40 thoughts on “Veterans Day – lest we forget”

  1. instead of thanking vets, a certain up-coming ex-potus may again disrespect their efforts by harming the nation they fought so hard for. this time not just calling them “suckers” or standing up to putin”s bounties on them but selling them and our country out.

    wapo:

    As an ex-president, Trump could disclose the secrets he learned while in office, current and former officials fear
    […]
    Experts agreed that the biggest risk Trump poses out of office is the clumsy release of information. But they didn’t rule out that he might trade secrets, perhaps in exchange for favors, to ingratiate himself with prospective clients in foreign countries or to get back at his perceived enemies. When he leaves office, Trump will be facing a crushing amount of debt, including hundreds of millions of dollars in loans that he has personally guaranteed.
    “People with significant debt are always of grave concern to security professionals,” said Larry Pfeiffer, a veteran intelligence officer and former chief of staff to CIA Director Michael V. Hayden. “The human condition is a frail one. And people in dire situations make dire decisions. Many of the individuals who’ve committed espionage against our country are people who are financially vulnerable.”
    [continues]

  2. Thank you to all on the trail who have served, and to Mr. Crawford in FLA. It will be nice to have a military family in the WH, again; one that respects the sacrifice.  

  3. Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France.

    Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France, wait for the end of hostilities.  This photo was taken at 10:58 a.m., on November 11, 1918, two minutes before the armistice ending World War I went into effect

     

  4. Don’t know what Dumbass will say today but I hope it includes the words gratitude and sacrifice. I’m not betting that will occur. 

  5. wall st journal:

    A team of international observers invited by the Trump administration has issued a preliminary report giving high marks to the conduct of last week’s elections–and it criticizes President Trump for making baseless allegations that the outcome resulted from systematic fraud.
    A 28-member delegation from the Organization of American States followed events in several locations across the U.S., including in the battleground states of Georgia and Michigan, both remotely and with observers at polling stations and counting centers.

    “While the OAS Mission has not directly observed any serious irregularities that call into question the results so far, it supports the right of all contesting parties in an election, to seek redress before the competent legal authorities when they believe they have been wronged,” the report said. “It is critical however, that candidates act responsibly by presenting and arguing legitimate claims before the courts, not unsubstantiated or harmful speculation in the public media.”

    The OAS assessment followed similar findings by an election observation team from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

    “Baseless allegations of systematic deficiencies, notably by the incumbent president, including on election night, harm public trust in democratic institutions,” Michael Georg Link, leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission, said last week.
    The 20-OAS page report praised state and local officials for efforts to facilitate voting during the coronavirus pandemic and, while it had numerous recommendations for improving the elections system, found no evidence of the pervasive fraud that Mr. Trump, who has not conceded the presidential election, has insisted caused his loss to President-elect Joe Biden.
    The report noted: ‘”In his statement the Republican candidate cast further aspersions on the US electoral process, stating that ‘This is a case where they’re trying to steal an election. They’re trying to rig an election and we can’t let that happen.’ The OAS observers deployed in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia did not witness any of the aforementioned irregularities.”’
    […]
    The State Department invited the OAS to send in its team in October, and observers remained in place from Oct. 23 to Nov. 7.
    “On Election Day, the members of the Mission were present at polling places in Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan and the District of Columbia, and observed the process from the opening of the polling centers through to the close of polls and the deposit of voting materials with the appropriate local authorities,” the report said. “Members of the Mission also visited tabulations centers to observe the tallying of result. In the jurisdictions that it observed, the Mission found that the day progressed in a peaceful manner.”
    The Mission notes that attempts by members of the public to ‘stop the count,’ in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona, “were clear examples of intimidation of electoral officials.”

    A more detailed final report is forthcoming, the OAS said.

  6. bet GOPers will never invite those int’l observers back again to their election parties

    and also wager D’ump will have tweet temper tantrum and rage against wsj for running the story

  7. Last night on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show, John Brennan said that ex-officials that have given up classified information in exchange for money have always been arrested.  Brennan said that once trump is a private citizen (at noontime Jan. 20, 2021), he is subjected to all laws.  
     
    Course if trump gives up some info to Russia while living in a country that won’t extradite to the US, the only thing we could do about it is not let him come back into the country without threat of arrest.

  8. business insider:

    The Lincoln Project was briefly locked out of Twitter on Tuesday after sharing the contact details of two lawyers working on President Donald Trump’s election challenges.
    The political action committee, founded by a group of Republicans against Trump, tweeted the work phone numbers, email addresses, and photos of Ronald Hicks and Carolyn McGreeand to its 2.7 million followers. The tweet has since been deleted, but Business Insider has seen an archived copy of the tweet.
    “Make them famous,” the group added.
    Hicks and McGreeand, who work at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, are challenging the result in Pennsylvania on behalf of the Trump campaign and calling for thousands of votes to be invalidated. As of Wednesday morning, President-elect Joe Biden was ahead by around 47,800 votes, according to Decision Desk HQ.

  12. “ the only thing we could do about it is not let him come back into the country without threat of arrest.” -RR
     
    Oh, you sweet summer child- that ain’t the “only thing”.
     

  14. Goopers aren’t a political party they are a criminal enterprise and no one should associate with them.   NYer mag had an article about Trump’s loss of Asian Americans as a voting block.   Repeatedly calling COVID 19 the China virus did not go over well especially since it led to bullying and harassment 
    Just as Trump called out Nancy P for going to Chinatown.  He can be counted on to miss the point.
    He looked fatter than ever today.  He must stress eating.

  15. Bink…  yeah… you’re correct.  
    I should have said… the only thing we could do “publicly”…

  17. His plan at the Pentagon?  Put boot lickers into the civilian command structure and hope Biden’s team doesn’t notice.  Not much of a plan.
     
    After losing in two prior suits in Michigan, Dumbass steps up to the plate for a third pitch – BTW, I just saw the pic of Trudy at the 4 seasons landscape address – it looks to me like the only idiot standing behind him without a mask is Bernie Kerick – remember him?  Great addition to the D’ump team.

  19. the hill:

    President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen predicts Trump will not return to the White House after spending Christmas at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
    Cohen spoke with MSNBC host Ari Melber about the president’s possible endgame plans as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to enter the White House on Jan. 20.
    “After Christmas, he usually comes back January 5th, January 6th. He likes to go to Mar-a-Lago,” said Cohen. “I suspect he doesn’t even come back to Washington. I don’t believe he’s going to go to the inauguration because he himself fundamentally cannot sit in a chair knowing that the cameras are on him and that the world is looking at him as a loser. He cannot do that.”
    […]
    “Everyone needs to take a chill pill,” Cohen warned. “Donald Trump talks a lot of nonsense. The Birtherism. ‘I have my investigators there in Hawaii. Look what we found out.’ It’s all a lie, 99.9 percent of everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. He’s not going to stay in the White House past January 20th. They will remove him. He knows that.”
    Cohen called on Trump to concede the election but voiced doubt that he actually would.
    “He does not have enough inner strength in him to be gracious,” Cohen concluded. “He needs to keep his base rallied around him. He’s going to say for the next 30 years that they stole the election from me. I’m the rightful president. He’s going to keep his MAGA army active and engaged and going to constantly blow this dog whistle and be a menace.”

  20. AP via msn:

    Money to support Trump court fight could flow to president
    […]
    Trump has promised to contest President-elect Joe Biden’s win in court. But the fine print indicates much of the money donated to support that effort since Election Day has instead paid down campaign debt, replenished the Republican National Committee and, more recently, helped get Save America, a new political action committee Trump founded, off the ground.
    The unusual way the Trump campaign is divvying up the contributions has drawn scrutiny from election watchdogs, who say Trump and his family are poised to financially benefit from the arrangement.
    “This is a slush fund. That’s the bottom line,” said Paul S. Ryan, a longtime campaign finance attorney with the good government group Common Cause. “Trump may just continue to string out this meritless litigation in order to fleece his own supporters of their money and use it in the coming years to pad his own lifestyle while teasing a 2024 candidacy.”
    The Democratic National Committee and Biden’s campaign are also raising money for a legal fight over the outcome of the election. Most of the money is for the DNC’s legal account, though some of it will be routed to the party’s general fund, which doesn’t face the same spending restrictions. It could then be used to pay for ads, for example, if Republicans try to get ballots tossed out with minor — and correctible — errors, according to a DNC official.
    Trump’s approach is far different.
    […]
    Leadership PACs have long been abused. While they are intended to be used for raising money that can later be donated to other candidates, they can legally be used to pay for lavish — and questionable — expenses.
    “They could pay (Trump) children consulting fees. They could pay the children’s significant others consulting fees. They could buy Don Jr.’s book, which the campaign can’t do,” said Adav Noti, a former Federal Election Commission attorney who now works for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. “They could do anything with it. There’s no personal use restriction.”
    (The RNC, not the Trump campaign, did spend almost $100,000 buying copies of Donald Trump Jr.’s book, “Triggered,” last year.)
    [continues]

  21. Sigh.

    The United States on Wednesday reported more than 140,000 new coronavirus cases, the latest all-time high. Almost every metric is trending in the wrong direction as states add restrictions and health officials warn of a dangerous fall ahead.

    Almost? What metric is trending in the right direction? Deaths per 100,000 now that the virus isn’t raging just in the elderly population? And that’s good news? And just which corner was that we turned?

  30. None of my supposedly patriotic freedom-loving Republican neighbors have their flag out to honor veterans, fwiw.  Mine is illuminated, of course, as it is after dusk🌖🇺🇸

  31. the hill:

    GOP Sen. James Lankford (Okla.) said on Tuesday that there was “nothing wrong” with President-elect Joe Biden getting intelligence briefings and pledged to “step in” if the former vice president doesn’t have access by Friday. 

    Asked about Biden not getting the briefings, Lankford told KRMG, a radio station in Oklahoma, that it “should be resolved” by Friday. 

    “There is no loss from him getting the briefings and to be able to do that and if that’s not occuring by Friday I will step in as well, and to be able to push and to say this needs to occur so that regardless of the outcome of the election … people can be ready for that actual task,” Lankford said. 

    He added that President Trump already gets intelligence briefings and that there was “nothing wrong” with Biden “getting the briefings to be able to prepare himself.” 

    Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Lankford noted, is also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, meaning that “she has all the clearances that she needs.” Lankford is a former member of the Intelligence panel and a current member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. 

    [continues]

  33. Bink – I find it funny that the far right fools think that Dems and Liberals do not and will not fly the American flag.  Wearing my flag pin has always been part of my life.  It fooled a far right anti-LGBTQ fool from Focus on the Family to eschew sitting on the “republican” side of the hearing room and sit next to me because the gay and lesbian couples were sitting there.  Of course it did not take too long for him to realize that I was actually part of the hearing for LGBTQ rights.  Love the little flag pin.  I fly the flag and have done so for my life.  Ah their little delusional meme.

  35. BB, I’d’ve loved to have seen that. I hope you hummed Prine’s Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore. 

  36. 8 have been tested.  4 positives.  3 of those are asymptotic.  Glad I work on the other side of the building. 

    No such thing as a free test. They still want a $100 copay for the slow-response test, even though “the test is free.” The quick-response test are the drive-thru is $120.

  37. It’s too bad about ratings! Ratings=$$$$ All the MSM are all harping on the divide in the country. Would be nice if they knocked that off. And now they’re harping on how afraid we should be about how unsafe this country is until Jan 20th.   It’s another crisis. 
     
    Frankly, my dear, I’m sick to death of crises. Especially since I can’t do anything about any of them. I did what I could do.  I voted. 
     
    The current thing to look out for is the 2 senate races in Georgia. If repubes under Moscow Mitch win, he’ll do to Biden what he did to Obama. And STILL Obama prevailed and kept us from a deep recession.
     
    Ratings, $$$$, and greed still suck!

  38. tiptoe, you’re spot on about media $$$ causing a lot of the problem.  equal time should be restored and some of that race horse and feud stirring would ebb.  also new campaign finance law requiring full donor discloure would help.

  40. Recount factoid via the NewsHour last night –
    Since 2000 , 31 recounts  have occurred , of those 3 have resulted in changes to the final numbers.  Of those the 3 contests the average amount of  votes changed was 200.
     

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