“Do presidential electors have standing to challenge the outcome of a presidential election for fraud and illegality that cause the defeat of their candidate? Are the Petitioners’ claims barred by laches? Do federal courts have and should they exercise jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 over claims by presidential electors that the presidential election was stolen from them by fraud and illegality under color law in violation of their constitutional rights under the Elections and Electors, Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the U.S. Constitution?” read the opening questions of the creepy lady’s petition, apparently inspired by Ken Paxton’s temerity in bringing his case.

President @realDonaldTrump reset relations in the Middle East and helped accomplish historic peace deals. #GaetzTakeshttps://t.co/x151edpXGk pic.twitter.com/N62Nc9WdsV

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) December 11, 2020

“An initially promising U.S. forecast for the northern lights has gone bust. Stargazers in the continental 48 states have essentially zero chance of seeing the astronomical phenomenon this week, the head of operations at the U.S. government’s space weather prediction center said Thursday. Curtains of color paint the night sky when the northern lights, or aurora borealis, are visible. Early reports had suggested they would be viewable as far south as Illinois this week.”

“Robert Rutledge, the lead of operations at the Space Weather Prediction Center, said the agency had high hopes for Thursday and Friday, but it downgraded its forecast because the chances turned out to be a ‘big miss.’ He called the disappointing news ‘not incredibly unusual in space weather forecasting.’ The silver lining for sky watchers is that conditions in the coming months and years look more favorable, Rutledge said” – AP.

Aw.

“BREAKING: Michigan Supreme Court DEINIES [sic] Trump Campaign appeal to stop the counting of absentee ballots in Michigan. Trump remains 1-56 in post-election litigation.”  —Marc Elias of Democracy Docket

Today I’m calling on House leaders to refuse to seat any Members trying to overturn the election and make donald trump an unelected dictator. pic.twitter.com/icTmGKCpuR

— Bill Pascrell, Jr. 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@BillPascrell) December 11, 2020

Fat bastard did something useful for once. Read more at The Independent.

The Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs released a report Thursday that alleges VA Secretary Robert Wilkie orchestrated a campaign to disparage and discredit a female Navy veteran who claimed she was sexually assaulted at a VA facility in 2019.

According to the report, Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL who lost an eye during service, forwarded false information to Wilkie about the woman, with whom Crenshaw had served in the Navy, in furtherance of the effort to discredit the accuser.

Crenshaw refused a request from the VA IG for an interview in the probe, and he barred his staff from participating in the investigation.  Crenshaw reportedly approached Wilkie with information about the complaintant at a political fundraiser in December 2019.

CNN is reporting that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows called Food and Drug Administration Director Stephen Hahn to say that Hahn must authorize the emergency use of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine “by the end of the day” Friday or resign.

The vaccine cleared the first step to getting emergency use authorization yesterday, as one FDA panel approved the use of the vaccine.  According to the New York Times, the FDA was expected to issue authorization Saturday after standard administrative procedures, barring any regulatory issues that may arise.

It’s unclear why the White House would want the authorization to be pushed forward for anything other than PR reasons:  a lawsuit by the state of Texas filed in the Supreme Court to void tens of millions of American votes, thereby handing the election to lame duck president Donald Trump, is expected to be rejected by SCOTUS Friday.

CNBC reports the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act by a veto-proof 84-13 majority, sending the bill to lame duck president Donald Trump, who has vowed to veto the bill.

Trump claims he objects to the $740 billion bill because it would provide a path to rename military bases and systems that were named after secessionist Confederate leaders and because it does not include a provision to revoke Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter with protections against defamation claims for material posted by users.

The House passed the NDAA on Wednesday with a veto-proof 335-78 vote.

New York Times: “The justices of the Supreme Court met Friday morning, by telephone, for their usual private conference to discuss which cases they might add to their docket. They almost certainly discussed an extraordinary lawsuit that Texas has sought to file directly in the court against four battleground states – Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – seeking to overturn the results of the presidential election. The court could act on that request at any time and may well issue an order on Friday.”

WGNO: “A Bossier City man who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in November was arrested Wednesday on child pornography charges. According to Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office booking records, 34-year-old Ben Gibson was booked into Bossier Max Wednesday morning on four counts of pornography involving juveniles under the age of thirteen (possession). Gibson, an active Airman at Barksdale Air Force Base, was a little-known Republican challenger in a four-way race for the U.S. House Dist. 4 Congressional seat. Incumbent Rep. Mike Johnson won the re-election for a third term with 60.4% of the vote. Gibson garnered 6.3% of the vote, coming in last behind Democrats Kenny Houston and Ryan Trundle.”

What goes unmentioned in the local news report is that Gibson was listed in a Media Matters article in January as among several dozen vocal QAnon fans running for public office. #SaveTheChildren.

The attorney for the non-existent states of New California and New Nevada, Robert Thomas, based in the town of Pahrump, Real Nevada, filed a brief to the Supreme Court in support of the real state of Texas’s case against the real states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on Friday.

“New California State and New Nevada State are directly impacted by the arbitrary and capricious changes in election laws and procedures occur with unfortunate regularity in the current States of California and Nevada. Part of the reason for the formation of New California State and New Nevada Sate is to stop the lawless actions of Governors Newsome [sic] (California) and Sisolak (Nevada). An opinion by this Court affirming a national, uniform rule of law reestablishing the supremacy of The Electors Clause of Article II, § 1 of the United States Constitution will resolve some of the complaints causing the establishment of these new States” says Thomas in the brief, which is virtually certain to include further factual and spelling errors.

Rick Hasen: “You may recall that the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 against hearing an action directly challenging the election results, with the 4 in the majority requiring the Trump campaign to start in a trial court. The dissenting chief justice ended up appointing the trial judge to hear that challenge, and the trial judge just ruled against Trump. The ruling could be appealed but I don’t expect a different result. There is still an additional federal case by Trump pending in Wisconsin, and we may hear about that later today. From yesterday’s argument, the judge sounded quite skeptical about granting any relief.”

Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board: “We apologize to our readers for endorsing Michael Waltz in the 2020 general election for Congress. We had no idea, had no way of knowing at the time, that Waltz was not committed to democracy. During our endorsement interview with the incumbent congressman, we didn’t think to ask, ‘Would you support an effort to throw out the votes of tens of millions of Americans in four states in order to overturn a presidential election and hand it to the person who lost, Donald Trump?’ Our bad.”

Biden also gets 56% approval for handling the transition. Read more from the Marist/PBS poll here.

Washington Post: “Broadly speaking, there is supposed to be a price to pay for flooding the zone with the kind of dubious claims and alleged ‘PR stunts’ that have characterized the Trump team’s legal strategy. But will the lawyers involved face such penalties? Legal ethics experts are skeptical, even as they suggest they might be warranted. The federal law at issue is Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11. Known as Rule 11, it requires that those making cases in court must not be doing so “for any improper purpose, such as to harass, cause unnecessary delay, or needlessly increase the cost of litigation.’ It also requires that ‘the claims, defenses, and other legal contentions are warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument. The American Bar Association also prohibits bringing or defending a lawsuit ‘unless there is a basis in law and fact for doing so.'”