Wednesday, November 25, 2020

MISSING IN ACTION

Donald Trump, MIA
 
Trump Is Still President, Even Though He’s Not Acting Like One
 
 
Trump walks into the WH press room, talks for ONE MINUTE to brag about the stock market, then walks out
 
“That’s a sacred number, 30,000, nobody thought they’d ever see it”
 
[NB: Sacred????]
 
As the president exited the briefing room, one reporter was overheard saying: “Well, that was weird as shit.”
 
Remember?
 
Trump said if Joe Biden is elected “the stock market will crash”. The DOW went over 30K today - for the first time in history - as the Biden transition is officially underway . . . [read on]

How democracy works

[Trump] "Remember, the GSA has been terrific, and Emily Murphy has done a great job, but the GSA does not determine who the next President of the United States will be."
 
[NB: Nor do you, buddy, nor do you.] 
 
“In the three weeks since Election Day, President Trump’s most visible presence has been on Twitter. Since Nov. 3, he has posted some 550 tweets — about three-quarters of which attempted to undermine the integrity of the 2020 election results” 
 
Pennsylvania delivers its certification, the final nail
 

Nevada Supreme Court unanimously approves Biden win 
 
A "session" of the Pennsylvania legislature is actually a meeting of the REPUBLICAN members with Trump and Giuliani 
 
 
 
[NB: Begging them one last time to intervene and nullify the voting results.] 

The next president will deliver a Thanksgiving address


Trump agrees to let Biden start getting the daily presidential intelligence briefing -- that will make one of them

 
The transition begins -- and Biden is wasting no time

 

 
[NB: Competence, discipline, and focus on the issues that matter. Remember what that used to be like?]

Biden's new head of Homeland Security
 
Advocates applaud Biden's DHS nominee, calling him the 'right person to undo Trump’s cruelties'
 
President-elect Joe Biden promised a shift from President Trump's "America First" policy while unveiling nominees for his foreign policy and national security team . . . “It’s a team that reflects that America is back. Ready to lead the world, not retreat from it,” Biden said . . .

Biden's climate agenda

 
Agenda for a new Sect'y of Education
 
 
I'll bet they are
 
CDC Officials Eager For Biden To Take The Reins 
 
Biden says staff has spoken with Fauci: 'He's been very, very helpful'
 
Ah, back to normalcy: now reporters can breathlessly report on "tensions" within the Biden camp
 

“Biden is attempting the high-wire act of balancing diversity demands with ideological fissures between progressives and moderates. He has sought personnel with government experience who aren’t seen as too controversial to gain approval from a divided Senate. Many were confirmed during the Obama administration, some in deputy positions to roles they have been tapped to fill now.” “So far, he’s giving everybody from progressive activists to centrist Democrats something to be happy about and little to fight over.”
 
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar are boosting a petition against Joe Biden nominating his former chief of staff to a new role in his administration, calling Bruce Reed a "deficit hawk." . . . Progressives are mounting their pressure campaign after the president-elect did not include any of their favored candidates in his first slate of Cabinet nominees, and they are serious about installing some of their allies, blocking anyone who doesn't pass their smell test — and making noise if they are not heard. . . .

Unfinished business

Biden Urged To Clean House Of Trump Loyalists On Day One
 
Marco Rubio tries to paint Biden's Cabinet as elitist and out-of-touch because they went to Ivy League schools. Well. . .
 
Trump — UPenn 
Pompeo — Harvard Law 
Mnuchin — Yale 
Esper — Harvard 
Barr — Columbia 
Ross — Yale + Harvard 
Acosta — Harvard 
Azar — Dartmouth + Yale Law 
Carson — Yale 
Chao — Harvard 
Navarro — Harvard  

Why is Trump's Sect'y of State trashing Biden's choices?

 
In election lawsuit news . . .   
 
Trump worries that his "elite" legal team is making him look bad. Sidney Powell is being blamed for it and is getting (deservedly) mocked everywhere. Now she's fired.
 
But here are some facts: Trump picked them, and he praised them. He let Giuliani convince him of the basic conspiracy-theory strategy, and really Rudy and Jenna and the rest have been just as ridiculous as Powell. His more competent (i.e. slightly less ridiculous) lawyers edged uneasily away from the kooks or -- for the real pros -- they just quit and said they didn't want to be associated with the clown show at all. 
 
Now, as more and more cases get thrown out of court, this looks like just another prime Trump operation: promoting loyalists over competence, thinking that praise in Fox World means success, and fudging the hard, detailed work that a serious legal challenge would entail. And so it is failing

 
 
 
Rudy Giuliani is a terrible lawyer
 
'I'm exaggerating a bit': Giuliani's voter fraud admission
 
Trump is using his legal appeals to create a political slush fund
 
 
In other news . . .    
 
One last favor for Putin from Trump
 
 
 
Sabotage
 
“Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will put $455 billion in unspent Cares Act funding into an account that his presumed successor, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, will need authorization from Congress to use” . . . 
 
Ghouls
 
McConnell pushed Trump to nominate Coney Barrett on the night of Ginsburg's death 
 
The case for investigating and prosecuting Trump after he leaves office


Trump pardons a turkey -- unfortunately not the last turkey he will pardon in the weeks to come
 
 
Trump tells confidants he plans to pardon Michael Flynn

Trump is holding the two Georgia Senate seats hostage out of election pique
 
 
 
 
Limbaugh: A Lot Of People 'Wouldn't Mind' If GOP Lost Georgia's Senate Seats
 
Trump, always elevating our political discourse, is now retweeting insane rants from Randy Quaid
 
 
OAN "News" gets suspended from YouTube for posting a phony COVID cure
 
 
Bonus item: Could Trump be any less interested in doing the work of President? Jimmy Kimmel on Trump's post-election presidency
 

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Tuesday, November 24, 2020

IT'S OVER

Trump loses certification fights in Michigan and Pennsylvania, tells GSA to start the transition
 
 
 
 
How it happened
 
“Mr. Trump had been resisting any move toward a transition. But in conversations in recent days that intensified Monday morning, top aides — including Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff; Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel; and Jay Sekulow, the president’s personal lawyer — told the president the transition needed to begin. He did not need to say the word ‘concede,’ they told him.” “Some of the advisers drafted a statement for the president to issue. In the end, Mr. Trump did not put one out, but aides said the tone was similar to his tweets in the evening, in which he appeared to take credit for Ms. Murphy’s decision to allow the transition to begin.”

It doesn't really matter, but GSA head Emily Murphy is still lying
 
“Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts,” Murphy said. “I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official — including those who work at the White House or GSA — with regard to the substance or timing of my decision. To be clear, I did not receive any direction to delay my determination.”

[NB: Since we know that Trump had to give her the okay to move forward, she certainly was making her decisions based on his wishes -- however they got communicated to her.]
 
Amazed at the passive aggressive pettiness of this letter. Wants us to feel sorry for her–cries people have been mean to her. Won't give Biden the courtesy of calling him "president elect." . . . [read on] 
 
Trump continues to bluster that he will WIN
 
 
In case facts still matter any more
 
The Election Really Wasn’t That Close

Biden announces his National Security team -- and a comeback for John Kerry
 
 
 
Biden's Treasury Secretary . . . another female first in his Cabinet


Biden's Cabinet choices are safe and boring, old pros who he has great personal connections with. Won't that be nice for a change?


Biden will put real health professionals back in charge of COVID policy
 

Biden on tech issues

 
Biden builds a .gov site
 

In election lawsuit news . . .  
 
Trump's "elite strike force team" is a national joke, and the legal strategy is a failure -- but that's not what Trump is worried about

Trump Worries Legal Team Making Him Look Bad  
 

In other news . . .    
 
Thanks for making that clear, Donald
 
“I am the most fabulous whiner. I do whine because I want to win. And I’m not happy if I’m not winning. And I am a whiner. And I’m a whiner and I keep whining and whining until I win.”
                — Donald Trump, interviewed by CNN in August 2015. 
 
What 21 Republican Senators really say about Trump, in private
 
 
[NB: A little misleading because several of them HAVE spoken out publicly.]
 
Dems could flip the Senate in 2022
 
 
In Fox World
 
Laura Ingraham Admits It’s Over for Trump: ‘Biden Will Be Inaugurated’
 
"The system was rigged": Fox News host Tucker Carlson claims "presidential election was not fair"
 
Horrifying as it is, the press is being a little too mild in how they report Trump's attempted power grab
 
Instead of referring to his treasonous post-election behavior surrounding the would-be coup by a power-hungry authoritarian out to steal an election, we get news updates about Trump’s “tactics,” his vague “moves” and “chicanery”; his legal “strategy” and “power play” while  “sulking” and “brooding” inside the White House. None of that captures the historic events that have unfolded since Election Day. Events that if they occurred in a foreign country would be covered much differently by the American press. The idea that Trump’s harmlessly wandering the West Wing in a funk, despondent over his loss doesn’t match reality. In truth, Trump has spent weeks, with laser-like focus, actively trying to engineer the open theft of a presidential contest. He’s dispatched an army of lawyers who are committed to throwing out as many legitimate U.S. votes as possible. When that has proven to be a failure, he’s shifted to getting state Republicans to block or delay the certification of the popular votes in their states. And much of the Republican Party supports him, either publicly or tacitly by standing by and watching . . .  [read on]
 
What is the MATTER with Chuck Todd?

Chuck Todd Crushed For Saying ‘It Looks Like Joe Biden Is Going To Be The Apparent Winner’

Bonus item: More from Sarah Cooper
 
 
***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.***
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Monday, November 23, 2020

CALM DOWN

A grown-up in charge
 
Kate Bedingfield, a top communications adviser to President-elect Joe Biden, said Sunday that Biden and his team are not concerned about President Trump’s bids to overturn the results of the presidential election in court. “He does not have any concern,” Bedingfield said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think what we’ve seen over the course of the last few weeks are these lawsuits… have been laughed out of court after court after court throughout the country. They are getting no traction.” . . .

Biden is moving ahead

Biden Prepares for Inauguration Unlike Any Other
 
Biden to name first Cabinet picks on Tuesday, top aide says
 
Here are 10 things Joe Biden can do immediately to create a safer, better world 

Biden's Sect'y of State

 
 
Biden's UN Ambassador
 


Maybe, just maybe, a hint of sanity is starting to creep in

GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer: Transition should start "tomorrow morning" 

A leading Senate Republican called for President-elect Joe Biden to begin receiving intelligence briefings that have been blocked by President Trump's General Services Administration (GSA). "I agree briefings should occur," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) tweeted on Sunday. . . .

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey issued a statement Saturday night declaring that Donald Trump has “exhausted all plausible legal” challenges to the presidential election, and that it’s time for him to concede and “facilitate” the transition process.

GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) called on President Trump begin the transition process to a Joe Biden administration and decried what she called a "pressure campaign" mounted on state legislators by allies of the president to stop the results from being certified. . . 
 

What the Founders would say if they could see this

“No, the framers did not envisage a president refusing to step down or discuss what should be done in such a situation,” Princeton historian Sean Wilentz said. “There’s obviously nothing in the Constitution about it.” . . . [read on]

In election lawsuit news . . .   
 
Trump's new ploy: "matching signatures." This could become the hanging chads of 2020. Go write your signature, quickly. Now do it again. Put them side by side. Are they "different"? Imagine a slate of judges, some of them tendentiously partisan, arguing over that and throwing out every one they can't agree on
 
 
Two GOPers in Michigan
 
Michigan Lawmaker Who Met With Trump Envisions 'Constitutional Crisis' To Overturn Election
 
Michigan GOP Congressman Tells Trump 'It's Over': 'The Voters Spoke'
 
Trump appeals Pennsylvania court decision and will keep appealing, and keep demanding recounts. Dragging this out as long as possible is part of the plan 
 
 
Vindictive Trump Seeks to Undermine Biden

And in Wisconsin
Trump Seeks to Invalidate Thousands of Wisconsin Votes
 
Boy, is THIS an understatement
 
Chris Christie: Trump’s Legal Team Has Been a ‘National Embarrassment’
 
 
Just days ago, Rudy Giuliani stood alongside this other member of Trump's crack election legal team -- the one ranting about Hugo Chavez, George Soros, and a global communist conspiracy to elect Joe Biden. Now they're saying she isn't really part of the team

Giuliani releases statement distancing Trump campaign from lawyer Sidney Powell
 
[Trump, Nov. 14] I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!
 
In other news . . .    

Trump wants to control the Republican party even after he leaves office -- and he'll destroy it if he can't

https://politicalwire.com/2020/11/22/how-trump-hopes-to-retain-control-of-the-gop/ 

More: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/22/trump-wreak-havoc-gop-white-house-438859

 
[NB: They helped create him, and they thought they could control him . . .]
 
GOP Senators say they will torpedo any Biden nominees who were critical of Trump
 
 
Bonus item:  Trump won't get his own customized remake of Air Force One 
 

 
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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.***
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Sunday, November 22, 2020

THE END GAME?

Trump ran in the election, and lost. He has demanded recounts, and lost. He has gone to court to reverse the results, and lost. He has tried to get state officials not to certify the results, and lost. 
 
The last resort is to go to his rabid (and heavily-armed) followers and order them out into the streets. Will he do it?
 
 
 
“A Hate Crime Against Democracy”
 
The Republicans used to say "Let the voters decide." Now that they've decided, what are the Republicans saying?


Meanwhile, back in the real world, Biden hits a stunning 80 million votes and a 6 million vote (4%) lead

 
Trump asks, "Why is Biden forming a Cabinet?" 
 
 
More on those two Michigan legislators who met with Trump. They said there was no agreement reached and that the election process would be respected -- which sounds good. But after meeting with Trump they were spotted celebrating with Dom Perignon at the Trump hotel, where they stayed. Who paid for that? Were they "comped"? This really doesn't look good
 
 
Trump's efforts to interfere in state electoral processes are sure to spark a legal firestorm
 
 
President Donald Trump made explicit Saturday the strategy his legal team has been hinting at for days: He wants Republican-led legislatures to overturn election results in states that Joe Biden won. . .   
 
Trump tries to force out election officials, even Republicans, who won't go along with his scheme
 
Trumps howls about having "observers" at the vote recount. Here is what his "observers" are doing in Wisconsin -- objecting to every single ballot
 
 
Now he wants ANOTHER recount in Georgia, which can't possibly change the results 
 

U.S. history
 
“The founders would be absolutely horrified because this is what they always worried about.”
           — Presidential historian Michael Beschloss
 
Marsha Blackburn is not the brightest bulb in the GOP chandelier, but even for her this is laughable
 
Marsha Blackburn Claims She Misspoke When She Referred To Joe Biden As President-Elect
 
Trump addresses the G-20 summit, then ducks out of a discussion on the pandemic to go get in a round of golf
 
 
Is Trump going to bomb Iran before he leaves office, then leave it to Biden to clean up the mess?



In election lawsuit news . . .  
 
A huge loss in court for Trump in Pennsylvania
 
“A lawsuit brought by President Trump’s campaign that sought to block the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results was dismissed by a federal judge on Saturday evening,” the Washington Post reports. . . . “In a total loss the the Trump campaign, a federal district court in Pennsylvania has dismissed the most serious case brought by the campaign and denied the campaign a motion to file an amended complaint.” “The judge just excoriates this suit, which those of us in the field have called ridiculous from the start.”


Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) released a statement saying Donald Trump has “exhausted all plausible legal options” and told him to “accept the outcome of the election and facilitate the presidential transition process.” . . . “I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory. They are both dedicated public servants and I will be praying for them and for our country.”
 
A countersuit against Trump gets filed in Michigan that he is trying to disenfranchise Black voters -- which is EXACTLY what he is trying to do

 
In other news . . .    
 
Trump wants to talk about running again in 2024. He will have other problems to worry about by then
 
Law professor Neal Katyal explained why Donald Trump will almost certainly face criminal investigations and prosecution(s) once he leaves the White House "for the rest of his life." . . .
 
The Case for Prosecuting Trump
 
This is just pathetic
 
Donald Trump Jr has shared a bizarre clip of his father beating up political foe President-elect Joe Biden in a barroom brawl . . . 
 
Stacey Abrams is ramping up GOTV efforts in the Georgia senate races. Go Stacey!


Bonus item: On the ridiculous idea of branding it "the Trump vaccine"

 
[NB: They're already worried that people will be reluctant to take the vaccine -- is there anything that could make them more doubtful?]
 
***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.***
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