thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-04--A Fight In Critical States Over Mail-In Ballot Deadlines Could Decide The Presidential Election

An unprecedented number of Americans are expected to vote by mail this year .
And many of them could face a problem , even if they think they ’ re doing everything right : They could fill out a ballot before Election Day , place it in the mail and , thanks to mail delays or receipt deadlines , wind up not having their vote counted at all .
Most states don ’ t count ballots unless they arrive by Election Day , meaning that voters have a shorter window to mail their vote , and any mail delays could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ballots that were postmarked by Election Day , so long as they arrive within a certain number of days .
A majority of voters live in the latter category , since some of those states have large populations , but Arizona , Florida , Michigan , Pennsylvania and Wisconsin ― the latter three having swung the Electoral College vote in President Donald Trump ’ s favor in 2016 ― all count votes only if they are received by Election Day .
The need for these changes became clear as mail delivery slowed dramatically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Postmaster General Louis DeJoy , who was appointed to the position after making major political donations to support Trump .
After DeJoy ’ s appointment , the Postal Service warned 46 states in August that it may not be able to deliver all mailed ballots on time in November .
In Georgia , a federal judge ruled on Monday that the state must accept mailed absentee ballots that arrive up to three days after Nov. 3 so long as they were postmarked by Election Day .
If it stands , it would make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ post-election ballot receipt deadline , and fifth to extend ballot receipt deadlines this year .
But the state ’ s Republican Secretary of State is appealing the decision .
“ Allowing voters to vote [ absentee ] on Election Day and having their ballots count is just another way to increase the number of people who can be involved in the process , really , at any time , but particularly in the uncertainty of this year , ” said Sylvia Albert , director of voting and elections at the nonpartisan nonprofit Common @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the pandemic this year saw record absentee voting and , with that , a huge increase in rejected absentee ballots .
Some states and municipalities saw rejection rates as high as 1 % .
In total , more than 500,000 were rejected during the primaries held during the pandemic , according to The Washington Post .
The vast majority of these ballots were rejected simply for arriving after the receipt deadline .
“ We were getting so many questions and complaints from people right up to the primary election day about having @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for one , ” Sara Rose , senior staff attorney at the Pennsylvania chapter of the ACLU , said .
“ [ The Election Day receipt deadline ] makes it difficult for the counties to turn around and return the ballot to the person who requested it in time to give them time to vote.
” The brief filed by Boockvar and Wolf leading to the state Supreme Court grant cites the tens of thousands of ballots cast in the state ’ s June 2 primary election that arrived through the mail after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Those votes would have been rejected due to the deadline were it not for an executive order issued by Wolf and court rulings in a handful of counties .
The court case is the most likely way that the deadline could be extended in Pennsylvania as Republicans in the legislature refuse to pass legislation to even give the county Boards of Election more time to verify ballots without attaching poison pills .
The state House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that increased the speed at which absentee ballots could be verified @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drop boxes to collect those ballots .
The same problem presents itself in Michigan .
State courts in Michigan ruled against a lawsuit that sought to expand the deadline to include postmarked ballots received a few days after the election .
The plaintiffs in that case cited the 6,400 Michigan voters whose absentee ballots were rejected in the state ’ s Aug. 4 primary .
The courts ’ ruling said that the issue should be left to the Michigan legislature to decide .
But Wisconsin ’ s April 7 primary did show the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A 5-4 Supreme Court decision struck down a number of expansions to absentee voting ordered by a lower court judge , but upheld the extension of the ballot receipt deadline to three days after the election for those with Election Day postmarks .
This one change led to tens of thousands of votes being counted that otherwise would not have been .
In each case , Trump and the Republican National Committee oppose the extension of any law to aid the delivery and counting of absentee voting ― whether through the mail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election will be the most “ rigged , ” and “ fraudulent , ” because of the use of mailed absentee ballots , Trump says , with no backing evidence .
His campaign is suing in Pennsylvania to stop the use of drop boxes and in Nevada to stop the implementation of a new mail voting law .

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An unprecedented number of Americans are expected to vote by mail this year. And many of them could face a problem, even if they think they’re doing everything right: They could fill out a ballot before Election Day, place it in the mail and, thanks to mail delays or receipt deadlines, wind up not having their vote counted at all.
Most states don’t count ballots unless they arrive by Election Day, meaning that voters have a shorter window to mail their vote, and any mail delays could render it ineligible. Other states count ballots that were postmarked by Election Day, so long as they arrive within a certain number of days. A majority of voters live in the latter category, since some of those states have large populations, but Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin ― the latter three having swung the Electoral College vote in President Donald Trump’s favor in 2016 ― all count votes only if they are received by Election Day.
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Now, Democratic officials in several states that require ballots to arrive by Election Day are rushing to fix this as they prepare for an influx given voters staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Republicans ― urged on by President Donald Trump and the national GOP ― are attempting to block measures that would ensure all votes are counted.
The need for these changes became clear as mail delivery slowed dramatically due to changes instituted by the new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who was appointed to the position after making major political donations to support Trump. After DeJoy’s appointment, the Postal Service warned 46 states in August that it may not be able to deliver all mailed ballots on time in November.
Ultimately this fight could decide the presidential election. Each of the Rust Belt states that just barely swung for Trump in 2016 has a strict Election Day receipt deadline and face lawsuits to change that.
The number of rejected absentee ballots in 2020 primary elections reached almost 1% of all ballots cast — which is higher than the margins that sent Donald Trump to the White House in 2016.(AP Photo/Hans Pennink, File) ASSOCIATED PRESS
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On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania granted a rare special request to take up cases that seek to expand both the use of drop boxes for absentee ballots and the ballot receipt deadline.
The court granted the request on behalf of Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar (D) after she and Gov. Tom Wolf (D) submitted a court filing in August arguing for the need to extend the ballot receipt deadline beyond election day after the Post Office warned it may not be able to deliver mailed ballots on time in November.
“To state it simply: voters who apply for mail-in ballots in the last week of the application period and return their completed ballot by mail will, through no fault of their own, likely be disenfranchised,” the filing states.
In Georgia, a federal judge ruled on Monday that the state must accept mailed absentee ballots that arrive up to three days after Nov. 3 so long as they were postmarked by Election Day. If it stands, it would make Georgia the 22nd state to have a post-election ballot receipt deadline, and fifth to extend ballot receipt deadlines this year. But the state’s Republican Secretary of State is appealing the decision.
“Allowing voters to vote [absentee] on Election Day and having their ballots count is just another way to increase the number of people who can be involved in the process, really, at any time, but particularly in the uncertainty of this year,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at the nonpartisan nonprofit Common Cause.
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Swing State Legal Fights
States that held primary elections during the pandemic this year saw record absentee voting and, with that, a huge increase in rejected absentee ballots. Some states and municipalities saw rejection rates as high as 1%. In total, more than 500,000 were rejected during the primaries held during the pandemic, according to The Washington Post. The vast majority of these ballots were rejected simply for arriving after the receipt deadline.
A 1% rejection rate may sound like an acceptable number, but if history is any guide, it could determine who wins and who loses elections from the White House on down.
Despite losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, President Donald Trump eked out tiny victories over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to win office. Trump’s victories ranged in size from a low of 0.23% of all votes cast in Michigan to a high of 0.77% in Wisconsin.
Voters may have limited time to return their mailed ballots if states only count those received on Election Day. mpi04/MediaPunch/MediaPunch/IPx
Supporters of extending the ballot receipt deadline in Pennsylvania argue that it wouldn’t just help voters, but also the county Boards of Elections. During the state’s primary elections in June, the county boards struggled to fulfill the record number of absentee ballot requests in time leaving thousands of voters without absentee ballots they requested.
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“We were getting so many questions and complaints from people right up to the primary election day about having not received their ballot despite having applied for one,” Sara Rose, senior staff attorney at the Pennsylvania chapter of the ACLU, said. “[The Election Day receipt deadline] makes it difficult for the counties to turn around and return the ballot to the person who requested it in time to give them time to vote.”
The brief filed by Boockvar and Wolf leading to the state Supreme Court grant cites the tens of thousands of ballots cast in the state’s June 2 primary election that arrived through the mail after the Election Day ballot receipt deadline. Those votes would have been rejected due to the deadline were it not for an executive order issued by Wolf and court rulings in a handful of counties.
The court case is the most likely way that the deadline could be extended in Pennsylvania as Republicans in the legislature refuse to pass legislation to even give the county Boards of Election more time to verify ballots without attaching poison pills. The state House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that increased the speed at which absentee ballots could be verified, but also banned the use of drop boxes to collect those ballots.
The same problem presents itself in Michigan. State courts in Michigan ruled against a lawsuit that sought to expand the deadline to include postmarked ballots received a few days after the election. The plaintiffs in that case cited the 6,400 Michigan voters whose absentee ballots were rejected in the state’s Aug. 4 primary. The courts’ ruling said that the issue should be left to the Michigan legislature to decide.
But the Republican-controlled legislature refuses to advance legislation that would change the ballot receipt deadline. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) endorsed HB 5987, a bill proposed by State Rep. Vanessa Guerra (D) to do just that, but it remains stuck in committee.
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And it’s the same story in Wisconsin where the heavily gerrymandered Republican legislative majority refuses to pass any legislation that could ameliorate problems the state may face from a record number of absentee ballots in November.
Those problems are well known, as the state held the first U.S. primary election during the pandemic on April 7. Mail delays and delivery errors led to hundreds of ballots never being delivered to election officials and thousands of voters never receiving their requested ballots, according to a Post Office inspector general report.
But Wisconsin’s April 7 primary did show the importance of extending the ballot receipt deadline. A 5-4 Supreme Court decision struck down a number of expansions to absentee voting ordered by a lower court judge, but upheld the extension of the ballot receipt deadline to three days after the election for those with Election Day postmarks. This one change led to tens of thousands of votes being counted that otherwise would not have been.
A similar lawsuit has been filed in Wisconsin to try and extend the receipt deadline for the November election.
Deadlines Extended
President Donald Trump falsely claims that mail-in and absentee voting is "fraudulent," and, "corrupt." (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ASSOCIATED PRESS
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In each case, Trump and the Republican National Committee oppose the extension of any law to aid the delivery and counting of absentee voting ― whether through the mail or delivered to drop boxes. This election will be the most “rigged,” and “fraudulent,” because of the use of mailed absentee ballots, Trump says, with no backing evidence. His campaign is suing in Pennsylvania to stop the use of drop boxes and in Nevada to stop the implementation of a new mail voting law.
Voting rights advocates hope these three states, and others, can join the growing ranks of states extending their ballot receipt deadline.
The states that already accept ballots postmarked by Election Day and received in the days afterwards are of every partisan color.
“There isn’t a rhyme or reason [for which states accept post-election ballots],” Albert said.
They include traditionally Republican-leaning states like Alaska, Kansas, North Dakota, Mississippi, Texas, Utah and West Virginia; Democratic-leaning states like California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Virginia and Washington; and swing states like Iowa, North Carolina and Ohio.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) signed legislation on Aug. 3 making the state’s November election an all-mail election. The law also extended the ballot receipt deadline to seven days after Election Day for ballots with an Election Day postmark and three days after for ballots bearing no postmark.
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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed a law on Aug. 29 to conduct the state’s fall election entirely through the mail. The law also extended the ballot receipt deadline to six days after the election if the ballot is postmarked by Election Day and two days if it has no postmark.
In Minnesota, election officials agreed to a legal order to extend the ballot receipt deadline to five days after the election for ballots postmarked by Election Day after being sued. A lawsuit in Montana forced officials to agree to an order that would count ballots postmarked by election day that are received up to the same date given for overseas military ballots ― 10 days after the election.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-04--Mississippi Attorney General Won't Seek 7th Trial For Curtis Flowers

JACKSON , Miss .
( AP ) — A Mississippi man freed last year after 22 years in prison will not be tried a seventh time in a quadruple murder case , his defense attorney said Friday .
Curtis Flowers was released from state custody on Dec. 16 .
Attorney General Lynn Fitch and her staff spent months reviewing the case after it was transferred to her in January by District Attorney Doug Evans , who had handled Flowers ’ previous prosecutions .
Evans excused himself from the case when Fitch took office .
Flowers ’ attorney Rob McDuff told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had decided not to prosecute Flowers again .
Flowers was convicted four times in the 1996 killings of four people at a furniture store in the north Mississippi city of Winona : twice for individual slayings and twice for all four killings .
Two other trials involving all four deaths ended in mistrials .
Each of Flowers ’ convictions was overturned .
In June 2019 , the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out the conviction and death sentence from Flowers ’ sixth trial , which place in 2010 .
Justices said prosecutors showed an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the trials of Flowers , who is Black .
After that ruling , Flowers was moved off death row at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman and taken to a regional jail in the central Mississippi town of Louisville .
He remained in custody because the original murder indictment was still active .
At the request of Flowers ’ attorneys , a judge set bond a $ 250,000 on Dec. 16 , and Flowers walked out of jail within hours .
“ It ’ s been rough , ” Flowers told reporters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it one day at a time , keeping God first — that ’ s how I got through it.
” McDuff had said a person who wanted to remain anonymous posted $ 25,000 , the 10 % needed to secure Flowers ’ release .
During the bond hearing , Ciruit Judge Joseph Loper said it was “ troubling ” that prosecutors had not responded to a previous defense motion to drop the charges against Flowers .
He said if prosecutors do not respond , “ the state will reap the whirlwind ” from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death on July 16 , 1996 , in the Tardy Furniture store in Winona .
They were owner Bertha Tardy , 59 , and three employees : 45-year-old Carmen Rigby , 42-year-old Robert Golden and 16-year-old Derrick “ Bobo ” Stewart .
Winona sits near the crossroads of Interstate 55 , the major north-south artery in Mississippi , and U.S. Highway 82 , which runs east to west .
It about a half-hour ’ s drive from the flatlands of the Mississippi Delta .
Among its 4,300 residents , about 48 % are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Census Bureau figures show that about 30 % live in poverty .

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man freed last year after 22 years in prison will not be tried a seventh time in a quadruple murder case, his defense attorney said Friday.
Curtis Flowers was released from state custody on Dec. 16.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch and her staff spent months reviewing the case after it was transferred to her in January by District Attorney Doug Evans, who had handled Flowers’ previous prosecutions. Evans excused himself from the case when Fitch took office. Flowers’ attorney Rob McDuff told The Associated Press on Friday that Fitch had decided not to prosecute Flowers again.
Flowers was convicted four times in the 1996 killings of four people at a furniture store in the north Mississippi city of Winona: twice for individual slayings and twice for all four killings. Two other trials involving all four deaths ended in mistrials.
Each of Flowers’ convictions was overturned. In June 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out the conviction and death sentence from Flowers’ sixth trial, which place in 2010. Justices said prosecutors showed an unconstitutional pattern of excluding African American jurors in the trials of Flowers, who is Black.
After that ruling, Flowers was moved off death row at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman and taken to a regional jail in the central Mississippi town of Louisville. He remained in custody because the original murder indictment was still active.
At the request of Flowers’ attorneys, a judge set bond a $250,000 on Dec. 16, and Flowers walked out of jail within hours.
“It’s been rough,” Flowers told reporters immediately after his release. “Taking it one day at a time, keeping God first — that’s how I got through it.”
McDuff had said a person who wanted to remain anonymous posted $25,000, the 10% needed to secure Flowers’ release.
During the bond hearing, Ciruit Judge Joseph Loper said it was “troubling” that prosecutors had not responded to a previous defense motion to drop the charges against Flowers. He said if prosecutors do not respond, “the state will reap the whirlwind” from him.
Four people were shot to death on July 16, 1996, in the Tardy Furniture store in Winona. They were owner Bertha Tardy, 59, and three employees: 45-year-old Carmen Rigby, 42-year-old Robert Golden and 16-year-old Derrick “Bobo” Stewart.
Winona sits near the crossroads of Interstate 55, the major north-south artery in Mississippi, and U.S. Highway 82, which runs east to west. It about a half-hour’s drive from the flatlands of the Mississippi Delta. Among its 4,300 residents, about 48% are Black and 44% are white. Census Bureau figures show that about 30% live in poverty.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-04--Sen. Tammy Duckworth 'Appalled' By Trump's Reported Comments Denigrating Fallen Troops

During Trump ’ s 2018 trip to France , the president canceled a planned visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery ― a World War I cemetery in Belleau , France , near the site of the Battle of Belleau Wood .
Trump blamed bad weather for the cancellation at the time .
According to multiple anonymous sources who had firsthand knowledge of the conversations cited by The Atlantic ’ s Jeffrey Goldberg , however , Trump had actually “ rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain , and because he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American war dead.
” “ Why should I go to that cemetery ?
It ’ s filled with losers , ” Trump reportedly said on the trip , according to Goldberg .
The Washington Post and The Associated Press have confirmed the story , with one former senior administration official telling the Post that Trump “ frequently made disparaging comments about veterans and soldiers missing in action , referring to them at times as ‘ losers.
’ ” Trump and the White House have issued strenuous denials about The Atlantic report , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the trip .
Trump insisted on Twitter that he ’ d “ never called our great fallen soldiers anything other than HEROES.
” Some Republicans have attempted to dismiss The Atlantic ’ s reporting on the basis of the outlet ’ s reliance on anonymous sources .
Goldberg said Friday on CNN that his sources didn ’ t want to be named in his story because they “ don ’ t want to be inundated with angry tweets and all the rest.
” Duckworth dismissed that line of attack on Friday .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s important that they go forward and identify themselves , ” she said of the military aides quoted by The Atlantic , adding that Trump ’ s reported comments in the story are consistent with his attacks on veterans like the late Arizona Sen. John McCain .

During Trump’s 2018 trip to France, the president canceled a planned visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery ― a World War I cemetery in Belleau, France, near the site of the Battle of Belleau Wood. Trump blamed bad weather for the cancellation at the time.
According to multiple anonymous sources who had firsthand knowledge of the conversations cited by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, however, Trump had actually “rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead.”
“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” Trump reportedly said on the trip, according to Goldberg.
The Washington Post and The Associated Press have confirmed the story, with one former senior administration official telling the Post that Trump “frequently made disparaging comments about veterans and soldiers missing in action, referring to them at times as ‘losers.’”
Trump and the White House have issued strenuous denials about The Atlantic report, including by some presidential aides who were on the trip. Trump insisted on Twitter that he’d “never called our great fallen soldiers anything other than HEROES.”
Some Republicans have attempted to dismiss The Atlantic’s reporting on the basis of the outlet’s reliance on anonymous sources. Goldberg said Friday on CNN that his sources didn’t want to be named in his story because they “don’t want to be inundated with angry tweets and all the rest.”
Duckworth dismissed that line of attack on Friday.
“I don’t think it’s important that they go forward and identify themselves,” she said of the military aides quoted by The Atlantic, adding that Trump’s reported comments in the story are consistent with his attacks on veterans like the late Arizona Sen. John McCain.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-04--Trump Losing The Military Vote, A Traditional Republican Bloc

ASSOCIATED PRESS Lightning streaks across the sky as President Donald Trump walks from Air Force One carrying an umbrella as he arrives at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland after a campaign rally in late August .
A poll of subscribers to the Military Times shows him trailing Democrat Joe Biden .
In the recent survey , Trump may even have caught a break because it was taken several weeks before Thursday ’ s Atlantic magazine article revealed new details of his disdain for those who serve in the military .
Trump called service members who get injured or killed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” according to the article , and he called off a planned 2018 visit to a cemetery in France where 1,800 World War I U.S. troops are buried because he didn ’ t want the rain to ruin his hair .
The weak polling numbers for Trump also were recorded despite his repeated claims that he has done more for the military than any previous president , including providing “ brand new ” ships , planes , tanks and rockets , the largest budgets , the highest pay raises and programs like VA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doctors if the wait periods at Veterans Affairs clinics and hospitals are too long .
“ I ’ ve done more , I think , than almost anybody to help our military , to get the budgets of our military , to get the pay raises for our military , ” Trump said again late Thursday night on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrew after returning from a rally near Pittsburgh .
In fact , each one of his claims is at best an exaggeration and at worst a lie .
While his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in predecessor Barack Obama ’ s second term when House Republicans insisted on cutting spending , they are smaller than those in Obama ’ s first term , after adjusting for inflation .
Similarly , the pay raises he brags about are the cost-of-living increases that have been standard for years .
New ships , planes and other hardware take many years to design and build , so new equipment coming online now is thanks to Obama or his predecessor , Republican George W. Bush .
And the VA Choice Act , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ times , was passed in 2014 and signed into law by Obama .
Trump has peddled other falsehoods about the armed forces , including the notion that they had no ammunition at the end of Obama ’ s presidency or , more bizarrely , that the F-35 fighter is actually invisible , rather than difficult to detect on radar .
He also tried to claim as successes events that were clear failures ― including the very first military operation he approved just five days after taking office : a counterterrorism raid into Yemen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then-chief strategist Stephen Bannon and son-in-law Jared Kushner – rather than with his National Security Council staff .
It killed 25 civilians , including nine children under 13 , as well as Navy SEAL William “ Ryan ” Owens , in addition to losing a $ 75 million tilt-rotor Osprey helicopter .
Trump was berated for that decision by Owens ’ father at the return of the SEAL ’ s body at Dover Air Force Base on Feb. 1 , 2017 , rattling him so badly that he stopped attending “ dignified transfer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of today , three-and-a-half years into his presidency , Trump has only attended four such ceremonies , of the 96 that have taken place .
“ As we see the American public tire of the constant , absurd lying from Donald Trump , we ’ re seeing the same from our military , ” said Jon Soltz , an Iraq War veteran with the progressive group VoteVets .
“ Our troops know they never ran out of ammunition .
Who in the military does he think he ’ s kidding ?
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be lied to.
” “ What I hear consistently from military families is that they know it ’ s all fake .
The pay raises were no bigger than any in the past and many families have been pushed out of using military health care facilities so they ’ re paying copays off post , ” said Fred Wellman , a retired Army helicopter pilot with 22 years of service who now works with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project .
“ They don ’ t believe the lies because they are living it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fool people who are living day to day with the truth.
” Wellman added that the Atlantic article is likely to erode Trump ’ s support even further .
“ I think this one cuts to the core of our values and culture , ” he said .
“ Yeah , there are a lot of loud voices screaming ‘ fake news , ’ but I am being pummeled with fellow veterans who are outraged .
I ’ ve never seen this much anger before.
” That support , however , has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ repeated claims of how much the military loves him .
Upon taking office , service members surveyed by the Military Times approved of him , 46 % to 37 % .
That had fallen to 44 % -43 % by 2018 , and sank deep into negative territory in the latest poll , with 50 % disapproving and only 38 % approving .
According to the Military Times survey , service members oppose Trump on his intervention in the military justice system by pardoning officers in controversial war-crimes cases , on his failure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the killing of U.S. troops , and of his desire to deploy active-duty military to control protests in U.S. cities .
Apart from disagreements over policy , though , are more pragmatic considerations .
When Trump could get neither Mexico nor Congress to pay for a wall he had promised his supporters he would build along the southern border and raided funds from the military budget instead , it was military families who felt that pain , Wellman said .

Lightning streaks across the sky as President Donald Trump walks from Air Force One carrying an umbrella as he arrives at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland after a campaign rally in late August. A poll of subscribers to the Military Times shows him trailing Democrat Joe Biden. ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s numerous lies on military issues, from claims of delivering historic pay raises to providing brand new ships and planes, do not appear to be working with service members, with polling suggesting he could lose this traditional Republican voting bloc this November.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads Trump, 41% to 37%, in a survey of more than 1,000 subscribers to the Military Times. Trump held a 20-percentage-point lead over Hillary Clinton in the same poll before the 2016 election.
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In the recent survey, Trump may even have caught a break because it was taken several weeks before Thursday’s Atlantic magazine article revealed new details of his disdain for those who serve in the military. Trump called service members who get injured or killed “suckers” and “losers,” according to the article, and he called off a planned 2018 visit to a cemetery in France where 1,800 World War I U.S. troops are buried because he didn’t want the rain to ruin his hair.
The weak polling numbers for Trump also were recorded despite his repeated claims that he has done more for the military than any previous president, including providing “brand new” ships, planes, tanks and rockets, the largest budgets, the highest pay raises and programs like VA Choice, which lets veterans seek private doctors if the wait periods at Veterans Affairs clinics and hospitals are too long.
“I got soldiers brand new equipment, brand new jets, brand new rockets, brand new ― $2.5 trillion. I did more for the military than any president that’s ever had this office,” he told Fox News in July.
“I’ve done more, I think, than almost anybody to help our military, to get the budgets of our military, to get the pay raises for our military,” Trump said again late Thursday night on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrew after returning from a rally near Pittsburgh.
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In fact, each one of his claims is at best an exaggeration and at worst a lie. While his total military budgets are larger than those in predecessor Barack Obama’s second term when House Republicans insisted on cutting spending, they are smaller than those in Obama’s first term, after adjusting for inflation. Similarly, the pay raises he brags about are the cost-of-living increases that have been standard for years.
New ships, planes and other hardware take many years to design and build, so new equipment coming online now is thanks to Obama or his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush. And the VA Choice Act, which Trump has now lied about over 150 times, was passed in 2014 and signed into law by Obama.
Trump has peddled other falsehoods about the armed forces, including the notion that they had no ammunition at the end of Obama’s presidency or, more bizarrely, that the F-35 fighter is actually invisible, rather than difficult to detect on radar.
He also tried to claim as successes events that were clear failures ― including the very first military operation he approved just five days after taking office: a counterterrorism raid into Yemen he authorized over a social dinner with then-chief strategist Stephen Bannon and son-in-law Jared Kushner – rather than with his National Security Council staff. It killed 25 civilians, including nine children under 13, as well as Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens, in addition to losing a $75 million tilt-rotor Osprey helicopter.
Trump was berated for that decision by Owens’ father at the return of the SEAL’s body at Dover Air Force Base on Feb. 1, 2017, rattling him so badly that he stopped attending “dignified transfer” ceremonies for two years. As of today, three-and-a-half years into his presidency, Trump has only attended four such ceremonies, of the 96 that have taken place.
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“As we see the American public tire of the constant, absurd lying from Donald Trump, we’re seeing the same from our military,” said Jon Soltz, an Iraq War veteran with the progressive group VoteVets. “Our troops know they never ran out of ammunition. Who in the military does he think he’s kidding? It’s just patently insulting to service members to be lied to.”
“What I hear consistently from military families is that they know it’s all fake. The pay raises were no bigger than any in the past and many families have been pushed out of using military health care facilities so they’re paying copays off post,” said Fred Wellman, a retired Army helicopter pilot with 22 years of service who now works with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “They don’t believe the lies because they are living it every day. You can’t fool people who are living day to day with the truth.”
Wellman added that the Atlantic article is likely to erode Trump’s support even further. “I think this one cuts to the core of our values and culture,” he said. “Yeah, there are a lot of loud voices screaming ‘fake news,’ but I am being pummeled with fellow veterans who are outraged. I’ve never seen this much anger before.”
“So at some point, military families do notice. And they are. They get it. They’re not important to him.” - Fred Wellman, a retired Army Army helicopter pilot working with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project.
How much, exactly, the new revelations might hurt Trump in November are unclear. His support among service members is already at a historic low in modern presidential elections for a Republican, and particularly a GOP incumbent.
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In 2004, still in the shadow of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, exit polls showed that Bush still won the vote of service members and veterans, 57% to 41%, over Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient John Kerry, the Democratic nominee.
In Trump’s 2016 win, exit polls showed he won the military vote 60% to 34% over Clinton, even though Trump avoided the Vietnam War by claiming non-existent “bone spurs” to get a medical deferment.
That support, however, has been eroding steadily, notwithstanding Trump’s repeated claims of how much the military loves him. Upon taking office, service members surveyed by the Military Times approved of him, 46% to 37%. That had fallen to 44%-43% by 2018, and sank deep into negative territory in the latest poll, with 50% disapproving and only 38% approving.
Rosalinda Maury, director of Applied Research and Analytics at Syracuse University’s Institute of Veterans and Military Families, said that while the military is absolutely a conservative institution, the poll is revealing a “disagreement with policy and decision-making as it relates to national security.”
According to the Military Times survey, service members oppose Trump on his intervention in the military justice system by pardoning officers in controversial war-crimes cases, on his failure to confront Russia about the reported bounties for the killing of U.S. troops, and of his desire to deploy active-duty military to control protests in U.S. cities.
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The publication, working with Maury’s group, surveys its subscribers, a cohort that tends to include officers and enlisted personnel who view the military as a career, rather than people who join with the intention of remaining just a few years.
Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University who served on the National Security Council staff under both Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republican Bush, said Trump’s “brand” of flouting establishment norms does not help with an organization like the military.
“The military as an institution is very establishment and built on norms,” he said.
Apart from disagreements over policy, though, are more pragmatic considerations. When Trump could get neither Mexico nor Congress to pay for a wall he had promised his supporters he would build along the southern border and raided funds from the military budget instead, it was military families who felt that pain, Wellman said.
In Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the 101st Airborne, that pain involved seeing money that had been slated for a school head south to build steel fencing.
“He took money for a new middle school and sent it to build a wall,” Wellman said. “So at some point, military families do notice. And they are. They get it. They’re not important to him.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-04--2 Alleged 'Boogaloo Bois' Facing Terrorism Charges In Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS ( AP ) — Two men who prosecutors say are members of an anti-government extremist group , who toted guns on Minneapolis streets during unrest following the death of George Floyd and spoke about shooting police , blowing up a courthouse and killing politicians , have been charged with federal terrorism counts .
They are charged with conspiring to provide and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization , for allegedly building firearms suppressors that they believed they sold to Hamas , and for allegedly offering to fight as “ mercenaries ” for the group .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ appearances via videoconference Friday in U.S. District Court .
They were both appointed federal defenders , but attorneys were not immediately assigned to comment on their behalf .
Floyd , a Black man , died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd ’ s neck for nearly eight minutes , as Floyd repeatedly said he couldn ’ t breathe .
His death , captured on bystander video , sparked protests in Minneapolis and beyond .
Authorities began investigating the Boogaloo Bois after learning that some members were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unrest in Minneapolis .
Boogaloo supporters , who use the movement ’ s name as a slang term for a second civil war or collapse of civilization , frequently show up at protests armed with rifles and wearing Hawaiian shirts .
According to an FBI affidavit , Solomon posted a message on Facebook on May 26 asking people to contact him on an encrypted platform .
That same day , Teeter publicly posted : “ Lock and load boys .
Boog flags are in the air , and the national network is going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then traveled from North Carolina to Minnesota .
A witness told the FBI that Solomon was seen openly carrying a firearm and said he was part of a Boogaloo Bois subgroup called the “ Boojahideen , ” and was willing to protect the witness from police , white supremacists and looters .
Solomon allegedly said his mission was to get police out of the city .
Later , the witness invited Solomon , Teeter and another person to stay at the witness ’ s house , where they spoke about committing acts of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the affidavit says .
The witness said Solomon and Teeter talked about attacking a National Guard Armory to steal weapons and bombs .
A paid informant , whom Teeter and Solomon believed to belong to Hamas , later recorded a conversation in which Solomon , Teeter and another person talked about shooting police .
During many conversations , Solomon and Teeter told the informant that the views of Hamas — a Palestinian Islamic political party — aligned with their own anti-government views and that they wanted to work as “ mercenaries ” on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they could earn cash for the Boogaloo movement .
They said they needed money to recruit members and buy land for a Boogaloo training compound .
According to the affidavit , they came up with a plot to blow up a historical county courthouse in northern Minnesota so they could “ make a statement , ” but then delayed that plan .
Solomon later said : “ I want to murder a bunch of U.S. politicians .
That ’ s the statement I want to make.
” Solomon and Teeter met an undercover @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be a more senior member of Hamas , and offered to build firearms suppressors and other weapons for the group .
They believed the suppressors they sold went to Hamas to be used overseas to attack Israeli and U.S. forces , the affidavit said .
When the undercover FBI employee asked to explain killing politicians , Solomon said he would “ build a gallows ... in front of the Congress building in D.C. and just start hanging politicians left and right.
” When discussing possible security , Teeter said he can shoot from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t stop threats that you can ’ t see , ″ the affidavit said .

LOADING ERROR LOADING
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Two men who prosecutors say are members of an anti-government extremist group, who toted guns on Minneapolis streets during unrest following the death of George Floyd and spoke about shooting police, blowing up a courthouse and killing politicians, have been charged with federal terrorism counts.
Michael Robert Solomon, 30, of New Brighton, Minnesota, and Benjamin Ryan Teeter, 22, of Hampstead, North Carolina, are members of the “Boogaloo Bois,” authorities say.
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They are charged with conspiring to provide and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, for allegedly building firearms suppressors that they believed they sold to Hamas, and for allegedly offering to fight as “mercenaries” for the group.
Assistant Attorney General John Demers said in a statement that people who seek to engage in terrorist activity will be held accountable, “no matter what witch’s brew of ideological motivations inspire” them.
Solomon and Teeter made their first court appearances via videoconference Friday in U.S. District Court. They were both appointed federal defenders, but attorneys were not immediately assigned to comment on their behalf.
Floyd, a Black man, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes, as Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe. His death, captured on bystander video, sparked protests in Minneapolis and beyond.
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Authorities began investigating the Boogaloo Bois after learning that some members were discussing violence and were armed during the unrest in Minneapolis. Boogaloo supporters, who use the movement’s name as a slang term for a second civil war or collapse of civilization, frequently show up at protests armed with rifles and wearing Hawaiian shirts.
According to an FBI affidavit, Solomon posted a message on Facebook on May 26 asking people to contact him on an encrypted platform. That same day, Teeter publicly posted: “Lock and load boys. Boog flags are in the air, and the national network is going off.” His public posts show he then traveled from North Carolina to Minnesota.
A witness told the FBI that Solomon was seen openly carrying a firearm and said he was part of a Boogaloo Bois subgroup called the “Boojahideen,” and was willing to protect the witness from police, white supremacists and looters. Solomon allegedly said his mission was to get police out of the city. Later, the witness invited Solomon, Teeter and another person to stay at the witness’s house, where they spoke about committing acts of violence against police and other targets, the affidavit says.
The witness said Solomon and Teeter talked about attacking a National Guard Armory to steal weapons and bombs. A paid informant, whom Teeter and Solomon believed to belong to Hamas, later recorded a conversation in which Solomon, Teeter and another person talked about shooting police.
During many conversations, Solomon and Teeter told the informant that the views of Hamas — a Palestinian Islamic political party — aligned with their own anti-government views and that they wanted to work as “mercenaries” on behalf of Hamas’ armed wing so they could earn cash for the Boogaloo movement. They said they needed money to recruit members and buy land for a Boogaloo training compound.
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According to the affidavit, they came up with a plot to blow up a historical county courthouse in northern Minnesota so they could “make a statement,” but then delayed that plan. Solomon later said: “I want to murder a bunch of U.S. politicians. That’s the statement I want to make.”
Solomon and Teeter met an undercover FBI employee, whom they believed to be a more senior member of Hamas, and offered to build firearms suppressors and other weapons for the group. They believed the suppressors they sold went to Hamas to be used overseas to attack Israeli and U.S. forces, the affidavit said.
When the undercover FBI employee asked to explain killing politicians, Solomon said he would “build a gallows ... in front of the Congress building in D.C. and just start hanging politicians left and right.” When discussing possible security, Teeter said he can shoot from a distance and, “you can’t stop threats that you can’t see,″ the affidavit said.
___


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-04--Trump Says He's 'Truly An Environmentalist,' Despite All Evidence To The Contrary

President Donald Trump declared at a campaign event Thursday that he was perfectly willing to protect the environment — unless other countries around the around made it too expensive to do so .
“ I am truly an environmentalist , ” Trump told supporters in Latrobe , Pennsylvania .
“ But you have to understand , when we do things , and they don ’ t , and we clean — and it ’ s very expensive to do that — and they don ’ t , and we have this massive planet , and China , India , Russia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fuming up , and we ’ re doing our job and beautiful , they have to do it also .
Otherwise , it just doesn ’ t work the way it ’ s supposed to.
” The president — who has downplayed the threat of climate change in the past and blamed other countries for global warming — also dismissed wind power as a viable energy source and said that bans on plastic straws were impractical , something his campaign has frequently raised as an example of the left ’ s environmental agenda @ @ @ @ @ @ @ paper straw , arguing that it “ disintegrates as you drink , ” allowing liquid to dribble on your tie .
Contrary to Trump ’ s claim to be an environmentalist , he and his administration withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord , rolled back nearly 100 regulations designed to limit pollution from the oil and gas industry and established “ the worst record on the environment and climate action of any president in the history of the country , ” according to the Sierra Club .
Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ monuments and weakened restrictions protecting wildlife , a New York Times analysis found .
His Environmental Protection Agency also repealed greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles and power plants , the newspaper added .
Former President Barack Obama — who passed auto emissions standards that Trump has worked to roll back — slammed his successor ’ s environmental record in March , just as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the United States .
At the same time , Trump ’ s administration finished an auction to sell gas and oil leases in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ve seen too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic , ” Obama tweeted .
“ We can ’ t afford any more consequences of climate denial .
All of us , especially young people , have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall .
”

LOADING ERROR LOADING
President Donald Trump declared at a campaign event Thursday that he was perfectly willing to protect the environment — unless other countries around the around made it too expensive to do so.
“I am truly an environmentalist,” Trump told supporters in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. “But you have to understand, when we do things, and they don’t, and we clean — and it’s very expensive to do that — and they don’t, and we have this massive planet, and China, India, Russia, Germany, all these places are fuming up, and we’re doing our job and beautiful, they have to do it also. Otherwise, it just doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to.”
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The president — who has downplayed the threat of climate change in the past and blamed other countries for global warming — also dismissed wind power as a viable energy source and said that bans on plastic straws were impractical, something his campaign has frequently raised as an example of the left’s environmental agenda
Trump played up the inconvenience of a paper straw, arguing that it “disintegrates as you drink,” allowing liquid to dribble on your tie.
President Trump: "I am truly an environmentalist." pic.twitter.com/0ELgOJmm5o — The Hill (@thehill) September 4, 2020
Contrary to Trump’s claim to be an environmentalist, he and his administration withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord, rolled back nearly 100 regulations designed to limit pollution from the oil and gas industry and established “the worst record on the environment and climate action of any president in the history of the country,” according to the Sierra Club.
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Trump’s Interior Department reduced the size of national monuments and weakened restrictions protecting wildlife, a New York Times analysis found. His Environmental Protection Agency also repealed greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles and power plants, the newspaper added.
Former President Barack Obama — who passed auto emissions standards that Trump has worked to roll back — slammed his successor’s environmental record in March, just as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the United States. At the same time, Trump’s administration finished an auction to sell gas and oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
“We’ve seen too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic,” Obama tweeted. “We can’t afford any more consequences of climate denial. All of us, especially young people, have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-04--Untangling Jerry Falwell Jr.'s Finances From Liberty University Won't Be Easy

Company insiders - in this case , Jerry Falwell - aren ’ t legally barred from conducting personal business transactions @ @ @ @ @ , such as those identified by Reuters .
But some governance specialists say such deals @ @ @ @ @ of interest or potential breaches of fiduciary duty .
Nonprofit entities , such as Liberty @ @ @ @ @ are meant to serve charitable , educational or religious interests .
Under tax laws , @ @ @ @ @ used for the private benefit of individuals .
Falwell was involved in various sides of @ @ @ @ @ He wrote up the deed itself , as “ Jerry L Falwell Jr , Attorney-at-Law.
@ @ @ @ @ he created , listing himself as Manager of Eastern Heights LLC .
He was an @ @ @ @ @ the for-profit co-seller .
And he also was in private business with Doyle , the @ @ @ @ @ investing in property with Falwell , Doyle has also worked as a real estate broker @ @ @ @ @ Falwell oversaw the property holdings .

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WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - After parting ways with President Jerry Falwell Jr in the wake of personal scandals, Liberty University has hired a firm to investigate “all facets” of Falwell’s tenure, including the school’s financial and real estate operations.
There may be much to untangle.
Falwell, who took over as president of Liberty in 2007 after years as a lawyer handling its real estate interests, intertwined his personal finances with those of the evangelical Christian university founded by his father.
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He put his two sons - and their wives as well - on the university’s payroll. He arranged the transfer of a multi-acre Liberty facility to his personal trainer. He enlisted a friend’s construction company to manage an ambitious campus expansion costing hundreds of millions of dollars.
And before becoming school president, Falwell set up two companies that enabled him to cut property deals with one of the many nonprofit entities affiliated with the university, Reuters found. In each of the deals, Falwell played multiple roles with potentially conflicting interests: He was an officer of the university, a board member for the nonprofit selling the land, and a private developer who could profit from the transactions.
“It’s very worrisome to have these sorts of financial arrangements going on and they deserve intense scrutiny,” said Michael Bastedo of the University of Michigan School of Education.
In 2001, property records show, Falwell set up a private company while he was a lawyer for Liberty, used it to buy an undeveloped tract of land from the school, and then developed a strip mall on the plot. The company sold the property five years later at a significant premium.
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In 2005, property records show, Falwell again acted as a private businessman when a university nonprofit affiliate and a company he operated joined together to sell land to a third company - controlled by Falwell’s real estate partner.
And in 2012, in a project Falwell launched as Liberty’s president, the university spent more than $2 million to build a tunnel that links the campus to another shopping plaza near campus. Falwell is a part owner of that shopping plaza.
Falwell told Reuters that each of these transactions benefited Liberty University. None was inappropriate in any way, he said.
He stepped down last week after Reuters reported that a business associate alleged a years-long affair with Falwell and Falwell’s wife, Becki. The associate, Giancarlo Granda, says the relationship involved him having sex with Becki Falwell whileJerry Falwell looked on. Becki Falwell declined to comment; Jerry Falwell has denied involvement in the relationship, which he says was between his wife and Granda only.
Falwell’s departure marked a dramatic fall for one of the most powerful figures in America’s evangelical Christian movement. In 2016, Falwell’s endorsement of Donald Trump was widely credited as helping propel Trump to the U.S. presidency.
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Falwell said in interviews that Liberty will pay him $10.5million as part of a severance and retirement package. Liberty declined to comment on the terms or the amount.
Liberty’s board of trustees subsequently announced it was hiring “one of the leading forensic firms in the world to conduct a thorough investigation” that will examine the school’s operations under Falwell, including financial and real estate matters. It declined to name the firm.
The outside investigation may not examine the 2001 and 2005deals that Falwell handled while he was a Liberty lawyer, however. Asked about those transactions, a Liberty spokesman said: “At this time, the forensic investigation is limited to Jerry Falwell’s term as president.”
After initially referring questions to his legal and public relations representatives, Falwell called Reuters late Wednesday afternoon and said he looked forward to the Liberty investigation. “I welcome it because it will prove that all you guys are liars,” he said, referring to members of the media. “You got nothing.”
He also warned Reuters not to question his two adult sons, both of whom still have jobs at Liberty. “Trust me,” Falwell said during the call, “you do not want to mess with me, OK?”
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Liberty employed a private firm - JF Management - formed by Jerry “Trey” Falwell III, Falwell’s elder son, to manage university properties. The company received more than $58,000 in compensation in 2017, according to the school’s most recent public filing of tax form 990 with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Trey Falwell also serves as a Liberty vice president, with total compensation from the university of $189,000 a year,according to the tax filings.
Falwell’s other son, Wesley, drew compensation in 2017 from Liberty of $54,744, the filings show. Laura Falwell, Wesley’s wife, earned $57,751 that year from Liberty, and Sarah Falwell, Trey’s wife, earned $63,315.
None of the Falwell children or their spouses could be reached for comment. In a statement released by Falwell’s lawyer, Falwell said: “Trey, Wesley, and their spouses get paid fair value for their work and have performed that work very well.”
A school spokesman told Reuters that examining the Falwell family’s dealings with Liberty is “within the scope of the forensic investigation.”
Company insiders - in this case, Jerry Falwell - aren’t legally barred from conducting personal business transactions with the nonprofits they run, such as those identified by Reuters. But some governance specialists say such deals can raise concern about conflicts of interest or potential breaches of fiduciary duty. Nonprofit entities, such as Liberty and most other universities, are meant to serve charitable, educational or religious interests. Under tax laws, their proceeds cannot be used for the private benefit of individuals.
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Eric Chafee, a law professor at the University of Toledo in Ohio, said Falwell’s real estate deals predating his presidency are worthy of further scrutiny. “These sweetheart land transactions are certainly eyebrow-raising,” he said.
The tax-exempt Liberty relies on hundreds of millions of dollars in Pell grants and government-backed student loans.Liberty students received $618 million in federal taxpayer loans and aid in a single year, according to a 2018 audit report.
QUESTIONABLE CONDUCT
The allegations of a sexual affair were the latest in a string of personal disclosures about Falwell. Weeks earlier, he had posted a photo of himself on Instagram with his pants unzipped and his belly exposed, his arm around a pregnant woman.Falwell said it was meant as a joke; even so, he took an indefinite leave of absence from Liberty not long after.
A Liberty spokesman said “no determination has been made”about whether the investigation will examine the personal conduct of either Jerry or Becki Falwell. But the spokesman said the school “will investigate any allegations that fall within its Title IX policies prohibiting sexual discrimination and sexual harassment and its Human Resource policies addressing sexual misconduct, as well.”
Initially, the examination appears to be focused more on business dealings, however.
As Liberty University president, Falwell oversaw a dramatic growth in the school’s revenues, due in part to the popularity of its distance learning programs. In 2018, its assets topped$2.8 billion.
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He also presided over a $1 billion construction spree at its Lynchburg, Virginia, campus, adding new buildings that included a library, dorms and a gleaming sports arena that was scheduled to open this year.
Central to the campus construction boom has been a long-timeFalwell friend, Robert Moon. In 2013, Moon formed a company called Construction Management Associates, or CMA - with the help of a $750,000 start-up loan from Liberty. CMA was then tapped to manage huge portions of the campus building spree. The university’s most recent public 990 filing shows CMA received more than $64 million in revenue from Liberty during 2017.
Moon’s business has also been a “substantial contributor” tothe university, making gifts to Liberty, the 990 filings show.
Asked last year about CMA’s growing business with Liberty, Moon told Reuters that “using a trusted construction manager as the owner’s agent is a method being employed at lots of campuses to complete major projects.” He said that CMA had helped save Liberty “millions,” that the company had repaid its Liberty loan with interest, and that CMA’s revenues are largely “passed through the trade contractors for their labor, materials, equipment and supplies.”
A Liberty spokesman said the construction activities and contracts in which Falwell was involved, including the role of CMA, is “within the scope of the forensic investigation.”
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EARLY DEALS
A Reuters examination of land records revealed that companies personally founded by Falwell cut property deals with one of the many nonprofits affiliated with the university as early as 2001. Falwell orchestrated those deals even as he was aLiberty official and a trustee for the nonprofit from which his companies bought the land, the Liberty Broadcasting Network.
The television network, LBN for short, carried sermons of Falwell’s father, the Rev. Jerry Falwell. It also promoted Liberty University, operated from the school’s campus, and offered Christian family-oriented programming. But LBN, a university affiliate, wasn’t particularly successful and required loans from Liberty to stay afloat.
LBN owned properties in the area, and Jerry Falwell Jr was a trustee for those holdings. When LBN began to sell its assets, at least two of the properties ended up in deals involvingFalwell, Reuters found.
One was a 1.4 acre vacant lot just across the highway from Liberty’s campus, at 3920 Wards Road. In April 2001, LBN sold the lot for $327,000 to a newly founded limited liability company. The purchaser, Gateway Country Plaza LLC, operated from a Liberty University building, corporate registration records show, but Gateway didn’t belong to the school. Rather, it was a for-profit real estate holding firm and was partially owned by Falwell himself. Falwell signed as “member/manager” on its financial documents.
Once the Falwell-led firm owned the property, it erected a building there at an estimated cost of $153,000, according to a city permit. By 2002, the vacant lot had become a strip mall.
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After the shopping strip was developed - with further investment by Falwell’s company - the property value soared. By2006, Falwell sold the property for $2.7 million, more than eight-fold what his company had paid for the undeveloped tract five years earlier.
In statements to Reuters last year, Falwell defended the deal, arguing that LBN lacked the money or expertise to develop the land itself. He said his company “paid fair market for this property” and invested $1.7 million to build the mall. He did not provide documentation for this figure.
In 2005, Falwell engineered another deal involvingLiberty-owned land and a separate private entity he controlled, called Eastern Heights LLC, according to records filed in Lynchburg City Court. Eastern held land next to a parcel owned by LBN. Railroad tracks separate the land from Liberty’s campus.
Eastern and LBN together sold the parcels for $1 million.Falwell signed the deed of sale on behalf of Eastern, property records show.
The buyer: Swift Creek Capitol, a company controlled by Chris Doyle, a friend and business partner of Falwell. Doyle has brokered or co-invested with Falwell in several private property ventures.
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Falwell was involved in various sides of the Swift Creek transaction. He wrote up the deed itself, as “Jerry L Falwell Jr, Attorney-at-Law.” He signed the deed he created, listing himself as Manager of Eastern Heights LLC. He was an owner of Eastern Heights, the for-profit co-seller. And he also was in private business with Doyle, the buyer. In addition to investing in property with Falwell, Doyle has also worked as a real estate broker for Liberty University, where Falwell oversaw the property holdings.
In a statement to Reuters, Doyle said he is honored to have worked with the Falwells. “My business dealings and personal relationships are private matters,” he said.
In another matter that linked Liberty business withFalwell’s own, the university spent millions on a project that connected the campus to a nearby shopping plaza.
In January 2012, school president Falwell announced that anew pedestrian tunnel, paid for by Liberty, would let students and staff leave the campus from another exit. The tunnel cost the school around $2.2 million, a Liberty official told the local newspaper - a figure confirmed by a person familiar with the project. The tunnel runs beneath railroad tracks that made it perilous to cross from campus to the stores.
Falwell and his business partner Doyle owned part of the shopping plaza near where the tunnel exits.
In a statement to Reuters last year, Falwell said the tunnel helps ensure the safety of students who otherwise had to cross railroad tracks to get to the shopping area. It was “the only workable” location for the tunnel, Falwell said.
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Moreover, he said, the pedestrian tunnel did not help the shopping plaza but hurt it. The reason, Falwell explained: Students would sometimes park at the mall and clutter the area.
A Liberty spokesman told Reuters that the university knew about Falwell’s ownership interest before the tunnel project was launched. The school has said the tunnel offers “easy and safe access to restaurants and stores along the busiest corridor in the City of Lynchburg.”
Chafee, the professor at the University of Toledo, said that, given the nature of Falwell’s presidency at Liberty, the school’s investigation should examine deals like these.
“There was so much control and domination by Falwell in regard to the transactions that were undertaken,” Chafee said.
(Reporting by Aram Roston and Joshua Schneyer. Edited by BlakeMorrison.)


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-04--The 2020 Election Has Officially Begun

The 2020 Election Has Officially Begun

The 2020 general election started Friday as North Carolina began sending voters absentee ballots to choose between President Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Joe Biden and to vote in a critical U.S. Senate race , a gubernatorial contest and a slew of congressional and state legislative contests .
North Carolina election officials will send out 643,400 absentee ballots .
That number represents an unprecedented increase in absentee ballot requests , up from just 38,871 at the same point in the 2016 election cycle .
The surge is a result of the still uncontrolled spread of the novel coronavirus , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in March and has killed at least 180,000 Americans .
It ’ s important that voters will cast their ballots two months out from the election because Trump and his Republican Party are currently struggling in the polls .
In North Carolina , Biden led Trump by 2 percentage points in a Monmouth University poll and by 4 percentage points in a Fox News poll , both released on Thursday .
The Fox News poll also found Sen. Thom Tillis ( R-N.C. ) trailing Democratic candidate Cal Cunningham .
( Polls measure only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a prediction of the future , but they can tell us how voters feel right now ― just as voting starts . )
Friday was the first day of the final two months of a bizarre election cycle taking place during a deadly pandemic that has delayed or dramatically reduced most normal in-person campaigning , including large rallies and door-knocking .
It is also an election the president of the United States has explicitly attempted to undermine at every turn .
A load of absentee ballots is loaded onto a truck for mailing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in North Carolina Thursday .
“ It is illegal to vote twice in an election , ” said Karen Brinson , executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections , in a statement Thursday after Trump told his supporters to do just that .
Trump ’ s arguments against absentee voting appear to be working to his detriment .
In North Carolina , Republicans were far less likely to request absentee ballots than Democrats .
Registered Democrats requested 337,362 absentee ballots as of Friday , while registered Republicans requested just 103,620 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Independent voters requested 200,359 ballots .
North Carolina is the first state to send out absentee ballots for the 2020 general election , but more will follow soon .
Voters in Kentucky will begin to receive their requested absentee ballots on Sept. 14 .
That same week , voters in 19 states will start to receive theirs , including those in Alabama , Arkansas , Delaware , Georgia , Idaho , Indiana , Louisiana , Minnesota , New Jersey , Oklahoma , Pennsylvania , Rhode Island , South Dakota , Tennessee , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wisconsin and Wyoming .

LOADING ERROR LOADING
The 2020 general election started Friday as North Carolina began sending voters absentee ballots to choose between President Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Joe Biden and to vote in a critical U.S. Senate race, a gubernatorial contest and a slew of congressional and state legislative contests.
North Carolina election officials will send out 643,400 absentee ballots. That number represents an unprecedented increase in absentee ballot requests, up from just 38,871 at the same point in the 2016 election cycle.
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The surge is a result of the still uncontrolled spread of the novel coronavirus, the once-in-a-century pandemic that prompted a nationwide shutdown in March and has killed at least 180,000 Americans.
It’s important that voters will cast their ballots two months out from the election because Trump and his Republican Party are currently struggling in the polls.
In North Carolina, Biden led Trump by 2 percentage points in a Monmouth University poll and by 4 percentage points in a Fox News poll, both released on Thursday. The Fox News poll also found Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) trailing Democratic candidate Cal Cunningham. (Polls measure only a snapshot in time and are not a prediction of the future, but they can tell us how voters feel right now ― just as voting starts.)
Friday was the first day of the final two months of a bizarre election cycle taking place during a deadly pandemic that has delayed or dramatically reduced most normal in-person campaigning, including large rallies and door-knocking.
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It is also an election the president of the United States has explicitly attempted to undermine at every turn.
A load of absentee ballots is loaded onto a truck for mailing at the Wake County Board of Elections in North Carolina Thursday. ASSOCIATED PRESS
“It is illegal to vote twice in an election,” said Karen Brinson, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, in a statement Thursday after Trump told his supporters to do just that.
Trump’s arguments against absentee voting appear to be working to his detriment. In North Carolina, Republicans were far less likely to request absentee ballots than Democrats. Registered Democrats requested 337,362 absentee ballots as of Friday, while registered Republicans requested just 103,620, according to the Board of Elections. Independent voters requested 200,359 ballots.
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North Carolina is the first state to send out absentee ballots for the 2020 general election, but more will follow soon.
Voters in Kentucky will begin to receive their requested absentee ballots on Sept. 14. That same week, voters in 19 states will start to receive theirs, including those in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-04--The Rediscovery of Ed Markey

The Rediscovery of Ed Markey

“ We are showing that there ’ s a reward .
If you move in the direction that young people are demanding , we are going to show up for you , ” Weber said .
“ He ’ s going to go back to the Senate and be an even better senator than he was before .
He ’ s going to have a strong mandate from the progressive movement.
” The support of the Sunrise Movement , and later the larger “ Markeyverse ” ― a collection of young activists who used social media to recruit volunteers and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ― would not have been enough to fend off Kennedy ’ s star power on their own .
But they were critical to helping Markey build a media narrative and a platform to reach out to the older suburban voters who put him over the top .
“ When you look at what ’ s going on around the country ― the AOC race , the Bowman race ― the factors that led to those incumbents losing , I thought those were present here in Massachusetts , ” said Doug Rubin , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before he dropped out of the race .
“ An outsider with a compelling story would ’ ve been the kind of candidate who had a chance against an incumbent like Markey.
” Meanwhile , Kennedy was slowly building a national political brand .
The grandson of an attorney general and the son of a congressman , he had spent much of the 2018 cycle as a sought-after campaign surrogate , able to raise money and appeal to older Catholic voters on behalf of Democratic candidates around the country .
But he also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In an interview before his loss on Tuesday , Kennedy said he originally turned down entreaties to run against Markey .
“ It was the last thing on my mind .
Some folks approached me in the early summer and said ‘ Hey , you should think about this race , ’ and I said ‘ No , why would I do that ?
I ’ m not interested , ’ ” he said .
“ Then some folks came back and said I should really take a look at this , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pointed to some issues with his records , and I thought about what this moment required and his lack of engagement.
” Markey retained the support of much of the Massachusetts political establishment , including an endorsement from Warren .
He had the backing of the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee , which would spend the legal limit of $ 580,000 in coordinated funds backing him .
And he had the support of the Sunrise Movement and Ocasio-Cortez , which would enable him to quickly counter Kennedy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support of younger generations .
In the eyes of Rubin , the Kennedy campaign failed to draw their most effective contrast : the idea that Kennedy would show up and connect to people who were hurting in a way that Markey , a veteran legislator , would not .
A late July story in the Boston Globe found Markey spent far less time in Massachusetts than the other members of the congressional delegation ― in 2017 , for instance , Markey spent just 77 nights in Massachusetts .
“ There was a treasure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” said Paul Bologna , the Markey campaign ’ s digital communications director and creative director .
“ I ’ m an incredibly attuned political person , but I had no idea about it .
I did not know that he was the son of a milkman .
I did not know he was an ice cream truck salesman .
And it resonated with me .
And I thought it would resonate with other people.
” Markey told his campaign staffers a story from the 1980 Democratic National Convention , when activists threatened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ congressman was given time to speak .
But finding footage of the 40-year-old address , which featured a call for solar energy investment and an end to foreign oil dependence , was easier said than done .
Staffers scoured everywhere , even calling Jimmy Carter ’ s presidential library in Georgia .
They eventually found it and used it to highlight Markey ’ s credentials as one of the earliest clean energy advocates in Congress .
Markey began wearing them everywhere , and needed to take them to what he dubbed an “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ primary .
“ They started to flap on me , ” Markey said in a phone interview before the primary , noting he had to try several different cobblers before finding one willing to fix the sneakers .
“ After 30 years for the same pair of sneakers , they do tend to get a little worn down , but they ’ re back in shape and I ’ m still getting like five miles every day.
” This transformation generated some eye rolls among Kennedy supporters , who scoffed at the idea @ @ @ @ @ @ @ icon .
Some pointed to the similarities between the record of Markey and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden , and noted many of the same activists who defended Markey at all costs were relentlessly attacking Biden only months earlier .
Both men voted for the Iraq War and for the 1990s crime law now blamed for supercharging mass incarceration .
Some Kennedy allies have suggested Markey essentially duped the left .
“ This goes to show you that the left doesn ’ t do their homework and they ’ re easily won over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anonymous figure told Politico on Wednesday .
But Weber , from the Sunrise Movement , said that many activists were aware of the black marks on the incumbent ’ s record , and ultimately decided his leadership on climate change was more important .
( Even before the Green New Deal , Markey had been a lead author of the only major climate change bill to ever pass a chamber of Congress . )

LOADING ERROR LOADING
The revitalization that would save Sen. Ed Markey’s reelection bid began in May 2019, three months before Rep. Joe Kennedy III entered the race and 450 miles south of Markey’s hometown of Malden, Massachusetts.
In a packed auditorium at Howard University, Markey addressed a crowd of young people who had come, if everyone involved was honest about it, to see a leading progressive presidential candidate and the most powerful millennial in American politics.
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“Ed Markey was supposedly the opening act of [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and Bernie Sanders, and Markey gave hands down the hottest speech of the night,” said Evan Weber, the political director of the Sunrise Movement, which had organized a multi-city tour to promote the Green New Deal, an ambitious plan co-authored by Ocasio-Cortez and Markey to spend trillions of dollars to address income inequality and battle climate change. “He just brought the house down.”
Speaking to a crowd of Howard students, Sunrise Movement activists and Democratic Socialist of America members, Markey criticized Republicans who called the Green New Deal “socialism.” The crowd cheered at the mention of the word, and Markey looked surprised.
“I saw something click in his eyes,” Weber said. That moment cemented a bond between Markey and the young climate activists who would power his campaign, encourage him to rediscover his insurgent roots, serve as the proof point for progressive power and, in Tuesday night’s primary election, ultimately deliver a seemingly impossible victory over one of the most powerful dynasties in Democratic politics.
“We are showing that there’s a reward. If you move in the direction that young people are demanding, we are going to show up for you,” Weber said. “He’s going to go back to the Senate and be an even better senator than he was before. He’s going to have a strong mandate from the progressive movement.”
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The support of the Sunrise Movement, and later the larger “Markeyverse” ― a collection of young activists who used social media to recruit volunteers and raise money for Markey’s campaign ― would not have been enough to fend off Kennedy’s star power on their own. But they were critical to helping Markey build a media narrative and a platform to reach out to the older suburban voters who put him over the top.
At the start of the 2020 election cycle, the then-72-year-old Markey was considered a prime target for a primary challenge. A white man who had spent much of his life in Washington, he resembled incumbents like New York Rep. Joe Crowley more than successful progressive insurgents like Ocasio-Cortez. A solid liberal with a low profile, he won a little-watched 2013 special election to make the leap to the Senate after 20 terms in the House of Representatives.
Polling indicated that Markey had little statewide profile, and much of the Massachusetts political class believed he was vulnerable to a primary challenge. In a sign of Markey’s stance in the political pecking order, it was Kennedy who was given the honor of introducing Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at her presidential campaign launch in February 2019, while Markey introduced Kennedy.
Even before Kennedy entered the race, corporate executive Steve Pemberton and labor lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan were challenging Markey. (Both would drop out not long after Kennedy entered the contest.)
“When you look at what’s going on around the country ― the AOC race, the Bowman race ― the factors that led to those incumbents losing, I thought those were present here in Massachusetts,” said Doug Rubin, a veteran Massachusetts political consultant who advised Pemberton before he dropped out of the race. “An outsider with a compelling story would’ve been the kind of candidate who had a chance against an incumbent like Markey.”
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Meanwhile, Kennedy was slowly building a national political brand. The grandson of an attorney general and the son of a congressman, he had spent much of the 2018 cycle as a sought-after campaign surrogate, able to raise money and appeal to older Catholic voters on behalf of Democratic candidates around the country. But he also had a reputation as a cautious politician. In an interview before his loss on Tuesday, Kennedy said he originally turned down entreaties to run against Markey.
“It was the last thing on my mind. Some folks approached me in the early summer and said ‘Hey, you should think about this race,’ and I said ‘No, why would I do that? I’m not interested,’” he said. “Then some folks came back and said I should really take a look at this, and they came back to me and pointed to some issues with his records, and I thought about what this moment required and his lack of engagement.”
Kennedy entered the race in September 2019, promising to upend “outdated structures and old rules.” Polling indicated he was a heavy favorite to defeat Markey. His advantages were marked: name identification, a national fundraising network and even a more robust online presence ― several of Kennedy’s speeches from the floor of the House had gone viral over the years.
Markey retained the support of much of the Massachusetts political establishment, including an endorsement from Warren. He had the backing of the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which would spend the legal limit of $580,000 in coordinated funds backing him. And he had the support of the Sunrise Movement and Ocasio-Cortez, which would enable him to quickly counter Kennedy’s narrative that he had the support of younger generations.
By taking away Kennedy’s claim to youthful enthusiasm, Sunrise deprived him of a reason to run and made it difficult for him to explain to Democratic primary voters why they should fire an incumbent. Throughout the race, journalists dogged him for a satisfactory answer. In the waning weeks of the race, Kennedy eventually settled on a pitch focused on racial justice, but momentum was firmly in Markey’s corner by then.
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In the eyes of Rubin, the Kennedy campaign failed to draw their most effective contrast: the idea that Kennedy would show up and connect to people who were hurting in a way that Markey, a veteran legislator, would not. A late July story in the Boston Globe found Markey spent far less time in Massachusetts than the other members of the congressional delegation ― in 2017, for instance, Markey spent just 77 nights in Massachusetts.
“The whole idea of Kennedy showing up when there are no cameras and really connecting with people versus. the idea of Markey as a legislator who spent all of his time in D.C. was effective,” Rubin said. “But the Kennedy people never really played that angle.”
The Kennedy campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the subject.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the Sunrise Movement met with Markey campaign manager John Walsh in early November to plot strategy. A key element was rediscovering the earliest days of Markey’s career, when he was more of a progressive insurgent, and melding that with the stories of his effectiveness as a legislator and his working-class background.
“There was a treasure trove here of Ed Markey stories,” said Paul Bologna, the Markey campaign’s digital communications director and creative director. “I’m an incredibly attuned political person, but I had no idea about it. I did not know that he was the son of a milkman. I did not know he was an ice cream truck salesman. And it resonated with me. And I thought it would resonate with other people.”
Markey told his campaign staffers a story from the 1980 Democratic National Convention, when activists threatened to disrupt the proceedings unless the then-35-year-old congressman was given time to speak. But finding footage of the 40-year-old address, which featured a call for solar energy investment and an end to foreign oil dependence, was easier said than done. Staffers scoured everywhere, even calling Jimmy Carter’s presidential library in Georgia. They eventually found it and used it to highlight Markey’s credentials as one of the earliest clean energy advocates in Congress.
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Other moments were serendipitous. Markey was standing outside his home in Malden, wearing an old pair of sneakers, a green bomber jacket and a face mask when a campaign staffer snapped a candid picture that went viral. The sneakers ― a 30-year-old pair of red and white Nike Air Revolutions ― became a symbol of Markey’s transformation into a Gen Z icon.
Markey began wearing them everywhere, and needed to take them to what he dubbed an “Air Revolution hospital” shortly before the primary. “They started to flap on me,” Markey said in a phone interview before the primary, noting he had to try several different cobblers before finding one willing to fix the sneakers. “After 30 years for the same pair of sneakers, they do tend to get a little worn down, but they’re back in shape and I’m still getting like five miles every day.”
This transformation generated some eye rolls among Kennedy supporters, who scoffed at the idea that Markey should be considered a progressive icon. Some pointed to the similarities between the record of Markey and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, and noted many of the same activists who defended Markey at all costs were relentlessly attacking Biden only months earlier. Both men voted for the Iraq War and for the 1990s crime law now blamed for supercharging mass incarceration.
Some Kennedy allies have suggested Markey essentially duped the left. “This goes to show you that the left doesn’t do their homework and they’re easily won over by bright shiny objects,” one anonymous figure told Politico on Wednesday. But Weber, from the Sunrise Movement, said that many activists were aware of the black marks on the incumbent’s record, and ultimately decided his leadership on climate change was more important. (Even before the Green New Deal, Markey had been a lead author of the only major climate change bill to ever pass a chamber of Congress.)
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“Has he voted perfectly on everything? No,” Weber said. “But he’s often led and stood aside important social movements.”
Of course, winning over the votes of climate activists wouldn’t be enough for Markey to beat Kennedy. Many of the suburban towns where Markey racked up huge margins ― places like Lexington, Waltham and Acton ― are not exactly filled with college-age voters.
Bologna noted that many of the campaign’s videos, especially on Facebook, were aimed at an older demographic. Videos of baby boomer celebrities Carole King and Harry Belafonte delivering endorsements of Markey, for instance, were viewed thousands of times.
By the metric of Markey’s television ads, however, the most crucial endorsement came from the editorial board of the Boston Globe, the state’s largest newspaper. One of the campaign’s 30-second spots, entitled “Think Bigger,” spent almost the entirety of its runtime directly quoting the paper’s endorsements. It aired nearly 1,900 times on broadcast television in the state, according to a Democrat tracking media buys ― the most of any Markey campaign spot.
Another ad, featuring Ocasio-Cortez, emphasized Markey’s progressive credentials and aired 1,300 times. A third, which included the endorsement of Warren mixed in with testimonials from regular people about Markey’s veteran leadership, aired nearly 900 times.
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In the end, the race was not especially close. While Kennedy was able to win large chunks of his old congressional district, along with some rural areas in central Massachusetts and smaller working-class cities, Markey won Boston and dominated in most of its suburbs, even triumphing in Kennedy’s hometown of Newton. He earned 56% of the vote to Kennedy’s 44%.
On election night, Markey left no doubt as to whom he owed his victory.
“Our movement is fueled by young people who are not afraid to raise their voices or make enemies,” he said. “Tonight’s victory is a tribute to those young people and to their vision. They will save us if we trust them.”
It certainly worked out for Markey.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-09-04--Over 93% Of Protests This Summer Were Peaceful, Report Finds

The overwhelming majority of demonstrations this summer were peaceful , according to a new report , which also warns that the upcoming election and President Donald Trump ’ s incendiary rhetoric — which has placed an outsized focus on the relatively few violent protests — could plunge the country into further crisis .
The report , published Thursday , is from the U.S. Crisis Monitor , a collaboration between the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project ( ACLED ) and Princeton University ’ s Bridging Divides Initiative , which collects and analyzes real-time data on protest movements , using @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sources .
“ These data reveal that the United States is in crisis .
It faces a multitude of concurrent , overlapping risks — from police abuse and racial injustice , to pandemic-related unrest and beyond — all exacerbated by increasing polarization , ” the researchers wrote , warning that “ these intersecting risks are likely to intensify ” as the November election draws closer .
The report covers data gathered on protests between May 24 , the day before police in Minneapolis killed George Floyd , and Aug. 22 .
During that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10,600 demonstration events across the country , with more than 7,750 of them related to the Black Lives Matter movement .
The protests peaked in late May and early June , and while they have leveled off since , activists in many places across the country continue to hold largely peaceful demonstrations every day .
The overwhelming majority of the protests — more than 10,100 — involved peaceful protesters , the researchers found .
In only about 5 % , or under 570 of the protests , did participants engage in violence .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ associated with the BLM movement are non-violent , ” the researchers wrote .
“ In more than 93 % of all demonstrations connected to the movement , demonstrators have not engaged in violence or destructive activity.
” In the protests that became violent , they either involved state-sanctioned violence , such as violent intervention from local , state or federal authorities , or counterprotesters from extremist groups .
The police or military “ disproportionately used force while intervening in demonstrations associated with the BLM movement , relative to other types of demonstrations , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their data , in nearly 10 % of BLM protests recorded this summer , police violently intervened by deploying tear gas , rubber bullets and/or pepper spray , as well as assaulting protesters with batons .
During this period , the researchers also found an uptick in “ government violence against journalists , ” collecting over 100 separate incidents in at least 31 states and the District of Columbia .
As for why public opinion polling suggests that people think a disproportionate number of the protests were violent when in fact they were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to respondents ’ existing political views , media coverage of violent protests and disinformation campaigns on social media .
The report stresses the gravity of the situation , as the sources of this uprising — from racial inequities , to continued police violence , and of course , the COVID-19 pandemic — are continuing .
It warns that the upcoming election and Trump ’ s consistent attempts to sow discord and cast doubt on the election results will exacerbate these forces , citing “ multiple steps to inflame these tensions ” from Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much of his re-election campaign about “ law and order , ” with an outsized focus on the relatively few violent protests , racist appeals to white voters and false conspiracy theories about voting by mail .
“ In this hyper-polarized environment , state forces are taking a more heavy-handed approach to dissent , non-state actors are becoming more active and assertive , and counter-demonstrators are looking to resolve their political disputes in the street , ” the researchers wrote .
“ Without significant mitigation efforts , these risks will continue to intensify @ @ @ @ @ @ @ threatening to boil over in November if election results are delayed , inconclusive , or rejected as fraudulent .
”

LOADING ERROR LOADING
The overwhelming majority of demonstrations this summer were peaceful, according to a new report, which also warns that the upcoming election and President Donald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric — which has placed an outsized focus on the relatively few violent protests — could plunge the country into further crisis.
The report, published Thursday, is from the U.S. Crisis Monitor, a collaboration between the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) and Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative, which collects and analyzes real-time data on protest movements, using news reports, social media and other sources.
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“These data reveal that the United States is in crisis. It faces a multitude of concurrent, overlapping risks — from police abuse and racial injustice, to pandemic-related unrest and beyond — all exacerbated by increasing polarization,” the researchers wrote, warning that “these intersecting risks are likely to intensify” as the November election draws closer.
The report covers data gathered on protests between May 24, the day before police in Minneapolis killed George Floyd, and Aug. 22. During that period, the researchers collected more than 10,600 demonstration events across the country, with more than 7,750 of them related to the Black Lives Matter movement. The protests peaked in late May and early June, and while they have leveled off since, activists in many places across the country continue to hold largely peaceful demonstrations every day.
The overwhelming majority of the protests — more than 10,100 — involved peaceful protesters, the researchers found. In only about 5%, or under 570 of the protests, did participants engage in violence.
“The vast majority of demonstration events associated with the BLM movement are non-violent,” the researchers wrote. “In more than 93% of all demonstrations connected to the movement, demonstrators have not engaged in violence or destructive activity.”
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In the protests that became violent, they either involved state-sanctioned violence, such as violent intervention from local, state or federal authorities, or counterprotesters from extremist groups. The police or military “disproportionately used force while intervening in demonstrations associated with the BLM movement, relative to other types of demonstrations,” the researchers found. According to their data, in nearly 10% of BLM protests recorded this summer, police violently intervened by deploying tear gas, rubber bullets and/or pepper spray, as well as assaulting protesters with batons.
During this period, the researchers also found an uptick in “government violence against journalists,” collecting over 100 separate incidents in at least 31 states and the District of Columbia.
As for why public opinion polling suggests that people think a disproportionate number of the protests were violent when in fact they were not, the report attributes those perceptions to respondents’ existing political views, media coverage of violent protests and disinformation campaigns on social media.
The report stresses the gravity of the situation, as the sources of this uprising — from racial inequities, to continued police violence, and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic — are continuing. It warns that the upcoming election and Trump’s consistent attempts to sow discord and cast doubt on the election results will exacerbate these forces, citing “multiple steps to inflame these tensions” from Trump and his administration.
Trump has made much of his re-election campaign about “law and order,” with an outsized focus on the relatively few violent protests, racist appeals to white voters and false conspiracy theories about voting by mail.
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“In this hyper-polarized environment, state forces are taking a more heavy-handed approach to dissent, non-state actors are becoming more active and assertive, and counter-demonstrators are looking to resolve their political disputes in the street,” the researchers wrote. “Without significant mitigation efforts, these risks will continue to intensify in the lead-up to the vote, threatening to boil over in November if election results are delayed, inconclusive, or rejected as fraudulent.”