Wondering on Wednesday 12/9/20

Ready... Set... Wonder!

What's to wonder about today? Heck, what's NOT to wonder about? 

We learned today that the president plans on "intervening" in the Texas-and-other-states lawsuit to have the election results in states that are NOT part of the lawsuit overturned by the Supreme Court. It wasn't clear whether the president himself, or his campaign, or his our Department of Justice would be doing the intervening, or what that intervention would look like; as with much of what the president says, the devil is in the details and sometimes we find out there aren't even details. 

Who knows if that's the case here, but that's not even what I'm wondering about. Nope - I'm wondering which of the definitions of 'intervene' the president plans on pursuing? My money's on #3. 

Let's see, what else do we have... Oh, how about the lawsuit filed by Citizens for Ethics in Washington (CREW), the National Security Archive, the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the American Historical Association, to ensure that the outgoing Administration appropriately accounts for, and does not destroy, official White House records?  

The issue is a White House policy allowing folks to save just screen shots of messages, such as the ones that Jared used with the Saudi Crown Prince, instead of requiring them to keep the actual message including the metadata. And this is the second time that these groups, or at least a couple of them, have sued the Trump administration for this type of thing. The earlier suit involved deletion of the president's tweets, among other things. 

So, I'm wondering where are all of the 'lock him up' cheers? I mean, if destroying documents on a private server were worthy of FBI investigations, and you know, confessed liars leading chants at conventions and what not, I'm shocked - shocked! - that the Republicans aren't making the same noise about this?  Do you think they don't care? Or maybe they're too busy trying to not get questioned about who really won the election? 

Meanwhile, around the country, coronavirus protests are getting ugly - really ugly. This Twitter thread, from a county commissioner in Ada County, Idaho shows how bad things are. It recounts the protesters at her house (she wasn't there at the time) pounding on the door, shouting and otherwise scaring her children, who were home. It says, in part.

I am sad. I am tired. I fear that, in my choosing to hold public office, my family has too-often paid the price. Though I was born and raised in Idaho, I increasingly don't recognize this place. 

There is an ugliness and cruelty in our national rhetoric that is reaching a fevered pitch here at home, and that should worry us all...

I'm calling on Republican leaders who have politicized public health, who have amplified rhetoric, capitalized on it, tacitly endorsed it while holding hands with the most extreme factions in their party: take a hard look at what you've become. It's far past time to do better.

Yes, there is. And it comes from the top of the GOP food chain, as well as from the bottom, as we've seen throughout the pandemic, and of course, before and after the election. Coming on the heels of the statement by Gabriel Sterling, the election official in Georgia, I have to wonder this: when the hell are these people going to wise up, and knock their nonsense off, and call on their constituents to do the same? 

And speaking of yelling, I'm surprised there's been so little actual yelling from the Rs on news that the Trump administration turned down opportunities to get additional doses -- lots and lots and lots of additional doses - of the Pfizer vaccine, perhaps putting us in jeopardy of not having enough doses as fast as we need them. While HHS Secretary Alex Azar says that Pfizer is "negotiating in the press" to sell more doses to the US, others aren't seeing it the same way. Including the president, who signed another (apparently) toothless Executive Order or, as the Guardian article linked above puts it,

...but as with many headline-grabbing orders issued by Trump the decree did not appear to be impactful or enforceable, analysts said.

Not only that, but Moncef Slaoui, the head of Operation Warp Speed, said "Frankly, I don't know," when asked how the new EO was supposed to work.

And what am I wondering about on this, you ask? Not much, really - I mean, it sort of speaks for itself, right? Or, maybe, how many more days of this do we have? (You can check the countdown counter at the top of the right sidebar if you ever need to know.)

And finally tonight, let's take a moment to hear from Tennessee's Lamar Alexander, who's been celebrated on the floor of the Senate by many of his colleagues. as he nears the end of his time as a legislator. In a Twitter thread, CNN's Manu Raju shared the following info, to which I've added some emphasis.

Asked if Trump should concede after Monday, he said: "I think the votes are being counted, and states are certifying them and resolving disputes. And it's apparent when electors meet on Monday, Joe Biden is very likely to be the President-elect.

"And if he is, I hope the president will put the country first, congratulate Joe Biden and take pride in his considerable accomplishments, and help him off to a good start," he added. 

Alexander said: "It's especially important that we have an orderly transition if there's going to be one, because of the pandemic and the distribution of the vaccine. We don't need to lose one hour or one day in that distribution."

Now, I know that many of the Rs in DC and elsewhere are desperately afraid of the president, or they feel exactly the same way he does on every issue to the point where they won't ever call him out for anything. Or they're just spineless generally, I guess is a third option. But what I'm wondering here is, what on earth does Alexander have to lose by ditching the wishy-washy nonsense and just say that Biden is going to be president and that we need an orderly transition? Why can't he do that? Why can't any of them stand up to him? 

Are they waiting until January 19th or something?