What We've Lost

There is much to celebrate, legitimately. A record vote, no corruption whatsoever, and we're on the verge of a clear and decisive victory for Joe Biden.

But the skies are dark and our hearts are heavy, because we've lost any semblance of a civil society.

The angry loser is whipping up his supporters with lies and propaganda. We all witness the tragic fact that millions of Americans do not care about what journalists do, which is to dig out the truth, free from bias.

Rather, what millions of Americans prefer to embrace is a dark paranoid fantasy and the promise of incipient violence by the right-wing fringe.

Caravans of the American equivalent of jihadists parade our streets in pickup trucks, with flags and rifles,  proclaiming their support of a would-be dictator.

The America of our ideals may be dead. When Joe Biden claims his place as the new President, he will inherit an impossible divide.

He is a healer, a decent man willing to compromise and move the company forward. But his chances of success are virtually nil.

Because his kind of country is gone with the wind -- a toxic wind generated by a racist narcissist who is every bit as dangerous as Adolph Hitler was in the 1930s in Germany.

Our fathers and grandfathers who fought the Nazis in WW2 are turning over in their graves.

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 * ‘Accuracy Is Vital,’ Georgia Election Official Says  -- A Georgia election official said on Thursday that the state was doing all it could to finalize its election results, with accuracy superseding speed. (AP)

* Pennsylvania Official Says Integrity of State’s Voting Processes Is ‘Unparalleled’ -- At a news conference on Thursday, Kathy Boockvar, Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, said that while a large percentage of votes in the state had been counted, the results were not yet certain. (Reuters)

* Officials Say Ballots Are Still Being Counted in Clark County Nevada -- On Thursday, the registrar of voters for Clark County, Nev., said that election results may not be available until the weekend. (AP)

* One Day in America: More Than 121,000 Virus Cases -- Thursday brought more coronavirus infections than in any other day of the pandemic. Around the country, the virus left its mark. (NYT)

* Control of Senate Hinges on Georgia -- Democrat Raphael Warnock’s race against Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler is headed to a Jan. 5 runoff, while the contest between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Sen. David Perdue could be as well (WSJ)

* Trump turns angry and despondent as possible defeat looms (WashPo)

* Protesters March in New York City for Third Night Since Election -- Hundreds of people marched through New York City in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on Thursday evening, marking the third consecutive night of protests since the presidential election. (WSJ)

* Biden is winning the presidential popular vote by more than 3.9 million votes and is on his way to being the first candidate to defeat an incumbent president in 28 years. He did so by flipping Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin away from Trump. But now, the third day after Election Day, Biden still has not been declared the winner. This is because Republican-controlled legislatures in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin refused to update their laws to allow election officials to open, process and count mailed ballots early enough to get close to a complete tally on Election Day. [HuffPost]

* GOP splits over Trump’s false election claims, unfounded fraud allegations (WashPo)

* Fed Says Virus Poses Considerable Risks, Keeps Low-Rate Vow -- The Federal Reserve said the coronavirus pandemic poses considerable risks for the U.S. economy despite recent gains, and officials made no changes to their commitment to provide sustained stimulus (WSJ)

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Judge denies Trump campaign bid to halt Philadelphia count (Reuters)

*  Dozens of angry Trump supporters converged on vote-counting centers in Detroit and Phoenix as the returns went against the president in the two key states, while thousands of anti-Trump protesters demanding a complete tally of the ballots in the still-undecided election took to the streets in cities across the U.S. Wearing Trump gear, the Phoenix protesters filled much of the parking lot at the Maricopa County election center, and members of the crowd chanted, “Fox News sucks!” in anger over the network declaring Joe Biden the winner in Arizona. [AP]

* Secret Service plans to ramp up protection of Biden in anticipation of his possible win (WashPo)

* Facebook, Twitter purge violent rhetoric as tensions rise over election (Reuters)

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