Too Much and Not Enough: Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell yesterday blocked a quick effort to increase pandemic relief checks from $600 to $2,000.

  Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer asked to have the measure passed by unanimous consent, but any single Senator can stop it. McConnell was the man for that job.

  He said the Senate would consider the relief issue later in the week, together with Trump’s demands about election security and stripping protections from the tech companies. You could describe that as a collective poison pill that the Democrats won’t swallow.

  McConnell acted against the whimsical wish of President Trump, who suddenly last week demanded $2,000 checks, even though his representatives had held it to $600 during negotiations with the Democrats. Trump tweeted, “Unless Republicans have a death wish, and it is also the right thing to do, they must approve the $2000 payments ASAP. $600 IS NOT ENOUGH!”

  Of course that’s not Trump’s only grievance. The tweet included a demand to strip liability protections from the tech companies like Facebook and Twitter. He claims they are a source of misinformation, which is a big laugh coming from him and his Twitter account. He said, “Don’t let Big Tech steal our Country, and don’t let the Democrats steal the Presidential Election. Get tough!”

  Trump is now approaching the election issue from another direction, demanding laws to protect the vote when he’s the one looking to invalidate it.

  Enter into this whole mess the two incumbent senators from Georgia in a runoff race who supported $600 checks but now say they want $2,000. They want to buy votes, just not with their own money.

The Covid Corner: Britain has given emergency authorization to the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca, a cheap and easy-to-store shot that will make vaccination more accessible around the world.

  The first case of the mutated and more infectious coronavirus first discovered in England has been found in a patient in Elbert County, Colorado, southeast of Denver. The man in his 20s is in isolation and reports no recent travel.

  The variant virus has now been found in 17 countries and may have already been in this country for months. Scientists say the mutated virus will likely be blocked by the new vaccines.

  So far, 338,656 Americans have died of Covid-19, among them, Luke Letlow, a Louisiana Republican just elected to the House of Representatives for the first time. The 41-year-old Letlow, married with two small children, had no underlying conditions.

  President-elect Joe Biden said yesterday, “Things are going to get worse before they get better” as he renewed his prediction that 400,000 Americans will be dead of the coronavirus before the end of the Trump presidency.

  Criticizing the rollout of vaccines, which have reached only about 2.1 million Americans so far, Biden said his goal is to vaccinate 100 million by the end of his first 100 days in office. 

 Vice-president elect Kamala Harris got her first of two shots yesterday. “That was easy,” she said. “Thank you. I barely felt it.”

Nashville: The girlfriend of  the Nashville Christmas bomber called the police last year and told them Anthony Warner was making bombs in his camper in the yard. Police investigated and concluded there was no evidence of a crime. They said they had no legal authority to enter Warner’s home or inspect the RV.

The Usual Suspect: The Manhattan District Attorney has hired forensic accounting specialists to dig into President Trump’s business and real estate operations, The Washington Post reports. 

  District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. opened the investigation in 2018 to examine what may have been hush money paid to two women who claimed during Trump’s first presidential campaign that they’d had affairs with him years earlier.

 The Post reports that the investigation has expanded. Vance has been fighting for years in court to get his hands on Trump’s tax records.

  There’s been talk that Trump before leaving office will pardon himself for any crimes he may have committed. It would be a first that would land in the Supreme Court. But, if he can get away with excusing himself for federal crimes, he can’t do anything about charges in state court.

Playing Through: Lame Duck Donald has played golf in Palm Beach five out of the last six days while the pandemic deepens and he desperately howls that the election was stolen. Millions of Americans believe him.

  Three hours and 20 minutes from Palm Beach, Mac Stipanovich, a former Republican operative, wrote for the Tampa Bay Times that, “Trumpism is a classic fascist cult of personality, complete with fervid rallies for the gobsmacked faithful, public bootlicking by obsequious lackeys and hagiographic creations of a Trump legend from the tawdry dross of his actual life.”

  Stipanovich writes that, “Largely devoid of substantive content and, as a result, unsuited to actual governing, Trumpism is sustained by political theater, whether in the form of flag-waving boat parades or manufactured crises like border invasions.”

  He writes that Trumpism is anti-democratic, based on suppressing unfavorable votes. He says Trumpism is ultranationalist and anti-immigrant, like fascist movements that came before. And he says it needs a form of military, which appears to be rising in the form of armed right-wing “patriot” militias. 

  Stipanovich says, “Calling things what they are is the foundation of truth, and truth is necessary for democracy to function. The truth is fascists are passing as patriots, and they must be challenged. No one who poses a danger to the Republic, as every fascist does, should be allowed to wrap themselves in its flag with unremarked impunity.”

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