theguardian--2020-12-04--US faces grim winter as Covid cases and deaths set new records again – live

Over and over again in courts across the country Republican president Donald Trump and his allies have continued to mount new cases in a futile attempt to stay in power .
They ’ ve been recycling the same baseless claims , even after Trump ’ s own attorney general declared the Justice Department had uncovered no widespread fraud .
“ This will continue to be a losing strategy , and in a way it ’ s even bad for him : He gets to re-lose the election numerous times , ” Kent Greenfield , a professor at Boston College Law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The depths of his petulance and narcissism continues to surprise me.
” Of roughly 50 cases brought by Trump ’ s campaign and his allies , more than 30 have been rejected or dropped .
About a dozen are awaiting action .
Trump has notched just one small victory , a case challenging a decision to move the deadline to provide missing proof of identification for certain absentee ballots and mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania .
Another legal blow came Thursday , the day after Trump posted his 46-minute rant to Facebook filled with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up his fight to subvert the election .
In Wisconsin , a split state Supreme Court refused to hear Trump ’ s lawsuit seeking to disqualify more than 221,000 ballots in the state ’ s two biggest Democratic counties , alleging irregularities in the way absentee ballots were administered .
The case echoed claims that were earlier rejected by election officials in those counties during a recount that barely affected Biden ’ s winning margin of about 20,700 votes .
Trump filed a similar lawsuit in federal court late Wednesday .
Meanwhile , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thursday in a case contesting the election results brought by Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward .
Ward ’ s lawyers say an inspection of 100 ballots found two problems : one person ’ s vote for Trump was ultimately recorded as a Biden vote and another person ’ s vote for Trump was canceled when the reproduced ballot contained votes for both the Republican incumbent and a write-in candidate .
Judges in battleground states have repeatedly swatted down legal challenges brought by the president and his allies .
Trump ’ s legal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ case to the supreme court , even though it was rejected in a scathing ruling by a federal judge as well as an appeals court .
After recently being kicked off Trump ’ s legal team , conservative attorney Sidney Powell filed new lawsuits in Arizona and Wisconsin this week riddled with errors and wild conspiracies about election rigging .
One of the plaintiffs named in the Wisconsin case said he never agreed to participate in the case and found out through social media that he had been included .
The same lawsuit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the “ TCF Center ” .
That is in Detroit , which is famously not in Wisconsin .
The issues Trump ’ s campaign and its allies have raised are typical in every election : problems with signatures , secrecy envelopes and postmarks on mail-in ballots , as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost .
Election officials from both parties have said the election went well .
Failing to gain any traction in court , Trump and his allies are now turning to events with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pennsylvania , Georgia and Michigan where they can use unfounded claims of fraud to incite the president ’ s loyal base .

Jessica Glenza (now) and Martin Belam (earlier)

5 Dec 2020 01.17 GMT Evening summary Busy day if you were an attorney for the Trump team. Thanks for sticking with us while we made sense of all those rulings! Donald Trump and his team notched losses in four states in his bid to contest the election results . A Georgia appellate court, the Wisconsin supreme court, a superior court in Arizona and a district court in Nevada all had some choice words for Team Trump .
and his team notched losses in in his bid to contest the . A appellate court, the supreme court, a superior court in and a district court in all had some choice words for . A judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore Daca.
to restore Five counties in the San Francisco Bay Area have pre-emptively adopted the state’s regional stay-at-home order, which will affect 6m Californians.
Updated at 01.26 GMT
5 Dec 2020 00.44 GMT Who’s ready for loss No 46? A judge has denied the Trump team’s contest of election results in Arizona. 🚨🚨BREAKING: Arizona Court DENIES Election Contest.
Court: "Plaintiff has not proven that the Biden/Harris ticket did not receive the highest number of votes."
Trump and his allies have now lost 46 post-election lawsuits.https://t.co/gXiCj2xUR1 — Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) December 4, 2020 Randall Warner, a Maricopa county superior court judge, wrote in his ruling that the evidence does not show fraud or misconduct, nor does it show illegal votes or erroneous vote counts. He specifically noted the allegation around mail-in ballots and signature comparisons, writing that “the signature comparison is just one part of the verification process” and that “Maricopa County election officials followed this process faithfully in 2020”. “Approximately 1.9m mail-in ballots were cast and, of these, approximately 20,000 were identified that required contacting the voter,” Warner wrote. “Of those, only 587 ultimately could not be validated.” “Plaintiff has not proven that the Biden/Harris ticket did not receive the highest number of votes,” Warner wrote.
Updated at 01.10 GMT
5 Dec 2020 00.26 GMT Here comes another one. For the Trump legal team, the decision from the Wisconsin Supreme Court to deny a petition from a conservative group asking the panel to invalidate the presidential election is loss no. 45, according to a tally by the Democracy Docket. 🚨🚨BREAKING: Wisconsin Supreme Court DENIES application by conservative group to invalidate results of the election.
Trump and his allies have now lost 45 post election cases and won 1.https://t.co/xVhV7iMW3t — Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) December 4, 2020 Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote incredulously that while the unprecedented petition “falls far short of the kind of compelling evidence and legal support we would undoubtedly need to countenance the court-ordered disenfranchisement of every Wisconsin voter”, at least “no one can accuse the petitioners of timidity”. This passage of his decision is worth a read:
Nonetheless, I feel compelled to share a further observation. Something far more fundamental than the winner of Wisconsin’s electoral votes is implicated in this case. At stake, in some measure, is faith in our system of free and fair elections, a feature central to the enduring strength of our constitutional republic. It can be easy to blithely move on to the next case with a petition so obviously lacking, but this is sobering. The relief being sought by the petitioners is the most dramatic invocation of judicial power I have ever seen. Judicial acquiescence to such entreaties built on so flimsy a foundation would do indelible damage to every future election. Once the door is opened to judicial invalidation of presidential election results, it will be awfully hard to close that door again. This is a dangerous path we are being asked to tread. The loss of public trust in our constitutional order resulting from the exercise of this kind of judicial power would be incalculable. I do not mean to suggest this court should look the other way no matter what. But if there is a sufficient basis to invalidate an election, it must be established with evidence and arguments commensurate with the scale of the claims and the relief sought. These petitioners have come nowhere close. While the rough and tumble world of electoral politics may be the prism through which many view this litigation, it cannot be so for us. In these hallowed halls, the law must rule.
Updated at 01.12 GMT
4 Dec 2020 23.23 GMT Trump loses 44th post-election appeal Donald Trump notched his 44th loss in post-election litigation on Friday when a district judge dismissed both an attempt by his campaign to contest the election results in Nevada and another in Georgia, according to a count by Democracy Docket. 🚨BREAKING: 11th Circuit DISMISSES Georgia Kraken appeal. 🐙
Trump and his allies remain 1-44 in post-election litigation.https://t.co/QjoooN47HA — Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) December 4, 2020 🚨🚨BREAKING: Nevada court DISMISSES with prejudice Trump Election Contest!
Trump and his allies are now 1-44 in post election litigation.https://t.co/MSGolxNx6u — Helis Bor (@helisbor) December 4, 2020 First off, here’s a recap of all the election challenges happening: The Nevada dismissal was fairly straightforward, with Judge James Russell ruling that “contestants evidence does not establish by any clear and convincing proof, or any standard of evidence, that ‘the defendant or any person acting, either directly or indirectly, on behalf of the defendant has given, or offered to give, to any person anything of value for the purpose of manipulating or altering the outcome of the election’.” Trump’s campaign had asked a judge to nullify Nevada’s election results or set them aside and declare him the winner, arguing that illegal or improper votes were cast and the use of optical scanning to process signatures on mail-in ballots violated state law. The Georgia dismissal was more an issue of jurisdiction. The lawsuit in Georgia involved the state’s presidential electors from Georgia, who sued the governor and secretary of state, among others, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, asserting that Georgia’s certified 2020 presidential election results were suspect because of alleged vulnerabilities in Georgia’s election machines and alleged mathematical and statistical anomalies in the vote count. Two days later, they sought a restraining order to prevent the erasing or altering forensic data on voting machines, among other things, and a judge granted them a limited restraining order that applied to the machines in three counties. The Trump team appealed that order. The court had an evidentiary hearing scheduled before the appeal that it was forced to canceled. So the court was fairly scathing in their dismissal of that appeal: In our judicial system, the district court is the central forum for testing, advancing, proving, or disproving a party’s allegations. It is where trials take place and the parties present their evidence. As a court of appeals, “we are a court of review, not of first view.” Typically, we enter the picture only after the district court has considered the parties’ competing positions and a winner has emerged. Less frequently, we review preliminary injunctions or orders that ask a particularly important, purely legal question. The district court has not issued one of those appealable orders. In this case, the district court issued an emergency temporary restraining order at the plaintiffs’ request, worked at a breakneck pace to provide them an opportunity for broader relief, and was ready to enter an appealable order on the merits of their claims immediately after its expedited hearing on December 4, 2020. But the plaintiffs would not take the district court’s “yes” for an answer. They appealed instead. And, because they appealed, the evidentiary hearing has been stayed and the case considerably delayed. For our part, the law requires that we dismiss the appeal and return the case to the district court for further proceedings.
Updated at 00.08 GMT
4 Dec 2020 23.11 GMT Judge orders Trump administration to fully restore Daca A federal court judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore the Daca program that made it possible for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children to live and work in the US without fear of deportation. BREAKING: VICTORY in the courts for #DACA! Today the Eastern District of New York ruled in our case with @MaketheRoadNY and @WiracYls to undo the harm of the Trump administration’s latest attacks on DACA. Here’s what you need to know 👇 — National Immigration Law Center (@NILC) December 4, 2020 The ruling by US Judge Nicholas Garaufis meant that the administration must reopen the program to first-time applicants and return the period of protections to two years. A quick recap: Daca is a program created in 2012 under Barack Obama that allowed people brought to the US unlawfully as children the temporary right legally to live, study and work in America, instead of always having to fear deportation. The program allowed them to do basic things like get driver’s licenses, apply for colleges or get work permits. This is a major victory for immigrant youth, led by immigrant youth. We would not be celebrating this day were it not for our courageous plaintiffs that fought to affirm that their #HomeIsHere. — National Immigration Law Center (@NILC) December 4, 2020
4 Dec 2020 22.58 GMT Trump orders troops out of Somalia Donald Trump has ordered all 700 American troops out of Somalia, the New York Times is reporting. The mostly special operations troops who have been conducting training and counterterrorism missions will be leaving by 15 January, five days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. A Defense Department official told the Times that many of the troops will be “repositioned” to Kenya.
Updated at 23.20 GMT
4 Dec 2020 22.47 GMT 6m ordered to stay at home in California The five Bay Area counties’ preemptive adoption of the regional stay-at-home order will affect about 6m Californians when it goes into effect on Sunday. The preemptive order comes as San Francisco averages 142 new Covid-19 cases a day and 900 new cases a week. Hospitalizations have tripled over the last month. “It takes several weeks for new restrictions to slow rising hospitalizations and waiting until only 15 percent of a region’s ICU beds are available is just too late,” said San Francisco health officer Dr Tomás Aragon. “Many heavily impacted parts of our region already have less than 15 percent of ICU beds available, and the time to act is now.” This is not the first time that the Bay Area has led the charge on coronavirus measures. The counties of San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda were the first in the nation to issue a shelter-in-place order, days before Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, issued the order statewide.
4 Dec 2020 22.12 GMT Hey all, Vivian Ho on the west coast, taking over the blog for the rest of the day. And we’re starting off hot with some west coast news. California announced yesterday new plans to launch regional stay-at-home orders based on intensive-care unit capacity. Once the ICU capacity of a region falls below 15%, a stay-at-home order will be triggered, with the vast majority of the state expected to meet that criteria within the next few days. The San Francisco Bay Area, one of the state’s five regions, is expected to be the last region to fall below a 15% capacity. But on Friday, San Francisco and four other Bay Area counties pre-emptively adopted the stay-at-home order in an effort to curb the surge taking place in the area. San Francisco, along with other Bay Area counties, is opting in to the Governor's regional Stay at Home Order effective Sunday at 10pm.
We're on pace to run out of hospital beds to care for patients the day after Christmas. We must turn this around now. https://t.co/F0qwFnCb9e — London Breed (@LondonBreed) December 4, 2020 “Given the steep increase in Covid-19 cases in San Francisco, we must do whatever is necessary in order to get the virus under control,” said San Francisco Mayor London Breed. “This is about protecting people’s lives. We see how quickly it moves and how devastating the effects. We need to do everything we can to prevent our hospital system from becoming overwhelmed and to save lives.” There are 11 counties total in the stay-at-home designation of these early stay-at-home adopters, meaning seven other counties in this region do not have stay-at-home orders while San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and Santa Clara counties do. This decision will save lives in Oakland. COVID-19 is surging + Bay Area cities are at high risk of exhausting our ICU capacity. This early regional action will help us bend the curve again, and allow us to enter 2021 with more stability. https://t.co/cPeZWeQLQQ — Libby Schaaf (@LibbySchaaf) December 4, 2020 Meanwhile, the other four regions of the state - northern California, the greater Sacramento area, southern California and the San Joaquin valley - are expected to reach the below-15% threshold within the next few days.
Updated at 23.18 GMT
4 Dec 2020 21.58 GMT Covid-19 surges and the jobs recovery collapses as Congress debates relief package The US saw the worst single-day highs for new Covid-19 cases and deaths of the entire pandemic, at 217,664 new cases and 2,879 deaths.
of the entire pandemic, at 217,664 new cases and 2,879 deaths. President-elect Joe Biden urgently called for Congress to pass a $900bn coronavirus stimulus bill , as the jobs recovery slowed significantly in November.
urgently called for Congress to pass a , as the jobs recovery slowed significantly in November. The latest jobs report, bad on its own, does not reflect the worst effects a probable surge could have on the economy.
That is because the November jobs or coronavirus case data does not reflect new cases acquired during the Thanksgiving holiday , which have yet to be diagnosed because of Covid-19’s long incubation period.
, which have yet to be diagnosed because of Covid-19’s long incubation period. New data on travel over the Thanksgiving holiday showed few Americans heeded warnings to stay at home.
to stay at home. Public health officials from all quarters are warning Americans the darkest days are still ahead and to delay any Christmas plans people may have. I’m now handing the blog over to my esteemed colleague Vivian Ho, who will carry us through the evening.
4 Dec 2020 21.46 GMT A $2.3m coronavirus contact-tracing contract in Iowa was awarded to a major Republican donor in a 36-hour bidding process critics say smacks of favoritism from the state’s Republican governor. The man who owns the company has claimed his telemarketing company made 80 million calls to help Trump win the 2016 election. Here is his current pinned tweet: "Don’t give in, don’t back down, and never stop doing what you know is right. Nothing worth doing ever, ever came easy, and the more righteous your fight, the more opposition that you will face." -@realDonaldTrump
Welcome back to #Iowa @DonaldJTrumpJr & @kimguilfoyle. 🇺🇸 #VOTE pic.twitter.com/gAZmnfcpcO — Anthony Marlowe (@AnthonyMarlowe) October 27, 2020 And here is more from the Associated Press: MCI is owned by GOP donor Anthony Marlowe, who has boasted that it played a key role in Trump’s 2016 victory and was among the state’s top backers of Trump’s unsuccessful reelection bid. Marlowe was an Iowa delegate to the Republican National Convention in August who spoke during the roll call vote as the state supported Trump’s renomination. He said his company had grown from 400 employees in 2016 to 4,000 “thanks to your explosive economic policies.” MCI subsidiary Mass Markets has been paid $1 million by Trump’s campaign for telemarketing and data services since 2016, campaign finance records show. Marlowe said in 2016 the company made 80 million calls to help Trump get out the vote, raise money and draw crowds to events. This cycle, MCI provided custom software and telephony services to the campaign. The Republican governor’s campaign paid MCI more than $18,000 for services between 2017 and 2019 to promote rally turnout, and Marlowe’s firm has recently done work for the Republican Party of Iowa. Marlowe has become a major donor, giving more than $175,000 to Republican Party groups and candidates since 2017, including to Trump, Reynolds and the state party, records show. His wife Julia began working at the White House earlier this year, although the couple has since announced their divorce. Iowa awarded the contract using federal coronavirus relief funds that must be used by Dec. 31, after contact-tracing workers had been unable to keep pace with new cases. Last month, the state’s third-largest county abandoned contact tracing amid exponential growth. Democratic state Sen. Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City, ranking member of the appropriations committee, called the bidding process “terrible” because vendors had only 36 hours to apply. “We knew for weeks and weeks we weren’t keeping up with contact-tracing. Suddenly we have this emergency and a competitive process that’s meaningless,” he said. “Now we have hired this company that has these close ties to the governor. This just reeks of inside dealing.” He noted the state’s no-bid contracts for a $26 million testing program and $21 million payroll system using coronavirus relief funds also faced favoritism allegations. Independent experts had long recommended that Iowa hire hundreds or thousands more people to identify, contact and isolate those exposed to infected people to slow the spread. Facing a virus surge that was overwhelming hospitals, the Iowa Department of Public Health announced Nov. 16 that it was seeking a contact tracing vendor. Citing the urgency, the department said proposals would be due the next day at midnight. Fourteen companies submitted bids for the work. Marlowe said he wanted MCI, whose proposal was dated Nov. 16, to be the first to apply to demonstrate its nimbleness. “Simply put, we move quickly and get things done,” he said. Proposals had to be 10 pages. MCI’s 12-page proposal had one page of references and one page of graphics, which the department considered a “minor deficiency” but not disqualifying, agency spokeswoman Sarah Ekstrand said. MCI was the top-scoring applicant out of the six that met the minimum score, she said. Reynolds spokesman Pat Garrett said the governor’s office played no role in the request for proposals or contract selection. Marlowe said that he had not discussed the contract with Reynolds and that he doubted she was aware MCI worked on her campaign. He released emails showing another MCI official had solicited state officials in March and state epidemiologist Dr. Caitlin Pedati in May to promote its services. MCI’s proposal said it would charge $240,000 per week to provide 200 full-time tracers.
4 Dec 2020 21.16 GMT The press conference concludes with Biden saying an enthusiastic “Yes!” when asked if he will go to Georgia, where two key US Senate races are going into runoffs in January.


theguardian--2020-12-04--US jobs market recovery slows amid surge in Covid-19 cases

The recovery in the US jobs market collapsed in November as cases of Covid-19 hit new records , government figures revealed on Friday .
The US added just 245,000 new jobs in November , less than the 638,000 jobs added in October , the 672,000 jobs added in September and the 1.4m jobs added in August .
The unemployment rate fell to 6.7 % .
Jobs growth has now slowed month on month since June and the latest report highlighted another worrying trend – the growth in long-term unemployment .
In November , the number of long-term unemployed ( those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ increased by 385,000 to 3.9 million , accounting for 36.9 % of the total unemployed .
The unemployment rate has fallen sharply from a record high of 14.7 % in April but is still 3.2 percentage points higher than it was in February , before the coronavirus struck the US .
The downturn also continues to disproportionately affect people of color .
The unemployment rate for black Americans was 10.5 % in November , for Latinos it was 8.4 % and for whites 5.9 % .
November ’ s figures were dragged down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the government ’ s latest census , which accounted for the loss of 96,000 jobs .
But other sectors also lost jobs , notably retail , which shed 35,000 jobs , and food services and drinking places , which lost 17,000 positions .
The slowdown comes as Congress continues to argue over the size of a new stimulus package and millions of Americans face the expiration of unemployment benefits agreed to when Washington signed off on the last stimulus package in March .
Janet Yellen , incoming president Joe Biden ’ s pick @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that there would be “ more devastation ” if action is not taken soon .
“ It ’ s an American tragedy and it ’ s essential that we move with urgency .
Inaction will produce a self-reinforcing downturn , causing yet more devastation , ” Yellen said .
Surging rates of Covid 19 infections have led to cities and states across the US reinforcing quarantine measures and placing limits on non-essential businesses .
Across California , new stay-at-home orders have been implemented as the governor worries a surge in patients may swamp @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Los Angeles county , where restrictions were announced on Wednesday night , reported a record 7,593 new cases on Tuesday .
The figures from the bureau of labor statistics come after another disappointing report from ADP , the US ’ s largest payroll provider .
ADP ’ s latest monthly tally of the number of new jobs created showed private payrolls grew by 307,000 in November , a decline from the 404,000 the previous month .
“ While November saw employment gains , the pace continues to slow , ” said Ahu Yildirmaz @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Research Institute .

The recovery in the US jobs market collapsed in November as cases of Covid-19 hit new records, government figures revealed on Friday.
The US added just 245,000 new jobs in November, less than the 638,000 jobs added in October, the 672,000 jobs added in September and the 1.4m jobs added in August. The unemployment rate fell to 6.7%.
Jobs growth has now slowed month on month since June and the latest report highlighted another worrying trend – the growth in long-term unemployment. In November, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 385,000 to 3.9 million, accounting for 36.9% of the total unemployed.
The unemployment rate has fallen sharply from a record high of 14.7% in April but is still 3.2 percentage points higher than it was in February, before the coronavirus struck the US.
The downturn also continues to disproportionately affect people of color. The unemployment rate for black Americans was 10.5% in November, for Latinos it was 8.4% and for whites 5.9%.
November’s figures were dragged down by the end of temporary hiring for the government’s latest census, which accounted for the loss of 96,000 jobs. But other sectors also lost jobs, notably retail, which shed 35,000 jobs, and food services and drinking places, which lost 17,000 positions.
The slowdown comes as Congress continues to argue over the size of a new stimulus package and millions of Americans face the expiration of unemployment benefits agreed to when Washington signed off on the last stimulus package in March.
Janet Yellen, incoming president Joe Biden’s pick for Treasury secretary, warned this week that there would be “more devastation” if action is not taken soon.
“It’s an American tragedy and it’s essential that we move with urgency. Inaction will produce a self-reinforcing downturn, causing yet more devastation,” Yellen said.
Surging rates of Covid 19 infections have led to cities and states across the US reinforcing quarantine measures and placing limits on non-essential businesses. Across California, new stay-at-home orders have been implemented as the governor worries a surge in patients may swamp the state’s healthcare system. Los Angeles county, where restrictions were announced on Wednesday night, reported a record 7,593 new cases on Tuesday.
The figures from the bureau of labor statistics come after another disappointing report from ADP, the US’s largest payroll provider. ADP’s latest monthly tally of the number of new jobs created showed private payrolls grew by 307,000 in November, a decline from the 404,000 the previous month.
“While November saw employment gains, the pace continues to slow,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice-president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute.


theguardian--2020-12-04--Florida investigation finds governor misled public on Covid as cases rose

Florida this week became the third US state to record a million coronavirus cases and yet the public there has been misled by state leadership about the extent and dangers of the pandemic , especially in the run-up to the presidential election , an investigation has concluded .
Governor Ron DeSantis ’ s administration has been engaged in a pattern of spin and concealment about Covid-19 amid the gravest health threat the state has ever faced , according to a South Florida Sun Sentinel investigation .
According to the newspaper , Republican DeSantis influenced a state administration that “ suppressed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dismissed public health professionals , and promoted the views of scientific dissenters ” who supported the governor ’ s ambivalent approach to the disease .
DeSantis declined to be interviewed , the Sun Sentinel said , but it noted he told Fox News ’ Tucker Carlson Tonight earlier this week that the media ’ s criticism of his approach was “ all political ” .
The investigation found that the Florida department of health ’ s county-level spokespeople stopped issuing public statements about Covid-19 between September and the 3 November election .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did not release details about the earliest cases in Florida and denied the virus was spreading person to person , despite the fact that coronavirus is highly contagious .
The attitude struck by state leadership , mimicking the kind of dismissive approach of Donald Trump , the US president to whom DeSantis is a loyalist , has helped foster a public culture in which many defiantly shun face masks and readily gather in crowded bars and parties , the newspaper said , contrary to federal public health guidelines .
The Sun Sentinel said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with scientists , doctors , politicians and officials , and reviewing thousands of pages of documents .
Misinformation has included the governor ’ s spokesman claiming on Twitter that coronavirus was less deadly than the flu , while also citing statistics in a way that played down the toll of the virus .
As Florida ’ s case total approached 900,000 before the election , Dan Gelber , mayor of Miami Beach , said at a press event , while calling for a statewide mask mandate : “ It ’ s become pretty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now isn ’ t working .
It ’ s unmistakably clear that Florida ’ s approach to managing this pandemic is failing pretty horribly.
” He said that lines to get tested were stretching around the block in his community .
“ The state has rolled back its testing facilities … the state needs to take control of this , ” he said .
Gelber added that since DeSantis “ opened up the economy totally in late September and simultaneously prevented local governments from enforcing individual mask mandates we have seen an enormous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the governor ’ s spokesman , told the Sun Sentinel that DeSantis has not been spinning facts and had stuck with a facts-based message that would accomplish the most in saving lives .
“ The governor has been consistent since the beginning of the pandemic , ” he said .
“ Wash hands , maintain social distance , wear a mask , etc .
But he ’ s also adapted to the data as it becomes available.
” The investigation alleged that DeSantis had shut leading scientists out of the public dialogue on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ academic Scott Atlas to tour Florida with him and they appeared at events where they talked up the advantages of avoiding imposing social restrictions .
Atlas became the controversial leading coronavirus adviser to Trump as the president edged away from the most senior public health officials such as Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx .
Atlas resigned from his White House post earlier this week .
And as the election neared , the Florida department of health cut back on public information about coronavirus and stopped its regular posts on Facebook and Twitter about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leading university-affiliated experts on infectious diseases have been largely sidelined and bypassed .
“ We have over 200 affiliated faculty within this institute , ” Glenn Morris , director of the University of Florida ’ s Emerging Pathogens Institute , told the Sun Sentinel .
“ This is what we do for a living .
Yet the state has not taken full advantage of that expertise .
”

Florida this week became the third US state to record a million coronavirus cases and yet the public there has been misled by state leadership about the extent and dangers of the pandemic, especially in the run-up to the presidential election, an investigation has concluded.
Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration has been engaged in a pattern of spin and concealment about Covid-19 amid the gravest health threat the state has ever faced, according to a South Florida Sun Sentinel investigation.
According to the newspaper, Republican DeSantis influenced a state administration that “suppressed unfavorable facts, dispensed dangerous misinformation, dismissed public health professionals, and promoted the views of scientific dissenters” who supported the governor’s ambivalent approach to the disease.
DeSantis declined to be interviewed, the Sun Sentinel said, but it noted he told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight earlier this week that the media’s criticism of his approach was “all political”.
The investigation found that the Florida department of health’s county-level spokespeople stopped issuing public statements about Covid-19 between September and the 3 November election.
And earlier on in the pandemic state leaders did not release details about the earliest cases in Florida and denied the virus was spreading person to person, despite the fact that coronavirus is highly contagious.
The attitude struck by state leadership, mimicking the kind of dismissive approach of Donald Trump, the US president to whom DeSantis is a loyalist, has helped foster a public culture in which many defiantly shun face masks and readily gather in crowded bars and parties, the newspaper said, contrary to federal public health guidelines.
The Sun Sentinel said its extensive reporting is based on interviews with scientists, doctors, politicians and officials, and reviewing thousands of pages of documents.
Misinformation has included the governor’s spokesman claiming on Twitter that coronavirus was less deadly than the flu, while also citing statistics in a way that played down the toll of the virus.
As Florida’s case total approached 900,000 before the election, Dan Gelber, mayor of Miami Beach, said at a press event, while calling for a statewide mask mandate: “It’s become pretty clear that what Florida is doing right now isn’t working. It’s unmistakably clear that Florida’s approach to managing this pandemic is failing pretty horribly.”
He said that lines to get tested were stretching around the block in his community. “The state has rolled back its testing facilities … the state needs to take control of this,” he said.
Gelber added that since DeSantis “opened up the economy totally in late September and simultaneously prevented local governments from enforcing individual mask mandates we have seen an enormous surge”.
Fred Piccolo Jr, the governor’s spokesman, told the Sun Sentinel that DeSantis has not been spinning facts and had stuck with a facts-based message that would accomplish the most in saving lives.
“The governor has been consistent since the beginning of the pandemic,” he said. “Wash hands, maintain social distance, wear a mask, etc. But he’s also adapted to the data as it becomes available.”
The investigation alleged that DeSantis had shut leading scientists out of the public dialogue on coronavirus.
In late August DeSantis invited academic Scott Atlas to tour Florida with him and they appeared at events where they talked up the advantages of avoiding imposing social restrictions.
Atlas became the controversial leading coronavirus adviser to Trump as the president edged away from the most senior public health officials such as Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx. Atlas resigned from his White House post earlier this week.
And as the election neared, the Florida department of health cut back on public information about coronavirus and stopped its regular posts on Facebook and Twitter about Covid-19 safety measures.
Florida’s leading university-affiliated experts on infectious diseases have been largely sidelined and bypassed.
“We have over 200 affiliated faculty within this institute,” Glenn Morris, director of the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute, told the Sun Sentinel.
“This is what we do for a living. Yet the state has not taken full advantage of that expertise.”


theguardian--2020-12-04--US Congress slow to issue directives as Covid spreads at a high rate among lawmakers

For months Capitol Hill has struggled with how to contain the coronavirus pandemic in the United States .
But even as the rest of the world slowly got a better handle on the spread of the virus , infections among US lawmakers in Washington DC have continued to rise and there hasn ’ t been a singular medical authority enforcing a blanket set of rules for all members of Congress and their staffers .
As a result , the virus has roared through the ranks of America ’ s elected leaders , and their teams of aides , at a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of November , more than 25 members of Congress and at least 150 workers have been infected , or were presumed to be infected , according to NPR .
That has lead some members of Congress , and privately some congressional staffers , to complain about a lack of direction about how to safely go about lawmaking in Congress – including on bills responding to the pandemic .
Now though lawmakers and the office in charge of legislators ’ health are trying to get a better handle on the pandemic in their own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hill is uniquely important because lawmakers still have to legislate during the pandemic and many of them are within the parameters experts consider high risk .
At moments Congressional staffers have not gotten the same directives as elected officials during the pandemic as well .
Over the last few days there have been substantial changes to aspects of Congress and the precautions taken for the coronavirus pandemic .
The Office of the Attending Physician , which is responsible for the health of members of Congress , recently sent out a set of new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ DC , quarantining and working on Capitol Hill .
Previously , in November , the Associated Press reported that the OAP took steps to make coronavirus testing more available for members of Congress and staff .
Those December directives from the OAP come as Nancy Pelosi , the House speaker and highest ranking Democrat in Congress , announced an expansion of Covid-19 testing administered with the help of the Air Force over the next six weeks or so as well as new travel restrictions .
Pelosi ’ s Senate counterpart , Republican majority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the OAP to try figure out a way to retain in-person Senate weekly lunches , a weekly tradition .
But more recently he and other Republicans relented , deciding instead to hold them over conference call .
There is already a mandate to wear masks in the House of Representatives and many offices for lawmakers have taken additional steps like emphasizing working remotely to avoid potential coronavirus exposure .
Other congressional leaders have been pushing for expanded testing for months .
But that hasn ’ t been enough to halt the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over precautions .
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley , one of the older members of the Senate , recently returned to his Washington office after quarantining because he tested positive for Covid-19 .
He was one of the latest senators to test positive .
Others included Republican senators Ron Johnson , Thom Tillis and Mike Lee .
Members of the House have tested positive as well .
Even though over three dozen lawmakers have said they have either tested or “ presumed ” positive for the virus according to NPR , there have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a feud between Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and Texas senator Ted Cruz began over a dispute about wearing a mask on the Senate floor .
That feud is still ongoing and Brown ’ s team recently sent out a fundraising email recounting it .
But there has still been an inconsistency among American lawmakers at large and the OAP since the pandemic started over how to handle the virus .
A review of previous sets of guidelines by the OAP shows there is no final authority for implementing a comprehensive coronavirus policy for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the guidelines from the OAP are recommendations rather than hardcore rules with a set penalty .
In a set of guidelines from May , for instance , the OAP said : “ The US Capitol Police will not take enforcement actions regarding face coverings .
If a visitor is not adhering to a specific office policy , and the office manager is requesting that individual be removed from the office , the US Capitol Police will assist with his request.
” Those May guidelines also said that “ Offices should not require @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the workplace after resolution of their symptoms but will rely upon the individual ’ s assurance that they have consulted with their primary care provider.
” Another set of guidelines from 21 October said : “ Face coverings are not required in outdoor settings when 6ft separation between individuals is able to be maintained .
If unable to maintain separation in outdoor public spaces , the use of face coverings is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.
” Still , some lawmakers have argued that a consistent approach to curbing the pandemic among members or passing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Senator Brown has been clear that Congress , as a whole , took way too long to implement science-backed policies to protect staff and members , such as encouraging social distancing and mask wearing , ” Brown ’ s office said in a statement .
“ He has been outspoken that we should be following the science and ensuring that workers are not endangered by being on Capitol grounds .
”

For months Capitol Hill has struggled with how to contain the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
But even as the rest of the world slowly got a better handle on the spread of the virus, infections among US lawmakers in Washington DC have continued to rise and there hasn’t been a singular medical authority enforcing a blanket set of rules for all members of Congress and their staffers.
As a result, the virus has roared through the ranks of America’s elected leaders, and their teams of aides, at a shockingly high rate. By the end of November, more than 25 members of Congress and at least 150 workers have been infected, or were presumed to be infected, according to NPR.
That has lead some members of Congress, and privately some congressional staffers, to complain about a lack of direction about how to safely go about lawmaking in Congress – including on bills responding to the pandemic.
Now though lawmakers and the office in charge of legislators’ health are trying to get a better handle on the pandemic in their own workplace. Curbing the coronavirus on Capitol Hill is uniquely important because lawmakers still have to legislate during the pandemic and many of them are within the parameters experts consider high risk. At moments Congressional staffers have not gotten the same directives as elected officials during the pandemic as well.
Over the last few days there have been substantial changes to aspects of Congress and the precautions taken for the coronavirus pandemic.
The Office of the Attending Physician, which is responsible for the health of members of Congress, recently sent out a set of new directives for traveling to and from Washington DC, quarantining and working on Capitol Hill. Previously, in November, the Associated Press reported that the OAP took steps to make coronavirus testing more available for members of Congress and staff.
Those December directives from the OAP come as Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker and highest ranking Democrat in Congress, announced an expansion of Covid-19 testing administered with the help of the Air Force over the next six weeks or so as well as new travel restrictions.
Pelosi’s Senate counterpart, Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell, spent months working with the OAP to try figure out a way to retain in-person Senate weekly lunches, a weekly tradition. But more recently he and other Republicans relented, deciding instead to hold them over conference call.
There is already a mandate to wear masks in the House of Representatives and many offices for lawmakers have taken additional steps like emphasizing working remotely to avoid potential coronavirus exposure. Other congressional leaders have been pushing for expanded testing for months.
But that hasn’t been enough to halt the coronavirus spread among lawmakers or fighting among senators over precautions. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, one of the older members of the Senate, recently returned to his Washington office after quarantining because he tested positive for Covid-19.
He was one of the latest senators to test positive. Others included Republican senators Ron Johnson, Thom Tillis and Mike Lee. Members of the House have tested positive as well. Even though over three dozen lawmakers have said they have either tested or “presumed” positive for the virus according to NPR, there have been no deaths as yet.
In November a feud between Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and Texas senator Ted Cruz began over a dispute about wearing a mask on the Senate floor. That feud is still ongoing and Brown’s team recently sent out a fundraising email recounting it.
But there has still been an inconsistency among American lawmakers at large and the OAP since the pandemic started over how to handle the virus. A review of previous sets of guidelines by the OAP shows there is no final authority for implementing a comprehensive coronavirus policy for Capitol Hill lawmakers and staff.
Many of the guidelines from the OAP are recommendations rather than hardcore rules with a set penalty.
In a set of guidelines from May, for instance, the OAP said: “The US Capitol Police will not take enforcement actions regarding face coverings. If a visitor is not adhering to a specific office policy, and the office manager is requesting that individual be removed from the office, the US Capitol Police will assist with his request.”
Those May guidelines also said that “Offices should not require a doctor’s note to return to the workplace after resolution of their symptoms but will rely upon the individual’s assurance that they have consulted with their primary care provider.”
Another set of guidelines from 21 October said: “Face coverings are not required in outdoor settings when 6ft separation between individuals is able to be maintained. If unable to maintain separation in outdoor public spaces, the use of face coverings is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.”
Still, some lawmakers have argued that a consistent approach to curbing the pandemic among members or passing relief legislation has been too slow.
“Senator Brown has been clear that Congress, as a whole, took way too long to implement science-backed policies to protect staff and members, such as encouraging social distancing and mask wearing,” Brown’s office said in a statement. “He has been outspoken that we should be following the science and ensuring that workers are not endangered by being on Capitol grounds. ”


theguardian--2020-12-04--Republicans fear Trump's false claims could hurt party in Georgia runoff

Donald Trump is set to host a Saturday rally in Georgia amid concerns he is discouraging Republicans there from turning out to vote in a critical runoff contest by attacking top GOP officials and falsely claiming fraud and voting-machine irregularities cost him the November election .
The event will be Trump ’ s biggest public appearance since losing Georgia , and the presidential race , last month .
He will rally on behalf of Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue , two Republican senators in runoff contests .
Republicans need to win at least one of the contests in order to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ maintain a veto over the next four years of Joe Biden ’ s presidency .
Trump is urging supporters to vote for Perdue and Loeffler , but some Republicans worry he could be hurting their chances of winning .
Even after a hand recount confirmed Trump lost Georgia by about 13,000 votes , the president has continued to falsely claim fraud cost him the election .
By undermining confidence in the election , Trump could also be telling his supporters that their votes won ’ t matter .
L Lin Wood and Sidney @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have filed a spate of baseless pro-Trump lawsuits alleging election malfeasance , encouraged supporters in Georgia on Wednesday not to vote in the runoff election .
“ We ’ re not gon na go vote 5 January on another machine made by China .
You ’ re not gon na fool Georgians again , ” Wood said on Wednesday .
“ If Kelly Loeffler wants your vote , if David Perdue wants your vote , they ’ ve got to earn it .
They ’ ve got to demand publicly , repeatedly , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a special session of the Georgia legislature.
’ And if they do not do it , if Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue do not do it , they have not earned your vote .
“ Don ’ t you give it to them .
Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election ?
” Ronna Romney McDaniel , the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee , faced skeptical voters in Georgia last weekend and had to reassure them the Senate election was not yet decided , according to CNN .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ calls to boycott the runoff were “ nonsense ” and allies plan to launch a Super Pac aimed at turning out the president ’ s supporters in January .
Trump previewed an attempt to balance his endorsement of Perdue and Loeffler with his attacks on voting during a 46-minute video statement released on Wednesday filled with blatant lies about voting .
“ David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are two tremendous people .
Unfortunately , in Georgia , they ’ re using the same , horrible Dominion system , ” he said , referring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Trump and his allies have baselessly attacked .
“ Hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots have been requested .
You check it out who ’ s requesting those ballots .
The difference is it ’ s one state and we will have our eyes on it like nobody ’ s ever watched anything before .
Because we have to win those two Senate seats.
” Several well-known Georgia Republicans , including former governor Nathan Deal and former senator Johnny Isakson , also released an open letter on Wednesday warning the attention around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ runoff race .
“ We have watched with increasing concern as the debate surrounding the state ’ s electoral system has made some within our party consider whether voting in the coming runoff election matters , ” they wrote in the letter , according to the New York Times .
Trump will also arrive in Georgia having launched an internal war among Republicans .
He has repeatedly attacked fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger , the state ’ s top election official , for not helping him overturn the election results .
Perdue and Loeffler @ @ @ @ @ @ @ handling of the election , even though there is no evidence of wrongdoing in the state .
Raffensperger has loudly pushed back on Trump ’ s accusations , saying the president ’ s own fearmongering about vote by mail is what may have cost him the election .
Trump also attacked Brian Kemp , the conservative governor of Georgia , calling him “ hapless ” on Monday , saying he regretted endorsing him , and asking him to exercise emergency powers to overturn the results of the election .
Kemp released a statement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from interfering in elections .
Jay Williams , a Republican strategist in Georgia , said Trump ’ s attacks on the election were not particularly helpful , but said he did not think they would ultimately have much of an impact on the election .
“ Most of these voters who show up in these runoffs are fairly sophisticated and understand what ’ s at stake and in Georgia specifically , ” he said .
“ It ’ s not ideal from a unity standpoint , from a messaging standpoint.
” Eric Johnson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is now advising Loeffler ’ s campaign , also predicted that Trump ’ s attacks would not dramatically affect the election results .
Still , Johnson said Trump ’ s message about the election had been “ complicated ” and he hoped he would change his tone at the Saturday rally .
“ The way I ’ ve been phrasing it is , ‘ Let the lawyers focus on the last election .
Those in the grassroots need to focus on the next election , ’ ” he said .
“ He doesn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Georgia , but he can say , ‘ We still need to go to the polls .
We still need to trust that we ’ ve learned from what happened on November 3 and move forward.
’ ” Johnson said he had been encouraging people in Georgia to sign up to be poll workers and poll watchers for the runoff , and that Republicans would ultimately be motivated to vote by the potential for Senate control .
“ Republicans do the math , they know what 50-50 looks like , and they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said .
“ Everybody that voted for President Trump doesn ’ t want the far-left agenda .
They want the president ’ s legacy , if he ’ s not re-elected , to stand , and the Senate is the finger in the dike .
”

Donald Trump is set to host a Saturday rally in Georgia amid concerns he is discouraging Republicans there from turning out to vote in a critical runoff contest by attacking top GOP officials and falsely claiming fraud and voting-machine irregularities cost him the November election.
The event will be Trump’s biggest public appearance since losing Georgia, and the presidential race, last month. He will rally on behalf of Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, two Republican senators in runoff contests. Republicans need to win at least one of the contests in order to retain control of the US Senate and maintain a veto over the next four years of Joe Biden’s presidency.
Trump is urging supporters to vote for Perdue and Loeffler, but some Republicans worry he could be hurting their chances of winning. Even after a hand recount confirmed Trump lost Georgia by about 13,000 votes, the president has continued to falsely claim fraud cost him the election. By undermining confidence in the election, Trump could also be telling his supporters that their votes won’t matter.
L Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, two prominent conservative attorneys who have filed a spate of baseless pro-Trump lawsuits alleging election malfeasance, encouraged supporters in Georgia on Wednesday not to vote in the runoff election.
“We’re not gonna go vote 5 January on another machine made by China. You’re not gonna fool Georgians again,” Wood said on Wednesday. “If Kelly Loeffler wants your vote, if David Perdue wants your vote, they’ve got to earn it. They’ve got to demand publicly, repeatedly, consistently, ‘Brian Kemp: call a special session of the Georgia legislature.’ And if they do not do it, if Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue do not do it, they have not earned your vote.
“Don’t you give it to them. Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election?”
Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, faced skeptical voters in Georgia last weekend and had to reassure them the Senate election was not yet decided, according to CNN. Donald Trump Jr tweeted last month that calls to boycott the runoff were “nonsense” and allies plan to launch a Super Pac aimed at turning out the president’s supporters in January.
I’m seeing a lot of talk from people that are supposed to be on our side telling GOP voters not to go out & vote for @KLoeffler and @PerdueSenate.
That is NONSENSE.
IGNORE those people.
We need ALL of our people coming out to vote for Kelly & David.#MAGA #GASEN — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 23, 2020
Trump previewed an attempt to balance his endorsement of Perdue and Loeffler with his attacks on voting during a 46-minute video statement released on Wednesday filled with blatant lies about voting.
“David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are two tremendous people. Unfortunately, in Georgia, they’re using the same, horrible Dominion system,” he said, referring to a company that makes voting equipment that Trump and his allies have baselessly attacked. “Hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots have been requested. You check it out who’s requesting those ballots. The difference is it’s one state and we will have our eyes on it like nobody’s ever watched anything before. Because we have to win those two Senate seats.”
Several well-known Georgia Republicans, including former governor Nathan Deal and former senator Johnny Isakson, also released an open letter on Wednesday warning the attention around fraud was taking away attention from the runoff race.
“We have watched with increasing concern as the debate surrounding the state’s electoral system has made some within our party consider whether voting in the coming runoff election matters,” they wrote in the letter, according to the New York Times.
Trump will also arrive in Georgia having launched an internal war among Republicans. He has repeatedly attacked fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top election official, for not helping him overturn the election results. Perdue and Loeffler have asked Raffensperger to resign over his handling of the election, even though there is no evidence of wrongdoing in the state.
Raffensperger has loudly pushed back on Trump’s accusations, saying the president’s own fearmongering about vote by mail is what may have cost him the election. Trump also attacked Brian Kemp, the conservative governor of Georgia, calling him “hapless” on Monday, saying he regretted endorsing him, and asking him to exercise emergency powers to overturn the results of the election. Kemp released a statement in response saying Georgia law prohibited him from interfering in elections.
Jay Williams, a Republican strategist in Georgia, said Trump’s attacks on the election were not particularly helpful, but said he did not think they would ultimately have much of an impact on the election.
“Most of these voters who show up in these runoffs are fairly sophisticated and understand what’s at stake and in Georgia specifically,” he said. “It’s not ideal from a unity standpoint, from a messaging standpoint.”
Eric Johnson, a former Republican state lawmaker who is now advising Loeffler’s campaign, also predicted that Trump’s attacks would not dramatically affect the election results. Still, Johnson said Trump’s message about the election had been “complicated” and he hoped he would change his tone at the Saturday rally.
“The way I’ve been phrasing it is, ‘Let the lawyers focus on the last election. Those in the grassroots need to focus on the next election,’” he said. “He doesn’t have to accept what happened in Georgia, but he can say, ‘We still need to go to the polls. We still need to trust that we’ve learned from what happened on November 3 and move forward.’”
Johnson said he had been encouraging people in Georgia to sign up to be poll workers and poll watchers for the runoff, and that Republicans would ultimately be motivated to vote by the potential for Senate control.
“Republicans do the math, they know what 50-50 looks like, and they know what 52-48 looks like,” he said. “Everybody that voted for President Trump doesn’t want the far-left agenda. They want the president’s legacy, if he’s not re-elected, to stand, and the Senate is the finger in the dike.”


theguardian--2020-12-04--How the 'great reset' of capitalism became an anti-lockdown conspiracy | Quinn Slobodian

At a recent anti-lockdown protest in London , thousands of people gathered to oppose what they saw as a clandestine power grab taking place under the cover of a pandemic .
Some protesters carried cardboard signs bearing the name of the alleged takeover : “ The great reset ” .
“ They thought they could easily get their great reset , ” one man shouted .
“ Little did they know !
The pandemic ’ s a hoax !
” The great reset , both the title of an airport book by the creative economy guru Richard Florida and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also the term for a web of ideas that has become increasingly popular among the anti-lockdown right .
In its most implausible version , this conspiracy imagines that a global elite is using Covid-19 as an opportunity to roll out radical policies such as forced vaccinations , digital ID cards and the renunciation of private property .
Though a poor diagnosis of the causes of global events , the great reset offers a grim insight into the public mood .
An unlikely source provided its initial spark .
On 3 June , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reached 50,000 , the royal family ’ s YouTube account posted a video about a new sustainability drive headed by the Prince of Wales ’ s Sustainable Markets Initiative , in partnership with the World Economic Forum ( WEF ) .
Titled # TheGreatReset , the initiative called for “ fairer outcomes ” and the redirection of investment towards a more “ sustainable future ” .
It had all the slick branding one has come to expect from the WEF , with a cinematic video of ice floes and beached whales , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The initiative joined a line of similar proclamations riffing on Karl Polanyi ’ s 1944 urtext , The Great Transformation .
In the past decade , authors and politicians have talked of the “ great financialization ” , the “ great regression ” , the “ great reversal ” , the “ great acceleration ” , the “ great unraveling ” and the “ great uncoupling ” , to name just a few .
The WEF ’ s great reset went largely unnoticed at first , arriving at the same time as George @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Matter protests across the world .
But the idea later caught on – in a way that organisers most likely didn ’ t expect .
Weeks after the WEF ’ s announcement , Justin Haskins , the editorial director of the libertarian thinktank , the Heartland Institute , sounded klaxons about the great reset on Fox Business , Fox News and Glenn Beck ’ s network , TheBlaze .
“ The rough outline of the plan is clear , ” he said .
“ Completely destroy the global capitalist economy and reform the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a few isolated yelps in the rightwing echo chamber , the great reset failed to catch on as a fully fledged conspiracy theory until Joe Biden ’ s victory in early November , when Google Trends shows that searches for the term surged online .
The most obvious spark for this growing interest was a segment on Laura Ingraham ’ s television show on Fox News , which averaged 3.5 million viewers in 2020 .
“ You know the idea , ‘ never let a crisis go to waste ’ , ” said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with the coronavirus , that idea went global .
And since last spring , powerful people began to use this pandemic as a way to force radical social and economic change across the continents.
” Years after the journalist Naomi Klein first identified the “ shock doctrine ” of radical policies that conservatives rolled out during disasters , the right was now appropriating this narrative for its own ends .
A few days later , Ingraham returned to the theme .
In a clip viewed some 2.4m times , she said Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ the great reset of capitalism .
It ’ s a plan to force a more equitable distribution of global resources.
” The same day , another Fox host , Candace Owens , tweeted : “ They are using Covid to crash western economies and implement communist policies .
That ’ s what ’ s going on.
” And in Australia , the Spectator columnist James Delingpole was interviewed on Sky News Australia ( which , like Fox News , is owned by Rupert Murdoch ) .
“ Anyone who doesn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ biggest threat to our form of life right now hasn ’ t been paying attention , ” he said .
The great reset theory is nonsense , and will probably become a prime target for the many new research centres and initiatives studying “ disinformation ” that have mushroomed on university campuses since 2016 .
But although we may scorn the ideas of anti-lockdown protesters , we ignore the unequal reality of the pandemic at our peril .
Many of the world ’ s tech companies and CEOs have done well from this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ week that many Americans lost their jobs , Jeff Bezos , the founder of Amazon , added $ 13bn to his fortune in just a day .
With surreal realities like these , where prominent members of the 1 % really do appear to have gained from the pandemic , how much of a leap is it to persuade someone that the crisis has been orchestrated deliberately so that elites can amass power ?
The genius of Murdoch ’ s hosts was giving people a place to direct their anger .
With his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Swiss Alps , the WEF ’ s founder , Klaus Schwab , labelled a “ charismatic German ” and “ dangerous Marxist leader ” by Sky News Australia , was the perfect villain for this conspiracy .
For rightwing pundits , the great reset was also a welcome distraction from their own complicity with power and wealth , having spent four years cheerleading a president whose major legislative achievement was a mammoth tax cut that disproportionately benefited the rich .
That the WEF has inspired a conspiracy about elites is unsurprising ; the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gathering in Davos , Switzerland , when top corporate executives arrive in fleets of private jets to pay lip service to climate change .
While Schwab has pronounced that “ neoliberalism has had its day ” , it is left to his critics to remind the WEF of its record , such as its publication of an annual “ global competitiveness index ” that has , since the 1970s , flogged national governments into a race to the bottom to adopt lower taxes and slash regulations .
If the great reset tells us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s that corporate elites can ’ t win legitimacy through vacuous initiatives .
People recoil , it turns out , at being treated like buggy hard drives that can be reset from above .
Changing the conditions of people ’ s lives and the causes of political alienation will take far more than the WEF ’ s tone-deaf video about the opportunities of a pandemic , fronted by the royal family .
It ’ s social movements such as Black Lives Matter and the climate strikers , not boardroom initiatives , that offer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ popular support for the transformations we need .
• Quinn Slobodian is an associate professor of history at Wellesley College , Massachusetts

At a recent anti-lockdown protest in London, thousands of people gathered to oppose what they saw as a clandestine power grab taking place under the cover of a pandemic. Some protesters carried cardboard signs bearing the name of the alleged takeover: “The great reset”. “They thought they could easily get their great reset,” one man shouted. “Little did they know! The pandemic’s a hoax!”
The great reset, both the title of an airport book by the creative economy guru Richard Florida and a slogan favoured by corporate do-gooders, is also the term for a web of ideas that has become increasingly popular among the anti-lockdown right. In its most implausible version, this conspiracy imagines that a global elite is using Covid-19 as an opportunity to roll out radical policies such as forced vaccinations, digital ID cards and the renunciation of private property.
Though a poor diagnosis of the causes of global events, the great reset offers a grim insight into the public mood. An unlikely source provided its initial spark. On 3 June, as the UK’s Covid death toll reached 50,000, the royal family’s YouTube account posted a video about a new sustainability drive headed by the Prince of Wales’s Sustainable Markets Initiative, in partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF). Titled #TheGreatReset, the initiative called for “fairer outcomes” and the redirection of investment towards a more “sustainable future”. It had all the slick branding one has come to expect from the WEF, with a cinematic video of ice floes and beached whales, and a sonorous monologue by Prince Charles.
The initiative joined a line of similar proclamations riffing on Karl Polanyi’s 1944 urtext, The Great Transformation. In the past decade, authors and politicians have talked of the “great financialization”, the “great regression”, the “great reversal”, the “great acceleration”, the “great unraveling” and the “great uncoupling”, to name just a few. The WEF’s great reset went largely unnoticed at first, arriving at the same time as George Floyd’s death spurred Black Lives Matter protests across the world. But the idea later caught on – in a way that organisers most likely didn’t expect.
Weeks after the WEF’s announcement, Justin Haskins, the editorial director of the libertarian thinktank, the Heartland Institute, sounded klaxons about the great reset on Fox Business, Fox News and Glenn Beck’s network, TheBlaze. “The rough outline of the plan is clear,” he said. “Completely destroy the global capitalist economy and reform the western world.” Yet, apart from a few isolated yelps in the rightwing echo chamber, the great reset failed to catch on as a fully fledged conspiracy theory until Joe Biden’s victory in early November, when Google Trends shows that searches for the term surged online.
The most obvious spark for this growing interest was a segment on Laura Ingraham’s television show on Fox News, which averaged 3.5 million viewers in 2020. “You know the idea, ‘never let a crisis go to waste’,” said Ingraham on 13 November. “Well, with the coronavirus, that idea went global. And since last spring, powerful people began to use this pandemic as a way to force radical social and economic change across the continents.”
Years after the journalist Naomi Klein first identified the “shock doctrine” of radical policies that conservatives rolled out during disasters, the right was now appropriating this narrative for its own ends.
A few days later, Ingraham returned to the theme. In a clip viewed some 2.4m times, she said Biden’s “handlers” believe in “the great reset of capitalism. It’s a plan to force a more equitable distribution of global resources.” The same day, another conservative commentator, Candace Owens, tweeted: “They are using Covid to crash western economies and implement communist policies. That’s what’s going on.” And in Australia, the Spectator columnist James Delingpole was interviewed on Sky News Australia (which, like Fox News, is owned by Rupert Murdoch). “Anyone who doesn’t realise that the great reset is the biggest threat to our form of life right now hasn’t been paying attention,” he said.
The great reset theory is nonsense, and will probably become a prime target for the many new research centres and initiatives studying “disinformation” that have mushroomed on university campuses since 2016. But although we may scorn the ideas of anti-lockdown protesters, we ignore the unequal reality of the pandemic at our peril. Many of the world’s tech companies and CEOs have done well from this crisis. Indeed, in the same week that many Americans lost their jobs, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, added $13bn to his fortune in just a day. With surreal realities like these, where prominent members of the 1% really do appear to have gained from the pandemic, how much of a leap is it to persuade someone that the crisis has been orchestrated deliberately so that elites can amass power?
The genius of Murdoch’s hosts was giving people a place to direct their anger. With his thick German accent and outpost in the Swiss Alps, the WEF’s founder, Klaus Schwab, labelled a “charismatic German” and “dangerous Marxist leader” by Sky News Australia, was the perfect villain for this conspiracy. For rightwing pundits, the great reset was also a welcome distraction from their own complicity with power and wealth, having spent four years cheerleading a president whose major legislative achievement was a mammoth tax cut that disproportionately benefited the rich.
That the WEF has inspired a conspiracy about elites is unsurprising; the organisation is best known for its annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, when top corporate executives arrive in fleets of private jets to pay lip service to climate change. While Schwab has pronounced that “neoliberalism has had its day”, it is left to his critics to remind the WEF of its record, such as its publication of an annual “global competitiveness index” that has, since the 1970s, flogged national governments into a race to the bottom to adopt lower taxes and slash regulations.
If the great reset tells us anything about political reality, it’s that corporate elites can’t win legitimacy through vacuous initiatives. People recoil, it turns out, at being treated like buggy hard drives that can be reset from above. Changing the conditions of people’s lives and the causes of political alienation will take far more than the WEF’s tone-deaf video about the opportunities of a pandemic, fronted by the royal family. It’s social movements such as Black Lives Matter and the climate strikers, not boardroom initiatives, that offer a better lesson in how to gather popular support for the transformations we need.


theguardian--2020-12-04--Claims of 'voter fraud' have a long history in America. And they are false | David Litt

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was supposed to be a whole lot poorer by now .
On 11 November , eight days after the presidential election and four days after the networks called the race for Joe Biden , the conservative talk radio host turned Republican politician launched a bounty hunt .
Any tipsters who could provide evidence of voter fraud that led to a criminal conviction would receive at least $ 25,000 , up to a grand total of $ 1m .
The money was set to come from Patrick ’ s campaign , not his personal account .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ voter fraud was rampant , as President Trump and leading Republicans have repeatedly claimed , Patrick ’ s million-dollar fund should have run dry long ago .
As it stands , Patrick ’ s campaign finances are in far better shape than his credibility .
To date , he has paid out a grand total of zero dollars and zero cents .
Patrick stands out for his willingness to put his donors ’ money where his mouth was .
But his million-dollar effort was just a small part of the largest voter-fraud hunt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ history have self-proclaimed fraud-fighters been given more attention , resources , and time to prove their case – that a major election was stolen through what they ’ ve dubbed “ illegal votes ” .
Instead , they ’ ve done the opposite .
The 2020 election , and Trump ’ s attempt to overturn it , will leave us with plenty of reasons to remain concerned about the health of our democracy .
But the idea that our political process has been compromised by widespread fraud isn ’ t among them .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ voter-fraud myth for good .
Falsely claiming voter fraud is a tradition nearly as old as American democracy itself .
Take , for example , early 19th-century New Jersey .
Under the state ’ s original constitution , some women had the right to vote , and some politicians ( namely those of the Federalist Party ) felt they would be more likely to win elections if those rights were taken away .
But stripping eligible voters of their rights for purely partisan reasons was unseemly , even by 1800s standards , so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Men , they charged , were casting their ballots , slipping into petticoats , and then voting a second time .
The only way to prevent this gender-bending fraud was to eliminate women ’ s voting rights entirely .
As a logical argument , the anti-fraud case for disenfranchising women made little sense .
But logic was never the point .
In 1807 , aided by their theoretically principled excuse for their blatantly partisan power grab , the New Jersey legislature ended their state ’ s experiment in women ’ s suffrage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on paper , and the two-party system became more entrenched in our political process , voter fraud remained a convenient excuse for disenfranchising eligible voters .
In the 1830s , on the theory that cities couldn ’ t be trusted to hold honest elections , Pennsylvania passed a voter registration law that applied to the city of Philadelphia and nowhere else .
“ Although the proclaimed goal of the law was to reduce fraud , ” writes Alexander Keyssar in The Right to Vote , “ opponents insisted that its real intent was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who were frequently not home when assessors came by.
” Not surprisingly , false claims of fraud also played an important role in propping up segregation .
In 1959 , Washington Parish , Louisiana , “ purged ” its voter rolls .
Local officials claimed they were merely remove illegally registered names from the rolls .
In fact , they purged 85 % of the parish ’ s African American voters .
This proved too audacious even for the Jim Crow era , and a federal court overturned the parish ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ courts have given lawmakers the benefit of the doubt .
So long as they can plausibly claim to be fighting fraud – or more accurately , so long as they can ’ t be proven not to be fighting fraud – legislators can pass bills restricting access to the ballot , even for eligible voters , and even if the voters affected are clearly more likely to belong to one party than the other .
In other words , when conservative pundit Dick Morris claimed that over a million people voted twice in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alleged that millions of undocumented immigrants cast ballots in 2016 , or when Rudy Giuliani dropped his sweaty dud of a bombshell at Four Seasons Total Landscaping , they were taking part in a timeless American tradition .
From a moral standpoint , falsely claiming fraud is despicable .
But from a political standpoint , it ’ s historically been a win-win : in a best-case scenario you disenfranchise voters in an election that already occurred , and in a worse-case scenario you lay the groundwork for disenfranchising them next time .
Already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fear of voter fraud – a fear that exists , to the extent it does , entirely because of baseless claims they generated – as a pretext to attack the voting rights of eligible American citizens .
Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw recently argued that the only way to restore confidence in our elections is to make voter registration far more difficult and outlaw mail-in voting for many if not most Americans .
Florida Senator Rick Scott has gone even further .
His “ fraud-fighting ” bill would throw out ballots if a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 24 hours , even if those ballots are legally cast .
It ’ s hardly surprising that politicians like Crenshaw and Scott believe they can get away with turning false claims of voter fraud into the very real disenfranchisement of eligible voters .
It ’ s happened many times before .
But this time ought to be different .
Egged on by the would-be authoritarian in the White House , election results have been challenged in at least six states .
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed in an attempt to delay or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Hearings have been held .
Attorney General Bill Barr , in a frightening break with established Department of Justice procedure , authorized federal prosecutors to investigate credible fraud claims even if doing so would appear political .
The results ?
The Trump Administration is now a 39-time loser in court .
A parade of frustrated judges , many appointed by Trump himself , have written blistering opinions pointing out that the president and his allies have no basis for their claims .
Even Trump ’ s own lawyers have admitted under questioning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because they have no evidence with which to do so .
Inside the conservative echo chamber , the Republican party ’ s attacks on the integrity of our elections will sow doubt and distrust in our political process .
But in the real world , the idea that marquee elections are being stolen via voter fraud has now been disproven beyond a reasonable doubt .
Which means that , barring real evidence to the contrary , it ’ s time for our institutions to stop taking partisan claims of voter fraud seriously .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ election the way they treat birtherism or QAnon – as pure conspiracy theory .
Courts should stop giving self-proclaimed fraud-fighters the benefit of the doubt , and instead demand that they substantiate their allegations before barring eligible Americans from the ballot box .
The handful of Republican politicians who , to their lasting credit , condemned Trump ’ s attempts to manipulate the most recent election should be equally forceful about attempts to manipulate future ones .
This year , false claims of fraud weren ’ t enough to overturn an election .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ so lucky .
Trump is not the first American to embrace the voter-fraud myth for his political advantage , but if American democracy is to survive , he ought to be the last .
• None David Litt is a former Obama speechwriter and the author of Thanks , Obama and Democracy In One Book Or Less

Texas’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, was supposed to be a whole lot poorer by now.
On 11 November, eight days after the presidential election and four days after the networks called the race for Joe Biden, the conservative talk radio host turned Republican politician launched a bounty hunt. Any tipsters who could provide evidence of voter fraud that led to a criminal conviction would receive at least $25,000, up to a grand total of $1m. The money was set to come from Patrick’s campaign, not his personal account. Still, the point remains: if voter fraud was rampant, as President Trump and leading Republicans have repeatedly claimed, Patrick’s million-dollar fund should have run dry long ago.
As it stands, Patrick’s campaign finances are in far better shape than his credibility. To date, it appears he has paid out a grand total of zero dollars and zero cents.
Patrick stands out for his willingness to put his donors’ money where his mouth was. But his million-dollar effort was just a small part of the largest voter-fraud hunt in American history. Never in American history have self-proclaimed fraud-fighters been given more attention, resources and time to prove their case – that a major election was stolen through what they’ve dubbed “illegal votes”.
Instead, they’ve done the opposite. The 2020 election, and Trump’s attempt to overturn it, will leave us with plenty of reasons to remain concerned about the health of our democracy. But the idea that our political process has been compromised by widespread fraud isn’t among them. It’s time to retire the voter-fraud myth for good.
Falsely claiming voter fraud is a tradition nearly as old as American democracy itself. Take, for example, early 19th-century New Jersey. Under the state’s original constitution, some women had the right to vote, and some politicians (namely those of the Federalist party) felt they would be more likely to win elections if those rights were taken away. But stripping eligible voters of their rights for purely partisan reasons was unseemly, even by 1800s standards, so ambitious lawmakers came up with an excuse. Men, they charged, were casting their ballots, slipping into petticoats, and then voting a second time. The only way to prevent this gender-bending fraud was to eliminate women’s voting rights entirely.
As a logical argument, the anti-fraud case for disenfranchising women made little sense. But logic was never the point. In 1807, aided by their theoretically principled excuse for their blatantly partisan power grab, the New Jersey legislature ended their state’s experiment in women’s suffrage.
As more Americans won voting rights on paper, and the two-party system became more entrenched in our political process, voter fraud remained a convenient excuse for disenfranchising eligible voters. In the 1830s, on the theory that cities couldn’t be trusted to hold honest elections, Pennsylvania passed a voter registration law that applied to the city of Philadelphia and nowhere else. “Although the proclaimed goal of the law was to reduce fraud,” writes Alexander Keyssar in The Right to Vote, “opponents insisted that its real intent was to reduce the participation of the poor, who were frequently not home when assessors came by.”
Not surprisingly, false claims of fraud also played an important role in propping up segregation. In 1959, Washington parish, Louisiana, “purged” its voter rolls. Local officials claimed they were merely remove illegally registered names from the rolls. In fact, they purged 85% of the parish’s African American voters. This proved too audacious even for the Jim Crow era, and a federal court overturned the parish’s purge. But in most cases, courts have given lawmakers the benefit of the doubt. So long as they can plausibly claim to be fighting fraud – or more accurately, so long as they can’t be proven not to be fighting fraud – legislators can pass bills restricting access to the ballot, even for eligible voters, and even if the voters affected are clearly more likely to belong to one party than the other.
In other words, when conservative pundit Dick Morris claimed that over a million people voted twice in the 2012 elections, when President Trump alleged that millions of undocumented immigrants cast ballots in 2016, or when Rudy Giuliani dropped his sweaty dud of a bombshell at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, they were taking part in a timeless American tradition. From a moral standpoint, falsely claiming fraud is despicable. But from a political standpoint, it’s historically been a win-win: in a best-case scenario you disenfranchise voters in an election that already occurred, and in a worse-case scenario you lay the groundwork for disenfranchising them next time.
Already, Republican politicians are once again using the fear of voter fraud – a fear that exists, to the extent it does, entirely because of baseless claims they generated – as a pretext to attack the voting rights of eligible American citizens. The Texas congressman Dan Crenshaw recently argued that the only way to restore confidence in our elections is to make voter registration far more difficult and outlaw mail-in voting for many if not most Americans. The Florida senator Rick Scott has gone even further. His “fraud-fighting” bill would throw out ballots if a county can’t tally them within 24 hours, even if those ballots are legally cast.
When Giuliani dropped his sweaty dud of a bombshell, he was taking part in a timeless American tradition
It’s hardly surprising that politicians like Crenshaw and Scott believe they can get away with turning false claims of voter fraud into the very real disenfranchisement of eligible voters. It’s happened many times before. But this time ought to be different. Egged on by the would-be authoritarian in the White House, election results have been challenged in at least six states. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed in an attempt to delay or overturn the certification of the final tallies. Hearings have been held. The attorney general, Bill Barr, in a frightening break with established Department of Justice procedure, authorized federal prosecutors to investigate credible fraud claims even if doing so would appear political.
The results? The Trump administration is now a 39-time loser in court. A parade of frustrated judges, many appointed by Trump himself, have written blistering opinions pointing out that the president and his allies have no basis for their claims. Even Trump’s own lawyers have admitted under questioning that they’re not alleging fraud because they have no evidence with which to do so. Inside the conservative echo chamber, the Republican party’s attacks on the integrity of our elections will sow doubt and distrust in our political process. But in the real world, the idea that marquee elections are being stolen via voter fraud has now been disproven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Which means that, barring real evidence to the contrary, it’s time for our institutions to stop taking partisan claims of voter fraud seriously. Reporters should treat allegations of a fraudulent election the way they treat birtherism or QAnon – as pure conspiracy theory. Courts should stop giving self-proclaimed fraud-fighters the benefit of the doubt, and instead demand that they substantiate their allegations before barring eligible Americans from the ballot box. The handful of Republican politicians who, to their lasting credit, condemned Trump’s attempts to manipulate the most recent election should be equally forceful about attempts to manipulate future ones.
This year, false claims of fraud weren’t enough to overturn an election. But next time we may not be so lucky. Trump is not the first American to embrace the voter-fraud myth for his political advantage, but if American democracy is to survive, he ought to be the last.


theguardian--2020-12-04--Trump is making a pre-emptive pardon available to you! It’s Pardon in A Can! | First Dog on the Moon

Can Trump really pardon himself for as yet unspecified crimes ?
He sure can !
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theguardian--2020-12-03--Fight to vote: William Barr finally contradicts Trump on election fraud

Hope you all had a safe and healthy Thanksgiving break .
I ’ m particularly thankful that I came back to a slightly more optimistic week for voting rights .
First , there ’ s the fact that Donald Trump finally said he would leave the White House if the electoral college confirmed Joe Biden as president on 14 December .
Then , there ’ s the surprising about-face from William Barr , the attorney general .
I wouldn ’ t go that far .
But Trump ’ s top justice official announced on Tuesday that his department had not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would change the outcome of the election .
This , of course , marks a departure from Barr ’ s boss , the president , who has been claiming the election was rigged against him and that illegal votes were counted .
It ’ s also a departure from Barr ’ s own previous statements that mail-in voting was vulnerable to fraud .
Nevertheless , there was never any evidence of widespread voter tampering , and now Trump ’ s ardent ally has confirmed that .
Trump ’ s campaign lawyer Joe DiGenova @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a podcast about Chris Krebs , a top election security official whom Trump recently fired .
“ Anybody who thinks the election went well , ” DiGenova said , “ like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity , that guy is a class-A moron .
He should be drawn and quartered .
Taken out at dawn and shot.
” The Georgia secretary of state ’ s office is continuing to resist the White House rhetoric .
After Brad Raffensperger , the Republican secretary of state , pushed back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voter fraud in Georgia , another official spoke up .
Gabriel Sterling , a Republican who oversees the state ’ s voting system , called out the president for inciting violence .
“ Mr President , it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia , ” Sterling said at a press conference on Tuesday , during which he became visibly angry .
“ We ’ re investigating , there ’ s always a possibility , I get it .
You have the right to go to the courts .
What you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do – and you need to step up and say this – is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence .
Someone is going to get hurt , someone is going to get shot , someone is going to get killed , and it ’ s not right .
It ’ s not right.
” Want to join the fight for voting rights ?
All eyes are on Georgia as the heated Senate runoff battle approaches .
But here at Fight to Vote we ’ re not about donating to campaigns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ TikTok channel .
Instead , here are some organizations focused on making sure residents are educated about the voting process : • None The New Georgia Project , a non-partisan organization , is continuing voter registration drives • None The Georgia secretary of state website allows residents to check their registration status • None Four Directions is focused on providing ballot box access to Native Americans I ’ ll leave you with this : calls for Dolly Parton to get the presidential medal of freedom .

Good morning Fight to Vote readers,
Hope you all had a safe and healthy Thanksgiving break. I’m particularly thankful that I came back to a slightly more optimistic week for voting rights. First, there’s the fact that Donald Trump finally said he would leave the White House if the electoral college confirmed Joe Biden as president on 14 December. Then, there’s the surprising about-face from William Barr, the attorney general.
Is Barr … good now?
I wouldn’t go that far. But Trump’s top justice official announced on Tuesday that his department had not uncovered any instances of voter fraud that would change the outcome of the election.
This, of course, marks a departure from Barr’s boss, the president, who has been claiming the election was rigged against him and that illegal votes were counted. It’s also a departure from Barr’s own previous statements that mail-in voting was vulnerable to fraud. Nevertheless, there was never any evidence of widespread voter tampering, and now Trump’s ardent ally has confirmed that.
Trump’s election integrity battle remains ugly
Trump’s campaign lawyer Joe DiGenova was condemned for his violent remarks on a podcast about Chris Krebs, a top election security official whom Trump recently fired. “Anybody who thinks the election went well,” DiGenova said, “like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity, that guy is a class-A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.”
The Georgia secretary of state’s office is continuing to resist the White House rhetoric. After Brad Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state, pushed back on Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in Georgia, another official spoke up. Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who oversees the state’s voting system, called out the president for inciting violence.
“Mr President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia,” Sterling said at a press conference on Tuesday, during which he became visibly angry. “We’re investigating, there’s always a possibility, I get it. You have the right to go to the courts. What you don’t have the ability to do – and you need to step up and say this – is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed, and it’s not right. It’s not right.”
Want to join the fight for voting rights?
All eyes are on Georgia as the heated Senate runoff battle approaches. But here at Fight to Vote we’re not about donating to campaigns or watching candidate Jon Ossoff’s TikTok channel. Instead, here are some organizations focused on making sure residents are educated about the voting process:
The New Georgia Project, a non-partisan organization, is continuing voter registration drives
The Georgia secretary of state website allows residents to check their registration status
Four Directions is focused on providing ballot box access to Native Americans
I’ll leave you with this: calls for Dolly Parton to get the presidential medal of freedom.
Photograph: Twitter/@cmclymer