Not with a Bang but a Whimper!

 

The actions of the “Whiner in Chief” this last week brought to mind a poem by T.S. Eliot called The Hollow Men which describes various journeys taken by men, sightless and devoid of life as they meet their end. This poem ends with the words: “And this is the way the world will end – (repeated three times)- Not with a bang but a whimper”. As described in the narrative, the hollow men never really stood for anything, so they cannot die and they remain in suspension, neither alive nor dead. (There is much more to the symbolism in this poem – religion, death and despair, but I have focused only on a portion of the narrative.) The poem was allegorical for the time right after World War l when it was written and much of Europe was devastated and populated by damaged men living in impoverished countries.

This is the way the presidency seems at this time. The president is thrashing about, aimless and unmoored. The president, although sightful, is devoid of understanding and according to reporting, cannot believe that he lost the election without the occurrence of widespread fraud or conspiracy. He did not run on a set of principles, his party never even bothered to write a platform that he would stand behind; he ran on maintaining the status quo. That status, as I understand it, was one of white supremacy, law and order which disregarded basic civil rights and the Rule of Law; it valued wealth and corporate power – Wall Street over Main Street – and promoted class and race divisions as campaign tactics.

What is astonishing to me is that he came so close.  What does this say about our country, that 73,923,495 voters selected him as their candidate? That is a topic for another day. Fortunately, VP Joe Biden received 80,117,578 votes to seal the victory and have an unbeatable margin of 6,194,083 and enough electoral college votes, to allow him to become our 46th President. However, the president is speaking out against anyone who does not support his rhetoric, such as the governor and secretary of state in Georgia, the few senators and Chris Christie who have congratulated Mr. Biden. Judges whom he appointed, have dismissed his campaign pleadings in court claiming that they have no merit.  He insists that the so-called hearing in Gettysburg PA run by Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Ellis last week, which had no sworn statements and presented hearsay testimony was real evidence – which was untrue.  The latest responses from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court were scathing as the case was dismissed with prejudice. More than 30 attempts in court have now been denied.  A partial recount in Wisconsin has increased the number of votes given to the president-elect. Sunday evening on ABC news, the president was berating the courts again as he had hoped to take his claims to the Supreme Court but was being discouraged from doing so.  Many attorneys are doubtful, that the court will agree to hear his appeals. I surely hope it does not.

In other news, the president announced last week that he is pardoning General Michael Flynn – who pled guilty to lying to the FBI and was convicted of this crime, but then retracted his guilty plea.  His sentencing was delayed due to his agreement to co-operate with the investigations into other events related to Russian involvement with the 2016 election campaign. One might remember that under Attorney General Barr the Justice Department attempted to drop these charges, leading to prosecutors stepping down in protest and the judge appointing another justice as an impartial reviewer to rule on the validity of these actions. The Washington Post hoped, in the editorial mentioned above, that this would be the only parting pardon, but few think that will be the case.  The president, in the opinion of many, including myself, has abused his pardon power throughout his term in office. Some are suggesting that campaign members, Manafort, Gates and Papadopoulos might also receive pardons.

Other actions, such as major environmental roll backs on emissions, and mining and oil drilling permits are also underway in order to make it more difficult for the Biden administration to affect the safe environmental, clean air and clear water promises he ran on. Many political appointees are being switched over to civil services classifications and ‘embedded’ in agencies so that they can be in place to oppose policy changes or make them harder to enact. Employees at the Office of the Management and Budget (OMB) are being switched to the non-civil service scale, so that they can be fired at will. The president has long opposed employees at this agency as they were the ones who made public his plan to hold up Congressionally approved money in several instances, such as Pentagon spending (he diverted funds for his border wall – the one that Mexico was supposed to pay for) and the leveraging of support for Ukraine with arms and funds- which led to his impeachment.

On the foreign policy front, there is speculation that the recent killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist, even though no country has claimed credit, this was said to have been carried out by the Israelis with American knowledge - although this has been officially denied. Many think this was an attempt to derail any hope that Mr. Biden might have of having the US re-enter the multi-national Iranian nuclear treaty agreement. The European Union denounced the actions as criminal and the Iranian government vowed retaliation. Netanyahu has denounced this scientist and was unhappy with President-Elect Biden’s intent to reach out to Iran, so the thought that he had a hand in this is not unrealistic.  According to the New York Times, the president would love to have an excuse to attack Iran before he leaves office, which he might do if Iran retaliates.  Some say that Iran is trying to dial this back with the hope for diplomacy once Biden takes office, but also fears losing face if it does nothing. Whatever happens, this was a destabilizing action.

The Office of the President-Elect finally was permitted to begin the transition process as the General Services Administrator was allowed to release to funds and office space.  Several nominees of the new administration have been announced: Tony Blinken for Secretary of State, Jake Sullivan for National Security Advisor, Avril Haines as Director of National Intelligence, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a career diplomat, was selected for Ambassador to the United Nations, Alejandro Mayorkas was chosen for Director of Homeland Security. Former Secretary of State John Kerry was named an envoy for the environment in a new cabinet level position and Janet Yellen was said to be under consideration for Treasury Secretary. Neera Tanden is said to be under consideration for Director of OMB; she currently heads the Center for American Progress. Several people noted above were in the Obama administration and some have been criticized for consulting work they did in the interim; Republicans have already indicated they will zero in on their contracts and clients in confirmation hearings.  

Not all of these positions require Senate confirmation although several do; if the Georgia Senate race produces two Democratic Senators – thus tying the Senate 50-50, hearings about these nominations might be different than if the two Republican candidates were elected. Susan Rice, a talented diplomat, was not chosen for Secretary of State by Obama, simply because, after statements were made about Benghazi, it was doubted that she would be confirmed.  Who can forget the 11-hour hearing about this topic with Secretary Clinton, years after the event? So, many think that Biden will not want to take office and have major battles about his nominees. There is much speculation about Sally Yates being selected as Attorney General, although some say Deval Patrick is also under consideration.  Congresswoman Deb Haaland is thought to be in the running for Secretary of the Interior and would be the first Native American in that position. Many are encouraged by the numbers of women already chosen and the fact that the group has diversity. There are many more names and positions being bandied about, but I think I will stop here for now and not speculate further. Watch this space, as Rachel Maddow would say.

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The CDC and others admonished Americans against traveling or visiting with friends and family this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, but these warnings were disregarded by millions who took to the air or traveled by car to celebrate. Expect to see additional spikes in cases within a couple of weeks – these numbers are already dismal and nothing is being done by the government at this time.  Three companies have announced that they have vaccines ready for emergency approvals, but exact details are not yet forthcoming. Many scientists wish to see the formal data in scientific papers, rather than press releases and would prefer a standard approval rather than a rushed one. I guess we will soon find out. Thirteen million US cases, folks!

COVID stats- New York Times:  11/28/20

Total US cases:13,444,300. Total new cases: 151,247. Total Number of deaths: 266,732. New Deaths: 1192.

Maryland: Total cases: 194,448.  New cases: 1590.  Total deaths: 4602. New deaths: 33. As of 11/27/20.

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I am holding my breath figuratively for the next several weeks worrying about what other damage might be done before the president leaves office.  Although some have speculated that he will not leave, he has said that he will accept the decision of the Electors of the Electoral College when they meet to vote in December (however sometimes he lies - he is also trying to replace the electors in some states and overturn their status, so who knows?)

Panda time – he has a name now – “Little Miracle” – Xiao Qi ji.

“Til next week – mask up and stay safe. Peace.

Time to Give Thanks

 

It may seem odd in the midst of a pandemic to think about giving thanks, but this week I thought I would try to find a few positives to highlight.

As a supporter of President-elect Joe Biden, I know that we Democrats have to thank the voters of Georgia, particularly the African-American women voters there for the votes which turned Georgia blue for the first time in a generation. And one cannot mention Georgia without thanking Stacey Abrams for her outstanding efforts with Fair Fight to get out the vote. As the article in Newsweek indicated, a great deal of the credit for this change in Georgia is due to her efforts in getting voters registered and then getting them to show up at the polls. When she ran for Governor in Georgia a few years ago -and came very close to winning - Abrams had to contend with purging of the voter rolls by her opponent who was the Secretary of State at that time and would not recuse himself.  But I applaud her for turning a past electoral defeat into a win for us all.

Now that there is a Senatorial run off in which the Democratic candidates are quite competitive against two incumbent Republican candidates, Georgians have to do it all over again and show up to elect two Democratic Senators.  So – this time – I thank them in advance!  Doing so, would make the Senate even between Democrats and Republicans and VP Kamala Harris would be available to cast the deciding vote in case of a tie. This would also keep current Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from prohibiting Joe Biden’s agenda being addressed and keep him from doing to him what he did to President Obama with suppressing most of his initiatives. There also could be a question as to who will be Majority Leader. The last time such a split occurred, the two party leaders worked out a power sharing agreement for bills and committee assignments.  However, the partisanship was not quite as stark as it is now.  I guess we will wait to see.  But first, the Democrats have to win both of those Senate seats.

Next, I want to thank the voters of America who turned out in record numbers, braved all kinds of weather, stood in long lines, mastered changed election procedures, found new polling places and cast their ballots. A total of 153,628,636 votes were cast for the two major candidates with VP Biden receiving 79,836,191 and the president garnering 73,792,443.  I want to applaud their tenacity which, for me, reinforces the importance of voting in this country.  For those who might say that “my vote” doesn’t matter, we can point to close tallies in several states and in several races down ballot.  Winning swing states may mean more in some instances due to the Electoral College tallies, but as can be seen, the margins in some of those states were close and there were few of the projected landslides for either candidate.

Thanks also go to the elected officials across the country who, for the most part, ran elections which were COVID safe for voters and workers, and were safe from outside interference.  Despite some instances of voter intimidation or suppression, the majority of states held good elections.  For this I also thank Chris Krebs of CISA who worked with Homeland Security, the FBI, NSA and DNI to produce a hacker free election day and monitored a rumor control website. Because he made a statement that the election was one of the most secure in US History, and the rumor control site debunked or disagreed with the president’s claim of dead voters and widespread election fraud, Chris Krebs was fired this week by the president.  Thanks to Chris for a job well done!

In my opinion, the president has harmed our democracy with his false claims far more than any Russian bots could have managed.

Since the election was declared once VP Biden was determined to have earned 270 electoral votes, the General Services Administration was supposed to start the ball rolling for the transition team to have staff and office space.  The current administrator, a political appointee, stated that until she is told by the president that Biden is the winner, she will not release the transition funds even though the law states that this should happen, when the apparent winner is determined. Until then, the FBI cannot start the background and security checks on potential cabinet members, the security forces cannot begin giving the daily security briefings to the president-elect and the corona virus task force cannot get information on what work is in progress. Though no thanks to GSA, I do thank the transition staff and President-elect Biden and VP-elect Harris for their continued dignity, staying above the fray, holding meetings and making efforts to work around these road blocks.

Thanks also to the press and media outlets who mostly have determined it is their job to get the results of the election out to the public and break down the Republican claims that the totals are still uncertain or questionable. It is unprecedented to not have a president concede in the face of an obvious loss, but this one is contesting results in multiple states. More than 20 lawsuits filed by the campaign and the party have already been denied or dismissed. No thanks to those who are continuing to promote rumors and conspiracy theories such as Rudy Giuliani, Senator Ted Cruz and Minority Leader McCarthy. The Republican party chair (Ronna McDaniel - who was just supported by the president for another term) continues to echo these claims, when she should know better, although some party members are peeling off at the local levels, despite lobbying by the president.

Thanks also to Black voters across the country who voted in overwhelming numbers for Biden/Harris. According to Statistica, the racial breakdown for the electorate was:

White DJT –: 57%   JRB - 42%       Hispanic/Latina   DJT - 32%     JRB – 66%   Other – DJT- 40%   JRB – 58%

Black:  DJT –12%   JRB - 87%        Asian                        DJT - 31%    JRB – 63%

Thanks go to women voters generally as NBC news indicated that women and black women, particularly (91%), went strongly for Biden who won 57% of women and 45% of men overall. The issue of racial justice was a strong one for Biden voters, as was the choice of Kamala Harris and issues related to the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Republican women supporters were noted to be more often without college degrees and more likely to be evangelical. They also gained more Hispanic voters by labeling the Democrats socialists or communistic and for male voters by emphasizing strength and painting Biden as weak, even as the law and order message to suburban women did not seem to resonate.

Some pre-election polls had indicated a landslide for Biden, but the margin was actually much closer, about 4%. Many wonder why the polls were so far off, especially in the swing states.  Pollsters have agreed that they need to do some self-review.  In an interview on PBS Newshour some pollster suggestions were noted, there was the possibility that the presidents’ supporters were reluctant to identify themselves for fear of ridicule, but others disputed that theory; others questioned whether they were asking the correct questions or had identified the correct cohort. Some wondered whether phone interviews have lost their draw as many with caller ID phones will not pick up the call. So, it appears that time will tell as reviews of results continue.

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COVID Stats (NY Times) 11/22/20

Total US COVID cases:12,307,100.  Total new cases – 171,98

Total deaths: 256,500. Total new deaths: 1,428.

Maryland Total cases: 182,139. Total new cases: 2316. 

Total Deaths:4,434. Total new deaths: 19.

The national numbers of cases have increased 59% since last week as more than 1.9 million new cases were identified in statistics, which went up in 49 of our 50 states. Yet, still the president refuses to allow the task force staff to communicate with the Biden transition team, even as people continue to die in record numbers. Shameful!  Two vaccines are moving closer to applications for approvals from the FDA. That is something new to be thankful for! However, it will probably be several months before logistics are worked out and they are widely available. So, folks, hang tight, don’t travel for the holidays and wear your mask!

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Timely tidbit – Governor Hogan finally admitted this week that the well-publicized COVID tests he purchased for several million dollars from Korea were faulty and he had to purchase additional supplies later. Now he tells us!

So, enough thanks for today – I am certain that you can add more.  Do tell me your suggestions.  By the way, if you read and like these weekly postings, please share with others.

·         Here is the latest from the Pandacam.  There was a contest this week to name the cub (it is closed now) – here are the selections: (I voted for #3.) so the results should be announced soon.  I think it is tradition to name the pandas when they are 100 days old.

·         Fu Zai (fu-tzai) – Mandarin Chinese for “prosperous boy”

·         Xiao Qi ji (shiau-chi-ji) – Mandarin Chinses for “little miracle”

·         Xing Fu (shing-fu) – Mandarin Chinese for “happy and prosperous”

·         Zai (tzai-tzai) – Mandarin Chinese nickname for boy.

 

So do stay safe and have an enjoyable Thanksgiving, even if it is not your usual gathering.  Next year should be better.

“Til next week, peace.

 

 

 

 

 

And the Counts go on!

 

As of this date, there are still votes being counted, Georgia is undergoing an audit and several lawsuits have been filed about vote counts by the Republican Party and dismissed. No final total was really close although Wisconsin and Arizona had closer margins than some other states and might have qualified for a recount. That count would have been moot as VP Biden has exceeded the required 270 electoral votes by 36 points. More than 154 million votes were cast, the highest tally ever in a presidential election. (The 2016 totals were approximately 129 million.) Former VP Joe Biden is firmly in the position of President-elect, regardless of what the president, his minions and the Republican party have declared.

Vote totals thus far: Biden: 50.8% - 78,675,847 votes - 306 Electoral College Votes

                      The president:  47.2% - 73,115,212 votes - 232 Electoral Votes

The electoral college totals are the same as the president received in 2016 when he lost the popular vote; he has been touting his totals since then as a landslide.

Despite these numbers, the results in several states were challenged with allegations of “voter fraud, dead people voting, votes counted after election day” (which is perfectly legal if they were postmarked properly) and other improprieties.  As those lawsuits failed, then rumors were floated that votes for the president were being discarded and that the election was being stolen. Calls went out for protestors to appear at counting centers and were answered in several states. It has been reported that the president has not accepted that he could have lost the election if the votes were fairly counted. At other times he discussed running again in 2024, which seemed to indicate that he knew it was over. Despite this, few Republicans have congratulated the President-elect; Secretary of State Pompeo indicated that he would be attending the presidents’ second inaugural. The Department of State has declined to forward to Biden congratulatory messages sent in from heads of state from other countries. All of this seems unnecessarily petty, but as the president keeps tweeting, he has left no doubts that he is taking names of those who stray from the expected path of pretending that he has won.

The right-wing media has also jumped on the “Stop the Steal” election fraud bandwagons and encouraged the MAGA followers who rallied on DC street this weekend. While last week saw cheers and joy by masked and diverse celebrants, this week saw a mostly white and unmasked crowd waving alternative flags who came to demonstrate in support of a flawed election, many disputing the final tallies. I sometimes wonder if we are living in two different worlds. There were a few confrontations with Biden supporters, but no major violence, although some of the MAGA fraud protestors were arrested on gun-carry violations.

The president has made only minimal public appearances since VP Biden was declared the winner: he held a bizarre press conference where his remarks primarily contained false and unproven claims about the election, he laid a wreath at the Arlington Cemetery Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where he appeared unmasked, and he made remarks about the Pfizer vaccine in the Rose Garden, where he took no questions. He has ben said to be ignoring the duties of his office, is holding no meetings, is attending no briefings and has basically abdicated the responsibilities of his office. He is said to be spending hours on the phone and twitter while watching television continuously.  He is spending many hours on the golf course – how sad is this? More than 60 days still will pass before the date of the Inauguration on January 20, 2021; who is running this country?

The president has managed to fire people in several departments across the government as he lops off those whom he considers insufficiently loyal. The first and most prominent to go was Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who had been on the hit list ever since he opposed the president’s request for armed troops to police American city streets (He was fired by a tweet). A low-level person in the office of counter terrorism, Christopher Miller, was appointed to take his place as acting secretary, an act which alarmed many defense professionals. Three other senior officials were also fired abruptly – the deputy administrator of USAID, Bonnie Glick, Lisa Gordon-Hagerty of the National Nuclear Security Administration, and Neil Chatterjee, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. As described by NPR, “these positions cover the nuclear weapons stockpile, electricity and natural gas regulation and overseas aid”. Temporary replacements do not require Senate consent. One replacement as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy - was retired General Anthony Tata who had previously called President Obama a terrorist and a Muslim in a controversial tweet, which he now says he regrets. The Senate had refused to confirm him and his hearings were cancelled earlier in the year.

Other officials said to be on the chopping block are Gina Haspel, CIA director, who has refused the request to declassify materials which the president felt would be a defense for him regarding Russian meddling and FBI Director Christopher Wray who has declined to go after supposed foes of the president.  Wray is supposed to have a ten-year appointment which should secure him from political machinations, but this president does not follow the rules, as we know. How many more important positions will be vacated and filled by unprepared yes men before the president leaves office in January? What is this doing to our safety as a country, and our security regarding national defense? What signals does this send to countries who do not wish us well?

Finally, what has this lack of attention to national needs done to our country as we face an unprecedented eruption across the country of the COVID pandemic? Drs Brix and Fauci state that they are not consulting with the White House COVID task force any longer, although VP Pence is said to be holding some meetings. The White House held another super spreader event on election night as the guests watched the returns. HUD secretary Ben Carson, advisors Corey Lewandowski, Mark Meadows and several others are all now infected from the mostly mask-free evening. The virus, however, has not listened to the press releases sent out by the White House, indicating that they are so over this, the virus will just go away, even as daily numbers continue to astonish and frighten most observers.

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Comparison of totals from last week and this week show an astonishing jump in totals number in the US and in Maryland.  I have copied the numbers from last week to compare them:

Total US COVID cases as of 11/14/20: 11,108,600. (There has been an increase of over one million cases this week!)  Total new cases: 159,121 (Friday – the total was 184,00)

Total US COVID cases: 10,051,300.  Total new cases 11/7 – 126,156.  

Total deaths: 246,013 Total new deaths: 1210.

Total deaths:  238,023.  Total new deaths: 1013. 

Total Maryland cases 11/14/20 – 164,090. Total new cases: 2321

Maryland Totals as of 11/7/20.  Total cases: 152,915. Total new cases: 1410. 

Total Deaths:4,293 Total new deaths: 20.

Total deaths: 4,201. Total new deaths: 7. 

Maryland has shown an increase of over 12 thousand cases since last week.  The Governor and most County Executives have rolled back some of the restaurant permissions which had been opened; mandatory mask wearing is in place indoors and outdoors and gatherings are being restricted across the state.  Travel is discouraged and quarantining is in place in several areas.  The same increases are being seen across all states with some at a critical stage. Chicago has imposed a lockdown for 30 days. Maryland has indicated that lockdowns are not being considered.

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With a lack of Federal response or leadership, states are attempting to contain the virus on their own with varied success. The president has denied President-elect Biden access to the normal transition processes and daily security briefings, so he does not have up to date information on what steps have been taken. However, despite these obstacles, he has still put in place a COVID task force consisting of professionals, physicians, public health experts and scientists who will hit the ground running once the new president is in place. Unfortunately, this still endangers the safety of all Americans as we must wait until these experts can address the problems and get a Federal response up and running. In the meantime, thousands of Americans are suffering and dying.

That is about all I have to say this week. It is sad that we lost Jeopardy host Alex Trebek to pancreatic cancer this week. This is the same condition which took the lives of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Congressman John Lewis this year. Perhaps, someday, we will have a treatment for this condition. It is being reported that cancer patients are afraid to visit hospitals for fear of catching the virus, I do wonder how many other health conditions are being neglected.

So much more to discuss – the demographic voter breakdowns and the failure of the polls – maybe next week if time permits.

“Til next week – peace.

And There was Dancing in the Streets!

 

From line dancing on Black Lives Matter Plaza in front of the White House, street drum beats in Philadelphia, Rainbow flags in San Francisco, soap bubble blowing in Atlanta and car horns tooting everywhere, America celebrated on Saturday when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were declared the winners of the 2020 Presidential election. Saturday evening both Biden and Harris gave speeches urging a coming together of both sides of the electorate. They reached out and were upbeat in their messages. Their speeches were attended by an audience seated in their cars and trucks whose horns were tooted loudly in approval. The evening’s celebrations were followed by fireworks. There was joy in these celebrations as the country seemed to demonstrate that it felt that it was now safe to let out a long-held collective breath, laugh and cheer!  Women cheered the first woman and woman of color ever elected to national office. Signs were waved with sayings such as “black votes matter”, “black voters matter”, “My VP looks like me”! Congratulations poured in from across the world as other cities also celebrated. In Paris and Germany church bells rang as Europeans celebrated the coming of a new resident of the White House while, in Edinburgh and London fireworks lit the skies and citizens poured into the streets.

These outpourings were reminiscent of the happy scene from the Wizard of Oz when the Munchkins danced around the body of the Wicked Witch of the East who had been felled by a flying house. Only this time there is no flying house and the president is very much alive. In fact, he has not conceded to Joe Biden and intends to ask for recounts in several states.  Politico is reporting that the president does not plan to invite Biden to the White House for a congratulatory visit, nor attend the inauguration in January. This certainly not only indicates the pouting of a poor loser, but a break with the peaceful and polite transitions which underpin our usual election processes.  He held a strange press conference Thursday evening where he slammed the election process, democracy,  and vote counts. MSNBC cut away from this press conference after noting that that statement and other claims about vote rigging which were being made were false. He is also claiming that it was illegal to continue to count ballots arriving after election day (even if properly postmarked) or to continue to count absentee ballots which came in early. Several lawsuits claiming fraud had been dismissed even as more were being filed by his campaign. The candidate and the campaign encouraged his voters to show up at counting centers and monitor the counts.  Conservative websites and talk shows also told supporters to show up.  Many did just that in Arizona. They came armed and in force and stood outside counting centers in attempts at intimidation.  Fake videos and “Stop the Steal” campaigns claiming evidence of burning of ballots, (when cover sheets were actually being destroyed) were being shared by conspiracy supporters. On Sunday the campaign also announced plans to hold rallies in states where they are challenging the election results; in short, even though he has lost the electoral college and the popular vote, the president is still convinced that he has won. Mathematically, the pundits indicate that there is no way that any of the selected state recounts would change the preliminary results. As of Sunday evening, only two Republican Senators - Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah - have congratulated President-elect Biden. Former President George Bush, also a Republican, did call to offer his best wishes, while Senators Graham and Cruz have continued to echo the president and his claims of having won.

Although some states are still counting ballots and have not yet been called, the current tallies are:

Electoral College Votes – 270 needed to win: Biden 290 - The President 214. (Georgia has still not been called and has 16 electoral votes - counts continue in NC and AZ among other states.) AP has called AZ and NV – CNN has not, as of Sunday evening. If neither candidate gets over 50% in Georgia there will be an automatic recount of that state where Biden currently has a slim lead.

Popular Vote totals thus far: Biden – 50.6% - 75,550,480 (highest vote count ever in a Presidential election)

The President: 47.7% of the vote with the second highest total ever (71,188,487) as more people voted in this election than ever before.

Many people have voiced significant complaints about the pre-election polls which predicted an overwhelming Biden win, not the close contests which were seen in many battleground states.  The Washington Post indicated that it is reviewing its processes as it so missed calls in the upper Midwest states. Pollster Frank Luntz claimed on NPR that voters who supported the president chose to either not answer polls or did not respond truthfully due to concerns about ridicule. The breakdowns are still being reviewed but it appeared that the president again captured a majority of the white vote and Biden captured the cities, their suburbs and the majority of minority voters. Seniors long voting Republican, continued that trend but at a lower number, probably due to the handling of the pandemic. Early exit polls demonstrated these trends, but it will take a while until full details are known. Democrats were hoping for a blue wave to follow the wins seen in 2018 mid term elections.  This absolutely did not happen. Although totals are yet incomplete, it appears that several House seats and governorships were lost by the Democrats and challenges to several Republican Senators have fallen short.  Currently Senate seats are evenly distributed and two seats in Georgia are slated for January run-offs, so there will be a wait to see what the end result will be. As things stand, it seems that Mitch McConnell will remain in charge of the Senate.

The President-elect is moving forward with his transition plans, despite all of the smoke-screens being sent up by the president and other lock-step Republicans. Biden has announced a Corono-virus task force consisting of professionals from medical and scientific fields which will be led by former Obama Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy and a former FDA commissioner, David Kessler. The Pandemic has spiraled out of control recently with daily cases nationally, exceeding more than 120,000 a day over the last week.  Numbers in the UK and the European Union have also increased significantly and as this is noted, several countries have rolled back permissions for social gatherings and at bars and restaurants. So, I do hope that this task force hits the ground running as we do need experts to guide this battle against the pandemic. (Oh, presidential chief of staff Mark Meadows – who disdained mask wearing and who recently stated that the administration was no longer attempting to control the virus, has been diagnosed with the virus, as have several other members of the White House staff; when will they learn?)

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COVID stats (NY Times – 11/8/20)

Total US COVID cases: 10,051,300.  Total new cases 11/7 – 126,156. 

Total US deaths:  238,023.  Total new deaths: 1013.  These totals are a 57% increase over the last two weeks. In the US every state is said to have shown an increase in cases in this recent data.

Maryland Totals as of 11/7/20.  Total cases: 152,915. Total new cases: 1410. 

Total deaths: 4,201. Total new deaths: 7.  Maryland has shown an increase of over 7,000 cases from last week and has been averaging more than 1000 cases each day.

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Despite my joy at the election outcome, I continue to have dismay over the actions of the president’s supporters and his behavior as he fans the flames of dissent and conspiracy. Supporters on the right wing are also encouraging continued turmoil. One of the reasons there were so many celebrations on Saturday is that we, as Americans, are so darn tired of this man and his narcissistic ways. We are tired of his lies, his racism, his nods to white supremacists and dictators; we are ashamed of actions taken in the name of Americans as he separated children from their families, left the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accords and interrupted long held international friendships. We are exhausted at the continued chaos and ineptitude shown by this administration and his lack of organized thinking and distorted perception of reality. It was, I guess, too much to think that he would concede and transition quietly. Consequently, January 20, 2021 cannot come soon enough.  Maybe things will improve by next week. What are the odds? Are you also exhausted?

Maybe it is time for a look at the panda cam – he is getting cuter every day.  Crawling, but not yet walking, he is just like a toddler!

‘Til next week – peace.

Suppression, Intimidation, & Litigation

 

 

To me, it is quite amazing to see our Democracy in action this election season from the perspective of each of the two main political parties. While both parties worked hard to register new voters, as we neared the time to vote, actions changed. Republicans, the attorney general and the president started labeling absentee voting or mail-in voting as subject to fraud and discouraged its use. At one point, the president tried to claim there was a difference between the two descriptions, which made no sense. Democrats were encouraging voters to use mail-in voting or early voting as much as possible to lessen exposure to the COVID-19 virus. The president is continuing to hold airport rallies with crowds standing in hangers, mostly unmasked and without social distancing.  In a few instances, the audience, which had been bused to the remote sites by the campaign, were left standing in freezing weather for hours when the buses returns were delayed due to the traffic and weather.  Also, in Florida, crowds of elderly voters stood in the hot sun for hours waiting for him to speak, several were overcome and had to be transported away by ambulances. Polls have shown that Florida seniors, usually reliable Republican voters, are moving away from the president.

VP Biden and Kamala Harris are holding many “car rallies” with supporters sitting in their cars in parking lots and honking their horns in lieu of crowd applause. Former President Barack Obama has joined Biden on the campaign trail in some rallies and has spoken out for him separately in others. They have widened the campaign to the states of North Carolina, Texas, Georgia and Florida, once thought out of reach.

Intimidation: In several states Biden rallies have been subjected to heckling by loud supporters of his opponent. Friday, a Biden campaign bus/car caravan in Texas was surrounded by a group of opponents which slowed down the caravan on a major highway and at one point rammed one of the cars. The FBI is now investigating this incident, but the president tweeted out approval of these intimidating actions, calling the people involved patriots.  In several states so-called militia groups have shown up at the polls; these actions have also been encouraged by the president. In Graham, North Carolina, a March to the Polls event held by Black voters was pepper sprayed after police decided their stop for a few moments of silence to remember blacks killed by police took too long.

Suppression: Republicans have tried to suppress votes in a myriad of ways. One was to limit early voting by allowing fewer voting days, another was permitting fewer ballot drop boxes, and also challenging a drive through voter effort in Harris County Texas where 127,000 plus votes have already been cast (this had been permitted by Texas courts). Republican operatives in Michigan, Illinois and elsewhere have been arrested for sending out misleading robo-calls to black voters primarily, indicating that absentee voters will be subjected to police reviews and other intrusions.

Litigation: The president has announced several times that he plans to declare victory on election night, even though millions of votes will remain to be counted. Several lawsuits have been filed to prevent counting of ballots arriving after election day even though they might have had postmarks prior to November 3^rd. Some have gone to the Supreme Court with mixed results. Military ballots usually come in during the post election period.  In Nevada, challengers are requesting copies of every registered voter’s signature so they can compare and possibly throw out legal votes. Apparently there are more than 300 lawsuits making their way through various courts in preparation for post election challenges.

What to make of all of this?  I do not have the answer to all of these issues, but I do believe that we need to make major changes in our electoral process.

• First, I would make all Federal elections follow a standardized process across the country with the same rules for eligibility, counting of ballots and access to polls (the numbers of registered voters in a given area would determine how many polls should be available, such as in precincts). This would lessen the ability to illegally cut voters from the lists, and suppress voters by limiting polling places. Local officials would maintain the voter rolls, tally ballots and set up election machines (hopefully with a paper trail). I am aware that states would not willingly give up their political powers in the electoral process, but to achieve equity, this should happen.  If multiple states had not gone out of their way to suppress voting and avoid civil rights laws, this would not have been necessary.
• End gerrymandering and the process of the parties choosing their voters and drawing districts to meet their demographics.  Where I live in Maryland there is an example of some of the most egregious gerrymandering in the country - and even though I am a Democrat and will note that this was done by Democrats - it was wrong and, even embarrassing and I spoke out against this at that time. Other examples of this have been reviewed by the Supreme Court, such as in North Carolina. (I understand that both sides do this, but that does not make it right - so if neither side uses this as a voter tool, then we would have better districts.) Non-partisan computer generated districts would be the best for voters and would probably change the face of the Congress, but from what we have seen from the Senate the last four years, that would be an improvement, in my opinion.
• Remove the Electoral College as a factor in deciding elections. This is no longer a useful tool in actually reflecting the will of the people and has resulted in a few larger states getting more attention from campaigns than the rest of the country. In both 2000 and 2016, the candidate collecting the most votes was not declared the winner, due to totals in the Electoral College. This, too, needs to be changed.

So these are just a few of my ideas of changes which should be made. It may take some time to get all of these ideas adopted, but I think there needs to be serious conversation about each of these concerns.  I have other ideas which I will discuss in future weeks, but these impress me as the most important and urgent changes to be made. As of today, national polls have Biden leading the president 51% to 44% in one poll, 52% to 42% in another.  Of course, due to the Electoral College, national results do not matter unless as a driver for voters, so all of the pundits are looking at the upper midwest - Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania, along with Florida  as the must-win states. Maybe by this time next week we shall know who won the election, although I do hope it is sooner as, like most of you, I can barely tolerate this level of uncertainty.

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The COViD statistics this week have been overwhelming as we topped 9 million cases earlier in the week and have streaked up to around 100,000 cases a day by the end of the week.  Almost every state has indicated significant upward changes in cases this past week. Cases across the world are also increasing and Europe is again imposing restrictions for dining out, using bars and holding meetings. 

Here are the latest numbers from October 31st according to the New York Times:

Total US cases: 9,278,400. Total new cases: 84,285.  

Total deaths: 230,879. Total new deaths: 838.

Maryland statistics: Total cases:145,281. New cases: 967. 

Total deaths: 4147. Total new deaths 10.

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As of this date, more than 93 million votes have already been cast. In Texas alone, more than 9 million votes have been filed, which is greater than the final vote total in 2016. The Washington Post shows an interesting map which indicates how many early votes have been cast in each state.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, deep red states such as Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama and Wyoming show some of the lowest percentages as Republicans wait for election day.. So, if you have not voted yet - in Maryland you may still vote early on Monday - then it is time for Election Day. VOTE! 

Til next week - stay calm and carry on as they say! Peace.