Bringing the country off the ledge

The Michigan State Board of Canvassers met to combine the 83 certified county votes into a certified statewide vote. It affects all races that are more than one county, such as president, senator, reps to Congress, and state legislature seats. All 83 counties certified their votes. So, as some have said, this is only math. Add them up and vote to certify. But this isn’t a normal year. One of the two GOP canvassers said before today’s meeting he would vote against certifying. Thankfully, the second GOP member voted to certify. So Joe Biden has officially won Michigan, as has Senator Gary Peters. This meeting is normally under the radar. Newspapers will usually print a short article saying the Board met, they certified, all done. This time the Detroit Free Press had a full page article about the Board, what it does, who is on it, what the law is, and why this is an issue this year, and what happens if they don’t certify. I saw there was a rally in Lansing today (though not in time for me to find out if it was worth attending). I got an email explaining how I might contribute public comment to the process and another explaining how I can watch the meeting live online. This year the meeting is big news. With Michigan now certified and Georgia and Arizona already certified, Emily Murphy, head of the General Services administration, has finally signed the letter authorizing the Biden transition team to have access to needed government resources. It is good she is finally doing this and not waiting for whatever else the nasty guy has in store. However, previous people in that job did it as soon as news organizations call the race – which happened two weeks ago. The GOP Senate rushed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court so she could rule on election fraud cases (which are not the same as voter fraud cases – the GOP is claiming voter fraud happened while it commits election fraud). But, as Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reports, the nasty guy’s legal team has been so inept (they didn’t bring the best minds to the task) and lost so many cases so badly that none of them are headed to the Supremes. Lauren Floyd of Kos reported journalist Carl Bernstein named 21 GOP senators who have said to various people they have extreme contempt for the nasty guy and his fitness to be president. That’s good to hear. Now why didn’t they say anything last February during the impeachment trial? They could have secured the vote for removal. Perhaps, as Floyd wrote, it is this:

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist said Republicans know what Trump has done “to undermine confidence in our institution.” They are living through a pandemic, witnessing Trump’s “homicidal negligence” that is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans,” he said. “McConnell knows what’s going on,” Bernstein said. “And finally I’m told in the last 24/48 hours, I believe he and some others are attempting to find a way to somehow bring the country off the ledge that we are on because of the mad king and what he is doing.”

President-Elect Joe Biden has named a few cabinet positions. Laura Clawson of Kos lists some of them. For Secretary of State Antony Blinken got the nomination. He served as deputy under Hillary Clinton, which puts it 8-12 years ago. There is also Janet Yellen as the first woman at Treasury (she had been the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve). Alejandro Mayorkas, who had created the DACA program, is the first Latino and first immigrant to head Homeland Security. Avril Haines as the first woman as director of national intelligence. Clawson included a video of Blinken, while deputy secretary, going on Sesame Street and explaining the United Nations and refugees to Grover. That’s a win right there.