We know our readers. They are a loyal and special bunch. We know the majority of them awoke today and said "Today is the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. That means under the law, the electoral college votes today." See 3 USC 7.
In December 1960, having lost to Senator Kennedy, Vice President Nixon, in his role as the presiding officer of the Senate, went to the Senate and announced the Electoral College vote announcing his loss. Southern States had made a fuss about having its slate of electoral college voters not vote for Kennedy unless he affirmed his support for "States Rights" which back then was a code word for segregation. In the 1960's the south routinely voted for Democrats (Nixon changed that and sent the south into the Republican party for the next sixty years with his "southern strategy" in 1968, but that's a topic for a different blog post). Kennedy won the south, including Alabama which voted first. Alabama unfaithful electors voted for the South's favourite son West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd. Nixon had a sense of humor. As Nixon announced the first votes for Senator Byrd, he dryly remarked "The Gentlemen from West Virginia is in the lead."
Today President Trump will lose yet again, as the electoral college votes for Senator Biden. The president plans to immediately ask Georgia for another recount. See 32 QAnon 24: "Georgia shall recount its presidential vote on every day in December that is a prime number if the state votes for a Democrat". For those robed readers that is days 2,3,5,7,11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, and 31.
Additional Republican strategies include Texas succeeding from the Union- we would miss their brisket and we cannot legally opine if that would affect the Cowboys' playoff chances this year; Hialeah suing California (a little known codicil to the Faber College Constitution vests jurisdiction in the Hialeah Branch Court in any lawsuits between Hialeah and a State); and finally the old tried-n-true "we had our fingers crossed when we voted so we get to do it all again" dicta from multiple election briefs authored by Sydney Powell and Rudy Giuliani.
Covid wise, Prime Minister Angela Merkle followed Judge Soto's lead and shut down Germany for a month to flatten their curve. Miami has canceled Jury trials until the First of February. Florida's infection rate is rising faster than an Elon Musk rocket. You can't eat inside a restaurant in NYC anymore, but you can hang out in any Bar or Bowling Alley in Florida sans mask because we just don't believe in science which gives rise to our new motto: "Florida, the Sunshine and No Mask State". California is closed until further notice, but the good news is ....
Pfizer shipped their first round of vaccines on Sunday. The vaccines are arriving at hospitals throughout the nation today. Of course there is some cause for concern in Florida because a few janitors and security guards for the advanced medical center in Two Egg Florida signed for the shipment last night and left it on the front lawn: "we don't know nuthin about that keepin it cold stuff." So avoid getting your vaccine in Two Egg, or any place in Florida where they don't believe in masks or science. A key tip would be the presence of "Fire Fauci" bumper stickers on many vehicles in the doctors parking lot of the hospital.
So America as is ends 2020 is a tale of two nations- it was the worst of the times, it was the dumbest of times.
The nation suffers from a devastating pandemic. 300,000 of our citizens are dead from Covid. These are the worst of times.
70 plus million Republicans do not believe in science and believe Biden stole the election. These are the dumbest of times.
Do not think for one moment that our nation will not pay for its stupidity. Icebergs are melting and we deny climate change. People are dying and we deny science.
That's your Monday cheer-up message. Have a great week.
Another post is right. You are way off on Nixon. Southern Strategy? He appointed 3 moderates and a conservative to the court. His justice department enforced segreation orders. His administration started affirmative action. So who lost the South? LBJ when he signed the Civil Rights Act of '64 said rather prophetically: "well we just lost the South for a generation." Goldwater and Wallace did the heavy lifting. Wallace, in '72, railed rather vociferously against Nixon's civil rights policies. Carter, posing as a fake conservative southerner, won the South handily in '76. Then Reagan simply picked up the pieces. But the train had already left the station.
ReplyDeleteErratum alert!! Nixon did not preside over the electoral vote acceptance in Congress in December 1960, just as Vice President Pence did not do so today. In early December, the electors meet in their respective states to cast their votes. Counting of those by Congress will happen on January 6, 2021. For the 1960 election, it happened in January 1961.
ReplyDeleteSorry Rump. They are not called “unfaithful electors”. The correct term is “faithless electors”.
ReplyDeleteFaithless elector laws by state In the United States Electoral College, a faithless elector is an elector who does not vote for the candidates for U.S. President and U.S. Vice President for whom the elector had pledged to vote and instead votes for another person for one or both offices or abstains from voting.
Also, you spoke about Texas “succeeding” from the Union. I know you are jesting but it’s “seceding”. I hope you were mocking the Mississippi State Rep who called for his state to “succeed” from the union and form our own country. (Rep. Price Wallace).
Even up in fancy schmancy Palm Beach, they can't keep this under control.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/2020/12/14/coronavirus-palm-beach-countys-chief-judge-tests-positive-cases-climb/6514545002/
Curious how many Miami criminal defense attorneys quit this line of work during 2020. Even anecdotally, do blog readers know of fellow lawyers who walked away? There are, of course, far too many of us and few of us report loving our jobs in the first place. I wonder if one of the consequences of the court closures and cases-in-molasses effect is that any significant number of us quit being lawyers, moved into some other kind of practice, or left South Florida.
ReplyDeleteId wager its a decent sized number. Not having socialized with any of you, I really wouldnt know though
I can say if some other kind of job opportunity made itself known in, say, Couer d'Alene Idaho, Id be gone. You can have all my current clients AND their fees.