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Why would 74 million voters (and their elected representatives) want to prevent Joe Biden from being as prepared as possible to take over on January 20?
Why would 80 million voters (and their elected representatives) want to have their presidential candidate take office with a high percentage of 74 million Americans (and some of their elected representatives) feeling like there were suspicious flaws in the way ballots were cast and counted?
It seems pretty simple to me:
1. Everyone let the transition begin.
SIMULTANEOUSLY
2. Everyone rhetorically and practically support a fully transparent, timely, and rigorous examination into and explanation of all LEGITIMATE concerns about potential errors or irregularities.
Redlanders might think it is smart or feels good to hamper Joe Biden from being a successful president.
Bad idea.
Bluelanders might think it is smart or feels good to just dismiss out of hand the concerns and feelings of Americans who have been whipped into a frenzy by lies (and who will thus be more likely to view Joe Biden as an illegitimately elected president).
Bad idea.
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Rather than having angry philosophical fights over whether people should celebrate Thanksgiving with their families, how about
1. We urge people not to congregate (as a group of bipartisan governors have done in this lovely joint Washington Post op ed).
AND
2. We accept the reality that tens of millions of Americans are about to disregard that guidance and celebrate Turkey Day with their kin and friends – and give them detailed recommendations about how to minimize the chances of catching and spreading the virus as they travel and imbibe.
Again: urge them not to go but accept that a lot of them are going to go – and let’s all help lower the chances of calamity.
The travel and convening is inevitable; the failure to minimize the spread is not.
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This Washington Post piece breaks the code:
Giuliani has also told Trump and associates that his ambition is to pressure GOP lawmakers and officials across the political map to stall the vote certification in an effort to have Republican lawmakers pick electors and disrupt the electoral college when it convenes next month — and Trump is encouraging of that plan, according to two senior Republicans who have conferred with Giuliani and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter candidly.
But that outcome appears impossible. It is against the law in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin law gives no role to the legislature in choosing presidential electors, and there is little public will in other states to pursue such a path.
Behind the thin legal gambit is what several Trump advisers say is his real goal: sowing doubt in Biden’s victory with the president’s most ardent supporters and keeping alive his prospects for another presidential run in 2024.
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This smart patriot speaks the truth:
“Anything that aids and abets doubts about an election that has been conducted with integrity makes the future of democracy darker,” said William Galston, senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “To weaken a democratic people’s faith in its fundamental institutions of self-government is inexcusable.”
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This is on Wisconsin:
At 11:30 p.m., after 5 ½ hours of often rancorous debate, the commission unanimously approved the recount. The commissioners inability to get along suggested the recount will be brutal and will likely end in a courtroom.
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This is on Michigan:
After three hours of tense deadlock on Tuesday, the two Republicans on an election board in Michigan’s most populous county reversed course and voted to certify the results of the presidential election, a key step toward finalizing President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
Now, they both want to take back their votes.
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“You could see the racism in the behavior last night,” Mike Duggan, the Democratic mayor of Detroit, said at a news conference on Wednesday, condemning Republican efforts to block the voting results. “American democracy cracked last night, but it didn’t break. But we are seeing a real threat to everything we believe in.”
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This is on Georgia:
The vote recount in Georgia is expected to confirm the election results, as intended. But it also exposed flaws in voting systems that almost resulted in some ballots being overlooked.
Election workers in three counties discovered a total of more than 3,300 new votes stored on memory cards that hadn’t been loaded into election computers. A different issue in Floyd County led to another 2,600 ballots going unscanned….
County election workers were accustomed to “obnoxious” color-coding on election computers to help them account for all memory cards, but the new system uses more subtle checkboxes, Sterling said.
The missing memory cards were found in three counties: Douglas, Fayette and Walton. The Douglas votes favored Biden. The Fayette and Walton votes favored Trump.
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This has got to stop:
“[M]asks never caught on in rural Lowndes County, which has Alabama’s highest rate of coronavirus infections. In a place that gave 73 percent of its vote to Joe Biden, the sheriff and the coroner agree that although cases are spiking and deaths are rising, most people share President Trump’s view that masks are a matter of personal choice and that the end of the pandemic is just around the corner.
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This makes no sense:
Virus transmission in city schools had remained very low since classrooms reopened at the end of September, and the spike in cases does not appear to be caused by the opening of school buildings.
“Our schools have opened and have been remarkably safe,” the schools chancellor Richard A. Carranza said Wednesday.
Still, the city is choosing to end in-person learning while the state is allowing indoor dining and gyms to remain open at reduced capacity. Nonessential workers are also continuing to use public transportation to commute to offices. [Emphasis added.]
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This is news:
The twin Georgia races have swiftly taken center stage in American politics, with campaign visits by potential 2024 Republican candidates like Senators Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio and Vice President Mike Pence. Mr. Biden himself is planning a trip closer to the Jan. 5 runoffs, as both parties vie for supremacy in a state that voted for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1992. [Emphasis added from an essential reading New York Times story.]
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This is instant classic, from an op ed by Madalin Sammons, the former communications director for Andrew Yang:
Don’t risk two potential Senate seats for the sake of a good hashtag. And don’t go to the Peach State unless organizers ask for help. You can get a selfie with Stacey Abrams some other time.
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This is part of the latest rendition of Karl Rove’s rule that it is better to give credit than to take credit (and essential reading for Democrats who want to know more about how and why they suffered down ballot disappointment):
The Texas Victory Committee used microtargeting to identify low-propensity voters who needed extra encouragement to turn out, as well as swing suburban voters (especially women) and persuadable Hispanics. Mr. Davis’s staff of 40 worked with an army of volunteers to canvass 1.3 million doors, complete 3.1 million calls, and send 24.1 million text messages, supported by seven million pieces of mail, including slate mailers to encourage Republicans to vote for down-ballot offices, since Texas recently abolished straight-ticket voting. This totals 35.5 million voter contacts.
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This is the New York Times:
Don’t waste your time reaching out to Trump voters like I did. Instead, invest your time organizing your community, registering new voters and supporting candidates who reflect progressive values that uplift everyone, not just those who wear MAGA hats, in local and state elections. Work also to protect Americans against lies and conspiracy theories churned out by the right wing media and political ecosystem. One step would be to continue pressuring social media giants like Twitter and Facebook to deplatform hatemongers, such as Steve Bannon, and censor disinformation. It’s not enough, but it’s a start.
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This is also the New York Times:
Several top executives said that publishing Mr. Trump could be perilous in a polarized media environment — to a degree that is far different from his books released before he became president — and that the possibilities of boycotts, libel lawsuits and social media campaigns outweighed the obvious financial benefits….
But publishers are at odds over such a project with President Trump, even though his presidential memoir would likely sell millions of copies. It is a debate that pits powerful commercial interests against fraught political and cultural fault lines, with some executives worried that signing him would prompt a revolt among their authors and staff, and that ensuring the book’s veracity could be an even bigger concern.
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This, on the other hand, is essential reading Tom Edsall in the New York Times:
Dane Strother, a Democratic consultant whose firm has represented candidates in states from New Hampshire to Montana, was more outspoken in his view:
Four years ago, Democrats’ final messaging was “which bathroom one could use.” This year it was Defund the Police. The far left is the Republicans’ finest asset. A.O.C. and the squad are the “cool kids” but their vision in no way represents half of America. And in a representative democracy 50 percent is paramount.
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This is a great John Podhoretz lede:
Not even a year ago, impregnable crowds and stained-costumed Elmos and wannabe John Mulaneys with their three-by-five-laminated-card invitations to comedy-club open-mic nights had made Times Square one of the most irritating, nerve-wracking places in the Western world.
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This could be the way I end every edition of Wide World of News for at least the next two months (from Dan Henninger’s Wall Street Journal column):
What happens next with Donald Trump is beyond human understanding.
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