tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post5885665822740018195..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: The New Coup AttemptUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-50629573179656851392020-11-29T15:13:53.803-05:002020-11-29T15:13:53.803-05:00Christopher Krebs, the former government official ...Christopher Krebs, the former government official who had overseen cybersecurity efforts for the 2020 election, reaffirmed his confidence in the integrity of the vote and called Trump’s unfounded allegations of voter fraud “farcical.”<br /><br />“The American people should have 100% confidence in their vote,” Krebs said in an excerpt from a “60 Minutes” interview that is to air Sunday night. “The proof is in the ballots. The recounts are consistent with the initial count, and to me, that’s further evidence. That’s further confirmation.”<br /><br />Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of the Republican leadership, also said he did not think the election was rigged.<br /><br />“I don’t think it was rigged,” Blunt said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think there was some element of voter fraud as there is in any election. I don’t have any reason to believe the numbers are there that would have made that difference.”<br /><br />Blunt’s comments came as an increasing number of Republican lawmakers have begun to acknowledge Biden’s victory. But many, including the party’s leaders, still refuse to do so. ...Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-42354026590001276832020-11-29T15:12:43.020-05:002020-11-29T15:12:43.020-05:00In his first one-on-one interview since losing to ...<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/29/nation/his-first-one-on-one-interview-since-losing-biden-trump-baselessly-cast-more-conspiracy-theories/?event=event25" rel="nofollow">In his first one-on-one interview since losing to Biden, Trump baselessly cast more conspiracy theories</a><br /><br />NY Times via @BostonGlobe - November 29<br /><br />WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Sunday that the FBI and the Justice Department might be “involved” in what he again groundlessly called a fraudulent presidential election, hinting that the nation’s law enforcement agencies were biased against his fading efforts to remain in office.<br /><br />“This is total fraud. And how the FBI and Department of Justice — I don’t know, maybe they’re involved — but how people are allowed to get away with this stuff is unbelievable. This election was a total fraud,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.<br /><br />“Missing in action. Can’t tell you where they are,” Trump said, a note of resignation in his voice. “I ask, ‘Are they looking at it?’ Everyone says, ‘Yes, they’re looking at it.’<br /><br />“These people have been there a long time,” he added. “Some of them have served a lot of different presidents.”<br /><br />Trump’s roughly 45-minute conversation with Bartiromo, who has been sympathetic to his charges, was his first one-on-one interview since his defeat to President-elect Joe Biden. Trump sounded at once angry but also resigned to the growing reality that Biden will be sworn in as president Jan. 20.<br /><br />In often rambling remarks, Trump offered vague charges of “thousands of dead people voting,” discarded ballots and blocked poll watchers. He also claimed that Biden won with implausibly large margins in African American areas.<br /><br />“There’s no way Joe Biden got 80 million votes,” he said. “There’s no way it happened.”<br /><br />No significant evidence has been found to support the president’s claims, and several judges in multiple states have quickly dismissed lawsuits by his legal team alleging fraud.<br /><br />Skipping over that reality, Trump complained that the media had not taken his fraud claims more seriously and alleged that foreign leaders had expressed sympathy for his plight.<br /><br />“You have leaders of countries that call me, say, ‘That’s the most messed-up election we’ve ever seen,’” Trump claimed. But no foreign leader has endorsed Trump’s claims about the election, and dozens have offered both public and private congratulations to Biden.<br /><br />With several important federal deadlines coming up for the election process, including a Dec. 8 deadline for states to resolve all election disputes, Trump declined to say when his time fighting the results would be up. “I’m not going to say a date,” Trump said.<br /><br />Asked whether he would appoint a special counsel to investigate the election, Trump said that he “would consider” doing so but quickly changed the subject.<br /><br />And asked whether the Supreme Court, now governed by a conservative majority, was likely to rule on the election outcome, Trump sounded pessimistic.<br /><br />“It’s hard to get into the Supreme Court,” he said, adding that his lawyers had told him, “It’s very hard to get a case up there.” ...<br />Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-70931303164844475022020-11-29T08:41:14.664-05:002020-11-29T08:41:14.664-05:00For Trump, 20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside ...<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/28/nation/trump-20-days-fantasy-failure-inside-trumps-quest-overturn-election/?event=event25" rel="nofollow">For Trump, 20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside Trump’s quest to overturn the election</a><br /><br />Washington Post via @BostonGlobe - November 28<br /><br />WASHINGTON - The facts were indisputable: President Donald Trump had lost.<br /><br />But Trump refused to see it that way. Sequestered in the White House and brooding out of public view after his election defeat, rageful and at times delirious in a torrent of private conversations, Trump was, in the telling of one close adviser, like "Mad King George, muttering, 'I won. I won. I won.' "<br /><br />However cleareyed that Trump's aides may have been about his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, many of them nonetheless indulged their boss and encouraged him to keep fighting with legal appeals. They were "happy to scratch his itch," this adviser said. "If he thinks he won, it's like, 'Shh . . . we won't tell him.' "<br /><br />Trump campaign pollster John McLaughlin, for instance, discussed with Trump a poll he had conducted after the election that showed Trump with a positive approval rating, a plurality of the country who thought the media had been "unfair and biased against him" and a majority of voters who believed their lives were better than four years earlier, according to two people familiar with the conversation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. As expected, Trump lapped it up.<br /><br />The result was an election aftermath without precedent in U.S. history. With his denial of the outcome, despite a string of courtroom defeats, Trump endangered America's democracy, threatened to undermine national security and public health, and duped millions of his supporters into believing, perhaps permanently, that Biden was elected illegitimately.<br /><br />Trump's allegations and the hostility of his rhetoric - and his singular power to persuade and galvanize his followers - generated extraordinary pressure on state and local election officials to embrace his fraud allegations and take steps to block certification of the results. When some of them refused, they accepted security details for protection from the threats they were receiving.<br /><br />"It was like a rumor Whac-A-Mole," said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Despite being a Republican who voted for Trump, Raffensperger said he refused repeated attempts by Trump allies to get him to cross ethical lines. "I don't think I had a choice. My job is to follow the law. We're not going to get pushed off the needle on doing that. Integrity still matters."<br /><br />All the while, Trump largely abdicated the responsibilities of the job he was fighting so hard to keep, chief among them managing the coronavirus pandemic as the numbers of infections and deaths soared across the country. In an ironic twist, the Trump adviser tapped to coordinate the post-election legal and communications campaign, David Bossie, tested positive for the virus a few days into his assignment and was sidelined.<br /><br />Only on Nov. 23 did Trump reluctantly agree to initiate a peaceful transfer of power by permitting the federal government to officially begin Biden's transition - yet still he protested that he was the true victor.<br /><br />The 20 days between the election on Nov. 3 and the greenlighting of Biden's transition exemplified some of the hallmarks of life in Trump's White House: a government paralyzed by the president's fragile emotional state; advisers nourishing his fables; expletive-laden feuds between factions of aides and advisers; and a pernicious blurring of truth and fantasy. ...<br /><br />(Continues, at the link.)Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-29106065837230800052020-11-28T10:59:18.646-05:002020-11-28T10:59:18.646-05:00One pandemic, two different worlds in Georgia runo...<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/28/nation/one-pandemic-two-different-worlds-georgia-runoff-races/?event=event25" rel="nofollow">One pandemic, two different worlds in Georgia runoff races</a><br /><br />AP via @BostonGlobe - November 28<br /><br />BUENA VISTA, Ga. — Across the grounds of a south Georgia courthouse, scores of masked and socially distanced voters bowed their heads in prayer for the 260,000-plus Americans who have died from the coronavirus.<br /><br />Then Democratic Senate hopeful Raphael Warnock took the microphone, promising to push for more economic aid for businesses and people affected by the pandemic and touting Democratic plans to combat long-standing racial and wealth disparities highlighted by the crisis. ...<br /><br />It's two starkly different worlds on display in Georgia, where the national political spotlight is shining on twin Senate runoffs that will determine which party controls the chamber at the outset of President-elect Joe Biden’s Democratic administration. Republicans need one more seat for a majority; Democrats need a sweep on Jan. 5. <br /><br />For Republicans, the pandemic is secondary in a runoff blitz defined by dire warnings about what it would mean if Warnock defeats Loeffler and Perdue falls to Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff. Democrats, meanwhile, are more than eager to discuss COVID-19 and its economic fallout. The messaging differences bleed over to the two sides’ public health protocols, as well. The approaches largely track the fall presidential campaign, when Trump wanted to talk about anything but the virus, while Biden centered his pitch around Trump’s handling of it. ...Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-79944649405124104022020-11-27T15:53:12.221-05:002020-11-27T15:53:12.221-05:00The Rotting of the Republican Mind
NY Times - Dav...<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/opinion/republican-disinformation.html?smid=tw-share" rel="nofollow">The Rotting of the Republican Mind</a><br /><br />NY Times - David Brooks - November 26<br /><br />In a recent Monmouth University survey, 77 percent of Trump backers said Joe Biden had won the presidential election because of fraud. Many of these same people think climate change is not real. Many of these same people believe they don’t need to listen to scientific experts on how to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.<br /><br />We live in a country in epistemological crisis, in which much of the Republican Party has become detached from reality. Moreover, this is not just an American problem. All around the world, rising right-wing populist parties are floating on oceans of misinformation and falsehood. What is going on?<br /><br />Many people point to the internet — the way it funnels people into information silos, the way it abets the spread of misinformation. I mostly reject this view. Why would the internet have corrupted Republicans so much more than Democrats, the global right more than the global left?<br /><br />My analysis begins with a <a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-constitution-of-knowledge" rel="nofollow">remarkable essay</a> that Jonathan Rauch wrote for National Affairs in 2018 called “The Constitution of Knowledge.” Rauch pointed out that every society has an epistemic regime, a marketplace of ideas where people collectively hammer out what’s real. In democratic, nontheocratic societies, this regime is a decentralized ecosystem of academics, clergy members, teachers, journalists and others who disagree about a lot but agree on a shared system of rules for weighing evidence and building knowledge. ...Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-59451608235335058112020-11-27T15:21:02.694-05:002020-11-27T15:21:02.694-05:00Well, Joe Lauria of Consortium News speculated sho...Well, Joe Lauria of Consortium News speculated shortly after the election that:<br /><br />"After the Democrats played the fabulist Russiagate card to undermine Trump’s legitimacy, they should not be surprised by Republican efforts to undermine Biden’s. This is U.S. politics in a downward spiral."<br /><br /><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2020/11/12/election-2020-payback-for-russiagate/" rel="nofollow">ELECTION 2020: Payback For Russiagate</a><br /><br />CNN basically confirmed this later: <br /><br />"President Donald Trump told an ally that he knows he lost, but that he is delaying the transition process and is aggressively trying to sow doubt about the election results in order to get back at Democrats for questioning the legitimacy of his own election in 2016, especially with the Russia investigation, a source familiar with the President’s thinking told CNN on Thursday."<br /><br /><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/19/politics/trump-democrats-election/index.html" rel="nofollow">Trump told ally he's trying to get back at Democrats for questioning legitimacy of his own election</a><br /><br /><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2020/11/23/cnn-follows-cn-by-8-days-on-russiagate-payback-story/" rel="nofollow">CNN Follows CN by 8 Days on Russiagate Payback Story</a><br /><br />So it seems that is what all this is about. Hard to say which side's behavior is more infantile and reckless.Calgacushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06031818010224747000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-6045267998409777392020-11-27T15:10:35.010-05:002020-11-27T15:10:35.010-05:00US appeals court rejects Trump appeal over Pennsyl...<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/27/nation/us-appeals-court-rejects-trump-appeal-over-pennsylvania-race/?event=event25" rel="nofollow">US appeals court rejects Trump appeal over Pennsylvania race</a><br /><br />via @BostonGlobe - November 27<br /><br />PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Donald Trump’s legal team suffered yet another defeat in court Friday as a federal appeals court in Philadelphia roundly rejected the campaign’s latest effort to challenge the state’s election results.<br /><br />Trump’s lawyers vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court despite the judges’ assessment that the “campaign’s claims have no merit.”<br /><br />“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” 3rd Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote for the three-judge panel.<br /><br />The case had been argued last week in a lower court by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who insisted during five hours of oral arguments that the 2020 presidential election had been marred by widespread fraud in Pennsylvania. However, Giuliani failed to offer any tangible proof of that in court.<br /><br />U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann had said the campaign’s error-filled complaint, “like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together” and denied Giuliani the right to amend it for a second time.<br /><br />The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called that decision justified. The three judges on the panel were all appointed by Republican presidents. including Bibas, a former University of Pennsylvania law professor appointed by Trump. Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, sat on the court for 20 years, retiring in 2019.<br /><br />“Voters, not lawyers, choose the president. Ballots, not briefs, decide elections,” Bibas said in the opinion, which also denied the campaign’s request to stop the state from certifying its results, a demand he called “breathtaking.” ...<br /><br />Trump perhaps hopes a Supreme Court he helped steer toward a conservative 6-3 majority would be more open to his pleas, especially since the high court upheld Pennsylvania’s decision to accept mail-in ballots through Nov. 6 by only a 4-4 vote last month. Since then, Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett has joined the court.<br /><br />“The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud,” Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis tweeted after Friday’s ruling. “On to SCOTUS!” ...<br /><br />On Thursday, Trump said the Nov. 3 election was still far from over. Yet he offered the clearest signal to date that he would leave the White House peaceably on Jan. 20 if the Electoral College formalizes Biden’s win. <br /><br />“Certainly I will. But you know that,” Trump said at the White House, taking questions from reporters for the first time since Election Day.<br /><br />On Friday, however, he continued to baselessly attack Detroit, Atlanta and other Democratic cities with large Black populations as the source of “massive voter fraud.” And he claimed, without evidence, that a Pennsylvania poll watcher had uncovered computer memory drives that “gave Biden 50,000 votes” apiece.<br /><br />All 50 states must certify their results before the Electoral College meets on Dec. 14, and any challenge to the results must be resolved by Dec. 8. Biden won both the Electoral College and popular vote by wide margins.Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-58630259904594596712020-11-26T23:42:04.876-05:002020-11-26T23:42:04.876-05:00So, this is not the second GA recount, because the...<b>So, this is not the second GA recount, because the first one was a 're-tally'.</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/elections/trump-recount-georgia/85-2dbaaefd-6370-4d42-961b-660ba90e2a60" rel="nofollow">Trump recount in Georgia</a><br /><br />ATLANTA — President Donald Trump’s campaign has requested a recount of votes in the Georgia presidential race, a day after state officials certified results showing Democrat Joe Biden won the state.<br /><br />But the Peach State just had a recount, right? Why are we doing another one? Here's everything you need to know. <br /><br />WHO WON? Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certified the state’s election results on Friday. Those results showed former Vice President Joe Biden beat President Trump by 12,670 votes out of about 5 million cast. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp then certified the state’s slate of 16 presidential electors.<br /><br />ANOTHER ONE? Before certifying, Georgia conducted an audit (state law required) which amounted to hand recount of all five million ballots. This was the largest hand count in US history and was considered a retally.<br /><br />BUT WHY? Under Georgia state law (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-495), a losing candidate may request a recount if the margin is less than or equal to 0.5%. If this threshold is not met, there are no grounds for a candidate to request a recount in Georgia.<br /><br />BY HAND OR MACHINE? Unlike the audit, this will be done by machine, under the rules of the Georgia Election Code (Rule 183-1-1-15-.03). That also means it will not take as long as the hand audit did. <br /><br />WHEN WILL IT START? The Secretary of State’s office said counties can't start any earlier than 9 a.m. on Tuesday.<br /><br />HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE? The state bought several high-speed/large-volume scanners as part of its new system, so it won't take as long as the audit did. Georgia's Secretary of State says it will take four days to complete the machine recount of five million presidential ballots. Some counties can get it done in two days, while it may take larger counties four days. The deadline for the counties to complete the recount is midnight on Dec. 2.<br /><br />SIGNATURE MATCHING? The trump campaign specifically mentioned the signature matching in its request for a recount. They said: "Without signature matching, this recount would be a sham and again allow for illegal votes to be counted." However, signature matching is not possible at this point. Under the Georgia constitution, ballots are secret and cannot be traced to the voter. Signatures of one million absentee ballots were already matched. Four million ballots cast in person were matched with the voter's ID.Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-55224557400784709292020-11-26T23:22:35.145-05:002020-11-26T23:22:35.145-05:00... The election results left Democrats holding 48...<br />... The election results left Democrats holding 48 seats in the U.S. Senate. If Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic challengers in Georgia, can both pull off victories over Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, their party will gain de facto control of a Senate divided 50-50 because Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would wield a tiebreaking vote.<br /><br />In his remarks on Thursday, Mr. Trump said he would visit Georgia on Saturday. Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, later clarified that the president meant Saturday, Dec. 5.<br /><br />The president added that he could return to the state to back the Republicans a second time, “depending on how they’re doing.”<br /><br />It is unclear how helpful Mr. Trump’s appearances would be for the two embattled Republican incumbents. After a hand recount of a close vote, Georgia declared Mr. Biden the winner there on Nov. 19 by a margin of 12,284 votes. Mr. Biden is the first Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election since Bill Clinton in 1992.<br /><br />Mr. Trump insisted on Thursday that he had won the vote by a significant margin. “We were robbed. We were robbed,” he said. “I won that by hundreds of thousands of votes. Everybody knows it.”<br /><br />Asked whether he would attend Mr. Biden’s inauguration, as is customary for a departing president, Mr. Trump was coy.<br /><br />“I don’t want to say that yet,” the president said, adding, “I know the answer, but I just don’t want to say.”<br /><br />At times, Mr. Trump shifted his explanation of his defeat from claims of fraud to complaints that the political battlefield had been slanted against him, casting the news media and technology companies as his enemies.<br /><br />“If the media were honest and big tech was fair, it wouldn’t even be a contest,” he said. “And I would have won by a tremendous amount.”<br /><br />After seeming to concede reality, Mr. Trump quickly caught himself and revised his conditional statement.<br /><br />“And I did win by a tremendous amount,” he added.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/us/politics/trump-election-georgia.html?smid=tw-share" rel="nofollow">Trump, Still Claiming Victory, Says He Will Leave if Electors Choose Biden</a><br /><br />NY Times - November 26Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-56523935961952497662020-11-26T23:11:24.161-05:002020-11-26T23:11:24.161-05:00Trump says he will leave if electoral college vote...<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/26/nation/angry-trump-promises-rally-battleground-state-georgia/?event=event25" rel="nofollow">Trump says he will leave if electoral college votes for Biden</a> <br /><br />NY Times via @BostonGlobe - November 26<br /><br />WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would leave the White House if the Electoral College formalized Joe Biden’s election as president, even as he reiterated baseless claims of fraud that he said would make it “very hard” to concede.<br /><br />Taking questions from reporters for the first time since Election Day, Trump also threw himself into the battle for Senate control, saying he would soon travel to Georgia to support Republican candidates in two runoff elections scheduled there on Jan. 5.<br /><br />When asked whether he would leave office in January after the Electoral College cast its votes for Biden on Dec. 14 as expected, Trump replied: “Certainly I will. Certainly I will.”<br /><br />Speaking in the Diplomatic Room of the White House after a Thanksgiving video conference with members of the U.S. military, the president insisted that “shocking” new evidence about voting problems would surface before Inauguration Day. “It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede,” he said, “because we know that there was massive fraud.”<br /><br />But even as he continued to deny the reality of his defeat, Trump also seemed to acknowledge that his days as president were numbered.<br /><br />“Time is not on our side,” he said, in a rare admission of weakness. He also complained that what he referred to, prematurely, as “the Biden administration” had declared its intention to scrap his “America First” foreign policy vision. ...Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-26792385840566348692020-11-26T11:26:54.040-05:002020-11-26T11:26:54.040-05:00Texas
Nov. 2
“Here, the court finds the plaintif...Texas<br /><br />Nov. 2<br /><br />“Here, the court finds the plaintiffs did not act with alacrity. There has been an increasing amount of conversation and action around the subject of implementing drive-through voting since earlier this summer…”<br /><br />“At virtually any point, but certainly by October 12, 2020, plaintiffs could have filed this action. Instead, they waited until October 28, 2020 at 9:08 p.m. to file their complaint and did not file their actual motion for temporary relief until midday on October 30, 2020 — the last day of early voting.”<br /><br />Judge Andrew S. Hanen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, dismissing a Republican-led lawsuit seeking to end drive-through voting in heavily Democratic Harris County, Texas.<br /><br />Michigan<br /><br />Nov. 6<br /><br />“This ‘supplemental evidence’ is inadmissible as hearsay. The assertion that Connarn was informed by an unknown individual what ‘other hired poll workers at her table’ had been told is inadmissible hearsay within hearsay, and plaintiffs have provided no hearsay exception for either level of hearsay that would warrant consideration of the evidence."<br /><br />Judge Cynthia Stephens of the Michigan Court of Claims, dismissing a Republican-led lawsuit attempting to stop the count of absentee ballots in the state.<br /><br />Nov. 13<br /><br />“Perhaps if plaintiffs’ election challenger affiants had attended the Oct. 29, 2020, walk-through of the TCF Center ballot-counting location, questions and concerns could have been answered in advance of Election Day. Regrettably, they did not and, therefore, plaintiffs’ affiants did not have a full understanding” of the absentee ballot tabulation process.”<br /><br />Judge Timothy M. Kenny of the Third Judicial Circuit Court of Michigan, dismissing a Republican-led suit seeking to stop the certification of the vote in Wayne County. (Michigan certified its results on Monday.)<br /><br />Georgia<br /><br />Nov. 19<br /><br />“To halt the certification at literally the 11th hour would breed confusion and disenfranchisement that I find have no basis in fact and law.”<br /><br />Judge Steven D. Grimberg of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, in a ruling from the bench, turning down an emergency request from a Trump supporter, L. Lin Wood, to halt certification of the vote in Georgia. (Georgia certified its results on Friday.)<br /><br />Nov. 20<br /><br />“Although Wood generally claims fundamental unfairness, and the declarations and testimony submitted in support of his motion speculate as to widespread impropriety, the actual harm alleged by Wood concerns merely a “garden variety” election dispute. Wood does not allege unfairness in counting the ballots; instead, he alleges that select non-party, partisan monitors were not permitted to observe the Audit in an ideal manner. Wood presents no authority, and the Court finds none, providing for a right to unrestrained observation or monitoring of vote counting, recounting, or auditing.<br /><br />Judge Grimberg, once again turning down Mr. Wood’s emergency request to halt certification of the vote in Georgia.Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-15532518846249338422020-11-26T11:26:12.050-05:002020-11-26T11:26:12.050-05:00Over 30 Trump Campaign Lawsuits Have Failed. Some ...<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/us/elections/trump-campaign-lawsuits.html?smid=tw-share" rel="nofollow">Over 30 Trump Campaign Lawsuits Have Failed. Some Rulings Are Scathing</a><br /><br />NY Times - November 25<br /><br />Judges, a generally sober lot, are not as a rule given to snark, sarcasm or outbursts of emotion in their orders.<br /><br />But in the nearly three dozen lawsuits challenging the 2020 election that the Trump campaign and its proxies have either lost or withdrawn in recent weeks, a number of judges have lost patience.<br /><br />Here are some scathing excerpts from their rulings:<br /><br />Pennsylvania<br /><br />Oct. 10<br /><br />“Perhaps Plaintiffs are right that guards should be placed near drop boxes, signature-analysis experts should examine every mail-in ballot, poll watchers should be able to man any poll regardless of location, and other security improvements should be made. But the job of an unelected federal judge isn’t to suggest election improvements, especially when those improvements contradict the reasoned judgment of democratically elected officials.”<br /><br />“Put differently, federal judges can have a lot of power — especially when issuing injunctions. And sometimes we may even have a good idea or two. But the Constitution sets out our sphere of decision-making, and that sphere does not extend to second-guessing and interfering with a state’s reasonable, nondiscriminatory election rules.”<br /><br />Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, dismissing the Trump campaign’s attempt to stop Pennsylvania counties from using ballot drop boxes and from tallying absentee ballots that were not in a “secrecy” envelope.<br /><br />Nov. 21<br /><br />“This claim, like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together… This Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence. In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws, and institutions demand more.”<br /><br />Judge Matthew W. Brann of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, dismissing the Trump campaign’s attempt to block certification of Pennsylvania’s election result. (The state certified its results on Tuesday.) ...<br />Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-82304141439178699922020-11-26T07:15:00.697-05:002020-11-26T07:15:00.697-05:00Trump utters one falsehood after another as he cal...<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/25/nation/trump-utters-one-falsehood-after-another-he-calls-into-giuliani-event-pennsylvania/?event=event25" rel="nofollow">Trump utters one falsehood after another as he calls into Giuliani event in Pennsylvania</a><br /><br />via @BostonGlobe - November 25<br /><br />WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday baselessly claimed anew that he had won the election and uttered repeated falsehoods as he called into an event held by Pennsylvania Republicans to investigate unproven allegations of voter fraud.<br /><br />“This was an election that we won easily. We won it by a lot,” Trump declared to the group gathered at a hotel in Gettysburg. Trump, in fact, lost to President-elect Joe Biden by about 150,000 votes in the state, and Pennsylvania certified Biden as the winner on Tuesday.<br /><br />The Pennsylvania event was the latest attempt by Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor, to try to cast doubt on the results of the democratic election, even as the formal transition process has begun and a growing number of Republicans are recognizing Biden as president-elect. Similar events have been scheduled in Arizona and Michigan.<br /><br />State election officials across the county and international observers have said there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and Trump’s legal team has lost repeatedly in court, in addition to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-lawsuits-voting-elections-8347b778b9a5cadacb528c3badd22164" rel="nofollow">making numerous elementary errors.</a><br /><br />Wednesday’s event, hastily organized by Republican state lawmakers, including Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, an outspoken Trump supporter, came with trappings of an official hearing — flags, a gavel, and unsworn “witnesses” who “testified” in person and by phone.<br /><br />Among them was a special guest — the president — who at one point had been expected to attend in person, but did not after another member of his legal team announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus Wednesday morning.<br /><br />Trump spoke for about 11 minutes via a phone held up to a microphone by his lawyer Jenna Ellis and insisted again that the election had been “rigged” for Biden.<br /><br />“This election has to be turned around,” he stated.<br /><br />It was yet another stunning declaration from an American president advocating overturning a democratic election and the voters’ will because he wants to stay in power.<br /><br />The hotel where the Senate Majority Policy Committee met is about a mile from the scene of Pickett’s Charge, where Union troops repelled a desperate Confederate attack in July 1863. It helped turn the tide of the American Civil War against the slave-owning South.<br /><br />The Trump campaign on Wednesday asked the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals for the chance for Giuliani to give oral arguments in its appeal over the vote count in Pennsylvania. The court has not yet said if it will hear arguments.Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-37170455623645674592020-11-25T15:32:47.618-05:002020-11-25T15:32:47.618-05:00(Here's what happens in Congress on January 6,...(Here's what happens in Congress on January 6, 2021,<br />to finalize the the vote of the Electoral College <br />that happens on December 14:)<br /><br /><a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11641" rel="nofollow">The Electoral College: A 2020 Presidential Election Timeline</a><br /><br />Congressional Research Service - updated October 22<br /><br />January 6, 2021: Joint Session of Congress to Count<br />Electoral Votes and Declare Election Results Meets<br />On January 6, or another date set by law, the Senate and<br />House of Representatives assemble at 1:00 p.m. in a joint<br />session at the Capitol, in the House chamber, to count the<br />electoral votes and declare the results(3 U.S.C. §15). The<br />Vice President presides as President of the Senate. The Vice<br />President opens the certificates and presents them to four<br />tellers, two from each chamber. The tellers read and make a<br />list of the returns. When the votes have been ascertained<br />and counted, the tellers transmit them to the Vice President.<br /><br />If one of the tickets has received a majority of 270 or more<br />electoral votes, the Vice President announces the results,<br />which “shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the<br />persons, if any, elected President and Vice President.”<br /><br />Joint Session Challenges to Electoral Vote Returns<br /><br />While the tellers announce the results, <b>Members may object<br />to the returns from any individual state as they are<br />announced.</b> Objections to individual state returns must be<br />made in writing by at least one Member each of the Senate<br />and House of Representatives. If an objection meets these<br />requirements, the joint session recesses and the two houses<br />separate and debate the question in their respective<br />chambers for a maximum of two hours. The two houses<br />then vote separately to accept or reject the objection. They<br />then reassemble in joint session, and announce the results of<br />their respective votes. <b>An objection to a state’s electoral<br />vote must be approved by both houses in order for any<br />contested votes to be excluded.</b><br /><br />For additional information,<br />see <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL32717/12" rel="nofollow">CRS Report RL32717, Counting Electoral Votes:</a> An<br />Overview of Procedures at the Joint Session, Including<br />Objections by Members of Congress, coordinated by<br />Elizabeth Rybicki and L. Paige Whitaker. <br /><br />Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-71018018433318495572020-11-25T15:03:40.448-05:002020-11-25T15:03:40.448-05:00I am not going to do a new post on this topic, but...I am not going to do a new post on this topic, but in today;s (Nov. 25) WaPo, David Ignatius warns we are not totally out of danger of a possible coup attempt, arguing we need to get to the electoral college vote on Dec. 14 to be really fully past it. He sees both a domestic danger and a foreign one, with indeed the play for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and directly command the military to do it, with now flunky SecDef Miller following, with Joint Chiefs Chair, Milley out of the line of command, and with the key person being the Atlantic command chief, an Air Force general.<br /><br />The most serious domestic threat is another MAGA rally in DC on Dec. 12, two days before the EC votes. If that gets too out of hand with fighting between the pro and anti Trump people, that might give him his excuse.<br /><br />Foreign would be an outbreak of war, possibly even started by Trump as apparently he has been wanting to do with Iran. But some other nation could kick it off with some unpleasant action giving Trump the excuse.<br /><br />All this looks pretty unlikely now, not worth a whole post. But Ignatius is a smart and well-informed guy, and he is reporting what some serious people in DC are worrying about, and he warns the Biden team should be prepared for some possible shenanigans along these lines. The continuing worrying thing about all this is the large number of both pro-Trump voters and even GOP officeholders who continue not to recognize that Biden has won, which would provide a possible support base for something like this.rosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-1891981974980137092020-11-24T13:09:10.665-05:002020-11-24T13:09:10.665-05:00Pennsylvania certifies Biden as winner of presiden...<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/24/nation/pennsylvania-certifies-biden-winner-presidential-vote/?event=event25" rel="nofollow">Pennsylvania certifies Biden as winner of presidential vote</a><br /><br />via @BostonGlobe - November 24<br /><br />HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrat Joe Biden has been certified as the winner of the presidential election in Pennsylvania, culminating three weeks of vote counting and a string of failed legal challenges by President Donald Trump, state officials said Tuesday.<br /><br />The Pennsylvania State Department “certified the results of the November 3 election in Pennsylvania for president and vice president of the United States,” Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, tweeted.<br /><br />“As required by federal law, I’ve signed the Certificate of Ascertainment for the slate of electors for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris," Wolf wrote.<br /><br />The State Department said Wolf's “certificate of ascertainment” has been sent to the national archivist in Washington. Pennsylvania's electors, a mix of elected Democrats, party activists and other staunch Biden backers, will meet in the state Capitol on Dec. 14. ...<br /><br />---<br /><br /><a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/24/nation/biden-win-over-trump-in-nevada-made-official-by-court/?event=event25" rel="nofollow">Biden win over Trump in in Nevada made official by court</a><br /><br />LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Nevada Supreme Court made Joe Biden’s win in the state official on Tuesday, approving the state’s final canvass of the Nov. 3 election.<br /><br />The unanimous action by the seven nonpartisan justices sends to Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak results that will deliver six electoral votes from the western U.S. battleground state to Biden. ...Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-65790824299869003072020-11-24T07:47:17.634-05:002020-11-24T07:47:17.634-05:00Partisan gerrymandering has made Trump’s last ditc...<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/23/opinion/republicans-probably-wont-subvert-presidential-election-this-year/?event=event25" rel="nofollow">Partisan gerrymandering has made Trump’s last ditch, constitution-busting stress test for American democracy possible</a><br /><br />via @BostonGlobe - November 24<br /><br />Alarm bells rang nationwide when President Trump summoned Michigan’s Republican House speaker and Senate majority leader to Washington on Nov. 20 to make his case for the Legislature to overturn the state’s popular vote and award Michigan’s 16 Electoral College votes to Trump instead.<br /><br />Almost two weeks after every network called the race for Joe Biden, the president, in a brazen effort to usurp the people’s will, wanted to arm-twist GOP-controlled legislatures in swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to declare, without any evidence, that voter fraud and other irregularities made it impossible to certify Biden as the winner. The electors, he believed, belonged to him. Bigly!<br /><br />There’s a reason why Trump focused on those states. Partisan gerrymandering has made Trump’s last-ditch, Constitution-busting stress test for American democracy possible. Republicans in each of these states owe their majorities to gerrymandered maps that stifle public opinion and entrench minority rule.<br /><br />Republicans in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are the national experts at maintaining a hammer-lock on power despite winning fewer votes. Republicans drew themselves such extreme advantages that they have not lost control of a single chamber in those three states for a decade, even when they lose by hundreds of thousands of votes statewide.<br /><br />Those Michigan leaders, courted at the White House, who then celebrated at the Trump Hotel bar with $795 bottles of Dom Perignon? Among them was Lee Chatfield, the Michigan House speaker willing to indulge Trump’s scheme. He also chairs the Republican State Leadership Committee, the organization that took the lead on the GOP’s 2010 gerrymandering strategy.<br /><br />In Wisconsin, days after a recount affirmed Biden’s victory, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos ordered the elections subcommittee to immediately investigate “mail-in ballot dumps and voter fraud” and to assure that “any and all irregularities” were found. Vos and the GOP control the Wisconsin assembly with an unmerited 63-36 majority even though Democratic candidates won more than 200,000 more votes in 2018.<br /><br />House Republicans in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, meanwhile, tasked a committee with compiling a report on election “inconsistencies” and developing an audit to guarantee “the accuracy of the votes.” The GOP controls that chamber even though its candidates won 381,000 fewer votes statewide in 2018. You could hardly describe it as a democracy: Democrats won 54 percent of the vote but just 44 percent of the seats.<br /><br />Leaders of these rigged Republican majorities weren’t called on just to help with Trump’s efforts to subvert the results after the election. They were also crucial to enabling Trump’s narrative that he led on election night, then had his lead erased when “fraudulent” mail-in votes from Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee were added to the totals.<br /><br />Trump had telegraphed the plan for months. Republican lawmakers in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were begged by their secretaries of state and nonpartisan election officials to prevent this delegitimizing story line from taking hold. In part by getting a jump-start on vote-counting. Forty other states allow election workers a head start; nevertheless, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin refused. Michigan Republicans dragged their feet, then finally relented and allowed clerks to begin 10 hours early. Aided by these lawmakers and conservative media bubbles, Trump’s fantasy became fact among many Republicans. ...Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-19658762705848136422020-11-24T01:38:11.272-05:002020-11-24T01:38:11.272-05:00Hello everyone i Am williams pater and i am from U...Hello everyone i Am williams pater and i am from USA i am here to give my testimony about an herbal doctor called Dr,olu I was heartbroken because i had very small penis,not nice to satisfy a woman, i have been in so many relationship, but cut off because of my situation, i have used so many product which doctors prescribe for me, but could not offer me the help i searched for. i saw some few comments on the internet about this specialist called Dr,OLU and decided to email him on his email i saw on the internet,(drolusolutionhome@gmail.com ) so I decided to give his herbal product a try. i emailed him and he got back to me, he gave me some comforting words with his herbal product for Penis Enlargement, Within three weeks of me use it, i began to feel the enlargement, " and now it just 4 weeks of using his products my penis is about 8 inches longer, and i had to settle thing out with my ex girlfriend , i was surprised when she said that she is satisfied with my performance in bed and i now have a large penis.thanks to DR OLU for is herbal product. you can also reach him with emsil drolusolutionhome@gmail.com though is..number WHATASPP him today on this number [ +2348140654426 ]Williams Paterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15875064705463003263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-14997507165183244832020-11-23T19:10:57.050-05:002020-11-23T19:10:57.050-05:00Trump says he’s directing his team to cooperate wi...<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/23/nation/ap-source-us-agency-allows-formal-biden-transition-begin/?event=event25" rel="nofollow">Trump says he’s directing his team to cooperate with Biden officials as GSA allows formal transition to begin</a><br /><br />via @BostonGlobe - November 23<br /><br />WASHINGTON (AP) — The General Services Administration ascertained Monday that President-elect Joe Biden is the “apparent winner” of the Nov. 3 election, clearing the way for the start of the transition from President Donald Trump’s administration and allowing Biden to coordinate with federal agencies on plans for taking over on Jan. 20.<br /><br />Trump, who had refused to concede the election, said in a tweet that he is directing his team to cooperate on the transition but is vowing to keep up the fight.<br /><br />Administrator Emily Murphy made the determination after Trump efforts to subvert the vote failed across battleground states, citing, “recent developments involving legal challenges and certifications of election results.” Michigan certified Biden’s victory Monday, and a federal judge in Pennsylvania tossed a Trump campaign lawsuit on Saturday seeking to prevent certification in that state.<br /><br />Donald J. Trump ✓ @realDonaldTrump<br /><br />I want to thank Emily Murphy at GSA for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country. She has been harassed, threatened, and abused – and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA. Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good...<br /><br />...fight, and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.<br /><br />Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-1126710551248899002020-11-23T18:54:35.690-05:002020-11-23T18:54:35.690-05:00Trump concedes in all but name as he lets transiti...<a href="https://mol.im/a/8979917" rel="nofollow">Trump concedes in all but name as he lets transition to Biden begin</a><br /><br />via @MailOnline - November 23<br /><br />BREAKING NEWS: Donald Trump concedes in all but name as he caves and lets <br />transition to Joe Biden FINALLY begin after Michigan certifies Democrat's <br />victory in state - but STILL claims he can prevail in doomed legal fight <br />to overturn election results<br /><br />Donald Trump took a massive step towards admitting defeat in the election Monday night by saying he was allowing the transition to Joe Biden to begin - but immediately claimed he can still overturn his defeat at the hands of voters. <br /><br />General Services Administration Chief Emily Murphy told President-elect Biden in a letter that he can start accessing federal resources to begin the presidential transition process early Monday evening.<br /><br />Murphy released a letter to Biden announcing the move - that dedicated a considerable portion to defending her own reputation and claiming she had been threatened. ...<br /><br />Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-1592141954552418142020-11-23T16:47:09.719-05:002020-11-23T16:47:09.719-05:00Board of Canvassers certifies Michigan’s election ...<a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2020/11/board-of-canvassers-certifies-michigans-election-results-in-3-1-vote.html" rel="nofollow">Board of Canvassers certifies Michigan’s election results</a><br /><br />The Board of State Canvassers certified Michigan’s November general election results in a 3-0-1 vote Monday.<br /><br />The board, made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, met Nov. 23 to make the vote count official after all 83 Michigan counties certified their election results, which include Joe Biden’s 2.8% statewide victory over President Donald Trump. The state certification of the more than 5.5 million ballots cast comes after Trump and his attorneys and supporters persistently called for delaying certification. Board of State Canvasser Norman Shinkle abstained from the vote.Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-63988002557471547672020-11-23T15:51:07.013-05:002020-11-23T15:51:07.013-05:00(That letter - updated.)
Business Leaders, Citing...(That letter - updated.)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/23/us/trump-economy-ny.html?smid=tw-share" rel="nofollow">Business Leaders, Citing Damage to Country, Urge Trump to Begin Transition</a><br /><br />Concerned that President Trump’s refusal to accept the election results is hurting the country, more than 160 top American executives asked the administration on Monday to immediately acknowledge Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the president-elect and begin the transition to a new administration.<br /><br />Even one of Mr. Trump’s stalwart supporters, Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of Blackstone, the private equity firm, said in a statement that “the outcome is very certain today and the country should move on.” While he did not sign a letter sent to the administration by the other executives, he said he was “now ready to help President-elect Biden and his team.”<br /><br />Signatories to the letter included the chief executives of Mastercard, Visa, MetLife, Accenture, the Carlyle Group, Condé Nast, McGraw-Hill, WeWork and American International Group, among others. They included some of the most important players in the financial industry: David M. Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs; Laurence D. Fink, chief executive of the asset management giant BlackRock; Jon Gray, Blackstone’s president; and Henry R. Kravis, a prominent Republican donor who is the co-chief executive of KKR, a private equity firm. ...<br /><br /><a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/business-leaders-letter-trump-transition/cfb231ee1058dc58/full.pdf" rel="nofollow">164 New York business leaders urge the Trump <br />Administration to Move Forward with Transition</a><br />Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-80007105584718004942020-11-23T12:07:25.992-05:002020-11-23T12:07:25.992-05:00(But of course...)
Trump campaign appeals Pennsyl...(But of course...)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-campaign-appeals-pennsylvania-mail-ballots-case-state-verge-certifying-election-results-1549356" rel="nofollow">Trump campaign appeals Pennsylvania mail-in ballots case as state on verge of certifying election results</a><br /><br />Newsweek - November 22<br /><br />Trump's presidential election campaign is appealing a Pennsylvania judge's decision to dismiss its lawsuit challenging the state's ballot counting procedures, with intent to halt its upcoming certification of results.<br /><br />The appeal, filed Sunday, came about 24 hours after District Court Judge Matthew Brann issued a ruling that tossed out allegations included in the Trump campaign's legal complaint. In his decision, Brann noted that attorneys failed to provide sufficient evidence supporting their insistent claims that misconduct on the part of elections officials gave Joe Biden his projected presidential win. ...Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-62681285079244186252020-11-23T11:50:26.246-05:002020-11-23T11:50:26.246-05:00What's next?
The following week sees two more...What's next?<br /><br />The following week sees two more key states certify their results: Arizona on Nov. 30 and Wisconsin on Dec. 1. Biden won both states narrowly.<br /><br />The Trump campaign requested a recount in two heavily Democratic-leaning counties that put Biden over the top in Wisconsin. But election officials in the state are complaining that Trump campaign observers are obstructing and slowing down the recount from actually happening, "in some instances by objecting to every ballot tabulators pulled to count," The Associated Press reports.<br /><br />States are set to finalize their electors on Dec. 8, then electors will cast votes in state capitols Dec. 14. Those votes will be received by Vice President Pence on Dec. 23, and then Congress tallies them Jan. 6 before Biden is inaugurated Jan. 20.<br /><br />The Trump campaign may try to drag this out as long as possible, filing in many cases frivolous challenges and appeals. But pressure this week will likely only build on those around him to abandon Trump or convince him to give up what appears to be an even more futile fight as the days go on.<br /><br />---<br /><br />(Not done with GA yet either...)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/biden-transition-updates/2020/11/22/937739336/trump-requests-georgia-recount-meaning-5-million-votes-will-be-tabulated-a-3rd-t" rel="nofollow">Trump Requests Georgia Recount, Meaning 5 Million Votes Will Be Tabulated A 3rd Time</a> <br /><br />NPR - November 22<br /><br />Georgia's nearly 5 million votes in the presidential race will be counted for a third time, as President Trump's campaign has formally asked for a recount because his loss is within the legal margin for that request.<br /><br />Of the 4,998,482 ballots cast in the race between Trump and President-elect Joe Biden, the president lost by 12,670 votes, or about 0.26 percentage points. State law allows a losing candidate within 0.5 percentage points to ask for a recount within two business days of certification.<br /><br />While thousands of workers spent most of the last week hand-counting every vote as part of a newly required statewide risk-limiting audit, this recount will be different.<br /><br />The law calls for a recount to be conducted by retabulating every ballot through a scanner, the same way they were originally counted in the days following the Nov. 3 election. ...Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-67979101622213565302020-11-23T11:44:49.846-05:002020-11-23T11:44:49.846-05:00Trump Is Running Out Of Time As Key States Set To ...<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/23/937802054/trump-is-running-out-of-time-as-key-states-set-to-certify-that-biden-won?" rel="nofollow">Trump Is Running Out Of Time As Key States Set To Certify That Biden Won</a><br /><br />NPR - November 23<br /><br />... Here's the latest in each state:<br /><br />Pennsylvania<br /><br />After a judge said the Trump legal team did not show "factual proof of rampant corruption" and dismissed the Trump campaign's attempts to block certification, the campaign is appealing.<br /><br />In his opinion dismissing Trump's case — argued by Rudy Giuliani, who struggled in his first appearance in court in decades — Judge Matthew Brann, a Republican, wrote:<br /><br />"In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws, and institutions demand more."<br /><br />Individual counties must certify their results to the secretary of state by Monday, and then she makes her own certification.<br /><br />Michigan<br /><br />WKAR's Abigail Censky reports: At the Michigan Board of State Canvassers meeting on Monday, two Democrats and two Republicans will meet to certify the results of Michigan's election. Unofficial results from all 83 counties have already been certified at the county level.<br /><br />Despite Republicans' continued alarm bells about election irregularities, lawsuits have been thrown out or withdrawn, and state and local election officials, including a Friday report from the state's Bureau of Elections, prove Michigan's election was secure.<br /><br />The president has also been applying pressure to state lawmakers to either try and not certify the results or to install electors loyal to Trump. On Thursday, the president summoned senior Republicans in Michigan's state Legislature to the White House.<br /><br />But those lawmakers, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, said after the meeting that they see no reason for the outcome not to match the vote — with Biden winning.<br /><br />"We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan," they said in a joint statement, "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."<br /><br />Nevada<br /><br />An attempt to stop Nevada's certification, brought by failed Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle, was thrown out Friday.<br /><br />Angle's group, the Election Integrity Project, claimed that some 1,400 votes cast were done for people who had actually moved to California and registered to vote there, and that about 8,000 ballots were mailed to people who had not voted in a decade, which is against Nevada law.<br /><br />Biden won the state by more than 33,000 votes.<br /><br />"The civil remedy of throwing out an election is just a shocking ask," District Court Judge Gloria Sturman told the group's attorney. "You are asking me to throw out 1.4 million votes on the chance that somewhere between 250 and 8,000 people should not have voted."<br />Fred C. Dobbsnoreply@blogger.com