The number of Americans filing first time unemployment claims dropped slightly last week, to an elevated number of 751,000, demonstrating that the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause havoc on the nation’s businesses.

According to a report released by the Department of Labor, more than 21 million Americans received some type of unemployment benefit during the week, nearly 15 times the number that applied at the same time last year.

The 21 million people represents 13.4% of the civilian workforce.

These petty lawsuits and “BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS” where Dick Grenell gets all catty and snappish with reporters are all about keeping the patient comfortable during the dwindling final hours that remain before his presidency expires. There’s nothing they can do to save him, but if they can at least make it appear like they’re doing something then he will be relatively more peaceful during this incredibly difficult time as the terminal case of being a loser takes him into the hereafter of bankruptcy and prosecution.

The suit was based on a Republican poll observer’s claim that he saw 53 late arriving ballots illegally added to the stack of ballots to be counted at a Chatham county elections commission counting location. Then under oath at a Thursday hearing, the assclown said he didn’t actually know whether or not these ballots had arrived late, Law and Crime reports.

ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2020

AP: “The head of an international delegation monitoring the U.S. election says his team has no evidence to support President Donald Trump’s claims about alleged fraud involving mail-in absentee ballots.”

“Michael Georg Link, a German lawmaker who heads an observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told German public broadcaster rbb Thursday that ‘on the election day itself, we couldn’t see any violations’ at the U.S. polling places they visited.”

STOP THE COUNT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2020

New York Times: “Fraud on a scale to affect a presidential election, or even to tip one state, would require planning, coordination, good luck and a high tolerance for risk. The chances of pulling it off are extremely slim. Such a nefarious plot would require the foresight, many weeks or even months in advance, to know to focus the effort on Pennsylvania. The plotters might hedge their bets by targeting multiple states, but that just makes the effort more expensive, risky and difficult.”

“A conspiracy to fix the 2020 election in Pennsylvania would also need to muster tens of thousands of votes. In 2016, almost 6.2 million Pennsylvanians cast ballots for the presidency. Donald Trump won by 44,292 votes, 0.7 percent of the total. Suppose the conspirators somehow knew this year that Pennsylvania would be tied but for their efforts. For the sake of argument, let’s say they decided to marshal 62,000 fraudulent votes, roughly 1 percent of the 2016 total and twice the 0.5 percent margin that sets off an automatic recount. (Even that seems to cut things a little close.) How hard could it be to order up 62,000 illegal ballots? The chance that 62,000 Biden supporters in Pennsylvania would spontaneously vote with a second, illegal ballot, either in person or by mail, is effectively zero. It’s hard to believe any voters would expose themselves to the risk of felony prosecution, fines and imprisonment, with no knowledge of whether anybody else was doing so too, in order to bring the Democrats one vote closer to victory in Pennsylvania.”

“Adrian Tam was not worried for himself while out on the campaign trail in Hawaii, he said. Instead, he was concerned for the safety of his volunteers and supporters, wearing shirts and face masks bearing his name, because his opponent was Nick Ochs, the leader of a Hawaii chapter of the far-right paramilitary group the Proud Boys. ‘Fortunately, nothing bad happened,’ Tam, 28, told The Daily Beast. ‘We were met with happiness and joy by people.’ Tam was ultimately victorious in his bid to represent District 22—covering Waikiki, Ala Moana, and Kakaako on Oahu—in the Hawaii House of Representatives. He won the seat with 63 percent of the vote, and is now the only out LGBTQ representative in the statehouse” – Daily Beast.

Reuters: “Democrat Joe Biden moved closer to victory in the U.S. presidential race on Thursday as election officials tallied votes in the handful of states that will determine the outcome and protesters took to the streets. President Donald Trump alleged fraud without providing evidence, filed lawsuits and called for recounts in a race yet to be decided more two days after polls closed. With tensions rising, about 200 of Trump’s supporters, some armed with rifles and handguns, gathered outside an election office in Phoenix, Arizona, following unsubstantiated rumors that votes were not being counted.”

“In Detroit, officials blocked about 30 people, mostly Republicans, from entering a vote-counting facility amid unfounded claims that the vote count in Michigan was fraudulent. Anti-Trump protesters in other cities demanded that vote counting continue. Police arrested 11 people and seized weapons in Portland, Oregon after reports of rioting, while arrests were also made in New York, Denver and Minneapolis. Over 100 events are planned across the country between Wednesday and Saturday. The presidential race was coming down to close contests in five states. Biden held narrow leads in Nevada and Arizona while Trump was watching his slim advantage fade in must-win states Pennsylvania and Georgia as mail-in and absentee votes were being counted. Trump clung to a narrow lead in North Carolina as well, another must-win for him.”

“Maricopa [County, Arizona] is now CLOSING due to concerns about unrest from sizable crowds protesting vote counting per CNN, [who are] reporting that some folks in the crowd are armed because it is open carry state. The building is closing due to safety concerns for poll workers. Vote count will be transmitted electronically by officials, but the media (CNN is last crew there) has to leave. Vote count may be delayed” Alexa O’Brien reports.

The Independent: “Prominent dissident Guillaume Soro, a former prime minister who was blocked from running in Ivory Coast’s presidential election, called Wednesday on the country’s military to disobey President Alassane Ouattara after he was allowed to win a controversial third term. Soro’s comments via his Facebook account put him on a direct crash course with his former mentor, and align him more closely with two other opposition leaders still in Ivory Coast who have pledged to push ahead with a transitional government of their own after Saturday’s election.”

“‘I ask you to disobey the illegal orders and join the National Council of Transition. To the defense and security forces, I ask you to look in the mirror, in soul and conscience, and act to stop the killings. You must act to restore our constitution to its former glory,’ Soro said. ‘Alassane Ouattara is no longer the President of the Republic of Ivory Coast. Put an end to the specter of civil war that threatens our country, you know me,’ Soro said, directly addressing defense and security forces.”

Politico: “Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania giveth, and Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania taketh away. Joe Biden has not yet been declared the winner in his campaign against President Donald Trump. Although the former vice president is, as of Wednesday night, on the precipice of victory in the Electoral College, with several states poised to finalize a count that would put him over the top, the race remains officially uncalled.”

“But while it’s too early to name a winner, it’s certainly not too early to examine some key results in the places that denied Democrats the presidency four years ago—and that now stand ready to make Biden the 46th president of the United States. Four years ago, Trump won the presidency on the margin of three states—Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—by a combined 77,744 votes. It was, to use poker terminology, an “inside straight,” the sort of hand that seemingly comes together more by luck than by skill. The story isn’t that Trump’s luck appears to have run out. The story is that Biden is poised to beat him with the same exact hand.”

https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1324180583875072000

The New York Times reports that the Department of Justice emailed a memo to federal prosecutors around the country Wednesday morning stating that armed federal officers can be sent to ballot counting locations to investigate claims of election fraud. The memo explains the Trump administration’s legal justification for ignoring a federal law that bars armed federal agents from polling places on Election Day.  It claims that ballot counting locations are distinct from polling places and that the officers would be deployed, when the DOJ determines, after Election Day.

According to the Constitution, the states are responsible for holding elections and counting ballots. The law is explicit that the federal government cannot interfere with the tallying of the vote. However, election fraud can be enforced by the federal government. Armed federal officers invading a ballot counting location on the pretext of investigating a complaint of election fraud allows for the agents to delay the count based on spurious claims, including potentially confiscating ballots.

The Trump campaign as sued to stop vote counts in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, attempting to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters who mailed their votes in prior to each state’s deadline for submission, the Associated Press reports.

The suit in Michigan is the most curious given that incumbent republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is losing the race in Michigan by roughly 120,000 votes, which would ensure Trump loses the state. In Pennsylvania, a 600,000 lead held by Trump early Wednesday morning has been whittled down to just 191,000 by the evening, with 860,000 votes still uncounted. If the pattern holds, Biden will overtake Trump and build a lead of 80-150,000 votes. Trump’s suit in Georgia seeks to stop vote counting throughout the state, but specifically hopes to maintain a 39,000 vote lead. The state has more than a quarter million uncounted votes, with the vast majority coming from Atlanta and its suburbs, which are going to 70% to Biden.

A new batch of votes from Maricopa County, Arizona, release Wednesday evening, cut into the lead of Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden, reducing his lead by 13,000 votes in the key swing state, according to reports on MSNBC.

The results of about 74,000 votes, from an estimated 460,000 remaining in the state, swung to incumbent republican nominee Donald Trump 59% to 41%, shrinking Biden’s lead in the state to 79,000. In order to break even with the remaining votes, Trump would have to exceed a 59% share of the outstanding ballots to overcome the Biden lead in Arizona. These ballots are from those dropped off at polling stations on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.