It's Live on the HomePage Now: Juan Cole | Top 6 Progressive Victories on Election Day - Whatever Happens 1. The Democrats are projected to retain the House of Representatives, in which they have 232-197, and are likely to pick up some seats. Republicans had hoped to undo some of the 2018 blue wave, and especially to defeat freshman Democrats who won in districts Trump had carried in 2016. On the whole, they appear to have failed. 2. Members of the progressive “Squad” — Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), all won reelection by big margins. Not only that but the ranks of the “Justice Democrats” were enlarged, with Cori Bush of Missouri (who was pepper-sprayed at a demo in Ferguson only a few years ago), Jamal Bowman of NY16 and Mondaire Jones of NY17. They have a number of progressive allies, and could start forming the core of a swing vote on some issues. 3. Democrat John Hickenlooper defeated Republican Senator Cory Gardner in Colorado, adding one to the column of Dems in the upper house. Gardner had been a never Trumper who switched around to being Trump’s sycophant, and Coloradans didn’t like it. 4. Florida became the 8th state to pass a $15 an hour minimum wage, the result of grassroots organizing on the issue. 5. New Jersey voted to make marijuana legal. The demonization of marijuana (and the glorification of alcohol) were racialized policies of the twentieth century, since pot was associated with African-Americans and Hispanics. Getting rid of this inequity is a step toward individual freedom, greater racial justice, and also state tax revenues. Predictions that Colorado’s addiction or crime rates would rise after marijuana legalization proved relatively baseless, and in fact it seems to have actually reduced crime in neighboring states. 6. Prop 24 a California ballot initiative to strengthen internet privacy, appears to have passed. Since California has some 41 million people and is a tech center, the implementation of this measure will likely affect the internet throughout the country and perhaps the world. It is past time that tech companies cease thinking that just because we surf they Web they have the right essentially to spy on us.
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Judge 'Shocked' at Postal Service, May Order Postmaster General to Testify U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington said at a hearing Wednesday that he was “shocked” at the behavior, including not completing a mandatory sweep of mail-processing facilities to look for undelivered ballots by 3 p.m. on Election Day. “At some point, the postmaster is either going to have to be deposed or appear before me and testify under oath,” said Sullivan, who is overseeing one of several lawsuits against USPS tied to disruptive operational changes at the agency. “The court has been very clear that it expects full compliance” with its orders. Sullivan blasted the U.S. Postal Service’s legal team for failing to notify him promptly once the agency realized it couldn’t meet the deadline he set for conducting the sweep of facilities in more than a dozen troubled regions, including many in Democratic-leaning urban areas or swing states. “The court would have been very sensitive to any complaints that it was impossible to comply with the order,” Sullivan said. “It just leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth for the clock to run out, game over. There was not compliance with a very important court order.” On-Time Report Card On-time delivery has taken on a new urgency amid a surge in the use of mail-in ballots during the pandemic and Republican efforts to block the counting of ballots that arrive after Election Day. In South Florida, 85% of ballots made it to election authorities on time -- within one to three days for local delivery -- on Election Day, Nov. 3, the last day in Florida for ballots to arrive and still be counted, the Postal Service reported in a filing with the court on Tuesday. In Detroit, 79% of mail-in votes were delivered on time on Election Day. The figure was 67% in Philadelphia. That compares with a national on-time delivery rate of 93% of ballots that day, according to USPS. The agency cautioned in the filing that daily figures may not be reliable and that the service scores don’t include ballots that are handled locally without being shipped to large processing centers. Locally handled ballots are delivered the same day with a near 100% success rate, according to USPS, which said it has taken “extraordinary measures” in delivering votes. In many cases, local post offices handle ballots without sending them through large sorting centers where delivery scores are measured, said Tammy Patrick, a senior adviser at the Democracy Fund, which describes itself, in part, as promoting free and fair elections. “These ballots are being delivered in a shorter time,” Patrick said in an interview. Michigan and Pennsylvania Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case, including the NAACP, said it was imperative for USPS to focus on continuing to deliver ballots in states that have extended deadlines for accepting votes postmarked by Nov. 3. Those include Michigan and Pennsylvania. Sullivan asked to hear testimony later Wednesday from USPS executive manager Kevin Bray, the lead for processing 2020 election mail. The court-ordered sweep related to USPS facilities in Democratic strongholds like Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Houston, as well as battleground states such as Arizona and Florida. The facilities that were singled out were suffering from substandard performance for delivery of election mail, according to data that the Postal Service was required to file regularly with the court. USPS said in a filing on Wednesday that it had completed a sweep of more than 200 facilities to look for ballots, despite missing the deadline, “and ensured that election mail was processed expeditiously.” In Pennsylvania, which could prove decisive in the outcome, the agency said the sweep had uncovered three delayed ballots in Johnstown and 10 in Lancaster that were “referred to management for delivery.” All ballots were handled with the expectation that they needed to be delivered by Nov. 3, regardless of a state’s potentially extended deadline, USPS said. |
People wanting to be election challengers yell as they look through the windows of the central counting board as police were helping to keep additional challengers from entering due to overcrowding, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, in Detroit. (photo: Carlos Osorio/AP)
Trump Supporters Swarm Vote Centers in Michigan, Arizona
Mike Householder and Tim Sullivan, Associated Press
Excerpt: "Dozens of angry supporters of President Donald Trump converged on vote-counting centers in Detroit and Phoenix as the returns went against him Wednesday in the two key states, while thousands of anti-Trump protesters demanding a complete tally of the ballots in the still-undecided election took to the streets in cities across the U.S."
“Stop the count!” the Trump supporters chanted in Detroit. “Stop the steal!” they said in Phoenix.
The protests came as the president insisted without evidence that there were major problems with the voting and the ballot counting, especially with mail-in votes, and as Republicans filed suit in various states over the election.
Wearing Trump gear, the Phoenix protesters filled much of the parking lot at the Maricopa County election center, and members of the crowd chanted, “Fox News sucks!” in anger over the network declaring Joe Biden the winner in Arizona.
Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican and staunch Trump supporter, joined the crowd, declaring: “We’re not going to let this election be stolen. Period.”
However, observers from both major political parties were inside the election center as ballots were processed and counted, and the procedure was live-streamed online at all times.
Several sheriff’s deputies blocked the entrance to the building. And the vote-counting went on into the night, Maricopa County Elections Department spokeswoman Megan Gilbertson said.
Two top county officials — one a Democrat, the other a Republican — issued a statement expressing concern about how misinformation had spread about the integrity of the election process.
“Everyone should want all the votes to be counted, whether they were mailed or cast in person,” said the statement signed by Clint Hickman, the GOP chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, and Democratic Supervisor Steve Gallardo. “An accurate vote takes time. ... This is evidence of democracy, not fraud.”
Meanwhile, from New York City to Seattle, thousands of demonstrators turned out to demand that every vote be tallied.
In Portland, Oregon, which has been a scene of regular protests for months, Gov. Kate Brown called out the National Guard as demonstrators engaged in what authorities said was widespread violence downtown, including smashing windows. Protesters in Portland were demonstrating about a range of issues, including police brutality and the counting of the vote.
“It’s important to trust the process, and the system that has ensured free and fair elections in this country through the decades, even in times of great crisis,” Brown said in a statement. “We are all in this together.”
Richard March came to an anti-Trump demonstration in Portland despite a heart condition that makes him vulnerable to COVID-19.
“To cast doubt on this election has terrible consequences for our democracy,” he said. “I think we are a very polarized society now — and I’m worried about what’s going to come in the next days and weeks and months.”
In New York, hundreds of people paraded past boarded-up luxury stores on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, and in Chicago, demonstrators marched through downtown and along a street across the river from Trump Tower.
Similar protests — sometimes about the election, sometimes about racial inequality — took place in at least a half-dozen cities, including Los Angeles, Houston, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and San Diego.
The confrontation in Detroit started shortly before The Associated Press declared that Biden had won Michigan.
Video shot by local media showed angry people gathered outside the TCF Center and inside the lobby, with police officers lined up to keep them from entering the vote-counting area. They chanted, “Stop the count!” and “Stop the vote!”
Earlier, the Republican campaign filed suit in a bid to halt the count, demanding Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state allow in more inspectors.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, insisted both parties and the public had been given access to the tallying, “using a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that all ballots are counted fairly and accurately.”
Michigan has been on edge for months over fears of political violence. Anti-government protesters openly carried guns into the state Capitol during protests over coronavirus restrictions in the spring, and six men were arrested last month on charges of plotting to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
On Election Night, scattered protests broke after voting ended, stretching from Washington, D.C., to Seattle, but there was no widespread unrest or significant violence.
The prolonged task of counting this year’s deluge of mail-in votes raised fears that the lack of clarity in the presidential race could spark unrest.
Denmark to Kill 17 Million Minks to Reduce Spread of COVID
Gabrielle Fonrouge, New York Post
Fonrouge writes: "It's a bad day to be a mink in Denmark."
The Nordic country will cull its entire herd of up to 17 million mink after the furry creatures were found to have a coronavirus mutation that was spreading to humans, posing a risk to vaccine efforts, its prime minister announced Wednesday.
Since the summer, COVID-19 outbreaks have ravaged Danish mink farms, but repeated efforts to stymie the spread and cull only impacted farms have failed.
Health officials found the mutated virus in both humans and minks and discovered it didn’t show a robust response to antibodies. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the mutated version could potentially reduce the effectiveness of future vaccines.
About half of 783 infected Danes in the northern part of the country — which is home to a large quantity of mink farms — were infected with the mutated strain that stems from the farms, Frederiksen said.
In mid-October, Danish authorities announced plans to cull at least 2.5 million minks after outbreaks were reported in at least 63 farms. The chairman of Danish Fur Breeders Association said the outbreak “threaten[s] the entire profession.”
“All breeders are right now in a huge amount of uncertainty and frustration over this ‘meteor’ that has fallen on our heads,” Tage Pedersen said previously.
It’s still not clear how the minks got infected.
Denmark is one of the world’s largest mink exporters, producing about 17 million furs per year, which are mostly exported to China and Hong Kong.
There are about 15 million to 17 million minks in Denmark, health officials said.
Joe Biden speaks at a rally in Cleveland on Monday. (photo: Getty)
Biden Vows to Rejoin Paris Climate Accord on 'Day One' if He Wins
Mike Murphy, MarketWatch
Murphy writes: "Hours after the U.S. officially pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, Joe Biden said that if elected president, he would immediately rejoin it."
“Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it,” Biden tweeted.
President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the U.S. from the global pact in 2017, but did not started the formal withdrawal process until a year ago.
Biden’s comments were not a surprise, as he has pledged to rejoin the accord on “day one” of his potential administration.
As the world’s second-largest polluter, the U.S. is regarded as a cornerstone of the climate accord, which aims to cut global emissions and stem the increase in global temperatures.
While the presidential election was still undecided, Biden maintained a lead in the Electoral College tally as of Wednesday night.
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