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Stephcast 1-13-21

FBI report warned of ‘war’ at Capitol, contradicting claims there was no indication of looming violence

A day before rioters stormed Congress, an FBI office in Virginia issued an explicit warning that extremists were preparing to travel to Washington to commit violence and “war,” according to an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post that contradicts a senior official’s declaration the bureau had no intelligence indicating anyone at last week’s demonstrations […]

Trump lashes out at impeachment effort, claims it’s ‘causing tremendous anger’

President Donald Trump on Tuesday lashed out at the impeachment effort by House Democrats, claiming “it’s causing tremendous anger” and “danger to our country.” “As far as this is concerned, we want no violence — never violence,” Trump said outside the White House before departing for Texas, facing reporters for the first time since his […]

Far Right Republican members of Congress protest, circumvent new metal detectors inside Capitol after riot

Several Republican members of Congress on Tuesday complained about — or outright bypassed — the metal detectors to enter the House floor, which were ordered put in place by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., after last week’s deadly riot at the Capitol. Ahead of a House vote Tuesday evening calling for Vice President Mike Pence to […]

Republican impeachment support grows as Pence rebuffs House’s calls to remove Trump from office

A growing number of Republican lawmakers publicly endorsed impeaching President Donald Trump ahead of a Wednesday vote in the House as the chamber passed a symbolic measure on Tuesday calling on Vice President Mike Pence to remove him first. Pence, who was one of the targets of the violent mob that attacked the Capitol last […]

Stephcast 1-12-21

U.S. reports deadliest week yet in fight against COVID-19

America has reported its deadliest week yet in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. More than 22,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 just last week — setting the record for the second week in a row. California is the nation’s hot spot. In Los Angeles, COVID deaths have risen 1,125% in the last two months, […]

House Moving Ahead With Trump Impeachment

House Democrats announced on a private call Monday that their chamber will vote to impeach President Donald Trump for the second time on Wednesday, one week after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and a week before Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders told members Monday that […]

FBI memo warns law enforcement across U.S. of possible armed protests at 50 state capitols

The FBI has sent a memo to law enforcement agencies across the country warning about possible armed protests at all 50 state capitols starting Saturday and saying an armed group has threatened to travel to Washington, D.C., the same day to stage an uprising if Congress removes President Donald Trump from office, according to a […]

‘Several’ Capitol police officers suspended over pro-Trump riot

“Several” U.S. Capitol Police officers were suspended and at least 10 more are under investigation over the deadly pro-Trump insurrection last week, officials said Monday. Acting U.S. Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman said the suspensions occurred amid an internal probe. Video and other evidence appears to show that some officers and officials violated department policies, […]

Charlie Pierce: I’m Not Listening to Any Calls for ‘Unity’ From the People Who Fueled This

You have to admire them for their speed. Not 48 hours after elements of their political base ransacked the Capitol in what now appears to have been at least in part a very well-organized lynch mob, they’ve gotten their followers ginned up about the fact that large private American corporations at long last have come […]

Stephcast 1-11-21

Outgoing Capitol Police chief: House, Senate security officials hamstrung efforts to call in National Guard

Two days before Congress was set to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund was growing increasingly worried about the size of the pro-Trump crowds expected to stream into Washington in protest. To be on the safe side, Sund asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the D.C. […]

2 men allegedly seen in viral photos carrying zip ties during Capitol assault arrested

Two men allegedly seen in viral photographs of the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol have been arrested, the Washington, D.C., attorney general announced Sunday. Larry Rendell Brock and Eric Gavelek Munchel were both allegedly seen in pictures of the riot occupying the chambers of Congress while wearing tactical gear and holding plastic zip ties. […]

Capitol physician says lawmakers may have been exposed to Covid-19 during riot lockdown

House members may have been exposed to Covid-19 when they went into hiding during Wednesday riots at the U.S. Capitol, Congress’ attending physician wrote in a letter to members and staffers Sunday. “Many members of the House community were in protective isolation in [a] room located in a large committee hearing space,” Dr. Brian Monahan […]

Pelosi says House will move on impeachment if other efforts to remove Trump fail

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that lawmakers will move forward with impeaching President Donald Trump if other efforts to remove him from office fail. In a letter to Democrats, she said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer will try to introduce a resolution Monday calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment […]

Frank Figliuzzi: Trump’s latest betrayal of America sends a clear message to foreign adversaries

In the aftermath of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, there will be resignations, hearings and inquiries at the Capitol Police department, the respective House and Senate sergeant-at-arms offices and other law enforcement or military entities. The warning signs and intelligence were there — they were just ignored. But let’s be clear: What happened to […]

Eric Boehlert: Capitol mob — how the press spent years glorifying Trump voters

They smashed windows, hung nooses, brawled with cops, and desecrated the U.S. Capitol. The sickening images from Wednesday that ricocheted around the world announcing a pathetic new chapter in American history, featured thousands of Trump voters. The rioters were acting out on delusional claims of the November election having been stolen from Trump, even though […]

The Rude Pundit: Random Observations on an Insurrection

1. This was inevitable. Anyone even casually observing the last five years knew that the Trump reign was going to end in violence. Unless you willfully put blinders on and truly believe the bullshit fairy tale of “This is not who we are.” This is very much who we are. We have always been a […]

Democrats Plan Lightning Trump Impeachment, Demanding Immediate Action

Warnings flashing, Democrats in Congress laid plans Friday for swift impeachment of President Donald Trump, demanding decisive, immediate action to ensure an “unhinged” commander in chief can’t add to the damage they say he’s inflicted or even ignite nuclear war in his final days in office. As the country comes to terms with the violent […]

Twitter *Permanently* Bans Trump After Years Of Aggressive, Violent Rhetoric On Platform

After years of using Twitter as a mouthpiece for violent rhetoric and legislation, President Donald Trump was permanently banned from the platform on Friday. Less than two weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, the social media company removed the commander in chief after rioters overtook the Capitol on Wednesday, leading to the deaths […]

Stephcast 1-8-21

U.S. reports more than 4,000 covid-19 deaths in deadliest day of pandemic

The United States on Thursday shattered records for the number of coronavirus-related deaths on a single day, topping 4,000 fatalities for the first time. Experts worry that the new, more contagious strain of the virus that has already been detected in eight states could make matters worse. “We are in a race against time,” Jennifer […]

Troubled by Capitol riot, Cabinet officials DeVos, Chao resign

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced their resignations Thursday, citing the pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday. “Yesterday, our country experienced a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the president stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed,” Chao said in a statement she posted on […]

Capitol Police officer dies from injuries after clashing with pro-Trump mob

A U.S. Capitol Police officer has died a day after clashing with a pro-Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol. Officer Brian D. Sicknick was injured while engaging with protesters Wednesday and returned to his division office, where he collapsed, Capitol Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki said. He was taken to a hospital, where he died about […]

Facing calls for his removal, Trump reverses positions on election loss, rioters and Covid

A day after he told his supporters “we love you,” President Donald Trump condemned them Thursday for violently swarming the U.S. Capitol in a statement that called for a “seamless transition of power.” “America is and must always be a nation of law and order. The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat […]

Stephcast 1-7-21

Members of Trump Cabinet discussing invoking 25th Amendment: Sources

There have been discussions among some members of the Trump Cabinet and allies of President Donald Trump about the 25th Amendment, which would be a vehicle for members of the cabinet to remove Trump from office, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the discussions tell ABC News. It is unclear how extensive these conversations have […]

Pence announces Biden’s victory after Congress completes electoral count

Vice President Mike Pence announced just after 3:40 a.m. Thursday that President-elect Joe Biden had won the presidency after Congress completed the counting of the Electoral College votes. What was largely seen as a perfunctory last step before Mr. Biden’s inauguration had turned into a day of chaos after an angry mob of rioters stormed […]

Democrats to take Senate as Jon Ossoff wins Georgia runoff

Georgians elected Jon Ossoff to the US Senate, CNN projected Wednesday, giving the Democratic Party control of Congress and the White House for the first time in a decade and delivering a stark repudiation of President Donald Trump as he tried to overturn his own loss. Ossoff’s victory and that of fellow Georgia Democrat the […]

Trump commits to ‘orderly transition’ in statement after violent Far Right terrorist mob storms Capitol

President Donald Trump finally committed to “an orderly transition” of power Thursday minutes after Congress confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s election win. The striking reversal came hours after a violent mob of the president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, and followed weeks of Trump and his allies fighting the election results. “Even though I totally disagree […]

Stephcast 1-6-21

No charges filed against Kenosha officers in Jacob Blake shooting

The police officers involved in the shooting of Jacob Blake, which touched off days of civil unrest last summer in Wisconsin, will not face any criminal charges, authorities said Tuesday. Blake, who is Black, was struck by seven bullets at close range Aug. 23 as he walked away from Kenosha police Officer Rusten Sheskey, who […]

DC Police make several arrests ahead of major pro-Trump election protest

Several people were arrested in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday in connection to protests ahead of Congress’ certification of the Electoral College votes on Wednesday. Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police said six arrests were made as of 9 p.m. ET, including some involving multiple charges. Those charges included a handful that were weapons-related, including carrying firearms without […]

Trump leans harder on Pence to flip election results, even though he lacks that power

President Donald Trump turned up the pressure Tuesday to enlist Vice President Mike Pence in a futile effort to reverse the presidential election and keep them in office for four more years. With a president who has excelled at remaining the focus of Washington, Pence has largely played the role of quiet support character, never […]

Raphael Warnock wins Georgia runoff election against Sen. Loeffler, lifting Democratic hopes of claiming Senate majority

Democrats closed in on control of the U.S. Senate early Wednesday with a stunning come-from-behind victory in one of Georgia’s twin runoff elections and the lead in the second contest, races that could reshape the first two years of President-elect Joe Biden’s term by giving Democrats a clearer path to enacting their legislative priorities. After […]

Bob Cesca: Donald Trump’s silver lining… Will his last-ditch coup rip the Republican Party apart?

Despite the existential threat to American democracy Donald Trump is manifesting, there’s part of me that’s cheering for him to keep on doing what he’s doing. I’ll explain momentarily. Meantime, yes, he’s committing treason by exploiting the office of the presidency to forcibly overturn the certified results of the 2020 election. If he were successful, it would signify […]

Stephcast 1-5-21

Trump Sends Not-So-Veiled Threat to His Own VP at Georgia Rally: ‘I Hope Mike Pence Comes Through for Us…’

During his speech at a Georgia senate campaign rally, President Donald Trump issued a not-so-veiled threat to his own vice president, implicitly encouraging Mike Pence to “come through for us” and somehow overturn the counting of the Electoral College vote in Congress on January 6th. In a stilted and rambling speech, Trump suddenly went off-script and veered away from […]

Wisconsin Pharmacist Accused Of Ruining Vaccine Doses Thought It Would Alter DNA, Prosecutor Says

A Wisconsin pharmacist convinced the world was “crashing down” told police he tried to ruin hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he believed the shots would mutate people’s DNA, according to court documents released Monday. Police in Grafton, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Milwaukee, arrested Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist Steven Brandenburg last […]

Today’s Georgia runoffs, the last races of 2020, to decide control of the Senate

Control of the Senate and the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda hangs in the balance on Tuesday in Georgia, with GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler facing Democrats Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock in twin runoff elections. Despite expectations that they would retake the Senate, Democrats came up short in several […]

Charlie Pierce: Dick F*cking Cheney Signed This Thing

I admit, this unnerved me quite a bit, more for what it doesn’t say than for what it says, and what it says is bad enough. From the Washington Post: The former Pentagon chiefs issued their warning Sunday evening in an opinion piece that they co-wrote and published in The Washington Post. Its authors include […]

Stephcast 1-4-21

Eric Boehlert: 12 times the Beltway media failed us in 2020

It was a year that required the press to be at its best — a year when a vengeful, unstable president failed to deal with a national health crisis, while launching the most divisive, dishonest re-election campaign in White House history. Time and again though, the Beltway press failed to meet the crucial challenge. Here’s […]

The Rude Pundit: Haiku Review of 2020… Fetch the Bolt Cutters

This motherfucking year. I mean, we were already on the express train to Fuckedsville even before COVID reared its spiky head and turbocharged this shit, this 2020, these 12 months that felt like a generation burnt up and was gone. Think about it: Even without coronavirus and the economic collapse that accompanied it, we’d have […]

‘There’s no running away from the numbers:’ Fauci laments surging COVID deaths as Trump claims ‘fake news’

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that he did not anticipate the COVID-19pandemic death toll in the United States would reach current levels, lamenting that indoor activity and holiday travel has facilitated virus transmission and calling for Americans to take the necessary public safety precautions to slow the ongoing surge. “To have 300,000 cases in a […]

Ex-Defense secretaries say military must stay out of election battles

The U.S. military must not become entangled in any election disputes in the coming days, all 10 living former Defense secretaries wrote in an op-ed published on Sunday. “American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that result are hallmarks of our democracy,” they wrote in The Washington Post, adding that everyone in the American […]

Pelosi wins re-election as House speaker with slim majority

Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was re-elected speaker of the House on Sunday despite a shrinking Democratic majority in the House. With Democrats holding a smaller majority than in the previous Congress, Pelosi could afford to have only a handful of lawmakers peel off and opt to write in someone else. The final count was 216 to […]

Trump begs Georgia secretary of state to overturn election results in remarkable hourlong phone call

President Donald Trump begged Georgia’s secretary of state to overturn the election results in an astounding hourlong phone call obtained Sunday by NBC News in which the president offered a smorgasbord of false claims about voter fraud and repeatedly berated state officials. “So look,” Trump told Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “All I want to […]

Americans breathe a sigh of relief as $600 Covid payments roll in

Many Americans are waking up this week to at least $600 more in their bank accounts as the federal government begins to disburse the newest round of Covid-19 relief funds. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that direct deposit payments could appear any time from that night to next week. Paper checks were mailed out […]

U.S. coronavirus cases eclipse 20 million

Documented Covid-19 cases in the United States surged past 20 million on Friday amid record hospitalizations and staggering numbers of daily deaths, according to a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The 20 millionth case comes less than two months after the country tallied its 10 millionth. The U.S. leads the globe in Covid-19 deaths, […]

Rep. Louie Gohmert Backpedals On ‘Be Violent’ Comments After Election Lawsuit Loss

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) issued a statement Saturday backpedaling on his controversial comments indicating that street violence is the only recourse in the wake of his lawsuit loss to overturn the results of the democratic presidential election. Gohmert made the remarks about violence Friday on the far-right news channel Newsmax. He spoke after U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle […]

Growing number of Trump loyalists in the Senate vow to fruitlessly challenge Biden’s victory

A last-ditch effort by President Trump and his allies to overturn the election thrust Washington into chaos Saturday as a growing coalition of Republican senators announced plans to rebel against Senate leaders by seeking to block formal certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. The push to subvert the vote is all but certain to fail […]

SM Happy Hour Videocast 12-31-20 (Vintage) Noel Casler

SM Happy Hour Videocast 12-24-20 (Vintage) Randy Rainbow

SM Happy Hour Videocast 12-18-20 Hate Letters with Kimberley Johnson

Stephcast 12-18-20

Top lawmakers say pandemic relief deal with aid to individuals, businesses is ‘close’

​Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, said he believes a “bipartisan, bicameral agreement appears to be close at hand” on a COVID-19 relief deal. “I’m encouraged that our Democratic colleagues have now embraced this framework, that’s been the right solution for our country all this time,” he said. Lawmakers are […]

Pelosi, McConnell To Get Coronavirus Vaccine, Urge Members To Do Same

The top leaders of the U.S. House and Senate will be receiving the coronavirus vaccine this week, and Congress’ attending physician has informed members that they are all eligible for the shots under “government continuity” guidelines. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell both said Thursday that they will get vaccinated in […]

Millions Of COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Stuck In Warehouses Until Federal Orders, Pfizer Says

Millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are languishing in warehouses awaiting shipment instructions from the Trump administration — even as states are clamoring for them — vaccine manufacturer Pzifer said in a statement Thursday. The startling bottleneck is occurring as America is breaking daily COVID-19 death tolls. The U.S. lost more people on Wednesday alone (3,611) than […]

FDA advisers recommend Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, bringing second vaccine closer to reality

An independent panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration overwhelmingly recommended that the agency authorize Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use on Thursday, bringing the United States one step closer to adding a second vaccine to its toolkit in fighting the pandemic. Members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted […]

Stephcast 12-17-20

Direct cash payments likely as lawmakers near Covid aid deal

Congressional leaders and the White House are nearing agreement on a roughly $900 billion coronavirus relief dealthat will likely include a new round of direct payments, three sources familiar with the negotiations said Wednesday. The emerging package will include enhanced federal jobless benefits, small-business funding, and money to distribute Covid-19 vaccines. The dollar amount of […]

Senate Republican uses hearing to pursue baseless election fraud claims as Trump tweets approval

A Republican Senate committee chairman on Wednesday used his panel to keep pressing allegations of what he called “election irregularities” as President Donald Trump appeared to watch from the White House, as Democrats decried the hearing as lending credence to Trump’s baseless claims of fraud. While Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a strong Trump supporter who […]

French President Macron tests positive for COVID-19

French President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for COVID-19, the presidential Elysee Palace announced on Thursday. It said the president took a test “as soon as the first symptoms appeared.” The brief statement did not say what symptoms Macron experienced. It said he would isolate himself for seven days. “He will continue to work and […]

US on track to get 2nd COVID vaccine as FDA panel reviews Moderna data

The U.S. is on the cusp of a second vaccine for COVID-19, with independent federal advisers set to review data Thursday from Moderna that suggests its two-dose vaccine is safe and 94% effective. An endorsement from the panel paves the way for an official green light by federal regulators to begin distributing next week some […]

Stephcast 12-16-20

Campaigning in Georgia, Biden Presses for the Senate Majority He Will Need

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday urged Georgia voters to cast ballots for two Democratic Senate candidates in a pair of critical runoffs early next month that he hopes will give his party control of the Senate and help Democrats advance the agenda he promised during his campaign. “You all did something extraordinary in […]

Buttigieg would make history if confirmed as Biden’s transportation secretary

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to name former 2020 rival and South Bend Mayor, Pete Buttigieg to head the Department of Transportation, sources familiar with the transition told ABC News Tuesday. If confirmed, Buttigieg would bring new diversity to the administration Biden has promised will “look like America,” as the first openly gay Cabinet secretary […]

McConnell Asks GOP Senators Not To Object To Certifying Biden’s Electoral Votes

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday urged GOP senators not to object to Congress’ formal certification of the Electoral College vote next month prior to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. An objection would force a “terrible vote” on Senate Republicans by putting them in a position of having to oppose President Donald Trump, McConnell […]

Capitol Hill leaders nearing long-sought COVID stimulus deal

Congressional leaders closed in on an agreement to provide a new tranche of coronavirus relief on Tuesday, haggling deep into the night over how to spend hundreds of billions of dollars before adjourning for the year. “We’re making significant progress and I’m optimistic that we are going to be able to complete an understanding some […]

Bob Cesca: Ready for Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago shadow presidency? That’s where all this is heading

On Monday morning’s edition of “Fox & Friends,” Donald Trump’s personal Wormtongue, white supremacist Stephen Miller, announced Trump’s latest and most ludicrous attempt to remain president despite the incontrovertible results of the election. Also on Monday, the Electoral College officially affirmed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the winners of the election, 306-232. This, Miller seemed to suggest, […]

Stephcast 12-15-20

Charlie Pierce: There Is No End to the Grift

One hesitates to paraphrase the genius of Robert Earl Keen, but it seems the grift goes on forever and the thievery never ends. The folks at CREW got their hot little hands on some of the financial details describing how high Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been living on the hog belonging to the […]

US administers 1st doses of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine

The rollout of the first coronavirus vaccine began Monday morning and marked a major turning point in the U.S.’s battle against surging case numbers as the first doses of the Pfizer medication was administered to health care workers and nursing home staffers. Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse from Northwell Long Island Jewish Medical Center […]

Congressman cites Trump’s efforts to overturn election in announcing decision to quit GOP

In an exclusive interview, Rep. Paul Mitchell, Republican of Michigan, told CNN that his disgust and disappointment with President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election have led him to request that the Clerk of the House change his party affiliation to “independent,” and to notify GOP leaders in a letter that […]

William Barr Resigns After DOJ Throws Cold Water On Voter Fraud Claims

President Donald Trump said Monday that Attorney General William Barr had resigned, after the nation’s top law enforcement official refused to back up discredited claims of widespread fraud in the Nov. 3 election and reportedly worked to avoid public disclosure of investigations into President-elect Joe Biden’s son. Trump said in a tweet that he had “a […]

After Electoral College cements win, Biden unleashes scathing attack on Trump’s refusal to concede

President-elect Joe Biden on Monday gave his most scathing indictment yet of the attempts by President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn November’s election, hours after the Electoral College officially sealed Biden’s victory. Biden called the election, which Trump and his supporters have tried to overturn with scores of failed legal challenges, “honest, free […]

Stephcast 12-14-20

Pro-Trump rally descends into chaos as Proud Boys roam D.C. looking to fight

Nearly three dozen people were arrested during a night of unrest in downtown Washington that began Saturday with rallies supporting President Trump and descended into chaos and violence as a group with ties to white nationalism roamed the streets looking to fight. One  of  those  arrested  was 29-year-old Phillip Johnson of the District, who was […]

Electors meeting today to formally choose Biden as next president

Presidential electors are meeting across the United States on Monday to formally choose Joe Biden as the nation’s next president. Monday is the day set by law for the meeting of the Electoral College. In reality, electors meet in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to cast their ballots. The results will be […]

Russian hackers breach U.S. government, targeting agencies, private companies

Hackers who targeted the federal government appear to be part of a Russian intelligence campaign aimed at multiple U.S. agencies and companies, including the cybersecurity company FireEye, officials said Sunday. A Commerce Department spokesman confirmed a breach, saying it occurred at an unidentified bureau. Department officials alerted the FBI and a cybersecurity agency within the […]

Hospitals Prepare for First Shots as Virus Vaccine Shipments Blanket U.S.

Trucks and cargo planes packed with the first of nearly three million doses of coronavirus vaccine fanned out across the country on Sunday as hospitals rushed to set up injection sites and their anxious workers tracked each shipment hour by hour. The distribution of the first federally approved vaccine marked the start of the most […]

Eric Boehlert: Why Fox News’ ratings are tanking

Trump isn’t the only one with the post-election hangover. Fox News is facing its most pressing ratings challenge in years, as Trump fuels a schism within the conservative media. This Monday, between 4 pm and 11 pm, just two Fox News programs scored as the top-rated in their hours. In the other six, one-hour time […]

The Rude Pundit: Note to Hopeful MAGA Cretins… You’ll Be Much Happier If You Give Up Now. I Know.

Hey, MAGA jerks,  I don’t like you, and, from your tweets and messages, I’ve got a pretty good idea that you don’t like me. Still, I feel compelled to give you some advice, if only in the hope that it will calm down the overdramatic rhetoric that makes it seem like you’re gonna start some […]

SM Happy Hour Videocast 12-11-20 Shelley Ross

Stephcast 12-11-20

Trump Administration Executes Brandon Bernard After Jurors Plead For His Life

The Trump administration executed 40-year-old Brandon Bernard on Thursday, his punishment for acting as an accomplice to a crime when he was 18 years old. The government went through with the killing despite high-profile opposition from 5 of 9 surviving jurors who sentenced Bernard to death, the prosecutor who defended his death sentence on appeal, several members […]

States blast Texas bid to overturn election as ‘seditious abuse of judicial process’

Four states sued by Texas in a bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election asked the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday to swiftly reject the case and avoid legitimizing “a cacophony of bogus claims” that would upend the will of millions of American voters. In court filings Thursday afternoon, the attorneys general of […]

Chances for COVID-19 relief compromise grow dimmer

Sources on both sides of the aisle in the Senate told ABC News that chances for a grand compromise on a COVID-19 relief package are growing dimmer, though some aides to negotiators insist there is still hope. The major sticking point? A shield against lawsuits for businesses, health care facilities, and schools — a top […]

HHS secretary Alex Azar says Pfizer vaccine will be approved, vaccinations could start next week

HHS Secretary Alex Azar said on “Good Morning America” Friday morning that COVID-19 vaccinations could come Monday or Tuesday. He said the Pfizer vaccine will be approved, they are just working out the details. “We weren’t counting on it in terms of getting to the projections that you and I have talked about about having […]

Stephcast 12-10-20

Hunter Biden, long a GOP political target, reveals he is subject of federal tax probe

Hunter Biden, the president-elect’s embattled son, announced Wednesday that federal prosecutors in Delaware are investigating his “tax affairs,” a development that marks the latest controversy surrounding the Biden family’s private business endeavors. In his statement, Hunter Biden, 50, said he and his attorney learned of the investigation on Tuesday, and that he remains “confident that […]

More Than 3,100 Dead From COVID-19 In U.S. In Grim Single-Day Record

At least 3,124 people in the United States died from COVID-19 on Wednesday, a grim new record as the country grapples with the worst phase of the pandemic thus far.  Johns Hopkins University reported the figure late Wednesday amid a surge in infections around the nation following the Thanksgiving Day holiday period. More than 220,000 […]

FDA panel meeting today could lead to approval of Pfizer vaccine for emergency use

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine faces one final hurdle as it races to become the first shot greenlighted in the U.S. — a panel of experts who will scrutinize the company’s data for any red flags. Thursday’s meeting of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory panel is likely the last step before a U.S. decision to […]

Stephcast 12-9-20

Supreme Court Rejects GOP Bid To Reverse Joe Biden’s Pennsylvania Win

The Supreme Court has rejected Republicans’ last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the electoral battleground. The court without comment Tuesday refused to call into question the the certification process in Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Wolf already has certified Biden’s victory and the state’s 20 electors are to meet on Dec. […]

Biden Selects Marcia Fudge As Housing Secretary, Tom Vilsack For Agriculture

President-elect Joe Biden has selected Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration, according to five people familiar with the decisions. Fudge, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, was just elected to a seventh term representing a […]

House Approves $731 Billion Defense Bill With Veto-Proof Majority

The Democratic-controlled House on Tuesday easily approved a wide-ranging defense policy bill, defying a veto threat from President Donald Trump and setting up a possible showdown with the Republican president in the waning days of his administration. The 335-78 vote in favor of the $731 billion defense measure came hours after Trump renewed his threat to […]

Biden Vows 100 Million Vaccinations In His First 100 Days

The first doses of the coronavirus vaccine were given in the U.K. on Tuesday, as cases continue to surge in the United States. To date, more than 15.1 million Americans have contracted the coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 1.55 million people worldwide, including more than 286,000 in the U.S., […]

Bob Cesca: Is Trump staging a coup or just running a con? No reason he can’t do both

It’s pretty damn obvious what’s going on with Donald Trump and the election, and it’s probably not an attempted coup. At least, that’s not necessarily Trump’s primary intention with his laughably unserious procession of 50-some failed legal challenges to the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Trump and his Republican enablers lost five cases on […]

Stephcast 12-8-20

Trump Administration Declined Summer Offer To Buy More Of Pfizer’s Vaccine: Reports

The Trump administration declined an offer from Pfizer to buy more doses of its COVID-19 vaccine at the end of the summer, according to several reports. The New York Times first reported Monday that Pfizer offered to sell the U.S. government more of its promising vaccine candidate, developed in partnership with the German company BioNTech. […]

Florida authorities raid home of ex-official who said she was ousted over coronavirus data

Authorities in Florida on Monday raided the home of Rebekah Jones, a former state official who has said she was ousted this year for refusing to censor the state’s coronavirus data. In a search warrant, an investigator with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said a person at Jones’ home who was using her email […]

Biden to nominate retired Gen. Lloyd Austin for defense secretary, a first for an African American

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to be defense secretary, according to three people familiar with the decision. If confirmed, Austin, 67, a retired four-star general and former head of U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, would be the first African American to lead the Defense Department. He was also […]

Britain becomes first to roll out clinically approved BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, first recipient is a 90-year-old woman

At 6.31 a.m. local timeTuesday, 334 days after the first reported Covid-19 death in China, Margaret Keenan, 90, became the first person in the world to receive a clinically approved vaccine. It was a landmark moment in the global fight against the most destructive pandemic in 100 years. In approving and delivering the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, […]

Charlie Pierce: I Wish the Rolling Blunder Express Would Sit Down and Let Us Enjoy the Holidays

Shit’s getting real in Michigan again. From the Detroit Free Press: One caller told state Rep. Cynthia A. Johnson, D-Detroit, that she should be “swinging from a … rope.” That echoed another call received by Johnson, who is Black, that predicted the lawmaker would be lynched, according to multiple voicemails Johnson posted on her Facebook […]

Stephcast 12-7-20

Loeffler doesn’t acknowledge Trump’s defeat in only Georgia runoff debate

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) declined multiple times to answer whether President Donald Trump lost the November election while repeatedly attacking her opponent, Rev. Raphael Warnock, as a radical during the sole debate of their special election runoff next month. Warnock, the pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, countered Loeffler’s attacks by repeatedly […]

Biden will pick California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead Health and Human Services

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, three sources familiar with the decision said. Becerra, 62, served 12 terms in the House of Representatives and was a vigorous defender of the Affordable Care Act who led the defense of the law in the […]

Trump tells supporters to vote in Georgia runoffs, refuses to accept reality of his loss

President Donald Trump emphatically called on Georgia voters to cast ballots for Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in next month’s runoff Senate elections but spent much of his first rally since losing the presidency denying the new reality. The president several times falsely claimed he had won Georgia and the presidency, lambasted top Georgia […]

Trump announces Rudy Giuliani has Covid

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has led his efforts to overturn last month’s election, has tested positive for Covid-19. “Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!” Trump wrote on Twitter. Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, has crisscrossed the country in recent days pushing Trump’s unverified claims of […]

Brian Karem: Michael Cohen on What Trump Wants Now

Donald Trump is Captain Chaos. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, pinned that label on him and it has stuck. Now, with less than seven weeks to go before he is escorted from the White House, Captain Chaos is still trampling norms and harming institutions. He is a dangerous con man and is all about the […]

Eric Boehlert: Trump’s mob takes aim at GOP, Fox News

Prowling a rally stage in Atlanta on Wednesday afternoon, and decked out in a Make America Great Again hat, lawyer and conspiracy enthusiast Lin Wood  beseeched the crowd of Trump supporters to not vote in the Georgia’s two upcoming run-off elections, which will determine control of the Senate. Pushing washed-up claims about how the Georgia […]

The Rude Pundit: Kelly Loeffler and the GOP’s Bullsh** Hyperbole

According to Republican Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, her run-off opponent for her seat, the affable and slightly left-of-center Democrat Raphael Warnock, “is the most radical candidate for Senate our country has ever seen.” He is “dangerous” and embraces “anti-American values,” according to a website that Loeffler has put out called, no, really, radicalraphael.com. It’s filled […]

SM Happy Hour Videocast 12-4-20 Greg Palast

Stephcast 12-4-20

Stephcast 12-3-20

Stephcast 12-2-20

Justice Department Probed ‘Bribery-For-Pardon Scheme’ As Trump Campaigned, Court Reveals

The Justice Department has spent months investigating a “bribery-for-pardon scheme,” even as President Donald Trump was running for reelection, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday. In a 20-page heavily redacted opinion, dated Aug. 28 but posted Tuesday evening, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell wrote that attorney-client privilege didn’t protect certain communications if they were alleged […]

Barr says no evidence of widespread voter fraud, defying Trump

Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, defying President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to reverse the results. “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” Barr said in an interview with […]

U.K. becomes first country to approve Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine

The United Kingdom became the first country Wednesday to formally approve the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, a huge symbolic milestone in the fight against the pandemic. The first inoculations are set to be rolled out next week, the government said, although the initial batch of 800,000 will cover a relatively small number of healthcare […]

President Trump has discussed possibility of pardons for family members, sources say

President Donald Trump has been discussing the possibility of issuing pardons for his family members and some close associates, multiple sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. One source said the conversations in recent days were within the context of a president who feels embattled, and not because Trump believes he or any of […]

Stephanie Miller on “The Michael Harrison Interview” Podcast

Michael Harrison interviews progressive talk radio star Stephanie Miller about her terrestrial radio show, as well as her groundbreaking Sexy Liberal Virtual Tour, and opinions about the state of presidential politics in America. Listen to the podcast here.

Stephcast 12-1-20

Trump is Now Demanding Republicans ‘Call Off’ the Georgia Special Election: ‘It Won’t Be Needed’

President Donald Trump seemed to demand a “call off” for the upcoming Senate runoff election in Georgia, are race that is set to determine control of the Senate. “Do something Brian Kemp,” Trump tweeted at the Republican governor of the state. “You allowed your state to be scammed. We must check signatures and count signed […]

Scott Atlas Resigns After Whispering Controversial COVID-19 Advice Into Trump’s Ear

Dr. Scott Atlas, a controversial pandemic adviser to President Donald Trump who was lambasted for supporting the idea of herd immunity to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, resigned from his role on Monday. “I worked hard with a singular focus — to save lives and help Americans through this pandemic,” Atlas, a neuroradiology professor, said […]

Fired cybersecurity chief hints at legal action after Trump campaign lawyer said he should be executed

Christopher Krebs, who was recently fired by President Donald Trump as the head of the federal government’s election cybersecurity efforts, suggested Tuesday that he might take legal action against one of Trump’s lawyers who said that Krebs should be executed. In an interview on NBC’s “TODAY” show, host Savannah Guthrie asked Krebs how concerned he […]

Stephcast 11-30-20

Trump falls short in Wisconsin recount he paid $3 million for

Wisconsin finished a recount of its presidential results on Sunday, confirming Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump in the key battleground state. Trump vowed to challenge the outcome in court even before the recount concluded. Dane County was the second and last county to finish its recount, reporting a 45-vote gain for Trump. […]

Biden and Harris announce all-female communications team

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris announced an all-female communications team Sunday aimed at bringing “diverse perspectives” to the White House. Jen Psaki, a top member of the transition team who served in the Obama-Biden administration, was chosen as White House press secretary. Kate Bedingfield, who was deputy Biden-Harris campaign manager, will be […]

Covid-19: Moderna submits vaccine for FDA regulatory approval

Moderna will submit its coronavirus vaccine for regulatory approval on Monday, the company said — the second leading drug to pass the milestone this month. The Massachusetts biotech firm said it will ask the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization after completing its Phase 3 trial, finding the vaccine was 94.1 percent effective […]

SM Happy Hour Videocast 11-25-20 (Vintage) Rob Reiner

Supreme Court blocks NY from enforcing Covid limits on churches

The U.S. Supreme Court issued an injunction late Wednesday blocking New York’s governor from enforcing 10- and 25-person occupancy limits on religious institutions, granting a request from the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel. The state had told the court there was no need to act because the restrictions, which were adopted as a […]

Trump Pardons Former Adviser Michael Flynn, Who Pleaded Guilty In Russia Probe

President Donald Trump pardoned Michael Flynn on Wednesday, more than two years after the former national security adviser pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during an explosive investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Flynn was accused of “willfully and knowingly” making “materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements” in a Jan. 24, 2017, interview with FBI agents […]

Stephcast 11-25-20

Obama memoir sells a record 1.7 million copies in first week

Former President Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land” sold more than 1.7 million copies in North America in its first week, roughly equal to the combined first week sales of memoirs by his two immediate predecessors and among the highest ever for a nonfiction book. Crown announced Tuesday that it had increased its initial print run […]

Trump pops into White House briefing room for incredibly weird one-minute impromptu speech

President Donald Trump has kept an unusually low profile since his election defeat, making few public appearances and hardly speaking except for on Twitter. But when the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 30,000 for the first time on Tuesday, Trump emerged to take a victory lap. “That is a sacred number,” said Trump, who has […]

A U.S. Record: Two Million New Virus Cases in Two Weeks

For the first time since the coronavirus outbreak hit the United States, the country has added more than one million cases in each of the past two consecutive weeks. Covid deaths, which lag reported cases by weeks, are also at a level not seen since the spring.   Some epidemiologists project that the number of […]

Trump Reportedly Planning To Pardon Michael Flynn, Start Of Spree

President Donald Trump is planning to pardon Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, according to several media reports on Tuesday evening. Both Axios and The New York Times said Trump has privately told aides Flynn will benefit from a series of pardons the president will issue […]

Bob Cesca: Enough cowardice… Democrats must forge ahead, without caring what the Trumpers say

Even after the landslide defeat of Donald Trump, Republicans across the board continue to be terrified by Trump’s disciples. Fear of the Red Hats has always been one of the primary reasons why the rest of Trump’s party has refused to speak out against his ongoing horror show. It’s not the only reason, but it’s […]

Stephcast 11-24-20

The Virus Surge, Once Centered in the Midwest, Is Accelerating in 45 U.S. States

When infections began rising sharply in the U.S. in September, the growth was driven largely by outbreaks in the Upper Midwest. States like North Dakota and Wisconsin soon became the hardest hit in the nation, relative to their size, and the region continues to struggle. Now, though, with the whole country’s daily average of new […]

Biden expected to tap history-making pick, Janet Yellen, for Treasury Department

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to name Janet Yellen as his pick for treasury secretary, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. If confirmed by the Senate, Yellen, 74, will be the first woman to hold the top job. Biden’s selection of Yellen is a signal of stability at a time of economic fragility […]

First Latino tapped to head DHS signals shift from Trump’s hard-line immigration policies

Alejandro Mayorkas, the first Latino chosen for President-elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet, will head a Department of Homeland Security that is expected to drastically overhaul President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, as well as put Mayorkas at the forefront of the new administration’s anti-terrorism strategy. Mayorkas will be the first Latino and first immigrant to head […]

Trump Administration Finally Clears Way For Biden Transition To Begin

Emily Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, said the transition between President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden can begin, releasing millions of dollars in funds and clearing the way for a new administration. “I have dedicated much of my adult life to public service, and I have always strived to do what […]

Charlie Pierce: This Is the Beta Test for a Future Where Republicans Will Simply Never Accept a Democratic Victory

The latest episode of the administration*’s ongoing hit legal sitcom takes place in Wisconsin, where the campaign’s “observers” are pretty much super-spreading hecklers at this point, and where his legal teams continue their unparalleled performance as the biggest collection of boobs and yahoos to enter a courtroom since Curly was arraigned for the murder of […]

Stephcast 11-23-20

Incoming chief of staff says Biden will begin announcing Cabinet picks this week

Incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Sunday that President-elect Joe Biden will begin announcing his Cabinet picksearly this week. Klain said on ABC News’ “This Week” that Americans will see the first of Biden’s nominees Tuesday. “Meeting the pace — beating, in fact, the pace that was set by the Obama/Biden transition, […]

Trump campaign cuts ties with attorney Sidney Powell after bizarre election fraud claims

President Donald Trump appears to have cut ties with Sidney Powell, a key member of his legal team who also represents former national security adviser Michael Flynn in his long-running attempt to unravel a guilty plea for lying about his 2016 contacts with Russia. The abrupt shake-up came in a terse Sunday-evening statement from the […]

AstraZeneca says its coronavirus vaccine can be around 90 percent effective

British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said on Monday that its vaccine for Covid-19 could be up to 90 percent effective in preventing the disease — the third promising breakthrough in the fight against a pandemic that has killed nearly 1.4 million people worldwide. “This vaccine’s efficacy and safety confirm that it will be highly effective against […]

Carl Bernstein Names Names: 21 Republican Senators Who’ve Privately Ripped Trump

Journalist Carl Bernstein on Sunday night called out Republicans in the Senate for remaining silent as President Donald Trump attempts to overthrow the results of the election and remain in office via lawsuits based on false claims.  And he’s naming names. Bernstein identified 21 lawmakers who he said have “expressed extreme contempt for Trump & […]

Eric Boehlert: Biden White House should give Fox News the boot

Over the last four years, the Trump White House press briefing room has welcomed the right-wing media swamp, with conspiracy outlets like Gateway Pundit and OAN granted access to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It was part of a Trump campaign to de-legitimize the press and turn the traditionally-serious briefings into partisan showdowns, where Trump’s far-right media […]

The Rude Pundit: Rudy Giuliani Is Sweating His Hair Color Off for America

Goddamn, why can’t we just be fucking done with Rudy Giuliani? At this point, his story should have ended in a fading Manhattan hotel room when the housekeeper finds his corpse hanging in a closet with a belt around his neck and no pants, his hand rigor-mortised around his dick. like he was choking a […]

Trump campaign asks for another Georgia recount

President Donald Trump’s campaign said Saturday it is seeking a second recount of presidential election votes in Georgia after the first one did not turn out in his favor. Under state election rules the campaign is within its rights; the first hand recount, completed Thursday and certified Friday, had been automatically triggered by a new […]

In blistering ruling, judge throws out Trump suit in Pennsylvania

A federal judge issued a scathing order Saturday dismissing the Trump campaign’s futile effort to block the certification of votes in Pennsylvania, shooting down claims of widespread irregularities with mail-in ballots. The case was always a long shot to stop President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, but it was President Donald Trump’s best hope to affect the […]

SM Happy Hour Videocast 11-20-20 Dr. Irwin Redlener

Stephcast 11-20-20

Congress heads home for Thanksgiving without pandemic relief deal

Congress will head home for a week-long Thanksgiving holiday recess without passing any sort of compromise coronavirus relief bill as the U.S. death toll passes 250,000 and millions of Americans remain on unemployment. But there is some hope that renewed talks could see some sort of coronavirus relief aid in the coming weeks even with […]

Promising more lawsuits, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani recycles litany of debunked claims

President Donald Trump‘s legal team on Thursday staged a bizarre 90-minute press conference where they outlined plans to resurrect a crumbling legal strategy, in part by recycling a litany of false claims — including several that have already been rejected in the courts. Rudy Giuliani led the effort in a winding, and at times, angry […]

Rachel Maddow Reveals Partner’s Harrowing COVID-19 Battle On Return To MSNBC

Rachel Maddow made an emotional return to MSNBC airwaves Thursday night, revealing that she has spent the past two weeks caring for her partner, whose COVID-19 infection was so serious they thought it might kill her. The 47-year-old anchor told viewers in a from-home broadcast that the COVID-19 exposure from a close contact that has […]

Georgia hand count of votes affirms Biden’s narrow victory over Trump

A hand tally of the presidential race in Georgia is complete, and the results affirm Democrat Joe Biden’s lead over Republican President Donald Trump. Biden went into the recount with a margin of 13,558 votes, according to votes tallied by NBC News. Previously uncounted ballots discovered during the hand count reduced the margin to 12,284 […]

Harry Litman: Why not sue the GSA to get the transition going? Wouldn’t be prudent.

Occupants of the real world recognize that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. His lead is far too large to reverse, and President’s Trump’s disingenuous defenders haven’t even offered a legal theory, much less any evidence, that would so much as dent it. But the president and his appointed administrator of the General Services […]

Stephcast 11-19-20

Trump Campaign Attorneys Admit ‘There Is No Evidence’ of ‘Any Fraud’ in Connection with Challenged Ballots in Bucks County, Pa.

Attorneys representing President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign in challenging thousands of ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania agreed to sign court documents on Wednesday informing the court that there was no evidence of fraud or misconduct pertaining to those ballots. The lawsuit—filed last week by the campaign as well as the Republican National Committee and two […]

‘You Got Me Emotional’: Biden Gets Choked Up During Video Chat With Pandemic Health Care Workers

President-elect Joe Biden got emotional during a video conference with a group of health care workers treating Covid-19 patients, getting teary-eyed after hearing a heartbreaking story from an ICU nurse. CNN’s Brooke Baldwin played a clip of the discussion Wednesday, introducing the video as part of a segment with reporter Arlette Saenz about the challenges […]

Two MI GOP Election Officials Now Want to ‘Rescind’ Their Vote Approving Wayne County Results

The two Republicans on the Wayne County (Mich.) Board of Canvassers now want to “rescind” their vote to certify the 2020 election results in their county, releasing an affidavit late on Wednesday night that seeks to double back on their flip-flop from just one day earlier. On Tuesday night, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann initially […]

U.S. surpasses 250,000 coronavirus deaths as virus mortality rate surges

The United States has recorded a quarter-million Covid-19 deaths, the latest NBC News numbers showed Wednesday, and the death rate has been accelerating in recent weeks as cases have been surging across the country. The 250,000th death was logged Wednesday morning, the data revealed. In the last four weeks there has been a 42 percent […]

Stephcast 11-18-20

Pentagon announces troop reductions in Afghanistan and Iraq

The U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan and Iraq will be reduced to 2,500 in each country by mid-January, acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller announced on Tuesday. Miller made the announcement in remarks to Pentagon reporters that highlighted the next step in what he called “President Trump’s plan to bring the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq […]

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) tests positive for coronavirus

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the second-oldest member of the Senate, has tested positive for coronavirus. The 87-year-old Iowa Republican said in a statement that he learned he was exposed to the coronavirus Tuesday morning and received a positive test. “While I still feel fine, the test came back positive for the coronavirus,” Grassley said. “I am […]

Michigan GOPers Try To Steal Election For Trump, Change Minds At The Last Minute

The two Republicans on Michigan’s Wayne County Board of Canvassers initially refused on Tuesday to certify the county’s election results, which show former Vice President Joe Biden defeating President Donald Trump. But they suddenly reversed their decision after hours of phone calls from the public lambasting them for trying to exclude predominantly Black Detroit from […]

Trump fires head of election cybersecurity who debunked conspiracy theories

Christopher Krebs, who led the federal government’s election cybersecurity efforts, has been fired by President Donald Trump via Twitter. Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, has been the target of public criticism from Trump since the Nov. 3 election over his agency’s Rumor Control blog, which rebuts a list […]

Stephcast 11-17-20

Charlie Pierce: I’m Not Going to Be Comfortable Until Joe Biden’s Hand Comes Off the Bible

Because I do not believe that everything that’s bad crazy in American conservatism, and in the Republican Party into which it injected its prion disease decades ago, began on Election Night, 2016, I can remind people that the Republicans floated this notion in 2000, if things in Florida had turned sour on George W. Bush. […]

Strict New Limits Imposed Coast To Coast In U.S. As COVID-19 Surge Continues

The city of Philadelphia and several large U.S. states on Monday announced strict new limits on social gatherings and commercial activity to tamp down a coronavirus surge threatening to overwhelm healthcare systems and claim thousands more lives in the weeks ahead. New Jersey, California, Ohio and Pennsylvania’s largest city joined a growing list of states […]

Trump Reportedly Talked Out of Plan to Strike Iranian Nuclear Facility Before He Leaves Office

President Donald Trump was talked out of nascent plans to strike at Iran’s main nuclear site in the few remaining weeks of his administration. Per a report in the New York Times, Trump asked about options to hit the country during an Oval Office meeting last week, just one day after the International Atomic Energy Agency […]

Georgia Sec of State Speaks Out: Lindsey Graham Implied That I ‘Look Hard and See How Many Ballots You Can Throw Out’

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger appeared on CNN Monday night to talk about the attacks he’s gotten from fellow Republicans and to clarify a stunning claim he made about his conversation with Senator Lindsey Graham. In a new Washington Post interview, Raffensperger claimed that Graham suggested he exclude legal ballots Read the rest of […]

Biden warns ‘more people may die’ because of Trump’s transition delays

President-elect Joe Biden on Monday warned that the biggest threat to the country and to his transition posed by President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 race is that “more people may die.” Biden made the stark warning during remarks about the economy from Wilmington, Delaware, during which he was asked by NBC News’s […]

Stephcast 11-16-20

Thousands rally behind Trump, insisting he won a race that he lost

Fervent supporters of President Donald Trump rallied in Washington on Saturday behind his spurious claim of a stolen election and swarmed his motorcade in adulation when he detoured for a drive-by on his way out of town. Hours later, after night fell in the nation’s capital, demonstrators favoring Trump clashed in the streets with counterprotesters, […]

Trump seems to suggest Biden ‘won’ but later says he’s not conceding

President Donald Trump suggested Sunday that Joe Biden had “won” the presidential election while saying that the election was rigged — a claim that has been widely debunked. “He won because the Election was Rigged,” Trump wrote before falsely claiming that no watchers or observers had been allowed. It was not clear whether the tweet […]

Incoming Biden chief of staff warns transition delay puts vaccine distribution at risk

President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, urged the Trump administration Sunday to reverse course and begin working on a presidential transition so “nothing drops in this change of power” that would jeopardize the new administration’s ability to distribute a coronavirus vaccine. President Donald Trump and his campaign continue to pursue legal challenges […]

U.S. hits 11 million Covid cases as restrictions increase and holiday worries mount

The United States surpassed more than 11 million Covid-19 on Sunday, as the third wave of the virus continued its uncontrolled spread, new restrictions were introduced, and Americans weighed whether and how they can celebrate Thanksgiving. The U.S. recorded more than 1 million new cases this past week alone, including 156,416 on Saturday, which marked […]

Eric Boehlert: Trump’s election madness… The press gives Republicans a pass

As Trump continues to thrash around, ordering his lawyers to file absurd lawsuits in an attempt to overturn free and fair election results nationwide, the press once again is giving Republicans a pass. Refusing to hold the GOP accountable for truly outrageous and destructive behavior from the head of its party, the Beltway media continue […]

The Rude Pundit: Relax. It’s Okay to Be Panicky About Trump’s Attempt to Steal the Election

I know how it is. You’re sitting there watching Trump refuse to concede, file lawsuits over nonexistent voting fraud, do weird shit with the military and intelligence leadership, and more, and you’re thinking, “What the fuck is he up to?” And then you read things that tell you to shit yourself in terror and other […]

SM Happy Hour Videocast 11-13-20 Mimi Kennedy

Stephcast 11-13-20

Virus Cases Reach New Highs in U.S., Prompting Talk of More Lockdowns

The coronavirus pandemic is spreading with frightening speed throughout the United States, shattering records on a daily basis, stretching medical resources to breaking point and once again prompting states, counties and cities to consider economically devastating lockdowns. On Thursday, public health officials recorded more than 150,000 new cases in a day for the first time […]

Election officials, including Dept. of Homeland Security, contradict Trump’s voter-fraud conspiracy theories

A group of national, state and private election officials said in a joint statement Thursday that there is no evidence of any voting system being compromised in the 2020 election despite President Donald Trump’s deluge of election fraud conspiracies. “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, […]

President Trump’s GOP wall of support is cracking

As President Donald Trump’s lawyers cling to their far-fetched schemes to overturn the presidential election, it was increasingly clear Thursday that cracks are forming in Trump’s Republican wall of support, as more GOP members stepped forward to say that President-elect Joe Biden should receive national intelligence briefings and others began to acknowledge the long-shot nature […]

Biden Wins Arizona, Padding His Electoral College Margin Over Trump

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has narrowly won Arizona, capturing the state’s 11 electoral votes and strengthening his Electoral College margin as President Trump continues to make baseless attacks on the vote counts favoring Mr. Biden. Mr. Biden, whose margin in Arizona is currently about 11,000 votes, or 0.3 percentage points, is the first Democratic […]

Stephcast 11-12-20

These 5 States Just Set Records For COVID-19 Deaths

Virtually every state in the union is trending in the wrong direction in the pandemic, setting grim records by the day as Americans prepare to spend a winter battling a virus that thrives indoors. At least five states ― Alaska, Missouri, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming ― set records for COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, according […]

Trump’s Silent Public Veterans’ Day Outing Belies White House In Tumult

Donald Trump spent 10 minutes in public Wednesday honoring America’s war veterans — a veneer of normalcy for a White House that’s frozen by a defeated president mulling his options, mostly forgoing the mechanics of governing and blocking his inevitable successor. Trump’s appearance at the annual Veterans Day commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery was his […]

‘Devastating’: Top Pentagon leadership gutted as fears rise over national security

The firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper kicked off a rapid-fire series of high-level departures at the Pentagon on Tuesday, setting off alarms on Capitol Hill that the White House was installing loyalists to carry out President Donald Trump’s wishes during an already tense transition. In quick succession, top officials overseeing policy, intelligence and the […]

President-elect Biden picks longtime aide Ron Klain as chief of staff

President-elect Joe Biden named Ron Klain, a veteran of Capitol Hill, to be his White House chief of staff, the transition said in a news release. Klain, 59, is a longtime Democratic operative who has strong ties to Biden, largely as his chief of staff during Biden’s first years as vice president. He also coordinated […]

Stephcast 11-11-20

U.S. Hits All-Time High For COVID-19 Hospitalizations, New Cases Hit All Time High

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 […]

Pompeo Says There Will Be Smooth Transition To ‘Second Trump Administration’

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared to completely dismiss the results of the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday, saying “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” Pompeo’s comment came in response to a reporter asking if the State Department is prepared to engage with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team and if […]

Trump loyalists given top Pentagon roles after several officials resign following Esper’s ouster

Several loyalists to President Donald Trump were promoted to top roles in the Defense Department on Tuesday after officials resigned following the unceremonious ouster of Defense Secretary Mark Esper. The Pentagon confirmed the resignations of the department’s top officials for policy and intelligence in a statement. The resignations include those of James Anderson, the acting […]

President-elect Joe Biden calls Trump’s failure to concede ‘an embarrassment’

President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday called President Donald Trump’s failure to concede the election “an embarrassment,” but said neither that nor the Trump administration’s stonewalling would stop him from getting to work. Asked for his thoughts on the anxiety some Americans feel over the president’s refusal to publicly admit defeat, Biden said, “I just think […]

Bob Cesca: It’s Biden’s job to act like a grownup. But “unity” and “civility” are a long way off

If there’s one thing President-elect Joe Biden understands it’s that chief executives lead by example. Presidents set the tone for the nation. In that regard, there’s nothing wrong with the next president “going high” in the face of a soon-to-be ex-president whose entire business model is going low — underground septic-tank low. In fact, Biden’s sentiments […]

Stephcast 11-10-20

Charlie Pierce: Biden’s Commitment to Competence Is an Automatic Reproach to the Current Administration*

Serendipity: The Transition Team’s Friend. Monday morning, the president-elect named the members of his pandemic task force and, by comparison to the hacks and quacks to whom we’ve been treated over the past several months, this one looks like the A-Team. From the New York Times: On Monday morning, the president-elect announced the leadership of […]

After Baseless Trump Claims, Barr Says DOJ Can Investigate Voter Fraud Allegations

As high-ranking Republicans refuse to speak out against President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations of mass voter fraud, Attorney General William Barr sent top federal prosecutors a memo that will further feed the narrative that there are questions about last week’s election of President-elect Joe Biden. Barr’s memo, sent to U.S. attorneys across the country, authorizes […]

HUD’s Ben Carson, Trump adviser Bossie test positive for coronavirus

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and David Bossie, an outside White House adviser, have both tested positive for Covid-19, becoming the latest figures in President Donald Trump’s orbit to contract the virus. Bossie, a longtime Trump ally who was tapped to lead the effort to contest the presidential election, tested positive Sunday, according […]

Trump campaign adviser: Conceding ‘is not even in our vocabulary right now’

Jason Miller, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump’s reelection effort, said Monday that the campaign was not remotely considering conceding to President-elect Joe Biden after the Democratic nominee was declared the winner of the 2020 White House race. “That word is not even in our vocabulary right now,” Miller said in an interviewon Fox […]

Pandemic Reaches Grim Milestone as Biden Moves to Take Charge

Coronavirus cases surged to a new record on Monday, with the United States now averaging 111,000 cases each day for the past week, a grim milestone amid rising hospitalizations and deaths that cast a shadow on positive news about the effectiveness of a potential vaccine. As the number of infected Americans passed 10 million and […]

Stephcast 11-9-20

President-Elect Biden Names COVID-19 Advisory Board Stacked With Experts

President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday the members of a COVID-19 advisory board as he transitions into the White House. The roster of experts and doctors will help guide his administration as it confronts a rapidly worsening crisis that has already killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and infected millions more. The board will be co-chaired […]

A little-known Trump appointee is in charge of handing transition resources to Biden — and she isn’t budging

A Trump administration appointee is refusing to sign a letter allowing President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team to formally begin its work this week, in another sign the incumbent president has not acknowledged Biden’s victory and could disrupt the transfer of power. The administrator of the General Services Administration, the low-profile agency in charge of federal […]

Biden plans to move fast on the pandemic and the economy

President-elect Joe Biden and his advisers plan this week to demonstrate a far more assertive strategy against the coronavirus than President Trump’s, and Biden may take a more proactive role in coming weeks in congressional negotiations over an economic stimulus package. Biden’s proposals, some of which were posted on his new transition website, include aiming […]

Op-Ed: Adam Schiff: Biden has his work cut out for him

Under unprecedented circumstances, and amid the worst pandemic in a century, Americans voted in record numbers and delivered a clear result: On Jan. 20, 2021, Joe Biden will become the 46th president of the United States.   Biden will take office with a mandate to address a range of urgent issues. He will need to quickly […]

Eric Boehlert: Indecision 2020 — TV networks lose their nerve

For a news industry traditionally obsessed with being first to land a big story, it’s disorienting to watch TV networks look like they don’t want to be the one to call the 2020 presidential election winner. Stuck in neutral since Friday morning (“Biden on the verge of winning”), when it appeared it would be just […]

The Rude Pundit: Trump to America Today… Democracy Is for Suckers and Losers

I gotta tell you: I watched Trump’s appearance today in the White House press room with enough burning schadenfreude to power a small city. As much as I wanted to be appalled and saddened and enraged, mostly what I thought was “Suffer, motherfucker.” If Biden ends up winning, as almost everyone seems to believe he […]

Kamala Harris, daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, elected nation’s first female vice president

A vice president-elect stepped forward on Saturday, and, for the first time in American history, she was not a man. Kamala Devi Harris, a daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, is set to become the highest-ranking woman in the nation’s 244-year existence, as well as a high-profile representation of the country’s increasingly diverse composition. Harris’s […]

Joe Biden triumphs over Trump, prompting celebration across the U.S. but no concession from the president

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was elected the nation’s 46th president Saturday in a repudiation of President Trump powered by legions of women and minority voters who rejected his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his divisive, bullying conduct in office. Biden’s victory was the culmination of four years of struggle for Democrats and others who […]

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump aide test positive for Covid-19

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows tested positive for Covid-19, a source familiar with the diagnosis told NBC News on Friday. The news, first reported by Bloomberg, comes as the U.S. recorded the third straight day of more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases, breaking previous records. It also comes as President Donald Trump and […]

Biden Confident About Victory: ‘The Numbers Tell Us It’s Clear… We’re Going to Win This Race

Joe Biden addressed the nation from Wilmington, DE late Friday evening, and with the votes in the remaining states continuing to trend in his direction but the networks yet to call the election, he was confident about his eventual victory, saying “we’re going to win this race with a clear majority.” “We don’t have a […]

SM Happy Hour Videocast 11-6-20 Malcom Nance and Frangela

Stephcast 11-6-20

Covid-19 cases break record for second day in a row, topping 120,000

A record number of coronavirus cases were reported Thursday, breaking a record set Wednesday of more than 100,000 cases in a single day. A total of 120,048 people tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, nearly 16,000 more than on Wednesday, according to an NBC News tally. The United States has the highest number of coronavirus […]

‘This is getting insane’: Republicans push back against Trump’s false election claims

Republican lawmakers and officials are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s series of false claims Thursday night about the presidential election, although many did not mention him by name. Shortly before Trump made baseless claims at a news conference about massive voter fraud in Pennsylvania, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said in a statement that once […]

Biden predicts victory in 2020 race: ‘When the count is finished, we will be the winners’

Joe Biden predicted Wednesday that he would win the 2020 election over President Donald Trump when the final votes were counted. “After a long night of counting, it’s clear we’re winning enough statesto win 270 electoral votes to win the presidency,” Biden told a small group of reporters at the Chase Center on the Riverfront […]

Biden erases Trump lead in Georgia, margin shrinks in Pennsylvania

As an anxious nation watched into the wee hours of the morning Friday, Joe Biden took a slim lead in Georgia with the fate of the presidency remaining unknown and five closely watchedstates continuing to count ballots almost two days after polls closed. The unresolved election stoked tensions as voters — who turned out in […]

Stephcast 11-5-20

Joe Biden Receives Most Votes In Presidential Election History

There’s no clear winner yet in the 2020 presidential election, but Democratic nominee Joe Biden has already made history by winning the most votes a presidential candidate has ever received in a U.S. election. The former vice president has amassed more than 70 million votes so far, breaking the record Barack Obama nabbed in 2008 when […]

Trump eyes Supreme Court, but campaign takes election fight to state courts

When President Donald Trump vowed to ask the Supreme Court to halt ballot counting, he wasn’t actually outlining his campaign’s plan. In fact, some Republicans say, Trump didn’t even understand what he was calling for. But buried in Trump’s confusing claim was the seed of his campaign’s actual legal strategy, one they have been building […]

Republican allies break with Trump, say take time to count all the votes

Some Republicans are not falling in line behind President Donald Trump’s attempts to falsely declare victory and seek to halt some vote-counting in the presidential race, with several GOP leaders expressing rare public rebukes of the president. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a Trump ally who usually avoids criticizing the president in public, told […]

BATTLEGROUNDS HANG IN BALANCE AS FINAL COUNTS GO ON

The presidential election remained undecided Wednesday evening, turning the nation’s attention to a handful of battleground states that continue to tabulate the crush of mail-in ballots that will decide whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden will be victorious. NBC News has projected the outcome in 44 states, giving Biden a narrow but growing lead over […]

Stephcast 11-4-20

Joe Biden Urges Supporters To ‘Keep The Faith’ Amid Slow Election Results

Democratic challenger Joe Biden urged his supporters to “keep the faith” amid slow results from a slate of battleground states in the presidential election, saying he believed he was on track to defeat President Donald Trump when all the votes are counted. “We knew this was going to go long, but who knew we were […]

Dems keep House, GOP holds key Senate seats

Democrats will maintain control of the House of Representatives, NBC News projects, but their path to taking control in the Senate narrowed as numerous Republican incumbents fended off strong opposition. Democrats, who were winning fewer House seats than they had hoped, failed to pick up some of the Senate seats they were banking on. Democratic […]

With nine states still counting millions of votes, Trump falsely claims he won

President Donald Trump made a series of false and misleading claims about the 2020 election and vote-counting processes early Wednesday morning, ranging from how he’s fared so far in the race to what will happen next. Here’s a look at his claims, including the states he incorrectly claimed to have won and baseless allegations that […]

TRUMP-BIDEN RACE REMAINS UNSETTLED AS LAST KEY STATES COUNT THEIR VOTES

President Donald Trump has won Florida and Ohio, NBC News projects, while Joe Biden picked up Minnesota and New Hampshire and leads in Arizona in Tuesday’s presidential election. Trump had to win Florida to have any real shot at re-election, most analysts agree, while Biden has multiple paths to victory that do not include the […]

Stephcast 11-3-20

Birx Internal Memo Reportedly Hits WH for Failing to Take ‘Aggressive Action’ Against Covid Third Wave: ‘This Is Not About Lockdowns’

Dr. Deborah Birx issued an internal report on Monday that took the White House to task for failing to take “much more aggressive action” as the country suffers from a massive resurgence in the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Washington Post, Birx, one of president’s key Covid-19 task force advisers repeatedly contradicted the president’s campaign “rounding […]

Undeterred by Pandemic, Americans Prepare to Deliver Verdict on Trump

Voters on both sides of the nation’s widening political divide prepared on Monday to render a verdict on President Trump’s four tumultuous years in the White House and, in particular, his management of the coronavirus pandemic that has upended American life for the past eight months. As Mr. Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. raced […]

Nancy Pelosi: ‘We’re Ready For It All’ If Trump Tries To Create Election Chaos

On the eve of an election in which the president of the United States is signaling he’ll do anything to win, including promoting violence and cheating, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says she’s been methodically preparing for months for Donald Trump to try to steal the election and is confident Americans’ votes will be be […]

The First Election Day Results Are Already In in Dixville Notch, Thanks To A Quirky Old Law

Two small rural communities in New Hampshire cast their ballots just after midnight on Tuesday ― and, thanks to a quirk in state election law, they’ve also tallied the vote and released the results. All five voters in Dixville Notch chose Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden over President Donald Trump. The first ballot was cast by lifelong […]

Charlie Pierce: The Republican Party Went Around the Bend Before Trump, and It Will Stay There After

I am intrigued by this story in the New York Times, not necessarily for what it says, which is some prime Grade-A Both Sides ground beef, but for what it portends for the postgame analysis over the next several months. It’s all very ill-omened and it has made me doubt if, even now, anyone is […]

Stephcast 11-2-20

Federal court hears last-minute Republican bid Monday morning to toss ballots in Texas

A federal court in Houston is holding an emergency hearing Monday morning over a last-ditch effort by Republicans in Texas to toss out nearly 127,000 ballots in a Democratic-leaning county. U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen will hear arguments on the bid by a quartet of Texas Republicans — three candidates and a conservative activist […]

MAGA ‘Trump Trains’ Jam Roadways In Several States

Make America Great Again “Trump trains” jammed traffic on highways Sunday in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Texas, Indiana and Virginia in an effort to support President Donald Trump. Trump supporters, several in pickup trucks and vans, shut down lanes on the busy Garden State Parkway near Lakeland, New Jersey, and clogged the nearby Marion Cuomo […]

Trump Suggests He Will Fire Anthony Fauci ‘A Little Bit After’ Election

President Donald Trump suggested Sunday he would fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and a touchstone of scientific wisdom during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, shortly after the election. Trump made the comments to a crowd of supporters in Florida late Sunday, the latest campaign stop in his frantic final push before […]

Biden Responds To Reports Trump Will Declare Early Victory: ‘Not Going To Steal This’

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Sunday President Donald Trump will not “steal” the election amid reports he planned to declare a premature victory on election night if early counts show him ahead, despite a mountain of mail-in votes that may take days or weeks to count. The comments come amid theWhite House’s ongoing efforts […]

Eric Boehlert: America turns on Trump — we’re not “polarized” after all

As Trump’s failed presidency limps into the final stages of its first term and he trails Joe Biden by historic margins, a key media myth is being burst right before our eyes. Instead of the deeply “polarized,” bitterly divided country the press insists we have become, where every hot-button issue divides the nation by a […]

The Rude Pundit: Donald Trump, See You Next Tuesday

Donald Trump is a cunt. He has been a cunt for his entire worthless life. He might not be the most racist president, but he is certainly the cuntiest. He is campaigning by being as cunty as any human being has ever been, buoyed by the barbaric whoops of his crowds of cunts. He surrounds […]

SM Happy Hour Videocast 10-30-20 Elie Mystal

Stephcast 10-30-20

Donald Trump Jr. dismisses coronavirus deaths: ‘The number is almost nothing’

Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, falsely claimed on Thursday that the number of Americans dying from the coronavirus amounts to “almost nothing.” More than 8.9 million people in the United States have been infected with Covid-19, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, resulting in more than 228,000 deaths. The U.S. […]

More People Have Now Voted Early In Texas Than In All Of 2016

Texans have already cast more ballots in the presidential election than they did during all of 2016, an unprecedented surge of early voting in a state that was once the country’s most reliably Republican, but may now be drifting toward battleground status. More than 9 million ballots have been cast as of Friday morning in […]

‘American fiasco’: House coronavirus oversight report rips Trump admin’s pandemic response

A House subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis issued a report Friday blasting the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic, calling it “among the worst failures of leadership in American history.” “The virus is a global scourge, but it has been an American fiasco, killing more people in the United States than in any other country,” […]

U.S. records more than 90,000 Covid-19 cases in one day for the first time

The United States reached a daily record for coronavirus when more than 90,000 cases were reported on Thursday, according to the latest NBC News tally. More than 30 states reported more than 1,000 cases. It was the first time the U.S. has crossed 90,000 cases in one day, almost 10,000 more than the previous high […]

Stephcast 10-29-20

‘Anonymous’ Author Behind Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ Op-Ed And Book Identified

Miles Taylor has been identified as the author of a notorious anonymous op-ed in The New York Times in 2018 that claimed he was part of a secret “resistance” inside President Donald Trump’s administration. Taylor revealed himself Wednesday in a tweet. In a statement accompanying the announcement, Taylor observed that “Trump sees personal criticism as subversive,” adding, […]

Supreme Court won’t block mail ballots in North Carolina arriving up to six days after Election Day

The Supreme Court late Wednesday declined to block lower court rulings that allow six extra days for accepting ballots sent by mail in North Carolina. The justices left the later deadline in place, a victory for Democrats in a presidential battleground state. Earlier in the day, in a defeat for Republicans, the court declined to […]

US may not be back to normal until 2022, Fauci says

As Covid-19 cases continue to jump during the fall surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci says there’s little chance of normalcy on the horizon. The US will have a vaccine in the next few months, but there’s a chance a “substantial proportion of the people” won’t be vaccinated until the second or third quarter of 2021, Fauci […]

Stephcast 10-28-20

Mission Accomplished? White House Science Office Credits Trump for ‘Ending the Covid-19 Pandemic’ as a First-Term Accomplishment

Fact-check: False…x 70,000 a day. The White House Science Policy Office made an outrageously inaccurate claim on Tuesday, sending out a press release with a list of President Donald Trump’s first-term accomplishments. Among them: “ending the Covid-19 pandemic.” That is, of course, patently absurd. The nation is currently the throes of a third wave of […]

U.S. Early Voting Tops 70 Million, Continuing Historic Pace

More than 70 million Americans have cast ballots in the U.S. presidential election, more than half the total turnout of the 2016 election with one week to go until Election Day, according to a Tuesday tally from the U.S. Elections Project. The tally, which shows a record-breaking pace that could lead to the highest voter […]

Obama slams Trump over coronavirus: ‘He’s jealous of Covid’s media coverage’

Former President Barack Obama on Tuesday harshly criticized President Donald Trump‘s response to the coronavirus pandemic and faulted him for turning the White House into a “hot zone.” “More than 225,000 people in this country are dead. More than 100,000 small businesses have closed. Half a million jobs are gone in Florida alone. Think about that,” Obama said, speaking from Orlando […]

Trump To Women: ‘We’re Getting Your Husbands Back To Work’

President Donald Trump might need a refresher on what century he’s living in. In yet another appeal to female voters ahead of Election Day, Trump pledged on Tuesday that if reelected, he’d be sure to get their “husbands back to work.” He made the astonishing remark during a campaign rally in Lansing, Michigan, after falsely […]

Bob Cesca: Time to dump the presidential dilettante — he’s a cruel and incompetent failure

In the earliest days of the Trump crisis, just about a month after the inauguration, I received the horrifying news that my best friend and podcast partner, Chez Pazienza, had died of a drug overdose.  It was the evening of Feb. 25, 2017, and the shock still hasn’t quite worn off. In fact, I ask myself […]

Stephcast 10-27-20

President Trump falsely declares coronavirus is ‘ending’ as virus rates spike and financial markets dip

Faced with record levels of U.S. coronavirus infections and a new White House outbreak, President Trump declared Monday that the pandemic was “ending anyway,” further tying his reelection bid to his ability to convince voters, including those at large rallies that defy health authorities, that the viral danger is fading. Financial markets fell as he […]

Jared Kushner Mocks Black Lives Matter Activists: They ‘Go On Instagram And Cry’

Jared Kusher, a top aide and son-in-law to President Donald Trump, appeared to mock Black Lives Matter activists on Monday, claiming many people who spoke out against George Floyd’s death in May were simply “virtue signaling.” “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade asked Kushner about working with rapper Ice Cube ― who has faced backlash […]

Supreme Court won’t let late mail ballots count in Wisconsin

Wisconsin cannot count mail ballots that arrive well after the polls close under an order issued Monday by the Supreme Court, a defeat for Democrats in a battleground state. By a vote of 5-3, the justices declined to lift a lower court ruling preventing the state from counting mail ballots that arrive as much as […]

Senate confirms Amy Coney Barrett, heralding new conservative era for Supreme Court

The Republican-led Senate voted narrowly Monday to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, ending an acrimonious confirmation process and handing President Donald Trump a political victory days before the election. Barrett, 48, a federal appeals judge, will fill the seat left vacant by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal icon who died Sept. […]

Charlie Pierce: Trump’s Executive Order on Federal Employees Would Be a Win for the Swamp

Last Wednesday, El Caudillo Del Mar-a-Lago gave us yet another very good reason to vote him toward his date with the federal courts next week, albeit an obscure one, and one that has been obscured by the campaign, the Amy Coney Barrett railroad in the Senate, and the pandemic. Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at […]

SM Happy Hour Videocast 10-26-20 Stephen Stills

Stephcast 10-26-20

Putin rejects Trump’s criticism of Hunter Biden’s business

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that he saw nothing criminal in Hunter Biden’s past business ties with Ukraine or Russia, marking out his disagreement with one of Donald Trump’s attack lines in the U.S. presidential election. Putin was responding to comments made by Trump during televised debates with Democratic challenger Joe Biden ahead […]

Barrett nomination clears Senate hurdle, putting her on course to confirmation to Supreme Court

Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination broke through one more hurdle ahead of her all-but-assured installation to the Supreme Court as the coronavirus pandemic — which has inextricably been intertwined with the story of her nomination — once again intersected with her confirmation fight. Senators voted about 1:30 p.m. in a rare Sunday session, 51 to […]

White House signals defeat in pandemic as coronavirus outbreak roils Pence’s office

The presidential campaign was roiled this weekend by a fresh outbreak of the novel coronavirus at the White House that infected at least five aides or advisers to Vice President Pence, a spread that President Trump’s top staffer acknowledged Sunday he had tried to avoid disclosing to the public. With the election a little over […]

The Rude Pundit: Biden Wipes Trump’s Cards Off the Table

Last night’s presidential debate at Christian institution Belmont University in Nashville, TN, was notable for President Donald Trump calmly lying and being an asshole for the whole thing. Sure, he wasn’t a bellowing shit-blower like he was in the first debate, where he desperately tried and failed through sheer belligerent motherfuckery to provoke Democratic nominee […]

Eric Boehlert: Getting away with it — Trump’s debate lies greeted with media shrugs

Trump’s first sentence in the debate last night was a lie, when he claimed more than two million Americans were “expected” to die form the Covid-19 virus, therefore America’s current death toll of 220,000 isn’t so bad. From that point on, Trump lied without pause during the 90 minute debate. He lied about the Russia […]

CDC warns of ‘distressing trend’ in Covid-19 cases as country heads into fall

The government’s top public health officials warned that the number of Covid-19 cases is rising across a majority of the country in a rare briefing Wednesday afternoon. Dr. Jay Butler, deputy director for infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency has noted a “distressing trend” in which coronavirus case […]

Pence chief of staff, senior political adviser both test positive for Covid-19

Two of Vice President Mike Pence’s closest political advisers have tested positive for Covid-19. Pence’s office said in a statement Saturday night that his chief of staff, Marc Short, “began quarantine” after learning of the diagnosis and was cooperating with a contact-tracing effort. “Vice President Pence and Mrs. Pence both tested negative for COVID-19 today, […]

Stephcast 10-23-20

GOP to high court: Halt longer N. Carolina absentee deadline

President Donald Trump’s campaign and North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to return the state to a shorter deadline for accepting late-arriving absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day. The legislative leaders argue in their appeal that the longer deadline, which was extended after early voting had begun, will result […]

More Than 47 Million Ballots Cast In U.S. Election, Eclipsing 2016 Early Turnout

U.S. voters have cast more than 47 million votes for the Nov. 3 presidential election, eclipsing total early voting from the 2016 election with 12 days to go, according to data compiled by the U.S. Elections Project. Some 47.5 million Americans have turned in ballots, roughly eight times the number of early votes cast at […]

Man with van full of guns had checklist to ‘execute’ Joe Biden, authorities say

A man who was arrested in North Carolina on child pornography charges this year had a van full of guns and drove within 4 miles of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s home with a checklist to “execute” him, authorities alleged. The allegations against the man, Alexander Treisman, were in a detention order filed this month […]

4 takeaways from the last presidential debate of 2020

It was probably as normal as things could get this election cycle. After the last faceoff turned into a name-calling shouting match, Thursday night’s presidential debate, moderated by NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker, resembled a much more traditional matchup and provided one the clearest contrasts yet between President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent, former […]

Stephcast 10-22-20

Pope Francis becomes 1st pope to endorse same-sex civil unions

Pope Francis became the first pontiff to endorse same-sex civil unions in comments for a documentary that premiered Wednesday, sparking cheers from gay Catholics and demands for clarification from conservatives, given the Vatican’s official teaching on the issue. The papal thumbs-up came midway through the feature-length documentary “Francesco,” which premiered at the Rome Film Festival. […]

Russia, Iran have obtained voter data in election interference campaign, according to the DNI

Senior national security officials alerted the American public Wednesday that Iran and Russia have both obtained voter data in their efforts to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election. “This data can be used by foreign actors to attempt to communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos, and undermine […]

In rare gloves-off moment, Obama calls on voters to hand Trump a clear defeat

Former President Barack Obama tore into President Donald Trumpin a fiery speech Wednesday as being unable to take “the job seriously,” faulting him for lacking a plan to address the coronavirus, emboldening racism, working to rip away health care protections without an alternative, tweeting conspiracy theories and engaging regularly in lies and indecent behavior. It […]

Rudy Giuliani denies inappropriate behavior in upcoming ‘Borat’ movie

Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday denied touching himself inappropriately in the upcoming “Borat” movie, insisting that a reported clip from the film was taken out of context. “The Borat video is a complete fabrication,” Giuliani wrote on Twitter. “I was tucking in my shirt after taking off the recording equipment. At no time before, during, or […]

Stephcast 10-21-20

Trump Records Shed New Light on Chinese Business Pursuits

President Trump and his allies have tried to paint the Democratic nominee, Joseph R. Biden Jr., as soft on China, in part by pointing to his son’s business dealings there. Senate Republicans produced a report asserting, among other things, that Mr. Biden’s son Hunter “opened a bank account” with a Chinese businessman, part of what […]

With coronavirus concerns a factor, it’s all tied up in North Carolina: Poll

Coronavirus concerns lift former Vice President Joe Biden in North Carolina while the state’s sizable evangelical and rural populations pull for President Donald Trump, producing a dead-heat contest in a state that’s backed Democratic presidential candidates just twice in the last half century. Biden has 49% support among likely voters in a new ABC News/Washington […]

McConnell signals Senate Republicans don’t want bigger Covid-19 relief bill before election

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told his fellow Republican members in a closed-door meeting Tuesday that he is “encouraging” the White House to wait until after the Nov. 3 election to reach an agreement on a Covid-19 relief package with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to three sources familiar with the conversation. McConnell, R-Ky., was […]

Trump abruptly ends ’60 Minutes’ interview, taunts CBS’ Lesley Stahl

President Donald Trump abruptly ended a taped interview at the White House with “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl on Tuesday then taunted the veteran CBS News journalist in tweets. “I am pleased to inform you that, for the sake of accuracy in reporting, I am considering posting my interview with Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes, […]

Bob Cesca: Let’s imagine the unimaginable… A second term for Donald Trump

With the high-water mark of the election just 14 days away, the tragedy of Nov. 8, 2016, haunts me more and more.  Four years ago, nearly everyone, including Donald Trump himself, was convinced Hillary Clinton was all but guaranteed a resounding victory. I remember articles predicting that Clinton would win the entire East Coast, including South Carolina. […]

Stephcast 10-20-20

Esquire Politics Zoom Meeting with Charlie Pierce!! Subscribe and Register Here!

Election discussion with Charlie Pierce of Esquire Magazine!  This Friday, October 23rd.  Register and subscribe at the link below! Esquire Magazine

U.S. charges Russian intelligence officers in several high-profile cyberattacks

The United States on Monday unsealed criminal charges against six Russian intelligence officers in connection with some of the world’s most damaging cyberattacks, including disruption of Ukraine’s power grid and the release of a mock ransomware virus that infected computers globally and caused billions of dollars in damage. That group, authorities alleged, also hacked computers […]

Trump calls Fauci a ‘disaster’ and says it would be a ‘bomb’ if he fired him

President Donald Trump on Monday attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci during a phone call with campaign staff, calling the infectious disease specialist a “disaster” and saying every time he goes on television there is a “bomb,” but there would be “a bigger bomb if you fire him,” according to a recording of the call obtained by […]