Trump’s phone call was recorded because of his and Graham’s lying

One of the things I was curious about the recording being released of Trump pleading with Georgia officials to find ways of overturning the election result in the state was who recorded it and why was it released. It turns out that the Georgia secretary of state recorded it because he had been burned earlier by Lindsey Graham denying what he had said in a phone call and because of Trump’s reputation for lying. He then held the recording in reserve until Trump lied about the call, which of course he did.
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Why would you do this?

I was struck by this news item.

One in 9 couples planning to marry this year, or 225,000 engaged pairs, owe $3.7 billion in personal loans for canceled weddings during the pandemic, according to a new analysis from Loanry, an online personal lender. That works out to about $16,444 in outstanding balances on average for each couple.

“This last year will have been devastating for many couples,” said Ethan Taub, founder of Loanry, “especially for the percentage paying off loans for weddings that haven’t happened.”

The analysis considered five factors: the average number of weddings that take place each year, the percentage of those postponed this year, the number of personal loans taken out for weddings, the average cost and budget of a wedding, and the average loan amount for a wedding based on Loanry’s own data.

I can understand couples who want to have a nice wedding. Some like to have really grand weddings but the idea of taking out a huge loan for what is a one-day party is something I cannot wrap my mind around, because it means you will start married life with a huge debt burden hanging round. your neck.

It is one thing to take out a loan for college education because that is an investment that one can hope to recoup with higher income. But wedding expenses are not like that.

In Sri Lanka, wedding expenses were usually borne by the bride’s parents and there too there is the deplorable practice of families spending far more than they could afford just to keep up with the Joneses and to impress people.

In the US, I blame the wedding industry who have created the impression that a big fancy wedding is what everyone should aspire to. Celebrities feed into this mindset but they have the money to have a splashy party.

Denying reality to the end

Early yesterday morning, Trump tweeted the following:

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Trump gets more and more pathetic

Somehow the Washington Post has obtained a recording of a phone call made yesterday by Trump to Brad Raffensperger (the Republican secretary of state for Georgia) and Ryan Germany (general counsel for the secretary of state) pleading with them to find 11,780 extra votes for Trump so that Biden’s win in that state can be overturned.

Just listen as Trump invokes all manner of vague rumors to support his case. The level of delusional pleading is astounding. Here is a four-minute clip of the hour long call.

Trump has admitted to making the call.

These Georgian officials’ hearts must be sinking whenever they hear that Trump is on the line.

Rise in minimum wage in 2021

2020 has been terrible for people working in the service sector and other low-wage jobs due to the effects of the pandemic. Thanks to various measures that have been passed in states and cities because of pressure by activists and labor unions, minimum wages are due to rise in some areas of the country providing at least some relief.

2020 was a devastating year for underpaid frontline workers.

But even in the face of public health and economic crises triggered by Covid-19, the Fight for $15 movement persisted, and now 24 states and 50 municipalities throughout the U.S. are set to raise minimum wages in 2021.

On New Year’s Day, 20 states and 32 cities will increase their minimum wage, with the wage floor in 27 of those jurisdictions reaching or exceeding $15 per hour. The January 1 raises will be followed by another round of wage floor hikes later in 2021, when four additional states and 18 localities will increase their minimum wage, 13 of them to at least $15 per hour.

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Another Karen to add to the list

Stories of young black men becoming automatic suspects if anything goes awry within a five-mile radius of them are depressingly common. We have this latest example when it appears that a woman unknowingly left her phone behind in her Uber ride. After entering the lobby of the Arlo hotel in Soho in New York City and discovering that her phone was missing, she saw a 14-year old black adolescent who was with his parents using a phone and immediately accused him of stealing it and proceeded to tackle him to the ground. All of this was captured on security videos and also by the boy’s father.
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Pence to Gohmert: Thanks but no thanks

You may recall my post about the crackpot lawsuit brought by crackpot Texas congressperson Louie Gohmert before a federal judge that the president of the senate has broad powers to decide which electoral slates should be counted on January 6th when the joint session of Congress meets to certify the results of the presidential election. The odd thing was that Gohmert was citing as the defendant vice-president Mike Pence, the very person whom, in his role as president of the senate, Gohmert was saying should have these vastly expanded powers.

But the justice department has filed a motion on Pence’s behalf saying that the lawsuit should not be directed at vice president Mike Pence.
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My talk on the Copernican myths

I will be giving a short talk on the myths surrounding the Copernican revolution from 3:45pm-4:15pm (Pacific Time in the US) on Saturday, January 2, 2021. The talk is part of the annual one-day Skepticamp conference held in Monterey, though this year it will be virtual on Zoom and free and open to anyone. To see the full program and the link to join, go here.

There are a lot of false beliefs surrounding the response to Copernicus’s ideas about the universe being heliocentric rather than geocentric, one of the most prominent being that his ideas were strongly opposed by the church because they demoted the Earth and human beings from the privileged position of being at the center of the universe.

Anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers getting even more aggressive

The Republican governor of the state of New Hampshire has cancelled his public outdoor inauguration swearing-in ceremony scheduled for January 7th because of armed protestors who oppose his mask mandate.

“My first responsibility is ensuring the safety of my family and our citizens,” Gov. Chris Sununu said. “For weeks, armed protesters have increasingly become more aggressive, targeting my family, protesting outside my private residence and trespassing on my property — an outdoor public ceremony simply brings too much risk. We do not make this decision lightly, but it is the right thing to do.”
…

For weeks, protesters have gathered at Sununu’s home in Newfields, calling for an end to the state of emergency. Prompting the town to adopt an ordinance that prohibits residential picketing.

Monday night, a group known as “Absolute Defiance” held what they called a vigil outside Sununu’s home.

“Late Monday night, an individual, an armed individual was arrested in my backyard with over two dozen rounds of ammunition,” Sununu said. “And, as governor, my obligation is to the safety of my family, to the safety of the citizens of this state and so therefore, it was prudent to cancel that event and make further adjustments.”

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