Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Here are a few news items to consider. Feel free to share anything that you think would interest readers. Please make sure to provide links.
First news item
No surprise that someone is still refusing to go gently into that good night:
WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2020
As I’ve pointed out a thousand times: HE CANNOT ADMIT DEFEAT:
And, no, it’s not over, because this is a propaganda fight, not a credible legal one, which Trump will not give up given his refusal to acknowledge any loss. And many in his party will remain too fearful to contradict him.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) December 11, 2020
Second news item
Not a good look, Texas GOP, not a good look at all:
…Chairman Allen West suggested that “perhaps” the best solution for “law-abiding states” would be to secede in light of the decision. “The Supreme Court, in tossing the Texas lawsuit that was joined by seventeen states and 106 US congressman, has decreed that a state can take unconstitutional actions and violate its own election law,” West said. “Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the Constitution.”
Third news item
The Food and Drug Administration authorized the United States’ first COVID-19 vaccine for people age 16 and over late Friday, a historic moment in a pandemic that has killed over 290,000 in this nation and nearly 1.6 million people worldwide.
“The FDA’s authorization for emergency use of the first COVID-19 vaccine is a significant milestone in battling this devastating pandemic that has affected so many families in the United States and around the world,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, said in a statement.
Fourth news item
Partying on at the super-spreader-petri-dish galas:
Despite top health experts warning Americans against holding indoor in-person gatherings during the holidays, President Donald Trump has continued to brush those concerns aside, defending holding White House parties this month amid daily record numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths. At a Tuesday event touting his vaccine effort, a reporter asked, “Why are you modeling a different behavior to the American people than what your scientists tell?”
“They’re Christmas parties, and, frankly, we’ve reduced the number very substantially, as you know,” Trump responded. “I see a lot of people at the parties wearing masks, and I would say that I look out at the audience at those parties, and we have a lot of people wearing masks, and I think that’s a good thing.”
Yet videos and photos posted on social media paint a starkly different picture. They show many of those attending the gatherings not wearing masks or social distancing.
Oh, guess who decided not to make an appearance after the Supreme Court announcement??
At the White House Christmas Party, guests were informed about 10 minutes ago that the president won't be joining them to make remarks.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 12, 2020
Also Christmas party related: Common sense is still common sense:
A top coronavirus adviser to President-elect Joe Biden delivered a stern holiday message to Americans on Thursday – “no Christmas parties” – and warned they face a COVID-19 siege for weeks to come despite the latest moves toward U.S. government approval of a vaccine.
“The next three to six weeks at minimum … are our COVID weeks,” Dr. Michael Osterholm, a member of Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, told CNN. “It won’t end after that, but that is the period right now where we could have a surge upon a surge upon a surge.”
Fifth news item
It’s not just “kraken lawsuit” lawyer who’s crackin’ up:
A solid majority of Americans trust that the results of the 2020 presidential election are accurate, but only about a quarter of Republicans do, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey.
Sixty-one percent say they trust the results, including two-thirds of independents, but just 24% of Republican respondents say they accept the results.
Sixth news item
This behavior must be roundly and loudly condemned and stopped before someone gets injured:
Supporters of Trump in recent weeks have staked out election officials’ offices in Georgia, mounted armed protests in Arizona and left menacing telephone messages for election officials across the country, producing political turmoil unlike any other in modern U.S. history….But the threats have not been confined to places where the election was close. In Vermont — a state no Republican presidential candidate has won since 1988 — election officials said they received a voice message threatening them with “execution by firing squad.”
“No public servant should ever have to feel threatened or concerned for their safety while they are doing their work,” Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos, a Democrat, told Reuters.
Seventh news item
I don’t think we as a nation have ever seen someone lose so spectacularly, decisively, pathetically, over and over.
I don’t think we’ve ever seen a leader lose so methodically, so ridiculously, so masochistically.
And have we ever before seen so many officials say “hey! That losing you’re doing so hideously, so flailingly, so spasmodically — that looks like something I want to be a part of!
“This effort, based on nonsense and lies, to disenfranchise millions of Americans, sign me up!”
Eighth news item
Whispering sweet nothings in the President’s ear:
“But the president has a very long relationship with Rudy Giuliani; he’s never going to cut ties with him. He’s really not. And Giuliani has convinced the president that it’s activist judges or it’s this one or it’s that one who are thwarting them — and not that it’s at all Giuliani’s fault. Giuliani is saying to the president what the president wants to hear, which is that the president was robbed.”
Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Trump, told Fox News’ “Hannity” on Friday night that the president’s legal team isn’t done with its elections challenges after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the vote in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin.
“The people of this country are entitled to a hearing on this,” Giuliani said. “They should have at least given us a hearing so that we can present our facts and not just push it off to the side so no one would ever get to hear these facts.”
Have a great weekend.
–Dana
