Mod: There is quite a lot to cover, so let's get right down to it. Shall we?
Ahead of recount, Wisconsin has already wiped out 5,000 imaginary Donald Trump votes (
Palmer Report link): Earlier today we reported that three precincts in the
Wisconsin county of
Outagamie had revised their vote totals downward for
Donald Trump by more than a thousand votes combined, with local officials insisting to their local
ABC News affiliate that it was a mere arithmetic error. But as more revisions come in throughout the state, a total of nearly five thousand
Trump votes in
Wisconsin have now been taken off the official board because they apparently never existed to begin with.
At the end of election night the
New York Times reported that
Donald Trump had won the state of
Wisconsin with a total of 1,409,467 votes, giving him a winning margin of 27,257 votes over
Hillary Clinton’s total of 1,382,210. These numbers were based on what the individual counties and precincts were reporting that night. But now seventeen days later, based on various Wisconsin precincts revising their own totals,
Dave Wasserman of the respected
Cook Political Report has updated the totals.
Donald Trump now has 1,404,536 total votes in Wisconsin, while
Hillary Clinton now has 1,382,011 total votes.
Two things immediately jump out, as first spotted by critic
Dave Greenwald. The first is that, even ahead of the forthcoming recount in
Wisconsin,
Donald Trump’s lead has already shrunk to just 22,525 votes. That means 18% of his “lead” has already vanished, based on precincts catching some of their own incorrect numbers, and internet gawkers catching others. But the second thing that jumps out is that the revisions have served to erase thousands of votes from
Trump, while affirming that
Clinton’s vote total was essentially correct to begin with.
Mod: Wisconsin is the first of three states recounting their presidential votes at the request of the Green Party. If it flips expect all hell to break loose. Michigan and Pennsylvania follow.
Clinton Campaign to Participate in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan Recounts, Top Lawyer Says (
Alternet link): The
Clinton campaign will participate in the presidential recounts initiated by the
Green Party, its top election lawyer
Marc Elias said Saturday, even though the campaign does not expect it to change the results giving
Donald Trump an
Electoral College majority.
Elias, writing on medium.com, gave the campaign’s most detailed post-election accounting of its private inquiries into the possibility that the vote counts were not accurate or had possibly been hacked. They said they had quietly explored all of the avenues they could, including a meeting with the team that filed for the
Greens, which led to a leaked story that computer experts were pressuring the
Clinton campaign to file for a recount.
Elias’ statement said it was the campaign’s duty to see the process through to its end, including being present as recounts unfold in
Wisconsin,
Pennsylvania and
Michigan. On Friday, the
Green Party filed for a recount in
Wisconsin. There are plans to file for a recount in
Pennsylvania starting Monday, which is a county-by-county process, and in
Michigan on Wednesday.
Elias said they would “participate” in the recount without specifying exactly what that may entail.
Mod: Like Jill Stein, the Clinton camp is handling this in a very circumspect way. Their participation at all means they must think there is at least a possibility that this election was hacked.
Donald Trump Calls Green Party’s Wisconsin Recount Push A ‘Scam’ (
Huffington Post link):
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday called a request for a recount of votes in
Wisconsin a “scam” by the
Green Party and said even his Democratic challenger
Hillary Clinton had said the election results should be accepted.
“This recount is just a way for
Jill Stein, who received less than one percent of the vote overall and wasn’t even on the ballot in many states, to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount,”
Trump said.
Stein denied
Trump’s claims that funds raised for the recount would be allocated elsewhere.
“For his information, this is all going into a dedicated and segregated account so that it can only be spent on the recount,”
Stein told
CNN on Saturday.
“He may be creating his own facts here as he’s been known to do some times in the past,”
Stein said. “He himself said it was rigged election unless he won it.”
Mod: Somebody seems to be worried about something. You can only wonder what is going on behind the scenes.
Americans keep looking away from the election’s most alarming story (
Washington Post link): In assessing
Donald Trump’s presidential victory, Americans continue to look away from this election’s most alarming story: the successful effort by a hostile foreign power to manipulate public opinion before the vote.
U.S. intelligence agencies determined that the
Russian government actively interfered in our elections.
Russian state propaganda gave little doubt that this was done to support
President-elect Trump, who repeatedly praised
Vladimir Putin and excused the
Russian president’s foreign aggression and domestic repression. Most significantly,
U.S. intelligence agencies have affirmed that the Russian government directed the illegal hacking of private email accounts of the
Democratic National Committee and prominent individuals. The emails were then released by
WikiLeaks, which has benefited financially from a
Russian state propaganda arm, used
Russian operatives for security and made clear an intent to harm the candidacy of
Hillary Clinton.
From the
Russian perspective, the success of this operation can hardly be overstated.
Mod: I cannot begin to tell you how little respect I have for anyone who fell for this.
Letters To California Mosques Praise Donald Trump, Promise Genocide (
The Huffington Post link): Religious leaders in
California are calling for a police investigation after identical letters were sent to local mosques hailing
President-elect Donald Trump and calling for death to
Muslims.
The
San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement asking for increased protection after the hate-filled letters were discovered at the
Islamic centers of
Long Beach and
Claremont as well as a mosque in
San Jose.
The handwritten and photocopied letters, received over the course of the week, were signed by “
Americans for a Better Way.” They call
Muslims “a vile and filthy people” who “worship the devil” and evoke
Trump.
“There’s a new sheriff in town —
President Donald Trump. He’s going to cleanse
America and make it shine again. And, he’s going to start with you
Muslims,” the letters read. “He’s going to do to you
Muslims what
Hitler did to the
Jews.”
Mod: What is it about wanna-be Hitlers and their love for Donald Trump?
GOP cuts in Medicare may be next after dismantling Obamacare (
The Fiscal Times link): The pledge by
President-elect Donald Trump and congressional
Republicans to "repeal and replace" the
Affordable Care Act beginning early next year has dominated the national policy debate since
Trump, and the
GOP swept to victory in last week's election.
With potentially 20 million or more Americans threatened with the disruption or loss of their
Obamacare insurance coverage in the coming years,
Trump and
GOP leaders are coming under mounting pressure to explain precisely how they would replace
Obamacare once they pass legislation early next year to dismantle key elements of the program.
However, practically overnight the
Republicans have substantially raised the stakes in their drive to reform the government health care system and cut costs.
House Budget Committee Chair Tom Price (R-GA) told reporters on Thursday that the
House GOP will likely push next year for major changes and cuts in
Medicare, the premier health care program for 57 million seniors that has been the bedrock of retirees' health coverage since the mid-1960s.
Mod: Some so-called "Patriots" are going to be mightily surprised when their government funded medical benefits such as Medicare are suddenly taken away.
Irony Is Dead: Mike Pence Goes To Court To Block His Emails From Being Released To Public (
IfYouOnlyNews.com link): Until recently,
Mike Pence was known as the governor whose hatred towards gay people burned so hot that he lost his state of
Indiana millions of dollars in business in order to legalize the discrimination of the
LGBT community. Now he’s known as the future vice president. In the aftermath of the shocking election results, pundits have cited
Hillary Clinton’s email “scandal” as one explanation as to why she lost. (Whether it ever truly existed is another question.) Thanks to her private email server, voters viewed her with suspicion and distrust. She appeared to be a politician with something to hide.
Trump himself suggested he might throw her in jail over her emails once he became president.
Enter
Mike Pence, whose lawyers have launched a battle to prevent his own inconvenient emails from ever being made public. That distant wailing you just heard was irony dying.
The [Pence] administration is fighting to conceal the contents of an email sent to
Gov. Mike Pence by a political ally. That email is being sought by a prominent
Democratic labor lawyer who says he wants to expose waste in the
Republican administration.
But legal experts fear the stakes may be much higher than mere politics because the decision could remove a judicial branch check on executive power and limit a citizen’s right to know what the government is doing and how it spends taxpayer dollars.
The
Pence administration email in question was in regards to
Pence going behind the backs of the
Indiana government to hire a private lawfirm to help him file a frivolous lawsuit against
President Obama as a publicity stunt. The total expense of this stunt has never been made public.
Democrats in the state were hoping to learn more about this government waste by analyzing
Pence’s emails surrounding the decision. Instead, they hit a brick wall built by
Pence’s lawyers.
Mod: The man known as the "Human Q-Tip" does seem to have a certain flair for self-immolating hypocrisy.
Ann Coulter: It's 1928 All Over Again! (
Crooks And Liars link): Boy, is
Ann Coulter dumb. In addition to having her facts wrong, does she really want to point to the start of the
Great Depression as the last time
Republicans held the
White House, the
House and the
Senate? Really?
Just for the record,
Republicans had all three from 2002-2007. And more to the point, when they held all three from 2002-2007, the
Great Recession happened.
You see a pattern here? If I were
Ann Coulter, I wouldn't be trumpeting those associations.
Mod: I'm not too sure that Herbert Hoover would be pleased by this, either.
Trump Christmas Ornament Raises Eyebrows (
Voice Of America link):
Donald Trump won’t be sworn in as president until January, but those reveling in his victory and eager to be reminded of it throughout the holiday season can buy a
Christmas tree ornament bearing his famous campaign slogan “
Make America Great Again.”
Made in the shape of a miniature red hat like the one
Trump wore at numerous rallies, the ornament is advertised as brass with gold trim and sells for $149. Purchases constitute non-refundable contributions to a
Trump fundraising committee, as well as the
Republican National Committee.
Like
Trump himself, the ornament has sparked widely divergent reactions. The reviews section on retailer
Amazon.com instantly became a forum for people to register their feelings about the president-elect, his policies and persona.
“Every time I try to hang it on the branch, it yells '
WRONG!' No matter which branch I try, it's '
WRONG!'” a reviewer wrote. “I woke up and there was a wall around my tree,” another wrote.
“Millions of Americans and I ordered the '
Stronger Together' ornament. Imagine our disappointment when this is what we got,” another wrote.
“Let's make America great again ornament has liberals in the corner sucking their thumbs holding onto a blankie. My ornament is proudly displayed on my
Christmas tree where we say,
God Bless America and
Merry Christmas,” said another reviewer.
“This is a great ornament! So excited to ring in a new year with
Mr. Trump and
Mr. Pence at the helm!
God Bless America,” a reviewer posted.
“Unfortunately this has turned out to be as disappointingly and frustratingly repugnant as the
BREXIT ornament,” another posted.
Advertising for the ornament proclaims “It is sure to make any tree stand out” and “President-elect
Trump loves Christmas and makes a point of proudly saying ‘
Merry Christmas’ every chance he gets.”
“Of course, like most things bearing the
Trump name, this was mass produced in
China,” a reviewer posted.
Mod: I'm not surprised about the "Made In China" origin of such tackiness. There isn't much that Donald Trump (Я -Moscow) won't do to make an easy buck.
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