The mind of a Democrat can never truly be understood

Cuomo: Drug Addicts In Rehab Will Be Given Vaccine Before The Elderly

--------------------------------

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that COVID vaccines would be given to drug addicts in rehabilitation facilities prior to elderly citizens living outside of nursing homes.

The declaration came during a press conference in Albany, New York on Monday.

It is a curious decision considering the governor is currently embroiled in a scandal in which he has been accused of taking actions that led to thousands of unnecessary deaths of senior citizens.

Cuomo’s logic is based on getting the vaccine to people in ‘congregate’ locations such as those in facilities operated by the Office of Addiction Services and Supports, or OASAS.

“These are congregate facilities. Congregate facilities are problematic. That’s where you have a lot of people in concentration,” he said.

“Nursing homes are obviously the most problematic because they’re congregate plus older, vulnerable people,” Cuomo continued. “OASAS facilities, what we call the O facilities, they’re congregate — not necessarily older — but congregate facilities.”

New York administered vaccines to nursing home residents and front-line health care workers last week.

Cuomo Criticized For Prioritizing Drug Addicts Over The Elderly

Governor Andrew Cuomo was quickly eviscerated for his plan to inoculate drug addicts before the elderly.

Rep. Elise Stefanik called the New York Democrat an “absolute disgrace” and the “worst governor in America” over the move.

“The Worst Governor in America streak continues,” the Republican congresswoman tweeted. “This time prioritizing vaccines for drug addicts over tens of thousands of seniors who have been homebound since the start of the pandemic. An absolute disgrace.”

Insane or shooting for another Emmy? Hey, this is New York you never know.

Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, whose husband’s parents were both victims of COVID-19, and in whom nursing homes in New York played a part, also offered commentary.

Former New York Post columnist Fred Dicker posted a claim from a “longtime radio listener” that they were appalled that a nursing home in Albany County had yet to receive their vaccinations when Cuomo announced the rehab center prioritization.

“One of (the) biggest nursing homes in Albany County, filled with at-risk seniors, still hasn’t gotten the vaccine, same with assisted living, and Cuomo is giving it to drug addicts?” the listener claimed.

Dean replied by pointing out that it isn’t just drug addicts, but “members of Congress and their staff members are cutting the line” as well.

RELATED: Janice Dean Demands Cuomo Be Held Accountable For COVID Deaths As NY Governor Blames ‘Super-Spreader’ Trump

Priorities Are Skewed

New York City Councilman Chaim Deutsch, a Democrat, also criticized putting drug addicts in front of the elderly or those with underlying conditions.

“NYS is continuing to demonstrate the most bizarre priorities,” Deutsch wrote.

“There are several million seniors and immuno-compromised New York State residents,” he continued. “As the folks with the highest death rates from COVID, why are they not at the top of the list?”

Last week, Dean obliterated Governor Cuomo after he alleged Santa would be good to him on Christmas because he “worked hard this year.”

“Worked hard to help kill seniors, jobs and New York State in general?” she fired back.

Cuomo famously issued an executive order forcing nursing homes to take on patients that had tested positive for coronavirus.

The order prohibited facilities from requiring incoming patients “to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission,” and may have contributed to well over 6,600 deaths in New York.

To put it in perspective... Samuel Little died Wednesday he only killed 93!

“Just a reminder that [Cuomo] ordered over 6,000 Covid patients into nursing homes for 46 days, didn’t use the Javits Center or the Comfort ship that were provided by the federal government, and is still lying about the total number of seniors that died from it,” tweeted Dean.

Cuomo, the leader of a state which had by far the highest number of COVID-related deaths of which seniors suffered a disproportionate percentage, is currently selling a book about how he conquered the pandemic.

The percentage of New Yorkers who tested positive for COVID-19 went from 5.8 percent to 8.3 percent over the three-day Christmas weekend.

The mind of a Democrat can never truly be understood

Trump ends Obama's 12-year run as most admired man:

So Trump the most admired loses to Bribem who ‘acquired' the election?

Proving you can hide in your basement when you already know the result.

---------------------------------

President Trump has ended former President Obama's 12-year run as the most admired man in America, edging out his predecessor in the annual Gallup survey released Tuesday.

Eighteen percent of the survey's respondents named Trump as their most admired man, compared to 15 percent who named Obama and 6 percent who named President-elect Joe Biden. Three percent named National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, while 2 percent chose Pope Francis.

Rounding out the top 10 were Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and the Dalai Lama, all of whom received 1 percent.

The sitting U.S. president has been named the pollster’s most-admired man in 60 out of 74 years, including all eight years of Obama’s presidency and every year of George W. Bush’s presidency except for 2008. Trump had finished second to Obama in 2017 and 2018.

The 2020 rankings are the 10th time Trump has ranked among the top 10. Before entering the political sphere, he made the list in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 2011. Biden made only his second appearance in the top 10 after making the list in 2018.

Among Republicans surveyed, 48 percent of respondents named Trump as their most admired man. No other public figure got more than 2 percent Republican support, according to Gallup. Among independents, both Obama and Trump received 11 percent support. Fauci was the choice of 5 percent of Democrats but just 1 percent of Republicans.

The record holder for appearances in the survey's top 10 is the late Rev. Billy Graham, who made the list 61 times before his 2018 death. Former President Carter, who has appeared on the list 29 times, is the most-represented living person.

Trump ends Obama's 12-year run as most admired man:

Moderna COVID-19 vaccine may cause side effects for those with cosmetic facial fillers: FDA

This could spell the end for 'Botox Pelosi' and the Kardashians.

(One of the side effects is giving stimulus money (that we don't have) to the Kennedy Center and foreign governments rather than the American people)

If they get anywhere near a vaccine it will be worse than the explosion in Nashville.

------------------------------

People with cosmetic facial fillers could experience swelling and inflammation with one of the coronavirus vaccines, the FDA advisory committee noted.

According to the committee, several trial participants with fillers have already experienced side effects. A California-based dermatologist said the reaction was immunological, ABC7 reported on Thursday.

“Your immune system which causes inflammation is revved up when you get a vaccine, that’s how it’s supposed to work,” said Dr. Shirley Chi, who noted the side effects were easily treated by medical personnel.

“So it makes sense that you would see an immune response in certain areas where they see some substance that is not a naturally occurring substance in your body.”

She said, however, that the side effects shouldn’t stop people from obtaining the vaccine. 

“In these cases the patients all had swelling and inflammation in the area that was given the filler,” Chi said.

“A couple of the patients had cheek filler six months prior to their vaccine and one patient had lip filler done two days after the vaccine.”

Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine received approval from the FDA on Friday, offering an alternative to one from Pfizer and BioNTech.

The two work “better than we almost dared to hope,” NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins told The Associated Press. “Science is working here, science has done something amazing.”

Early results of large, still unfinished studies show both vaccines appear safe and strongly protective although Moderna’s is easier to handle since it doesn’t need to be stored at ultra-frozen temperatures.

Moderna COVID-19 vaccine may cause side effects for those with cosmetic facial fillers: FDA

China to leapfrog U.S. as world's biggest economy by 2028

 

Just what I didn't want to read.

And how did they do it? Infecting the world with C-19 for starters, old fashion spying, computer hacking, and for years stealing our intellectual property while we sat by and did nothing.

Oh... and we better arm to the teeth!

---------------------------

Fri, December 25, 2020, 8:18 PM EST

People look at the skyline of the Central Business District in Beijing

LONDON (Reuters) - China will overtake the United States to become the world's biggest economy in 2028, five years earlier than previously estimated due to the contrasting recoveries of the two countries from the COVID-19 pandemic, a think tank said.

"For some time, an overarching theme of global economics has been the economic and soft power struggle between the United States and China," the Centre for Economics and Business Research said in an annual report published on Saturday.

"The COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding economic fallout have certainly tipped this rivalry in China's favour."

The CEBR said China's "skilful management of the pandemic", with its strict early lockdown, and hits to long-term growth in the West meant China's relative economic performance had improved.

China looked set for average economic growth of 5.7% a year from 2021-25 before slowing to 4.5% a year from 2026-30.

While the United States was likely to have a strong post-pandemic rebound in 2021, its growth would slow to 1.9% a year between 2022 and 2024, and then to 1.6% after that.

Japan would remain the world's third-biggest economy, in dollar terms, until the early 2030s when it would be overtaken by India, pushing Germany down from fourth to fifth.

The United Kingdom, currently the fifth-biggest economy by the CEBR's measure, would slip to sixth place from 2024.

However, despite a hit in 2021 from its exit from the European Union's single market, British GDP in dollars was forecast to be 23% higher than France's by 2035, helped by Britain's lead in the increasingly important digital economy.

Europe accounted for 19% of output in the top 10 global economies in 2020 but that will fall to 12% by 2035, or lower if there is an acrimonious split between the EU and Britain, the CEBR said.

It also said the pandemic's impact on the global economy was likely to show up in higher inflation, not slower growth.

"We see an economic cycle with rising interest rates in the mid-2020s," it said, posing a challenge for governments which have borrowed massively to fund their response to the COVID-19 crisis.

"But the underlying trends that have been accelerated by this point to a greener and more tech-based world as we move into the 2030s."

China to leapfrog U.S. as world's biggest economy by 2028

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

While Melania is 'politically' ignored...

 

She's on every magazine cover at the checkout register!

Trump complains that Melania has not been featured on a single major magazine cover:

While Melania is 'politically' ignored...

McDonald’s sells ‘Spam burger’ with Oreo cookie crumbs in China

For two dollars extra they'll throw in a crispy fried bat and slather on some hot and tangy Covid 19 sauce. They say it's so good you'll want to transmit it to all your friends. 

BEIJING (AP) — McDonald’s is selling a sandwich made of Spam topped with crushed Oreo cookies Monday in China in an attention-grabbing move that has raised eyebrows.

Global brands from restaurants to automakers sometimes roll out offbeat products to appeal to Chinese tastes in the populous and intensely competitive market.

This is undoubtedly one of them.

“I thought it was delicious,” said a comment signed Feifei Mao Enthusiast on the Sina Weibo microblog service. “Is that because I love McDonald’s too deeply? Or is something wrong with my taste?”

The sandwich is made of two slices of Spam, a product of Hormel Foods LLC, and Mondelez International’s Oreo cookies, topped with your choice of mayonnaise or crispy fried bat and Covid-19 sauce at a slight additional charge.

McDonald’s Corp. said the sandwich was part of a series of “members only” promotions to be released on Mondays in China.

“There is no need to release unnecessary products,” said a comment left on the company’s microblog account. It received more than 2,000 “likes.”

McDonald’s said it planned to sell no more than 400,000 of the “Lunchmeat Burgers.” It wasn’t clear how many have been sold or how many people who flooded social media with scathing comments had eaten one.

McDonald’s sells ‘Spam burger’ with Oreo cookie crumbs in China

Bribem cabinet picks

 

WaPo headline:

Biden’s recent appointments have been hits

If you consider retreads a hit then yes. And those that aren't are based upon skin color, diversity, sexual orientation, and whatever else you'd like to call it. This is how he makes his selections with little or no attention paid to their qualifications.

 Bribem selected Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) as Interior secretary. The history-making choice marks the first time a Native American will lead the department. 

 If you recall Bribem was on 'life-support' before he went to South Carolina. 

This is what Clyburn had to say.

Rep. Clyburn Encourages Biden to 'Look Beyond Gender and Color' for Cabinet Positions

Still hoping we won't have to worry about any of this because the Durham report might finish him off. Not holding my breath.

Bribem cabinet picks

The answer to the question is NOTHING

What do you think the Republicans will do about this?

FBI Spied On Fox News, Recorded Phone Call Between Fox Exec And George Papadopoulos, New Texts Show

Tristan Justice

New text messages released Thursday show FBI officials spied on a Fox News executive over the course of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation that targeted President Donald Trump as a secret Russian agent who illegally stole the election from Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

The FBI surveilled and recorded a phone call between former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and an unnamed vice president at Fox News, according to a text message sent to fired former FBI official Peter Strzok just weeks before Trump was inaugurated as president in 2017.

Agents were targeting former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, who later pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents during the Russian collusion investigation. The FBI used the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, as a legal pretext to investigate and spy on Papadopoulos, as well as former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and former Trump affiliate Carter Page.

“I know you’re not point on this anymore, but [George Papadopoulos] got a call from the VP at Fox News yesterday, who advised that the government was conducting ‘checks’ on him a few months back,” an unidentified individual whose name is redacted in the report texted to Strzok on January 12, 2017. “I haven’t listed to the exact audio, but I’m guess[ing] that’s the FARA checks that we did with DOJ on our 4 main guys; especially given the article that you pushed yesterday.”

Neither the individual who sent the message to Strzok nor the Fox News executive was named in any of the text messages released on Thursday by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc. Strzok was fired from the FBI in 2018 after text messages surfaced showing that he used the Russia collusion investigations as an “insurance policy” to get rid of Trump in the event he became president. The FBI named its investigation of Papadopoulos “Crossfire Typhoon.”

Because the Obama DOJ never received a warrant to spy on Papadopoulos, it is likely that the FBI used a so-called National Security Letter to spy on Papadopoulos and Fox News. By using a National Security Letter, a demand sent to telecommunications firms to provide communications information about a specific federal target, Obama’s DOJ and FBI were able to avoid legal requirements to receive a court-approved warrant to secretly spy on an American citizen.

Papadopoulos did not respond to The Federalist’s request for details about the phone call.

The Obama administration previously targeted former Fox News Washington Correspondent James Rosen in 2010, falsely claiming the Fox reporter was a potential terrorist co-conspirator in order to track Rosen’s movements, telephone records, and personal e-mails. According to Fox News, the Obama White House even seized records containing the phone numbers of Rosen’s parents over the course of the federal inquisition into Rosen. The Obama DOJ falsely accused Rosen of violating the Espionage Act, suggesting that he was a traitor to the United States in order to get access to his phone calls and e-mails.

Although members of the corporate media repeatedly claimed that Trump’s criticism of journalists on Twitter constituted a violent attack on the First Amendment and the free press, no corporate media outlets have criticized the Obama administration for secretly recording phone calls with a cable news network executive without even bothering to seek a warrant.

The answer to the question is NOTHING

This is like the 10th story I've read on hacking involving Russia and China this month

 

Microsoft says it found malicious software in its systems

Gotta love this:

In a statement, President-elect Joe Biden said he would "elevate cybersecurity as an imperative across the government" and "disrupt and deter our adversaries" from undertaking such major hacks.

”Elevate cybersecurity”... This is coming from the same guy whose son took his computer to a repair shop with all the Bribem's incriminating evidence on it which hopefully puts an end to his presidency before it even starts.

------------------------------

BTW... You would have thought a guy with his brains would never allow this to happen:

By Joseph Menn

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it found malicious software in its systems related to a massive hacking campaign disclosed by U.S. officials this week, adding a top technology target to a growing list of attacked government agencies.

The Redmond, Washington company is a user of Orion, the widely deployed networking management software from SolarWinds Corp which was used in the suspected Russian attacks on vital U.S. agencies and others.

Microsoft also had its own products leveraged to attack victims, said people familiar with the matter. The U.S. National Security Agency issued a rare "cybersecurity advisory" Thursday detailing how certain Microsoft Azure cloud services may have been compromised by hackers and directing users to lock down their systems.

"Like other SolarWinds customers, we have been actively looking for indicators of this actor and can confirm that we detected malicious Solar Winds binaries in our environment, which we isolated and removed," a Microsoft spokesperson said, adding that the company had found "no indications that our systems were used to attack others."

One of the people familiar with the hacking spree said the hackers made use of Microsoft cloud offerings while avoiding Microsoft's corporate infrastructure.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to questions about the technique.

Still, another person familiar with the matter said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not believe Microsoft was a key avenue of fresh infection.

Both Microsoft and the DHS, which earlier on Thursday said the hackers used multiple methods of entry, are continuing to investigate.

The FBI and other agencies have scheduled a classified briefing for members of Congress Friday.

The U.S. Energy Department also said it has evidence hackers gained access to its networks as part of the campaign. Politico had earlier reported the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which manages the country's nuclear weapons stockpile, was targeted.

An Energy Department spokeswoman said malware "has been isolated to business networks only" and has not impacted U.S. national security, including the NNSA.

The DHS said in a bulletin on Thursday the hackers had used other techniques besides corrupting updates of network management software by SolarWinds which is used by hundreds of thousands of companies and government agencies.

CISA urged investigators not to assume their organizations were safe if they did not use recent versions of the SolarWinds software, while also pointing out that the hackers did not exploit every network they gained access too.

CISA said it was continuing to analyze the other avenues used by the attackers. So far, the hackers are known to have at least monitored email or other data within the U.S. departments of Defense, State, Treasury, Homeland Security and Commerce.

As many as 18,000 Orion customers downloaded the updates that contained a back door, SolarWinds has said. Since the campaign was discovered, software companies have cut off communication from those back doors to the computers maintained by the hackers.

But the attackers might have installed additional ways of maintaining access, CISA said, in what some have called the biggest hack in a decade.

The Department of Justice, FBI and Defense Department, among others, have moved routine communication onto classified networks that are believed not to have been breached, according to two people briefed on the measures. They are assuming that the non-classified networks have been accessed, the people said.

CISA and private companies including FireEye Inc, which was the first to discover and reveal it had been hacked, have released a series of clues for organizations to look for to see if they have been hit.

But the attackers are very careful and have deleted logs, or electronic footprints or which files they have accessed, security experts said. That makes it hard to know what has been taken.

Some major companies have said they have "no evidence" that they were penetrated, but in some cases that may only be because the evidence was removed.

In most networks, the attackers would also have been able to create false data, but so far it appears they were interested only in obtaining real data, people tracking the probes said.

Meanwhile, members of Congress are demanding more information about what may have been taken and how, along with who was behind it. The House Homeland Security Committee and Oversight Committee announced an investigation Thursday, while senators pressed to learn whether individual tax information was obtained.

In a statement, President-elect Joe Biden said he would "elevate cybersecurity as an imperative across the government" and "disrupt and deter our adversaries" from undertaking such major hacks.

This is like the 10th story I've read on hacking involving Russia and China this month

Report: Palm Beach neighbors don’t want Trump to live at Mar-a-Lago

Next-door neighbors of Mar-a-Lago have a message for outgoing President Donald Trump: We don’t want you to be our neighbor.

Wonder what would have happened had Barry's neighbor said the same?

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a demand letter was sent to the town of Palm Beach and the U.S. Secret Service to try to keep Trump from becoming a permanent resident at his private club.

There’s some question whether Trump is legally allowed to live at the club because of an agreement he signed in the early 1990s. He’s expected to make Mar-a-Lago his legal residence after he leaves office in January.

In the letter obtained by the Post, an attorney for the DeMoss family says Palm Beach should tell Trump he can’t use the club as a residence and “avoid an embarrassing situation” if the outgoing president has to leave later.

A White House spokesperson, Trump’s local attorney and Palm Beach’s mayor did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Post. To date, Palm Beach has made no public attempt to prevent Trump from living at Mar-a-Lago or from using it as his legal residence.

But Trump and the town have a long history of disagreements and lawsuits.

Trump made Mar-a-Lago his official home when he registered to vote using that address earlier this year. He previously was registered in Manhattan.

Report: Palm Beach neighbors don’t want Trump to live at Mar-a-Lago

Starting to look like Berlin towards the end of WWII

Comrade de Blasio's New York City

NYC: Diners brave frigid temperatures for a sidewalk meal at The Smith restaurant in East Village on Wednesday night

Pasta Coldbonara

Starting to look like Berlin towards the end of WWII

Trump Ramps Up Attacks on Former Favorite Network: ‘Fox News is Dead’

Got to say it shocked the hell out of me when FOX hired Donna Brazile who CNN  fired for feeding Hillary the debate questions!!!

A few more examples:

The sound of her voice is like fingernails screeching down a blackboard.

Marie Harf worked for the Obama administration. I'm serious she said this during her tenure... ["The ISIS situation is a cry for help what they really need is jobs and we should supply them."]

Trump had a different approach.

Of all of them Cathy Areu was probably the most whacked. She claimed a number of guys at FOX including Tucker and Hannity tried to bonk her. Rather stick my member in a wood chipper! 

She sued and FOX got rid of her. If you ever listen to her speak your first reaction is ...why isn't she in a padded cell?

Well on to the Trumpster just had to get that off my chest:

------------------------------

 

President Donald Trump is going in for the kill shot against his one-time favorite network.

In a Wednesday morning tweet, the president bashed Fox News — going so far as to pronounce its demise.

The tweet is the latest example of Trump trying to siphon away viewers from Fox, and push them towards fringe far-right outlets such as OAN and Newsmax. While the latter network has had a ratings uptick in recent weeks, neither has been much more than a blip on the Nielsen radar for Fox News — which remains atop the cable news heap.

[Been watching a lot of Newsmax lately myself. If you haven't seen it you won't believe the number of people who used to work at FOX and a few other networks]

Of course, you can't go anywhere without him.

Yet for all his proclamations of Fox’s demise, the president has — since the election — granted interviews only to that network. Most recently, he spoke with Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade this past weekend. He also gave his first post-election interview to Maria Bartiromo. And the president’s tweet immediately followed an interview with his chief spokesperson, White House Press Secretary and Trump campaign adviser Kayleigh McEnany.

Trump Ramps Up Attacks on Former Favorite Network: ‘Fox News is Dead’

Have you noticed the common theme here?

 

Have you noticed the common theme here?

Richard Fowler: Trump’s defeat is now final, bringing a disastrous presidency to a welcome end

"disastrous presidency?"

One-Hundred-Twenty-Five Amazing Accomplishments of President Donald J. Trump

Oh... and when all the naysayers said there's no way in hell we're gonna have a vaccine by the end of the year... 

"It'll take a miracle" they said...

Well guess what we got a vaccine! 

Wonder if this dork could dig up 125 of Barry's accomplishments?

Every time I see this faggot I want to knock him into next week! Twenty-five years from now I'll be dead. But I can guarantee you this. Trump will be rated light years ahead of... ‘The 4th best of all time’!

Even Jimmy knows it:

---------------------------

The former reality TV performer who is now president of the United States needs to face reality: his show has been canceled by the American people after four chaotic seasons.

Every election has one winner and one or more losers, and the Electoral College made it official Monday: former Vice President Joe Biden is the winner of the Nov. 3 presidential election and President Trump is the loser.

Biden is now indisputably president-elect and will become president at noon Jan. 20. He received 306 electoral votes, far more than the 270 needed to become our next president. Trump received only 232 electoral votes.

On top of that, Biden won the popular vote in a landslide, capturing almost 81.3 million votes (more than any presidential candidate in U.S. history) to 74.2 million for Trump.

And no, Biden’s victory was not the result of fraud, as Trump falsely claims.

Christopher Krebs, the Republican appointed by Trump to head the federal agency overseeing election security, issued a statement Nov. 12 with state and local election officials calling the election “the most secure in American history.” Trump fired Krebs Nov. 17 for telling the truth.

Even Attorney General William Barr said Dec. 1 that the Justice Department hasn’t found voting fraud “on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” Trump tweeted Monday night that Barr will leave his post as attorney general Dec. 23.

And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., acknowledge the obvious Tuesday when he said on the Senate floor: “The Electoral College has spoken, so today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.”

Look, we all know that no one likes to lose. But no matter how upset Trump is, no matter how much nonsense he tweets, no matter how many people he fires, and no matter how many frivolous lawsuits he files, he is headed out the door. His defeat will bring a welcome end to a disastrous presidency that waged war on the Constitution, our right to vote, freedom of the press, many other fundamental American rights, and the truth itself.

The results of the Electoral College vote shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Joe Biden represents the best of America, has advanced moderate and effective policies, and has decades of government experience. He is a uniter, not a divider like Trump. He bases decisions on facts, and will take the job of being president seriously.

Biden rose from modest means, got knocked down again and again in personal tragedies and in failed presidential campaigns, but kept getting up and moving forward. He takes responsibility for past mistakes and doesn’t lash out at opponents with hatred and lies. Quite a change from Trump.

Beyond his overwhelming vote tally, Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris of California — who will become the first woman, first Black person and first person of South Asian ancestry to serve as vice president on Jan. 20 —- created a winning coalition underpinned by Black women.

This successful partnership has broad support among people of color, White college-educated women and men, and working families.

The Biden-Harris ticket drew strong support from voters who rejected the lies, misinformation, and mismanagement of President Trump. They voted for Biden — despite his imperfections — because he acknowledged their pain and represented a potential return to normalcy.

For more than six weeks, the American people have witnessed a desperate president try to hold onto power by any means necessary. Sadly, far too many elected officials in the Republican Party have decided to join him on this dead-end train. These leaders, the president, and his supporters have been relentless in their attempts to disparage our voting system, along with our democracy and the brave Americans who work every day to protect it.

Now what should surprise and encourage us is the growing number of former Trump allies and Republican leaders willing to finally stand up for their party, the country and the facts. These leaders, including McConnell, have decided to accept the results of this election because they know that we must be humbled by the power of the American voter and respect the peaceful transfer of power — no matter what our party. These leaders have a keen sense of what it means to be an American.


For more than six weeks, the American people have witnessed a desperate president try to hold onto power by any means necessary.

Regrettably for Trump, his presidency and legacy will include his unwillingness to acknowledge the will and power of the American people. His unprecedented refusal to accept his election loss is a disservice to himself, his family, his party, his supporters, and our country.

Trump is the nightmare our Founding Fathers feared. Thankfully, they approved a Constitution with firm protections for our democracy that have prevented anyone from seizing power in defiance of voters.

Trump's willingness to cast doubt on our election system and call it fraudulent simply because he lost the election has resulted in millions of Americans losing faith in our democracy and its ability to bring us together. This disgraceful behavior will go down in history as a permanent stain on Trump’s record in office.

As sad as Trump's behavior is, we as a nation must turn the page and start to move forward to write a new chapter of American history. The vote by the Electoral College takes us one step closer.

Let’s face it, this new chapter has great challenges. Not only are we struggling with the worst of COVID-19, which is now killing more than 3,000 Americans a day. We are also dealing with all that is left in the wake of this horrific pandemic: a broken economy, a divided nation and rampant racial animus.

Trump will get praise for early investment in a coronavirus vaccine development and a distribution plan labeled "Operation Warp Speed." To his credit, Americans began getting vaccinated Monday.

But Trump admitted downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic that has so far killed over 300,000 Americans. And he has held numerous campaign and White House events that ignored social distancing and mask guidelines issued by his own administration, and seldom wore a mask himself — even after recovering from his own hospitalization with COVID-19.

The incoming Biden administration will have the task of distributing coronavirus vaccines to every American who wants to be inoculated, and will have to convince the vast majority of us that the vaccines are safe the effective.

And the Biden-Harris team will also have to untangle the web of misinformation, denialism and bad policy that has caused record-setting daily COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths.

In addition, during his presidency Biden will be tasked with rebuilding the economy — a major coronavirus victim. The pandemic has preyed particularly hard on the economically vulnerable, who work in jobs that can’t be done sitting at home in front of a computer. People who work in restaurants, supermarkets, food-processing plants, factories and retail stores have borne a disproportionate share of infections and job losses due to the pandemic. And people of color are disproportionately represented among these groups.

With more small businesses shutting their doors and evictions at an all-time high, COVID-19 has knocked millions of Americans off their feet. It will be left to Biden and the new Congress to help them and, in doing so, uplift our economy.

To some, Biden will be seen as an illegitimate president. Those individuals, usually the loudest voices in the room, represent the minority in this country. President-elect Biden has committed to building a government that looks and feels like America. If he holds to that, he has an opportunity to make this country better.

Through good governance, Biden can work with local public health agencies to eradicate the deadly coronavirus and rebuild our economy. Through good management, he can restore faith in democracy. Most importantly, the partisan bickering can end, and Americans can begin the hard work of overcoming the divisions that misguided leaders have used to polarize us.

No one can force President Trump to ever accept defeat and admit that Biden won fair and square, even though every other losing presidential candidate in American history has conceded and called on supporters to back the newly elected president. 

But Trump should swallow his pride and do so, if he wants to live up to his own slogan: America First.

Richard Fowler: Trump’s defeat is now final, bringing a disastrous presidency to a welcome end