“It was a warm summer Wednesday, Election Day was looming and President Trump was even angrier than usual at the relentless focus on the coronavirus pandemic. ‘You’re killing me! This whole thing is! We’ve got all the damn cases,’ Mr. Trump yelled at Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, during a gathering of top aides in the Oval Office on Aug. 19. ‘I want to do what Mexico does. They don’t give you a test till you get to the emergency room and you’re vomiting.'”

“Mexico’s record in fighting the virus was hardly one for the United States to emulate. But the president had long seen testing not as a vital way to track and contain the pandemic but as a mechanism for making him look bad by driving up the number of known cases. And on that day he was especially furious after being informed by Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, that it would be days before the government could give emergency approval to the use of convalescent plasma as a treatment, something Mr. Trump was eager to promote as a personal victory going into the Republican National Convention the following week. ‘They’re Democrats! They’re against me!’ he said, convinced that the government’s top doctors and scientists were conspiring to undermine him. ‘They want to wait!'” – New York Times.

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, friends.

Get the hell out, 2020, and welcome in 2021.

To bring good luck for us in the new year, I’ll be undertaking a series of New Year’s traditions from around the world for good luck:

• Kissing my spouse
• Throwing a bucket of water out a window (Puerto Rico)
• Keep front and back doors open at midnight (China)
• Throw a piece of furniture out the window. (Italy)
• Make noise at midnight (Philippines)
• Carry empty luggage around the house (Colombia)
• Hang lemons from the door (Caribbean)
• Open & close front door 12 times (China)
• Put money in my wallet (Eastern European)
• Write down a wish and burn it (Roma)

Plus for our dinner on New Year’s Day:

• Pork and sauerkraut (German)
• Black-eyed peas (Southern)
• Greens (Southern)

Anything else you can recommend?

Florida has become the third state to identify a case of the B.1.1.7 strain of the coronavirus that has swept through England, WTVJ NBC-6 in Miami reports.

The patient, a male in his 20s from Marin County, has no history of travel out of the region.  He has been placed in isolation.

The first case of the B.1.1.7 strain was reported in Colorado, where a second case is suspected.  The two patients there were National Guard members who were working at a senior care facility.  California confirmed a patient with the coronavirus variant yesterday.

On January 1, 2020, no one knew that Baby New Year would grow to be the most despised character of the year 366 days later.

A lot of real people qualify for the list – far too many to include – but we tried to narrow down the candidates to those who best characterize the loathsomeness of the year and its events.

One caveat: the most obvious choices, Donald Trump and his family of grifter clowns, aren’t included because, frankly, they’re too obvious. If you put together a list for every negative adjective – hated, ignorant, drug addled, fashion challenged – the Trumps would fill the list.

No one captures the violence and the faux authority exhibited by Trump’s horde of ignorant, self-important Trump supporters than Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager who crossed state lines, illegally had a friend in Wisconsin buy a AR-15 for him, and went to Kenosha to play mall cop/superhero. He ended up shooting three people, killing two of them, in an incident stemming from his desire to be a hero. In the personification of white privilege, as an armed Rittenhouse walked toward police officers after killing two and with people screaming at the (real) cops that he had just shot multiple people, the police whizzed by him and let him go.

There’s no denying that 2020 has been a difficult year. From a global pandemic, to reckoning with racial injustice, to the devastating wildfires and hurricanes, there has been so much grief, struggle, and pain. But we’ve also seen America at its best.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 1, 2021

As we look ahead to 2021, I am filled with optimism that we can accomplish the good, hard, necessary work to confront the challenges we face and turn a new chapter in our nation’s history.

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy and healthy new year.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 1, 2021

With Congress expected to accept the votes from the Electoral College on January 6th, the Capitol Police will increase their presence around Capitol grounds in anticipation of unrest and protests, Roll Call reports.

Outgoing president Donald Trump has riled up his supporters, and a number of members of Congress have jumped onto the fallacious bandwagon that the election results are somehow fraudulent, even though each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia have certified the results.

Eva Malecki, a Capitol Police spokesperson, said the department “has comprehensive security plans in place and we continuously monitor and assess new and emerging threats, with the overall goal of keeping those within the Capitol Complex safe and secure.”

“The Department of Justice on Thursday slammed a desperate Republican-led lawsuit to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win, calling the case against Vice President Mike Pence ‘a walking legal contradiction.’ The DOJ said in a new court filing that Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas, and 11 Arizona Republicans have ‘sued the wrong defendant’ – Pence – in the case.”

“And top DOJ officials urged a judge to reject the request that he issue an emergency injunction that purportedly would empower Pence to ignore the Electoral College votes from a handful of battleground states who have given Biden his margin of victory over President Donald Trump. Pence next week is scheduled to preside over Congress when it meets to certify Biden’s win. Gohmert’s suit asks federal Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a Trump appointee in U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Texas, to declare that Pence has the ‘exclusive authority and sole discretion’ to decide which electoral votes from a given state should be counted. The Republicans ask Kernodle to deliver that power to Pence by striking down key sections of the 1887 Electoral Count Act, a law they claim contradicts the 12th Amendment. Gohmert’s claim conflicts with legal experts who say that Pence’s role, or the role of any vice president, is to preside over the counting of the votes submitted by the Electoral College, not to judge which ones are valid or not. Pence is the sole defendant in the case – a fact that John Coghlan, the deputy assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s civil division, highlighted as he argued against the injunction being issued” – CNBC.

Axios: “In an extraordinary conference call this morning with fellow Senate Republicans, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his Jan. 6 vote certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election will be ‘the most consequential I have ever cast,’ according to a source on a call and two other sources briefed on the private remarks. McConnell had previously urged senators not to force this vote, which he believed would put Republicans up for re-election in 2022 in a horrible position – forcing them to choose between defying the most popular politician in the party, Donald Trump, and undermining democracy. His remarks to his conference are likely to escalate President Trump’s anger with him for daring acknowledge Trump’s defeat. McConnell said on the call that the Jan. 6 vote is “a vote of conscience,” these sources said.”

“A source paraphrased McConnell as saying, ‘I’m finishing 36 years in the Senate and I’ve cast a lot of big votes.’ ‘The context was McConnell saying we’re being asked to overturn the results after a guy didn’t get as many electoral votes and lost by 7 million popular votes,’ the source said. Many Republican senators are furious at Hawley for forcing them to take what Trump is setting up as the ultimate loyalty test on January 6th. In his email to his colleagues, Hawley made clear he was responding to pressures from his constituents. ‘If you’ve been speaking to folks at home, I’m sure you know how deeply angry and disillusioned many, many people are – and how frustrated that Congress has taken little or no action,’ he wrote.”

Lame duck president Donald Trump’s latest claim was that he would ensure 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of the year, but records show his Operation Warp Speed will fall far short of that number.

According to numerous sources including the Associated Press, less than three million Americans will be vaccinated through today.

In September, Trump claimed that he would ensure 100 million people would be vaccinated by the end of the year.  He altered that to 20 million after vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna received emergency approval. 

Grafton Police Department press release: “A former employee of the Advocate Aurora Health Hospital in Grafton has been arrested this afternoon for tampering with and causing the destruction of 57 vials containing approximately 570 doses of the novel Coronavirus vaccine. Grafton Police were called to the Advocate Aurora Health Hospital in Grafton on Wednesday, December 30, 2020, on a report that a former employee of the pharmacy had intentionally removed the vaccines from the refrigerated storage and left them to sit out overnight, rendering about 570 doses of the vaccine ‘useless’ according to health professionals. Grafton Police immediately began investigating to determine a motive and what, if any, criminal charges could be filed. The investigation revealed that a former Pharmacist – a resident of Grafton, removed the vials from the refrigerated storage knowing they would not be usable.”

“Aurora’s preliminary investigation into the incident, which was initially reported in the news on Saturday, December 26, 2020, determined the incident to be accidental. However, after receiving additional information, the public safety sector of Aurora Health began a deeper dive into the incident and discovered that the vials were intentionally removed by the pharmacist. In a written statement to Aurora Health Public Safety Officials, the former employee admitted to intentionally removing the vaccine knowing that if not properly stored the vaccine would be ineffective. Grafton Police Detectives noted that the 57 doses of the vaccine were distributed to patients, but according to health officials at Aurora, they indicated there is no health concerns related to the spoiled doses. The doses are effectively ‘useless.’ The value of the spoiled doses was estimated to be between $8,000 and $11,000. Grafton detectives indicate that the individual knew the spoiled vaccinations would be useless and that people who received the vaccinations would think they had been vaccinated against the virus when in fact they were not.”

“Two House Republicans tell me they expect as of now that at least 140 Republican Members of the House will on January 6th object to and vote against the Electoral College results showing President-elect Biden won” reports Jake Tapper.

The US Secret Service will transfer officers currently protecting lame duck president Donald Trump out of the presidential detail after Joe Biden’s inauguration to include agents who protected Biden and his family when he was Vice President, the Washington Post reports.

The move is not unprecedented, but it is unusual in an agency that prides itself on its apolitical mission of protecting the President.  During the Trump administration, Trump has demanded unusual personal loyalty from his security detail, which may have compromised some agents impartiality and discretion.

Presidents rely on the professionalism and discretion of their details assigned to protect him and his family, as the agents are privy to political and personal events in the President’s life. 

Federal investigators are looking into the possibility that the man who exploded an RV-based bomb in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning may have believed that the Earth is being infiltrated by disguised “lizard people,” NBC News reports.

In their work to uncover possible motives for Anthony Quinn Warner’s suicide attack, federal authorities have reviewed the suspect’s internet postings and browsing history, which reportedly is heavy into the so-called “reptilian conspiracy” which believes high-powered politicians and Hollywood figures are actually shape-shifting lizard people.

This theory, advocated by people including right-wing radio host Alex Jones, lists people including the Obamas, the Clinton, Justin Bieber and Queen Elizabeth as among the Reptilian Elite.

Police also believe that Warner feared that new 5G cell phone systems were actually efforts at mind control, which may be why he parked his RV-bomb near an AT&T data center.

Republican Georgia Senator David Perdue, in a tight reelection race with Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, will not be on the campaign trail just days before the election because he and his wife had close contact with someone who has been diagnosed with coronavirus, WCTV CBS-6 reports.

According to the campaign, Perdue and his wife will quarantine, per doctor’s orders, but both have tested negative for the virus.

More than 2.7 million people have already voted in the special election, scheduled for January 5th, either through mail-in voting or early voting options.  Polling for the race show Ossoff with a slight lead, within the margin of error.

Georgia is in the rare position of having both US Senate seats up for election at the same time, with incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to her seat, is facing a runoff against Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock.

“NEW YORK – Drugmakers including Pfizer Inc, Sanofi SA, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc plan to raise U.S. prices on more than 300 drugs in the United States on Jan. 1, according to drugmakers and data analyzed by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors.

“The hikes come as drugmakers are reeling from effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has reduced doctor visits and demand for some drugs. They are also fighting new drug price cutting rules from the Trump administration, which would reduce the industry’s profitability.” –Reuters

The same group of Russian hackers that breached the SolarWinds system, giving them access to hundreds of thousands of government and corporate systems, are likely responsible for a cyberattack into Microsoft’s source code, CNET reports.

In a blog post, the company said that there’s “found no evidence of access to production services or customer data. The investigation, which is ongoing, has also found no indications that our systems were used to attack others.”  [Stress from original.]

The SolarWinds attack gave the hackers access to multiple government email accounts, including those of senior members of the Treasury, Homeland Security and Commerce Departments.  The hack reportedly occurred about nine months ago, but was just discovered earlier this month.  It was originally discovered by a private cybersecurity firm, who notified national security officials.

“[Senate Majority Leader] McConnell held a conference call with Senate Republicans this morning in which he pressed [Bro Senator Josh] Hawley multiple times to explain his plans to object to the Electoral College. McConnell was met with silence, per multiple people familiar with the call. Turns out Hawley wasn’t present” reports Politico’s Alex Isenstadt.

Former US Attorney General and two-time governor of Pennsylvania Richard Thornburgh died Thursday at the age of 88, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

After serving as a US Attorney, Thornburgh reached the national attention for his handling of the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

A moderate Republican, he took over as the US Attorney General during the administration of Ronald Reagan, after Edwin Meese became embroiled in a number of scandals relating to expecting the US Department of Justice to stop investigations into his personal business dealings.

Thornburgh served into the Administration of George HW Bush, but was replaced by William Barr, who would go on to serve in the Trump Administration.

NBC News: “President Donald Trump is cutting his Florida vacation short and traveling back to Washington on Thursday, but the White House offered no explanation for why he was ending the holiday trip to his private resort a day earlier than planned. The announcement of Trump’s return to Washington came just hours after Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he would object to the certification of some states’ Electoral College results Jan. 6 in a final, futile attempt to overturn the results of the election. The president’s daily public schedule released Wednesday night said only that he ‘will be leaving Florida for the White House tomorrow at 11:00AM.’ Although the White House did not provide a reason for Trump’s early return, the president has continued to push his unsupported election fraud claims while away, questioning without evidence the results in key battleground states and attacking Georgia’s Republican governor and secretary of state.”

Back in May of 2016, I applied for an open position on Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the exact one escapes me now, but I believe it was for Front End Developer on her campaign’s website. Seemed like a good time to join up, for obvious reasons. On paper, I qualified as it’d been listed as “entry-level”, and the offices were only about a mile away from where I was living at the time in Brooklyn. The auto-response email said they’ll send me a coding test within the next few days and if I’d completed that successfully they’d advance me to the next stage.

Now imagine my surprise when I got this canned bullshit response “Thanks so much for applying to work on the campaign. Unfortunately after reviewing your resume there’s a bit of a mis-match between your background and what we’re looking for in this role. Thanks again for your interest in supporting our cause – we hope that you’ll continue to support Hillary and our country in other ways”. Forget the fact that the asshole never bothered to send me the coding test, which would have taken him mere minutes to review and determine whether or not I was a good candidate, there was a distinct sense of “mis-match” between the Hillary campaign’s rhetoric about working to expand opportunities in tech jobs for the broader American economy at the time and its actual practice. I was pretty close to writing a reply saying something as such capped with a “Fuck you, now I’m voting for Trump”, but I left it alone. Wasn’t worth it.

With that experience in hand, I can at least partially sympathize with a 2016 Trump voter. I still voted for Clinton anyway, but in my mind that episode pretty neatly captured the resentment that Trump appealed to – those Swampy Washington mainstream politicians just want your vote, they don’t care about you otherwise. So now after four years of more or less the exact same thing from Trump, why the fuck did you, a 2020 Trump voter, cast a ballot for him?