https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/01/politics/presidential-pardon-justice-department/index.html

Justice Department investigating potential presidential pardon bribery scheme, court records reveal

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN

Updated 6:13 PM ET, Tue December 1, 2020

(CNN)The Justice Department is investigating a potential crime related to funneling money to the White House or related political committee in exchange for a presidential pardon, according to court records unsealed Tuesday in federal court.

The case is the latest legal twist in the waning days of President Donald Trump's administration after several of his top advisers have been convicted of federal criminal charges and as the possibility rises of Trump giving pardons to those who've been loyal to him.

The disclosure is in 20 pages of partially redacted documents made public by the DC District Court on Tuesday afternoon. The records show Chief Judge Beryl Howell's review in August of a request from prosecutors to access documents obtained in a search as part of a bribery-for-pardon investigation.

The filings don't reveal a timeline of the alleged scheme, or any names of people potentially involved, except that communications between people including at least one lawyer were seized from an office that was raided sometime before the end of this summer.

-/snip-

https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/1333909947042701316
John Harwood @JohnJHarwood

BREAKING from CNN:
“The Justice Department is investigating a potential crime related to funneling money to the White House in exchange for a presidential pardon, according to a court record unsealed on Tuesday by the chief judge of the DC District Court.”

6:04 PM · Dec 1, 2020

https://twitter.com/kpolantz/status/1333911414273159169
Katelyn Polantz @kpolantz

NEW NEW: The Justice Dept is investigating a potentially criminal scheme of bribery for a presidential pardon.

LOTS redacted/unknown ... but court records are here, released this afternoon by the DC District Court:

https://dcd.uscourts.gov/sites/dcd/files/20gj35%20Partial%20Unsealing%20Order.pdf

6:10 PM · Dec 1, 2020

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/covid-19-claims-life-chicago-based-polish-newsman-jan-krawiec-n1248822

We thought he would live forever," a friend said of Krawiec, who was 101


Jan Krawiec, a Polish Underground fighter who survived Auschwitz and went on to be a newsman in Chicago, died in October from Covid-19. He was 101 and had lived long enough to see his homeland freed from the Soviet yoke he railed against as editor of Dziennik Zwiazkowy, the leading Polish-language newspaper in Chicago.Dariusz Pilka / The Dziennik Zwiazkowy

Nov. 29, 2020, 7:01 AM EST
By Corky Siemaszko

The German invasion, torture at the hands of the Gestapo, the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald — newsman Jan Krawiec survived them all and got his life's story out way ahead of deadline.

It was a silent killer called Covid-19 that did what the Nazis couldn't do. It took Krawiec's life last month at a nursing home in suburban Chicago. He was 101.

Krawiec (Yon Krahv-yets), the longtime editor of Dziennik Związkowy, Chicago's leading Polish-language newspaper, lived long enough to see the dream of his generation of exiles come true — his homeland freed from the Soviet yoke.

In his final years, Krawiec devoted himself to publishing books in Polish about his ordeal and telling the younger generations in English what happened to him and to his country during World War II. And he did so, friends said, with the timing of a practiced comedian who specialized in very dark humor.

-/snip-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscone%E2%80%93Milk_assassinations



The Moscone–Milk assassinations were the killings of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, who were shot and killed in San Francisco City Hall by former Supervisor Dan White on November 27, 1978. White was angry that Moscone had refused to reappoint him to his seat on the Board of Supervisors, from which he had just resigned, and that Milk had lobbied heavily against his reappointment. These events helped bring national notice to then-Board President Dianne Feinstein, who became the first female mayor of San Francisco and eventually U.S. Senator for California.

White was subsequently convicted of voluntary manslaughter, rather than first-degree murder. The verdict sparked the "White Night riots" in San Francisco, and led to the state of California abolishing the diminished capacity criminal defense. It also led to the urban legend of the "Twinkie defense", as many media reports had incorrectly described the defense as having attributed White's diminished capacity to the effects of sugar-laden junk food. White committed suicide in 1985, a little more than a year after his release from prison.

Preceding events
White had been a San Francisco police officer, and then later became a firefighter. He and Milk were each elected to the Board of Supervisors in the 1977 elections, which introduced district-based seats and ushered in the "most diverse Board the city has ever seen". The city charter prohibited anyone from retaining two city jobs simultaneously, so White resigned from his higher paying job with the fire department.

With regard to business development issues, the 11-member board was split roughly 6–5 in favor of pro-growth advocates including White, over those who advocated the more neighborhood-oriented approach favored by Mayor Moscone. Debate among the Board members was sometimes acrimonious and saw the conservative White verbally sparring with liberal supervisors, including Milk and Carol Ruth Silver. Much of Moscone's agenda of neighborhood revitalization and increased city support programs was thwarted or modified in favor of the business-oriented agenda supported by the pro-growth majority on the Board.

Further tension between White and Milk arose with Milk's vote in favor of placing a group home within White's district. Subsequently, White would cast the only vote in opposition to San Francisco's landmark gay rights ordinance, passed by the Board and signed by Moscone in 1978. Dissatisfied with the workings of city politics, and in financial difficulty due to his failing restaurant business and his low salary as a supervisor, White resigned from the Board on November 10, 1978. The mayor would appoint his successor, which alarmed some of the city's business interests and White's constituents, as it indicated Moscone could tip the balance of power on the Board and appoint a liberal representative for the more conservative district. White's supporters urged him to rescind his resignation by requesting reappointment from Moscone and promised him some financial support. Meanwhile, some of the more liberal city leaders, most notably Milk, Silver, and then-California Assemblyman Willie Brown, lobbied Moscone not to reappoint White.

On November 18, news broke of the mass deaths of members of Peoples Temple in Jonestown. Prior to the group's move to Guyana, Peoples Temple had been based in San Francisco, so most of the dead were recent Bay Area residents, including Leo Ryan, the United States Congressman who was murdered in the incident. The city was plunged into mourning, and the issue of White's vacant Board of Supervisors seat was pushed aside for several days.

Assassinations
George Moscone


George Moscone

Moscone ultimately decided to appoint Don Horanzy, a more liberal federal housing official, rather than reappoint White. On November 27, 1978, the day Moscone was set to formally appoint Horanzy to the vacant seat, White had an unsuspecting friend drive him to San Francisco City Hall. He was carrying a five-round .38-caliber Smith & Wesson Model 36 Chief's Special loaded with hollow-point bullets, his service revolver from his work as a police officer, with ten extra rounds of ammunition in his coat pocket. White slipped into City Hall through a first floor window, avoiding the metal detectors. He proceeded to the mayor's office, where Moscone was conferring with Willie Brown.

White requested a meeting with the mayor and was permitted to meet with him after Moscone's meeting with Brown ended. As White entered Moscone's outer office, Brown exited through another door. Moscone met White in the outer office, where White requested again to be reappointed to his former seat on the Board of Supervisors. Moscone refused, and their conversation turned into a heated argument over Horanzy's pending appointment.

Wishing to avoid a public scene, Moscone suggested they retreat to a private lounge adjacent to the mayor's office, so they would not be overheard by those waiting outside. As Moscone lit a cigarette and proceeded to pour two drinks, White pulled out the revolver. He then fired shots at the mayor's shoulder and chest, tearing his lung. Moscone fell to the floor and White approached Moscone, pointed his gun 6 inches (150 mm) from the mayor's head, and fired two additional bullets into Moscone's ear lobes, killing him instantly. While standing over the slain mayor, White reloaded his revolver. Witnesses later reported that they heard Moscone and White arguing, later followed by the gunshots that sounded like a car backfiring.

Harvey Milk


Supervisor Harvey Milk

Dianne Feinstein, who was then President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, saw White immediately exit Mayor Moscone's office from a side door and called after him. White sharply responded with "I have something to do first."

White proceeded to his former office, and intercepted Harvey Milk on the way, asking him to step inside for a moment. Milk agreed to join him. Once the door to the office was closed, White positioned himself between the doorway and Milk, pulled out his revolver and opened fire on Milk. The first bullet hit Milk's right wrist as he tried to protect himself. White continued firing rapidly, hitting Milk twice more in the chest, then fired a fourth bullet at Milk's head, killing him, followed by a fifth shot into his skull at close range.

White fled the scene as Feinstein entered the office where Milk lay dead. She felt Milk's neck for a pulse, her finger entering a bullet wound. Horrified, Feinstein was shaking so badly she required support from the police chief after identifying both bodies. Feinstein then announced the murders to a stunned public, stating: "As President of the Board of Supervisors, it's my duty to make this announcement. Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed. The suspect is Supervisor Dan White."

White left City Hall unchallenged and eventually turned himself in to Frank Falzon and another detective, former co-workers at his former precinct. He then recorded a statement in which he acknowledged shooting Moscone and Milk, but denied premeditation.

Aftermath of the shootings
An impromptu candlelight march started in the Castro leading to the City Hall steps. Tens of thousands attended. Joan Baez led "Amazing Grace", and the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus sang a solemn hymn by Felix Mendelssohn. Upon learning of the assassinations, singer/songwriter Holly Near composed "Singing for Our Lives", also known as "Song for Harvey Milk".[citation needed]

Moscone and Milk both lay in state at San Francisco City Hall. Moscone's funeral at St Mary's Cathedral was attended by 4,500 people. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. Milk was cremated and his ashes were spread across the Pacific Ocean. Dianne Feinstein, as president of the Board of Supervisors, acceded to the Mayor's office, becoming the first female to serve in office.

The coroner who worked on Moscone and Milk's bodies later concluded that the wrist and chest bullet wounds were not fatal, and that both victims probably would have survived with proper medical attention. However, the head wounds brought instant death without question, particularly because White fired at very close range.

Trial and its aftermath
White was charged with first-degree murder with special circumstance, a crime which potentially carried the death penalty. White's defense team claimed that he was depressed at the time of the shootings, evidenced by many changes in his behavior, including changes in his diet. Inaccurate media reports said White's defense had presented junk food consumption as the cause of his mental state, rather than a symptom of it, leading to the derisive term "Twinkie defense"; this became a persistent myth when, in fact, defense lawyers neither argued junk food caused him to commit the shootings and never even mentioned Twinkies. Rather, the defense argued that White's depression led to a state of mental diminished capacity, leaving him unable to have formed the premeditation necessary to commit first-degree murder. The jury accepted these arguments, and White was convicted of the lesser crime of voluntary manslaughter.

The verdict proved to be highly controversial, and many felt that the punishment so poorly matched the deed and circumstances that most San Franciscans believed White essentially got away with murder. In particular, many in the gay community were outraged by the verdict and the resulting reduced prison sentence. Since Milk had been homosexual, many felt that homophobia had been a motivating factor in the jury's decision. This groundswell of anger sparked the city's White Night riots.

The unpopular verdict also ultimately led to changes by the legislature in 1981 and statewide voters in 1982 that ended California's diminished-capacity defense and substituted a somewhat different and slightly more limited "diminished actuality" defense.

White was paroled in 1984 and committed suicide less than two years later. In 1998, the San Jose Mercury News and San Francisco magazine reported that Frank Falzon, a homicide detective with the San Francisco police, said that he met with White in 1984. Falzon said that at that meeting, White confessed that not only was his killing of Moscone and Milk premeditated, but that he had actually planned to kill Silver and Brown as well. Falzon quoted White as having said, "I was on a mission. I wanted four of them. Carol Ruth Silver, she was the biggest snake ... and Willie Brown, he was masterminding the whole thing." Falzon, who had been a friend of White's and who had taken White's initial statement at the time White turned himself in, said that he believed White's confession. He later added that at no time did White express remorse in any form at the deaths of Moscone and Milk.[citation needed]

San Francisco Weekly has referred to White as "perhaps the most hated man in San Francisco's history".

The revolver used, serial number 1J7901, has gone missing from police evidence storage, possibly having been destroyed.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1331426084613656576.html

Since I've been asked about this numerous times, I'll address it here. More than two dozen Cayuga County restaurants and stores have been fined for violating COVID-19 rules. But there is one I get asked about more than any other: Wegmans.

Since the state's COVID-19 mask mandate took effect, I have received several messages from readers about Wegmans not enforcing the mask rule. Their stories are consistent: They observe a customer not wearing a mask and they report it to an employee.

These people tell me the same thing: A Wegmans employee (or management) responds with some variation of "There is nothing we can do."

These comments stayed with me as local businesses, many of which are small businesses, faced fines for either not abiding by the mask rules or not enforcing them.

And then I sat down to watch the Cayuga County Board of Health meeting in September.

At that meeting, the board approved four consent orders against businesses that violated the COVID-19 rules, specifically the mask order. I knew about these ahead of time because it's a public meeting and the materials were made available in advance.

What I wasn't prepared for was a long discussion about Wegmans. It was revealed, for the first time, that the board issued a consent order against Wegmans for violating the state mask mandate. But that wasn't the highlight.

A consent order is the first penalty in the enforcement process. The offender takes responsibility for their conduct (in this case, not following or enforcing the mask mandate) and they agree to pay a $50 fine. If they don't sign the order, the $50 fine *should* be off the table.

At the board of health meeting, a county official says that Wegmans paid the $50 but *did not* sign the order. That's significant because not agreeing to the consent order should trigger a hearing and the possibility of a stiffer penalty.

The same county official said that a Wegmans attorney sent them a letter. This official summarized Wegmans' stance — that the company "felt that they were not responsible for their customers."

This was surprising to some members of the board. One said that he "always thought of (Wegmans) as taking the approach of being a good corporate citizen."

And then came the big blow from a health department official.

They said that they had a conversation with someone at Wegmans' corporate office. Based on that discussion, she offered this assessment: "I just don't think they believe in it. That's the bottom line."

That's quite a statement about how this supermarket chain is responding to the pandemic. That has stayed with me for two months because I wondered what would come next. Would Wegmans face a stiffer penalty? Would there be additional penalties for these other complaints?

The answer to both questions, it appears, is no. There has been two board of health meetings since September. Wegmans hasn't been mentioned once.

I planned on following up on this two months ago, but then our COVID cases spiked and there may have been an election I had to cover. I am following up on this after Thanksgiving.

Some of the people who have contacted me about Wegmans do so after seeing local businesses, including locally-owned grocery stores, fined for not enforcing the mask mandate. One grocery store was fined today for the second time.

Their message is clear: How is this fair? Why is there one standard for certain businesses, while others face no penalties? These are good questions, and I plan on asking them.

-/snip-

https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1331621775856316419
Michael Beschloss @BeschlossDC

Ex-Presidents Truman and Eisenhower outside St. Matthew’s Cathedral after President Kennedy’s funeral, today 1963, in a picture taken after they saw young JFK Jr. salute his father. On this day, Truman and Ike ended their 11-year feud: #NARA



10:32 AM · Nov 25, 2020

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1331424210766471168.html

Diary of a Sad Woman - why I hate COVID. Sun, Oct 15th - my brother picks up my mom who has just spent 2 weeks in Florida staying with my aunt post uncle’s death. Mom/dad had both attended my uncle’s funeral 2 weeks earlier. Mom comes back feeling sick.

Oct 16-26th - my family has “flu-like” symptoms. Mom has been in bed since she got home. My brother and dad start feeling weak later in the week. Mom/dad see their primary care physician on Oct 25th where he tested them for COVID antibodies which came back negative on the 28th.

Thurs, Oct 29th - I received a call from my sister stating that when she spoke to my dad that morning, he sounded short of breath. I’m sitting at Panera bread working because I had lost power overnight due to a storm. I FaceTime dad and ask him to check his pulse ox. (Cont)

(Cont) I can see his hands shaking as he was trying to install the battery into the pulse ox. I stay on FT until he gets his reading. 89%. I panic. I tell him to get to the ER right away. In hindsight, I wish I would have kept my cool. (Cont)

I call my bro/sister-in-law (SIL) to rush him to the ER. As they prep him, I jump in the car to drive 6h to come home. My SIL has to drop dad off at the ER and is unable to go in with him. He is admitted and sits in the ER for the next 36h until they find a bed on the COVID unit.

He gets a CT scan of his chest. ID is consulted. His test results come back positive and he is started on remdesivir, dexa, and enrolled in a trial for CSL-312.

I arrive home late early evening. Mom seems ok, just weak. My brother looks like absolute shit.

Fri, Oct 30th - dad gets a room on the COVID floor. He is placed on high-flow oxygen. Meanwhile, bro is feeling awful so SIL takes him to the ER. He’s home within a few hrs with a zpak. His test comes back (-). I disinfect everything in the house top to bottom daily.

Sat-Sun, Oct 31-Nov 1 - brother with high fevers (up to 102.8°) all weekend. We give Tylenol around the clock. He isn’t keeping up with food/water intake. 1° care MD changes antibiotics to Ceftin. He’s starting to feel “loopy”.

Mon, Nov 2 - SIL takes bro back to ER. His test is still (-). They ask if he wants to be admitted. He says yes. SIL and I are thankful so we can get some rest. His room is a few doors down from dad. We don’t tell my dad to avoid additional stress. (Cont)

(Cont) I’ve been FT’ing dad daily. He hates it in the hospital. He says that he will be finishing up 5d of tax and coming home.
Tues-Fri, Nov 3-6th. Father and son both getting treated. Dad is now going b/t CPAP/high flow. ID decides dad should get a total of 10d of tx. Dad is frustrated. He tells me he’s scared multiple times. It breaks my heart. (Cont)

(Cont) I tell him to be patient and let the drugs do their thing and let his lungs heal. I head back to ATL for a few days and come back by the end of the week. My older sister comes to stay for a week.

Sat, Nov 7th - brother comes home. He feels much better. Meanwhile, dad still alternating between CPAP and high flow. He has positional desaturation. They can’t really prone him or put him on his side. He is counting down the days to come home.

Mon, Nov 9th - I’m back in ATL. Dad FTs me and shows me the dry erase board. “Look at the date, look at the date, I’m supposed to be home! Pick me up right now!” I want to cry. I try to reassure him that he just need more time for his lungs to heal.

Tues-Wed, Nov 10-11th - RN lets me know dad isn’t eating due to cont. CPAP. He has another CT scan to rule out a PE b/c his sats are ⬇️. Again, he tells me he is scared. I hate that no one can see him and that he is alone. Wed. evening, dad can barely open his eyes. Panic sets in

Thurs, Nov 12th - as his healthcare proxy, I get a call in the morning that they are having trouble bringing up his sats. He had been pulling off his mask the past few days. The rapid response team is in the room. “Would you like for him to be intubated?” I say yes. (Cont)

(Cont) We, as a family, had discussed his living will earlier in the summer. I knew what his wishes were. Dad is transferred to the ICU that day. He gets another CT scan. He undergoes a bronchoscopy. They pull a few mucus plugs. “His lungs look fibrotic”. (Cont)

(Cont) Dad is on 85-90% FIO2. I pray, and pray, and pray that the vent will give your lungs time to heal. Dad’s labs look awful. Elevated d-dimer, ferritin, LDH; very low platelets and albumin....all markers of disease progression.

Fri, Nov 13th - we learn that my aunt died from COVID. She too had been admitted 10 days before him. We never told dad how sick she was. This was the same sister who had lost her husband just a month earlier (non-COVID). Our families are devastated. (Cont)

Dad is fluctuating between 70-90% FIO2 on the vent. He has severe ARDS. His P/F ratio is less than 100. As a former CCM pharmacist, I know his lungs are like a brick. The attending shows us his 2 CT scans and I see the progression and the ground glass opacities. (Cont)

(Cont) He barely has any functional lung. Over the weekend, he develops acute renal failure. He receives CRRT to remove fluids. He is requiring minimal pressors. I pray, and pray, and pray that he pulls a Tom Brady and comes back to beat this.

Sat-Sun, Nov 14-15th - we see dad daily via WebEx. It breaks my heart seeing dad intubated. He’s not the same man. Prior to all this, dad was 100% functional. He could walk miles with no problems. Dad was with me hiking in the Himalayas less than a year ago. How did we get here?

Mon, Nov 16th - I fly home again from ATL. All the driving was too much. My older sister flies home to ATL and my younger sister goes home to her kids.

Tues-Wed, Nov 17-18 - dad is fluctuating between 70-100% FIO2. He is still requiring minimal pressors and low dose sedation/analgesia. I’m still hoping dad gets through this. He’s always been a fighter.

Thur, Nov 19 - the attending calls with an update. He has a new RML and RLL consolidation. They start vanc/meropenem. The worst update......dad is not waking up at all. A head CT has been ordered. The pharmacist in me says it’s lingering sedation. I’m in denial.

Fri, Nov 20nd. The CT scan is done today. It’s shows multiple infarcts with an SAH. I call my sisters to come home stat. We decide to wait to tell mom until Saturday when we are all together. We decide not to discuss the strokes. (Cont)

I break it to my bro that dad has a very poor prognosis and that we should discuss next steps knowing that dad would have hated being stuck on a vent. My bro is in denial. He calls his MD friends who all say give it a few days. We decide to give my bro the time he needs to cope.

Sat, Nov 21st. -we tell mom. She doesn’t quite understand everything and holds on to hope that dad will wake up. We take the time over the next few days to let family/close friends pay their respects via WebEx. Many great stories. We decide as a family to withdraw care on Monday.

Mon, Nov 23rd - the worst day of my life ever. I had called to nurse at 8:00 am to figure out the logistics. They were only going to allow 4 of us to come into the hospital but we convinced them to let 5 of us in. We hate that my SIL and BIL couldn’t see dad one last time.

The COVID ICU is like Fort Knox. “You can only come in one at a time”. How is mom going to do this alone? The staff is kind enough to let mom be in the room while the siblings rotate. When it’s my turn, I go in and sign the paperwork for withdrawal of care.

I go into the room, I lose it. I want to crawl into hole. I hold your hand and stroke your head. I tell you how much I love you, how much you meant to me, how you were the best daddy in the world and that God couldn’t have given me anyone better. I promise to take care of mom.

I promise to carry on your legacy. To always be smiling and to always help others like you did. To always look at the bright side of things, to never have hate in my heart. I thank you for everything you have done for me. The staff let my brother be in your room after extubation.

You passed within seconds. It was clear you were ready to leave us. I pray you didn’t feel anything. I pray you weren’t scared.

Final thoughts: There were 3 diff. outcomes from these 3 cases. My SIL remained (-) throughout this. Why? B/c she wore a mask the whole time. She wore it as soon as my parents returned from Florida. To all the naysayers/non-believers, I hope you never have to go through this.

I am eternally heartbroken. This was not fair to my dad who brought joy to those around him. My parents were careful all year. They wanted to support my aunt during her time of need. That was always my dad’s priority.....his family.

We pleaded for them not to go but he always did things his way. Dad, you lived a wonderful like and I know you had no regrets. I love you!!! #WearAMask

-/snip-

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/election-when-america-narrowly-avoided-disaster/617176/

NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Clint Smith

On the Monday following the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House, I made the short drive from my home in Maryland down to Washington, D.C., to visit the Lincoln Memorial. It was unseasonably warm for November, and I rolled up my sleeves as kayakers propelled their bodies forward on the river behind me. Just 48 hours before, every major U.S. news network had projected that Biden had won the presidency. That outcome—even though President Donald Trump and most Republican officials were (and still are) refusing to accept it—pulled the country back from continuing on what has been an ever more dangerous trajectory. For four years, Trump has, among other things, hammered away at government accountability, dismissed the reality of systemic racism, strained relationships with our allies overseas, eroded America’s commitment to human rights around the world and at home, and ignored and exacerbated the climate crisis. Four more years of his administration would have rendered the damage even worse than it currently is.

That possibility is why I was thinking of Lincoln. His bid for a second term in 1864 was another election that could have turned American history in a far more frightening direction. But for the good fortune and lucky timing of two battles that fell in the Union Army’s favor prior to the 1864 election, slavery might have been allowed to continue in exchange for peace with the Confederacy, and our country might look very different than it does. But then, as now (at least for the time being), the United States has managed to avoid a descent into immediate catastrophe. That events could so easily have turned out the other way, however, should make Americans wary of any notion that this country glides across time and space along a natural arc of progress. Our norms, our institutions, or our systems do not inevitably bend toward justice and protect us. That has been made clear. The truth is that, in some instances, we have simply been extremely lucky. And this month, even after a period of uncertainty, we were lucky again.

In the summer and early fall of 1864, Lincoln appeared to be on the brink of losing his bid for reelection. People across the country—or what remained of it—were tired of the Civil War. When hostilities began, many had initially assumed that it would be a relatively quick military exercise to put down the southern insurrection. But the war was now in its third year, and a Union victory was far from assured. The Confederacy was holding its capital of Richmond, Virginia; the bodies of young men who had joined the Union Army were piling up across the South; and the lists of the dead in northern newspapers were growing longer and longer. What’s more, following the Emancipation Proclamation, the war had become as much—if not more—about freeing enslaved people as it was about preserving the Union, a shift that didn’t sit well with many northerners.

Lincoln sensed that his support was diminishing, and quickly. “This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly likely that this Administration will not be re-elected,” he wrote in a letter to his Cabinet in August 1864. “Then it will be my duty to so cooperate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such grounds that he cannot possibly save it afterwards.”

-/snip-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Mercury



Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer, songwriter, record producer, and lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of rock music, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and four-octave vocal range. Mercury defied the conventions of a rock frontman, with his highly theatrical style influencing the artistic direction of Queen.

Born in 1946 in Zanzibar to Parsi-Indian parents, he attended English-style boarding schools in India from the age of eight and returned to Zanzibar after secondary school. In 1964, his family fled the Zanzibar Revolution, moving to Middlesex, England. Having studied and written music for years, he formed Queen in 1970 with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Mercury wrote numerous hits for Queen, including "Killer Queen", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Somebody to Love", "We Are the Champions", "Don't Stop Me Now", and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". His charismatic stage performances often saw him interact with the audience, as displayed at the 1985 Live Aid concert. He also led a solo career and served as a producer and guest musician for other artists.

Mercury died in 1991 at age 45 due to complications from AIDS. He confirmed the day before his death that he had contracted the disease, having been diagnosed in 1987. Mercury had continued to record with Queen following his diagnosis, and he was posthumously featured on the band’s final album, Made in Heaven (1995). In 1992, his tribute concert was held at Wembley Stadium. His career with Queen was dramatised in the 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

As a member of Queen, Mercury was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. In 1990, he and the other Queen members were awarded the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, and one year after his death Mercury was awarded it individually. In 2005, Queen were awarded an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. In 2002, Mercury ranked number 58 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.

-/snip-