“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” -- George Orwell
“If you're the kind of person who enthusiastically supports this kind of behavior, then no, I don't need to be ‘reaching out’ and ‘understanding’ you.” -- Tom Nichols
Deaths
US: 279,865 (+2889)
World: 1,499,218 (+12,530)
Cases
US: 14,313,941 (+205,451)
World: 64,839,675 (+647,655)
Countdown 1: 34 days.
Countdown 2: 49 days.
Editorial Observation: Just pointing out that the year 2050 is as far away in the future that1990 is in the past. You’re welcome.
Can Trump pre-pardon his children? Up to now, the power of the pardon has been used very sparingly. The largest pardons were President Andrew Johnson's pardon of ex-Confederates and President Jimmy Carter's pardon of draft dodgers after Vietnam. The most expansive was President Gerald Ford's blanket pardon of his predecessor Richard Nixon. Issued a month after Nixon's resignation, the idea was the country should move on...The fact that the preemptive pardon presumes guilt has been identified as one flaw of the idea, although Trump has so convinced himself and his followers that the "deep state" has been rigging elections and subverting his presidency that he could easily self-justify that any and all charges brought against him or those closest to him would be a hoax..."A Biden DOJ is going to be very cautious about indicting a former president, even Trump. As they should be," Bowman said. "Leaving aside the bad precedent it could create for a cycle of legal retribution after elections, it would be a huge distraction, and convicting a guy who got 70 million votes would be very tough, regardless of the strength of the evidence. And the last thing you want is an indictment and acquittal." -- “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Lawsuit by Trump allies challenging Pennsylvania election results reaches Supreme Court.
Allies of President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the election urged Republicans in Georgia to stay at home for the Jan. 5 Senate runoff elections, arguing Trump supporters shouldn't take part in another "rigged election." -- That, my fellow Americans, is a fantastic idea.
Bill Barr bashed in right-wing media after election fraud comments: 'He is either a liar or a fool or both'.
Trump frustrated with Barr after election comments but officials don't want AG fired, sources say. President Donald Trump is frustrated with Attorney General William Barr after his comments to The Associated Press breaking from the President's false claims of fraud in the election,
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new quarantine guidelines for people who were exposed to coronavirus, reducing the length of time from 14 days to 10 days without symptoms or seven days with no symptoms and a negative test. Officials said the shorter time period is intended to encourage more people to quarantine.
Release of PPP loan recipients data reveals troubling patterns. Sweeping data released by the Small Business Administration on who benefited from pandemic relief programs raises questions about the equitability and distribution of loans intended for small businesses, an initial analysis by NBC News shows. The analysis found that properties owned by the Trump Organization as well as the Kushner Companies, owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, profited from the program...Over 25 PPP loans worth more than $3.65 million were given to businesses with addresses at Trump and Kushner real estate properties, paying rent to those owners. Fifteen of the properties self-reported that they only kept one job, zero jobs or did not report a number at all. The loans to Trump and Kushner properties included a $2,164,543 loan to the Triomphe Restaurant Corp., at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City. The company reported the money didn’t go to keeping any jobs. It later closed. A company called LB City Inc, which is at Kushner’s Bungalow Hotel in Long Branch, New Jersey, received a loan for $505,552.50 that it used to keep 155 jobs. Two tenants at 725 5th Avenue, Trump Tower, received more than $100,000 and kept only three jobs. Four tenants at the Kushner-owned 666 5th Avenue combined received more than $204,000, and retained only six jobs. There were also some troubling signs of mismanagement revealed in the data. Over 100 loans were made to companies where no business name was listed, were listed as “no name available” or showed potential data entry errors, such as names that appeared to be dates or phone numbers. More than 300 companies appear to have each gotten more than $10 million in loans through their subsidiaries. Businesses were not supposed to receive more than $10 million per entity, except for those in the food, hospitality or hotels industries.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is hosting holiday parties at the State Department amid coronavirus spikes.
Trump's former national security advisor [newly pardoned Michael Flynn] shared a message asking the president to suspend the Constitution, impose martial law, and have the military hold a new election. -- The comparisons to President Lincoln are something else.
A More Extreme Gun Rights Movement Is Emerging in the NRA’s Wake. Meet the right-wing gun groups eager to take its place. The rally was a bellwether: the sudden downfall of the nation’s most powerful gun group and the rise of more radical pro-gun organizations and militias seeking to take its place. Since 2016, the NRA has seen a steady decline in its ranks. Meanwhile, there’s been a boon in membership for more extreme groups like the VCDL and the Second Amendment Foundation, which recently filed a number of lawsuits challenging state gun control laws, and the National Association for Gun Rights, which paints itself as a more conservative alternative to the NRA. There’s no doubt a void to be filled by the NRA, but it’s unclear what groups will dominate. “We’ve got 100 million gun owners in this country,” says Joshua Powell, the NRA director’s former chief of staff. “Whether it’s the NRA or some other group, somebody’s going to have to fill those shoes.”
Trump is threatening to veto the crucial annual defense spending bill, which includes critical spending and pay raises for military members, unless it includes an unrelated provision to repeal legal protections for big tech companies.
Congress swats back Trump’s veto threat of defense bill. President Donald Trump is closing out his relationship with Congress with one more power jab, threatening to veto a hugely popular defense bill unless lawmakers clamp down on big tech companies he claims were biased against him during the election...It’s another example of the president’s brazen willingness to undercut Congress, even his allies, to impose his will in his final months in office. On Wednesday, a bipartisan coalition of leaders on the House and Senate Armed Services committees said enough is enough.
Millennials continue to move back in with their parents in significant numbers. For some it's by choice, but for many it's a necessity. The pandemic has accelerated a change in housing in the U.S. that began well before the spread of COVID-19. Millennials, adults between the ages of 24 and 39, continue to move back home with their parents in significant numbers.
Joshua Wong, 24, one of Hong Kong's most prominent democracy activists, was jailed on Wednesday for 13 and a half months for his role in an unlawful anti-government rally in 2019, the toughest and most high-profile sentencing of an opposition figure this year.
US lawmakers unveil anti-slavery constitutional amendment. National lawmakers introduced a joint resolution Wednesday aimed at striking language from the U.S. Constitution that enshrines a form of slavery in America’s foundational documents. The resolution, spearheaded and supported by Democratic members of the House and Senate, would amend the 13th Amendment’s ban on chattel enslavement to expressly prohibit involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime. As ratified, the original amendment has permitted exploitation of labor by convicted felons for over 155 years since the abolition of slavery. The 13th Amendment “continued the process of a white power class gravely mistreating Black Americans, creating generations of poverty, the breakup of families and this wave of mass incarceration that we still wrestle with today.”
Nike Japan ad on teenage bullying and racism sparks debate.
Most countries are choosing fossil fuels over clean energy, report says. To limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) -- which scientists say would avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change -- countries need to wind down their fossil fuel production by 6% every year between now and 2030, according to the 2020 Production Gap report. Instead, countries are on track to produce an increase of 2% per year.
Humanity is waging a 'suicidal' war on nature, UN chief warns. “To put it simply, the state of the planet is broken."
Severe wildfires burning 8 times more area in western U.S., study finds. In fact, according to a new study, there's been an eight-fold increase since the mid-1980s in annual area burned by high-severity wildfires — defined as a fire that kills more than 95% of trees. The transformation in fire behavior has happened fast, with this exponential increase happening in just one generation over the course of 30 years.
Member of Hungary's anti-LGBTQ government resigns after fleeing alleged sex party. The married official and at least 20 other men reportedly attended the Brussels "orgy," despite the city's coronavirus restrictions.
Police in Jackson, Mississippi, want access to live home security video, alarming privacy advocates. Strapped for cash and facing a sharp rise in homicides, city leaders here are expanding police surveillance powers to allow residents and business owners to send live feeds from many types of security cameras — including popular doorbell cameras — directly to the city’s real-time command center. The new use of this livestreaming technology by police, which is undergoing a final legal review in Jackson, is drawing interest from other small cities that don’t have the resources to build their own surveillance systems. But some have opted out, citing concerns about privacy violations. Civil liberties advocates say those concerns are valid, warning that the technology could lead to increased police scrutiny of people’s everyday activities and more arrests for low-level offenses.
U.S. states plan to sue Facebook next week - sources.
UPS drivers told not to pick up shipments from six major retailers amid pandemic-fueled holiday surge: report. -- They are: Gap, Nike, Macy’s, L.L. Bean, Hot Topic, and Newegg.
Lab-created chicken set to go on sale for the first time ever. One Singaporean restaurant is set to serve lab-grown chicken as opposed to factory-slaughtered chicken before the end of the year.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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