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Zorro's JournalGiuliani Arrives in Ukraine to Look for More Votes
KYIV (The Borowitz Report)—Now the mastermind of Donald J. Trump’s post-election strategy, Rudolph Giuliani, has travelled to Ukraine in search of more votes for his client.
Speaking to reporters at the Kyiv airport, a highly animated Giuliani said that he expected to return to the United States with “bags full of votes” for Trump.
“Joe Biden is leading Trump by about sixty thousand votes in Pennsylvania,” the former mayor of New York said. “The population of Ukraine is forty-three million! You think I can’t find sixty thousand votes in this country? Get out of here! Get out of here!”
Giuliani added that he was confident that his quest for votes would be a success because “every time I go to Ukraine, I come away smellin’ like a rose!”
Concluding his remarks, he said that he would later announce the results of his mission at Kyiv Hilton Total Landscaping.
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/giuliani-arrives-in-ukraine-to-look-for-more-votes
Iceberg Headed for Sub-Antarctic Island Could Threaten Wildlife
The iceberg, known as A68a, broke apart from the Antarctic Peninsula in 2017 and has been drifting ever since.
The western edge of the iceberg A68a, top right, in 2017 after it separated from the Larsen C ice shelf.Credit...Mario Tama/Getty Images
An iceberg roughly the size of Delaware that is headed toward the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia has experts worried about the possibility of it blocking wildlife from food sources and threatening the island’s ecosystem.
The iceberg, known as A68a, was about 400 kilometers, or about 250 miles, away from the coast of the British island territory of South Georgia as of Wednesday, the British Antarctic Survey said.
The iceberg may run aground near the island and be a few weeks out from the island’s coast, said Andrew Fleming, a remote sensing manager with the survey.
The iceberg broke off from the Antarctic Peninsula in 2017 and is about 100 miles long and 30 miles wide. The trajectory of the iceberg could change and steer clear of the island, because it’s in the strongest ocean current where waters are not impeded by continents. This means the iceberg could easily sail past the island, all depending on the course nature takes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/07/science/giant-iceberg.html
Long-haulers: Tampa Bay residents can't shake COVID-19 symptoms months later
They survived the coronavirus, but they’re still struggling with strange symptoms they never expected.Greg Branch not only achieved his dream of becoming a pilot, he had one of the best gigs in the industry. For 13 years, he flew pro athletes, famous musicians and CEOs of major companies around the world on private jets.
“Sometimes, it was just wealthy retirees who’d fly to Canada for lunch,” said Branch, 37. “You don’t ask why, but you learn a lot from talking to them. Every day is something different.”
Every day now, he said, is pretty much the same. Headaches, confusion and fatigue that can make a walk to the kitchen feel as draining as running a mile uphill. Unable to fly, Branch and his wife left West Palm Beach and moved into a home in Tampa owned by her parents.
It all started in June. Casinos reopened. Branch flew clients to Las Vegas. He had a night off and decided to do a little gambling.
“Nobody was wearing a mask,” he said. “I didn’t wear one. I wasn’t taking it seriously.”
https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/10/27/long-haulers-tampa-bay-residents-cant-shake-covid-19-symptoms-months-later/.
The longer-term COVID effects on a substantial percentage of "recovered" victims is really worrisome.
Republicans may never have the nerve to quit Trump
Opinion by Jennifer Rubin
Guessing when President Trump would turn presidential, and when Republicans would stand up to him, started as exercises in wishful thinking and soon became the stuff of sarcastic memes. At some point during the Trump presidency — the impeachment, perhaps — even the most optimistic observers would have to confess neither was going to happen.
Now we are told Republicans are “humoring” Trump so he can process his loss — or maybe to keep him from sabotaging the Republican candidates in the Senate runoffs in Georgia. Then again, maybe the Republicans play along out of fear of the MAGA crowd’s fury. Not to worry, we are told. Soon it will be settled, and Republicans will move on. The fond hope for Republicans to return to Earth 1 and find their spines would be funny if not so tragic for democracy.
Does anyone imagine Trump will ever accept that he lost fair and square? Of course not, and, therefore, the Republican Party will be forced to agree for the foreseeable future. If not, the Trumpian, red-hatted horde will descend — taunting and maybe seeking to primary incumbents who dare to recognize reality. Right-wing media certainly will continue to host him, giving him a platform to hector Republicans who acknowledge after the inauguration that President Joe Biden is, well, president. For right-wing media, the imperative will be to live in Trump-in-exile land lest he start up a competitive network and take his audience with him. The conspiracies and phony claims of fraud will go on for years.
Watch the Senate hard-liners reject nominees, filibuster legislation, fail to show up to the State of the Union, perpetuate baseless conspiracies and otherwise deny Biden the respect he and his office deserve. There will always be an excuse for this crowd to take sides with Trump against democracy and reality: If they anger him, they won’t be able to raise money for 2022. If they poke the bear, he might run for office in 2024 — maybe as an independent. (Really, if he has his supporters, why does he need the GOP?) And if it is not Trump, whom Republicans cower before, they might feel compelled to come on bended knee before whichever one of the princelings becomes the next MAGA figurehead.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/12/republicans-may-never-have-nerve-quit-trump/
What the election tells us about religion in America
Opinion by Jennifer Rubin
The fallibility of polling should make us more cautious than usual about exit poll results, but if viewed in context, they provide some interesting nuggets about the intersection of voters’ religious affiliations (or lack thereof) and political preferences.
White evangelical Christians remain firmly in the Republican camp. Whether male or female, or from the North or the South, they remain in a party increasingly defined by cultural, racial and emotional factors. To them, it does not matter whether President Trump was incompetent at addressing covid-19 or was personally corrupt; he was their warrior against “others” (elites, urbanites, minorities, immigrants). Politics is not about problem-solving but rather about “owning the libs." Robert P. Jones, head of the Public Religion Research Institute and author of “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity,” told me this group continues to punch far above its weight at the polls.
“While White evangelical Protestants have declined as a proportion of the population over the last decade, from 21 percent in 2008 to 15 percent in 2019, they have maintained an outsize presence at the ballot box, somewhere between one-fifth and one-quarter of voters,” Jones said. He described this as a “time machine,” whereby the White evangelical Christians’ outsize vote “has the effect of turning back the demographic clock by nearly a decade. In other words, we’re living in the demographic realities of 2020, but our elections are being conducted, demographically speaking, in 2012 America.”
After accounting for differences between the two post-election voting analysis and taking out non-Protestants (who may still identify as evangelical), White protestant evangelicals still make up 20 to 25 percent of the voting population and went heavily for President Trump. Trump received upwards of 81 percent of the population according to the National Election Pool and AP/VoteCast exit polls, roughly the same as in 2016. “Among key battleground states in the Sun Belt, Trump’s support was even higher: 82% in Florida, 89% in Georgia, 86% in North Carolina, and 82% in Texas,” Jones said. “In these increasingly competitive states, White evangelicals were the decisive force anchoring those states against the strong tides of demographic and cultural change.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/12/what-election-tells-us-about-religion-america/
This is a massive failure of character among Republicans -- with evangelicals out in front
Opinion by Michael Gerson
One of the better speeches I helped produce for George W.?Bush was never given. On election night 2000 — standing outside in the rain, at an Austin victory rally that never happened — I had the copy of a concession speech in my pocket. As I remember it, the first lines were: “I have just talked to my opponent, who is no longer my opponent. He is the president-elect of the United States.”
I had no doubt that then-Gov. George W. Bush would have delivered that speech if necessary. The 2000 presidential election was far closer than the one we just experienced — a slight electoral wind could have blown it either way. But Bush, had he lost, would have played by the rules and accepted the outcome, just as Vice President Al Gore eventually did. And how do I know that Bush would have done this? Because he is a man of character who would have put the good of the country ahead of his own interests when the moment called for it.
What America is now experiencing is a massive failure of character — a nationwide blackout of integrity — among elected Republicans. From the president, a graceless and deceptive insistence on victory after a loss that was not even close. From congressional Republicans, a broad willingness to conspire in President Trump’s lies and to slander the electoral system without consideration of the public good. Only a few have stood up against Republican peer pressure of contempt for the constitutional order.
How could such a thing happen in the GOP? It is not an aberration. It is the culmination of Trump’s influence among Republicans, and among White evangelical Christians in particular. Their main justification for supporting Trump — that the president’s character should be ignored in favor of his policies — has become a serious danger to the republic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-is-a-massive-failure-of-character-among-republicans--with-evangelicals-out-in-front/2020/11/12/c7a05396-251e-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html
Democrats poised to expand their control of the California Legislature
There is optimism — and some finger-crossing — among Democrats in the California Senate as they wait for final tallies in four races that could flip from the Republican Party but remain too close to call. If won, the victories would further pad the supermajority status Democrats hold in both the Senate and Assembly.
If Democrats prevail in three of those Senate races, the party will have 32 of the 40 seats in the upper house. That would be the most Democrats in the state Senate since 1883, said Alex Vassar, communications manager at the California State Library. Democrats have never held more than 32 seats, Vassar said.
“Who knew California could be more blue?” said Robin Swanson, a veteran Democratic communications consultant.
Democrats in both houses entered the election with a supermajority, a two-thirds voting threshold that enables them to pass most legislation without Republican help. But with more blue comes more challenges, Swanson added.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-11/democrats-expand-control-california-legislature-2020-election
Archaeologists Discover Viking Age Ship Burial in Norway
Using ground-penetrating radar, a team of archaeologists made the discovery in southeastern Norway. Once excavated, the findings could offer insight into Viking settlements.
Archaeologists using radar technology have discovered a millennium-old ship burial in southeastern Norway, at a site that they hope will offer clues about life during the period after the fall of the Roman Empire through the end of the Viking Age.
Lars Gustavsen, a researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research and the lead author of a paper on the findings, published Wednesday in the journal Antiquity, said his team made the discovery in April 2018 in Gjellestad, Norway. A farmer notified the local authorities about his plans to build drainage ditches in one of his fields, prompting the archaeological survey.
“Before we started we knew about maybe one other site like it in that area," Mr. Gustavsen said. “Now we have another one that could probably provide us with more information about how society was built, what kind of political system they had, what kind of technological systems they had.”
The archaeologists used a motorized, high-resolution ground-penetrating radar system. They found evidence of the ship burial, a feasting area and another building that may have been the site of religious worship during the Viking Age, from about 750 to 1050. During that time, a ship burial symbolized safe passage into the afterlife and was a sign of status, wealth, and political or religious connections.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/world/europe/viking-discovery.html
Report: 70% Of Republicans Believe Election Hasn't Happened Yet
WASHINGTON—Spurred by President Donald Trump’s own refusal to accept the results, a new report issued by the Pew Research Center Tuesday found that 70% of Republicans believe the U.S. election hasn’t happened yet.
“It just doesn’t make sense—the major news networks are saying Joe Biden is the winner, but how can a winner be determined if no one’s had the chance to vote yet?” said respondent Neal Cooke, who echoed the concerns of the majority of conservatives surveyed in calling upon Fox News to retract their presidential election results while as many as 150 million votes remained uncounted.
“Frankly, it’s way too early to call any states, considering Election Day hasn’t arrived. It’s not the mainstream media’s job to declare whether or not an election has occurred. That will be for the Supreme Court to decide. President Trump has every right not to concede an election that hasn’t even been held regardless of how happy we are of the gains we’ve made in the House.”
At press time, a new report found 80% of Republicans refused to acknowledge Joe Biden was ever a presidential candidate at all.
https://www.theonion.com/report-70-of-republicans-believe-election-hasn-t-happ-1845634259
Felony charges filed against 19-year-old who allegedly bought rifle for Kyle Rittenhouse
Source: Washington Post
When Kyle Rittenhouse allegedly shot and killed two people and seriously wounded another man in August during racial justice protests in Kenosha, Wis., he used an assault rifle that authorities said a friend had bought for him.
At 17, Rittenhouse was too young to have legally bought the Smith & Wesson M & P-15 rifle himself.
Prosecutors have charged that friend, 19-year-old Dominick David Black, with two felony counts of intentionally selling a gun to a minor. Black made his first court appearance on Monday in the Kenosha County Circuit Court.
Authorities say Black bought the rifle in April for Rittenhouse, who then allegedly used the gun on Aug. 25 to shoot and kill Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and to seriously injure Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, during civil unrest sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black Kenosha resident.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/10/kenosha-dominick-black-gun-charges-rittenhouse/
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