theguardian--2020-11-15--Trump will cast a long shadow over Republican party despite defeat

For Republican leaders it was , perhaps , the worst of all possible worlds .
A victory for Donald Trump in the US presidential election would have preserved their power .
A landslide defeat might have eviscerated Trumpism and finally broken the spell , giving them leverage to steer the party in a new direction .
But neither of these scenarios happened .
Trump gained more than 72m votes , beating his 2016 total and every presidential candidate in history other than his opponent , Democrat Joe Biden , who topped 77m to clinch the White House .
It was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had hoped for .
It leaves the 74-year-old soon-to-be ex-president intact as the dominant figure in his party , an albatross around the neck of every Republican .
There has been no better illustration than their awkward complicity with Trump ’ s refusal to accept the election result .
“ No doubt his hold over the Republican party will be stronger next year than it is this year , ” said Joe Walsh , a former Republican congressman from Illinois .
“ Biden won but Trump won too because he gets to keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from him .
As long as he gets to say that , all of his supporters will believe him and then the Republican party will be beholden to him.
” A brash businessman and reality TV star , Trump staged a hostile takeover of the party of Abraham Lincoln , Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan in 2016 , knocking out 16 major candidates in the primaries in what amounted to a fierce rebuke of the Republican establishment .
It was widely assumed he would then be demolished by the vastly more experienced Hillary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ narrow victory in the electoral college .
Despite a four-year presidency of extraordinary turbulence , regarded by critics as a deadly combination of incompetence and malevolence , Trump continued to reshape the party in his own image .
He also proved a formidable election campaigner with an onslaught of rallies where his “ America first ” positions on trade , immigration and foreign policy resonated with his base .
He outperformed opinion polls for a second time and gained among Latino and Black voters , according to early exit poll data .
Many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ once-in-a-century pandemic and the economic havoc it wreaked , Trump would have been re-elected .
The party also won seats in the House of Representatives and , depending on two runoffs in Georgia in January , is favored to retain control of the Senate , confounding predictions that Trump would drag it down .
Walsh , who unsuccessfully challenged the president in this year ’ s Republican primary , believes Trump will continue to loom large .
“ Trump got his people out and they ’ re more devoted to him now than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said .
“ It means that Trump and Trumpism dominate the party , period .
This cemented the deal that the Republican party is his .
“ He will make life miserable for the party for the next four years .
He ’ ll put out a word that he might want to run in 2024 , so he ’ ll freeze all the other candidates who might want to run for president .
If Trump doesn ’ t run , he will be the kingmaker .
Whoever runs is going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be somebody who will be Trump-like who will carry that banner.
” Walsh added : “ It ’ s all going to be his show again for four years and there ’ s not a damn thing the Republican party can do about it because they let him do his thing.
” The Republican party surfed a populist wave set in motion by Tea Party rebels a decade ago but Trump shifted the emphasis from free trade and trickle-down economics to trade wars and an isolationist foreign policy .
It now appears @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with demagoguery and defiance of political correctness , science and truth – will remain a force in American political life .
Spurred by conservative talk radio , TV and the web , it could take on an even more lurid and conspiratorial form in opposition .
Nine in 10 Republicans still approve of the job Trump is doing as president , according to Gallup .
In the absence of an obvious heir apparent , he remains the de facto head of the party and its future depends greatly on his next move after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could retire to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and play golf .
He could cash in on his millions of followers – 89 million on Twitter alone – by launching his own TV network .
He could remain a constant thorn in Biden ’ s side , lobbing insults from afar with a view to a rematch in 2024 ; one of Trump ’ s books is entitled The Art of the Comeback .
Mick Mulvaney , a former White House chief of staff under Trump , told the Institute of International & @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I would absolutely expect the president to stay involved in politics .
I would absolutely put him on the shortlist of people who are likely to run in 2024.
” But Trump could be knocked off course by numerous federal and state court cases .
He is facing lawsuits that accuse him of sexual assault and defamation , and the Trump Organization ’ s finances are being investigated by New York ’ s attorney general .
Although Trump surpassed electoral expectations , defeat is defeat .
A reckoning for the Republican party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trumpers ” urging a fresh start .
The party ’ s white Christian conservative base continues to shrink , adding pressure to diversify its voter base .
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida , defeated by Trump in 2016 and a potential contender in 2024 , told the Axios website this week : “ The future of the party is based on a multiethnic , multiracial working-class coalition.
” Lanhee Chen , policy director for Mitt Romney ’ s 2012 presidential campaign and an adviser to Rubio in 2016 , said : “ My @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the idea of Trumpism , fractures a little bit in the sense that Trump himself may be gone from the actual electoral landscape but there are elements of his policy agenda , for example his protectionist trade agenda and more aggressive stance toward China , that remain as lasting influences and get picked up by various other people .
“ There ’ s also elements of the attitude and the style that some will try to pick up .
I wonder , though , how successful people will be .
What I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to adopt Trumpist mannerisms or Trumpist attitudes on the campaign trail , it doesn ’ t tend to work out for them so well .
Some of this is really unique to Donald Trump so I hesitate to to say that Trumpism will have a long-term impact.
” Even as Trump continues to baselessly deny the 2020 result , earning comparisons with past autocrats such as Zimbabwe ’ s Robert Mugabe , the race for the 2024 Republican nomination is quietly getting under way .
Potential contenders range from the Maryland governor and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nikki Haley to Trump ’ s own son , Don Jr .
The Texas senator Ted Cruz , the Missouri senator Josh Hawley and the Florida governor , Ron DeSantis , have been prominent on Fox News defending Trump ’ s bogus claims of election rigging – a hint that they want to remain in his future good graces .
But all bets are off if Trump himself decides to run .
Chen , a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto , California , added : “ Political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who are humouring him today may not have as much patience when their own political careers are at stake .
“ People who are running in 2024 won ’ t necessarily have the patience to sit around and watch Trump be coronated again as nominee of the Republican party .
They ’ re going to be much more assertive in addressing Trump and who he is if they ’ re running against him .
”

Sign up for the Guardian’s First Thing newsletter
For Republican leaders it was, perhaps, the worst of all possible worlds.
A victory for Donald Trump in the US presidential election would have preserved their power. A landslide defeat might have eviscerated Trumpism and finally broken the spell, giving them leverage to steer the party in a new direction.
But neither of these scenarios happened. Trump gained more than 72m votes, beating his 2016 total and every presidential candidate in history other than his opponent, Democrat Joe Biden, who topped 77m to clinch the White House.
It was hardly the repudiation of Trumpism that many had hoped for. It leaves the 74-year-old soon-to-be ex-president intact as the dominant figure in his party, an albatross around the neck of every Republican. There has been no better illustration than their awkward complicity with Trump’s refusal to accept the election result.
“No doubt his hold over the Republican party will be stronger next year than it is this year,” said Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman from Illinois. “Biden won but Trump won too because he gets to keep his lie that this election was stolen from him. As long as he gets to say that, all of his supporters will believe him and then the Republican party will be beholden to him.”
A brash businessman and reality TV star, Trump staged a hostile takeover of the party of Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan in 2016, knocking out 16 major candidates in the primaries in what amounted to a fierce rebuke of the Republican establishment. It was widely assumed he would then be demolished by the vastly more experienced Hillary Clinton, yet he pulled off a narrow victory in the electoral college.
Supporters of President Donald Trump protest in front of the Clark county election department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, on 6 November. Photograph: John Locher/AP
Despite a four-year presidency of extraordinary turbulence, regarded by critics as a deadly combination of incompetence and malevolence, Trump continued to reshape the party in his own image. He also proved a formidable election campaigner with an onslaught of rallies where his “America first” positions on trade, immigration and foreign policy resonated with his base.
He outperformed opinion polls for a second time and gained among Latino and Black voters, according to early exit poll data. Many Republicans believe that, but for a once-in-a-century pandemic and the economic havoc it wreaked, Trump would have been re-elected. The party also won seats in the House of Representatives and, depending on two runoffs in Georgia in January, is favored to retain control of the Senate, confounding predictions that Trump would drag it down.
He will make life miserable for the party for the next four years Joe Walsh
Walsh, who unsuccessfully challenged the president in this year’s Republican primary, believes Trump will continue to loom large. “Trump got his people out and they’re more devoted to him now than they were before the election,” he said. “It means that Trump and Trumpism dominate the party, period. This cemented the deal that the Republican party is his.
“He will make life miserable for the party for the next four years. He’ll put out a word that he might want to run in 2024, so he’ll freeze all the other candidates who might want to run for president. If Trump doesn’t run, he will be the kingmaker. Whoever runs is going to have to kiss his ring and it will be somebody who will be Trump-like who will carry that banner.”
Walsh added: “It’s all going to be his show again for four years and there’s not a damn thing the Republican party can do about it because they let him do his thing.”
The Republican party surfed a populist wave set in motion by Tea Party rebels a decade ago but Trump shifted the emphasis from free trade and trickle-down economics to trade wars and an isolationist foreign policy.
Supporters of Donald Trump turn out in Philadelphia on 7 November. Photograph: John Minchillo/AP
It now appears that Trumpism – a nativist populism infused with demagoguery and defiance of political correctness, science and truth – will remain a force in American political life. Spurred by conservative talk radio, TV and the web, it could take on an even more lurid and conspiratorial form in opposition.
Nine in 10 Republicans still approve of the job Trump is doing as president, according to Gallup. In the absence of an obvious heir apparent, he remains the de facto head of the party and its future depends greatly on his next move after inauguration day on 20 January.
I would absolutely put him on the shortlist of people who are likely to run in 2024 Mick Mulvaney
Trump could retire to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and play golf. He could cash in on his millions of followers – 89 million on Twitter alone – by launching his own TV network. He could remain a constant thorn in Biden’s side, lobbing insults from afar with a view to a rematch in 2024; one of Trump’s books is entitled The Art of the Comeback.
Mick Mulvaney, a former White House chief of staff under Trump, told the Institute of International & European Affairs in an online interview: “I would absolutely expect the president to stay involved in politics. I would absolutely put him on the shortlist of people who are likely to run in 2024.”
But Trump could be knocked off course by numerous federal and state court cases. He is facing lawsuits that accuse him of sexual assault and defamation, and the Trump Organization’s finances are being investigated by New York’s attorney general.
Senator Marco Rubio: ‘The future of the party is based on a multiethnic, multiracial working-class coalition.’ Photograph: Erin Scott/EPA
Although Trump surpassed electoral expectations, defeat is defeat. A reckoning for the Republican party is inevitable with moderates and “Never Trumpers” urging a fresh start. The party’s white Christian conservative base continues to shrink, adding pressure to diversify its voter base. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, defeated by Trump in 2016 and a potential contender in 2024, told the Axios website this week: “The future of the party is based on a multiethnic, multiracial working-class coalition.”
Lanhee Chen, policy director for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign and an adviser to Rubio in 2016, said: “My best guess is that the movement, the idea of Trumpism, fractures a little bit in the sense that Trump himself may be gone from the actual electoral landscape but there are elements of his policy agenda, for example his protectionist trade agenda and more aggressive stance toward China, that remain as lasting influences and get picked up by various other people.
“There’s also elements of the attitude and the style that some will try to pick up. I wonder, though, how successful people will be. What I’ve observed is when other candidates try to adopt Trumpist mannerisms or Trumpist attitudes on the campaign trail, it doesn’t tend to work out for them so well. Some of this is really unique to Donald Trump so I hesitate to to say that Trumpism will have a long-term impact.”
People who are humouring him today may not have as much patience when their own political careers are at stake Lanhee Chen
Even as Trump continues to baselessly deny the 2020 result, earning comparisons with past autocrats such as Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, the race for the 2024 Republican nomination is quietly getting under way. Potential contenders range from the Maryland governor and moderate Larry Hogan to former Trump official Nikki Haley to Trump’s own son, Don Jr.
The Texas senator Ted Cruz, the Missouri senator Josh Hawley and the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, have been prominent on Fox News defending Trump’s bogus claims of election rigging – a hint that they want to remain in his future good graces. But all bets are off if Trump himself decides to run.
Chen, a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, added: “Political ambition is a funny thing and those people who are humouring him today may not have as much patience when their own political careers are at stake.
“People who are running in 2024 won’t necessarily have the patience to sit around and watch Trump be coronated again as nominee of the Republican party. They’re going to be much more assertive in addressing Trump and who he is if they’re running against him.”


theguardian--2020-11-15--‘Walked a fine line’: how Fox News found itself in an existential crisis

It was about 11.20pm on election night when Fox News made the call .
The Democratic candidate had clinched a key swing state , a win that could set them on a path to be president of the United States .
In the Fox News studio , Karl Rove , conservative panelist and longtime Republican strategist , was apoplectic .
Around the country , Republican supporters were bereft .
Fox News launched an immediate inquisition into its own decision , but the network stood by the call .
Barack Obama had won Ohio , defeating Mitt Romney .
Obama would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the second time , on 20 January 2013 .
Fast forward eight years , and Fox News found itself in a strikingly similar position on 3 November 2020 .
The rightwing news channel was the first to call Arizona , which has gone blue once in the past 72 years , for Joe Biden .
Donald Trump and his campaign were furious , barraging the network with a series of phone calls in an attempt to get the decision overturned .
The president ’ s supporters were upset too .
At protests outside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Arizona , a crowd chanted : “ Fox News sucks !
” , turning their ire on a channel whose hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity have spent the past four years praising Trump ’ s almost every move or utterance .
Now , in the tumultuous week following that Arizona call , Fox News , the most-watched cable news channel in America , has found itself in a sort of existential crisis .
Trump remains furious .
On Wednesday he posted a series of messages on Twitter criticizing Fox News , even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s flurry of fury , he then went on to direct people to Sean Hannity ’ s Fox News show .
The reality is that the inconsistency from the president is matched by Fox News ’ content right now , which swings from relatively straight news to the outrageous .
Depending on which anchor is on air , the network has either rubbished , or backed to the hilt , Trump ’ s unfounded claims of election fraud , while the perceived lack of constant support for the president has viewers claiming they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Fox News has always walked a fine line between trying to look like an independent news organization and supporting conservative politics , ” said Eric Deggans , TV critic for NPR and media analyst for NBC News and MSNBC .
“ There have to be moments where they act like an actual news organization in order to maintain their veneer of being an independent news organization.
” The channel has not hit on a seamless way to maintain that balance .
On-screen on Fox News , the days since the election have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fantasy .
In the middle of the day , more traditional journalists rule .
On Monday , the channel cut away from a press conference by the White House press secretary , Kayleigh McEnany , when she made a series of unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud .
“ I can ’ t in good countenance continue to show you this , ” the Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto told the audience .
However , at night , Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson , Fox News ’ most popular anchors , come out to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alternate universe , where Democrats have , depending on the state , either suppressed the number of ballots or inflated the number of ballots .
Either way , Trump won .
That makes the effort to look like a news organization increasingly difficult .
“ What ’ s happening now is the Republican party is getting more strained , and there ’ s more and more of a sense among Fox News viewership that anything that contradicts a worldview that is supportive of conservatives is wrong , ” Deggans said .
“ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ harder for Fox News to ride that balance.
” It ’ s enough to make one wonder why they bother .
The most-viewed shows on Fox News are the propaganda hours provided by Carlson and Hannity .
In the second quarter of 2020 , Carlson ’ s Tucker Carlson Tonight set a record high for the number of viewers , with 4.331m , while Hannity ’ s show Hannity drew the second best ever figures , with 4.311m .
So why doesn ’ t Fox News just stick with the rightwing conspiracy theories @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Matter activists , and with the Dear Leader-style coverage of Trump ?
“ Ultimately their power comes from their audience size , ” said Angelo Carusone , president and CEO of Media Matters , a progressive media watchdog .
“ Not just the size of their audience , but the engagement of the audience – and that relationship that they ’ ve then leveraged , as well as some hard-edged negotiating tactics , to extract obscenely high cable fees .
“ [ Fox News is ] actually renegotiating a lot of their cable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re seen as a sort of extremist , fringey thing , and they don ’ t have this veneer of journalism , then it actually affects their ability to negotiate effectively.
” Worryingly for Fox News , on Trump-supporting Facebook pages and groups , people are incandescent .
“ Time to switch to Newsmax or One America News , ” is just one example of posts suggesting a Fox News abandonment .
Another post declared that viewers should “ F FOX News ” .
“ They have sold their souls and lost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , [ thinking emoji ] [ crying emoji ] .Boycott and show them the power of the almighty [ money bag emoji ] dollar.
” So , could Fox News be in jeopardy ?
Clearly , it has survived criticism from its own before .
But in 2020 , there are fledgling competitors .
“ What didn ’ t exist in the past , does now , ” Carusone said .
“ Which is that you have entities like Newsmax and One America News Network that can actually gather a bit of an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ News Network are more rightwing than Fox News , and each has pushed zany conspiracy theories , including that there was a deep state or Democrat-led plot to infect Trump with coronavirus , and that Anthony Fauci , the head of the CDC , funded the creation of the coronavirus .
Over the summer , Newsmax TV was recording about 25,000 viewers a day , according to CNN ’ s Brian Stelter .
In election week , that jumped up to 182,000 viewers .
But the channel has experienced a real surge since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under fire , and Newsmax ’ s nightly shows have drawn 700-800,000 viewers , according to Nielsen .
Fox News reach far outstrips both these upstarts .
But it could be that Trump ’ s promotion of Newsmax is having an effect .
Trump retweeted five different posts praising Newsmax on Thursday , and laid into Fox News , claiming the channel ’ s daytime ratings – where Trump is treated relatively evenly – have “ completely collapsed ” and that Fox News “ forgot the Golden Goose ” .
If the rift @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Fox News .
But given Trump ’ s need for attention , the president is going to have to find a network that will indulge him .
A Trump TV network could be another contender for the rightwing , Trump loving crowd .
It has been mooted in the past – although this may be less likely given Trump is in debt , and is likely to find himself confronted by legal battles once he leaves the presidency , said Heather Hendershot , a professor of film and media at MIT who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Newsmax , which lack funding compared with Fox News , would be options for Trump , but perhaps the president , who has flitted in and out of grievances with Fox News in the past , could still turn to the established network .
“ I would speculate Trump continuing to develop the Trump brand , which has always been his thing , and finding a platform that wants to host him , like Fox News or OANN , ” Hendershot said .
“ But who is going to pay him more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ News .
OANN is really underfunded , they ’ re really low-budget , and they ’ re not in enough cable packages.
” Fox News survived 2012 , clearly , and Hendershot thinks the channel is in no risk of disappearing .
With a Democratic president , it might even give Fox News a chance to return to its strengths .
“ Having Biden in the White House certainly could help Fox , ” Hendershot said .
“ They do well when they are oppositional .
They did very well when Obama was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enemy to fight against .
”

It was about 11.20pm on election night when Fox News made the call. The Democratic candidate had clinched a key swing state, a win that could set them on a path to be president of the United States.
In the Fox News studio, Karl Rove, conservative panelist and longtime Republican strategist, was apoplectic. Around the country, Republican supporters were bereft. Fox News launched an immediate inquisition into its own decision, but the network stood by the call.
Barack Obama had won Ohio, defeating Mitt Romney. Obama would be sworn in as president, for the second time, on 20 January 2013.
Fast forward eight years, and Fox News found itself in a strikingly similar position on 3 November 2020. The rightwing news channel was the first to call Arizona, which has gone blue once in the past 72 years, for Joe Biden.
Donald Trump and his campaign were furious, barraging the network with a series of phone calls in an attempt to get the decision overturned. The president’s supporters were upset too.
At protests outside a vote counting center in Phoenix, Arizona, a crowd chanted: “Fox News sucks!”, turning their ire on a channel whose hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity have spent the past four years praising Trump’s almost every move or utterance.
Now, in the tumultuous week following that Arizona call, Fox News, the most-watched cable news channel in America, has found itself in a sort of existential crisis.
A demonstrator holds a ‘Count every vote’ sign outside Fox News in New York, New York, on 22 October. Photograph: Erik McGregor/LightRocket/Getty Images
Trump remains furious. On Wednesday he posted a series of messages on Twitter criticizing Fox News, even suggesting alternatives.
But despite Trump’s flurry of fury, he then went on to direct people to Sean Hannity’s Fox News show. The reality is that the inconsistency from the president is matched by Fox News’ content right now, which swings from relatively straight news to the outrageous.
Depending on which anchor is on air, the network has either rubbished, or backed to the hilt, Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud, while the perceived lack of constant support for the president has viewers claiming they will never watch Fox News again.
“Fox News has always walked a fine line between trying to look like an independent news organization and supporting conservative politics,” said Eric Deggans, TV critic for NPR and media analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.
“There have to be moments where they act like an actual news organization in order to maintain their veneer of being an independent news organization.”
They act like an actual news organization in order to maintain their veneer of being an independent news organization Eric Deggans
The channel has not hit on a seamless way to maintain that balance. On-screen on Fox News, the days since the election have seen a dizzying swing from reality to fantasy.
In the middle of the day, more traditional journalists rule. On Monday, the channel cut away from a press conference by the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, when she made a series of unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud. “I can’t in good countenance continue to show you this,” the Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto told the audience.
However, at night, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, Fox News’ most popular anchors, come out to play, and the network enters an alternate universe, where Democrats have, depending on the state, either suppressed the number of ballots or inflated the number of ballots. Either way, Trump won.
That makes the effort to look like a news organization increasingly difficult.
“What’s happening now is the Republican party is getting more strained, and there’s more and more of a sense among Fox News viewership that anything that contradicts a worldview that is supportive of conservatives is wrong,” Deggans said.
“I think it’s getting harder and harder for Fox News to ride that balance.”
It’s enough to make one wonder why they bother.
Sean Hannity broadcasts from the Republican national convention in Baltimore, Maryland, on 26 August. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
The most-viewed shows on Fox News are the propaganda hours provided by Carlson and Hannity. In the second quarter of 2020, Carlson’s Tucker Carlson Tonight set a record high for the number of viewers, with 4.331m, while Hannity’s show Hannity drew the second best ever figures, with 4.311m.
So why doesn’t Fox News just stick with the rightwing conspiracy theories, with the denigrating of Black Lives Matter activists, and with the Dear Leader-style coverage of Trump?
“Ultimately their power comes from their audience size,” said Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of Media Matters, a progressive media watchdog.
“Not just the size of their audience, but the engagement of the audience – and that relationship that they’ve then leveraged, as well as some hard-edged negotiating tactics, to extract obscenely high cable fees.
“[Fox News is] actually renegotiating a lot of their cable contracts right now, and if they’re seen as a sort of extremist, fringey thing, and they don’t have this veneer of journalism, then it actually affects their ability to negotiate effectively.”
Worryingly for Fox News, on Trump-supporting Facebook pages and groups, people are incandescent.
“Time to switch to Newsmax or One America News,” is just one example of posts suggesting a Fox News abandonment.
“Fox News has officially joined the corrupt media.”
Another post declared that viewers should “F FOX News”.
“They have sold their souls and lost the respect of millions of loyal viewers , [thinking emoji] [crying emoji].Boycott and show them the power of the almighty [money bag emoji] dollar.”
So, could Fox News be in jeopardy? Clearly, it has survived criticism from its own before. But in 2020, there are fledgling competitors.
“What didn’t exist in the past, does now,” Carusone said.
“Which is that you have entities like Newsmax and One America News Network that can actually gather a bit of an audience.”
Both Newsmax and One America News Network are more rightwing than Fox News, and each has pushed zany conspiracy theories, including that there was a deep state or Democrat-led plot to infect Trump with coronavirus, and that Anthony Fauci, the head of the NIAID , funded the creation of the coronavirus.
Over the summer, Newsmax TV was recording about 25,000 viewers a day, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter. In election week, that jumped up to 182,000 viewers. But the channel has experienced a real surge since the election, after Fox News came under fire, and Newsmax’s nightly shows have drawn 700-800,000 viewers, according to Nielsen.
Fox News reach far outstrips both these upstarts. But it could be that Trump’s promotion of Newsmax is having an effect.
Trump retweeted five different posts praising Newsmax on Thursday, and laid into Fox News, claiming the channel’s daytime ratings – where Trump is treated relatively evenly – have “completely collapsed” and that Fox News “forgot the Golden Goose”.
Sean Hannity speaks with the then press secretary, Sean Spicer, at the White House on 24 January 2017. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
If the rift is permanent, it could be damaging for Fox News. But given Trump’s need for attention, the president is going to have to find a network that will indulge him.
A Trump TV network could be another contender for the rightwing, Trump loving crowd.
It has been mooted in the past – although this may be less likely given Trump is in debt, and is likely to find himself confronted by legal battles once he leaves the presidency, said Heather Hendershot, a professor of film and media at MIT who studies conservative and rightwing media.
OANN and Newsmax, which lack funding compared with Fox News, would be options for Trump, but perhaps the president, who has flitted in and out of grievances with Fox News in the past, could still turn to the established network.
I would speculate Trump continuing to develop the Trump brand, which has always been his thing Heather Hendershot
“I would speculate Trump continuing to develop the Trump brand, which has always been his thing, and finding a platform that wants to host him, like Fox News or OANN,” Hendershot said.
“But who is going to pay him more to appear on their network? Fox News. OANN is really underfunded, they’re really low-budget, and they’re not in enough cable packages.”
Fox News survived 2012, clearly, and Hendershot thinks the channel is in no risk of disappearing. With a Democratic president, it might even give Fox News a chance to return to its strengths.
“Having Biden in the White House certainly could help Fox,” Hendershot said.
“They do well when they are oppositional. They did very well when Obama was in office because they had a clear enemy to fight against.”


theguardian--2020-11-15--Democrats divided: Biden's election win brings end to party's uneasy truce

Joe Biden ’ s first hours as president-elect were met by his supporters with spontaneous dance parties , champagne showers and car parades that wound through several blocks .
But amid the “ Biden-Harris ” placards and T-shirts dotting a diverse crowd gathered in front of the White House last week , there was a creeping sense that the source of their shared jubilation had less to do with the dragon-slayer than the dragon slayed .
Since the moment Donald Trump was sworn in as president , Democrats aligned to plot his removal .
They resisted , organized and mobilized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a president they believed was uniquely dangerous .
They succeeded .
But their success also marked the end of an election-season truce that at times obscured deep ideological and generational differences .
Democrats face a reckoning , four years in the making , after an election that accomplished their mission but did little to resolve urgent questions about the party ’ s political future and serious internal divisions .
The first order of business is a “ deep dive ” into why more Americans than at any moment in the nation ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , despite bold predictions of a unified government come January 2021 , Democrats ended up with a weakened House majority and an uphill battle to take control of the Senate .
“ What ’ s clear is that voters did not feel comfortable giving Democrats every lever of power , ” said Lanae Erickson , senior vice-president for social policy and politics at the centrist thinktank Third Way .
“ And the question is , why not ?
” The answer , of course , depends on who you ask .
A tense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which moderate members blamed the left wing for costing them congressional seats , opened a fiery public debate over how to turn a majority coalition into governing majorities .
Moderates argue that Biden ’ s success , which included reclaiming three states in the Rust Belt Trump won in 2016 and expanding the map to Sun Belt battlegrounds , was evidence that a moderate who rejected liberal appeals was best positioned to build a winning coalition .
“ There are clearly some parts of the Democratic brand that voters across the country did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
A post-election analysis by Third Way found that Republicans effectively weaponized ideas like defunding the police and Medicare for All against Democrats in competitive districts , even if they did not support such policies .
Far from being tempered by the congressional setbacks , progressives are emboldened .
In a series of interviews , op-eds and open letters , they blamed unexpected losses on an embrace of “ status quo centrism ” that failed to capture voters ’ imagination and faulted moderate candidates for not developing strong enough brands and digital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They are dead wrong , ” Bernie Sanders , the progressive senator who lost to Biden in the Democratic primary , wrote in an USA Today op-ed .
He noted that every House co-sponsor of Medicare for All and all but one co-sponsor of the Green New Deal were re-elected , including several competitive districts .
“ The lesson is not to abandon popular policies like Medicare for All , a Green New Deal , living wage jobs , criminal justice reform and universal childcare , ” Sanders wrote , “ but to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economic desperation being felt by the working class – Black , white , Latino , Asian American and Native American.
” Biden won the primary after refusing to move left , but as the nominee embraced a sweeping economic vision that drew comparisons with FDR ’ s New Deal .
In remarks after the election , Biden said that his resounding victory had given him a “ mandate for action ” on the economy , the pandemic , climate and racial inequality .
But the breadth and contours of that mandate are up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complicated tableau of wins and losses for Democrats that defy sweeping conclusions about the electorate .
Biden won Arizona and is set to take Georgia , after years of organizing by progressive Black and Latino activists in the traditionally Republican states .
At the same time , sweeping advances with moderates and independents in the suburbs around fast-growing metropolitan areas like Phoenix and Atlanta helped secure his lead .
It was moderate Democrats who flipped Senate seats in Colorado and Arizona , the party ’ s only additions so far , even as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ progressive ballot measures that included legalizing marijuana , raising the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour and taxing wealthy Americans to fund public education .
In the muddled aftermath , lawmakers , activists and the party ’ s grassroots are all vying for influence .
Battles have flared on multiple fronts : the makeup of Biden ’ s executive branch , the new administration ’ s legislative agenda and the approach to a pair of Georgia runoff elections which will determine control of the Senate .
If they fall short , there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which Biden should work with Senate Republicans and Mitch McConnell , a take-no-prisoners tactician .
“ Biden must not allow McConnell veto power over how he constructs his administration , ” leaders of the Revolving Door Project and Demand Progress wrote in an open letter last week .
They implored Biden to embrace the same hardball tactics wielded against him in the eight years he was Barack Obama ’ s vice-president , circumventing the Senate confirmation process entirely if necessary .
Biden , an institutionalist whose bipartisan friendships were a prominent feature of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ govern as a “ president for all Americans ” .
But Republicans ’ unwillingness to congratulate Biden publicly – while admitting privately that Trump ’ s refusal to concede is based on meritless claims of voter fraud – demonstrate the constraints he will face from the opposition party .
Yet amid the clashes over messaging and policy , there were some signs of agreement .
Senator Doug Jones , a moderate Alabama Democrat who lost re-election , said his party needed to invest in grassroots organizing if it wanted to compete in conservative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ too much time investing in candidates and not the electorate ” , he told Politico , echoing a sentiment expressed by New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives : “ They don ’ t invest in House districts , they don ’ t invest in states.
” Beto O ’ Rourke , a former congressman from El Paso and candidate for the presidential nomination , offered the same diagnosis in a memo to supporters after a disappointing showing in Texas .
Transforming the political trajectory of a state requires year-round attention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voters don ’ t just hear from us during an election.
” Democrats will have an opportunity to test their competing theories of change before Biden takes office , via Georgia ’ s Senate races in January .
The stakes couldn ’ t be higher : if Democrats pull off upset victories , the Senate will be equally divided , with vice-president Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote .
“ Georgia really should answer all these questions , ” said Cliff Albright , a co-founder of the Atlanta-based Black Voters Matter Fund , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blue ” .
“ Because this is the debate we ’ ve been having here for at least a decade now.
” That a Democratic presidential candidate is poised to carry Georgia for the first time in nearly 30 years is proof that mobilizing the party ’ s diverse , progressive base works , Albright said .
“ Black and brown folks in Georgia right now , we feel like we could put somebody on Mars , ” Albright said of Biden ’ s edge in the state .
But he warned that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” if Democrats spend the next two months appealing to Republicans and not their base .
Carolyn Bourdeaux , who became the first – and so far only – Democrat to flip a competitive Republican-held House seat , said her victory in a diverse , suburban Atlanta district demonstrated the importance of grassroots organizing and cross-party appeal .
In the Georgia Senate races , where her district will play a crucial role , Bourdeaux suggests an approach that she admits is neither “ sexy or fancy ” .
“ Voters are looking for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the job done , ” she said .
“ They want to know you care about them , that you ’ re listening to what their concerns are – and they want to know that you are passionately committed to addressing those issues .
”

Joe Biden’s first hours as president-elect were met by his supporters with spontaneous dance parties, champagne showers and car parades that wound through several blocks. But amid the “Biden-Harris” placards and T-shirts dotting a diverse crowd gathered in front of the White House last week, there was a creeping sense that the source of their shared jubilation had less to do with the dragon-slayer than the dragon slayed.
Since the moment Donald Trump was sworn in as president, Democrats aligned to plot his removal. They resisted, organized and mobilized, unified around the goal of removing a president they believed was uniquely dangerous. They succeeded. But their success also marked the end of an election-season truce that at times obscured deep ideological and generational differences.
Democrats face a reckoning, four years in the making, after an election that accomplished their mission but did little to resolve urgent questions about the party’s political future and serious internal divisions.
The first order of business is a “deep dive” into why more Americans than at any moment in the nation’s 244-year history voted for Biden and yet, despite bold predictions of a unified government come January 2021, Democrats ended up with a weakened House majority and an uphill battle to take control of the Senate.
“What’s clear is that voters did not feel comfortable giving Democrats every lever of power,” said Lanae Erickson, senior vice-president for social policy and politics at the centrist thinktank Third Way. “And the question is, why not?”
The answer, of course, depends on who you ask.
A tense conference call among House Democrats, in which moderate members blamed the left wing for costing them congressional seats, opened a fiery public debate over how to turn a majority coalition into governing majorities.
Moderates argue that Biden’s success, which included reclaiming three states in the rust belt Trump won in 2016 and expanding the map to sun belt battlegrounds, was evidence that a moderate who rejected liberal appeals was best positioned to build a winning coalition.
“There are clearly some parts of the Democratic brand that voters across the country did not feel comfortable with,” Erickson said. A post-election analysis by Third Way found that Republicans effectively weaponized ideas like defunding the police and Medicare for All against Democrats in competitive districts, even if they did not support such policies.
Far from being tempered by the congressional setbacks, progressives are emboldened. In a series of interviews, op-eds and open letters, they blamed unexpected losses on an embrace of “status quo centrism” that failed to capture voters’ imagination and faulted moderate candidates for not developing strong enough brands and digital strategies to withstand inevitable attacks.
“They are dead wrong,” Bernie Sanders, the progressive senator who lost to Biden in the Democratic primary, wrote in an USA Today op-ed. He noted that every House co-sponsor of Medicare for All and all but one co-sponsor of the Green New Deal were re-elected, including several competitive districts.
“The lesson is not to abandon popular policies like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, living wage jobs, criminal justice reform and universal childcare,” Sanders wrote, “but to enact an agenda that speaks to the economic desperation being felt by the working class – Black, white, Latino, Asian American and Native American.”
Biden won the primary after refusing to move left, but as the nominee embraced a sweeping economic vision that drew comparisons with FDR’s New Deal. In remarks after the election, Biden said that his resounding victory had given him a “mandate for action” on the economy, the pandemic, climate and racial inequality.
But the breadth and contours of that mandate are up for debate. The election returned a complicated tableau of wins and losses for Democrats that defy sweeping conclusions about the electorate.
Biden won Arizona and is set to take Georgia, after years of organizing by progressive Black and Latino activists in the traditionally Republican states. At the same time, sweeping advances with moderates and independents in the suburbs around fast-growing metropolitan areas like Phoenix and Atlanta helped secure his lead.
It was moderate Democrats who flipped Senate seats in Colorado and Arizona, the party’s only additions so far, even as a number of battleground states voted for progressive ballot measures that included legalizing marijuana, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and taxing wealthy Americans to fund public education.
Kamala Harris with Joe Biden on Tuesday. Centrists and progressives are vying for influence on multiple fronts. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
In the muddled aftermath, lawmakers, activists and the party’s grassroots are all vying for influence. Battles have flared on multiple fronts: the makeup of Biden’s executive branch, the new administration’s legislative agenda and the approach to a pair of Georgia runoff elections which will determine control of the Senate. If they fall short, there is deep disagreement over the extent to which Biden should work with Senate Republicans and Mitch McConnell, a take-no-prisoners tactician.
“Biden must not allow McConnell veto power over how he constructs his administration,” leaders of the Revolving Door Project and Demand Progress wrote in an open letter last week. They implored Biden to embrace the same hardball tactics wielded against him in the eight years he was Barack Obama’s vice-president, circumventing the Senate confirmation process entirely if necessary.
Biden, an institutionalist whose bipartisan friendships were a prominent feature of his campaign, has repeatedly promised to govern as a “president for all Americans”. But Republicans’ unwillingness to congratulate Biden publicly – while admitting privately that Trump’s refusal to concede is based on meritless claims of voter fraud – demonstrate the constraints he will face from the opposition party.
05:51 Can Joe Biden and Kamala Harris unite America after Trump? – video explainer
Yet amid the clashes over messaging and policy, there were some signs of agreement. Senator Doug Jones, a moderate Alabama Democrat who lost re-election, said his party needed to invest in grassroots organizing if it wanted to compete in conservative states.
Democrats’ campaign apparatus spends “too much time investing in candidates and not the electorate”, he told Politico, echoing a sentiment expressed by New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives: “They don’t invest in House districts, they don’t invest in states.”
Beto O’Rourke, a former congressman from El Paso and candidate for the presidential nomination, offered the same diagnosis in a memo to supporters after a disappointing showing in Texas. Transforming the political trajectory of a state requires year-round attention, he wrote, “so that voters don’t just hear from us during an election”.
Democrats will have an opportunity to test their competing theories of change before Biden takes office, via Georgia’s Senate races in January. The stakes couldn’t be higher: if Democrats pull off upset victories, the Senate will be equally divided, with Vice-President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote.
“Georgia really should answer all these questions,” said Cliff Albright, a co-founder of the Atlanta-based Black Voters Matter Fund, credited with helping Democrats turn Georgia “blue”.
“Because this is the debate we’ve been having here for at least a decade now.”
That a Democratic presidential candidate is poised to carry Georgia for the first time in nearly 30 years is proof that mobilizing the party’s diverse, progressive base works, Albright said.
“Black and brown folks in Georgia right now, we feel like we could put somebody on Mars,” Albright said of Biden’s edge in the state. But he warned that “all of that energy will disappear” if Democrats spend the next two months appealing to Republicans and not their base.
Carolyn Bourdeaux, who became the first – and so far only – Democrat to flip a competitive Republican-held House seat, said her victory in a diverse, suburban Atlanta district demonstrated the importance of grassroots organizing and cross-party appeal.
In the Georgia Senate races, where her district will play a crucial role, Bourdeaux suggests an approach that she admits is neither “sexy or fancy”.
“Voters are looking for reasonable policy solutions and people to get the job done,” she said. “They want to know you care about them, that you’re listening to what their concerns are – and they want to know that you are passionately committed to addressing those issues.”


theguardian--2020-11-15--Laugh? We nearly all died – why my US failed state Twitter thread went viral | Patrick Gathara

The chaotic US election has undoubtedly been the biggest story in the world in the last two weeks .
Watching it unfold from over 13,000km away in Kenya , the election itself – the long queues , the delayed and disputed vote count , impugned credibility – was disturbingly familiar .
Our own elections follow a near-identical pattern .
The media coverage , not so much .
Gone were the condescending tone , the adjective-laden labels and the expectation of violence and malfeasance so often applied to “ foreign ” elections .
In its place was an easy familiarity and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not feel it necessary to depict the US as a crisis-wracked , oil-rich , nuclear-armed North American country with armed terror groups roaming its ethnically polarized restless interior .
But these were exactly the sorts of descriptors that have traditionally allowed western audiences to identify with and follow events in distant , “ exotic ” places .
It seemed to me that the rest of us deserved the same consideration .
And so I decided to offer this perspective in a Twitter thread Clearly , many across the globe felt similarly , given @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At last count , it had been viewed nearly 4m times , attracting more than 50,000 likes and nearly half as many retweets .
And there was more than mere interest in the mechanics of what was happening in the US .
There was a fair bit of joy at its expense .
In 2016 , the Republican candidate for president , Donald Trump , may have exaggerated somewhat when he declared : “ The world is laughing at us .
They ’ re laughing at us , at our stupidity.
” No @ @ @ @ @ @ @ North American state entered its 10th day , around the world it had become the butt of many jokes .
After decades of enduring its hubris and condescension , many are happy to see the self-anointed “ shining city on a hill ” and self-proclaimed “ greatest country in the history of the world ” knocked down a peg or two .
In truth , it has been a long time coming .
For a long time , America has been to the world what Trump has been to America – a bull @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entitled , brash , over-confident and often downright stupid , since the end of the cold war the country has traipsed around the world , breaking stuff as it went , throwing its weight around , and playing fast and loose with cherished global norms .
Its journalists and moviemakers ( and president ) rarely missed the opportunity to stress just what an uncivilized “ shithole ” the rest of the globe was and how much we needed the enlightenment offered by the Peace Corps .
America always seemed surprised that other people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told how to live .
Like Trump , it has had its enablers .
Some , like the British , were true believers in its “ manifest destiny ” to rule and deliver the world .
Others , like the French , were content to give their support while holding their noses .
Like Trump , America ’ s successes were primarily economic and its monumental failures , in places like Vietnam and Iraq , cost hundreds and thousands of lives .
It had a complicated relationship with the truth as exemplified by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United Nations , laying out the Bush administration ’ s rationale for war in Iraq .
Like Trump it cozied up to dictators in Africa and gave a wink and a nudge to the apartheid regimes in South Africa and in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel .
Inevitably perhaps , America ’ s excesses inspired a rival .
Today , America finds itself as a bull in China ’ s shop .
It has slowly been eclipsed in many areas where it was once dominant , especially in trade and lately in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like Trump to the loss of its position as top dog – it is throwing a tantrum .
From inciting a trade war to trying to wreck global alliances and treaties , to undermining the multilateral system , the US is showing that it will not go quietly into the sunset .
Given all this , many around the world can be excused for feeling a little schadenfreude as the US is humiliated by an election that has ruthlessly exposed its inadequacies , and a president that has made a mockery of its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The election and four years of Trump have shown that far from being a paragon of democracy , the US has not only neglected its decaying democratic institutions at home , but has also incubated a dangerous authoritarianism .
As the US fixes itself , the rest of us too need to reform the international system which for too long has operated on the mistaken belief that the US is what it claimed to be .
The Trump presidency should be the wake up call we all need to build a better @ @

The chaotic US election has undoubtedly been the biggest story in the world in the last two weeks. Watching it unfold from over 13,000km away in Kenya, the election itself – the long queues, the delayed and disputed vote count, impugned credibility – was disturbingly familiar. Our own elections follow a near-identical pattern. The media coverage, not so much.
Gone were the condescending tone, the adjective-laden labels and the expectation of violence and malfeasance so often applied to “foreign” elections. In its place was an easy familiarity and assumption of competence.
The media did not feel it necessary to depict the US as a crisis-racked, oil-rich, nuclear-armed North American country with armed terror groups roaming its ethnically polarized restless interior. But these were exactly the sorts of descriptors that have traditionally allowed western audiences to identify with and follow events in distant, “exotic” places. It seemed to me that the rest of us deserved the same consideration. And so I decided to offer this perspective in a Twitter thread.
#BREAKING After days in barricaded presidential palace, US dictator, Donald Trump, hesitantly emerges to attend ceremony for fallen troops in coastal capital, Washington DC. Race is now on to get back to the palace before President-elect Joe Biden can sneak in and depose him. — gathara (@gathara) November 11, 2020
Clearly, many across the globe felt similarly, given the response the thread has attracted. At last count, it had been viewed nearly 4m times, attracting more than 50,000 likes and nearly half as many retweets. And there was more than mere interest in the mechanics of what was happening in the US. There was a fair bit of joy at its expense.
#BREAKING Rumors - hotly denied by regime officials - are spreading that US dictator, Donald Trump, who has not been seen in public since he returned to the barricaded presidential palace days ago, may have fled the crisis-torn republic for asylum in an undisclosed country. — gathara (@gathara) November 11, 2020
In 2016, the Republican candidate for president, Donald Trump, may have exaggerated somewhat when he declared: “The world is laughing at us. They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity.” No longer. As counting in the crisis-racked North American state entered its 10th day, around the world it had become the butt of many jokes. After decades of enduring its hubris and condescension, many are happy to see the self-anointed “shining city on a hill” and self-proclaimed “greatest country in the history of the world” knocked down a peg or two.
#BREAKING As ruthless purge of disloyal elements within the country's military continues, US Foreign Minister accuses opposition of rigging presidential elections raising fears corrupt regime of aging dictator, Donald Trump, will declare state of emergency and cling to power. — gathara (@gathara) November 11, 2020
In truth, it has been a long time coming. For a long time, America has been to the world what Trump has been to America – a bull in a china shop. Rich, entitled, brash, overconfident and often downright stupid, since the end of the cold war the country has traipsed around the world, breaking stuff as it went, throwing its weight around, and playing fast and loose with cherished global norms. Its journalists and moviemakers (and president) rarely missed the opportunity to stress just what an uncivilized “shithole” the rest of the globe was and how much we needed the enlightenment offered by the Peace Corps.
America always seemed surprised that other people did not necessarily appreciate being insulted or told how to live. Like Trump, it has had its enablers. Some, like the British, were true believers in its “manifest destiny” to rule and deliver the world. Others, like the French, were content to give their support while holding their noses.
Like Trump, America’s successes were primarily economic and its monumental failures, in places like Vietnam and Iraq, cost hundreds and thousands of lives. It had a complicated relationship with the truth as exemplified by Colin Powell’s speech to the United Nations, laying out the Bush administration’s rationale for war in Iraq. Like Trump it cozied up to dictators in Africa and gave a wink and a nudge to the apartheid regimes in South Africa and in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel.
Inevitably perhaps, America’s excesses inspired a rival. Today, America finds itself as a bull in China’s shop. It has slowly been eclipsed in many areas where it was once dominant, especially in trade and lately in technology. And America has reacted much like Trump to the loss of its position as top dog – it is throwing a tantrum. From inciting a trade war to trying to wreck global alliances and treaties, to undermining the multilateral system, the US is showing that it will not go quietly into the sunset.
Given all this, many around the world can be excused for feeling a little schadenfreude as the US is humiliated by an election that has ruthlessly exposed its inadequacies, and a president that has made a mockery of its claim to be the king of democracies.
The election and four years of Trump have shown that far from being a paragon of democracy, the US has not only neglected its decaying democratic institutions at home, but has also incubated a dangerous authoritarianism. As the US fixes itself, the rest of us too need to reform the international system which for too long has operated on the mistaken belief that the US is what it claimed to be. The Trump presidency should be the wake-up call we all need to build a better world.


theguardian--2020-11-15--US poll chaos is a boon for the enemies of democracy the whole world over

Believe it or not , the world did not stop turning on its axis because of the US election and ensuing , self-indulgent disputes in the land of the free-for-all .
In the age of Donald Trump , narcissism spreads like the plague .
But the longer the wrangling in Washington continues , the greater the collateral damage to America ’ s global reputation – and to less fortunate states and peoples who rely on the US and the western allies to fly the flag for democracy and freedom .
Consider , for example , the implications of the Israeli @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election day , to raze the homes of 74 Palestinians , mostly women and children , in the occupied West Bank village of Khirbet Humsa .
The pace of West Bank demolitions has increased this year , possibly in preparation for Israeli annexation of the Jordan Valley – a plan backed in principle by Trump .
Appealing for international intervention , the Palestinian prime minister , Mohammed Shtayyeh , claimed Israel had acted while “ attention is focused on the US election ” .
Yet worse may be to come .
Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plan ” gave Benjamin Netanyahu , Israel ’ s rightwing leader , virtual carte blanche to expand settlements and seize Palestinian land .
Joe Biden has promised to revive the two-state solution .
But while the power struggle rages in Washington , analysts warn , Netanyahu may continue to arbitrarily create new “ facts on the ground ” – with Trump ’ s blessing .
“ Over the next 11 weeks , we are likely to see a major uptick in Israeli demolitions , evictions , settlement announcements , and perhaps even formal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as Netanyahu and his allies in the settler movement seek to make the most of Trump ’ s remaining time in office , ” Khaled Elgindy of Washington ’ s Middle East Institute predicted .
The Khirbet Humsa incident gained widespread media attention .
The same can not be said of a football pitch massacre in northern Mozambique that also coincided with US polling .
While Americans were counting votes , villagers in Cabo Delgado province were counting bodies after Islamic State-affiliated extremists decapitated more than 50 victims .
Nearly 450,000 people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2,000 killed , in an escalating insurgency in the mainly Muslim province where extreme poverty exists alongside valuable , western-controlled gas and mineral riches .
Chinese , US and British energy companies are all involved there .
Mozambique ’ s government has appealed for help , saying its forces can not cope .
Biden vows to maintain the fight against Isis .
But it ’ s unclear if he is willing to look beyond Syria-Iraq and expand US involvement in the new Islamist killing grounds of the Sahel , west Africa and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he claimed credit last year for “ defeating 100 % of the Isis caliphate ” .
The fool thinks it ’ s all over .
In any case , he has shown zero interest in what he calls “ shithole ” African countries .
Afghanistan is another conflict zone where the cost of US paralysis is counted in civilian lives .
It ’ s a war Trump claims to be ending but which is currently escalating fast .
While all eyes were supposedly on Pennsylvania , Kabul university was devastated when gunmen stormed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ four people were killed last week by a suicide bomber in Kandahar .
Overall , violence has soared in recent months as the US and the Taliban ( which denied responsibility for the Kabul atrocity ) argue in Qatar .
Trump plainly wants US troops out at any price .
Biden is more circumspect about abandoning Afghanistan , but there ’ s little he can do right now .
The Biden-Trump stand-off encourages uncertainty and instability , inhibiting the progress of international cooperation on a multitude of issues such as the climate crisis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ facilitates regression by malign actors .
China ’ s opportunistic move to debilitate Hong Kong ’ s legislative assembly last week by expelling opposition politicians was a stark warning to Democrats and Republicans alike .
Beijing just gave notice it will not tolerate democratic ideas , open societies and free speech , there or anywhere .
China ’ s leaders apparently calculated , correctly , that the US was so distracted by its presidential melodrama that it would be incapable of reacting in any meaningful way .
Taiwan ’ s people have cause @ @ @ @ @ @ @ island is next on Chinese president Xi Jinping ’ s reunification wish-list .
Who would bet money on the US riding to Taipei ’ s rescue if Beijing takes aim ?
Much has been said about the negative domestic ramifications of Trump ’ s spiteful disruption of the presidential transition – his lawsuits , his refusal to share daily intelligence briefings with Biden , and his appointment of loyalists to key Pentagon posts .
He hopes to turn January ’ s two Senate election re-runs in Georgia into a referendum – on him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ paid to how this constitutional chaos affects America ’ s influence and leadership position in the world – or to the risk Trump might take last-minute , punitive unilateral action against , say , Iran or Venezuela .
Like Xi , Vladimir Putin undoubtedly relishes US confusion .
He may find ways to take advantage , as with last week ’ s Moscow-imposed Armenia-Azerbaijan “ peace deal ” .
Authoritarian , ultra-nationalist and rightwing populist leaders everywhere take comfort from America ’ s perceived democratic nervous breakdown .
This is the worst of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election ’ s legitimacy , Trump nurtures and instructs anti-democratic rogues the world over .
The Belarus-style myth he peddles , and will perpetuate , of a strong “ man of the people ” resisting a conspiracy plotted by corrupt liberal elites , is the final , toxic element of his profoundly poisonous legacy .
Farmers in Palestine , fishermen in Mozambique , and students in Kabul all pay a heavy price for his unprincipled lies and puerile irresponsibility .
So , too , does the cause of global democracy .

Believe it or not, the world did not stop turning on its axis because of the US election and ensuing, self-indulgent disputes in the land of the free-for-all. In the age of Donald Trump, narcissism spreads like the plague.
But the longer the wrangling in Washington continues, the greater the collateral damage to America’s global reputation – and to less fortunate states and peoples who rely on the US and the western allies to fly the flag for democracy and freedom.
Consider, for example, the implications of the Israeli army’s operation, on US election day, to raze the homes of 74 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in the occupied West Bank village of Khirbet Humsa. The pace of West Bank demolitions has increased this year, possibly in preparation for Israeli annexation of the Jordan Valley – a plan backed in principle by Trump.
Appealing for international intervention, the Palestinian prime minister, Mohammed Shtayyeh, claimed Israel had acted while “attention is focused on the US election”. Yet worse may be to come.
Trump’s absurdly lopsided Middle East “peace plan” gave Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s rightwing leader, virtual carte blanche to expand settlements and seize Palestinian land. Joe Biden has promised to revive the two-state solution. But while the power struggle rages in Washington, analysts warn, Netanyahu may continue to arbitrarily create new “facts on the ground” – with Trump’s blessing.
“Over the next 11 weeks, we are likely to see a major uptick in Israeli demolitions, evictions, settlement announcements, and perhaps even formal annexation of parts of the occupied territories, as Netanyahu and his allies in the settler movement seek to make the most of Trump’s remaining time in office,” Khaled Elgindy of Washington’s Middle East Institute predicted.
The Khirbet Humsa incident gained widespread media attention. The same cannot be said of a football pitch massacre in northern Mozambique that also coincided with US polling. While Americans were counting votes, villagers in Cabo Delgado province were counting bodies after Islamic State-affiliated extremists decapitated more than 50 victims.
Nearly 450,000 people have been displaced, and up to 2,000 killed, in an escalating insurgency in the mainly Muslim province where extreme poverty exists alongside valuable, western-controlled gas and mineral riches. Chinese, US and British energy companies are all involved there. Mozambique’s government has appealed for help, saying its forces cannot cope.
Trump’s ‘man of the people’ myth of resisting a liberal conspiracy is the ultra-toxic element of his poisonous legacy
Biden vows to maintain the fight against Isis. But it’s unclear if he is willing to look beyond Syria-Iraq and expand US involvement in the new Islamist killing grounds of the Sahel, west Africa and the Mozambique-Tanzania border.
As for Trump, he claimed credit last year for “defeating 100% of the Isis caliphate”. The fool thinks it’s all over. In any case, he has shown zero interest in what he calls “shithole” African countries.
Afghanistan is another conflict zone where the cost of US paralysis is counted in civilian lives. It’s a war Trump claims to be ending but which is currently escalating fast.
While all eyes were supposedly on Pennsylvania, Kabul university was devastated when gunmen stormed classrooms, killing 22 students. Another four people were killed last week by a suicide bomber in Kandahar.
Overall, violence has soared in recent months as the US and the Taliban (which denied responsibility for the Kabul atrocity) argue in Qatar. Trump plainly wants US troops out at any price. Biden is more circumspect about abandoning Afghanistan, but there’s little he can do right now .
The Biden-Trump stand-off encourages uncertainty and instability, inhibiting the progress of international cooperation on a multitude of issues such as the climate crisis and the global pandemic. It also facilitates regression by malign actors.
China’s opportunistic move to debilitate Hong Kong’s legislative assembly last week by expelling opposition politicians was a stark warning to Democrats and Republicans alike. Beijing just gave notice it will not tolerate democratic ideas, open societies and free speech, there or anywhere.
China’s leaders apparently calculated, correctly, that the US was so distracted by its presidential melodrama that it would be incapable of reacting in any meaningful way.
Taiwan’s people have cause to worry. The “renegade” island is next on Chinese president Xi Jinping’s reunification wish-list. Who would bet money on the US riding to Taipei’s rescue if Beijing takes aim?
Much has been said about the negative domestic ramifications of Trump’s spiteful disruption of the presidential transition – his lawsuits, his refusal to share daily intelligence briefings with Biden, and his appointment of loyalists to key Pentagon posts. He hopes to turn January’s two Senate election re-runs in Georgia into a referendum – on him.
But not enough attention is being paid to how this constitutional chaos affects America’s influence and leadership position in the world – or to the risk Trump might take last-minute, punitive unilateral action against, say, Iran or Venezuela. Like Xi, Vladimir Putin undoubtedly relishes US confusion. He may find ways to take advantage, as with last week’s Moscow-imposed Armenia-Azerbaijan “peace deal”. Authoritarian, ultra-nationalist and rightwing populist leaders everywhere take comfort from America’s perceived democratic nervous breakdown.
This is the worst of it. By casting doubt on the election’s legitimacy, Trump nurtures and instructs anti-democratic rogues the world over. The Belarus-style myth he peddles, and will perpetuate, of a strong “man of the people” resisting a conspiracy plotted by corrupt liberal elites, is the final, toxic element of his profoundly poisonous legacy.
Farmers in Palestine, fishermen in Mozambique, and students in Kabul all pay a heavy price for his unprincipled lies and puerile irresponsibility. So, too, does the cause of global democracy.


theguardian--2020-11-15--Trump's refusal to concede is just the latest gambit to please Republican donors | Robert Reich

Leave it to Trump and his Republican allies to spend more energy fighting non-existent voter fraud than containing a virus that has killed 244,000 Americans and counting .
The cost of this misplaced attention is incalculable .
While Covid-19 surges to record levels , there ’ s still no national strategy for equipment , stay at home orders , mask mandates or disaster relief .
The other cost is found in the millions of Trump voters who are being led to believe the election was stolen and who will be a hostile force for years to come – making it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nation needs , including actions to contain the virus .
Trump is continuing this charade because it pulls money into his newly formed political action committee and allows him to assume the mantle of presumed presidential candidate for 2024 , whether he intends to run or merely keep himself the center of attention .
Leading Republicans like Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell are going along with it because donors are refilling GOP coffers .
The biggest beneficiaries are the party ’ s biggest patrons – the billionaire class , including the heads of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial institutions , private-equity partnerships and hedge funds – whom a deeply divided nation serves by giving them unfettered access to the economy ’ s gains .
Their heist started four decades ago .
According to a recent Rand study , if America ’ s distribution of income had remained the same as it was in the three decades following the second world war , the bottom 90 % would now be $ 47tn richer .
A low-income American earning $ 35,000 this year would be earning $ 61,000 .
A college-educated worker @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 120,000 .
Overall , the grotesque surge in inequality that began 40 years ago is costing the median American worker $ 42,000 per year .
The upward redistribution of $ 47tn wasn ’ t due to natural forces .
It was contrived .
As wealth accumulated at the top , so did political power to siphon off even more wealth and shaft everyone else .
Monopolies expanded because antitrust laws were neutered .
Labor unions shriveled because corporations were allowed to bust unions .
Wall Street was permitted to gamble with other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when its bets soured even as millions lost their homes and savings .
Taxes on the top were cut , tax loopholes widened .
When Covid-19 hit , Big Tech cornered the market , the rich traded on inside information and the Treasury and the Fed bailed out big corporations but let small businesses go under .
Since March , billionaire wealth has soared while most of America has become poorer .
How could the oligarchy get away with this in a democracy where the bottom 90 % have the votes ?
Because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Long before Trump , the GOP suggested to white working-class voters that their real enemies were Black people , Latinos , immigrants , “ coastal elites ” , bureaucrats and “ socialists ” .
Trump rode their anger and frustration into the White House with more explicit and incendiary messages .
He ’ s still at it with his bonkers claim of a stolen election .
The oligarchy surely appreciates the Trump-GOP tax cuts , regulatory rollbacks and the most business-friendly supreme court since the early 1930s .
But the Trump-GOP ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more fiercely split than ever .
Into this melee comes Joe Biden , who speaks of being “ president of all Americans ” and collaborating with the Republican party .
But the GOP doesn ’ t want to collaborate .
When Biden holds out an olive branch , McConnell and other Republican leaders will respond just as they did to Barack Obama – with more warfare , because that maintains their power and keeps the big money rolling in .
The president-elect aspires to find a moderate middle ground .
This will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The real divide is no longer left versus right but the bottom 90 % versus the oligarchy .
Biden and the Democrats will better serve the nation by becoming the party of the bottom 90 % – of the poor and the working middle class , of black and white and brown , and of all those who would be $ 47tn richer today had the oligarchy not taken over America .
This would require that Democrats abandon the fiction of political centrism and establish a countervailing force to the oligarchy – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own links to it .
They ’ d have to show white working-class voters how badly racism and xenophobia have hurt them as well as people of color .
And change the Democratic narrative from kumbaya to economic and social justice .
Easy to say , hugely difficult to accomplish .
But if today ’ s bizarre standoff in Washington is seen for what it really is , there ’ s no alternative .
• None Robert Reich , a former US secretary of labor , is professor of public policy at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ author of Saving Capitalism : For the Many , Not the Few and The Common Good .
His new book , The System : Who Rigged It , How We Fix It , is out now .
He is a columnist for Guardian US

Leave it to Trump and his Republican allies to spend more energy fighting non-existent voter fraud than containing a virus that has killed 244,000 Americans and counting.
The cost of this misplaced attention is incalculable. While Covid-19 surges to record levels, there’s still no national strategy for equipment, stay-at-home orders, mask mandates or disaster relief.
The other cost is found in the millions of Trump voters who are being led to believe the election was stolen and who will be a hostile force for years to come – making it harder to do much of anything the nation needs, including actions to contain the virus.
Trump is continuing this charade because it pulls money into his newly formed political action committee and allows him to assume the mantle of presumed presidential candidate for 2024, whether he intends to run or merely keep himself the center of attention.
Leading Republicans like the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, are going along with it because donors are refilling GOP coffers.
The president-elect aspires to find a moderate middle ground. This will be difficult because there’s no middle
The biggest beneficiaries are the party’s biggest patrons – the billionaire class, including the heads of the nation’s largest corporations and financial institutions, private-equity partnerships and hedge funds – whom a deeply divided nation serves by giving them unfettered access to the economy’s gains.
Their heist started four decades ago. According to a recent Rand study, if America’s distribution of income had remained the same as it was in the three decades following the second world war, the bottom 90% would now be $47tn richer.
A low-income American earning $35,000 this year would be earning $61,000. A college-educated worker now earning $72,000 would be earning $120,000. Overall, the grotesque surge in inequality that began 40 years ago is costing the median American worker $42,000 per year.
The upward redistribution of $47tn wasn’t due to natural forces. It was contrived. As wealth accumulated at the top, so did political power to siphon off even more wealth and shaft everyone else.
Monopolies expanded because antitrust laws were neutered. Labor unions shriveled because corporations were allowed to bust unions. Wall Street was permitted to gamble with other people’s money and was bailed out when its bets soured even as millions lost their homes and savings. Taxes on the top were cut, tax loopholes widened.
When Covid-19 hit, big tech cornered the market, the rich traded on inside information and the Treasury and the Fed bailed out big corporations but let small businesses go under. Since March, billionaire wealth has soared while most of America has become poorer.
How could the oligarchy get away with this in a democracy where the bottom 90% have the votes? Because the bottom 90% are bitterly divided.
Long before Trump, the GOP suggested to white working-class voters that their real enemies were Black people, Latinos, immigrants, “coastal elites”, bureaucrats and “socialists”. Trump rode their anger and frustration into the White House with more explicit and incendiary messages. He’s still at it with his bonkers claim of a stolen election.
The oligarchy surely appreciates the Trump-GOP tax cuts, regulatory rollbacks and the most business-friendly supreme court since the early 1930s. But the Trump-GOP’s biggest gift has been an electorate more fiercely split than ever.
Into this melee comes Joe Biden, who speaks of being “president of all Americans” and collaborating with the Republican party. But the GOP doesn’t want to collaborate. When Biden holds out an olive branch, McConnell and other Republican leaders will respond just as they did to Barack Obama – with more warfare, because that maintains their power and keeps the big money rolling in.
The president-elect aspires to find a moderate middle ground. This will be difficult because there’s no middle. The real divide is no longer left versus right but the bottom 90% versus the oligarchy.
Biden and the Democrats will better serve the nation by becoming the party of the bottom 90% – of the poor and the working middle class, of black and white and brown, and of all those who would be $47tn richer today had the oligarchy not taken over America.
This would require that Democrats abandon the fiction of political centrism and establish a countervailing force to the oligarchy – and, not incidentally, sever their own links to it.
They’d have to show white working-class voters how badly racism and xenophobia have hurt them as well as people of color. And change the Democratic narrative from kumbaya to economic and social justice.
Easy to say, hugely difficult to accomplish. But if today’s bizarre standoff in Washington is seen for what it really is, there’s no alternative.


theguardian--2020-11-17--Georgia’s secretary of state says Lindsey Graham suggested he throw out legal ballots

The Georgia secretary of state , Brad Raffensperger , has said that Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was possible to invalidate legally cast ballots after Donald Trump was narrowly defeated in the state .
In an interview with the Washington Post , Raffensperger said Graham , the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee , questioned him about the state ’ s signature-matching law and asked whether political bias might have played a role in counties where poll workers accepted higher rates of mismatched signatures .
According to Raffensperger , Graham then asked whether he had the authority to toss @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Raffspenger was reportedly “ stunned ” by the question , in which Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to throw out legally cast absentee ballots .
“ It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road , ” he said .
Graham confirmed the conversation to reporters on Capitol Hill but said it was “ ridiculous ” to suggest that he pressured Raffensperger to throw out legally cast absentee ballots .
According to Graham , he only wanted to learn more about the process for verifying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ affects the whole nation ” .
“ I thought it was a good conversation , ” Graham said on Monday after the interview was published .
“ I ’ m surprised to hear he characterized it that way.
” Trump has refused to accept results showing Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election , falsely blaming rampant fraud and irregularities that election officials in both parties have dismissed as meritless .
Georgia , a reliably Republican state with 16 electoral votes , is currently conducting a hand recount of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expected to be completed by 20 November .
Biden led in the state by about 14,000 votes after the initial tally .
This comes as Raffensberger faces mounting backlash from his own party after defending the state ’ s electoral process .
The state ’ s two Republican senators , David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler , both locked in tight run-off elections to keep their seats , have called for Raffensberger ’ s resignation – calls that Raffensberger has dismissed .
Congressman Doug Collins of Georgia , who is spearheading the president ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state , has also been critical of Raffensberger , accusing him of siding with Democrats because he refused to endorse the false claim that the election was stolen from Trump .
In the interview , Raffensberger called Collins , who has not contested the result of the special election race he lost to Loeffler , a “ liar ” and a “ charlatan ” .
Raffensberger said every accusation of voter fraud would be thoroughly vetted but there was currently no credible evidence that wrongdoing had occurred on a large enough scale to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He also told the Post that the recount would “ affirm ” the results of the initial count and prove the accuracy of the Dominion voting machines , which Trump has falsely claimed deleted votes cast for him .
Voting rights and ethics groups condemned Graham ’ s comments , and some called for his resignation as chair of the Senate judiciary committee .
“ Not only is it wrong for Senator Graham to apparently contemplate illegal behavior , but his suggestion undermines the integrity of our elections and the faith of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Noah Bookbinder , the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington , in a statement .
“ Under the guise of rooting out election fraud , it looks like Graham is suggesting committing it .
”

Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has said that Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was possible to invalidate legally cast ballots after Donald Trump was narrowly defeated in the state.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Raffensperger said that his fellow Republican, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, questioned him about the state’s signature-matching law and asked whether political bias might have played a role in counties where poll workers accepted higher rates of mismatched signatures. According to Raffensperger, Graham then asked whether he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in these counties.
Sign up for the Guardian’s First Thing newsletter
Raffensperger was reportedly “stunned” by the question, in which Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to throw out legally cast absentee ballots.
“It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” he said.
Graham confirmed the conversation to reporters on Capitol Hill but said it was “ridiculous” to suggest that he pressured Raffensperger to throw out legally cast absentee ballots. According to Graham, he only wanted to learn more about the process for verifying signatures, because what happens in Georgia “affects the whole nation”.
“I thought it was a good conversation,” Graham said on Monday after the interview was published. “I’m surprised to hear he characterized it that way.”
Trump has refused to accept results showing Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election, falsely blaming rampant fraud and irregularities that election officials in both parties have dismissed as meritless.
01:10 Georgia's secretary of state announces election vote recount – video
Georgia, usually a reliably Republican state with 16 electoral votes, is currently conducting a hand recount of roughly 5m presidential ballots, which is expected to be completed by 20 November. Biden led in the state by about 14,000 votes after the initial tally.
This comes as Raffensperger faces mounting backlash from his own party after defending the state’s electoral process. The state’s two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both locked in tight runoff elections to keep their seats, have called for Raffensperger’s resignation – calls that Raffensperger has dismissed.
Congressman Doug Collins of Georgia, who is spearheading the president’s effort to prove fraud in the state, has also been critical of Raffensperger, accusing him of siding with Democrats because he refused to endorse the false claim that the election was stolen from Trump. In the interview, Raffensperger called Collins, who has not contested the result of the special election race he lost to Loeffler, a “liar” and a “charlatan”.
Raffensperger said every accusation of voter fraud would be thoroughly vetted but there was currently no credible evidence that wrongdoing had occurred on a large enough scale to affect the outcome of the election. He also told the Post that the recount would “affirm” the results of the initial count and prove the accuracy of the Dominion voting machines, which Trump has falsely claimed deleted votes cast for him.
Voting rights and ethics groups condemned Graham’s comments, and some called for his resignation as chair of the Senate judiciary committee.
“Not only is it wrong for Senator Graham to apparently contemplate illegal behavior, but his suggestion undermines the integrity of our elections and the faith of the American people in our democracy,” said Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in a statement. “Under the guise of rooting out election fraud, it looks like Graham is suggesting committing it.”