I was watching TV this afternoon when Biden's plane landed at Joint Base Andrews. They pull the steps out to where the plane sits on the tarmac. When all is in place, the cameras zoom in on the door, and the world waits for the president-elect to appear and descend to earth. I realize now that I must have been expecting Biden to be wearing a cape, with a big S on his chest, because I was mildly disappointed when it was only him holding his wife's hand and looking like he always does, a little old.
Let's hope Biden is Clark Kent, because he's inheriting a worse mess from Trump than Obama did from Geo W Bush, which was in turn a worse mess than Clinton had inherited from W's father. The calamity associated with Republican administrations is deepening. Long ago I made an A in Calculus I, then a B in Calculus II, then a C in Calculus III, the last math class I ever took as I was not curious about whether the progression would continue, and for the same reason you might want to consider voting Democratic in 2024, should fortune still be favoring you with life. My early voting guide.
Though lost in the swell of news, the Democratic victories in the Georgia senate races were certified today. Since first Trump and then 10 weeks later two Republican incumbent senators were all defeated by similar margins, one might conclude that Georgians went a little sour on Republicans this election season. Occam's Razor, holding that simple explanations are generally superior to those with a lot of moving parts, recommends "Democrats got more votes" over "Democrats cheated to win in all three races, notwithstanding that Georgia's top election officials are all Republicans and there is no credible evidence of fraud."
One aspect of the hydra-headed case for fraud in Georgia related to the Dominion voting machines, which were said to be arranged, with the assistance of Venezuelan communists and the deceased Hugo Chavez, to switch votes from Republican to Democratic. You can perhaps see why, if true, this would be a stain upon Occam's method. As time has worn on, however, he appears to have been vindicated again. The Democrats' victories in the senate races have been accepted by the losing candidates. In the presidential race, the fraud allegation has been raised loudly by Trumpy lawyers when talking to the press, but then in court, where there are Rules of Evidence and penalties for lying, they suddenly become introverts and the butt of jokes made by exasperated judges. Nevertheless, their case continues to be pressed by their friends in the right-wing media, including an online magazine called American Thinker, which prosecuted the claim against Dominion in a series of articles. It develops, however, that manufacturers of voting machines have extroverted lawyers, with the result that subscribers to American Thinker earlier this week got a reprieve from the bilge they signed up for. The following article by Thomas Lifson, the magazine's publisher and editor, ran beneath the headline "Statement":
We received a lengthy letter from Dominion's defamation lawyers explaining why they believe that their client has been the victim of defamatory statements. Having considered the full import of the letter, we have agreed to their request that we publish the following statement:
American Thinker and contributors Andrea Widburg, R.D. Wedge, Brian Tomlinson, and Peggy Ryan have published pieces on www.AmericanThinker.com that falsely accuse US Dominion Inc., Dominion Voting Systems, Inc., and Dominion Voting Systems Corporation (collectively "Dominion") of conspiring to steal the November 2020 election from Donald Trump. These pieces rely on discredited sources who have peddled debunked theories about Dominion's supposed ties to Venezuela, fraud on Dominion's machines that resulted in massive vote switching or weighted votes, and other claims falsely stating that there is credible evidence Dominion acted fraudulently.
These statements are completely false and have no basis in fact. Industry experts and public officials alike have confirmed that Dominion conducted itself appropriately and that there is simply no evidence to support these claims.
It was wrong for us to publish these false statements. We apologize to Dominion for all of the harm this caused them and their employees. We also apologize to our readers for abandoning 9 journalistic principles and misrepresenting Dominion's track record and its limited role in tabulating votes for the November 2020 election. We regret this grave error.
Even in these polarized times, perhaps we can agree about who won that contest.
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