It's today's front-page, above-the-fold, upper-right corner lead:
There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and Jess Bidgood of the Globe Staff says the spectacle, which capped the final days of frenzied campaigning by some of the biggest names in politics, underscored the fact that Tuesday’s showdown has given the voters of Georgia the power to determine far more than who their senators are.
I saw him just after he started out and he was extolling those to go vote despite the record mail-in ballots and compromised Dominion machines. Gotta save the Republic and all that. Nothing has changed, and I nearly fell off my couch laughing when he said big things are coming in the next couple weeks. Been hearing that for four years and I quickly changed the channel. When I went back 90 minutes later, he was still talking. I shook my head and said give it a rest.
Anyway, fasten your seat belts for the political turbulence ahead because it is as though the 2016 election, the Donald Trump presidency, and the upending of our lives due to a pandemic was all in preparation for this week.
Really throwing the planned script in our faces, aren't they?
Probably best to stay away then, as the Washington Compost says the District has mobilized the National Guard and will have every city police officer on duty Tuesday and Wednesday to handle protests, which Mayor Muriel Bowser said may include people looking to instigate violence (telegraphing some false flags no doubt), as Trump — who lost both the popular and electoral-college vote to President-elect Joe Biden — has continued to dispute the results without evidence.
Meanwhile, Biden plans a minimalist trip from Capitol to White House on Inauguration Day, according to the New York Times, that further underscore the downsized and largely virtual nature of his Inauguration Day plans (prepare for a Max Headroom presidency), and Biden has been largely quiet on Trump’s effort to reverse election, steering clear of the controversy engulfing President Trump’s final days in office.
Yesterday's front-page, above-the-fold, upper-right corner lead (deja vu):
"Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate vote in his favor" by Amy Gardner The Washington Post, January 3, 2021
The New York Times says he he just can’t let go (much like themselves the last four years)
and used a campaign rally on the eve of two critical Senate runoffs in Georgia to once again vent his debunked grievances about the outcome of November’s presidential election, as he continued his assault on the peaceful transfer of power while a top election official in Georgias ripped him over baseless voting claims and delivered a stinging condemnation of his false claims of voter fraud.
The Washington Compost says it is because he is too proud to admit defeat as others denounce the call, while the Globe is of the opinion that the call to the Georgia Secretary of State was a low point, even for this White House, and the New York Times says the call might violate state and federal law -- but lawyers said Sunday that it would be difficult to pursue such a charge even as it leaves allies fearful for American democracy with just 16 days left in his presidency because of his capacity to shock the world with his epic self-centeredness and disregard for democratic and ethical norms, but even if Trump has not moved on, the world has.
Let's hope he doesn't start the new year off with a war on Iran given that the Pentagon announced the aircraft carrier Nimitz is to remain in Middle East because of Iranian threats against President Trump and other US officials (feels like the stage is being set for a false flag, folks), or in Korea, West Africa, or anywhere else for that matter, for we will lose this one and be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Of course, one Tribe member says his crime spree must not escape investigation because the presidency must never become a get-out-of-jail free card for all crimes committed in one’s lifetime (as he completely ignored the Obama Spygate scandal the last four years) while others are saying
don’t prosecute Trump because it would give him what he craves and would accomplish nothing for the country but more polarization (I think a deal has been cut).
Oh, almost forgot what this post is about:
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that legal scholars described as a flagrant abuse of power and a potential criminal act.
Another impeachable phone call?
The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue Trump’s false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.”
Well, how did they do that?
Who leaked it?
Btw, the implication that Trump muscle is going to make bad things happen is the opposite of the reality. If such were true, he wouldn't have "lost," and the fact of the matter is it is the $ociali$t left and the Clinton-Obama-Biden crime families that fight dirty. Never see that in their Globe mouthpiece though.
Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel rejected Trump’s assertions, explaining that the president is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate.
Trump dismissed their arguments.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” he said, “and there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, that you’ve recalculated.”
The rambling and at times incoherent conversation offered a remarkable glimpse of how consumed and desperate the president remains about his loss, unwilling or unable to let the matter go and still asserting that he can reverse the results in enough battleground states to remain in office.
“There’s no way I lost Georgia,” Trump said, a phrase he repeated again and again on the call. “There’s no way.”
I don't blame him because that is the way I would feel if I had been cheated out of what was rightfully mine.
That is in no way an endorsement of him, his policies, or anything else. It's a statement of fact.
Trump’s pressure campaign on Raffensperger is the latest example of his attempt to subvert the outcome of the Nov. 3 election through personal outreach to state Republican officials. He previously invited Michigan Republican state leaders to the White House, pressured Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in a call to try to replace that state’s electors and asked the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to help reverse his loss in that state.
His call to Raffensperger came as scores of Republicans have pledged to challenge the electoral college’s vote for Biden when Congress convenes for a joint session on Wednesday. Republicans do not have the votes to successfully thwart Biden’s victory, but Trump has urged supporters to travel to Washington to protest the outcome, and state and federal officials are already bracing for clashes outside the Capitol.
During their conversation, Trump issued a vague threat to both Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the secretary of state’s general counsel, suggesting that if they don’t find that thousands of ballots in Fulton County have been illegally destroyed to block investigators - an allegation for which there is no evidence - they would be subject to criminal liability.
There is evidence because a bunch of shredded ballots were found in rubbish baskets, so.....
Trump said he plans to talk about the alleged fraud on Monday, when he is scheduled to lead an election eve rally in Dalton, Ga. Trump’s conversation with Raffensperger echoed his effort to persuade the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden on a call that led to his impeachment, and once again put him in legally questionable territory, legal experts said. By exhorting the secretary of state to “find” votes and to deploy investigators who “want to find answers,” the president appeared to be encouraging him to doctor the election outcome in Georgia, which could violate state and federal law.
It's only against the law if Republicans do it.
“The president is either knowingly attempting to coerce state officials into corrupting the integrity of the election or is so deluded that he believes what he’s saying,” said Richard Pildes, a constitutional law professor at New York University, who noted that Trump’s actions may have violated several federal statutes, but Pildes said Trump’s clearer transgression is a moral one, and he emphasized that focusing on whether he committed a crime could deflect attention from the “simple, stark, horrific fact that we have a president trying to use the powers of his office to pressure state officials into committing election fraud to keep him in office.”
It MAY be a crime, but PROBABLY NOT, so it's now a MORAL ISSUE!
Prosecutors probably would exercise discretion in considering a case against an outgoing president, experts said.
Edward Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University, said that the legal questions are murky, and that it could be difficult to prove that Trump knew he was encouraging illegal behavior, but Foley also emphasized that the call was “inappropriate and contemptible” and should prompt outrage. “He was already tripping the emergency meter,” Foley said. “So we were at 12 on a scale of 1 to 10, and now we’re at 15.”
We sure are!
Throughout the call, Trump detailed an exhaustive list of disinformation and conspiracy theories to support his position. He claimed without evidence that he had won Georgia by at least a half-million votes. He floated a barrage of assertions that have been investigated and disproved: that thousands of dead people voted; that an Atlanta election worker scanned 18,000 forged ballots three times each and “100 percent” were for Biden; that thousands more voters living out of state came back to Georgia illegally just to vote in the election.
Just remember, the opposite of what you read in my pre$$ is more than likely the truth.
Not always, but mostly.
Trump did most of the talking on the call. He was angry and impatient, calling Raffensperger a “child” and said law enforcement officials “either dishonest or incompetent” for not believing there was widespread ballot fraud in Atlanta - and twice calling himself a “schmuck” for endorsing Kemp, whom Trump holds in particular contempt for not embracing his claims of fraud. “I can’t imagine he’s ever getting elected again, I’ll tell you that much right now,” he said.
He also took aim at Kemp’s 2018 opponent, Democrat Stacey Abrams, trying to shame Raffensperger with the idea that his refusal to embrace fraud has helped her and Democrats generally. “Stacey Abrams is laughing about you,” he said. “She’s going around saying, ‘These guys are dumber than a rock.’ What she’s done to this party is unbelievable, I tell you.”
Oooooh, I am going to miss him.
Trump sounded at turns confused and meandering. At one point, he referred to Kemp as “George.” He tossed out several different figures for Biden’s margin of victory in Georgia and referred to the Senate runoff, which is Tuesday, as happening “tomorrow” and “Monday.”
His desperation was perhaps most pronounced during an exchange with Germany, Raffensperger’s general counsel, in which he openly begged for validation.
Was he on his knees with a please?
Trump: “Do you think it’s possible that they shredded ballots in Fulton County? ‘Cause that’s what the rumor is, and also that Dominion took out machines. That Dominion is really moving fast to get rid of their, uh, machinery. Do you know anything about that? Because that’s illegal, right?”
Germany responded: “No, Dominion has not moved any machinery out of Fulton County.”
Trump: “But have they moved the inner parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts?”
Germany: “No.”
Trump: “Are you sure? Ryan?”
Germany: “I’m sure. I’m sure, Mr. President.”
It was clear from the call that Trump has surrounded himself with aides who have fed his false perceptions that the election was stolen. Several of his allies were on the line as he spoke, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell, a prominent GOP attorney whose involvement with Trump’s efforts had not been previously known.
Mitchell contradicted Trump on several occasions on the call, saying, “Well, I don’t know about that,” when the president alleged that a Fulton County election worker had triple-counted 18,000 ballots for Biden. She claimed that the extent of the fraud is unclear because Raffensperger’s office has not shared all the data Trump’s lawyers have sought. “We never had the records that you have,” she said. Germany noted that the office is barred under law from sharing some voter information.
“You have a big election coming up and because of what you’ve done to the president - you know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam,” Trump said. “Because of what you’ve done to the president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote, and a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative, because they hate what you did to the president. OK? They hate it, and they’re going to vote, and you would be respected, really respected, if this can be straightened out before the election.”
Same as COVID.
Trump’s apparent threat of criminal consequences if Raffensperger does not act could be seen as an attempt at extortion and a suggestion that he might deploy the Justice Department to launch an investigation, they said.
“So tell me, Brad, what are we going to do? We won the election, and it’s not fair to take it away from us like this,” Trump said, “and it’s going to be very costly in many ways, and I think you have to say that you’re going to re-examine it, and you can re-examine it, but reexamine it with people that want to find answers, not people who don’t want to find answers.”
In the end, Trump asked Germany to sit down with one of his attorneys to go over the allegations. Germany agreed, yet Trump also recognized that he was failing to persuade Raffensperger or Germany of anything, saying toward the end, “I know this phone call is going nowhere,” but he continued to make his case in repetitive fashion, until finally, after roughly an hour, Raffensperger put an end to the conversation: “Thank you, President Trump, for your time.”
In a statement, Mitchell said Raffensperger’s office “has made many statements over the past two months that are simply not correct and everyone involved with the efforts on behalf of the President’s election challenge has said the same thing: Show us your records on which you rely to make these statements that our numbers are wrong.”
The White House, the Trump campaign and Meadows did not respond to a request for comment.
Raffensperger’s office declined to comment.
The details of the call drew demands from top Democrats for criminal investigations. Campaigning in Georgia, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris called Trump’s conversation a “bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States.”
Biden’s top campaign lawyer, Bob Bauer, said the recording “captures the whole, disgraceful story about Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy.”
Republicans, however, were largely silent. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, when asked about the call while campaigning in Georgia on Sunday for the two GOP senators who face a run-off Tuesday, dodged the question completely.....
Like Biden did the whole campaign, and when he was asked them it was what color socks are you wearing and what kind of ice cream cone did he get?
--more--"
Directly below that article and straddling the fold:
"In final days, Trump casts large shadow over Senate race in Georgia" by Jess Bidgood Globe Staff, January 3, 2021
CUMMING, Ga. — Over the past few days, President Trump has called the crucial Georgia Senate runoff elections “illegal and invalid,” pressured the Republican secretary of state to “recalculate” an election he definitively lost, and forced his party’s Senate candidates in the state to bob and weave to fit his political whims, yet even though he has complicated her campaign efforts, there was Kelly Loeffler, one of the two Republican candidates, standing on the back of a pickup truck in a parking lot on Saturday and lauding Trump’s scheduled return to the state on Monday night.
With Tuesday’s elections set to determine control of the Senate, no single figure looms larger than Trump, and his legislative mood swings are forcing Loeffler and the other Republican candidate, David Perdue, to answer difficult questions in races that polls show are tight. The civil war that Trump has fomented among Georgia Republicans by assailing the state’s top elected officials could have repercussions in the state for years to come, political analysts say, and his stubborn commitment to the fantasy that voter fraud cost him a victory in this state — and the entire election — has complicated their pitch and divided their party at a critical moment.
The Globe pretty much confirms that there was, but it wasn't "widespread."
“Georgia Republicans face the same divides Republicans around the country are facing right now … and Loeffler and Perdue have been caught in the middle of it, because they’re the ones that face the most immediate political consequences,” said Brian Robinson, a Republican strategist. “If they win,” he added, “it’s because Republicans did remain united in what we’re against, not because we’re united in what we’re for.”
The Senate races have drawn enormous attention and record-shattering spending because they will essentially determine how much of President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative agenda can actually be enacted. If the Democrats win both races, they will control 50 seats in the chamber — which, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote, would constitute a razor-thin majority.
The two Democratic candidates, Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, have crisscrossed the state making a policy-focused argument for their election, telling voters they are the key to the passage of expanded health care and new voting and civil rights packages. Biden is set to join them on Monday in Atlanta, and Harris laid out the stakes in a campaign stop in Garden City, just outside Savannah, on Sunday. “Vote, vote, vote because your life depends on it,” Harris said.
Republicans have dispatched a who’s who of party luminaries to help them hold the line, including Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who joined Loeffler in Cumming on Saturday, and Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota, who campaigned with her on Sunday. They describe Loeffler and Perdue, who has been absent from the campaign trail since he was exposed to COVID-19 late last week, as a “firewall” against a “radical liberal” agenda.
Trump, however, has complicated that message by refusing to admit he actually lost, and he has distracted the electorate by turning the state into an arena for his grievances. The last time he held a campaign rally in Georgia, he spent much of his 100-minute speech repeating false conspiracies about the November election, when he lost the state by more than 11,000 votes.
On Wednesday, Trump called on the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, to resign, and his condemnation has whipped up support for a primary challenge against him that could keep the party in Georgia divided until 2022, and on Saturday, in his most brazen act yet, he urged Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, another Republican he has ceaselessly criticized, to “find” the votes that would overturn his loss in the state, according to audio of the call obtained by The Washington Post.
“It was a bald-faced, bold abuse of power,” Harris said on Sunday in Garden City, casting Trump’s efforts as an attempt to disenfranchise Black voters.
The president is also supporting a renegade effort by a dozen Senate Republicans and 100 House Republicans to overturn the election results when Congress meets to certify them on Wednesday, which has generated fierce pushback from other Republicans that further underscores how divided the party is nationally as its grip on the Senate hangs in the balance.
They are the Renegades Of Funk Raging Against The Machine!
Say dance sucker, dance, say dance sucker, dance, now move sucker, move, now move sucker, move!!
“Democrats are saying, ‘Oh, this is great, bring on the popcorn and let’s just watch this play out,‘ ” said Charles Bullock III, a political science professor at the University of Georgia. “Urban Georgia outvoted rural Georgia,” said Bullock. “That’s got to be very troubling for Republicans.”
For Republicans, this race was never supposed to be quite so tricky. Loeffler and Perdue went into the runoff with a structural advantage: More voters supported the candidates from their party in the November elections, even though neither of them exceeded the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff. No Democrat has won a Senate election in Georgia since 2000, and a victory by either of the Democratic candidates, Ossoff and Warnock, was always seen as an uphill battle, but the strength of early voting turnout in Democratic-leaning congressional districts, and among demographic votes most likely to support Democrats, has Republicans spooked.
Never mind that Trump won huge, record-breaking chunks of Blacks and Hispanics.
More than 3 million Georgians have cast their votes so far and Democrats are encouraged by the high voter turnout in counties like Fulton, DeKalb, and Gwinnett, which are all in or near Atlanta and which helped to power Biden’s Georgia win. Black voters are also punching above their weight, while turnout has been weak in some conservative areas, including around Dalton in the northwest part of the state, where Trump is going Monday.
It is deja vu all over again, and the printed back end was replaced by this:
Republicans are hoping to make up the difference with a robust turnout on Election Day.
“This is a dogfight. This is a turnout election,” said Cruz, as he stumped with Loeffler on Saturday, “and the Democrats are turning out their voters.”
As phantom as they may be!
Trump created other headaches for Loeffler and Perdue in recent weeks. He initially refused to sign a coronavirus economic relief bill that was supposed to neutralize a Democratic line of attack against the two. Then he forced them to break with much of the rest of their party to join his calls for a $2,000 direct payment to many Americans, which was higher than the $600 provided in the bill. He also vetoed a major defense bill. Congress overrode the veto, but Loeffler and Perdue skipped the vote, which allowed them to avoid publicly breaking with him.
Once that piece of crap was signed it was flu$hed down the old memory chute.
Loeffler refused to say how she would have voted during an interview on Fox News Sunday.
At campaign events for Loeffler this weekend, Republicans all but admitted they are playing with fire when it comes to Trump’s involvement in the race.
“It’s not helping,” said state Representative Josh Bonner of the most recent drama in Congress. He also acknowledged the fear shared by many Republicans that Trump’s broadsides against the state’s election system might keep some voters at home.
“The president is saying this election was flawed but we’re kind of still in the midst of that election with the runoff, so it does make it challenging,” Bonner said, but they believe he will ultimately fire up his base, and the complications they have endured will all be worth it.
“There is a danger,” conceded Rich McCormick, a Republican who narrowly lost a Georgia House race in November, “yet the president is coming down here and supporting these two candidates directly, and so he’s showing his supporters to show up.”
At least he made it out of there alive.
--more--"
Related:
The New York Times says both parties are trying to hook up with young voters on dating apps such as Tinder or with phone calls and texts.
Also see:
It's Warlock's church.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
You know, you would think the Globe would take it a little easier of Trump since he is a COVID-19 survivor, but it is apparently a challenge for them, one they are slow to reach.
He doesn't drink, either, a quality always welcomed in a president.
It looks like he is about to be escorted out:
"The time to question election results has passed, and there is no role for the military in changing them, all of the living former defense secretaries said in an extraordinary rebuke to President Donald Trump and other Republicans who are backing unfounded claims of widespread fraud at the ballot box. The former Pentagon chiefs issued their warning Sunday evening in an opinion piece that they co-authored and published in The Washington Post. Its authors include Trump's two former defense secretaries, Jim Mattis and Mark Esper, as well as each living Senate-confirmed Pentagon chief dating back to former vice president Dick Cheney, who was defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush. The article was published as some Republicans plan to contest the electoral college vote certification Wednesday, even after the president's attempts to challenge election results in court have failed. It also comes as concerns persist that Trump might seek to use the military to keep him in office, despite his electoral loss. "Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted," the former defense secretaries wrote. "Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results, and the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived."
My bet is he doesn't, and I would also bet that if he did, my governor's voice would rise and he would holler that it is an “affront to Democracy” -- with a CAPITAL D!
Of course, the affront is the blatantly stolen election for all to see.
The article brings together a group of Republicans and Democrats who disagree on many national security issues. Its genesis is a conversation between Eric Edelman, a former U.S. ambassador and defense official in Republican administrations, and Cheney about how the military might be used in coming days, Edelman said in an interview. While Trump has called reports that he discussed the possibility of invoking martial law to overturn election results "fake news," he did have Michael Flynn, a retired Army general and former national security adviser for Trump, at the White House recently after Flynn suggested on television that Trump could declare martial law and use the military to hold new elections. Protests are expected in Washington on Trump's behalf this week, and the president has encouraged his supporters to show up, tweeting, "Be there, will be wild!" Edelman, who was among a group of Republicans who endorsed Biden over Trump, said that after Cheney expressed interest in co-writing an opinion piece, Edelman solicited participation from other former defense secretaries, and wrote a draft of the article along with Eliot Cohen, a former Republican national security official who is dean of the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced Studies. Some of the defense secretaries requested revisions, but nothing significant to the message, Edelman and Cohen said."
Can you say Deep $tate even if the The Washington Compost can not?
I knew you could.
"William Cohen, who served as defense secretary under President Bill Clinton, said in an interview that the discussion of martial law alarmed him, especially after Trump's use of the military and other federal forces to remove protesters outside the White House in June. The former defense secretary also cited the use of federal law enforcement personnel to remove protesters in Portland, Ore., in unmarked vehicles as another abuse of power. While he said he has no doubts about the willingness of Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other senior military officials to follow the law, he is concerned that potential violence started by Trump supporters including the Proud Boys in coming days could be used as a pretext to use the military against civilians again. "It's a very dangerous course of action that needs to be called out before it happens," Cohen said of using the military against civilians.
Just have the cops shoot them up then, right?
Of course, the martial law imposed under the cover of COVID doesn't bother Cohen in the slightest, and he pre-programs us for whatever false flags are planned for tomorrow.
I mean, a former DefSec being concerned about pretexts hat may lead to violence, oh, that's rich!
Go tell it to the Iraqis, puke!
Other former defense secretaries either could not be reached for comment, or declined to speak, citing a desire to let the article speak for itself. In addition to stating their concerns about the ongoing contesting of the election, the defense secretaries backed recent comments from senior military leaders that there is no role for the military in determining the outcome of a U.S. election, a point they affirmed after Flynn suggested that the president could invoke martial law. "Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory," the defense secretaries wrote. "Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic. We call upon them, in the strongest terms, to do as so many generations of Americans have done before them," the former defense secretaries said of the transition. "This final action is in keeping with the highest traditions and professionalism of the U.S. armed forces, and the history of democratic transition in our great country."
It's a tale of two transitions amid the crisis, with the handoff from George W. Bush to Barack Obama viewed as the gold standard of presidential transitions as opposed to the deliberately staged normalcy of Biden’s transition, and if the military won't remove Trump, these gals will:
"WANTED: Spies from all backgrounds and walks of life. Striving to further diversify its ranks, the CIA launched a new website Monday to find top-tier candidates who will bring a broader range of life experiences to the nation’s premier intelligence agency The days of all American spies being white male graduates from Ivy League schools are long gone. The CIA director is a woman and women head all five of the agency’s branches, including the directorates of science and technology, operations, and digital innovation, but while the CIA has been diversifying for years, intelligence agencies still lag the federal workforce in minority representation. With thousands of job applicants annually, the CIA wants to do more to ensure its workforce reflects national demographics....."
The fact that Trump appointed and never fired Bloody Gina is telling because it is all connected.
"The extraordinary Republican effort to overturn the presidential election was condemned Sunday by an outpouring of current and former GOP officials warning the effort to sow doubt in Joe Biden’s win and keep President Donald Trump in office is undermining Americans’ faith in democracy. Trump has enlisted support from a dozen Republican senators and up to 100 House Republicans to challenge the Electoral College vote when Congress convenes in a joint session to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 win. With Biden set to be inaugurated Jan. 20, Trump is intensifying efforts to prevent the traditional transfer of power, ripping the party apart. Despite Trump’s claims of voter fraud, state officials have insisted the elections ran smoothly and there was no evidence of fraud or other problems that would change the outcome."
It's the EXACT OPPOSITE, the installation of Biden destroys it, and that is assuming we had "faith" in "democracy" at this point after four years of Russia, Russia, Russia!!!
"The states have certified their results as fair and valid. Of the more than 50 lawsuits the president and his allies have filed challenging election results, nearly all have been dismissed or dropped. He’s also lost twice at the U.S. Supreme Court. On a call disclosed Sunday, Trump can be heard pressuring Georgia officials to “find” him more votes. “The 2020 election is over,” said a statement Sunday from a bipartisan group of 10 senators, including Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mitt Romney of Utah. The senators wrote that further attempts to cast doubt on the election are “contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans’ confidence in the already determined election results.”
How do you undermine confidence when one has no confidence?
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said, “The scheme by members of Congress to reject the certification of the presidential election makes a mockery of our system and who we are as Americans.” Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said in a statement that “Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate” and that efforts to sow doubt about the election “strike at the foundation of our republic.” Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking House Republican, warned in a memo to colleagues that objections to the Electoral College results “set an exceptionally dangerous precedent.” One of the more outspoken conservatives in Congress, Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, said he will not oppose the counting of certified electoral votes on Jan. 6. “I’m grateful for what the president accomplished over the past four years, which is why I campaigned vigorously for his reelection, but objecting to certified electoral votes won’t give him a second term—it will only embolden those Democrats who want to erode further our system of constitutional government.” Cotton said he favors further investigation of any election problems, separate from the counting of the certified Electoral College results.
Look at the $wamp creatures come oozing out!
Other prominent former officials also criticized the ongoing attack on election results. In a brief op-ed in The Washington Post, the 10 living former defense secretaries -- half of them having served Republican presidents -- called on Pentagon officials to carry out the transition to the new administration “fully, cooperatively and transparently.” They also asserted that efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes “would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.” Citing election results, legal challenges, state certifications and the Electoral College vote, the former defense secretaries said that “the time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.”
Same if the theft is allowed to stand.
The unusual challenge to the presidential election, on a scale unseen since the aftermath of the Civil War, clouded the opening of the new Congress and is set to consume its first days. The House and Senate will meet Wednesday in a joint session to accept the Electoral College vote, a typically routine process that’s now expected to be a prolonged fight. Trump is refusing to concede, and pressure is mounting on Vice President Mike Pence to ensure victory while presiding in what is typically a ceremonial role over the congressional session. Trump is whipping up crowds for a rally in Washington. The president tweeted Sunday against the election tallies and Republicans not on his side.
Inciting them, one might say?
Biden’s transition spokesman, Mike Gwin, dismissed the senators’ effort as a “stunt” that won’t change the fact that Biden will be sworn in Jan. 20. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues that while there is “no doubt” of Biden’s victory, their job now “is to convince more of the American people to trust in our democratic system.”
Well, trust, once lost, is hard to restore, so....
The effort in the Senate was being led by Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Hawley defended his actions in a lengthy email to colleagues, explaining that his Missouri constituents have been “loud and clear” with their belief that Biden’s defeat of Trump was unfair. “It is my responsibility as a senator to raise their concerns,” Hawley wrote late Saturday. Hawley plans to object to the state tally from Pennsylvania, but that state’s Republican senator, Pat Toomey, criticized the attack on Pennsylvania’s election system and said the results that named Biden the winner are valid. Cruz’s coalition of 11 Republican senators vows to reject the Electoral College tallies unless Congress launches a commission to immediately conduct an audit of the election results. They are zeroing in on the states where Trump has raised unfounded claims of voter fraud. Congress is unlikely to agree to their demand. The group formed with Cruz, which presented no new evidence of election problems, includes Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Mike Braun of Indiana. New senators in the group are Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
The convening of the joint session to count the Electoral College votes has faced objections before. In 2017, several House Democrats challenged Trump’s win but Biden, who presided at the time as the vice president, swiftly dismissed them to assert Trump’s victory. Rarely have the protests approached this level of intensity. The moment is a defining one for the Republican Party in a post-Trump era. Both Hawley and Cruz are potential 2024 presidential contenders, cementing their alignment with Trump’s base of supporters. Others are trying to forge a different path for the GOP. Pence will be carefully watched as he presides over what is expected to be a prolonged showdown, depending on how many challenges are mounted. The vice president “welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections,” Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, said in a statement Saturday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned Republicans off such challenges but said little when asked about it as at the Capitol as the Senate opened Sunday. “We’ll be dealing with all of that on Wednesday,” he said, but Republicans simply said they do not plan to join the effort that will fail. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday his colleagues will have an opportunity to make their case, but they must produce evidence and facts. “They have a high bar to clear,” he said.
Graham is compromised because he is gay, even though it is an open secret.
Congress have been loathe to interfere in the state-run election systems, a longstanding protocol. States choose their own election officials and draft their election laws.
Was a problem back in the 1960s, though.
During the coronavirus pandemic many states adapted by allowing mail voting to ease health risks of voting in person. Those changes and others are now being challenged by Trump and his allies. Trump, the first president to lose a reelection bid in almost 30 years, has attributed his defeat to widespread voter fraud, despite the consensus of nonpartisan election officials and even Trump’s attorney general that there was none. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the latest challenge from Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and a group of Arizona electors, who filed suit to try to force Pence to step outside mere ceremony and shape the outcome of the vote. The appellate court sided with the federal judge, a Trump appointee, who dismissed the suit."
That last highlight tells you all you need to know.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Thus, as Biden is raised up we should all just accept our differences during the epidemic within an epidemic that continues to endure.
Related:
They are two of his most outspoken Republican defenders in the House, Representative Devin Nunes of California and Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, two officials familiar with his plans said.
Also see:
"US Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton announced Wednesday that it was his last day leading Wall Street’s top regulator. Clayton, in a statement posted on the agency’s website, said he submitted a letter to President Trump informing him of his decision to leave the SEC Wednesday. While President-elect Joe Biden will pick a permanent successor to Clayton, Trump will likely install either Hester Peirce or Elad Roisman — the SEC’s Republican commissioners — as acting chairman. Clayton, a former law partner at Sullivan & Cromell whose clients included prominent Wall Street firms, had previously announced that he planned to step down by the end of the year."
Here is why:
"Gary Cohn left Goldman Sachs squirming with his unwillingness to send back millions in pay. Instead, he’s giving the money away to charity. The bank’s board had demanded its former president return more than $10 million as part of a broader punishment inflicted on senior leadership, including chief executive David Solomon and his predecessor, to demonstrate accountability for the company’s involvement in the 1MDB corruption scandal. Cohn refused. He will donate money to charity, according to a representative for him."
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
It's the end of the line, folks:
"For worried residents of the District of Columbia, President Trump’s flailing efforts to overturn the results of a free and fair election that he lost no longer seem quite so funny. With the prospect of unrest in the nation’s capital when Trump’s loss is formalized on Wednesday, Republicans have run out of excuses for continuing to indulge Trump’s anti-democratic rants, but the president remains immersed in his conspiratorial fantasyland, careening from one delusional idea to another, apparently in hopes that one fringe theory will finally pay off, a deus ex whackina that changes the ending of the 2020 election. Ever since election day, Republicans have generally defended Trump’s challenges to the outcome as within his legal rights. Likewise, insisting on a floor debate on individual states’ presidential votes is perfectly legal, but what is legally permissible and what is right for a polarized and frazzled country aren’t the same. The country needs to turn the page not just on Trump, but also the toxic brand of conspiracism that he’s mainstreamed into American politics. That won’t be easy, but members of Congress ought to do their part by publicly rejecting Trump’s conspiracy-laced demands to subvert the electoral count, and recognizing Biden’s clear victory. Those who do not don’t deserve to be in public office in a democracy....."
The Globe is more Communi$t with each passing day, to the point of calling those who disagree with them a VIRUS -- and we all know what needs to be done with viruses, right?
Too bad the toothpaste is out the tube!
Or will he be a Patriot and give it the old college try?
"It’s toasty warm in the heated plastic igloo overlooking Gillette Stadium, where the Patriots and Jets are finishing their season. Ben Geddes, wearing a Tom Brady jersey, and some of his friends are having drinks and apps to celebrate his 30th birthday. The perch at CBS Sporting Club offers a slim view of the field under the arched lighthouse bridge. Perfect to see that touchdown catch by Cam Newton. There are three igloos here but two are empty. “I like the atmosphere,” says Geddes, who can see the End Zone Militia fire their muskets on the first-level concourse and watch the smoke waft over thousands of empty blue seats. He also can watch the masked, well-bundled Patriots cheerleaders dance, see the Patriot flag waver go nuts, or watch a more introspective Pat Patriot look lost behind miles of empty aisles. “You’re still at the game — almost,” says Geddes. “It’s a Pats game COVID-style, and you can’t get better than that.” With no spectators allowed in the stadium and no tailgating, game day at Gillette during the pandemic is bizarre....."
After take a look around without a person in sight, it’s the definition of a ghost town so it looks like exile for Trump, and let's face it, the season was just plain boring and home-field advantage is overrated.
