Breaking it to him gently

The party is pretty much over for Donald Trump. Sure, he'll keep whining, without any proof, that the election was "rigged" against him. And he'll keep suing—he filed another lawsuit in Wisconsin just this morning—but with Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers having certified the state's election results late yesterday, Trump's fate is all but sealed. Even one of his most faithful allies, Attorney General Bill Barr, said bluntly today, "To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election." It's over. Trump's term will come to an end at noon on Jan. 20. —Associated Press

• — Appease the Kraken. Former Trump attorney Sidney Powell is making some leeway with her baseless election fraud case in Georgia. U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten, Sr., issued an order late Sunday night blocking plans to wipe or reset voting machines used in three counties in the state. The judge has agreed to receive a brief tomorrow from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger detailing why they oppose allowing Powell's team to conduct "forensic inspections" of the machines. —Politico
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• — Georgia on their minds. Team Trump's sustained, unsubstantiated attacks on the integrity of Georgia's presidential election tally are beginning to worry some Republicans. They fear they could depress Republican turnout in the state's two Senate runoff elections in January. The stakes couldn't be higher. The results of the two races will decide which party controls the upper chamber. —Politico
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• — The road ahead. The 2020 elections ran well and were largely free from foreign interference, U.S. officials say. That's great news. So what's next? A range of pending decisions—related to cybersecurity, ballot access, and redistricting—face governments and voters ahead of upcoming races, meaning the electoral security environment will continue to evolve in the coming months and years. —NPR

National Review Editors: Trump's disgraceful endgame

"Trump's most reprehensible tactic has been to attempt, somewhat shamefacedly, to get local Republican officials to block the certification of votes and state legislatures to appoint Trump electors in clear violation of the public will. This has gone nowhere, thanks to the honesty and sense of duty of most of the Republicans involved, but it's a profoundly undemocratic move that we hope no losing presidential candidate ever even thinks of again." —National Review

All I want for Christmas is a Covid vaccine

Not a moment too soon, the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will begin to be distributed as early as mid-December, Vice President Mike Pence told the nation's governors during a conference call with the White House Coronavirus Task Force yesterday. Vaccine deliveries by Pfizer are planned to begin on Dec. 15, and the first Moderna vaccines are estimated to be delivered starting on Dec. 22. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices held a virtual, open-to-the-public meeting today to develop a distribution schedule. The panel will vote on a proposal that gives priority to healthcare workers and nursing home patients. —CBS News

• — Too little, much too late. Scott Atlas, the controversial physician who became President Trump's hand-picked coronavirus adviser, resigned from the White House yesterday. A radiologist with no previous experience fighting infectious disease, Atlas joined the White House following appearances on Fox News where he claimed fears about COVID-19 are overblown. He caused irreparable harm to the nation's response, publicly decrying the use of masks and advancing the theory that the U.S. can quickly and safely achieve widespread immunity by allowing the virus to spread unfettered. —Politico
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• — The war between the states. The incongruous responses of states to the pandemic, and the lack of national standards, have created confusion, conflict, and a muddled public health message, and nowhere more than on the border areas between restrictive and permissive states. States that have imposed tough and sometimes unpopular restrictions on behavior are confounded by neighboring states' leniency, as residents cross the border to shop, eat out, or congregate, and then bring COVID-19 back home. —ProPublica
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• — GOP vs. GOP. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine isn't the first governor to be threatened with impeachment in response to his coronavirus orders. A county in Michigan approved a resolution supporting the impeachment of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A recall petition for California Gov. Gavin Newsom was unsuccessfully circulated in the spring. And a state congressman introduced a resolution calling for the impeachment of Pennsylvania's Gov. Tom Wolf. However, DeWine, a Republican, is the first to have articles of impeachment filed against him by members of his own party. —The Hill

MORE: COVID-19 likely in U.S. in mid-December 2019, CDC scientists report —The Wall Street Journal

The Pentagon brain drain

The director of the Defeat ISIS Task Force, Christopher Maier, resigned from his position at the Pentagon yesterday, amid a post-election purge at the Department of Defense. Maier's resignation was accepted by acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, who replaced Mark Esper last month. Maier had led the task force focused on examining policy and strategy creation for combating ISIS since it was formed in March 2017.

• — Maier is the most recent Defense official to be fired or resign since the election. In addition to Maier and Esper, top policy official James Anderson, top intelligence official Joseph Kernan, Chief of Staff Jen Stewart, and Deputy Chief of Staff Alexis Ross left the department last month. 
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• — "These changes recognize the success of the military fight to destroy the so-called physical caliphate of ISIS and reflect DOD's commitment to institutionalize efforts to counter ISIS and integrate efforts with allies and partners within our counterterrorism and regional policy offices," the department said in a statement.
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• — Maier's position "will be absorbed" by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict and staff from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, according to the statement. The offices are led by Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Anthony Tata, two Trump allies who were recently promoted. —The Hill

Carpenter: How the GOP became a propaganda party

"Sen. Ted Cruz has adopted the posture of an online Twitter troll instead of the constitutional scholar-turned-statesman of the most Republican of the big states. One doesn't amass a rabid grassroots following by passing bipartisan legislation, delivering on constituent services, or even acting to protect the homeland during a pandemic. The demands of leading and governing in the public interest have never meshed well with the demands of winning and keeping office, but they have never before been so contradictory." —Amanda Carpenter in The xxxxxx

Amanda Carpenter is a former communications director to Sen. Ted Cruz and speechwriter to Sen. Jim DeMint. She was a featured speaker at the Convention on Founding Principles.

The real-world harm of QAnon

A new challenge is emerging for child welfare organizations already strained by the coronavirus pandemic—the QAnon conspiracy theory. In QAnon lore, Donald Trump is fighting against a sinister cabal of Democratic politicians and celebrities who abuse children. For real child welfare organizations, the growth of the conspiracy theory has complicated their efforts—and buy-in from some parts of the GOP, including the president, has only made matters worse.

• — "[T]his madness drowns out a child asking for help, a parent that needs resources," says Daphne Young of Childhelp, which had to set up an auto-response message on its crisis hotline to filter out QAnon callers. "I think that it also gives—in a strange way—it gives predators a little protection, because if everybody's crying abuse, then maybe the guy down the street didn't do it either."
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• — The KidSafe Foundation boasts a forceful statement on its website deriding QAnon for trying to "hijack the good names of organizations leading the fight" against real abuse. The organization's co-founder, Cherie Benjoseph, says the rise of QAnon is especially problematic because people are already "reluctant enough to accept the reality of child sexual abuse without being driven away by QAnon's despicable presence."
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• — More than 100 anti-trafficking and child welfare organizations published an open letter in October warning of the dangers that QAnon poses to their work. "On behalf of an underfunded and nonpartisan field dedicated to ending this horrific form of exploitation and abuse and helping those who have survived it, we urge you to engage real needs rather than politically motivated and profoundly dangerous narratives that harm the very people whom they claim to be speaking for." —CNN

O'Keefe: Voting...we can and must do better

"Many voters for President Donald Trump believe that the election was rigged even though there is no supporting evidence. The president repeatedly saying that the election was stolen makes a bad situation worse. If we are going to avoid an even worse future, serious initiatives need to be undertaken to rebuild confidence in government and the election process. Without that confidence, any election system will be vulnerable to claims of fraud." —William O'Keefe in The Times and Democrat

William O'Keefe is president and founder of Solutions Consulting, a public policy and management firm.

MORE: Yuval Levin: Make the 2020s a decade of reform —Governing Priorities

Lighting the Loop for Ally

When neighbors found out that 7-year-old Ally Cheek's health was declining, and she might not live through the holidays, they decided to start Christmas early in Vestavia Hills, Ala. Her neighborhood banded together in early November to light up their homes so Ally and her family could celebrate a special Christmas together one more time.

• — Ally has a rare genetic mutation called HECW2, which creates special developmental needs that have been getting progressively worse. It is so rare there are only about 50 diagnosed patients in the world. One of those patients was her twin sister, Bailey Grace, who passed away last year.
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• — When the Cheek family put up their Christmas lights in early November, several more families on their street loop did the same. Others in their close-knit community started asking if they could follow suit, and soon the entire neighborhood was filled with Christmas joy in November—with many houses putting Ally's name in lights.
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• — The Christmas lights have been a source of literal light in a dark time, says Ally's mom, Morgan Cheek. "I think having that reminder from so many people that the light does always shine in the darkness has just been such a beautiful reminder for us as a family," she said. God bless you, Ally. —CNN

I first want to sincerely thank you for this link that was provided to allow feedback. I am so weary and disappointed in candidates, parties, blogs, e-news sites that want your money or want you to listen to them but then don't allow you to respond or offer thoughts/suggestions. So, thank you for this "two-way street."
 
I have been surprised that the issue of the president giving himself a blanket pardon for any and all crimes known and unknown has not received more public scrutiny. Everyone discusses the possible pardons he will issue in the remaining weeks, but not many discuss the legal realities on whether a sitting president can GRANT one to himself, and from what I understand, the meaning of the word "grant," when first written, becomes the issue.
 
I appreciated the article on the EO that was issued to do away with the civil service provision of the federal government and allow appointees to be placed in strategic levels of most departments. I am surprised that there seems to be no word as to how these people are being tracked by the incoming administration, so they know where the saboteurs to effective governing may be. —Jimm M., Nebraska

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