Lincoln, The Dakota 38 And The Racialist Falsification Of History [wsws]

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/11/09/dako-n09.html

Lincoln, The Dakota 38 And The Racialist Falsification Of History

Renae Cassimeda
9 November 2020

On October 11, protesters in Portland, Oregon tore down a statue of Abraham Lincoln, leaving the phrase "Dakota 38" spray painted at its base. The attack took place during a protest called the Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage Against Colonialism, organized in opposition to the nationally observed Columbus Day holiday on October 12.

"Dakota 38" is a reference to the Dakota War of 1862, which resulted in the execution of 38 Dakota Sioux Native American men for launching an uprising in Minnesota during the Civil War. This is the largest mass execution in US history. It was also the largest act of executive clemency in US history. Though the Civil War was raging and the fate of the nation hung in the balance in the autumn of 1862, Lincoln personally reviewed the case and reversed the death sentences of 265 other Sioux men. He suffered bitter political recriminations as a result.

The toppled statue of Lincoln (Credit: Twitter/@GlbBreakNews)
https://www.wsws.org/asset/a38207f0-feef-46f7-9630-a38edd0fc425?rendition=image1280

The executions took place during a war which would abolish chattel slavery at the cost of more lives than all other American wars combined. For leading the revolutionary struggle to emancipate 4 million slaves, Lincoln would ultimately pay with his life on April 15, 1865, just six days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

Ripped from this historical context, the tragic events that took place in Minnesota 158 years ago are manipulated to portray Lincoln as a racist no different from those who called for the extermination of the Native populations. This is part of a larger campaign, spearheaded by the New York Times' 1619 Project, to undermine the democratic and egalitarian legacy of America's first two revolutions.

Another Lincoln statue has been targeted for removal on the same grounds as in Portland. On September 29, the University of Wisconsin-Madison student government voted to unanimously approve a resolution to remove a historic Lincoln statue from a main common area on the campus, arguing that it serves as a remnant "of this school's history of white supremacy."

In an email to The College Fix, Robyn George, chair of the Associated Students of Madison's (ASM) Legislative Affairs Committee, argued Lincoln should not be memorialized on account of the "good things he's done for America, such as passing the 13th amendment, [when] in fact, Lincoln ordered the largest execution on American soil: 38 Dakota peoples." ASM's Diverse Engagement Coordinator Chrystal Zhao told the outlet that Lincoln is a "representation of ethnic cleansing of indigenous folks" and claimed that seeing his figure on campus makes students "feel uncomfortable."

Significantly, no social demands were put forward by the October 11 protesters or by the ASM. They make no reference to jobs, hospitals, housing or health care for Native peoples, the most oppressed section of the American population.

The WSWS condemns the destruction of the Lincoln statue in Portland and the broader attack on the 16th president, and rejects the distorted narrative put forward by the petty-bourgeois promoters of identity politics. As always, the best answer to the racialist falsification of history comes from a review of the actual historical record.

The Dakota war: August 17-September 23, 1862

Leading up to the outbreak of conflict in southwestern Minnesota, tensions had been rising for years due to injustices inflicted on the Dakota by the national and state governments, as well as land speculators and business interests that sought to rob them of their ancestral lands.

An estimated 150,000 American settlers had moved into Dakota territory over the course of the decade before the Civil War. Treaties passed between the Dakota Sioux and the US government forced the Native Americans to relinquish nine-tenths of their land. By 1858, the same year Minnesota was admitted to the US as a state, over 7,000 Dakota Sioux were confined to a tiny reservation on a narrow strip of land along the Minnesota River. They were no longer able to fully support themselves in their traditional manner via hunting and agriculture and were dependent on goods, services and annuity payments promised in treaties with the federal government. The Dakota depended on these payments for their survival, but corrupt federal agents and traders would often cheat them out of their money.

The fall harvest in 1861 was poor due to an infestation of cutworms, and the following winter was severe. By late spring, many Native Americans were starving and forced to sustain themselves on roots. When they assembled to receive their annuity payments, the goods and money were late. Reservation traders claimed half of the annuity for payment of goods previously given to the Dakota, even though Dakota Chief Wabasha had never agreed to this transfer of funds. There was promise of a successful fall harvest of corn and vegetables, but rumors circulated that there would be no annuities at all that year.

On August 4, Dakota broke into the Yellow Medicine Upper Agency settlement warehouse to get food and a small group of Minnesota Militia, threatening the use of cannon, fought off the starved and desperate group. Additionally, agents and traders at the Redwood Lower Agency settlement refused to allow Dakota to purchase food on credit, even though they faced starvation. Andrew Myrick, a trader at the Lower Agency, famously expressed the attitude of many American settlers in the region at the time, remarking, "so far as I'm concerned, let them eat grass." The callous statement ignited fury among the Mdewakantonwan band of Dakota, who received their annuities from the Lower Agency traders.

On August 17, four Dakota men who were returning from a hunting expedition killed five white settlers in Acton, Minnesota. Upon hearing news of the killings, Dakota leaders met to discuss the situation and decided to go on the offensive.

The hanging of thirty-eight Dakota Native Americans occurred in Mankato, Minnesota on December 26, 1862, This drawing is from Harper's Weekly, January 17, 1863.
https://www.wsws.org/asset/5948baeb-812e-4e0b-b67e-3d2182fec44b?rendition=image1280

The next morning on August 18, a group of Dakota men led by Taoyateduta (Little Crow), a leader of a Mdewakantonwan band of Dakota, attacked the Lower Agency settlement. The uprising was encouraged by the absence of fighting-age men among the settlers. About one-eighth of Minnesota's entire population of 180,000 fought in Civil War, higher than any other Union state.

A six-week period of fighting ensued in Minnesota and resulted in the bloodiest conflict between Native American and American settlers since the colonial period. The fighting affected tens of thousands of civilians and non-combatants. Over a hundred settlers, mostly women and children, were captured by the Dakota. Terrified by the outbreak of violence, an estimated 20,000 farmers picked up their families, deserted their crops, and fled to St. Paul. Well over 600 white settlers, an estimated 200 soldiers, and as many as 300 Dakota died in the conflict.

Confronted with the combined force of the US military and citizen militia, and facing diminished support for the war among their own ranks as well as neighboring tribes, the Dakota surrendered on September 23 after a bloody defeat at the Battle of Wood Lake. American troops rounded up thousands of Dakota soldiers as well as hundreds of men, women, and children who had nothing to do with the conflict. Soldiers burned crops, destroyed homes, and placed the Dakota Sioux into barbaric internment camps.

Approximately 1,500 Dakota men, women and children were taken into custody. Almost immediately, the military carried out show trials to condemn hundreds of them to death.

The Dakota trials and executions: September 28–December 26, 1862

From September 28 until November 5, nearly 400 Dakota men were tried by a five-man military commission. Prior to Lincoln's final decision in the matter, the majority of the 392 who were convicted—303 Dakota men—were sentenced to death.

Taoyateduta (Little Crow) was a leader in the Mdewakanton band of Dakota and led warriors in battle during the Dakota War 1862. Little Crow retreated in September 1862 and was brutally killed on July 3, 1863 by two white settlers. (Photograph taken in 1858 by A. Zeno Shindler, Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute.)
https://www.wsws.org/asset/47b7d38b-2178-40b6-a45a-396f6fc63ed1?rendition=image1280

In his 2013 study "I Could not Afford to Hang Men for Votes—Lincoln the Lawyer, Humanitarian Concerns, and the Dakota Pardons," legal historian Paul Finkelman, who was then a professor at Albany Law School and is now the President of Gratz College in greater Philadelphia, notes that the Dakota trials were in violation of the traditional rules of war as combatants were put on trial and sentenced to death on the theory that they had not been involved in a legitimate war but rather had participated in some illegal violent activity.

Finkelman writes, "The military tribunal essentially held that there was no meaningful distinction between those who committed what might be regarded as war crimes and those who were merely soldiers or fellow travelers in Little Crow's make-shift army...The standard of guilt was quite simple: anyone who fired a rifle in any form of combat was considered guilty and subject to the death penalty."

The Dakota trials denied counsel for the defendants and were carried out with vengeance and haste by a military commission, appointed by General Henry Hastings Sibley, and comprised of white Minnesota residents who tried the Dakota as murderers instead of belligerents engaged in a legitimately declared war. Finkelman explains, "General Sibley clearly had no real sense of due process or fair trials, as he reviewed the trials that lasted a few minutes and sentenced men to death for non-capital offences on the basis of virtually no evidence." In response to the bloody conflict, the Minnesotans demanded a mass execution.

Trials had been underway for two weeks before Lincoln received news of the planned executions. On October 14, US General John Pope, then head of the newly established War Department of the Northwest, sent a report on the ongoing trials and planned executions to Lincoln, which was read aloud during a cabinet meeting in Washington, DC. Lincoln and his cabinet were deeply disturbed by the news and swiftly moved to prevent any precipitous action in Minnesota.

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles noted in his diary, "I was disgusted with the whole thing; the tone and opinions of the dispatch are discreditable…what may have been the provocation we are not told." Welles suspected that the atrocities inflicted on the Dakota were part of a larger plan to remove all Native Americans from the state. His inclination would prove correct in the years following the trials.

After The battle of Antietam, "The Sunken Road", a well known farm lane used primarily by farmers to bypass Sharpsburg and been worn down over the years by rain and wagon traffic, would come to be called "Bloody Lane" reflecting the carnage of this single deadliest battle in the Civil War. (Library of Congress)
https://www.wsws.org/asset/9e773758-2290-4ae7-b322-aa22d29750a5?rendition=image1280

The detailed account of the Dakota War trials and executions presented by Finkelman provides insight into the extreme care taken by Lincoln in his examination of the trial transcripts. By October 17, General Pope wrote to General Sibley, then head of the 2nd District War Department in Minnesota, that "[t]he President directs that no executions be made without his sanction."

The trials ended November 5. On November 10, directly after General Pope had forwarded the names of the condemned men, Lincoln immediately ordered all evidence be sent directly to him, requesting "the full and complete record of their convictions" and "a careful statement" indicating "the more guilty and influential culprits."

For nearly a month, even as the Civil War raged, Lincoln and his aides painstakingly reviewed the trial transcripts. They discovered a lack of incriminating evidence against most of the accused. The commissioners who had handed down the mass sentences were the very military officials who fought in the war against the Dakota. Under these circumstances, an objective and unbiased verdict was impossible.

University of Minnesota law professor Carol Chomsky notes in her often-cited 1990 study, "The United States-Dakota War Trials: A Study in Military Injustice," that Lincoln faced immense pressure to rubber stamp the mass execution of all 303 Dakota men. Multiple reports forwarded to Lincoln warned if there were not executions, gangs of settlers would carry out mass murder of not only the 300 defendants, but of women and children. In response to reports that Lincoln might not have carried out the full order, the Stillwater Messenger demanded blood. Its November 11 headline screamed, "DEATH TO THE BARBARIANS! Is the sentiment of our people."

Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey and military officers involved in the conflict, threatened the outbreak of mob rule if the executions did not take place. "I hope the execution of every Sioux Indian condemned by the military court will be at once ordered," Ramsey declared, "It would be wrong upon principle and policy to refuse this. Private revenge would on all this border take the place of official judgment on these Indians."

When forwarding the trial transcripts to Lincoln General Pope also included a call for all the executions to be approved. The letter from Pope, Chomsky explains, "warned [Lincoln] that the people of Minnesota, perhaps combined with some of the soldiers, would take matters into their own hands and kill 'all the Indians — old men, women, and children,' if the President did not allow all the 303 executions to go forward. If the President proved reluctant to decide, he suggested the condemned be turned over to the state government."

Lincoln's first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet July 22, 1862. Lincoln would issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. Painting by Francis B. Carpenter. Library of Congress.
https://www.wsws.org/asset/19722a08-c0d1-4728-af21-a737cb56df4f?rendition=image1280

Republican Minnesota Senator Morton Wilkinson and representatives Cyrus Aldrich and William Windom wrote to Lincoln reciting stories of rapes and mutilation "well known to our people" and protesting any decision to pardon or reprieve the Dakota. If Lincoln did not permit the executions, they said, "the outraged people of Minnesota would dispose of these wretches without law. These two peoples cannot live together. We do not wish to see mob law inaugurated in Minnesota, as it certainly will be, if you force the people to it."

Even the US Senate—controlled by Republicans—passed a resolution introduced by Senator Wilkinson in early December demanding that Lincoln carry out the executions.

Reverend Henry Whipple, a Minnesota Episcopal clergyman sympathetic to the plight of the Dakota, visited the president in the White House as the conflict was raging in September and painted a picture of the brutality faced by the tribe. Lincoln reportedly responded that his encounter with Whipple had shaken him to his core, noting that the Reverend "talked to me about the rascality of this Indian business until I felt it down to my boots."

After careful consideration of the case, Lincoln decided to commute the sentences of 265 Dakota and to not overturn the executions ordered by the military tribunal of 39, writing their names out in various phonetical interpretations to ensure there would be no mistakes. Additionally, recognizing the real threat of vigilante violence in Minnesota, Lincoln ordered that the remaining prisoners be held, "subject to further orders, taking care that they neither escape, nor are subjected to any unlawful violence."

In a letter to the Senate dated December 11, 1862, outlining his decision on the matter, Lincoln wrote, "Anxious to not act with so much clemency as to encourage another outbreak on the one hand, nor with so much severity as to be real cruelty on the other, I caused a careful examination of the records of trials to be made, in view of first ordering the execution of such as had been proved guilty of violating females." Lincoln said that only two Dakota men could be proven to have violated women. He then explained that he attempted to distinguish those who participated in "massacres" from those participating in "battles," which considerably reduced the number of death sentences. One additional Dakota man would be commuted days prior to the December 26 executions based on additional evidence, bringing the number of those executed to 38.

Minnesota settlers flee from the Dakota uprising in 1862. (Photographer: Adrian J. Ebell, Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society)
https://www.wsws.org/asset/b9520e6d-a4b3-4aae-9de5-fd8a445cd833?rendition=image1280

In the seminal book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown notes that information was released later that two of the men hung were not on Lincoln's list, and many had maintained their innocence until the very end. One of those was a young Dakota, Rdainyanka, who was the son-in-law of Chief Wabasha, who had encouraged their surrender, promising that it would ensure no future loss of life. In a final letter to his father-in-law Chief Wabasha, Rdainyanka wrote:

    Wabasha - You have deceived me, you told me that if we followed the advice of General Sibley and gave ourselves up to the whites all would be well; no innocent man would be injured. I have not killed, wounded, or injured a white man or any white persons. I have not participated in the plunder of their property; and yet today I am set apart for execution...When my children are grown up, let them know that their father died because he followed the advice of his chief and without having the blood of a white man to answer for to the Great Spirit.

Lincoln's distinction between the Dakota's participation in "battles" versus "massacres" also uprooted the entire public narrative about the wars against the Native peoples and acknowledged, through the framework of the laws of war, the legitimacy of the Dakota's cause.

In this context, his decision to consider the Native American defendants as "people" who had the right to the presumption of innocence exemplifies a far more humane approach than that of the political parties, courts, settlers, and land speculators who by and large had at every turn throughout American history supported the removal of Native Americans from their land without any consideration for their rights.

The line of presidents that preceded Lincoln, dating back to Andrew Jackson, supported as state policy something that today would be defined as ethnic cleansing. This policy would reemerge with a vengeance with the explosive growth of American capitalism after the Civil War. Lincoln's approach proved to be only a pause in this chain of dispossession and violence.

Lincoln's early experiences with Native Americans

His own personal experiences with Native Americans provide insight into Lincoln's careful decision concerning the Dakota.

Lincoln came of age in a climate of tremendous prejudice against Native Americans. He was himself from the backwoods of the trans-Appalachian frontier, having been born in Kentucky and moved to southern Indiana in 1816, then to the Illinois frontier in 1830. The uncertainty and danger of living in the backwoods and in close proximity to Native Americans was ever present.

Lincoln and General McClellan on the battlefield in Sharpsburg, Maryland in October 1862 after the battle of Antietam September 22 1862, the single bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Photographed by Alexander Gardener.
https://www.wsws.org/asset/b30103b1-9b8b-4976-b724-ebb1c346d8c0?rendition=image1280

This was most certainly the case for Lincoln's family, as his grandfather, Abraham Lincoln Sr., was killed by a small group of Shawnee Native Americans during a raid on their farm in Kentucky in 1786. Lincoln's father, Thomas, was eight years old when he witnessed his father's murder and his older brother Mordecai shoot a Native American dead. The event would have a profound impact on the family.

In writing to a relative in 1863, Lincoln wrote that of all the stories relative to his ancestry, "the story of my grandfather's death and of uncle Mordecai, then fourteen years old, killing one of the Indians is the legend more strongly than all others imprinted among my mind and memory."

At just 23 years old, Lincoln enlisted in the Illinois militia to fight in the Black Hawk War of 1832. He was made the commander of his unit, and though prepared to fight the Sauk tribe, he was able to ensure that his company never engaged in combat. He witnessed the war's atrocities as well as the resulting removal of the Sauk from northwest Illinois to a reservation in Iowa.

Lincoln encountered the aftermath of battles and therefore saw with his own eyes the brutal style of warfare with the Sauk. After the American defeats at Stillman's Run and the Second Battle at Kellogg's Grove, Lincoln and his company were given the somber and gruesome task of gathering and burying the dead. Near Ottawa, Illinois, Lincoln and his unit also encountered the bloody result of a massacre in which soldiers, women and children had been mutilated and killed.

Lincoln statue on Bascom Hill at University of Wisconsin-Madison, the recent subject of removal by student government. (Photo by Riley Steinbrenner)
https://www.wsws.org/asset/8422df85-45e1-499f-be94-3adfef8b88b4?rendition=image1280

Towards the end of the war, Lincoln's company buried a cadre of scouts that had been attacked. Lincoln recalled, "I remember just how those men looked. . . as we rode up the little hill where their camp was. The red light of the morning sun was streaming upon them as they lay, heads toward us, on the ground, and every man had a round, red spot on the top of his head, about as big as a dollar, where the redskins had taken his scalp. It was frightful, but it was grotesque, and the red sunlight seemed to paint everything all over."

Despite his horrific experiences during the Black Hawk War, Lincoln recognized the complexity of relations with the Native Americans and maintained an appreciation for their cultures and individual humanity.

On one occasion during the Black Hawk War, Lincoln's unit was camped in Henderson County, Illinois, when an old man from the Potawatomi tribe arrived and presented a letter of introduction and safe passage from US Secretary of War Lewis Cass. Lincoln's men took the man to be a spy and were set to kill him.

William G. Greene, Illinois militiaman and close friend to Lincoln, remembered the encounter, "Mr. Lincoln in the goodness & kindness and humanity & justice of his nature stood—got between the Indian and the outraged men—saying—'Men this must not be done—he must not be shot and killed by us.' Some of the men remarked—'The Indian is a damned Spy.' Still Lincoln stood between the Indian and the vengeance of the outraged soldiers—brave, good & true." The company threatened to attack Lincoln, but backed down after he challenged them to choose their weapons and fight him.

The Dakota war in the context of the Civil War: July–December, 1862

By 1862 it was clear that the Civil War would be long and bloody. As the year was ending, Union casualties exceeded 100,000, the national debt was accumulating, and many—even within Lincoln's own party—began to refer to the war as "Lincoln's War," and called for a truce with the South even if it meant the continuation of slavery.

The Battle of Shiloh in April 1862 stunned the nation. It resulted in 13,000 casualties and 1,750 dead in a few days of fighting. In the summer of 1862, General George B. McClellan failed in his bid to capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy. The Union army was humiliated at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Virginia in late August, even as the Sioux uprising was taking place in Minnesota, suffering another 14,000 casualties. Then in September, Confederate General Robert E. Lee launched his Maryland campaign, invading the North and threatening Washington, DC itself.

The Lincoln administration was thrown into crisis. The longer the war went on, the more the Democratic Party in the North, which backed peace with the Confederacy, gained support.

Portion of condemned Dakota prisoners ordered by Lincoln, 1862. (Minnesota Historical Society)
https://www.wsws.org/asset/14cf0de3-8702-47c6-8bde-80f6ddee7e2c?rendition=image1280

It was in this context that the Dakota War broke out. Assumptions of conspiracy were common. The New York Times wrote that "the Indians are in league with the rebels," reporting that the outbreak of violence in Minnesota was the product of Confederate manipulation across the entire frontier. Military commanders warned that thousands of Native Americans would rise up in arms and deliver the west to the Confederacy. In October 1861, the Confederate government had formally recognized a faction of the Cherokee as a separate nation in Oklahoma. Lincoln wrote that "the relations of the government with the Indian tribes have been greatly disturbed by the insurrection."

As the Dakota War was raging, Lincoln implemented a pivotal change. On September 22, five days after the Union Army stopped Lee's invasion of Maryland at Antietam—still the bloodiest day in American history—Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation proclaiming "as an act of justice" and "military necessity", the freedom of slaves in all states or portion of states in rebellion against the US effective January 1, 1863. From this point forward, Lincoln would wage an uncompromising and increasingly violent struggle against the Confederacy to restore the Union and wipe slavery off the map for good.

The Dakota trials took place on the eve of the national elections of 1862, which became a referendum on Lincoln's war policy. Democrats, who ran an openly racist campaign against Lincoln and the "Black Republican party," won a 27-seat swing in the House of Representatives on a peace platform. Republicans lost control of state legislatures in the critical states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York due to war weariness and opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln needed the support of settlers in Republican strongholds like Minnesota.

On December 11, the same day Lincoln announced his decision to the Senate regarding the Dakota executions, Union forces under General Ambrose Burnside engaged in a bitter four-day conflict with Confederate troops under General Lee at Fredericksburg, resulting in another crushing defeat for the Union on December 15. It was the largest battle fought during the Civil War to that point, with an estimated 200,000 soldiers present, and would result in 12,000 Union and 5,400 Confederate casualties, dealing a devastating blow to Union confidence in the war. When Lincoln heard of the outcome, he is reported to have said, "If there is a worse place than Hell, then I am in it."

In this historical context, Lincoln exhibited a level of humanity in the Dakota case that few others in his situation would have been capable of.

If he had been guided by short-term political calculations, Lincoln would have had every reason to simply allow the military tribunal's order to execute all 303 Dakota men to take place. Lincoln was aware of the backwardness and racism that existed toward Native Americans, just as he was of racism toward blacks. Yet he did not make concessions to these tendencies, even within his own party. Lincoln's larger strategy involved elevating the consciousness of the population. His aim throughout the war was to tactfully mitigate the powerful racist tendencies that did exist and that were an objective block on his war policies.

In view of these facts, we join fully in Marx's assessment, written in the name of the International Working Men's Association on news of Lincoln's assassination, that he was "one of the rare men who succeed in becoming great, without ceasing to be good."

Conclusion

Those who denounce Lincoln for the execution of the 38 Dakota men, ordered and carried out by the Minnesota military tribunal, do so on the grounds of moral absolutes abstracted from history and the class struggle.

It is the same sort of approach to the past that Engels criticized long ago: "Its conception of history, in so far as it has one at all, is therefore essentially pragmatic; it divides men who act in history into noble and ignoble and then finds that as a rule the noble are defrauded and the ignoble are victorious."

The moralistic attack on Lincoln is in reality an attack on the great struggle he led: the Civil War, the Second American Revolution. To Marxists, the instinctive class hatred of the petty bourgeoisie for history's revolutions is nothing new. The moralizers also wag their fingers at the English Civil War, the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, the French Revolution and, most of all, the Russian Revolution.

In his 1938 essay "Their Morals and Ours," Leon Trotsky argued against those who, under the banner of morality, equated the October Revolution with Stalinism and associated the actions of Trotsky and Lenin with the crimes of the Stalinist bureaucracy. Such arguments were used to discredit the Russian Revolution of 1917. Trotsky referenced the American Civil War and Lincoln and in so doing stressed that historical events and figures cannot be judged solely on the basis of bourgeois morality:

    We leave to some Emil Ludwig or his ilk the drawing of Abraham Lincoln's portrait with rosy little wings. Lincoln's significance lies in his not hesitating before the most severe means once they were found to be necessary in achieving a great historic aim posed by the development of a young nation. The question lies not even in which of the warring camps caused or itself suffered the greatest number of victims. History has different yardsticks for the cruelty of the Northerners and the cruelty of the Southerners in the Civil War. A slave-owner who through cunning and violence shackles a slave in chains, and a slave who through cunning or violence breaks the chains – let not the contemptible eunuchs tell us that they are equals before a court of morality!

The events in Minnesota took place in the immediate context of the Civil War, and the revolutionary fight against the powerful slaveholding oligarchy that ruled the South. Lincoln, as the leader of this revolutionary struggle, had to subordinate all other questions to the war, which hung on a knife's edge in the fall and winter of 1862. It is to Lincoln's credit that even in this desperate scenario he did not concede to the bloodlust of the Minnesota politicians and military officers.

The Dakota people were entirely justified in opposing the seizure of land by Minnesota settlers. They faced dispossession and as a result of their defeat they were largely driven out of the state. The immense crimes committed against the Dakota and all other Native populations of North America, a history that stretches back to colonial times, can never be washed away.

Yet this historical tragedy cannot be understood through the lens of petty-bourgeois moralizing. The history of conflict between the Americans and the Natives is bound up with the emergence of capitalism. The indigenous peoples could not be reconciled to the private ownership of land, and so they were dispossessed. When they fought back, they faced savage reprisals again and again.

The history of capitalist oppression of Native Americans continues to the present. The toppling of the Lincoln statue in Portland does nothing to benefit Native Americans, who are the most impoverished and oppressed segment of the American population. They face the shortest life expectancy, highest rates of substance abuse, domestic violence, and joblessness in the country, as well as a general lack of access to health care and basic necessities on the reservations.

A reckoning for the crimes of the past can only come through the fight for socialism in a struggle against capitalism and its many political apologists. This requires an unflinching defense of America's revolutionary heritage, including Abraham Lincoln.

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Brandon Ingram is the first Pelicans player with 80 Pts, 20 Reb and 20 Ast through the team's first 3 games of a season. The only player to do it for any team last season was Luka Doncic

Biden will invoke Defense Production Act to boost Covid19 vaccine production
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/28/biden-will-invoke-defense-production-act-to-boost-covid-vaccine-production-advisor-says.html

Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul sentenced to 5 years, eight months jail for driving a car and advocating for women's rights...
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1343503382594596864

China has built nearly 2 million square metres of factories in camps in Xinjiang, focused in the Uyghur and Kazakh heartlands of southern and western Xinjiang. Aerial photos.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alison_killing/xinjiang-camps-china-factories-forced-labor

Louie Gohmert has sued Mike Pence, asking a court to give Pence "exclusive authority" to decide which Electoral College votes to count at the January 6th congressional session (no, this won't work).
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=120074
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1343617713818619904?s=20

The House of Representatives is expected to pass a bill Monday evening to increase direct coronavirus19 relief payments to some people to $2,000, but the measure faces an uphill battle in the Republican-run Senate, despite support from President Trump.
https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1343621758998478848

As expected, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has illegally and unconstitutionally overturned legal and constitutional lower court rulings out of California & Maryland that legally and constitutionally blocked Trump's illegal and unconstitutional census apportionment memo. What this means is that the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has further cleared the path for Trump to try to exclude minorities and lgbtq and refugees and immigrants from census numbers that the Constitution says must include the "whole number of persons in each state." Republican will use the incomplete severely uncounted census numbers used for underfunding everything to force everybody to exclude minorities and lgbtq and refugees and immigrants from everything. Republican will also use the incomplete severely uncounted census numbers to reallocating congressional seats and Electoral College votes (which idiot Trump thinks can be used to overturn the election results). Those state population counts are legally due to the executive branch this Thursday, Dec. 31, the 1st step in a handoff process for apportionment numbers that the House clerk certifies. But for months, the Census Bureau's been on track to miss that deadline because they understand that undercounting is an act of terrorism against America. The process for reapportioning congressional seats may end up taking place during the administration of President-elect Joe Biden, who has condemned Trump's plan to exclude unauthorized immigrants from apportionment counts and said "in America, everyone counts."
https://democracydocket.com/cases/georgia-runoff-challenge-5/

Even after landing Blake Snell, the Padres are deep into talks to acquire Yu Darvish from the Cubs
https://twitter.com/dennistlin/status/1343616195149193218

Padres also have been looking for catching help. Could potential Darvish deal with Cubs be expanded to include Contreras or Caratini?
https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1343624565424054272

Didn't they literally just get Austin Nola?

Hearing from rival teams that the Padres are still interested in Cubs right-hander Yu Darvish, even after landing Blake Snell last night.
https://twitter.com/r_j_anderson/status/1343609905685655553

Morey was fined for an anniversary tweet on a past Harden accomplishment with Rockets that popped up on his twitter feed. He deleted it several minutes later. Morey told league it was an inadvertent post from an automated app, sources said.
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1343634855100379136

Imagine setting a schedule on an app to automatically do something, then forget, and it cost you 50k. That's like WSB levels of losing money.

Chris Paul tells Luke Walton to call a timeout after a Suns run, Luke Walton proceeds to call a timeout
https://streamable.com/jw1ejm

Anthony Davis (right calf) will play Monday against Portland, while LeBron James' playing status (left ankle) is still to be determined
https://twitter.com/mcten/status/1343636312058818560

"This is the most significant piece of climate and energy legislation enacted by Congress in at least a decade," said Dan Lashof, director of the World Resources Institute, a Washington-based global research nonprofit. The bipartisan effort comes as President-elect Biden hopes to pick up a more climate-conscious America.
nbcnews.com
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/major-climate-change-measures-included-covid-aid-bill-n1252422

An independent Chinese journalist who reported from Wuhan at the height of the initial coronavirus19 outbreak has been jailed for four years by a Shanghai court, her lawyer said Monday
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/28/asia/china-journalist-zhang-zhan-intl-hnk/index.html

Impressive how fast Israel is vaccinating its population. They are already at 4.3%. And within the last 24 hours they reported that an additional 1% of their population received the first dose of the vaccine.
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

For the fourth time in five days, Trump is golfing at his namesake club in West Palm Beach. By CNN's count, this Trump's 424th day at one of his properties and 311th day at one of his golf clubs during his presidency.
https://twitter.com/JasonHoffman93/status/1343628382878261248

Trump in 2016: 'I don't have time' for golf. This came after criticizing former President Obama for golfing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPANJQ6O9bU

Trump is going to play everyday to keep making $ off the American people.  He will grift until he stops breathing.

January 1 is Public Domain Day! Works published in 1925 are (finally) entering the US public domain. The Great Gatsby, The Trial (in German), Mrs. Dalloway, early Hemingway, Ma Rainey, Buster Keaton!  See what else will be open to all: https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2021/

Facebook "took the concept of "community and sapped it of all moral meaning. The rise of QAnon is one of the social web's logical conclusions. That's because Facebook... is perfect for amplifying and spreading disinformation at lightning speed"
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/12/facebook-doomsday-machine/617384/

There are a lot of major takeaways from the fiasco that Dwayne Haskins' 2 seasons were in DC. The most important thing to remember is that he was Dan Snyder's pick. The football people in the building did not want to draft him and the owner hijacked the pick and did it anyway.

JoeBiden: The challenges we face today can't be solved with any, by any one country acting alone. They demand American leadership. They demand cooperation with our allies and our partners.

Read the twenty most-viewed bills from 2020 and check out the latest #Congressdotgov enhancements. You can now consolidate your saved search alerts into one email.
https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2020/12/congress-gov-new-tip-and-top-20-in-2020/?loclr=twtho

Fact check: Stalin likely didn't say quote about 'those who count the votes decide everything' https://usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/11/10/fact-check-quote-vote-counting-misattributed-joseph-stalin/6190020002/

Countries that once avoided upsetting China are moving closer to Washington's harder stance-to curb Chinese access to customers, technology and sensitive infrastructure.
https://wsj.com/articles/pushback-xi-china-europe-germany-beyond-u-s-11609176287

Stacey Abrams: "While Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have profited from the pandemic, they have done absolutely nothing to stand up to Mitch McConnell. They have done nothing to demand access to these resources for families. We have 161,000 Georgians who face eviction."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1343625261267394561

Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley and Cass Eliot etc died too young yet live forever

Nets are resting Kyrie Irving tonight, Nets say. Both Durant and Irving out vs. Memphis.
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1343652556057272322

Statement from former Washington QB Dwayne Haskins: This is your moment to show how you have grown and it's like half a paragraph typed out on your iPhone, with truncatations and bad grammar. Probably written on a strip club cocktail napkin.
https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1343627308142358528

Frank Gore will not play Week 17. He has a lung contusion.
https://twitter.com/Connor_J_Hughes/status/1343634554712698880

The Lions have informed starting safety Jayron Kearse of his release, source said, and he'll go on waivers today. The former Viking started 7 games in Detroit with 59 tackles. An experienced DB who could potentially help a contender in the playoffs.

If the Titans, Colts, Ravens, Browns, and Dolphins were to all win in week 17, then the Colts would miss the playoffs at 11-5

Judge Denies 'Flight Risk' Ghislaine Maxwell's Second Attempt to Get Out of Jail Ahead of Jeffrey Epstein-Related Trial
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/judge-denies-flight-risk-ghislaine-maxwells-second-attempt-to-get-out-of-jail-ahead-of-jeffrey-epstein-related-trial/

Trump quietly settled another assault lawsuit from his 2016 race. His campaign agreed this month to pay $20k to Rod Webber, who was thrown headfirst into a table after he tried to ask Trump a question during a 2015 event in New Hampshire
https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20437951-the-trump-campaign-agrees-to-pay-20000-to-settle-2015-assault-claim

Not to get stuck on this Gohmert lawsuit, but my mind's still blown. It repeatedly refers to the fake resolution signed by legislators *but never introduced or passed* as if it's real. "The State of Arizona" appointed its electors; these guys just copied some letterhead.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EqWl-A_XIAA4GEF?format=jpg&name=large

Let's say I copied Texas's marriage certificate, and filled it out to say that Kathy Gohmert had married, I dunno, Lyle Lovett in 1992. What would Louie Gohmert do? Would he consider this a valid, competing marriage certificate?
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1343662791870324737

Let's say I copied Texas's marriage certificate, and filled it out to say that Kathy Gohmert had married, I dunno, Lyle Lovett in 1992. What would Louie Gohmert do? Would he consider this a valid, competing marriage certificate?
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1343664995465388034

There is a criminal penalty for claiming a joint resolution exists that does not exist. That is the textbook version of fraud.

That Trump tweet about Pennsylvania votes is an obvious lie.

This lawsuit reminds me of "Army of Darkness," when Ash can't remember the magic phrase ("Klaatu Barada Nikto"), coughs the last word, and says "I SAID IT!" in the hopes that the magic spirits won't notice: Coincidentally, that's ALSO how many "procedural differences" there are between the 12th Amendment and the Electoral Count Act, because the 12th Amendment has no procedure for resolving objections
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EqWkQuhXUAAp4ek?format=png&name=900x900
https://twitter.com/AkivaMCohen/status/1343660678306025481

The number of House delegations, if you'll recall back to the screenshot of the 12th Amendment from earlier in the thread, comes into play only if no candidate gets the majority of the votes from the appointed Electors.
https://twitter.com/AkivaMCohen/status/1343660930782162945 

A small price to pay for Curry lack of calls. And what about all the missed calls for the other 46 minutes of the game?...: According to NBA's L2M report, not only should Warriors have been called for 5-second violation on inbounds play with 5 seconds left but Kevon Looney committed an offensive foul setting a screen on Coby White that went uncalled.
https://twitter.com/KCJHoop/status/1343649334932471816

...isn't the point of the stimulus checks to, you know, stimulate the economy?...: Kevin Brady says he opposes $2,000 checks because it would go toward people paying down credit card debt or making "new purchases online at Wal-Mart, Best Buy or Amazon." Funny, how people spent money didn't seem to be a huge concern when Republicans passed their tax cut bill.

The Mausoleo di Augusto, which was built to house the remains of Rome's first emperor, Augustus, was once visible from all over the city. After 2,000 years of abandonment, it is finally being opened to the public.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/augustus-tomb-rome-opening/index.html?utm_content=2020-12-28T22%3A11%3A40

On the $2,000 checks: Republican members in Congress who oppose it facilitated this just two years ago: Right pointing backhand index $806 billion in stock buybacks from large corporations
https://apnews.com/article/438fae12f9204b1fbd8e8b1985ae554f 

Nursing home residents make up less than 1% of Iowa's population, but they account for nearly a third of the state's Covid19 deaths. Vaccinations began in facilities today.
https://desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2020/12/28/covid-19-vaccinations-begin-iowa-nursing-homes-assisted-living-centers/4041480001/

The Rebulican governor Bill Lee (covid19 denier....) of Tennessee has asked for emergency federal assistance to deal with the infrastructure damage and business district damage to Nashville. Trump has not responded. Nashville Mayor says he has not heard from Trump after Christmas Day bombing.
https://fox17.com/news/local/nashville-mayor-says-he-has-not-heard-from-president-trump-after-christmas-day-bombing

49ers CB Richard Sherman (calf) will be out again this week, according to Kyle Shanahan, which makes it possible Sherman has played his last game as a Niner.
https://twitter.com/nwagoner/status/1343690535022833668

"All politicians lie," people say. This is a dodge because Trump is in a category of his own. Only pure evil hatred of everything in existence makes people worship everything Trump says and does.

We should never get used to the fact that POTUS is sharing completely deranged, false conspiracy theory nonsense in an effort to overturn a lawful election.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1343069190433943564

Bernie will filibuster any attempt from McConnell tomorrow to schedule veto override unless Senate votes on $2,000 checks. Could push override to New Year's Day. "The American people are desperate, and the Senate has got to do its job before leaving town"
https://politico.com/news/2020/12/28/bernie-sanders-filibuster-delay-defense-veto-override-451697

Adidas developing plant-based leather material that will be used to make shoes...material made from mycelium, which is part of fungus. Company produced 15 million pairs of shoes in 2020 made from recycled plastic waste collected from beaches and coastal regions
https://www.businessinsider.com/adidas-developing-plant-based-leather-shoes-2020-12

The U.S. military on Monday acknowledged that it had moved the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off the coast of Somalia as it prepares to transfer nearly all American troops from the country to other parts of Africa
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/531867-pentagon-acknowledges-aircraft-carrier-off-somalia-coast-as-it-relocates

Trae goes behind the back to finish the tricky layup
https://streamable.com/f971uu

Rams' QB Jared Goff underwent surgery today on his broken right thumb in LA and is unlikely to play Sunday vs. Arizona, sources tell ESPN. If he can't play Sunday, Goff could return for the playoffs if Rams advance there. John Wolford is Goff's backup and now in line to start.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1343712380711276548

Kelly Loeffler's WNBA team became her most passionate opponent: Elizabeth Williams and the Atlanta Dream were key to Raphael Warnock's rise. The WNBA players have no plans to step back now.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mollyhensleyclancy/georgia-senate-race-loeffler-wnba-warnock

SIGH.............Ja Morant left Monday's game vs the Nets in a wheelchair. Ankle sprain: Morant landed on the foot of a Nets player after trying to block a shot. It appears to be a left ankle injury.
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1343730848949018624 

Sources confirm to that the full deal is Yu Darvish and Victor Caratini going to the Padres and the Cubs receiving Zach Davies and prospects Reginald Preciado, Owen Caissie, Yeison Santana, Ismael Mena
https://twitter.com/sahadevsharma/status/1343746710259060736 

 Donald Trump issues Proclamation on 850th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket...."Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" 

What a gut punch to Cubs fans. Traded their ace for one year of a back of the rotation SP, plus four 45 grade prospects with a 2024 ETA. No wonder Theo jumped ship.

The Padres top 5 prospects are all on MLBPipeline's top 100 list. The Padres only had to trade one (Luis Patino) to acquire Blake Snell and Yu Darvish.
https://www.mlb.com/prospects/padres/

Nikola Jokic is the first center to have 18+ assists in a game since Wilt Chamberlain in 1968.

Lu Dort tonight: 26 Points on 9-11 shooting and 5-7 from 3 in the loss vs Utah

The Denver Nuggets (1-2) defeat the Houston Rockets (0-2) 124-111 behind a career high 18 assists from Nikola Jokic who put on a passing clinic. He also had 19pts and 12rebounds

The Blazers relentlessly attacked Montrezl Harrell late in the fourth to hold onto their lead over the Lakers. It didn't go well for Trez...
https://streamable.com/uqhrj4

Through the first 42 minutes of the match Donovan Mitchell scored just 8 points on 3/15 shooting. He ended up scoring Utah's final 12 points, including the game winner with 7 seconds left, to secure a 1 point victory.

James Harden (28) and Christian Wood (20) have combined for 48 of the Rockets 60 points at halftime.

Bills fans right now: "So this is what this feels like" (going to the playoffs)
Patriots fans right now: So this is what this feels like" (not going to the playoffs)

Bill Bellichick is lookin' a little angry there
https://twitter.com/mysportsupdate/status/1343753070258348034?s=21

Allen with his 34th touchdown pass of the season, breaking Jim Kelly's single-season franchise record
https://streamable.com/9oa0ng

I was happy to see Cam Newton get another chance but I think it's safe to say he's finishing his career as a backup

The New England Patriots will finish the season with a sub .500 record for the first time since 2000

#Patriots have benched QB Cam Newton. Jarrett Stidham is now in at QB for New England.

Diggs makes the catch and breaks the tackle to get into the endzone, as Allen ties Jim Kelly's Bills record for most touchdown passes in a single season
https://streamable.com/saecki

the Bills have recorded at least TWENTY FIRST DOWNS in EVERY SINGLE GAME THIS YEAR they are just the second team in NFL history to record at least twenty first downs in their first 15 games of the season (2012 Patriots)
https://twitter.com/SharpFootball/status/1343771590178320391

Rams' QB John Wolford is expected to start on Sunday vs. Arizona and LA now plans to sign Blake Bortles off Denver's practice squad to be his backup.
https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1343733125613047810

Child labor in palm oil industry tied to Girl Scout cookies
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/child-labor-palm-oil-industry-tied-girl-scout-74943898

7 year old girl first killed then gang raped by her own cousins (Islamic terrorists) in Pakistan , her body later found in a drain in a shocking incident of pedophilia, necrophilia, incest all at the same time.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2277760/minor-girl-sexually-assaulted-after-being-strangled-to-death-near-lahore

California Democrats allow thousands of sex offenders to be released early in State Supreme Court ruling
https://www.latimes.com/metro/story/2020-12-28/california-supreme-court-sex-offenders-early-parole 

Since January, 11 Afghan journalists and media workers have been killed, making this one of the deadliest years...since the end of Taliban rule in 2001....Five journalists [were] killed in the past two months.
https://washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/targeted-killings-of-journalists-are-on-the-rise-across-afghanistan/2020/12/26/a2a2103c-3efc-11eb-b58b-1623f6267960_story.html

Padres have control of all of the following players through 2023:
• Fernando Tatis Jr.
• Manny Machado
• Blake Snell
• Dinelson Lamet
• Wil Myers
• Trent Grisham
• Jake Cronenworth
• Chris Paddack
• Austin Nola
• MacKenzie Gore
(Hosmer and Clevinger through 2022)

Judge Dismissed Hunter Biden Laptop Repairman's Lawsuit Against Twitter The Same Day It Was Filed
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/judge-dismissed-hunter-biden-laptop-repairmans-lawsuit-against-twitter-the-same-day-it-was-filed/

Japan to create first wooden satellites that completely burn up on re-entry to eliminate space junk
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japan-wooden-satellite-space-junk-b1779829.html

Fatal freshwater skin disease in dolphins linked to climate crisis
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/29/fatal-freshwater-skin-disease-in-dolphins-linked-to-climate-crisis

McConnell blocks Trump's request to increase stimulus payments to $2,000
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/29/covid-stimulus-update-senate-considers-vote-on-2000-stimulus-checks.html

Cavaliers forward Kevin Love will be re-evaluated in 3-to-4 weeks with a right calf strain.
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1343961422796095489

Hands down, Draymond Green is the greatest defender I have ever seen in 40 years of watching NBA basketball. One of the highest IQ players the NBA has ever seen.
Watching and tracking his defensive rotations are like gazing upon a piece of art. Beautiful basketball.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEO387WEl70

CNN will rigorously fact check President Biden. It's just objective and obvious fact that it takes less time to fact check basically everyone in politics than it takes to do Trump, a staggeringly incessant liar. If you choose to call me biased for stating that fact, feel free.

Do people know of examples of cities that successfully significantly reduced their cost of housing? Not just cities that have managed to keep housing costs low as they've grown, but ones that were inflated and then managed to bring them back down.

New York's recently stiffened anti-SLAPP law can be applied to Sarah Palin's suit against the NY Times, a federal judge ruled. The Times said they're "pleased" with the ruling. No reply from Palin's lawyers yet.
https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/judge-throws-potential-wrench-into-sarah-palins-suit-against-the-new-york-times-finds-anti-slapp-law-can-be-applied/

Mike Tomlin says Mason Rudolph will start Week 17 for the Steelers.
https://twitter.com/andrewsiciliano/status/1343967090600935425

Free agent Didi Gregorius wasn't able to visit hospitals this X-mas due to COVID19, but as part of his Didi's Deeds program he sent gift bags (including #Reds hats) to patients at Cincinnati Children's Hospital & Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, according to his agency
https://twitter.com/ctrent/status/1343960009038770177

Trae Young is averaging more free throw attempts per game (15.3) than the Toronto Raptors (13.5)

The section 230 thing continues to just make me laugh...repealing section 230 would be a disaster for Trump. It would mean his tweets would be taken down left and right. Same for many of his supporters. All of the talk about censorship? Wait til section 230 goes.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1343998076084748288

DC hotel frequented by designated domestic terrorist group "Proud Boys" to close Jan. 4-6, ahead of planned pro-Trump demonstrations. Hotel Harrington announces it's closing for the "safety of visitors and employees" as right-wing chats indicate plans for violence and chaos. The hotel said it will not host guests except for long-term residents and it will provide refunds to all prepaid reservations made for during that time period.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/531933-dc-hotel-frequently-by-proud-boys-to-close-jan-4-6

I never thought it would see it: A Republican president is siding with House Democrats to criticize Senate Republicans for not agreeing to send out $2,000 checks to every American.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1343998076084748288

If there's big, continuous gap between 'doses we have' and 'doses given' it seems like just opening it up and vaccinating whoever is better than letting the doses sit around unused.

The 100 richest people in the U.S. added about $600 billion to their wealth in 2020. That's enough to send a $2,800 check to every adult in the country.
https://bloomberg.com/features/2020-economic-recovery-inequality

Some terrible people built a whole app for finding and promoting COVID19-unsafe large, indoor house parties and they're using TikTok to market it to millions of ppl.
https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/1343994810714058753

Computer repairman suing Twitter for defamation, seeks $500 million. Claims Twitter's blocking his libel and defamation of Hunter Biden amounts to calling him a hacker
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/12/source-in-controversial-ny-post-laptop-story-sues-twitter-for-defamation/

Trump's Operation Warp Speed already admits it won't hit vaccination goals. Officials aimed to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of the month. Only 2 million have been vaccinated
https://www.salon.com/2020/12/28/trumps-operation-warp-speed-already-admits-it-wont-hit-vaccination-goals/

Joe Thesimann, who gave Dwayne Haskins his No. 7, was on the show today. Sounds like at some point Haskins stopped getting back to him. "I reached out at different times to see how he was doing and send my best to him. I never really got a response."
https://twitter.com/i/status/1343988896036757504
https://twitter.com/granthpaulsen/status/1343988896036757504

Jobless Benefits Won't Lapse After Delay, Labor Department Says. Unemployed people claiming federal benefits won't see a one-week gap in their payments, despite the delay in Trump signing the program extension into law, according to the Department.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-29/jobless-benefits-won-t-lapse-after-delay-labor-department-says

When Flynn posted a video taking the QAnon oath, Sidney Powell insisted it was just just a non-Q-specific patriotic oath. When Flynn signed a book with QAnon's WWG1WGA slogan, his son insisted said his dad had "ZERO to do with 'Q.'" and "was asked to write that." About that ...Michael Flynn's official merch store is selling QAnon gear, with ad copy insisting that QAnon is real.
https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1343975505381511168

New York Approves Eviction Moratorium Until May
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/12/29/951042050/new-york-approves-eviction-moratorium-until-may

SIGH: The Chicago #Cubs, after trading Yu Darvish and non-tendering Kyle Schwarber, are now extensively shopping catcher Willson Contreras. Contreras is projected to earn at least $5 million and perhaps as much as $7.4 million in salary arbitration
https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1344013563661221889

Source: #MNTwins have agreed to a deal with RHP Hansel Robles. Struggled last year (10.26 ERA in 16 2/3 IP) but had a 2.48 ERA w/ 75 Ks in 72 2/3 IP in 2019 for the Los Angeles Angels.
https://twitter.com/danhayesmlb/status/1344012889103998977

Three words for the @Padres fan base. I see y'all 👀
https://twitter.com/baueroutage/status/1343741417928048640

What if Bauer ends up back in Cincinnati after all this lmao

Mink infected with the coronavirus19 escapes Oregon fur farm. How many different ways can the animal torture industrial complex threaten humanity? Let me count the ways.
https://www.opb.org/article/2020/12/29/coronavirus-mink-oregon/ 

Hate to see a small market like checks notes *Chicago* not be able to pay their good players

Veteran first baseman Justin Smoak is finalizing a deal with the Yomiuri Giants that will guarantee him somewhere in the $6-7 million, sources familiar with the agreement tell ESPN. Smoak, 34, will join a Giants team that won the Central League but lost in the Japan Series.
https://twitter.com/jeffpassan/status/1344026585398206466

Christopher Johnson has let Adam Gase know internally he will no longer be the HC of NYJ at the end of the season
https://twitter.com/WFAN660/status/1343997067056861185

First known U.S. case of coronavirus19 variant that's considered more transmissible is detected in Colorado. The case involves a male in his 20s who is currently in isolation in Elbert County and has no travel history.
https://washingtonpost.com/health/coronavirus-variant-colorado-us/2020/12/29/8e6379fc-4a01-11eb-a9f4-0e668b9772ba_story.html

source familiar tells me Biden transition couldn't get a meeting with Dept of Defense since 12/18. It follows Biden's warning the transition is encountering obstruction from political leadership at DOD & OMB, denying incoming admin info in key national security areas
https://twitter.com/JacquiHeinrich/status/1344030174656999426

...There are three meetings on the books for this week; one was added today, and two others were approved on the evening of December 23. The Department continues to delay and deny critical meetings and dozens of requests for information."
https://twitter.com/JacquiHeinrich/status/1344030176590647298

Obviously, if McConnell puts Sec 230 repeal and $2,000 checks in one bill, which he said he will do, it will fail in the Senate because all Republicans and Democrats will vote against it. McConnell, before Senate adjournment, started the Rule 14 process to get 2 bills onto the calendar - the House-passed $2,000 bill and: "S.5085, to increase the additional 2020 recovery rebates, to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, and for other purposes." The McConnell bill, which combines the CASH Act ($2000 checks), straight repeal of Section 230, and a "Bipartisan Advisory Committee" (9/9 R/D split) to study the "integrity and administration" of the 2020 election.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eqb7VoEXMAE1cIK?format=png&name=900x900

"Masking has been a divisive issue in this country. But Covid19 is a killer in red states and blue states alike. So I encourage you to wear a mask," Biden says.

Biden says Trump admin not administering doses of covid19 vaccine quickly enough, saying current pace won't get life back to normal in '21: "It's going to take years not months to vaccinate the American people."
https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1344023775474569216

The #Senate has adjourned until 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday December 30th. At 5:00 p.m. tomorrow there will be a live quorum followed immediately by a roll call vote on proceeding to the veto message on the defense authorization.
https://twitter.com/SenatePress/status/1344018334044614656

Chuck Schumer: "Senator McConnell knows how to make $2,000 survival checks reality and he knows how to kill them. If Sen. McConnell tries loading up the bipartisan House-passed CASH Act with unrelated, partisan provisions ... it will not pass the House and cannot become law."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1344040507148623872 

The Speaker's election is expected to take 3-4 hours on Sunday, the opening day of the 117th Congress, done in staggered voting groups, according to expected choreography from House officials today.

The Heat will have about 100 family members and player guests at tonight's game. A small step — but a step toward normalcy again.
https://twitter.com/ByTimReynolds/status/1344029728253083654

Memphis Grizzlies young star Ja Morant will miss 3-to-5 weeks due to Grade 2 left ankle sprain.
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1344038427352829954

The Rams have placed WR Cooper Kupp on the COVID-19 list.
https://twitter.com/FieldYates/status/1344024861329547264

Former #WashingtonFootball Team QB Dwayne Haskins went unclaimed on waivers, league source says. He's a free agent.
https://twitter.com/MikeGarafolo/status/1344031416208732164 

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has retained forensic accounting specialists to aid its criminal investigation of Trump and his business operations, as prosecutors ramp up their scrutiny of his company's real estate transactions. | Vance has contracted with FTI Consulting to look for anomalies among a variety of property deals, and to advise the district attorney on whether the president's company manipulated the value of certain assets to obtain favorable interest rates and tax breaks." To bring criminal charges, the district attorney must be able to prove there was an intent to break the law — which probably would require the testimony of an insider witness, experts have said. Like say, Allen Howard Weisselberg, chief financial officer of The Trump Organization.
https://washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-tax-returns-new-york-investigation/2020/12/29/11c43a38-43c8-11eb-b0e4-0f182923a025_story.html

Operation Warp Speed at a crawl: Adequately vaccinating Americans will take 10 years at current pace
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/current-rate-it-ll-be-10-years-americans-adequately-vaccinated-n1252486

Thousands of Georgia voters will not be removed from registration lists after Stacy Abram's sister illegally and unconstitutionally refused to recuse herself over a case. The decision is illegal and unconstitutional and needs to be reversed and the case retried.
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1344048074440794117

Entire detective squads sick with Covid19. Mass protests. A crisis of confidence. NYPD reflects on 2020, the city's bloodiest year in almost a decade.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/nyregion/nyc-2020-crime-covid.html

Republicans wanted a signature audit in Georgia on mail in ballots.  The results from Cobb County show almost zero issues. 0 out of 15,118. That's how many issues GBI investigators found in Cobb County signature audit. Trump claims major fraud with GA's signature match - but audit shows 99.99% accuracy - only issue a wife who signed both her & husband's ballot.
https://wsbtv.com/news/local/cobb-county/gbi-finishes-signature-audit-cobb-county-finds-only-two-mismatches/ON42CSQBORHYJDBGZKKMPC3YAQ/

Mitch blocks $2k stimulus. Guy with 225k twitter followers blames democrats for "not starting a movement" to overcome McConnell. WTF?
https://twitter.com/umairh/status/1343978677751709697

Straight repeal of 230 is kinda funny, it's just chaos as opposed to the more ambitious "fcc certification to make sure no conservative posts are shadowbanned" bills

Recent reporting revealed that 1 in every 5 people in U.S. prisons has tested positive for Covid-19. We're investigating how federal and state prison systems have responded to the pandemic.
https://www.americanoversight.org/investigation/the-pandemic-in-prisons

Translated into English, McConnell is going to force Democrats to vote against $2,000 checks by bundling it with things they don't like

Plymouth police officer murdered his K-9. Charge him for killing a cop
https://www.wcvb.com/article/k-9-shot-killed-by-police-after-attacking-officer-in-plymouth-massachusetts/35091479

The NBA G League is focusing on Orlando's Disney World campus as bubble site for the 2021 season. @TheAthletic news story on the 18 teams participating in season, and 11 affiliates that are not
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1344056550747480067

Governor Cuomo Announces New Yorkers Can Begin Using New Paid Sick Leave Benefits Starting January 1, 2021 Under State's Nation-Leading Paid Sick Leave Law
https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-new-yorkers-can-begin-using-new-paid-sick-leave-benefits-starting

Trump campaign has filed another SCOTUS challenge, over WI. Not on the brief: Eastman or Sekulow (though Eastman released a supportive statement). On brief: WI attys James Troupis & George Burnett & MA atty Kenneth Chesebro. Petition:
https://cdn.donaldjtrump.com/public-files/press_assets/trump-v-biden-petition-appendix-final.pdf

LA hospitals running out of oxygen because covid19 patients require so much. On Sunday 5 LA hospitals had to turn all ambulances away. Shortage of oxygen canisters, and the pipes that bring oxygen into rooms are overtaxed and can't take it
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-29/oxygen-supply-shortages-bedevil-hospitals-already-overwhelmed-by-covid-19-patients

Fed Govt exerts control over vaccine distribution which is why Governors complain about allocation. 11.4m doses were distributed & 2.1m shots administered according to CDC. The last mile problem is very real for states but not the only challenge.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1344051613216993281

Given that Raffensperger has failed to direct county boards to comply with federal law, Georgia voters' only option is to seek relief in the courts. Today, we requested a temporary restraining order today to stop True The Vote from illegally challenging Georgia voters.
https://twitter.com/fairfightaction/status/1344061570465337344

Lamar Jackson's "off year" will likely be close to 4000 total yards, 30+ TDs and less than 10 INTs with an 11-5 record in 15 games played.
https://twitter.com/bso/status/1344037632037175296

#Titans placed All-Pro punter Brett Kern on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. This comes after they placed K Stephen Gostkowski on the list yesterday...
https://twitter.com/mysportsupdate/status/1344029493833453573

We have placed TE Harrison Bryant and S Andrew Sendejo on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.
https://twitter.com/Browns/status/1344033037013680128

This speculation from the chair of the UK Parliament's defense committee: I wager TRUMP blocking BIDEN's access to US national security agencies, including intelligence briefings and friendly force locations, is because he has a couple of significant operations up his sleeve which may get the green light before 20 Jan.
https://twitter.com/Tobias_Ellwood/status/1344061394052911106

Read the Georgia Secretary of State's report on the Cobb County signature audit that found one missing signature and one mistaken signature out of 15k: The unprecedented review of signatures on absentee ballot envelopes found that the Cobb Elections Department had "a 99.99% accuracy rate in performing correct signature verification procedures" and no fraudulent absentee votes, Georgia's top elections official says.
https://sos.ga.gov/admin/uploads/Cobb%20County%20ABM%20Audit%20Report%2020201229.pdf

"Texas posted a record 26,990 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday...41% higher than the previous record reached on Dec. 23, state health department figures showed."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-29/texas-logs-26-990-new-virus-cases-shattering-previous-record

Julius Randle 28 pts (9/16 FG) 12 rebounds 11 assists in win vs Cavaliers

Kelly Oubre makes his first 3 of the season after missing first 17
https://streamable.com/2lnn3y

Pompeo may redesignate Cuba a "State Sponsor of Terrorism," undoing an Obama admin legacy and permanently ending Democratic agenda to restore relations with Cuba
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/us/politics/pompeo-cuba-terrorism-sponsor-list.html

Two Louisville police officers connected to the Breonna Taylor raid have been notified of their termination: Detective Myles Cosgrove, one of the officers who shot Breonna Taylor, and Detective Joshua Jaynes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/us/louisville-officer-fired-jaynes-breonna-taylor.html

Paper checks will begin to be mailed tomorrow. Later this week, you can check the status of your payment at http://IRS.gov/GetMyPayment

Raphael Warnock statement: "Kelly Loeffler made clear her priorities when she sold $3 million of her own stock while downplaying the pandemic, called unemployment relief 'counterproductive,' and then waited nearly nine months to take any action on additional relief."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1344085796920426497

Wiggins goes coast to coast for the Thunderous dunk
https://streamable.com/r9o5hv

Joel Embiid with the hustle play to get the assist to OG
https://streamable.com/c08ez5

Thanasis Antetokounmpo knocks down his first career three, Bucks up 31
https://streamable.com/7kcwa3

Giannis dribbles just once from half court for the fast break slam
https://streamable.com/hekvg9

The Bucks have scored 16 threes in a half, setting a new franchise record, and is 1 away from the record set by the Warriors

The Bucks scored 81 points in the first half vs Miami (Jimmy Butler not playing)

Embiid appeared to hurt his right leg. He walked back to the locker room.
https://twitter.com/pompeyonsixers/status/1344095320586780673

Blake Griffin enters concussion protocol and will not return tonight.
https://twitter.com/JohnnyKaneFSD/status/1344094419012755457

Kawhi Leonard is out tonight vs. Minnesota, Clippers coach Ty Lue says.
https://twitter.com/andrewgreif/status/1344090705338064896

Bradley Beal is in concussion protocol.
https://twitter.com/cmillsnbcs/status/1344095465269297159

Killian Hayes (right ankle sprain) will NOT return.
https://twitter.com/JohnnyKaneFSD/status/1344096621886386177

Knicks FO is really building the right way and the team is really showing their potential and will be a playoff threat soon 

Tomorrow, Trump is doing nothing again. His public schedule has nothing on it again.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1344106089290207232

Another extinct ice age beast exhumed from the permafrost. Exceptionally well-preserved carcass of a juvenile woolly rhinoceros discovered in Yakutia. Its internal organs and stomach contents await investigation.
http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/a-well-preserved-woolly-rhino-with-its-last-meal-still-intact-found-in-the-extreme-north-of-yakutia/

Wiseman gets the block, and then takes the ball to the other end for the high flying Dunk
https://streamable.com/jv75e1
https://streamable.com/2umas0

Jrue Holiday finishes his night with 24/7/3/3 with an 80% TS and 0 TOs 

Police visited the home of Anthony Quinn Warner last year after his girlfriend told them he was "building bombs in the RV." The FBI was also told about the report last August. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Anthony Quinn Warner was “not on our radar” before the bombing. But his girlfriend reported that he was making bombs in the RV back in 2019
https://tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2020/12/29/nashville-explosion-woman-warned-mnpd-warner-building-bomb-2019/4082253001 

Andrew Wiggins tonight in a win over Detroit: 27/7/3/1/2 on 9/19 FG and 5/8 3PT

The Orlando Magic (4-0) defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder (1-2) and go 4-0 for the first time in franchise history

Curry finishes the game with 31-6-5 in 35 minutes on 9-17 shooting including 5-9 from 3

Sacramento Kings (3-1) kong the Denver Nuggets (1-3) by a score of 125 - 115 with 24 points and 10 assists from De'Aaron Fox

Roby sends Vucevic to the shadow realm then slams it home
https://streamable.com/iz1t05

Haliburton drains the deep 3 from near the logo to extend the Kings lead to 12 with 3 minutes left
https://streamable.com/176hfd

The Phoenix Suns (3-1) blow out New Orleans Pelicans (2-2) 111 - 86

The Philadelphia 76ers (3-1) defeat the Toronto Raptors (0-3) 100 - 93 behind 45 points and 26 rebounds combined from Tobias Harris and Joel Embiid.

Edwards gets the catch and shoot triple, disrupts the transition play, and then hits the stepback 3 to even up the game
https://streamable.com/9c5d5m

Nikola Jokic finished with a quadtragic double: 26 points, 11 rebounds, 12 assists, 10 turnovers. Denver Nuggets need to bring in another top player or hire a new coach.

76ers Joel Embiid in his first 3 games this season: 29 points, 16 rebounds; 27 points, 10 rebounds; 29 points, 14 rebounds

The Chicago Bulls (1-3) defeat the Washington Wizards (0-4) 115-107, led by 23 points from Zach LaVine

At the half, Marvin Bagley III has 18 points on 6-9 shooting (2-4 from three) and 4-4 from the line

D'Angelo Russell throws a sweet behind-the-back dime to LA Clippers Coach Tyronn Lue
https://streamable.com/si4p2c

D'Angelo Russell a bust of a player, this mentally ill deranged idiot did not want to go to the Golden State Warriors and blew his stint there and now he's crashed with Minnesota, the perpetually losing team he wanted to go to. He wanted to go to a losing team and screwed around during his stint with a championship team. Glad he's crashing with Minnesota, he's terrible.

Despite Losing all 3 games played Russell Westbrook has been a net + in all game he has played In. +10, +2, +3

Victor Oladipo tonight vs Celtics : 24 points, 6 rebs, 6 ast, 1 blk, 10/18 FG, 2/6 3FG

Batum finds Ibaka with the quick one-handed pass for the hammer
https://streamable.com/fr2mgr

Nikola Jokic is averaging 25/12/14 with 2 steals on 60/40/80 splits over his first 4 games

Deb Haaland Is Our Hero. Here Is a Warning for Her. - Her nomination as secretary of the interior is historic, but as the first Native cabinet member, she would have to strike a delicate balance.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/opinion/deb-haaland-interior.html

Seeing a lot of hyperviral tweets saying Congress voted to give themselves massive pay raises. These are all FALSE. The salary remains $174,000. It hasn't increased since 2009. That's also the year the minimum wage went up to $7.25 an hour, where it remains 11 years later. 

The president of the Georgia chapter of the NAACP is resigning from a bipartisan election task force formed by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger because he said the process is a "farce." The Rev. James Woodall told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he's participated in weekly meetings with dozens of other community leaders, elections experts and politicians to review policies and suggest improvements but that "nothing has happened" with their recommendations. "It's all for show," he said in an interview. "He's trying to play both sides." Woodall said he's long been frustrated with the committee, but that he decided to resign after Raffensperger criticized a judge's ruling Monday that rejected challenges to the eligibility of more than 4,000 Georgia voters. Raffensperger, a Republican, called the decision a "direct attack on the rule of law in Georgia. "The latest attempt to disenfranchise eligible Georgia voters flies in the face of the integrity of safe, secure and accessible elections," he said. "And that's why I can no longer participate in such a farce."
https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/head-of-georgia-naacp-resigns-from-raffenspergers-election-task-force/YUOBHQAGXRCVRNIDW6UY6OQMIE/
https://www.ajc.com/politics/judge-rejects-attempt-to-cancel-georgia-voters-before-senate-runoffs/7ZLX6BQCGFCRHHVAYX3INEAGEA/

David Freed, the federal prosecutor who issued a bizarre statement during the 2020 campaign that helped fuel Trump's baseless claims of mass voter fraud, has announced his resignation.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/david-freed-trump-us-attorney-voter-fraud_n_5feb73ddc5b64e442106f1bc

Here is Luke Letlow dismissing covid19 as a hoax and saying money is more important than human life
https://twitter.com/i/status/1314247318372257792
https://twitter.com/LukeLetlow/status/1314247318372257792 

Russell Westbrook contemplating his life decisions on the bench as Wizards go 0-4
https://streamable.com/49rvhi

Russell Westbrook tags every Wizards player in Instagram post following 0-4 start: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." -MLK
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJaKSpmDUKn/

Two players are averaging triple doubles so far, Jokic (24.5/11.8/13.5) and Westbrook (19.0/13.7/12.7), except Jokic's PER is 30.4, and Westbrook's is 15.4.

James Wiseman is currently averaging 62.5% on 3 Pointers and shooting 43.9% from the field overall.

The #Browns learned overnight that a coach and a practice-squad player tested positive for COVID-19, source said. Contact tracing is ongoing.
https://twitter.com/tompelissero/status/1344315833695145984

Ted Cruz Is Illegally And Unconstitutionally Pocketing The Money He's Raising For Georgia Republicans. He's Not Alone.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ted-cruz-is-pocketing-the-money-hes-raising-for-georgia-gopers-hes-not-alone?ref=home

Biden names Dr. Kathleen Hicks as first woman deputy defense secretary
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/30/politics/biden-defense-department-hicks-kahl/index.html

US flies two B-52 bombers to Middle East ahead of possible Iranian attack while Trump is golfing
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/532097-us-flies-two-b-52-bombers-to-middle-east-ahead-of-possible-iranian-attack

People like Hawley and Cruz eagerly signing up to help the president in his bid to overturn the election results is a good reminder that it's not just Trump - the entire Republican Party and all their supporters are terrorists.

Operation Warp Speed just announced 14 million vaccine doses have been *distributed* but it's unclear how many have been administered. The CDC, which is only updating its count on Mon/Weds/Fri, hasn't done so yet today. As of now, only 2.1 million have gotten their first shots.
https://twitter.com/albamonica/status/1344354961266782215
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

GEORGIANS: TODAY is the LAST DAY of early voting in many counties, including Fulton, Bibb, Butts, Camden, Taylor and Upson. Don't wait. Vote before the new year! Check your county's early voting hours and locations at http://iwillvote.com. #gapol #gasen
https://twitter.com/staceyabrams/status/1344351948120723456

Biden ought to co-opt this into a commission to investigate vote suppression. Here is a simple starter list from the last election:
-Photo id
-Curing of rejected mail ballots
-Being old as an absentee excuse
-Requiring a notary to cast a mail ballot
-One mail drop box per county
https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1344359251540635649

I can go on: gerrymandering, felon disenfranchisement, voter purges, and so much more could easily be covered by an Election Fairness and Equality Commission
https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1344361222867742720

Youth voter turnout in Georgia runoffs shows signs of sustained enthusiasm post-November
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/georgia-runoff-youth-vote/2020/12/30/8104720c-4605-11eb-b0e4-0f182923a025_story.html

Hawley willing to shred our democracy to improve his talking points for the inevitable QAnon Debate in Roswell, NM. They'll all have to follow now.

There's a line stretching two Manhattan blocks — from 28th to 26th streets on 9th Avenue in Chelsea — for this church food pantry.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1344357079960743938
https://twitter.com/chayesmatthew/status/1344357079960743938

Tonight, we're expecting freezing temps. Gifts for the Homeless is a local nonprofit that uses 100% of donations it receives to buy new, warm clothing for local homeless who are struggling.  Visit https://gfth.org/donating to see how your donations can help. #GiftsForTheHomeless
https://twitter.com/capitalweather/status/1344057299728539648

Yemen blast at Aden airport kills 22, wounds 50
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/30/951419361/explosion-rocks-yemeni-airport-where-new-government-just-landed

Trail Blazers' Zach Collins underwent surgery to repair a left ankle stress fracture and is out indefinitely
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1344361703442685952

Claude Bolling, French pianist and composer, 90.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA3XYKtcZdI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Bolling

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Louis_Clark
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_on_Me_(film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_Wells
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilligan's Island

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabba_Doo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakin'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

Both the Cubs and Rays traded ace starters and then said they're still trying to compete. Like, no you're not. That's infuriating to hear as a fan. Sure, you'll be happy if you win anyway, but subtracting some of your best talent without replacing it is not an attempt to compete.

Pence won't be traveling to Middle East and Europe. Trip, discussed for next week but never officially announced by his office, isn't happening amid global spikes in coronavirus19.
https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-30/pence-calls-off-planned-middle-east-trip-as-virus-cases-surge

Sacramento Kings forward DaQuan Jeffires has suffered a Grade 3 left ankle sprain and will miss extended period of time
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1344365386037399554

Biden's Team Tells Senate Democrats To Send Him Judicial Nominees ASAP | The president-elect wants recommendations for all existing district court vacancies by Jan. 19, says his incoming White House counsel.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-courts-progressive-nominees_n_5fecc527c5b6e7974fd18321

Biden is signaling that he's ready to move quickly with nominating judges once he's sworn in. And he specifically wants Democratic senators to recommend nominees who are diverse, not just in terms of race or gender, but professionally. "We are particularly focused on nominating individuals whose legal experiences have been historically underrepresented on the federal bench, including those who are public defenders, civil rights and legal aid attorneys, and those who represent Americans in every walk of life."
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-courts-progressive-nominees_n_5fecc527c5b6e7974fd18321

Zero NBA players have tested positive for coronavirus19 out of 495 tested since Dec. 24.
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1344374667751157762

Yo Mitch, do you ever wonder why you are the most hated motherfucker in America? You make Scrooge and the grinch look like heroes. People are starving motherfucker through no fault of their own. While you live off ill-gotten gains. You fat fuck.
https://twitter.com/perlmutations/status/1343994889973854208

McConnell attacks the House-passed bill increasing stimulus checks as having "no realistic path" even though HE IS THE PERSON REFUSING TO ALLOW THE HOUSE BILL TO BE BROUGHT UP FOR A VOTE. HE IS REFUSING TO INTRODUCE THE BILL FOR A VOTE.

Nancy Pelosi just hours before this announcement: "In blocking it, they are in denial of the hardship the American people are experiencing now, health wise, financially, and every way."

Mitch McConnell refuses to separate $2,000 relief checks from unrelated Trump demands.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1344382122220466176
https://twitter.com/kathrynw5/status/1344382468904902661

This announcement allowing about 6,700 NFL fans to watch the first playoff game in person came just moments before the state announced a new record daily case count — *13,422*: NYS, @NFL and @BuffaloBills have come to an agreement to allow ~6,700 fans to attend the first home playoff game. The stadium is outdoors. Every fan must test negative before game, wear a mask & social distance. There will be post-game contact tracing. To Bills fans—be smart.
https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1344377433923969031

A spokesman for Louisiana Gov. Edwards says he will call for a special election to fill the seat Rep.-elect Luke Letlow was set to fill, after Letlow died from Covid-19 complications.
https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1344376231442190338

A federal judge has unsealed her ruling denying Ghislaine Maxwell's second bail request. Maxwell's latest bid "only solidifies" the judge's view she's a flight risk.Judge Nathan is unimpressed by Maxwell's argument that she would never flee because she is devoted to her husband. She told authorities they were in the process of divorcing and she not live with him.
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/judge-denies-flight-risk-ghislaine-maxwells-second-attempt-to-get-out-of-jail-ahead-of-jeffrey-epstein-related-trial/

ICE's 22% rally this year has helped make Jeffrey Sprecher a billionairee and cemented Kelly Loeffler's place as the wealthiest member of Congress
https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-30/ice-s-sprecher-turns-billionaire-on-eve-of-wife-s-georgia-runoff

Bernie and a Trump tweet
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eqg5qzzWMAEJt5u?format=jpg&name=small

This is how you run for President on the Republican side in 2024. You join a coup attempt. Democracy will prevail. As lead Dem on Rules Com. I will guarantee it. There's a bipartisan group of electeds who will put our country first. See you on the 6th!

1. The checks would go to anyone making $75,000 and LESS (single-income household), $150,000 and LESS (married and both working). So this is a lie. The lower-tier of middle income and all low-income people will get the money, and they are the people who need the money. 2. McConnell supported a $1 trillion tax cut for double-digit millionaires, triple-digit millionaires, and all billionaires: Meanwhile on Senate floor, McConnell is attacking House Democrats' $2000 checks bill, says they want to send a "boatload of cash" to people making six-figures Says Congress needs to send "smart targeted aid. Not another firehose of money"
https://twitter.com/burgessev/status/1344375605601644546

Jimmy Butler (ankle) has been ruled out of tonight's game vs the Bucks. Gabe Vincent (knee) is listed as probable.
https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/1344364876823752706

Jonathan Pollard has served his time. He is allowed to live as he pleases and whe he please, not be relentlessly attacked by the antisemitic Democrats. Imagine how Fox News would react if a Chinese-American, Mexican-American or Somali-American spied on the US and was publicly greeted as a hero by the leader of those countries.

Ballots were time-stamped by Post Office, arrived on time, date was just not signed on declaration envelop. And election day votes are not "disenfranchised" when mail-in ballots are counted, Republicans are pure evil terrorists.
https://www.abc27.com/news/this-week-in-pennsylvania/this-week-in-pennsylvania-pennsylvanians-have-voted-but-who-for/

GOOD, redo the census: Census Bureau plans to announce it will miss year-end deadline for numbers used for divvying up congressional seats.
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1344389176247128067

Andy Reid announces Patrick Mahomes will not play Sunday. Chad Henne will start against the Chargers.
https://www.twitter.com/FieldYates/status/1344362420840640519

More help could be on the way to Buffalo for the playoffs: Former Texans and Dolphins WR Kenny Stills is visiting the Bills, per source. Stills needs to pass through protocols, but optimism the deal gets done.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1344348921880059905

#Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey will not play this week vs. New Orleans, so his season his over. He played in only three games this season. Carolina signed him to a record-setting 4-year, $64M extension last offseason.
https://twitter.com/mysportsupdate/status/1344367200375869441

Frank Reich tells media #Colts OT Anthony Castonzo will have season-ending ankle surgery. Huge loss.
https://twitter.com/MikeGarafolo/status/1344332970203746304

A source of Democratic optimism in Georgia: early voting numbers show that Black turnout as a percentage of the overall vote is higher now than it was in the November election
https://account.mcclatchydc.com/paywall/registration?resume=248159265

This means absolutely nothing, the subcommittee has no power or authority to do any of this, they're merely *asking* the county to allow examination absentee ballots, which won't happen,  because it *already* happened 3x after an initial count, audit and recount: Georgia State Senate Judiciary Subcommittee unanimously pass motion to audit Fulton County's absentee ballots
https://twitter.com/stphnfwlr/status/1344407490788806656

Racist Anti-Planet Brexit vote, vaccine approval, new lockdowns, school delays, and soaring infections. A day of highs and lows that captured the UK's tumultuous 2020.

Republicans hoping live quorum right now might allow them to finish NDAA sometime sooner than January. But Bernie and Dems seem pretty firm at the moment on holding out and fighting for $2000 stimulus checks

California has become the nation's coronavirus19 epicenter, even with so many safeguards in place
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Why-California-became-the-nation-s-coronavirus-15836467.php

I'm not necessarily for mandating vaccines in general as I don't know that it helps encourage use, but for people who work in nursing homes and hospital and medical facilities etc and schools (all, private, parochial, public, daycare, high school, college, etc), yes, absolutely. Take the vaccine or find a new job.

David (Perdue) was a very key figure in terms of establishing relationships with the Chinese government as well as the manufacturers of different products ... Obviously, when you work in China, you work with the Chinese government.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/perdue-outsourcing-trump/2020/12/30/29242e28-4084-11eb-a402-fba110db3b42_story.html

I worked really hard on the NDAA & I was hoping that my last vote in the Senate would be to override Trump's veto. But my wonderful running mate Louise tested positive so I am quarantining & taking care of her. She's not feeling too good but is ok, as am I with a negative test.
https://twitter.com/DougJones/status/1344397431392378881

NYC has 114,000 children in homeless shelters. In good news for their families, a federal judge just advanced a proposed class action lawsuit to force the city to give them Wi-Fi during a pandemic age of remote learning.
https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/nyc-must-face-suit-to-provide-wi-fi-to-more-than-100000-homeless-kids-learning-remotely-judge-rules/

Nestle, Unilever, Kellogg's, PepsiCo and Ferrero – one of the two makers of Girl Scout cookies — are among the many leading food companies that use palm oil tied to child labor in their products
https://apnews.com/article/palm-oil-forests-indonesia-scouts-83b01f2789e9489569960da63b2741c4

Mars Inc., maker of M&M's, Milky Way and other chocolates, vowed in 2009 to switch entirely to sustainable cocoa to combat deforestation, a major contributor to climate change. 10 years later, Mars and other chocolate makers are far from that goal.
https://washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/climate-environment/mars-chocolate-deforestation-climate-change-west-africa/

"In 2017, 40 football fields of tropical forests were lost every minute, spurred by growing demand not only for cocoa, but also for palm oil, soybeans, timber, beef and rubber, according to Global Forest Watch" https://washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/climate-environment/mars-chocolate-deforestation-climate-change-west-africa/

Treasury said our reporting and the publication of docs threatened natsec. The agency called on DOJ to investigate. Despite those threats, we published our series with @ICIJorg and 100+ newsrooms and our work made an impact around the world.
https://buzzfeednews.com/article/willfitzgibbon/fincen-files-money-laundering-laws-us-world

Want to build a time machine to 2018 and explain to my past self that Donald Trump is accusing Brian Kemp of being a pawn of Stacey Abrams. He endorsed Brian Kemp and campaigned for him. Only the best people!
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1344397397280088070

I believe in pay for performance. But this decision by GE to lower the goal target for the CEO's bonus is nothing more than a giveaway of shareholder money. The company fired 20% of workers in aviation unit this year. Unions blast $47m bonus for GE boss after share price target lowered. Larry Culp renegotiated pay package when pandemic caused stock to dip earlier this year
https://www.ft.com/content/c84bde4b-9766-4163-8606-6a29653e1822

After dismissing covd19 as a hoax, Fake Non-Doctor Drew has Covid19
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/dr-drew-covid19-apologizing-coronavirus-170048722.html

Amazon has hired Steve Ricchetti's brother, Jeff Ricchetti, to lobby. Steve Ricchetti is Biden's White House counselor. Ricchetti has been under scrutiny by ethics attorneys. Jeff Ricchetti was hired by $AMZ after Biden was projected 2020 winner
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/26/jeff-ricchetti-to-lobby-for-amazon-as-brother-becomes-joe-bidens-counselor.html

Abortion rights will be illegally and unconstitutionally codified in Massachusetts state law, and access to the procedure will be illegally and unconstitutionally expanded after the Senate joined the House in overriding Republican Gov. Charlie Baker's legal and constitutional veto of the illegal and unconstitutional legislation.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/29/metro/abortion-access-policies-become-law-massachusetts-despite-governor-bakers-veto/

One diplomat slammed the expected move, saying that although Biden could reverse it, it could do "real damage to our credibility on state sponsorship of terrorism."
https://cnn.com/2020/12/30/politics/cuba-state-sponsor-of-terrorism-designation/index.html

Trump administration is releasing fabricated intelligence that indicates China offered to pay Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan to attack American soldiers. The CIA and Pentagon already released factual evidence proving Russia actually paid Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan to kill (not merely attack) American soldiers.

Democrats will have the House's smallest majority in 20 years when the Congress convenes Sunday. For Nancy Pelosi, it leaves almost no margin for error as she seeks reelection as speaker.

The 117th Congress convenes at 12 noon on Sunday.  If there's no unanimous consent agreement, the veto override debate could stretch until Saturday night. 

Judge Boasberg says the absurd new election-overturning case in D.C. will go forward just as soon as the @ThomasMoreSoc files proof of service "on all Defendants," which will be challenging because one of the defendants is the Electoral College, which isn't really a thing.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ep8C4ffWMAIujDv?format=png&name=large
https://twitter.com/bradheath/status/1341794454550814730

Sen. Josh Hawley said he still has not decided if he will contest multiple states' election results on Jan. 6th. It matters because each challenge a House and Senate member brings results in two hours of debate in each chamber and a vote. Could take awhile...

Dennis Schröder is briefly possessed by a screaming spirit
https://streamable.com/r920bv

Cam Reddish hits the deep three over Kyrie Irving
https://streamable.com/uwujni

Cam Reddish with the confident pull-up 3 in KD's face
https://streamable.com/vhnuyn

Cam Reddish effortlessly blocks KD
https://streamable.com/fz3tld

Atlanta Hawks forward Danilo Gallinari suffered a right ankle sprain and will not return to tonight's game.
https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/1344454157290229761 

Kyrie Irving yells at the refs as they ignore him
https://streamable.com/8r7aqu

Tyler Herro drains the 3 buzzer beat in the 3rd Quarter over Brook Lopez.
https://streamable.com/ak4xo5

Giannis and Khris get into an argument on the bench, next play they connect for a lob
https://streamable.com/3es71v

Giannis euro step dunks over Bam
https://streamable.com/jysd8j

LaMelo Ball casually drops in the deep 3
https://streamable.com/kr7qe5 

The Justice Department is expected to resume policing the police as Biden intends to make civil rights a major focus. Biden has said he'll revive DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, which in the Obama admin examined police practices.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/biden-plans-police-reform/2020/12/22/d4812c9c-3bcc-11eb-98c4-25dc9f4987e8_story.html 

To set the tone for his inauguration the next day, President-elect Biden will lead a memorial to remember and honor lives lost to COVID-19, with church-bell ringings and light shows across the country on Tuesday, Jan. 19, at 5:30 p.m. ET."
https://bideninaugural.org/

Secret Service making changes to presidential detail amid concerns current members are aligned with Trump. The Secret Service has faced scrutiny in recent months following reports that some agents were told by members of the presidential detail to forgo masks when around Trump. The office also attracted attention in the past year after it allowed Anthony Ornato, who previously headed up the current administration's detail, to serve as a political adviser in the White House. The Secret Service is planning to add a number of agents that previously worked with President-elect Biden when he served as vice president to his presidential detail in the coming weeks. A former Secret Service executive told the Post it's "smart to give the incoming president the comfort of the familiar."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-to-make-changes-to-presidential-detail-to-bring-on-agents-who-worked-with-biden/2020/12/30/d6fb8fe8-49ce-11eb-a9d9-1e3ec4a928b9_story.html

Georgia Senate runoffs shatter record with over 2.56 million early votes cast
https://www.newsweek.com/georgia-senate-runoffs-shatter-record-over-256-million-early-votes-cast-1558196
https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/GA_RO.html

Caribbean volcanoes rumble to life as scientists study activity not seen in years
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/30/eastern-caribbean-volcanoes-la-soufriere

Ambush by ISIS Islamic terrorists massacres 37 Syrian soldiers
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/ambush-by-isis-sleeper-cell-kills-37-syrian-soldiers/news-story/938f7d03c92079a45160c0b9648dbd89

Extinct woolly rhinoceros found frozen in Siberian permafrost
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/dec/30/siberia-permafrost-yields-well-preserved-ice-age-woolly-rhino

Kawhi on Serge Ibaka injuring him: "Serge can't talk too much. We got him on the trading block right now. Whoever wants him, let us know."
https://streamable.com/h3v5gt

Kawhi hits you with a joke and starts looking around mid punchline, like he's bored of this interaction already. The way he delivers his jokes makes the typical dry humor look like slapstick. He always looks like he's discussing house plans with the site engineer or delivering a report. Kawhi needs a sitcom after retirement.

Luka Doncic looking disappointed on the bench as the Hornets blow out the Mavericks
https://streamable.com/zql57j

The Charlotte Hornets (2-2) defeat the Dallas Mavericks (1-3) 118-99 with 22 pts, 9 reb, and 5 ast from LaMelo Ball.

Rookie LaMelo Ball in tonights Charlotte's win against the Mavericks: Team high 22 points, 8 Reb, 5 ast, 7/10 fg and 4/5 from deep

After getting blown out by the Hornets, Luka Doncic comes back to the court to practice threes after the game
https://streamable.com/7peh5u

Luka Doncic went 12/2/5 on 40/0/57 shooting. Going 4-10 from the field and 0-5 from 3. he's shooting 9.5% from 3 to start the season.

The Brooklyn Nets (3-2) defeat the Atlanta Hawks (3-1) in a high-scoring duel 145-141 as Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Joe Harris combine for 80 points thriller

The Miami Heat (2-2) bounce back and defeat the Milwaukee Bucks (2-3), 119-108

With Jimmy Butler out, Heat untouchable star Bam Adebayo steps up again: 22pts/8reb/10ast with 2 turnovers on 7/13 FG

Greg Popovich gets ejected. Spurs assistant Becky Hammon is serving as acting head coach against the Lakers following the ejection of Gregg Popovich.
https://streamable.com/scpjvs

Jaylen Brown tonight against a weakened Memphis squad: Career High 42 PTS | 5 REB | 4 AST shooting 71.4%, 7/10 from 3 PT, +22.

Lillard tonight in a loss to the Clippers: 3-14 from the field, 0-8 from 3

The Orlando Magic are the only undefeated team left in the NBA

The Boston Celtics (3-2) defeat the Memphis Grizzlies (1-3) 126-107 behind a career high 42 points (15/21 FG, 7/10 3P) from Jaylen Brown

Kevin Durant finishes with 33 Points, 11 Rebounds and 8 Assists shooting 50% from the field vs the Atlanta Hawks

LaMelo snags an offensive board and hits a fadeaway to end the quarter
https://streamable.com/1r3yp0

Steve Nash gets annoyed by Trae Young's foul baiting, tells the ref, "That's not basketball"
https://twitter.com/TalkinNets/status/1344497844540076032

LaMelo rises up for the right handed dunk, switches hands mid-air, and lays it in with the left
https://streamable.com/xngrvg

Dejounte Murray goes for 29-7-7 on 12 of 19 from the field and 2 of 3 from 3

Hawks don't foul and KD runs in for the slam to give the Nets a 5 point lead with 15.6 left
https://streamable.com/2vmc69

Through 4 games of the 2020-21 season, Luka Doncic is just 2/20 from beyond the arc. Among others Javale McGee, DeMar Derozan, Markelle Fultz and Marvin Bagley have all made more three pointers than him this season.

Clippers knock down 3 straight triples, giving them 7 3s with 4 minutes left in the 1st
https://streamable.com/ti9nm8

Kevin Durant 33 PTS 11 REB 8 AST

KD and Kyrie in the 4th - 33 points on 87 TS% (66% from the field, 66% from 3, 100% FT)

Tyler Herro 21 Points 15 Rebounds vs Bucks

Eubanks with a block, Demar the nasty finish on the other end
https://streamable.com/g496kc

Chris Paul clowning on the court and draws the foul on Nickeil Alexander-Walker
https://streamable.com/w120da

New unemployment filings 787,000 during a holiday week clouded with uncertainty around impending changes to benefit payments
https://www.wsj.com/articles/weekly-jobless-claims-coronavirus-12-31-2020-11609366589

Howard, the most educated county in Maryland, has bolted to the left in the Trump era. Joe Biden was the best performing presidential candidate in Howard since it was created in 1838.
https://twitter.com/JimNPol/status/1344354762288996354

Advocate Aurora says an employee at its Grafton hospital intentionally and maliciously removed the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from a refrigerator to destroy the vaccination, resulting in nearly 500 doses having to be thrown away. The anti-vaccination employee has been fired and is under criminal investigation.
https://www.wisn.com/article/vaccines-intentionally-removed-from-refrigerator-at-grafton-hospital/35101273
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2020/12/30/wisconsin-covid-19-vaccine-thrown-out-intentionally-aurora-employee-grafton-clinic-fired/4095107001/
https://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/aurora-employee-fired-after-intentionally-removing-vaccine-from-refrigeration 

NBA to require players to wear contact sensors for contact tracing purposes. It doesn't track their location, it just records and sends data on the proximity of one sensor to another. Also only to be worn on team events, was already done on a volunteer basis in the bubble, and the players' union approve.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30628788/nba-require-players-wear-sensors-part-contact-tracing

Trump Has Spent Nearly a Quarter of His Presidency on the Golf Course
https://www.mic.com/p/trump-has-spent-nearly-a-quarter-of-his-presidency-on-the-golf-course-53386133

Why Biden should launch an Ecosystem Restoration Corps in 2021
https://thehill.com/changing-america/opinion/532211-why-biden-should-launch-an-ecosystem-restoration-corps-in-2021

Video shows massive line of Georgia voters on last day of early voting in third-largest county
https://www.newsweek.com/video-shows-massive-line-georgia-voters-last-day-early-voting-third-largest-county-1558286

Baker Mayfield will be the first Browns QB to start all 16 games in consecutive seasons since Brian Sipe did it from 1978-1981

Browns’ training facility is closed again this morning as Covid19 issues and troubles mount in Cleveland
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1344653589113921542

You don’t have to verbally abuse players to get the most out of them. Really enjoyed watching this. Some NFL coaches would’ve benched him the rest of the game.
https://twitter.com/mvscouting/status/1344438604500664320

#Packers claimed Damon 'Snacks' Harrison off waivers. They wanted him before he went to Seattle and now they finally got him.
https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1344404033755361281

Former Bears CB Michael Richardson Arrested on Murder Charge
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2924871-former-bears-cb-michael-richardson-arrested-on-murder-charge

Only 4 out of the 16 games on Sunday have no playoff seeding implications: • #Jets-#Patriots • #Vikings-#Lions • #Chargers-#Chiefs • #Raiders-#Broncos Still so much that needs to be determined. Should be a fun and busy Week 17.
https://twitter.com/mysportsupdate/status/1344490483918147585

French actor director and screenwriter Robert Hossein, 93, died today of Covid-19
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hossein
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0396136/

Toi... Le Venin (1958)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054131/

Une Corde Un Colt... (1969)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063740/

Les Salauds Vont En Enfer (1955)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0143851/

Claude Brasseur, son of Pierre Brasseur [Les Yeux Sans Visage (1960), Les Enfants Du Paradis (1945)] and Odette Joyeux (Douce), was hugely popular in France for cops (The Police War, Cover up) and comedy (The Party, Pardon mon affair) flicks through the 70s and 80s but will probably retain international posterity for his co-lead role in G-dard's Band of Outsiders (1964).
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0105475/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Brasseur
https://i.postimg.cc/nc0FhDCT/brasseur.gif (left)
https://i.postimg.cc/CdyjZQPT/brasseur.jpg (middle) 

The Red Sox are hiring Bianca Smith as a minor league coach, making her the first Black woman to serve as a professional baseball coach in the sport's history. Smith currently is an assistant coach/hitting coordinator at Carroll University.
https://www.twitter.com/byJulianMack/status/1344691329738153984

Just want to thank all the folks who contributed over $50K to the UF Election Sciences fund this past year. We will use your support to continue to provide election data and analytics for everyone. You can contribute to our non-profit charitable fund at
https://www.uff.ufl.edu/giving-opportunities/023435-uf-election-science-group-fund/
https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1344709561865932800

You can read about our redistricting advocacy efforts, particularly the hosting of redistricting competitions, during the last round of redistricting in this short, free, electronic book
https://cornellopen.org/9781501738548/the-public-mapping-project/
https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1344711542210703360

"The Democrats who forced this unusual debate say they did not even hope to change the election result. Their purpose, they say, was only to draw attention to the need for election reform." NBC News report on the 1/6/05 challenge to Ohio's electoral vote certification:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1344712361891000320
https://twitter.com/SteveKornacki/status/1344712361891000320

Israel decided to start a low-profile outreach to Turkey in order to determine whether Erdogan's statements on normalizing relations are sincere.
https://www.axios.com/israel-turkey-relations-erdogan-37e85ae6-4078-4daa-b810-98b30683d6b8.html

Why I Will Not Participate in a Project to Overturn the Election: https://facebook.com/SenatorSasse/posts/3517705981660655

Worth a read. Excerpt: "If we normalize this, we're going to turn American politics into a Hatfields and McCoys endless blood feud – a house hopelessly divided."
https://facebook.com/SenatorSasse/posts/3517705981660655

Miami Dolphins QB Ryan Fitzpatrick tests positive for COVID-19, out vs. Buffalo Bills
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30629629/miami-dolphins-qb-ryan-fitzpatrick-tests-positive-covid-19-vs-buffalo-bills-per-reports

John Wall says he could have lost his foot due to infections during injury rehab: "I went through three or four different infections. So it got to the point where, OK, are you going to have to cut your foot off or not? That's where it got real with me."
https://streamable.com/7hx6lp

Mitch McConnell Made $3,300 This Week While Blocking One-Time $2,000 Stimulus Check
https://www.newsweek.com/mitch-mcconnell-made-3300-this-week-while-blocking-one-time-2000-stimulus-check-1558277

Microsoft has evidence Russians hacked its network, viewing source code
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/microsoft-russian-hackers-source-coce/2020/12/31/a9b4f7cc-4b95-11eb-839a-cf4ba7b7c48c_story.html

Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving paid off the college tuition of nine students from an HBCU (Lincoln University) on Dec. 10 as part of his foundation's 11 days of giving in December.
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1344728996660060163

Every zombie story is now obsolete. There won't be hordes of scavengers fighting neck and neck for dwindling resources. There will, instead, be a small group of people saying, "Don't go near the zombies" while everyone else says "You can't tell me what to do" as they're eaten.

Despite being vastly outspent by Republicans overall, Democrats (candidates+PACs) were actually running more total ads in Georgia than the GOP (candidates+PACs).
https://www.insideelections.com/news/article/georgia-senate-runoffs-both-sides-getting-outspent

Sasse ripped the Republicans challenging the 2020 election results as "institutional arsonists" helping Trump and his allies squeeze dollars out of people duped into believing the election will be overturned.

Even though they have priority access to the vaccine, mentally ill terrorist pro-Trump anti-vaxxer healthcare workers are refusing to get it. FIRE THEM AND BAN THEM FOR LIFE FROM WORKING IN THE MEDICAL/HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY.
https://latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-31/healthcare-workers-refuse-covid-19-vaccine-access

Sen. Perdue quarantining after someone on his re-election team tested positive for coronavirus19, his campaign says, forcing him to miss crucial time on the campaign trail just days ahead of Tuesday's Georgia Senate runoff. Sounds like a media quarantine. He doesn't want to answer questions about his criminal behaviour.
https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1344745781769728009

Billy Donovan said Lauri Markkanen, Ryan Arcidiacono, Tomas Satoransky and Chandler Hutchison are out vs. Wizards, per NBA's health and safety protocols.News
https://twitter.com/KCJHoop/status/1344744399637508101

Alabama nurse did not die after vaccine | The Alabama Public Health Department (APHD) published a statement (here) explaining that they had contacted all hospitals in the state where the COVID-19 vaccine was administered to confirm that the claims made in the Facebook posts were false: "Multiple false posts on Facebook report a death in Alabama in a recipient of COVID-19 vaccine on December 15. The posts are untrue, and no persons who received COVID-19 vaccine in Alabama have died.
https://www.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN28S2FP
https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/news/2020/12/16a.html

Legacy Church in Albuquerque, NM received between $350k and $1 million in PPP funds despite listing ZERO employees. They're now receiving a one-time fine of $10,000 for breaking Covid19 restrictions and allowing 100% capacity and no mask requirements for Christmas service. Churches that are able to acquire PPP loans should lose their tax exempted status.
https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus/bailouts/loans/legacy-church-inc-695634acad19977a1f4637e876a0cd52

Other than league "assuming primary responsibility" for investigating and possible punishment for "In-Game" violations and "Exceptional Circumstances" (such as a meaningful failure of team compliance), league tells teams that rules compliance is significantly on them to enforce.
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1344754043143467008

The NFL conducted its usual cover-up and dismissal of covid19 after Ryan Fitztragic's positive Covid-19 test. Other Dolphins players were identified as high-risk close contacts but will play unless they publically reveal they tested positive.

The Oklahoma City Thunder post a video tribute for Steven Adams who returns to OKC tonight.
https://streamable.com/8v4w5x 

Domantas Sabonis in a win against the Cavaliers: 25/11/7 on 10-14 shooting. Collin Sexton finished with 28pts for Cleveland.

Just cannot seem to get a straight answer how 140 House Republicans will vote against Biden's win on the basis of widespread voter fraud and yet not object to nearly two-dozen House Republican wins that came on the same ballot.

"On behalf of the American People, please stop this madness." — A real Biden elector tells a federal judge, in a motion to intervene in the case filed by Rep. Gohmert and a slate of fake Trump electors against VP Mike Pence.
https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/biden-elector-moves-to-intervene-on-mike-pences-behalf-as-gop-election-deniers-sue/

We've obtained more than 800,000 pages of documents from the Trump administration through records requests and lawsuits, and we're prepared to fight to ensure that outgoing Trump administration officials do not remove or destroy documents.
https://twitter.com/weareoversight/status/1344771061041270786

McConnell: Jan 6 vote verifying Biden election victory "the most consequential I have ever cast". It's not supposed to be consequential. It's a pro forma proceeding. Biden received the overwhelming a majority of Electoral College votes, the same number Trump won in 2016.
https://axios.com/mcconnell-calls-jan-6-certification-his-most-consequential-vote-323cd74c-7dfa-4420-bd32-32a36398dadc.html

Many Republican senators are furious at Hawley for forcing them to take what Trump is setting up as the ultimate loyalty test on January 6. .. Todd Young and Pat Toomey spoke up. Only one problem: Hawley wasn't on the call.
https://axios.com/mcconnell-calls-jan-6-certification-his-most-consequential-vote-323cd74c-7dfa-4420-bd32-32a36398dadc.html

Trump assured Van Drew he would help him secure a position on an A committee last year ahead of his announcement that he was changing party affiliations, according to multiple sources. NJ Republican pushes for Ways and Means seat a year after switching parties
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/532265-nj-republican-pushes-for-coveted-ways-and-means-seat-a-year-after-switching

MF DOOM has died, his wife Jasmine Dumile revealed today (December 31). The elusive rapper died on October 31, according to Dumile. When reached by Pitchfork, a representative for Rhymesayers confirmed the legitimacy of the statement. A cause of death has not been revealed. MF DOOM was 49 years old. MF DOOM was born in London and grew up on Long Island, New York. DOOM, who was born Daniel Dumile, began rapping in the late 1980s under the name Zev Love X in the group KMD, along with his younger brother DJ Subroc. KMD released two albums: 1991's Mr. Hood and 1993's Black Bastards. DJ Subroc was struck by a car and killed shortly before the release of Black Bastards, marking the end of KMD until DOOM shared a previously unreleased track, "True Lightyears," in 2017. By the late '90s, Dumile adopted his MF DOOM persona, donning the mask of Marvel supervillain Doctor Doom. He released his self-produced debut Operation: Doomsday in April 1999, marking the beginning of a prolific run of albums and production. He released the split MF EP with MF Grimm in 2000, before adopting two new personae for a pair of landmark 2003 releases: King Geedorah for Take Me to Your Leader and Viktor Vaughn for Vaudeville Villain. DOOM discussed his decision to don the mask and persona in a 2009 New Yorker interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates. "I wanted to get onstage and orate, without people thinking about the normal things people think about. Like girls being like, 'Oh, he's sexy,' or 'I don't want him, he's ugly,' and then other dudes sizing you up," he said. "A visual always brings a first impression. But if there's going to be a first impression I might as well use it to control the story. So why not do something like throw a mask on?"
https://pitchfork.com/news/mf-doom-dead-at-49/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/09/21/the-mask-of-doom

Good: Police in Wisconsin say they've arrested fired hospital employee suspected of intentionally spoiling COVID-19 vaccine.
https://twitter.com/krystafauria/status/1344763756732153862

Kyrie Irving on Becky Hammond becoming the first woman to fill in as head coach in an NBA regular season game: "There shouldn't be any roles that are deemed for male or female... But there's still a fight... I am glad that Pop got ejected and put Becky at the driver's seat."
https://twitter.com/malika_andrews/status/1344713682387922944
https://twitter.com/malika_andrews/status/1344716542555156480

VP Pence has asked a federal judge in Texas to dismiss case brought against him by Rep. Louie Gohmert and other Republicans. The far-fetched lawsuit seeks to authorize VP on Jan. 6 to effectively grant himself and Trump a second term, despite losing to Biden/Harris
https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1344775045927858177

In other words, far more than the small handful of Dems who contested the results in the last few Republican-won presidential elections. That comparison now goes out the window: 2 House Republicans tell me they expect as of now that at least 140 Republican Members of the House will on Jan 6 object to and vote against the Electoral College results showing President-elect Biden won
https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1344749990703411205

There's absolutely no evidence that fraud had any impact on the election - none. This is nothing less than an outright attack on American Democracy & the right to self government. It's a betrayal of the voters, of our constitution, and of our most sacred values. It's disgraceful.

Indiana Pacers forward TJ Warren will undergo surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left foot
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1344784814080217096

Milwaukee Bucks forward Torrey Craig had surgery to repair a fractured nose and is expected to be able to resume contact basketball activities in two weeks
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1344776181451636738

UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn admired Hugo Chavez and Hezbollah, hired literal communists as senior aides - and even HE peacefully accepted defeat in the UK general election of 2019.

Over 500 journalists were killed by coronavirus19 in 2020, many of them infected while reporting on the pandemic. That's over three times more than the number killed in Syria & Iraq over the past 10 years (CPJ database).
https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2020/more-than-500-journalists-and-media-workers-have-died-from-covid-19/

Liberty County, FL was the last of the ancestral "Dixiecrat" counties.  It is still majority DEM in registration and until 2020 it had NEVER voted Republican for local office despite voting 70%+ for President since 2008 This year, five local D v R races all went red #flapol
https://twitter.com/mcimaps/status/1344794361066881028

NO, REALLY: GO ORGANIC+VEGAN: Organic meats found to have approximately the same greenhouse impact as regular meats. For beef & lamb, organic & conventional production resulted in similar climate costs. Organic chicken was slightly worse for the climate & organic pork slightly better than their conventional counterparts.
https://phys.org/news/2020-12-meats-approximately-greenhouse-impact-regular.html

The federal government previously estimated 20 million Americans would receive the first dose of the coronavirus19 vaccine by the end of the year. But as 2020 comes to a close on Thursday, the government will fall well short of that goal.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/12/31/952208601/u-s-likely-will-miss-goal-of-vaccinating-20-million-by-the-new-year

NBC News confirms: The United States has now passed more than 20 million total cases of coronavirus19. More than 345,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus19.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1344796750033260544

Ben Simmons hits the 3
https://streamable.com/jno5rg 

The Toronto Raptors decided to sit All-Star Pascal Siakam tonight vs. New York as a disciplinary measure. Siakam exited the floor early after fouling out Tuesday in Philadelphia.
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1344800690539999232

Stacey King mistakenly tells Bulls fans to shut up
https://streamable.com/55d2af

DeMarcus Cousins hits the pick and pop 3 for his first NBA bucket since June 13th, 2019
https://streamable.com/z0kznn

John Wall's first NBA bucket since December 28, 2018
https://streamable.com/yd47m9

Dwight Howard drills the 3 to extend the 76ers lead over the Orlando Magic.
https://streamable.com/l9ucs1

Bertans 0-8, 0-6 from 3, 3pts, 3 fouls, game losing brick probably cost the Wizards their first win of the season

Seth Curry in tonights Sixers blowout win against the Orlando Magic: 21 pts, 3 ast, 7/12 shooting and 5/7 from downtown

Van Vleet with the skyscraping rainbow
https://streamable.com/s2w7qi

Russell Westbrook in 5th consecutive loss: 22 point Triple-Double shooting 44% from 2 and 60% from 3. He is also the only starter with a negative +/- with a -10

Markelle Fultz in tonights loss against the Sixers: 9 points, 4/11 shooting, team high +/- of -31 in 24 minutes.

Trump's budget office is blocking Joe Biden's transition team from meeting with key staff to help prepare Biden's first annual spending plan, a move that could delay major proposals.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-31/trump-budget-chief-hampers-biden-transition-with-ban-on-meetings

Surgeon Gen Dr. Jerome Adams says his wife Lacey has been admitted to the hospital because of complications from her cancer treatment – and he cannot see her because of Covid-19 adding, "I'm hoping she doesn't have to spend New Year's in a hallway because the beds are full." His command to not wear masks "because they don't work for the general public" is one of the reasons it's this bad.   I hope he doesn't miss the irony.
https://twitter.com/LisaMirandoCNN/status/1344821594586308617

60% of Ohio nursing home staff refusing covid19 vaccine (FIRE THEM AND BAN THEM FOR LIFE FROM WORKING IN MEDICAL/HEALTH CARE. THESE TERRORIST STAFFERS INFECTED AND THUS MURDERED ALL THE NURSING HOME RESIDENTS FFS)
https://twitter.com/martyschladen/status/1344369326774747138

Times Square hasn't been empty on NYE since WWII.
https://twitter.com/gabegutierrez/status/1344790245922000899
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EqmnmWJXAAMgcgv?format=jpg&name=large

Austin Rivers makes his Knicks debut, teammates think he is invisible
https://streamable.com/orrv8y

Packers standout LT David Bakhtiari suffered a season-ending knee injury today in practice. The belief is that he tore his ACL. Just crushing.
https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1344795241379991553

Browns Denzel Ward is positive for COVID-19 and must miss at least 10 days. He could potentially miss a playoff game
https://twitter.com/marykaycabot/status/1344755139274559490 

Jordan Clarkson gets a technical after pushing the referee for stealing his steal
https://streamable.com/v9b3vy

The New York Knicks entered their game against Toronto with a league best 45.9% accuracy from three point range. Today they shot 3/36 (8.6%) from deep including 0/23 by their starters.

Brandon Ingram gets ejected with flagrant 2 foul for blocking a shot
https://streamable.com/jdwsx6

John Wall explosive move to the rim for a slam
https://streamable.com/bxrgx8 

The Electoral College results are based on the same ballots that sent 45 new Republicans to the House. Almost all the House Republicans - including those who won their re-elections and almost all of those  45 new Republicans - intend to vote against the Electoral College results siting "rigged fake election" even though THEY WON THEIR ELECTIONS AND THEIR ELECTION WINS ARE FROM THE SAME BALLOTS. 

Domantas Sabonis channels his inner Arvydas with behind the back pass to Myles Turner for an easy 2-points
https://streamable.com/j7hns7

Denver's Michael Porter Jr. is missing tonight's game vs. Phoenix and could be out a number of days, due to health and safety protocols (contact tracing)
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1345032901264625670

$2,000 stimulus checks passed by House would go to those earning $75,000 or less (low-income and bottom-half of middle income) single income earner and $150,000 or less (low-income and bottom-half of middle income) married. Republicans are claiming these people are millionaires and billionaires.
https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/nation-world/2000-dollar-stimulus-checks-senate-mcconnell/507-34dac031-dc56-46d6-9388-37ccd9aaf248

NBA fines from altercation between James Johnson and Cody and Caleb Martin in Mavericks-Hornets game on Wednesday: Johnson: $40,000 Cody Martin: $25,000 Caleb Martin: $20,000
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1345055988714512385

No suspension for headbutting someone...

Iraq Evacuates Oil Tanker After Explosive Mine Found Attached To Hull
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-oil-security/iraq-evacuates-oil-tanker-after-mine-found-attached-to-hull-idUSKBN2962EV?il=0

Over 3 million votes cast in Georgia Senate runoffs days before election
https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/GA_RO.html

HawleyMO says he hasn't decided on how many states certifications  he will object to on Jan. 6. Each different objection could force up to 2 hours of debate in House & Senate and a vote
https://twitter.com/bresreports/status/1345065161082724357

Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden's pick for Secretary of State said in an ethics agreement posted by the Office of Government Ethics that he will resign from his role as a co-founder and managing partner at WestExec Advisers, LLC upon his confirmation as top US diplomat
https://twitter.com/vmsalama/status/1345065384454578176

Apple knew a supplier was using child labor but took 3 years to fully cut ties, despite the company's promises to hold itself to the 'highest standards'
https://www.yahoo.com/news/apple-knew-supplier-using-child-231242015.html

"Usually don't comment on this type of stuff. But it's a process. Trust us. We have a new great coach, all new players, really young [guys], and we still getting healthy. Knicks going to be 🔥 again."
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJfH7C6luia/

Russell Westbrook will rest tonight against the Timberwolves, the Wizards say. Second night of a back to back for the 0-5 Wizards.
https://twitter.com/FredKatz/status/1345076495614697474

If they somehow win while he sits the NBA pundits and fans will be absolutely radioactive for the next 72 hours.

James Harden compiled 33-6-8 last night and it was his "worst" game of the year. He's too good. He is a walking playoff berth. He deserves to be traded up to a stacked team like the Milwaukee Bucks, or a team that needs a boost, like the Celtics or Nuggets.

Orlando Magic F Chuma Okeke is expected to miss several weeks with a bone bruise in his left knee
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1345084171543306245

By a vote of 81 to 13, the Senate overrode Trump's veto of the defense authorization.
https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1345092509819695105

Eight of Pa.'s nine Republicans in the U.S. House say they will oppose JoeBiden's certification. So they will refuse to accept the results of their own re-elections, as well, and resign their seats?
https://penncapital-star.com/blog/eight-of-pa-s-nine-republicans-in-the-u-s-house-say-they-will-oppose-bidens-

Rules package also authorizes funds for House Admin to resolve #IA02 challenge from Rita Hart, as well as #NY22
https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/117-HRes5-SxS.pdf

Authorities arrested a suburban Milwaukee pharmacist Thursday suspected of deliberately ruining 570 doses of coronavirus19 vaccine by removing them from refrigeration for two nights. Police in Grafton, about 20 miles north of Milwaukee, said the Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist was arrested on suspicion of reckless endangerment, adulterating a prescription drug and criminal damage to property, all felonies. The pharmacist has been fired and police said in a news release that he was in jail. Police did not identify the pharmacist, saying he has not yet been formally charged. Workers unknowingly used the spoiled vaccine to inoculate 57 people before discarding the rest. The 57 people Police said the discarded doses were worth between $8,000 and $11,000. Moderna has told Aurora that there's no safety concerns, but the hospital system is closely monitoring the people who received the spoiled doses, he said. The pharmacist claimed the employees deliberately spoiled the vaccines then injected people with them hoping to convince everyone the vaccines are not effective. He is the person who deliberately spoiled the vaccines  hoping to convince everyone the vaccines were not effective. He clearly knows the vaccines are effective, hence the reason he destroyed them.
https://chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-nw-wisconsin-spoiled-vaccines-investigation-20201231-2vpl2brysjgoffw2qk6kji6z3e-story.html

Bernie Sanders: "Where did you suddenly become a religious adherent about concern of socialism for the rich when you gave 83% of the benefits to the rich and large corporations in the tax bill that you supported?... I didn't hear much about socialism for the rich in that debate."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1345097483433562112

If leaders with faith add a "wwjd" metric to their political calculations...things will change for the better and rapidly...but will they? Will they walk the talk?
https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1344983327040827393

Pain into purpose. Extraordinary people...and a daughter who showed more fight in her young life than many of us ever show: A lot of people sent us toys/books that brand new we weren't able to use while Francesca was really sick. It felt really good to donate that stuff to the hospital and others. And to donate all our unused breast milks to the hospital for kids in the NICU.
https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1344776065714106374

The DC Circuit has lifted an order that had vacated Lisa Montgomery's execution date, clearing the way for the execution before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Her lawyer says they'll seek en banc review & says she shouldn't be put to death Jan. 12
https://twitter.com/MikeBalsamo1/status/1345103241642717184

The micromanagement methods of autocracies - of Trump on the one hand and of Xi and the CP on the other - are antithetical to the exercise of creative and responsible research and action down the hierarchy. This article offers a convincing case in point. No one can expect creative work - and medical science is without a doubt creative work - when clueless political thugs are in charge of everything. A previous article detailing the troll farms in China, charged with putting across the official line on everything at the direction of the party, shows the pervasiveness of official micromanagement. And yet, substantial populations in the US and China apparently are unable to understand. The lessons of history going back are far as there is a record are unanimous, and still the struggle to free ourselves of thuggish leaders goes on, decade after decade.

Reminder: 25 Days That Changed The World: How Covid-19 Slipped China's Grasp
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/30/world/asia/china-coronavirus.html

Marvin Bagley asks his team mates to clear our to iso against Christian Wood. Proceeds to instantly turn it over
https://streamable.com/elotnp

3 years ago DeMar DeRozan, First Player in NBA History to Score 50+ on New Year's Day | January 1, 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK_D54TPw6Y

Just now on CNN, @Olivianuzzi told @JohnAvlon a Republican official told her that establishment Republican is upset with Sen. Josh Hawley's plan to contest certification (R-MO) because "he's not some moron like Louie Gohmert."
https://twitter.com/i/status/1345103884671479809
https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1345103884671479809

We're in the bizarre moment of where Trump is
1) attacking Senate Republicans on the defense bill veto override, and
2) attacking Senate Republicans for blocking a vote on the House-passed $2,000 Covid19 checks bill (backed by Democrats)
Not only does this undermine Loeffler and Perdue's closing message, it also refutes Mitch McConnell's contention that the CASH Act doesn't reflect Trump's true wishes. Trump is blaming Republican Senate, not the Democratic House, as the obstacle to higher direct payments.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1345111621430091777

More penetrating insights from Trump's election lawyer Lin Wood, who is tweeting out direct threats to execute the Vice-President of the United States if the VP does not "save" the election: If Pence is arrested, @SecPompeo will save the election. Pence will be in jail awaiting trial for treason. He will face execution by firing squad. He is a coward & will sing like a bird & confess ALL.
https://twitter.com/LLinWood/status/1345067881319587840

With Congress overriding Trump's veto of the NDAA, the new anti-money laundering legislation that was included in the bill is now law. That's impact from the #FinCENFiles, which played a role in getting it done
https://buzzfeednews.com/article/willfitzgibbon/fincen-files-money-laundering-laws-us-world

20 million people in the United States have tested positive for coronavirus19.
https://twitter.com/ryanstruyk/status/1345067574464278528

With all due respect to my Republican colleagues, a $2k direct payment for individuals and families who are struggling is not socialism. In my view it is necessary in the times in which we live.
https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1345106869107499010

The country is being overwhelmed by #Covid19, hospitals are full, and business are hanging by a thread. Direct payments may not be most efficient way to help people in need but, given the situation we face are extremely necessary.
https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1345107082744369159

Going from $600 to $2,000 doesn't make you a socialist. Mr. President, keep fighting for the American people who are suffering. Insist on a standalone vote.
https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1345107288047165441 

Alvin Kamara is confirmed to have Covid-19. The first round of the playoffs are in doubt.
https://twitter.com/nick_underhill/status/1345125662558998529

The NFL fined #Saints star Alvin Kamara $5,000 for wearing red-and-green cleats in a Christmas win over the #Vikings
https://twitter.com/tompelissero/status/1345040657224753152

Edelman's season is officially over. He appeared in six games. And still, he's 4th on the team in receiving yards, ahead of N'Keal Harry and the entire TE depth chart
https://twitter.com/jerrythornton1/status/1345011696126070784

2020 has been fired, per sources.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1344871010823270400

The #Browns had no new positive COVID-19 results today, source said. A good sign.
https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1345019573897195522

Cam Newton regrets missing offseason to learn system: "I wish I had more time to dissect what I was actually getting in to."
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30630892/new-england-patriots-cam-newton-regrets-missing-offseason-learn-system

Giants OL coach Dave DeGuglielmo tests positive...
https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1345038682210897920

#Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy told reporters the team will work virtually today and that they are in extended COVID-19 protocols. They had a player test positive
https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1345046066585100288

Washington QB Alex Smith (calf strain) is participating in individual drills at the start of practice again today, per source. Today is expected to be his heaviest workload of the week as Smith tries to return for Sunday night's win-and-in matchup with the #Eagles.
https://twitter.com/tompelissero/status/1345062658907787265

#Chiefs have ruled out WR Tyreek Hill, WR Sammy Watkins, RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire and RT Mike Remmers for Sunday vs. the #Chargers. Patrick Mahomes is getting the week off. A three-week break before they play again.
https://twitter.com/mysportsupdate/status/1345099246446501888

#Bucs LB Devin White tested positive for Covid-19, while teammate Shaq Barrett landed on the Covid19 list as a close contact, sources tell me and @RapSheet. Both are out for Sunday, but Barrett would be on track to return for the wild-card round if he keeps testing negative.
https://twitter.com/tompelissero/status/1345119541916028929

Two New Mexico megachurches fined $10,000 each for packed Christmas services that violated Covid19 measures
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/new-mexico-churches-christmas-service-fine-covid-b1780823.html

Congress just passed the most important anti-corruption reform in decades, but hardly anyone knows about it
https://fortune.com/2020/12/26/ndaa-2021-shell-companies-corporate-transparency-act/

Timber Tax Cuts Cost Oregon Towns Billions. Then Polluted Water Drove Up the Price. — Rural communities in Oregon paid millions of dollars for clean, safe drinking water because the state didn't protect their watersheds from logging-related contamination.
https://www.propublica.org/article/timber-water-oregon

The US Banned Anonymous Shell Companies. Pardon the all-caps, but the Senate's veto override today means that the U.S. A) just eliminated the primary building block in America's transformation into an offshore haven, and B) passed the most sweeping counter-kleptocracy reforms in decades—potentially ever. Huge boost to American credibility in the fight against modern kleptocracy. Huge blow to those who'd turned to the U.S. time and again for their laundering needs, and those U.S. states that had transformed into money laundering havens of their own (Delaware). Just phenomenal news. Again, this is a massive testament to all those who exposed the rot these anonymous shell companies led to, especially the journalists who exposed the laundering networks and civil society activists pressuring legislators to make this change (when it seemed next to impossible). The fight against anonymity, and these American kleptocratic building blocks, is hardly over. Trusts, real estate, private equity, hedge funds, art houses, auction houses... much work remains. But today is absolutely a day to celebrate. One other thing: This was not only a clear rebuke to Trump (and the first veto override!), but it was absolutely a bipartisan endeavor. The legislation banning shell companies couldn't have been passed without a broad, broad base of support and stakeholders, across the aisle.
 https://nytimes.com/2021/01/01/us/politics/senate-override-trump-defense-bill.html

If you're interested in how the anonymous American shell company industry first developed, and how it helped transform the U.S. into money laundering nirvana—why today is such a huge deal—read this book when it's released: AMERICAN KLEPTOCRACY
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250274533

Statement from Transparency International U.S. (@transparencyUSA) on today's landmark passage:
'This is the first significant update to our anti-money laundering laws in twenty years, and one of the most important anti-corruption measures ever passed by the U.S. Congress.'
https://twitter.com/transparencyUSA/status/1345108674205921282
https://us.transparency.org/news/historic-anti-corruption-measures-become-law/

- Brace yourselves for some really bad and surprising coronavirus19-related news this year.
- Trump is going to keep generating outrage cycles after he leaves office.
- There are going to be some unbelievably close and protracted Senate votes this year.
- Look for some alarming brinkmanship from North Korea this year.
- Expect major transformation and disruption in the entertainment industry this year.
- Everything Senate Republicans do this year will really be about 2024.
- Twitter and Facebook are going to make a lot of controversial content moderation decisions this year.
- I'm already dreading all of the revelations about terrible men that are going to emerge this year.
- Things are going to get pretty hairy in the Middle East this year.
- Get ready for unexpected delays in Biden's efforts to reverse Trump's regulatory legacy.
- The Biden administration infighting stories are going to be so asinine this year.
- We are going to learn so many mind-boggling things about the Trump presidency this year.
- If you thought the climate disasters of 2020 were bad, wait until you see what 2021 has in store for us. 

It's Friday.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1345106595114606593

Uptick in COVID-19 infections will test the NFL in Week 17
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/01/01/uptick-in-covid-19-infections-will-test-the-nfl-in-week-17/

What we know about the tapes: They were disclosed to Wood and his attorneys this past March, by ex-partners who claim in their lawsuit that their professional relationship deteriorated with his "erratic, hostile, abusive and threatening" behavior in fall 2019. Down-pointing triangle
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1345136391903195137

"I might actually be Christ coming back for a second time in the form of an imperfect man, elevating Christ consciousness." — Lin Wood on tape, per his ex-law partners. There are also tapes of him admitting to assaults, they say.
https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/lin-woods-ex-law-partners-claim-he-was-taped-admitting-to-assaults-asserting-he-may-be-christ-coming-back-for-second-time/

It's January 1. And already huge change in Georgia: One of nation's most notoriously pro-ICE counties for decades did a 180 this fall by electing as sheriff a black Democrat who ran on breaking the ICE contract. And immediately kept his word.
https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/georgia-activism-immigration/

.@KeyboTaylor, Gwinnett's newly sworn-in sheriff, announces today the county is ending its participation in the controversial 287(g) program, which checks the immigration status of detained people. "Gwinnett co, you spoke and I listened." #gwinnett #gapol
https://twitter.com/TamarHallerman/status/1344995355470016512

Taylor also said the county will end its Rapid Response team in its jail, which had previously been under fed investigation for excessive force
https://www.ajc.com/news/local/settlement-close-gwinnett-case-excessive-force-jail/zwMvKOkpog6hV5l4Dl7rFI/
https://twitter.com/TamarHallerman/status/1344998054538178560

Matthew Stafford was fined a few years ago for wearing blue cleats that matched his uniform. https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2015/10/09/detroit-lions-matthew-stafford-fined-cleats/73660244/

Trump's hotel wants to cash in on Biden's inauguration, but the bookings aren't rolling in. | A reservation specialist said there were "plenty" of rooms available.
https://twitter.com/i/lists/884483122410213376

12 million Covid19 vaccines Syringe have been distributed in the US. Less than 3 million people have been vaccinated. Fix the distribution!
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations

BIG NEWS: You just discovered emergency backup paper ballots, which Georgia law requires counties to have in case the voting machines go down or some other problem occurs. They're very real, and tracked if they are used. I won't hold my breath for this to be deleted, though..............
https://twitter.com/PatrickByrne/status/1345101287671672832

Pelosi's San Francisco Home Vandalized By Leftists
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/01/01/report-pelosi-san-francisco-home-vandalized-graffiti-apparent-pigs-head/ 

Muslims in DR Congo have killed at least 25 Muslims, beheading some.
https://www.dw.com/en/dr-congo-rebels-kill-dozens-of-farmers/a-56111863

Hundreds of starlings found dead in Rome's streets murdered by fireworks
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55511016

Iran to boost uranium enrichment to 20%, UN says. This remains short of the 90% required to make a nuclear bomb. But under the 2015 agreement Iran was supposed to keep enrichment below 4%.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-55509048

Billy Donovan said Chandler Hutchison tested positive for Covid-19. Donovan released that with Hutch's permission. The other 3 players have returned to Chicago and are in quarantine.
https://twitter.com/KCJHoop/status/1345152618109280257

Daniel Theis with the monster chase down block
https://streamable.com/an0q34

Trae Young steps into a three from the logoHighlight
https://streamable.com/xmumq2

LaMelo with the Spin move and the finish
https://streamable.com/q4cqcs

Jerami Grant baptizes Daniel Theis with the poster
https://streamable.com/ogh9k1

LaMelo dances on the Grizzlies and finishes with a nice dime
https://streamable.com/bq308z

Judge tosses Gohmert's case against Pence. The judge, a Trump appointee, said Gohmert and the alternate site of electors who sued lacked standing.
https://pacer-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/167/203073/175111599398.pdf

Italy begins year of Dante anniversary events with virtual Uffizi exhibition
https://www.uffizi.it/en/online-exhibitions-series/to-rebehold-the-stars

So when we learn that one of these people dies two or three weeks from now, don't ask me not to #blamethevictim. The victim will deserve blame.
https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1345081841464840193

Does anyone know enough Lin Woodology to understand why he occasionally attacks Justice Breyer? Or is this a "last words of Dutch Schultz" thing where his brain is sparking as it flickers out

Luka hits Bam with some nice post work and hits the shot
https://streamable.com/unmmr8

You, BlobSecPompeo need a dictionary. Swagger (v):walk or behave in a very confident and typically arrogant or aggressive way. (n):a very confident and typically arrogant or aggressive gait or manner. "The Sec. of State walks with swagger, but he really is a frightened imbecile."
https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1345067615568490496

While you were at home on your couch last night, the New York City sheriff's office found "300+ individuals consuming alcohol, singing karaoke, and dancing" at Maspeth Bar and Lounge in Queens. "The patrons were not wearing face coverings and were not social distancing."
https://twitter.com/emmagf/status/1345068550378164230

Virginia state Sen. Ben Chafin (R-Lebanon) has died from complications from COVID-19, the senator's office confirmed Friday night. Chafin had been hospitalized at VCU Medical Center for two weeks, according to a news release.
https://www.wric.com/news/virginia-news/virginia-state-sen-ben-chafin-dies-from-covid-19-complications/

It appears Gohmert's appeal announcement will be made on Newsmax in an hour:
https://twitter.com/replouiegohmert/status/1345190910099927041 

The last known male giant Swinhoe's softshell turtle is no longer alone on the planet after the discovery of a female of his species in Vietnam. The female 86kg (13 stone) turtle was found in Dong Mo lake, in Hanoi's Son Tay district, and captured for genetic testing in October.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/01/hopes-for-most-endangered-turtle-after-discovery-of-female-in-vietnam-lake

CP3 drains the tough shot to put the Suns up 4 with 7.1 left
https://streamable.com/nukw0q

The Phoenix Suns (5-1) defeat the Denver Nuggets (1-4) 106 - 103

The Portland Trail Blazers (3-2) wreck the Golden State Warriors (2-3) 123-98 behind Damian Lillard's 34 points and 8 assists

Anthony Davis went 34/11/5 tonight on 50/67/57 shooting. 13-26 from the field and 4-6 from 3.

Beal bodies Anthony Edwards for the and-one and rocks the baby with Westbrook
https://streamable.com/oi2qlo

The Washington Wizards (1-5) defeat the KAT-less Minnesota Timberwolves (2-3), 130-109

The best coaches adapt the system to best maximize the talents of the players. Steve Kerr has done none of that with these Warriors. Zero. Kerr must change things soon or this will get uglier. Start by running more pick-and-roll with Curry and Wiseman. Keep it simple. The amount of possessions where Curry was straight up frozen out is crazy. There shouldn't really be a single possession where Curry is not at least touching the ball. I don't understand why Kelly Oubre is putting up a shot when Steph Curry is also on the court. A contested 30 footer from Steph is a better shot than any shot from Kelly Oubre. Just pass it back to him. Negative IQ players like Oubre and Wiggins can't run a motion offense.

Blazers whip the ball all over the floor to free up Dame for a wide open three

Damian Lillard exits the game with a blazing hot 34 points, 4 rebs, 8 assists on 52/60/100 splits

Keldon Johnson gets a career high 26 points with 10 rebounds and 2 steals on 64/56/88 shooting.

Deandre Ayton Highlights vs. Nuggets - 22 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks

The Phoenix Suns are for real. Surround top 20 players in Devin Booker and Chris Paul with smart, unselfish players who can shoot and/or defend, you get a great team like this. Mikal Bridges and Deandre Ayton are so, so good and perfect fits. Such a deep rotation too. Watch out.

Curry makes the circus shot plus the foul
https://streamable.com/hosfpb

Steph hits a circus shot over Dame, plus the foul
https://streamable.com/773qvq

James Wiseman bamboozles Damian Lillard with a behind the back
https://streamable.com/6yjkeb

The Milwaukee Bucks (3-3) defeat the Chicago Bulls (2-4) 126-96-, backed by 22 made 3-pointers

AD and LeBron have a laugh after AD almost costs LeBron the triple double
https://streamable.com/ehoav7

James Wiseman pins CJ McCollum's shot on the backboard
https://streamable.com/btkifx

Dame drains the step back 3 and the Blazers bench loves it
https://streamable.com/kif1le

Bradley Beal scores 31 points, 3 rebounds and 7 assists in 28 minutes to get Wizards their first win

Kyrie Irving with 18 points on 6-21 shooting vs the Hawks

Alen Smailagic: Right meniscus tear. Surgery in the coming days.
https://twitter.com/anthonyVslater/status/1345250218590175233

🙏🙏: Steve Kerr says James Wiseman is "fine" with a tweaked ankle and expects him to play in Sunday's rematch.
https://twitter.com/wcgoldberg/status/1345252009813929984

Trump lawyer Lin Wood insists he is not insane after tweeting that Mike Pence should face execution by firing squad
https://www.businessinsider.com/pro-trump-lawyer-l-lin-wood-tweets-that-pence-executed-2021-1

Trump Team Backs Away From Lin Wood After Pence Tweets
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-team-runs-away-from-lin-wood-after-pence-tweets 

From John M. Patarini, the FBI agent who led the investigation into the massacre of civilians by Blackwater mercenaries: Having spent many hours with the innocent Iraqi victims who are permanently maimed and crippled because of the actions of these Blackwater guards, and the heartbroken family members of those killed, I am embarrassed for our country. I believe we will pay a heavy price in our relationships with other countries as a result of these pardons. I'm so glad that I'm retired and will never again be asked to risk my life and those of my fellow investigators, only to have killers pardoned for purely political reasons.
https://nytimes.com/2021/01/01/opinion/letters/blackwater-pardons.html

Murkowski: "I think it's awful. I am going to support my oath to the Constitution. That's the loyalty test here."
Romney: "It's ambition pointing a gun at the head of democracy."
Wicker: "I don't understand his reasoning."

Ink lot test: Which bothers you more, House Democrats attempting to abolish gendered words like "aunt" and "uncle" - or House Republicans attempting to abolish free and fair US presidential elections? Pretty much your entire online persona can be predicted based on that one Q

Trump will be gone whether he likes it or not in 18 days 

Why is Trump not facing charges (treason, sedition, terrorist) for trying to subvert the election? Because charging federal crimes is literally the responsibility of an organization that works for him, the Depart of Justice, and the DOJ has always been super-major-majority hardcore Republican and currently pro-Trump. DoJ independence from executive was always a nice idea, but it's no rule, and it's definitely gone.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler: My good faith efforts at de-escalation have been met with ongoing violence and even scorn from radical antifa and anarchists. It's time to push back harder against those who are set on destroying our community."
https://twitter.com/i/status/1345355232600088576
https://twitter.com/dcexaminer/status/1345355232600088576
https://twitter.com/i/status/1345231349679054848

Oceana report says Amazon has a 'plastic problem', pollutes oceans with 22 million pounds of plastics per year
https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/oceana-report-says-amazon-has-a-plastic-problem-pollutes-oceans-with-22-million-pounds-of-plastics-per-year 

The election results have been audited, litigated and in some places recounted by hand, each time demolishing the baseless allegations of widespread fraud that continue to circulate. And yet a significant number of lawmakers who know better are indulging the fiction: SenTedCruz
 is circulating a letter calling for the rejection of Electoral College results until a 10-day "emergency audit" can be conducted to examine "unprecedented allegations of voter fraud."https://twitter.com/McCormackJohn/status/1345412426435596290

As for Kevin Porter Jr., no word when he'll be back," Pluto wrote. "The Cavs have said he's dealing with some personal issues. The 20-year-old Porter had two off-court problems before the season. He wasn't convicted of any charges, but the Cavs are concerned about his maturity. They don't want to rush him back but will wait until they believe he's emotionally ready to return.
Cavs concerned with Kevin Porter Jr.'s maturity, don't want him to return until he's 'emotionally ready'
https://cavaliersnation.com/2021/01/02/report-cavs-concerned-with-kevin-porter-jr-s-maturity-dont-want-him-to-return-until-hes-emotionally-ready/

All 54 African countries put together have registered fewer Covid19 deaths than France. That doesn't mean people aren't dying from the virus. As the coronavirus pandemic has swept across the world in 2020, it has become increasingly evident that in the vast majority of countries on the African continent, most deaths are never formally registered. Reliable data on a country's deaths and their causes are hard to come by, which means governments can miss emerging health threats — whether Ebola or the coronavirus — and often have to formulate health policy blindly.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/world/africa/africa-coronavirus-deaths-underreporting.html

McConnell home also vandalized by leftists
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/01/02/stimulus-checks-mcconnell-pelosi-homes-vandalized/4112955001/

11 Republican Senators To Vote Against Electoral College Results. Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Steve Daines, John Kennedy, Marsha Blackburn, Mike Braun, and newly elected Republican Senators who dismiss the election as rigged (yet won their elections on the same ballot and machines etc) and want the rigged results overturned so Trump can win but don't want their own rigged results overturned (Senators-elect Cynthia Lummis, Bill Hagerty, Tommy Tuberville, Roger Marshall). The newly elected Republican claim the votes were rigged yet they won their elections and refuse to demand their own election results be overturned for the Democrats who lost due to vote rigging.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/us/politics/gop-senators-josh-hawley-election.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/02/politics/senate-republicans-electoral-college/index.html

I bet almost all the Republican Senators will vote against the Electoral College results. If at least 49 of the 50 Republican Senators vote to reject the Elector College results, America is over, Trump will remain in power. The military (the only enforcement power to remove Trump) will never intervene)

Gohmert calls for Trump supporters to attack Democrats and burn down America to overturn election results
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/01/02/gohmert-suggests-violence-in-the-streets-after-judge-rejects-bid-to-force-vp-pence-to-overturn-bidens-win/

It's wild that it's newsworthy now for a senator simply to accept the results of a presidential election, which senators have been doing for hundreds of years without drama: Sen. Lisa Murkowski: "I will vote to affirm the 2020 presidential election. The courts and state legislatures have all honored their duty to hear legal allegations and have found nothing to warrant overturning the results. I urge my colleagues from both parties to recognize this"
hhttps://twitter.com/lisamurkowski/status/1345476555477233666

Remember Republican state election official and Republican-and-Trump appointed judges and Republican legislatures have all rejected the lie of voter fraud and election rigging.

North Korea has more nuclear warheads today than four years ago. And China runs North Korea.
https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1345422101184802817

Muslim Terrorists Murder 70 Muslims In Niger
https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1345477099029721088

A dangerously thin House Democratic majority will seat a Republican congresswoman-elect who, according to certified results, won by 6 votes, with dozens of uncounted ballots that a judicial panel found legal ordered counted (legal challenge in progress). Undoubtedly that's close enough to make one wonder about discarded ballots, etc. But rules are rules, and Democracies live or die by them.  

At least 4 of those senators are senator-elects will be sworn in to make this proclamation. So their elections were won with fraud and their election results should be reversed.

James Harden is a late scratch tonight (right ankle sprain). Gordon will start.
https://twitter.com/KellyIkoNBA/status/1345480909760430080

The entire Saints RB room won't be available tomorrow bc of close contact to Alvin Kamara. Latavius Murry, Burton, Washington, RB coach all out tomorrow @NFLonFOX. They are moving Ty Montgomery to RB and calling up practice squad RB
https://twitter.com/jayglazer/status/1345408601133867008

Titans Isaiah Wilson seen partying over NYE after multiple Covid19 infractions and a DUI earlier in the season.
https://atozsportsnashville.com/tennessee-titans-isaiah-wilson-seen-partying/

The #Browns have a positive test on their coaching staff. Facility closed this morning.
https://twitter.com/MikeGarafolo/status/1345369925448298496

Just as Covid19 cases are spiking across the country, they are doing the same in the NFL. Cases this week include Alvin Kamara, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Keenan Allen, Devin White, Shaq Barrett, Steve McLendon, Denzel Ward, Andrew Sendejo, Harrison Bryant — all of whom are out Sunday.
https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1345377877559304192

This stunt won't change the fact that President-elect Biden will be sworn in on January 20th, and these baseless claims have already been examined and dismissed by Trump's own Attorney General, dozens of courts, and election officials from both parties

Trump's Flagship Golf Resort Has Now Lost $61 million in Six Years
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-golf-resort-turnberry-now-lost-61-million-six-years-1558490

"The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrats' rich friends" because only the Republicans' rich friends should get money, and only Republicans define "rich" as the lower class and lower-tier of middle class.

Meghan McCain responding to deranged AZ Republican: You just lost Arizona both Senate seats to Democrats, the general election to Biden and turned the state blue for the fist time in generations.
https://twitter.com/MeghanMcCain/status/1345489412143132672

In calling for votes in Black districts to be voided, Republicans also cite as "precedent" the Compromise of 1877, which settled a disputed presidential election with a commission, ultimately ending Reconstruction and ushering in Jim Crow.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-01-02/nearly-a-dozen-gop-senators-say-they-will-object-to-electoral-college-results

The Republican Arizona State Party declared itself the KKK and Nazi party.
https://twitter.com/AZGOP/status/1345492244309057536

Why do Democrats want Republicans to go back to being the party of Flake, McCain, Romney? Weird
Face with raised eyebrow

John Wall playing like his old self so far in Houston.

A fundamental, defining feature of a democratic republic is the right of the people to elect their own leaders. The effort by Sens. Hawley, Cruz, and others to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in swing states like Pennsylvania directly undermines this right.
https://twitter.com/SenToomey/status/1345486488394485760

The senators justify their intent by observing that there have been many allegations of fraud. But allegations of fraud by a losing campaign cannot justify overturning an election.
https://twitter.com/SenToomey/status/1345486489300443136

They fail to acknowledge that these allegations have been adjudicated in courtrooms across America and were found to be unsupported by evidence.
https://twitter.com/SenToomey/status/1345486490445484033

Trump's own Attorney General, Bill Barr, stated 'we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.'
https://twitter.com/SenToomey/status/1345486491426955267

I acknowledge that this past election, like all elections, had irregularities. But the evidence is overwhelming that Joe Biden won this election.
https://twitter.com/SenToomey/status/1345486492358090753

His narrow victory in Pennsylvania is easily explained by the decline in suburban support for Trump and the Trump's slightly smaller victory margins in most rural counties.
https://twitter.com/SenToomey/status/1345486493524103169

I voted for President Trump and endorsed him for re-election. But, on Wednesday, I intend to vigorously defend our form of government by opposing this effort to disenfranchise millions of voters in my state and others.
https://twitter.com/SenToomey/status/1345486494526537734

Former CNN host and talk show legend Larry King has been hospitalized in Los Angeles with the coronavirus19
https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1345503051197591553

John Wall with the acrobatic lay-up! He now has 14 in the first half
https://streamable.com/b436sz

A 10-day audit is impossible under the current statute. Objections to a state are limited to 2 hours' debate. Adjournments are fixed in the statute, too--no recess if you've hit five days:
https://law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/16

Washington WR Terry McLaurin has a significant high ankle sprain but intends to try to play Sunday in Philly, per sources. Could be limited in what he's able to do out there — high ankle sprains usually take a min. 6 wks — but this is McLaurin. Knows the importance of this game.
https://twitter.com/NickiJhabvala/status/1345479904373170179

No one has suggested appointing a special commission to look into polka dancing werewolves who made banana pudding out of ballots, so what about all the people who believe in that? 

John Wall in his second game as a Houston Rocket: 28/4/6/3/2 on 11-21 shooting

Christian Wood tonight: 20 pts/14 reb/4 blks in 32 mins

This is illegal and unconstitutional. There is no natural federal agency to do this. If one was made to, they 1) wouldn't know how and 2) it would represent a massive federal power grab that is unprecedented. And if it's the state, they've already done an audit. The votes have been counted THRICE. "Unprecedented allegations" don't equal "unprecedented voter fraud." The truly unprecedented aspect is the level of cynical contempt for the American people that has broken out among congressional Republicans.

Imagine if it's President Hillary Clinton, having lost her re-election in an electoral college blowout and popular vote blowout, encouraged a group led by Ivy League-educated Democratic Senators, to try to throw out the results of only states which she lost

Austin Rivers being a victim of a horrible out of bounds call by refs
https://streamable.com/iy0v43

A dreadful 15 seconds of basketball between the Raptors and Pelicans
https://streamable.com/tv6ajh

Siakam's shot gets swatted by Zion back to the 3pt line, FVV takes advantage
https://streamable.com/taizhz

The thing that gets most deeply stuck in my craw here is how the thousands of dedicated election workers who worked tirelessly to give us an amazingly smooth election at significant personal risk are not only being denied the thanks and recognition they deserve, but vilified and explicitally threatened with vigilante death.

A federal appeals court has dismissed the Louie Gohmert-backed lawsuit. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court judge's decision that the Republican plaintiffs lacked a legal right to sue.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1345553077118517248 

The New Orleans Pelicans (4-2) defeat the Toronto Raptors (1-4) 120-116, led by 31 points from Brandon Ingram

Brandon Ingram tells the Raptors, "It's over. It's over. It's over...It's over." while at the free throw line.
https://streamable.com/jccagw

Seth Curry 21 Points, 6 Assists, on 8/11 Shooting vs Hornets

Buccaneers' QB Tom Brady will cash in on a $562,500 incentive today if he remains in the Top 5 in the NFL in passing yards this season. Entering Sunday's regular-season finale against the Buccaneers, Brady is fifth.
https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1345679989178511362

Congress expelled 14 members in 1861 for supporting the Confederacy
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/01/02/fact-check-14-congressmen-expelled-1861-supporting-confederacy/4107713001

Thousands of National Guard Troops Prepare to Support Biden's Inauguration
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/01/02/thousands-of-national-guard-troops-prepare-support-bidens-inauguration.html

Trump allies shouldn't be sworn into office until cleared of their own claims of election fraud: Voter fraud allegations by Republicans elected to state office mean that their own elections would be illegitimate, too.

London hospitals to stop cancer surgeries due to Covid19 overload
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/02/cancer-operations-face-cancellation-across-london-as-covid-patients-fill-hospitals

Respectfully, President Trump: What you're saying is not true. The truth will come out
https://twitter.com/GaSecofState/status/1345753643593687040

Trumpism is an American autocratic movement with Fascistic markers. There are seven specific parts that comprise its core 1. THE LEADER.  Donald Trump is the unquestioned leader of this movement. It is a cult of personality and there are no serious challengers against his leadership. Thugs. The Proud Boys are but one example in a toxic stew of heavily armed Militia's, White Nationalists and other right wing extremists. As is always the case, their ranks are filled with people on the fringes of society; the lonely, dispossessed, aggrieved and resentful. Not so long ago, there would have been a near societal consensus around describing these people as losers. These people bring the menace of violence to politics and are kin to the same thuggish rabble that were wearing brown and black shirts 100 years ago. 3. ELITES.All Autocratic movements fuse an unholy alliance between society's elites and losers. It is a coalition of convenience between two groups who despise each other yet need each other. The boundless cynicism of the elites and the endless grievances of the losers become an unbreakable cement. HawleyMO and SenTedCruz are perfect examples. Hawley graduated from Stanford and Yale Law School. He taught at Oxford and clerked for the Chief Justice of the United States. SenTedCruz graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School. They have become Completely faithless to their oaths and American democracy in the name of their ambition. They have no convictions, only self interest. 4. PROPAGANDISTS. Autocratic movements are built on and sustained by lies. Political lying and Conspiracy theories have become billion dollar businesses. Fox News, Newsmax, Oann, Social Media, Talk Radio dividers, Infowars ect. ect have poisoned the American polity and created the conditions for Trump to create an alternate reality that is now a lethal threat to American liberty. 5. FINANCIERS. This autocratic movement is financed by donations from some of America's largest and best known companies and brands in the form of millions of dollars of donations to the entities that fund the political careers of the men and women who will soon be rising on the floor of the United States Congress to betray American democracy. ATT and CharlesSchwab are two such companies. The list includes some of America's wealthiest and most powerful individuals. Mostly they are disconnected from any interest or idea of the public good other than the selfishness of self interest. 6. RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS. Trump has surrounded himself with a group of loony, corrupt, hateful, sacrilegious charlatans that make a mockery of decency and goodness with every public utterance. 7.  SHEEP. None of what is happening could happen without the silent complicity of a legion of men and women who lack the conviction, guts and integrity to stand up against Trumps mean tweets and thousands of indecent, corrupt, cruel and incompetent acts. These men and women are no different than all of their predecessors who found collaboration with what they knew to be immoral or evil as more convenient than resisting it. They are the weaklings and appeasers. They are the fools and the naive. They are the blind for whom what is obvious and true is far less preferable to delusion and pretend. In order to win the fight we must understand 1. Why are we fighting ? 2. Who are we fighting? We must be clear eyed about this. The stakes are too high 13#

The unions are comprised of teachers, and they act with the mentality and tactics of "social justice" street activists. This didn't appear out of nowhere. It is the culture of the profession now. There's a big story here about how this happened: WaPo reports on why DC schools have failed to reopen: intense union opposition coupled with mayor's ineffective strategies for countering it.
https://washingtonpost.com/local/education/washington-dc-failed-school-reopening/2021/01/02/af6d6b56-2532-11eb-952e-0c475972cfc0_story.html

You're hearing a lot of talk about "irregularities" in the election of 1876 that led to a "disputed" outcome. What is being referred to in this hazy terms? Across the state of South Carolina, white conservatives had used terror and massacre to deter former slaves from voting in 1876. Here's the story of an attack upon the small town of Hamburg in July
 https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/hamburg-massacre-1876/

Hundreds of black South Carolinians were killed by white conservative militias. Blacks fought back in many places, but they were out-gunned. The killings were not spontaneous outbursts. They were part of planned campaign of anti-black voter suppression.
http://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/after_slavery_educator/unit_nine_documents/document_11

Some of the elements of the conservative plan to suppress black votes in South Carolina in 1876 sound queasily familiar in our own time, adjusting for the antique language and technology: 13. We must attend every Radical meeting that we hear of whether they meet at night or in the day time. Democrats must go in as large numbers as they can get together, and well armed, behave at first with great courtesy and assure the ignorant Negroes that you mean them no harm and so soon as their leaders or speakers begin to speak and make false statements of facts, tell them then and there to their faces, that they are liars, thieves and rascals, and are only trying to mislead the ignorant Negroes and if you get a chance get upon the platform and address the Negroes.
http://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/after_slavery_educator/unit_nine_documents/document_11

But back of it all was terror and violence, more violence than could be contained by the limited federal forces in the area - who were anyway constrained by the white conservative Democratic House majority elected in 1874. The terror and violence worked. States where large black populations had formerly cast ballots were "redeemed" for the conservative cause - and for the presidential nominee of the racial conservatives, the Democrat, Samuel Tilden. In the face of this campaign of terrorism, the two national parties struck a deal. The Republicans would accept the validity of white conservative voter suppression at the state level - if they could retain the presidency and its patronage. The bargain was made. When modern senators propose to repeat 1876, they are not endorsing some Solomonic compromise. They are endorsing a negotiated concession to violent conservative minorities. Over the next half century, the states "redeemed" by white conservatives shriveled into tight oligarchies/Trumpocracy. Democracy in the United States has a contested history. It's being contested again right now. The foundational idea of democracy is that each person counts. Let's commit to proving that theory true in the dangerous week ahead.

Trump calls his win in Iowa a fraud, insults his wife and claims his father was part of a Presidential assassination plot. Yet Cruz, a Harvard law graduate who worked for the Supreme Court and knows what he's doing is illegal and unconstitutional and terrorism and treason and sedition. He's a TERRORIST.

A lie was propagated on the American people in 2020.
👉
The leading GOP position at this hour:
1. Too many people believe the lie to go back now.
3. Instead of correcting it, it must be fanned/investigated/promoted & even used to try to overthrow a democratically elected POTUS.
DeWine: "We have a lot of people in this country who are very concerned–"
@JakeTapper: "Because they have been lied to, Governor."
https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1345738516186198017

Trump twice this morning retweeted a person who helped run 8chan, the site that is home to QAnon.  In 2019, 8chan was linked to atrocities in Christchurch, El Paso, and Poway, California.

At least 136 civilians and 168 security force members were assassinated in Afghanistan last year, according to a nytimes count, worse than nearly any other year of the war.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/world/asia/afghanistan-targeted-killings.html

Dr. Fauci pushes back on Trump's false claims that the US coronavirus death toll is "exaggerated." "The numbers are real," Fauci said. "We have well over 300,000 deaths, we are averaging two-to-three thousand deaths per day." https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1345763879398350850

Just to recap. In the national vote, @JoeBiden won 81,283,098 votes (51.3%) and @realDonaldTrump won 74,222,958 votes (46.8%). All 50 States & DC certified the results. On Dec. 14, the Electoral College affirmed Biden won 306 Electoral Votes to Trump's 232. (270 needed to win)
https://twitter.com/wolfblitzer/status/1345752410778644481

Windhorst: "You might laugh but I think Cavs could get Harden. How will they ever get a player like Harden to come to Cleveland?". Lowe: "Where exactly is Cavs going with Harden? I guess they will end up in Sexland, wherever that is"
https://www.espn.com/radio/play/_/id/30629628

'I just want to find 11,780 votes': In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor. The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking "a big risk." The rambling, at times incoherent conversation, offered a remarkable glimpse of how consumed and desperate the president remains about his loss, unwilling or unable to let the matter go and still believing he can reverse the results in enough battleground states to remain in office.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/d45acb92-4dc4-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html

Smoking gun evidence of extortion against an American Citizen (I guess extorting the President of Ukraine is different)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/d45acb92-4dc4-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html

Extortion and election interference. Audio of phone call is criminal evidence. Trump yesterday demanded Georgia's secretary of state to concoct nonexistent votes and warned he could be criminally liable if he didn't.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/d45acb92-4dc4-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html

117th Congress is Sworn In January 3, 2020 | 12 pm ET 

Alex Smith: *Told he might die *Told they might have to amputate *Told he might never walk again *Told he'd never play football again. *17 surgeries Tonight he starts for WSH w/a chance to clinch 1st division title since 2015. Comeback player of the year. Name the award after him
https://twitter.com/MatthewBerryTMR/status/1345751654591848448

The leaguewide expectation is that #Saints QB Drew Brees will officially retire after the season is over, per @AdamSchefter. Brees signed a broadcasting deal with NBC in April, and after going through a season that included 11 fractured ribs, Brees is likely done playing.
https://twitter.com/mysportsupdate/status/1345759250887401479

The relationship between the #Eagles and QB Carson Wentz is all but fractured, per @mortreport. Wentz is expected to ask the team for a trade this offseason as he looks for a fresh start elsewhere.
https://twitter.com/mysportsupdate/status/1345756307995979777

The #Patriots enjoyed their relationship with Cam Newton this season but the expectation is that both sides will move in different directions this offseason. Newton will once again be a free agent.
https://twitter.com/mysportsupdate/status/1345758726586839042

Matthew Stafford's future with the #Lions will be decided by the next GM/HC, per @mortreport. Stafford is playing in today's meaningless game vs. Minnesota despite dealing with ankle, rib and thumb injuries. He has not asked to be traded.
https://twitter.com/mysportsupdate/status/1345760970270978049

"Most league insiders believe" the 49ers will move on from Jimmy G if there is a better option, per @mortreport
https://twitter.com/brgridiron/status/1345770057675255813 

Aides to Georgia Dem Senate candidate Jon Ossoff helpfully circulating Trump tape.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1345796238722129923

It is abundantly clear. Trump is eager to subvert democracy and maintain power through authoritarian means. Most members of his party are gladly willing to help him. Some people have refused to let that happen. But make no mistake we came very close to losing democracy.

One was dismissed as 'locker room talk' and this one...?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/audio-trump-berates-ga-secretary-of-state-urges-him-to-find-votes/2021/01/03/aba64f5f-8c3c-490f-af34-618ccea732d7_video.html

This quote by Mark Meadows, Fredo to Trump's Fredo, is chilling and possibly illegal: "At one point, Meadows urged Georgia officials 'in the spirit of cooperation and compromise' to find a path forward that doesn't involve the court system."
https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/trump-demands-georgia-elections-official-overturn-his-defeat-in-hourlong-call/6MRGK445JNAGHBL2HXLZ3FIVZU/

This is shockingly similar to what Trump was impeached over. The phone call features Trump, days before he is set to leave office, demanding and threatening Raffensperger to fabricate votes and recertify the results in Trump's favour
https://twitter.com/i/status/1345797484149403648

This is fundamentally an effort to overthrow the government of the United States.

The Ukraine call and the Georgia call weren't that different. Same style of intimidation. 

For those preposterously arguing that Republicans are just doing what Democrats have done in the past, I must've missed when John Kerry in 2004 got on the phone to try to threaten state officials into "finding" votes for him, or when President Obama did that for Hillary in 2016.

A group of House Republicans — including Freedom Caucus members Ken Buck & Chip Roy, as well as Rep.-elect Nancy Mace & libertarian Thomas Massie — put out a statement opposing the effort to challenge election
https://twitter.com/joesonka/status/1345820381773524994/photo/1
https://twitter.com/joesonka/status/1345820381773524994

This is one call to the Georgia Secretary of State that leaked. Imagine all the other possible calls that occurred that haven't leaked.

If you think someone is trying to involve you in a crime and may lie about it later, it may be a good idea to record that person to avoid any dispute about precisely what was said. Assuming the law in your state permits it... 

This tape demonstrates impeachable offenses. It is unAmerican and unDemocratic. Trump has had his shot to have his complaints heard. In court. He lost. Many, many times. Browbeating election officials to try to "find" votes for him is TERRORISM.

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan releases a statement saying: "Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden's victory strike at the foundation of our republic. It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act"
https://twitter.com/ckmarie/status/1345829048946188289

Several members of Clippers support staff are quarantined in Salt Lake City after a positive coronavirus test. Contact tracing led back to eight people attending a New Year's Eve meal at a presidential suite in the team hotel with intermittent mask-wearing.
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1345824698173632515

Justin Jefferson has broken Anquan Boldin's Rookie Receiving Record
https://twitter.com/ProFootballHOF/status/1345769389094793217

Josh Allen goes deep to Brown to put the Bills up 28-6
https://streamable.com/ihrfj7

Meyers to Cam for a touchdown, Meyers' first touchdown of the year
https://streamable.com/qpuaae

Lamar Jackson 1,000-yard rushing seasons: 2 All other QBs in NFL history 1,000-yard rushing seasons combined: 1
https://twitter.com/fieldyates/status/1345822183210283010

Lamar Jackson has done it. He is now the 1st QB in NFL history to have multiple 1,000 yard rushing seasons.

The Ravens have now rushed for over 3000 yards in back to back seasons.
https://twitter.com/RavensNumbers/status/1345825988547063808

Tua gets picked off in the redzone by Marlowe
https://streamable.com/c2peln

Giants QBs now have six interceptions when targeting Evan Engram this season.
https://twitter.com/ZackBlatt/status/1345823335662419970

Evan Engram made the Pro-Bowl this year and this happened more than once this season.
https://twitter.com/NFL_DovKleiman/status/1345822998595567623

Mike Evans has officially been ruled out for the remainder of the game. No matter what the MRI on his knee shows, it's highly unlikely he is ready for the Bucs first playoff game. A mild ligament sprain would need at least a few weeks to heal, and that's the beat case scenario.
https://twitter.com/insideinjuries/status/1345810700413923332

Full audio published here. Please retweet far and wide.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/audio-trumps-full-jan-2-call-with-ga-secretary-of-state/2021/01/03/3f9426f4-7937-4718-8a8e-9d6052001991_video.html

Can you imagine how many calls like this he might have made over the past four years that we don't yet know about?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/audio-trumps-full-jan-2-call-with-ga-secretary-of-state/2021/01/03/3f9426f4-7937-4718-8a8e-9d6052001991_video.html

The audio of Trump with the Georgia secretary of state. Wow. It's like telling the Nixon tapes to "hold my beer."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/audio-trumps-full-jan-2-call-with-ga-secretary-of-state/2021/01/03/3f9426f4-7937-4718-8a8e-9d6052001991_video.html

When you start a new grift but forget to delete your old tweets
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eq1cG23WMAAuzdw?format=jpg&name=small
https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/1345833262112006144

This is a crime, plain and simple. If a small-town mayor did this, the FBI would make an arrest for corruption. The president should not be treated any differently.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/audio-trumps-full-jan-2-call-with-ga-secretary-of-state/2021/01/03/3f9426f4-7937-4718-8a8e-9d6052001991_video.html

Ravens reach the playoffs for a third straight season with a 38-3 rout of the Bengals. The Ravens (11-5) clinch the No. 5 seed and will play at the AFC South champion (either the Titans or Colts). Lamar Jackson becomes first NFL quarterback to record multiple 1,000-yard rushing seasons and also throws three touchdowns. Baltimore becomes seventh team in NFL history to run for over 400 yards in a game.

Feels like the Dolphins have no confidence in Tua. Completely uninspiring...
https://twitter.com/BradleyGelber/status/1345806092643803136

Tua gets picked for the 3rd time in the game
https://streamable.com/mes6ix

The Browns have made the playoffs for the first time since 2002

Tom Brady throws his 40th touchdown pass of the season
https://streamable.com/1q9ph1

Evan Engram. Professional ball-dropper.

43 year-old Tom Brady ends the season with 43 total TDs (40 pass, 3 rush) and 12 interceptions

Was hoping for some Fitzmagic and ended up with Tua the Tragedy. Fitzpatrick has been fucked by the shitstain Miami Dolphins front office (their front office are the people who ordered Tua to start)

Gallman gets the the first down, fumbles without being touched, and gets ruled "down"
https://streamable.com/n1vg65

Nancy Pelosi wins her fourth and final term as House speaker by razor-thin margin

Chinese tech billionaire Jack Ma was removed from his own reality TV show including the judging webpage and has not been seen in public for two months after falling foul of President Xi in anti-regulation speech
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9108421/Chinese-tech-billionaire-Jack-Ma-not-seen-public-TWO-MONTHS.html

Remember how when Trump suborned perjury from Michael Cohen, posh lawyers said there's no crime unless Trump issued a direct order in the Queen's English? And Cohen said oh ffs "Mr. Trump talks in code"? Well we all know the code now. And have all along.

Tom Brady, 40 TDs in 2020, joins Matthew Stafford, 41 TDs in 2011, as the only two quarterbacks to ever throw 40 TDs in a season and not make the probowl

Mug shots of Nixon's men John Mitchell, H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and Charles Colson, all of whom went to prison for Watergate offenses under Nixon
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eq1xOPAXAAA5S92?format=jpg&name=900x900
https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1345856393094508547

Vaccination in New York City is basically only occurring during regular business hours. Very little on weekends. Almost none on holidays. We are in a war-like situation. We need to be vaccinating TWENTY FOUR-SEVEN. We are losing precious time.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eq0kmb4XUAM6GwX?format=jpg&name=large

McCarthy says he supports effort to void Electoral College

Remember the DNC's virtual roll call? Biden inaugural cmte announces "a virtual parade across America that will be televised for the American people and feature diverse, dynamic performances in communities across the country." PIC also announced that Biden "will receive a Presidential Escort from 15th Street to the White House, providing the American people and world with historic images of the President-elect proceeding to the White House without attracting large crowds and gatherings." After inaugural, the Bidens, VP Harris and Second Gentleman "will participate in a Pass in Review on the East front with members of the military. Pass in Reviews are a long-standing military tradition that reflect the peaceful transfer of power to a new Commander-in-Chief"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Little
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahid_Hamed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Westphal

Tom Brady's last 8 quarters of football: 1,126 yards, 10 TDs, 1 INT for an average of 563 yards and 5 TDs per game. Insane run to end the season.

McCarthy, after blocking $2,000 checks amid Christmas pandemic, joblessness & hunger 2 years after facilitating billions in stock buybacks for richest: "No more misplaced priorities" because Americans "are worth fighting for."
__________________________________

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-transcript-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/2768e0cc-4ddd-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html

At about 3 p.m. Saturday, President Trump held an hour-long call with Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state, in which he repeatedly urged him to alter the outcome of the presidential vote in the state. He was joined on the call by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and several lawyers, including longtime conservative attorney Cleta Mitchell and Georgia-based attorney Kurt Hilbert. Raffensperger was joined by his office's general counsel, Ryan Germany, and deputy secretary of state Jordan Fuchs.

The Washington Post obtained a copy of a recording of the call. This transcript has been edited to remove the name of an individual about whom Trump makes unsubstantiated claims.

Meadows: Ok. Alright. Mr. President, everyone is on the line. This is Mark Meadows, the chief of staff. Just so we all are aware. On the line is secretary of state, and two other individuals. Jordan and Mr. Germany with him. You also have the attorneys that represent the president, Kurt and Alex and Cleta Mitchell — who is not the attorney of record but has been involved — myself and then the president. So Mr. President, I'll turn it over to you.

Trump: OK, thank you very much. Hello Brad and Ryan and everybody. We appreciate the time and the call. So we've spent a lot of time on this and if we could just go over some of the numbers, I think it's pretty clear that we won. We won very substantially in Georgia. You even see it by rally size, frankly. We'd be getting 25-30,000 people a rally and the competition would get less than 100 people. And it never made sense.

But we have a number of things. We have at least 2 or 3 — anywhere from 250-300,000 ballots were dropped mysteriously into the rolls. Much of that had to do with Fulton County, which hasn't been checked. We think that if you check the signatures — a real check of the signatures going back in Fulton County you'll find at least a couple of hundred thousand of forged signatures of people who have been forged. And we are quite sure that's going to happen.

Another tremendous number. We're going to have an accurate number over the next two days with certified accountants. But an accurate number — and that's people that went to vote and they were told they can't vote because they've already been voted for. And it's a very sad thing. They walked out complaining. But the number's large. We'll have it for you. But it's much more than the number of 11,779 that's — The current margin is only 11,779. Brad, I think you agree with that, right? That's something I think everyone — at least that's' a number that everyone agrees on.

But that's the difference in the votes. But we've had hundreds of thousands of ballots that we're able to actually — we'll get you a pretty accurate number. You don't need much of a number because the number that in theory I lost by, the margin would be 11,779. But you also have a substantial numbers of people, thousands and thousands who went to the voting place on November 3, were told they couldn't vote, were told they couldn't vote because a ballot had been put on their name. And you know that's very, very, very, very sad.

We had, I believe it's about 4,502 voters who voted but who weren't on the voter registration list, so it's 4,502 who voted but they weren't on the voter registration roll which they had to be. You had 18,325 vacant address voters. The address was vacant and they're not allowed to be counted. That's 18,325.

Smaller number — you had 904 who only voted where they had just a P.O. — a post office box number — and they had a post office box number and that's not allowed. We had at least 18,000 — that's on tape we had them counted very painstakingly — 18,000 voters having to do with [name]. She's a vote scammer, a professional vote scammer and hustler [name]. That was the tape that's been shown all over the world that makes everybody look bad, you me and everybody else.

Where they got — number one they said very clearly and it's been reported they said there was a major water main break. Everybody fled the area. And then they came back, [name] and her daughter and a few people. There were no Republican poll watchers. Actually, there were no Democrat poll watchers, I guess they were them. But there were no Democrats, either and there was no law enforcement. Late in the morning, early in the morning they went to the table with the black robe, the black shield and they pulled out the votes. Those votes were put there a number of hours before the table was put there. I think it was, Brad you would know, it was probably eight hours or seven hours before and then it was stuffed with votes.

They weren't in an official voter box, but they were in what looked to be suitcases or trunks, suitcases but they weren't in voter boxes. The minimum number it could be because we watched it and they watched it certified in slow motion instant replay if you can believe it but slow motion and it was magnified many times over and the minimum it was 18,000 ballots, all for Biden.

You had out of state voters. they voted in Georgia but they were from out of state, of 4,925. You had absentee ballots sent to vacant, they were absentee ballots sent to vacant addresses. They had nothing on them about addresses, that's 2,326.

And you had drop boxes, which is very bad. You had drop boxes that were picked up. We have photographs and we have affidavits from many people.

I don't know if you saw the hearings, but you have drop boxes where the box was picked up but not delivered for three days. So all sorts of things could have happened to that box including, you know, putting in the votes that you wanted. So there were many infractions and the bottom line is, many, many times the 11,779 margin that they said we lost by — we had vast I mean the state is in turmoil over this.

And I know you would like to get to the bottom of it, although I saw you on television today and you said that you found nothing wrong. I mean, you know, And I didn't lose the state, Brad. People have been saying that it was the highest vote ever. There was no way. A lot of the political people said that there's no way they beat me. And they beat me. They beat me in the … As you know, every single state … we won every state. we one every statehouse in the country. We held the Senate which is shocking to people, although we'll see what happens tomorrow or in a few days.

And we won the House, but we won every single statehouse and we won Congress, which was supposed to lose 15 seats, and they gained, I think 16 or 17 or something. I think there's a now difference of five. There was supposed to be a difference substantially more. But politicians in every state, but politicians in Georgia have given affidavits or are going to that, that there was no way that they beat me in the election that the people came out, in fact, they were expecting to lose and then they ended up winning by a lot because of the coattails. And they said there's no way that they've done many polls prior to the election. There was no way that they won.

Ballots were dropped in massive numbers. And we're trying to get to those numbers and we will have them.

They'll take a period of time. Certified. But but they're massive numbers. And far greater than the 11,779.

The other thing, dead people. So dead people voted and I think the number is close to 5,000 people. And they went to obituaries. They went to all sorts of methods to come up with an accurate number and a minimum is close to about 5,000 voters.

The bottom line is when you add it all up and then you start adding, you know, 300,000 fake ballots. Then the other thing they said is in Fulton County and other areas. And this may or may not … because this just came up this morning that they are burning their ballots, that they are shredding, shredding ballots and removing equipment. They're changing the equipment on the Dominion machines and, you know, that's not legal.

And they supposedly shredded I think they said 300 pounds of, 3,000 pounds of ballots. And that just came to us as a report today. And it is a very sad situation.

But Brad if you took the minimum numbers where many, many times above the 11,779 and many of those numbers are certified, or they will be certified but they are certified. And those are numbers that are there that exist. And that beat the margin of loss, they beat it, I mean by a lot and people should be happy to have an accurate count instead of an election where there's turmoil.

I mean there's turmoil in Georgia and other places. You're not the only one I mean we have other states that I believe will be flipping to us very shortly. And this is something that — You know, as an example, I think it in Detroit, I think there's a section a good section of your state actually, which we're not sure so we're not going to report it yet. But in Detroit, we had, I think it was, 139 percent of the people voted. That's not too good.

In Pennsylvania, they had well over 200,000 more votes than they had people voting. And uh that doesn't play too well, and the legislature there is, which is Republican, is extremely activist and angry. I mean, there were other things also that were almost as bad as that. But, uh, they had as an example, in Michigan, a tremendous number of dead people that voted. I think it was I think, Mark, it was 18,000. Some unbelievably high number, much higher than yours, you were in the 4-5,000 category.

And that was checked out laboriously by going through, by going through the obituary columns in the newspapers.

So I guess with all of it being said, Brad, the bottom line and provisional ballots, again, you know, you'll have to tell me about the provisional ballots, but we have a lot of people that were complaining that they weren't able to vote because they were already voted for. These are great people.

And, you know, they were shellshocked. I don't know if you call that provisional ballots. In some states we had a lot of provisional ballot situations where people were given a provisional ballot because when they walked in on November 3 and they were already voted for.

So that's it. I mean, we have many many times the number of votes necessary to win the state. And we won the state and we won it very substantially and easily and we're getting, we have, much of this is a very certified, far more certified than we need. But we're getting additional numbers certified, too. And we're getting pictures of dropboxes being delivered and delivered late. Delivered three days later, in some cases, plus we have many affidavits to that effect.

Meadows: So Mr. President, if I might be able to jump in and I'll give Brad a chance. Mr. Secretary, obviously there is, there are allegations where we believe that not every vote or fair vote and legal vote was counted and that's at odds with the representation from the secretary of state's office.

What I'm hopeful for is there some way that we can we can find some kind of agreement to look at this a little bit more fully. You know the president mentioned Fulton County.

But in some of these areas where there seems to be a difference of where the facts seem to lead, and so Mr. Secretary, I was hopeful that, you know, in the spirit of cooperation and compromise is there something that we can at least have a discussion to look at some of these allegations to find a path forward that's less litigious?

Raffensperger: Well, I listened to what the president has just said. President Trump, we've had several lawsuits and we've had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. Um, we don't agree that you have won. And we don't — I didn't agree about the 200,000 number that you'd mentioned. I'll go through that point by point.

What we have done is we gave our state Senate about one and a half hours of our time going through the election issue by issue and then on the state House, the government affairs committee, we gave them about two and a half hours of our time, going back point by point on all the issues of contention. And then just a few days ago we met with our U.S. congressmen, Republican congressmen, and we gave them about two hours of our time talking about this past election. Going back, primarily what you've talked about here focused in on primarily, I believe, is the absentee ballot process. I don't believe that you're really questioning the Dominion machines. Because we did a hand retally, a 100 percent retally of all the ballots and compared them to what the machines said and came up with virtually the same result. Then we did the recount, and we got virtually the same result. So I guess we can probably take that off the table.

I don't think there's an issue about that.

Trump: Well, Brad. Not that there's not an issue, because we have a big issue with Dominion in other states and perhaps in yours. But we haven't felt we needed to go there. And just to, you know, maybe put a little different spin on what Mark is saying, Mark Meadows, uh, yeah we'd like to go further, but we don't really need to. We have all the votes we need.

You know, we won the state. If you took, these are the most minimal numbers, the numbers that I gave you, those are numbers that are certified, your absentee ballots sent to vacant addresses, your out of state voters 4,925. You know when you add them up, it's many more times, it's many times the 11,779 number. So we could go through, we have not gone through your Dominion. So we can't give them blessing. I mean, in other states, we think we found tremendous corruption with Dominion machines but we'll have to see.

But we only lost the state by that number, 11,000 votes, and 779. So with that being said, with just what we have, with just what we have we're giving you minimal, minimal numbers. We're doing the most conservative numbers possible, we're many times, many, many times above the margin. And so we don't really have to, Mark, I don't think we have to go through …

Meadows: Right

Trump: Because, what's the difference between winning the election by two votes and winning it by half a million votes. I think I probably did win it by half a million. You know, one of the things that happened Brad, is we have other people coming in now from Alabama and from South Carolina and from other states, and they're saying it's impossible for you to have lost Georgia. We won. You know in Alabama, we set a record, got the highest vote ever. In Georgia, we set a record with a massive amount of votes. And they say it's not possible to have lost Georgia.

And I could tell you by our rallies. I could tell you by the rally I'm having on Monday night, the place, they already have lines of people standing out front waiting. It's just not possible to have lost Georgia. It's not possible. When I heard it was close I said there's no way. But they dropped a lot of votes in there late at night. You know that, Brad. And that's what we are working on very, very stringently. But regardless of those votes, with all of it being said, we lost by essentially 11,000 votes and we have many more votes already calculated and certified, too.

And so I just don't know, you know, Mark, I don't know what's the purpose. I won't give Dominion a pass because we found too many bad things. But we don't need Dominion or anything else. We have won this election in Georgia based on all of this. And there's nothing wrong with saying that, Brad. You know I mean, having the correct — the people of Georgia are angry. And these numbers are going to be repeated on Monday night. Along with others that we're going to have by that time which are much more substantial even. And the people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry. And there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you've recalculated. Because the 2,236 in absentee ballots. I mean, they're all exact numbers that were done by accounting firms law firms, etc. and even if you cut 'em in half, cut 'em in half and cut 'em in half, again, it's more votes than we need.

Raffensperger: Well Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong. We talked to the congressmen and they were surprised.

But they — I guess there was a person Mr. Braynard who came to these meetings and presented data and he said that there was dead people, I believe it was upward of 5,000. The actual number were two. Two. Two people that were dead that voted. So that's wrong.

Trump: Well Cleta, How do you respond to that? Maybe you tell me?

Mitchell: Well, I would say Mr. Secretary, one of the things that we have requested and what we said was, if you look, if you read our petition, it said that we took the names and birth years and we had certain information available to us. We have asked from your office for records that only you have and so we said there is a universe of people who have the same name and same birth year and died.

But we don't have the records that you have. And one of the things that we have been suggesting formally and informally for weeks now is for you to make available to us the records that would be necessary —

Trump: But Cleta, even before you do that, and not even including that, that's why hardly even included that number, although in one state we have a tremendous amount of dead people. So I don't know — I'm sure we do in Georgia, too. I'm sure we do in Georgia too.

But, um, we're so far ahead. We're so far ahead of these numbers, even the phony ballots of [name] , known scammer. You know the Internet? You know what was trending on the Internet? "Where's [name]?" Because they thought she'd be in jail. "Where's [name]?" It's crazy, it's crazy. That was. The minimum number is 18,000 for [name] , but they think it's probably about 56,000, but the minimum number is 18,000 on the [name] night where she ran back in there when everybody was gone and stuffed, she stuffed the ballot boxes. Let's face it, Brad, I mean. They did it in slow motion replay magnified, right? She stuffed the ballot boxes. They were stuffed like nobody had ever seen them stuffed before.

So there's a term for it when it's a machine instead of a ballot box, but she stuffed the machine. She stuffed the ballot — Each ballot went three times they were showing: Here's ballot No 1. Here it is second time, third time, next ballot.

I mean, look. Brad. We have a new tape that we're going to release. It's devastating. And by the way, that one event, that one event is much more than the 11,000 votes that we're talking about. It's uh, you know. That one event was a disaster. And it's just, you know, but it was, it was something, it can't be disputed. And again we have a version that you haven't seen but it's magnified. It's magnified and you can see everything. For some reason they put it in three times, each ballot, and I don't know why. I don't know why three times. Why not five times, right? Go ahead.

Raffensperger: You're talking about the State Farm video. And I think it's extremely unfortunate that Rudy Giuliani or his people, they sliced and diced that video and took it out of context. The next day we brought in WSB-TV and we let them show, see the full run of tape and what you'll see, the events that transpired are nowhere near what was projected by, you know —

Trump: But where were the poll watchers, Brad? There were no poll watchers there. There were no Democrats or Republicans. There was no security there.

It was late in the evening, late in the, early in the morning, and there was nobody else in the room. Where were the poll watchers and why did they say a water main broke, which they did and which was reported in the newspapers? They said they left. They ran out because of a water main break, and there was no water main. There was nothing. There was no break. There was no water main break. But we're, if you take out everything, where were the Republican poll watchers, even where were the Democrat pollwatchers, because there were none.

And then you say, well, they left their station, you know, if you look at the tape, and this was, this was reviewed by professional police and detectives and other people, when they left in a rush, everybody left in a rush because of the water main, but everybody left in a rush. These people left their station.

When they came back, they didn't go to their station. They went to the apron, wrapped around the table, under which were thousands and thousands of ballots in a box that was not an official or a sealed box. And then they took those. They went back to a different station. So if they would have come back, they would have walked to their station and they would have continued to work. But they couldn't do even that because that's illegal, because they had no Republican pollwatchers. And remember, her reputation is — she's known all over the Internet, Brad. She's known all over.

I'm telling you, "Where's [name] " was one of the hot items …[name] They knew her. "Where's [name]?" So Brad, there can be no justification for that. And I you know, I give everybody the benefit of the doubt. But that was — And Brad, why did they put the votes in three times? You know, they put 'em in three times.

Raffensperger: Mr. President, they did not put that. We did an audit of that and we proved conclusively that they were not scanned three times.

Trump: Where was everybody else at that late time in the morning? Where was everybody? Where were the Republicans? Where were the security guards? Were the people that were there just a little while before when everyone ran out of the room. How come we had no security in the room. Why did they run to the bottom of the table? Why do they run there and just open the skirt and rip out the votes. I mean, Brad. And they were sitting there, I think for five hours or something like that, the votes.

Raffensperger: Mr. President, we'll send you the link from WSB.

Trump: I don't care about the link. I don't need it. Brad, I have a much better —

Mitchell: I will tell you. I've seen the tape. The full tape. So has Alex. We've watched it. And what we saw and what we've confirmed in the timing is that. They made everybody leave, we have sworn affidavits saying that. And then they began to process ballots. And our estimate is that there were roughly 18,000 ballots. We don't know that. If you know that …

Trump: It was 18,000 ballots but they used each one three times.

Mitchell: Well, I don't know about that.

Trump: I do think because we had ours magnified out.

Mitchell: I've watched the entire tape.

Trump: Nobody can make a case for that, Brad. Nobody. I mean, look, you'd have to be a child to think anything other than that. Just a child.

Mitchell: How many ballots, Mr. Secretary, are you saying were processed then?

Raffensperger: We had GBI … investigate that.

Germany: We had our — this is Ryan Germany. We had our law enforcement officers talk to everyone who was who was there after that event came to light. GBI was with them as well as FBI agents.

Trump: Well, there's no way they could — then they're incompetent. They're either dishonest or incompetent, okay?

Mitchell: Well, what did they find?

Trump: There's only two answers, dishonesty or incompetence. There's just no way. Look. There's no way. And on the other thing, I said too, there is no way. I mean, there's no way that these things could have been you know, you have all these different people that voted but they don't live in Georgia anymore. What was that number, Cleta? That was a pretty good number too.

Mitchell: The number who have registered out of state after they moved from Georgia. And so they had a date when they moved from Georgia, they registered to vote out of state. And then it's like 4,500, I don't have that number right in front of me.

Trump: And then they came back in and they voted.

Mitchell: And voted. Yeah.

Trump: I thought that was a large number, though. It was in the 20s.

Germany: We've been going through each of those as well and those numbers that we got that Ms. Mitchell was just saying, they're not accurate. Every one we've been through, are people that lived in Georgia, moved to a different state, but then moved back to Georgia legitimately. And in many cases —

Trump: How may people do that? They moved out and then they said, "Ah, to hell with it I'll move back." You know, it doesn't sound like a very normal … you mean, they moved out, and what, they missed it so much that they wanted to move back in? It's crazy.

Germany: They moved back in years ago. This was not like something just before the election. So there's something about that data that, it's just not accurate.

Trump: Well, I don't know, all I know is that it is certified. And they moved out of Georgia and they voted. It didn't say they moved back in Cleta, did it?

Mitchell: No, but I mean, we're looking at the voter registration. Again, if you have additional records, we've been asking for that, but you haven't shared any of that with us. You just keep saying you investigated the allegations.

Trump: Cleta, a lot of it you don't need to be shared. I mean, to be honest, they should share. They should share it because you want to get to an honest election.

I won this election by hundreds of thousands of votes. There's no way I lost Georgia. There's no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes. I'm just going by small numbers when you add them up they're many times the 11,000. But I won that state by hundreds of thousands of votes.

Do you think it's possible that they shredded ballots in Fulton County? Because that's what the rumor is. And also that Dominion took out machines. That Dominion is really moving fast to get rid of their, uh, machinery.

Do you know anything about that? Because that's illegal, right?

Germany: This is Ryan Germany. No, Dominion has not moved any machinery out of Fulton County.

Trump: But have they moved the inner parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts?

Germany: No.

Trump: Are you sure, Ryan?

Germany: I'm sure. I'm sure, Mr. President.

Trump: What about, what about the ballots. The shredding of the ballots. Have they been shredding ballots?

Germany: The only investigation that we have into that — they have not been shredding any ballots. There was an issue in Cobb County where they were doing normal office shredding, getting rid of old stuff, and we investigated that. But this stuff from, you know, from you know past elections.

Trump: It doesn't pass the smell test because we hear they're shredding thousands and thousands of ballots and now what they're saying, "Oh, we're just cleaning up the office." Yeah.

Raffensperger: Mr. President, the problem you have with social media, they — people can say anything.

Trump: Oh this isn't social media. This is Trump media. It's not social media. It's really not it's not social media. I don't care about social media. I couldn't care less. Social media is Big Tech. Big Tech is on your side. I don't even know why you have a side, because you should want to have an accurate election. And you're a Republican.

Raffensperger: We believe that we do have an accurate election.

Trump: No, no you don't. No, no you don't. You don't have. Not even close. You're off by hundreds of thousands of votes. And just on the small numbers, you're off on these numbers and these numbers can't be just — well, why wont? — Okay. So you sent us into Cobb County for signature verification, right? You sent us into Cobb County, which we didn't want to go into. And you said it would be open to the public. So we had our experts there they weren't allowed into the room. But we didn't want Cobb County. We wanted Fulton County. And you wouldn't give it to us. Now, why aren't we doing signature — and why can't it be open to the public?

And why can't we have professionals do it instead of rank amateurs who will never find anything and don't want to find anything? They don't want to find, you know, they don't want to find anything. Someday you'll tell me the reason why, because I don't understand your reasoning, but someday you'll tell me the reason why. But why don't you want to find?

Germany: Mr. President, we chose Cobb County —

Trump: Why don't you want to find … What?

Germany: Sorry, go ahead.

Trump: So why did you do Cobb County? We didn't even request — we requested Fulton County, not Cobb County. Go ahead, please. Go ahead.

Germany: We chose Cobb County because that was the only county where there's been any evidence submitted that the signature verification was not properly done.

Trump: No, but I told you. We're not, we're not saying that.

Mitchell: We did say that.

Trump: Fulton County. Look. Stacey, in my opinion, Stacey is as dishonest as they come. She has outplayed you … at everything. She got you to sign a totally unconstitutional agreement, which is a disastrous agreement. You can't check signatures. I can't imagine you're allowed to do harvesting, I guess, in that agreement. That agreement is a disaster for this country. But she got you somehow to sign that thing and she has outsmarted you at every step.

And I hate to imagine what's going to happen on Monday or Tuesday, but it's very scary to people. You know, when the ballots flow in out of nowhere. It's very scary to people. That consent decree is a disaster. It's a disaster. A very good lawyer who examined it said they've never seen anything like it.

Raffensperger: Harvesting is still illegal in the state of Georgia. And that settlement agreement did not change that one iota.

Trump: It's not a settlement agreement, it's a consent decree. It even says consent decree on it, doesn't it? It uses the term consent decree. It doesn't say settlement agree. It's a consent decree. It's a disaster.

Raffensperger: It's a settlement agreement.

Trump: What's written on top of it?

Raffensperger: Ryan?

Germany: I don't have it in front of me, but it was not entered by the court, it's not a court order.

Trump: But Ryan, it's called a consent decree, is that right? On the paper. Is that right?

Germany: I don't. I don't. I don't believe so, but I don't have it in front of me.

Trump: OK, whatever, it's a disaster. It's a disaster. Look. Here's the problem. We can go through signature verification and we'll find hundreds of thousands of signatures, if you let us do it. And the only way you can do it, as you know, is to go to the past. But you didn't do that in Cobb County. You just looked at one page compared to another. The only way you can do a signature verification is go from the one that signed it on November whatever. Recently. And compare it to two years ago, four years ago, six years ago, you know, or even one. And you'll find that you have many different signatures. But in Fulton, where they dumped ballots, you will find that you have many that aren't even signed and you have many that are forgeries.

OK, you know that. You know that. You have no doubt about that. And you will find you will be at 11,779 within minutes, because Fulton County is totally corrupt and so is she totally corrupt.

And they're going around playing you and laughing at you behind your back, Brad, whether you know it or not, they're laughing at you and you've taken a state that's a Republican state, and you've made it almost impossible for a Republican to win because of cheating, because they cheated like nobody's ever cheated before. And I don't care how long it takes me, you know, we're going to have other states coming forward — pretty good.

But I won't … this is never … this is … We have some incredible talent said they've never seen anything … Now the problem is they need more time for the big numbers. But they're very substantial numbers. But I think you're going to fine that they — by the way, a little information, I think you're going to find that they are shredding ballots because they have to get rid of the ballots because the ballots are unsigned. The ballots are corrupt, and they're brand new and they don't have a seal and there's the whole thing with the ballots. But the ballots are corrupt.

And you are going to find that they are — which is totally illegal, it is more illegal for you than it is for them because, you know what they did and you're not reporting it. That's a criminal, that's a criminal offense. And you can't let that happen. That's a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. And that's a big risk. But they are shredding ballots, in my opinion, based on what I've heard. And they are removing machinery and they're moving it as fast as they can, both of which are criminal finds. And you can't let it happen and you are letting it happen. You know, I mean, I'm notifying you that you're letting it happen. So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.

And flipping the state is a great testament to our country because, you know, this is — it's a testament that they can admit to a mistake or whatever you want to call it. If it was a mistake, I don't know. A lot of people think it wasn't a mistake. It was much more criminal than that. But it's a big problem in Georgia and it's not a problem that's going away. I mean, you know, it's not a problem that's going away.

Germany: This is Ryan. We're looking into every one of those things that you mentioned.

Trump: Good. But if you find it you've got to say it, Ryan.

Germany: … Let me tell you what we are seeing. What we're seeing is not at all what you're describing, these are investigators from our office, these are investigators from GBI, and they're looking and they're good. And that's not what they're seeing. And we'll keep looking, at all these things.

Trump: Well, you better check the ballots because they are shredding ballots, Ryan. I'm just telling you, Ryan. They're shredding ballots. And you should look at that very carefully. Because that's so illegal. You know, you may not even believe it because it's so bad. But they're shredding ballots because they think we're going to eventually get … because we'll eventually get into Fulton. In my opinion it's never too late. … So, that's the story. Look, we need only 11,000 votes. We have are far more than that as it stands now. We'll have more and more. And . Do you have provisional ballots at all, Brad? Provisional ballots?

Raffensperger: Provisional ballots are allowed by state law.

Trump: Sure, but I mean, are they counted or did you just hold them back because they, you know, in other words, how many provisional ballots do you have in the state?

Raffensperger: We'll get you that number.

Trump: Because most of them are made out to the name Trump. Because these are people that were scammed when they came in. And we have thousands of people that have testified or that want to testify when they came in they were probably going to vote on November 3. And they were told I'm sorry, you've already been voted for, you've already voted. The women, men started screaming, No. I proudly voted til November 3. They said, I'm sorry, but you've already been voted for and you have a ballot and these people are beside themselves. So they went out and they filled in a provisional ballot, putting the name Trump on it.

And what about that batch of military ballots that came in. And even though I won the military by a lot, it was 100 percent Trump. I mean 100 percent Biden. Do you know about that? A large group of ballots came in. I think it was to Fulton County and they just happened to be 100 percent for Trump — for Biden, even though Trump won the military by a lot, you know, a tremendous amount. But these ballots were 100 percent for Biden. And, do you know about that? A very substantial number came in, all for Biden. Does anybody know about it?

Mitchell: I know about it, but —

Trump: OK, Cleta, I'm not asking you Cleta, honestly. I'm asking Brad. Do you know about the military ballots that we have confirmed now. Do you know about the military ballots that came in that were 100 percent, I mean 100 percent for Biden. Do you know about that?

Germany: I don't know about that, I do know that we have when military ballots come in, it's not just military, it's also military and overseas citizens. The military part of that does generally go Republican. The overseas citizen part of it generally goes very Democrat. This was a mix of 'em.

Trump: No, but this was. That's OK. But I got like 78 percent of the military. These ballots were all for … They didn't tell me overseas. Could be overseas too, but I get votes overseas too, Ryan, in all fairness. No they came in, a large batch came in and it was, quote, 100 percent for Biden. And that is criminal. You know, that's criminal. OK. That's another criminal, that's another of the many criminal events, many criminal events here.

Oh, I don't know, look Brad. I got to get … I have to find 12,000 votes and I have them times a lot. And therefore, I won the state. That's before we go to the next step, which is in the process of right now. You know, and I watched you this morning and you said, uh, well, there was no criminality.

But I mean, all of this stuff is very dangerous stuff. When you talk about no criminality, I think it's very dangerous for you to say that.

I just, I just don't know why you don't want to have the votes counted as they are. Like even you when you went and did that check. And I was surprised because, you know … And we found a few thousand votes that were against me. I was actually surprised because the way that check was done, all you're doing you know, recertifying existing votes and, you know, and you were given votes and you just counted them up and you still found 3,000 that were bad. So that was sort of surprising that it came down to three or five I don't know. still a lot of votes. But you have to go back to check from past years with respect to signatures. And if you check with Fulton County, you'll have hundreds of thousands because they dumped ballots into Fulton County and the other county next to it.

So what are we going to do here folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. You know, we have that in spades already. Or we can keep it going but that's not fair to the voters of Georgia because they're going to see what happened and they're going to see what happened. I mean, I'll, I'll take on to anybody you want with regard to [name] and her lovely daughter, a very lovely young lady, I'm sure. But, but [name] … I will take on anybody you want. And the minimum, there were 18,000 ballots but they used them three times. So that's, you know, a lot of votes. … And they were all to Biden, by the way, that's the other thing we didn't say. You know, [name] , the one thing I forgot to say which was the most important. You know that every single ballot she did went to Biden. You know that, right? Do you know that, by the way, Brad?

Every single ballot that she did through the machines at early, early in the morning, went to Biden. Did you know that, Ryan?

Germany: That's not accurate, Mr. President.

Trump: Huh. What is accurate?

Germany: The numbers that we are showing are accurate.

Trump: No, about [name] . About early in the morning, Ryan. Where the woman took, you know, when the whole gang took the stuff from under the table, right? Do you know, do you know who those ballots, who they were made out to, do you know who they were voting for?

Germany: No, not specifically.

Trump: Did you ever check?

Germany: We did what I described to you earlier —

Trump: No no no — did you ever check the ballots that were scanned by [name] , a known political operative and balloteer. Did ever check who those votes were for?

Germany: We looked into that situation that you described.

Trump: No, they were 100 percent for Biden. 100 percent. There wasn't a Trump vote in the whole group. Why don't you want to find this, Ryan? What's wrong with you? I heard your lawyer is very difficult, actually, but I'm sure you're a good lawyer. You have a nice last name.

But, but I'm just curious why wouldn't, why do you keep fighting this thing? It just doesn't make sense. We're way over the 17,779, right? We're way over that number and just if you took just [name] , we're over that number by five, five or six times when you multiply that times three.

And every single ballot went to Biden, and you didn't know that, but, now you know it. So tell me, Brad, what are we going to do? We won the election and it's not fair to take it away from us like this. And it's going to be very costly in many ways. And I think you have to say that you're going to reexamine it and you can reexamine it, but reexamine it with people that want to find answers, not people that don't want to find answers. For instance, I'm hearing Ryan that he's probably, I'm sure a great lawyer and everything. But he's making statements about those ballots that he doesn't know. But he's making them with such — he did make them with surety. But now I think he's less sure because the answer is they all went to Biden and that alone wins us the election by a lot. You know, so.

Raffensperger: Mr. President, you have people that submit information and we have our people that submit information. And then it comes before the court and the court then has to make a determination. We have to stand by our numbers. We believe our numbers are right.

Trump: Why do you say that? I don't know. I mean, sure, we can play this game with the courts, but why do you say that? First of all they don't even assign us a judge. They don't even assign us a judge. But why wouldn't you — Hey Brad, why wouldn't you want to check out [name] ? And why wouldn't you want to say, hey, if in fact, President Trump is right about that, then he wins the state of Georgia, just that one incident alone without going through hundreds of thousands of dropped ballots. You just say, you stick by, I mean I've been watching you, you know, you don't care about anything. "Your numbers are right." But your numbers aren't right. They're really wrong and they're really wrong, Brad. And I know this phone call is going nowhere other than, other than ultimately, you know — Look ultimately, I win, okay? Because you guys are so wrong. And you treated this. You treated the population of Georgia so badly. You, between you and your governor, who is down at 21, he was down 21 points. And like a schmuck, I endorsed him and he got elected, but I will tell you, he is a disaster.

And he knows, I can't imagine that people are so angry in Georgia, I can't imagine he's ever getting elected again I'll tell you that much right now. But why wouldn't you want to find it right answer, Brad, instead of keep saying that the numbers are right? Those numbers are so wrong?

Mitchell: Mr. Secretary, Mr. President, one of the things that we have been, Alex can talk about this, we talked about it, and I don't know whether the information has been conveyed to your office, but I think what the president is saying, and what we've been trying to do is to say, look, the court is not acting on our petition. They haven't even assigned a judge. But the people of Georgia and the people of America have a right to know the answers. And you have data and records that we don't have access to.

And you can keep telling us that you investigated this and nothing to see here. But we don't know about that. All we know what you tell us. What I don't understand is why wouldn't it be in everyone's best interest to try to get to the bottom, compare the numbers, you know, if you say, because … to try to be able to get to the truth because we don't have any way of confirming what you're telling us. You tell us that you had an investigation at the State Farm Arena. I don't have any report. I've never seen a report of investigation. I don't know that is. I've been pretty involved in this and I don't know. And that's just of 25 categories. And it doesn't even. And as I, as the president said, we haven't even gotten into the Dominion issue. That's not part of our case. It's not part of our, we just didn't feel as though we had any to be able to develop —

Trump: No, we do have a way but I don't want to get into it. We found a way … excuse me, but we don't need it because we're only down 11,000 votes so we don't even need it. I personally think they're corrupt as hell. But we don't need that. All we have to do Cleta is find 11,000-plus votes. So we don't need that. I'm not looking to shake up the whole world. We won Georgia easily. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes. But if you go by basic simple numbers, we won it easily, easily. So we're not giving Dominion pass on the record. We don't need Dominion, because we have so many other votes that we don't need to prove it any more than we already have.

Hilbert: Mr. President and Cleta, this is Kurt Hilbert, if I might interject for a moment. Um Ryan, I would like to suggest just four categories that have already been mentioned by the president that have actually hard numbers of 24.149 votes that were counted illegally. That in and of itself is sufficient to change the results or place the outcome in doubt. We would like to sit down with your office so we can do it through purposes of compromise and just like this phone call, just to deal with that limited category of votes. And if you are able to establish that our numbers are not accurate, then fine. However, we believe that they are accurate. We've had now three to four separate experts looking at these numbers.

Trump: Certified accountants looked at them.

Hilbert: Correct. And this is just based on USPS data and your own secretary of state data. So that's what we would entreat and ask you to do, to sit down with us in a compromise and settlements proceeding and actually go through the registered voter IDs and registrations. And if you can convince us that 24,149 is inaccurate, then fine. But we tend to believe that is, you know, obviously more than 11,779. That's sufficient to change the results entirely in of itself. So what would you say to that, Mr. Germany?

Germany: I'm happy to get with our lawyers and we'll set that up. That number is not accurate. And I think we can show you, for all the ones we've looked at, why it's not. And so if that would be helpful, I'm happy to get with our lawyers and set that up with you guys.

Trump: Well, let me ask you, Kurt, you think that is an accurate number. That was based on the information given to you by the secretary of state's department, right?

Hilbert: That is correct. That information is the minimum most conservative data based upon the USPS data and the secretary of state's office data that has been made publicly available. We do not have the internal numbers from the secretary of state. We have asked for it six times. I sent a letter over to … several times requesting this information, and it's been rebuffed every single time. So it stands to reason that if the information is not forthcoming, there's something to hide. That's the problem that we have.

Germany: Well, that's not the case sir. There are things that you guys are entitled to get. And there's things that under the law, we are not allowed to give out.

Trump: Well, you have to. Well, under the law you're not allowed to give faulty election results, OK? You're not allowed to do that. And that's what you done. This is a faulty election result. And honestly, this should go very fast. You should meet tomorrow because you have a big election coming up and because of what you've done to the president — you know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam. Because of what you've done to the president, a lot of people aren't going out to vote and a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative because they hate what you did to the president. Okay? They hate it. And they're going to vote. And you would be respected. Really respected, if this thing could be straightened out before the election. You have a big election coming up on Tuesday. And I think that it is really is important that you meet tomorrow and work out on these numbers. Because I know Brad that if you think we're right, I think you're going to say, and I'm not looking to blame anybody. I'm just saying you know, and, you know, under new counts, and under uh, new views, of the election results, we won the election. You know? It's is very simple. We won the election. As the governors of major states and the surrounding states said, there is no way you lost Georgia, as the Georgia politicians say, there is no way, you lost Georgia. Nobody. Everyone knows I won it by hundreds of thousands of votes. But I'll tell you it's going to have a big impact on Tuesday if you guys don't get this thing straightened out fast.

Meadows: Mr. President. This is Mark. It sounds like we've got different sides agreeing that we can look at these areas ands I assume that we can do that within the next 24 to 48 hours to go ahead and get that reconciled so that we can look at the two claims and making sure that we get the access to the secretary of state's data to either validate or invalidate the claims that have been made. Is that correct?

Germany: No, that's not what I said. I'm happy to have our lawyers sit down with Kurt and the lawyers on that side and explain to my him, here's, based on what we've looked at so far, here's how we know this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong.

Meadows: So what you're saying, Ryan, let me let me make sure … so what you're saying is you really don't want to give access to the data. You just want to make another case on why the lawsuit is wrong?

Germany: I don't think we can give access to data that's protected by law. But we can sit down with them and say —

Trump: But you're allowed to have a phony election? You're allowed to have a phony election right?

Germany: No sir.

Trump: When are you going to do signature counts, when are you going to do signature verification on Fulton County, which you said you were going to do, and now all of a sudden you're not doing it. When are you doing that?

Germany: We are going to do that. We've announced —

Hilbert: To get to this issue of the personal information and privacy issue, is it possible that the secretary of state could deputize the lawyers for the president so that we could access that information and private information without you having any kind of violation?

Trump: Well, I don't want to know who it is. You guys can do it very confidentially. You can sign a confidentiality agreement. That's OK. I don't need to know names. But on this stuff that we're talking about. We got all that information from the secretary of state.

Meadows: Yeah. So let me let me recommend, Ryan, if you and Kurt would get together, you know, when we get off of this phone call, if you could get together and work out a plan to address some of what we've got with your attorneys where we can we can actually look at the data. For example, Mr. Secretary, I can you say they were only two dead people who would vote. I can promise you there are more than that. And that may be what your investigation shows, but I can promise you there are more than that. But at the same time, I think it's important that we go ahead and move expeditiously to try to do this and resolve it as quickly as we possibly can. And if that's the good next step. But hopefully we can we can finish this phone call and go ahead and agree that the two of you will get together immediately.

Trump: Well why don't my lawyers show you where you got the information. It will show the secretary of state, and you don't even have to look at any names. We know want names. We don't care. But we got that information from you. And Stacey Abrams is laughing about you. She's going around saying these guys are dumber than a rock. What she's done to this party is unbelievable, I tell ya. And I only ran against her once. And that was with a guy named Brian Kemp and I beat her. And if I didn't run, Brian wouldn't have had even a shot, either in the general or in the primary. He was dead, dead as a doornail. He never thought he had a shot at either one of them. What a schmuck I was. But that's the way it is. That's the way it is. I would like you … for the attorneys … I'd like you to perhaps meet with Ryan ideally tomorrow, because I think we should come to a resolution of this before the election. Otherwise you're going to have people just not voting. They don't want to vote. They hate the state, they hate the governor and they hate the secretary of state. I will tell you that right now. The only people like you are people that will never vote for you. You know that Brad, right? They like you know, they like you. They can't believe what they found. They want people like you. So, look, can you get together tomorrow? And Brad. We just want the truth. It's simple.

And everyone's going to look very good if the truth comes out. It's OK. It takes a little while but let the truth come out. And the real truth is I won by 400,000 votes. At least. That's the real truth. But we don't need 400,000. We need less than 2,000 votes. And are you guys able to meet tomorrow Ryan?

Germany: Um, I'll get with Chris, the lawyer representing us and the case, and see when he can get together with Kurt.

Raffensperger: Ryan will be in touch with the other attorney on this call, Mr. Meadows. Thank you President Trump for your time.

Trump: OK, thank you, Brad. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much. Bye.
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