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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
December 30, 2020
Ted Cruz's Georgia Runoff Fundraising Is Actually Going to His Campaign. He's Not Alone
ALL FOR ME
The runoff is a gold mine for politicians. And now that they can run Facebook ads in Georgia, they’re rushing for it.
Lachlan Markay, Reporter
Updated Dec. 30, 2020 11:37AM ET / Published Dec. 30, 2020 10:26AM ET
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) needs your help to keep the U.S. Senate in Republican hands. So blared a handful of Facebook’s ads that Cruz’s campaign committee purchased this month. But none of them were actually raising money for the Republican candidates in Georgia. Instead, every penny donated went directly to... Cruz.
The Cruz campaign bought 15 separate ads on Facebook over the past two weeks, each featuring a video of the senator dramatically hyping the need to hold two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia runoff contests.
“Gun grabbing, tax hikes, open borders, and stacking the Supreme Court. That’s the radical Democrat agenda if they win the Georgia Senate elections,” Cruz declared.
He asked for $5 contributions to his new “Keep Georgia Red fund.” But Facebook users who clicked through to the online donation page—and read the fine print at the bottom—would see that the actual beneficiary was Cruz’s own campaign committee, not Sens. Kelly Loeffler or David Perdue, the two Republicans running for re-election in Georgia.
Cruz is just one of a number of elected officials of both parties using the competitive—and extremely expensive—Georgia runoff contests to raise money for themselves. Increasingly, those officials are doing so on Facebook, where a political ad ban instituted in late October was lifted this month, but only for ads in Georgia.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ted-cruz-is-pocketing-the-money-hes-raising-for-georgia-gopers-hes-not-alone?ref=home
Ted Cruz's Georgia Runoff Fundraising Is Actually Going to His Campaign. He's Not Alone
Ted Cruz's Georgia Runoff Fundraising Is Actually Going to His Campaign. He's Not Alone
ALL FOR ME
The runoff is a gold mine for politicians. And now that they can run Facebook ads in Georgia, they’re rushing for it.
Lachlan Markay, Reporter
Updated Dec. 30, 2020 11:37AM ET / Published Dec. 30, 2020 10:26AM ET
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) needs your help to keep the U.S. Senate in Republican hands. So blared a handful of Facebook’s ads that Cruz’s campaign committee purchased this month. But none of them were actually raising money for the Republican candidates in Georgia. Instead, every penny donated went directly to... Cruz.
The Cruz campaign bought 15 separate ads on Facebook over the past two weeks, each featuring a video of the senator dramatically hyping the need to hold two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia runoff contests.
“Gun grabbing, tax hikes, open borders, and stacking the Supreme Court. That’s the radical Democrat agenda if they win the Georgia Senate elections,” Cruz declared.
He asked for $5 contributions to his new “Keep Georgia Red fund.” But Facebook users who clicked through to the online donation page—and read the fine print at the bottom—would see that the actual beneficiary was Cruz’s own campaign committee, not Sens. Kelly Loeffler or David Perdue, the two Republicans running for re-election in Georgia.
Cruz is just one of a number of elected officials of both parties using the competitive—and extremely expensive—Georgia runoff contests to raise money for themselves. Increasingly, those officials are doing so on Facebook, where a political ad ban instituted in late October was lifted this month, but only for ads in Georgia.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ted-cruz-is-pocketing-the-money-hes-raising-for-georgia-gopers-hes-not-alone?ref=home
December 30, 2020
https://pressrun.media/p/12-times-the-beltway-media-failed
Eric Boehlert: 12 times the Beltway media failed us in 2020
12 times the Beltway media failed us in 2020
Trump era woes
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
It was a year that required the press to be at its best — a year when a vengeful, unstable president failed to deal with a national health crisis, while launching the most divisive, dishonest re-election campaign in White House history.
Time and again though, the Beltway press failed to meet the crucial challenge. Here's 12 times when the press let us down. Viewed separately, the transgressions might seem minor. Cumulatively, they're part of a larger pattern where the mainstream press has stumbled badly in recent years.
• Reporting that Trump had recently met with deranged, conspiracy-minded "election fraud" aides in the White House to discuss the possibility of imposing martial law while the U.S. military seized voting machines across the country, the New York Times buried the stunning revelation on page 28, and obscured it on the Times website.
• As Trump unleashed the most aggressive campaign against free and fair elections in America, targeting state election officials, spreading lies about fraud, and refusing to acknowledge his defeat, CNN reported that Congressional Republicans had "no choice" but to sign onto his election sabotage. (Simultaneously, Politico dismissed Trump’s anti-democratic rampage as “performance art" and "bad sportsmanship."
• One week after Joe Biden tallied 81 million votes and flipped five states, including long-time Republican bastions Georgia and Arizona, ABC News' Martha Raddatz inexplicably interviewed a handful of Trump voters (zero Democratic voters) for "This Week." The Trump loyalists were given a national platform to traffic in debunked election claims.
• Falling for a flat-out GOP fabrication pushed by Trump on Twitter, NBC's "Today" show reported that during a campaign interview, Biden had become confused and seemed to think he was running against George W. Bush. It turned out, Biden mentioned "George" in response to a question because he was being interviewed by entertainer George Lopez.
• Wolf Blitzer launched into a heated argument with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi last October, demanding to know why she wouldn't accept a White House Covid relief proposal, even though Senate Republicans didn't support it, which meant the White House proposal was never going to be voted on. Not once this year did I see Blitzer angrily confront a member of the GOP regarding Covid relief, which the party opposed for ten months.
more...
• As Trump unleashed the most aggressive campaign against free and fair elections in America, targeting state election officials, spreading lies about fraud, and refusing to acknowledge his defeat, CNN reported that Congressional Republicans had "no choice" but to sign onto his election sabotage. (Simultaneously, Politico dismissed Trump’s anti-democratic rampage as “performance art" and "bad sportsmanship."
• One week after Joe Biden tallied 81 million votes and flipped five states, including long-time Republican bastions Georgia and Arizona, ABC News' Martha Raddatz inexplicably interviewed a handful of Trump voters (zero Democratic voters) for "This Week." The Trump loyalists were given a national platform to traffic in debunked election claims.
• Falling for a flat-out GOP fabrication pushed by Trump on Twitter, NBC's "Today" show reported that during a campaign interview, Biden had become confused and seemed to think he was running against George W. Bush. It turned out, Biden mentioned "George" in response to a question because he was being interviewed by entertainer George Lopez.
• Wolf Blitzer launched into a heated argument with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi last October, demanding to know why she wouldn't accept a White House Covid relief proposal, even though Senate Republicans didn't support it, which meant the White House proposal was never going to be voted on. Not once this year did I see Blitzer angrily confront a member of the GOP regarding Covid relief, which the party opposed for ten months.
more...
https://pressrun.media/p/12-times-the-beltway-media-failed
December 30, 2020
Another Horrifying Pandemic Landmark: 3,725 Americans Dead in One Day
DON’T LOOK AWAY
Jamie Ross, Reporter
Published Dec. 30, 2020 4:48AM ET
Reuters/Bing Guan
Another Horrifying Pandemic Landmark: 3,725 Americans Dead in One Day
https://www.thedailybeast.com/another-horrifying-pandemic-landmark-sees-3725-americans-die-in-one-day?ref=homeAnother Horrifying Pandemic Landmark: 3,725 Americans Dead in One Day
DON’T LOOK AWAY
Jamie Ross, Reporter
Published Dec. 30, 2020 4:48AM ET
Reuters/Bing Guan
An additional 3,725 Americans lost their lives to the coronavirus on Tuesday—the highest single-day death toll since the pandemic began. The horrific statistic comes from pandemic-trackers at Johns Hopkins University, who also recorded 247,646 new COVID-19 cases nationwide. In total, 19,557,147 cases have been recorded and 338,563 people have died of virus-related causes in the United States. The new numbers came on the same day that state health officials in Colorado confirmed first identified case of the new, seemingly faster-spreading COVID-19 variant in the country. A glimmer of hope lies in the number of people who have received their first vaccine dose—at least 2,127,143 doses have now been administered, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
December 30, 2020
The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
12/28/2020
This Year's Madness Might Just Fade Soon
snip//
Go with me here: In the wake of the pandemic, every fucking thing that we did as groups of humans, from large family gatherings to football games to concerts to bars and restaurants, all of that was shitcanned. Sure, sure, in most places, you could, after the lockdown ended, go to a 25-50% filled bar with all kinds of precautions, with the constant stress of those COVID protocols hanging over you, whether you were following them or resisting them (wear your fucking mask!). Even the most MAGA-minded assholes were forced into a radical reduction in activities, no matter how often they got together for backyard barbecues or weddings or other superspreader events.
People are so fucking bored and frustrated right now. When your weekend was built around tailgating or boot-scooting or whatever, you're gonna wanna lash out. Of course, people are gonna veer into the bullshit that soothes the lizard brain to explain why life sucks so hard right now. Of course, if you were inclined to rock out with your MAGA out, you're gonna identify even more with that fuckery because it tells you that you don't bear any responsibility for any of this. If you dabbled around the fringes of conspiracy theories, well, fuck, there's only so much porn you can watch before you go ahead and click on that suggested YouTube video about pedophiles and baby-eating Democrats. You've got nothing to occupy your brain because you sure as shit didn't read before the pandemic. It's not like you're gonna all of a sudden pick up Crime and Punishment and go to town.
Fuck, no. You're gonna go to the gatherings you can, whether that's Trump rallies or Proud Boy Zoom meet-ups. You're gonna head towards people because that's what we do. Goddamn, I miss people - real, physical, present people, not ghosts on a video chat. I miss theatres and music clubs. I miss my fucking family in Louisiana. I miss getting the fuck out of this country to meet new people. So I get it. I get that urge. I've filled it with whiskey and pharmaceuticals, along with too much CNN and Netflix/Hulu/Prime, as well as the comforting closeness of a couple of beloved humans and a dog. But I can see how you'd want to massage that ogre part of your mind and fuck shit up even more than you'd fuck it up if things were normal. Hell, you've finally got time to fuck it up, especially if you've been furloughed or fired or even if you're just working from home.
I truly believe that big segment of the crazy-as-a-shithouse-rat population is gonna go back to getting drunk at college football games or dancing drunk at bars or drunkenly hanging out with your grandparents or some other activity, probably done drunk, when we reach a point with the vaccine where we can have a relatively normal life again. The pandemic happening in an election year was just the perfect storm of disorienting new existence and oppressive behavior, helped along by the yowling, paranoid maniacs of the right, most especially by the Maniac-in-Chief. Once people have shit to do, they're gonna do it. And while there will still be a big fuckin' MAGA and QAnon presence in this idiot nation, I truly believe that, given the choice between waiting to see what the latest Q dropping is and going to a Jason Aldean concert or a Cowboys game, people will be rushing to de-politicize their brains. They'll still be idiots. But at least they won't be trying to blow the joint up.
That's the best I've got. I hope that Biden's Justice Department will ream out Trump and his crew with all the savagery that they can muster (and I think they're being coy about that until after the Georgia runoffs, if not until after inauguration). And I think that Trump will quickly go back to being the circus freak he always was.
The fever will break because the only other option is that we move on to violence on a large scale. And we're fortunately too selfish and lazy to head in that direction. I hope.
(By the way, this doesn't excuse anyone for believing their democracy-harming lies. It's just explaining how they got to the point of making such nonsense the center of their lives. Always and forever, fuck these assholes.)
The Rude Pundit: This Year's Madness Might Just Fade Soon
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2020/12/this-years-madness-might-just-fade-soon.htmlThe Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
12/28/2020
This Year's Madness Might Just Fade Soon
snip//
Go with me here: In the wake of the pandemic, every fucking thing that we did as groups of humans, from large family gatherings to football games to concerts to bars and restaurants, all of that was shitcanned. Sure, sure, in most places, you could, after the lockdown ended, go to a 25-50% filled bar with all kinds of precautions, with the constant stress of those COVID protocols hanging over you, whether you were following them or resisting them (wear your fucking mask!). Even the most MAGA-minded assholes were forced into a radical reduction in activities, no matter how often they got together for backyard barbecues or weddings or other superspreader events.
People are so fucking bored and frustrated right now. When your weekend was built around tailgating or boot-scooting or whatever, you're gonna wanna lash out. Of course, people are gonna veer into the bullshit that soothes the lizard brain to explain why life sucks so hard right now. Of course, if you were inclined to rock out with your MAGA out, you're gonna identify even more with that fuckery because it tells you that you don't bear any responsibility for any of this. If you dabbled around the fringes of conspiracy theories, well, fuck, there's only so much porn you can watch before you go ahead and click on that suggested YouTube video about pedophiles and baby-eating Democrats. You've got nothing to occupy your brain because you sure as shit didn't read before the pandemic. It's not like you're gonna all of a sudden pick up Crime and Punishment and go to town.
Fuck, no. You're gonna go to the gatherings you can, whether that's Trump rallies or Proud Boy Zoom meet-ups. You're gonna head towards people because that's what we do. Goddamn, I miss people - real, physical, present people, not ghosts on a video chat. I miss theatres and music clubs. I miss my fucking family in Louisiana. I miss getting the fuck out of this country to meet new people. So I get it. I get that urge. I've filled it with whiskey and pharmaceuticals, along with too much CNN and Netflix/Hulu/Prime, as well as the comforting closeness of a couple of beloved humans and a dog. But I can see how you'd want to massage that ogre part of your mind and fuck shit up even more than you'd fuck it up if things were normal. Hell, you've finally got time to fuck it up, especially if you've been furloughed or fired or even if you're just working from home.
I truly believe that big segment of the crazy-as-a-shithouse-rat population is gonna go back to getting drunk at college football games or dancing drunk at bars or drunkenly hanging out with your grandparents or some other activity, probably done drunk, when we reach a point with the vaccine where we can have a relatively normal life again. The pandemic happening in an election year was just the perfect storm of disorienting new existence and oppressive behavior, helped along by the yowling, paranoid maniacs of the right, most especially by the Maniac-in-Chief. Once people have shit to do, they're gonna do it. And while there will still be a big fuckin' MAGA and QAnon presence in this idiot nation, I truly believe that, given the choice between waiting to see what the latest Q dropping is and going to a Jason Aldean concert or a Cowboys game, people will be rushing to de-politicize their brains. They'll still be idiots. But at least they won't be trying to blow the joint up.
That's the best I've got. I hope that Biden's Justice Department will ream out Trump and his crew with all the savagery that they can muster (and I think they're being coy about that until after the Georgia runoffs, if not until after inauguration). And I think that Trump will quickly go back to being the circus freak he always was.
The fever will break because the only other option is that we move on to violence on a large scale. And we're fortunately too selfish and lazy to head in that direction. I hope.
(By the way, this doesn't excuse anyone for believing their democracy-harming lies. It's just explaining how they got to the point of making such nonsense the center of their lives. Always and forever, fuck these assholes.)
December 30, 2020
12/29/20 4:05pm
Trump Keeps Awarding Border Wall Contracts But Doesn’t Own The Land To Build On
Flushing taxpayer money down the toilet, Donnie? Mexico will pay?
By ProPublica
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
LA GRULLA, Texas — The federal government said it needed Ociel Mendoza's land on the outskirts of this tiny Texas town — and it couldn't wait any longer.
Each additional day of delay was costing the government $15,000 as contractors waited to begin construction on the border fence slated to go through Mendoza's ranch, the Department of Justice argued in court filings. By Nov. 24, the tab for the delay had reached nearly $1.6 million, the land acquisition manager for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in an affidavit.
More than a year earlier, CBP had awarded a contract then worth $33 million to a New Mexico-based company to build 4 miles of fencing in Starr County. The county is one of the top targets of President Donald Trump’s administration for a border wall and a place agents have called the most volatile stretch in the nation. Construction was slated to begin in November 2019, the agency announced.
There was one problem: The government had awarded the contract before obtaining the land it needed, including Mendoza’s. This September, after more than a year without getting that land, CBP had to suspend the contract to Southwest Valley Constructors, accruing “substantial” charges along the way, according to court documents.
An investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune has found that the government's strategy of awarding contracts before acquiring titles to the land in Texas has led to millions of dollars in costs for delays, according to calculations based on statements made by CBP officials in court filings. On at least two dozen occasions, the agency has used the argument, often successfully, to convince even dubious federal judges to immediately seize land from property owners fighting their eminent domain cases.
more...
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/12/trump-keeps-awarding-border-wall-contracts
Trump Keeps Awarding Border Wall Contracts But Doesn't Own The Land To Build On
12/29/20 4:05pm
Trump Keeps Awarding Border Wall Contracts But Doesn’t Own The Land To Build On
Flushing taxpayer money down the toilet, Donnie? Mexico will pay?
By ProPublica
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
LA GRULLA, Texas — The federal government said it needed Ociel Mendoza's land on the outskirts of this tiny Texas town — and it couldn't wait any longer.
Each additional day of delay was costing the government $15,000 as contractors waited to begin construction on the border fence slated to go through Mendoza's ranch, the Department of Justice argued in court filings. By Nov. 24, the tab for the delay had reached nearly $1.6 million, the land acquisition manager for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in an affidavit.
More than a year earlier, CBP had awarded a contract then worth $33 million to a New Mexico-based company to build 4 miles of fencing in Starr County. The county is one of the top targets of President Donald Trump’s administration for a border wall and a place agents have called the most volatile stretch in the nation. Construction was slated to begin in November 2019, the agency announced.
There was one problem: The government had awarded the contract before obtaining the land it needed, including Mendoza’s. This September, after more than a year without getting that land, CBP had to suspend the contract to Southwest Valley Constructors, accruing “substantial” charges along the way, according to court documents.
An investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune has found that the government's strategy of awarding contracts before acquiring titles to the land in Texas has led to millions of dollars in costs for delays, according to calculations based on statements made by CBP officials in court filings. On at least two dozen occasions, the agency has used the argument, often successfully, to convince even dubious federal judges to immediately seize land from property owners fighting their eminent domain cases.
more...
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/12/trump-keeps-awarding-border-wall-contracts
December 29, 2020
COVID in L.A.: They’re Running Out of Pine for Coffins
City of Corpses
Overloaded ICUs are feeding overloaded funeral homes, where things are somehow even crazier than ever seemed possible.
Jason McGahan
Updated Dec. 29, 2020 10:45AM ET / Published Dec. 29, 2020 4:54AM ET
LOS ANGELES—On Saturday, a 52-foot refrigerated trailer was delivered to Continental Funeral Homes on East Beverly Boulevard in East Los Angeles. Alongside it sits a 20-foot trailer that Magda Maldonado began renting in the summer, but that no longer provides the room the 58-year-old funeral director needs for the volume of dead arriving from one day to the next.
“No funeral home around here has a container large enough to accommodate the number of people who are dying from COVID,” she told the Daily Beast.
Maldonado’s experience, and those of the people she works with, paint a picture of a death industry that is overloaded and overwhelmed. Of bodies piling up in area crematoriums, casket makers facing a shortage of supplies, and gravediggers struggling to keep up with equipment breakdowns.
While slammed funeral homes and deluges of dead have marked the coronavirus pandemic across the country, the people who power the industry here say they really are at the breaking point.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/los-angeles-covid-19-crisis-revealed-by-52-foot-trailer-of-death-at-funeral-home?ref=home
COVID in L.A.: They're Running Out of Pine for Coffins
COVID in L.A.: They’re Running Out of Pine for Coffins
City of Corpses
Overloaded ICUs are feeding overloaded funeral homes, where things are somehow even crazier than ever seemed possible.
Jason McGahan
Updated Dec. 29, 2020 10:45AM ET / Published Dec. 29, 2020 4:54AM ET
LOS ANGELES—On Saturday, a 52-foot refrigerated trailer was delivered to Continental Funeral Homes on East Beverly Boulevard in East Los Angeles. Alongside it sits a 20-foot trailer that Magda Maldonado began renting in the summer, but that no longer provides the room the 58-year-old funeral director needs for the volume of dead arriving from one day to the next.
“No funeral home around here has a container large enough to accommodate the number of people who are dying from COVID,” she told the Daily Beast.
Maldonado’s experience, and those of the people she works with, paint a picture of a death industry that is overloaded and overwhelmed. Of bodies piling up in area crematoriums, casket makers facing a shortage of supplies, and gravediggers struggling to keep up with equipment breakdowns.
While slammed funeral homes and deluges of dead have marked the coronavirus pandemic across the country, the people who power the industry here say they really are at the breaking point.
“Wood is getting scarce, especially pine, which is the most inexpensive,” said Auriel ‘Guero’ Suarez, owner of the Universal Caskets Manufacturing Corporation in East Los Angeles. “In 52 years in the business, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/los-angeles-covid-19-crisis-revealed-by-52-foot-trailer-of-death-at-funeral-home?ref=home
December 29, 2020
Wall Street Journal Slams Trump
December 29, 2020 at 8:38 am EST By Taegan Goddard
Wall Street Journal Slams Trump
https://politicalwire.com/2020/12/29/wall-street-journal-slams-trump/Wall Street Journal Slams Trump
December 29, 2020 at 8:38 am EST By Taegan Goddard
A Wall Street Journal editorial accused President Trump of sabotaging Republicans’ chances of winning the Georgia Senate runoffs with his push for $2,000 stimulus checks, calling it an “in-kind contribution to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden.”
Axios: “It’s another sharp criticism from a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch — co-chair of Fox Corp. and executive chair of News Corp — that comes one day after the New York Post said Trump is ‘cheering for an undemocratic coup’ with his efforts to overturn the election he lost.”
Axios: “It’s another sharp criticism from a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch — co-chair of Fox Corp. and executive chair of News Corp — that comes one day after the New York Post said Trump is ‘cheering for an undemocratic coup’ with his efforts to overturn the election he lost.”
December 29, 2020
Michelle Obama named most admired woman for third-straight year: poll
By Zack Budryk - 12/29/20 07:53 AM EST
Former first lady Michelle Obama was named the most admired woman in the U.S. for the third consecutive year according to Gallup polling released Tuesday.
Ten percent of Americans named Obama as their most-admired woman, followed by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, the first woman elected to the office, with 6 percent. First lady Melania Trump received 4 percent of the vote, followed by Oprah Winfrey with 3 percent. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Queen Elizabeth I all received 2 percent.
snip//
Among both Democrats and Republicans, figures from their own party were the highest-ranking women. Eight percent of Republicans named Melania Trump, followed by Barrett and Haley with 4 percent each. Seventeen percent of Democrats named Michelle Obama, followed by 16 percent who named Harris and 5 percent who named Ocasio-Cortez. Eleven percent of independents named Obama, while 4 percent named Trump.
Pollsters surveyed 1,018 adults from Dec. 1-17. The poll has margin of error of error of four pecentage points.
Michelle Obama named most admired woman for third-straight year: poll
https://thehill.com/homenews/531909-michelle-obama-named-most-admired-woman-for-third-straight-year-gallupMichelle Obama named most admired woman for third-straight year: poll
By Zack Budryk - 12/29/20 07:53 AM EST
Former first lady Michelle Obama was named the most admired woman in the U.S. for the third consecutive year according to Gallup polling released Tuesday.
Ten percent of Americans named Obama as their most-admired woman, followed by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, the first woman elected to the office, with 6 percent. First lady Melania Trump received 4 percent of the vote, followed by Oprah Winfrey with 3 percent. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Queen Elizabeth I all received 2 percent.
snip//
Among both Democrats and Republicans, figures from their own party were the highest-ranking women. Eight percent of Republicans named Melania Trump, followed by Barrett and Haley with 4 percent each. Seventeen percent of Democrats named Michelle Obama, followed by 16 percent who named Harris and 5 percent who named Ocasio-Cortez. Eleven percent of independents named Obama, while 4 percent named Trump.
Pollsters surveyed 1,018 adults from Dec. 1-17. The poll has margin of error of error of four pecentage points.
December 29, 2020
Posted on Mon, Dec 28th, 2020 by Sean Colarossi
Presidential Historian Says Mass Death And Suffering Will Forever Be Donald Trump’s Legacy
Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said on Monday night that Donald Trump will likely rank among the worst presidents in U.S. history, citing the number of Americans who have needlessly died and suffered under his failed leadership.
While Beschloss wasn’t ready to definitively call Trump the worst president in history before his presidency has officially ended, the historian said that the passage of time will not help Trump’s legacy in the way that it has helped previous presidents.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1343748402891403265
Beschloss said:
Trump’s legacy is one of death and suffering
Previous presidents have led the country at moments of crisis, but none has managed such difficult times as incompetently and irresponsibly as Donald Trump.
His reckless and unstable leadership has caused much more death and suffering than necessary, and his inability to show any sense of compassion or empathy for millions of suffering Americans has only made this period of history darker.
As former GOP strategist Steve Schmidt said earlier this year, Trump’s legacy will be one of mass death, suffering and economic collapse. Nothing over the final 23 days of his presidency – or the next 50 years of American history – is likely to change that.
Presidential Historian Says Mass Death And Suffering Will Forever Be Donald Trump's Legacy
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/12/28/presidential-historian-says-mass-death-and-suffering-will-forever-be-donald-trumps-legacy.htmlPosted on Mon, Dec 28th, 2020 by Sean Colarossi
Presidential Historian Says Mass Death And Suffering Will Forever Be Donald Trump’s Legacy
Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said on Monday night that Donald Trump will likely rank among the worst presidents in U.S. history, citing the number of Americans who have needlessly died and suffered under his failed leadership.
While Beschloss wasn’t ready to definitively call Trump the worst president in history before his presidency has officially ended, the historian said that the passage of time will not help Trump’s legacy in the way that it has helped previous presidents.
“A historian has to always account for the possibility that 50 years later a president would look better in some ways than he did to his own generation,” Beschloss said. “That having been said, Donald Trump is not going to change the record. He was largely responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans who did not need to die.”
https://twitter.com/i/status/1343748402891403265
Beschloss said:
A historian has to always account for the possibility that 50 years later a president would look better in some ways than he did to his own generation. That having been said, Donald Trump is not going to change the record. He was largely responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans who did not need to die. Millions of others who suffer from COVID who did not need to suffer. An economic calamity that is afflicting people tonight in a way that is not going to be alleviated by $600 or $2,000 while the president sits in Palm Beach and the vice president sits in Vail on a ski slope and the secretary of the treasury is in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. This is really Neros fiddling while Rome burns.
Trump’s legacy is one of death and suffering
Previous presidents have led the country at moments of crisis, but none has managed such difficult times as incompetently and irresponsibly as Donald Trump.
His reckless and unstable leadership has caused much more death and suffering than necessary, and his inability to show any sense of compassion or empathy for millions of suffering Americans has only made this period of history darker.
As former GOP strategist Steve Schmidt said earlier this year, Trump’s legacy will be one of mass death, suffering and economic collapse. Nothing over the final 23 days of his presidency – or the next 50 years of American history – is likely to change that.
December 28, 2020
Leading New Texas Rebellion, Louie Gohmert Sues Mike Pence Because VP Lacks Authority to Overturn Joe Biden’s Election Win
Jerry LambeDec 28th, 2020, 12:42 pm
A Texas hardliner is once again leading a post-election rebellion against the future Joe Biden presidency.
Led by Lone Star State Rep. Louie Gohmert, a coalition of outgoing President Donald Trump’s right-wing loyalists asked a federal judge on Sunday to gut a post-Reconstruction era law in order give Vice President Mike Pence the power to determine the winner of the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Gohmert’s cohorts include ex-“Kraken” plaintiff Tyler Bowyer and the Arizona Republican Party’s chairwoman Kelli Ward, whose call for Trump to #CrossTheRubicon was widely interpreted as pining for the president to establish dictatorship just like Julius Caesar did.
Through a creative reading of the 12th Amendment, Gohmert’s brigade contends the Constitution empowers Pence to ignore a statute making his work ministerial and select “competing slates of Presidential Electors.” The lawsuit, which was filed against Pence in his official capacity as vice president, is based on outright falsehoods—there are no “competing electors”—and an absurd misreading of federal law that would let the VP unilaterally decide the outcome of his own election.
Trump and his acolytes have called for Pence to block Biden’s victory by rejecting the certificates of votes in states Trump lost. Gohmert and his cohorts take this theory a giant step further, asserting that the Electoral Count Act of 1887 (ECA) violates the Twelfth Amendment by not allowing the VP to count uncertified votes cast by Trump’s slate of “shadow electors.”
more...
https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/leading-new-texas-rebellion-louie-gohmert-sues-mike-pence-because-vp-lacks-authority-to-overturn-joe-bidens-election-win/
...Louie Gohmert Sues Mike Pence...
Leading New Texas Rebellion, Louie Gohmert Sues Mike Pence Because VP Lacks Authority to Overturn Joe Biden’s Election Win
Jerry LambeDec 28th, 2020, 12:42 pm
A Texas hardliner is once again leading a post-election rebellion against the future Joe Biden presidency.
Led by Lone Star State Rep. Louie Gohmert, a coalition of outgoing President Donald Trump’s right-wing loyalists asked a federal judge on Sunday to gut a post-Reconstruction era law in order give Vice President Mike Pence the power to determine the winner of the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Gohmert’s cohorts include ex-“Kraken” plaintiff Tyler Bowyer and the Arizona Republican Party’s chairwoman Kelli Ward, whose call for Trump to #CrossTheRubicon was widely interpreted as pining for the president to establish dictatorship just like Julius Caesar did.
Through a creative reading of the 12th Amendment, Gohmert’s brigade contends the Constitution empowers Pence to ignore a statute making his work ministerial and select “competing slates of Presidential Electors.” The lawsuit, which was filed against Pence in his official capacity as vice president, is based on outright falsehoods—there are no “competing electors”—and an absurd misreading of federal law that would let the VP unilaterally decide the outcome of his own election.
Trump and his acolytes have called for Pence to block Biden’s victory by rejecting the certificates of votes in states Trump lost. Gohmert and his cohorts take this theory a giant step further, asserting that the Electoral Count Act of 1887 (ECA) violates the Twelfth Amendment by not allowing the VP to count uncertified votes cast by Trump’s slate of “shadow electors.”
more...
https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/leading-new-texas-rebellion-louie-gohmert-sues-mike-pence-because-vp-lacks-authority-to-overturn-joe-bidens-election-win/
