Yesterday's heroes

Remember how everyone was all "Kemp really stood up to Trump, didn't he?  And the other guy, Brad, he ignored all the death threats.  They saved democracy!"  Well, not so much.  Yesterday we learned that populous Cobb County, next to Atlanta, has closed six of its eleven early-voting sites.  With all eleven, voters waited up to ten hours in last month's general election.  So ol' Brad and ol' Brian are up to the ol' voter-suppression tactics which worked for them in 2018.  They're probably hoping ol' Don will forget to abuse them on Twitter this week.

They got lucky.  Trump has a new enemy of the people to obsess about, no less than the Supreme Court of the United States.  There were two lawsuits yesterday trying to get Pennsylvania's absentee ballots thrown out, one brought by Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Ofcourse), the other by the Texas attorney general.  Both were shot down like this:  "The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied."  SCOTUS TO POTUS:  DROP DEAD.  Even if they find more star witnesses like Mellissa Carone, Schlemiel Team Six may be out of legal remedies.  

This is the danger week before the electoral college meets on December 14.  Trump could continue calling Republican governors and state legislators, alternately wheedling and demanding that they somehow replace all their electors with Boogaloo Bois.  Or he could "encourage" the Michigan and Arizona rioters and their ilk to take the next step, a violent coup.  It wouldn't be the first.  On November 10, 1898, a mob of white supremacists overthrew the elected government of Wilmington, North Carolina, a piece of history you don't learn about in school.  As recently as 2007 state representative Thom Tillis tried to muddy the record by pretending that the Democrats are still the racist party they were 122 years ago.  Now the bastard's a senator.  

Or Trump could simply continue his long trek into senility and incoherence.  Today he tweeted, "At 10:00 PM on Election Evening, we were at 97% win with the so-called 'bookies'." Even if this were true it seems to lack evidentiary value.  Still, the grifting is constant:  the Trump "legal defense fund" has collected at least $200 million from the rubes since November 3 while spending only a fraction to fly Powell, Giuliani and their viral loads from city to city.  When Elvis died, Col. Tom Parker said, "I plan to keep right on managing him," and Trump plans to keep right on monetizing the presidency.  An outfit called Paramount Realty USA has set up a GoFundMe to buy the Trump ancestral home in Queens and present it to him for "a charity of his choosing" (whatever scam replaces the Trump Foundation) or "a token of appreciation."  Given the Drumpf family history, maybe a whorehouse.

In what I believe the football folk call a "Hail Mary," Hunter Biden reports that his taxes are being investigated by the US attorney in Delaware.  Better late than never, I guess.  Say, whatever became of that Very Significant Laptop?

Pfizer vaccination has begun in the UK, with 90-year-old Margaret Keenan the first recipient.  Two other people had allergic reactions, so the NHS is advising people with food allergies and other sensitivities to hold off for now.  Meanwhile in Russia, doctors are telling people who get the Sputnik V vaccine to avoid alcohol for two months.  You can imagine how well that's going down.  ("I'll take my chances with the impotence, spasibo.")  Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to be first, to demonstrate its safety -- apparently Israel also has its share of anti-vaxxers.  I wonder if they're given platforms like the one Senator Ron Johnson afforded crackpot Jane Orient this week.  (Jane Orient?  Scott Atlas?  Who's inventing these characters, Neil Gaiman?)

Speaking of covid's lingering effects, Louie Gohmert's tooth fell out at a press conference.  I'll spare you.

Joe Biden is reportedly considering Pete Buttigieg as ambassador to China.  Oh, but Russia would be so much better!  I want to see Putin's face when Pete and his husband Chasten walk into the Kremlin.

Still promoting "herd immunity" and ignoring nearly 300,000 dead, Trump says it's "terrific" that fifteen percent of Americans have confirmed coronavirus.  If he's denied credit for the vaccines, he should definitely get praise for all the dead.  No question, even George W. Bush and "Heckuva job" Brownie didn't destroy this many lives through incompetence and neglect.  Not even close.  And his favorite place is deep-red South Dakota, where one person in three is infected thanks to Governor Kristi Noem ("Oh golly is she dumb!" -- Sarah Palin).  Her victory dance in the Wall Street Journal has been reprinted as a pamphlet by Funeral Director Monthly.  Allegedly!

We have a real hero in Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ).  Alone among elected officials as far as I can tell, he wants Trump and his enablers prosecuted so this crap never happens again.  Others have called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission like South Africa after apartheid.  That was a way to shine light on past injustices and allow white and black South Africans to go on living in the same country.  What Pascrell has in mind is crime and punishment, making Trump and plenty of others rot in prison.  I couldn't agree more.  There's already talk of a January 20 hate rally to distract from the Biden-Harris inauguration and kick off the 2024 campaign.  Make them dodge US marshals and process servers instead.  I hear there's a vacant cave in Tora Bora.