes and Gohmert thinks should go the violent route, some of them plan to show up in Washington on Wednesday to do their thing.  What could go wrong?

Fruit Salad:  In other news, Iran is back to enriching uranium.  Days after acting Secretary of Defense Miller ordered nuclear carrier USS Nimitz to head home as a de-escalatory gesture toward Iran, he’s rescinded his order so that the carrier and it’s strike group will now remain in the Middle East.  Again, what could go wrong.  On the Congressional front, Nancy  Pelosi will remain Speaker for another two years, her last two as she’s promised to give up the gavel in 2022 even if the Democrats retain the majority after the mid-terms.  Trump plans to award his two BFFs Congressmen Devin Nunes and Jim “Gym” Jordan Presidential Medals of Freedom. Biden is going to have to retire those honors and come up with something new, as they’ve now been totally dishonored.  And very sadly, Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, the constitutional law professor whose commentary about the impeachment process has been both edifying and entertaining, lost his 25 year old son, a Harvard law student, on Thursday, no cause of death has been provided.   

Sixteen Days