Prickly City by Scott Stantis for December 07, 2020

At the Arizona Memorial:

“According to the Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, Trump asked his then-chief of staff, John Kelly, “Hey, John, what’s this all about? What’s this a tour of?”

Just be thankful CNN wasn’t there.

I have met two Pearl Harbor survivors here in the Philadelphia suburbs. One had been a sailor who was so badly wounded that the Navy discharged him. When he recovered, they wouldn’t take him back, so he lied to the Army, joined the 82nd Airborne, and fought in Europe. When I met him he was president of the 82nd Airborne Division Association. Whether you’re still with us or not, I salute you.

When I met the other survivor, he seemed too young to be a WWII vet. The native Hawaiian told me he was seven at the time and still remembered the Japanese planes overhead. Maybe that doesn’t qualify for the license plates they used to give out, but it counts in my book.

There were 2,563 US deaths on December 4th from covid and the rate is increasing. For perspective, Pearl Harbor had 2,403 US personnel including civilians killed. The bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima had an estimated 225,000 dead. So far, the US has over 282,000 dead, and the numbers are increasing. At what point will all Americans, even those in red caps and Hawaiian shirts, “be responsible” and start taking this disease seriously?

What’s up with the grin? Otherwise this is a nice one.

“Attorney General William P. Barr told the Associated Press on Tuesday that he has ‘not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,’ undercutting claims that President Trump and his allies have made — without evidence — of widespread and significant voting irregularities.”

Barr also batted down the incoherent and utterly false assertion from Trump’s lawyers that, as he put it during an interview with the Associated Press, “machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results.”

Clearly, the attorney general has come a long way from his efforts to foment the false assertion that voting by mail was inherently vulnerable to fraud.

While some may feel tempted to praise Barr for acknowledging reality, the critical issue is why he so enthusiastically joined Trump’s attempt before Nov. 3 to delegitimize our election.

Moreover, why has he not admonished Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Trump for seeming to put pressure on state election officials to refuse certifying valid results?

And why did he appoint U.S. Attorney John Durham on Tuesday as special counsel into the origins of the Russia probe — an outrageously partisan and likely illegal move that guarantees the investigation will continue into the incoming Biden administration?

Barr apparently needs reminding that, without hope of cover from the president, his hyperpoliticization of the Justice Department (e.g., spinning the Mueller report, intervening in the Michael Flynn case) might come under scrutiny in the next administration.

In any case, a voice of sanity — once more from outside D.C. — reminds us just how irresponsible congressional Republicans have been by remaining silent about Trump’s ongoing efforts to undermine the election.

~

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/02/if-barr-can-admit-trump-lost-why-cant-other-republicans/

“IT HAS to stop, Mr. President,” Gabriel Sterling, a senior Republican election administrator in Georgia, said during an impassioned speech on Tuesday.

A voting-machine technician has received death threats, he said. The Georgia secretary of state’s wife has gotten “sexualized threats.” Mr. Sterling himself requires police protection at his home.

“Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia,” Mr. Sterling said. “It’s time to look forward. If you want to run for reelection in four years, fine, do it. But everything we’re seeing right now, there’s not a path. Be the bigger man here and step in.”

Instead, President Trump released Wednesday a 46-minute video packed with the same familiar falsehoods about a “rigged” election.

✁

The only obvious issue is Mr. Trump’s, Ms. Loeffler’s, Mr. Perdue’s — and much of their party’s — contempt for the people’s will.

Avoiding embarrassment and undercutting President-elect Joe Biden appear to be only part of the motive.

Another factor is money.

The New York Times reported on Monday that Mr. Trump has raised $170 million since Election Day, the kind of cash candidates draw at the peak of the campaign season.

Email after email has asked the Trump faithful to donate to an “Election Defense Fund,” but 75 percent of the money goes to the president’s political action committee, which will finance Mr. Trump’s post-presidency political activity.

“A donor has to give $5,000 to Mr. Trump’s new PAC before any funds go to his recount account,” the Times reported.

Money and political advantage: Those are the paltry rewards Republicans seek for disparaging the honorable members of their own party and trashing the nation’s democracy.

~

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gops-push-to-slime-its-own-honest-members-is-just-a-grab-for-cash-and-political-advantage/2020/12/02/68b8c4cc-34db-11eb-b59c-adb7153d10c2_story.html

That’s been more Trumps deal to the extent where we don’t have much in the way of friends

Whrn most of the people who have lived through an event have died it tends to be forgotten. Something to note for 9/11. Of course the right is already trying to forget the coronavirus even though it’s not over.

We cheer when our military launch a “preemptive” strike.

lame…………….did y’all read the Danziger piece from the other day………..much closer to the truth.

And John Adams aka Tom Pain still thinks it’s the left causing all the violence: https://www.yahoo.com/news/michigan-secretary-state-says-armed-035400636.html

I am never surprised by Trump lack of knowledge.

Never knew Winslow was a millennial.

Most rational Americans see that the disestablishment of Aryan-style nationalism and xenophobia is a complete failure.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/14/trump-biden-foreign-policy-alliances/

Winslow’s tag line is funny. First time I have gotten a smile from this strip in a long while.