Biden margin slides in Georgia 'official' recount; Will Trump
exercise his right to seek a free recount, again?
Biden's margin in the presidential race from Georgia has
narrowed down to 12,284 votes from 14,000 in the weeklong
hand recount that concluded on Thursday night (Friday morning
in India). Four counties reported 5,800 missing or unscanned
votes lending the much needed credence to Trump's
allegations of countrywide rigging by Democrats by manipulating
largescale early voting. But his allegations have been dismissed
in all quarters, including sections of Republicans, as unsupported
and wild. While the last recount was ordered by Raffensperger
under the audit rule, Trump has an option to demand recount till
next Tuesday after result certification on Friday, although
Georgia now will not rewrite Biden's presidential victory. Will he?
He need not pay in Georgia!
ATLANTA, Nov 20: Georgia has completed the statutory recount or audit of the
votes that needs to be undertaken in one of the races in the general election,
which Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (a Republican) chose as the razor-thin
presidential one, and released the result as unchanged victory for blue in over
two decades in the State.
The results were released on Thursday night (Friday morning in India) in a
handout by the Secretary of State's office. Though the result remains unchanged,
and Biden retains his victory in the State, there was a narrowing of his lead,
down from 14,000 votes to 12,284 votes, from 0.3% to 0.2%. There were 5,800
uncounted votes uncovered. Douglas, Walton, Fayette and Floyd counties reported the missing or unscanned votes, officially termed as human error ie, discounting any fraud. Co-Republicans called for the resignation of Raffensperger for mismanagement.
Georgia will need to officially certify the result of the presidential race
in the State by Friday as per State law. Raffensperger will sign it on Friday
morning but Republican Governor Brian Kemp too needs to sign the papers for
the result to become finally official. He has until 5 pm Saturday local time
to sign as per the law. But it is not known if he has any reservations. Because
he had earlier asked Raffensperger to look into allegations of irregularities
also, before the recount.
As per the State rule, the losing party can ask for a recount if the margin
is below 0.5% after certification of results, which will be Friday. And the
deadline is next Tuesday. The discovery of missing and unscanned votes will
add testimony to Trump's wild allegations of fraud and embolden him to go wild.
Therefore, Trump, for whom "the election is not over" yet, can ask for a recount
which he is entitled for, - he need not pay in Georgia - and he might not hesitate,
not because it could erode Biden's victory but for one, to keep the fight going
and, two, further politicisation helps in the January 5 runoffs that will decide
Senate majority which is vital for a President to implement his plans and move
forward.
This is the next big thing in line after the November 3 presidential race.
The recount was the largest hand recount in US history that began last Friday
morning. (Not asked for by Trump). Raffensperger opted for hand recount as,
he said, "This (hand count) will build confidence (as well)." A total of 5 million
votes were hand counted in the State.
Threats to his and his wife's life
There were threats to Raffensperger's life. Raffensperger said in an interview
Monday he and his wife had been receiving death threats from the Trump supporters,
asking him to reverse Trump's loss in Georgia by tossing out absentee ballots.
"You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it," read one death
threat addressed to him and his wife Tricia.
Raffensperger disclosed that some fellow Republicans had tried to pressure
him into disqualifying legal ballots that were not for Trump.
Trump has been repeatedly alleging that Georgia's voting machine manufacturer,
Dominion Voting Systems, is a Leftist- owned company tied to Venezuela and that
the system deleted thousands of his votes.
When resisted pressure from Republicans to toss the ballots, Republican senators
David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler asked him to quit. Trump supporters also attacked
him for saying, while the recount was yet to be completed, there won't be much
change in the result.
Raffensperger also received a call from Lindsey Graham asking him to toss mail-in
ballots in counties showing mismatched signature.
But Raffensperger has said that Trump's opposition to mail-in votes as being
vulnerable to rigging dissuaded some 24,500 Republicans from casting their ballots.
Biden had around 14,000 vote majority in the initial result. "He (Trump) would
have won by 10,000 votes [but] he actually suppressed, depressed his own voting
base," Raffensperger said in an interview with WSB TV.
“Whatever the count in Georgia today is, it’s totally ridiculous,” said Rudy
Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, at a press conference earlier in the day.
“They’re counting the same fraudulent ballots one more time, and we’re still
very close.”
A lawsuit filed by a Trump supporter to block Georgia certify the results fell
short in a Federal court earlier on Thursday.
Five people were arrested from a banquet hall in Sector 51 Noida on Thursday
where they were called to hold a rave party in a trap laid by the animal
rights group, PFA. They named Yadav but he was not present.
Betting through Dubai-based Mahadev Book in India is conducted through a countrywide network. Probes reveal that the online gambling is worth several millions and top politicians, officials and celebs have been beneficiaries.
TAILPIECE: Polling dates for some States are round the corner. Top
politicians have begun their acrimonious debate who looted more, even as
Mahadev is washing their dirty laundry in the open ghat. Come what may,
one needs to seize power to amass "thy wretched pelf!" One simple
question is, why else one should spend lakhs or crores to get elected! A
question every Indian should ask to oneself at least once a day!
His inaction amounts to defeating the rights of the people of the State to
welfare measures sought to be implemented through the Bills, the Kerala
Government's petition submitted, while the State of Tamil Nadu remarked
that its "Governor is acting as a political rival."
Tailpiece: Coming up back to back, the petitions in their totality seem to question the provision of Raj Bhavan, and not motives of a Governor as a
person.
Hundreds of cars piled up behind the wreckage of crashes occurring one
after other in backing up - continuous crashes to the rhythm of metallic
clanks and bangs back to back. According to reports, some ops required
'Jaws of Life' to pull apart the mangled cars to save lives inside.
The pilots struggled with Emerson to thwart a shut-off as he reached for
the T-handles (see pix). Later he admitted to police he had taken
psychedelic mushrooms and had a "nervous breakdown."
Doctors reasoned how the incidence of heart attacks is spiking over time and
advise the simple way to play safely is to take a break and rehydrate
yourself.
But how come ten people, including children, die of cardiac arrest at
Garba in 24 hours, and that at different places of Gujarat? Garba had been going on
for six days, and every year it is celebrated.
Shocking news from the UK: Leading grocers have started bribing policemen with free food and drinks to persuade them to take action against shoplifters.
Shoplifting has risen by about 27 per cent in 10 major cities across the UK
this year. The cost of retail crime last year was $2.15 billion. Besides, “We
are seeing organised gangs threatening staff with weapons and emptying
stores," Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium,
said. Data shows that the police failed to respond to 73 per cent of serious
retail crimes that included assault and abuse of workers, apart from
shoplifting.
Harris said hip-hop is “the ultimate American art form” that “shapes every
aspect of American popular culture.” “Hip-hop culture is American
culture,” she said in a talk at her official residence at the US Naval
Observatory in Washington, D.C.
The social media had mixed reaction. There was much appreciation that
she dances better than any VP in American history. But some called her
"moves" as “cringe” while others did not like her pink pants - "pink pants
don’t look good.” In fact, her ensembles have always been incongruous.
"Let’s see how the (Governor's) Vice-Chancellors are given salary."
Mamata's extreme statements will put the Marxist Government in Kerala,
which is also facing similar issues, to shame. Has she begun the
countdown for a war on the streets?
It's true Mamata has come to see a conspiracy to demolish the established systems across the country, but lacks the ability to foresee what exactly is being pushed.
Brandishing a sword, Mahant Paramhans told reporters on Tuesday he
himself will behead MK Stalin's son for his remarks against Sanatan
Dharma in case nobody came forward to accept his offer he made in his
video. Udhayanidhi reacted to the saint's Monday video, "I will speak
more. I am the grandson of the artist who put his head on the rail track for
Tamil Nadu."
Somanath elaborated, "I am an explorer. I explore the Moon. I explore the inner
space. So it's a part of the journey of my life to explore both science and
spirituality. So I visit many temples and I read many scriptures. So try to find the
meaning of our existence and our journey in this cosmos. So it's a part of the
culture that we are all built to explore, find out the inner self as well as outer
self. So for the outer, I do science, for the inner I come to temples." (See videos)
Rao the mathematical legend had fathered the path-breaking Rao-Blackwell
theorem, one of the most important theorems in mathematical statistics, at the
age of 25. That brought him global fame. He is also famous for his Cramér-Rao
Bound inequality theorem relating to quality of estimators in statistics which has
had a profound bearing on applications of modern economics and several other
diverse fields. Simply put, with the pioneering statistician computation became a
tool to analyse even socio-economic challenges of modern times.
The alleged incident has received such a flash publicity that a standardised
city's hugely middle class population will have second thoughts about eating
outside for some time. Now everything on the table looks suspicious!
“All subjects directly connected to the people should be shifted to the State List. Particularly the subject of education. Only if this is done can cruel exams like NEET be abolished,” Stalin said. Education was moved from the State List to the Concurrent List with the 42nd Constitution Amendment made by the Central Government in 1976.
Decentralisation has been at the core of Tamil politics since the times of CN Annadurai. Stalin indicated there will be political changes in the offing.
TAILPIECE: While the Centre and the States are at loggerheads, it takes a
different cognitive acumen to know that entrance tests are not the way for
students' admission to courses.
As recently as Tuesday Craig Robertson had posted on Facebook: "Perhaps
Utah will become famous this week as the place a sniper took out Biden the
Marxist." Biden was scheduled to make his first visit to Utah as President
Wednesday afternoon.
Maruti is recalling 87,599 S-Presso and Eeco vehicles to inspect and possibly
replace parts in the steering system. All reputed companies around the
world do recall their products when a defect comes to light.
Meanwhile, a question arises why just in about a year so many accidents have
taken place involving Mercedes sent to India while the car has won safety awards
abroad? In most cases, the vehicle collided with divider, while manoeuvring a
turn. Was there a split second delay in the steering system coming to a grip
when at high speed? Did anybody in India bother to study a pattern in several
of these accidents that took place one after other?
Former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry died when his Mercedes-Benz-SUV hit
a divider in Gujarat. Cricketer Rishabh Pant's Mercedes-Benz-SUV rammed a divider
in Uttarakhand and smashed. It went up in flames but he escaped with injuries.
Brother of PM Narendra Modi, Prahlad Modi's Mercedes-Benz-SUV met with a similar
accident in Mysuru. And many more.
Experts blame violation of the Visual Flying Rules (VFR) for most of the
chopper crashes in the mountains as the leading cause. VFR means fly only
visually - because of the lack of navigation aids in remote areas or unreliability
of GPS-like aids in hilly terrains or a remote manipulation of instruments
in cases of sabotage - as the topography plays havoc especially in the monsoon
(mid-June to September).
Even when VFR is followed, most crashes occur due to CFIT (Controlled Flight
into Terrain) - that is, everything else is OK but the aircraft collides with
hills or trees hidden by the clouds. This also occurs mostly in the monsoon.
On Tueday with Manang, the chopper was brand new, pilot was highly experienced.
But it hit an 'invisible' tree and then crashed against a hillside. This
CFIT occurred when the pilot tried to dodge patches of clouds even as he was
following the VFR.
Simply put, everyone knows flying in the hills during the monsoon is risky,
but the companies want to make more money in any which case. This type of
tragedy is very frequently invited in the Indian hill State of Uttarakhand
as well, where pilots are even made to fly without the mandatory rest.