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The Supreme Court has rejected Texas’s last-minute request to steal the election for Donald Trump, putting a final nail in the nail-blanketed coffin of Trump’s post-election legal strategy. Joe Biden continues to have won last month’s election, Texas Republicans have called for a civil war, no big surprises.
- While the Court’s ultimate answer was always destined to be “no, you morons,” the popularity of the request itself is a five-alarm garbage fire. By Friday, the attorneys general of 17 states and 126 House Republicans had signed onto Texas’s nonsensical and seditious lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to overturn election results in four other states and thus nationwide. (So had one spelling-challenged attorney representing “New California” and “New Nevada.” Deeply normal stuff.) Those GOP House members included Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as well as Minority Whip Steve Scalise and Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee. A staggering swath of the GOP took the very small leap from silently refusing to acknowledge Joe Biden won the election, to proudly enlisting in an attempted coup. (Live footage here.)
- Even staunch Texas Republicans like Sen. John Cornyn couldn’t help noticing that the lawsuit didn’t make a lick of sense: “I frankly struggle to understand the legal theory of it. Why would a state, even such a great state as Texas, have a say-so on how other states administer their elections?” Why indeed! On Thursday night, Jeb “Jeb!” Bush tweeted, “This is crazy. it will be killed on arrival. Why are smart people advancing this notion? Let it go. The election is over.” We’d love a breakdown of which “smart people” are on board here, but as far as his main sentiment, please clap.
- That this latest effort’s failure was assured doesn’t make it any less appalling, and attorneys general for Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia reacted accordingly, in scathing briefs urging the Supreme Court to reject the lawsuit. Here’s Pennsylvania, not fucking around: “The court should not abide this seditious abuse of the judicial process, and should send a clear and unmistakable signal that such abuse must never be replicated.” On Friday Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) wrote a letter to House leaders asking them to consider not seating the 126 members trying to overturn the election, based on a section of the 14th Amendment that specifically forbids members of Congress from doing a treason.
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Unless Republicans face some kind of sanction for this, there’s no reason to think it won’t become their new default for whenever they lose elections.
- In spite of the fact that the Trump legal team presented no evidence of widespread voter fraud (because it didn’t happen and they are lying) a new Quinnipiac poll found that 70 percent of Republicans think Joe Biden’s victory was not legitimate. Elected Republicans have convinced so much of their party’s base that the election was stolen that they’re now electorally motivated to continue claiming the election was stolen—a feedback loop that’s strengthening an alternate reality whirlpool that could one day suck democracy into its vortex, leaving us all at the mercy of His Eternal Uncharismatic Highness Tom Cotton.
- All of it could have been avoided had Trump put on some big boy pants and promptly conceded, but every elected official who’s supported his claims—whether in amicus briefs or in silence—bears responsibility for developments like this: A website threatening election officials has surfaced, and is now under investigation by the FBI and intelligence agencies. The site included photos of election officials with rifle crosshairs superimposed on them, as well as their home addresses.
The Electoral College will vote on Monday, Joe Biden will have won the election again, and this particular fever dream will recede in our rearview mirror. Still in that mirror: The newly emboldened, openly dictatorial Republican Party. And it should now be nauseatingly clear to all that Trump’s departure from the White House won’t magically reverse its trajectory.
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If you haven’t already listened, make sure to check out today’s episode of Unholier Than Thou. Phill is joined by Author Alice Hoffman to talk about reimagining Jewish folklore, and Crooked’s own mensch Jon Lovett confronts his sins for Am I Going To Hell for This? It’s a fantastic episode, make sure to take a listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts →
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The FDA is expected to issue emergency authorization for Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine on Friday evening, after Trump called the agency “a big, old, slow turtle,” (we thought that was you, sir?) and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows called FDA chief Stephen Hahn to threaten his job. It’s not clear that authorizing the vaccine on Friday evening instead of Saturday will speed up the actual shipments—on the other hand, the White House would never leak a story designed to make Trump look like a hero cutting through red tape, rather than like a complete failure who did nothing as hundreds of thousands of Americans died, so we have a mystery to ponder. The Trump administration still plans to release just 2.9 million doses upon authorization—half of the doses Pfizer will make available in the first week—in order to reserve the other half for recipients’ second shot three weeks later. That may be a huge mistake, according to former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb: “We know the first dose is partially protective.” With case numbers as dire as they are, it’s not self-evident that ensuring people receive the second dose exactly on time will be more effective than getting more people their first shot, as quickly as possible.
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- The Senate has advanced the annual defense bill with a veto-proof majority over President Trump’s Confederacy-defending objections, and approved a one-week spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.
- The Manhattan district attorney’s office has ramped up its pardon-proof criminal investigation of Trump’s finances, interviewing several employees of his bank and insurance broker in recent weeks.
- The Trump administration executed Brandon Bernard by lethal injection on Thursday night, after the Supreme Court denied a request for a delay and Trump declined to commute Bernard’s sentence, in spite of the jurors who sentenced him pleading for his life. The tenth federal execution of the year is scheduled for Friday.
- Late billionaire Sanford Diller donated $6 million to Trump (and pledged to donate more) as part of the bribery-for-pardon scheme now under investigation by the Justice Department. Like most people who send money to Trump, Diller never got what he paid for.
- New Hampshire House Speaker Dick Hinch died of coronavirus a week after being sworn in at a large ceremony, which itself followed on the heels of an indoor GOP caucus meeting where many people didn’t wear masks.
- Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, leaving unanswered the question of whether one can overcome coronavirus by suing it.
- New York City will shut down indoor dining starting Monday, a very sane decision that would pair very nicely with some economic aid from the federal government.
- Sanofi has hit a major setback with its coronavirus vaccine, and won’t have doses ready to deploy (if approved) until the second half of 2021.
- Attorney General Bill Barr reportedly knew about a federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes and worked to keep it under wraps during the election. Whoops, sorry, we meant to DM this to James Comey.
- Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) single-handedly blocked legislation to create new museums dedicated to Latinos and women, on the grounds that such museums would “further divide an already divided nation.” Shame on the Smithsonian for trying to tear this country apart! Hey Mike, super random question, who would you say won the 2020 presidential election?
- One of the Zodiac Killer's most elaborate cryptograms has finally been solved, 51 years after it was sent to the San Francisco Chronicle. It reads, “I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me. By the way, this is me, Ted Cruz. Haha, I hope no one ever solves this."
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A mainstream yoga website has turned into a QAnon recruitment center. Gaia, which offers yoga videos through a subscription model, has gained an audience of nearly 700,000 subscribers after 100,000 new members joined during the pandemic. The videos aren’t yoga-exclusive: On its “About” page, Gaia describes its mission to “answer life’s deeper questions and go beyond the mainstream narrative.” Users are exposed to videos from conspiracy theorists who have been kicked off other social media platforms, like David Icke, and Gaia uses an algorithm similar to YouTube’s; watch one video about aliens or how vaccines cause autism, and you’ll be recommended more of the same. The result is thousands of yoga enthusiasts being drawn from a general interest in “spirituality” into the most deranged rabbit holes of misinformation. Batshitarunga, as they say.
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Through the LyftUp Grocery Access Program, Lyft provides access to free or discounted transportation to the grocery store for people living in food insecure areas, as well as brings food directly to the doorsteps of those individuals not able to make it to a store.
Prior to COVID-19, Lyft provided access to over 50,000 free or discounted rides for people living in food deserts or food swamps in 20+ cities to get to and from grocery stores. This is a core pillar of the company’s LyftUp initiative, a comprehensive effort to expand transportation access to those who need it most. Through LyftUp, Lyft partners with leading nonprofits to help provide access to free and discounted rides to individuals and families who lack affordable, reliable transportation.
Since the start of COVID-19, food insecurity has increased significantly and we’ve seen a greater demand for delivering food directly to homebound individuals and families. Given those shifts, Lyft launched a new delivery program in partnership with 10+ government and nonprofit partners—including World Relief Seattle and El Pasoans Fighting Hunger.
In the last six months, Lyft has facilitated the delivery of more than 2 million free meals, primarily to seniors and families whose children usually rely on free or reduced fare lunch but are currently out of school. Partner groups identify individuals and families in need as well as coordinate the packing of food, and then drivers deliver that food to community members. All deliveries are contactless to ensure health safety, and drivers are compensated in full for these rides.
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An amendment to the defense-authorization bill bans weapons of war (grenades, tanks, etc.) from being transferred to law enforcement agencies under the 1033 program.
Contact tracing apps in 17 states and Washington, DC, will now be able to talk to each other across state borders.
A Des Moine, IA, church bought and forgave $5 million worth of medical debt ahead of the holidays.
Trust us on this one.
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