DragonI

Donald Trump will keep denying the election results for as long as he thinks there's money to be made off the suckers who believe him.

—  Walter Shaub@waltshaub, former Director of @OfficeGovEthics

Texas joined by 17 states in Supreme Court lawsuit to overturn Trump’s election defeat

President has thrown his weight behind case and called it ‘the big one’

www.independent.co.uk

1. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton remains under indictment for state felony securities fraud charges,
2. Missouri AG Eric Schmitt
3. Alabama AG Steve Marshall
4. Arkansas AG Leslie Rutledge
5. Florida AG Ashley Moody
6. Indiana AG Curtis Hill
7. Kansas AG Derek Schmidt
8. Louisiana AG Jeff Landry
9. Mississippi AG Lynn Fitch
10. Montana AG Tim Fox
11. Nebraska AG Doug Peterson
12. North Dakota AG Wayne Stenehjem
13. Oklahoma AG Mike Hunter
14. South Carolina AG Alan Wilson
15. South Dakota AG Jason Ravnsborg
16. Tennessee AG Herbert Slatery
17. Utah AG Sean Reyes
18. West Virginia AG Patrick Morrisey

• Biden won 306 electoral votes #POTUS46
• Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes  #WeThePeople

Replying to @realDonaldTrump 

Nobody cares trump. #TRE45ON 

People are starving and being evicted from their homes you 300lb Joke!

— Ann Starr #BidenHarris! @annstarrm

All 50 states and DC have now certified their presidential election results

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have now certified their presidential results, according to CNN's tally, as the Electoral College process moves forward with the meeting of electors on Monday.

www.cnn.com|Liz Stark and Ethan Cohen, CNN

President-elect Joe Biden is projected to win 306 electoral votes, and Trump is projected to win 232. It takes 270 electoral votes of the 538 available to become president.

The states' certifications come as Trump has baselessly claimed that the election was rigged and sowed doubt about the outcome of the presidential race. Dozens of lawsuits challenging the results have been dismissed at the state and federal levels across the country since the November election.

The next major step in the Electoral College process is the meeting of the electors, who are required by law to convene on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, which this year is December 14. The electors' votes are later transmitted to officials and counted in a joint session of Congress on January 6.

Some states have laws that seek to bind their electors to the winning candidate and in some instances stipulate that so-called "faithless electors" may be subject to penalties or replaced by another elector. The Supreme Court ruled this summer that such laws punishing members of the Electoral College for breaking a pledge to vote for the state's popular vote winner are constitutional.

Why I Chose Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense

We need a leader who is tested, and matched to the challenges we face in this moment.

www.theatlantic.com|Joe Biden

In his more than 40 years in the United States Army, Austin met every challenge with extraordinary skill and profound personal decency. He is a true and tested soldier and leader. I’ve spent countless hours with him, in the field and in the White House Situation Room. I’ve sought his advice, seen his command, and admired his calm and his character. He is the definition of a patriot. He rose through the Army’s ranks during his distinguished and trailblazing career. He was the 200th person ever to attain the rank of an Army four-star general, but only the sixth African American. He built a career grounded in service to this country and challenged the institution that he loves to grow more inclusive and more diverse at every step.

He was the first African American general officer to lead an Army corps in combat and the first African American to command an entire theater of war; if confirmed, he will be the first African American to helm the Defense Department—another milestone in a barrier-breaking career dedicated to keeping the American people secure.

Lloyd Austin retired from military service more than four years ago. The law states that an officer must have left the service at least seven years before becoming secretary of defense. But I hope that Congress will grant a waiver to Secretary-designate Austin, just as Congress did for Secretary Jim Mattis. Given the immense and urgent threats and challenges our nation faces, he should be confirmed swiftly.

The threats we face today are not the same as those we faced 10 or even five years ago. We must prepare to meet the challenges of the future, not keep fighting the wars of the past. We must build a foreign policy that leads with diplomacy and revitalizes our alliances, putting American leadership back at the table and rallying the world to meet global threats to our security—from pandemics to climate change, from nuclear proliferation to the refugee crisis.