Wondering on Wednesday 12/2/2020

 

Ready... Set... Wonder!

There's much to wonder about today, so let's dive in. 

We know that there are runoffs in Georgia in January, and that the two Republicans are being painted as unethical money-grubbing stock traders, trading on their knowledge and position as senators.  This article, for example, goes into detail on how the two - David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler - made money off the pandemic through what the headline calls their "naked corruption." Perdue is apparently an extremely busy trader; in fact, his nearly 2600 trades in his first term "roughly equal the combined trading volume of the next five most active traders in the Senate." He accounts for nearly a third of all transactions reported during the past six years.  Not only that, but

The data also shows the breadth of trades Mr. Perdue made in companies that stood to benefit from policy and spending matters that came not just before the Senate as a whole, but before the committees and subcommittees on which he served.

I'm wondering how the heck it is that folks in Georgia might actually vote both of these two back in come the first week of January. And I also wonder how calls to boycott the vote, which are coming from the Republicans (go figure), and the president's saying he'll go there to campaign, will impact things. And I wonder how much more of this any of them can take. 

And, speaking of how much more of this anyone can take, I offer these items related to the president's ongoing battle to pretend he wants to stay in office. I say pretend he wants to, because we all know this is about the money he's making through the barrage of fundraising requests - nearly 500 of them since November 3rd - being sent for his (ahem), legal defense fund - $170M since the election.

The surge of contributions has come largely from small-dollar donors, campaign officials say, tapping into the president’s base of loyal and fervent financial supporters, who tend to contribute the most when they feel the president is under siege or facing unfair political attacks. 

Anyway, here's the #AlwaysTrumper, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, making news. He's demanding AG Snitty Snitty Bill Barr produce the evidence he didn't find to prove that there isn't any evidence of voter fraud that will overturn the results of the election.

And here's another #AlwaysTrumper lawyer-not lawyer Sidney Powell, the one who released the kraken and got herself released from official legal responsibilities, is now quoting a prominent QAnon guy in her Georgia election lawsuit. In another lawsuit, she used a person as a plaintiff without his permission. And, there's now apparently a Sidney Powell for President domain. 

As I see, every day on my one social media feed people repeating her baseless claims, I can only wonder when - if ever - they'll come to the realization that this is all a bunch of crap. Every last bit of it.

Powell might not be the stupidest Trump lawyer, though. That honor might go to this guy. 

Joe diGenova, the attorney for Trump's campaign, said during an appearance on "The Howie Carr Show": "Anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity. That guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot."

Which I guess is consistent with what the cultists think. I mean, Steve Bannon called for putting Dr. Fauci's head on a pike back in November.  

I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I’d put the heads on pikes. I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you’re gone ― time to stop playing games. Blow it all up.

Don't you wonder how it is that the president of the United States managed to find himself surrounded by people like this? Seriously...these are the people the president has, or had, in his inner circle. He can't choose the outer ring of his circle the hangers on, the wannabe close to him people, the big donors; I understand that. But he surely picked these people, or people he picked picked them. If you don't wonder about that, I have to wonder about you.

I'll close with this rather interesting take on the White House Christmas decorations from Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post, in which Melania Trump appears before her, saying 

Follow me, and I will guide you among these ominous trees, through a place where you will hear desperate lamentations and see ancient, disconsolate spirits in torment. Would you like a tour of the White House Christmas decorations?

It's an interesting trip, for sure.  And if you haven't seen them yet, here's a video you should watch before you read Petri's piece. Otherwise you might wonder about what on earth she's talking about.

 What are you wondering about?

Sunday School 11/15/20

There was a lot of talk in the classrooms today about Georgia, and about the pandemic, and of course about the election.  I'll tackle some Georgia stuff today, and the pandemic stuff in tomorrow's Extra Credit. Sound good?

Martha Raddatz had Jon Ossoff, one of the two Dems who will be in the runoff elections for Georgia Senate seats come January, in the This Week classroom.  She mentioned that Joe Biden got 100K more votes than Ossoff did, and asked how he'd make up the gap between now and the primary.

Ossoff admitted there was some drop-off but said it was still the closest Senate race in the country, and said

And that really reflects the power of Black turnout here, the determination of Black voters in Georgia to make a change in this country.

He mentioned how hard-hit that community has been because of COVID, and how important affordable healthcare, civil rights legislation, and criminal justice reform are. 

After four years of division that's been corrosive to our national soul, we're seeing record-breaking turnout in Georgia from voters who are demanding change, who are demanding competent, honest leadership out of this crisis.

In response to her question about his opponent, Sen. David Perdue, getting 90K more votes, he said he wasn't worried. He's focused on "organizing and running the largest voter registration and turnout effort in American history," and taking aim at the folks who'll become eligible voters between now and the runoff on January 5th. He also said

The GOP at the national level has no leader, has no message and has no vision other than stopping Joe Biden. But we are in a crisis; we need leadership; we need to make sure that Joe Biden can govern and this administration is successful.

On the election being about an "aversion to Donald Trump or enthusiasm for Biden, Ossoff said there's a lot of enthusiasm for Papa Joe in Georgia, not to mention that his popular vote margin was the highest since Roosevelt beat Hoover in '32.

And that hope that I was just talking about, that feeling that we have the opportunity now to heal our nation's soul after four years of hatred and fear-mongering and division; to empower medical experts to lead us out of this pandemic; to invest in infrastructure and clean energy and economic recovery; and to enact a broader program, a new Civil Rights Act, establishing healthcare as a human right for all people in this country. This is where we're headed as a country. And Georgians are excited to be part of it.