Monday, December 14, 2020

THE ELECTORAL VOTE TODAY AROUND AMERICA

2020 AMERICAN ELECTION RESULTS BY STATE TRUMP VS LOSER LIBERAL SLEEPY (SLOPPY JOE) BIDEN.

ON D-42 OF THE TRUMP WIN OF THE PRESIDENCY. MON DEC 14,20.

THE ELECTORAL VOTE TODAY

 ITS 6:23AM MON DEC 14,2020. AND TODAY AT 11AM. THE ELECTORS MEET TO VOTE FOR FREAKAZOID BIDEN AS THE FUTURE 2024 PRESIDENT. BECAUSE MY BELIEF STILL IS DONALD JOHN TRUMPY (OUR AMERICAS PRESIDENT & FOR SUPPORTING ISRAEL) WILL STILL BE THE PRESIDENT. AFTER TODAYS SO CALLED BIDEN ELECTORATE. MAYBE TRUMP WILL BEAT BIDEN IN THE ELECTORAL VOTE. BECAUSE IN THE NATURAL-THERES NO WAY TRUMP COULD BECOME PRESIDENT. AND IF IT IS GODS WILL THAT TRUMP WINS ANOTHER 4 YEARS.THE ELECTORAL COLLEDGE MEMBERS WOULD HAVE TO VOTE FOR VOTER FRAUD (TRUMP) OVER BIDEN. WHICH WOULD TAKE IT TO COURT AND REALLY THROW THE DEMOLIBS FOR A LOOP. WE WOULD SEE THE DEMOLIBS RIOTING-LOOTING-BURNING OF AMERICAN CITIES.

THIS IS JUST AMAZING HOW TRUMP IS PLAYING THE SAME GAMES ON THE DEMOLIBS. THAT THEY PLAYED ON HIM FOR THE LAST 4 YEARS. LIKE THEY SAY TELL LIES LONG ENOUGH. AND PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE THEM. THATS WHAT THE DEMOLIBS DONE AGAINST TRUMP FOR THE LAST 4 YEARS. AND LOST. WE KNEW TRUMP WOULD NEVER BE IMPEACHED BY THE LIBERAL SLIMBAGS. BUT THEY WANTED HIM OUT ANY WAY POSSIBLE.BUT NOW THAT TRUMP IS IN. HE WILL DO ANYTHING TO DEFEAT THE SLIMBAGS,ANY WAY POSSIBLE. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TRUMP TRY IS TRUMP HAS THE PEOPLE BEHIND HIM. THE SLIMBAG LIBERALS JUST HAD PUPPET BRAIN DEAD LIBERALS BEHIND THEM. TRUMP HAS EVERYBODY WITH HIM. SLIMBAG LIBERALS, CHRISTIANS,JEWS,EVERY COLOUR VOTER GOING. SO YES THE EVERYBODY BELIEVES TRUMP. AND IF IT IS JESUS" WILL THAT TRUMP WIN. TODAY I BELIEVE AFTER 11AM. ALL THE DEMOLIB DEMONS FROM HELL WILL BE OUT TERRORIZING. NOT NO PEACEFUL PROTESTING BY THESE PEACE LOVING UTOPIAN SLIMBAG DEMOLIBS. CITIES AND INNOCENT BUSSINESSES WILL PAY A BIG PRICE IN ALL OF AMERICA. IF THE ELECTORATE VOTE TRUMP OVER BIDEN AT THE COLLEDGE THIS MORNING. I WILL KEEP USE UP TO DATE AFTER 11AM. TILL 7PM WHEN THE HORSE RACES AT MOHAWK START TONIGHT. IF TRUMP WOULD BEAT BIDEN. THE SLIMBAG DEMOLIBS WOULD GET THE HOUSE VOTE. BUT THE SENATE TRUMP HOLDS. SO THE SENATE WOULD VOTE VTRUMP AS PRESIDENT. THEN THE COURT ROOMS AROUND AMERICA WOULD BE FILLED. AND THE AMERICAN STREETS FULL OF SLIMBAG DEMOLIBS RIOTING-LOOTING-BURNING. ONLY TIME 11AM TODAY. WILL TELL.

Key dates for the Electoral College and what they mean-AEIdeas-DECEMBER 14,20

What are the key dates for the workings of the Electoral College?

November 3 — Election Day

Election Day is November 3. We may or may not know the winner of the presidential contest on election night, but we certainly will not have a final tally and certified results until weeks later. States vary widely in the time they allot for certifying their election results. Some may give a final certification the week after Election Day. Others may take over 30 days. And there is the possibility of recounts and judicial contests of elections which could extend the time to determine an official winner of a state.
Ballots are passed out to 16 Electors on the Michigan Senate floor for them to cast their formal votes for the president and vice president of the United States in Lansing, Michigan, U.S., December 19, 2016. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

December 8 — Safe Harbor

December 14 — The meeting of the Electors

Two key dates loom in December. On December 14, presidential electors must have been selected by the states and will meet as a group in their states to cast electoral votes for president and vice president. But December 8 is also a significant date, the so-called “safe harbor” date. The Electoral Count Act sets this date as an important date for states to make their official selection of electors, as those electoral votes will be given greater protection from challenge when Congress counts the electoral votes in January. The Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore assigned great significance to this date in Bush v. Gore.

January 3 — The convening of the new Congress

January 6 — Congress counts the votes

January 20 — Inauguration Day. The new presidential term begins at noon.

On January 3rd, the new Congress will take office, and on January 6th it will meet to count the electoral votes and declare a president- and vice president-elect. On January 20th at noon, the current presidential term will end and the next one will begin.

This is excerpted from the new fourth edition of After the People Vote, edited by John Fortier, senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a member of AEI’s Election Watch team.John C. Fortier-AEI Adjunct Scholar-SENOIRFELLOWKarlyn Bowman-Senior Fellow

Biden racks up votes as Electoral College meets to formalize 2020 results-By KYLE CHENEY and ZACH MONTELLARO-12/14/2020 01:11 PM EST

Presidential electors in 50 state capitals and Washington, D.C., gathered Monday to formally elect Joe Biden, finalizing the 2020 election process and cutting off the last longshot avenue for President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat.Electors took part in the constitutionally required meetings against an unusual backdrop: Trump has continued to resist the results and has urged supporters to mobilize to "stop the steal," while his aides and allies insist they'll keep fighting Biden's win for weeks. Trump's efforts to sow doubts about the legitimacy of the election, in part by repeating baseless claims of fraud, have been adopted — despite repeated losses in court — by a significant portion of GOP voters and officials.Though electors began the day watching warily for last-ditch protests by Trump or his allies Monday, there had been no notable presence even as states where Trump has been contesting the result — like Pennsylvania, Nevada and Georgia — held their elector ceremonies and recorded their votes for Biden and Vice President-elect Harris.The only hint of drama appeared in Michigan, where the state capitol formally closed legislative offices Monday, with law enforcement citing "credible threats of violence" as Biden's electors prepared to gather there in the afternoon. A GOP state representative, Gary Eisen, told a radio interviewer Monday morning that the Michigan Republican Party was planning some kind of "hail Mary" to override Biden's victory that would "be all over the news later." He declined to explicitly rule out violence, a comment that led state GOP legislative leaders to strip him of his committee posts."Our feelings, our desires, and our disappointments are subordinate to the health of our democracy and the will of the majority," Michigan Senate GOP leader Mike Shirkey said in a statement.Michigan has been the site of intense waves of protest this year against the state's stringent anti-coronavirus measures, often featuring armed participants. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, was the target of an elaborate kidnapping plot foiled by law enforcement earlier this year. In other states, electors' meeting locations have been withheld from the public to maximize security.Democratic electors are working in close coordination with their state parties and the Biden campaign to ensure Monday’s ceremonies run smoothly, especially in Michigan and the four other states Biden flipped: Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Early ceremonies went off without a hitch, including in Vermont, where Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received their first three electoral votes."Not my first rodeo," Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos said after the 10-minute ceremony concluded.Nevada's electors met via Zoom, where electors held up signed copies of their formal votes for Biden to the camera. And in Georgia, Stacey Abrams presided over a drama-free meeting that unanimously backed Biden and Harris."I hope you can see my smiling behind this mask," Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair Nancy Mills said after she and the state's other electors finalized ballots for Biden.Trump's electors in Florida ran into a last-minute issue when one, Senate President Wilton Simpson, indicated he tested positive for Covid-19 the night before. His withdrawal will likely trigger a process to select an alternate Trump elector to complete the slate.For Trump, the Electoral College vote likely marks the end of his wide-ranging legal effort to remain in power. While his legal team and their allies have talked of continuing their litigation, they have also pointed to the Electoral College vote as a crucial and essentially irreversible milestone. On Monday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court shot down yet another Trump campaign lawsuit, describing one allegation of misconduct as "meritless on its face" and others as simply lodged too late to be considered.Over the weekend, the Trump campaign began airing television ads amplifying his fabricated claims of election fraud, urging voters to "stop the steal." Both ads were immediately removed from YouTube for violating its new policies on election-related content-By EVAN SEMONES-Stephen Miller, a top aide to the president, said Monday on Fox News that "an alternate slate of electors" in the battleground states Trump lost will still vote, "and we are going to send those results up to Congress."Miller claimed that doing so will ensure "all our legal remedies remain open," even though the states in question have appointed electors for Biden based on their certified election results. Miller said either state legislatures or Congress could accept the Trump electors. However, there's likely no valid pathway for Congress to consider the Trump campaign's preferred slate.Republicans who would have served as electors in several swing states, had Trump won them, gathered in several mock ceremonies purporting to cast votes. But while some cast themselves as loyal foot soldiers in Trump's efforts to undermine the results, others still said they were doing it as merely a procedural step. Laws and rules contemplating dueling slates of electors have relied on those alternative slates being endorsed by either a state legislature, governor or other election authority, and no state officials have formally backed Trump's alternative electors."We took this procedural vote to preserve any legal claims that may be presented going forward," Bernie Comfort, the chair of the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania, said in a statement circulated by the state party. "This was in no way an effort to usurp or contest the will of the Pennsylvania voters."The last step that remains after Monday is a Jan. 6 meeting of Congress to count and certify the electoral votes. Trump’s allies in the House are promising to inject some drama into that process by challenging Biden’s win in Congress, but it will likely amount to a filibuster, forcing a daylong debate that delays certification by a matter of hours.The Constitution says little about how the process should work other than that electors are to meet on the same day across the country. Rather, each state sets its own process, often by law, to govern the meeting of the electors. Most will meet in statehouses at times set out in those laws.Biden will officially pick up the Electoral College majority on Monday afternoon, when California’s 55 electors are set to deliver their votes for him. Earlier in the day, Democratic electors in some battleground states are expecting protests from Trump supporters as they record their votes.Trump insisted all weekend — even after the Supreme Court shot down the legal effort he insisted was his best shot to upend Biden’s presidency — that he’s not done fighting, and the electoral meetings are the next milestone on the calendar.“No, it’s not over,” he said in an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday, where he repeated false claims of systemic fraud and conspiracy theories about a rigged election. The president insisted that he could prevail in local cases, though he has been trying that route for over a month without success.The Biden campaign says it worked closely for months with state parties to ensure that only loyal supporters ended up securing the coveted elector roles, and no defections are anticipated. Biden is set to give a speech about the Electoral College results later Monday evening.Before 2016, the process of appointing electors was often an afterthought for even the most detail-oriented presidential campaigns, with neither party paying much attention to who snagged the ceremonial spots. But after Trump’s victory in 2016, a group of Democratic electors mounted a national campaign to pressure Republicans to break from Trump and support a different Republican for president.That effort fell well short, but it still resulted in the largest number of “faithless” electoral votes in history. Five Democratic electors bucked Hillary Clinton and two Republicans rejected Trump, effectively disenfranchising millions of voters who had cast their votes for the major candidates in those states and expected their electors to support them.Many states have laws that punish these so-called faithless electors, often with a removal from their position or some sort of fine. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld those laws as constitutional — another bulwark against Trump’s efforts to subvert an election that he lost.This year’s Electoral College ceremonies are also happening amid an international pandemic, with hundreds of thousands in the United States sickened with coronavirus and thousands dying every day. State laws require in-person meetings to cast Electoral College votes, creating logistical challenges and requiring additional layers of coordination to ensure that the meetings themselves don’t become Covid-19 hot spots.

Trump tells allies he will run in 2024, but hints he may back out-In calls to allies, Trump has been asking how to navigate the next two years and floated a possible trip to the Middle East.By ANITA KUMAR-12/14/2020 04:30 AM EST

Donald Trump doesn’t need to run for president again. He just needs everyone to think he is.The president’s recent discussions with those around him reveal that he sees his White House comeback deliberations as a way to earn the commodity he needs most after leaving office: attention.The president has spent days calling a dozen or more allies to ask what they think he needs to do over the next two years to “stay part of the conversation,” according to two people, including one who spoke to the president. And while Trump has told allies he plans to run for president again, he has also indicated he could back out in two years if he determines he’ll have a tough time winning, said three people familiar with the discussions.Essentially, at this point, Trump appears just as interested in people talking about a Trump 2024 campaign as he is in actually launching a real campaign, even if he may ultimately turn his flirtation into a serious bid, according to interviews with 11 Republicans who worked for Trump or helped in his two races.Formally running for president would mean a lot of things aides say Trump doesn’t want to deal with: financial disclosure forms, building campaign infrastructure, the possibility of losing again. But simply teasing a presidential run — without actually filing the paperwork or erecting a campaign — gets Trump the attention he needs for the next two years.Attention will help sustain his business, parts of which lost millions of dollars while he was in office. Attention will help pay off his debts, which will need to be paid off in the coming years. Attention will help discredit his investigators, who are examining whether Trump illegally inflated his assets.It’s a strategy Trump has used before. Prior to his 2016 run, Trump expressed interest in at least four different presidential bids spanning all the way to the late 1980s, only to ultimately back out.“Trump has probably no idea if he will actually run, but because he only cares about himself and his association with the party has only been about his ambitions rather than what it stands for, he will try to freeze the field and keep as many people on the sidelines,” said a former White House aide. “Just for the sake of keeping his options open and, yes, keeping the attention all for himself.”Trump hasn’t announced his candidacy yet in part because he won’t acknowledge he lost, falsely asserting widespread voter fraud gave the race to President-elect Joe Biden. On Monday, electors will meet in states across the country to officially cast their votes, a move expected to cement Biden’s win and prompt more Republicans to accept the victory.That vote will train more focus on Trump’s future plans. Many in the MAGA base and even some prospective 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls have already thrown their support behind another Trump White House bid.“There’s nobody really better than him to carry the torch,” said John Fredericks, a conservative radio host who served on the Trump campaign’s 2020 advisory committee.In his calls to allies, Trump has been asking them specifically how he can campaign for four years, and soliciting advice on how to navigate the first two years. He has talked about traveling to the Middle East, a region where he would be well-received, according to the two people familiar with the calls. The visit would allow him to promote his policies there, including agreements his administration helped negotiate to normalize relations between Israel and several Arab nations.Among those he’s called are Fox News host Sean Hannity, former White House communications director Bill Shine, longtime allies Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell, according to one of people familiar with the calls. None of these people are dissuading him about running, but, according to the person, Trump has already dismissed concerns from those who think it’s a bad idea.Some allies have privately urged Trump to announce he is running on Inauguration Day – as he did in 2017 — to try to take attention away from Biden and satisfy Trump’s need for attention. But Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and top aide, and Bill Stepien, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, are advising him to take his time to announce, according to two people familiar with the discussions.The Trump campaign declined to comment. The White House and those Trump called didn’t respond to messages.“He’s going to announce,” according to the person. “It’s not a question of whether he will announce. The question is when he is going to announce.”Trump’s anticipated announcement is nearly unprecedented. Most recent former presidents have shied away from the limelight after leaving office, in part to allow their successor to govern. Several presidents have tried to secure a second non-consecutive term, but Grover Cleveland is the only one to succeed, mounting a 1892 comeback after being voted out of office in 1888.Several federal unemployment programs are set to run out the day after Christmas, cutting millions of Americans off from their financial lifelines if Congress doesn’t pass another relief package.“He will be astounded at how irrelevant a president becomes after losing reelection. Ask Jimmy Carter. Ask George H.W. Bush,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss. “They become aware they are unable to affect things the way they had become accustomed to.”Hoping to stave off that irrelevancy, Trump is expected to start promoting his candidacy immediately after leaving office, basing his early messaging on the unfounded allegation the last election was stolen from him.If Trump is just technically exploring a potential candidacy, he doesn’t have to register as a candidate, even if he conducts polling, travels and calls potential supporters, according to the Federal Elections Commission and election lawyers. But if he makes declarative statements about running, purchases campaign ads or spends more than $5,000 on an actual campaign, he would have to register, they added.“I think it's important for Trump to boldly telegraph to the public that this election was a sham, that it can never happen again, and that he will lead the opposition for the next four years, including demanding election reforms,” a senior Trump campaign official said.Meanwhile, Biden has been building up his White House team, largely ignoring Trump’s remarks about the 2020 and 2024 races.“The oxygen of his life is attention,” said Steve Schale, who ran Unite the Country, a super PAC that supported Biden’s candidacy. “I’m sure that not being on the news every day is a terrifying prospect to him. … I would not be surprised if he announced because he needs it.”A former Trump aide, who doesn’t want Trump to run a third time, said the early launch would be all about “ego.”Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio agreed: “He’s not interested in running anything,” D’Antonio said. “He’s just interested in getting the attention.”Some Republicans fear Trump’s boasts about running again will crowd out the 2024 Republican field, including three people who worked in his administration: Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, preventing the party from evolving beyond him.The GOP is torn between conservatives who support Trump and moderates who are eager to distance themselves, but have held back due to fears over backlash from Trump’s base. Fifty three percent of Republicans said they would vote for Trump in a primary in 2024, according to a POLITICO and Morning Consult poll in late November.In the interviews of the 11 Republicans who worked for Trump or helped in his two races, only three would commit to supporting him this early.Tracking the appointments, the people and the power centers of the next administration.By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Some Republicans complain that Trump’s early candidacy could take money and attention from other candidates in 2022, 2021 and, more immediately, the pair of Senate runoffs in Georgia next month that will determine which party controls the upper chamber.“Donald Trump has put himself ahead of the party and the country,” said Dan Eberhart, a major Republican donor. “I am shaking my head. The speed with which Trump has rearmed post the general election makes me blush. There is no off-season anymore.”If Trump formally files paperwork to run, he could begin raising money for his race immediately. If he announces informally, he could continue to raise money for his new political organization, Save America PAC, which he created days after Biden was projected to win.Already, he’s raised tens of millions of dollars for the leadership PAC, the type of organization popular with both parties but one long derided by ethics groups because of the few restrictions on how the money they raise can be spent.A Republican who speaks to the president said Trump and his aides are discussing whether he should delay his official candidacy because of requirements to file financial disclosure reports on his businesses.The Trump Organization is presumed to have lost millions of dollars during the coronavirus outbreak just before Trump has to pay back $421 million in loans that he guaranteed, much of it to foreign creditors, according to a New York Times examination of Trump’s personal and business tax returns.Meanwhile, New York investigators are examining whether Trump improperly inflated assets, evaded taxes and paid off women alleging affairs in violation of campaign finance laws.The Republican who speaks to the president said they would advise Trump to wait to announce any candidacy, not because of his legal troubles but because he might be more desirable as a candidate.“My advice would be to let time go by,” the person said. “If he allows time to go by, then he will allow people to miss him."

Trump loves to win but keeps losing election lawsuits-Alanna Durkin Richer-Associated Press-December 4, 2020, 7:04 pm

For a man obsessed with winning, President Donald Trump is losing a lot.He’s managed to lose not just once to Democrat Joe Biden at the ballot box but over and over again in courts across the country in a futile attempt to stay in power. The Republican president and his allies continue to mount new cases, recycling the same baseless claims, even after Trump’s own attorney general declared the Justice Department had uncovered no widespread fraud."This will continue to be a losing strategy, and in a way it's even bad for him: He gets to re-lose the election numerous times," said Kent Greenfield, a professor at Boston College Law School. “The depths of his petulance and narcissism continues to surprise me.”In an Associated Press tally of roughly 50 cases brought by Trump's campaign and his allies, more than 30 have been rejected or dropped. About a dozen are awaiting action. Trump has notched just one small victory, a case challenging a decision to move the deadline to provide missing proof of identification for certain absentee ballots and mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.Trump has refused to admit he lost, and this week posted a 46-minute speech to Facebook filled with conspiracies, misstatements and vows to keep up his fight to subvert the election.Five more losses came Friday. The Trump campaign lost its bid to overturn the results of the election in Nevada and the Michigan appeals court rejected a case from his campaign. The Minnesota Supreme Court dismissed a challenge brought by GOP lawmakers. And in Arizona, a judge threw out thrown out a bid to undo Biden’s victory there, concluding that the state’s Republican Party chairwoman failed to prove fraud or misconduct and that the evidence presented at trial wouldn’t reverse Trump’s loss. The Wisconsin Supreme Court also declined to hear a lawsuit brought by a conservative group over Trump’s loss.Thursday dealt another blow in Wisconsin, where a split state Supreme Court refused to hear Trump’s lawsuit seeking to disqualify more than 221,000 ballots in the state’s two biggest Democratic counties, alleging irregularities in the way absentee ballots were administered. The case echoed claims that were earlier rejected by election officials in those counties during a recount that barely affected Biden’s winning margin of about 20,700 votes. Trump filed a similar lawsuit in federal court late Wednesday.Judges in battleground states have repeatedly swatted down legal challenges brought by the president and his allies. Trump's legal team has vowed to take one Pennsylvania case to the U.S. Supreme Court even though it was rejected in a scathing ruling by a federal judge as well as an appeals court.After recently being kicked off Trump's legal team, conservative attorney Sidney Powell filed new lawsuits in Arizona and Wisconsin this week riddled with errors and wild conspiracies about election rigging. One of the plaintiffs named in the Wisconsin case said he never agreed to participate in the case and found out through social media that he had been included. The same lawsuit asks for 48 hours of security footage from the “TCF Center,” which is in Detroit.The issues Trump’s campaign and its allies have raised are typical in every election: problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postmarks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost. Election officials from both parties have said the election went well, and Attorney General William Barr told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the Justice Department uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the election's outcome.Trump's lawyers responded by criticizing Barr, who has been one of the president's biggest allies.Greenfield says their criticism speaks volumes. “It goes to show how vehement their ability to overlook reality is," he said.Failing to gain any traction in court, Trump and his allies are now turning to events with Republican lawmakers and rallies in states like Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan where they can use unfounded claims of fraud to incite the president’s loyal base.At a rally in Georgia on Wednesday, Powell and another pro-Trump attorney, Lin Wood, suggested that Republican voters sit out of the two January runoff elections that will decide control of the Senate because of the potential for fraud. And in Michigan, Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, urged Republican activists to pressure, even threaten, the GOP-controlled Legislature to award the state’s 16 electoral votes to Trump despite Biden’s 154,000-vote victory.In his video posted Wednesday, Trump said there were facts and evidence of a mass conspiracy created by Democrats to steal the election, a similar argument made by Giuliani and others before judges that has been largely unsuccessful. Most of their claims are rooted in conspiracy theories about voting machines that are not true, and affidavits by partisan poll watchers who claimed they didn't get close enough to see ballots being tallied because of safety precautions in the coronavirus pandemic. Because they couldn't see, they argued, something untoward must have happened.“No, I didn’t hear any facts or evidence," tweeted Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, after watching the video Wednesday night. “What I did hear was a sad Facebook rant from a man who lost an election."___Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., David Eggert in Lansing, Mich., and Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report. 

Census numbers-crunching documents at center of latest fight-Mike Schneider-Associated Press-December 14, 2020, 11:09 am

ORLANDO, Fla. – A federal judge has rejected an emergency request from the Trump administration that would stop it from being immediately forced to release documents showing how the 2020 census numbers have been crunched in the weeks since the U.S. head count ended in October.U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said in her ruling late Sunday that “time is of the essence" in dismissing the claims of government attorneys who said they have no way of meeting her court-ordered deadline without releasing all 88,000 documents a search has produced, with no time to review and redact confidential information.“Defendants’ problem is of entirely their own making," said the judge in San Jose, California.The judge, however, gave the government attorneys some breathing room by allowing them to present documents they think are confidential before a panel of magistrate judges, who will rule over the next week on whether they can be released.Government attorneys had asked Koh over the weekend to reconsider her order to release the documents or put it on hold. Last week, Koh ordered the government attorneys to produce documents that show details of the Census Bureau ’s plans, procedures and schedules for the numbers-crunching phase of the 2020 census.Attorneys for a coalition of local governments and advocacy groups that had sued the Trump administration called the government’s request to delay the documents deadline a “run down the clock strategy.”“Defendants should no longer be allowed to hide their data processing plans, procedures, and schedule in this case,” the plaintiffs said in a court filing Sunday. “And there is no more time to trust that Defendants will do right, in a timely fashion, in the future.”The judge also ordered government attorneys to produce documents requested by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which last week subpoenaed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for documents related to data irregularities in the 2020 census. The Commerce Department oversees the Census Bureau.Democratic U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the committee's chair, has alleged that the Republican Trump administration is blocking the release of full, unredacted documents she requested about data anomalies.The Trump administration's production of documents “so far has been inadequate," Koh said.The fight over efforts to shine a light on how the bureau is analyzing the numbers under a compressed schedule is the latest twist in a lawsuit that already has made one trip to the Supreme Court. The high court's decision in the lawsuit two months ago allowed the Trump administration to end field operations for the head count in mid-October, two weeks earlier than previously planned.The coalition of local governments and advocacy groups brought the lawsuit against the Trump administration for trying to end the once-a-decade head count early and also for aiming to turn in the census numbers used for divvying up congressional seats by a Dec. 31 deadline. They said the shortened timetable would cause minority communities to be undercounted.The coalition says the count was shortened by the Commerce Department so that numbers-crunching happens while President Donald Trump is still in office so that his administration can enforce his order to exclude people in the country illegally from the numbers used for determining how many congressional seats each state gets. The Supreme Court could rule any day on whether to uphold or strike down Trump's order in a separate lawsuit.Documents leaked to the House committee this month suggest the apportionment numbers won’t be ready until after Jan. 20, when Trump leaves office and President-elect Joe Biden moves into the White House. The Census Bureau has admitted discovering data irregularities in recent weeks that put the Dec. 31 deadline in jeopardy.The Supreme Court ruled only on one aspect of the San Jose lawsuit and several parts of the case remain to be litigated. The lawsuit is headed for trial next March. Besides being used for apportionment and redistricting, the 2020 census numbers will help determine the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending.More time is needed to process the data and correct for any errors since the schedule for the numbers-crunching phase was reduced from five months to half that time, according to the lawsuit.___Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

Gmail, YouTube down briefly as Google suffers brief outage-Associated Press-December 14, 2020, 8:31 am-Tens of thousands of complaints popped up Monday morning

NEW YORK – Google users in the U.S., Europe, India and other parts of the world were briefly unable to access their Gmail accounts, watch YouTube videos or get to their online documents during an outage Monday.Tens of thousands of complaints popped up around 7 a.m. Eastern along the East Coast of the U.S. The vast majority of those people, about 90%, could not log in, according to the site Downdetector.The inability to sign in prevented users accessing other platforms through Google, including mobile video games.The disruption was an early jolt on the East Coast for parents who were waking children up for school Monday. Millions of students are relying on Google for online instruction during the pandemic, including platforms like Google Docs.The problem appeared to cleared up just before 8 a.m.“The problem with Gmail should be resolved for the vast majority of affected users,” said Google’s parent company, Alphabet, at 7:52 a.m.. “We will continue to work towards restoring service for the remaining affected users.”Downdetector, which tracks website outages, reported the problem affected users across the world, but appeared especially widespread in the northeastern U.S., Britain and other parts of Europe. Japan, Malaysia and India also looked to be more affected.

ELECTORAL VOTES MON DEC 14, 2020

2020 PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP 271 ELECTORAL VOTES.(AFTER ALL THE LIBERAL STALLING,CRYING AND THERAPY GETTING ALREADY. AND TRUMP IS NOT DECLARED WINNER YET) (D6 USA ELECTION) SUN NOV 08,20

The United States of America is a federal republic[1] consisting of 50 states, a federal district (Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States), five major territories, and various minor islands.[2][3] The 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., are in North America between Canada and Mexico, while Alaska is in the far northwestern part of North America and Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. Territories of the United States are scattered throughout the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, such as regulating intrastate commerce, running elections, creating local governments, and ratifying constitutional amendments. Each state has its own constitution, grounded in republican principles, and government, consisting of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.[4] All states and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a bicameral legislature consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each state is represented by two senators, while representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census.[5] Additionally, each state is entitled to select a number of electors to vote in the Electoral College, the body that elects the president of the United States, equal to the total of representatives and senators in Congress from that state.[6] Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to the current total of 50, and each new state is admitted on an equal footing with the existing states.[7] As provided by Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress exercises "exclusive jurisdiction" over the federal district, which is not part of any state. Prior to passage of the 1973 District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which devolved certain Congressional powers to an elected mayor and council, the district did not have an elected local government. Even so, Congress retains the right to review and overturn laws created by the council and intervene in local affairs.[8] As it is not a state, the district does not have representation in the Senate. However, since 1971, its residents have been represented in the House of Representatives by a non-voting delegate.[9] Additionally, since 1961, following ratification of the 23rd Amendment, the district has been entitled to select three electors to vote in the Electoral College.

Number of electoral votes for each state
ECR ALABAMA 09 PR TRUMP 09 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 09 HARRIS 00
EDR Alabama - 9 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 232 - 538 - BIDEN 306 - 538
ECR ALASKA 03 PR TRUMP 03 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 03 HARRIS 00
EDR Alaska - 3 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 223 - 529 - BIDEN 306 - 529
ECR ARIZONA 11 PR BIDEN 11 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 11 TRUMP 00
EDR Arizona - 11 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 306 - 526 - TRUMP 220 - 526
ECR ARKANSAS 06 PR TRUMP 06 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 06 HARRIS 00
EDR Arkansas - 6 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 220 - 515 - BIDEN 295 - 515
ECR CALIFORNIA 55 PR BIDEN 55 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 55 PENCE 00
EDR California - 55 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 295 - 509 - TRUMP 214 - 509
ECR COLORADO 09 PR BIDEN 09 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 09 PENCE 00
EDR Colorado - 9 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 240 - 454 - TRUMP 214 - 454
ECR CONNECTICUT 07 PR BIDEN 07 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 07 PENCE 00
EDR Connecticut - 7 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 231 - 445 - TRUMP 214 - 445
ECR DELAWARE 03 PR BIDEN 03 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 03 PENCE 00
EDR Delaware - 3 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 224 - 438 - TRUMP 214 - 438
ECR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 03 PR BIDEN 03 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 03 PENCE 00
EDR District of Columbia - 3 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 221 - 435 - TRUMP 214 - 435
ECR FLORIDA 29 PR TRUMP 29 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 29 HARRIS 00
EDR Florida - 29 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 214 - 432 - BIDEN 218 - 432
ECR GEORGIA 16 PR BIDEN 16 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 16 PENCE 00
EDR Georgia - 16 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 218 - 403 - TRUMP 185 - 403
ECR HAWAII 04 PR BIDEN 04 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 04 PENCE 00
EDR Hawaii - 4 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 202 - 387 - TRUMP 185 - 387
ECR IDAHO 04 PR TRUMP 04 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 04 HARRIS 00
EDR Idaho - 4 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 185 - 383 - BIDEN 198 - 383
ECR ILLINOIS 20 PR BIDEN 20 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 20 PENCE 00
EDR Illinois - 20 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 198 - 379 - TRUMP 181 - 379
ECR INDIANA 11 PR TRUMP 11 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 11 BIDEN 00
EDR Indiana - 11 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 181 - 359 - BIDEN 178 - 359
ECR IOWA 06 PR TRUMP 06 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 06 HARRIS 00
EDR Iowa - 6 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 170 - 348 - BIDEN 178 - 348
ECR KANSAS 06 PR TRUMP 06 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 06 HARRIS 00
EDR Kansas - 6 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 164 - 342 - BIDEN 178 - 342
ECR KENTUCKY 08 PR TRUMP 08 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 08 HARRIS 00
EDR Kentucky - 8 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 158 - 336 - BIDEN 178 - 336
ECR LOUISIANA 08 PR TRUMP 08 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 08 HARRIS 00
EDR Louisiana - 8 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 150 - 328 - BIDEN 178 - 328
ECR MAINE 04 PR BIDEN 03 TRUMP 01 - VP HARRIS 03 PENCE 01
EDR Maine - 4 electoral votes - BIDEN - 3,TRUMP 01 - BIDEN - BIDEN 178 - 320 - TRUMP 142 - 320
ECR MARYLAND 10 PR BIDEN 10 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 10 PENCE 00
EDR Maryland - 10 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 175 - 316 - TRUMP 141 - 316
ECR MASSACHUSETTS 11 PR BIDEN 11 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 11 PENCE 00
EDR Massachusetts - 11 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 165 - 306 - TRUMP 141 - 306
ECR MICHIGAN 16 PR BIDEN 16 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 16 PENCE 00
EDR Michigan - 16 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 154 - 295 - TRUMP 141 - 295
ECR MINNESOTA 10 PR BIDEN 10 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 10 PENCE 00
EDR Minnesota - 10 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 138 - 279 - TRUMP 141 - 279
ECR MISSISSIPPI 06 PR TRUMP 06 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 06 HARRIS 00
EDR Mississippi - 6 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 141 - 269 - BIDEN 128 - 269
ECR MISSOURI 10 PR TRUMP 10 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 10 HARRIS 00
EDR Missouri - 10 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 135 - 263 - BIDEN 128 - 263
ECR MONTANA 03 PR TRUMP 03 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 03 HARRIS 00
EDR Montana - 3 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 125 - 253 - BIDEN 128 - 253
ECR NEBRASKA 05 PR TRUMP 03 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 03 HARRIS 00
EDR Nebraska - 5 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP 03,BIDEN 00 - TRUMP 121 - 250 - BIDEN 127 - 250
ECR NEVADA 06 PR BIDEN 06 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 06 PENCE 00
EDR Nevada - 6 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 127 - 245 TRUMP 118 - 245
ECR NEW HAMPSHIRE 04 PR BIDEN 04 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 04 PENCE 00
EDR New Hampshire - 4 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 121 - 239 - TRUMP 118 - 239
ECR NEW JERSEY 14 PR BIDEN 14 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 14 PENCE 00
EDR New Jersey - 14 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 117 - 235 - TRUMP 118 - 235
ECR NEW MEXICO - 05 PR BIDEN 05 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 05 PENCE 00
EDR New Mexico - 5 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 103 - 221 - TRUMP 118 - 221
ECR NEW YORK 29 PR BIDEN 29 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 29 PENCE 00
EDR New York - 29 electoral votes - BIDEN - BIDEN 98 - 216 - TRUMP 118 - 216
ECR NORTH CAROLINA 15 PR TRUMP 15 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 15 HARRIS 00
EDR North Carolina - 15 electoral votes -  DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 118 - 187 - BIDEN - 69 - 187
ECR NORTH DAKOTA 03 PR TRUMP 03 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 03 HARRIS 00
EDR North Dakota - 3 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 103 - 172 - BIDEN - 69 - 172
ECR OHIO 18 PR TRUMP 18 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 18 HARRIS 00
EDR Ohio - 18 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - TRUMP 100 - 169 - BIDEN 69 - 169
ECR OKLAHOMA 07 PR TRUMP 07 BIDEN 00 - PENCE 07 HARRIS 00
EDR Oklahoma - 7 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP - 82 - 151 - BIDEN 69 - 151
ECR OREGON 07 PR BIDEN 07 TRUMP 00 - HARRIS 07 PENCE 00
EDR Oregon - 7 electoral votes - BIDEN - 69 - 144 - TRUMP 75 - 144
ECR PENNSYLVANIA - 20 PR BIDEN 20 - TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 20 PENCE 00
EDR Pennsylvania - 20 electoral votes - BIDEN 62 - 137 - TRUMP 75 - 137
ECR RHODE ISLAND - 04 PR BIDEN 04 - TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 04 PENCE 00
EDR Rhode Island - 4 electoral votes - BIDEN 42 - 117 - TRUMP 75 - 117
ECR SOUTH CAROLINA 09 PR TRUMP 09 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 09 BIDEN 00
EDR South Carolina - 9 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP-75 - 113 - BIDEN 38 - 113
ECR SOUTH DAKOTA 03 PR TRUMP 03 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 03 BIDEN 00
EDR South Dakota - 3 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP-66 - 104 - BIDEN 38 - 104
ECR TENNESSEE 11 - PR TRUMP 11 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 11 HARRIS 00 (02)
EDR Tennessee - 11 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP-63 - 101 - BIDEN 38 - 101
ECR TEXAS 38 - 38 PR TRUMP 38 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 38 HARRIS 00
EDR Texas - 38 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP-52 - 90 BIDEN 38 -90
ECR UTAH 06 PR TRUMP 06 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 06 HARRIS 00
EDR Utah - 6 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP-TRUMP 14 - 52 - BIDEN 38 - 52
ECR VERMONT 03 - PR BIDEN 03 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 03 PENCE 00 (01)
EDR Vermont - 3 electoral votes - BIDEN-38 - 46 - TRUMP 08 - 46
ECR VIRGINIA 13 - PR BIDEN 13 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 13 PENCE 00
EDR Virginia - 13 electoral votes -  BIDEN-35 - 43 - TRUMP 08 - 43
ECR WASHINGTON 12 PR BIDEN 12 TRUMP 00 - VP HARRIS 12 PENCE 00
EDR Washington - 12 electoral votes - BIDEN-22 - 30 TRUMP 08 - 30
ECR WEST VIRGINIA 05 PR TRUMP 05 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 05 HARRIS 00
EDR West Virginia - 5 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP -08 - 18 - BIDEN - 10 - 18
ECR WISCONSIN 10 PR TRUMP 10 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 10 BIDEN 00
EDR Wisconsin - 10 electoral votes - BIDEN-10 - 13 - TRUMP 03 - 13
ECR WYOMING 03 PR TRUMP 03 BIDEN 00 - VP PENCE 03 HARRIS 00 
EDR Wyoming - 3 electoral votes - DONALD TRUMP-03 - 03 - BIDEN 00 - 00
EDR - ELECTION DAY RESULTS
ECR - ELECTORAL COLLEGE RESULTS
(  ) - ORDER OF COLLEGE VOTES

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