Last Call For Rounding Up The Enablers

Republicans assisting and enabling Trump's illegal coup attempt are going to find out the hard way that they are not shielded from state laws on election malfeasance, as at least Michigan Republicans are discovering this weekend.

Michigan’s attorney general is exploring whether officials there risk committing crimes if they bend to President Trump’s wishes in seeking to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in their state, according to two people familiar with the review.

The move by Dana Nessel, a Democrat, reflected a growing sense of unease among many in her party and some Republicans that the president was continuing his unprecedented efforts to reach personally into the state’s electoral process as he seeks to prevent Michigan from formally declaring a winner there.

On Wednesday, two Republican officials in Wayne County sought to rescind their vote to certify the election results in their county, where Detroit is located, after Trump called them Tuesday night.

On Friday afternoon, four leaders of Michigan’s Republican-controlled state legislature met with Trump in the White House at his invitation.

Tensions surrounding the White House encounter seemed to ease somewhat late Friday when there were signs the lawmakers would not side with Trump.

No details of the meeting were available late Friday. But the lawmakers issued a statement saying that they “have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors, just as we have said throughout this election.”

A spokesperson for Nessel declined to comment for this article.

The attorney general is conferring with election law experts on whether officials may have violated any state laws prohibiting them from engaging in bribery, perjury and conspiracy, according to people familiar with the deliberations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

 

Why yes, a conspiracy to defraud a state's voters is a criminal act, as all sides appear to agree on. And Republicans in several states are hopefully going to find this out the hard way.

A Taxing Situation, Con't

The AP is confirming the NYT story that Letitia James and the NY AG's office (and possibly Cyrus Vance and the Manhattan DA's office) has indeed subpoenaed Ivanka Trump over her status as a Trump Organization consultant for tax write-off purposes, something that could land Trump's daughter in a plea deal to flip on Daddy Dearest. And once again, being state charges, Trump can't pardon the mess.

New York's attorney general has sent a subpoena to the Trump Organization for records related to consulting fees paid to Ivanka Trump as part of a broad civil investigation into the president's business dealings, a law enforcement official said Thursday.

The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that a similar subpoena was sent to President Donald Trump's company by the Manhattan district attorney, which is conducting a parallel criminal probe. Ivanka Trump alleged in a Thursday night tweet that the probe constituted "harassment."

"This 'inquiry' by NYC democrats is 100% motivated by politics, publicity and rage. They know very well that there's nothing here and that there was no tax benefit whatsoever. These politicians are simply ruthless," she claimed.

The Associated Press could not immediately independently confirm the district attorney's subpoena but the one sent by Attorney General Letitia James was described by an official briefed on the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The records requests followed recent reporting in The Times, based partly on two decades' worth of Trump's tax filings, that the president had reduced his company's income tax liability over several years by deducting $26 million in consulting fees as a business expense.

Records strongly suggested, The Times reported, that $747,622 of those fees had been paid to Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, through a company she owned at a time when she was also a Trump Organization executive.

If true, that wouldn't necessarily pose a problem for Ivanka Trump herself, as long as she paid income tax on the consulting payments, which she reported publicly.

It could, however, raise questions about whether the Trump Organization's related tax deductions were allowable. The Internal Revenue Service has, in the past, pursued civil penalties over large consulting fee write-offs it found were made to dodge tax liability.

The Times wrote that there was no indication Ivanka Trump is a target of either the state's or the city's investigation.

The Trump Organization's lawyer, Alan Garten, and its media relations office didn't immediately return messages Thursday.

 

So we'll see what happens here, but my guess is we're going to see Trump's kids flipped on Trump in the days leading up to January 20th.

 

America Goes Viral, Con't

As we cross the Rubicon of 200,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, 80,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations, and 2,000 daily deaths, keep in mind this is all before Thanksgiving week, where tens of millions of Americans are expected to ignore CDC guidance and spread the pandemic nationally over the next several days, with exactly the kind of behavior that will exponentially increase our current disastrous figures. At this point hospitals are begging Americans to stay home as they are running out of healthy staff.

More than 1,000 hospitals across the United States are "critically" short on staff, according to numbers released this week by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Those hospitals, which span all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, represent about 18% of all hospitals that report their staffing status to HHS. And that number is expected to grow: 21% of all hospitals reporting say they anticipate having critical staffing shortages in the next week.

The worst-hit state is North Dakota with 51% of hospitals that reported saying they're facing shortages; seven states say over 30% of their hospitals are in trouble.

This is the first time the federal agency has released this data, which includes limited reports going back to summer. The federal government consistently started collecting this data in July. After months of steadily trending upward, the number of hospitals reporting shortages crossed 1,000 this month and has stayed above since.

The data, however, are still incomplete. Not all hospitals that report daily status COVID-19 updates to HHS are reporting their staffing situations, so it's impossible to tell for sure how much these numbers have increased.

While the data is a welcome addition to the arsenal of information that public health officials have to fight COVID-19, it highlights the shortcomings of what the federal government has made available to the public. Though the government has precise daily figures for COVID-19 hospitalizations at thousands of the country's hospitals, it shares only a small subset of this information to people outside government.

Pinar Karaca-Mandic, a professor at the University of Minnesota who leads a project that collects COVID-19 hospital data, calls the new information release a "very positive data development and effort."

"That offers a possibility to plan ahead, especially the anticipated staffing shortages," she says. There is still a lot of hospitalization data that the federal government does not make public that could further inform researchers and the public, she says, including the ages and race of those hospitalized.

Looking ahead toward the next week, additional hospitals report expecting staffing shortages in 40 states, as well as Puerto Rico. Nebraska, Virginia and Missouri top the list in places that are expected to have the biggest upticks.

Basically if Thanksgiving is as bad as I believe it's going to be, you can double all the already record-setting COVID-19 numbers this week by December, and I think that's being extremely generous.  I believe 400K-500K new cases, 160K-200K hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths a day are very possible. And that many hospitalizations will rapidly overwhelm the American hospital system.

December 2020 is going to be a living nightmare, one every American will remember for the rest of their lives.

And for possibly hundreds of thousands of us, those lives won't make it to January.

Orange Meltdown, Con't

It's too late for Republicans in Congress to rein in Trump. Far, far too late. They have lost control of the monster they created.

 

A growing number of veteran GOP lawmakers are pushing back on President Donald Trump's tactics to overturn election results showing he lost the race, raising concerns that his tactics could hurt the US response to the coronavirus crisis and undercut a key pillar of democracy. 

In recent days, more Republicans have spoken out -- even though party leaders and a vast majority of congressional Republicans continue to back Trump's efforts to challenge the results. 

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Rep. Kay Granger of Texas and Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan -- all senior Republicans -- have each raised concerns in recent days about the transition of power. 

Their pleas come as Trump has yet to concede the general election, and the General Services Administration has yet to formally recognize President-elect Joe Biden's victory, thus denying him access to contacts with federal agencies, funding to help ramp up government hiring for the new administration and access to classified intelligence briefings. The delayed transition has sparked concerns about national security and the impacts it could have on the incoming Biden administration's Covid-19 response, especially the distribution of a vaccine. 

"If there is any chance whatsoever that Joe Biden will be the next president, and it looks like he has a very good chance, the Trump Administration should provide the Biden team with all transition materials, resources, and meetings necessary to ensure a smooth transition so that both sides are ready on day one. That especially should be true, for example, on vaccine distribution," Alexander, who chairs the influential Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, wrote in a statement Friday, highlighting the impact the transition could have on pandemic response. 

Alexander is retiring at the end of his term this year. 

Similarly, when asked about Trump's efforts to overturn the election results Friday, Granger told CNN she has "great concerns about it," adding, "I think that it's time to move on."
Granger, a veteran Texas Republican, added Friday that Trump should be transparent about the situation. 

"I think it's time for him to really realize and be very clear about what's going on," Granger said. 

When asked Thursday if Trump should concede, Upton, a senior Michigan Republican who was targeted by Democrats but won his reelection bid by 16 points, said, "Yeah. I think it's all said and done." 

Upton also dismissed any evidence of voter fraud in his home state. 

"No one has seen any real identification of any real fraud," Upton said, when asked about the Trump allegations of widespread fraud in Detroit. Trump will meet with the Republican leaders of the Michigan state legislature at the White House Friday afternoon as Trump and his legal team continue to mount a long-shot effort to overturn the results of the election he lost to Biden.

 

It's too late. It's far, far too late. The rough beast is not just slouching towards Bethlehem, it's running at a dead sprint with a jet pack. The time for this was November 5th, not two weeks later. Trump's base is loose, the terrorist cells are activated.

Upton, Alexander, and Granger (and Romney) will be better off than the rest of the GOP who remained silent. History might even remember that they said something before the violence started.

But for the rest of the Republicans, they will burn along with America.

Last Call For Biden, His Time, Con't

NPR reports former Obama Supreme Court pick Merrick Garland will be Biden's choice for Attorney General.

Federal appeals court Judge Merrick Garland is under consideration to serve as attorney general in the administration of President-elect Joe Biden, NPR has learned from two people closely following the process.

Garland, 68, is the widely respected former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He launched his career at the Justice Department decades ago.

Garland oversaw the prosecution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and gained significant management experience inside the sprawling department in the 1990s.

More recently, Garland was nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama, to fill the seat vacated by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Despite his qualifications and a history of support from conservatives, Senate Republicans denied Garland even a hearing for the post, and he quietly returned to his job on what's considered the second most important court in the nation. On the bench, Garland focused on professionalism, collegiality and transparency, making audio of arguments widely available.

Some Justice Department veterans had been looking to history for a way to move ahead from the chaotic Trump era when the president has routinely attacked federal prosecutors and FBI agents. The current attorney general, Bill Barr, this year likened some of his employees to young students at a Montessori school.

Former Justice Department officials pointed out that after Watergate, President Gerald Ford enlisted former University of Chicago President Edward Levi to be attorney general and restore public confidence in the institution. The Justice Department bestows an award for honor and integrity in his name.

 

I can guarantee you that this won't happen if Mitch McConnell is still Senate Majority Leader in January, for the simple reason that Mitch McConnell will never allow Joe Biden to appoint a single federal judge to the bench, let alone nominate a replacement for DC Circuit Court. McConnell will leave every single vacancy open, just like he did in Obama's final two years.  

So who else is Biden considering for the job of AG?

Firmer Acting AG Sally Yates, unceremoniously fired by Trump, would almost certainly never have the votes in a McConnell-led Congress, complete with screeching about Mueller. Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick would be labeled a socialist Black Lives Matter supporter. Doug Jones might actually have the best shot, but would be ruthlessly attacked by far-left folks for being too moderate.

Biden will have no good choices for anything if Mitch is still in charge of the Senate come January.

Dems better win both Georgia runoffs.

The Coup-Clutch Clan Comes

Donald Trump's illegal coup continues, and tens of millions of Republicans support him retaining power by any means necessary as America is now on the brink of disaster.

Brett Fryar is like many mainstream Republicans. A 50-year-old chiropractor in this west Texas town, he owns a small business. He has two undergraduate degrees and a master’s degree, in organic chemistry. He attends Southcrest Baptist Church in nearby Lubbock, where he has previously taught Sunday school and bible studies.

Fryar didn’t much like Donald Trump at first, during the U.S. president’s 2016 campaign. He voted for Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the Republican primaries.

Now, Fryar says he would go to war for Trump. He has joined the newly formed South Plains Patriots, a group of a few hundred members that includes a “reactionary” force of about three dozen - including Fryar and his son, Caleb - who conduct firearms training.

Nothing will convince Fryar and many others here in Sundown - including the town’s mayor, another Patriots member - that Democrat Joe Biden won the Nov. 3 presidential election fairly. They believe Trump’s stream of election-fraud allegations and say they’re preparing for the possibility of a “civil war” with the American political left.

“If President Trump comes out and says: ‘Guys, I have irrefutable proof of fraud, the courts won’t listen, and I’m now calling on Americans to take up arms,’ we would go,” said Fryar, wearing a button-down shirt, pressed slacks and a paisley tie during a recent interview at his office.

The unshakable trust in Trump in this town of about 1,400 residents reflects a national phenomenon among many Republicans, despite the absence of evidence in a barrage of post-election lawsuits by the president and his allies. About half of Republicans polled by Reuters/Ipsos said Trump “rightfully won” the election but had it stolen from him in systemic fraud favoring Biden, according to a survey conducted between Nov. 13 and 17. Just 29% of Republicans said Biden rightfully won. Other polls since the election have reported that an even higher proportion - up to 80% - of Republicans trust Trump’s baseless fraud narrative.

Trump’s legal onslaught has so far flopped, with judges quickly dismissing many cases and his lawyers dropping or withdrawing from others. None of the cases contain allegations - much less evidence - that are likely to invalidate enough votes to overturn the election, election experts say.

And yet the election-theft claims are proving politically potent. All but a handful of Republican lawmakers have backed Trump’s fraud claims or stayed silent, effectively freezing the transition of power as the president refuses to concede. Trump has succeeded in sowing further public distrust in the media, which typically calls elections, and undermined citizens’ faith in the state and local election officials who underpin American democracy.

In Reuters interviews with 50 Trump voters, all said they believed the election was rigged or in some way illegitimate. Of those, 20 said they would consider accepting Biden as their president, but only in light of proof that the election was conducted fairly. Most repeated debunked conspiracy theories espoused by Trump, Republican officials and conservative media claiming that millions of votes were dishonestly switched to Biden in key states by biased poll workers and hacked voting machines.

Many voters interviewed by Reuters said they formed their opinions by watching emergent right-wing media outlets such as Newsmax and One American News Network that have amplified Trump’s fraud claims. Some have boycotted Fox News out of anger that the network called Biden the election winner and that some of its news anchors - in contrast to its opinion show stars - have been skeptical of Trump’s fraud allegations.

“I just sent Fox News an email,” Fryar said, telling the network: “You’re the only news I’ve watched for the last six years, but I will not watch you anymore.”

 

I don't know what else to say, folks. We're talking about average Trump cultists gladly saying they will take up arms and kill for their leader. It's easy to say this is all Trump's poisonous narcissism trying to steal an election through an armed coup, or that he's trying to force Biden and New York to drop charges through the threat of white supremacist domestic terrorism killing thousands, and those are, at this point, the preferable outcomes.

Because the big really bad one is that Trump tells his people to kill every Democrat they know and pile the bodies up as a temple to him.

And God help me, that's a possible outcome now.

The Death Of The News Claims Another

Your local paper shut down five years ago, your local TV station was bought out by a national chain, your local radio station is all Limbaugh and Hannity all the time, and all of your neighbors are now getting local news from propaganda websites that are now doing everything they can to destroy Democrats in elections, and largely succeeding at it.

Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, a Democratic rising star with a national reach, is trailing in a reelection bid to an upstart Republican contender — a potential upset driven in part by a local social media page that has become a kingslayer if not a kingmaker in this San Joaquin Valley city.

Tubbs, the city’s first Black mayor and a favorite in progressive circles for championing ideas such as universal basic income, trailed Republican Kevin Lincoln 52% to 48%, though county officials said many mail-in ballots remained to be counted, leaving the possibility of a reversal.

Though Tubbs won his first mayoral election in 2016 with 70% of the vote and an endorsement from President Obama, this time he has been dogged by a social media page whose founder acknowledges he harbors a grudge against Tubbs — and which has hounded the incumbent, and other local political figures, with years of accusations of corruption and misdeeds.

As the city’s local newspaper, the Record, has struggled with staff cuts in recent years, the social media page, the 209 Times, named for the local area code, has amassed nearly 100,000 followers on Facebook and 118,000 on Instagram. Motecuzoma Patrick Sanchez, one of the founders of the 209 Times, said it has millions of interactions with viewers on its website and social media pages every month, making it one of the area’s most popular sources of information.

San Joaquin County has about 760,000 residents, with roughly 310,000 in Stockton. About 50,000 voted in the mayor’s race.

Local political pundits said the 209 Times has clout with voters and damaged Tubbs’ reputation by attacking him with relentless, and unfounded, allegations of corruption.

“He was wounded by the 209 Times,” said Michael Fitzgerald, a former metro columnist for the Stockton Record who has followed local politics for three decades.

It “just created this false narrative about Tubbs, and they just kept pounding that narrative,” he said.

The 209 Times has run articles, often with no proof, alleging that Tubbs has misappropriated millions of dollars earmarked for city programs, lied about his involvement with an unpopular idea to use the county fairgrounds as part of a state-funded site for homeless people, and put personal interests ahead of his elected role.

Daniel Lopez, Tubbs’ spokesman, said the allegations were “outright lies.”

“209 Times is a perfect example of what you are seeing in the country. It’s ‘pick your own news,’” Lopez said. He took particular issue with recent allegations that Stockton had received and misused $60 million in state funds meant for reducing homelessness.

“To address our challenges we need an informed public,” he said. “How can we have a dialogue around homelessness, for example, when the 209 Times persuades residents that we’ve been given $60 million for this issue, when in reality we only have $6.5 million? I’m sure a good number of Stocktonians reading this article will learn for the first time that the $60-million number is fake, yet some will still believe regardless.”

 

And not only did Stockton voters believe the 209 Times, they voted Tubbs out of office.  He conceded Wednesday to Republican Kevin Lincoln, who ended up winning by double-digits.

By 2024, expect this to be the norm in local, county, and state elections. They've proven that you can take a website, put it on Facebook, and be a "news source" to thousands of voters.

 

 

StupidiNews!

• The Manhattan DA's office is looking at Trump Organization tax write-offs, specifically involving Trump's daughter Ivanka, as a consultant for the firm.
• China has inoculated as many as one million people with its COVID-19 vaccine as trials continue and production ramps up for medical responders and staff.
• The Vatican is asking social media company Instagram officials how Pope Francis's official account ended up giving a like to a model.
• Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney is calling Donald Trump's refusal to transition power to President-elect Joe Biden "undemocratic" and is calling on Trump to concede.
• CDC guidance on Thanksgiving this year is not to travel, and not to host people outside your household as COVID-19 cases and hospitalization continue to set record US numbers.

Last Call For You Cannot Forgive The Unforgivable

Emily L. Hauser argues over at Dame Magazine that there is in fact a time and place for the grace of forgiveness to heal the rifts in America, and that this is not the time for any of that right now, because the GOP are fascist assholes and we need to slam the hammer of accountability repeatedly down upon them like iron rain.

We’re on the leading edge of what’s sure to be the worst stage of a pandemic that’s already stolen nearly a quarter of a million American lives—as if the entire city of Buffalo, New York had been wiped from the map. COVID-19 would’ve cut a grievous swath through this nation no matter who’d been in power when it first appeared, but the fact that a virus we learned of on Valentine’s Day is raging unchecked and uncontrolled on Thanksgiving can be laid directly at the feet of a national leadership as feckless as it is cruel. So you will excuse me, Civility Police, but I am not yet ready to “reach out” to the people who hoped to see Trump re-elected even as we were burying an entire city’s worth of our own.

As it happens, though, refusing to let Trump and his fellow travelers off the hook for untold American deaths is not just a reasonable response to national grief and the fact that you’ll be eating a single-serving frozen turkey entrée next Thursday, it’s also a sound approach to politics.

It’s a simple and profound truth that the personal is the political. Hate-filled rhetoric and policies of dehumanization don’t exist in a vacuum; they lead directly to the suffering of millions. When Republicans chose, for instance, to busy themselves with the appointment of right-wing extremist Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court rather than provide any relief to a people reeling not just from a mass casualty event but also job loss, home loss, and hunger, it was a political choice. That Americans are hungry doesn’t make it any less so.

The list of cruelties produced by this president and his party goes on: Children who may never again see their parents; families trapped in poverty by predatory payday loans; the ill and the elderly waiting days or even weeks for medications. These horror stories are the direct result of political decisions made over the last four years by a Republican Party that also found time to shore up white supremacy, dismantle workplace safety regulations, and, oh yes, lick the boots of an admitted sexual abuser. Biden supporters can be forgiven for thinking that the politicians and voters who sought to extend these very personal injuries might at least acknowledge the damage they’ve done before we offer forgiveness, carte blanche.

Indeed, any number of faith traditions and 12-step programs will tell you that forgiveness cannot come in the absence of genuine repentance; that repentance, in turn, requires changed behavior; and that bad behavior has consequences, no matter how much you might wish it otherwise. I would argue that perhaps the biggest reason Democrats shouldn’t start extending unearned olive branches is because America has a history of skimping on the whole “consequences” thing, and honestly, it’s a big part of why 2020 has been such an unremitting dumpster fire.

When he took office in 2009, Barack Obama chose to “look forward” instead of prosecuting those involved in George W. Bush’s torture program; Trump appointed one of that program’s central figures to run the CIA and consulted with another on his administration’s use of executive orders to circumvent federal law. In 1974, Gerald Ford granted a “full, free, and absolute” pardon to Richard Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while in the White House, a precedent that has not gone unnoticed by a president whose crimes long ago outstripped Watergate. In 1865, the Confederates lost a war they’d launched in order to dissolve the union and keep enslaving people; in 2020, Trump and the GOP are trying their very best to save Confederate statues from the trash heap. Civility Police, I’d like to lodge a complaint!

Maybe if we began letting those responsible for evil sit with what they’ve done, possibly in a prison cell—or, at the very least, far from the halls of government where they have so manifestly failed in their jobs—we wouldn’t find ourselves with wanna-be mob bosses flying around on Air Force One spreading death. Maybe if Republican voters begin to understand that what they do on Election Day actually ruins the lives of actual people, they might be a little less whiny when Democrats don’t send sympathy cards.

Biden will be president of all Americans, not just the ones who voted for him. And he’ll have to try to work with the people who so bitterly opposed his election. But I want to remind the president-elect and everyone else in the Democratic Party of another simple truth: Politics is for power.

Social justice is not won with gentle commiseration. Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall were uprisings intended to wrest power from the hands of oppressors. I did not vote for a party that moves right for Republicans; I voted for a party that will fight to undo Republican damage.

Republicans know politics is for power. It’s why they blocked Obama’s nominations to the Supreme Court and pushed through their own; it’s why they continue to try to gut the Affordable Care Act and overturn Roe v. Wade despite the popularity of both. And it’s why, mark my words, absent a solid win by Georgia Democrats in that state’s Senate run-off elections in January, Biden’s inevitable efforts to reach across the aisle will fail. If Democrats want to enact the kind of change that so many Americans so desperately need, we must stop molly-coddlying the people wholly dedicated to preventing us from doing so.

And finally, while every individual must make their own choices about the people in their lives, I want to say very clearly that you are not required to offer a hand to people who have denied your humanity. Your life is precious, your spirit and your mind are precious. Those who deny it are not deserving of your comfort.

 

You cannot forgive those who are not repentant. You cannot forgive those who will simply do everything again to wrong you if given the chance. 

 

You have to stop them from doing it again.

 

 

 

Kentucky Goes Viral, Con't

Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has announced a new round of major COVID-19 restrictions as the state faces record cases, deaths, and hospitalization numbers.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced multiple new restrictions Wednesday as the state continues to see a surge in coronavirus cases, including:  

All public and private K-12 schools will close to in-person instruction starting Monday through the end of the semester. The only exception is for elementary schools in counties outside the red zone, which may reopen on Dec. 7 if the school follows all guidelines.

Beginning on Friday and lasting until Dec. 13:

• All restaurants and bars will close to indoor dining services. Outdoor dining is still allowed, with some limitations.
• Gyms are limited to 33% capacity, and no group classes or indoor games are allowed. Masks are required.
• Indoor gatherings should be limited to two families, not exceeding a total of eight people.
• Attendance at wedding and funerals is limited to 25 people.

Beshear announced a $40 million fund to provide assistance to qualifying restaurants and bars impacted by the dining room closures.

La Tasha Buckner, the governor's chief of staff, said businesses will be eligible for $10,000 in assistance. Those with more than one location will be eligible for a maximum of $20,000.

Businesses owned by a publicly traded company or with drive-thrus driving 50% of their sales will not be eligible, Buckner said.

"We really want to make sure that we target the mom-and-pop individual business owners out there who may be suffering from the largest impact," she said.

The new restrictions arrive as Kentucky's coronavirus case counts surge dramatically and as deaths from COVID-19 have hit record levels this month.

Beshear has insisted that measures taken so far haven't curbed rising infection rates, levels that eventually could overwhelm hospitals and care centers across the state.

On Wednesday, Beshear said "there will not be a shutdown" in what he described as Kentucky's counterattack against the pandemic's third wave.

"We're also not restricting retail any further, but that is based on a commitment to re-up the mask mandate and the enforcement of it because we need every Kentuckian to do their part," Beshear said.

At least 106 of the state's 120 counties are now in the "red" zone, and preliminary modeling predicts at the current rate of exponential growth, far more Kentuckians could die between now and March than the nearly 1,700 who have died since spring.

 

These are necessary restrictions, and frankly they should have gone into effect two weeks ago after the election, but it's a start. I'm hoping these restrictions will continue into January, but after that the 75% Republican General Assembly goes into session, and they have absolutely promised that they will end Beshear's ability to make any COVID-19 emergency restrictions that aren't approved by the legislature beforehand.

How that works when the General Assembly is only in session 30 legislative days out of the year, well, that will be up to Kentucky's Supreme Court to decide, because I guarantee you that's where things are headed come January 5.

Sittenfeld This One Out

Breaking news this morning. Ohio's corrupt politicians continue to fall in the wake of the FirstEnergy bribery and corruption scandal as the FBI is now in everybody's books, and the latest arrest is yet another Cincinnati city council member, rising star Democrat P.G. Sittenfeld.

FBI agents arrested Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld Thursday morning on federal charges accusing him of accepting bribes in exchange for favorable votes on development deals, a source with knowledge of the arrest told The Enquirer.

Sittenfeld, a Democrat and the presumptive front-runner in next year’s mayoral election, was arrested around 9:30 a.m.

Elected to council in 2011, Sittenfeld has amassed a campaign war chest of $710,000 on his way to becoming one of the city’s most powerful politicians. He is the brother of novelist Curtis Sittenfeld, author of "Prep" and "Rodham."

The federal charges mean one-third of Cincinnati’s City Council – three sitting members of the city’s top legislative body – have been arrested this year on corruption charges related to city development projects.

Tamaya Dennard, a Democrat, resigned from council after her arrest in February on fraud and bribery charges. She has pleaded guilty to a charge of honest services wire fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced next week.

Jeff Pastor, a Republican, was arrested Nov. 10 on bribery, extortion and money laundering charges related to two development deals, according to a federal affidavit. That case is pending. His attorney, Ben Dusing, said Pastor will fight the charges.

It’s unclear what deal or deals are at the heart of Sittenfeld’s arrest. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio David DeVillers is expected to share more at an 11 a.m. press conference.

Feds taking a flamethrower to Ohio politics, and that's badly needed, but I'm actually sad to see Sittenfeld's career end like this. He would have been a great replacement for Mayor Cranley.

Oh well.

StupidiNews!

• Ugandan opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine has been arrested a second time in a matter of weeks, this time for "violating COVID-19 campaign guidelines".
• DEA officials are reportedly "furious" after US Attorney General Bill Barr dropped all charges against former Mexican Defense Minister and drug cartel leader Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda.
• Senators from both sides of the aisle will vote against Donald Trump's $23 billion sale of fighter jets, drones and weapons to the UAE, citing a "major balance of power shift" in the Middle East.
• Australian PM Scott Morrison says the country will "always set our own laws and our own rules" after China accused Morrison of "poisoning bilateral relations" over an increasing trade war.
• Apple has settled with 33 states and DC for $113 million over allegations that performance on older iPhones was deliberately throttled as battery life degraded in order to spur sales.
  

Last Call For How To Steal An Election, Con't

The Trump regime plan to steal the election now is to create enough chaos and doubt in the election process to provide cover Republicans in red states that Biden won so that they can then prevent certification of election results, stopping them from being able to send electors to the Electoral College by the December deadline, and forcing the presidential election to go to the House. The test run for this is Michigan, where Republicans began their coup attempt last night, and were foiled, at least for now.

The Wayne County Board of Canvassers unanimously certified its ballot count Tuesday evening, reversing itself just hours after Republicans on the board blocked the typically uneventful task of approving the results of the presidential election.

Democrats and voting rights advocates had expressed outrage after the board, which is made up of two Democrats and two Republicans, deadlocked on party lines over whether to certify. Had it held, that outcome would have punted the question of who won the state's most densely populated region to a state regulatory board that meets Nov. 23.

But the board made a late agreement to conduct an independent audit of the results, which mollified the Republicans, who had been under pressure from Trump’s supporters not to certify the results.

“I appreciate putting our heads together to come to a solution,” Republican board chairwoman Monica Palmer said, with the agreement coming after two hours of back-to-back public comments.

Joe Biden holds a lead of nearly 148,000 votes in Michigan, and Democrats here believe the partisan split of the board in Wayne County — home to heavily Democratic Detroit — simply delays an inevitable official victory for Biden in the state.

The brief period of chaos created when the board failed to certify the results provided a small win to the Trump campaign and a group of Republican lawyers and activists who have questioned the legitimacy of the count in Detroit, which went overwhelmingly for Biden.

“I am proud that, due to the efforts of the Michigan Republican Party, the Republican National Committee and the Trump Campaign, enough evidence of irregularities and potential voter fraud was uncovered resulting in the Wayne County Board of Canvassers refusing to certify their election results. This action will allow more time for us to get to the bottom of these deeply troubling irregularities,” said Laura Cox, the state GOP party chair. “The people of Michigan deserve fair, open and transparent elections, and we will continue to fight for just that.”

Note that the attack here started in Wayne County, Michigan. Detroit, specifically. Racist Republicans all but saying that Black voters and Black votes should not be certified, and to them, it always comes back to race. Always. They hate Black America enough to take everything from us whenever they can get away with it.

But the move in Wayne County being defeated just means Republicans will get a second bite at this poison apple next week at the state level, and you can absolutely bet that Republicans in Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona are eyeing exactly how to make this work in order to stop Biden from getting to 270. 

Keep a careful eye on state election certification boards. The Trump regime is clearly indicating it will do anything to win, including destroying America's election system, in order to maintain power. And if they do manage to steal this election through certification delays, well, we'll never actually need elections again, will we?

Just As Corrupt As Trump, Con't

As expected after last month's call from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office for the Feds to take a long, hard look at Paxton himself over multiple possible crimes the office discovered, the FBI is now investigating the allegations of bribery and corruption against Paxton during his current tenure.

The FBI is investigating allegations that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton broke the law in using his office to benefit a wealthy donor, according to two people with knowledge of the probe.

Federal agents are looking into claims by former members of Paxton’s staff that the high-profile Republican committed bribery, abuse of office and other crimes to help Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, the people told The Associated Press. They insisted on anonymity to discuss the investigation because it is ongoing.

Confirmation of the criminal probe marks mounting legal peril for Paxton, who’s denied wrongdoing and refused calls for his resignation since his top deputies reported him to federal authorities at the end of September.

A criminal defense attorney for Paxton, Philip Hilder, declined to comment. Spokespersons in the attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

It’s unclear how far the FBI is into investigating the allegations against Paxton. An agency spokeswoman in San Antonio declined to comment.

Paxton is accused of using his position as Texas’ top law enforcement official to benefit Paul in several ways, according to seven senior lawyers in the attorney general’s office and the agency’s head of law enforcement. Central to their claims is the fact that Paxton hired an outside lawyer to investigate the developer’s allegations that the FBI improperly searched his home and offices last year.

Each of Paxton’s accusers has resigned, been put on leave or been fired since reporting him. Last week, four of them filed a state whistleblower lawsuit against the attorney general, claiming he ousted them as retribution.

Paxton has been dancing around legal trouble for his entire run as Texas AG, currently doing everything he can to hold up a securities fraud case against him since 2015, but now he has this as well.

Just a reminder that when you put Republicans in power, they will be corrupt.

Orange Meltdown, Con't

Even Mitch McConnell has thrown in the towel on the Trump regime (well, as good as that will get) promising an "orderly" transition of power to the new administration in January.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said there will be an "orderly transfer" between administrations Jan. 20, though he did not mention President-elect Joe Biden or President Donald Trump, who is refusing to concede, by name.

McConnell, R-Ky., has not yet publicly recognized Biden's victory, but his comments Tuesday following a Senate Republican luncheon signaled he is prepared for a Biden presidency.

Asked about the General Services Administration's refusal to ascertain Biden's victory, which triggers important components of the transition, McConnell did not push for the Trump administration to begin that process but said "we're going to have an orderly transfer from this administration to the next one."

"What we all say about it is frankly irrelevant," he said, adding, "All of it will happen right on time, and we will swear in the next administration on January 20th."

Earlier, McConnell described the next steps in the electoral process, pointing to the upcoming certification of results in key swing states.

"Once those certifications occur, if they occur based upon litigation being tried in various places, those will be final," he said. "The Electoral College will meet in December. And the inauguration will be on January 20th."

McConnell added that the president and his legal team are within their rights to present "whatever evidence" they may have to contest the results.

Though he is losing by more than 10,000 votes in at least three swing states he would need to flip in order to win the election — an amount far outside the total overturned in any recount for at least 50 years — the president is hoping that long-shot legal challenges will revive his chances. So far, his campaign's legal effort has fallen short in federal court, and ongoing efforts appear unlikely to alter the results, let alone swing a state.

Only a handful of Republican lawmakers have acknowledged Biden's projected victory.

Now, Mitch is in a tough spot here. We all know he only thing he cares about is power, and he can't admit that Joe Biden is president and that Kamala Harris is Vice President because he still has to win at least one more Senate race in Georgia in order to keep from becoming Senate minority leader. 

But notice, while he's careful not to mention Biden or Harris at all, he's also not mentioning Trump. That's about as good as you're going to get, and the Senate GOP isn't going to even talk to Biden until after the January 5th Georgia elections.

 

Besides, half of Republicans now believe Trump won the election and that Biden stole it.

The Nov. 13-17 opinion poll showed that Trump’s open defiance of Biden’s victory in both the popular vote and Electoral College appears to be affecting the public’s confidence in American democracy, especially among Republicans.

Altogether, 73% of those polled agreed that Biden won the election while 5% thought Trump won. But when asked specifically whether Biden had “rightfully won,” Republicans showed they were suspicious about how Biden’s victory was obtained.

Fifty-two percent of Republicans said that Trump “rightfully won,” while only 29% said that Biden had rightfully won.

Asked why, Republicans were much more concerned than others that state vote counters had tipped the result toward Biden: 68% of Republicans said they were concerned that the election was “rigged,” while only 16% of Democrats and one-third of independents were similarly worried.

Even before winning the 2016 election, Trump kept up a drumbeat of complaints about the process, claiming without evidence that it was unfair to him.

Since Biden amassed enough electoral votes to win the White House on Nov. 7, Trump has ramped up those criticisms, telling his supporters that he is the victim of widespread illegal voting.

Trump has failed to give any proof for his claims and has not been able to back them up in court, however. Republicans announced this week that they were dropping federal election lawsuits in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The poll showed that more Americans appear to be more suspicious about the U.S. election process than they were four years ago.

Altogether, 55% of adults in the United States said they believed the Nov. 3 presidential election was “legitimate and accurate,” which is down 7 points from a similar poll that ran shortly after the 2016 election. The 28% who said they thought the election was “the result of illegal voting or election rigging” is up 12 points from four years ago.

The poll showed Republicans were much more likely to be suspicious of Trump’s loss this year than Democrats were when Hillary Clinton lost four years ago.

In 2016, 52% of Democrats said Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump was “legitimate and accurate,” even as reports emerged of Russian attempts to influence the outcome. This year, only 26% of Republicans said they thought Trump’s loss was similarly legitimate.

Trump still owns all of them, and they know it. And his antics are pushing his cultists towards the point where they will refuse to recognize the legitimate election of Joe Biden.

The potential for massive, nationwide violence is the highest that it's been in years.