While NatZero covered the appeals court Georgia decision slapping down Sidney Powell for appealing a temporary restraining order that was issued by the district court–also a story that we covered here at NatZero–I find a jab from the appeals court very funny and very telling about Courts’ frustration with these frivolous lawsuits filed by Trump’s lawyers and surrogates.

Just a reminder of the case:  Powell appealed a TRO issued by a district court judge who had ordered three Georgia counties to preserve files from voting machines.  The judge said he was limited to those three counties because Powell had specified those three counties in her lawsuit, but he would schedule a hearing for today, December 4th, to hear Powell’s arguments to expand the TRO to other counties.

This was not good enough for Powell, who instead of waiting for the hearing, filed an appeal with the Appeals Court.  Judge Timothy Batten, the district court judge, advised Powell that TROs are not generally appealable, and that if the Appeals Court should refer the case back to him, it would have to be rescheduled for two weeks later.

AP: “California certified its presidential election Friday and appointed 55 electors pledged to vote for Democrat Joe Biden, officially handing him the Electoral College majority needed to win the White House. Secretary of State Alex Padilla’s formal approval of Biden’s win in the state brought his tally of pledged electors so far to 279, according to a tally by The Associated Press. That’s just over the 270 threshold for victory. These steps in the election are often ignored formalities. But the hidden mechanics of electing a U.S. president have drawn new scrutiny this year as President Donald Trump continues to deny Biden’s victory and pursues increasingly specious legal strategies aimed at overturning the results before they are finalized.”

“Dozens of Pennsylvania Republican state legislators, including the speaker of the House, are calling on the state’s Republican-heavy congressional delegation to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory when federal lawmakers certify the presidential election Jan. 6. ‘[W]e the undersigned members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly urge you to object, and vote to sustain such objection, to the Electoral College votes received from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,’ the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the state’s congressional delegation.”

“Though an initial version included 75 signatories – more than half of the GOP lawmakers in the legislature – it was quickly pulled after some lawmakers indicated they didn’t intend to sign onto the letter. The escalation from Republican lawmakers in the crucial swing state is the most aggressive effort to date from GOP elected officials to block Biden’s election, and it comes amid an increasingly forceful pressure campaign from President Donald Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani. Though Trump and his allies have been claiming widespread fraud and misconduct, they’ve produced no evidence to support their allegations and have been repeatedly shot down in their legal efforts to throw out millions of Biden votes across the country” – Politico.

Marc Elias on Arizona: “Arizona Court denies election contest. Court: ‘Plaintiff has not proven that the Biden/Harris ticket did not receive the highest number of votes.’ Trump and his allies have now lost 46 post-election lawsuits.”

Detroit Free Press on Michigan: The Michigan Court of Appeals on Friday rejected an appeal from the Trump presidential campaign challenging Michigan’s election results, in the latest in a series of court defeats for the president.

Law and Crime on Georgia: “A federal appellate court bookended a roller coaster of a week by rejecting Sidney Powell and Lin Wood’s appeal in the so-called Kraken case that they filed in the state of Georgia. First Powell and Wood ran to the U.S. District Court over the weekend and asked for a temporary restraining order so they could conduct forensic analyses of Dominion Voting Systems machines in 10 Peach State counties. When they didn’t get the order they really wanted, they went to the Eleventh Circuit with an interlocutory appeal and filed a brief just before midnight on Wednesday, asking the appellate court to decertify the presidential election. On Friday morning, Powell et al. managed to claim that Dominion had actually rigged the election against Joe Biden. By Friday evening, a President Donald Trump-appointed circuit judge penned the opinion of the court flatly denying their appeal on grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction.”

20% off using Eric2020 at www.TrumpWinery.com

— Eric Trump EricTrump Friday, December 4, 2020

A federal judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, located in Brooklyn, has ordered the Trump Administration to restore all protections for individuals covered under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and to open the DACA program up to new applicants, CBS News reports.

Judge Nicholas Garaufis, a Clinton appointee, ordered the Department of Homeland Security to accept applicants to the DACA program for the first time since 2017, when the Trump Administration ordered it closed.

Garaufis also ordered DHS to grant two-year work permits to applicants, as the program originally mandated but was cut to one year by the Trump Administration. 

“White House staffers at all levels are plotting their departures as a growing number of aides to President Donald Trump are abandoning his quest to overturn the 2020 election results – some in frustration with the building they are leaving behind. Multiple sources inside and outside the White House cited a variety of reasons for the exodus already underway, ranging from the urgent need for employment to a palpable disgust with Trump’s ill-fated election challenges”

“One source familiar with the situation said Trump’s refusal to accept defeat has unnerved some staffers who worry the President is tarnishing his own legacy and, more critically, eroding voters’ faith in US elections. Others have said they understood the odds were high that they’d need to find new jobs soon, and they prepared to make career moves regardless of how the President reacted to defeat. A separate senior administration official described a “toxic” work environment among the dwindling number of West Wing staffers. While the Trump White House was never the model of a functional workplace, the lack of direction and sense of defeat during Trump’s lame duck period has sharpened divides among staffers facing the prospect of potential unemployment” – CNN.

“The Minnesota Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a Republican lawsuit to stop certification of Minnesota’s Nov. 3 election results and order a full recount, the latest in a long line of failed legal attempts around the country to challenge the outcome of the 2020 vote. In a five-page order rejecting the case, Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea cited the late filing of the petition – just hours before the state canvassing board met to certify the election’s results on Nov. 24 – and errors in the manner in which the case was brought” reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

“Nevada court dismissed with prejudice Trump Election Contest! Trump and his allies are now 1-44 in post election litigation” reports Dem elections attorney Marc Elias.

The Washington Times reports that a young staffer to Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, Harrison Deal, was killed in a car accident Friday. Governor Brian Kemp tweeted a moving statement calling Deal the son and brother his family never had.

To say what we’re all thinking: I hope Harrison’s soul is at peace and his family does not have to go through what Seth Rich’s family went through. I really hope Lin Wood keeps his fucking mouth shut about it. A young man is gone and starting in with the conspiracy theories and saying he was the victim of some assassination plot is beyond debased. People need to grow the fuck up.

CASES!!!!! OMG CASES!!!!! THERE ARE CASES!!! MORE CASES!!!! CASES ARE GOING UP!!!!!!!! CASESESESESESES!!!! CASES WENT UP!!!!! OMG!!!!!! THERES MORE CASES!!!!!!!! CASES!!!!!!!!!!! CASES INCREASED!!! THERE ARE CASES!!!! CASES CASES CASES—WOW CASES WENT UP!!!!!SCARY CASES! WOW

— Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) December 4, 2020

Washington Post: “President Trump’s campaign and its affiliated committees spent more than $1.1 million at Trump’s own properties in the last weeks of the 2020 campaign – continuing a pattern of self-enrichment in which Trump has converted $6.7 million from his campaign donors into revenue for his businesses since taking office, new campaign finance filings show.”

The filings from Trump Victory – a fundraising committee managed by Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee – show $1.06 million in new spending at Trump properties in September, October and November. Trump’s own campaign, which files a separate spending report, reported spending another $66,000. The filings don’t give much detail about the payments. Some appeared to be overnight stays at Trump hotels, costing a few hundred dollars each. There were several bills in excess of $100,000 for facility rental and catering — which likely included rentals of ballrooms for fundraisers or meetings at Trump properties. But the forms don’t say which Trump property was rented, or when.”

New Jersey Democratic Governor Phil Murphy called Florida Republican Congressman and Frankenstein forehead model Matt Gaetz a “putz” after Gaetz attended a gala for the New York Young Republicans held in a Jersey City restaurant.

“I hope you are watching, Matt,” Murphy said in a public address about the coronavirus pandemic.  “You are not welcome in New Jersey and frankly, I don’t ever want you back in this state.”

The municipal government of Jersey City shut down the restaurant pending an investigation and certification from the restaurant that it will adhere to state laws regarding gathering size and masking.

The only thing more RIGGED than the 2020 Presidential Election is the FAKE NEWS SUPPRESSED MEDIA. No matter how big or important the story, if it is even slightly positive for “us”, or negative for “them”, it will not be reported!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2020

A Texas high school football player has been charged with Class A Assault after charging onto the field following his ejection from the game and slamming the referee to the turf, CBS Sports reports.

WOW 🤯

A Texas high school football player gets ejected then does this… pic.twitter.com/29c3mKb4Jk

— CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) December 4, 2020

Senior defensive tackle Emmanuel Duron of the Edinburg High School was ejected from Thursday night’s football game against the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High School Bears.  Moments after referee Fred Garcia announced the ejection, Duron ran back onto the field and blindsided Garcia, knocking him to the ground.

Jenna Ellis, the snarky 36-year-old attorney representing the Trump campaign in countless failed lawsuits trying to overturn the November election defeat of lame duck president Donald Trump, has been paid more than $168,000 from the Trump campaign since the beginning of October, Reuters reports.

Ellis collected $138,258 dollars in October and $30,000 in November according to campaign finance records.  Those same records do not show a payment to her Elite Special Force Team captain, Rudy Giuliani, who claimed he was charging the Trump campaign $20,000 per day.

To date, the ESFT has won just a single case in their quest to disenfranchise millions of American voters by having their ballots invalidated.  They have lost or withdrawn from no fewer than 40 other cases.

Republican Legislature let down America.

I’m ashamed of them.

They completely misled the President and me.

All of us Republicans let them know what we think of them.

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) December 4, 2020

Yeah, Rudy!  Let the voters know what we think about those Republican candidates by not voting!  Start with the Georgia runoffs, Republicans!  Listen to Rudy!

“No matter what the Biden administration does, it will be accused of socialism and corruption by the right. And the past several years have richly demonstrated that conservative parts of the country, particularly rural areas and low-density suburbs, are almost completely captured by right-wing media, from Fox on the TV to AM conservative radio to Sinclair-owned local news to the profusion of shady Facebook sources and groups, where misinformation is rapid and rampant. The only thing Biden will have real control over is his administration and what it does. And his organizing principle should be doing as much good on as many fronts as fast as possible. Blitz.”

“By constantly blundering forward, Trump has helped chart which US institutions and norms provide real resistance and which don’t. The courts have tangibly restrained Trump; they have been the primary bulwark against him. But the chattering of the media and the political classes? Moral outrage? Precedent and tradition? Civil protest? All of these have proven gossamer. Trump charged right through them like they were cotton candy. By constantly acting, being on the offensive, generating new stories and controversies, he simply overwhelmed the ability of the system to fasten on any one thing. Biden should learn the lesson. All that matters is what gets done, put on paper and into law. The rest is vapor” – Vox.

The House of Representatives has voted to decriminalize marijuana on a federal level and levy a tax on the production and sale of marijuana-related products, the Washington Post reports.  The Senate under Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is unlikely to take up the legislation, rendering the bill moot.

The MORE Act (Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019) would allow people to grow and process marijuana without federal penalty, and it would expunge the criminal records of people convicted of federal marijuana possession crimes.

“For far too long, we have treated marijuana as a criminal justice problem instead of as a matter of personal choice and public health,″ said Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a key sponsor of the bill. “Whatever one’s views are on the use of marijuana for recreational or medicinal use, the policy of arrests, prosecution and incarceration at the federal level has proven unwise and unjust.″

What’s going on with that anyway? I stopped at a Manhasset, NY Whole Foods last night expecting the shelves to have been emptied by Antifa rioters. While I didn’t see the inside of the Bed Bath and Beyond upstairs from it, I’m pretty sure it hadn’t been converted into an “autonomous zone”. The Gucci store across Northern Boulevard was apparently still in business and hadn’t been looted by the liberal mob. It wasn’t on fire. Didn’t look too closely but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t boarded up either. The Apple Store, J Crew, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Benihana also seemed to be fine.

Illustration of what was supposed to happen

Now admittedly I spent less than an hour in Nassau County, Long Island last night. There’s a chance I could have missed a liberal mob cancelling a TGI Friday’s happy hour. Maybe they set up their forward operating base and thousands of Antifa soldiers and tanks are assembling in a Home Depot parking lot. But wouldn’t that be reported on Fox News?