John Thune has been one of Trump’s most loyal henchman. This is the thanks he gets:

I hope to see the great Governor of South Dakota @KristiNoem, run against RINO @SenJohnThune, in the upcoming 2022 Primary. She would do a fantastic job in the U.S. Senate, but if not Kristi, others are already lining up. South Dakota wants strong leadership, NOW!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2021

Thune is pretty popular and Trump may not have the power he thinks he will have. But I think it’s obvious that Trump is signaling that he’s not going anywhere.

This article by Matt Ford in The New Republic is probably right:

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley announced on Wednesday that he would take the courageous step of trying to overthrow an American election. When Congress formally counts the Electoral College votes on January 6, Hawley said he would try to challenge at least one state’s results, which requires at least one member of the House and Senate each. There aren’t enough votes in either chamber to toss out a state result, so the maneuver will only delay President-elect Joe Biden’s final victory by a few more hours.

“I cannot vote to certify the electoral college results on January 6 without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws,” Hawley said in a statement. “And I cannot vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election, in support of Joe Biden. At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act.”

This move is unsurprising from Hawley, who has been running for president ever since he arrived in Washington. Trump is using his lies about voter fraud as a litmus test of sorts for GOP office-holders across the country, implicitly conditioning his future political support for them on their willingness to support his false claims about the 2020 election. For ambitious conservatives like Hawley who aspire to even higher office, undermining the legitimacy of this election is just another step on the path to winning the next one.

There’s a feedback loop of sorts at work here: The more that Republicans validate Trump’s Lost Cause narrative now, the more they will have to do so in the future. “The idea that the election was stolen from Trump will be maintained as a kind of foundation myth of the post-Trump era—one that Republicans will have to tiptoe around for years,” The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent wrote on Wednesday. There is just one problem with this calculation by 2024 hopefuls: Trump himself isn’t going anywhere.

A 2024 bid by Trump himself wouldn’t be wholly unprecedented. Grover Cleveland lost to Benjamin Harrison in 1888, then defeated him for a second non-consecutive term in 1892. Theodore Roosevelt ran against William Howard Taft, his own successor, in 1912. But most presidents since World War II have served two terms, and the few who’ve lost their re-election bid haven’t sought to return to office again. Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush transitioned into elder statesmen roles after their defeats, mixing semi-retirement hobbies with humanitarian and diplomatic activities. They and other ex-presidents also generally avoided involvement in electoral politics, either out of respect for their successors or relief at escaping from it.

Can you imagine Trump taking such a placid, secondary role in public life? All of his moves so far suggest that, at minimum, he wants to remain the axial figure in Republican politics for the foreseeable future. Trump hasn’t yet publicly signaled that he would run again in 2024, of course. Such a move would effectively concede that he lost this election, after all. But he has reportedly told aides that he would do so in private, perhaps even announcing the decision on Inauguration Day to steal some of Biden’s thunder. His false claims about this election are also a lucrative fundraising tool—more than $200 million, and counting—as he amasses a financial war chest for the future. Even serious legal trouble may not deter Trump from mounting a 2024 bid: Socialist candidate Eugene Debs ran for president in 1920 from an Indiana prison and won 3 percent of the vote.

If Hawley and his cohorts genuinely believed there was electoral fraud, their moves would be slightly more defensible. But all of the available evidence suggests that cynical self-interest is the real motive at play. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican and an occasional critic of Trump, confirmed those suspicions in a Facebook post on Wednesday night. “When we talk in private, I haven’t heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent—not one,” he wrote. “Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will ‘look’ to President Trump’s most ardent supporters.”

Most of Sasse’s post was devoted to discussing why Trump’s claims of election fraud didn’t hold water. But he also threw an implicit jab at grandstanding by Hawley and other “institutional arsonist” members of Congress. “Let’s be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage,” Sasse wrote. “But they’re wrong—and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.”

The Trump era is, in some respects, a long chain of Faustian bargains between various prominent conservatives and the soon-to-be-former president. They embraced an incompetent authoritarian in exchange for Supreme Court seats, a Senate majority, tax cuts, regulatory rollbacks, and raw political influence. Now Josh Hawley is cutting a deal with the devil—except this time, the devil may be the one who knocks him out of the running in 2024.

Sasse is also positioning himself for president by saying this, so he’s also being self-serving. But, at least, he isn’t trying to destroy democracy in this instance as Hawley is.

I think Ford is right. Trump isn’t going to graciously pass the baton to the next generation. In fact, I don’t think he’d even graciously pass it on to his own offspring.

Trump’s guiding philosophy in life is “get even.” He’s established the narrative that he was cheated out of his 2nd term and he’s not going to let it go. Whether he actually runs depends upon circumstances but let’s not kid ourselves that he’s just done. He is not.

I have to admit that I’m going to enjoy the massive battle that’s going to take place among the GOP 2024 hopefuls. I think it’s going to be a bloody, bloody fight and I would be very surprised if Josh Hawley comes out on top. He seems to think Trump’s appeal is about issues.

Lol!

There is a lot of jockeying among Republicans for the job of who will inherit the Trump cult going forward. A lot depends upon Trump himself, of course. If he keeps up his crusade for the next four years it’s hard to see how any mere politician can unseat him. But you never know. He’s no spring chicken and the bloom could come off the rose as time goes by. He’s exhausting.

However, Republicans have discovered that minority rule through white nationalist “populism”, whether it grows into an American version of the right wing German Christian Democrats or a more familiar straight up neo-fascism, is one way they might be able to maintain their power. That would be a long-term project and we can see who the young turks are who are jumping on the possibilities.

Marco Rubio has been screeching about elites on his twitter feed and Tom Cotton has been going on about America First military might. But it’s everyone’s favorite Missouri “populist” Josh Hawley who seems to see the future most clearly. He teamed up with Bernie Sanders to ask for more cash for the folks. And now he’s announced that he will object to the certification of the vote on January 6th:

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced Wednesday that he would object next week when Congress convenes to certify the electoral college vote, a move that will force a contentious floor debate that top Senate Republicans had hoped to avoid before President-elect Joe Biden’s victory is cemented.

President Trump has repeatedly and falsely suggested that the ceremonial milestone presents a last-ditch way to reverse the election results. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other leading Republicans, who have conceded it is bound to fail and will put their members in an awkward position.

In a statement, Hawley said he feels compelled to highlight purported election irregularities.

“At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act,” Hawley said.

He will force his fellow Republicans to vote on this, which Mitch did not want to happen because anyone who votes against Dear Leader will have a problem with the cult. But who knows, maybe they’ll all vote to overturn the election which will save them from the wrath of the conspiracy addled base, even as it further destroys our democracy.

This “constitutional coup” attempt can’t work unless the House votes to overturn the election too which isn’t going to happen. But the mere fact that this gambit has gotten this far is absolutely chilling. Trump and the right wing media managed to create a stolen election myth out of whole cloth and then use it as an excuse to restrict voting. It’s the Reichstag fire of vote suppression.

Hawley seems to have a real understanding of what makes the Trump cult click beyond Trump himself. He sees the utility of giving white working class people money. (I’ll be interested to see whether that holds. White racists generally really do not want Black and Brown people to have anything, even if it means they don’t get it themselves.) And he understands the usefulness of feeding the right’s ongoing sense of grievance. If he can put that together in a way that gives the Trump cult that same tribal feeling of togetherness he might just have a winning formula.

The one thing he’s missing is the fun factor that has been a huge aspect of Trump’s triumph. Hawley is basically a wonk. Trump is an entertainer and I think that’s actually the most important part of his appeal. He makes hating fun.

Hawley isn’t fun. Neither are Rubio or any of the other wannabes. It’s going to take a good long while for the cult to come down from that high.

Nonetheless, they are using Trump’s loss to their own advantage. They are Republicans, after all.

Cheerleaders for people like Hawley insist the 2020 results show that "conservative populism" has potential for genuine majoritarian appeal. They must be deeply disappointed that one of its leading champions wants to overturn millions of votes, right?https://t.co/GrHzMWkdug pic.twitter.com/ckGNYs6npc

— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) December 30, 2020

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This piece by David Ignatius has raised some eyebrows because of the sourcing: “senior officials,” “government officials,” and “State Department and Pentagon officials.” It’s not White House gossip:

Not to be alarmist, but we should recognize that the United States will be in the danger zone until the formal certification of Joe Biden’s election victory on Jan. 6, because potential domestic and foreign turmoil could give President Trump an excuse to cling to power.

This threat, while unlikely to materialize, is concerning senior officials, including Republicans who have supported Trump in the past but believe he is now threatening to overstep the constitutional limits on his power. They described a multifaceted campaign by die-hard Trump supporters to use disruptions at home and perhaps threats abroad to advance his interests.

The big showdown is the Jan. 6 gathering of both houses of Congress to formally count the electoral college vote taken on Dec. 14, which Biden won 306 to 232. The certification should be a pro forma event, but a desperate Trump is demanding that House and Senate Republicans challenge the count and block this final, binding affirmation of Biden’s victory before Inauguration Day.

Trump’s last-ditch campaign will almost certainly fail in Congress. The greater danger is on the streets, where pro-Trump forces are already threatening chaos. A pro-Trump group called “Women for America First” has requested a permit for a Jan. 6 rally in Washington, and Trump is already beating the drum: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

Government officials fear that if violence spreads, Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act to mobilize the military. Then Trump might use “military capabilities” to rerun the Nov. 3 election in swing states, as suggested by Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. Trump “could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election,” Flynn told Newsmax in a Dec. 17 interview.

The Pentagon would be the locus of any such action, and some unusual recent moves suggest pro-Trump officials might be mobilizing to secure levers of power. Kash Patel, chief of staff to acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller, returned home “abruptly” from an Asia trip in early December, according to Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin. Patel didn’t explain, but in mid-December Trump discussed with colleagues the possibility that Patel might replace Christopher A. Wray as FBI director, one official said. Wray remains in his job.

Another strange Pentagon machination was the proposal Miller floated in mid-December to separate the code-breaking National Security Agency from U.S. Cyber Command, which are both currently headed by Gen. Paul Nakasone. That proposal collapsed because of bipartisan congressional opposition.

But why did Trump loyalists suggest the NSA-Cyber Command split in the first place? Some officials speculate that the White House may have planned to install a new NSA chief, perhaps Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the young conservative recently installed to oversee Pentagon intelligence activities.

With firm control of the NSA and the FBI, the Trump team might then disclose highly sensitive information about the origins of the 2016 Trump Russia investigation. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe tried to release this sensitive intelligence before the election, despite protests from intelligence chiefs that it would severely damage U.S. national security. Trump retreated under pressure from then-Attorney General William P. Barr, among others.

Trump’s final weeks in office will also be a tinder box because of the danger of turmoil abroad. Iranian-backed militias fired more than 20 rockets last Sunday at the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, with around nine hitting the compound but inflicting no American casualties. The United States sent intense, high-level messages to Tehran, public and private, warning against any further provocation. The toughest was a Dec. 23 tweet from Trump warning: “If one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over.” State Department and Pentagon officials say Trump’s retaliatory threat is real.

Another potential flash point is just a week away. Jan. 3 marks the first anniversary of the U.S. targeted killing of Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani and Iraq militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.Any new violence could ignite a quick cycle of escalation that could bring direct conflict between the United States and Iran during Trump’s final weeks in office.

Ignatius suggests that Republicans go up to the White House and tell Trump “this must stop.”

Lol. Or what?

I don’t know if any of this is based upon specific information that Ignatius’s sources wanted out in the public or what. But it’s disturbing, particularly since this reporting on Trump blowing up the COVID relief bill suggests that Trump is now on a “burn it down” revenge trip:

[S]ome people close to the White House say Trump’s decision to hold up the deal reflects his embittered mood in the final days of his presidency.

“He’s just angry at everybody and wants to inflict as much pain on Congress as possible,” one person briefed by White House officials on the matter said.

He’s not just mad at Congress. He’s mad at America and he wants to get even. That could take any number of forms, none of them good.

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Just brilliant:

Ain’t it the truth? My God, what a year. And it’s ending at a real low point. Unemployment insurance ran out on Christmas and Donald Trump is having a pout and spending his days on the golf course instead of signing the badly needed extension. His refusal to sign it is supposedly because he wants to give people more relief money and cut the “pork” from the omnibus appropriations bill. Obviously, he could have raised these objections before the bill was agreed upon but he has been spending every minute plotting with lunatics over his election loss.

So, we are looking at a government shutdown and massive hardship among vast numbers of people because of the horrific pandemic which, by the way, has claimed over 330,000 lives and counting and is still raging all over the country.

I suspect that Trump thinks he is negotiating with Republicans to vote against the pro-forma certification of the election on January 6th and hand the presidency to him. He has long said that the way he does a deal is to walk into a room and look across the table, say “Fuck You” and walk back out. I doubt he actually did that. But he may think that he can hold the government and the American people hostage with these two vital bills and blackmail the congress into letting him win the presidency

Obviously, this is delusional. Nearly insane. But that’s where we are.

You didn’t think this year would end calmly, did you?

The Happy Hollandaise fundraiser goes through the end of the year so if you’re of a mind to kick in a little something below or at the snail mail address on the sidebar, I would be most grateful.

cheers,
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There’s been a lot of discussion about what to do it Trump refuses to leave. In the beginning we all laughed and laughed at the prospect of Trump being frog-marched down the stairs, hahaha. But now? It’s starting to seem like there might be something to it:

If there are any checklists or plans, procedures, or guidelines for the Secret Service to follow in the event of an autogolpe—a crisis in which a sitting president refuses to transfer power—a half-dozen former officials privy to the government’s most sensitive contingency plans aren’t aware of them.

None would speak for the record, owing to both the secrecy of the plans and to the sensitivity of the moment: They don’t want to encourage President Donald Trump to cross a line that authorities haven’t conceived of.

The Daily Beast pressed these officials to run through scenarios on the grounds that Trump has made a sport of turning the inconceivable into the how the hell did that just happen?

These officials, who include leaders of Secret Service presidential details, agency heads, and military planners, see two distinct issues.

One is: Will there be a question about who the president really is? The other: What happens if, in a fit of pique, the former president simply will not vacate the seat of American government.“I’d have a conversation with the chief of staff, and then the family, Ivanka, and the other kids, and say, it’s going to be your job to make sure he’s gone.”— former senior Secret Service official

The first question is easy to answer. After the certification of the Electoral College on Jan. 6, the White House Military Office will prepare a briefing for President-elect Joe Biden on the contents of the president’s emergency satchel, often known as “the football,” with a secure satellite phone and laminated nuclear-war option guide inside. They will accept, from the National Security Agency, a set of presidential authentication cards, known as biscuits, that will be active the moment Biden is sworn in. Each has two columns of letters and numbers on it, and are used by the Pentagon emergency-action controllers to positively identify the president.

If past is prologue, Biden will receive the procedural briefing on Jan. 19 and a military aide will be assigned to him immediately, hours before the inauguration. (As vice president, he received similar briefings and the process hasn’t changed, according to officials.)

President Trump’s nuclear authentication card won’t work after the swearing-in. So far as the U.S. military is concerned, it doesn’t matter where the president is; billions of dollars have been spent to ensure the commander-in-chief can execute a war plan from anywhere on earth, even if he can’t immediately occupy the White House. There will be no ambiguity, these officials said, even if Trump were to try something extraordinary. The Pentagon’s command and control centers would not accept his orders.

What if Trump won’t go?

Well, there seems to be only one possibility:

Former senior government agency heads and Secret Service detail leaders pushed to think through this scenario offered several plausible solutions. “I think I’d have a conversation with the chief of staff, and then the family, Ivanka and the other kids and say, ‘It’s going to be your job to make sure he’s gone,’” a former senior Secret Service official said.

Another possibility: “When the staff leaves on January 19, don’t let them back into the complex the next day. He can’t do anything without his staff.”

An isolated president, in other words, would be more susceptible to just throwing in the towel.

“I really think it would be up the Republican Party if he were to try something like that,” a second former official said. “The Service and the military would just not want to get involved. It’s not our role.” (Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said there is “zero” role for troops to play in the election or its aftermath.)

Oh my God.

If we are counting on Republicans we have a big problem. YUGE. Honestly, I don’t think this will happen. He’s on his way to Mar-a-lago today and there’s a much greater chance that he will never return than that he won’t leave on January 20th.

But if this did happen, — and he’s acting completely crazy now — apparently, the only ones who can stop him are his own cult. WTF?

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digby

One of the more haunting images from “The Final Days,” the sequel to Woodward and Bernstein’s “All the President’s Men,” is that of Richard Nixon wandering drunkenly through the White House giving speeches to the portraits of the previous presidents as Watergate was unraveling and he realized he was about to endure the worst humiliation of his life. In a meeting with some congressman, at one point, he said, “I can go in my office and pick up a telephone and in 25 minutes millions of people will be dead,” prompting California Senator Alan Cranston to warn Defense Secretary James Schlesinger about “the need for keeping a berserk president from plunging us into a holocaust.”

Schlesinger went on to issue an order that if the president gave any nuclear launch order, military commanders should check with either him or Secretary of State Henry Kissinger before executing them, which is a serious departure from the normal protocol requiring an order from the Commander in Chief to launch immediately. Luckily, Nixon just moped around the White House for a while until he was finally given the heave-ho by members of Congress.

Looking back on it, what we thought of as a frightening, dangerous episode now looks like a staid and dignified affair compared to what’s going on in Donald Trump’s final days. We can only wish that Trump was just crying into a glass of scotch and asking Henry Kissinger to get down on his knees and pray for him as Nixon did. Instead, he seems to be having a very public nervous breakdown. Since the election, he’s fired the civilian leadership at the Pentagon and replaced them with henchmen and sycophants, apparently setting of serious concern among the top brass.

Axios reported on Tuesday that he has become so frustrated that he’s even starting to turn on his most trusted accomplices, including Vice President Mike Pence, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House counsel Pat Cipollone, all of whom he believes are failing him. He is said to believe that everyone around him who isn’t actively egging on his futile efforts to overturn the election is either “weak, stupid or disloyal” and he is increasingly only listening to propagandists at OAN, Newsmax, a few select programs at Fox News and his inner circle of conspiracy mongers.

We know from various reports that Trump has been meeting with his former National Security Adviser, the recently pardoned, admitted felon Mike Flynn, and his lawyer Sidney Powell, who was formerly Trump’s lawyer as well. Powell wanted to be named a “special counsel” to investigate election fraud, but according to the Daily Beast, that has been nixed by the president for now. The president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani is hostile to Powell and has told the press that she is not affiliated with the president’s legal team, but he too is pushing ridiculous schemes such as having the Department of Homeland Security seize the voting machines in certain states, which the DHS has said they have no authority to do. Flynn has also publicly proposed Trump invoke Martial Law in the states that Biden won narrowly and order the military to run a new election. That Trump has been open to discussing such far-fetched plans is bad enough in itself. And for some bizarre reason, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, who also happens to have had a long term affair with convicted and deported Russian Spy Maria Butina, has been present at at least one meeting with all of these people, as slightly less unhinged members of the White House attempted to push back on their wacky plots.

At the moment Trump seems fixated on the idea of having the Republicans in congress refuse to accept the certification of the electoral college vote on January 6th. This week QAnon believer Marjorie Taylor-Greene, a newly elected member of the House of Representatives from Georgia, organized a strategy meeting with Trump at the White House along with some of his most loyal supporters in the House like Matt Gaetz, R-Fl, Louis Gohmert, R-Tx, Mo Brooks, R-Al, among others. They seem hopeful that at least one Republican in the Senate will join them to object — which would turn the whole thing into a circus but change absolutely nothing.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell begged his senators not to go along with the whole charade because it would look bad to vote against Donald Trump since he clearly lost the election. His deputy, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, said “it’s going down like a shot dog and I just don’t think it makes a lot of sense to put everybody through this when you know what the ultimate outcome is going to be.”

That put McConnell and Thune on Trump’s ever-growing shit list. First Trump sent around a graph supposedly showing that he was responsible for McConnell’s re-election and than on Tuesday night threw this out there::

Republicans in the Senate so quickly forget. Right now they would be down 8 seats without my backing them in the last Election. RINO John Thune, “Mitch’s boy”, should just let it play out. South Dakota doesn’t like weakness. He will be primaried in 2022, political career over!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2020

But perhaps he’s taking his greatest revenge by threatening to veto the COVID-9 relief bill unless they agree to give every American who qualifies a $2000 check instead of the measly $600 that they finally squeezed out of McConnell and his caucus. Democrats immediately endorsed Trump’s idea and the ball is in McConnell’s court as I write this. If Trump wants to wreak revenge on his “disloyal” Republicans by agreeing to send badly needed money to Americans who are suffering from his and the Republican’s malfeasance I couldn’t be happier. However, it’s very likely that this will do nothing but blow up the bill at the last moment, resulting in some very bad outcomes. Had he involved himself in the negotiations and pushed hard for relief he just might have won the election and helped people sooner. But he preferred to pretend the pandemic was over instead. The stable genius blew that one bigly.

Trump also pumped out some pardons on Tuesday night, showing that no matter how much he is trying to convince himself that the Greek chorus in this farce isn’t chanting “it’s over,” he knows he’s still got some business to take care of. He pardoned two people convicted in the Mueller probe, three corrupt Republican allies, more horrific war criminals and some border guards who shot an unarmed drug dealer. (He also pardoned a small handful of people who deserved it, proving there is a Santa Claus after all.)

Trump is all over the place and it’s hard to know what’s serious and what’s just the usual Trump sideshow. But he’s making one thing very clear. If someone is loyal to him he will make sure they never have to pay a price for committing an illegal act as long as he’s president. The incentives to do so on his behalf are right out there. We’ll just have to hope none of his ecstatic followers in or out of government decide to do something about it while he’s still got the power to pardon them.

It’s Happy Hollandaise time. If you’re of a mind to drop something in the old Hullabaloo Christmas stocking, you can do so below.

cheers,
digby

Pharmaceutical manufacturers may have delivered serviceable COVID-19 vaccines in record time, but for others in both the U.S. public and private sectors timeliness is not exactly a virtue.

Congress has approved a deal to provide a $900 billion coronavirus aid package. “If things continue on this path and nothing gets in the way, we’ll be able to vote tomorrow,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters late Saturday. A deadline for preventing a government shutdown looms tonight, and congressional leaders plan to pass the stimulus bill today alongside a $1.4 trillion government funding package.

The stimulus plan includes $300 per week in unemployment benefits and a single $600 payment to individuals. The agreement gelled after senators resolved an impasse involving Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania’s insistence that the Federal Reserve’s lending powers be restrained. Details of the agreement are not clear at present, but CNN reports it includes $330 billion for small business loans, plus over $80 billion for schools, and billions more for distributing COVID-19 vaccines. Stories I scanned provided no update on eviction protections in the stimulus bill.

It is not enough, of course. The compromise represents perhaps as much as Democrats can get and the most Republicans will concede to the incoming Biden-Harris administration while trying not to appear Scrooges the week of Christmas. Should the bills pass the House and Senate today, someone will have to get the outgoing president’s phone out of his hand long enough to sign them both before funding expires.

The dealmaker-in-chief is nowhere to be found. He is too busy trying to cover Russia’s backside over the massive network hacks being discovered by government agencies. That is, when he is not in the Oval Office with his merry band of lunatics plotting and screaming about how he might still overturn the results of the November election. Declaring martial law was even under consideration, per reports.

Donald J. Trump was too preoccupied with himself to celebrate the emergency use authorization of a second COVID-19 vaccine last week, or to model responsible behavior by getting the shot on camera as his vice president did. On “Saturday Night Live,” Vice President Mike Pence (played by Beck Bennett) assured Americans the vaccine is safe, “That’s why President Trump refuses to take it about it or talk about it.” And because while Trump may have deserted his post, “he still cares deeply about not going to prison.”

After allowing said president to firehose disinformation via its platform for years — much of it deadly in 2020 — Twitter finally began adding disclaimers to Trump tweets this spring. Over six weeks after the Nov. 3 election, Twitter finally has added a new advisory label to Trump’s tweets:

“Following certification of the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, we’ve updated our label to reflect the latest information,” a Twitter spokesperson told Variety.

If cleanliness is next to godliness, timeliness saves lives. How many might have been saved this year had more people in leadership positions acted sooner rather than dragging their feet?

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McConnell made the great sacrifice of acknowledging the election results today as if it was perfectly normal for a president who clearly lost to refuse to concede and that it’s equally normal for the opposing party to fail to acknowledge the victory until the electoral college votes. They are all such unctuous phonies.

This isn’t going to be the end of it for House Republicans who are pledging to fight the certification of the electoral college results on January 6th.

“We have a superior role under the Constitution than the Supreme Court does, than any federal court judge does, than any state court judge does,” Brooks told the New York Times. “What we say, goes. That’s the final verdict.”

Brooks told the Times he plans on challenging the electors in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin.

In order for an objection to get a debate, he will need at least one senator to join him. It’s not clear so far that any senators will object.

If an objection is filed, each Chamber would have to debate for two hours. For electors to be tossed, the Democratic-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate would have to agree.

According to Axios, McConnell is trying to ensure that no Senators will participate in this sham. But lest you think he is doing it because he cares about our democracy or the country — think again. He reportedly asked the GOP Senators not to cooperate with the scheme:

This is about politics as much as about doing the right thing. McConnell expressed concern about such a vote, because the GOP would have to vote it down — something that could damage incumbents up for re-election in 2022.

He says it will damage Republicans to vote against destroying our democracy.

In 2022.

I don’t know if he really believes that or he just thinks his caucus is so far gone they can’t be counted on to recognize reality. I’m not sure it matters. It’s lunacy either way.

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They’re going over the cliff:

President Trump lost key swing states by clear margins. His barrage of lawsuits claiming widespread voting fraud has been almost universally dismissed, most recently by the Supreme Court. And on Monday, the Electoral College will formally cast a majority of its votes for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.

But as the president continues to refuse to concede, a small group of his most loyal backers in Congress are plotting a final-stage challenge on the floor of the House of Representatives in early January to try to reverse Mr. Biden’s victory.

Constitutional scholars and even members of the president’s own party say the effort is all but certain to fail. But the looming battle on Jan. 6 is likely to culminate in a messy and deeply divisive spectacle that could thrust Vice President Mike Pence into the excruciating position of having to declare once and for all that Mr. Trump has indeed lost the election.

The fight promises to shape how Mr. Trump’s base views the election for years to come, and to pose yet another awkward test of allegiance for Republicans who have privately hoped that the Electoral College vote this week will be the final word on the election result.

For the vice president, whom the Constitution assigns the task of tallying the results and declaring a winner, the episode could be particularly torturous, forcing him to balance his loyalty to Mr. Trump with his constitutional duties and considerations about his own political future.

The effort is being led by Representative Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama, a backbench conservative. Along with a group of allies in the House, he is eyeing challenges to the election results in five different states — Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin — where they claim varying degrees of fraud or illegal voting took place, despite certification by the voting authorities and no evidence of widespread impropriety.

“We have a superior role under the Constitution than the Supreme Court does, than any federal court judge does, than any state court judge does,” Mr. Brooks said in an interview. “What we say, goes. That’s the final verdict.”

Isn’t that special? You’ve just got to love their stubborn adherence to the spirit of democracy don’t you? Or at tleast the concept of “one Trump cultists, one vote.”

This won’t work, of course. But I have to say I will love watching MIke pence dance on the head of a pin when it happens:

Under rules laid out in the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 1887, their challenges must be submitted in writing with a senator’s signature also affixed. No Republican senator has yet stepped forward to say he or she will back such an effort, though a handful of reliable allies of Mr. Trump, including Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have signaled they would be open to doing so.

The president has praised Mr. Brooks on Twitter, but has thus far taken no evident interest in the strategy. Aides say he has been more focused on battling to overturn the results in court.

Even if a senator did agree, constitutional scholars say the process is intended to be an arduous one. Once an objection is heard from a member of each house of Congress, senators and representatives will retreat to their chambers on opposite sides of the Capitol for a two-hour debate and then a vote on whether to disqualify a state’s votes. Both the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate would have to agree to toss out a state’s electoral votes — something that has not happened since the 19th century.

[…]

“My No. 1 goal is to fix a badly flawed American election system that too easily permits voter fraud and election theft,” Mr. Brooks said. “A possible bonus from achieving that goal is that Donald Trump would win the Electoral College officially, as I believe he in fact did if you only count lawful votes by eligible American citizens and exclude all illegal votes.”

It remains unclear how broad a coalition he could build. More than 60 percent of House Republicans, including the top two party leaders, joined a legal brief supporting the unsuccessful Texas lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to overturn the election results. But it is one thing to sign a legal brief and another to officially contest the outcome on the House floor.

Some Republicans including Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Matt Gaetz have also signaled they could support an objection. Mr. Brooks said he had been speaking with others who were interested. But prominent allies of the president who have thrown themselves headfirst into earlier fights, like Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio or even the House minority leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, have so far been publicly noncommittal.

“All eyes are on Jan. 6,” Mr. Gaetz said on Fox News Friday night after the Supreme Court rejected Texas’ suit. “I suspect there will be a little bit of debate and discourse in the Congress as we go through the process of certifying the electors. We still think there is evidence that needs to be considered.”

Mr. Paul, Republican of Kentucky, said he would “wait and see how all the legal cases turn out” before deciding what to do.

Mr. Johnson plans to hold a hearing this week “examining the irregularities in the 2020 election,” featuring Ken Starr, the former independent counsel who is a favorite of the right, and at least two lawyers who have argued election challenges for Mr. Trump. Whether he proceeds to challenge results on Jan. 6, he told reporters last week, “depends on what we find out.”

So yes, they are planning to turn it into a circus.Some probably believe this horsehit and some are likely just setting the table to take on “voter fraud” so they can cheat the way they are falsely accusing the Democrats of doing. (It’s yet another example of “I know you are but what am I” politics.)

But that’s not all, oh no:

President Donald Trump is angry that Attorney General Bill Barr knew about investigations into Hunter Biden but did not make them public until after the election, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal.

“President Trump has expressed interest in pursuing the appointment of a special counsel to investigate allegations of fraud in the November elections and issues related to Hunter Biden, according to people familiar with the matter. In recent days, the president has directed advisers to look for people who could serve in such a position, one of the people said, as lawsuits and other efforts by Mr. Trump and his campaign to reverse the election results founder,” the newspaper reported Friday evening.

There might be two special counsels appointed.

“White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has told people that the president is interested in pursuing a special counsel to investigate election fraud and wants to act quickly, one of the people said. Senior White House officials have also discussed the possibility of pursuing a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden, expressing frustration over Attorney General William Barr’s handling of investigations into Mr. Biden’s business and financial dealings and concern that the incoming administration of Joe Biden could seek to shut down any probes into Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter, an administration official said,” The Journal reported.

“Mr. Trump has expressed rising frustration with his attorney general in recent months, privately and publicly, according to aides, as efforts by the president and his supporters to overturn the election have repeatedly failed,” the newspaper reported. “Mr. Barr’s announcement that the Justice Department hadn’t found evidence of widespread election fraud that would reverse Mr. Biden’s victory infuriated the president, the aides said, and Mr. Trump has openly accused the Justice Department of being involved in the election fraud he has alleged.”

If Barr won’t do this I guess he’ll have to appoint a new AG — I’m sure there’s some toady he can put in there — to appoint these two special counsels on the last day and insulate them from being fired. (A new AG has the authority to fire a special counsel for cause but the idea is that these, like the Durham probe, would be too politically hot for a Biden AG to do it.) That is the Whitewater template, only in that case they pressured Clinton’s own AG into naming an Independent Counsel for every stupid scandal they dreamed up.

Gird yourselves. The entire GOP is on board a campaign to sabotage the new administration. It’s really the only thing they know how to do.

This is from Ted Lieu, who happens to not only be a great national congressman but a wonderful constituent representative as well:

Coronavirus Updates and Resources from Rep. Lieu

Dear neighbor, 

We are now in our third and most severe wave of this pandemic. As of December 3, Los Angeles County has its highest daily number of COVID-19 hospitalizations at 2,572 individuals. Since early November, the average number of daily cases has increased by 225% and the case positivity rate has risen dramatically from 3.9% on November 1 to 13.0% on December 2. These numbers are alarming and can only be turned around if each and every one of us does our part to stop the spread. This means washing our hands frequently; engaging in physical distancing; wearing a face covering in public; and following public health guidelines. 

Below you will find information on the latest state and local safety measures. I understand these restrictions are taking a great toll on all of us, especially on our local CA-33 businesses.

Despite the obstacles we face, I am confident in our ability to meet this challenge together. I know it isn’t easy, but your continued efforts to protect the health of our community are deeply appreciated.

Your Weekly Reminder:

1. This is a difficult and uncertain period for all of us, when many are feeling stressed, anxious or depressed. If you are feeling this way, please know that you are not alone. If you need someone to talk to, please call the LA County Department of Mental Health hotline at (800) 854-7771 or text “LA” to 741741. Please also view the CDC’s guidance for coping with stress and anxiety during a pandemic.
   
2. In the middle of a pandemic, ensuring Californians have access to quality, affordable health care options is more important than ever. Californians can sign up for health care coverage now through Covered California’s open enrollment period. Consumers who shop health care plans during this time will benefit from California’s lowest rate change of 0.5% for 2021. To learn more and shop and compare plans, please visit coveredca.com.
   
3. Please remember to get your flu shot to stay healthy this season. It is likely that both COVID-19 and the flu will be present at the same time in LA County this year. You can get a flu shot at any local pharmacy. For quick flu facts and frequently asked questions about COVID-19 and the flu, click here. 
   
4. Los Angeles County and its partner, Healthvana, have created a new contact tracing system to empower those who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 to anonymously notify their close contacts. Since April, Healthvana has delivered test results to those tested at county-operated sites via text or email. With this new system, messages alerting patients of a positive test result will include a link that allows individuals to enter the contact information of any recent close contacts so they can be notified of their potential exposure. Another way to support contact tracing in LA County is by downloading SafePass, a mobile app to help contain the spread of COVID-19. For more on contact tracing in LA County, please click here.
   
5. Have you witnessed fraud, waste, or abuse of coronavirus pandemic relief funds? Congress has approved over $3 trillion in federal spending to combat the pandemic and I am committed to ensuring your tax dollars are being spent properly. I encourage you to visit coronavirus.house.gov/contact/tip-line or call 202-225-4400 today to report waste, fraud, or abuse of COVID-19 funds. 

COVID-19 Updates

As cases surge across our state and county, many of the COVID-19 restrictions currently in place are subject to change within the next few days. I want to provide you with the relevant resources so you can stay up to date on the latest developments. For recent coronavirus updates from the state of California, including details about the new Regional Stay at Home Order, please visit covid19.ca.gov. For updates from Los Angeles County, please visit covid19.lacounty.gov.

The LA County Department of Public Health is encouraging all residents to stay home as much as possible in the coming weeks to flatten the curve and save lives. Please remember to stay home; reduce mingling with those outside of your household; and wear a face covering outside of your home. 

Additional Information

1. All LA County residents who would like to get tested should first contact their Primary Care Provider to see if they offer COVID-19 tests. If you cannot access a test through your provider, LA County is offering free testing. Please get tested if you:
   
   • Have symptoms related to COVID-19.
   • Were asked to get tested by LA Public Health because of a contact tracing investigation.
   • Were in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 in the past two weeks.
   • Work or live in a skilled nursing facility; group home; residential care facility; homeless shelter; or correctional facility.
   • Are experiencing homelessness.
   • Are an essential worker with frequent contact with the public.
   • Don’t have symptoms but believe you may have been exposed to COVID-19. 
     
2. Today, LA County launched free and FDA-approved at-home COVID testing. For more information, please click here.
   
   
   
3. If you live in the City of LA and are unable to drive to a testing site, you can receive a free COVID-19 test at a mobile pop-up location (no appointment necessary). Please click here to view current and upcoming pop-up testing sites.
   
4. For updated data on COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in California and LA County, please go to update.covid19.ca.gov and publichealth.lacounty.gov.
   
5. If your small business has been affected by the pandemic, you may be eligible for federal tax credits. To learn more, please click here. 
   
   
   
   
6. Last week, Mayor Garcetti announced that all travelers entering the City of Los Angeles from another state or city will be required to fill out an online form to ensure acknowledgement of California’s 14-day quarantine period and the state’s new travel advisory. All passengers arriving at LAX or Van Nuys Airport must fill out the form at travel.lacity.org before or upon arrival. LAX is also now offering contactless food ordering and pick-up via LAXOrderNow.com.
   
7. This week was United Against Hate Week, when we recommit to standing up against hate together. If you or someone you know has experienced a hate incident, please call 2-1-1 to report it.
   
8. If you are in need of childcare services due to the pandemic, please visit mychildcare.ca.gov to find information on licensed childcare providers near you. 
   
9. If you are looking for a new job or want to build job skills, the LA County Library has established a Work Ready program for you. To sign up, please click here.
   
10. Governor Newsom announced additional financial assistance for California businesses struggling as a result of the pandemic. The state will provide temporary tax relief for eligible businesses and, in partnership with the Legislature, $500 million in COVID-19 Relief Grant funding for small businesses. It will also increase funding for the California Rebuilding Fund by $12.5 million. These measures will be crucial to supporting vulnerable California small businesses, which are the foundation of the state’s economy. To learn more about the new assistance, please click here.
    
11. Johnson & Johnson has launched its Phase 3 ENSEMBLE trial to evaluate the efficacy (whether it works) and safety of Janssen’s investigational vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19. The ENSEMBLE trial aims to recruit up to 60,000 participants and is being conducted with the highest scientific and ethical standards. It is essential to include all types of people in clinical trials when researching and developing new vaccines in order to help ensure they are safe and effective for those disproportionately impacted. To learn more about Johnson & Johnson’s ENSEMBLE trial and determine if you are eligible to participate in the study, visit www.ensemblestudy.com. A clinical trial site near CA-33 is located at Anthony Mills, MD, Inc. at 9201 W Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles.
    
12. On December 3rd, Los Angeles County launched the Keep LA County Dining Grant Program to help restaurants impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. The program will provide $30,000 for eligible businesses to use for employee payroll, outstanding expenses, adaptive business practices to be able to stay open, and more. Preference will be given to restaurants that offered outdoor dining as of November 24th, 2020. Businesses that have already received assistance through LA County CARES Act programs are not eligible for this program. For additional information, please visit keeplacountydining.lacda.org.* The application period opened on Thursday, December 3rd and will extend through Sunday, December 6th at 11:59 p.m.
    
    
    
    *Please note: Due to technical issues, the Keep LA County Dining website is temporarily down. The LA County Development Authority is working to resolve the issue. Please check here for updates. 
    
13. If you are unable to pay your rent due to financial strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit housingiskey.com for tenant rights, a rent relief guide and more.
    
    
    
14. Through the COVID-19 Safety Compliance Certification Program, businesses owners can become trained on required safety protocols at no cost. Once they finish the program, they will receive a certificate and window seal to display at their establishment to reassure customers and employees that safety is their top priority. To learn more and become certified, please click here. 
    
15. If you volunteer or are an organization looking to recruit volunteers, please view this guidance on volunteer safety. For information on how to get involved, visit californiavolunteers.ca.gov.  
    
16. This week, Los Angeles County launched the Community Equity Fund to help prevent COVID-19 transmission in communities disproportionately impacted by the virus. Through this initiative, LA County seeks to address the inequities in COVID-19 prevention measures in some of the hardest-hit areas by partnering with 51 community-based organizations (CBOs) on the ground and providing them with funding, training, and technical assistance. To learn more about the Community Equity Fund, please click here.
    
17. LA City Mayor Garcetti recently announced emergency relief for food-service workers who have suffered a financial blow due to COVID-19 restrictions. The Secure Emergency Relief for Vulnerable Employees (SERVE) initiative will provide 4,000 local food-service workers with a one-time $800 stipend. Please click here to determine if you are eligible.
    
18. Mayor Garcetti also announced a new program to help deliver internet access to young students who need it the most. The Angeleno Connectivity Trust (ACT) will offer 100 GB of free internet connectivity to vulnerable students, including those in foster care, experiencing homelessness, and youth with disabilities. To find more information on ACT, please go to lamayor.org/Connectivity.  
    
19. If you or someone you know needs food, please visit covid19.lacounty.gov/food or call 2-1-1.
    
20. The World Health Organization (WHO) issued new mask guidelines, urging people who live in areas where coronavirus is spreading to wear a face covering at all times in public spaces. To download and read through the new guidelines, please click here.  
    
    
    
21. Although we continue to face challenges brought on by this pandemic, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Yesterday, Governor Newsom unveiled the first details of the state’s vaccine distribution plan. The first batch of vaccines will be distributed to health care workers in both clinical and non-clinical settings. To learn more about vaccine distribution, please click here. 

With coronavirus cases rising in our area, we are all counting on each other to take the necessary precautions this holiday season. By washing our hands frequently, engaging in physical distancing, and wearing a mask in public, we are each playing our part in protecting our community. For more information on the coronavirus, please visit my coronavirus webpage, covid19.ca.gov and/or covid19.lacounty.gov. For frequent updates, please follow me on my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts. Remember – by staying home, you are saving lives. I look forward to updating you again soon. 

Stay safe. 

Sincerely,

Ted W. Lieu
Member of Congress

His staff is as good as he is. I recently had a constituent issue with which they all immediately helped me, with compassion and concern. People in my personal orbit were surprised because they are conservatives who believe that government is unresponsive.

I’m lucky, I know. But this is how it can be for everyone if they elect the right people.