If Senate Republicans want to lose the Georgia races and their majority, conceding the presidential election to Joe Biden and congratulating Kamala Harris is a good place to start.

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) December 15, 2020

“One day after the Electoral College affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, said in an interview that he acknowledged Biden as the president-elect and believed the election was legitimate. At the same time, Johnson plans to hold a Senate hearing Wednesday on election ‘irregularities,’ saying there are ‘legitimate questions’ about the way the election was administrated in Wisconsin and other states.”

“‘All I’m trying to do is hold a very upfront, straightforward hearing talking about what controls there are in place, what fraud does occur, what can we do to prevent fraud in the future,’ said Johnson in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Johnson contended there are unanswered questions about the election process. But asked if he regarded the election as ‘legitimate,’ he said, ‘Yes. I haven’t seen anything that would convince me that the results – the overall national result – would be overturned'” – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

CNN: “President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Pete Buttigieg to be his transportation secretary, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN, elevating the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to a top post in the federal government. Buttigieg would be the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ Cabinet secretary should his nomination make it through the chamber. The choice vaults a candidate Biden spoke glowingly of after the Democratic primary into a top job in the incoming administration and could earn Buttigieg what many Democrats believe is needed experience should he run for president again. The role of transportation secretary is expected to play a central role in Biden’s push for a bipartisan infrastructure package.”

Prosperity Gospel and television evangelist Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church received a $4.4 million loan from the Paycheck Protection Program that was designed to help small businesses keep employees on the payroll, according to a clearinghouse of PPP monies.

Chron.com reports that the business, which broadcasts services from Lakewood weekly and solicits donations during those broadcasts, claims that the funds were used to help Lakewood employees, not the lavish lifestyles of Osteen and his wife, Victoria.

“Believing the shutdown would only last a few weeks, Lakewood did not initially apply for PPP assistance during the first half of the program,” Lakewood spokesperson David Iloff said in a statement.  “However, as the shutdown persisted month after month, given the economic uncertainty, Lakewood finally applied for the PPP loan and has been able to provide full salaries and benefits including health insurance coverage to all of its employees and their families.”

“When Republicans failed to overturn the election results at the Supreme Court, Texas GOP Chair Allen West again threw Texas’ own political system into the national spotlight. West released a statement saying that, ‘Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the Constitution.’ West initially relished the resulting headlines including sharing one from the Washington Examiner that read, ‘Texas GOP floats secession,’ but soon after, West told Fox News, ‘I never said anything about secession.'”

“In his Monday Message newsletter West pinned an essay entitled ‘A More Perfect Union,’ in which he explained as clear as mud what he meant by his comments. What West says in a roundabout way is that he doesn’t want to secede, he just wants to boot out the Supreme Court and the states that voted for Biden. He blamed the misunderstanding of his position on, “progressive socialist left’s overtaking of our education system,” and indoctrination through ‘social studies.’ A simpler explanation could be that dog-whistling while ‘straight talking’ isn’t something Republicans can pull off in the age of Trump when everyone just says the quiet parts out loud. It’s hard to believe the same people who boycott professional sports over kneeling for the flag are the first ones to romanticize abandoning it altogether” – Texas Signal.

Colorado Sun: “Jenna Ellis, the attorney from Colorado representing President Donald Trump in his bid to overturn his 2020 election loss, was fired from her job as a Weld County prosecutor in 2013 for making mistakes on cases, records obtained by The Colorado Sun show. Ellis ‘failed to meet the employer’s expectations’ and ‘made mistakes on cases the employer believes she should not have made,’ according to a document from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.”

“Another record says Ellis, who held the title deputy district attorney at the Weld County District Attorney’s Office, was fired for ‘unsatisfactory performance.’ ‘The employer noted some cases were being processed that did not adhere to the Victim Rights Act,’ the state labor department document says. ‘… There is the appearance in case documentation the claimant did not follow proper protocol for some of the cases she handled.’ The Victims Rights Act is a state law that ensures victims are involved in and informed of the case against their assailant. There’s also a federal version that offers similar assurances and protections.”

Mitch McConnell is a traitor. The Republican Party leadership has failed our country and the American people.

— Laura Loomer LauraLoomer Tuesday, December 15, 2020

#McConnell is #Swamp #DeepState and looks about as much of a #WalkingDead #zombie as the #CryptoPresident #JoeBiden aka #notmypedo

— The Boog Cllucas Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Fuck #mitchmcconnell

— The Broke Capitalist DregsLock4 Tuesday, December 15, 2020

New York Magazine: “Without the delusional claim of a stolen election, Republicans could be usefully asking themselves why they’ve lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. With demographic trends not being friendly to their cause, something more promising than only losing the Black vote by 75 points and the Latino vote by 33 points and the under-30 vote by 24 points might be in order. Republicans cannot go forever without a coherent foreign policy or health-care policy, or without anything to say on climate change or economic inequality other than attacks on the patriotism of those raising alarms. As the Washington Post’s Paul Waldman has asked: ‘How many more election wins can [the GOP] squeeze out of White grievance and voter suppression?’ Building a real as opposed to an imaginary majority is hard and serious work. The real victim of Trump’s bizarre ‘election theft’ narrative of 2020 is the party that buys it.”

What’s up with this guy? Tucker Carlson indirectly mocked him last night by saying Dr. Jill Biden was as much of a Doctor as Dr. Pepper, so now that MAGA Land have decided everyone with a PhD who’s not already also a physician, psychologist, dentist, podiatrist, optometrist, or chiropractor has to stop using ‘Doctor’ as their title, where does that leave Dr. Sebastian Gorka?

Shouldn’t he be standing up for himself? I’m sure he worked very hard on his PhD in eugenics or whatever it was, it must feel very insulting that his former friends are indirectly ripping on that achievement just because they hate that Trump lost and his wife is a worthless illegal alien. Grow some balls Seb. Tell that bowtie-wearing frozen food princess where he can shove it.

New York Times: “Breaking with President Trump’s drive to overturn his election loss, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader and the most powerful Republican in Congress, said on Tuesday that the Electoral College’s vote had removed any doubt that Joseph R. Biden Jr. would be the next president. ‘Many of us hoped that the presidential election would yield a different result, but our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on Jan. 20,’ Mr. McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor, after weeks of declining to recognize Mr. Biden’s win. ‘The Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.'”

“He also congratulated Senator Kamala Harris of California, referring to her as the vice president-elect. ‘Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time,’ Mr. McConnell said.”

“Escribo este texto para felicitarlo por el triunfo que le otorgo el pueblo y que le han refrendado las autoridades electorales de Estados Unidos de America. Como usted recordara, nos conocimos hace nueve anos y desde entonces le exprese, de manera personal y en una carta, el ideal de transformar a Mexico y el proposito de desterrar Ia corrupcion politica, causa principal de Ia dolorosa desigualdad y de la violencia que padecemos.”

“Nuestros paises estan vinculados por Ia vecindad y a nuestros pueblos los hermanan la historia, la economia y la cultura; por ello, los gobernantes debemos esforzarnos en mantener buenas relaciones bilaterales fincadas en Ia colaboracion, la amistad y el respeto a nuestras soberanias. Tenemos la certeza de que con usted en la Presidencia de Estados Unidos sera posible seguir aplicando los principios basicos de politica exterior establecidos en nuestra Constitucion; en especial, el de no intervencion y autodeterminacion de los pueblos” – Texto de una carta del presidente mexicano Andrés Manuel López Obrador al presidente electo Joe Biden

Daily Beast: “Crack open your buckets of dehydrated cheese products, fire up the portable stove, and bask in the light of some emergency glow sticks. It’s a constitutional crisis, and you’ll want a well-appointed bunker. As President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election become more fantastical, some of his most diehard fans are urging each other to explore disaster preparation for unspecified political turmoil. Early on Monday, shortly before various states’ Electoral College votes began to formalize President-Elect Joe Biden’s victory, pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood took to Twitter to imply looming disaster. He urged followers to ‘make sure you have PLENTY of water, food, flashlights & batteries, candles, radio, [and] 2nd Amendment supplies.'”

“That call was echoed by a host of Newsmax, a far-right television network that has insisted Trump can still retain the presidency—at least until another anchor said the words ‘president-elect Joe Biden’ on Monday afternoon. Disaster preparation is, theoretically, apolitical. There’s nothing inherently partisan about keeping some canned beans and AA batteries on hand. But a certain crowd of apocalypse-minded conservatives has long had a love affair with doomsday prepping. And now that Trump supporters have taken up their dying cause with the fervor of an Armageddon fight, some are encouraging each other to stockpile for untold unrest ahead.”

BuzzFeed: “Nearly one year after the House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump, the federal government has released the criminal referral alleging Trump committed crimes related to his phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, a conversation that sparked the historic proceedings.”

“The document, obtained by BuzzFeed News from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, is a letter dated September 4, 2019, and signed by Michael Atkinson, inspector general for the intelligence community. It was sent to Stacey Moy, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division. Moy’s involvement in the Ukraine matter has not been previously disclosed. The inspector general ‘is formally referring allegations received from an individual regarding, among other things, alleged violations of law related to a telephone call on July 25, 2019, between President Donald J. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,’ Atkinson wrote. ‘This referral is a follow-up to my secure telephone call on August 27, 2019, with FBI Director Christopher A. Wray’s Chief of Staff, Paul B. Murphy, during which I provided to Mr. Murphy a summary of the Complainant’s allegations.'”

“Right up to Monday’s Electoral College vote, President Trump held the false hope that Republican-controlled state legislatures would replace electors with allies who’d overturn Joe Biden’s win, two people who discussed the matter with him told Axios. Through the past week, the sources said, the president browbeat GOP legislators in multiple states, launched tirades against Republican Govs. Doug Ducey of Arizona and Brian Kemp of Georgia, vowed to make Fox News ‘pay’ for accurately calling the race, and tested ways to say he didn’t win without acknowledging he had lost. One source who talked to Trump over the weekend said the president continued to insist that there was significant fraud in multiple states, paraphrasing him: ‘Do you think if the legislatures know this is all true, they would just act to overturn this?'”

“Sources who’ve spoken to Trump in the past few days said he’s reluctant to talk much about a 2024 run. That’s because ‘it’s an acknowledgement of the end,’ said one source who spoke to Trump at length in recent days. ‘He’ll say, ‘Yeah, I’ll probably do it. I may do it.” Another source said that Trump seems depressed at the realization that his backers have given up on 2020: ‘He’s saying, ‘We won these states, we won those states,” and adding that what he took away from conversations with his pollster John McLaughlin was that if he could get as many votes as he did, he also must have won. The closest Trump has come privately to admitting where this is heading, the source added, is to say, ‘If we don’t win, I don’t say lose. I say I don’t win'” – Axios.

Reuters: “Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday congratulated Joe Biden on his victory in the U.S. presidential election, after Biden won the state-by-state Electoral College vote that officially determines the U.S. presidency, the Kremlin said. The Kremlin had said it would wait for the official results of the election before commenting on its outcome, even as other nations congratulated Biden on the win in the days after the Nov. 3 vote.”

“‘For my part, I am ready for interaction and contact with you,’ the Kremlin cited Putin as saying in a statement. ‘Putin wished the president-elect every success and expressed confidence that Russia and the United States, which have a special responsibility for global security and stability, could, despite their differences, really help to solve the many problems and challenges facing the world,’ the Kremlin said.”

On the day that the first large batch of vaccines were distributed to hospitals around the nation, the United States recorded 193,000 new coronavirus cases and 1,400 fatalities, according the COVID Tracking Project.

The site also hit an all-time high in hospitalizations:  more than 110,500 patients are hospitalized with coronavirus cases.  According to CTP, the US recorded 1 million cases in just the last five days.

Earlier today, the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker reported the United State exceeded 300,000 fatalities from coronavirus since the pandemic began in January.  That’s the population of St. Louis, Missouri.