#kamala mcdaniels

[swanlake1998]

dylan santos, amanda smith, christopher mcdaniel, and kamala mcdaniels with virginia johnson photographed for the ny times by nate palmer

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

→ And how are the Jews? Haverford College students held an on-campus event about how Jews are behind Covid in Palestine: “COVID in Times of Genocide: How Israel uses COVID as a Tool for Settler Colonialism in Palestine.” The University of Michigan had to end an honors convocation ceremony amid protests for the university being, I don’t know, Zionist? The president of the main pro-Palestine group on campus wrote: “Until my last breath, I will utter death to every single individual who supports the Zionist state. Death and more. Death and worse.”

And in a Berkeley City Council meeting about Holocaust Remembrance Day, protesters interrupted to chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and to call the council members “money suckers” and “Zio pigs.” One woman screamed at the council: “You are traitors to this country. You are spies for Israel.�� Wow! That’s some spirited Anti-Zionism and Definitely Not Antisemitism right there! 

In a surprise to no one reading this site, support for Israel’s war against Hamas is falling: 

New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman called the idea of Hamas raping Israelis “a lie.” And then in a great new blood libel from NPR, the taxpayer-funded media nonprofit celebrated the Jewish holiday of Purim, a story of a Jewish queen saving the people and getting the king to agree to let them defend themselves against would-be genociders. How did NPR celebrate? By connecting it to the modern war against Hamas—and guess what, NPR says it’s bad that the Jews survived in the Purim story and that Jews are fighting Hamas now. 

[darkmaga-returns]

By Mike McDaniel

Kamala Harris is the Border Czar. Her handlers and she vehemently deny it, and the media, including Google, have done their best to hide it, but prior to Google scrubbing, there were thousands of hits giving Harris that title, and there is video of Joe Biden giving her that title and responsibility. Most Americans, however, don’t know Harris is also the broadband czar and the electric school bus czar--she’d rather they didn’t--and as Deroy Murdock notes at Jewish World Review, she has been a spectacular failure at every one of those jobs.

How bad has she been as Border Czar?  This bad:

• Add 1,664,203 detected-but-uncaught "known gotaways" from Fiscal Year 2021 through FY 2023, and Kamala's illegals rise to at least 9,990,312. • Under Trump, 11 illegals on the terrorist-watch list were nabbed at the border. Kamala's tenure includes 382 such illegals — up an explosive 3,472%. • Tsarina Kamala lost 323,000 unaccompanied minors. Monsters, quite literally, are exploiting thousands of them as sweatshop slaves. Even worse, boys and girls are raped routinely as sex slaves.

In 2021 Biden bragged to Congress about making broadband Internet service available to rural America, saying: "I'm asking the vice president to lead this effort, because I know it will get done." As it turns out that was Biden’s dementia talking, and Harris has performed as well at giving Americans broadband as she has at securing our border.

At least $42.45 billion was allocated for rural broadband and not a single American has been connected to the Internet in nearly three years. By comparison, Pete Buttigieg oversaw $7.5 billion with which to build a half million electric vehicle charging stations across America. More than two years later, in a stunning display of governmental efficiency and can-do spirit, Buttigieg has managed to build eight. By any measure, Harris is the winner in the federal waste and incompetence sweepstakes.

[molasseslasts]

Nice to meet you!

You can call me MO!

I'll keep it real most kinds of people piss me off, do with that what you will.

I am not pro ana

Any pronouns but no neo's

AMAB

Avid reader

( currently reading Competition by littlereader2024 on Wattpad)

I love molasses and suprinsgly hate honey 🍯

Recently RELAPSED due to honey diet

Stats

Hw: 100 lbs

Current weight : 80 lbs

Lw :70 lbs

Grown grown, I love:

The rock

Lean beef patty

Jenna Lyon

Lovingly

Wattpad

Coach Greg

Ifbb

Yellow browns

Strong men

Football

Pink

Michelle McDaniel

Kamala Harris

Julia rene

Honey diet

Soccer

Body building

[madamlaydebug]

Black History Month, first launched in 1926, is the annual celebration of the achievements of Black Americans, and a time to recognize their central contributions to U.S. history. Today we celebrate some historic firsts in Black history from Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress and the first African American woman to seek the Presidential nomination to Jackie Robinson, the first Black American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era, to many others who broke the color barrier. Link in bio. #BlackHistoryMonth

📷Image 1: Shirley Chisholm

📷Image 2: Jackie Robinson

📷Image 3: Hattie McDaniel

📷Image 4: Thurgood Marshall

📷Image 5: Althea Gibson

📷Image 6: Shawna Kimbrell

📷Image 7: Kamala Harris

[misfitwashere]

November 4, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 5

Today, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned that foreign adversaries, especially Russia, are working “to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans.” The intelligence community urged Americans to “seek out information from trusted, official sources, in particular, state and local election officials.”

That warning is an important backdrop for the next several days.

We are in the final hours of an unusual campaign season. Appearing to recognize that women were alienated from the Republican Party after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the constitutional right to abortion, Trump did not try to appeal to anyone but his base. His campaign courted white, male, low-propensity voters while hoping they could hold the white suburban women who in the past have voted Republican. If they could turn out that base to cause enough trouble at polling places, they could open a way to challenge election results. 

To that end, as soon as Trump took control of the Republican National Committee early this year by putting his daughter-in-law Lara Trump and loyalist Michael Whatley in charge, they killed the get-out-the-vote efforts begun by previous chair Ronna McDaniel and put money instead into legal bills, both to pay Trump’s lawyers and to fund a legal team that could fight to keep people from voting and that could challenge election results.

Trump has doubled down on his appeal to his base voters, his speeches getting darker (along with his makeup, oddly) and more violent in the past weeks as his rallies are getting smaller. On Sunday, November 3, he told supporters that he should not have left the White House in 2021, appearing to think that holding the building would have enabled him to hold the title of president, as if it were a king’s castle rather than a symbol of a democratic office from which he had been ousted. He said he wouldn’t mind if reporters were shot, and called Democrats “demonic.” 

But early voting numbers suggest that strategy has, so far, not worked. Without an official ground game, Trump turned to outside vendors, including Elon Musk, to get out the vote. Paid canvassers are not as reliable as volunteers, and Musk didn’t do it well anyway: his operation is being sued in California for violating labor codes, while his effort to collect voter information by running a “lottery” is also currently in court. 

So far, men do not appear to be turning out in the high numbers Trump hoped for. On Rumble tonight, Donald Trump Jr. complained that “women are still showing up more than men.” He berated men for not “get[ting] off their butts” and voting. “If I can do what I’ve been doing for the last few months just getting crapped on by everyone all over the country…you can wait in line.” His eyes mostly closed, Don Jr. also suggested that celebrities are endorsing Harris because they are “on an Epstein list or a Diddy party list or both”—referring to men who were indicted for sexual abuse or assault—and that Harris is blackmailing them.

In fact, newly released tape recordings reveal financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein saying that he was Trump’s “closest friend.”

At the same time, the tactics the Trump campaign used to build his base have alienated the women who had stayed with him after Dobbs, and it’s clear that Trump knows it: at a rally today, he had a backdrop of women holding pink “Women for Trump” signs. 

But Trump’s running mate, Ohio senator J.D. Vance apparently didn’t get the memo: today he called Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris “trash,” prompting MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace to say: “In my humble view, light’s out. Women. You can disagree with us. We’ve actually learned to take it for our whole careers all the time in every form. But you call us trash? Oh, oh, oh, J.D. Vance. You just effed up in a way that I’ve never seen in my political life, and I worked with Sarah Palin.”

Today, news broke that Trump’s regional field director for western Pennsylvania, Luke Meyer, is a white nationalist who, under the name Alberto Barbarossa, co-hosts a podcast with Richard Spencer, who organized the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. When Amanda Moore of Politico outed Meyer, he responded: “Like the hydra, you can cut off my head and hold it up for the world to see, but two more will quietly appear and be working in the shadows.” Meyer has called Trump a “con artist” but told Moore he supports Trump because Trump creates chaos that will cause a crisis that will make Americans turn against non-whites, enabling white nationalists to rebuild the country as they wish. 

With his dark and unpopular message, Trump’s campaign has been unable to find people to act as surrogates, meaning that Trump and Vance are carrying their message to the voters largely alone. Trump financial backer Elon Musk and supporter Robert Kennedy Jr. are also speaking for the campaign, but they are not doing it any favors. 

Musk expects to lead a government efficiency commission that he has said will cut $2 trillion out of the federal budget, throwing the country into an economic crisis of about two years. He says it will emerge in a stronger position than it is now, but that seems of little comfort to those who will be hurt. 

Kennedy, a conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist who claims to have suffered from a worm in his brain, says Trump has promised to put him in control of the public health agencies: Health and Human Services and its sub-agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH,) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

As he campaigned today in Raleigh, North Carolina, in Reading and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Trump continued his usual lies about voter fraud and immigration, and promised that voting for him would “fix every single problem our country faces and lead America, and indeed the whole world, to new heights of glory.” Above all, he attacked his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. He boasted that the election was his to lose, but significantly, he felt obliged to campaign today in North Carolina, a state he won in 2016 and 2020. 

Also contradicting his pronouncement was an account of his campaign by Tim Alberta published Saturday in The Atlantic. It showed a chaotic campaign run by advisors frustrated with Trump’s instability and bitterly divided. The information campaign co-chairs Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles shared with Alberta reads like a preemptive attempt to blame others for an election loss. Alberta recorded that campaign officials told him they were done. “The past three months had been the most unpleasant of their careers. Win or lose, they said, they were done with the chaos of Donald Trump—even if the nation was not.” 

In contrast, the closing argument of Vice President Kamala Harris, her running mate Minnesota governor Tim Walz, and their many, many surrogates has been upbeat. After appearing on Saturday Night Live, Harris spent Sunday in Detroit, Pontiac, and East Lansing, Michigan, before heading today to Scranton, Pittsburgh, and Reading, Pennsylvania. Unlike Trump’s, her rallies appear to be getting even bigger, and she has not mentioned her opponent in the closing days of the campaign, instead urging Americans to look to the future. 

Harris held her final rally tonight in Philadelphia on Benjamin Franklin Avenue near the Philadelphia Art Museum, where the statue of the famous fictional boxer Rocky Balboa, an underdog who became a champion, stands. Artists Lady Gaga, Oprah, The Roots, Jazmine Sullivan, Freeway and Just Blaze, DJ Cassidy, Fat Joe, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Ricky Martin, and Adam Blackstone all performed for the crowd, many of whom stood in line for hours to get in.  

“We are all in this together…. Are we ready to vote? Are we ready to win?” Harris asked the crowd. “One more day in the most consequential election of our lifetime, and the momentum is on our side. Our campaign has tapped into the ambitions and the aspirations and the dreams of the American people. We are optimistic and we are excited about what we can do together. And we know it is time for a new generation of leadership in America. And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States of America.”

She reminded the audience that this could be one of the closest races in American history and that her supporters needed to “finish strong.” The Harris-Walz campaign has focused on voter turnout, with an exceptional ground game of volunteers knocking on doors, phone banking, and texting. “Every single vote matters,” she said, encouraging people in the crowd to vote and to spread the word to neighbors, friends, and family. “Your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power,” she said.

“We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics that has been driven by fear and division. We are done with that. We are exhausted with it. America is ready for a fresh start, ready for a new way forward, where we see our fellow Americans not as an enemy, but as a neighbor,” she said.

“Ours is a fight for the future, and ours is a fight for freedom, including the most fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do,” she said. And she pledged always to put “country over party and self and to be a president for all Americans.”

“Tonight…we finish as we started: with optimism, with energy, with joy, knowing that we the people have the power to face our future and that we can confront any challenges we face when we do it together.”

“We still have work to do,” she said. “We like hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work is joyful work. And make no mistake: We will win.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 3, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAR 4, 2024

This week seems likely to be packed with news.

Today, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about the crisis in the Middle East with strong words for both Hamas and Israel, calling for a ceasefire of at least six weeks, the return of hostages, and increased aid to the Palestinians. Such a deal is on the table. According to the U.S., Israel has agreed to it, and negotiators are waiting for a response from Hamas leaders. 

Benny Gantz, a centrist officer in Israel’s war cabinet, is in Washington, D.C., where he will meet tomorrow with Vice President Harris and national security advisor Jake Sullivan, and on Tuesday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He did not have authorization from hard-right prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the visit. As growing numbers of Israelis are voicing dislike of Netanyahu, polls show that Gantz could command enough support to become prime minister if a new vote were held immediately.

This evening the U.S. Supreme Court indicated it will issue an opinion tomorrow. Marc Elias of Democracy Docket commented that it is “[v]ery likely the case involving Donald Trump's disqualification under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.” 

Also today, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley won her first primary, winning 62.9% of the Republican vote in Washington, D.C. Trump won 33.2%. This victory makes Haley the first woman in history to win a Republican primary. It also illustrates that Trump’s support is terribly soft. Over the weekend, Haley picked up the endorsements of Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME).

Headed into the week, Tuesday, March 5, is so-called Super Tuesday, when voters in fifteen states and one territory will vote for their choice for president. Those states are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia. In American Samoa, Democrats will vote on Tuesday, Republicans on Friday.

It seems likely that Super Tuesday will shift so many delegates into Trump’s column that he will have virtually locked up the Republican nomination.

But that timing poses a real problem for the Republican Party. Trump has to post a bond to cover the $83.3 million he owes writer E. Jean Carroll no later than Friday, March 8. His lawyers have been trying to get out of this requirement, asking for a “substantially reduced bond.” This suggests that he might have trouble covering the amount. And after he comes up with this sum, he still has the $454 million to pay in the civil fraud case against him in New York.

March 8 is also the day that Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel steps down. The only people running to replace her are Trump loyalist Michael Whatley and Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who hope to be co-chairs. Trump’s senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita is running to be the RNC’s chief operating officer.

So Trump could clinch the nomination and control of the RNC just as it becomes crystal clear he has devastating financial and legal problems. 

Also this week, far-right Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán is scheduled to meet with Trump at the Trump Organization’s property at Mar-a-Lago.

And Congress still must pass several appropriations bills. Meanwhile, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has suggested Democrats will protect House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) from a vote to oust him if he will bring up for a vote the national security supplemental bill that provides aid to Ukraine.

Thursday, President Biden will deliver the State of the Union address.

I’m already tired just thinking of it all, but this week might well provide some new clarity on a number of major issues.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[rebeleden]

Watch "Black Ballerina brings traffic to a halt with photoshoot in NYC | ISSA KHARI PHOTOGRAPHY #shorts" on YouTube

WOW

[thexander2020]

American Patriotism is becoming a unicorn patroness and the only way MAGA will learn is the hard way. Honestly, Im surprised they are allowed to speak their NAZI holocaust denying adjacent rhetoric where they mark in khakis and white t-shirts with Walmart tiki torches chanting "The Jews will not replace us" as if that's some huge revelation or that their march in the middle of nowhere is going to prevent that. I think nature and evolution will take care of that. Jews are like 2% of the population and the white Americans are 70% so I doubt they are replacing anyone.

Yet, here we are. Trump has lost his first indictment for the civil case. Then he got indicted on 37 accounts for literally taking nuclear codes, significant military top secret intelligence on USA strategies, field intelligence, and defense. He sold us out to the highest bidder and they were on the toilet in one of his bathrooms? Mar a Lago became a merry go round for foreign nationals and I dont like it very much.

In fact, I've never really liked him. Except circa 2011 when he was still a tacky gold one hit wonder. It was like a straight Liberace threw up King Midas on accident everywhere Ronald McDaniels Donald went.

But they were like 3 parts to an evil axis of powers determined to set the next 16+ years - 4 years = 12 years of terror upon us. Let use not be coy in thinking for the next cycle of who WHO WANTS TO BE AMERICAS NEXT TOP BOTTOM. We are down to the finals for the GOP and the DNC. The DNC appear to be going with Old Faithful, much to the chagrin of the progressive alliance. Thats only assuming they don't need Gavin doesn't need to step in with his Chariot. Where the hell did he come from anyway. Oh geez, another faux prog in liberal left of center sheets...errr, sheeps clothing. If he's president we will be sipping air through a measured oxygen mask and taxed on the carbon our body admits.

Then there's poor Kamala and Kevin, sitting in a tree, kissing, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage. Kevin is not president material, but their plan is see through. Keep their slim majority in the house, they could have won bigger. and regain the Senate with Turkey Knecktucky as the Leader and 'Schmegle Gram or Ounce' was like..."see I knew we would get there, now lets impeach the son of a bitch. they wont know what hit em. or I could do Avadacadavra on him and be jk Rowling all the way to the bank."

[laguaridadelnagual]

Anuncia Biden candidatura para reelección en 2024

El presidente de Estados Unidos se enfrenta a un camino sin problemas para ganar la nominación de su partido, sin rivales demócratas serios   El presidente Joe Biden anunció formalmente que se postulará a la reelección en 2024, pidiendo a los votantes que le den más tiempo para “terminar este trabajo” que comenzó cuando prestó juramento en el cargo y dejar de lado sus preocupaciones sobre la extensión de la carrera del presidente más antiguo de Estados Unidos por otros cuatro años. “Cada generación tiene un momento en el que ha tenido que defender la democracia. Defender sus libertades fundamentales”, dice Biden en el video del anuncio, publicado en sus redes sociales. “Creo que este es el nuestro. Por eso me presento a la reelección como presidente de Estados Unidos. Únanse a nosotros. Terminemos el trabajo”, agrega. Biden, quien tendrá 86 años al final de un segundo mandato, está apostando a que sus logros legislativos en el primer mandato y más de 50 años de experiencia en Washington contarán para más que preocupaciones sobre su edad. El video abre con imágenes de la violenta invasión de partidarios del expresidente republicano Donald Trump (2017-2021) al Capitolio -sede del Congreso- el 6 de enero de 2021 y de protestas contra la abolición del derecho al aborto, entre otras, y muestra además a Biden junto a la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris en diferentes situaciones. Biden se enfrenta a un camino sin problemas para ganar la nominación de su partido, sin rivales demócratas serios. Pero todavía está listo para una lucha dura para mantener la presidencia en una nación amargamente dividida. El anuncio, en un video de tres minutos, se produce en el aniversario de cuatro años de cuando Biden se declaró por la Casa Blanca en 2019, prometiendo sanar el “alma de la nación” en medio de la turbulenta presidencia de Donald Trump, un objetivo que ha permanecido difícil de alcanzar. La oposición republicana ya hizo sus primeros cuestionamientos a su candidatura, al afirmar que está “desconectado” de la realidad. “Biden está tan desconectado de la realidad que piensa que merece cuatro años más en el poder, cuando lo único que hace es crear una crisis atrás de otra”, afirmó la jefa del partido, Ronna McDaniel, tras el anuncio. Una encuesta de la red NBC divulgada el fin de semana determinó que 70 por ciento de los estadounidenses, incluido 51 por ciento de los demócratas, creen que Biden no debía postularse.   PARTIDO UNIFICADO Ante esos cuestionamientos, a Biden le gusta responder “Mírenme”. Es una forma de decir que los votantes deben enfocarse en sus victorias políticas domésticas y su conformación de una alianza occidental sin precedentes para ayudar a Ucrania ante la invasión lanzada por Rusia en febrero de 2022. En el próximo año y medio, Biden tendría la ventaja de estar en el poder, con su partido unificado, mientras que los republicanos apenas comienzan una compleja elección primaria. La fecha del martes no fue escogida al azar para anunciar su postulación. Corresponde al cuarto aniversario del inicio de la campaña que le dio la victoria frente a Trump. El magnate de 76 años también es candidato a la nominación republicana para las presidenciales de 2024 y tiene posibilidades de ganarlas pese a haber sido procesado por un tribunal de Nueva York por un escándalo de un soborno a una actriz porno y de ser objeto de varias investigaciones judiciales. El lunes, Trump se apresuró a lanzar críticas al hombre que hizo descarrilar su propia ambición de repetir en la Casa Blanca. “Con una presidencia tan calamitosa y fallida, es casi inconcebible que Biden siquiera piense en postularse para la reelección”, sostuvo en un comunicado. Biden sabe que, según las encuestas, que hay que interpretar con cautela, la candidatura de Trump no entusiasma. Pero la suya tampoco. Sin embargo, el demócrata está convencido de que si logró derrotarlo una vez puede conseguirlo de nuevo gracias a su personalidad afable y su programa unificador. Queda una gran incógnita: ¿cuáles serían sus posibilidades si se enfrentara a un rival más joven en noviembre de 2024, como por ejemplo el gobernador del estado de Florida, Ron DeSantis, de 44 años? Esta estrella emergente de la derecha estadounidense más conservadora no ha presentado su candidatura aún, pero cree tener posibilidades de derrotar al demócrata. “Tengo lo necesario para ser presidente y puedo vencer a Biden”, declaró en marzo. Menos conocida, figura la republicana Nikki Haley -exembajadora estadounidense en la ONU colocada por Trump-, que ya está en campaña y llama al surgimiento de una “nueva generación” política. Halley pide, entre otras cosas, pruebas de capacidad intelectual para todos los líderes políticos mayores de 75 años. Read the full article

[swanlake1998]

kamala mcdaniels on ig

[theamericanpatriotpage]

Lies only to try and get votes

Free Speech Outlaw

[madamlaydebug]

Black History Month, first launched in 1926, is the annual celebration of the achievements of Black Americans, and a time to recognize their central contributions to U.S. history. Today we celebrate some historic firsts in Black history from Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress and the first African American woman to seek the Presidential nomination to Jackie Robinson, the first Black American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era, to many others who broke the color barrier. Link in bio. #BlackHistoryMonth

Image 1: Shirley Chisholm

Image 2: Jackie Robinson

Image 3: Hattie McDaniel

Image 4: Thurgood Marshall

Image 5: Althea Gibson

Image 6: Shawna Kimbrell

Image 7: Kamala Harris

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 14, 2020

Heather Cox Richardson

Today, Americans began receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Dr. Michelle Chester administered the vaccine to Sandra Lindsay, a nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, the first American to get the vaccine. Lindsay is a Covid nurse and said she hoped seeing her get the vaccine would convince people it was safe. “I have seen the alternative, and do not want it for you,” she told the New York Times. “I feel like healing is coming. I hope this marks the beginning of the end of a very painful time in our history.” The pandemic has hit Americans of color particularly hard, making it fitting that the first U.S. dose was administered by a Black doctor to a Black nurse.

Finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel. But that light is still a long way away. Today we passed 300,000 official deaths from Covid-19, with well over 16 million infections. We also set a new single-day record of at least 232,369 new coronavirus cases. Outbreaks are escalating, not dropping, and the upcoming holidays threaten to spread the virus further.

There is, as well, an issue with the distribution of the vaccines. While the federal government invested in the development of the vaccine, it provided funding and a plan only to get the vaccines to the states. Getting the doses from a central point into people’s arms remains unfunded and unplanned. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services have dug into their existing budgets to find some money for states to start planning, but there is currently no money for states to distribute the vaccine, especially in light of the financial crisis caused by the pandemic. Federal funding of vaccine delivery is set to run out about February 1, just in time for it to fall into Biden’s watch.

The good news is that it appears that Congress appears be narrowing in on a coronavirus relief package. Lawmakers expect to announce a $1.4 trillion compromise measure tomorrow. The Republicans still hate the idea of state and local funding; Democrats still hate the idea of a liability shield for businesses whose workers contract the coronavirus at work. So, negotiators have split those two issues off from the items that have bipartisan support. A $748 billion bill will provide less-controversial funding for unemployment assistance, small businesses, food assistance, rental assistance, health funding, education, and transportation; and a $160 billion bill will offer local and state aid and liability protections.

Today was a big day in politics as well as in health. The Electoral College formally elected Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. president, and Kamala Devi Harris vice president. Tonight, Biden spoke to the American people. He rebuked Trump for his effort to steal the election, saying “In America, politicians don’t take power— people grant power to them.”

Biden tied today’s contest for democracy to our history. "The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know nothing — not even a pandemic — or an abuse of power — can extinguish that flame," he said. He asked Americans to move on, focusing on combatting the pandemic and rebuilding the economy.

It’s over.

But, although 62% of American voters say the election is “over and settled” and it’s “time to move on,” Trump continues to insist that he won the election. In the face of the Electoral College confirmation of Biden’s win, this position increasingly seems a ploy to raise money. Even as the Electoral College was voting, the Trump campaign filed yet another lawsuit challenging the outcome of the election. It has lost 59 of 60 court cases, and the Supreme Court last week refused to hear a case in which Trump planned to argue that mail-in voting in swing states that voted for Biden—but not the states that voted for him—injured Republican voters in Texas.

Senate Republicans, who have set the Electoral College vote as the date on which they would acknowledge Biden’s victory, are swinging behind the idea that Biden is indeed the President-Elect. But the Trump loyalists are not giving up. The state Capitols of Michigan and Wisconsin had to be closed to the public out of safety concerns before the Electoral College delegates met; the electors in Arizona had to meet in an undisclosed location. One Republican state representative in Michigan hinted at potential violence against the delegates to the Electoral College; leadership later stripped him of his committee assignments. Despite the fussing, members of Congress are expected to certify the Electoral College votes on January 6, 2021.

The Republicans’ willingness to entertain Trump’s tantrums means that, unlike most Americans, 82% of Trump voters say they think Biden’s victory is illegitimate and that Trump should refuse to concede and should do all he can to stay in power.

This was finally too much for Representative Paul Mitchell of Michigan, who announced today he was switching his affiliation from Republican to Independent. Mitchell is retiring from Congress in weeks, perhaps freeing him to speak his mind. He called out Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, for suggesting that Trump’s loss was because of Black voters in Detroit. “Ronna,” he wrote, “you know Michigan politics well.” (McDaniel is the granddaughter of former Michigan Governor George W. Romney, and served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 2015 to 2017). “Trump did not lose Michigan because of Wayne County, but rather he lost because of dwindling support in areas including Kent and Oakland County, both previous Republican strongholds.”

Mitchell called out “political candidates” who “treat our election system as though we are a third-world nation and incite distrust of something so basic as the sanctity of our vote.” He warned, “If Republican leaders collectively sit back and tolerate unfounded conspiracy theories and ‘stop the steal’ rallies without speaking out for our electoral process, which the Department of Homeland Security said was ‘the most secure in American history,’ our nation will be damaged.” He condemned the “raw political considerations” that led party leaders to support the “stop the steal” efforts. He noted that members of Congress take oaths to support and defend the Constitution, not “to preserve and protect the political interests of any individual, be it the president or anyone else, to the detriment of our cherished nation.”

Tonight, just in time to disrupt the news cycle before Biden was set to address the nation, Trump announced that Attorney General William Barr is stepping down on December 23. Barr was a true loyalist, politicizing the Department of Justice to protect Trump from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, stepping in to defend Trump in a defamation suit by a woman who claimed Trump had sexually assaulted her, favoring Trump’s friends, and supporting Trump’s attack on this summer’s protesters at Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. Barr’s resignation letter was full of praise for Trump, but the two men have been at odds since Barr refused to sign on to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. On December 1, Barr told the Associated Press that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 election, thus undercutting the president’s arguments.

While the timing of the resignation announcement seems pegged to try to upstage Biden’s win, the timing of the resignation itself might well reflect that Trump is planning some controversial pardons and Barr didn’t want to be associated with them.

Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen will become the acting Attorney General.

There is one more big developing story. Yesterday, the administration admitted that hackers acting for a foreign country—almost certainly Russia—have breached many of our key government networks, including the Treasury Department, the Commerce Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the National Institutes of Health, and other agencies related to our national security. and agencies related to our national security. Hackers apparently began to sneak malicious code into software updates for business and government computers last March. The breach has enabled them to extract information for many months.  

If indeed it was Russia that broke into our system, it will be their most sophisticated break-in since 2014 and 2015, when operatives broke into unclassified email systems in the White House, State Department, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then went on to hack the Democratic National Committee. The recent hack was so serious the National Security Council, which advises the president about national security, military affairs, and foreign affairs, had an emergency meeting about it on Saturday.

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HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

[nwonitro]

JIMMY HART AND THE FIRST FAMILY

Jimmy Hart’s original first family came into being in the Memphis territory as a faction to oppose Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee. The group lasted from 1981 to 1985, with Hart being the only constant member. The exploits of the First Family are documented here in the Memphis Classics series.

Memphis: Len Denton, Norvell Austin, Ox Baker, King Kong Bundy, Sabu the Wildman, Dennis Condrey, Chick Donovan, Bobby Eaton, Wayne Farris, Buddy Landel, Austin Idol, Masao Ito, Kamala, Hulk Hogan, Gypsy Joe, The Angel, The Turk, El Toro, Andy Kaufman, Larry Latham, Kendo Nagasaki, Iranian Assassin, Jim Neidhart, Lanny Poffo, Iron Sheik, Kevin Sullivan, Russian Invader, Dream Machine, Mad Dog Boyd, Porkchop Cash, Tony Anthony, Koko Ware, Plowboy Frazier, Tommy Rich, Randy Savage, Rick Rude, Miss Angel, Eddie Gilbert and The Nightmares.

Georgia: Wahoo McDaniel, Eddie Gilbert, New York Assassins, King Kong Bundy and Assassin #1.

WCW: Meng, Barbarian, Jerry Flynn, Brian Knobbs and Hugh Morrus.

Jimmy Hart and The First Family: We Hate School. Featuring the Iranian Assassin on drums, the Nightmare on bass and Koko B. Ware on guitar.