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Authored by Jonathan Turley,

One can have an interesting debate over the most self-defeating political statements in American politics. There was Bill Clinton’s not-so-clever answer about his affair with Monica Lewinsky as depending what “the meaning of is is.” There was John Kerry statement that he was against the Iraq war before he was against it. There was Donald Trump refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer may have taken the crown with his yelling on the streets of New York that “Now we take Georgia, then we change the world. Now we take Georgia, then we change America.”

It is a quote that will live in infamy — and endlessly in Georgia. Now adding to the Democratic problems are liberal figures openly encouraging Democrats to move to Georgia to stack the vote in the runoff elections. So Georgia just started a hand recount in the midst of claims of voting irregularities but figures like New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman are calling for liberals to move to Georgia to influence their election.  In other words, Friedman and others are sending the self-destructive message is that Jon Ossoff and Raphael G. Warnock might not have enough Georgians to vote for them so they need New Yorkers and Californians to come and vote as Georgians.  The New York Times, which has run repeated pieces on alleged vote suppression by the GOP, has had nothing to say about Friedman’s call for vote stacking in Georgia.

I recently wrote about the irony of the runoff election starting on the anniversary of Sherman’s March Through Georgia. I did not think it would literally involve Northerners invading the state to carry out the campaign.

One of the recurring arguments made by Trump supporters is that Democrats have so demonized Trump and his supporters (including calling them Nazis) that it gives license to supporters to take any measure to ensure a Biden victory.  As if on cue, Friedman then took to the airways to reinforce that concern. He told CNN, “I hope everybody moves to Georgia, you know, in the next month or two, registers to vote and votes for these two Democratic senators.”

He is not alone. New York Magazine’s Eric Levitz  wrote “These run-offs will decide which party controls the Senate, and this, whether we’ll have any hope of a large stimulus/climate bill. If you have the means and fervor to make a temporary move to GA, believe anyone who registers by Dec 7 can vote in these elections.” 

“mostly in jest” https://t.co/a71Xy0grOV

— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) November 5, 2020

It appears that people told Levitz that he was saying the quiet part out loud and he deleted his post. Voting stacking with out-of-staters is the type of thing that you are supposed to do quietly, not openly. Georgians might not take too kindly to New Yorkers voting on their representatives.

For his part, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang has announced that he is moving his family to Georgia to push for Ossoff and Warnock. Now that will help. A leading California politician is moving to Georgia to push for the runoff. Georgians will be thrilled.

What is fascinating is that, even if some people follow these directions, a hundred times that number of actual Georgians will be left irate over these calls.

Of course, the New York Times offered not even a hint of concern with one of its writers calling for people to manipulate the voting count in Georgia. It is all too familiar. The Times was fine with forcing out an editor for simply running an opinion piece by a conservative senator on the recent protests while later running a piece by “Hong Kong enforcer” supporting the crushing of freedom protests.  It denounces Trump for what it considers suppression tactics while remaining silent as Friedman calls for dilution tactics in the election. It is also a curious call for the media which has been denouncing the effort not to count every vote. It now appears that counting every vote includes counting New Yorkers in Georgia.

Under Georgia law, you must be a “legal resident of the county” and meet other requirements to register to vote. Potential voters are required to provide either a Georgia driver’s license or a Social Security number and fill out a form online or in-person to send to the secretary of state by Dec. 7. It is a felony to vote in Georgia if you are not a legal resident or only plan to be in the state temporarily for an election.  The Georgia Attorney General is mandated with enforcing these voter fraud rules.

Friedman of course has slammed Trump, which is his right and Trump deserved criticism on many of these occasions. However, he has portrayed himself as different from Trump despite calling him names because he is “respectful even with people I disagree with.” Except when he does not trust them to elect their own representatives and seeks to negate their votes in the name of the greater good.

Despite the bullish news surrounding Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine earlier this week, lifting airline stocks to the stratosphere, on hopes of a recovery in the severely beaten down travel and tourism sector, an industry group warned Thursday about the dire situation still facing many airlines. 

U.S. Global Jets ETF Jumped On Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine News

Airline For America’s CEO Nick Calio, speaking at a conference Thursday morning, said air travel demand is “softening” late in the year. He said some of the reasons for the slump could be due to the resurgence of the virus pandemic. 

*US AIRLINE DEMAND IS SOFTENING, AIRLINE LOBBY GROUP CEO SAYS

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 12, 2020

The daily number of passengers screened at TSA checkpoints in the U.S. from March 2019 to November 2020 remains halved from early March levels. As the second wave of the virus pandemic ravages many parts of the U.S. – what appears to be happening in the chart below are lower volumes of daily passengers screened at TSA checkpoints that peaked on Oct. 18. 

 

Calio said airlines’ Thanksgiving-week capacity could be down as much as 39% from a year ago, compared with a 47% drop in the first half of November. It was also noted that corporate air travel in the US remains 86% below 2019 levels. 

He said airlines could ax upwards of 90,000 workers this year as many carriers must reduce costs to survive the downturn. A muted recovery so far and waning revenues have left airlines in a precarious position – where they’re quickly running out of cash. At the moment, airlines are burning through $180 million per day, with only enough cash through 1Q21.

*US AIRLINES EXPECT DAILY CASH BURN TO CONTINUE THROUGH 1Q 2021

*US AIRLINES: SITUATION STILL DIRE, DAILY CASH BURN AT $180 ML

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 12, 2020

In October, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned that global airlines are on track to lose nearly $130 billion this year – significantly more than June’s estimates of $84 billion. 

IATA has already said the virus-induced downturn has resulted in 30 or 40 airlines having failed or restructured in bankruptcy.

IATA analysis shows airlines have about three-quarters of cash on hand at the current burn rate. With airline passenger volumes still down 65% in October from last year, airline ticket prices have crashed, increasing worries that airlines’ revenue streams won’t be enough to service existing debts. 

To survive, some airlines, such as Emirates, the largest commercial airline in the UAE, have converted some of its passenger jets into “mini-freighters” to haul medical supplies worldwide.

A Pennsylvania judge ruled on Thursday that the state cannot count late ballots which required voters to provide proof of identification to ‘cure’ them, yet failed to do so by Nov. 9.

After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots could be accepted three days after Election Day, PA Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar submitted her own guidance that said proof of ID could be provided up to Nov 12, three days from the ballot acceptance deadline.

The order is notably separate from a challenge to the PA Supreme Court decision to allow late ballots, and invalidates only those subject to Boockvar’s extension to cure a lack of ID between Nov. 10-12.

“[T]he Court concludes that Respondent Kathy Boockvar, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth, lacked statutory authority to issue the November 1, 2020, guidance to Respondents County Boards of Elections insofar as that guidance purported to change the deadline … for certain electors to verify proof of identification,” wrote Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt in a court order.

“Accordingly, the Court heareby ORDERS that Respondents County Board of Elections are enjoined from counting any ballots that have been segregated pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Court’s order dated November 5, 2020, granting a special injunction.”

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

Black Lives Matter leader Patrisse Cullors has demanded a meeting with Joe Biden, asserting that if Biden is elected president he must ‘prioritize’ the BLM agenda.

“Without the resounding support of Black people, we would be saddled with a very different electoral outcome. In short, Black people won this election,” wrote Cullors, despite the fact that BLM didn’t explicitly endorse any candidate.

Demanding a meeting with Biden to “discuss the expectations that we have for your administration and the commitments that must be made to Black people,” Cullors made it clear that BLM wouldn’t take no for an answer when it comes to giving them influence within a Biden administration.

“We want something for our vote,” wrote Cullors, adding, “We want to be heard and our agenda to be prioritized.”

Claiming that the United States was built on the “subjugation” of black people, the far-left activist demanded a “well-thought out, community-driven, fully resourced agenda that addresses the particular challenges faced by Black people.”

Only after they noticed it had started to hurt them in the polls did the Democratic Party denounce BLM-orchestrated rioting and looting that had been tearing U.S. cities apart for months in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.

As has been pointed out many times before, BLM’s agenda isn’t merely “justice” for black people, it’s the systematic destruction of capitalism and the western way of life.

Cullors herself has repeatedly cited her inspiration as none other than Assata Shakur, a convicted cop killer who is on the FBI’s ‘Most Wanted Terrorists’ list.

She was also the protégé of communist-supporting domestic terrorist Eric Mann.

If Biden does take the White House and cave to the Black Lives Matter agenda, he will be sacrificing America in the process.

*  *  *

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One month after the Treasury announced that the US ended fiscal 2020 with a staggering, record $3.1 trillion budget deficit, more than triple the prior year’s $954 billion, as a result outlays of $6.552 trillion, almost double the receipts of $3.420 trillion, moments ago we learned that the US started off fiscal 2021 in style, and in the month of October the budget deficit was a whopping $284 billion, $10 billion more than the expected $274.5 billion, and more than double last year’s October deficit of $134.5 billion. This was also the biggest October deficit in history.

Specifically according to the Treasury, in August, government outlays were $521.8 billion, up $24 billion from the $497.8 billion spent in September, and a whopping 37% more than the $380 billion the US spent last October…

… while receipts shrank from the $373.2 billion received in September to $237.7 billion, and down 3.2% from the $245.5 billion received last October (the question of why anyone still pays taxes in a time of helicopter money, when the Fed simply purchases whatever debt the Treasury issues, remains).

The chart below shows the October and YTD 2020 breakdown between various receipts and outlays. It reveals that the bulk of the total $238BN in receipts came from Individual Income Taxes ($109BN) and from Social Security and Retirement payments ($96BN), while the biggest spending categories were Medicare ($96BN), Social Security ($93BN), National Defense ($80BN), Income Security ($73BN) and Health ($63BN). Net interest on public debt was “only” $32 billion, but this number can only grow.

Finally putting the October number in context, the October deficit of $284.1 billion was not only more than double the deficit recorded in any year in the past decade, but was the highest October deficit on record, in what is an ominous confirmation that the US debt, already over $27.1 trillion will rise above $30 trillion within the next 12 or so months.

Today in “new and creative ways to potentially increase your executive compensation” news…

Kodak took a $5.1 million expense in the third quarter related to handing five of its former executives stock for options they never owned to begin with.

The issue has “raised questions about the company’s controls,” Financials Times said this week, putting it lightly. The company has blamed internal “deficiencies” that allowed five former officers to exercise 300,000 options that had previously been forfeited. 

The company also warned that additional errors of a similar nature that have yet to be uncovered could result in additional “inappropriate expenses”. Kodak also said it is planning to try and claw back $3.9 million from the executives for the fair value of the shares, though it also said it wasn’t sure it would succeed in doing so. 

The company’s CFO, David Bullwinkle, said on Tuesday the company’s “controls were inadequate with regard to the timely input and verification of master data updates for equity grants and therefore, resulted in errors or misstatements in employee equity account balances”.

He failed to offer clarity on when the options had been exercised, which seems like a very relevant question given that Kodak shares went from “completely off the radar” to “number one momentum stock in the market” after it announced on July 28 it was nearing a deal with the U.S. to help become a generic drug manufacturer.

As part of the deal, Kodak was to receive a $765 million loan from the U.S. government. Kodak stock soared, rising 15x after the announcement. 

The plans of Kodak working with the government were later put on hold after the deal was questioned by a number of congressional Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren. 

Akin Gump, who was retained by the company to review the company’s loan application with the the government, said though it found concerns about the company’s governance, it didn’t notice the company’s issuance of its non-existent options. 

Meanwhile, the news comes as Kodak’s business continues to falter. The company’s net losses rose from $5 million to $445 million during the third quarter, while revenue fell by $63 million to $252 million. The company’s CEO said on its recent conference call he still had “tremendous confidence that we are on the right track to restoring Kodak to its rightful place as an iconic global brand”.

The DoJ’s investigation into the prosecutors who oversaw deceased pedophile/financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sweetheart deal – the same deal that led to Epstein’s initial conviction and imprisonment in Florida more than 10 years ago – has determined that while the men exercised “poor judgment”, they didn’t break the law.

The findings, released by Sen. Ben Sasse on Thursday, follow an inquiry by the DoJ’s office of professional responsibility. The group of prosecutors includes former Trump Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who has previously suggested that at the time that Epstein had been ‘protected’ because he was a special asset. Acosta was pushed out of his cabinet-level role last year.

“Letting a well-connected billionaire get away with child rape and international sex trafficking isn’t ‘poor judgment’ – it is a disgusting failure,” Sasse said. “Americans ought to be enraged.”

The prosecutors, who reported to Acosta (at the time he was the US attorney overseeing that territory) explored reports that Epstein had abused dozens of young girls in his Palm Beach mansion in the early 2000s. Epstein copped a plea to lower-level state charges involving the abuse of a single victim.

The DoJ reportedly briefed several of Epstein’s victims on the findings on Friday in Miami.

While this inquiry into the prosecutors is over, two other federal investigations involving Epstein and potential enablers are ongoing.