Lazy Caturday Reads

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.

Yes, 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.

Some 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.

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.

Bloomberg: 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!

Election Day Reads

Good Morning!!

Election Day has finally arrived! At midnight last night Joe Biden won all 5 votes in Dixville Notch, NH. Is it a good omen? I hope so.

Biden spent the past week talking about how we can restore the soul of America and get the pandemic under control. Trump spent his time at superspreader rallies complaining about how mean everyone is to him, sounding like what he is–a crazy old man completely out of touch with reality.

This morning on Fox and Friends, he attacked Fox News for putting clips of Obama and Biden on the air and he told the hosts that the U.S. is harder for him to deal with than Russia or North Korea.

The New York Times: As Election Day Arrives, Trump Shifts Between Combativeness and Grievance.

President Trump arrives at Election Day on Tuesday toggling between confidence and exasperation, bravado and grievance, and marinating in frustration that he is trailing Joseph R. Biden Jr., whom he considers an unworthy opponent.

“Man, it’s going to be embarrassing if I lose to this guy,” Mr. Trump has told advisers, a lament he has aired publicly as well. But in the off-camera version, Mr. Trump frequently exclaims, “This guy!” in reference to Mr. Biden, with a salty adjective separating the words.

Trailing in most polls, Mr. Trump has careened through a marathon series of rallies in the last week, trying to tear down Mr. Biden and energize his supporters, but also fixated on crowd size and targeting perceived enemies like the news media and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s infectious disease expert whom he suggested on Sunday he might try to dismiss after the election.

At every turn, the president has railed that the voting system is rigged against him and has threatened to sue when the election is over, in an obvious bid to undermine an electoral process strained by the coronavirus pandemic. It is not clear, however, precisely what legal instruments Mr. Trump believes he has at his disposal.

According to Ryan Lizza and Daniel Lippman at Politico, Republicans are secretly disgusted by Trump’s threats to interfere with voting: Republicans publicly silent, privately disgusted by Trump’s election threats.