The Electoral College has voted. In one month Joe Biden will be installed as the 46th President of the United States. Rightly or wrongly, numerous courts demonstrated that they had little inclination to hear cases alleging voter fraud. I was not surprised that the Supreme Court declined to hear the Texas case alleging voter fraud in several swing states, nor that the Trump appointees also voted not to hear the case. It was a conservative decision - deferring to each state's officials to determine the legitimacy of their vote. Then there is also the reluctance to get involved in political matters. I'm old school. I want to see Trump at Biden's inauguration, demonstrating once again a peaceful transition of power in the greatest country on earth.
In one poll, 61% said they trusted the results of the election. 95% of Democrats agreed compared to only 24% of Republicans, and 67% of Independents. Clearly not a healthy sign that so few believe the election results were legitimate. Here was the 12/12/20 headline in the New York Times: "JUSTICES DENY BID BY TEXAS TO SUBVERT VOTE." Actually, Texas was using the court system to challenge the vote. But the Times had no interest in allowing any possible validity to simply questioning the vote. For the Times, it could be only be subversion.
In their editorial of the same day, the Times wrote: "Questioning the integrity of an election is a matter of the utmost seriousness." Then this: "This new policy of election denialism, by contrast, is the latest manifestation of the Republican Party's increasingly anti-democratic tendencies." As reluctant as I am to use the term "hypocrites" - what a bunch of hypocrites. After the 2016 election, the Times editorial told us that the country was at the "precipice." Losing candidate Hillary Clinton said this: "I believe he knows he's an illegitimate president." And: "This wasn't on the level." So many on the Left refused to accept Trump as a legitimate president - not just immediately following his election, but for the entire four years of his term. So please, spare me the sanctimony.
For three years we heard non-stop about "Russian collusion." Given the Hunter Biden investigation, and given the soon to be President's obvious lack of oversight over his son's involvement with China, I am sure that the Times and the rest of the mainstream media will be reporting daily about "Chinese collusion." Just as I am sure that we will have a "special prosecutor" assigned to look into the Biden family's ties to China. Right?
Much has been made of Biden's recent call for "unity." Would that be a "unity" that was never offered to Trump? And just how serious is that call for unity? Here is Biden's former campaign manager and soon to be deputy chief of staff, Jen O'Malley Dillon: "I'm not saying they're (Republicans) not a bunch of fuckers. Mitch McConnell is terrible." Very unifying. Then we have Representative Bill Pascrell, Dem-NJ, who wants Pelosi to bar the 126 Republican representatives who supported the Texas lawsuit challenging the vote, from being seated in the House. Pascrell is relying on the 14th Amendment, a Civil War Amendment, barring the seating of anyone who engaged in rebellion against the United States. For Pascrell, the filing of a lawsuit is the equivalent of engaging in rebellion. Again, very "unifying."
Expecting "unity" is unrealistic. The two parties are simply too far apart on too many issues. That will continue to be the case if the Democrats keep moving further to the Left and away from Classic Liberalism. The best that might be hoped for is a return to a "loyal opposition." Again, not something we saw in the last four years.
In a lengthy article on 12/13/20 on the CNN website, we saw yet another manifestation of the lack of unity offered to Trump. It was a further example of the one-sided reporting by another mainstream media outlet. "Trump will leave office in January with a historically bad record on the economy..." And: "Trump will exit the White House with fewer Americans employed than when he started." Later in the article, CNN did get around to mentioning the pandemic, but that was mostly Trump's fault also. Of course, 50 different state governors controlled the extent to which their states shut down, resulting in significant unemployment. But why say that when it is so much easier to blame Trump. And, what of Trump's tremendous economic success before the pandemic started? That, my friends, was simply a continuation of Obama's success. Really nothing to do with Trump. Unbelievable. Over the years in the blog I have referred to this phenomenon as "media bias." Trump has called it "fake news." No difference.
You want unity? Then maybe give credit to Trump for the successes he has had. Recall that when the President had tremendous success in brokering the initial Middle East peace deals, Speaker Pelosi said this: "Good for him for having a distraction on a day when the numbers of people who are affected and the number of people who are dying from this virus only increases." A distraction? Trump has helped to remake the geopolitical reality of a very troubling area of the world - for the better. The question is, will the Biden Administration seek to build upon that success, or to destroy it?
It is not a positive sign that former Secretary of State John Kerry will have a role in the new administration as Biden's climate envoy. Kerry was one of the biggest fools to ever sit at the head of the State Department. Kerry pushed the Iran nuclear deal. Kerry insisted that peace with the Palestinians was the only path towards a broader peace between Israel and the Arab world. In a word, Kerry was an "appeaser." He believed he could buy peace with Iran by letting them have a ten year plan to getting a nuclear bomb. Here is Kerry on the Middle East: "There will be no advance and separate peace with the Arab world (and Israel) without the Palestinian process and Palestinian peace. Everybody needs to understand that. That is a hard reality." Thankfully, Trump was smarter than Kerry, and understood that appeasement is never the path to peace. Trump understood that Kerry's "hard reality" was a fool's vision.
In other news, a recent poll showed 73% of the people would support a national stay at home order. I am not convinced that a president has the authority to issue such an order. 78% of Democrats would support such an order, with only 25% of Republicans agreeing. Independents were split at 48% in favor and 48% opposed.
And Fox News reported that the top five destinations where Americans are moving to are Austin, Phoenix, Nashville, Tampa and Jacksonville. No surprise that Texas and Florida have three of the top five destinations. Texas, for example, has a zero state income tax rate and a zero capital gains tax rate. The property tax is only 1.69% and the sales tax is 6.25%. Meanwhile, some in California seem to be intent on hastening the exodus of wealthy people and businesses. One proposal would raise the top state income tax rate to 16.8%. Another proposal would create a new "wealth tax" to be applied to anyone residing in the state for 60 days in a calendar year; and would continue to tax those same individuals for a decade thereafter, even if they no longer lived in the state. Fox reported that the top three cities from which people are leaving are Hartford, New York City and San Francisco. California now has more people leaving than moving in.
Here are the latest numbers. For the last two weeks the number of new unemployment claims has continued to rise, with the week ending 12/5 having 862,000 claims and the following week having 885,000 claims. Clearly, with new lock downs being ordered in various states the numbers are rising. As of earlier today the US had 18,259,684 coronavirus cases and 324,844 deaths. California has had over 1.8 million cases and 22,670 deaths. Texas has had over 1.6 million cases and over 26,000 deaths. Florida has had over 1.2 million cases and over 20,000 deaths. Los Angeles County has had over 620,000 cases and 8,877 deaths. New York City had over 385,000 cases and 24,677 deaths.
With the success of "Operation Warp Speed" we have two vaccines already approved, and others being developed. I am confident in saying that after January 20, 2021, CNN will report that we have Biden to thank for the vaccines.
