Despite the massive increase in mass murder by the right-wing in Trump’s term (ODT)
New statistics from the U.S. Crisis Monitor and the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) show that police used violence against leftwing protesters three times as often as against rightwing demonstrators
Report: Police 3X More Likely To Use Violence Against Liberal Protesters Than Far-Right | Crooks and Liars
Last week’s assault, which was incited by Donald Trump, enabled by GOP officials and members of Congress, planned on social media, and buoyed by deeply entrenched white supremacy and Christian nationalism at the heart of our democratic dysfunctionality, were not attacks on any political party or ideology — they were attacks on all of us. The entire country has to be involved in responding to what could become a protracted violent conflict or, quite possibly, an insurgency. At the same time, this crisis, happening in the midst of a devastating pandemic, presents an opportunity to come together and build a country where liberty and justice are enjoyed by all Americans, without exception. It is an opportunity we should seize.
Why We need to prepare for ongoing insurrectionary violence and address its root causes
Donald Trump has been an unabashed menace to our country. Many lessons need to be learned. The biggest is that we should never allow a psychopath to run our country, no matter what divisions and hostilities are brewing among the people. His rhetoric, his motives, his intentions and his actions have all created chaos and turmoil — all with the goal of keeping him in power so he could serve himself, not others.
Our psychopath president has finally imploded: And all this was totally predictable | Salon.com
‘Delighting in causing complete chaos’: what’s behind Trump supporters’ brazen storming of the Capitol‘Delighting in causing complete chaos’: what’s behind Trump supporters’ brazen storming of the Capitol
‘Delighting in causing complete chaos’: what’s behind Trump supporters’ brazen storming of the Capitol
In 2020, Media Matters conducted data studies on a vast array of issues. Here are the numbers that defined the year:
2020 by the numbers | Media Matters for America
Additional arms deals this week include $4 billion in helicopters to Kuwait, $169 million in military equipment to Egypt, and $65 million in drones and fighter jets to UAE.
Lame-Duck Trump’s “Middle East Arms Bonanza” Continues With Approval of $290 Million Weapons Sale to Saudi Regime | Common Dreams News
UK is doing 2M shots a week
The Washington Post tells us that 7.7 million first doses of vaccines have been shipped to date (two million shots have been given), with a target of 16 million by the end of the year. This is warp speed?
Is the Distribution of Vaccines the Biggest Trump Screw-Up Yet? | The Smirking Chimp
Trump said on December 9 that he “might” invoke the Korea War-era act, which allows the US government to direct companies to produce urgently needed goods necessary to national security. The US government pays the companies to do this, so it isn’t socialism and doesn’t involve a government take-over. It just delays receipt of other goods by other customers. Trump has repeatedly said he is reluctant to invoke the act because it is socialist in character and would make us like Venezuela. He did use it to compel GM to produce ventilators last spring, paying $489 million for 30,000 ventilators. It was a relatively minor use of the act given the scale of the national emergency.
Biden to invoke Defense Production Act for Vaccine manufacture. Trump? Playing Golf at Mar-a-Lago
It seems increasingly clear that the 21st century will be the Chinese century. And, China is going to get there sooner thanks to a new isolationism and a paroxysm of ignorant reality-denial for which Donald J. Trump has been the cheerleader and chief implementation officer. The BBC reports that a British think tank predicts that China will overtake the US as the world’s largest economy in 2028 instead of 2033, as a result of its deft handling of the pandemic and as a result of outgoing president Trump’s monumental screw-up, the largest public health disaster in American history.
How incompetent Boob Trump took down America and launched the Chinese Century
The Biden administration will have to make hard choices around the pandemic and climate change while continuing to spend close to $1 trillion a year on its military. Adding yet another military service when American states are reeling from the economic fallout of COVID-19 and the warming oceans are churning out superstorms is something neither the U.S. nor the world can afford.
The U.S. Needs COVID Relief and Renewable Energy, Not a Space Force
As of Sunday, there have been nearly 19 million recorded COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and more than 331,000 deaths nationwide.
December Sees Highest COVID-19 Death Toll In U.S. Since Pandemic Began | HuffPost Australia
#9 TOP STORY OF 2020: World’s largest economy in free fall
ECONOMISTS WORLDWIDE are watching the extraordinary collapse of what was until recently a seemingly indestructible economy. The United States still has the world’s largest economy measured by gross domestic product (GDP). But among developed nations, it is now at or close to the bottom on most rankings of economic health.
#9 TOP STORY OF 2020: World’s largest economy in free fall
Let’s get one thing straight: Donald Trump does not care about the American people. Whatever Trump may say, he is not threatening to blow up the coronavirus stimulus bill Senate Republicans finally agreed to pass because the bill isn’t generous enough. Trump could not care less if all Americans starve to death, and he certainly isn’t breaking a sweat trying to get the COVID-19 vaccine out to the public. He was not defending working Americans when he released a video calling the GOP-endorsed coronavirus bill a “disgrace” and pushing for a Democrat-friendly plan to send out $2,000 checks instead of the $600 ones Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed to.
Republicans enabled Trump for four years — of course he’s betraying them in the 11th hour | Salon.com
President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he’s granted yet another spate of pardons to 26 people, including his friend and confidant Roger Stone, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared. Trump also gave sentence commutations to three people. The move comes just a day after the president announced his decision to pardon or commute the sentences of 20 people, including three corrupt former Republican congressmen, two subjects of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and four Blackwater security guards who were involved in the 2007 killings of Iraqi civilians.
Trump Pardons Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Charles Kushner In Another Pardoning Spree | HuffPost Australia
Investigators for the military and the FBI later described the shootings, in which the contractors unleashed a blaze of gunfire and grenade explosions in a busy Baghdad square, as unprovoked and unjustified. Federal prosecutors said that many of the victims, including women and children, some with their hands in the air, “were shot inside of civilian vehicles while attempting to flee.”
Trump Pardons Blackwater 4 for Nisour Square Massacre in Iraq, because Whites must never Suffer for Killing Innocent Brown People
So can we expect Barr and Pence to swing into action and charge Patriot Prayer members who rioted in Salem with sedition, sending federal agents in to whisk them away in unmarked vehicles? No.
Trump sent Feds to Portland, but will coddle White Supremacist militias who invaded Oregon State House
Trying to make the GOP look generous (ODT)
Senator Rand Paul rose up in rebellion against his own party Tuesday, objecting to the idea of helping people with their bills with a pittance of a payment to help with the pain of a pandemic they didn’t cause. “If free money was the answer… if money really did grow on trees, why not give more free money?” Rand mused. “Why not give it out all the time? Why stop at $600 a person? Why not $1,000? Why not $2,000?” “Maybe these new Free-Money Republicans should join the Everybody-Gets-A-Guaranteed-Income Caucus?” he snarked. “Why not $20,000 a year for everybody, why not $30,000? If we can print out money with impunity, why not do it?”
Rand Paul Rants About COVID Relief Payments: ‘Why Not $2000?’ | Crooks and Liars
Donald Trump is reportedly furious in private over the role Vice President Mike Pence is about to play in confirming his election defeat.
Mike Pence: Donald Trump fumes over VP’s role in confirming Biden’s win
24 President Donald Trump on Tuesday added more loyalists to the long list of friends who’ve gotten plum jobs as he eyes the exits. Hope Hicks, the Trump confidante and two-time White House employee, will serve on the board of the prestigious Fulbright scholarship. But Hicks isn’t alone. Tuesday’s list has a few familiar names: Ric Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence who later played a key PR role in Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, was given membership on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. (Andrew Giuliani, Rudy’s son, was added to the council last week.)
Trump Gives Loyalists Ric Grenell, Hope Hicks, Pam Bondi Gigs On His Way Out | Talking Points Memo
With Trump raving in White House meetings, prompted by the equally certifiable Michael Flynn, about declaring martial law, it sets an old Middle East hand like me thinking.
Trump aping Mideast Tinpot Dictators and raving about declaring Martial Law, which even Iran Prohibits
Democrats refused to seize a rare opportunity to outmaneuver Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. They settled for a COVID relief bill that skimps on benefits, provides tax breaks to the rich, and pulls us toward austerity extremism.
We Can’t Survive on $600. The New Relief Bill Is Not a Victory.
When Donald Trump announces his intention to run again for president, tens of millions of Americans will flock to his side. If he ultimately doesn’t run, they will throw their support behind anyone that the disgraced ex-president selects as his successor. They will do so despite all the harm Trump has caused the United States and the world. For the United States, at least, that might prove to be the most dangerous denialism of them all.
How America’s Denialism– Elections, COVID, Climate — is Leading to its Downfall
Trump’s Role Model was always Putin and he tried to do it like Putin
Those living in the bubble created by right-wing news hear Trump’s lies repeatedly from multiple sources, making them appear credible. This is the underpinning of all propaganda. That firehosing lacks a commitment to consistency and objective reality can seem counter intuitive. But as Masha Gessen of the New Yorker explains, that is because the goal of firehosing is not persuasion but power. The immediate reaction of the media and others to a firehose of lies is to fact-check. That turns the lies into a political fight. What shouldn’t be up for debate becomes a partisan tit for tat. As Peter Pomerantsev, a Soviet-born British journalist and author, wrote about Putin’s information warfare in 2014: “insisting on the lie, the Kremlin intimidates others by showing that it is in control of defining ‘reality.’ This is why it’s so important for Moscow to do away with truth. If nothing is true, then anything is possible.”
The GOP’s Assault on Truth Is About Power, Not Persuasion | Washington Monthly
Trump’s coup attempt is on-going. Despite being rejected by state officials and the country’s highest courts, Trump and his agents are continuing their seditious and treasonous attempts to overthrow the results of the 2020 election — and, in effect, overthrow American democracy. These efforts to stop Biden from becoming president have extended to the use of stochastic terrorism and other provocations, to murmurs about martial law, political violence and a second civil war. Because Trump yearns to be a neofascist strongman, his campaign to remain in power indefinitely will not stop. Michael D’Antonio, a CNN contributor and author of “The Truth About Trump”, warned Salon about this during a recent phone conversation:
Richard Painter: Trump is an “incompetent dictator” — but a “shrewder” plot might have worked | Salon.com
Despite the fact that herd immunity failed in Sweden and the hospitals are now unable to cope. Trump wants chaos th reign and COVID-19 is a perfect ploy. (ODT)
Trump appointee at HHS, Paul Alexander, urged other health officials to “flood the zone” with coronavirus and infect “kids and young people” in order to develop herd immunity.
Trump HHS Official Admits ‘We Want Them Infected’ With COVID-19 | Crooks and Liars
“[I]t’s not over. We keep going and we’re going to continue to go forward. We have numerous local cases,” Trump told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade before his campaign filed its latest lawsuit.
Trump sues New Mexico in continued election challenge as Electoral College affirms Joe Biden’s win | Salon.com
“It is equal to a 9/11 attack every day for more than 100 days.”
COVID death toll reaches 300,000 under Trump
Look at the statistics: At the time of publication, this is the stark situation worldwide: Cases: 72 million Recovered: 47 million Deaths: 1.6 million In the US alone, the figures are startling: Cases: 16.3 million Deaths: 300,000, equivalent to the entire population of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The US now records more daily deaths from COVID-19 than occurred on the day of that infamous terrorist assault on the US – September 11, 2001.
Vale 2020 – » The Australian Independent Media Network
In disregard for political precedent or basic humanity, Trump has fast-tracked federal executions before Biden takes office
Trump is spending the last days of his presidency on a literal killing spree | Donald Trump | The Guardian
At least four people were stabbed Saturday as supporters of President Donald Trump, including maskless Proud Boys in helmets and bulletproof vests, descended on the nation’s capital and clashed with counterprotesters—violence that some critics tied to the president’s pre-election directive to the self-described “western chauvinists.”
“In Case There Was Any Doubt Regarding ‘Stand By'”: Four People Stabbed After Pro-Trump DC Rally | Common Dreams News
Yet on Saturday, The Washington Post reported that of the 249 Republicans in the House and the Senate, only 27 acknowledged Joe Biden won the election.
The dangerous toll of entrenched belief – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Sedition is a serious charge, but it’s the right word. Most House Republicans and 17 state attorneys general are standing against the right of Americans to choose their own leaders. As elected officials, they are using the power granted to them by the people to declare that the people should not have such power. Even if they lose this case, this time around, the fact that so many traitors hold elected office in America is a major crisis all by itself.
Republicans want more than a coup: Trump’s loyalty test exposes their hatred for democracy | Salon.com
Seventeen American states, all run by Republicans, have decided to join Texas in its seditious and frivolous quest to have the U.S. Supreme Court throw out the votes of 81,282,896 citizens and declare Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election. Those states: Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.
From Frivolous to Frightening: 17 Republicans States Join Texas, Ask the Supreme Court for a Coup | The Smirking Chimp
The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allegedly ordered agency staff to delete an email sent by a political appointee of President Donald Trump seeking to alter a scientific report on corovanirus health risks in children, a CDC official told Congress this week.
CDC Official Says She Was Told to Delete Email on Kids’ Covid-19 Risk to Match Trump’s School Reopening Message | Common Dreams News
A significant epidemiological and statistical analysis shows a major factor in liklihood of death among the 300,000 that have died and contracted COVID-19 is 1) Race and 2) Postcode. and Trump thinks that’s just TERRIFIC
Donald Trump has said it is “terrific” that nearly 15 per cent of Americans have contracted the coronavirus since the outbreak began in the US, citing the “powerful vaccine” of herd immunity.
‘Powerful vaccine in itself’: Trump says it’s ‘terrific’ that nearly 15 per cent of Americans got Covid | The Independent
The president’s ‘vaccine summit’ was notable for its absentees amid revelations that he had spent $14bn on insufficient doses
Only in Trump’s Operation Warped Reality is his vaccine leadership a success | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Now the stance of the ordinary right-winger is that social responsibility, in and of itself, is a dreadful imposition that must be shunned. “Triggering” liberals is the only value left standing, and it remains the top priority even in the face of mass illness and death.
Trump lost the election — but his legacy of coronavirus denialism is here to stay | Salon.com
Trump pressed Kemp to call a special session of the state legislature to get lawmakers to override the results and appoint electors that would back him, according to a person familiar with the conversation. He also asked the governor to demand an audit of signatures on mail ballots, something Kemp has previously noted he has no power to do… Kemp has also said that he will not call for a special session of the legislature.
Trump Once Again Bullies Georgia Governor to Overturn Election Results—This Time By Phone – Mother Jones
Why is Trump offering no leadership to help stop the spread of COVID19?
Trump Has Abdicated His Duty As President And Thousands Are Dying Because Of Him | Crooks and Liars
there is a lack of outrage over a far more significant matter: the death of more than a quarter-million Americans. On Wednesday, the United States set a new record for COVID-19 deaths: 2,804. This is just 173 shy of the death toll of 9/11—that cataclysmic event that reordered elements of American society. The United States is looking at that level of loss on a daily basis. Yet there is little uproar.
274,000 Dead, and Trump Obsesses Over Election Conspiracy Theories. Where’s the Outrage? – Mother Jones
Bill Barr’s only hope is to reverse his comments about election fraud. Then maybe he can stay, says Trump.
Trump Threatens To Fire Bill Barr Over Election Fraud Comments | Crooks and Liars
The justification for Voter ID is ALWAYS racist, just not always this blatantly racist.
Trump ‘Voter Fraud’ Witness Says Voter ID Needed Because ‘All Chinese Look Alike’ | Crooks and Liars
Today loyalist William Barr, Trump’s Attorney General, admitted that the Department of Justice has not found any evidence of widespread voter fraud that would mean Trump won the election. Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis promptly issued a statement saying “With the greatest respect to the Attorney General, his opinion appears to be without any knowledge or investigation of the substantial irregularities and evidence of systemic fraud.” Trump allies told PBS NewsHour correspondent Yamiche Alcindor that Barr’s statement was a “complete betrayal.”
In Line For Immunity? | The Smirking Chimp
A week after Michael Flynn secured a full pardon from President Donald Trump, the ex-national security adviser is under fire for sharing a call for his former boss to “immediately declare a limited form of martial law, and temporarily suspend the Constitution and civilian control of these federal elections, for the sole purpose of having the military oversee a national re-vote.”
Recently Pardoned Flynn Shares Call for Trump to Declare Martial Law and Make Military Oversee New Election | Common Dreams News
Trump’s voting base is a sea of suckers.
Trump and his allies won’t drop claims of stolen election — because they’re cashing in | Salon.com
At the end of this past June, the most recent Federal Reserve data point available, the nation’s poorest half held less than 1 percent of the nation’s stock holdings, just 0.6 percent. The nation’s poorest 90 percent, all combined, now hold just 11.8 percent of the nation’s stocks.
The Rich Are Cheering Wall Street’s Latest Records. Americans of Modest Means Are Draining 401(k)s. | The Smirking Chimp
What to do about Trump’s crimes
The only Perfect Call was Mary Trump’s and nobody seemed to meaningfully listen (ODT)
Donald Trump is personally liable for over $400 million in loans, much of it coming due within a year of leaving office. When combined with debts held by the Trump Organisation, he may be over a billion dollars in the red. Trump faces State-level prosecution and the likely exposure of many more federal crimes when he no longer controls America’s government. This may explain Trump’s refusal to concede the result of the Election and puts Trump on a collision course with the democratic reality of peacefully leaving office. The lame duck period of presidential transition, finally now in motion, is normally an uneventful period of political stagnation. Not with this president. Trump has decapitated the civilian leadership of the Pentagon, withdrawn America from the Open Skies Treaty (designed to avoid accidental military escalation) and appears to be deliberately sabotaging Joe Biden’s ability to manage the economy. Perhaps Trump’s ultimate crime will be to burn it all down as he heads for the door. With two months until inauguration, this story may be far from over.
What to do about Trump’s crimes
When he lost the recent election, yet insisted that he had won it, his followers came out on the streets in droves echoing his accusation that the election had been ‘stolen’ from him. The thieves were not identified. How they could mastermind such a complex coup involving thousands of players scattered across a vast nation of over 330 million was never explained. Yet that did not concern Trump’s followers;
Trump is a cult leader – » The Australian Independent Media Network
