Amy Coney Barrett being sworn in as Supreme Court Justice with Donald Trump & Justice Clarence Thomas (public domain) Some news items you might have missed: • The Gaily Grind: Guests at the Brussels “daddy orgy” where an anti-LGBT Hungarian politician was caught breaking lockdown rules thought the police who arrived to break up the party were part of the sex party, the organizer claims. • Fox19Now: Wyoming police are investigating after someone allegedly stole an LGBTQ Pride flag from a front porch and burned it. The Fitzpatric family says the vandal came right up to their front porch and even tripped on their Christmas decorations in order to snatch it up. • New York Times: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused a long-shot request from Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state, delivering an unmistakable rebuke to President Trump in the forum on which he had pinned his hopes. The Supreme Court’s order was all of one sentence, and there were no noted dissents.
The Supreme Court has rejected a Pennsylvania Republican congressman’s request to prevent Pennsylvania from certifying its presidential election results in favor of Joe Biden. This case is different from the lawsuit filed by the state of Texas this morning. https://t.co/ReS0eU0JsYpic.twitter.com/ybt6Dvlom4
• Pink News: Donald Trump spends dying days of presidency legalizing discrimination dressed up as ‘religious freedom.’ • Edge Media: An 18-year-old suspect accused of murdering a 15-year-old boy lured him into the woods in Cheshire, England, with a promise of sex before clubbing him to death a year ago, the prosecution in the case charged in court. • AZ Central: The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona, upholding a lower court’s finding that there was no misconduct, fraud or illegal voting in the general election.
#BREAKING: Arizona Supreme Court rejects GOP effort to overturn election results, affirms Biden win in statehttps://t.co/g6lLovd2Gl
• Change.org: Trevor Wilkinson, a student at Clyde High School in Texas, was suspended after he wore nail polish to school. Now, over 125K people have signed a petition in support of his freedom of expression. • Instinct Magazine: Despite lowering before 2019, HIV infections are on the rise again. • Christmas Music: From Annie Lennox’s holiday release, A Christmas Cornucopia. As Slant Magazine wrote in 2010: “’God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ marries the traditional with the modern in a daring and ultimately very successful way. Lennox’s commitment to the material is palpable.”
Arizona has officially certified its results of the 2020 election cycle indicating President-elect Joe Biden won the Grand Canyon State’s 11 electoral votes. The certification also makes it possible for Senator-elect Mark Kelly to be sworn in to the U.S. Senate this week. From CNN:
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, certified the election results Monday morning, saying the elections process was the most secure in recent history, “despite unfounded claims to the contrary.” The state’s Gov. Doug Ducey and Attorney General Mark Brnovich, along with Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel, witnessed the certification, as required by state law. These three officials are Republicans.
Ducey, who echoed Hobbs’ comments and praised the integrity of Arizona’s election system, also said he would sign official documentation on Monday and have it hand-delivered to the president of the US Senate, so that Kelly “can be sworn in as swiftly as possible.”
More than 3.4 million ballots were cast in Arizona this election cycle indicating a turnout of nearly 80% of eligible voters in the state. The official tally shows Biden beat Donald Trump by 10,457 votes. Donald Trump’s lawyer Jenna Ellis complained on Twitter the certification was ‘rushed’ but it’s been 27 days since Election Day – the exact same length of time as in 2016.
JUST IN: Arizona certifies its 2020 election results, with President-elect Biden winning the state's electoral votes. pic.twitter.com/Hz64xJJn9q
Donald Trump (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain) One of the Trump campaign’s big ‘hail Mary’ moves is to try and flip the results of the presidential election by encouraging Republican-controlled state legislatures to disenfranchise voters in their states by picking members of the Electoral College that would vote for Trump instead of the Joe Biden for their state. But GOP leaders in key states flipped by Joe Biden in this election cycle have told the Associated Press they have no plans to subvert state laws.
State GOP lawmakers in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have all said they would not intervene in the selection of electors, who ultimately cast the votes that secure a candidate’s victory. Such a move would violate state law and a vote of the people, several noted.
“I do not see, short of finding some type of fraud — which I haven’t heard of anything — I don’t see us in any serious way addressing a change in electors,” said Rusty Bowers, Arizona’s Republican House speaker, who says he’s been inundated with emails pleading for the legislature to intervene. “They are mandated by statute to choose according to the vote of the people.”
The idea loosely involves GOP-controlled legislatures dismissing Biden’s popular vote wins in their states and opting to select Trump electors.
Team Trump was probably hoping that such ploys would become entangled in legal rabble-rousing that would end up at the Supreme Court where the Donald’s handpicked conservative justices might hand him a win. In related news, the Washington Post reports “two prominent law firms have sought to withdraw from representing the Trump legal effort in Arizona and Pennsylvania.”
More major news outlets have projected Joe Biden to win Arizona Thursday night as his margin in the Grand Canyon state is remains over 11,000 votes. The Associated Press and Fox News Channel called Arizona for President-elect Biden on Election Night. The only two states not officially called by news outlets are Georgia (where Biden leads by 14,149 votes) and North Carolina (where Trump leads by 73,274) per the New York Times.
CBS News projects Joe Biden wins Arizona, after counties reported more vote tallies tonight. The current CBS News electoral vote estimate is Biden 290 and Trump 217. https://t.co/tmz7Wv4phapic.twitter.com/YukIVAvv24
With Biden’s win Arizona, he’s now flipped four states Trump won in 2016.
According to CNN’s numbers, of the two states remaining, Biden is leading Trump by 14,149 votes (or 0.3%) in Georgia while Trump is leading Biden by 71,399 votes (or 1.3%) in North Carolina. pic.twitter.com/D64jWeACnr — Nathan McDermott (@natemcdermott) November 13, 2020
Self-described racist Paul Ng (screen captures)TMZ reports that an Arizona man, identified as Paul Ng, told a Black man shooting an episode for his podcast on a public street that he was in a “no n*gg*r zone.” Andre Abram was recording an episode for his podcast in Old Town Scottsdale, AZ last Friday with his cameraman, who’s also African-American. As they were recording, they noticed Ng scoping them out. Abram’s camera was rolling when Ng strolled over and asked the two men what they were doing. Ng explained that “we’ve had problems here,” before going on to admit that he is, in fact, a racist. Abram calmly explained that they were not, in fact, in a “no n*ggr zone,” but Ng continued to ask Abram questions about where he’s from and why he’s there. Abram didn’t escalate the situation, but eventually police tracked Ng down at his home where he was cited for disorderly conduct. It turns out Ng was a Realtor with Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty – “was” because the real estate office fired Ng upon learning of his abhorrent behavior. The broker there also recommended Ng’s state license be revoked. And there you have it.
This is an anti-Black racist Asian man named Paul Ng of Scottsdale AZ..He was fired from his job after he tried to provoke an altercation with a Black man.
The New York Times reports former Vice President Joe Biden holds a steady lead over Donald Trump in battleground state Arizona, which hasn’t voted for a Democrat since 1996.
According to a new New York Times-Siena College poll Biden leads Trump 49 percent to 41 percent in the Grand Canyon state with just 6 percent of likely voters saying they were undecided.
The poll, which has a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points, was conducted after Trump’s disatrous debate with Biden last Tuesday night but before the president’s coronavirus diagnosis was made public.
Trump won Arizona by 3.5 points in 2016 over Hillary Clinton. Of course, take this all with a grain of salt as the Siena College polls have tended to show Biden slightly more ahead than other polls in Arizona. That said, the New York Times’average of polls puts Biden leading in the state by 5 points. (graphic via the New York Times)
The New York Times updates its average of polls (national and battleground states) every day. The latest data shows Joe Biden leading nationally by 7 points, but national polls can be vague. The important thing to watch are the polls in battleground states. Knowing Donald Trump won the presidency by flipping usually true-blue states Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on that trio. As of today, the NYTimes average of polls in those states puts Biden ahead by 7 points in all three. If Biden flips all three back to his column, he wins. The other state I’m keeping my eye on is Arizona which Trump won in 2016 by 3.5 points. Today’s polling average shows Biden leading by 4 points. Also worth noting that Democratic Senate candidate Mark Kelly is leading the incumbent Sen. Martha McSally in the Real Clear Politics average of polls by 5.2 points, which also bodes well for Biden. The Times also explores various outcomes based on the state of today’s polling. For instance, if you were to assign electoral votes based on the states where a candidate is currently leading by 3 points or more, Biden would be projected to win with 291 electoral votes. If you translated the polls directly into electoral votes (won’t happen) Biden would win with 359 electoral votes. And IF we assumed the polls are as wrong as they were in 2016, Biden would still squeak by with 280 electoral votes. It’s all hypothetical until the votes are counted, but it’s interesting to keep up. (graphic via NY Times)
Arizona is now the 8th state to cross the 100,000 case threshold regarding COVID-19. And no, it’s not just ‘more testing’ behind the case of the number of cases. Hospitalizations due to coronavirus diagnoses are way up. From The Hill:
Arizona joins Texas, California, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Illinois in tallying more than 100,000 cases.
Hospitalizations in inpatient and ICU beds and ventilators in use by coronavirus patients increased Sunday to their highest reported levels since hospital data reporting began in April, according to The Arizona Republic.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) began easing lockdown restrictions on May 1, allowing some salons, barbershops, restaurant dine-in services and retail stores to open their doors. But as cases and hospitalizations began to spike, Ducey last week ordered bars, gyms, movie theaters, waterparks and tubing rentals to close for 30 days.
For the second day in a row, the United States reported a record total of new coronavirus cases on Thursday – more than 41,000 new cases – on Thursday. Five states – Alabama, Alaska, Montana, Missouri, and Utah — reported their highest daily totals since the pandemic began. Florida continues to see high numbers reported – more than 8,900 new coronavirus cases on Friday – adding to the 10,000 new cases over Wednesday and Thursday, sending the Sunshine State’s total number of cases past 120,000, according to the New York Times. In Texas, with surging numbers of new cases being reported, Gov. Greg Abbott reversed course and ordered all bars to close on Friday. He also ordered restaurants to reduce operating capacity. This comes just a day after Abbott hit the ‘pause’ button on the Lone Star state’s reopening while at the same time telling Texans that going “backward” and closing down businesses was “the last thing we want to do.” But today Abbott said, “It is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars. The actions in this executive order are essential to our mission to swiftly contain this virus and protect public health.” And in Arizona, there’s alarming news for those who continue to maintain COVID-19 only affects the elderly or ill. Drive-up sites in Arizona are being swarmed by people asking to be tested, and those in the 20 to 44 age range make up nearly half of all cases. In Florida, the median age of residents testing positive for coronavirus is now 35-years-old, down from 65 in March.
Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic in HBO’s ‘Welcome To Chechnya’ Some news items you might have missed: • Oregon Live: A gay man recently became angry with his mother when she didn’t know how to respond when he introduced his new boyfriend who is HIV-positive. She fears if they stay together and have children the new boo might infect the future/possible kids. She wrote to the popular column ‘Ask Amy’ for advice. • CBS Detroit: A Wisconsin woman who has taken hydroxychloroquine for 19 years to treat lupus has tested positive for COVID-19. The woman, a self-described Trump supporter, says she only left her home to go the grocery store. She told CBS News she thought she would be safe because of what Donald Trump has said about the drug. • HBO: From Academy Award-nominated director David France comes Welcome to Chechnya, a powerful and eye-opening documentary about a group of activists risking their lives to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ persecution in the repressive and closed Russian republic of Chechnya.
• Politico: More than 40,000 National Guard members currently helping states during the coronavirus health threat will face a “hard stop” on their deployments on June 24 — just one day shy of many members becoming eligible for key federal benefits like education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI bill and/or early retirement. • Bloomberg News: Researchers are finding evidence that patients who test positive for the coronavirus after recovering aren’t capable of transmitting the infection, and could have the antibodies that prevent them from falling sick again. • AZ Central: Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) dropped four percentage points in a month trailing Democrat Mark Kelly by 13 points, according to the latest tracking poll by OH Predictive Insights. The same poll in April favored Kelly 51% to McSally’s 42%, and now in May, it’s 51%-38%. The poll shows independents breaking more than 2-1 for Kelly. • TikTok: Since the fan on my two-year-old laptop sometimes goes into high gear for no apparent reason, I clicked on this. I had no idea computers could get so filthy inside.
