Author: J.P. Knowles

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler is raging over Attorney General William Barr’s decision to allow an investigation into claims of alleged election fraud to move forward.

“Attorney General Barr’s memo is both flawed and deeply disturbing,” Nadler argued in a statement. “It is unlikely to open new legal avenues for the Trump campaign, but speaks to Barr’s dangerous and irresponsible impulse to pander to the President’s worst instincts.”

Days after the polls closed President Trump filed lawsuits in Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona alleging that poll watchers were not allowed to observe vote counts. However, no evidence has been put forth to support these claims.

Each state has been given a deadline of December 8 to resolve any election issues, recounts, or court contests over the results. The Electoral College is scheduled to finalize the outcome on December 14.

Barr’s decision has raised some concerns within the Justice Department causing some to be worried that his loyalty to Trump has caused him to take the unprecedented step to intervene in these disputes. Typically the Justice Department would “not conduct overt investigations, including interviews with individual voters, until after the outcome of the election allegedly affected by the fraud is certified.”

In response to the attorney general’s memo, Richard Pilger, the Justice Department’s top prosecutor for election crimes, announced that he would be stepping down from his post but is expected to remain as an attorney within the department’s criminal division.

Nadler accused Barr of threatening harm to the country by conducting the investigation without evidence.

“The Attorney General may think that he is merely humoring a President who will eventually concede the race and transfer power to his successor,” said Nadler.

“This approach is as short-sighted as it is cynical and destructive. One way or the other, Donald Trump will be out of office in a matter of weeks,” he added. “History will remember their conduct between now and then.”

Even though there has been no substantial evidence of fraud federal officers were given the go-ahead on Monday to investigate “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities before this year’s presidential election is certified next month.

Attorney General William Barr insisted that the allegations “should be handled with great care” and that “specious, speculative, fanciful or far-fetched claims should not be a basis for initiating federal inquiries.”

Barr’s actions allow prosecutors to work around the longstanding Department of Justice policy that normally prohibits these actions before the election is formally certified.

He stressed that giving his content to federal prosecutors to pursue “substantial allegations” should in no way indicate that the DOJ has “concluded that voting irregularities have impacted the outcome of any election.” Barr pointed out that an investigation could be conducted if there are legitimate allegations of irregularities that could change the outcome of a federal election in an individual state.

The Attorney General wrote, “Any investigation of claims of irregularities that, if true, would clearly not impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual State should normally be deferred until after the election certification process is completed.”

An official from the Department of Justice said that President Trump, lawmakers, or anyone from the White House asked Barr for this authorization.

Barr’s decision came just days after Fox News declared Democrat Joe Biden the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election by gaining the necessary number of required electoral votes. Trump is refusing to give up and is accusing the Democrats of staging a country-wide conspiracy to boost the number of votes for Biden enough for him to claim the victory.

Days after the night of the election Biden took the lead in multiple battleground states but there has yet to be any indication of enough illegally casts votes that would affect the outcome.

Election officials from both parties report that the election went relatively well, with just a few minor issues that are typical for any election.

Each state has until December 8 to resolve any election disputes such as recounts or court contests. The Electoral College will meet on December 14 to finalize the outcome as scheduled.

Following the death of a six-year-old boy, a city in Texas declared a disaster when a brain-eating amoeba was found in its water supply. 

The Brazosport Water Authority in Lake Jackson, about 50 miles south of Houston, received a warning from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that its water supply could be contaminated with a brain-eating amoeba known as Naegleria Fowleri.

 A “do not use” water advisory for eight communities in the greater Houston area was initially issued.  The advisory warned against using any type of water except to flush toilets.  on Saturday the advisory was lifted for all communities except Lake Jackson

Later Saturday night Lake Jackson had the “do-not-use” advisory lifted and replaced with a boil water notice that remains in effect along with “additional precautionary measures.”

The agency stated in a news release, “ TCEQ and City officials are actively working on a plan to flush and disinfect a water system. Until the flushing and disinfecting process is complete, the Savior remains under the boil notice. during this period of disinfection and flushing, boiling the tap water makes it safe for drinking and cooking.”

The Brazosport Water Authority’s water source is the Brazos River which runs through the city located south of Houston.  More than 27,000 residents are being affected by this plan.

Until the authority’s water systems can be thoroughly flushed, tested, and cleared for use the boil water notice will remain in place.  No word has been given on how long it will be before the tap water is safe again.

Just six months earlier six-year-old Josiah McIntyre died after contracting the microbe. The boy’s mother said that her son suffered from a headache which turned into a fever, vomiting, and trouble speaking.

The mother said, “ It was weird because he had never complained of a headache before.”

The child died on September 8th from what doctors discovered was Naegleria Fowleri.

It was the investigation into the boy’s death that led to the detection of the brain-eating amoeba after health officials conducted water sample tests.

To ensure the area has clean drinking water  grocery store chain Kroger will be helping to supply the city and has already deployed 250 pallets of water to stores in the area.

Naomi Wolf, a former White House advisor to President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, said in a tweet that she would not have cast her vote for Joe Biden if she had known about his stance on coronavirus-related economic shutdowns.

Wolf argues that lockdowns are “historically unprecedented” and a “terrifying practice.” In her tweet, she says President-elect Biden’s candor for more lockdowns in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 makes her regret her decision to vote for him.

If I’d known Biden was open to ‘lockdowns’ as he now states, which is something historically unprecedented in any pandemic, and a terrifying practice, one that won’t ever end because elites love it, I would never have voted for him.

— Dr. Naomi Wolf. 8 NYT Bestsellers. DPhil, Poetry. (@naomirwolf) November 9, 2020

Anyone who listened to any of Biden’s rally speeches would know that he was very vocal about implementing additional lockdowns and there should be guidelines for governing potential closures.

Biden even said during a debate with President Trump, “If you have a reproduction rate in a community that’s above a certain level, everybody says ‘slow up,’ more social distancing, do not open bars and do not open gymnasiums. Do not open until you get this under control.”

Trump opposed any more lockdowns and would regularly use this narrative to attack Biden all throughout the campaign cycle. Just before Election Day Trump made a stop at a rally and said a vote for Biden is “a vote for lockdowns, layoffs,” and “misery.”

Biden says that he would take the advice of scientists into consideration and would only implement more shutdowns if advised to do so by experts.

The number of coronavirus cases across the U.S. continues to go up but pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has seen promising results from its recent trials which showed 90% effectiveness in preventing the virus.

If you have been at work in the office and find that your colleagues have tried to pressure you into flipping political parties ahead of the 2020 presidential election then you’re not alone.

According to a Glassdoor 2020 “Politics at Work” survey, more than 25% of employees in the United States have reported co-workers have tried to persuade them into changing their political preference in the past year.

The Harris Poll, which conducted the survey online, indicated that although most employees prefer to keep politics out of the office, some still engage in political discussions in the workplace.

The survey also showed that tensions among opposing parties in the workplace are high leading up to Election Day, with 21% of employees saying they would not want to work with someone who plans on voting for someone they don’t like.

About 24% of Republican and 23% of Democrat employees are in agreement even though a majority of employees still believe that political conversations in the workplace is not only inappropriate but can impede career opportunities. About 60% of employees believe political discussions at work is unacceptable and could impact their careers in a negative way. Younger employees between the ages of 18 and 34 also believe discussing politics in the workplace could negatively impact their career opportunities.

This still hasn’t stopped more than half of workers, about 57%, from participating in political conversations.

The survey results were gathered from 1,204 U.S. employees over the age of 17 from January 13-15, 2020.

Hollywood B-lister John Leguizamo bashed Florida residents after the state was called for Donald Trump in the 2020 race to the White House.

The actor is an outspoken critic of President Trump and his administration and spent most of election night and Wednesday morning watching the election results pour in on news outlets and social media platforms along with the rest of the country.

Ultimately, the Sunshine State and its 29 critical electoral college votes were declared to be in favor of the incumbent despite Democrats pushing hard for the state and raising all expectations that the state could go blue..

Leguizamo took to Twitter on Wednesday after Florida was solidly called for President Trump.

“Florida is dead to me!” he wrote. “Let the lemmings drive their golf carts into the ocean!”

A voter analysis of the states’ residents shows that it was senior citizens and Cuban Americans that made it possible for Trump to secure the win in Florida.

Senior citizen voters in the Sunshine State gave Trump a 9% margin over Democratic nominee Joe Biden despite critics’ expectations that the president would not win over that demographic because of how they say he handled the coronavirus pandemic.

And while 59% of Hispanic voters supported Joe Biden, more Cuban American voters favored President Trump’s reelection.

Although Leguizamo seems to have written Florida off completely, he spent most of the night of the election praising Arizona and encouraging its citizens to keep voting in hopes of flipping the state to blue for Biden.

First Lady Melania Trump was dressed to impress when she showed up in Palm Beach, Florida, to vote in person on Election Day. She was dressed to the nines in an equestrian-print white dress paired with other high-fashion accessories.

Mrs. Trump cast her ballot at a voting center near Mar-a-Lago Tuesday morning. She spoke to reporters who asked her why she didn’t vote alongside her husband last week while the couple was in the Sunshine State, the first lady responded, “It’s Election Day so I wanted to come here to vote today for the election.”

According to Daily Express Melania was wearing a Gucci dress with a stirrup link print, paired with a Hermes Kelly bag and Christian Louboutin heels. The entire outfit is estimated to cost over $20,000 from head to toe.

She did receive some criticism for not wearing a face mask with the elaborate outfit but Stephanie Grisham, Melania’s spokesperson, said the first lady was the only person inside the polling site at that time, besides some of her own staff workers who have all tested negative for the coronavirus.

Grisham said that while Melania cast her vote no one was within 6 feet of her “because of social distancing and the privacy” all voters receive.

Melania Trump, 50, fully recovered from a bout with COVID-19 last month that also hospitalized her husband. They both have since tested negative for the viral disease.

Even though we still don’t know if the incumbent President Trump or Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has won the White House one thing that is clear is Trump outperformed many public polls by a huge margin.

This leaves the polling industry wondering how they could have been so wrong for a second time.

Veteran Republican pollster Frank Luntz said it was “unforgivable” that public opinion surveys underestimated Trump’s support.

An average of the national surveys on the night before the election showed Biden leading by a whopping 7.2 points but on Wednesday morning after the election, President Trump was only behind by a slim 1.6 points in the national popular vote.

In the 2016 election, public polls showed Clinton in the lead over Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all states that Trump had won over. Trump also blew public surveys out of the water in Ohio and Iowa.

Fast forward to 2020 and President Trump has once again put public pollsters to shame.

Real Clear Politics predicted the former vice president would hold a .9 edge over Trump in Florida but at last check, his margin of victory stands at 3.4 points.

An average of the public opinion surveys showed a 6.7 lead for Biden on the eve of Election Day but we now know that he came out with just a fraction of a point above Trump.

The president won battleground Ohio by 8 points which is 7 points more than the final public poll results. The same thing happened in Iowa with Trump projected to hold a 2-point advantage over Biden but ended up with 8 points on Tuesday.

So why do public polls continue to underestimate Trump’s support?

Luntz explained that Trump voters are more likely to refuse to be interviewed so “measuring the breadth of support for Donald Trump is tricky.”

“But to get it wrong twice in a row by huge margins is unforgivable,” he added.

President Donald Trump received more votes during this presidential election than he did in the 2016 election. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden also surpassed the total number of votes for Hillary Clinton.

This increase is due to a surge in voter turnout as compared to 2016 despite the coronavirus pandemic, which has taken the lives of over 232,000 Americans.

Even though many absentee ballots are still being counted, Trump has still received over 67 million American votes this year compared to approximately 63 million votes in 2016. So far Biden has received 69.5 million votes compared to less than 66 million for Hillary.

The numbers for 2020 are not official and therefore are meaningless. Ultimately the Electoral College will decide who our next president will be and it appears to all depend on what happens in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina in the next couple of days.

While the winner is usually declared by the end of Election Day, we may not know who the winner is for days or even weeks due to many last-minute mail-in ballots still being counted.

Both candidate’s campaigns have expressed confidence in gaining the 270 electoral votes as ballots are still being counted and some states’ ballots are being recounted.

President Trump stated at the White House early Wednesday morning, “We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Joe Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon responded to the president’s comments saying, “The president’s statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect. It was outrageous because it is a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens.”

On Tuesday night in Raleigh, North Carolina, a group of demonstrators protesting the election began throwing fireworks and other objects, leading to the arrest of six people.

Protesters dressed all in black began to gather near the state capital grounds that night carrying signs that said “Whoever wins we lose” and marched through the city making their way to the downtown neighborhood.

A large group of protesters took to the streets in Raleigh near the State Capital grounds Tuesday night just after polls closed across the state. https://t.co/XQcN5HoWLm

— WLOS (@WLOS_13) November 5, 2020

Police quickly intervened and declared the assembly unlawful after members of the group began participating in “unlawful activities” that officers said included throwing fireworks.

At around 9:45 p.m. officers arrested six protesters on several charges including failure to disperse, assault on a law enforcement officer, resistance, delay, obstruction, and disorderly conduct.

6 ARRESTS MADE: Raleigh Police said officers have made “several arrests” after protesters began throwing fireworks in downtown on Election Night. #Elections2020 #YLEH https://t.co/RTeJQ1TAii

— Queen City News (@Queen_City_News) November 4, 2020

Police officers on the scene reported that the crowd began to disperse after 10 p.m.

As the presidential election results began pouring in on Tuesday night big cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis began to experience the effects of civil unrest from protestors who feel one way or another about the final outcome.