“House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), chair of the select subcommittee responsible for overseeing the coronavirus crisis, has subpoenaed HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CDC director Robert Redfield to produce documents related to claims of political interference at the CDC. In a letter to Azar and Redfield, Clyburn released new evidence showing that HHS and CDC officials altered 13 scientific reports between May through September 2020, at times delaying the publication of a crucial peer-reviewed journal on coronavirus” – Axios.

New York Post: “A prominent Russian scientist who was working on a COVID-19 vaccine was found dead with a stab wound after plummeting out his window in St. Petersburg, according to news reports. Alexander ‘Sasha’ Kagansky, 45, was in his underwear when he fell to his death from his 14th-floor apartment, according to the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. The scientist also suffered a stab wound, police said. Kagansky, best known for his work on cancer research, was an assistant professor in Vladivostok and had spent 13 years working in Edinburgh, Scotland, until 2017, the outlet said. He was most recently working as director of the Center for Genomic and Regenerative Medicine at Russia’s Far Eastern Federal University. He had been working on developing a vaccine against the coronavirus, e2news said.”

“President-elect Joe Biden made national unity a centerpiece of his campaign, and no patriotic American who wants to repair the damage of the Donald Trump years can argue with such a noble call. The election is over, and we can now undertake the tasks Trump neglected, including fighting the coronavirus pandemic and restoring our alliances. But millions of Americans are not ready to declare that bygones are bygones and engage the loyal Trump supporters they might still find among their neighbors, friends, or families. They are not wrong to feel this way.”

“That may sound like a profoundly un-civic, even un-American, stance. After all, Democrats, independents, and what’s left of the last few sensible Republicans should not stop trying to solve problems together. To cease all political communication would not only be foolish, but our system of government does not allow it. Even in the minority, a party can help or hinder the process of governing. Nonetheless, ordinary people worn out by the dramas and lies of the past four years have a right to refuse to take Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters seriously. To reject further debate with people whose views are completely incoherent is not only understandable, but sensible. I am talking about the people who are giving Trump their full-throated support to the very end, even as he mulls a military coup; the people who buy weird paintings of Trump crossing the Delaware, or who believe that Trump is an agent of Jesus Christ, or who think that Trump is fighting a blood-drinking ring of pedophiles. These supporters have gone far beyond political loyalty and have succumbed to a kind of mass delusion. It is not possible to engage them. To argue with them is to legitimize their beliefs, which itself is unhealthy for our democracy” – The Atlantic.

“The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island erupted on Sunday night, according to an advisory from the United States Geological Survey, followed by an earthquake that struck at the volcano’s south flank. Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) recorded an earthquake of magnitude 4.4 located beneath Kīlauea Volcano’s south flank at 10:36 pm local time. The eruption was reported at the Halemaumau Crater of the Kilauea Volcano, the Hawaii county Civil Defense Agency said in a tweet early on Monday, requesting residents to stay indoors. ‘Trade winds will push any embedded ash toward the Southwest. Fallout is likely in the Kau District in Wood Valley, Pahala, Naalehu and Ocean View,’ the tweet added. The eruption started with multiple fissures opening on the walls of Halemaumau crater, USGS said. A picture from the USGS showed Kilauea’s summit illuminated by the hot lava with a plume of steam and gas bursting out of the volcano” – Reuters.

The Independent: “Donald Trump’s supporters, who continue to believe in the outgoing president’s claims of election fraud, have planned a ‘second inauguration’ event for him online on the day Joe Biden is due to take his oath of office. The event called ‘Donald J Trump 2nd presidential inauguration ceremony’ planned on Facebook is supposed to be held on 20 January and already more than 325,000 people have shown interest in attending it. Out of those, more than 60,000 say they are definitely going, according to the Daily Dot.”

“One of the hosts of the event is Evi Kokalari, also known as Evi Kokalari-Angelakis, according to her Twitter profile, who was part of the Trump campaign in the 2020 elections and appears on right-leaning news networks, including One America News Network (OAN), a channel often promoted by Mr Trump as he turned hostile towards Fox News. Ms Kokalari’s latest post on the event’s page points towards Facebook’s election information system that she deems as ‘fake’ and says: ‘Our voting rights are under attack! So is our freedom of speech! And FB’s disclaimer on this post, proves just that.’ The page is full of comments supporting the president’s claims of rigging during the election and links to articles to conservative news websites containing information that has been debunked in the past. The event page itself was marked by Facebook with the disclaimer: ‘Joe Biden is the President-elect. He will be inaugurated as the 46th US President on January 20, 2021.’ So far there has been no confirmation from the Trump team whether the president endorses this event or is planning to attend it himself.”

Big news coming out of Pennsylvania. Very big illegal ballot drop that cannot be accounted for. Rigged Election!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2020

Daily Beast: “In the dying days of his presidency, Donald Trump has taken to asking some aides and advisers about the process of naming airports after former U.S. presidents, according to two people who’ve heard him recently inquiring on this. One of the two sources relayed that, in the past three weeks, Trump mentioned that ‘no president’ wants an American airport that has a bad reputation or crumbling infrastructure named after them. The other knowledgeable source said that Trump had, at one point since the 2020 election, offhandedly asked what kind of ‘paperwork’ was necessary to get an airport named after a former president.”

“Trump’s focus on airport namings suggests that his mind has begun to wonder towards the ceremonial elements that accompany life after the presidency. It also shows that his infatuation with having pieces of infrastructure emblazoned with his name hasn’t faded at all with his time occupying the single most powerful position in the world. Another individual close to Trump told The Daily Beast that they could recall the president mentioning at least a couple times since early 2018 his desire for having a national or international airport in the United States named after “Donald J. Trump,” and that he hoped there would be an aggressive organized effort to do so akin to the push to name the Washington, D.C.-area national airport after President Ronald Reagan. This source also said that they’d once heard President Trump ramble about what kind of Navy aircraft carrier he’d want commissioned and christened as the ‘USS Donald Trump’ in the years following his time in office. (He may never get one of those, either, though.)”

To all of our pagan readers, on this winter solstice, may the light remind us of the sun which is soon yet to return.

Former member of the Elite Strike Force Team of people who claim to practice law Sidney Powell returned to the White House Sunday to meet with lame duck president Donald Trump as he continues his legal effort to overturn the November elections.

According to ABC News, Powell is trying to convince Trump to sign an executive order to seize voting machines in swing states.  Powell has lost a series of court cases designed to undermine public confidence in the accuracy of the vote counts, but she did win a case in which officials in Georgia were ordered to maintain computer files from voting machines.

On Saturday, Trump reported discussed with appointing Powell to be a special counsel to investigate election fraud, but was reportedly deterred from such an announcement by advisors.  Powell has promoted debunked conspiracy theories that everyone from George Soros to Cuba to long-dead Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez interfered in the election to ensure a Trump loss.

The United States amassed another 1,600 coronavirus deaths on Sunday, bringing the one week today to more than 17,000 fatalities  during the week when the first coronavirus vaccines were distributed.

According to the COVID Tracking Project, the US also recorded 195,000 new coronavirus cases, bring the total over the past seven days to 1.3 million cases.  The US now has had more than 17.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases, with 113,600 people currently hospitalized.

The seven day running average of new cases continues to exceed 200,000 as the aftereffects of people traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday continues to be felt.  With the Christmas holiday this week, the number of new cases and subsequent fatalities could be felt into the new year.

Daily Beast: “A former Bloomberg News reporter quit her job, divorced her husband, and froze her eggs for imprisoned former CEO Martin Shkreli, known as the ‘Pharma Bro,’ who now refuses to talk to her, Elle reported Sunday. Christie Smythe first broke the news of Shkreli’s arrest on fraud charges in December 2015. Shkreli had first gained notoriety months earlier when his company raised the price of an anti-parasite drug from $13.50 to $750. Smythe said she and Shkreli started dating after he was incarcerated in 2018. ‘It’s hard to think of a time when I felt happier,’ Smythe says of their relationship. In a statement, Shkreli told Elle that ‘Mr. Shkreli wishes Ms. Smythe the best of luck in her future endeavors.'”

Otter Globe and Intelligencer:  On December 17th stories started circulating that Michael Flynn, the felon who was convicted for lying to the FBI, had suggested that Trump could declare Martial Law and order a “redo” of the 2020 Presidential Election.  Subsequent reporting indicated that Trump was sympathetic to this idea, and had suggested following up on Flynn’s suggestion in a fiery White House meeting.  Flynn and Trump are both wrong.  Although the Constitution does establish that the President has the authority to declare Martial Law, subsequent Supreme Court rulings have established that it is an act of last resort, and that the President may not declare Martial Law in an arbitrary and capricious manner.  Allowing the President to declare Martial Law at will would constitute a gross violation of the Balance of Powers clause.  Additionally, allowing the President to declare Martial Law, then orchestrate a do-over of a Federal Election would violate precepts of Common Law, as well as existing Federal Election laws and State election codes.  Because the declaration of Martial Law would be un-Constitutional, and therefore could not be considered an official Act of the President, Trump would be liable for violating Federal Law, and his actions could become grounds for pursuing criminal charges against him once he is out of office.

In last minute bargaining, Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders came to terms with a deal to fund a coronavirus relief package that will provide $600 stimulus checks and extend unemployment supplemental payments, the Washington Post reports.

The $900 billion package includes compromises from both sides of the aisle, with Democrats dropping aid to city and state governments in fiscal distress and Republicans dropping a requirement for a complete liability shield for businesses against lawsuits regarding the coronavirus.

“More help is on the way. Moments ago, in consultation with our committees, the four leaders of the Senate and House finalized an agreement. It would be another major rescue package for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “As our citizens continue battling this coronavirus pandemic this holiday season, they will not be fighting alone.”

A number of Fox News and Fox Business shows broadcast a fact check on false claims made by Fox network hosts about Smartmatic election software after Smartmatic filed a defamation suit against the network.

https://youtu.be/Tka8ccNR3Ds

It should be noted that the fact check did not include a retraction of the previous statements by hosts Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro. 

“BREAKING: 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denies Loeffler/Perdue emergency effort to alter signature-matching process for Jan. 5 runoffs.” —Kyle Cheney of Politico

The fabled Rose Bowl college football game will move from its eponymous Southern California home to be played on New Year’s Day in Dallas, Texas, The Sporting News reports.

The Rose Bowl game will move because of an outbreak of coronavirus cases in Southern California which has filled intensive care units in the region.

Since the first game in 1902, the Rose Bowl game has been played in Southern California annually except in 1942 because of concerns about about a potential Japanese invasion of the West Coast in World War II.

The Rose Parade was canceled in June.

“Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., President Trump’s campaign committee, today filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the US. Supreme Court to reverse a trio of Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases which illegally changed Pennsylvania’s mail balloting law immediately before and after the 2020 presidential election in violation of Article II of the United States Constitution and Bush v. Gore. This represents the Campaign’s first independent U.S. Supreme Court filing and seeks relief based on the same Constitutional arguments successfully raised in Bush v. Gore.”

“This petition follows a related Pennsylvania case where Justice Alito and two other justices observed ‘the constitutionality of the [Pennsylvania] Supreme Court’s decision [extending the statutory deadline for receipt of mail ballots] … has national importance, and there is a strong likelihood that the State Supreme Court decision violates the Federal Constitution.’ The Campaign’s petition seeks to reverse three decisions which eviscerated the Pennsylvania Legislature’s protections against mail ballot fraud, including (a) prohibiting election officials checking whether signatures on mail ballots are genuine during canvassing on Election Day, (b) eliminating the right of campaigns to challenge mail ballots during canvassing for forged signatures and other irregularities, (c) holding that the rights of campaigns to observe the canvassing of mail ballots only meant that they only were allowed to be ‘in the room’ – in this case, the Philadelphia Convention Center – the size of several football fields, and (d) eliminating the statutory requirements that voters properly sign, address, and date mail ballots” – Statement posted to Trump Campaign website.

The walking, talking step-mother Oedipal complex that is Junior’s girlfriend, former Fox News host and accused sexual harasser Kimberly Guilfoyle decided to practice some moves for her post-politics career during an entrance at speech at Turning Points USA.

https://youtu.be/QsAmp90NYSw

CNN: “A Virginia man authorities describe as a ‘White supremacist’ and ‘an advocate for pedophilia’ is facing charges in California and Colorado for traveling across the country to kidnap a 12-year-old girl, officials said Saturday. Nathan Daniel Larson, 40, is in Denver County Jail on a misdemeanor charge and faces felony charges in California for the kidnapping that authorities say utilized such ‘sophisticated’ grooming methods that they fear there may be more victims. In a statement, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said Larson operates a website ‘which encourages the raping of children and sharing of naked photos and video of children being raped.’ It is unclear if Larson, who is scheduled to appear in Denver County Court on December 24, has an attorney.”

“This is not the first time Larson has faced serious criminal charges. In 2009, he served 14 months in federal prison for sending “a detailed email to the U.S. Secret Service threatening to kill the President of the United States,” the Fresno Sheriff’s Office said. Larson sent the email in December 2008, when George Bush was the outgoing president and Barack Obama was the president-elect. Years after his prison sentence, Larson ran for the Virginia House of Delegates as an independent in 2017 and lost, according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office. In 2018, the Washington Post reported on Larson’s support for ‘abolishing age restrictions for marriage and laws against marital rape,’ legalizing incest, and his views on White supremacy ‘as a ‘system that works'” and that ‘Hitler was a ‘good thing for Germany.'”