Journalist Garrett Graff on Fresh Air yesterday:

GROSS: Let’s start with a couple of the – what you consider most norm-breaking things President Trump has done so far to interfere with the transfer of power.

GRAFF: The biggest one has to just be the simple fact that he has not yet accepted the projected winner of the election being Joe Biden. This is a very different situation than we faced in 2000 with the Florida recount. The state victories across the country are definitive. They are decisive. And Joe Biden looks like he’s actually on his way to a comfortable victory in the Electoral College. And the fact that now, more than a week after the election, Donald Trump

This is nuts.

[O]ne thing Biden cannot do at this point is move into any government office space or receive government funding for the transition.

A key, if little-known Trump administration official has yet to determine formally that Biden won the election, holding up some crucial resources traditionally available to the president-elect.

Under the 1963 Presidential Transition Act, it’s up to the General Services Administration, or GSA, to determine or “ascertain” the winner of the presidential election, at least as far as starting the process of turning over the keys to the new administration goes.

…

In a statement, the GSA said its administrator “ascertains the apparent successful candidate once a winner is clear based on the process laid

How about that.

Statement from CISA (part of Trump DHS) and state officials says the election "was the most secure in American history," dismisses "unfounded claims," says in bold, "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." pic.twitter.com/fS7twFPuyd

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 12, 2020

Here’s the full statement:

“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result. 

“When states have close elections, many will recount ballots. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each … Read the rest

Axios on Trump’s big plans:

President Trump has told friends he wants to start a digital media company to clobber Fox News and undermine the conservative-friendly network, sources tell Axios.

Which is interesting, since he wouldn’t be where he is if it weren’t for Fox.

Some Trump advisers think Fox News made a mistake with an early call (seconded by AP) of President-elect Biden’s win in Arizona. That enraged Trump, and gave him something tangible to use in his attacks on the network.

“Tangible”? I’m not seeing the tangibility. Or the merit, or the reasonability, or anything of that type.

“He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it,” said a source with detailed knowledge of Trump’s intentions.

What … Read the rest

But…who on earth would want to go on a cruise now? And what cruise line would want to risk it?

These people and this cruise line:

One of the first cruise ships to ply through Caribbean waters since the pandemic began ended its trip early after one passenger fell ill and is believed to have Covid-19, officials said on Thursday.

The SeaDream is carrying 53 passengers and 66 crew, with the majority of passengers hailing from the US, according to Sue Bryant, a cruise ship reporter who is aboard the ship.

She told the Associated Press that one passenger became sick on Wednesday and forced the ship to turn back to Barbados, where it had departed from on Saturday.

That’s not good.

And just as a reminder that goop is a vector of misinformation. They have promoted “experts” who recommend untested therapies for covid, anti fluoride beliefs, anti vaccine beliefs, AIDS denialism, raw goat’s milk for parasites, fake diseases like adrenal fatigue…

— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) November 12, 2020

Goop is especially harmful as they wrap up medical lies and conspiracy theories with a feminist ribbon. Take charge of your health is really believe these lies about your health so you buy our products.

— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) November 12, 2020

It drives me kind of nuts that Paltrow does this. It’s the same kind of abuse of “celebrity” and money and the power they bring that Trump indulges … Read the rest

It’s too late.

]A]ccording to a new modeling study published in Scientific Reports today, even if we made such drastic reductions permanent, it would still not be enough. The study shows that if we stopped all human-made greenhouse gas emissions immediately, the Earth’s temperatures would continue to rise because of self-sustaining melting ice and permafrost. These “feedback loops” — in which melting ice causes less sunlight to be reflected back into space, which in turn raises temperatures and causes more ice melt — have already been set into motion, the researchers argue.

I read something about it a couple of days ago – the melting tundra. It’s melting so fast and there’s so much of it that it’s going … Read the rest

Trump is “dejected.” Also sulky, whiny, petulant, lazy, irresponsible, stupid, and self-absorbed.

Trump himself was waffling by the hour and day between a pugilistic desire to keep fighting and a more resigned attitude that his efforts will ultimately fail, people who spoke to him said.

Pugilistic? No. Bullying, self-indulgent, narcissistic, piggy, unreasonable, obstinate, dumb, bratty.

But surveyed by CNN, nearly everyone close to Trump said they believed it was only a matter of time before he finds some way to acknowledge he will not be president come January 20 — and said he was likely to pin blame on his baseless claims of a rigged election.

He’s never going to concede, he’s just (at best) going to say he was … Read the rest

I guess I’d better never go to Norway.

Bi, trans, and nonbinary folks in Norway are celebrating a huge win after the country recently expanded its penal code that previously only protected lesbian and gay people from hate speech to include gender identity and all forms of “sexual orientation.”

…

The penal code states that those who are guilty of hate speech face a fine or up to a year in jail for private comments, and a maximum of three years in jail for public remarks. Furthermore, those charged with violent crimes that are motivated by a victim’s orientation or gender identity will receive harsher sentences.

Since all disputing the dogma around what “trans” means is treated as “transphobic” … Read the rest

THE great delusion of our time –

Nope.

(Also the reminder isn’t “friendly” but that’s another subject.)

Sure, in lots of ways we know more about ourselves than anyone else does, not least because we care more than anyone else does. But by the same token we also distort what we think we know about ourselves, also because we care more than anyone else does.

And there are some things – important things – we can’t know about ourselves as well as other people do. We can’t know how we come across to other people as well as other people do.

A second point: even if we are unusually good at self-knowledge, even if we do make every effort … Read the rest

Remember kids – most of the money goes right into Trump’s pocket.

As President Donald Trump seeks to discredit last week’s election with baseless claims of voter fraud, his team has bombarded his supporters with requests for money to help pay for legal challenges to the results: “The Left will try to STEAL this election!” reads one text.

But any small-dollar donations from Trump’s grassroots donors won’t be going to legal expenses at all, according to a Reuters review of the legal language in the solicitations.

A donor would have to give more than $8,000 before any money goes to the “recount account” established to finance election challenges, including recounts and lawsuits over alleged improprieties, the fundraising disclosures show.

Bill Kristol’s view:

2) Chris Miller's career has been entirely in counter-terrorism, and Trump knows him in that context from his job at NSC. "Totally out of his depth" for broad responsibilities as Sec Def–but if Trump wants to launch more Suleimani-like raids, it would sense to have Miller there.

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) November 11, 2020

4) A sign of the loyalty-oath atmosphere now at DOD: When Jim Anderson was fired yesterday as Acting Under Secretary for Policy, he was given a "clap-out" as he left the building. The WH called to request names of any political appointees who joined in so they could be fired.
END

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) November 11, 2020

Dying days of a personality … Read the rest

Now about this coup at the Defense Department and how scared we should be…

Politico finds it pretty alarming:

The firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper kicked off a rapid-fire series of high-level departures at the Pentagon on Tuesday, setting off alarms on Capitol Hill that the White House was installing loyalists to carry out President Donald Trump’s wishes during an already tense transition.

In quick succession, top officials overseeing policy, intelligence and the defense secretary’s staff all had resigned by the end of the day Tuesday, replaced by political operatives who are fiercely loyal to Trump and have trafficked in “deep state” conspiracy theories.

Anybody who’s “fiercely loyal” to Trump is a danger in government.

Fears continue to

Trump is sulking.

President Trump made his first official public appearance since Election Day on Wednesday, observing Veterans Day in a traditional wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

Trump, who is defying declarations that he lost his reelection bid, did not speak at the event.

The president and his entourage – including first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Pence and second lady Karen Pence – did not arrive at the tomb until well after the scheduled start time of 11 a.m. ET.

The motorcade was still driving when the gun salute to veterans went off. It seems just a tad disrespectful, especially when we know he’s not doing anything other than trying … Read the rest

More and more people are telling Trump to stop being a whiny bratty fool.

Pressure is mounting on Donald Trump to accept the results of the presidential election, after every major news outlet called the race for Joe Biden. The Democratic presidential-elect’s lead in the popular vote also continues to grow, now surpassing 5 million votes.

A number of world leaders have called Biden to congratulate him on his victory, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson referred to Trump as the “previous president” while speaking in Parliament today.

Biden leads by tens of thousands of votes in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

The Post reports:

[E]ven some of the president’s most publicly pugilistic aides, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows,

Princess Ivanka is celebrating!

Oooooh! Exciting!

See also:

JOE BIDEN DEFEATS PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP

The Associated Press declares Joe Biden the winner of a grueling campaign for the American presidency. He will lead a polarized nation through a historic collision of health, economic and social crises. #APracecall pic.twitter.com/lInwqjX3PB

— The Associated Press (@AP) November 7, 2020

I guess she missed that one.… Read the rest

More hot air and confusion:

Hambling told PA Media that the statue was every woman and clothes would have restricted her to a time and place. “It’s not a conventional heroic or heroinic likeness of Mary Wollstonecraft. It’s a sculpture about now, in her spirit,” she said.

Bee Rowlatt, a writer who has been a central figure in the fight to have a statue of Wollstonecraft, said the statue represented “an idea of collaboration” and the birth of feminism.

How? How does it represent that? Who would look at it and see that? And anyway it’s supposed to be about Mary Wollstonecraft, not collaboration or generalized feminism. It’s so classic, in a way – this falling into the trap … Read the rest

That Statue continues to rile the pesky women. This is a point I hadn’t thought of:

Livia Gershon at Smithsonian Magazine:

Hambling, for her part, tells the Evening Standard’s Robert Dex that the nude figure is not meant to depict Wollstonecraft, but women of all eras.

Really. If the naked figure is meant to depict women of all eras, why is it so extremely young, thin, fit, muscular, Aryan, tiny-breasted, and deformed in the genital region? Why is it a Hitleresque flawless specimen with a basketball where the crotch should be?

But also…why in hell would an artist commissioned to honor Mary Wollstonecraft decide to leave Mary Wollstonecraft out of it? It’s so…how we still think of … Read the rest

Astonishing.

Watch this moment: pic.twitter.com/rw4rDmXO98

— The Recount (@therecount) November 10, 2020

https://twitter.com/ibrakeforjake/status/1326248502448492548 … Read the rest