I didn’t see this coming. The voting machines are fighting back. As reported yesterday, Smartmatic Corp. has joined Dominion Voting Systems Inc. in seeking billions of dollars in damages from supporters of former President Donald Trump who have claimed voter fraud. These two lawsuits have done more to stop the rhetoric coming from the Trump voter fraud consipiracy theorists than anything else that I am aware of. Guiliani has been quiet. Sidney Powell has been quiet while she is fighting off professional sanctions. Fox News has backed off because of the law suits and then this today as reported by the NY Times. “Fox Business has canceled “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” the weekday show hosted by one of former President Donald J. Trump’s most loyal media supporters that became a frequent clearinghouse for baseless theories of electoral fraud in the weeks after Mr. Trump lost the 2020 presidential race. The end of Mr. Dobbs’s decade-long tenure as an afternoon mainstay of the network came a day after a defamation lawsuit was filed by Smartmatic against Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation and Fox News. The suit, which seeks damages of at least $2.7 billion, named Mr. Dobbs as an individual defendant, along with two other Fox anchors, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro.” One of these days people are going to learn that words matter. I am going to enjoy following these two lawsuits as they work their way through the courts.
Eleven months into this pandemic with over 26.5 million cases and 460,000 deaths in the U.S and still an alarming percentage of people do not think they need to wear a mask properly when indoors. I just don’t get it.
I love this story that appeared in today’s Detroit News, especially since it began with visits to Mott Childrens Hospital. Long ago, when Brian Griese was playing quarterback at Michigan, he began shaping his plans to honor his late mother, Judi. Judi Griese passed away from breast cancer when Brian, her youngest of three children, was 12 years old. In 2002, Brian and his wife, Dr. Brook Griese, a clinical psychologist specializing in childhood trauma and loss, founded Judi’s House, a non-profit bereavement center for children in Denver. Their reach extends nationally as they work with centers around the country offering support and resources. “The seeds of my idea of Judi’s House were formed when I was there at Michigan,” Griese told The Detroit News. “A lot of it was seeing how the kids at Mott Children’s Hospital responded when we would go up on Thursday nights. ”I have a picture, me and Charles (Woodson) and Tom Brady going up on a Thursday night to Mott Children’s Hospital, and that was a seed of giving back.”
Charles Woodson, the 1997 Heisman Trophy winner, will be the main speaker for Griese’s “Super Saturday Bowl Bash” a one-hour virtual fund-raising event open to anyone with free registration. The event begins at 7 p.m. Saturday. Typically, the Grieses host a luncheon to raise funds for Judi’s House, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made that impossible. Now, though, there’s a chance to give the subject a national audience.“We want to open eyes to Judi’s House and the issue of childhood bereavement and making people aware of it,” Griese said.
Stay safe. Wear your mask properly. Wash your hands regularly. Social distance. Schedule your vaccine.
Quote of the Day: “If that president were a Democrat, we both know how you’d respond. But, because he had ‘Republican’ behind his name, you’re defending him. Something has definitely changed over the last four years … but it’s not me.” Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska after learning the Nebraska Republican Party was planning on censoring him for speaking out against former president Trump.
Orchid of the Day: Brian Griese for the above work on helping kids who have lost a parent at a young age.
Onion of the Day: To all those politicians who have taken cuts to get their vaccinations when they otherwise would not have qualified. What is more disgusting is how they justify it. In the meantime, 75 year olds are struggling to get scheduled for their vaccines.