The administration calls Moncef Slaoui, who leads its vaccine race, a “contractor” to sidestep rules against personally profiting from government positions. Slaoui owns $10 million in stock of a company working with his team to develop a vaccine.
Trump’s Vaccine Czar Refuses To Give Up Stock In Related Drug Company | Crooks and Liars
Fears are growing, stoked by the president’s own comments, that he will refuse to peacefully leave office should he lose the election in November. How concerned should we be, and what can we do to make sure we’re prepared? Joshua Geltzer, visiting law professor at Georgetown University and a former member of Barack Obama’s National Security Council, joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss.
Deconstructed: What if Trump Won’t Go?
Alabama: Trump won it by 14% in 2016, now down 4% on that (to 10%).
Arkansas: Won by nearly 16% in 2016, now down by 13.5% to a 2.5% lead. What is going on there?
Florida (possible change): Trump won by nearly 1.5% in 2016, with a swing so far close to 3.5%, he is 2.3% behind.
Georgia: Volatile this week. Trump won by 5% in 2016, with a swing of 3.5% he holds on 1.5% in front.
Louisiana: Won by 20% in 2016, now down 4% on that.
Mississippi: Won by 18% in 2016, now down 8% on that.
North Carolina (possible change): Won by 3.5% in 2016, with a swing so far of 5.5%, he is 2% behind.
South Carolina: Won by 18% in 2016, now down 12% on that. Tennessee: Won by 26%, now down 17% on that.
Texas: Volatile this week. Won by 9% in 2016, with a swing so far of 8%, he is holding on 1% in front.
Virginia: The only former Confederate state carried by the Democrats in 2016. Lost by Trump by 5.5%, with a swing of 8.5% he is trailing now by 14%.
Donald Trump doing it tough down in Dixie
Trump can’t keep himself from sounding like a Nazi. Campaigning in Minnesota, he told the almost all-white crowd, most of Scandinavian descent, “You have good genes.”
After praising Nordic “genes,” Trump slams Jewish Americans and Muslim Americans
An executive order Is. Not. Law. Let’s turn it over to Nicholas Bagley, law professor at the University of Michigan and health law expert. “Traditionally, executive orders are instructions to agency officials about how to exercise their congressionally delegated powers,” he explains. “Maybe they should issue a new rule or set new enforcement priorities.” But they are not law. They are, according to Bagley again, “internal memos with a fancy header. That’s all they are.”
Trump Signs Meaningless Paper, Promises Bribes To Seniors And Calls It His Healthcare Plan | Crooks and Liars
On Thursday, Tucker Carlson bolstered a corrupt attack on mail-in ballots that was eagerly promoted by Trump
Trump, Barr, and Fox News are working in concert to undermine confidence in the election | Media Matters for America
Trump’s plan to clean the forests up so there’s less to burn(ODT)
Plan to open Alaska’s Tongass national forest to logging faces backlash from environmental advocates, tribal nations and fishermen
Trump administration advances plan to cut protections for largest national forest | US news | The Guardian
I suspect the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg means Donald Trump will win November’s US election. You might think conversely that it favours Joe Biden, and you might even be right. What interests me is that everyone agrees her death is hugely significant.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death a win for Trump in 2020
People in public life tend to fall into one of two broad categories – those who are motivated by principle, and those motivated by power.
For RBG it was all Principle, for Mitch McConnell it’s all Power | The Smirking Chimp
“Much of this equipment and technology is given under the guise of either narcotics, policing, or counterterrorism. Ultimately, a lot of it gets used to monitor protests.”
Operation Legend Is Bringing Surveillance Tech to Cities
Today news coverage shows that Americans broadly understand the racial connotations when Donald Trump talks about “restoring law and order” and protecting “the suburbs.” Such phrases are no longer dog whistles, though they are still referred to as such.
Trump’s appeals to white anxiety are not ‘dog whistles’ – they’re racism
Activism in the U.S. Presidential Election by senior military personnel, retired and serving, has reached an unprecedented level. Alan Austin reports.
U.S. military leaders line up to condemn Commander-in-Chief Trump
An elaborate confection of ego and insecurity and hormonal loss and want and need — you almost have to conclude it’s the thing he really cares about.
Consider, If You Will, Donald Trump’s Hair: 200,000 Are Dead — but It’s Perfect | The Smirking Chimp
Trump is setting up the commission to teach students ‘the miracle of American history’ – which sounds like a core part of the fascist process of taking power
Trump’s 1776 commission is proof America is spiraling toward facism | Arwa Mahdawi | Opinion | The Guardian
After Trump confidant Roger Stone drew widespread attention for advising President Donald Trump to declare martial law after Election Day, he has continued to promote conspiracy theories about Democrats stealing the election to justify Trump taking draconian actions to stay in office.
Roger Stone continues to lay the groundwork for Trump to declare martial law | Media Matters for America
Another former member of President Donald Trump’s administration has denounced him and endorsed his Democratic opponent. This time it’s Oliva Troye—a former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence on homeland security and counter-terrorism and member of the White House’s coronavirus task force—who told the Washington Post she made her decision because of the president’s “flat out disregard for human life.” Troye left her position in August.
Former Pence Staffer Condemns Trump’s “Flat Out Disregard for Human Life” – Mother Jones
Overall the share of American income from wages and salaries fell significantly, from almost 71% in 2016 to less than 68% in 2018. There’s one more enlightening and perhaps infuriating detail. The number of households making $1 million or more but paying no income taxes soared 41% under the new Trump tax law. Under Obama, there were just 394 such households. With Trump, this grew to 556 households making on average $3.5 million without contributing one cent to our government. Again, Trump seems to have forgotten all about the Forgotten Man. But he’s busy doing all he can to help the rich, then stick you with their tax bills.
Ugly numbers of Trump’s tax cuts serve a warning for Scott Morrison – Michael West
Remember, Trump was willing to use tear gas and baton assaults against peaceful protesters just to keep them from heckling him. There’s no telling how far he’ll go to keep those same peaceful protesters from messing with his efforts to steal an election.
Right-wing Talk about “Sedition” and the Insurrection Act Has One Purpose: Stealing the Election | The Smirking Chimp
Professional historians are not interested in history as a celebration of anything. What excites historians is explanation. Why did something happen when it did? There never really was such a time. Professional historians have always been skeptical and the very tools of their profession are seditious, because history teaches us that things could have been different (contingency) and can still be different. And that is what terrifies Trump and his white supremacist cronies.
Trump doesn’t Understand History any more than he Understands Epidemics
Pence’s Former Aide Endorses Biden, Recalls Trump Addressing COVID-19 As ‘Good Thing’
Pence’s Former Aide Endorses Biden, Recalls Trump Addressing COVID-19 As ‘Good Thing’
“At the heart of DeJoy’s and the Postal Service’s actions is voter disenfranchisement,” writes a federal judge in a scathing ruling that seeks to protect the integrity of the 2020 election
Post Office, Vote by Mail: Fed Judge Hits Louis DeJoy, Trump – Rolling Stone
Roger Stone, long-time Rasputin-like political advisor and confidant to Donald Trump, should be in federal prison right now. Stone was convicted and sentenced for seven federal felonies, based, among other things, on his lying to Congress regarding his communications with Wikileaks about coordinating release of Hillary Clinton’s stolen emails for maximum advantage to the 2016 Trump campaign.
Instead, Stone is back on the streets after Trump commuted his sentence. Stone had told the media that Trump should let him out of the slammer so he could more effectively help Trump to stay in office. Trump apparently agreed
Incapable of nuance Trump simply denies Science but Science and technology well American Science is the best in the world
Urged to slow the planet’s warming to save lives, the president said, “I don’t think science knows, actually.”
Trump Scoffs at Plea to Take Climate Change Seriously
Well, that escalated quickly. Only a couple of weeks ago, Donald Trump and his allies were using the term “self-defense” to condone the behavior of armed right-wingers who showed up at Black Lives Matter protests to intimidate demonstrators — and also to justify the alleged murder of two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse. Now Trump has expanded the universe of excuses for such lethal violence, suggesting that it’s acceptable in the name of “retribution.”
The Smirking Chimp | News And Commentary from the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy
does it matter that the president is once again being a hypocrite? There’s a danger in dismissing this latest bold-faced lie. If white fear and shameless hypocrisy were central to Trump’s first term and help him clinch another four years, imagine what he will do in the next round.
Trump Doesn’t Want to Keep You Calm. White Panic Is Central to His Presidency. – Mother Jones
In what appears to be a blatant appeal to the white supremacists in his base, President Donald Trump has made clear his attempt to both defend and rewrite the history of racial injustice in the United States while eliminating the institutions that make visible its historical roots.
Attacking even the Study of Slavery History, Trump is Running for President of White Nationalists
With the U.S. Election approaching, President Trump seems to be agitating his country into a frenzy of violence and hate crime, writes Dr Martin Hirst.
America could be heading towards a second Civil War
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President Donald Trump has repeatedly lied about the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s preparation for this once-in-a-generation crisis. Here, a collection of the biggest lies he’s told as the nation endures a public-health and economic calamity. This post will be updated as needed.
All of Trump’s Lies About the Coronavirus – The Atlantic
Israel’ grand plan was always to keep the Middle East religiously divided their biggest danger a secular and united pan Arabic military union Libya, Syria Iraq made it urgent to get rid of Qaddafi, Assad and Saddam.
Peace hasn’t arrived in the Middle East only a light shone on what was always the goal keep Shia and Sunni divided with Israel and the US on the side of Israel Sunni States and Oil. ISIS is not their enemy anymore. Fuck the Kurds.
The Iraqi government says that Soleimani came to Baghdad on a commercial flight with a diplomatic passport to engage in behind the scenes talks Saudi Arabia that the Iraqi government was mediating. There is no evidence that he was, as Trump alleged, coming to kill Americans, and the Pentagon has refused to make that charge. The furious Iraqi parliament voted to constrain the prime minister to find a way to move US troops out of Iraq in the aftermath, since Trump whacked Soleimani on Iraqi soil without bothering to tell that government. The prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, has complied, arranging for the US gradually to leave. This month 2,000 of the some 5,000 US troops in Iraq will depart.
Lindsey Graham: Soleimani hit “Over the Top”– As all Tru
mp’s Iran Goals Foiled
The President’s comments about fire management are likely to prove contentious, particularly as most of the forests in California are in national forests, and managed by federal authorities.
Trump breaks silence on devastating wildfires, blaming them on bad forest management
Stone also said federal authorities should seize all Nevada ballots, federal agents and GOP state officials should “physically” block voting, that Trump should nationalize police forces, and that Trump should order widespread arrests
Roger Stone calls for Trump to seize total power if he loses the election | Media Matters for America
Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are promising to expand Social Security and ensure that all benefits can be paid in full and on time for the foreseeable future by requiring the wealthiest to pay more. Donald Trump promises to end Social Security as we know it.No amount of obfuscation by the Trump administration, Trump allies, surrogates, and so-called fact checkers should hide that very clear and very real fact.
Fact Checking the Fact Checkers: Trump Does Indeed Plan To Destroy Social Security | The Smirking Chimp
When Trump says he did not what to “panic” the “country,” what he really means is that he did not want to drive down the stock market. In all the commentary I heard about the phrase in the media yesterday, I heard no one make this point. People were disgusted with Trump’s two-facedness, which certainly cost tens of thousands of American lives. But they still took his statement at face value as an expression of concern for the people.
Aztec Politics: Trump sacrificed 200K by Downplaying Covid-19 to save the Stock Market from Panic
But there is a difference or two between now and 2016. For one, Trump is an incumbent; a re-election campaign is a much different thing. He’s not an upstart spitting at the castle walls. Now he’s inside – and just about everyone can see that he let in the COVID-19 dragon.
Donald Trump’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week
“Pillaging.” Sounds a lot like looting. But looting is bad, isn’t it? Conservatives say it is. Looting is a wicked thing—although I only hear conservatives denounce looting when Black people do it. Racism explains why the MAGA crowd loses their minds over scattered offenses against property and doesn’t bat an eye over cops shooting unarmed Black people. In any event, stealing all the oil in Syria is looting on such a heroic scale that it’s hard for some people not to admire it. One thing Trump has taught us is: if you’re going to loot, go large.
Looters and Losers and Trump, Oh My! – CounterPunch.org
America Inc Trump’s Corporate government demanding a Mafia Commission. Trump’s “Free Trade by Extortion”
United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday repeated his demand for a piece of the action from any sale of TikTok’s US operations for forcing such a deal. Trump’s line on the US government’s receiving a cut from any deal has been slammed by critics from the outset. TikTok has been at the center of a diplomatic storm between Washington and Beijing, and Trump gave a deadline for an end to business with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance－effectively compelling a sale of the app to a US company. “Well, I told them that they have until September 15th to make a deal; after that, we close it up in this country,” Trump told journalists. “And I said that the United States has to be compensated－well compensated－because we are the ones that are making it possible, and so we should be compensated.”
Trump digs in on cut from TikTok deal – World – Chinadaily.com.cn
“I’m not saying the military’s in love with me,” Donald Trump said on Monday. “The soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.”
Trump Is Throwing Billions at the Pentagon But Wants Us to Believe He’s a Dove | The Smirking Chimp
To boost book sales, celebrity journalist Bob Woodward concealed a tape of Donald Trump that contained information about the pandemic that may have prevented thousands of deaths. This isn’t hyperbole. This is peak 2020 insanity.
Bob Woodward Made Himself Complicit in Trump’s Coronavirus Crime Against Humanity
The presidential election is just 56 days away, and as Donald Trump struggles to gain ground in key states, he is increasingly relying on deceptively altered media to bend reality in his favor.
AG BARR RIDES SHOTGUN FOR THE DON (ODT)
The DOJ wants to substitute the U.S. government for Trump as the defendant in the suit brought by author E. Jean Carroll, who has accused the president of rape.
Justice Department Jumps In To Help Trump In Lawsuit Filed By Rape Accuser | HuffPost Australia
The outcome, as things, stand, promises to be traditional in geopolitics and health. Old divisions and inequalities will be reasserted with marked savagery. The rich and affluent will get first dibs and first jabs; the impoverished will have to wait their turn. And the virus will continue to do its work.
Vaccine Nationalism, Big Promises and Warped Speed – » The Australian Independent Media Network
What’s odd is RTA the Russian News agency is calling the research into this a hoax. Why would that be? Is it because bikers tend to be Trumpsters
It was a 10-day celebration of big bikes and inalienable American freedom for which more than 400,000 people descended on a South Dakota town. But, three weeks on, the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is feared to have been a “super-spreader event”, with doctors recording scores of coronavirus cases linked to it.
Sturgis biker rally ‘was super-spreader event’
Iowa City and Ames endure worst surge in the country as cases have risen sharply across the whole midwest
coronavirus cases have risen sharply across the whole midwest in recent weeks putting the region at the forefront of America’s pandemic. The region accounted for six of the eight states with the highest number of new Covid-19 cases by early September even as infections fell in other parts of the US previously among the worst hit.
North Dakota has the largest number of positive cases per capita in the country over the past 14 days. Iowa and South Dakota are enduring the highest percentage increases. Missouri has seen more than 1,300 new cases a day on average over the past week.
Iowa refuses to close bars and require masks as Covid-19 cases surge in cities | US news | The Guardian
Marie Antoinette reportedly said “Let them eat cake” when told the peole had no bread. Trump moment came when he said he understood the cop who shot Blake 7 times in the back “he chocked” “it was like missing a three foot putt”. Marie went to the Guillotine will Trump? (ODT)
All points well-taken. But we can go deeper here. The president’s “three-foot putt” analogy doesn’t just reveal the sordid worldview of an impulsive man. Trump’s vile equivalence between a golf putt and police violence has so much more to tell us about the bubble of enormous wealth that has always enveloped him — and so many others of his super-rich class.
Trump’s Metaphor of ‘Missing a Putt’ for Police Killings says everything about our spoiled Plutocrats
Hitler simply burnt the books sacked anyone that didn’t support or might not support the Nationalist version of history and it’s symbols in any Institution throughout the country. Trump is just cutting funding.(ODT)
Trump has claimed systemic racism is not a problem in America. Trump’s comments come in the middle of a nationwide reckoning on race sparked by protests against racism and police violence. Suggest a correction
Trump Threatens To Yank Funding From Schools That Teach 1619 Project | HuffPost Australia
Trump dodged the draft ever since he’s disparaged the Military to boost his own ego Dr Mary Trump hit the nail on the head. (ODT)
In formed observers, like the Washington Post’s Paul Sonne, pointed out that the president included defunding Stars and Stripes in the proposed budget he presented to Congress earlier this year.
Not ‘Under My Watch’ Claims Trump After Pentagon Push to Destroy Stars and Stripes Happened… Under His Watch | Common Dreams News
The Trump administration has raised concerns with Australia’s competition regulator about proposed legislation that would force powerful US tech companies Google and Facebook to pay publishers for news.
Trump administration concerned about Australia’s tech giant crackdown
Biden Had 2 sons that served not a single Trump has ever served for his country. Trump turned his back on the Kurds a proud act of a leader and chief took their oil and left the troops in place. (ODT)
US President Donald Trump confronted a crisis on Friday that could undercut badly needed support in the military community for his re-election campaign as he sought to dispute a report that he privately referred to US soldiers killed in combat as “losers” and “suckers”.
US election 2020: Trump angrily denies report he called fallen soldiers ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’
Unlike Heather Heyer’s killer, Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager who allegedly crossed state lines with an assault rifle to confront Black Lives Matter protesters in Wisconsin and shot three people, has become a conservative celebrity. Tucker Carlson praised him as a patriot willing to stand up where Democratic cities wouldn’t—“17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would,” he said. An incoming Republican member of Congress shared a meme hailing Rittenhouse for having “fought back.” A Christian fundraising site raised a quarter of a million dollars for Rittenhouse’s legal defense. And on Monday, Trump broke his silence on the episode by asserting that Rittenhouse had acted in self-defense. “He was in very big trouble,” Trump said. “He probably would have been killed.” This time, he didn’t equivocate; the very fine people are only on his side now.
Donald Trump and His Allies Are Trying to Rewrite the History of Charlottesville – Mother Jones
Trump is the Swamp. He’s Quick Sand (ODT)
That is the big picture that we have to keep in mind because, as we approach the November election, we’re getting into extremely dangerous territory when a sitting president is willing to corrupt the entire federal bureaucracy to assist him in getting reelected.
Trump Is Corrupting the Entire Federal Government to Help His Reelection | Washington Monthly
