Sunday, November 29, 2020

A Time to Heal

 James S. Gordon: Covid is just one more crisis for this nation of traumatized people. We need to start healing.

America has long been suffering from chronic dysfunction and disorder, and 2020 has seen that reach a crescendo. But there are signs change is coming.

Nov. 29, 2020, 8:46 AM CST

By James S. Gordon, psychiatrist and author of "The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma"


Hippocrates first identified medical “crises” as times in the evolution of an illness when the symptoms of chronic dysfunction and disorder reach an inflammatory crescendo.

He observed that these crises could be extinguished by death or fester as chronic illness — but, if a physician understood the nature of the crisis and addressed its causes, and if its sufferers were both physically and psychologically supported, they could often transform the grave threat into what he called a “healing crisis.” He described a healing crisis as a cleansing, detoxifying process that gives birth to a new, more integrated and stable state of physical and emotional health and wellbeing.

Telling people to count their blessings this holiday season is a recipe for depression
This latter crisis successfully resolves when physician and sufferer stop trying to subdue its symptoms but instead regard them both as arrows pointing backward, toward the causes of distress, and forward, toward the means to resolve it.

America, too, has long been suffering from chronic dysfunction and disorder, and 2020 has seen our problems as a nation reach an inflammatory crescendo. We need to transform this into our own healing crisis — and there are some hopeful signs that this may be happening.

Our challenge as a society now is to sustain and embrace the changes the healing crisis is bringing to America.

The Covid-19 pandemic — with its invisible and unpredictable course, its forced isolation and rampant unemployment — created a global, national and personal crisis which few alive have ever seen. Like the crises Hippocrates observed, this one has brought unaddressed disorders and vulnerabilities to the surface, in our body politic, as well as in our individual bodies and in our elected leader. As it has unfolded, it has exposed our greatest inequities and vulnerabilities: Black, brown and Indigenous people who are more likely to have been weakened by poverty and discrimination, chronic illness, poor nutrition and inadequate medical care, have been dying at twice the rate of whites; and 80 percent of all Covid-19 fatalities are among older people.

None of us, however, is exempt from the virus’s devastation or the fear it brings. Physicians like me are observing that previously controlled chronic conditions like hypertension, type II diabetes, arthritis and migraines are flaring. Psychological and behavioral vulnerabilities, probed by pandemic fear and uncertainty, are surfacing: a study just published in JAMA Open Network revealed a “threefold” increase in depressive symptoms; the Disaster Distress Hotline of the US Government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reports a 900 percent increase in calls to its suicide hotline; child abuse is increasing; drug overdose deaths are up by 42 percent.

George Floyd’s murder in May put the depth and lethality of American inequity in bold relief and fueled the crisis even as it gave a long-traumatized Black population and its allies a renewed sense of purpose. President Trump’s continuous attempts to downplay both the severity of the pandemic and American systemic racism fed its flames.

Those who have faithfully taken their cues from the President are also manifesting symptoms of the national emotional crisis. Their furious armed mobilization against basic public health measures and the threat of inter-city invaders, the homegrown terrorist plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor and threats to “Stop the Steal” all resemble what Hippocrates called “aggravations.”

And now, as winter approaches, the crisis continues to broaden and intensify.

Pandemic-induced isolation has exacerbated emotional distress and physical illness, but also made many of us more grateful for the human connections we do have.

Over the last 30 years, my Center for Mind-Body Medicine colleagues and I have had the opportunity to help other populations to move through and beyond the trauma that has devastated them — after wars in the Balkans and the Middle East, opioid epidemics and school shootings in the U.S., and hurricanes and earthquakes that have killed thousands and shattered the lives of millions in America and the Caribbean.

Young people in Gaza who’d lost family members in wars between Hamas and Israel and aspired only to revenge and martyrdom have used our program of self-care and group support to discover unimagined resilience and transform despair into generous, compassionate hope. An eight-year-old boy who wanted only to wear the suicide bomber’s belt came to imagine himself as “the driver for the first president of Palestine”; a broken-hearted nine-year-old girl who wanted only to be buried with her father, two uncles and an aunt who were killed by Israeli bombs now aspires to be a doctor, tending to the war-hurt hearts of Gazans.

Here in the U.S., resident-Elect Biden has turned his own traumatic losses into a commitment to compassionate care that can nourish our national healing.

And we Americans have been readying ourselves for the healing and transformation for which we hope. Millions more of us are now embracing meditative practices that offer an antidote to chronic distress and confusion, as well as pandemic-induced anxiety, agitation and sleeplessness — practices promote “compassion” and “loving kindness,” as well as long term physical and psychological health. Many Americans, including those who do not formally meditate, report being more “aware” or “mindful”; they are bringing a new perspective on and greater appreciation for what is truly important to them.

Pandemic-induced isolation has exacerbated emotional distress and physical illness, but also made many of us more grateful for the human connections we do have. FaceTime calls, Zoom get-togethers, and online classes have increased exponentially. Though overwhelmed by non-stop childcare, parents I know are discovering new ways of playing and learning with their children. The masks we wear to safeguard others as well as protect ourselves are visible and palpable reminders that all of us are connected to and dependent on one another.

Routine activities — preparing and eating meals, re-organizing closets, nurturing plants, walking by trees — feel newly satisfying; absent luxuries no longer seem essential; and threats to the social fabric, the political order, and the environment are coming into sharper focus. Many white Americans, hunkered down in pandemic induced isolation, have become sensitized to the vulnerability and pain of others less privileged. Large numbers, recognizing the festering wounds of genocide and racism, have committed themselves to draining the infection.

Our challenge as a society now is to sustain and embrace the changes the healing crisis is bringing to America. We must cultivate the meditative mind which quiets anxiety and agitation, promotes reflection over reaction and values understanding more than argument. We have to engage ever-more appreciatively and kindly with the people in our lives. We need to look more closely and critically at the illusions of safety and superiority which have blinded us to our vulnerability and condemned us to self-limiting self-protection. We have to deepen our understanding that we are all connected to and responsible for one another and the natural world which sustains us, and to commit ourselves to faithfully fulfilling that responsibility.

From: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/covid-just-one-more-crisis-nation-traumatized-people-we-need-ncna1249143?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab&utm_content=algorithm

James S. Gordon, a psychiatrist, is the author of "The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma," a comprehensive step by step guide to trauma-healing, and the founder and executive director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine. A Georgetown Medical School clinical professor, he chaired the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy under Presidents Clinton and G.W. Bush.


Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Happy Thanksgiving


 

Rocky Goes Home

 Rocky, the tiny, beloved owl found inside the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, is released back into the wild in upstate New York, after a week of rehabilitation https://cbsn.ws/3mkjZIV





Sunday, November 22, 2020

Keeping Louisiana's Newest Wildlife Refuge Running

 QUEEN BESS ISLAND, La. (AP) — After Louisiana officials finished restoring 37-acre Queen Bess Island in February, much of the vegetation planted on its small footprint of newly pumped sand didn’t have time to take root before more than 6,000 brown pelicans arrived for breeding season. The birds pulled up some sprouts to use in their nests.

So on November 13, the squawks of a few lingering pelicans mixed with the hum of drills boring shallow holes in the island’s surface, preparing spots for about 50 volunteers to plant another 6,000 seedlings on the state’s newest wildlife refuge.

Nicholls State University student-athletes clad in yellow Shell-sponsored shirts work to plant rows of black mangrove on Queen Bess Island, La., Friday, Nov. 13, 2020. After Louisiana officials finished restoring 37-acre Queen Bess Island in February, much of the vegetation planted on its small footprint of newly pumped sand didn’t have time to take root before more than 6,000 brown pelicans arrived for breeding season. The birds pulled up some sprouts to use in their nests. (Halle Parker/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP

Matt Benoit, who coordinates habitat restoration for the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, demonstrated how to take young black mangrove shrubs and matrimony vines out of their plastic pots and place them in the drilled holes.

Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Executive Director Bren Haase pats dirt down and around a black mangrove on Queen Bess Island, La., Friday, Nov. 13, 2020. After Louisiana officials finished restoring 37-acre Queen Bess Island in February, much of the vegetation planted on its small footprint of newly pumped sand didn’t have time to take root before more than 6,000 brown pelicans arrived for breeding season. The birds pulled up some sprouts to use in their nests. (Halle Parker/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

“You have to pack the sand around the roots real tight. They don’t like any air down there,” he said as he pulled sand around a mangrove seedling. His agency brought about 1,500 of the plants, while Nicholls State University’s farm provided about 200 and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation supplied the remainder.

Todd Baker, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ coastal resource scientist manager for wildlife, said the goal was to secure the plants with enough time for them to bolster nesting habitat ahead of the pelicans’ next nesting season three months hence.

“We could allow the island to naturally vegetate, but it’s going to take years for it to do it, so this is a good way to give it a jump start,” he said. “We’re losing a lot of pelican nesting habitat all around, so the more we can provide it here, the more it substitutes for the habitat being lost.”

Queen Bess, which provides 70% of Louisiana’s pelican nesting habitat, benefitted from $18.7 million provided by the BP oil disaster settlement. The island and its feathered inhabitants, located in Barataria Bay about two miles north of Grand Isle, were some of the first to be oiled after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010. The island’s population of brown pelicans, Louisiana’s state bird, had climbed its way back after a 1960s decline caused by the widespread use of the since-banned pesticide DDT.

“To see that money go right back into this habitat and for those exact birds is significant,” Baker said. “And then to see these organizations come together to make another investment in this island is pretty special. It’s not very often we get to do bird projects at this kind of scale.”

As the native mangroves and vines grow, the pelicans build their nests on top, squishing the plants slightly when they sit and care for their eggs. The plants also help hold sand in place, limiting erosion caused by the wind and water.

Between the coronavirus pandemic and the record-breaking 2020 hurricane season, Baker said, there was a lot of uncertainty around whether the Nov. 13 event would continue. That uncertainty only increased as Hurricane Eta approached the Gulf of Mexico, though the storm ultimately struck Florida.

Despite the number of storms this year, including a direct hit from Hurricane Zeta two weeks ago, executive director Bren Haase, of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said the restored island fared well, with only a couple areas showing minor erosion and some water still held on the island. Other restoration projects that were still under construction, such as marsh-building efforts near Port Fourchon on West Belle Pass and at Caminada Headlands, were the most damaged.

While restoration project surveys continue, Haase said, “what we found generally just from looking at aerial photography is that projects that were done actually did pretty well.”

While tucking a black mangrove into the ground, Nicholls State graduate student Katie Gray said she was drawn to the Nov. 13 event to “do her part” to address the state’s land loss crisis. Because of Louisiana’s rapidly eroding coastline, “us planting these black mangroves to stabilize these barrier islands is so important,” she said.

Haase said the volunteer turnout showed “what the coast brings out in the souls of Louisiana.”

“These people are all out here on a work day on their own time volunteering to get plants in the ground for the sake of our state bird, for the sake of our ecosystem,” he said. “It’s a testament to the passion that people have for our culture and for our coast.”



Image from Louisiana Sportsman


Story from https://www.thehour.com/news/article/An-effort-to-plant-Queen-Bess-Island-for-15745674.php

Saturday, November 21, 2020

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Veterans Day

 



At exactly 11:11 a.m. every Veteran’s Day (November 11), the sun aligns perfectly with the Anthem Veteran’s Memorial in Arizona to shine through the ellipses of the five marble pillars representing each branch of the Armed Forces, illuminating The Great Seal of the United States.

Parler

 


Saturday, November 07, 2020

CNN's Van Jones on What Biden's Win Means to Him

 


At Last

 



From Dan Rather:  

We have a new president. After all that we have seen and endured, amidst pain and outrage, loss and danger, we now will enter a new chapter in our national story.
The nature of our electoral system had a nation, and the world, waiting anxiously on the vote in a handful of states, nevermind that the general will of the American people has delivered a much more overwhelming verdict. There will be a lot more to say in the days, weeks, and months ahead. Amidst the fatigue and the uncertainty of the future, we must stay steady and resolute in finding a way to heal and move our nation forward to tackle its many challenges.
There are a lot of looming dangers, political and otherwise. There are senate runoffs and a raging pandemic. What will Donald Trump do? What about his enablers in the Republican Party? What about our public health and our national sanity? The questions start gushing like an open fire hydrant. But for now, the voting system held, a president-elect has been declared and America has a different destiny. #Courage.

Bells were rung in Paris and Germany for the Biden win


Friday, November 06, 2020

John Lewis

 A few words from the late great John Lewis:

"About fifteen of us children were outside my aunt Seneva’s house, playing in her dirt yard. The sky began clouding over, the wind started picking up, lightning flashed far off in the distance, and suddenly I wasn’t thinking about playing anymore; I was terrified…
Aunt Seneva was the only adult around, and as the sky blackened and the wind grew stronger, she herded us all inside.
Her house was not the biggest place around, and it seemed even smaller with so many children squeezed inside. Small and surprisingly quiet. All of the shouting and laughter that had been going on earlier, outside, had stopped. The wind was howling now, and the house was starting to shake. We were scared. Even Aunt Seneva was scared.
And then it got worse. Now the house was beginning to sway. The wood plank flooring beneath us began to bend. And then, a corner of the room started lifting up.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. None of us could. This storm was actually pulling the house toward the sky. With us inside it.
That was when Aunt Seneva told us to clasp hands. Line up and hold hands, she said, and we did as we were told. Then she had us walk as a group toward the corner of the room that was rising. From the kitchen to the front of the house we walked, the wind screaming outside, sheets of rain beating on the tin roof. Then we walked back in the other direction, as another end of the house began to lift.
And so it went, back and forth, fifteen children walking with the wind, holding that trembling house down with the weight of our small bodies.
More than half a century has passed since that day, and it has struck me more than once over those many years that our society is not unlike the children in that house, rocked again and again by the winds of one storm or another, the walls around us seeming at times as if they might fly apart.
It seemed that way in the 1960s, at the height of the civil rights movement, when America itself felt as if it might burst at the seams—so much tension, so many storms. But the people of conscience never left the house. They never ran away. They stayed, they came together and they did the best they could, clasping hands and moving toward the corner of the house that was the weakest.
And then another corner would lift, and we would go there.
And eventually, inevitably, the storm would settle, and the house would still stand.
But we knew another storm would come, and we would have to do it all over again.
And we did.
And we still do, all of us. You and I.
Children holding hands, walking with the wind. . . . "

Thursday, November 05, 2020

An Obese Turtle

 NN’s Anderson Cooper compared President Donald Trump to an “obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun” after his misleading, falsehood-ridden remarks at a press briefing on Thursday.




“That is the president of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world, and we see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over, but he just hasn’t accepted it and he wants to take everybody down with him, including this country,” Cooper said.

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this from a president of the United States and I think as Jake [Tapper] said, it’s sad and it is truly pathetic and, of course, it is dangerous and, of course, it will go to courts, but you’ll notice the president did not have any evidence presented at all. Nothing. No real, actual evidence of any kind of fraud,” the CNN anchor also said.

Trump’s Thursday evening remarks — in which he baselessly said he was being cheated in the election, spread misinformation about voter fraud and falsely claimed he won the election if only the “legal” votes were counted — were interrupted on multiple networks as anchors and correspondents leaped in to fact-check the president’s statements.

“Here we are again, in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the president of the United States,” Brian Williams said as MSNBC cut away. “There are no illegal votes that we know of, there has been no Trump victory that we know of.”

“We have to interrupt here because the president has made a number of false statements, including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting. There has been no evidence of that,” NBC News’ Lester Holt said.

“We’re not going to allow it to keep going because it’s not true,” CNBC’s Shepard Smith said as his network interrupted Trump’s remarks.

The Biggest Loser

 

An American President telling the world the American election can’t be trusted.

If a Russian screenwriter had pitched the idea to Putin he would have been told to come back with something more plausible.

But that’s what happened tonight as Trump gave a rambling, low-energy, fact-free press conference in which he claimed he was being cheated out of victory in Tuesday’s election because the votes were being counted. Except in Arizona, where he would be cheated out of victory unless the votes were counted.

On NBC News, Lester Holt cut the Trump Show off to tell viewers: “We have to interrupt here because the president made a number of false statements including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting.”

On CNN, Jake Tapper said: “Frankly, watching him flail like that, it’s just pathetic.”

The press conference came at the end of the day in which Facebook shut down a fast-growing ‘Stop the Steal’ group which had accumulated 300,000 members and was circulating calls for violence, while Twitter was compelled to repeatedly label Trump’s tweets for being misleading.

Trump’s tweets are also dangerous. As actor John Cusack wrote:

Trump is already signaling he wants to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court, where, according to one of his legal advisers a quid pro quo is fully expected.

It seem like a weird strategy to openly admit that the case Trump wants to take to the United States Supreme Court is basically, “You guys owe me. Don’t let me down.”

Two days after the polls closed, Trump keeps repeating the claim that he won the election because he was ahead at the half-way point and that’s all that matters.

It’s ridiculous.

It’s pathetic.

And even top Republicans are saying so. Larry Hogan, the GOP Governor of Maryland said “there is no defense” for what Trump said. GOP rep Adam Klinzinger called it “insane.”

Of course, the psychopathic Trump is frantic. He has been humiliated by his second crushing defeat in the popular vote. And even as he may fear the legal jeopardy losing the presidency will put him in, he is still trying to sell his poorly educated marks on the idea that he’s being cheated. If he does relinquish power, he wants his supporters to cling to their grievance as tightly as they do to their racism and their religion. Because as long as he and his grifter family stay out of prison, they will be looking to monetize that grievance.

But even Fox News isn’t buying Trump’s foot stamping. Despite Tucker’s and Hannity’s best efforts, the network is no longer willing to blindly push Trump’s reckless conspiracy theories. Most of their coverage since election night has been guiding viewers toward acceptance of a Trump loss.

I can’t tell you for sure the final outcome of this election. But right now, it’s clear that Emperor Donald has no clothes.

Biden is being Presidential.

Trump’s acting like a loser.

Wednesday, November 04, 2020

Election Levity

 A man interrupted a live on-air election update from Nevada’s Clark County on Wednesday, screaming that Democratic nominee Joe Biden is “stealing the election.”


The man appeared behind Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria as the official was answering a question about how many ballots were left to count in the county that includes Las Vegas.

“As I mentioned, we are not prepared to give that information out, ” he said before being interrupted.

The man, wearing a white tank top that read “BBQ, BEER, FREEDOM,” yelled three iterations of “The Biden crime family is stealing the election. The media’s covering it up.”

“We want our freedom for the world,” he added. “Give us our freedom, Joe Biden.”

“Joe Biden is covering up this election. He’s stealing it,” the man said before walking away.

you're welcome



The Vote Counting Will NOT Stop, drumpf

 

~Jonathan Myerson Katz

If you went to bed at a reasonable hour last night—and congratulations on your excellent judgment if you did—here are some developments you missed:

Neither candidate crossed the threshold of 270 electoral votes needed to win the election, though Biden appears to be narrowly ahead.

Every state projected so far has remained unchanged from 2016, except Arizona (according to Fox News) and a single electoral vote from Nebraska (according to NBC), which seem to have flipped to Biden, with seven crucial states left to go.

Trump staged an illegal 2 a.m. press conference in the White House’s East Room in which he declared victory, called for “all voting to stop,” and pledged to use his newly packed Supreme Court to certify him as the winner.

What’s that, you say? Sounds a like a coup? The same sort of autocratic delinquency that the United States has used as a pretext to cut off aid, topple leaders, and invade less powerful nations for over a century?

Aaron Rupar
@atrupar
"This is a major fraud on our nation ... so we'll going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop." -- Trump is counting on SCOTUS to help him steal the election
November 4th 2020

478 Retweets1,434 Likes
Yes, exactly. That.

OK, so what now? The consensus among the overnight commentariat is that he can’t do that. Several analysts pointed out immediately that it is not up to him: The states’ tabulation of legal votes will continue, as it does past Election Night in every election. (For instance, everyone remembers the Florida debacle in 2000. Fewer recall that there were four other states still outstanding the next day, including Oregon—whose “count was delayed because of a mail-in ballot system.”)

He can’t automatically go straight to the Supreme Court either. He’d need to have a case—brought by someone with legal standing—in each state whose results he wants to overturn.

But Trump’s followers waking up to this news will have no problem understanding what the president wants from them; a president who recently told one of his loyal neo-fascist boy gangs to “stand back and stand by.” As Fox News’ Chris Wallace said immediately after the press conference: “This is an extremely flammable situation. The president just threw a match into it.”

This is the moment those of us who were paying attention feared for the last four years. Trump is a fascist by temperament and philosophy. He is backed by a party that—facing the electoral headwinds of, most likely, a fourth straight loss of the popular vote, even with its incredible voter suppression efforts—has taken to rejecting the idea of democracy itself. And, don’t forget, that regardless of the ultimate outcome of this election, Trump and his autocratic, kleptocratic, racist, misogynist self did garner the votes of millions of Americans, many of whom will eagerly take up whatever call for action he puts out in the next couple of days.

That still leaves the rest of us, to calmly but firmly insist that every single vote gets counted, and the results of the election respected. This isn’t a gameshow. It doesn’t matter the order the votes get counted in, or when the people on TV put the right color in the state. Every one of us has to watch each move from here on out closely, demand justice, fairness—and recusal, if necessary—from every still-standing institution. And, speaking for myself, to get some rest in the meantime. There are likely some long days ahead.

3:57 a.m. ET

© 2020 Jonathan Myerson Katz Unsubscribe
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and here we are post election

 I am both disappointed in America and angry that drumpf is such an insufferable piece of shit.  

I slept while the orange one made a speech in violation of the Hatch Act (again and again) and glad I was.  CNN has fact checked all this B.S. and I am putting it here.

Trump said, "Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight, and a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people. And we won't stand for it."
Facts First: This is false. While Trump didn't identify the "very sad group of people," his opponents and elections officials were not trying to "disenfranchise" -- deprive of the right to vote -- the Trump supporters who voted for him. Democratic leaders were simply calling for all of the votes to be counted.
    Trump said, "We were getting ready for a big celebration, we were winning everything, and all of a sudden, it was just called off."
    Facts First: This is false; Trump was never "winning everything." At the time Trump spoke, Trump and Biden were both projected by major media outlets to win multiple states, with several key states still too close to call. (Media calls are unofficial; official results come later, from governments around the country.)
    Trump said, "We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election."
    Facts First: This is false, at least at the time Trump spoke. While Trump may well prove victorious once the votes are counted, neither he nor opponent Joe Biden had yet reached the 270 electoral votes necessary for a victory; prominent media outlets had not projected a winner in key states including Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
    Trump said, "It's also clear that we have won Georgia." He added that, given his margin at the time, "They're never gonna catch us. They can't catch us."
    Facts First: We aren't privy to Trump's internal vote modeling, but it was not "clear" from the vote count at the time he spoke that he had won Georgia. With votes remaining to be counted from some strongly Democratic areas, it was still mathematically possible for Biden to catch him.
    Trump said, "Most importantly, we're winning Pennsylvania by a tremendous amount." (It sounded like he may have added "of votes," but he was drowned out by applause.)
    Facts First: This was highly misleading. While Trump was leading in the Pennsylvania vote count at the time, the outcome in the state was entirely uncertain because there were hundreds of thousands of votes remaining to be counted from strongly Democratic areas, including Philadelphia.
    Trump said, "we are winning Michigan," then, moments later, said, "we won" Michigan.
    Facts First: It was false that Trump had "won" Michigan at the time. Again, hundreds of thousands of votes remained to be counted in the state.
    Trump said, "And all of a sudden, I said what happened to the election? It's off. And we have all these announcers, saying, 'What happened?' And then they said, 'Ohhh.' Because you know what happened? They knew they couldn't win, so they said, 'Let's go to court.'"
    Facts First: This is false -- though also so vague it's hard to know exactly what Trump was saying. Nobody called off the election. Democrats did file various pre-election lawsuits related to voting rules, but so did Republicans.
    Trump said, "This is a fraud on the American public."
    Facts First: This is false. There was no evidence of any significant fraud at the time he spoke. Counting the votes is not fraud.
      Trump said, "We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we'll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don't want them to find any ballots at 4 o'clock in the morning and add them to the list, okay?"
      Facts First: This is false. Voting had been over for hours at the time Trump spoke. What was still happening was the counting of votes -- which always continues past Election Day.
      I'm sure there will be more as the days wear on

      Monday Morning Smile