It’s Official, Again, for Now, as Electoral College Votes

By Todd Lassa

California’s 55 electors formally cast their votes for longtime U.S. senator and former Vice President Joe Biden Monday, putting him over the 271 he needed to become president, and on to a 306-232 victory over incumbent President Trump.

Now, finally Trump will end his challenges against the presidential election outcome, based on unfounded claims of ballot fraud primarily in Democratic-majority urban areas, right?

Not so fast. While electors met in 50 states plus the District of Columbia Monday, a joint session of Congress meets January 6 to count those votes, and hardcore Trump Republicans are still threatening to overturn Electoral College votes, NPR reports.

The latest of Trump’s more than 50 failed court cases came in Wisconsin Monday just one hour before the state’s 10 electors were escorted by police into a statehouse chamber to cast their votes for Biden. The state Supreme Court rejected the incumbent president’s bid challenging four types of ballots in Milwaukee and Dane counties after the first recount there added about 130 votes to Biden’s 0.6% margin.

Monday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court decision was close; 4-3, with one conservative justice joining the court’s three liberals.

Michigan’s presidential electors met in the Lansing statehouse at 2 p.m. Eastern time Monday, in chambers closed because of safety precautions. Prior to the vote, Michigan Republican leaders stripped state Rep. Gary Eisen, R-St. Clair Township, of his committee assignments after he made comments on a local radio station that hinted he was part of a group that planned to undermine or overturn Biden’s 16 Electoral College votes from the state, the Detroit Free Press reports.

And this all comes after the U.S. Supreme Court late last Friday rejected Texas’ Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s suit demanding that 20 million ballots from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin be thrown out. The court’s unsigned ruling prompted sometimes violent demonstrations in several U.S. cities Saturday, including Washington, D.C., where attendees included former national security advisor Michael Flynn, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and members of the right-wing Proud Boys, who have ties to white nationalism.

A group of 126 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives backed Paxton’s suit to reverse the vote of the four “swing” states Biden won November 3, which left 74 House Republicans who declined to back President Trump’s effort. Or, 73 if you count out retiring Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., who announced Monday he would leave his party.

Please address comments to editors@thehustings.news

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GM Moves on to the Next Administation

By Bryan Williams

The news of General Motors retreating from the Trump Administration’s fight with the California Air Resources Board and joining Ford, BMW, VW, and Honda isn’t a surprise. President Trump was peculiarly involved in the auto industry.

He berated the domestic brands for outsourcing assembly to other countries, especially Mexico. He also fought my home state of California over its stricter-than-federal fuel economy standards. Taking a hardline pro-business stance on the auto industry was supposed to win Trump votes in Michigan in 2020. We know how that turned out.

GM bailing out of Trump’s legal efforts against the California Air Resources Board (CARB), to me is just a business decision to curry favor with the next administration. That Detroit automakers have been based in otherwise deep-blue Michigan, complicit in union inefficiencies for decades, and receptive to government bailouts – three realities that follow the Yellow Brick Road to a preference for the Democratic Party -- is a story for another day.

But what about two sets of fuel economy standards? When President Obama abruptly dictated an astronomical increase in fuel efficiency, I thought there was no way the automakers could meet them by 2025. How do politicians expect a business with such long development time, such as the auto industry, to turn on a dime when platforms and engines are designed for seven- to 10-year product cycles?

There should be one national standard, and it could be the California standard as long as the automakers are given enough time to implement them, without throwing mandates or lawsuits around in an attempt to appease the political base.

The auto industry will be able to meet the California fuel economy standard, which at 51 mpg by 2026 still reflects a bit of a break from the Obama administration’s 54.5 mpg by 2025. But let’s choose one national mandate and stick with it for a while. It would provide the regulatory stability businesses need.

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The Beginning is Near

By Michelle Naranjo

There was an election on Tuesday, and it already feels like it was weeks ago. The news cycle seems to have increased momentum at a rate opposite of half-life. A characteristic even more noticeable in 2020. But here we are: stressed, tired, fearful.

There are protestors outside of the Maricopa County elections Department where ballots are being counted, among other races, for the critical presidential election. Former Vice President Biden is ahead of President Trump in Arizona. The crowd chanting, “Count the vote,” is armed and angry. Their peers in Detroit, Michigan today were chanting, “Stop the vote.” Trump was behind in the count, and they tried to gain access to the inner sanctum where the ballots were to stop the process forcefully.

Several things happened on Election Day beyond the regular polling: People stood in line for hours in many towns and cities, disinformation flooded social media, and an anonymous robocall went out to over 10 million people, warning them to not go to their polling spots. And still, people flocked to the polls in record numbers while millions of mail-in ballots were already being tallied.

The following day, a record-breaking 100,000-plus people were diagnosed with COVID-19, and President Trump began routinely filing lawsuits against states to stop counting ballots. He had declared victory the previous evening. He never mentioned the rising number of people who had fallen ill. There was no mention of the miracle vaccines that had become his rally cry.

Despite leading in electoral college votes, former Vice President Biden did not proclaim victory, but confidence that the Biden/Harris ticket would prevail after every vote was counted.

And then his team quietly launched a transition website, BuildBackBetter.com.

The site is still bare-boned but leads with, “The American people will determine who will serve as the next President of the United States. Votes are still being counted in several states around the country. The crises facing the country are severe — from a pandemic to an economic recession, climate change to racial injustice — and the transition team will continue preparing at full speed so that the Biden-Harris Administration can hit the ground running on Day One. The only link is to a Spanish translation.

And with that debut, Biden introduced everyone to the possibility of a calmer future. An end to divisiveness came suddenly into sight.

Naranjo is a freelance writer based in rural Pennsylvania.

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Biden is One State from Victory, at 264-214 Electoral Vote Lead Over Trump

By Todd Lassa

Nov. 4 UPDATE: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was named "apparent winner" of Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes Wednesday afternoon. The Trump campaign says it will file for a recount. Meanwhile, despite the AP's early morning declaration calling the state for Biden, ballots in Arizona are still being counted and no winner has been officially named. The latest electoral vote count is 248 for Biden and 214 for Trump, according to The Wall Street Journal.

First, it seemed we were in for a long Election Day evening, lasting until this Friday or beyond as we waited for vote counts from the states Donald Trump flipped to beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Then President Trump appeared before a crowd of unmasked supporters at the White House about 2:30 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday to confirm the fears his opponents in the Democratic Party have long held.

“We were getting ready to win this election,” Trump said, to the cheers of his crowd. “Frankly, we did win this election.”

President Trump threatened, without merit, to take his grievance to the Supreme Court with his three appointees, including Amy Coney Barrett. “We don’t want them to find ballots at four in the morning,” he said.

Shortly after three in the morning, however, the Associated Press called Arizona for Biden, the first state to turn from its 2016 vote. Democratic candidate Mark Kelly also beat Republican Martha McSally in the race for John McCain’s old Senate seat, the AP also reported.

With Trump’s lead in Wisconsin hinging on mail-in ballots still being counted in Milwaukee County, and Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and North Carolina still in play, Biden was holding on to a 238-213 Electoral College vote lead over Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported.

BREAKING: The vote count in Metro Milwaukee, reported at 4:45 a.m. Eastern time, put Biden ahead of Trump in Wisconsin, though several smaller cities there still had to report votes.

“It looks like it’ll be a long few days,” says Charles Dervarics, contributing editor. “Biden appears to have lost opportunities in the Southeast, though he should win Arizona. But the race looks like it will come down to the old Midwest ‘blue wall’ of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Just as in 2016, they again will decide the election.”

Prior to Trump’s White House speech, Biden made a drive-in appearance in Wilmington, Delaware to tell supporters, “We feel good about where we are. We believe we are on-track to win the election,” but made it clear there is no victory for him yet to declare.

“It is not over until every ballot is counted.”

This presidential election most certainly will revive calls to reform the system and its 51 ways to count votes, but not until after it is over – in weeks, if not in months.

“Although the presidential election isn’t decided, and may not be for a bit, it’s clear that our country needs improved vote counting,” says Gary Sawyer, of The Hustings editorial board.

“The rules on counting absentee ballots differ wildly from state to state. That’s an issue in this extremely strange year. No one could have anticipated the onslaught of early voting. But the result has been increased turnout and it’s unlikely voters will want to return to traditional Election Day voting. This slower count will happen again. “

Please address your comments to editors@thehustings.news

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Fair and Unbalanced

By Stephen Macaulay

So the question is what to watch for on Election Night. Maybe the rather elaborate sets the various outlets have built. Perhaps the branding for Microsoft or Google or whatever else that will be providing data resources. Possibly the dynamic between the “balanced” spokespeople that are sitting at a long table. Conceivably “The Mandalorian” and nothing election-related.

During the 2016 election I was on a business trip in California. Several of us who were in a meeting being held in Monterey, down the street from John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, all met in a hotel room and watched. No one knew the politics of one another at the start of the results rolling in. And as the results came in, not only were there multiple TV sets engaged, but people were checking their phones, tapping at the screens hoping things would update more quickly. At the end, there was no one who didn’t know where the rest stood.

That’s not going to happen again.

In 1990 I was in a hotel room in Tokyo. I had CNN International playing as I was preparing to attend meetings. I’d been there for a few days but was still jet-blurred, the state that follows jet lag. When I left Michigan, James Blanchard was a shoe-in for his third term as governor. When I glanced at the scroll on the bottom of the screen, I saw that John Engler had been elected.

I thought it had to be an error. It wasn’t.

This year?

Home.

Maybe a book.

Macaulay is a cultural commentator based in Detroit.

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Red, White & Blue Golf Carts at The Villages

By Todd Lassa

By the time former Vice President Joe Biden became the Democratic nominee for president this year, political pundits were still looking at the electoral college map like it was 2016 all over again. Could President Trump maintain his popularity and turn Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin blue once again?

Florida has 29 electoral college votes, however, to Pennsylvania’s 20, Michigan’s 16 and Wisconsin’s 10. It is one of the more reliably red states in play according to the latest polls, along with North Carolina, Arizona and even Texas.

Biden holds a 1.2-point lead over Trump in RealClearPolitics’ Oct. 30 average of 11 polls for Florida, which happens to be the same percentage victory that Trump had over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Four years ago, Trump’s RealClearPoilitics poll average was 0.2 points above Clinton just before the election.

Key to Florida’s choice next Tuesday will be the vote from The Villages, with its 130,000-plus residents, most of them seniors over 55, and many of whom vote assiduously. Residents motor around The Villages largely in electric golf carts. (In 2005 The Villages entered The Guinness World Records with a parade of 3,321 golf carts.) These carts make a great political news story photo op, as many of their owners festoon them with campaign signs.

Before and after the ’16 presidential election, the vast majority of those carts in The Villages were plastered with pro-Trump signs, piloted by seniors wearing red MAGA hats. This time, national media have covered a large influx of Biden-blue golf carts. Is it real, or is it an anomaly, with a handful of outspoken Democrats infiltrating the deep-red retirement neighborhood? Our resident of The Villages and our former GOP official from California discuss, in the left and right columns, respectively.

Please address your comments to editors@thehustings.news

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Overexaggerated Fright

By Henry Payne

When 2020 began, America’s elites claimed the biggest threat to the planet was global warming. They were caught flat-footed by a real threat, coronavirus, despite the obvious warnings of H1N1 and SARS before it.

But, like climate change, government elites have seen in COVID an opportunity to grab power while exempting themselves from their own rules.

Stoking fear and burying science, Democrats and their media allies pushed America into destructive shutdowns while ignoring the real threats coronavirus presented.

Despite his usual bluster, President Trump and his party enabled American federalism – allowing states to manage the virus while providing critical federal support. Partisans have tried to spin a narrative that the Trump administration covered up the seriousness of the virus.

The New York Times – fresh off its false narratives about Russian collusion and Kavanaugh sexual deviancy – claims knowledge of the White House downplaying the virus.

But while experts scrambled to understand the outbreak in the early months of 2020, the record shows the Trump administration aggressively pursued mitigation strategies from early shutdowns of U.S. borders, to mobilizing an “arsenal of democracy” to make medical devices, to the White House Task Force coordinating with states.

Like environmental scaremonger Al Gore flying in private jets, this COVID high-handedness played out nationwide. Speaker Nancy Pelosi flogged San Francisco rules mandating masks and closing beauty parlors. After insisting on a national mandate for masks, Joe Biden dropped his own.

This tyranny of the ruling class might have been national policy had Democrats been in the White House. For all his unwelcome bluster, however, President Trump and his party enabled American federalism.

Outside the New York/D.C. media bubble, states learned to live with the virus on their terms. They managed risk just as they have other public safety threats. I’ve visited multiple states. In Georgia, for example, businesses were open in October– free to determine how best to protect their clientele. Working on data showing young people are at low COVID risk, schools were open.

As a result Georgia’s unemployment rate is 30 percent lower than Michigan while the Peach State suffers slightly fewer deaths per capita.

Government elites can afford to impose edicts by Zoom. But the working middle class has to travel, has to educate its children, has to deliver food. They have listened to the medical experts at the New England Journal of Medicine, at Stanford and Harvard and Oxford – and to non-partisan journalists.

They take heart from a great leader who once said: the “only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

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Coal Miners are the Blue Collar Superdelegates that Still Support Trump

By Bryan Williams

How many years have we been hearing about “green jobs” that will employ blue-collar workers in obsolete smokestack industries, and how they will transform the American economy while curing the climate “emergency”?

Every election cycle, politicians say they will help foster more green jobs, which usually involves spending billions. This time, it’s $2 trillion if Democratic candidate Joe Biden gets to implement his plan. Four years ago, Hillary Clinton even went so far as to promise she would “destroy” the coal industry and then help the miners find training or new employment.

How did she expect this to play out in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and other blue-collar job states, such as Michigan and Wisconsin? She practically handed that to Donald J. Trump, who shrewdly swooped in to rescue the coal miners.

There were about 90,000 coal miners in the US, according to The Guardian (U.K.), and about half that – about 45,000 – currently.

Why all the hubbub over so few workers? I think it comes down to this – coal miners are superdelegates for all blue-collar workers.

Since I started paying attention to politics in the early 2000s, I have heard politicians of all stripes make claims that we must transition our economy and provide training for workers in obsolete blue-collar jobs. Twenty years later, what have we got?

I’m sure there are success stories of coal miners who have transitioned to green jobs. But for nearly a generation, politicians have told these workers, “I have a plan for you. It will take away your job. There might be some money to retrain you and then you might get a new job after.” That rings pretty hollow and is disingenuous.

Along comes populist Trump in the 2016 presidential race, promising to save blue-collar jobs and revitalize American manufacturing. Since his inauguration he has done quite a few things that many other presidents and elected officials have not.

Has he been successful? Not in the case of the coal industry. The market has helped kill coal, but so have government policies. I have a cousin who used to work at a coal plant here in California. The company had invested millions in clean coal technology to burn the fuel with minimal pollutants. The plant’s officials tried for years to get Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and then Gov. Jerry Brown to take a tour and see how their stringent environmental policies weren’t necessary. Neither governor would even send a representative, and my cousin finally moved to Texas to find work. How many coal miner families can relocate? The political abandonment was felt – my cousin felt it deeply as well, I’m sure, by coal miners and their families in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Trump may not have been successful in bringing back those obsolete jobs, but what’s more important, I think, to those coal miners is they finally feel like someone powerful has their back.

They will vote for him again.

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