Last Call For Retribution Execution, Con't

The Republican on Michigan's state Board of Elections who was the deciding vote to certify the state's 2020 presidential election ballots is being summarily dismissed by Trump cultists demanding a sacrifice.

With party activists calling for certification to be blocked on Nov. 23, Aaron Van Langevelde, a policy adviser and deputy legal counsel for state House Republicans, joined the two Democrats on the four-member board to sign offon the results.

His term ends on Jan. 31. Instead of renominating him for a four-year term, the Michigan Republican Party has proposed three well-known activists to take his spot, according to a letter obtained by The Detroit News. Among them is Linda Lee Tarver, who was involved in a lawsuit that sought to have the GOP-controlled Legislature intervene in the results showing Democratic President-elect Joe Biden won.

Van Langevelde said he was never asked if he’d like another term on the board, unlike the first time he was nominated, when the party approached him about serving. He said the party’s decision came as no surprise, but he stood by his vote and said he was proud of the board’s decision.

“My conscience is clear, and I am confident that my decision is on the right side of the law and history,” Van Langevelde said in a Monday statement. “Time will tell that those who spread misinformation and tried to overturn the election were wrong, and they should be held responsible for the chaos and confusion they have caused.”

In addition to Tarver, a longtime former employee of the Michigan Department of State, the state Republican Party also nominated Tony Daunt, director of the conservative Michigan Freedom Fund, and Tori Sachs, a political strategist and executive director of Michigan Rising Action.

"Should you require any additional information, please contact my office," Michigan GOP Chairwoman Laura Cox wrote in a letter to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Jan. 8.

Under state law, the Michigan Republican Party can nominate three individuals for a seat on the Board of State Canvassers. Whitmer has until Wednesday to pick one for the position.

Van Langevelde "did not request to be considered for reappointment to the state canvasing board," said Tony Zammit, a spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party.

Van Langevelde cast the deciding vote to certify Biden's 154,000-vote lead in Michigan. The other Republican member of the board, Norm Shinkle, abstained. What is usually a procedural process was fraught with controversy as supporters of GOP President Donald Trump pushed to delay certification and overturn the state's results based on unproven claims of fraud.

"We have a clear legal duty to certify the results of the election, as shown by the returns that were given to us," Van Langevelde said during the meeting. "We cannot and should not go beyond that. As John Adams once said, 'We are a government of laws, not men.'" 

 

And for his actions, he is being crucified.  I still have little sympathy for anyone who remained in the GOP after Donald Trump was elected, but Van Langevelde did his job correctly and he is being fired for it, and I hope he gets to sue the pants off of somebody in the future.

 

Probably not, though. His political career is essentially over as a Republican.

 

He could always join the good guys, however.

The Coup-Coup Birds Come Home To Roost, Con't

Team Biden is taking the Trumpist white supremacist domestic terrorist threat seriously, assuring America that they are preparing for the worst and hoping for a smooth transition of power.

 

President-elect Joe Biden is still planning to take his oath of office on the west side of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday despite growing concerns over safety for the event, incoming White House Communication Director Kate Bedingfield said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

“Well, that is certainly our plan,” Bedingfield said when asked by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos if she was certain the ceremony would go forward as planned.

"I think that will send an incredibly important visual image to the world about the resilience of American democracy. And so our plan and our expectation is that President-elect Biden will put his hand on the Bible with his family outside on the West side of the Capitol on the 20th," Bedingfield said.

Authorities have been tracking an array of potential threats ahead of the inauguration, following the deadly riots at the Capitol. They have led to changes to Biden's inaugural plans -- already altered by the pandemic.

While the oath of office is moving forward as planned, Bedingfield said Sunday that the incoming White House staffers are preparing for any threats that should arise.

"We're in volatile times, and so we are making preparations," she said. "We'll begin meeting tomorrow, daily meetings with the outgoing leadership in national security and law enforcement to ensure that we're preparing for any scenario that should arise after noon on January the 20th."

Despite the increased threats, Biden told reporters on Friday that he felt safe with the inauguration plans, which include an outdoor ceremony where Biden is expected to deliver his inaugural address.

“What can Americans expect to hear on Wednesday? What is the major goal of this address?” Stephanopoulos asked Bedingfield.

"I think you can expect that this will be a moment where President-elect Biden will really work to try to turn the page on the divisiveness and the hatred over the last four years and really lay out a positive, optimistic vision for the country, and ... lay out a path forward that really calls on all of us to work together," Bedingfield said previewing the speech.

 

Biden's inaugural address will be historic for it merely being a public even held outside the US Capitol. I know I've seen people on social media, pundits, and columnists all argue that Biden should be taking the oath inside the Capitol, if not inside an undisclosed location.

But America needs this ceremony. It needs this to happen, for a couple of reasons, number one being We do not negotiate with terrorists, and number two, Biden's address will be one for the history books if only for the conditions under which Biden will be delivering them, to a nation divided almost as badly as it was in 1861, some 160 years ago, when Abraham Lincoln first addressed the country as President.

 

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan -- to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.” 

 

Our wounds are deep and still open. Let us hope, and help, Joe Biden close them and bring America together. Biden has to do this like every other President did after being elected, he has to do this in front of America and the world. This is the tough call to make, this is the right call to make, but in the end we have to have it.

But to solve the bigger problem, the problem of Trump, his cultists, his enablers, his terror squads willing to harm and even kill, we have to face up to it. We can't hide from these assholes any more. We need to take them on in order to heal the country, but to do that, we will need true reconciliation, and that only comes after real justice. 

Team Biden's Opening Day Lineup

Good morning as we head into the final days of Trumpeii.

 

With a bit more than 48 hours to go until inauguration, Joe Biden is definitely planning to hit the ground running on Wednesday after being sworn in, with a ream of executive orders ready to be signed from Day One through the end of January.

 

In his first hours as president, Joe Biden plans to take executive action to roll back some of the most controversial decisions of his predecessor and to address the raging coronavirus pandemic, his incoming chief of staff said Saturday.

The opening salvo would herald a 10-day blitz of executive actions as Biden seeks to act swiftly to redirect the country in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency without waiting for Congress.

On Wednesday, following his inauguration, Biden will end Trump’s restriction on immigration to the U.S. from some Muslim-majority countries, move to rejoin the Paris climate accord and mandate mask-wearing on federal property and during interstate travel. Those are among roughly a dozen actions Biden will take on his first day in the White House, his incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, said in a memo to senior staff.

Other actions include extending the pause on student loan payments and actions meant to prevent evictions and foreclosures for those struggling during the pandemic.

“These executive actions will deliver relief to the millions of Americans that are struggling in the face of these crises,” Klain said in the memo. “President-elect Biden will take action — not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration — but also to start moving our country forward.”

“Full achievement” of Biden’s goals will require Congress to act, Klain wrote, including the $1.9 trillion virus relief bill he outlined on Thursday. Klain said that Biden would also propose a comprehensive immigration reform bill to lawmakers on his first day in office.

Providing a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally will be part of Biden’s agenda, according to people briefed on his plans. Ali Noorani, president of the National Immigration Forum and among those briefed, said immigrants would be put on an eight-year path. There would be a faster track for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shields people from deportation who came to the U.S. as children, and for those from strife-torn countries with temporary status.

On Thursday, the new president’s second day in office, Biden would sign orders related to the COVID-19 outbreak aimed at reopening schools and businesses and expanding virus testing, Klain said. The following day, Friday, will see action on providing economic relief to those suffering the economic costs of the pandemic.

In the following week, Klain said, Biden would take additional actions relating to criminal justice reform, climate change and immigration — including a directive to speed the reuniting of families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under Trump’s policies.

More actions will be added, Klain said, once they clear legal review. 

 

This is exactly what Joe Biden needed to do, and he's charging in, pen blazing. Get ready. The work begins in earnest in two days. 

All hands on deck.

 

StupidiNews!

• Incoming CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky warns that COVID-19 could claim another 100,000 lives by February 15 as the incoming Biden administration works to fix Trump issues.
• Multiple Texas newspaper editorial boards are calling for the resignation of GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in the wake of the US Capitol insurrection earlier this month.
• Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was immediately detained by Russian security forces returning to Moscow Sunday from Germany after recovering from a Russian poisoning attack.
• Democrats are pleading to intelligence agencies asking for Donald Trump to be cut off from tradition post-presidential intelligence briefings in the wake of his second impeachment.
• NASA's first major rocket ignition test in over a decade ended in failure Saturday as the Space Launch System failed a minute into a hot fire test at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.