Trump

Welcome to Day 15 of Donald Trump’s sore-loser tantrum, which appears to be paying off as his rabid followers swallow the toxic lies that the election was stolen.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Nov. 13-17 found that 52 percent of Republicans believe Trump “rightfully won” the election and only 29 percent agree that Biden won.

Nearly seven-in-ten (69 percent) of Republicans expressed concern the election was rigged. A third of Independents and 16 percent of Democrats said the same thing.

Though the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency declared the presidential election “the most secure in American history,” the Reuters poll found Americans are more suspicious of the electoral process than they were four years ago.

Fifty-five percent called the Nov. 3 tally “legitimate and accurate,” down from 60 percent from the 2016 election, which was manipulated by Russian trolls.

Trump’s White House run has been bracketed with false claims that the 2016 election, in which he lost the popular vote, and this year’s shellacking were rigged.

Each day that the president rants about the rigged election, he gains more acceptance of the deception that it was stolen.

Trump doesn’t give a fig about the damage that he is doing to America’s democracy. The presidency keeps him a step ahead of the jailer.

He’s desperate to hold on to power, even if it means delegitimizing the American electoral system.

That was evident in Trump’s vindictive firing of Christopher Krebs. He is the former Microsoft executive who as the nation’s top cybersecurity official hardened systems to thwart Russian hacking and set up a “rumor control” website to counter misinformation.

He is a champion of America's democracy and should be hailed as a hero by one and all.

Blinded by magical thinking, Trump instead fired Krebs via Twitter for allowing “massive improprieties and fraud, including dead people voting. Poll watchers not allowed into polling locations, glitches in the voting machines which changed votes from Trump to Biden, late voting and many more.”

That’s the tweet of a deranged and potentially dangerous man.

Stanford University has a PR problem and his name is Scott Atlas, the White House’s off-the-wall science advisor who is a darling of Trump, because of his attacks on widely-accepted guidance on dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lacking any background in infectious diseases, neuroradiologist Atlas is a media star and must-see TV for Trump. He has blasted lockdowns, use of masks and uncorked a gem on Fox News about the importance of inviting the elderly to Thanksgiving dinner because they may not be around in 2021.

Atlas, who is currently on leave from his post at Stanford’s Hoover Institution think tank, also apologized earlier this month for appearing on Russia’s RT propaganda network, saying he was unaware that it is a registered foreign agent.

In that 27-minute interview, Atlas claimed lockdowns kill people and downplayed the testing of asymptomatic people.

An embarrassed Stanford issued a statement on Nov. 16 to distance itself from Atlas. It reads:

“Stanford’s position on managing the pandemic in our community is clear. We support using masks, social distancing, and conducting surveillance and diagnostic testing. We also believe in the importance of strictly following the guidance of local and state health authorities,” “Dr. Atlas has expressed views that are inconsistent with the university’s approach in response to the pandemic. Dr. Atlas’s statements reflect his personal views, not those of the Hoover Institution or the university.”

The university can’t wait until Atlas distances himself from the spotlight, once Trump leaves office.

It didn’t take Democrats very long to roll out the circular firing squad. While Republican cultists stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their petulant leader who persists in the fantasy that the majority of Americans didn’t fire him from his day job, the progressive wing of the Democratic party is jumping all over Joe Biden’s choices to serve on his White House staff.

The Justice Democrats sprinted from the starting blocks, issuing a press release Nov. 17 headlined: “Progressives Find Corporate-Friendly Biden Appointments Unacceptable.” Talk about a false start.

“If Joe Biden continues making corporate-friendly appointments to his White House, he will risk quickly fracturing the hard-earned goodwill his team built with progressives to defeat Donald Trump,” Alexandra Rojas, executive director of JD said in the release.

Geez, give the guy a break. JD released its broadside hours after the president-elect announced his first appointments.

“A Biden administration dominated by corporate-friendly insiders like Steve Ricchetti and Cedric Richmond will not help the President-elect usher in the most progressive Democratic administration in generations,” Rojas added.

She went on to blast Ricchetti for being a former pharma lobbyist who has opposed Medicare for All and the public manufacturing of prescription drugs.

Rojas seems to forget that Biden, who has promised to expand Obamacare and build it back better as Bidencare, is against Medicare for All.

The president-elect even reminded Trump during the debate that the president was running against Joe Biden and not Bernie Sanders, the leading proponent of Medicare for All.

Rojas should recall that the Democrats who supported Medicare for All were defeated in the primaries. Good Ole Uncle Joe was the last person standing.

Politics is the art of the possible. Medicare for all is DOA as long as the Republicans control the Senate. Even if the Dems capture the seats in Georgia, there's zippo support for an expanded Medicare.

JD should work with the center-left president-elect on improving access to healthcare, economic development, income equality, climate change and infrastructure, rather than grandstanding and pushing their political agenda that is going nowhere in the near future.

There's a time and a place for everything under the sun. This is neither the time nor place for Medicare for All.

The horror. The horror. JD is steaming mad because lobbyist Ricchetti will have unlimited access to president Biden. The organization is missing the bigger picture.

Ricchetti is much more than a lobbyist. The designated counselor to the president is “one of the president-elect’s most loyal advisors,” and a longtime friend, according to the New York Times. He’s the guy Biden trusts and will turn to during a crisis.

Ricchetti, 63, has been a key player in Biden’s life since he joined the vice president’s staff in 2012, reported the NYT, overseeing many of his personal and financial decisions.

He also served in Bill Clinton’s administration as deputy chief of staff for operations.

Between Democratic administrations, Ricchetti ran a lobbying firm that counseled clients like General Motors, AT&T, Eli Lilly, Novartis, American Hospital Assn. and Pfizer.

There’s no doubt that Ricchetti will put the interests of his good friend ahead of any former corporate client.