thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-10--Britney Spears Goes To Court In Latest Bid To Get Free From Father

The pop star ’ s moves have been missing from stage and screen in a career hiatus that shows no signs of ending , but she ’ s been making all kinds of maneuvers in court in an attempt to gain greater control over her life and money after 12 years of a court conservatorship run mainly by her dad , James Spears .
Tuesday afternoon , a Los Angeles judge will hear arguments on Spears ’ requests , the boldest of which would remove James Spears as co-conservator for what his daughter says is an unwillingness to share control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in assets .
The conservatorship , known in many states as a guardianship , began in 2008 when she was having serious mental struggles and an often public meltdown .
The arrangements are normally limited to people with severely diminished ability to make decisions for themselves , and are meant to be temporary , but Britney Spears has remained under court control longer than anyone expected .
She has acknowledged that the arrangement was necessary when it began , and probably saved her career , and she remained silent both in public and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ existence .
But starting in August she began publicly seeking to choose who oversaw her life and money , asking for greater transparency in the court ’ s often secret moves , and even declaring that she was sympathetic to fans who have increasingly demanded in protests and online posts that those in control must # FreeBritney .
James Spears and a co-conservator , attorney Andrew Wallet , ran the conservatorship for 11 years .
Last year , Wallet stepped down , leaving James Spears entirely in charge .
He soon temporarily stepped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , citing health reasons , but kept his role as conservator of her finances .
In August of this year , Britney Spears said she strongly objected to her father returning as conservator of her person , and wanted to make her approved replacement , Jodi Montgomery , permanent in the role .
James Spears subsequently said he would work with the Bessemer Trust , but now Britney Spears is insisting that such an arrangement would be “ doomed to failure ” and her father needs to be out entirely .
In documents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conservatorship , Samuel Ingham III , Spears said her father was clearly planning to attempt “ to retain full functional control of her assets , books and records in the face of Britney ’ s objections.
” She also cited his recent failure to notify her that her business manager had resigned and he had appointed a new one , and said she plans to object to the accounting reports that will be made at Tuesday ’ s hearing .
In his own filings , James Spears argued that he has done his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being in debt and facing tens of millions in lawsuits to its current value of over $ 60 million .
“ Mr .
Spears is doing exactly what he is supposed to be doing as conservator of the estate ; he should be commended , not suspended , ” one court filing said .
“ Throughout his service as Conservator , Mr.
Spear ’ s sole motivation has been his unconditional love for his daughter and a fierce desire to protect her from those trying to take advantage of her , ” the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take part in the hearing by phone , as most or all of the participants will as allowed under the court ’ s pandemic guidelines .
The proceedings are likely to be closed to the public and media , as Penny has routinely done at the request of James Spears and his attorneys , who have argued for his daughter ’ s need for privacy .
But in her recent spate of filings , Spears has said she has gotten more privacy than is good for her , arguing that the secrecy has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scrutiny of the # FreeBritney movement , which her father has scorned .

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears wants to be freed from her father.
The pop star’s moves have been missing from stage and screen in a career hiatus that shows no signs of ending, but she’s been making all kinds of maneuvers in court in an attempt to gain greater control over her life and money after 12 years of a court conservatorship run mainly by her dad, James Spears.
Tuesday afternoon, a Los Angeles judge will hear arguments on Spears’ requests, the boldest of which would remove James Spears as co-conservator for what his daughter says is an unwillingness to share control of her more than $60 million in assets.
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The conservatorship, known in many states as a guardianship, began in 2008 when she was having serious mental struggles and an often public meltdown. The arrangements are normally limited to people with severely diminished ability to make decisions for themselves, and are meant to be temporary, but Britney Spears has remained under court control longer than anyone expected.
She has acknowledged that the arrangement was necessary when it began, and probably saved her career, and she remained silent both in public and in court for nearly all of its existence.
But starting in August she began publicly seeking to choose who oversaw her life and money, asking for greater transparency in the court’s often secret moves, and even declaring that she was sympathetic to fans who have increasingly demanded in protests and online posts that those in control must #FreeBritney.
James Spears and a co-conservator, attorney Andrew Wallet, ran the conservatorship for 11 years. Last year, Wallet stepped down, leaving James Spears entirely in charge. He soon temporarily stepped down as conservator of Spears’ person, citing health reasons, but kept his role as conservator of her finances.
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In August of this year, Britney Spears said she strongly objected to her father returning as conservator of her person, and wanted to make her approved replacement, Jodi Montgomery, permanent in the role.
In September she went even further, asking that a corporate fiduciary, the Bessemer Trust, become conservator of her finances instead of her father.
James Spears first filed to have Wallet return as his co-conservator instead, but Wallet withdrew after Britney Spears objected.
James Spears subsequently said he would work with the Bessemer Trust, but now Britney Spears is insisting that such an arrangement would be “doomed to failure” and her father needs to be out entirely.
In documents filed by her court-appointed attorney for the conservatorship, Samuel Ingham III, Spears said her father was clearly planning to attempt “to retain full functional control of her assets, books and records in the face of Britney’s objections.”
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She also cited his recent failure to notify her that her business manager had resigned and he had appointed a new one, and said she plans to object to the accounting reports that will be made at Tuesday’s hearing.
In his own filings, James Spears argued that he has done his job well, taking the estate from being in debt and facing tens of millions in lawsuits to its current value of over $60 million.
“Mr. Spears is doing exactly what he is supposed to be doing as conservator of the estate; he should be commended, not suspended,” one court filing said.
James Spears did all this, the filing argued, while working hard to restore his daughter “to good health, reunite her with her children, and revive her career.”
“Throughout his service as Conservator, Mr. Spear’s sole motivation has been his unconditional love for his daughter and a fierce desire to protect her from those trying to take advantage of her,” the filing said.
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It is not clear whether Judge Brenda Penny will make any decisions Tuesday. She may seek time to reach decisions or ask that arguments continue on another date.
Spears is expected to take part in the hearing by phone, as most or all of the participants will as allowed under the court’s pandemic guidelines.
The proceedings are likely to be closed to the public and media, as Penny has routinely done at the request of James Spears and his attorneys, who have argued for his daughter’s need for privacy.
But in her recent spate of filings, Spears has said she has gotten more privacy than is good for her, arguing that the secrecy has not been helpful, and welcomed the scrutiny of the #FreeBritney movement, which her father has scorned.
In court documents, Britney Spears said, “Far from being a conspiracy theory or a ‘joke’ as James reportedly told the media, in large part this scrutiny is a reasonable and even predictable result of James’ aggressive use of the sealing procedure over the years to minimize the amount of meaningful information made available to the public.”
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--CDC Issues Strongest Endorsement For Masks Yet, Says Small Uptick Could Save $1 Trillion

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its strongest endorsement yet for the widespread wearing of masks , saying Tuesday that face coverings protect both the wearer and those around them from the spread of COVID-19 .
“ Adopting universal masking policies can help avert future lockdowns , especially if combined with other non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing , hand hygiene , and adequate ventilation , ” the CDC wrote in a scientific briefing .
The updated guidance is the agency ’ s most overt statement on mask-wearing , issued as the country endures the worst phase of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10 million Americans have now tested positive for COVID-19 , with 1 million new cases of the virus in November alone ( even though we are just 10 days into the month ) .
The number of hospitalizations for the virus has hit an all-time high , and the country has averaged more than 116,000 new cases each day for the past week .
The CDC said Tuesday that COVID-19 spreads predominantly through respiratory droplets “ generated when people cough , sneeze , sing , talk , or breathe.
” Masks help prevent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also help keep healthy people from inhaling them .
In a message more specific than others it has issued on the topic , the CDC also said that even a 15 % increase in mask-wearing throughout the U.S. could save $ 1 trillion in economic losses and avert future shutdowns .
President Donald Trump has refused to institute a mask mandate and has often declined to wear a face mask himself , even after he contracted the coronavirus .
He has also demeaned those who do wear face coverings , attempting to create @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moved past the pandemic and that it ’ s time to reopen the economy against the advice of top health officials .
Dr. Anthony Fauci , the country ’ s top infectious disease expert , has continued to throw water on those claims and has warned the worst is yet to come .
“ We ’ re in for a whole lot of hurt .
It ’ s not a good situation , ” Fauci told The Washington Post last month just days before the election .
“ All the stars are aligned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into the fall and winter season , with people congregating at home indoors .
You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.
” President-elect Joe Biden , for his part , assembled a COVID-19 advisory board this week laden with public health experts and medical professionals .
While he doesn ’ t enter the White House until January , Biden has already urged all Americans to wear masks and said he plans to speak with the nation ’ s governors and local officials to encourage them to institute sweeping mask mandates as soon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It doesn ’ t matter who you voted for , where you stood before Election Day , ” Biden said Monday .
“ It doesn ’ t matter your party , your point of view .
We could save tens of thousands of lives if we just wear masks for the next few months .
”

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its strongest endorsement yet for the widespread wearing of masks, saying Tuesday that face coverings protect both the wearer and those around them from the spread of COVID-19.
“Adopting universal masking policies can help avert future lockdowns, especially if combined with other non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing, hand hygiene, and adequate ventilation,” the CDC wrote in a scientific briefing.
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The updated guidance is the agency’s most overt statement on mask-wearing, issued as the country endures the worst phase of the pandemic so far. More than 10 million Americans have now tested positive for COVID-19, with 1 million new cases of the virus in November alone (even though we are just 10 days into the month). The number of hospitalizations for the virus has hit an all-time high, and the country has averaged more than 116,000 new cases each day for the past week.
The CDC said Tuesday that COVID-19 spreads predominantly through respiratory droplets “generated when people cough, sneeze, sing, talk, or breathe.” Masks help prevent infected people from spreading those droplets and also help keep healthy people from inhaling them.
In a message more specific than others it has issued on the topic, the CDC also said that even a 15% increase in mask-wearing throughout the U.S. could save $1 trillion in economic losses and avert future shutdowns.
People wear face masks in New York City's Central Park on Nov. 9, 2020. Noam Galai via Getty Images
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President Donald Trump has refused to institute a mask mandate and has often declined to wear a face mask himself, even after he contracted the coronavirus. He has also demeaned those who do wear face coverings, attempting to create a false impression that the country has moved past the pandemic and that it’s time to reopen the economy against the advice of top health officials.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, has continued to throw water on those claims and has warned the worst is yet to come.
“We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation,” Fauci told The Washington Post last month just days before the election. “All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”
President-elect Joe Biden, for his part, assembled a COVID-19 advisory board this week laden with public health experts and medical professionals. While he doesn’t enter the White House until January, Biden has already urged all Americans to wear masks and said he plans to speak with the nation’s governors and local officials to encourage them to institute sweeping mask mandates as soon as he is in office.
“It doesn’t matter who you voted for, where you stood before Election Day,” Biden said Monday. “It doesn’t matter your party, your point of view. We could save tens of thousands of lives if we just wear masks for the next few months.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-10--U.S. Hits All-Time High For COVID-19 Hospitalizations

The number of hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 has hit an all-time high after medical facilities across the U.S. reported that 61,964 patients were hospitalized on Tuesday with serious cases of the virus , the latest sign that the worst of the pandemic may lie ahead .
The figure was tallied by the COVID Tracking Project , an organization affiliated with The Atlantic .
Hospitals have once again issued dire warnings about running out of bed space amid an influx of patients with severe symptoms .
Some states have already said the most recent surge is the worst since the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the early days of the pandemic , on April 15 , as the nation ’ s top health officials were still working on messaging to get the virus under control .
A series of state lockdown measures helped bring that April high of 59,940 hospitalizations down by more than half in June .
The numbers began to rise again in mid-July after lockdown measures were lifted , hitting an almost identical high of 59,718 on July 23 before hospitalizations fell once more .
“ We have legitimate reason to be very , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a national level , ” Lauren Sauer , an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins University , told NPR this week .
Now , however , the virus ’ grip on the nation is tighter than ever .
The seven-day average of new cases now exceeds 111,000 , and 10 million Americans have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began .
The U.S. reported 1 million new cases in November alone , even though we are just 10 days into the month .
Medical facilities around the country are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issued dire warnings about the future as the nation prepares for a long winter and a holiday season that could tempt people to travel around the nation after months of staying home .
The New York Times reported Tuesday that El Paso , Texas , has doubled its supply of mobile morgues as hospital beds fill up , a bleak response that occurred in New York City earlier this year .
In Idaho , one of the state ’ s largest hospitals had to temporarily stop taking in new patients .
There are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ data that signaled its experimental vaccine could be 90 % effective at preventing COVID-19 and said it planned to file an emergency use application with the FDA later this month .
Dr. Anthony Fauci , the nation ’ s top infectious disease expert , said the results were “ impressive.
” “ I believe , with the impressive nature of the data , that that should go through smoothly , that by the time we get into December , we will be able to have doses available for people who are judged to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fauci said on MSNBC on Tuesday .
President-elect Joe Biden recently assembled a COVID-19 advisory board filled with experts , and while he doesn ’ t enter the White House until January , he has urged all Americans to wear masks in hopes of “ defeating this virus.
” “ It doesn ’ t matter who you voted for , where you stood before Election Day , ” the president-elect said on Monday .
“ It doesn ’ t matter your party , your point of view .
We could save tens of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ masks for the next few months .
”

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The number of hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 has hit an all-time high after medical facilities across the U.S. reported that 61,964 patients were hospitalized on Tuesday with serious cases of the virus, the latest sign that the worst of the pandemic may lie ahead.
The figure was tallied by the COVID Tracking Project, an organization affiliated with The Atlantic. Hospitals have once again issued dire warnings about running out of bed space amid an influx of patients with severe symptoms. Some states have already said the most recent surge is the worst since the pandemic began.
Advertisement
The previous hospitalization high was in the early days of the pandemic, on April 15, as the nation’s top health officials were still working on messaging to get the virus under control. A series of state lockdown measures helped bring that April high of 59,940 hospitalizations down by more than half in June. The numbers began to rise again in mid-July after lockdown measures were lifted, hitting an almost identical high of 59,718 on July 23 before hospitalizations fell once more.
Tuesday’s figures exceed both those tallies.
“We have legitimate reason to be very, very concerned about our health system at a national level,” Lauren Sauer, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins University, told NPR this week.
Now, however, the virus’ grip on the nation is tighter than ever. The seven-day average of new cases now exceeds 111,000, and 10 million Americans have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began. The U.S. reported 1 million new cases in November alone, even though we are just 10 days into the month.
More than 239,000 people in the U.S. have now died due to COVID-19.
Medical facilities around the country are already strained, and some regions have issued dire warnings about the future as the nation prepares for a long winter and a holiday season that could tempt people to travel around the nation after months of staying home.
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The New York Times reported Tuesday that El Paso, Texas, has doubled its supply of mobile morgues as hospital beds fill up, a bleak response that occurred in New York City earlier this year. In Idaho, one of the state’s largest hospitals had to temporarily stop taking in new patients.
Other states, including Maryland, have begun reinstituting restrictions to rein in infection rates.
There are signs of promise. Pfizer released early data that signaled its experimental vaccine could be 90% effective at preventing COVID-19 and said it planned to file an emergency use application with the FDA later this month. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said the results were “impressive.”
“I believe, with the impressive nature of the data, that that should go through smoothly, that by the time we get into December, we will be able to have doses available for people who are judged to be at the highest priority,” Fauci said on MSNBC on Tuesday.
President-elect Joe Biden recently assembled a COVID-19 advisory board filled with experts, and while he doesn’t enter the White House until January, he has urged all Americans to wear masks in hopes of “defeating this virus.”
“It doesn’t matter who you voted for, where you stood before Election Day,” the president-elect said on Monday. “It doesn’t matter your party, your point of view. We could save tens of thousands of lives if we just wear masks for the next few months.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-10--Michael Cohen Predicts How Trump Will Dodge Biden's Inauguration

President Donald Trump simply doesn ’ t have the “ inner strength ” to accept his loss and attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden , according to his former fixer and personal attorney Michael Cohen .
In an interview with Ari Melber on MSNBC , Cohen discussed potential scenarios for the coming months , as his former boss continues to adamantly deny the results of the presidential election , refuses to concede and baselessly attacks the legitimacy of the voting processes that led to his loss .
“ It ’ s all a lie , 99.9 % of everything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lie .
He ’ s not going to stay in the White House past Jan. 20 .
They will remove him .
He knows that , ” Cohen said .
He again predicted that Trump might not return to the White House after he visits his Florida Mar-A-Lago resort for his Christmas break , and will stay there beyond Biden ’ s inauguration at noon on Jan. 20 .
“ I suspect he doesn ’ t even come back to Washington , ” Cohen said .
“ I don ’ t believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the inauguration because he himself fundamentally can not sit in a chair knowing that the cameras are on him and that the world is looking at him as a loser .
He can not do that.
” Cohen also speculated on how Trump ’ s post-presidency life might look , and guessed that he may start his own media company , which he will use to attack Biden .
“ He ’ s going to say for the next 30 years that they stole the election from me .
‘ I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to keep his MAGA army active and engaged and constantly blow this dog whistle and be a menace.
” Cohen was asked about Trump ’ s new leadership political action committee , “ Save America , ” formed in the wake of major news outlets calling Biden as the winner of the election .
The Trump campaign has been asking supporters for donations to fight the results of the election , but The New York Times reported that the fine print reveals that 60 % of that fundraising is now being directed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ help him to fund his post-presidency activities .
“ The reason he ’ s doing it is because he has no income , ” Cohen said .
“ And you would see that if he would turn over his tax returns.
” “ He doesn ’ t have ‘ The Apprentice ’ making $ 65 million a year , ” he continued .
“ Most of his assets are underperforming .
... the few that he has doesn ’ t cover the big cost .
So he ’ s going to use this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slush fund.
” The foundation Cohen referred to was set up ostensibly for charitable purposes by Trump in 1988 , but various law enforcement investigations found it shrouded in ethical and legal violations .
Probes by New York officials led to the foundation being shut down last year and Trump paying more than $ 2 million in court-ordered damages to eight different charities for illegally misusing its funds for political purposes : Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to criminal charges that included lying to Congress and violating campaign finance law when he engineered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campaign to silence two women who alleged extramarital affairs with Trump , Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal .
He cooperated with investigators and implicated the president in those crimes .

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President Donald Trump simply doesn’t have the “inner strength” to accept his loss and attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, according to his former fixer and personal attorney Michael Cohen.
In an interview with Ari Melber on MSNBC, Cohen discussed potential scenarios for the coming months, as his former boss continues to adamantly deny the results of the presidential election, refuses to concede and baselessly attacks the legitimacy of the voting processes that led to his loss.
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Cohen said people needn’t be too concerned, because his former boss “talks a lot of nonsense.”
“It’s all a lie, 99.9% of everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. He’s not going to stay in the White House past Jan. 20. They will remove him. He knows that,” Cohen said.
He again predicted that Trump might not return to the White House after he visits his Florida Mar-A-Lago resort for his Christmas break, and will stay there beyond Biden’s inauguration at noon on Jan. 20.
“I suspect he doesn’t even come back to Washington,” Cohen said. “I don’t believe he’s going to go to the inauguration because he himself fundamentally cannot sit in a chair knowing that the cameras are on him and that the world is looking at him as a loser. He cannot do that.”
“He does not have enough inner strength in him to be gracious,” he added.
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Cohen also speculated on how Trump’s post-presidency life might look, and guessed that he may start his own media company, which he will use to attack Biden.
“He’s going to say for the next 30 years that they stole the election from me. ‘I’m the rightful president.’ He’s going to keep his MAGA army active and engaged and constantly blow this dog whistle and be a menace.”
Cohen was asked about Trump’s new leadership political action committee, “Save America,” formed in the wake of major news outlets calling Biden as the winner of the election. The Trump campaign has been asking supporters for donations to fight the results of the election, but The New York Times reported that the fine print reveals that 60% of that fundraising is now being directed to the new PAC, which will help him to fund his post-presidency activities.
“The reason he’s doing it is because he has no income,” Cohen said. “And you would see that if he would turn over his tax returns.”
“He doesn’t have ‘The Apprentice’ making $65 million a year,” he continued. “Most of his assets are underperforming. ... the few that he has doesn’t cover the big cost. So he’s going to use this like the Trump Foundation, as a slush fund.”
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The foundation Cohen referred to was set up ostensibly for charitable purposes by Trump in 1988, but various law enforcement investigations found it shrouded in ethical and legal violations. Probes by New York officials led to the foundation being shut down last year and Trump paying more than $2 million in court-ordered damages to eight different charities for illegally misusing its funds for political purposes:
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to criminal charges that included lying to Congress and violating campaign finance law when he engineered hush money payments during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence two women who alleged extramarital affairs with Trump, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. He cooperated with investigators and implicated the president in those crimes.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--Laura Ingraham Scolds Lindsey Graham On Live TV Over His Constant Money Pleas

Fox News host Laura Ingraham has just about reached her limit with Sen. Lindsey Graham ’ s pleas for cash while speaking on the network .
Graham has repeatedly used his time on the air to ask viewers to donate to his campaign , then directed them to his website .
He ’ s done it so often that Ingraham cut him off mid-pitch during a pre-election appearance earlier this month .
And while the election may be over , he ’ s still at it .
While discussing the upcoming double runoff Senate elections in Georgia , Ingraham said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fund to support the Republican candidates .
Graham , however , suggested they give money to him instead ― and plugged his website yet again .
But Ingraham wasn ’ t having it this time : “ OK , you want to be the clearinghouse , ” she said .
“ All right , enough with the LindseyGraham.com .
This is like a used-car salesman after a while.
” See more of the clip , posted by The Daily Beast : LOL Laura Ingraham finally tells Lindsey Graham to stop hawking his campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the LindseyGraham dot com .
We get the point .
We get the point .
This is like a used car salesman after a while . ''
pic.twitter.com/IC65pZRZOd — Justin Baragona ( @ justinbaragona ) November 11 , 2020 In October , CNN posted a supercut of the many times Graham had asked for money on Fox News : In which @ brikeilarcnn rolls the tape of Lindsey Graham repeatedly appearing on Fox News over the past few weeks to plead for money .
pic.twitter.com/AIrEGJXZJu — Oliver Darcy ( @ oliverdarcy ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Graham raised the most money of any Republican Senate candidate .
The more than $ 100 million in campaign funds he received helped him to defeat Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison , who also took in record sums .

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Fox News host Laura Ingraham has just about reached her limit with Sen. Lindsey Graham’s pleas for cash while speaking on the network.
Graham has repeatedly used his time on the air to ask viewers to donate to his campaign, then directed them to his website. He’s done it so often that Ingraham cut him off mid-pitch during a pre-election appearance earlier this month. And while the election may be over, he’s still at it.
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While discussing the upcoming double runoff Senate elections in Georgia, Ingraham said viewers could donate to the Senate Leadership Fund to support the Republican candidates. Graham, however, suggested they give money to him instead ― and plugged his website yet again.
But Ingraham wasn’t having it this time:
“OK, you want to be the clearinghouse,” she said. “All right, enough with the LindseyGraham.com. This is like a used-car salesman after a while.”
See more of the clip, posted by The Daily Beast:
LOL
Laura Ingraham finally tells Lindsey Graham to stop hawking his campaign website on Fox News.
"Enough with the LindseyGraham dot com. We get the point. We get the point. This is like a used car salesman after a while." pic.twitter.com/IC65pZRZOd — Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) November 11, 2020
In October, CNN posted a supercut of the many times Graham had asked for money on Fox News:
In which @brikeilarcnn rolls the tape of Lindsey Graham repeatedly appearing on Fox News over the past few weeks to plead for money. pic.twitter.com/AIrEGJXZJu — Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 27, 2020
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--Eric Trump’s Latest Attempt To Question The Election Goes Awry

Eric Trump on Tuesday appeared to continue to deny the 2020 election defeat of his father , sharing this image on Twitter : Social media users interpreted the graphic as suggesting outgoing President Donald Trump would somehow end up victorious against President-elect Joe Biden .
The president has so far refused to concede the election and has made baseless allegations of mass voter fraud .
He ’ s stalled the transition process , accused Democrats of rigging the vote and , hours after the polls closed with millions of ballots uncounted , even made a false declaration of victory .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump Jr. , meanwhile , have assisted their father in spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation about the election in a desperate effort to question Biden ’ s victory .
Last week , Eric Trump was busted for tweeting a fake video that purported to show ballots for his father being burned .
He has also conspiratorially tweeted that “ people know exactly what is going on in this country.
” Earlier Tuesday , Eric Trump was widely mocked on Twitter for urging people to vote — one week late .
But critics on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is what happens when people who do n't understand facts or data try to make graphs .
— Stop the Orange Coup ( @ inimitablejkc ) November 11 , 2020 If this supposedly represents votes how the fuck does the line go down Eric ?
Explain https : //t.co/8gkBlNUnCx — Ryan Whorton ( @ RealRyanWhorton ) November 10 , 2020 Is this the map to the Four Seasons ?
https : //t.co/0ADD9bW7uJ — Abe Pakatawhainu ( @ TopHatOrTrilby ) November 11 , 2020

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Eric Trump on Tuesday appeared to continue to deny the 2020 election defeat of his father, sharing this image on Twitter:
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Social media users interpreted the graphic as suggesting outgoing President Donald Trump would somehow end up victorious against President-elect Joe Biden.
The president has so far refused to concede the election and has made baseless allegations of mass voter fraud. He’s stalled the transition process, accused Democrats of rigging the vote and, hours after the polls closed with millions of ballots uncounted, even made a false declaration of victory.
Eric Trump and his brother, Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, have assisted their father in spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation about the election in a desperate effort to question Biden’s victory.
Last week, Eric Trump was busted for tweeting a fake video that purported to show ballots for his father being burned. He has also conspiratorially tweeted that “people know exactly what is going on in this country.” Earlier Tuesday, Eric Trump was widely mocked on Twitter for urging people to vote — one week late.
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Eric Trump shared the graphic without comment.
But critics on Twitter had plenty to say:
This is what happens when people who don't understand facts or data try to make graphs. — Stop the Orange Coup (@inimitablejkc) November 11, 2020
You are here pic.twitter.com/30whF9uWoz — chiyo nukaga (@chiyonukaga) November 11, 2020
The red line is the Covid curve. — Leslie - 71 to 46. 🇺🇲 (@Leslieoo7) November 10, 2020
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If this supposedly represents votes how the fuck does the line go down Eric? Explain https://t.co/8gkBlNUnCx — Ryan Whorton (@RealRyanWhorton) November 10, 2020
Oxford Circus? — Stephen Monks (@StephenMonks1) November 11, 2020
Eric you lost — Casey Stanton (@CaseyStanton) November 10, 2020
Is this the map to the Four Seasons? https://t.co/0ADD9bW7uJ — Abe Pakatawhainu (@TopHatOrTrilby) November 11, 2020


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--Ted Cruz Gets Instant Fact Check After Bogus Claim About CNN’s COVID-19 Coverage

Sen. Ted Cruz ( R-Texas ) received a swift fact check after he suggested TV networks stopped covering the coronavirus pandemic immediately following the defeat of President Donald Trump in the 2020 election .
Cruz on Tuesday appeared to push the bogus right-wing narrative that networks before last week were only covering the public health crisis to hammer Trump , retweeting GOP rapid response director Steve Guest ’ s dishonest claim that CNN had stopped showing its COVID-19 tracker on screen .
“ Miraculous , ” wrote Cruz .
“ COVID cured , the very instant the networks called the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ host of “ The Lead , ” noted “ we continue to cover this horrible crisis that our public officials are not doing enough to stop.
” We continue to cover this horrible crisis that our public officials are not doing enough to stop .
Yesterday : https : //t.co/C44pa5pwDF https : //t.co/dzlzjLETxW — Jake Tapper ( @ jaketapper ) November 10 , 2020 CNN ’ s fact-checking reporter Daniel Dale called out Cruz ’ s “ entirely baseless ” claim by sharing screenshots of the tracker “ during four separate hours of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as we tracked the election too.
” Here are screenshots of CNN 's coronavirus death tracker during four separate hours of coverage yesterday , even as we tracked the election too .
The RNC 's Steve Guest has a consistently dishonest Twitter account .
https : //t.co/z6TFhLEZDF pic.twitter.com/p0muiEqCey — Daniel Dale ( @ ddale8 ) November 10 , 2020 What you ’ re tweeting is false .
CNN has , for a while now , used the COVID tracker when discussing ... wait for it ... COVID .
It used the COVID tracker @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Would recommend not taking GOP ’ s word without checking first .
They mislead a lot !
https : //t.co/UVBLOLwFBc — Oliver Darcy ( @ oliverdarcy ) November 10 , 2020 Cruz , who has called President-elect Joe Biden ’ s election victory into question , has not deleted his misleading post .
It came as Texas became the first state to top 1 million coronavirus cases .
The contagion has now infected at least 10.2 million people nationwide and killed almost 240,000 Americans .
Other critics on Twitter condemned Cruz for his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , @ jaketapper and others have corrected Cruz , but it is still up and still viral in right-wing , media-bashing , Covid-denying circles .
https : //t.co/LEogHhnNwt — Mehdi Hasan ( @ mehdirhasan ) November 11 , 2020 They literally have the COVID stats on a giant graphic on the screen right now , it is a permanent fixture — lauralouisiana ( @ llauralouisiana ) November 10 , 2020 It is really not safe to believe anything about the pandemic or the electoral system right now from most elected Republicans .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do your own fact checking .
Get information from reliable sources .
And don ’ t spread conspiracy theories .
https : //t.co/JpWIU8V6Ti — Michael Gerson ( @ MJGerson ) November 10 , 2020 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 That purple background isn ’ t there regularly and I ’ m watching right now and the covid tracker is there Y ’ all reaching sooooooo hard .
This guy probably sat there and waited for a segment to show the tracker gone to snap a pic — 🇺🇸 PUMA 2.0 🔥 🇺🇸 ( @ PumaTwoPointO ) November @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Michigan was moved to the highest level yesterday .
Our hospitals are almost at capacity , and they are preparing to close schools again .
Quit being an asshole .
— lisastark35 ( @ lisastark351 ) November 10 , 2020 Hey Ted I literally just took this pic on @ CNN RIGHT NOW # TedLies pic.twitter.com/FWIU0ulkAS — UvT ( @ WasOnceLou ) November 10 , 2020 Your big “ gotcha ” is that you found a small period of time when the COVID tracker wasn ’ t on screen ?
This article @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s website 6 minutes ago and the COVID tracking is literally on screen at @ cnn RIGHT NOW .
Nothing is “ cured.
” 🤦🏽♂🤦🏽♂🤦🏽♂ pic.twitter.com/dmyedopaIi — Elections Have Consequences ( @ jaykayokay2020 ) November 10 , 2020 We have record cases every day .
One thousand dead a day .
My brother in law is one of them .
If you ’ re making jokes , go fuck yourself .
And if you ’ re too stupid to know what ’ s going on , resign .
— Kurt `` Mask @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kurteichenwald ) November 10 , 2020 If your goal is to have more deaths , more cases , and more ongoing permanent morbidity , then keep this up and congratulate yourself .
Now is the time to STOP politicizing science and let scientists , industry , and our institutions do their work WITHOUT your political interference .
— ( ( ( Howard Forman ) ) ) ( @ thehowie ) November 10 , 2020

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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) received a swift fact check after he suggested TV networks stopped covering the coronavirus pandemic immediately following the defeat of President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Cruz on Tuesday appeared to push the bogus right-wing narrative that networks before last week were only covering the public health crisis to hammer Trump, retweeting GOP rapid response director Steve Guest’s dishonest claim that CNN had stopped showing its COVID-19 tracker on screen.
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“Miraculous,” wrote Cruz. “COVID cured, the very instant the networks called the race for Biden.”
Miraculous. COVID cured, the very instant the networks called the race for Biden. https://t.co/YcYeIolilZ — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 10, 2020
CNN personalities rebuked Cruz for the post.
Jake Tapper, host of “The Lead,” noted “we continue to cover this horrible crisis that our public officials are not doing enough to stop.”
We continue to cover this horrible crisis that our public officials are not doing enough to stop.
Yesterday: https://t.co/C44pa5pwDF https://t.co/dzlzjLETxW — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 10, 2020
CNN’s fact-checking reporter Daniel Dale called out Cruz’s “entirely baseless” claim by sharing screenshots of the tracker “during four separate hours of coverage” on Monday, “even as we tracked the election too.”
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Here are screenshots of CNN's coronavirus death tracker during four separate hours of coverage yesterday, even as we tracked the election too.
The RNC's Steve Guest has a consistently dishonest Twitter account. https://t.co/z6TFhLEZDF pic.twitter.com/p0muiEqCey — Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 10, 2020
“What you’re tweeting is false,” added Oliver Darcy, CNN’s senior media reporter.
What you’re tweeting is false. CNN has, for a while now, used the COVID tracker when discussing ... wait for it... COVID. It used the COVID tracker yesterday when discussing the coronavirus too. Would recommend not taking GOP’s word without checking first. They mislead a lot! https://t.co/UVBLOLwFBc — Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) November 10, 2020
Cruz, who has called President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory into question, has not deleted his misleading post.
It came as Texas became the first state to top 1 million coronavirus cases.
The contagion has now infected at least 10.2 million people nationwide and killed almost 240,000 Americans.
Other critics on Twitter condemned Cruz for his claim:
This tweet is a lie, @jaketapper and others have corrected Cruz, but it is still up and still viral in right-wing, media-bashing, Covid-denying circles. https://t.co/LEogHhnNwt — Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 11, 2020
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They literally have the COVID stats on a giant graphic on the screen right now, it is a permanent fixture — lauralouisiana (@llauralouisiana) November 10, 2020
It is really not safe to believe anything about the pandemic or the electoral system right now from most elected Republicans. They have become unmoored from reality. Please do your own fact checking. Get information from reliable sources. And don’t spread conspiracy theories. https://t.co/JpWIU8V6Ti — Michael Gerson (@MJGerson) November 10, 2020
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
That purple background isn’t there regularly and I’m watching right now and the covid tracker is there
Y’all reaching sooooooo hard. This guy probably sat there and waited for a segment to show the tracker gone to snap a pic — 🇺🇸 PUMA 2.0 🔥 🇺🇸 (@PumaTwoPointO) November 10, 2020
Hey Ted
My county in Michigan was moved to the highest level yesterday. Our hospitals are almost at capacity, and they are preparing to close schools again.
Quit being an asshole. — lisastark35 (@lisastark351) November 10, 2020
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Hey Ted I literally just took this pic on @CNN RIGHT NOW #TedLies pic.twitter.com/FWIU0ulkAS — UvT (@WasOnceLou) November 10, 2020
At this moment. Just stop please... pic.twitter.com/mtrHMKZbwu — Michael Renz (@renz_0311) November 10, 2020
Your big “gotcha” is that you found a small period of time when the COVID tracker wasn’t on screen? This article updating COVID numbers was posted to CNN’s website 6 minutes ago and the COVID tracking is literally on screen at @cnn RIGHT NOW. Nothing is “cured.” 🤦🏽♂🤦🏽♂🤦🏽♂ pic.twitter.com/dmyedopaIi — Elections Have Consequences (@jaykayokay2020) November 10, 2020
We have record cases every day. One thousand dead a day. My brother in law is one of them. If you’re making jokes, go fuck yourself. And if you’re too stupid to know what’s going on, resign. — Kurt "Mask Up, Vote Early" Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 10, 2020
If your goal is to have more deaths, more cases, and more ongoing permanent morbidity, then keep this up and congratulate yourself.
Now is the time to STOP politicizing science and let scientists, industry, and our institutions do their work WITHOUT your political interference. — (((Howard Forman))) (@thehowie) November 10, 2020
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CNN has literally been talking about the continued surge in coronavirus cases all morning, you absolute melt. — Jelisa Castrodale (@gordonshumway) November 10, 2020
Huh, there it is right on my TV:
November 10, 2020
12:45pm pic.twitter.com/xbOW4ZIJmE — mollyswordmcdonough 🌊 (@mollysmcdonough) November 10, 2020


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--Ex-Defense Secretary: Trump Admin Acting More Like Dictatorship Than Democracy

Former Defense Secretary William Cohen on Tuesday slammed Donald Trump ’ s administration for acting like a “ dictatorship ” as the president refuses to acknowledge defeat in the 2020 election .
“ We ’ re witnessing the decimation of the democratic institutions which the American people have come to expect will be nonpolitical in terms of our national security , ” Cohen told CNN ’ s Don Lemon .
Lemon asked Cohen , a GOP former senator for Maine who led the Pentagon during Bill Clinton ’ s presidency , to comment on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President-elect Joe Biden .
“ There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration , ” Pompeo told reporters Tuesday .
Trump has refused to concede the election , promoted baseless conspiracy theories about mass voter fraud and is purging the Department of Defense of his critics .
“ My reaction is the way they are conducting themselves is more akin to a dictatorship than a democracy , ” Cohen told Lemon .
“ And I think the State Department has been politicized just like the DOD has tried to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ done to undermine the intelligence community and other agencies , ” he added .
“ I think it ’ s consistent with what has been taking place for four years now.
” '' We 're witnessing the decimation of the democratic institutions which the American people have come to expect will be non-political in terms of our national security , '' says former US Defense Secretary William Cohen about Pres .
Trump 's ousting of Pentagon officials pic.twitter.com/Px327ezdZb — CNN Tonight ( @ CNNTonight ) November 11 , 2020

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Former Defense Secretary William Cohen on Tuesday slammed Donald Trump’s administration for acting like a “dictatorship” as the president refuses to acknowledge defeat in the 2020 election.
“We’re witnessing the decimation of the democratic institutions which the American people have come to expect will be nonpolitical in terms of our national security,” Cohen told CNN’s Don Lemon.
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Lemon asked Cohen, a GOP former senator for Maine who led the Pentagon during Bill Clinton’s presidency, to comment on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s refusal to recognize the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.
“There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Pompeo told reporters Tuesday. Trump has refused to concede the election, promoted baseless conspiracy theories about mass voter fraud and is purging the Department of Defense of his critics.
He praised Pompeo on Twitter:
That’s why Mike was number one in his class at West Point! https://t.co/hldYAphqmM — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2020
“My reaction is the way they are conducting themselves is more akin to a dictatorship than a democracy,” Cohen told Lemon.
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“And I think the State Department has been politicized just like the DOD has tried to be politicized, and what we’ve done to undermine the intelligence community and other agencies,” he added. “I think it’s consistent with what has been taking place for four years now.”
Check out the interview here:


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--Trump’s Like ‘Barricaded Subject’ In Hostage Situation: Ex-FBI Assistant Director

Frank Figliuzzi , the FBI ’ s former assistant director for counterintelligence , praised President-elect Joe Biden for how he ’ s handling President Donald Trump , who has refused to concede and is filing legal actions to overturn the 2020 election results .
“ We ’ re coming very close to having what the bureau calls a barricaded subject , ” Figliuzzi said on MSNBC on Tuesday .
“ The barricaded subject is in the White House.
” Biden , he said , is “ right on the money ” with how negotiators handle a barricaded subject initially .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden today , ” Figliuzzi said of the president-elect shrugging off many of Trump ’ s antics .
“ That is exactly what you do in the initial stages , ” he explained , adding that this involves letting the subject vent .
But eventually , he said , Biden will have to call the SWAT team .
That could be in the form of a legal challenge , or “ it may be that U.S. marshals have to come take the president out , ” he said .
“ As we say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way .
”

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Frank Figliuzzi, the FBI’s former assistant director for counterintelligence, praised President-elect Joe Biden for how he’s handling President Donald Trump, who has refused to concede and is filing legal actions to overturn the 2020 election results.
“We’re coming very close to having what the bureau calls a barricaded subject,” Figliuzzi said on MSNBC on Tuesday. “The barricaded subject is in the White House.”
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Biden, he said, is “right on the money” with how negotiators handle a barricaded subject initially.
“We saw a very calm Joe Biden today,” Figliuzzi said of the president-elect shrugging off many of Trump’s antics.
“That is exactly what you do in the initial stages,” he explained, adding that this involves letting the subject vent.
But eventually, he said, Biden will have to call the SWAT team.
That could be in the form of a legal challenge, or “it may be that U.S. marshals have to come take the president out,” he said. “As we say to a barricaded subject, we can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way.”
Watch Figliuzzi’s full conversation with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace above.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--Public Pressure And Lawsuits Kept USPS From Handing Trump The Election. Here's How.

As soon as it became apparent that operational changes made by DeJoy were slowing the mail , an enormous wave of public pressure , including congressional hearings , forced him to back off of making any operational changes before the election .
Voting rights advocates sued to force him to roll back the remaining changes , and public pressure and the U.S. district judge overseeing the federal case , Emmett Sullivan , caused the USPS to adopt what it calls “ extraordinary measures ” to keep ballots moving faster than the rest of the mail .
The point here is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s about honoring the sacred right to vote .
Shankar Duraiswamy , an attorney for Vote Forward in its lawsuit against the USPS A sweep this weekend in Pennsylvania found about 170 ballots that should have been delivered by the state ’ s Friday deadline for counting ballots and weren ’ t .
But those delays did not result in huge , election-swinging numbers of ballots being lost or too delayed to count .
And stories claiming the USPS lost or delayed hundreds of thousands of ballots have proved to be overblown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most districts , Zieve said , the number of ballots being discovered can be characterized as “ a few.
” ‘ Not Working The Way It Should ’ Nor did that mean the majority of those ballots were “ jeopardized , ” much less by the post office .
More than half were bound for California , which allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive up to 17 days later .
In the states where delayed ballots could have swung the election — contested states where absentee ballots must arrive by Election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than 1,000 ballots , in Arizona and Georgia , that were processed after the election , and it ’ s not clear if those ballots were unduly delayed or simply mailed late .
Early this fall , the post office was still dragging its feet in complying with a court order to reverse many of DeJoy ’ s operational changes .
The most notable one was a requirement for more USPS trucks to leave as scheduled , whether or not they had been filled with mail on time , and a corresponding sharp @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extra trips trucks usually make in order to deliver all the day ’ s mail .
The agency claimed that because DeJoy had disincentivized but not banned USPS trucks from making late and extra delivery trips , there was no policy to reverse .
( A furious Sullivan forced the agency to reinstate late and extra delivery trips . )
Postal delays made it harder for an untold number of voters to register , apply for absentee ballots , receive their ballots on time , or receive notice that they needed to fix @ @ @ @ @ @ @ missing signature .
Twenty states still let voters request an absentee ballot less than a week before an election , when it may be physically impossible for the USPS to send and return absentee ballots by Election Day .
One reason New York ran such a disastrous primary this spring is that the New York City Board of Elections officials mailed up to 30,000 absentee ballots the day before the election .

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Voters in some key states were put in a very precarious position as the 2020 election approached. On the one hand, conservative legislatures and courts implemented rules that required mailed ballots to be received by Election Day, regardless of postmark. Meanwhile, as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic and changes implemented by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the mail experienced rolling delays from which it still has not fully recovered.
There was therefore widespread concern that thousands of mailed ballots — in an election where a record-shattering 65.5 million people voted absentee due to the coronavirus pandemic — might not arrive in time. History might hinge on some mundane postal delays.
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But in the end, those delays did not result in thousands of ballots getting lost in the mail or arriving too late to count. Postal workers doing final sweeps of their systems have found just a few ballots — in most cases, they number in the double digits — that were lost or left behind.
“I think, in the end, the post office did a good job,” said Allison Zieve, the director of litigation for Public Citizen, one of several watchdog groups suing the post office to make sure every ballot is delivered.
What made the difference, experts say, was enormous public pressure, multiple lawsuits, scrutiny from the courts, urgent efforts to urge voters to mail their ballots as early as possible, and extraordinary measures taken by the agency itself and its legions of dedicated postal workers.
As soon as it became apparent that operational changes made by DeJoy were slowing the mail, an enormous wave of public pressure, including congressional hearings, forced him to back off of making any operational changes before the election. Voting rights advocates sued to force him to roll back the remaining changes, and public pressure and the U.S. district judge overseeing the federal case, Emmett Sullivan, caused the USPS to adopt what it calls “extraordinary measures” to keep ballots moving faster than the rest of the mail.
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“This summer, we all had really grave concerns,” said Tammy Patrick, a senior adviser at the nonprofit Democracy Fund. Under DeJoy, the post office was signaling it wouldn’t give mail-in ballots the urgent treatment it had in past elections. DeJoy’s high-profile grilling at the hands of congressional Democrats appeared to make a big difference, Patrick said.
“After the congressional hearings, you saw a renewed commitment, the postmaster promised they were going to maintain that commitment. And what I saw leading up to Election Day was exactly that.”
“The point here is not just about election outcomes. It’s about honoring the sacred right to vote.” - Shankar Duraiswamy, an attorney for Vote Forward in its lawsuit against the USPS
There were isolated examples of the system failing to work. Delays in the mail kept thousands of voters from receiving absentee ballots until the week before Election Day, by which time the USPS was already urging voters to return their ballots.
A sweep this weekend in Pennsylvania found about 170 ballots that should have been delivered by the state’s Friday deadline for counting ballots and weren’t. But those delays did not result in huge, election-swinging numbers of ballots being lost or too delayed to count. And stories claiming the USPS lost or delayed hundreds of thousands of ballots have proved to be overblown and based on cherry-picked data. In most districts, Zieve said, the number of ballots being discovered can be characterized as “a few.”
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“As long as I can use that word, a ‘few,’ the litigation did its job and the Postal Service did its job,” Zieve said. “All this was not done in an ideal way. But I feel pretty good about the outcome.”
But the Post Office shouldn’t be judged simply on the standard of whether it single-handedly swung the election. There were still-unexplained mail delays in key states. DeJoy’s initial ulterior motives appear to have been thwarted, but he will remain the postmaster general for the foreseeable future.
“The point here is not just about election outcomes. It’s about honoring the sacred right to vote,” Shankar Duraiswamy, an attorney for Vote Forward, another good-government group suing the USPS, told HuffPost.
‘Not Working The Way It Should’
As voting was underway, and in the tense days before Democrat Joe Biden was projected to win the presidential election on Saturday morning, overstated claims about the number of ballots that were stuck in the mail flew across social media.
An Election Day story and push alert from The New York Times suggested the USPS had lost track of 300,000 ballots at the very last minute. But in the days following, the agency confirmed to Sullivan, the judge, that it had delivered most of those ballots directly to local boards of elections.
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On Thursday, a Washington Post story implied that mail delays caused thousands of ballots to arrive too late to be counted. The headline read, “USPS processed 150,000 ballots after Election Day, jeopardizing thousands of votes,” and the first sentence characterized those 150,000 ballots as being “caught” in the USPS system.
But the obvious implication — that the USPS had mishandled all 150,000 of those ballots — was simply not true. Of those 150,000 ballots, 95% were moving at normal delivery speeds. The reason they were still in the mail was because voters had mailed them only one or two days before Election Day. Those ballots weren’t “caught” or delayed — they were mailed late.
Nor did that mean the majority of those ballots were “jeopardized,” much less by the post office. More than half were bound for California, which allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive up to 17 days later. In the states where delayed ballots could have swung the election — contested states where absentee ballots must arrive by Election Day — the Post story identified less than 1,000 ballots, in Arizona and Georgia, that were processed after the election, and it’s not clear if those ballots were unduly delayed or simply mailed late.
Mail-in ballots in containers from the U.S. Postal Service wait to be processed by election workers in Salt Lake City on Oct. 29, 2020. GEORGE FREY via Getty Images
In Pennsylvania, where the post office delivered 170 ballots late, more than 2.6 million total absentee ballots were cast. Biden’s margin in the state was 45,000 with 98% of the vote reported.
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Still, the Postal Service did a grave disservice to those 170 people. Those ballots that were placed in the mail the Sunday before Election Day and did not arrive until this past Saturday, one day after the deadline for receiving ballots.
“That’s almost a full week,” Duraiswamy said in a court hearing on Monday. “That’s 170 ballots put in the mail before Election Day that are not going to be counted. All of that underscores, notwithstanding the extraordinary efforts, there are still some parts of the system that are not working the way they should.”
Ultimately, Zieve and Duraiswamy don’t believe the post office would have successfully carried out its official plan for expediting ballots without the court pressuring the agency on an almost daily basis to follow through.
Early this fall, the post office was still dragging its feet in complying with a court order to reverse many of DeJoy’s operational changes. The most notable one was a requirement for more USPS trucks to leave as scheduled, whether or not they had been filled with mail on time, and a corresponding sharp drop in the number of late and extra trips trucks usually make in order to deliver all the day’s mail. The agency claimed that because DeJoy had disincentivized but not banned USPS trucks from making late and extra delivery trips, there was no policy to reverse. (A furious Sullivan forced the agency to reinstate late and extra delivery trips.)
The post office still hasn’t given a good explanation for why, week after week, up to one-quarter of ballots were delayed in key swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. The agency’s explanations for slow delivery — COVID-19, “employee availability” — remain vague and unsatisfactory to critics.
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“COVID has been a factor for months,” Zieve said. “Those were, for the most part, BS explanations from beginning to end.”
The post office also failed to put someone in charge of drawing up the “extraordinary measures” for expediting ballots until about a month before Election Day, according to testimony from one postal official.
Alarmed by all this, the court required the post office to provide daily data and updates on how quickly ballots were being delivered in the week leading up to Election Day. It was that level of oversight, Duraiswamy believes, that forced the USPS to follow through on its “extraordinary measures” with the intensity needed.
“It’s not just a matter of, do you put the right words on a piece of paper and send out the memo? It’s, do you have the commitment and oversight that translates those nice words into action?” Duraiswamy said. “It’s safe to say the litigation pressure made a real and meaningful difference in pushing them to get through as many ballots as possible.”
Squeezed On All Sides
The 2020 election has demonstrated that a lot has to change if mail-in voting is going to become the country’s norm. Election Day wasn’t the catastrophe many people feared, but a lot went wrong before the USPS managed to deliver the vast majority of ballots on time. The pressure of litigation is temporary; the reliance of the country’s elections on the post office is permanent.
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Postal delays made it harder for an untold number of voters to register, apply for absentee ballots, receive their ballots on time, or receive notice that they needed to fix mistakes on their ballots, like a missing signature. Twenty states still let voters request an absentee ballot less than a week before an election, when it may be physically impossible for the USPS to send and return absentee ballots by Election Day. One reason New York ran such a disastrous primary this spring is that the New York City Board of Elections officials mailed up to 30,000 absentee ballots the day before the election.
This summer, with virtually no public notice or explanation, the USPS began enforcing a little-known ban on allowing mail carriers to witness ballots in the four states that require a witness signature: Alaska, Alabama, and the swing states of North Carolina and Wisconsin.
“Everything we hear is that the individual postal workers have been working hard and working overtime.” - Allison Zieve, the director of litigation for Public Citizen
President Donald Trump also showed he could make it more difficult to vote simply by throwing suspicion on votes cast by mail. He spent the months leading up to the election making false claims about mail-in voting being “RAMPANT WITH FRAUD”. With Trump’s encouragement, Republicans in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania killed legislation that would have allowed election officials to tally absentee ballots before Election Day.
His goal in all this was to not only give absentee ballots an air of illegitimacy but to launch a massive legal battle in the extra time it took states to count votes.
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In the end, it didn’t physically slow the mail or give Trump the opening he was counting on: On Saturday, the day Biden secured the Electoral College votes he needed for victory, Trump ally Rudy Giuliani debuted the Trump team’s lawsuit “strategy” in a parking lot outside Four Seasons Total Landscaping to universal ridicule. But Trump did succeed in making countless voters fear their voices wouldn’t be heard if they used the mail to vote. As Election Day drew closer (but when there was still time to vote by mail), polls found fewer and fewer voters prepared to trust voting by mail.
This was not an election in which any would-be absentee voters could easily turn around and go to the polls — to the extent that has even been easy — particularly in communities vulnerable to the coronavirus.
“People were being squeezed on all ends,” said Duraiswamy. “Squeezed by the pandemic that makes it unsafe to vote in person, by election officials not processing and sending their absentee ballots on time, by the Postal Service on both ends — getting ballots out to them and then getting ballots back. And they’re being squeezed by judges and courts that were not allowing extensions for ballots to arrive.”
One group of people who did right by voters, many agreed, were postal workers.
“Everything we hear is that the individual postal workers have been working hard and working overtime, doing everything they could to follow their instructions and do everything they could to deliver ballots on time,” Zieve said.
“I would hate for people to come away from this situation thinking negatively about the people who work at the Postal Service, who worked so hard to do their jobs and their duty. I hope this actually gave people confidence in the integrity of the electoral and democratic system in a very unusual election,” Duraiswamy said.
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--CNN’s Brianna Keilar Slams The Sycophants, Enablers And Toadies Still Backing Trump

CNN ’ s Brianna Keilar on Tuesday named and shamed some of the sycophants assisting President Donald Trump in spinning @ @ @ @ @ actually won the 2020 election .
Keilar slammed Attorney General Bill Barr , Senate Majority @ @ @ @ @ ) , the Republican senators who haven ’ t congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his @ @ @ @ @ s children and Trump ’ s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani as some of the worst @ @ @ @ @ reserved particular scorn , though , for the prime time personalities on rival network Fox @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s “ biggest enabler.
” Check out the video here :

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thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--Jimmy Kimmel Tells Trump Donors Where He Thinks Their 'Election Defense' Money's Going

Jimmy Kimmel is guessing where donations to President Donald Trump ’ s “ election legal defense fund ” are really going .
The Trump campaign has been badgering supporters to aid its efforts to fight the results of the 2020 election .
However , the fine print on the solicitations reveal that more than half of any donation will be used to cover the campaign ’ s debt .
Other emails requesting money for election legal challenges have fine print that indicates the majority of the contribution would go to Save America , a political action committee that Trump recently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to fund his post-presidency political activities .
“ Basically at this point , any money you give to Trump goes towards paying , like , Kimberly Guilfoyle ’ s Drybar bill , ” the comedian said Tuesday on “ Jimmy Kimmel Live !
” He also pointed to the $ 421 million in debt that the president has personally guaranteed , reported by the New York Times in September , which will reportedly mostly be coming due within the next four years .
Kimmel quipped that it was probably where the lion ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , allocated to “ God knows who.
” He pulled up a pie chart to illustrate his other suspicions :

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Jimmy Kimmel is guessing where donations to President Donald Trump’s “election legal defense fund” are really going.
The Trump campaign has been badgering supporters to aid its efforts to fight the results of the 2020 election. However, the fine print on the solicitations reveal that more than half of any donation will be used to cover the campaign’s debt.
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Other emails requesting money for election legal challenges have fine print that indicates the majority of the contribution would go to Save America, a political action committee that Trump recently set up that will likely be used to fund his post-presidency political activities.
“Basically at this point, any money you give to Trump goes towards paying, like, Kimberly Guilfoyle’s Drybar bill,” the comedian said Tuesday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
He also pointed to the $421 million in debt that the president has personally guaranteed, reported by the New York Times in September, which will reportedly mostly be coming due within the next four years.
Kimmel quipped that it was probably where the lion’s share of donations would be headed, allocated to “God knows who.”
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He pulled up a pie chart to illustrate his other suspicions:
Where Jimmy Kimmel thinks Trump donors' money is going. Jimmy Kimmel Live


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--Harvard Law Professor Nails The Hypocrisy Of Mitch McConnell’s Defense Of Donald Trump

Harvard constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe on Tuesday pointed out the stunning hypocrisy for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ( R-Ky. ) to defend President Donald Trump , who has raised baseless allegations of mass voter fraud while simultaneously celebrating the election victories of Senate Republicans .
In an appearance on CNN ’ s “ Outfront , ” Tribe told host Erin Burnett that “ there ’ s nothing there ” in the slew of lawsuits that the Trump campaign has filed alleging election irregularities in a bid to overturn the result of the 2020 election .
“ And if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ things , McConnell wouldn ’ t be the majority leader because the ballots that they say were fraudulent without any evidence are the very ballots that have elected the Republicans to the Senate , ” Tribe said , adding , “ They can ’ t have it both ways .
They can ’ t claim that they retook the Senate and that the whole election is a fraud.
” “ It is the arguments that they ’ re advancing that are fraudulent , ” he continued .
“ Yes , they have a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to waste money going to court .
But it ’ s not gon na get anywhere.
” “ He ’ s 0 for 12 in the cases that I ’ ve counted , ” says legal scholar Laurence Tribe about Pres .
Trump 's election lawsuits .
“ I ’ ve read the complaints .
There ’ s nothing there .
...
If there were , then among other things , McConnell wouldn ’ t be the [ Senate ] majority leader.
” pic.twitter.com/Q05JaSOflr — OutFrontCNN ( @ OutFrontCNN ) November 11 , @

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Harvard constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe on Tuesday pointed out the stunning hypocrisy for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to defend President Donald Trump, who has raised baseless allegations of mass voter fraud, while simultaneously celebrating the election victories of Senate Republicans.
In an appearance on CNN’s “Outfront,” Tribe told host Erin Burnett that “there’s nothing there” in the slew of lawsuits that the Trump campaign has filed alleging election irregularities in a bid to overturn the result of the 2020 election.
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“And if there were, then, among other things, McConnell wouldn’t be the majority leader because the ballots that they say were fraudulent without any evidence are the very ballots that have elected the Republicans to the Senate,” Tribe said, adding, “They can’t have it both ways. They can’t claim that they retook the Senate and that the whole election is a fraud.”
“It is the arguments that they’re advancing that are fraudulent,” he continued. “Yes, they have a theoretical right to go to court, to waste money going to court. But it’s not gonna get anywhere.”
Check out the interview here:


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--Georgia's Congressional Republicans Can't Spell 'Georgia' In Vote Fraud Letter

Current and newly elected Republican members of Congress from Georgia pushed the state Tuesday to review what they called “ irregularities that cloud the state ’ s election.
” No surprise there .
The GOP delegation is falling in lockstep behind lame duck President Donald Trump ’ s lies about a stolen election to explain his defeat to President-elect Joe Biden .
But the letter might have carried more weight if the House representatives had spelled “ Georgia ” correctly .
Their request addresses Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger , a Trump-endorsed Republican overseeing the vote-counting in the state , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Georgia ’ s votes for president are still being counted and the neck-and-neck tally is headed for a recount .
Still , Raffensperger said he expected the final outcome to show Biden the winner by a thin margin .
Georgia ’ s Republican Sens .
David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler , who will compete in runoffs in January , also hurled false allegations of election fraud and called for Raffensperger to resign after GOP candidates underperformed in the state .
Raffensperger , who said he joined the senators in being “ unhappy with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” called Georgia ’ s elections “ transparent ” and “ orderly.
” As for the state of George , well , Twitter elected to mock the misspelling .
I would ’ ve been more likely to fuck up Raffensperger than Georgia , but we all face our own unique challenges , I suppose .
— maud beard bush ( @ languidlyy ) November 11 , 2020

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Current and newly elected Republican members of Congress from Georgia pushed the state Tuesday to review what they called “irregularities that cloud the state’s election.”
No surprise there. The GOP delegation is falling in lockstep behind lame duck President Donald Trump’s lies about a stolen election to explain his defeat to President-elect Joe Biden.
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But the letter might have carried more weight if the House representatives had spelled “Georgia” correctly. Their request addresses Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Trump-endorsed Republican overseeing the vote-counting in the state, as the George secretary of state.
They misspelled Georgia. The name of the state. https://t.co/m558LNPZ55 — Conor Sen (@conorsen) November 10, 2020
Georgia’s votes for president are still being counted and the neck-and-neck tally is headed for a recount. Still, Raffensperger said he expected the final outcome to show Biden the winner by a thin margin.
Georgia’s Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who will compete in runoffs in January, also hurled false allegations of election fraud and called for Raffensperger to resign after GOP candidates underperformed in the state. Raffensperger, who said he joined the senators in being “unhappy with the potential outcome for our President,” called Georgia’s elections “transparent” and “orderly.”
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As for the state of George, well, Twitter elected to mock the misspelling.
Idiots — Charlie Brown (@Charlie98344529) November 11, 2020
Renamed the state to a strong, mans name. George — DavidGreco91 (@DGreco91) November 11, 2020
They gave the editorial job to Eric Trump. — ForegroundNoise (@DoubleFingerUzi) November 11, 2020
I would’ve been more likely to fuck up Raffensperger than Georgia, but we all face our own unique challenges, I suppose. — maud beard bush (@languidlyy) November 11, 2020
Here's how you're supposed to spell it: Joe'gia. 😁 pic.twitter.com/Ei6u199fqT — I ♥ Philly. 🇺🇸 🌊 (@shelfemployed) November 11, 2020
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--3 Reasons It Took So Long To Get Our First Madam Vice President

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is set to become the first woman to make it across the finish line to the White House .
Two other women came before her .
Both were on losing tickets .
In 1984 , Geraldine Ferraro went down in flames along with Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale , winning just one state and the District of Columbia against President Ronald Reagan in an epic shellacking that seems unreal compared to our fraught times .
( Look at this seriously red map ! )
It ’ s hard to extrapolate much from a sample size of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ key factors behind Harris ’ success .
And they point the way toward more female candidates to come .
The 2020 election marked the first time a woman wasn ’ t chosen as a last-ditch effort by a flailing candidate .
Harris was a deliberate pick by Biden , who had said all along he would select a woman .
Crucially , he had a lead over Donald Trump in the polls and a clear shot at winning .
Palin , who was not well known outside of Alaska , was famously not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rush to get her on the ticket .
Ferraro was a congresswoman from New York , not a national figure .
“ Mondale and McCain were behind in the polls and needed to have a game changer vice presidential selection , ” said Betsy Fischer Martin , executive director of the Women & Politics Institute at the American University School of Public Affairs .
“ They had very little chance of actually winning .
Especially when you look at the landslide victories of their opponents.
” Harris Was A Well Known National @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She has fans and national recognition .
She grabbed headlines in 2018 when her pointed grilling of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh went viral .
She widened her appeal by running for president herself , and was considered a serious contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination .
Harris , in fact , had one of the very few memorable moments from the many , many Democratic debates in this cycle , when she took on Biden about his record on busing .
Women Almost Never Get Selected The fact is , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been vice presidential candidates is extremely simple : Almost all the time , men get chosen as running mates .
You must be in it to win it , as the saying goes .
Women , despite having relatively similar or better results in elections , are still seen as risky candidates ― especially for executive-level roles .
There has still never been a Black woman elected governor , and only 44 female governors in U.S. history , compared to more than 2,300 men .
Even dumber , women are not typically viewed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if you look at all the past vice presidents , you see only men .
It ’ s a brutal bit of circular logic that Harris was able to wriggle out from under .
Hunter said one reason Harris was able to succeed is because after years in public service , she ’ s especially skilled at walking the tightrope of being a woman in the public eye .
Female politicians are expected to be both strong leaders and soft and feminine .
Harris does that with aplomb , Hunter said .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ women seek executive office , they have to satisfy both gender stereotypes , ” she said .
“ They have to prove they ’ re strong enough and maintain their femininity to make everyone feel comfortable.
” And , of course , Harris was running in 2020 ― two years after women made historic inroads in the midterm elections , four years after a woman at the top of the ticket won the popular vote , and at a time when Americans are becoming more comfortable with women in office .
Back in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sexist attacks ― was she abandoning her children ?
Could she really handle being president ― that would be less likely to happen today .
The First , Not The Last Martin credits Biden for making this historic selection , which she said demonstrates he understood the moment we ’ re in : that six women ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020 .
That a record number of women are in Congress .
And that the future is a lot more female .
Picking 56-year-old Harris helps chart a course for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @

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Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is set to become the first woman to make it across the finish line to the White House. Two other women came before her. Both were on losing tickets.
In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro went down in flames along with Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale, winning just one state and the District of Columbia against President Ronald Reagan in an epic shellacking that seems unreal compared to our fraught times. (Look at this seriously red map!)
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In 2008, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s hockey mom, pitbull thing wasn’t enough to put John McCain ahead of Barack Obama. Indeed, Palin’s lack of preparedness for her moment in the spotlight was likely more of a liability for the late Republican senator from Arizona.
It’s hard to extrapolate much from a sample size of three, but there are a few key factors behind Harris’ success. And they point the way toward more female candidates to come.
Harris Was No Last-Ditch Pick
The 2020 election marked the first time a woman wasn’t chosen as a last-ditch effort by a flailing candidate. Harris was a deliberate pick by Biden, who had said all along he would select a woman. Crucially, he had a lead over Donald Trump in the polls and a clear shot at winning.
Mondale and McCain were struggling when they chose their running mates, and the selection of a woman was a Hail Mary play to generate excitement.
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Palin, who was not well known outside of Alaska, was famously not well vetted by the McCain team in the rush to get her on the ticket. Ferraro was a congresswoman from New York, not a national figure.
“Mondale and McCain were behind in the polls and needed to have a game changer vice presidential selection,” said Betsy Fischer Martin, executive director of the Women & Politics Institute at the American University School of Public Affairs. “They had very little chance of actually winning. Especially when you look at the landslide victories of their opponents.”
Harris Was A Well Known National Figure
Harris was not an obscure pick. She has fans and national recognition. She grabbed headlines in 2018 when her pointed grilling of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh went viral. She widened her appeal by running for president herself, and was considered a serious contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Harris, in fact, had one of the very few memorable moments from the many, many Democratic debates in this cycle, when she took on Biden about his record on busing.
“This wasn’t somebody who nobody had heard of, plopped in as a way to demonstrate some sort of symbolic nod to women,” said Jennifer Lawless, a political science professor at the University of Virginia.
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Women Almost Never Get Selected
The fact is, the bottom-line reason more women haven’t been vice presidential candidates is extremely simple: Almost all the time, men get chosen as running mates. You must be in it to win it, as the saying goes.
Women, despite having relatively similar or better results in elections, are still seen as risky candidates ― especially for executive-level roles. There has still never been a Black woman elected governor, and only 44 female governors in U.S. history, compared to more than 2,300 men.
Even dumber, women are not typically viewed as “vice presidential” because literally if you look at all the past vice presidents, you see only men. It’s a brutal bit of circular logic that Harris was able to wriggle out from under.
So, yes, Harris’ win is symbolic.
“[It] shows the world that women are electable in America, that Black women are electable in America. And that’s really important,” said Amanda Hunter, communications director at the Barbara Lee Foundation.
Hunter said one reason Harris was able to succeed is because after years in public service, she’s especially skilled at walking the tightrope of being a woman in the public eye. Female politicians are expected to be both strong leaders and soft and feminine. Harris does that with aplomb, Hunter said.
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“We know from our research that when women seek executive office, they have to satisfy both gender stereotypes,” she said. “They have to prove they’re strong enough and maintain their femininity to make everyone feel comfortable.”
Harris pulled this off with a strong assist from social media, Hunter pointed out. We saw those videos of her grilling Supreme Court nominees and of her talking to little girls about their potential.
And, of course, Harris was running in 2020 ― two years after women made historic inroads in the midterm elections, four years after a woman at the top of the ticket won the popular vote, and at a time when Americans are becoming more comfortable with women in office. Back in 1984, Ferraro was fending off blatantly sexist attacks ― was she abandoning her children? Could she really handle being president ― that would be less likely to happen today.
The First, Not The Last
Martin credits Biden for making this historic selection, which she said demonstrates he understood the moment we’re in: that six women ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020. That a record number of women are in Congress. And that the future is a lot more female. Picking 56-year-old Harris helps chart a course for the Democratic party in 2024 or 2028.
On Saturday night, it was Harris clad in suffragette white who introduced the president-elect with an inspiring message for women and girls.
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In 2008, Biden didn’t speak at all when Barack Obama gave his famous victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-11-11--It's Time For Northerners To Give Up Outdated Prejudices About The American South

Jon Cherry via Getty Images A Biden/Harris sign adorned the yard of a home in Louisville , Kentucky , in mid-October .
Although Kentucky remained reliably Republican , another state that was part of the Confederacy -- Georgia -- provided one of the 2020 election 's major surprises .
Pending a recount unlikely to reverse a Biden margin over Trump that as of Tuesday evening stood at more than 14,000 votes , the former vice president will be the first Democrat to flip the state from the GOP column in nearly 30 years .
The jolt this caused among many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the Deep South , after all .
But I wasn ’ t surprised .
As a native New Yorker , I know the results in Georgia are a wake-up call for many Americans unfamiliar with the South ’ s shifting political landscape .
But a political revolution and a cultural renaissance have been underway here for decades .
The nail-bitingly-close results we ’ ve seen in this election in Georgia and North Carolina ( which Trump won by less than 2 percentage points ) and the increasing competitiveness of Texas in presidential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the whole region .
I ’ m one of many millennials who fled New York City due to the coronavirus pandemic and chose to move back to the South , where I ’ d lived five years previously .
Even before the pandemic , the South was gaining great numbers of young people from all over the country , many of them liberal .
Everyone has their own reasons for moving to the South .
I came initially as a Teach for America corps member in 2013 .
I didn ’ t expect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Memphis , a city I ’ d only heard referenced in blues songs and history books .
But the South stole my heart , from the vibrant local music and arts community , to the inspiring activists working to end educational inequity , to the funky boutiques and coffee shops in this city that feels like a small town .
Three of my hometown best friends chose to settle in the South after college , to the chagrin of our New Yorker baby boomer parents .
Like many millennials , our parents ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the unrest of the ’ 60s , and so they warned us to carry pepper spray in our purses and keep our noses out of politics .
We rolled our eyes ; they couldn ’ t see what we knew : that in the South we could buy affordable houses — at age 25 !
— and would spend winter weekends at the beach , sampling delicious Southern-fusion cuisine at microbreweries that would make any New Yorker jealous .
When I moved to the South , I easily met a community of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lawyers , chefs , urban planners and religious leaders — who believed in ( and voted for ) the same things I do : feminism , social justice , expanded health care and social services , rights for LGBTQ people and marginalized groups .
And they weren ’ t all transplants like me .
Many were born and raised Southerners .
Culturally , Southern cities might surprise many Northerners : Here in Memphis , a typical day in 2020 begins with a visit to the farmers market , where progressive nonprofits sell vegetables @ @ @ @ @ @ @ schools ( including some of my former pupils ) .
We ’ ll have our temperatures checked before entering a restaurant practicing social distancing to enjoy the city ’ s many delicious Vietnamese , Ethiopian or Caribbean offerings .
At night I ’ ll drive five minutes to a local gay bar for a drag comedy night , passing a field of Biden + Harris and Justice for Breonna lawn signs along the way .
The South has its problems , of course .
A long history of voter suppression and redlining here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ region ’ s states , and may have blocked a larger Democratic majority from surfacing in Georgia last week .
A deep legacy of racism and injustice persists , from the enduring school-to-prison pipeline , to food deserts in poor neighborhoods , to racial profiling within local police forces that leads to the needless killings of Black people .
But these problems are also widespread across the U.S. , not isolated below the Mason-Dixon line .
This is a tough pill to swallow for many Northerners , but it shouldn ’ t come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years .
Look at the swastikas graffitied on New York subways , or the MAGA caravan that blocked traffic on the Mario Cuomo Bridge a few days before the election .
Bigotry transcends borders , and it lives on — sometimes insidious , but increasingly outright in the age of Donald Trump — in New York and the rest of the liberal Northeast .
The Georgia runoff election in January for two crucial Senate seats will be a contest between the conservative old South that some liberal Northerners scoff at ( one that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I can ’ t deny ) and the emerging South that I know — one that is increasingly liberal , progressive and diverse .
On the frontlines of this growing blue wave are Black and progressive Southern leaders who have been fighting the good fight for years .
Stacey Abrams and Jaime Harrison are two of the most prominent — but scores of Democratic organizers , PACs and progressive nonprofits are also working to expand voting rights , ballot access and enthusiasm for their causes here in the South .
Beyond politics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the culture of a city like Memphis , which has been strengthened and shaped by Black community power .
Immigrants are moving here from across the globe ; Confederate monuments are coming down ; the community rallies around new women- and POC-owned businesses .

A Biden/Harris sign adorned the yard of a home in Louisville, Kentucky, in mid-October. Although Kentucky remained reliably Republican, another state that was part of the Confederacy -- Georgia -- provided one of the 2020 election's major surprises. Jon Cherry via Getty Images
Plenty of Americans — particularly those in the Northeast — reacted with shock last Friday when Joe Biden overtook President Donald Trump’s lead in Georgia.
Pending a recount unlikely to reverse a Biden margin over Trump that as of Tuesday evening stood at more than 14,000 votes, the former vice president will be the first Democrat to flip the state from the GOP column in nearly 30 years. The jolt this caused among many is understandable. We’re talking about the Deep South, after all.
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But I wasn’t surprised. As a native New Yorker, I know the results in Georgia are a wake-up call for many Americans unfamiliar with the South’s shifting political landscape. But a political revolution and a cultural renaissance have been underway here for decades. The nail-bitingly-close results we’ve seen in this election in Georgia and North Carolina (which Trump won by less than 2 percentage points) and the increasing competitiveness of Texas in presidential races reflect a sweeping change underway across the whole region.
I’ve witnessed this firsthand as a resident of Memphis, Tennessee, where I now live.
I’m one of many millennials who fled New York City due to the coronavirus pandemic and chose to move back to the South, where I’d lived five years previously. Even before the pandemic, the South was gaining great numbers of young people from all over the country, many of them liberal.
Everyone has their own reasons for moving to the South. I came initially as a Teach for America corps member in 2013. I didn’t expect to fall so deeply in love with Memphis, a city I’d only heard referenced in blues songs and history books. But the South stole my heart, from the vibrant local music and arts community, to the inspiring activists working to end educational inequity, to the funky boutiques and coffee shops in this city that feels like a small town.
Other millennials are moving to the South to join the tech boom in places like Austin, Texas, and Raleigh, North Carolina. Or they are drawn to the lower cost of living and the artsy, Brooklyn-like neighborhoods in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Fayetteville, North Carolina.
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Three of my hometown best friends chose to settle in the South after college, to the chagrin of our New Yorker baby boomer parents. Like many millennials, our parents’ impressions of the South had been formed by the unrest of the ’60s, and so they warned us to carry pepper spray in our purses and keep our noses out of politics. We rolled our eyes; they couldn’t see what we knew: that in the South we could buy affordable houses — at age 25! — and would spend winter weekends at the beach, sampling delicious Southern-fusion cuisine at microbreweries that would make any New Yorker jealous.
When I moved to the South, I easily met a community of other idealistic young people — teachers, lawyers, chefs, urban planners and religious leaders — who believed in (and voted for) the same things I do: feminism, social justice, expanded health care and social services, rights for LGBTQ people and marginalized groups. And they weren’t all transplants like me. Many were born and raised Southerners.
Like many who grow up in the North, at a young age I absorbed a negative impression of the “backward” South, crippled by its legacy of slavery and Jim Crow oppression.
Fast-forwarding to 2020, a solid blue majority in Charleston, South Carolina, Memphis, Dallas and other Southern cities helped propel the Democratic ticket of Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris to win the largest popular vote in U.S. history.
Culturally, Southern cities might surprise many Northerners: Here in Memphis, a typical day in 2020 begins with a visit to the farmers market, where progressive nonprofits sell vegetables grown by local students from Title I schools (including some of my former pupils). We’ll have our temperatures checked before entering a restaurant practicing social distancing to enjoy the city’s many delicious Vietnamese, Ethiopian or Caribbean offerings. At night I’ll drive five minutes to a local gay bar for a drag comedy night, passing a field of Biden + Harris and Justice for Breonna lawn signs along the way.
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This is the South I know and have chosen to make my home.
The South has its problems, of course. A long history of voter suppression and redlining here continues to influence voting patterns in the region’s states, and may have blocked a larger Democratic majority from surfacing in Georgia last week. A deep legacy of racism and injustice persists, from the enduring school-to-prison pipeline, to food deserts in poor neighborhoods, to racial profiling within local police forces that leads to the needless killings of Black people.
But these problems are also widespread across the U.S., not isolated below the Mason-Dixon line. This is a tough pill to swallow for many Northerners, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise after the past four years. Look at the swastikas graffitied on New York subways, or the MAGA caravan that blocked traffic on the Mario Cuomo Bridge a few days before the election. Bigotry transcends borders, and it lives on — sometimes insidious, but increasingly outright in the age of Donald Trump — in New York and the rest of the liberal Northeast.
In the South, many of us think things are changing for the better.
The Georgia runoff election in January for two crucial Senate seats will be a contest between the conservative old South that some liberal Northerners scoff at (one that still exists and has pervasive political influence, I can’t deny) and the emerging South that I know — one that is increasingly liberal, progressive and diverse.
On the frontlines of this growing blue wave are Black and progressive Southern leaders who have been fighting the good fight for years. Stacey Abrams and Jaime Harrison are two of the most prominent — but scores of Democratic organizers, PACs and progressive nonprofits are also working to expand voting rights, ballot access and enthusiasm for their causes here in the South.
Beyond politics, you can feel change underway in the culture of a city like Memphis, which has been strengthened and shaped by Black community power. Immigrants are moving here from across the globe; Confederate monuments are coming down; the community rallies around new women- and POC-owned businesses.
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When I moved away after my Teach for America service ended, I didn’t predict that I would come back five years later in the midst of a pandemic, fleeing my tiny and overpriced Manhattan apartment for Memphis’ green and airy sprawl. But coming back here felt like coming home.
It’s time for Northerners to give up outdated prejudices about the American South and wake up to the reality that I see confirmed here every day. Places don’t vote, people do. And the people of the South have a voice and a vote. Last week’s altered electoral map should have taught us that.