A new Seven Letter Insight poll finds 56% of voters who backed President Trump in the election don't believe their vote was recorded accurately.

Seriously, so what.  These are the same people who never believed Obama was an American or a Christian.  Who cares what they think.  Every minute we spend wringing our hand about this is a minute they win.  Their "belief" is not required.

This is true only if we allow it -

"I am the most fabulous whiner. I do whine because I want to win. And I'm not happy if I'm not winning. And I am a whiner. And I'm a whiner and I keep whining and whining until I win."

-- Donald Trump, interviewed by CNN in August 2015.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) is next in line for the chairmanship.

GOP senators say they expect to refocus on curbing the nation's debt and reforming entitlement programs starting in 2021, as the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the debt has surpassed the size of the American economy.

"I think that's kind of getting back to our DNA. ...I think spending, entitlement reform, growth and the economy are all things that we're going to have to be focused on next year and, yeah, I would expect you'll hear a lot more about that," said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican.
...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is poised to become the chairman of the Budget Committee if Republicans keep the Senate. He said he wants to create a new commission to propose ways to reduce the deficit and address the country's debt.

Seattle Times: "Loren Culp lost Washington's gubernatorial race by more than 545,000 votes, but he's not conceding -- and says he's not going away."

"Culp, the Republican who took 43% of the statewide vote against Gov. Jay Inslee, has taken a page from President Trump's playbook by attempting to sow doubts about the election results and lobbing unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud."

I've got a County COVID task force meeting at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow in Kealakekua over on the Kona side and because it's a two-hour drive (95 miles over the Saddle Hwy., or 110 miles around South Point), I'm going to head over there this afternoon and spend the night. Otherwise, I'd have to leave our house by no later than 5:30 a.m. tomorrow to get there on time to set up.

We've been quite fortunate in Hawaii, in that we've managed to contain the spread of coronavirus. Our geographic isolation has likely played a significant part in our low numbers, but we've also been quite rigorous in enforcing emergency quarantine orders and doing contact tracing. And on an island the size of ours that's predominantly rural, that's been no small feat. And so, I've been on the road a lot.

It's therefore great news that Oxford AstraZeneca announced that its COVID vaccine has a 90% efficacy rate. Of the possible three vaccines thus far, Oxford AstraZeneca holds the most promise. It's much cheaper than the American vaccines, 80% less per dose. There are no temperature issues with delivery. And best of all, it's already been in production for months.

"We really need to make patients aware that this is not going to be a walk in the park," Fryhofer said during a virtual meeting with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, an outside group of medical experts that advise the CDC. She is also a liaison to the committee. "They are going to know they had a vaccine. They are probably not going to feel wonderful. But they've got to come back for that second dose."

Participants in Moderna and Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine trials told CNBC in September that they were experiencing high fever, body aches, bad headaches, daylong exhaustion and other symptoms after receiving the shots. While the symptoms were uncomfortable, and at times intense, the participants said they often went away after a day, sometimes sooner, and that it was better than getting Covid-19.

Both companies acknowledged that their vaccines could induce side effects that are similar to symptoms associated with mild Covid-19, such as muscle pain, chills and headache.

One North Carolina woman in the Moderna study who is in her 50s said she didn't experience a fever but suffered a bad migraine that left her drained for a day and unable to focus. She said she woke up the next day feeling better after taking Excedrin but added that Moderna may need to tell people to take a day off after a second dose.

"If this proves to work, people are going to have to toughen up," she said. "The first dose is no big deal. And then the second dose will definitely put you down for the day for sure. ... You will need to take a day off after the second dose."

link

"Conservative operatives and a super PAC with ties to infamous GOP dirty trickster Roger Stone are calling for Trump supporters to punish Republicans by sitting out Georgia's crucial Senate runoffs or writing in Trump's name instead."

"And though their efforts remains on the party's fringes, the trajectory of the movement has Republicans fearful that it could cost the GOP control of the Senate."

the complaints are it was slow or boring or only offers beautiful backgrounds.  Which oddly is the only thing I remember about the 1947 version.  I think it won an Oscar for cinematography.   I want to see it again now.

Variety review

I am amazed how many people I talk to plan to just do it pretty much like always.  People I thought were smarter.  It's worse than it's ever been and we are weeks from a vaccine.  People are weird.

He has a way of projecting authenticity, not judging if he actually has authenticity but he projects it in a way that is such a stark contrast with Trump it seems to be just what is needed.

Lawmakers In Taiwan Throw Pig Organs

November 27, 2020 at 8:34 am EST By Taegan Goddard 66 Comments

"Lawmakers in Taiwan got into a fist fight and threw pig organs at each other Friday over a soon-to-be enacted policy that would allow imports of U.S. pork and beef," the AP reports.

One lawmaker wrestled another lawmaker to the floor in the scuffle.

British actor David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, has died aged 85, his management company announced Sunday.

"In a recent Monmouth University survey, 77 percent of Trump backers said Joe Biden had won the presidential election because of fraud. Many of these same people think climate change is not real. Many of these same people believe they don't need to listen to scientific experts on how to prevent the spread of the coronavirus."

"We live in a country in epistemological crisis, in which much of the Republican Party has become detached from reality."

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The number is a little less scary if you think of it as 77% of 29% (#republicans per Pew) of 154 million or so voters.

Political lying as tribal signaling

It's like getting a tattoo to prove you're in a gang

I've come to agree with Bill Maher. Orange moron is not going to leave on his own. Bill suggested this over two years ago. He asked every candidate that appeared on his show, what if? They all just chuckled, and said, well, that won't happen. I didn't think he had the stones to do it. But, now, I'm reconsidering. After his tweet that Joe Biden would be "allowed" in the White House once he had proven his 80 million votes weren't obtained fraudulently, I think he's going to have to be dragged out.

"It wasn't bad enough that you stole from my mother -- your own grandmother -- but you also harassed, mocked and humiliated her. You will be released someday, Katherine, to start your life over. But you can never erase the pain, grief and tremendous damage you caused us. It still remains."
- Gerard Puana, to his niece Katherine Kealoha (Nov. 30, 2020)

Former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his now-estranged wife, former Deputy City Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright to seven and thirteen years in prison, respectively, for their respective roles in a scheme to frame Puana, Katherine's uncle, for a crime that was never actually committed in an effort to cover up their own substantial financial crimes.

Judge Seabright further absolved Puana of any responsibility whatsoever for his own months-long incarceration at a federal holding center at the behest of the Kealohas, who very likely would've gotten away with it by virtue of their positions in city government, were it not for Mr. Silvert's tenacity as a federal public defender in uncovering the Kealohas' fraud.