Today's The Day

From the AP:

Presidential electors are meeting across the United States on Monday to formally choose Joe Biden as the nation’s next president.

Monday is the day set by law for the meeting of the Electoral College. In reality, electors meet in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to cast their ballots. The results will be sent to Washington and tallied in a Jan. 6 joint session of Congress over which Vice President Mike Pence will preside.

The electors’ votes have drawn more attention than usual this year because President Donald Trump has refused to concede the election and continued to make baseless allegations of fraud.

Locally, Representative Mike Kelly and (not-Representative Sean Parnell) have also refused to accept reality:

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Mr. Kelly’s emergency appeal to void the results of the Nov. 3 election in a one-sentence decision with no noted dissents from the court, which holds a 6-3 conservative majority after three justices were appointed by Mr. Trump.

Mr. Kelly’s case argues that an October 2019 state law that allowed “no-excuse” voting by mail, required an amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution. The suit sought to toss out some 2.6 million ballots cast by Pennsylvanians who requested a ballot without a reason, which would hand Mr. Trump the state’s electors.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected the case, reasoning that the plaintiffs should have challenged the law’s constitutionality long before votes had been cast. 

In the interview, Mr. Kelly insisted that the fight was not over. And on Saturday, he demonstrated that: A news release from his office said he again had gone to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to consider the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s Act 77 “mail-in voting scheme.”

Good luck with that, Congressman Mike (and Not-Congressman Sean). 

If I may be so bold, it might be better for your future credibility for you to pull up your big boy pants accept your respective defeats as it's simply the honorable thing to do. 

You remember what "honorable" felt like, right?

Anyway, the public can track the votes at:

• The Washington Post

And if you're still among teh crazies who think the whole thing was stolen, you might want to read this. 

Suck it up and face reality. Today's the day the electors fulfill their constitutional duty and vote to make it official: Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States of America.

And Now, A Special SCOTUS Message (UPDATED)

This goes out to all the hip MAGA kewl kids who pinned their hopes on The Supremes saving Trump's sorry ass:

For an explanation, let's go to The NYTimes:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused a long-shot request from Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the state, delivering an unmistakable rebuke to President Trump in the forum on which he had pinned his hopes.

The Supreme Court’s order was all of one sentence, and there were no noted dissents. But it was nonetheless a major setback for Mr. Trump and his allies, who have compiled an essentially unbroken losing streak in courts around the nation. They failed to attract even a whisper of dissent in the court’s first ruling on a challenge to the outcome of the election.

And:

The plaintiffs had asked the state court to nullify mailed ballots after the fact or to direct the state legislature to pick Pennsylvania’s electors.

And The Supremes said no. 

Part of the "et al" above is none other than the loser in the race for PA-17 - Sean Parnell. Rep Conor Lamb beat Sean Parnell by a little under 10,000 votes, according to the AP.

So Sean lost and then signed his name to Mike Kelly's Trump-friendly lawsuit.

He even tweeted about it recently:

A perfect summary of our lawsuit by @marklevinshow.
It’s filed with the US Supreme Court now.
We are fighting like hell to make sure that elections in #Pennsylvania are conducted in accordance with the Constitution.
Watch this.
pic.twitter.com/g0ct1XiClT

— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) December 7, 2020

And, as I said above, The US Supreme Court said no.

This is embarrassing, Sean. Do the honorable thing: concede.

(Actually we're more than a month past "honorable" on your part, here. I'm just being diplomatic.)

Concede Sean. 

UPDATE: Over at Sean Parnell's Facebook Page we find a link to this tweet:

🚨IMPORTANT POINT REPORTERS ARE MISSING IN PA SUIT:

The Supreme Court only denied emergency injunctive relief. In the order, it did NOT deny cert.@MikeKellyPA’s suit is still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.https://t.co/UNMZeuiDVy

— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) December 8, 2020

Here's the thing. I'm not an attorney so there may be something in there that my non-lawyer eye is missing. But this is what Kelly et al asked for:

Applicants (“Petitioners”) respectfully request an immediate, emergency writ of injunction to prevent the Respondents, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Governor Thomas W. Wolf, and Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar (“the Executive-Respondents”) from taking any further action to perfect the certification of the results of the November 3, 2020, General Election (the “Election”) in Pennsylvania for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States of America or certifying the remaining results of the Election for U.S. Senators and Representatives. More specifically, Petitioners seek an injunction that prohibits the Executive-Respondents from taking official action to tabulate, compute, canvass, certify, or otherwise finalize the results of the Election as to the federal offices and that prohibits the Executive-Respondents from undertaking the following actions...

Specifically:

Secretary Boockvar from taking official action pursuant to 25 Pa. Stat. §§ 3159, 3160, 3163, 3164, 3165, 3166; from receiving, tabulating, computing, canvassing, or laying before the Governor any certificate of election or the votes cast for any candidate for federal office in the Election; from taking official action pursuant to 25 Pa. Stat. § 2621(f) “[t]o receive from county boards of elections the returns of primaries and elections, to canvass and compute the votes cast for candidates” for federal offices; from “proclaim[ing] the results of such primaries and elections”; and from issuing certificates of election to the successful candidates at such elections; 

And:

Governor Wolf from taking official action pursuant to 25 Pa. Stat. §§ 3160, 3163, 3165, 3166; from issuing any commission resulting from the Election as 2 to federal offices; and from transmitting the returns of the Election to the President of the U.S. Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

And to this, The Supreme Court said no. Now neither Secretary Boockvar nor Governor Wolf is prevented from doing any of those things by the highest court in the land.

Non-lawyer here. What am I missing? How can they still think that the case is still alive?

Hasn't Sean Parnell Conceded Yet?

From the AP results (Google "Presidential Election Results" and use the pull down menus to get the election results for the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania):

Conor Lamb: 219,858

Sean Parnell: 211,272

Fifteen days after the election and Representative Lamb is still ahead by about 8600 votes. This late in the process, Sean, where are you going to find 8600 votes?

Sean, it's time for you to concede.

Follow-Up On Those Current Numbers From Last Week (Biden, Lamb, Trump, Parnell)

This is to update the numbers I posted last week. 

Covid deaths US: 244,810 (or about 74.59 per 100,000) 

Covid deaths Canada: 10,953 (or about 29.13 per 100,000)

Had the good ole US of A treated the virus as effectively as Canada, we'd be looking at about 95,604 Covid deaths here in The States instead of 244,810. Had we treated the virus as effectively as Canada, about 149,000 US Citizens would still be alive. We have to assume that all those 149,000 (or so) deaths were therefore preventable were it not for the incompetence and corruption of Donald Trump.

"It is what it is." said Trump.

Fuck Donald Trump. When will he be indicted for mass murder? Negligent homicide?

On to the election results. From the AP:

Current votes for Joe Biden: 77,170,769 

Current votes for Donald Trump:72,057,511

The AP is updating its numbers and they look even worse for Donald Trump. This was not a close election. No amount of stalling, denying or frivolous lawsuiting will change that.

Joe Biden is currently 5,637,779 votes ahead of Donald Trump.  (November 12, it was 5,113,258).

Fuck Donald Trump. It's time for him to concede.

Locally, the numbers are on a similar track in PA. From the AP:

Current votes for Joe Biden in PA: 3,423,976 (Nov 12 it was 3,386,380)

Current votes for Donald Trump in PA: 3,354,836 (Nov 12, it was 3,333,161)

Joe Biden is currently 69,140  votes ahead of Donald Trump (Nov 12, it was 53,219).

Fuck Donald Trump. It's time for him to concede.

And, if there is any justice in the world, Trump should be perp-walked out of DC immediately after Biden's inauguration. Perhaps to NYC to face tax-evasion charges. Perhaps to The Hague to be charged with crimes against humanity.

A side note, GOP candidate for PA-17 has yet to concede the Lamb-Parnell race. Here are the AP's numbers:

Conor Lamb: 221,112 (Nov 12, it was 218,185)

Sean Parnell: 211,256 (Nov 12, it was 208,074)

Conor Lamb is currently 13,038 votes ahead of Sean Parnell (Nov 12, it was 10,011).

Sean, it's time for you to concede. Where are you going to find those 13k votes? I'd DM this question to you via twitter but you've blocked me from your twitter feed. Why did you do that, by the way? You blocked me after I tweeted that question when you were "only" about 10,000 votes behind.

Current Numbers (Trump, Lamb, Parnell, and Covid-19)

Covid deaths US: 239,590 (or about 72.47 per 100,000) 

Covid deaths Canada: 10,685 (or about 28.2 per 100,000)

Had the US of A treated the virus as effectively as Canada, we'd be looking at about 93,200 Covid deaths here in The States. Had we treated the virus as effectively as Canada, 146,000 US Citizens would still be alive.

Fuck Donald Trump.

From the AP:

Current votes for Joe Biden: 77,170,769 

Current votes for Donald Trump:72,057,511

Joe Biden is currently 5,113,258 votes ahead of Donald Trump. This was not a close election.

Fuck Donald Trump.

From the AP:

Current votes for Joe Biden in PA: 3,386,380

Current votes for Donald Trump in PA: 3,333,161

Joe Biden is currently 53,219 votes ahead of Donald Trump. This was not a close election in PA. And even if he were to win his lawsuits in PA, he would still not win Pennsylvania

Fuck Donald Trump.

A side note, GOP candidate for PA-17 has yet to concede that race. Here's the AP's numbers:

Conor Lamb: 218,185

Sean Parnell: 208,074

Conor Lamb is currently 10,011 votes ahead of Sean Parnell.

It's time for Donald Trump and Sean Parnell to concede their respective races. 

PS - When I say "Fuck Donald Trump" I do not mean that literally (unless you're looking for that sweet sweet Stormy Daniels payoff). It's not a command or even a suggestion for you to actually have sex with Donald Trump. I just wanted to make that clear.

LDRSHIP - Amplifying a Pittsburgh Current Opinion Piece

A few bits of full disclosure. 

1. I used to write for the Pittsburgh Current but I don't any more.
2. I'm not military. My dad was in the Army but the closest I can get to military culture is reading the experiences of those who've lived it.

As we all know in SW PA, Congressman Conor Lamb (a Maj on the US Marine Corps Reserve) is up against Sean Parnell (retired Capt in the US Army) to represent Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District in the House of Representatives.

Into this mix, there's this piece in the current Pittsburgh Current, written Matt Landis (retired Army).

Landis starts here:

When you join the Army, you are issued boots, a shirt, pants, a blouse, and a cover. (That’s a hat for those who didn’t serve.) These make up the basic uniform for service. There are two additional items required on a soldier’s person at all times: your dog tags and a tag with the Army Values. This list of words is as important to soldiering as the Ten Commandments are to Christians. We were expected to know and live them at all times.

Those values can be labeled with this acronym: LDRSHIP which stands for, "Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage."  

And this is some of what Landis has to say about Sean Parnell:

Sean Parnell has built his political image around his legitimate heroism in combat. Make no mistake, when he was called upon to show courage under fire, he answered the bell. It’s what Army Rangers are known for. We are lucky to have such men and women ready to put their lives on the line on our behalf, and I would never impugn his stellar combat record, but my dedication to the values we are supposed to share compels me to speak out when he violates them.

As I have watched Parnell’s campaign for Congress, it has become painfully clear to me that he no longer lives these values, and that he is just another poser disguised in a hero’s clothing. He is no longer led by senior NCOs and officers who demand he adhere to such values, or hold his soldiers to them. Instead, he is led by a man that abhors them, President Donald Trump.

Go read the piece for his reasons why.

Wendy Bell Misleads Her Audience. Again.

This morning, Wendy Bell posted this on her Facebook page:

With America's general election just two weeks from tomorrow, Pennsylvania has taken center stage as a battleground over election security.

Army war hero Sean Parnell - the Republican candidate in PA Congressional District 17 - and Pennsylvania Air National Guardsman Luke Negron For Congress in District 18 - have filed a lawsuit requesting poll watchers be allowed at satellite voting offices in Pittsburgh's Allegheny County.

The lawsuit comes after nearly 29,000 voters in the county received incorrect ballots and 372,000 Pennsylvania mail-in ballot applications were rejected because of errors.

Do you have confidence that your vote - should you choose to NOT cast it in person - will get where it's supposed to, on time, to be counted?

Look at the examples she uses to undermine your faith in the mail in balloting system; 29,000 voters receiving incorrect ballots and 372,000 rejected mail in ballot applications. Once you see what Wendy's omitted, you'll see how she's misleading you.

We'll start here:

The Allegheny County Elections Division announced Wednesday that the company in charge of printing and mailing ballots sent the wrong ballots to 28,879 voters, citing an error by the vendor in charge of printing and mailing the ballots. 

“With a little under three weeks to go, it’s imperative that we ensure that our elections system is one that voters can trust,” said Allegheny County Elections manager Dave Voye on Wednesday. “This was a failure on behalf of our contractor and impacts too many of our voters.”

The elections division heard from approximately 20 voters last Friday that they received ballots for the wrong municipality, ward and district. Over the weekend, the county contacted Midwest Direct — the company contracted to print and mail ballots for the county — and mailing was suspended. It was determined that there was an image mapping issue, which resulted in a voter’s information (the municipality, ward and precinct) being matched to the ballot of the next voter in the printing batch.

The contractor, Midwest Direct, made the error, Wendy, not the Postal Service (the people whose job it is to "get where [the ballot's] supposed to, on time, to be counted" as you ungrammatically wrote).

And who is this "Midwest Direct" you ask?

Take a look:

Midwest Direct is owned by two brothers, Richard Gebbie, the chief executive, and James Gebbie, the chairman. This summer they began flying a Trump 2020 flag above Midwest Direct’s headquarters on the west side of Cleveland. It was a curious juxtaposition — a company in the business of distributing absentee ballots through the mail showing a preference for a president who has spent months denigrating the practice of voting by mail.

So a pro-Trump company screws up some mail-in ballots and Wendy Bell's all set to blame the US Postal Service.

Huh.

Then there's the other bit of evidence. Take a look at this:

Penn. rejects 372K requests for mail-in ballots

Pennsylvania, one of the most hotly contested battlegrounds in the presidential election, has rejected 372,000 requests for mail-in ballots, straining election offices and bewildering voters.

More than 90% of those applications, or about 336,000, were denied as duplicates, primarily because people who had requested mail-in ballots for the state's June 2 primary did not realize that they had checked a box to be sent ballots for the general election, too.[Emphasis added.]

Wendy, did you see that more than 90% were denied as duplicates? And did you see the reason why they were duplicates? So all those "denied" voters actually did get mail-in ballots, didn't they? It was just the duplicates that were rejected, right?

In any event, how would it impact how the Postal Service delivers the ballots?

One last question: Members of the military have been voting by mail for generations (and, assuming he voted while serving, this includes Sean Parnell), how was all that mail delivered?

Wendy, maybe you should ask Sean if he thought his mail-in ballots were secure.

Wendy, you're lying to your audience.

Again.

House Resolution 1094 - Condemning QAnon And Rejecting The Conspiracy Theories It Promotes.

I wonder how many of those sitting in the House of Representatives (or currently campaigning for such a seat) would support HR 1094 ("Condemning QAnon and rejecting the conspiracy theories it promotes.").

Some highlights from the legislation: 

Whereas throughout history, conspiracy theories that falsely blame secret cabals or marginalized groups for society’s ills have fueled prejudice, genocide, and acts of terrorism;

Whereas QAnon is a movement promoting a collection of unfounded conspiracy theories that have spread widely on the internet since 2017;

Whereas QAnon initially alleged that prominent Americans are engaged in a secret plot to control the world, while using their power to exploit children, and has expanded to embrace virtually every popular conspiracy theory of the last several decades, from questioning the Kennedy assassination, to believing in alien landings, to denying the safety of vaccines;

Whereas many QAnon followers express anti-Semitic views, and the Anti-Defamation League has said that the movement’s central conspiracy theory includes anti-Semitic elements;

Whereas the FBI has assessed with high confidence that “fringe political conspiracy theories”, including QAnon, “very likely motivate some domestic extremists, wholly or in part, to engage in criminal or violent activity”, and that these conspiracy theories “very likely encourage the targeting of specific people, places and organizations, thereby increasing the likelihood of violence against these targets”;

 And:

Whereas the FBI further assesses that “these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread and evolve in the modern information marketplace … fostering anti-government sentiment, racial and religious prejudice, [and] increasing political tensions”;

Whereas according to the Combatting Terrorism Center at the West Point Military Academy, “QAnon is arguably no longer simply a fringe conspiracy theory but an ideology that has demonstrated its capacity to radicalize to violence individuals at an alarming speed”;

You can read that FBI assessment here.

You can read the Cobating Terrorism Center's report here.

Back to the resolution. Before the "Resolved" parts, there's this:

Whereas QAnon adherents have been harming legitimate efforts to combat child exploitation and sex trafficking, including by overwhelming anti-trafficking hotlines with false reports; and

Whereas the conspiracy theories promoted by QAnon undermine trust in America’s democratic institutions, encourage rejection of objective reality, and deepen our Nation’s political polarization...

We've seen QAnon's presence at a few rallies seeking to combat child exploitation here in Pittsburgh.

Finally, the "Resolved" part:

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) condemns QAnon and rejects the conspiracy theories it promotes;

(2) encourages the Federal Bureau of Investigation and all Federal law enforcement agencies to continue to strengthen their focus on preventing violence, threats, harassment, and other criminal activity by extremists motivated by fringe political conspiracy theories; and

(3) urges all Americans, regardless of our beliefs or partisan affiliation, to seek information from authoritative sources, and to engage in political debate from a common factual foundation.

Any comment Senator Toomey? Congressman Reschenthaler? Candidate Parnell?

More UnConstitutional Talk From The Donald Trump

The 22nd Amendment of the United States Constitution begins with this:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice...

And yet, this weekend the leader of one of the two major political parties in this once-great nation (and the party that claims to be the "law and order" party) said this:

"We're gonna win four more years in the White House, and then we'll negotiate, because based on the way we were treated, we're probably entitled to another four years after that" -- Trump, slurring, began his rally in Nevada by teasing that he intends to serve more than two terms pic.twitter.com/dgPjimP7Rv

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 13, 2020

And there was much rejoicing in the un-masked crowd.

But wait, only a few years ago the right-wing crazies were warning the faithful about an Obama third term:

Baltimore-based businessman Porter Stansberry is at it again.

The man who in the past has been found guilty of swindling customers with fabricated investment information is now trying to cash in on some of the public's dislike of President Barack Obama.

In an E-mail solicitation blasted across the Internet — including on Monday over a listserv previously devoted to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign — Stansberry warns that Obama is secretly planning to seek a third term.

"Most people believe the election was all about whether or not Obama will have a second term. But it was not," says the E-mail. "What was actually at stake was whether or not he will have a third-term."

Then there's this:

Roger Stone is making baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and is urging Donald Trump to consider several draconian measures to stay in power, including having federal authorities seize ballots in Nevada, having FBI agents and Republican state officials “physically” block voting under the pretext of preventing voter fraud, using martial law or the Insurrection Act to carry out widespread arrests, and nationalizing state police forces.

Stone, a longtime confidant of the president, made the comments during a September 10 appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars network.

Of course it was Infowars.

Anyway, a few short years ago the right wing crazies were ranting loudly enough about this that a Fact-Check smack-down was necessary:

Q: Has President Barack Obama signed 900 executive orders, some of which create martial law?

A: No. Obama’s executive orders do not create martial law. And so far he has signed 139 executive orders — not 900.

You can go to that Factcheck piece for the details. 

Meanwhile, 193,000+ US Citizens have died from COVID-19 and Donald Trump lied to us about its severity. Then he lied about the lying.

As candidate Sean Parnell said, if you don't denounce something, you endorse it.

What say you, Sean? Do you denounce Trump's proffer of an unconstitutional third term? How about Roger Stone's idea of martial law in the event Trump loses the election? How about his lying about COVID-19?

Remember, if you don't denounce, you endorse.

GOP Candidate Sean Parnell Makes Excuses For Donald Trump

First, some background.

A few days ago the NY Times published a story that began with this:

American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter.

And:

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the delicate intelligence and internal deliberations. They said the intelligence had been treated as a closely held secret, but the administration expanded briefings about it this week — including sharing information about it with the British government, whose forces are among those said to have been targeted.

And according to The Times, the meeting took place earlier in the year, as the nation was shutting down due to Covid-19. They add that these revelations come as Trump is looking to "invite Mr. Putin to an expanded meeting of the Group of 7 nations."

The Washington Post followed with:

A Russian military spy unit offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to attack coalition forces in Afghanistan, including U.S. and British troops, in a striking escalation of the Kremlin’s hostility toward the United States, American intelligence has found.

The Russian operation, first reported by the New York Times, has generated an intense debate within the Trump administration about how best to respond to a troubling new tactic by a nation that most U.S. officials regard as a potential foe but that President Trump has frequently embraced as a friend, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive intelligence matter.

And:

The officials said administration leaders learned of reported bounties in recent months from U.S. intelligence agencies, prompting internal discussions, including a large interagency meeting in late March. According to one person familiar with the matter, the responses discussed at that meeting included sending a diplomatic communication to relay disapproval and authorizing new sanctions.

Then there's CNN confirming:

Russian intelligence officers for the military intelligence GRU recently offered money to Taliban militants in Afghanistan as rewards if they killed US or UK troops there, a European intelligence official told CNN.

The usual denials have already arrived:

Nobody briefed or told me, @VP Pence, or Chief of Staff @MarkMeadows about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians, as reported through an “anonymous source” by the Fake News @nytimes. Everybody is denying it & there have not been many attacks on us.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2020

You'll note that Trump can't even get the story correct. It's NOT about "attacks on our troops...by Russians" is it? It's about allegations that a Russian military intelligence unit paid bounties for those attacks.

So that's basically the story. Here's how Sean Parnell, (GOP candidate for PA-17) describes it in a series of tweets. He starts with this:

The fact that Russia and other countries like Iran and even China are involved in Afghanistan in some way should come as a surprise to no one. It’s been this way for over a decade. Spanning three presidential administrations.

Which is, of course, completely beside the point. The story is not about Russian involvement in Afghanistan, but the how the GRU offered bounties for killing US Troops, when Trump knew about it and yet did nothing in response. Sean is trying to divert your attention away from the real story.

Then there's this from Sean:

What I can say, with absolute certainty, is that clandestine operations or raw intelligence without context, like this Russian bounty story should not be discussed in a public forum.

But if you were to look at the reporting from The Times, The Post and CNN, you'll see that there's no "raw intelligence" or any discussion of "clandestine operations" there at all. He's trying to divert attention away from the real story -  about how American Intelligence Community concluded that Russia was offering bounties for American troops and how the Trump administration has yet to respond.

Even Liz Cheney (R-Wyo) tweeted:

If reporting about Russian bounties on US forces is true, the White House must explain:
1. Why weren’t the president or vice president briefed? Was the info in the PDB?
2. Who did know and when?
3. What has been done in response to protect our forces & hold Putin accountable?

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) June 28, 2020

Even Dan Crenshaw (R-Houston) agreed:

This is exactly right. We need answers. https://t.co/WloVGAFtsp

— Rep. Dan Crenshaw (@RepDanCrenshaw) June 28, 2020

And yet, for Sean Parnell, this is the way to go:

Doing so actually puts clandestine operators at risk. IE: if the Russian bounty story is accurate, maybe we didn’t want the Russians to know that we knew about it. Maybe there’s a US op to target who’s responsible. Now the Russians have a heads up that something may be coming.

— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) June 28, 2020

By the way, Sean, the story is accurate:

CNN previously reported that Russian intelligence officers for the military intelligence GRU recently offered money to Taliban militants in Afghanistan as rewards if they killed US or UK troops there, according to a European intelligence official. US intelligence concluded months ago that Russian military intelligence offered the bounties, amid peace talks, and Trump was briefed on the intelligence findings and the White House's National Security Council held a meeting about it in late March, according to the Times, citing officials briefed on the matter.

and according to the NY Times:

United States intelligence officers and Special Operations forces in Afghanistan alerted their superiors as early as January to a suspected Russian plot to pay bounties to the Taliban to kill American troops in Afghanistan, according to officials briefed on the matter. They believed at least one U.S. troop death was the result of the bounties, two of the officials said.

So IF Trump is telling the truth that he wasn't informed, WHY THE HECK NOT? The GRU offered bounties for American deaths in Afghanistan and he's not informed? How much sense does that make? And if he was informed months ago then doesn't that mean he's been lying to all of us about it?

But by all means, Sean, continue to make excuses for the guy. History will reward you for it.

Candidate Sean Parnell's FIRST Ad! (And Some Stuff He Failed To Mention) UPDATED

Well, Candidate Sean Parnell's got his first ad out - and it's a doozy.

I took the liberty last night to transcribe the ad - and while it's your typical snarky underdog GOP political ad, it's surprising how much important stuff Sean decides to leave out for you, the voting public.

He spends an awful lot of time trying to tie Rep Conor Lamb's record to Speaker Pelosi - with the idea, I suppose, that if he smears her, he's smearing Lamb (since Lamb and Pelosi are buddy-buddy, you know).

And that's where he trips up. For example he says:

And Nancy Pelosi's biggest supporter is my opponent, Conor Lamb.

But he leaves out that Lamb voted against Pelosi as speaker - both in November, 2018

Democrat Conor Lamb says he didn't vote for Pelosi in caucus today and will not do so on the floor in January pic.twitter.com/uw7aMlHnY7

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) November 28, 2018

And in January, 2019.

If Sean Parnell is going to be honest with his supporters, he will have to explain how Speaker Pelosi's "biggest supporter" voted against her being speaker - twice.

Sean? Anytime you wanna explain the dissonance, I'll give you the floor.

Then there's this about Speaker Pelosi:

She spent a global pandemic impeaching our president...

This is simply gaslighting on Sean's part. The vote for the articles of impeachment occurred on December 18, 2019. The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission didn't report their first cases of a "pneumonia of unknown cause" until two weeks later on December 31, 2019.

By the time the Republicans in the Senate gave Trump a pass on the abuse of power and obstruction of Congress it was February 5, 2020. Trump had taken the step of restricting travel from China of anyone who'd been there in the previous 2 weeks (January 31, 2020) but this is more than a month before he blocked all visitors from Europe (March 11, 2020) or declared a National Emergency (March 13, 2020).

In between, he downplayed the severity of the virus.

Then there's this from Business Insider (dated March 31, 2020):

As President Donald Trump faces criticism from public health experts and lawmakers over his lack of preparation for the coronavirus pandemic, his Republican allies have argued the president was too distracted by impeachment to focus on the spread of the virus. 

"It came up while we were tied down in the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government because everything every day was all about impeachment," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a Tuesday interview.

But Trump was not too distracted to go golfing or hold campaign rallies during the impeachment trial, as he simultaneously downplayed the threat of the virus and told Americans everything was under control. [Emphasis added.]

(Note the date, Sean. This "he was distracted by the Impeachment story is stale. You really should try to be more up-to-date with your smearing).

If Sean Parnell is going to be honest with his supporters, he's going to have to explain how the Impeachment, which ended on February 5, got in the way of Trump's mismanagement of the response to Covid-19. He only announced a national emergency in mid-March. Up until that point, as I said, he downplayed the severity of the crisis.

But Sean, now that you've tied yourself to the legacy of Donald J Trump, there's one thing you definitely left out of your ad: The 115,000 dead US citizens - thousands of whom are dead because of Trump's mismanagement.

Do you really want to tie yourself to a man who brought about so much misery?

Your call.

UPDATE:  Part of Parnell's criticism of the Democratic Party is that "This crazy old socialist" (meaning Senator Bernie Sanders) was almost their presidential nominee.

Look closely at the picture.

That's Larry David, He's just doing his SNL impression of Senator Sanders.

Sean really needs to do his homework better or next time he'll be holding up this picture of Donald Trump:

Sean Parnell Defends Donald Trump (No Surprise)

Since he won his party primary, the republican candidate for PA17 is now officially Sean Parnell.

And this week Parnell wasted no time jumping back into the national news with this tweet:

THREAD:

Over the last week, America has seen unprecedented anarchy, violence & destruction. Rather than condemning #Antifa - the group responsible for co-opting the well-intentioned demonstrations - Gen Mattis blames @realDonaldTrump for trying to end the mayhem & restore order.

— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) June 4, 2020

Followed with:

As a veteran & fellow warfighter I have an immense amount of respect for General Mattis.
I just think he missed the mark on this one.

— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) June 4, 2020

So what did General Mattis write that triggered this response?

This - from The Atlantic.

Here's how Mattis opens:

I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.

Look at how differently they each characterize the protests. For Mattis, they're a "wholesome and unifying demand" for "Equal Justice Under Law", insisting that we "we live up to our values." For Parnell, the demonstrations are "well-intentioned" but he spends much more time virtue signaling Mattis for not denouncing Antifa.

Then there's this from Mattis:

When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

And:

We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square.

To Parnell, this means:

Gen Mattis blames @realDonaldTrump for trying to end the mayhem & restore order.

To Mattis, the protests are wholesome and unifying - a demand that we, as a society, live up to our values of equal justice under the law and Trump's response (the teargassing and flashgrenading) is an violation of Constitutional rights and an abuse of executive authority.

For Parnell, the protests, while "well-intentioned", are "mayhem" and Trump was right to try to restore order.

No, Sean. I think YOU'VE missed the point.

Donald Trump - A Would-Be Dictator

Donald Trump, yesterday:

Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled.

If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.

Um, that's against the law:

Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Indeed the Congress reaffirmed the law's importance in 2012:

Section 1385 of title 18 (commonly known as the “Posse Comitatus Act”) prohibits the use of the Armed Forces as a posse comitatus to execute the laws except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.

The Congress further defined:

Existing laws, including chapter 13 of title 10 (commonly known as the “Insurrection Act”), and the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.), grant the President broad powers that may be invoked in the event of domestic emergencies, including an attack against the Nation using weapons of mass destruction, and these laws specifically authorize the President to use the Armed Forces to help restore public order.

However, the first statement of the Insurrection Act goes like this:

Whenever there is an insurrection in any State against its government, the President may, upon the request of its legislature or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened, call into Federal service such of the militia of the other States, in the number requested by that State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection. [Emphasis added.]

The Stafford Disaster Relief bill deals with federal responses after a natural disaster.

Would-be Dictator Trump simply does not have the authority to deploy the military into a state whenever he decides that that state's governor has "refused to take the actions" he deems "necessary."

But when has that ever stopped him? When has that ever stopped his enablers in Congress?  By the way, where the fuck are all the conservative "States' Rights!" fetishists, these days? Where are all those members of Congress forever hair-triggered to scream "Executive Overreach!" whenever a president from the Democratic Party did something they didn't like?

 

Sean Parnell Kinda Sorta Corrects The Record, Maybe

Hey, remember this?

A few days ago, Donald Trump - a man who avoided military service by lying about his medical history, lied about the voting record of my representative in Congress, Conor Lamb. Trump also called Lamb, a retired Marine Corps Major, "an American Fraud." Trump also spelled Lamb's name (both, actually - first and last) wrong.

This was part of an endorsement of Lamb's presumptive opponent, retired Army Captain Sean Parnell.

After some very bad press for Parnell Chris Potter, the politics/government editor for WESA-FM tweeted this:

The conntroversy (see what I did there?) over Trump's Memorial Day "Connor Lamm" tweet continues for another day, with a statement this A.M. from GOP candidate Sean Parnell, who Trump is trying to help. pic.twitter.com/dDoyupOqMy

— Chris Potter (@CPotterPgh) May 27, 2020

Here's the text of Parnell's statement:

In a Monday tweet, President Trump turned up the heat on Congressman Conor Lamb tweeting, "Sean Parnell is an American Hero. Conor Lamb has proven to be an American fraud, and a puppet for Crazy Nancy Pelosi. He said he would NOT vote for her for Speaker, and did. Will kill 2A. Voted to impeach (on nothing). A TOTAL & COMPLETE Sean Parnell Endorsement!" On Tuesday he deleted and and posted a new tweet with the correct spelling of Lamb's name.

It's easy to see how the President and others might think that Lamb voted for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker. Pelosi gave Lamb a pass on that vote but ever since he has been one of her most reliable supporters voting with her 92% of the time.

Take a careful look at how Parnell "corrects" the record:

• He doesn't explicitly say that Trump misspelled Lamb's name, just that Trump deleted the tweet and retweeted it with the correct one.
• He also doesn't explicitly say that Trump was wrong about Lamb's voting record (even though he was - completely) just that it's "easy to see the President and others" were wrong. Parnell never says that Lamb voted against Pelosi as speaker.

Instead of an active voice speaking in clear terms, we get weasel words and an incomplete correction.

And of course Sean Parnell is completely silent about how the draft-avoiding Trump called the retired Marine "an American fraud."

Completely silent.

This is Sean Parnell.

On Memorial Day Trump Calls Conor Lamb, A Retired Marine, "An American Fraud"

And he did it in this tweet:

Sean Parnell is an American Hero. Connor Lamm has proven to be an American fraud, and a puppet for Crazy Nancy Pelosi. He said he would NOT vote for her for Speaker, and did. Will kill 2A. Voted to impeach (on nothing). A TOTAL & COMPLETE Sean Parnell Endorsement! https://t.co/v1OnY0MI8m

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 25, 2020

And it came with a "TOTAL & COMPLETE" endorsement of his opponent, Sean Parnell.

Oh, and there's also the lie about Lamb's record. This part:

He said he would NOT vote for her for Speaker, and did.

No, he didn't.

And then there's the disrespect of spelling Conor Lamb's name wrong.

However, instead of defending his fellow serviceman, the Trump-endorsed Sean Parnell defended Trump instead:

The POTUS didn’t attack @ConorLambPA’s military service as a lawyer. @realDonaldTrump went after Lamb for pretending to be a pro Trump moderate in a Trump district to get elected.

Truth is, Lamb votes with @SpeakerPelosi 90+% of the time & voted for both charges of impeachment. https://t.co/0de6pFBQ48

— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) May 25, 2020

No fair trying to deflect, Sean. Trump used the phrase "American fraud" without the qualifiers you so dutifully supplied and you also failed to correct Trump on his error about the vote for Pelosi being speaker. Surely you knew that was incorrect, right?

When can I add the part about how Donald Trump avoided serving in Vietnam by lying about his medical history (this according to sworn testimony from his one-time attorney Michael Cohen)?

So a Memorial Day insult of a retired Marine by a guy who avoided military service is even more absurd.

How far has this news reached?

The Trib:

On Memorial Day, President Trump called Marine reserve officer and Pennsylvania Rep. Conor Lamb an “American fraud” on Twitter.

KDKA:

President Trump took to Twitter to call Congressman and veteran Conor Lamb an “American Fraud” on Memorial Day, about a week ahead of the state’s primary.

Talking Points Memo:

President Donald Trump marked Memorial Day by calling Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA), a Marine Corps veteran, an “American fraud.”

The Week:

President Trump spent part of Memorial Day taking shots at Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Penn.), calling him an "American fraud," misrepresenting his voting record, and spelling his name wrong, all in one tweet.

This in an endorsement for Republican Sean Parnell and with every defense, he now owns a little piece of it.

79,756 Deaths. Reopening Too Soon = Needless Suffering And Death

From today's NYTimes:

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and a central figure in the government’s response to the coronavirus, intends to warn the Senate on Tuesday that Americans would experience “needless suffering and death” if the country opens up too quickly.

And:

In an email to the New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg late Monday night, Dr. Fauci laid out what he intended to tell senators.

“The major message that I wish to convey to the Senate HLP committee tomorrow is the danger of trying to open the country prematurely,” he wrote. “If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines to: ‘Open America Again,’ then we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country. This will not only result in needless suffering and death, but would actually set us back on our quest to return to normal.”

This is the "Open America Again" plan, in case you wanted to read it.

The Times described some of the criteria in the plan:

States should have a “downward trajectory of positive tests” or a “downward trajectory of documented cases” of coronavirus over two weeks, while conducting robust contact tracing and “sentinel surveillance” testing of asymptomatic people in vulnerable populations, such as nursing homes.

Of course, Trump (and, to a large extent, his supporters*) has already communicated that he's going to prioritize reopening the economy over the health and well-being of American citizens:

“Will some people be affected? Yes. Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open and we have to get it open soon,” Trump said, directly acknowledging there will be a real, negative human cost in prioritizing an economic revival over a more cautious approach in favor of public health. But even as the president advocates for a return to normal economic business, the nation's governors remain in control of decision-making for their respective states.

*Locally, this would include: Senator Pat Toomey, Representative Guy Reschenthaler, Candidate for the House Sean Parnell, and KDKA Radio host Wendy Bell.

There is no one in this country who can both support Donald Trump and claim to be "pro-life." It's as simple as that.