Monday Reads: Presidential Pets and our first shelter dog in the White House

Posted: November 9, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: 2020 Elections | Tags: | 34 Comments

The Clinton’s Cat Socks hogs the spotlight on the lawn of the White House.

Good Day Sky Dancers!

I’ve always enjoyed watching the interaction between our Presidents and their Pets!  Their interactions with pets and kids really tells a lot about who they are and if they’re capable of being empathetic and kind.  The first rescue pet was LBJ’s Yuki and I remember those antics well! The first shelter rescue dog in the White House will be the Biden’s German Shepard mix Major.  “‘Major’ day: Biden’s German shepherd Major to become first rescue dog in the White House.”

President-elect Joe Biden’s adopted German shepherd, Major, will become the first rescue dog to live in the White House.

The Bidens adopted Major in 2018 from the Delaware Humane Association after fostering the German shepherd.

Major joins Champ, the Bidens’ other German shepherd, in accompanying the incoming first family. Presidential pets are a tradition in the White House.

So, sue me, I think the relationship between presidents and their pets and the kids in the country just speaks volumes about character.  I look forward to seeing a lot of both Champ and Major who are the Biden Family pets.  It will also be nice to have grandchildren romping about the gardens again.  We will undoubtedly get more normal views of both families and holidays.  I cannot imagine Dr. Biden talking about having to do fucking Christmas stuff. Although I’m waiting to see what happens in the Second Family’s resident with our new second Gentleman!  Can you imagine we’re actually going to have four years of normal sane people capable of being kind and empathetic?  I’ve missed that so much! Although, poor Baron does seem more of Melania’s pet at times whenever we get proof of life from them.

Meanwhile, the Freak-in-Chief still intends to file frivolous lawsuits, have huge covid-19 super spreader events, and raise money.  This is from Axios and the keyboard of Alyana Treene.

President Trump plans to brandish obituaries of people who supposedly voted but are dead — plus hold campaign-style rallies — in an effort to prolong his fight against apparent insurmountable election results, four Trump advisers told me during a conference call this afternoon.

What we’re hearing: Obits for those who cast ballots are part of the “specific pieces of evidence” aimed at bolstering the Trump team’s so-far unsupported claims of widespread voter fraud and corruption that they say led to Joe Biden’s victory.

  • Fueling the effort is the expected completion of vote counting this week, allowing Republicans to file for more recounts.

What’s next: Team Trump is ready to announce specific recount teams in key states, and it plans to hold a series of Trump rallies focused on the litigation.

  • In Georgia: Doug Collins, the outgoing congressman who lost to Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a special election to fill former Sen. Johnny Isakson’s seat, will be leading the campaign’s recount efforts. The team has also redeployed 92 staffers from Florida to Georgia, doubling its group on the ground.
  • In Arizona: Kory Langhofer, former counsel for Trump’s 2016 transition, will serve as lead attorney.
  • In Pennsylvania: Porter Wright’s Ron Hicks is heading up the legal effort.
  • Nationwide: They’re assembling additional surrogates and lawyers.

“We want to make sure we have an adequate supply of manpower on the ground for man-to-man combat,” one adviser said.

The group is also staffing a campaign-style media operation.

  • The team led by Trump communications director Tim Murtaugh is now a surrogate messaging center. It will pump out “regular press briefings, releases on legal action and obviously things like talking points and booking people strategically on television,” one adviser said.
  • They’ll also make a big play to raise money for their legal defense fund.

Trump’s formal legal team includes 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien, lawyer Justin Clark, and senior advisers Jason Miller and David Bossie.

  • Reps. Jim Jordan and Scott Perry, as well as former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, are also advising.

Trump’s team claims there is “no daylight” between them and the White House — chiefly senior adviser Jared Kushner and current Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

  • “We all have the same goal in mind, which is using the legal process over the next many days and weeks ahead to make sure that the president is re-elected,” one adviser said.

First Lady Grace Coolidge with Laddie Buck and Rob Roy

The Washington Post has an article today listing all the GOP and Trump allegations of voter fraud and irregularities.  All of them to date are unsubstantiated.  How much time and money will we be spending on this snipe hunt?

Republicans have made claims of election irregularities in five states where President-elect Joe Biden leads in the vote count, alleging in lawsuits and public statements that election officials did not follow proper procedures while counting ballots in Tuesday’s election.

So far, they have gone 0 for 5.

Since Election Day, President Trump has repeatedly claimed that a broad conspiracy of misdeeds — apparently committed in both Republican and Democratic states — had cost him the election.

“I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES,” Trump tweeted on Saturday, after returning to the White House from his Virginia golf course. “BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE.” Trump’s campaign has encouraged donors to contribute to a legal-defense fund so he can fight the cases in court.

I personally believe the biggest share of what’s going on here beside saving Trump from reality is the bottom line indicating it’s just another grift.

I rather feel any self respecting dog would run away from Melania and Orangecheetolini.  A cat would likely find a hidey hole and stay there.

Joe Biden announced his Covid-19 Pandemic team today and Pfizer believes it has trials to show its vaccine is working for 90% of it’s trial patients.!  They’re applying for “Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA as soon as final data meets safety milestones, which it expects to happen in the third week of November.”  This is from CBS.

“Today is a great day for science and humanity. The first set of results from our Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent COVID-19,” Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

“We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen. With today’s news, we are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis,” he continued.

Here is the announcement of the Presidential Elect Biden’s Task Force from Axios. It specifically lists the participants and their credentials.  It’s considered a crisis team.

  • The task force will be led by three co-chairs: former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith from Yale University — as Axios’ Hans Nichols first reported Saturday.

  • Beth Cameron, who served as senior director for global health security and biodefense in the Obama administration, and Rebecca Katz, co-director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University, are advisors to the Transition on COVID-19 and will work closely with the advisory board.

President George H.W. Bush holds one of first dog Millie’s six puppies for the press at the White House in Washington on Mar. 29, 1989. Millie gave birth on March 27, 1989 with First Lady Barbara Bush serving as midwife according to spokeswomen.

Politico reminds us that this winter will be tough as the Virus could overwhelm our healthcare system.

The country’s health care system is already buckling under the load of the resurgent outbreak that’s approaching 10 million cases nationwide. The number of Americans hospitalized with Covid-19 has spiked to 56,000, up from 33,000 one month ago. In many areas of the country, shortages of ICU beds and staff are leaving patients piled up in emergency rooms. And nearly 1,100 people died on Saturday alone, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

“That’s three jetliners full of people crashing and dying,” said David Eisenman, director of the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters. “And we will do that every day and then it will get more and more.”

The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicts 370,000 Americans will be dead by Inauguration Day, exactly one year after the first U.S. case of Covid-19 was reported. Nearly 238,000 have already died.

The task force Biden announces Monday will be staffed with public health experts and former government officials, many of whom ran agencies duringthe Obama and Clinton administrations — including former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler, New York University’s Dr. Celine Gounder, Yale’s Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, former Obama White House aide Dr. Zeke Emanuel and former Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. Julie Morita, who is now an executive vice president at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Shahpar said that even before Biden takes control of government in January, he and his team can make a difference by breaking with Trump’s declarations that the virus is “going away,” communicating the severity of the virus’ spread and encouraging people to take precautions as winter approaches.

First Lady and President Kennedy enjoy a veritable pack of pooches while vacationing with their children. JFK owned many pets in during his presidency including ponies, dogs, parakeets, and a rabbit.

So, if you’re interested in learning more about First Pets you can check out this NBC page “First Pets: Dogs, Cats and a Raccoon Among Past Presidential Best Friends”.  You can see Taft’s cow who was tasked with putting fresh milk and butter on the table.   Grace Coolidge–pictured above–also had a racoon.  Hoover had an Opossum!

There are also pictures of  Nixon’s Dog Checkers and FDR’s dog Fala. Both of these dogs became famous during presidential elections and speeches.  So far, Champ and Major have avoided the wrath of the Orange one.

Then there’s the story of Romney and the dog in a cage on top of the car!!!  The photo of the poor dog kicked off a Dogs Against Romney Campaign! 

But, eventually we will have a team in the White House and big in the Departments that do the work of all of us putting things back together.  I woke up the last few days thinking how relieved I will be that the future of our children will not be impacted by Betsy DeVos.  Our Public lands and sacred sites in our National Park System will once again be protected and cherished for future generations.  I’d kind’ve like to think all those pets of Teddy Roosevelt would be happy about that. 

Dogs were an important part of Teddy Roosevelt’s existence, and he made room for numerous ones. There was Rollo, a friendly St. Bernard, Sailor Boy, a Chesapeake retriever, and Manchu, a black Pekingese given to daughter Alice by the last empress of China.

Blackjack, a Manchester terrier, was terrified of the family cat, Tom Quartz. Whenever the dog was near, the cat took great pleasure in chasing him away.

Pete, a bull terrier, would happily have stayed at the White House, but he was finally exiled to Sagamore Hill, the family’s country house on Long Island. Pete had a propensity for nipping at the heels of White House visitors. He took his final nip from the French ambassador, ripping the fellow’s pants. With that, he was banned from Washington by the president. Pete found that living with the staff at Sagamore Hill was just fine.

So, pretty soon, Champ and Major will start living their dog’s lives in the White House.

What a relief!  I’m sleeping better, are you?

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?

Lazy Caturday Reads

Posted: November 7, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: just because | 23 Comments

14

Good Morning!!

UPDATE: CNN and MSNBC have now called the election for Biden. 

I don’t have the energy to rewrite this post….it’s still ridiculous that it took this long.

Will the networks call the election before January 20, 2021? If we have learned one thing during this endless week, it’s that we don’t need the media to call our elections. Anyone with half a brain can see that Biden is the winner, but NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, and FNN are terrified to say it for fear of Trump tantrums. 

It’s hilarious that anchors on CNN and MSNBC have been forced to defend their networks’ refusal to bring an end to the madness.

https://twitter.com/AlisynCamerota/status/1325073742486237184?s=20

There is certainly no excuse for not calling Nevada, but I think the network bosses are afraid if they allow that, it will mean that Biden will pass 270 in the Fox News and AP calculations. They don’t want to hurt Trump’s delicate feelings until they absolutely have to. Maybe they think he’ll gradually catch on that he’s lost and they won’t have to break the news to him.

Anyway, it’s clear that Biden has won and the media should be barred from making “calls” in future elections. We don’t need them to do the math for us.

Some stories to check out today while we continue the interminable wait for the votes to be counted.

Bess Levin at Vanity Fair: It Sure Sounds Like Trump May Barricade Himself in the Oval Office and Refuse to Come Out if Biden Wins.

By now you’ve likely heard that after pulling ahead in Georgia and, most crucially, Pennsylvania, Joe Biden will very likely be the next president of the United States. As you’ve probably also heard, Donald Trump is taking it as well as everyone had expected, ranting and raving about all kinds of made-up fraud, demanding counts be stopped in one state and continued in others, and filing numerous lawsuits that stand little chance of holding up in court because they have no merit (and, in some cases, have led judges to believe the lawyers attached to them have recently suffered traumatic brain injuries). At this point, a quasi reasonable person might say to himself, Okay, I’m going to cut my losses, salvage my last atom of dignity, and admit defeat. But obviously Donald Trump is not reasonable and he has no dignity. So instead he’s decided he’ll keep fighting this thing well beyond the point that it’s hugely embarrassing to do so, and even after that fails, refuse to acknowledge that he lost and that Joe Biden is going to be president.

flat,750x,075,f-pad,750x1000,f8f8f8.u1Yes, like George Costanza deciding to just go back to the office on Monday as if he didn’t quit the Friday before, Trump apparently thinks he can just go on being president even if the American people have fired him. According to CNN, Trump reportedly has not prepared a concession speech and “in conversations with allies in recent days has said he has no intention of conceding the election.” The decision to go full delusional has obviously been strengthened by staffers, such as Mark Meadows, who “have not attempted to come to terms with the president about the reality of what is happening” and have instead fed into his claims of fraud; Vice President Mike Pence, who’s been soliciting money for a legal defense fund; and his adult children, who’ve been spouting absurd conspiracy theories on Twitter as they watch the ultimate opportunity for nepotism slip away. While Trump has apparently admitted to some people that he knows the electoral math has no chance of working out in his favor, he has “maintained that a prolonged court battle and corrosive rhetoric about election fraud would sow enough doubt to allow him to refuse to accept the results.”

And while the majority of the president’s inner circle is more than happy to go along with this sad alternative reality, a few members have reportedly grown worried that, eventually, someone will have to sit Trump down and explain that little Donny’s not going to be president anymore—and at this point, it seems unlikely anyone will be able to get through to him short of slapping him across the face and screaming, “YOU LOST! IT’S OVER!” Yes, this is an actual thing allies of the president of the United States are actually grappling with.

Click the link to read the rest.

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Says He Will Keep Fighting as Aides Doubt Path Forward.

President Trump said Friday he would continue to fight election results that showed him on the cusp of losing to former Vice President Joe Biden. Privately, people familiar with the conversations say, advisers are urging him to prepare for that eventuality.

Mr. Trump’s campaign on Friday named David Bossie, one of the president’s closest political confidants, to head up its legal team. The addition of Mr. Bossie, who is not a lawyer, comes three days after polls closed and after some lawsuits challenging results had been dismissed while others remained active.

catsvoting2Some advisers have privately said they see little path forward, politically or legally, that would prevent Mr. Trump from becoming the first president to lose reelection since 1992.

Among the president’s advisers, finger-pointing over the campaign’s legal strategy has intensified in recent days, White House and campaign aides said. Aides have expressed acute frustration over what many see as a slapdash legal effort, complaining that—even though Mr. Trump spent months telegraphing his intent to fight the election outcome in the courts—there wasn’t enough planning ahead of Election Day and has been little follow-through on decisions made this week. For days after the election, advisers said they didn’t know who was in charge of the strategy.

One more tidbit:

The president’s mood, an adviser said, is “black.” He has spent the last few days seething over the vote count as it increasingly moves in Mr. Biden’s favor. He spent much of the day Thursday on the phone with advisers urging them to use every tool available to fight what is expected to be an election victory for Mr. Biden. A short speech Thursday evening in the White House briefing room offered a window into the president’s frustration, as he accused Democrats, pollsters and the news media of stealing the election from him.

Advisers expect the president to let his campaign’s legal efforts play out before conceding the race. One adviser, asked if he expected the president to concede the race, replied via text message: “Lol.”

Read the rest at the WSJ. There’s no paywall on this one.

There’s another coronavirus outbreak at the White House. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has tested positive, and he tried to keep it a secret. He was everywhere at Trump’s illegal election night party in the people’s house so others are now testing positive. Biden will need to get that place fumigated before he moves in.

2118d069ca73ea62ec719709476ae0f8Bloomberg: Trump’s Aides Frustrated After Meadows’s Silence on Infection.

Some of Donald Trump’s White House and campaign aides are frustrated that the president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, didn’t issue a statement after he tested positive for coronavirus this week, instead informing only a close circle of advisers.

His infection was not widely known across Trump’s staff until late Friday, after Bloomberg News reported it. He tested positive on Wednesday, according to a senior administration official.

A small circle of people were aware earlier in the week that Meadows had become infected but were told to keep it quiet, several people said….

The White House Medical Unit conducted contact tracing during the latest outbreak, according to people familiar with the matter. Throughout the pandemic, the unit’s guidance for contract tracing has been to reach out to people in close proximity with the infected person for 15 minutes or more, within 48 hours of the diagnosis.

That excluded many aides who had crossed paths with Meadows at large events around Election Day, including a visit to campaign headquarters on Tuesday and a party at the White House that night….

At least four other White House officials have been infected, including Cassidy Hutchinson, one of Meadows’s closest aides, and Charlton Boyd, an aide to senior Trump adviser Jared Kushner, according to several people.

A senior Trump campaign aide, Nick Trainer, is also infected, according to people familiar with the matter.

Politico Playbook reports that Matt Gaetz has also tested positive.

ANOTHER HIGH-PROFILE MEMBER OF THE PRESIDENT’S circle tested positive: GOP Rep. MATT GAETZ of Florida told multiple people on Capitol Hill and in the White House that he too had contracted the virus. GAETZ and his staff did not reply to a request for comment.

I wonder if someone will tell Trump he lost while he’s on the golf course? I hope he has a public tantrum and throws his clubs all over the place. 

Have a nice weekend Sky Dancers!

 

Friday Reads: No One Wants to Tell King Lear the Truth

Posted: November 6, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: 2020 Elections | Tags: | 28 Comments

King Lear and the Fool in the Storm
Louis Boulanger

Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.
Give me the map there.

KING LEAR, Act One, Scene One

Good Day Sky Dancers!

Just a few more days–if not today–and we will have a definitive answer to the 2020 presidential election.  Control of the Senate will likely have to wait until a Georgia runoff in January. There are some really big omens for the future elections given that some traditionally red states have turned into battleground states and Ohio and Florida are likely just part of the red wedge. There is still a blue wall it just doesn’t include Ohio any more.

As you can see, I’m in mind today of King Lear and his Great Stage of Fools.  And why wouldn’t I think of the mad king as we wait these months until January?

This is from CNN: “Trump has told people he has no plans to concede even if his path to victory is blocked.”  Which Republican fool will be the voice of reason for this Mad King?

Facing a disappearing pathway to victory, President Donald Trump offered little indication on Friday he was prepared to concede defeat, leading those around him to wonder who might be able to reckon with a leader who has given virtually no thought to leaving the White House.

Even as vote totals now show him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden in key battlegrounds, Trump has not prepared a concession speech and in conversations with allies in recent days, he has said he has no intention of conceding the election, people familiar with the matter said.

So far he has been bolstered in his stance by those closest to him, including his senior advisers and his adult sons, who have mounted an aggressive effort in the courts to challenge the results and have pressured other Republicans into defending him.
Top aides, including his chief of staff Mark Meadows, have not attempted to come to terms with the President about the reality of what is happening. Instead, they have fed his baseless claim that the election is being stolen from underneath him.

The House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has also fed this delusional take on the election.  This is from ABC News “House GOP leader defends Trump’s call to stop vote count”.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday attempted to explain the president’s rhetoric demanding “all voting stop” after Tuesday — referring to vote counting – but McCarthy insisted he meant only that new votes should not be cast after Election Day.

“The people vote, up until Election Day, not the days after,” McCarthy told reporters. “That’s exactly what the president was expressing.”

During his remarks from the White House early Wednesday morning, Trump argued for all “voting to stop,” asserting Democrats would use mail-in ballots to steal the election.

“We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at four in the morning and add them to the list, OK?” Trump said.

From WAPO and Amber Phillips: “Top Republicans are giving Trump a pass on his ‘illegal vote’ claims. Even if some aren’t going all in on it, they’re using language Trump wants them to use.”

With President Trump on the verge of losing reelection, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) didn’t have to tweet this on Friday morning:

Tina Packer,King Lear
Publisher: Scholastic Press (2004) cover artnqa

But he did. McConnell wasn’t saying exactly what Trump has been saying — that the election is fraudulent because Trump is losing. The first part of his tweet is in line with exactly what is happening: Votes legally cast are being counted.

But then McConnell used language that mirrors what the president has been using: “illegal” “observe,” don’t count certain ballots. And because of that, it’s very easy for the president and his supporters to read what they want to hear from McConnell’s tweet: That even top Republicans think the results that could soon give Democrat Joe Biden the presidency aren’t legitimate.

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” Trump said at the White House on Thursday night. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”

Meanwhile, the minions of the Mad King are up to this:

6abc:
Philly police investigating alleged plot to attack Pennsylvania Convention Center

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Is Trump campaign urging Pennsylvania supporters to mail late ballots?

King Lear RSC (1983) designed by The Drawing Room, illustration by Ian Pollock Commissioned by The Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatre Poster

And from Justin Baragona  at  The Daily Beast: “Newt Gingrich: Bill Barr Should Arrest Poll Workers”.  WTF?

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich seemingly demanded on Thursday night that Attorney General Bill Barr use federal agents to arrest election workers in Pennsylvania and that election results in the state should be tossed.

With former Vice President Joe Biden getting closer to an electoral victory as mail-in votes in Pennsylvania continue to break heavily for him, President Donald Trump threw a televised tantrum on Thursday and doubled down on his baseless claims that the election is being stolen from him and he’s the rightful winner.

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us,” Trump said. Team Trump, meanwhile, continued to file and threaten lawsuits in states where the president is trailing or could potentially lose.

Fox News host and informal Trump adviser Sean Hannity devoted the bulk of his Thursday night broadcast to proposing a new strategy to the president and his campaign: demand that Pennsylvania, the tipping point state, just re-do its election.

After selling Trump-boosting Sens. Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz on the idea, the Fox News star then checked in with Gingrich, asking him about the focus of one of the Trump campaign’s recent lawsuits.

“Let’s see. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, all of them, a lot of them mention partisan observers are permitted to be present when ballots are counted,” Hannity stated. “But we get report after report that they are not being allowed to observe. Is that a violation of law? And how do you remedy that?”

“My hope is that President Trump will lead the millions of Americans who understand exactly what’s going on,” Gingrich fumed. “The Philadelphia machine is corrupt. The Atlanta machine is corrupt. The machine in Detroit is corrupt. And they are trying to steal the presidency. And we should not allow them to do that.”

Did the Russians give Komprat to Trump on these folks are they just all naturally grifting, lying, thugs?

Nancy Cook from Politico writes this: “Trump prepares to launch a second term early, even without winning. He may fire department heads like the FBI’s Chris Wray and Pentagon chief Mark Esper. He could sign base-pleasing executive orders. He might resume travel.”  BTW, Esper submitted his resignation letter today.  Biden is going to spend his first weeks undoing all those executive orders I’m sure.

President Donald Trump has struggled to convince the country he already won the election. So he’s just going to do the next best thing: Act like he’s starting his second term early.

Trump and his aides have settled on a plan for him to take full advantage of his existing perch at the White House to look as presidential as possible, according to three people briefed on the strategy. He may fire a few Cabinet members and top aides, including FBI Director Christopher Wray and Defense Secretary Mark Esper. He could sign a slew of base-pleasing executive orders. He might even resume his travel schedule. Meanwhile, Trump’s team is planning to mount even more legal challenges and cast evidence-deficient aspersions on the integrity of ballots.

CIA Director Gina Haspel is supposedly  next on the chopping block.

Business Insider and their related business DDHQ have already called the election for Biden.

Given all the waiting and confusion since Election Day, news consumers would be rightfully perplexed about why some outlets declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election on Friday morning while others held off.

Insider and our partners at Decision Desk HQ called the race for Biden while many other outlets had not.

DDHQ President Drew McCoy, a longtime campaign analyst, told us why he felt comfortable with the call.

Since the 2012 election, DDHQ has been calling everything from national races to local contests. It gained a more prominent reputation nationally in 2014 when it was the first service to call House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s upset defeat in his reelection bid.

Ultimately, it came down to when Pennsylvania would no longer be winnable for President Donald Trump as votes from Philadelphia and other precincts continued to be tallied.

So why the call? “Because the data led us there,” McCoy said.

“Obviously we’ve known for a while that Philadelphia was counting votes. We knew what they had,” he continued. “Homework led us to a benchmark. We weren’t going to simply call it if, you know, Joe Biden had a 20-vote lead or something like that. It had to be a substantial lead that met certain benchmarks.”

While there are still more votes to count in Pennsylvania, McCoy said that a particular batch that came out on Friday morning pushed Biden over the top.

So, we’re assuming we’re looking at a President Biden and a Vice President Harris and we’re just waiting to see what it takes to pry him out of the People’s House and what crazy things a Mad King losing it can do.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?

 

Thursday Reads

Posted: November 5, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: just because, morning reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , , , , , , | 56 Comments

Birch Grove, Isaac Levitan, 1885=89

Birch Grove, Isaac Levitan, 1885-89

Good Morning!!

My brain is mush this morning. I stayed up all night on Tuesday, fell asleep very early yesterday, and woke up this morning at 3:00. I’m too old for this. I wonder when we’ll know something definitive about the election results. At least we know that Biden is the winner; we just don’t know which state will put him over the top.

The best outcome would be for Pennsylvania to be called for Biden. Here’s Senator Bob Casey explaining where vote counting stands in his state as of this morning:

John Wagner has  live election updates on the state of the race at The Washington Post: Biden closes in on electoral college victory; race narrows in Arizona, Georgia.

The latest …
  • Arizona: Biden’s lead narrowed to about 68,000 votes early Thursday as Maricopa County, the state’s largest jurisdiction, released the tallies of more ballots it had counted. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said her state has just under 450,000 ballots left to count.
  • Georgia: Fulton County, home to Atlanta, continued counting ballots overnight. Trump’s lead had narrowed to about 18,500 votes as of early Thursday. Fulton County elections chief Rick Barron said officials will release more vote totals around 11 a.m.
  • Nevada: Updated vote totals will be released around noon Eastern time Thursday, officials said.
  • North Carolina: As of late Wednesday, officials were still counting provisional and absentee ballots. Trump was ahead, but officials said it is likely that the winner will not be known for days.
  • Pennsylvania: Trump maintained a lead of about 164,000 votes, but that was expected to shrink as more ballots were counted in heavily Democratic areas.

Trump is supposedly filing lawsuits to stop vote counting in states that look bad for him, but it seems unlikely his efforts will come to anything. 

Claude Monet - (1840 - 1926) Ulivi nel giardino Moreno 1884

Claude Monet – (1840 – 1926) Ulivi nel giardino Moreno 1884

The New York Times: With His Path to Re-election Narrowing, Trump Turns to the Courts.

With his political path narrowing, President Trump turned to the courts and procedural maneuvers on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to stave off defeat in the handful of states that will decide the outcome of the bitterly fought election.

The president’s campaign intervened at the Supreme Court in a case challenging Pennsylvania’s plan to count ballots received for up to three days after Election Day. The campaign said it would also file suit in Michigan to halt the counting there while it pursues its demands for better access for the observers it sent to monitor elections boards for signs of malfeasance in tallying ballots, modeled on a similar suit it was pursuing in Nevada.

On Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump’s team added Georgia to its list of legal targets, seeking a court order enforcing strict deadlines in Chatham County in the wake of allegations by a Republican poll observer that a small number of ineligible ballots might be counted in one location.

In Wisconsin, which along with Michigan was called on Wednesday for his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., the president’s campaign announced it would request a recount.

I think the best outcome we can hope for today is that Pennsylvania will get enough votes counted for the state to be called for Biden. That would put him over 270, and make Trump’s claims in other states irrelevant. Here’s Senator Bob Casey explaining where the Pennsylvania vote counting stands this morning.

The moves signaled Mr. Trump’s determination to make good on his longstanding threats to carry out an aggressive post-Election Day campaign to upend any result not in his favor and pursue his baseless allegations that the outcome was rigged.

But it was not clear how much effect any of his efforts would have. In Georgia, the suit is about 53 ballots, and another case in Pennsylvania is about fewer than 100.

The Road Under the Trees, Maurice de Vlaminck

The Road Under the Trees, Maurice de Vlaminck

The Biden camp is ready to fight back, according to Politico: Biden campaign gears up for legal warfare as he nears 270.

In a Zoom call with donors Wednesday, the aides told the group that Joe Biden was on pace to reach 270 electoral votes in short order, beaming over victories in the Midwestern states that Donald Trump flipped four years ago….

The campaign had good reason to project confidence: On Wednesday evening, Biden was on the cusp of clinching 270 electoral votes and the presidency after Michigan and Wisconsin were called in his favor.

At the same time, President Donald Trump was making specious claims of victory, cranking up unfounded grievances about stolen votes and filing lawsuits to challenge vote counts. Biden advisers moved to reassure anxious supporters as Trump declared himself the winner in states such as Pennsylvania, where hundreds of thousands of votes had yet to be tallied.

Biden’s team activated teams of attorneys in Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan in preparation for court battles, and blasted out requests for donations to combat myriad legal challenges.

Canale a Bruges by Alfred Joseph Auguste Van Neste (1874-1969)The problem for Trump is that he would have to provide actual evidence of the “fraud” he is claiming. ProPublica: If Trump Tries to Sue His Way to Election Victory, Here’s What Happens.

A hearing on Wednesday in an election case captured in miniature the challenge for the Trump campaign as it gears up for what could become an all-out legal assault on presidential election results in key swing states: It’s easy enough to file a lawsuit claiming improprieties — in this case, that Pennsylvania had violated the law by allowing voters whose mail-in ballots were defective to correct them — but a lot harder to provide evidence of wrongdoing or a convincing legal argument. “I don’t understand how the integrity of the election was affected,” said U.S. District Judge Timothy Savage, something he repeated several times during the hearing. (However the judge rules, the case is unlikely to have a significant effect; only 93 ballots are at issue, a county election official said.)

“A lawsuit without provable facts showing a statutory or constitutional violation is just a tweet with a filing fee,” said Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Levitt said judges by and large have ignored the noise of the race and the bluster of President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed. “They’ve actually demanded facts and haven’t been ruling on all-caps claims of fraud or suppression,” Levitt said. “They haven’t confused public relations with the predicate for litigation, and I would expect that to continue.”

If Levitt is right, that may augur poorly for the legal challenges to the presidential election. Either way, the number of cases is starting to rapidly increase. But lawsuits will do little good unless, as in the 2000 presidential election, the race winds up being so close that it comes down to a very thin margin of votes in one or more must-win states.

Read the rest at ProPublica.

Lane at alchamps, Arles, Paul Gaugin, 1888

Lane at alchamps, Arles, Paul Gaugin, 1888

Trump seems to think that he can just call on “his” Supreme Court justices to overturn the results of the election. But he can’t actually do that. Zoe Tillman at Buzzfeed News: Supreme Court To Fight Election Results. Here’s What Would Need To Happen To End Up There.

In the early hours of Wednesday, with many states still going through the lawful process of tallying votes, President Donald Trump declared: “We will be going to the Supreme Court.”

That’s not how the courts work, though. With rare exceptions that don’t apply to the election, no one can simply bring a case to the US Supreme Court. Trump’s rhetoric created an appearance of legal uncertainty around the election results that doesn’t exist yet — by Wednesday evening, there were a handful of lawsuits pending, but none involved the kind of consequential fights over final vote tallies that would decide the outcome of the race.

That could change, of course. Trump’s campaign said they’ll seek a recount in Wisconsin after former vice president Joe Biden was declared the winner, and could try to go to court to challenge the results if he still lost after that. Decision Desk HQ called Wisconsin for Biden outright on Wednesday.

There’s already a case pending before the Supreme Court about whether Pennsylvania can count absentee ballots that arrive between Nov. 4 and Nov. 6, but that would only be a vehicle for deciding the election if the race came down to Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes — and if those as-yet-unknown number of post–Election Day ballots would change the outcome.

Regardless of whether the Trump campaign’s lawsuits succeed in stopping any ballots from being counted, they’ve underscored Trump and his campaign’s efforts to falsely question the lawfulness of ballot counting that extends beyond Election Day — something that happens in every election. 

Election Night Live Blog: Take it Back Joe!!!

Posted: November 3, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: 2020 Elections, Live Blog | 34 Comments

Well, this is the night that matters!  

From Axios:  “Scoop: Biden’s plan to assert control”.

If news organizations declare Joe Biden the mathematical president-elect, he plans to address the nation as its new leader, even if President Trump continues to fight in court, advisers tell Axios.

Why it matters: Biden advisers learned the lesson of 2000, when Al Gore hung back while George W. Bush declared victory in that contested election, putting the Democrat on the defensive while Bush acted like the winner.

So if Biden is declared the winner, he’ll begin forming his government and looking presidential — and won’t yield to doubts Trump might try to sow.

  • Biden’s schedule for Tuesday includes a clue to this posture: He “will address the nation on Election Night in Wilmington, Delaware.”

Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters Monday that even if all the votes aren’t counted tonight, the campaign should have “a very good sense of where we’re headed”:

  • “We’re not really concerned about what Donald Trump says. … We’re going to use our data, our understanding of where this is headed, and make sure that the vice president is addressing the American people.”

To show momentum, Biden may begin transition announcements quickly, starting with senior staff appointments.

  • That way, core aides won’t have to worry about their own jobs, but will immediately be able to get to work.

Biden plans to adopt what one confidant called “a healing tone,” and begin talking about the path forward in battling the coronavirus.

  • Look for Biden to embrace science, and talk up the role of Dr. Anthony Fauci, after Trump threatened Sunday to try to fire the trusted official.

From there, the transition would move with unprecedented speed:

  • Biden had eight years in the White House, and he’s surrounded by aides with decades of government experience.
  • So the transition has made the most thorough agency-by-agency preparations in history, including offices no one’s thinking about.

Biden has blueprints for staffing every single agency, and has extensive plans for executive orders, including ones to undo Trump actions.

  • Look for Biden to send all-business signals: He won’t pack the courts, and is unlikely to push for repeal of the Senate’s filibuster rule and its 60-vote requirement anytime soon.
  • Instead, look for Biden to push to pass as much as possible under the banner of budget reconciliation, which requires just a simple majority.

Barton Foley, 32, with his cat “Little Ti Ti” on his shoulder, casts his ballot on Election Day at Ballard High School in Louisville. Bryan Woolston / Reuters

NBC’s Live Blog is here and the most interesting story is the high turnout and the number of votes already in from early voting.

Voters are heading to the polls to cast their ballots on Election Day, although more than 100 million Americans have already voted early or by mail.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has an aggressive day of campaigning ahead while President Donald Trump takes a lower-key approach as they try to rally supporters in the final hours before polls close.

Good weather and high turn out usually means better results for the Democratic Party Candidates!  We had both today so that should be a good omen!

And on the ground we have some of the good news already!  This is from Michigan and I will follow with some others.

 

 

https://twitter.com/TomNovelly/status/1323746504683782145

So, here we go!!!

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →