Thursday, December 31, 2020

DEAD-ENDERS

One way or another, Trump is going to lose on January 6
 
President Donald Trump’s last-gasp bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat appears doomed on Jan. 6, when Congress is set to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. But the byzantine process by which Congress counts and validates the Electoral College results has left gnawing uncertainty about precisely how the final act in Trump’s undemocratic drama will play out. . . .President Donald Trump’s last-gasp bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat appears doomed on Jan. 6, when Congress is set to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.  But the byzantine process by which Congress counts and validates the Electoral College results has left gnawing uncertainty about precisely how the final act in Trump’s undemocratic drama will play out. . . . [read on]

"There is no secret legal maneuver left to stop a Biden presidency," experts say — but Trumpers keep hoping
 
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said on Wednesday that he will object during Congress's counting of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, becoming the first GOP senator to back the effort by House conservatives. The decision by Hawley would ensure a debate and vote in the House and Senate on the Electoral College results. . . . GOP leaders in the Senate had hoped to avoid it, and the vote and debate is likely to reveal deep divisions in the conference over the allegations from President Trump of voter fraud — which have repeatedly been rejected by courts. . .

Josh Hawley signs on to effort to turn Jan. 6 into a red letter day for threatening democracy
 
 
In the final days of Trump's reign, his minions are fighting over who is least loyal to America
 
Trump's war against the GOP state leadership in Georgia

Trump calls on Georgia Gov. Kemp to resign
 
Trump Goes On Unhinged Rant Against Georgia Sec. Of State Raffensperger's Brother

Trump has been demanding a "signature audit" in Georgia. He got one
 
“Law enforcement and election investigators didn’t find a single fraudulent absentee ballot during an audit of over 15,000 voter signatures, according to a report by the Georgia secretary of state’s office released Tuesday.”
 
Confusion after Trump tweets about nonexistent 205,000-vote discrepancy in Pennsylvania
 
Texas Lt Gov. Dan Patrick offered a reward to anyone who could prove actual voter fraud. Will he pay up now?

As we discussed last month, the Texas Republican was effectively arguing that he and his party assumed there was widespread fraud, but they couldn't prove it, so he hoped financial rewards would produce evidence Republicans couldn't find on their own. Patrick was basically telling the public, "We can't back up our talking points, so I'll pay you to help." But now there's a related problem: Patrick's counterpart in Pennsylvania has uncovered real-world evidence of Trump voters committing fraud, and he wants the Texan to pay up. . . 

Mitch McConnell says that Trump can't "bully" the GOP Senate into passing $2000 stimulus checks

 
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Wednesday he does not see a "realistic path to quickly pass" a House-approved standalone measure for $2,000 stimulus checks, despite calls from President Trump for increased payments. . . .

[NB: This is a typical McConnell lie. He describes it as if unfortunate circumstance, or procedural technicalities, make it impossible. There is only one thing preventing a vote -- McConnell himself.]

Trump releases unconfirmed intel to punish China one last time --- while ignoring Russia

In June, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany lashed out at the New York Times for publishing "unverified" allegations about the Russian bounty intelligence. . .

Intel on China bounties called ‘less' credible than Russia payments 

In COVID news . . .   
 
Where is the vaccine?
 
Doctor Stunned By Level Of Incompetence In Vaccine Rollout
 
 
The worst single-day death total so far
 
 
In other news . . .    
 
Biden plans to move quickly on judges
 
 
How Biden will start to undo Trump's actions, from day one
 

Ten actions Biden can take to undo Trump’s war on immigrants

Another Trump department not cooperating with the transition
 
 

Ugh

Secret Service making changes to presidential detail amid concerns current members are aligned with Trump

The Republican war on mail-in voting
 
 
Armed protestors outside the Republican NH governor's home
 
 
No one could have foreseen a lone-wolf bomber with a suicide wish . . . oh . . . uh, never mind
 
Nashville Bomber's Girlfriend Warned Cops A Year Ago He Was Making Bombs
 
Bonus item:  Reader SA makes a good point. Apart from Trump's anti-vaxx tendencies and refusal to set a good example, she suspects that he won't get vaccinated because he doesn't want to bare his pale flabby arms. She's not alone
 

***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!  
 
I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
Posted by at

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

THE DEEP STORY

What is Trumpism?
 
Can the GOP channel the energy of his most fervent supporters and advance a sort of Trumpism without Trump? The answer depends on what Trumpism is—a populist prototype, a personality cult, or something stranger. To some, Trumpism marks the beginning of a new Republican Party. Four years ago, Trump created a coalition that was more blue-collar and less white than the GOP vote in previous elections by combining an anti-immigration and protectionist message with a call to dismantle the sclerotic and corrupt bureaucracy. In 2020, he expanded his working-class base by winning significantly more Latinos, especially in south Texas and Florida . . . But the UC Berkeley sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild believes that Trumpism is intimately tied—for now at least—to its namesake, because it exists beyond the logic of policy. It exists in the dreampolitik realm of feelings. “If there’s one thing I think the mainstream press still gets wrong about Trump, it’s that they are comfortable talking about economics and personality, but they don’t give a primacy to feelings,” Hochschild told me. “To understand the future of the Republican Party, we have to act like political psychiatrists.”  In her 2016 book, Strangers in Their Own Land, Hochschild went to the Deep South to study an emerging conservative identity and came away with something like a Rosetta stone for the rise of Donald Trump. She offered a psychological allegory for the right-wing worldview, which she called the “deep story.” 
 
The deep story went like this: You are an older white man without a college degree standing in the middle of a line with hundreds of millions of Americans. The queue leads up a hill, toward a haven just over the ridge, which is the American dream. Behind you in line, you can see a train of woeful souls—many poor, mostly nonwhite, born in America and abroad, young and old. “It’s scary to look back,” Hochschild writes. “There are so many behind you, and in principle you wish them well. Still, you’ve waited a long time.” Now you’re stuck in line, because the economy isn’t working. And worse than stuck, you’re stigmatized; liberals in the media say every traditional thing you believe is racist and sexist. And what’s this? People are cutting in line in front of you! Something is wrong. The old line wasn’t perfect, but at least it was a promise. There is order in the fact of a line. And if that order is coming apart, then so is America.  Hochschild tested this allegory with her Republican sources and heard that it struck a chord. Yes, they said, this captures how I feel. In the past few years, she’s kept in touch with several of her connections from the Deep South and keenly tracked their philosophical evolution. She’s watched the locus of their anxiety move from budgets (“They never talk about deficits anymore,” she told me) to the entrenched and “swampy” political class. She also witnessed the Trumpification of everything. “There used to be a Tea Party,” she said. “Now it’s all Trumpism.” [read on]

[NB: One of the most insightful comments I read during the campaign was the growing popularity of hats and t-shirts reading, "If you don't like Trump, you probably won't like me." This intense identification, the sense of confirmation that Trump says out loud what I think and feel, is key to people's personal bond with him. The crudeness, the racism and sexism, the ignorant refusal to deal with facts and expertise -- all the things that people like us find abhorrent about Trump -- are key to his popularity. This ties to another emerging trend, the shift from racial, ethnic, and gender politics to a divide based on education and urban/rural regions. The Dems have always assumed that the Browning of America was an encouraging demographic for them; but Trump's proportion of Black and Latino voters WENT UP. The Senate and the Electoral College were created to disproportionately favor rural voters, and that's not changing. Trump won 2,586 counties to Biden’s 527 -- and that Biden total is FEWER than Obama won. In rural areas, people reject mainstream media sources and turn to the fever swamps of social media, talk radio, and Sinclair-controlled local news. They are reflexively hostile to coastal elites, who they believe (with good reason) have contempt for them. The dumbest thing Hillary Clinton said was calling them "deplorables." Trump is their voice and the amplifier of their resentments. It is far from clear whether any other Republican figure can marshal that powerful sense of personal identification -- and whether Trump, who isn't going away, will allow anyone else to.]
 
Donald Trump, "most admired man in America" -- W-H-A-A-A-T?


Why the House wackos are suing VP Mike Pence

Lawyers representing Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Arizona’s 11 GOP electors disclosed in a court filing Tuesday that Vice President Pence rejected their request to join their attempt to subvert the results of the presidential election. . . . In new court filings made public Tuesday, the plaintiffs disclosed that they had reached out to Pence before filing their suit in an attempt to join forces . . .

Trump Asks Supreme Court to Overturn Wisconsin
 
Mitch McConnell blocks a vote on a $2000 stimulus payment, then ties it to unrelated issues that he knows will never pass
 
On the floor Tuesday, McConnell showed his hand. He noted Trump's ridiculous statement, issued when he signed the stimulus/spending bill, that Congress was going to "start the process for a vote that increases checks to $2,000, repeals Section 230, and starts and investigation into voter fraud." "Those are the three important subjects the President has linked together,” he said. "This week the Senate will begin a process to bring these three priorities into focus." So McConnell is going to try to have the $2,000 survival check vote and poison it, too. He's going to tie Section 230—the Communications Act provision that Trump insists is allowing Twitter to censor him (it's not)—and "voter fraud" to critical assistance to Americans. Because that's what he does.
 

And the two Georgia Senate Republicans get to say they "support" the $2000 payment, without actually having to vote on it


White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Tuesday suggested that the Senate runoffs in Georgia should be postponed . . .

Despite court rulings, Trump continues to manipulate the census numbers

 
No, the Trump admin is not cooperating with the transition
 

In COVID news . . .   
 
Stepping into the vacuum, Biden takes over coronavirus messaging
 
Biden's new COVID warning
 
Biden Rips Trump Admin For ‘Falling Behind’ On Vaccine Rollout Amid COVID Surge
 
Meanwhile, Trump only cares about blame. He is so done with this whole thing. . .

It’s up to the states to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine, President Trump tweeted Tuesday, responding to mounting criticism of his administration’s failure to plan for distributing the vaccine beyond simply delivering it to the states. . . . Meanwhile, Operation Warp Speed is set to miss its first goal — 20 million Americans vaccinated by the end of the year. According to an estimate from NBC news, only around 2 million Americans have received the first shot in the two-course regime as of Tuesday.

Biden, Harris, and Pence have all gotten vaccinated in public. Trump won't


In other news . . .    

Trump has been in office 1440 days. He has gone golfing or traveled to his golf resorts on 22 percent of those days

https://digbysblog.net/2020/12/the-most-obvious-grift/ 
 
Be glad that one of Trump's failures was not being able to kill the ACA

The New York Times reports that Obamacare has worked pretty well during the pandemic . . .
 
Biden's burden
 
Republican Voters Don’t Want Compromise
 
Trump doesn't want to admit that the inauguration is happening and he is leaving office. But, you know, money talks. . . 

Trump's DC Hotel Puts Inauguration Rooms On Sale 

Bonus item: Trump is FURIOUS with Melania for renovations at Mar-a-Lago, and he wants them undone!
 
 
***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!  
 
 I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
Posted by at

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

HE GOT NOTHING

We are learning more about how the handlers around Trump talked him into backing down on the COVID bill
 
Getting a cranky, stubborn President Trump to belatedly sign the COVID relief bill, after unemployment benefits had already lapsed, was like being a hostage negotiator, or defusing a bomb. . . .
 
“That’s it? President Trump made all this noise about the Covid relief and government funding bill only to sign it and get nothing in return?” “Trump got taken to the cleaners.” “What a bizarre, embarrassing episode for the president. He opposed a bill his administration negotiated. He had no discernible strategy and no hand to play — and it showed. He folded, and got nothing besides a few days of attention and chaos. People waiting for aid got a few days of frightening uncertainty.” “Zip. Zero. Zilch. If he was going to give up this easy, he should’ve just kept quiet and signed the bill. It would’ve been less embarrassing.”

"Alisyn, basically, all of Washington is scratching their heads asking this question this morning, including top Republican leaders. It is correct, if you are an American who is waiting for that $600 per person to arrive this week as the secretary, President Trump's Treasury secretary told you, is not going to happen most likely this week, is going to be delayed. If you're expecting that extra $300 expansion in unemployment benefits, that is -- you're probably going to miss the first week of it. That is going to be delayed. And it is because of the president's delay on this. And in the end, it doesn't change what package people got. It doesn't make you anymore likely to get $2,000. None of that will change as a result of the president holding back on this."

[NB: Trump claims that, "[T]he House and Senate have agreed to focus strongly on the very substantial voter fraud which took place in the November 3 Presidential election." Of course, that's what this has always been about, for him -- but I suspect this false promise was given just to get him to sign it. I don't think they are going to open an investigation of the election -- the House certainly won't -- and I don't think they are going to do anything about it on January 6.] 
 
What WILL happen on January 6?



Trump wants $2000 stimulus checks, and the Democratic House just gave them to him. Now what will the GOP Senate do?



[NB: Pelosi beats Trump, again.]
 
More pressure on the Senate
 
House overrides Trump veto of defense bill

Joe Biden's digital team

 
Biden says Trump's people are slow-walking the transition, after promising full cooperation
 
 
In COVID news . . .   
 
Not so much "warp speed" after all
 
Trump's Operation Warp Speed already admits it won’t hit vaccination goals

Adviser says Biden will invoke Defense Production Act to accelerate COVID-19 vaccine production
 
In other news . . .    
 
Even the pro-Trump NY Post tells Trump to "give it up"
 

This is a strange ad -- what is it? A campaign ad, for an outgoing president? Or just inflating the "Trump" brand?


A video President Trump tweeted today features the Nobel Peace Prize superimposed over photographs of him with the prime minister of Israel, and the foreign ministers of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. A REMINDER: The president has not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump's approval drops through the 40% threshold


One of Trump's legacies has been the willingness of (some) mainstream news outlets to use the word "lies" -- not "errors," "misstatements," "contested claims," or other euphemisms, but intentional, glaring untruths. How can you cover Trump and not use the word? But other news outlets still refuse to do so


The kind of people they are

Hundreds of followers of QAnon who support President Donald Trump claimed over the weekend that a Nashville suicide bombing was actually a military operation to steal the election.  The complicated theory began circulating soon after an RV exploded in downtown Nashville. The Trump followers believe that the explosion was actually a missile strike aimed at destroying Dominion voting machines that were allegedly being audited at an AT&T facility. Lin Wood, an attorney who challenged Trump's loss, advanced the idea . . . "Because my name is Lucian, I have read about Saint Lucian of Antioch. He was falsely accused of heresy. Kyle Rittenhouse lives in Antioch, Illinois. Kyle was falsely accused of murder. Anthony Quinn Warner is under investigation for Nashville bombing. He lives in Antioch, Tenn."
 
Louie Gohmert sues Mike Pence in (another) lawsuit to nullify Joe Biden's presidential win
 

Bonus item: When the future looks back on this period of time
 
 
***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!  
 
I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
Posted by at

Monday, December 28, 2020

PAYBACK

I was going to say that maybe Trump's refusal to sign the COVID bill, the government funding bill, and the Defense bill wasn't because of any strategy or principled opposition to what is in them, but because this relentlessly transactional person just doesn't want to give Congress what it wants when it won't give him what he wants by backing his election scam on January 6. 
 
I didn't say it because even I didn't think that Trump would be so juvenile and reckless as to torpedo a hard-fought bipartisan bill that will give people a measure of relief during a major health crisis, cause a government shutdown, and refuse to fund the one govt agency that he has always supported. But I underestimated how juvenile and reckless he actually is

Trump Trying to Inflict Pain on Congress

“On Christmas Eve, staff at Mar-a-Lago made preparations for President Trump to sign the Covid-19 relief package and government funding bill, a holiday gift of relief to millions of Americans suffering in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic,” CNN reports. “But the plan was scrapped at the last minute.” One source said that Trump had “changed his mind.”

And then . . . he changed his mind again. No one knows why

President Trump on Sunday abruptly signed a measure providing $900 billion in pandemic aid and funding the government through September, ending last-minute turmoil he himself had created . . .
 
“I will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed,” he continued. “I will send back to Congress a redlined version, item by item, accompanied by the formal rescission request to Congress insisting that those funds be removed from the bill.”
 
Under a process outlined in the 1974 law establishing the modern budget process, a rescissions message puts a 45-day hold on the targeted funds while Congress weighs legislation to approve the presidential request. If lawmakers don't act, the funds must be released. In a statement Sunday night, House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y., said Democrats in that chamber "will reject any rescissions submitted by President Trump."
 
You think Rudy Giuliani is crazy, and then you hear Sidney Powell. You think Sidney Powell is crazy, and then you hear Lin Wood




Mr. Trump and his allies have argued that the 59 losses they faced in 60 lawsuits filed since Election Day were based on procedural rulings, complaining that judges refused to look at the particulars of allegations they have sought to use to overturn an election Mr. Biden won by 7 million votes (and by 74 in the Electoral College). But according to a New York Times analysis, they did not even formally allege fraud in more than two-thirds of their cases, arguing instead that local officials deviated from election codes, failed to administer elections properly or that the rules in place on Election Day were themselves illegal. . . .
 
Here are the 126 House Republicans who backed overturning the election results

 
And here are a few of the handful of Republicans who are still willing to stand up to Trump
 
Republican senator: Trump will be 'remembered for chaos and misery and erratic behavior' if he lets COVID relief expire
 
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) urged President Trump on Sunday to sign the COVID-19 relief package currently awaiting his signature after it passed both chambers of Congress last week.
 
GOP lawmaker calls Trump's election fraud allegations a 'scam'
 
GOP senator on Trump pardons: 'It is legal, it is constitutional, but I think it's a misuse of the power'
In COVID news . . .   
 
Grim milestones -- and the worst may be yet to come
 
 
In other news . . .    
 
Jake Tapper says he isn't going to book Trumpians on his show any more if they're just going to lie
 
 

Bonus item: We watched the miniseries "Chernobyl" again as a family. It is a gripping account of how horrifying that disaster was -- but the real theme of the story is about bureaucracy, lies, and a refusal by government leaders to acknowledge facts and to admit their own errors. Whole sections of the narrative sound verbatim like what we have heard from Trump and his supporters over the COVID disaster-- it's not that bad, we have things under control, the experts are exaggerating the dangers . . . and the constant litany of outright lies. The culture of arrogance and lying was endemic to the Soviet Union, the story argues. And it all seems so prescient now
 
Trump’s aim, in the presidency as in his previous life, was always simple: to be able to do whatever the hell he wanted. That required the transformation of elective office into the relationship of a capricious ruler to his sycophantic courtiers. In this nexus, the madder the better. Power is proven, not when the sycophants have to obey reasonable commands, but when they have to follow and justify the craziest orders. There is no fun in getting your minions to agree that black is black. The sadist’s pleasure lies in getting them to attest that black is white. The “alternative facts” that Trump’s enabler Kellyanne Conway laid down at the very beginning of his administration are not just about permission to lie. They’re about the erotic gratification of making other people lie absurdly, foolishly, repeatedly. . . . [read on]
 
[NB: The culture of lying, of disdain for the facts, is a particular achievement -- it isn't just the specific bending of the truth for political purpose, which goodness knows is not new to Trump, but has always been one tool in the arsenal of politics itself. It is creating a wider understanding that truth itself is an enemy to be overcome, that one knows the facts don't support a conclusion but that the conclusion is all that matters. We're seeing this all over again, of course, with the effort to discredit the election. And the concerning thing is not that Trump is in denial about it -- but how many other people, who ought to know better, are willing to sign onto and encourage his insane theories. One of the biggest questions today, moving forward, is how much of this is tied to Trump himself, his cultish following, and the GOP and media opportunists who see it in their short-term interests to enable him; and how much of this will be a lasting change in our political discourse.]
 
***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!  
 
I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
Posted by at

Sunday, December 27, 2020

HOME ALONE

Trump's enemies list expands
 
The “Justice” Department and the FBI have done nothing about the 2020 Presidential Election Voter Fraud, the biggest SCAM in our nation’s history, despite overwhelming evidence. They should be ashamed. History will remember. Never give up. See everyone in D.C. on January 6th. 
 
The U.S. Supreme Court has been totally incompetent and weak on the massive Election Fraud that took place in the 2020 Presidential Election. We have absolute PROOF, but they don’t want to see it - No “standing”, they say. If we have corrupt elections, we have no country!
 
Where the hell is the Durham Report? They spied on my campaign, colluded with Russia (and others), and got caught. Read the Horowitz Reports about Comey & McCabe. Even the Fake News @nytimes  said “bad”. They tried it all, and failed, so now they are trying to steal the election!

If a Democrat Presidential Candidate had an Election Rigged & Stolen, with proof of such acts at a level never seen before, the Democrat Senators would consider it an act of war, and fight to the death. Mitch & the Republicans do NOTHING, just want to let it pass. NO FIGHT!
 
A young military man working in Afghanistan told me that elections in Afghanistan are far more secure and much better run than the USA’s 2020 Election. Ours, with its millions and millions of corrupt Mail-In Ballots, was the election of a third world country. Fake President!
 
[NB: The GOP Senate, the DOJ and FBI, and now the Supreme Court have all let him down by not enabling his phony election theft claims. He's left with Rudy and Sidney, his kids, the wacko wing of the House GOP, and a handful of right-wing media defenders.]
 
“The president spent much of the Christmas weekend [at Mar-a-Lago] talking about other Republicans who weren’t doing what he wanted and acting like failures and defeatists,” said one person present at his private Florida club who was on the receiving end of his grievances. Even behind closed doors, the source said, “he was not finding much to be happy about this Christmas.” [read on]
 
In COVID news . . .   
 
I have to believe that there are quite a few people, of the sane ones left, who will be glad to get out from under working for Trump

“The president’s denunciation of the agreement represented a stunning public broadside against his own treasury secretary, who for four years loyally shielded the president’s tax returns, endured repeated presidential tirades in private, and defended even Trump’s most incendiary and contradictory remarks. Through it all, Mnuchin had emerged with the unique ability to walk a tightrope between Trump and congressional leaders, serving as an emissary in difficult negotiations. That all ended on Tuesday, when Trump posted a video on Twitter ridiculing the agreement.” “In addition to a possible government shutdown on Tuesday, the entire emergency relief package is in jeopardy. The $600 stimulus checks Mnuchin had promised would be sent later this week cannot be sent if the bill isn’t signed into law. And a range of other emergency relief programs that were part of the package, from rental protections to small-business aid, airline assistance and vaccine distribution money, are also now frozen.
 
Smart move by the next president
 
President-elect Joe Biden on Saturday pressed President Trump to immediately sign a COVID-19 relief bill that is stuck in limbo, blasting what he deemed Trump's "abdication of responsibility." . . . 
 
[NB: This is a win/win/win for Biden. If Trump backs down, it looks like an achievement for Biden. If Trump refuses to move, and the whole deal blows up, Biden looks like the serious leader. And if Biden's urging makes Trump dig his heels in even more, that becomes part of Trump's final legacy.]

In other news . . .    
 
Because their future depends on it
 
Republicans Plotting New Ways To Make It Harder To Vote
 
Bonus item: Now is the season for annual top ten lists. Here's one -- Trump's ten dumbest things

 
***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!  
 
I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
Posted by at

Saturday, December 26, 2020

OTHER PRIORITIES

No one knows what the plan is with Trump's refusal to sign the COVID relief bill -- or if there even is a plan


[NB: Meanwhile, he's off golfing again, as deadlines loom and people worry. Merry Christmas everyone!]

Trump tries to pressure Senators to back his election theft

Trump's Christmas Message To Mitch McConnell: "I will NEVER FORGET!'

Sidney Powell says she has a Secret Witness who will PROVE election fraud
 
 
In other news . . .   
 
Trump's history of racism, and what it tells us about today's Republican party
 
Trump was able to turn out people that hadn’t voted before, and people didn’t even know they existed. That’s why they weren’t polled—they were a hidden demographic. And they only turned out for Trump. Some conservative pollsters were calling these the “shy Trump vote,” but there’s nothing shy about them. “The hidden deplorables aren’t Republican,” I wrote. “They aren’t even conservative. They’re apolitical, otherwise ignoring politics . . .” [read on]

A bomb blew up in downtown Nashville on Christmas, and there is nothing funny about it. But this news story made me smile a bit

The Tennessean reports that witnesses heard a voice from the RV: "Evacuate now. There is a bomb. A bomb is in this vehicle and will explode." "Then, the voice started a 15-minute countdown." . . .
 
Authorities said the blast appeared intentional . . .

The future of right wing media

 
Bonus item: Christmas music -- and dancing! -- and a little politics


 
***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!  
 
I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)