[guest post by Dana]

Here are a few timely news items for you to consider. Feel free to share anything that you think might interest readers. Please remember to include links.

First news item

Michigan GOP sticks to the law:

“We 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…Michigan’s certification process should be a deliberate process free from threats and intimidation…And the candidates who win the most votes win elections and Michigan’s electoral votes. These are simple truths that should provide confidence in our elections.”

Second news item

Family affair:

Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump’s eldest son, has tested positive for the coronavirus, a personal spokesman told CNN on Friday.

“Don tested positive at the start of the week and has been quarantining out at his cabin since the result,” the spokesman said. “He’s been completely asymptomatic so far and is following all medically recommended COVID-19 guidelines.”

Related:

Rudy Giuliani’s son, Andrew, announced Friday he has tested positive for coronavirus, a day after he attended a news conference with his father and other members of President Donald Trump’s legal team alleging baseless claims of widespread election fraud.

“This morning, I tested positive for COVID-19,” the younger Giuliani wrote on Twitter. “I am experiencing mild symptoms, and am following all appropriate protocols, including being in quarantine and conducting contact tracing.”

Third news item

NRO editorial board’s collective snort:

The Rudy Giuliani–led press conference at the RNC yesterday was the most outlandish and irresponsible performance ever by a group of lawyers representing a president of the United States.

If Giuliani’s charge of a “national conspiracy” to produce fraudulent votes in Democratic cities around the country wasn’t far-fetched enough, attorney Sidney Powell ratcheted it up with the allegation that Communist-designed election machinery was used to change the vote from a Trump landslide to a narrow Biden victory. An obvious question is why, if you can manipulate the vote count via machine, you’d need to bother with old-fashioned fraudulent ballots. Powell’s story is that the surprisingly strong Trump turnout “broke the algorithm” of the corrupted machines, and then the fraudulent ballots were desperately hauled in to make up the difference.

If there’s serious evidence for any of this, Giuliani and co. need to produce it immediately. Waving around affidavits at a press conference without allowing anyone to examine them doesn’t count.

Fourth news item

Georgia certifies election results:

Georgia’s governor and top elections official on Friday certified results showing Joe Biden won the presidential race over Republican President Donald Trump, bringing the state one step closer to wrapping up an election fraught with unfounded accusations of fraud by Trump and his supporters.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certified results reported by the state’s 159 counties that show Biden with 2.47 million votes, President Donald Trump with 2.46 million votes and Libertarian Jo Jorgensen with 62,138. That leaves Biden leading by a margin of 12,670 votes, or 0.25%.

Fifth news item

Why Gov. Newsom, who angered Californians when he was seen dining inside of a restaurant last week defying his own guidelines, and then claimed that he dined outside until photographic evidence proved otherwise, would blow any political capital he has left by instituting a curfew is beyond me. Apparently, he feels pressured to *do something*:

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday issued a temporary curfew throughout most of the state in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus. The order, which goes into effect Saturday, stops gatherings and non-essential work between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. in areas under the state’s purple tier label, where virus transmission is considered widespread.

P.S. Shelling out $350 for one dinner at the French Laundry during a pandemic when so many Californians are out of work isn’t a good look for the governor either.

Sixth news item

Congressman Tom McClintock wants Americans to make their own decisions, with no interference from the government, whether at the federal or state level:

I have wondered how much longer the American people are going to tolerate this nonsense?

So let us not criticize Governor Newsom. Perhaps he has just offered us all deliverance from his own folly.

Nor should we criticize the California legislators who ignored travel and quarantine restrictions to junket to Hawaii. Nor should we ridicule Speaker Pelosi for choosing not to wear a mask in a hair salon that was forced to close for the rest of us.

Good for them. They’re demonstrating by their own actions the freedom that every American citizen needs to reclaim from these very same people. The governor SHOULD make his own decisions about running his own life. I only ask that he and his ilk would stop telling the rest of us how to run ours.”

Seventh news item

BLM to Biden: we delivered you the presidency, now let’s get down to business:

Joe Biden is staying silent over a meeting with Black Lives Matter almost two weeks after one of the movement’s founders asked for a sit-down.

Patrisse Cullors said Biden has yet to respond to her request for a meeting to discuss BLM’s ‘expectataions’ after an election that she said was ‘won by Black people’.

Cullors said she wants Biden to quickly pass the BREATHE Act, which would defund police services in reinvest the money in community services.

BLM is also pressuring Gov. Newsom to appoint a black woman to replace Kamala Harris’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat.

Eighth news item

NYT working hard to fill their, uh, dearth of lefty opinion writers:

Vox co-founder and editor-at-large Ezra Klein will be leaving the outlet to join The New York Times as a columnist and podcast host.

Times Opinion announced the addition Friday in a statement from editors Kathleen Kingsbury and Paula Szuchman, who wrote that Klein “will be able to help our readers and listeners navigate the political future as Washington moves into a new era.”

Tenth news item

Keeping the grift going:

The Trump campaign has sent more than 300 fundraising appeals via email since Nov. 4, the day after the election. Most are seeking donations for an “official election defense fund,” as President Trump continues to question the integrity of the race he lost. But the fine print shows as much as 75 percent of that money can be repurposed for the president’s new leadership political action committee, “Save America.”

Related: Trump’s true believers:

In Sundown, Texas, Mayor Jonathan Strickland said there’s “no way in hell” Biden won fairly. The only way he’ll believe it, he said, is if Trump himself says so.

“Trump is the only one we’ve been able to trust for the last four years,” said Strickland, an oilfield production engineer. “As far as the civil war goes, I don’t think it’s off the table.”

…

Asked whether Trump might be duping his followers, he said it’s hard to fathom.

“If I’m being manipulated by Trump … then he is the greatest con man that ever lived in America,” Caleb Fryar said. “I think he’s the greatest patriot that ever lived.”

Have a great weekend.

–Dana