Tracker

Melania Trump Does the Unthinkable and Removes Her Mask at Children’s Hospital -REUTERS During a holiday visit to the Children’s National Hospital on Tuesday, first lady Melania Trump prepared to read a story to children by first removing her face mask. The hospital policy says anyone who enters the hospital must wear a mask “at all times,” according to CNN. This was the first lady’s fourth annual visit to the hospital. Normally she reads to a packed room full of children and their families, but this year only two children were present in-person and the event was broadcast across hospital televisions. Masked staff were also present. Trump kept her face mask off the entire time she read, although she did social distance and had her mask on for a bingo drawing afterwards. The hospital and first lady haven’t returned requests for comment. President Trump and Melania Trump both tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this year, and according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, their antibodies should still be present. Guidance does not differentiate between those with antibodies and those without when it comes to mask wearing. “I’m thinking of you all,” Melania Trump told the children during the event. “Stay strong and well and Merry Christmas and happy holidays.”

Trump sues New Mexico in continued election challenge as Electoral College affirms Joe Biden's win. Trump expands his failed election challenge to a state he lost by 10 points As the 538 electors who make up the Electoral College met on Monday in all 50 state capitals and the District of Columbia to cast their constitutionally mandated votes for president, Donald Trump expanded his failed legal effort to overturn the 2020 election based on fictitious claims of fraud. The Trump campaign filed a federal lawsuit in New Mexico, a state he lost by more than 10 percentage points, alleging that Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver violated state law by allowing voters to submit ballots using drop boxes at polling places in lieu of presenting them in-person to a judge. "[I]t's not over. We keep going and we're going to continue to go forward. We have numerous local cases," Trump told Fox News' Brian Kilmeade before his campaign filed its latest lawsuit. Trump sues New Mexico in continued election challenge as Electoral College affirms Joe Biden's win | Salon.com

A judge just said the Trump Organization must hand over records to the NY attorney general Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron has just ordered President Donald Trump's company, the Trump Organization, to hand over more documents to the State of New York's Attorney General, Letitia James. James has been investigating President Donald Trump's family businesses since March of 2019, just two months after she took office. "The ruling could force the Trump Organization to divulge reams of information about engineer Ralph Mastromonaco," Law & Crime reports, "who was retained to develop the Seven Springs estate, one of four properties currently subject to a broad investigation into whether Eric Trump and various corporate entities improperly inflated assets to obtain tax benefits." "In 1995, Trump Organization subsidiary Seven Springs LLC bought the estate for $7.5 million," Law & Crimes adds. "Two decades later, Trump agreed to establish a 'conservation easement' to provide a habitat for rare salamanders and bats in 2015, assessing the value of that property's feature at $21.1 million the next year." A judge just said the Trump Organization must hand over records to the NY attorney general - Alternet.org

How dare they try to do the job that Trump is doing so well.

Two pieces of good news today: firstly, we are in the 200's for new cases for the second day in a row- something we haven't seen for awhile. The arrival of the Moderna vaccine sounds like it is over and above the Pfizer shipment, so it looks like we are turning a bit of a corner. We are still going to have double digit mortality for a bit, as this is a "downstream" marker. Lets hold our collective breaths until we see what tomorrow brings.

So long as he never sees daylight again, I'm Ok with this.

‘CRIMINAL CONDUCT”: Fashion Mogul Peter Nygard Charged With Sex Trafficking Underage Girls: DOJ Canadian fashion designer Peter Nygard has been indicted after allegedly using his influence and money to recruit underage girls and women for his own sexual gratification for 25 years, prosecutors announced on Tuesday. Nygard, 79, faces several charges, including sex-trafficking and racketeering, for his “decades-long pattern of criminal conduct” in the United States, the Bahamas, and Canada, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a statement. Prosecutors allege that since 1995, Nygard used the influence of his company and employees to “recruit and maintain adult and minor-aged female victims” for his own sexual gratification and the sexual gratification of his business associates and friends. Nygard was arrested in Winnipeg on Monday at the request of the United States. “Nygard frequently targeted women and minor-aged girls who came from disadvantaged economic backgrounds and/or who had a history of abuse,” prosecutors said, adding that the 79-year-old “controlled his victims through threats, false promises of modeling opportunities,” financial support and physical isolation. Prosecutors add that Nygard referred to some of his victims as “girlfriends” or “assistants,” requiring that they travel with the fashion mogul to engage in sex acts at his direction and to recruit new women for him. UGH,, BUT ABOUT TIME

Yes, Trump will leave office — but his seditious secession movement isn't going away. Trump is doomed, and ultimately so is his movement. But they may be willing to destroy America on their way down Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by more than 7 million votes. All 50 states have certified the votes cast in the 2020 election, and as of Monday evening, the members of the Electoral College have cast their ritual votes. On Jan. 6, Congress will count those votes and confirm Biden as president-elect. (Republican dead-enders can delay that process, but they have no power to stop it. On Jan. 20, Joe Biden will take the oath of office as the 46th president of the United States. How has President Trump responded to these events? By enlisting or intimidating his allies and sycophants into an attempted coup against American democracy. Trump's plot, so far, has involved dozens of lawsuits demanding that the results of the 2020 election be overturned. These cases have involved false claims of "voter irregularities," "fraud," votes cast after Election Day and assorted other lies and conspiratorial fictions. Trump has also embedded loyalists in key positions throughout the federal government, with the apparent goal of sabotaging Biden's presidency. Predictably, there have been threats of violence by Trump and his agents against their "enemies" who are "disloyal" because they refuse to collaborate in the plot to nullify the election results of the 2020 election. This stochastic terrorism bore poisoned fruit last Saturday as the "Western chauvinist" Proud Boys and other right-wing thugs descended upon Washington to protest the defeat of their leader. Trump's unofficial paramilitaries attacked people seemingly at random and sought out street fights with antifascists and other groups. There were four stabbings, leaving one person in critical condition, and more than 30 arrests. As part of their rampage, the pro-Trump goons also engaged in apparent hate crimes targeting black churches, stealing and burning Black Lives Matter banners. The Rev. Ianther M. Mills of the Asbury United Methodist Church described the events as "reminiscent of cross burnings" by the Ku Klux Klan. Author and commentator Jared Yates Sexton summarized last weekend's events on Twitter: "Laugh at the Proud Boys and all these fascist street gangs all you want, but if there were ever-present cellphones and cameras in 1920s Germany you can bet the videos would look pretty identical." Yes, Trump will leave office — but his seditious secession movement isn't going away | Salon.com

The gun mania in the States is religious, almost cult-like in nature. 60 years ago, the NRA was an advocate of gun-owner screening and restrictions on automatic weapons, but the firearms manufacturers have done a thorough job of infiltrating and corrupting it. The current director is as corrupt as the rest of the Trump supporters and is the subject of a fraud investigation as he and a couple of other NRA employees have been using NRA funds to buy themselves expensive toys. In that, the NRA is a perfect microcosm of the GOP.

Election Lawyer Calls On Trump Supporters To Stock Up On 'Second Amendment Supplies'. That would be guns and ammo. The fringe right-wing lawyer who filed the court challenge to Donald Trump’s election loss in Georgia has called on the president’s supporters to stock up on “Second Amendment supplies” — presumably firearms and ammunition — to prepare for what he apparently envisions as an apocalyptic future. “Our leader is Donald Trump, not Biden,” attorney Lin Wood tweeted Sunday. “Make sure you have PLENTY of water, food, flashlights & batteries, candles, radio, 2nd Amendment supplies, & a plan to meet with leaders of your communities,” he urged. He included a photo of Trump with the caption: “I’m still your president.” Election Lawyer Calls On Trump Supporters To Stock Up On 'Second Amendment Supplies' | HuffPost Canada (huffingtonpost.ca)

Yes, yes, I would be surprised- very surprised so long as Moscow Mitch has the GOP by the 'nads.

Trump plan to revive the gallows, electric chair, gas chamber and firing squad recalls a troubled history Trump's loyalty test exposes the GOP's hatred for democracy: 'Seditious abuse of the judicial process'. The way the federal government can kill death row prisoners will soon be expanded to ghoulish methods that include hanging, the electric chair, gas chamber and the firing squad. Set to take effect on Christmas Eve, the new regulations authorizing an alternative to lethal injections – the method currently used in federal executions – were announced by the Justice Department on Nov. 27. The federal move follows the example of several states, including Oklahoma and Tennessee, that have revived alternative methods in the face of challenges to their lethal injection protocols and problems in the supply of drugs needed in the process. It is not clear whether the administration actually intends to employ the newly announced methods. It may only want to have them in reserve if any of the individuals scheduled for execution before January's inauguration – five, according to the Department of Justice – should succeed in challenging the current execution protocol. What is clear is that these new regulations send a message about the lengths the administration will go to kill as many death row inmates as possible before Joe Biden takes office and, as expected, halts the federal death penalty. If the president and Department of Justice succeed in their plan, the period from July 14, 2020, the date of the first of Trump's federal executions, through January 20, 2021 will be the deadliest in the history of federal capital punishment in nearly a century. Trump plan to revive the gallows, electric chair, gas chamber and firing squad recalls a troubled history - Alternet.org

Nice to have some semblance of a normal CFL kvetch session. Carry on.

That's one way to get those embarrassing numbers down.

hen Miller blames 'the media' for Trump losing court cases — says 'alternate' electors will 'certify' himStep White House senior advisor Stephen Miller is blaming "the media" for President Donald Trump losing nearly 60 election cases in court, but says right now "alternate" electors are voting to "certify Donald Trump as the winner of the election." Miller, one of the most prominent white nationalists aside from the president working in the White House, appeared on Fox News Monday in his capacity as a "senior Trump campaign advisor," something experts say at best draws questions of "the appearance of impropriety." "The only date in the Constitution is January 20, so we have more than enough time to right the wrong of this fraudulent election and certify Donald Trump as the winner of the election," Miller said on "Fox & Friends." His claim that election was "fraudulent" is a lie. 86 judges across the country in 59 court cases – including at the U.S. Supreme Court – have refused to indulge the Trump team's lies. Miller continued to spread falsehoods, while Fox News hosts allowed him to do so unchallenged. "As we speak," he then said, "an alternate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote and we are going to send those results to Congress."

He jumped before he was going to be pushed, but only after kissing up to Trump one more time. Stockholm syndrome?

Because they are trying to court the center-right wing voters who are largely imaginary. Appeasement does not work- as Neville Chamberlain. a

Yes, but Trump did not say who would be doing the winning...... The wingnut members of the GOP (pretty much all of them) have set up "alternate electors" and say they will forward the results to the Senate for acceptance. Just keep getting weirder and weirder.

The ‘Terrorgram’ Plot by Neo-Nazis to Seduce Anti-Vaxxers Safe and effective vaccines are finally here. So are white-nationalist fantasies of using diehard skeptics for their own even more twisted ends. As the United States crept towards authorizing the rollout of pharma giant Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine this weekend, millions of Americans cheered, ecstatic to see the nation take a key step towards the end of a brutal pandemic that has killed nearly 300,000 of their fellow citizens. The reaction from Corona Chan News (CCN) was decidedly more negative. CCN bombarded its readers on the messaging platform Telegram with links and commentary about the supposed dangers of taking a dose of the vaccine, which has in fact proven safe in major trials. Most of the links lead to articles from reputable sources analyzing, for instance, legitimate concerns about potential allergic reactions to the vaccine and discussing the details of a rollout. But the channel’s commentary spun these stories into evidence of nefarious plots to track, sterilize, or mutilate citizens. Within hours of a key FDA panel approving the vaccine’s U.S. debut on Thursday, the channel posted, “Here comes genocide." Anti-Vaxxer Panic About the Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine Meets Neo-Nazi Fantasies in ‘Corona Chan’ (thedailybeast.com)

Black Hawk was a wise and brave chief and not a racist trope, so that name will probably remain.

True. Tragic, but true. The US was born in armed conflict, grew in slavery and racism, and has kept these values as sub-context to all their affairs.

Armed MAGA fanatics spread politics of violence around the country with shooting in Olympia, Washington The pattern has become clear: Wherever pro-Donald Trump "Stop the Steal" rallies are organized, the thugs who come out in large numbers to participate wreak violence on anyone who comes out to protest them. This weekend, even as Proud Boys and other Trump supporters were bringing violence to the streets of Washington, D.C., a similar but much smaller group of MAGA fanatics was doing the same thing across the country in the Washington state capital. And for the second week in a row in Olympia, a Trump supporter fired a gun at counterprotesters for a "Stop the Steal" event—this time, hitting and injuring a man who was wounded and hospitalized at the culmination of a running series of brawls. Police arrested the man, along with three other people at the event. Armed MAGA fanatics spread politics of violence around the country with shooting in Olympia, Washington - Alternet.org

I'm afraid that the disease of racism/fascism is endemic in American society and deeply, deeply rooted. It has surfaced in the GOP only because it was invited but is also prevalent in the Democratic party as well. Just not as well tolerated, but there nevertheless.

A bizarre demonstration of a diseased mind utterly divorced from reality.