During his four-year tenure in the White House, President Donald Trump packed powerful federal regulatory agencies with dozens of right-wing loyalists who are well-placed to stall or undermine the agenda of President-elect Joe Biden from the moment he takes office.
To Prevent ‘Active Sabotage’ of His Agenda, Biden Urged to Clean House of Trump Loyalists on Day One | Common Dreams News
Bolton noted that the Trump campaign has so far lost all but two of more than 30 legal challenges in various states. “Right now Trump is throwing rocks through windows, he is the political equivalent of a street rioter,” Bolton said.
Trump faces pressure from Republicans to drop ‘corrosive’ fight to overturn election | US news | The Guardian
One of his legal advisers, Jenna Ellis, claimed it paved the way for “Republican state legislator[s] [to] select the electors” — an open invitation for the Republican-led legislature to hand the state to Trump, not Biden, in defiance of the will of the people. This was a state that Biden won by almost 150,000 votes.
Donald Trump’s current strategy isn’t about winning in court. It’s about disrupting the process in the hope of winning the US election by default – ABC News
Despite his authoritarian tendencies, Donald Trump never came close to dragging us into fascism. But he did drag us further toward a xenophobic, anti–working-class, right-wing-populist abyss. Those forces will continue to destroy American and global politics — if we don’t take them on and defeat them.
Here’s What We Learned About the Far Right From Donald Trump’s Presidency
Trump has touted vaccines and therapeutics, including therapeutics that may have saved his own life when he was hospitalized with the infection. But there aren’t nearly enough therapeutics for all the patients in need — nor the top-notch care the president received — and the vaccines won’t be ready for full distribution into well into 2022. On Friday, Trump announced that the vaccines will be available in April, though he had previously said it could be distributed last month, in October, which never happened. And right now, the administration has no plan to stop surging virus. Most Republicans are following his lead, and even Democratic governors who might prefer to take a more aggressive approach are hamstrung by a lack of federal resources. There is no plan to stop the virus. The federal government just intends to let it spread through all of us. It’s a plan for mass death, because they don’t care enough to stop it.
The Trump Plan for Mass Death Is Unfolding Before Our Eyes | The Smirking Chimp
Atlas is a physician with no expertise in infectious diseases or epidemiology. Fauci, an immunologist, has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for more than three decades. MOST READ GA Secretary of State: There will be a ‘full, by hand recount in each county’ Georgia’s chief election official announces hand recount of presidential results The GOP’s Georgia boogeyman: Chuck Schumer Biden announces Ron Klain will be White House chief of staff Two Ideas for Trump’s Exit Strategy Trump’s new Pentagon sets up clash over Afghanistan pullout
‘A political animal’: Atlas attacks Fauci, escalating feud between Trump’s pandemic advisers – POLITICO
And on this point, there’s much reason for hope that, whatever chaos Trump tries to stir up, democracy will prevail. The House is expected to continue to have its majority of Democrats. While the Senate should still have a Republican majority by January — with two runoff races outstanding in Georgia — when it meets to accept the slates of electors, at least four Republicans have already congratulated Biden and referred to him as president-elect: Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska. That means that there should be a majority of both the House and the Senate who, at the time when it’s crucial, acknowledge that Biden is the rightful president.
Trump’s Coup Attempt Is Very Real — but There Are Several Gaping Holes in the Plan | The Smirking Chimp
On November 2, Trump signed an executive order that aims to manipulate the minds of young children. “We will state the truth in full, without apology (sic),” he said, adding: “We declare that the United States of America is the most just and exceptional nation ever to exist on earth (sic).” If bipartisan US hardliners get their way, education at all levels may resemble Nazi Germany and Israeli indoctrination of children. After Nazis gained control in 1933, the infamous Nuremberg Laws followed. Education featured indoctrination and loyalty to the Reich. It laid the groundwork for wars to come. Scholar Louis L. Snyder witnessed Nazi rallies and practices firsthand. He explained that “(t)here were to be two basic educational ideas…” “First, there must be burnt into the heart and brains of youth the sense of race.” “Second, German youth must be made ready for war, educated for victory or death.” “The ultimate purpose of education was to fashion citizens conscious of the glory of country and filled with fanatical devotion to the national cause.” As one of the world’s most militarized societies, Israel resembles Nazi German.
Trump’s Executive Order to Manipulate the Minds of US School Children – Stephen Lendman
Trump’s America: poor targeted, red carpet for wealthiest tax avoiders – Michael West
While Trump’s tax affairs have been widely reported, statistics show that US authorities are going after the poorest families. Just seven of the 23,400 households earning on average $30 million were audited (0.03%). Yet more than a third of households earning an average $12,600 were audited – nine times the rate for the richest. David Cay Johnston reports.
Trump’s America: poor targeted, red carpet for wealthiest tax avoiders – Michael West
At a rally in September, he told supporters the only presidential election he would accept as legitimate would be the one he wins. “We do want a very friendly transition,” he told the crowd. “But we don’t want to be cheated, and be stupid, and say, ‘Oh, let’s transit.’
Trump Reportedly ‘Plans To Declare Victory Before Election Is Called’ | HuffPost Australia
Trump administration Covid-19 adviser Scott Atlas ripped public-health officials for “egregious” policy failures – only to be forced to apologize after mainstream media deflected his points by attacking him for appearing on RT.
‘Lockdowns KILL’: Trump Covid adviser Atlas forced to APOLOGIZE for RT interview as media uproar deflects to ‘Russian propaganda’ — RT USA News
That feedback loop is likely to accelerate in the days leading up to and perhaps following the election, as Trump and his propagandists try to turn normal election difficulties into a scandal, potentially delegitimize millions of ballots, and bring to bear the GOP advantage in the courts. Here are 17 times this has happened so far this year.
17 times Trump has cast doubt on the election in response to Fox | Media Matters for America
Data is the lifeblood of a functioning government. Over the past four years, the Trump administration has destroyed, disappeared or distorted vast swathes of the information the state needs to protect the vulnerable, safeguard our health and alert us to emerging crises.
https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/index.html#
The combination of Trump’s attacks on the institutions and the principles of democracy and the Republican Party’s repressive methods means that democracy itself is on the ballot.
The end of democracy? If Trump loses, Trumpism still wins
A report released on Wednesday by Columbia University estimated that between 130,000 and 210,000 COVID-19 deaths could have been avoided in the US, calling the federal government’s response to the pandemic an “enormous failure”. “The weight of this enormous failure ultimately falls to the leadership at the White House – and among a number of state governments – which consistently undercut the efforts of top officials at the CDC and HHS,” the report said, referring to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Coronavirus: US COVID-19 single-day deaths top 1200 for first time since August
In the US election next month, record-breaking numbers of voters will cast their ballots by mail for the first time. Millions of these ballots will be processed by local election administrations inexperienced with large numbers of mail-in votes.
Over 1 million mail-in ballots could be rejected in the US election — and the rules are changing by the day
The most technically innovative country on the planet It’s easier to vote anywhere on the planet than it is in America why?
A fierce battle over who should vote and how has sparked hundreds of lawsuits and prompted accusations of voter suppression. So what are the barriers to voting and why do they exist?
US election 2020: Why it can be hard to vote in the US – BBC News
Michelle Obama has observed that being president does not change who you are. It reveals who you are. The same could be said of the nation: that its president does not change who we are but reveals who we are. And what Donald Trump has revealed about America has taught us sobering lessons about ourselves.
The Eight Things Trump Reveals About America | Washington Monthly
Even if Trump loses, he can go on screwing up the country for two and a half months thereafter, and it will take years to undo the damage he has done. Pandemics are the sort of thing you want to nip in the bud. If you let them go to national community spread, they become far more difficult to quash. Some analysts are looking at winter 2023 for the US to “put the pandemic in the rear-view mirror,” and that is assuming we get an effective vaccine fairly soon (something of which there is no guarantee), and that it can be mass manufactured and widely distributed and that people will get it.
China grows nearly 5%; Will historians look back at Trump’s disastrous Pandemic Response as the Moment Beijing Overtook the US?
Break the Law we can always defend it in the Supreme Court
He not only applauded the California GOP’s illegal use of mail-in ballot drop-boxes; he’s urging Republican officials elsewhere to do the same thing.
Trump Is Urging Republicans to Break the Law | The Nation
With President Donald Trump’s re-election very much in doubt, his administration is rushing to ram through regulatory rollbacks that could adversely affect millions of Americans, the environment, and the ability of Joe Biden—should he win—to pursue his agenda or even undo the damage done over the past four years.
Critics Say Deregulatory Rush Shows Even If Defeated the Trump White House Willing to ‘Scorch the Earth Before They Go’ | Common Dreams News
When all is said and done was working for Trump a career boost?
Lackeys from the Trump administration aren’t one teensy bit concerned about the mess they’ll leave behind should their impeached president lose reelection in just under 20 days. Oh no, the fact that they’re all on a superspreader tour of the country is proof of that. Like their boss, what they’re concerned about instead are their own sorry asses.
Trump Staffers Worry About Resumes After Choosing To Work For An Authoritarian | Crooks and Liars
But the most chilling moment of her Supreme Court confirmation testimony Tuesday came when she said she would “need to hear arguments” about whether President Trump can postpone the election. “President Trump made claims of voter fraud and suggested he wanted to delay the upcoming election,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, observed. “Does the Constitution give the president of the United States the authority to unilaterally delay a general election under any circumstances? Does federal law?” AD
Opinion | Postpone the election? Voter intimidation? Amy Coney Barrett is open to it. – The Washington Post
This past week, 13 men belonging to paramilitary groups were arrested in a horrifying plot to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Based on what can be gleaned from the men’s social media pages, they fit a familiar profile of far-right vigilantism in America.
All The President’s Men | HuffPost Australia
Even if Joe Biden were to gain enough votes, Trump will not allow him to win the U.S. Election, writes Peter Henning.
Don’t expect due process in the U.S. Election
The truth is, the European leaders feel alone because they know that what Trump has dismantled cannot be rebuilt so quickly and so easily,” she said. “As for the others, Putin, Bolsonaro, Erdogan, they must be telling themselves what we already knew: They can do everything, because the US isn’t a leader anymore.”
US Presidential Debate: Trump-Biden face-off prompts shock, despair and, in China, glee
Allegations of involuntary hysterectomies conducted on people in a migrant detention center? Record numbers of children going to bed hungry? The revelation that President Donald Trump sat on his hands upon learning that Russia paid bounties to kill American soldiers? It’s futile to pinpoint when exactly Trump’s America left the community of civilized peoples. It’s more important and useful to explain how we kid ourselves about the fascist impulses of his “ordinary” supporters that hide in plain sight.
Trump’ Movement Is Shot Through With Fascism
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
As wildfires destroy millions of acres in California, Oregon, and Washington, and an unprecedented series of hurricanes cause historic flooding in the South, leaving parts of the region uninhabitable, the Trump administration has been racing to reverse rules designed to prevent exactly these kinds of climate disasters.
The Race to Demolish Environmental Protections
My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Rushing to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, McConnell shows power trumps principle | Robert Reich | Opinion | The Guardian
Polls currently show around 95 per cent of voters say they have already made up their mind about how they will vote in the election. This means the key task for both candidates will not be persuading undecided voters but to ensure their voting coalitions show up to vote en masse. And, most importantly, to ensure that they show up in the states that matter.
US Election 2020: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida and four other states will choose between Trump or Biden
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
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
The USPS is under assault at the very moment we need a functioning postal service to hold a free and fair election. We can defend electoral democracy by defending the post office.
Save the USPS, Defend Democracy
Donald Trump knows he is unlikely to win a fair election in 2020. But his strategies to cheat are so numerous and scattershot — did you catch that story about how acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf blocked a report about Russian propaganda? — that it’s tempting to take comfort in the hope that he has no overarching strategy to fake or steal a second term.
Trump Has a Plan to Steal the Election — in Fact, He Has a Bunch of Them | The Smirking Chimp
Few would doubt that China poses challenges for America, but we can no longer pretend that American policies are always just, or that China is the evil empire. China used to provide a major market for American agriculture and the auto industry; now it doesn’t. President Trump determined that. China used to work closely with WHO sharing their massive data on Covid-19; now they don’t. President Trump determined that. China could offer critical help in mounting an effective response to climate disaster, but that would make no sense to Trump, who sees the world as a collection of races not keeping their places. Connect the dots. At a time when no one can escape pandemic or global heating, policy may matter more than ideology. If a “Democratic” nation revokes emission standards, everyone will suffer. If a “Communist” country develops effective pandemic responses, everyone benefits so long as nations share ideas and data. Traditionally, liberals tend to embrace these kinds of common-sense strategies. Why should anyone opt for race over reason just because someone uttered the word “China”?
When is China-Bashing Racist?
FACT CHECK
The problem is that Trump’s rhetoric on those issues, like his rhetoric on almost all issues, is a complete fantasy with no grounding in reality. Let us just consider four planks of his personal platform.
How Trump brought us 11.1% Unemployment, lost Manufacturing Jobs, worsened Trade Deficits and Kowtowed to China
He killed people on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesdaay night as Republicans were fueling the white-hot furnace of fear and hate at their convention from Hell. And, once again, we must sort through the surreal emotions that leave us both shocked and not at all surprised.
Our Long-Dreaded Fear is Here | The Smirking Chimp
When Tucker Carlson set off a firestorm of criticism on Wednesday — by describing a 17-year-old Trump supporter who opened fire on protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday, killing two, as a well-meaning kid who decided he “had to maintain order” in the Democrat-run state because “no one else would” — the Fox News host was surfacing an idea that had already spread widely on the far-right.
Trump supporters defend teen who killed protesters in Kenosha
Tennessee protesters will face harsh penalties, including losing the right to vote, as punishment for participating in protests under a law enacted by the Tennessee GOP-dominant General Assembly. Right-wing Governor Bill Lee quietly signed off on the bill Thursday, AP reports.
‘This is the Opposite of What Americans Fought a Revolution For’: Tennessee to Strip Right to Vote from Protesters | Common Dreams News
![The report details how former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence officer [File: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2020/8/18/c0221ae53c79461fad5acb5162b22471_18.jpg "Russia worked to help Trump in 2016 election: Senate panel")
The report details how former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence officer [File: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters]
Russia worked to help Trump in 2016 election: Senate panel | USA News | Al Jazeera
Washington: Russia used Republican political operative Paul Manafort, the WikiLeaks website and others to try to influence the 2016 US presidential election to help now-US President Donald Trump’s campaign, a Senate intelligence panel report said on Tuesday.
WikiLeaks played a key role in Russia’s effort to assist Republican Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton and likely knew it was helping Russian intelligence, said the report, which is likely to be the most definitive public account of the 2016 election controversy.
Putin ordered Democratic hack to boost Trump in 2016, Senate committee finds
“When you see that kind of conversion from the idea that whistleblowers are something that helps keep us on the rails to the rhetoric that they’re an enemy of the people, you’re saying that it’s all political,” Stanger says. “And that’s how democracies die.”
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