alternet--2020-11-02--A vote for Trump and the GOP is a vote to destroy unions

The Republican Party and President Trump have declared war on unions .
The two prongs of their crusade include stacking the deck against unions by selecting anti-union/pro-corporate ideologues to key positions in each branch of government and , second , revamping federal laws , rules and regulations to rig the system in favor of corporations and against unions .
A second Trump term would be like the first term – except on steroids .
The administration will fully subvert the rights of workers to organize ; bargain collectively ; improve their wages , benefits and working conditions ; and improve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Conversely , the power of corporations will be expanded .
The ability of unions to represent the interests of workers may never recover from such an onslaught .
Union supporters and leaders must do all they can to ensure that Trump and the Republicans running for the Senate are defeated in the coming election and prepare a massive mobilization response to any attempt by Trump to steal a close election .
PART ONE : STACKING THE DECK - ANTI-UNION REPUBLICANS DOMINATE ALL THREE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT The famous saying `` personnel is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump administration .
Trump and the Republican majorities in the Senate and Supreme Court have combined to stack the deck against unions and rig the system in favor of Big Business .
Anti-union appointees now dominate all three branches of the federal government : the executive branch ( the White House and federal administrative agencies ) ; the legislative branch ( Senate ) ; and the judicial branch including majorities on the Supreme Court and federal appellate courts .
All the major executive branch agencies dealing with labor related issues are led by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ illustrated below .
White House Staff .
Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was a member of Congress from 2013-2020 .
He was given an 8 % lifetime rating by the AFL-CIO and 0 % by the Communications Workers of America .
Conversely , Meadows was given a lifetime rating of 77 % by the US Chamber of Commerce and 95 % by Freedom Works ( a notoriously conservative , libertarian and anti-union group that was associated with the Tea Party and later Donald Trump ) .
Department of Labor ( DOL ) The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of regulations covering 10 million employers and 150 million workers .
• Secretary of Labor .
Eugene Scalia had a 20-year history of working for Gibson , Dunn and Crutcher , a prominent corporate law firm , where he fought against worker protections such as health and safety , retirement security and collective bargaining rights .
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration .
OSHA is being temporarily run by Loren Sweatt who has dutifully implemented the administration 's anti-worker policies and expressed the desire to stay in her position if there is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hour Division head administrator , Cheryl Stanton , spent her career defending employers in wage and hour cases .
• Mine Safety and Health Administration is headed by David Zatezalo who was chief executive of Rhino Resources , a coal company that had numerous clashes with MSHA officials during the Obama administration over many health and safety violations which he is now responsible for enforcing .
National Labor Relations Board .
The NLRB is a New Deal agency established to enforce the National Labor Relations Act which gave most private sector workers the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ action to protect and improve their wages , benefits and working conditions .
• Chair and Board Member John Ring previously served as a partner with the notoriously anti-union law firm of Jackson , Lewis whose website stated that he specialized in representing management interests , `` most notably in the context of workforce restructuring [ layoffs ] and multiemployer bargaining . ''
• Board member William Emanuel was a partner at the union-busting law firm of Little , Mendelson .
• Board Member Marvin Kaplan was a government lawyer working for anti-union @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to weaken worker protections .
• General Counsel Peter Robb spent much of his career as a management-side labor and employment lawyer .
Robb was a key figure at the NLRB under President Reagan defending the administration 's 1981 firing of more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers and legitimizing the `` permanent replacement '' of striking workers .
Environmental Protection Agency .
The EPA 's regulation of pollutants directly impacts workers in the workplace and in their communities .
• EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler .
According to opensecrets.org , Andrew Wheeler was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lobbied against mine safety regulations , opposed the Obama administration 's attempt to reduce carbon emissions from power plants , and fought for federal subsidies for coal plants .
• Susan Bodine , the EPA 's assistant administrator , formerly worked for Barnes & Thornburg , a law and lobbying firm that represented the American Forest & Paper Association .
Many other EPA appointees at EPA have corporate ties .
United States Postal Service .
The Trump administration has chosen clearly anti-union , pro-corporate individuals to key positions .
• USPS Board of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members .
The board chair Robert Duncan was CEO of Inez Deposit Bank ; CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity ( a lobbying group representing coal and utility corporations infamous for its denial of the climate crisis ) ; and former chair of the Republican National Committee .
• Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was CEO and is still a major investor in XPO Logistics , a company that does business with USPS .
DeJoy received $ 1.7 to $ 7 million from the company last year .
USPS has increased @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Postmaster General .
Department of Education .
Secretary Betsy DeVos is a very rich and prolific Republican party funder .
Her father was a billionaire industrialist and her husband was the billionaire founder and CEO of Amway .
She has a long history of supporting , funding and founding anti-union and pro-privatization groups .
Anti-union/pro-corporate Republicans dominate the Senate .
The Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ( R-KY ) has enormous power .
For example , he alone determines whether bills can even be considered and what amendments can be offered in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rating of just 12 % and a US Chamber of Commerce rating of 91 % .
The Senate Health , Education , Labor and Pensions ( HELP ) Committee has significant power over labor related issues .
The HELP committee is chaired by Lamar Alexander ( R-TN ) .
Alexander has a lifetime AFL-CIO rating of 19 % and a US Chamber of Commerce rating of 93 % .
The core of the Republican Party strength is concentrated in the 27 Right to Work states .
As discussed in a previous article , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weaken unions by cutting their revenue and membership .
Unions represent just 7.5 % of the workforce in right to work states but almost 16 % in `` fair share '' states .
The 27 `` right to work '' states account for 83 % of the currently seated Republican Senators and 70 % of their Representatives .
In 2016 , Trump carried 25 of the 27 these states .
The Republican Party has worked for a long time to ensure that the federal court system is dominated by conservative , pro-business/anti-union judges @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republicans basically packed the court system when Senate Majority Leader McConnell refused to allow the Senate to vote on 105 judicial vacancies during the Obama administration which were later filled by Trump appointees .
Supreme Court .
The Supreme Court now has 6 Republican appointed justices and 3 Democratic Justices .
Each of the three Trump appointees had a proven anti-union/pro-corporate bias before being nominated .
• Amy Coney Barrett .
During her term on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals , Barrett ruled in favor of corporate interest more than 75 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corporations are entitled to set job requirements that exclude older workers and that they may segregate workers at different locations by race .
She has also expressed support for striking the entire Affordable Care Act which would deprive health insurance for 20 million people and end protections for 100 million people with pre-existing conditions .
• Neil Gorsuch .
During his term on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals , Gorsuch repeatedly ruled against workers and in favor of corporations .
For example , Gorsuch dissented from a majority ruling upholding a National @ @ @ @ @ @ @ must give full back pay to workers it illegally fired for union activity .
Gorsuch dissented in cases in which the circuit court majority supported pro-worker NLRB decisions stating that the NLRB exceeded the scope of its authority .
However , Gorsuch made no such dissent when the court ruled in favor of NLRB decisions that supported management .
• Brett Kavanaugh .
Kavanaugh served on the extremely important US District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit .
This court is second only to the Supreme Court in terms of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over Congress and most federal regulations and agencies .
The People for the American Way compiled a list of rulings showing that Kavanaugh consistently ruled against workers and for corporations during his 12½ years on the DC Circuit Court .
Examples include Kavanaugh 's opinions that would `` entirely eviscerate collective bargaining ; '' his support for corporations seeking criminal citations for lawful union protests ; and support for corporations that failed to protect workers health and safety .
Other Federal Courts .
In almost 4 years Trump and the Republican Senate have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ judges ( 194 of 792 ) .
There are 35 more nominations currently pending .
Trump has appointed 30 % of all active federal appeals court judges ( 54 of 179 ) .
This is more than any other president over the last 40 years .
Overall , Republican appointees now account for 54 % of all federal circuit court judges .
The circuit courts are especially powerful because they function as final arbiter for the vast majority of cases since the Supreme Court accepts fewer than 2 % of the 7-8,000 cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ultimately determine what the federal government can and can not regulate – this is especially important to unions in relation to the right to organize and collectively bargain for wages , benefits and working conditions as well as the relative power of unions and corporations .
PART TWO : REPUBLICANS & TRUMP RIG THE RULES AGAINST UNIONS AND FOR CORPORATIONS The Republican dominated executive , legislative and judicial branches have conspired to rig the laws , rules and regulations governing our political economy against unions and for corporations .
The Brookings Institute maintains @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's deregulatory actions in a number of areas including labor , health , covid-19 , education and environment .
The Economic Policy Institute has itemized 50 anti-union actions taken by these branches of government against workers and provided an even more detailed analysis in another article .
Here are some of the highlights .
• Dismantling the Right to Join a Union and Collectively Bargain • Stripping the right to organize a union and collectively bargain from millions of workers at companies like Uber and Lyft ( NLRB ) , graduate students ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the determination that unionizing 750,000 Department of Defense workers would be a threat to national security .
• Expanded management rights to undermine unions by granting management the power to determine which group of workers will be eligible to vote in an organizing election and be covered by a negotiated contract ( NLRB ) .
• Defunded unions by preventing public sector unions from requiring workers to help pay for the costs the union incurs for representing them in collective bargaining , arbitration and grievance procedures ( Supreme Court ) • Initiated the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heavily unionized including the US Postal Service ( USPS ) and public schools ( Department of Education ) .
• Reduced Good Paying Union Jobs .
Trump 's policies that were supposed to create jobs , actually eliminated jobs .
• His 2017 tax cut provided incentives for corporations to offshore jobs by applying a 21 % corporate tax rate for income earned domestically , but a 10.5 % tax rate for profits earned offshore .
• His China trade policy led to a 21 % increase in our trade deficit with China @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 700,000 US jobs .
• Reduced Wages .
The Trump NLRB pushed through rules that prevented 8.2 million workers from obtaining overtime and cut $ 1 billion in wages by ruling that Lyft and Uber workers are individual contractors not subject to federal protections .
The Republican Senate refused to consider a bill passed by the House to establish a $ 15 an hour minimum wage which would have increased wages for 33 million workers .
The Trump administration stated that it would veto such a bill even if passed by the Senate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Social Security .
President Trump issued an executive order permitting companies to stop withholding payroll taxes .
Trump also promised that `` If I 'm victorious on Nov 3 , I plan to forgive these taxes and make permanent cuts to the payroll tax . ''
The Social Security Administration stated that the Trump plan would deplete the Social Security retirement trust by 2023 at which time it would stop paying out benefits .
• Denying and Reducing Health Insurance .
Congressional Republicans and Trump have repeatedly attempted to pass legislation to eliminate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republican state officials in suits contending that Obamacare is unconstitutional ( a contention upheld by a Republican dominated appeals court ) .
More than twenty million people will lose health insurance if these attempts are successful and 100 million would lose protections for previous conditions .
• Eroded Workplace Safety and Health .
Examples include OSHA 's refusal to issue any required measures—via an emergency temporary infectious disease standard—to protect workers from the coronavirus ; the Department of Labor 's exclusion of millions of workers from paid leave provisions in the Families First @ @ @ @ @ @ @ including 9 million health care workers and 4.4 million first responders ; and significant reductions in OSHA and Mine Safety inspections .
PART THREE : TRUMP MUST BE DEFEATED TO SAVE UNIONS AND BLUNT THE ANTI-UNION REPUBLICAN OFFENSIVE A vote for Trump , a 3rd party candidate or not voting at all is a vote to irredeemably harm unions .
This is not to say that Biden and the Democratic Party are the second coming of FDR and the New Deal .
However , Biden and the Democrats are not out to destroy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , will blunt the corporate/Republican anti-union crusade .
And , at best , Biden and the Democrats will enact pro-worker legislation to the degree that unions and progressive groups are mobilized and activated .
While the Democrats represent the possibility of pro-worker legislation especially if pushed by mass mobilization , Trump and the Republicans are out to destroy unions no matter what we do .
Progressives must ensure that Trump is not reelected : A second Trump term would be like his first term but on steroids – unions may not recover .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ take all the anti-union policies of his first term to a new level .
He will do this especially because a second Trump term will be characterized by its vindictiveness .
Trump has an established pattern of viciously attacking any of his supporters who he considered to have been disloyal .
And it is even worse for any groups and individuals he perceives as enemies – and he definitely perceives unions as enemies because they have almost universally endorsed Biden .
Thus , Trump and the Republicans will extend , expand and institutionalize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to organize and collectively bargain and erode wages , benefits and working conditions for millions of Americans .
In addition , they will expand management rights and further increase the inequitable concentration of income , wealth and power in the hands of the corporate and billionaire elite .
A second Trump term will irreversibly debilitate unions and their ability to countervail the power of corporations .
Trump will be able to implement his anti-union crusade even if the Democrats maintain control of the House and obtain a majority in the Senate .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when confronted by a president who does not play by the established rules and norms of government .
He has proven that he can effectively rule by executive order – and that the anti-union judiciary will sustain his policies .
The big business/Republican party attack on unions will be even worse if the Republicans continue to control the Senate and , thus , the court system .
Mass mobilization and civil disobedience must defeat any attempt by Trump and the Republicans to steal the election .
All progressive groups should be prepared to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to any attempt by Trump and Republicans to steal the election if Biden wins .
There are many articles that examine such scenarios including Vox , Washington Post , The Atlantic , and many more .
Possibilities include lawsuits that wind their way to the Supreme Court where a 6-3 Republican majority hands Trump a victory .
Another scenario is for Republican controlled state governments to use their power to override voters in a narrow election .
There could be significant attempts to invalidate mail-in votes .
Yet another strategy is to delay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ college and then throw the election to the House of Representatives where Republicans control more state delegations .
We must be prepared for any of these possibilities .
The stakes are too high .
Unions – and the entire progressive movement - may not survive another Trump term .
All progressive groups should call for mass civil disobedience .
Unions – and progressive groups in general – should call for and implement a a range of mass action including a general strike , a range of rolling strikes or a mass slowdown .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ already passed resolutions supporting mass worker mobilizations .
Such a strategy would entail a vast amount of educating , organizing and resources in a short period of time .
It would also be risky – what if most workers failed to heed the call ?
Would n't that reveal a basic weakness in the labor movement and make its leaders unpopular with their membership ?
These are risks that pale in comparison to the gutting of unions that would occur with a second Trump term .
Major crises call for significant and courageous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chief economist of the Communications Workers of America .
Formerly , he served as economist for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe , the Montana House Select Committee on Economic Development , and the Montana Alliance for Progressive Policy .
Ken has held teaching positions at the University of Montana , St. John 's University , Chief Dull Knife College , and the City University of New York .
He obtained a PhD in economics from the New School in New York City .

The Republican Party and President Trump have declared war on unions. The two prongs of their crusade include stacking the deck against unions by selecting anti-union/pro-corporate ideologues to key positions in each branch of government and, second, revamping federal laws, rules and regulations to rig the system in favor of corporations and against unions. A second Trump term would be like the first term – except on steroids. The administration will fully subvert the rights of workers to organize; bargain collectively; improve their wages, benefits and working conditions; and improve the quality of life of all workers. Conversely, the power of corporations will be expanded. The ability of unions to represent the interests of workers may never recover from such an onslaught. Union supporters and leaders must do all they can to ensure that Trump and the Republicans running for the Senate are defeated in the coming election and prepare a massive mobilization response to any attempt by Trump to steal a close election.
PART ONE: STACKING THE DECK - ANTI-UNION REPUBLICANS DOMINATE ALL THREE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT
The famous saying "personnel is policy" is quite relevant to the Trump administration. Trump and the Republican majorities in the Senate and Supreme Court have combined to stack the deck against unions and rig the system in favor of Big Business. Anti-union appointees now dominate all three branches of the federal government: the executive branch (the White House and federal administrative agencies); the legislative branch (Senate); and the judicial branch including majorities on the Supreme Court and federal appellate courts.
EXECUTIVE BRANCH – Anti-Union/Pro-Corporate Appointees Are in Charge
All the major executive branch agencies dealing with labor related issues are led by appointees who had proven anti-union/pro-corporate records as illustrated below.
White House Staff. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was a member of Congress from 2013-2020. He was given an 8% lifetime rating by the AFL-CIO and 0% by the Communications Workers of America. Conversely, Meadows was given a lifetime rating of 77% by the US Chamber of Commerce and 95% by Freedom Works (a notoriously conservative, libertarian and anti-union group that was associated with the Tea Party and later Donald Trump).
Department of Labor (DOL) The DOL enforces 180 federal laws and thousands of regulations covering 10 million employers and 150 million workers.
Secretary of Labor. Eugene Scalia had a 20-year history of working for Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, a prominent corporate law firm, where he fought against worker protections such as health and safety, retirement security and collective bargaining rights.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA is being temporarily run by Loren Sweatt who has dutifully implemented the administration's anti-worker policies and expressed the desire to stay in her position if there is a second Trump term.
Wage and Hour Division head administrator, Cheryl Stanton, spent her career defending employers in wage and hour cases.
Mine Safety and Health Administration is headed by David Zatezalo who was chief executive of Rhino Resources, a coal company that had numerous clashes with MSHA officials during the Obama administration over many health and safety violations which he is now responsible for enforcing.
National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB is a New Deal agency established to enforce the National Labor Relations Act which gave most private sector workers the right to join a union and take action to protect and improve their wages, benefits and working conditions.
Chair and Board Member John Ring previously served as a partner with the notoriously anti-union law firm of Jackson, Lewis whose website stated that he specialized in representing management interests, "most notably in the context of workforce restructuring [layoffs] and multiemployer bargaining."
Board member William Emanuel was a partner at the union-busting law firm of Little, Mendelson.
Board Member Marvin Kaplan was a government lawyer working for anti-union members of Congress helping them draft legislation to weaken worker protections.
General Counsel Peter Robb spent much of his career as a management-side labor and employment lawyer. Robb was a key figure at the NLRB under President Reagan defending the administration's 1981 firing of more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers and legitimizing the "permanent replacement" of striking workers.
Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA's regulation of pollutants directly impacts workers in the workplace and in their communities.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. According to opensecrets.org, Andrew Wheeler was a former energy industry lobbyist where he lobbied against mine safety regulations, opposed the Obama administration's attempt to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, and fought for federal subsidies for coal plants.
Susan Bodine, the EPA's assistant administrator, formerly worked for Barnes & Thornburg, a law and lobbying firm that represented the American Forest & Paper Association. Many other EPA appointees at EPA have corporate ties.
United States Postal Service. The Trump administration has chosen clearly anti-union, pro-corporate individuals to key positions.
USPS Board of Governors is dominated by Trump appointed pro-corporate members. The board chair Robert Duncan was CEO of Inez Deposit Bank; CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (a lobbying group representing coal and utility corporations infamous for its denial of the climate crisis); and former chair of the Republican National Committee.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was CEO and is still a major investor in XPO Logistics, a company that does business with USPS. DeJoy received $1.7 to $7 million from the company last year. USPS has increased its business with XPO since DeJoy became Postmaster General.
Department of Education. Secretary Betsy DeVos is a very rich and prolific Republican party funder. Her father was a billionaire industrialist and her husband was the billionaire founder and CEO of Amway. She has a long history of supporting, funding and founding anti-union and pro-privatization groups.
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH: Anti-Union/Pro Corporate Republicans Control the Senate
Anti-union/pro-corporate Republicans dominate the Senate. The Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has enormous power. For example, he alone determines whether bills can even be considered and what amendments can be offered in the Senate. McConnell has a lifetime AFL-CIO rating of just 12% and a US Chamber of Commerce rating of 91%. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee has significant power over labor related issues. The HELP committee is chaired by Lamar Alexander (R-TN). Alexander has a lifetime AFL-CIO rating of 19% and a US Chamber of Commerce rating of 93%.
The core of the Republican Party strength is concentrated in the 27 Right to Work states. As discussed in a previous article, Right to Work laws are designed to weaken unions by cutting their revenue and membership. Unions represent just 7.5% of the workforce in right to work states but almost 16% in "fair share" states. The 27 "right to work" states account for 83% of the currently seated Republican Senators and 70% of their Representatives. In 2016, Trump carried 25 of the 27 these states.
JUDICIAL BRANCH – Anti-Union/Pro Business Judges Dominate the Supreme Court and Appellate Courts
The Republican Party has worked for a long time to ensure that the federal court system is dominated by conservative, pro-business/anti-union judges over the long term. Indeed, Republicans basically packed the court system when Senate Majority Leader McConnell refused to allow the Senate to vote on 105 judicial vacancies during the Obama administration which were later filled by Trump appointees.
Supreme Court. The Supreme Court now has 6 Republican appointed justices and 3 Democratic Justices. Each of the three Trump appointees had a proven anti-union/pro-corporate bias before being nominated.
Amy Coney Barrett. During her term on the 7 th Circuit Court of Appeals, Barrett ruled in favor of corporate interest more than 75% of the time. She ruled that corporations are entitled to set job requirements that exclude older workers and that they may segregate workers at different locations by race. She has also expressed support for striking the entire Affordable Care Act which would deprive health insurance for 20 million people and end protections for 100 million people with pre-existing conditions.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Barrett ruled in favor of corporate interest more than 75% of the time. She ruled that corporations are entitled to set job requirements that exclude older workers and that they may segregate workers at different locations by race. She has also expressed support for striking the entire Affordable Care Act which would deprive health insurance for 20 million people and end protections for 100 million people with pre-existing conditions. Neil Gorsuch. During his term on the 10 th Circuit Court of Appeals, Gorsuch repeatedly ruled against workers and in favor of corporations. For example, Gorsuch dissented from a majority ruling upholding a National Labor Relations Board decision that an employer must give full back pay to workers it illegally fired for union activity. Gorsuch dissented in cases in which the circuit court majority supported pro-worker NLRB decisions stating that the NLRB exceeded the scope of its authority. However, Gorsuch made no such dissent when the court ruled in favor of NLRB decisions that supported management.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Gorsuch repeatedly ruled against workers and in favor of corporations. For example, Gorsuch dissented from a majority ruling upholding a National Labor Relations Board decision that an employer must give full back pay to workers it illegally fired for union activity. Gorsuch dissented in cases in which the circuit court majority supported pro-worker NLRB decisions stating that the NLRB exceeded the scope of its authority. However, Gorsuch made no such dissent when the court ruled in favor of NLRB decisions that supported management. Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh served on the extremely important US District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This court is second only to the Supreme Court in terms of prestige and power because it has jurisdiction over Congress and most federal regulations and agencies. The People for the American Way compiled a list of rulings showing that Kavanaugh consistently ruled against workers and for corporations during his 12½ years on the DC Circuit Court. Examples include Kavanaugh's opinions that would "entirely eviscerate collective bargaining;" his support for corporations seeking criminal citations for lawful union protests; and support for corporations that failed to protect workers health and safety.
Other Federal Courts. In almost 4 years Trump and the Republican Senate have appointed 24% of all active federal judges (194 of 792). There are 35 more nominations currently pending. Trump has appointed 30% of all active federal appeals court judges (54 of 179). This is more than any other president over the last 40 years. Overall, Republican appointees now account for 54% of all federal circuit court judges. The circuit courts are especially powerful because they function as final arbiter for the vast majority of cases since the Supreme Court accepts fewer than 2% of the 7-8,000 cases filed with it annually. These courts ultimately determine what the federal government can and cannot regulate – this is especially important to unions in relation to the right to organize and collectively bargain for wages, benefits and working conditions as well as the relative power of unions and corporations.
PART TWO: REPUBLICANS & TRUMP RIG THE RULES AGAINST UNIONS AND FOR CORPORATIONS
The Republican dominated executive, legislative and judicial branches have conspired to rig the laws, rules and regulations governing our political economy against unions and for corporations. The Brookings Institute maintains an up-to-date compilation of the Trump administration's deregulatory actions in a number of areas including labor, health, covid-19, education and environment. The Economic Policy Institute has itemized 50 anti-union actions taken by these branches of government against workers and provided an even more detailed analysis in another article. Here are some of the highlights.
Dismantling the Right to Join a Union and Collectively Bargain Stripping the right to organize a union and collectively bargain from millions of workers at companies like Uber and Lyft (NLRB), graduate students (NLRB) and federal government workers including the determination that unionizing 750,000 Department of Defense workers would be a threat to national security. Expanded management rights to undermine unions by granting management the power to determine which group of workers will be eligible to vote in an organizing election and be covered by a negotiated contract (NLRB). Defunded unions by preventing public sector unions from requiring workers to help pay for the costs the union incurs for representing them in collective bargaining, arbitration and grievance procedures (Supreme Court) Initiated the process to privatize government services that are heavily unionized including the US Postal Service (USPS) and public schools (Department of Education).
Reduced Good Paying Union Jobs. Trump's policies that were supposed to create jobs, actually eliminated jobs. His 2017 tax cut provided incentives for corporations to offshore jobs by applying a 21% corporate tax rate for income earned domestically, but a 10.5% tax rate for profits earned offshore. His China trade policy led to a 21% increase in our trade deficit with China and a resulting loss or displacement of 700,000 US jobs.
Reduced Wages. The Trump NLRB pushed through rules that prevented 8.2 million workers from obtaining overtime and cut $1 billion in wages by ruling that Lyft and Uber workers are individual contractors not subject to federal protections. The Republican Senate refused to consider a bill passed by the House to establish a $15 an hour minimum wage which would have increased wages for 33 million workers. The Trump administration stated that it would veto such a bill even if passed by the Senate.
Eroding Pension Security by Defunding Social Security. President Trump issued an executive order permitting companies to stop withholding payroll taxes. Trump also promised that "If I'm victorious on Nov 3, I plan to forgive these taxes and make permanent cuts to the payroll tax." The Social Security Administration stated that the Trump plan would deplete the Social Security retirement trust by 2023 at which time it would stop paying out benefits.
Denying and Reducing Health Insurance. Congressional Republicans and Trump have repeatedly attempted to pass legislation to eliminate Obamacare. The Trump administration also joined Republican state officials in suits contending that Obamacare is unconstitutional (a contention upheld by a Republican dominated appeals court). More than twenty million people will lose health insurance if these attempts are successful and 100 million would lose protections for previous conditions.
Eroded Workplace Safety and Health. Examples include OSHA's refusal to issue any required measures—via an emergency temporary infectious disease standard—to protect workers from the coronavirus; the Department of Labor's exclusion of millions of workers from paid leave provisions in the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA), including 9 million health care workers and 4.4 million first responders; and significant reductions in OSHA and Mine Safety inspections.
PART THREE: TRUMP MUST BE DEFEATED TO SAVE UNIONS AND BLUNT THE ANTI-UNION REPUBLICAN OFFENSIVE
A vote for Trump, a 3rd party candidate or not voting at all is a vote to irredeemably harm unions. This is not to say that Biden and the Democratic Party are the second coming of FDR and the New Deal. However, Biden and the Democrats are not out to destroy unions and, at the very least, will blunt the corporate/Republican anti-union crusade. And, at best, Biden and the Democrats will enact pro-worker legislation to the degree that unions and progressive groups are mobilized and activated. While the Democrats represent the possibility of pro-worker legislation especially if pushed by mass mobilization, Trump and the Republicans are out to destroy unions no matter what we do.
Progressives must ensure that Trump is not reelected: A second Trump term would be like his first term but on steroids – unions may not recover. If Trump is reelected, he will take all the anti-union policies of his first term to a new level. He will do this especially because a second Trump term will be characterized by its vindictiveness. Trump has an established pattern of viciously attacking any of his supporters who he considered to have been disloyal. And it is even worse for any groups and individuals he perceives as enemies – and he definitely perceives unions as enemies because they have almost universally endorsed Biden. Thus, Trump and the Republicans will extend, expand and institutionalize their efforts to eviscerate workers' rights to organize and collectively bargain and erode wages, benefits and working conditions for millions of Americans. In addition, they will expand management rights and further increase the inequitable concentration of income, wealth and power in the hands of the corporate and billionaire elite. A second Trump term will irreversibly debilitate unions and their ability to countervail the power of corporations.
Trump will be able to implement his anti-union crusade even if the Democrats maintain control of the House and obtain a majority in the Senate. He has proven that Congress is basically toothless when confronted by a president who does not play by the established rules and norms of government. He has proven that he can effectively rule by executive order – and that the anti-union judiciary will sustain his policies. The big business/Republican party attack on unions will be even worse if the Republicans continue to control the Senate and, thus, the court system.
Mass mobilization and civil disobedience must defeat any attempt by Trump and the Republicans to steal the election. All progressive groups should be prepared to engage in mass civil disobedience in response to any attempt by Trump and Republicans to steal the election if Biden wins. There are many articles that examine such scenarios including Vox, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and many more. Possibilities include lawsuits that wind their way to the Supreme Court where a 6-3 Republican majority hands Trump a victory. Another scenario is for Republican controlled state governments to use their power to override voters in a narrow election. There could be significant attempts to invalidate mail-in votes. Yet another strategy is to delay results, create chaos in the electoral college and then throw the election to the House of Representatives where Republicans control more state delegations. We must be prepared for any of these possibilities. The stakes are too high. Unions – and the entire progressive movement - may not survive another Trump term. All progressive groups should call for mass civil disobedience. Unions – and progressive groups in general – should call for and implement a a range of mass action including a general strike, a range of rolling strikes or a mass slowdown. A number of local/regional labor councils have already passed resolutions supporting mass worker mobilizations. Such a strategy would entail a vast amount of educating, organizing and resources in a short period of time. It would also be risky – what if most workers failed to heed the call? Wouldn't that reveal a basic weakness in the labor movement and make its leaders unpopular with their membership? These are risks that pale in comparison to the gutting of unions that would occur with a second Trump term. Major crises call for significant and courageous actions.
Kenneth R. Peres retired as chief economist of the Communications Workers of America. Formerly, he served as economist for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, the Montana House Select Committee on Economic Development, and the Montana Alliance for Progressive Policy. Ken has held teaching positions at the University of Montana, St. John's University, Chief Dull Knife College, and the City University of New York. He obtained a PhD in economics from the New School in New York City.


alternet--2020-11-02--Federal judge slaps down GOP push to throw out more than 100,000 ballots

Federal Judge Andrew Hanen in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas slapped down a case brought by a group of Republicans to throw out more than 100,000 ballots already cast in the state .
He ruled that the plaintiffs in the case , including Republican candidates for office and a Republican in the Texas legislature , did not have standing to challenge the ballots cast at a drive-through location .
That means they have n't demonstrated that they have passed a the legal threshold for demonstrating that they have experienced the specific kind of harms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arguments and potentially offer a remedy .
`` I 'm not happy with that finding , '' Hanen said , according to Texas lawyer Raffi Melkonian who listened to the arguments .
`` But the way I look at it , the law requires it . ''
In Hanen 's view , the Supreme Court has made it clear in such cases that this type of plaintiff does n't have standing to successfully petition for relief .
He also said that even if he had found the plaintiffs had standing , he would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cast were illegal and therefore would not have thrown them out , according to Melkonian .
One major problem with the Republicans ' case is that they waited too long to challenge the voting process , which has been planned for awhile and ongoing for weeks .
However , Hanen reportedly added that had he determined the plaintiff had standing , he would have prevented the drive-through voting site to continue on Nov. 3 , the final day of voting .
He suggested that he would not vote at the drive-through site on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ votes could later be rule invalid .
The plaintiffs had claimed that the drive-through voting site had been illegally set up , even though it was approved by the country board and state officials .
However , legal observers widely noted that their case was based on a misreading of the law , and the remedy of throwing out ballots cast under the rules at the time would be far too extreme even if the underlying argument was valid .
The polling site in question was in Harris County , expected to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so the Republicans likely hoped that tossing out the ballots could undermine any potential narrow Democratic wins .
Hanen is widely seen as a particularly partisan right-wing judge .
But apparently this case was too much to ask of even him .

Federal Judge Andrew Hanen in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas slapped down a case brought by a group of Republicans to throw out more than 100,000 ballots already cast in the state.
He ruled that the plaintiffs in the case, including Republican candidates for office and a Republican in the Texas legislature, did not have standing to challenge the ballots cast at a drive-through location. That means they haven't demonstrated that they have passed a the legal threshold for demonstrating that they have experienced the specific kind of harms necessary for the judiciary to consider their arguments and potentially offer a remedy.
"I'm not happy with that finding," Hanen said, according to Texas lawyer Raffi Melkonian who listened to the arguments. "But the way I look at it, the law requires it."
In Hanen's view, the Supreme Court has made it clear in such cases that this type of plaintiff doesn't have standing to successfully petition for relief.
He also said that even if he had found the plaintiffs had standing, he would not have found that the votes already cast were illegal and therefore would not have thrown them out, according to Melkonian. One major problem with the Republicans' case is that they waited too long to challenge the voting process, which has been planned for awhile and ongoing for weeks.
However, Hanen reportedly added that had he determined the plaintiff had standing, he would have prevented the drive-through voting site to continue on Nov. 3, the final day of voting. He suggested that he would not vote at the drive-through site on Tuesday because he would be concerned the votes could later be rule invalid.
The plaintiffs had claimed that the drive-through voting site had been illegally set up, even though it was approved by the country board and state officials. However, legal observers widely noted that their case was based on a misreading of the law, and the remedy of throwing out ballots cast under the rules at the time would be far too extreme even if the underlying argument was valid. The polling site in question was in Harris County, expected to be an area that votes heavily Democratic, so the Republicans likely hoped that tossing out the ballots could undermine any potential narrow Democratic wins.
Hanen is widely seen as a particularly partisan right-wing judge. But apparently this case was too much to ask of even him.


alternet--2020-11-02--A brutal supercut exposes the Trump family's brazen lying about his record on LGBTQ rights

First Lady Melania Trump and Tiffany Trump , President Donald Trump 's youngest daughter , have recently exalted him as a major supporter of LQBTQ rights .
But a supercut video posted by The Recount shows the opposite to be true .
The video fluctuates between clips of Melania and Tiffany Trump praising the president 's track record as very pro-LGBTQ and clips disproving their statements .
When the video opens , Melania Trump is seen saying , `` I was shocked to discover that some of these powerful people have tried to paint my husband as anti-gay or against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ video abruptly switches to a clip of CNN 's Kate Bolduan referencing `` President Trump banning transgender people from serving in the U.S .
military . ''
In another clip , Tiffany Trump is seen praising her father 's history as very pro-LGBTQ — before switching to a clip of President Trump saying , `` I 'm against gay marriage .
I took a lot of heat for that . ''
Melania Trump is seen claiming that `` Donald is the first president to enter the White House supporting gay marriage , '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , `` I 'm for traditional marriage . ''
And a clip of Tiffany Trump saying that `` My father has always supported '' LGBTQ rights is followed by a clip of CBS News reporter Anne-Marie Greene reporting that Trump had `` ended federal protections for transgender students that allow them to use school bathrooms matching their gender identities . ''

First Lady Melania Trump and Tiffany Trump, President Donald Trump's youngest daughter, have recently exalted him as a major supporter of LQBTQ rights. But a supercut video posted by The Recount shows the opposite to be true.
The video fluctuates between clips of Melania and Tiffany Trump praising the president's track record as very pro-LGBTQ and clips disproving their statements. When the video opens, Melania Trump is seen saying, "I was shocked to discover that some of these powerful people have tried to paint my husband as anti-gay or against equality" — and then, the video abruptly switches to a clip of CNN's Kate Bolduan referencing "President Trump banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military."
In another clip, Tiffany Trump is seen praising her father's history as very pro-LGBTQ — before switching to a clip of President Trump saying, "I'm against gay marriage. I took a lot of heat for that."
Melania Trump is seen claiming that "Donald is the first president to enter the White House supporting gay marriage," followed by a clip of Trump saying, "I'm for traditional marriage." And a clip of Tiffany Trump saying that "My father has always supported" LGBTQ rights is followed by a clip of CBS News reporter Anne-Marie Greene reporting that Trump had "ended federal protections for transgender students that allow them to use school bathrooms matching their gender identities."
Watch the clip below:


alternet--2020-11-02--Why this 'lifelong Republican' manufacturer is endorsing Biden for president

The list of conservatives who have endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden over President Donald Trump is a long one , ranging from former Sen. Jeff Flake to Cindy McCain ( Sen. John McCain 's widow ) to former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and journalist George Will .
Another is Mike Bowen , executive vice president of the Texas-based Prestige Ameritech .
According to Bowen , Trump 's response to the coronavirus pandemic has `` greatly increased death and suffering in America . ''
Prestige Ameritech is the largest producer of N-95 masks and respirators in the United States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medical professionals , have been in heavy demand during the pandemic .
Bowen , who describes himself as a lifelong Republican , told HuffPost , `` President Trump downplayed the virus , missed opportunities , and wasted precious time .
He has also politicized the wearing of masks ... .
The man has politicized a life-saving medical device and has teased people for wearing it . ''
The Prestige Ameritech VP voted for Trump in 2016 but has since grown disenchanted with him and made it clear to HuffPost that he wo n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` Mr. Trump is a self-proclaimed 'genius ' who prefers his own magical thinking to the advice of experts and scientists , '' Bowen told HuffPost .
`` The next time that there is a scientifically-minded Republican presidential candidate , I will vote for her or him .
This time , however , there is only one scientifically minded person in the race .
That person is Joe Biden . ''
In May , Bowen testified before Congress and said that the United States ' reliance on medical masks manufactured outside the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for several years .
Another person who testified during that hearing was Dr. Rick Bright , former director of the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority .
Bright had been ousted from BARDA in April for objecting to pressure from officials in Trump 's administration who wanted BARDA to promote unproven treatments for COVID-19 .
Bright told members of Congress , `` I 'll never forget the e-mails I received from Mike Bowen indicating that our mask supply , our N-95 respirator supply , was completely decimated .
And he said , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world is .
And we need to act ' ... .
We were already behind the ball . ''

The list of conservatives who have endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden over President Donald Trump is a long one, ranging from former Sen. Jeff Flake to Cindy McCain (Sen. John McCain's widow) to former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and journalist George Will. Another is Mike Bowen, executive vice president of the Texas-based Prestige Ameritech. According to Bowen, Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic has "greatly increased death and suffering in America."
Prestige Ameritech is the largest producer of N-95 masks and respirators in the United States. Protective N-95 masks, designed for medical professionals, have been in heavy demand during the pandemic.
Bowen, who describes himself as a lifelong Republican, told HuffPost, "President Trump downplayed the virus, missed opportunities, and wasted precious time. He has also politicized the wearing of masks.... The man has politicized a life-saving medical device and has teased people for wearing it."
The Prestige Ameritech VP voted for Trump in 2016 but has since grown disenchanted with him and made it clear to HuffPost that he won't be voting for him a second time.
"Mr. Trump is a self-proclaimed 'genius' who prefers his own magical thinking to the advice of experts and scientists," Bowen told HuffPost. "The next time that there is a scientifically-minded Republican presidential candidate, I will vote for her or him. This time, however, there is only one scientifically minded person in the race. That person is Joe Biden."
In May, Bowen testified before Congress and said that the United States' reliance on medical masks manufactured outside the country had posed a national security risk for several years.
Another person who testified during that hearing was Dr. Rick Bright, former director of the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Bright had been ousted from BARDA in April for objecting to pressure from officials in Trump's administration who wanted BARDA to promote unproven treatments for COVID-19.
Bright told members of Congress, "I'll never forget the e-mails I received from Mike Bowen indicating that our mask supply, our N-95 respirator supply, was completely decimated. And he said, 'We're in deep shit. The world is. And we need to act'.... We were already behind the ball."


alternet--2020-11-02--A forgotten prophecy: How I caught a glimpse of Donald Trump's America in 1973

It was summer almost half a century ago when I got into that Volkswagen van and began my trip across country with Peter , a photographer friend .
I was officially doing so as a reporter for a small San Francisco news service , having been sent out to tap the mood of the nation in a politically fraught moment .
The Vietnam War , with all its domestic protests and disturbances , was just ending .
North Vietnamese troops would soon enough enter Saigon , the South Vietnamese capital ; the president of the United States , Richard Nixon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scandal called `` Watergate . ''
And here was the odd thing .
I felt trapped , too .
In some way , I felt lost .
As I put it then ( and this should have a familiar ring to it , even if , in 1973 , I was only referring to the TV version of the news ) , `` That screen haunted my life .
Somehow I wanted to shatter it and discover new , more human reference points , a true center of gravity . ''
I had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world of mine and do the all-American thing , the Jack Kerouac thing : go `` on the road . ''
So Peter and I set out on that famed American road , traveling from campgrounds to fast-food restaurants , carnival midways to Old Faithful , only to find ourselves trapped in what I called `` the increasing corporate control not just of people on the job , but on their vacations , in their leisure hours . ''
I found myself interviewing , and him photographing , what I came to think @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nomads '' -- mostly lower-middle-class and working-class Americans , confused and angry , `` pushed aside , '' as I wrote then , by `` forces they feel are beyond their control . ''
We were , it turned out , on someone else 's road entirely .
In Milwaukee , we would be joined by Nancy , who later became my wife , and then would spend weeks following those all-too-unromantic highways ( without a Jack Kerouac in sight ) , interviewing anyone who would talk to us .
In the end @ @ @ @ @ @ @ break free from his own life , to figure out `` where ( or whether ) I fit into American society '' became my first book , Beyond Our Control : America in the Mid Seventies .
In retrospect , that book about our strange journey into a country being reorganized for eternal consumption and the wellbeing of giant corporations became my own -- as I would then call it -- `` dream-document excavated from our recent past . ''
And yes , even so long ago , it was already a troubled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ must admit , though , that I had n't looked at Beyond Our Control in years , not until a friend recently found a copy , read it , and emailed , quoting my own ancient text back to me to point out how eerily relevant it still was , how -- in a sense -- Trumpian parts of that 1973 America already were .
He highlighted , in particular , an interview near the end of that book with `` Frank Nelson '' -- I changed all the names , so who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ -- about which more in a moment .
That missive startled me .
I had forgotten all those Frank Nelsons and perhaps as well the Tom Engelhardt who interviewed them so long ago .
So , curious about that long-lost self of mine and the world I then inhabited , I picked up that old book and reread it in order to meet the young Tom Engelhardt on the road in another American universe .
And how strange that journey back into my own -- and our -- past proved to be .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Plain So , if you have the patience for a little time travel , return with me to July 1973 and let me tell you about Frank Nelson , whom I met at a trailhead in Yellowstone National Park with his wife and three children .
He was `` a responsible , likeable family man '' with -- regardless of how hard I pressed him -- `` no vision of a better future . ''
A plumber and union shop steward from Cleveland , as well as the chairman of the union bargaining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told me : `` I have really dedicated myself to the labor movement all my life and I believe in it . ''
Yet he was already talking back then about the growing `` conservative approach '' of the trade union movement and the possibility that it would be destroyed , he believed , by `` the race issue . ''
He was clearly both anti-Semitic and racist .
( `` Being white , I would prefer the continued supremacy of the white race instead of this homogenization that 's coming . ''
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a growing American crisis with me , he also told me that `` your liberals believe in one world government ... and your conservatives '' -- which he clearly believed himself to be -- `` believe in America first , American domination . ''
And remember , this was July 1973 , not July 2019 .
It was Richard Nixon 's America , not Donald Trump 's .
Frank and his wife Helen were open , chatty , and so pleased with the interview experience that she gave me their address and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of anything I wrote .
In other words , he said nothing he felt was out of the range of propriety .
My reaction , on leaving him , was : `` For me , this interview seemed like the crescendo towards which the bits and pieces of our trip have been building . ''
As I had discovered in those weeks of interviewing , Nelson , like so many others on that vacation loop , was filled to the brim with half-spoken and unspoken fears about a future in which , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ corporate ] pushers will survive , maybe even profit .
It 's these people we 've talked with , the vast mass of middle people who have barely eked out a toehold in the system , who will be cut off at the knees .
And , being hooked [ on that system ] , they do n't know what to do . ''
Then , thinking about Nelson ( and others like him we had met ) , I added , In those pages , I had already brought up Weimar-era @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , before Hitler rose to power -- and then I added : Welcome to a More Extreme World In the age of Donald Trump , the Proud Boys , and the Wolverine Watchmen , much of this should feel strangely familiar .
If , however , my reporting was in any way prophetic , I have to admit that I did n't realize it all these years -- not until my friend wrote me .
Still , it should be obvious , in retrospect , that , bizarre as the present moment may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the blue , not faintly .
How could it have ?
For that matter , Donald Trump did n't exactly arrive out of the blue either .
As a start , just a couple of months after I got back to San Francisco from that cross-country jaunt of ours , he made his first appearance on the front page of the New York Times .
He was 27 , two years younger than me , and already the president of the Trump Management Corporation .
The headline , shades of the future @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accompanied him , was : `` Major Landlord Accused of Antiblack Bias in City . ''
The Justice Department was then charging his father Fred and him with refusing `` to rent or negotiate rentals 'because of race and color ' '' in the buildings they then owned and managed .
And his first words quoted in that paper about those charges were , appropriately enough : `` They are absolutely ridiculous ... We never have discriminated and we never would . ''
Of course not !
And what has n't been increasingly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ever since ?
When you think about it , with that moment in 1973 in mind , Trump himself might be reimagined as some extreme combination of Richard Nixon ( a man with his own revealing tapes just like The Donald ) and George Wallace .
The racist governor of Alabama and a third party candidate the year Nixon slipped by Democrat Hubert Humphrey to first win the White House , Wallace was a man best known for the formulation `` segregation now , segregation tomorrow , segregation forever . ''
Nixon took @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1972 with his own form of racism , the `` southern strategy , '' first pioneered by Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964 ( and then called , far more redolently , `` Operation Dixie '' ) .
In a racially coded and distinctly nationalist fashion , Nixon brought southern whites in the formerly Democratic bastions of the South definitively into the Republican fold .
By 1980 , Ronald Reagan would n't think twice about launching his own presidential election campaign with a `` states ' rights '' speech ( then still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Philadelphia , Mississippi , just miles from the earthen dam where three murdered civil rights workers had been found buried in 1964 .
And in the intervening years , the Republican Party , too , has gone south ( so to speak ) big time and into a form of illiberality that was , even in the Nixon era , striking enough .
By 2016 , of course , that southern strategy had become something more like a national strategy in the ( pussy-grabbing ) hands of Donald Trump .
Meanwhile , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have thought of it as the fast-foodization -- of the country that Peter , Nancy , and I were traveling across was already well underway .
At the same time , a new kind of all-American inequality was , in those years , just beginning to make itself felt .
Today , with the first billionaire in the White House and other billionaires , even in the midst of a pandemic , continuing to make an absolute mint while so many Americans suffer , the inequality that left Frank Nelson and his peers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to truly staggering levels .
Believe me , even if Donald Trump has to leave the Oval Office on January 20 , 2021 , we 'll still be in his America .
And 47 years after my long , strange trip , I think I can guarantee you one thing : if it were n't for the pandemic that has this country in its grasp and has swept so many of us off any path whatsoever , some young reporter , stir crazy and unhappy , would still be able to head out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find updated versions of Frank Nelson galore ( a surprising number of whom might be well-armed and angry ) .
Welcome to America !
There 's no question that , so long after Peter , Nancy , and I travelled that not-so-open road , our lives and this country are way beyond our control .
Writing about the people I had interviewed then ( about whom -- with the single inspirational exception of a museum director I met in Twin Falls , Idaho -- I knew nothing more ) , I said : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like me , are still heading reluctantly toward a future that will make the summer of 1973 seem truly unreal and leave us all wondering : Could life ever have really been that way ? ''
In Covid-19 America , with the West Coast still burning , Colorado in historic flames , a record 11 storms hitting the Gulf Coast and elsewhere this hurricane season , and heat of every sort rising everywhere , do n't for a second believe that the phrase `` beyond our control '' could n't gain new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Welcome to a more extreme version of the world Frank Nelson and I already inhabited in 1973 .
Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of a history of the Cold War , The End of Victory Culture .
He runs TomDispatch and is a fellow of the Type Media Center .
His sixth and latest book is A Nation Unmade by War .
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook .
Check out the newest Dispatch Books , John Feffer 's new dystopian novel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) Frostlands , Beverly Gologorsky 's novel Every Body Has a Story , and Tom Engelhardt 's A Nation Unmade by War , as well as Alfred McCoy 's In the Shadows of the American Century : The Rise and Decline of U.S .
Global Power and John Dower 's The Violent American Century : War and Terror Since World War II .

It was summer almost half a century ago when I got into that Volkswagen van and began my trip across country with Peter, a photographer friend. I was officially doing so as a reporter for a small San Francisco news service, having been sent out to tap the mood of the nation in a politically fraught moment. The Vietnam War, with all its domestic protests and disturbances, was just ending. North Vietnamese troops would soon enough enter Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital; the president of the United States, Richard Nixon, was then trapped in an escalating scandal called "Watergate."
And here was the odd thing. I felt trapped, too. In some way, I felt lost. As I put it then (and this should have a familiar ring to it, even if, in 1973, I was only referring to the TV version of the news), "That screen haunted my life. Somehow I wanted to shatter it and discover new, more human reference points, a true center of gravity." I had the urge to break out of that world of mine and do the all-American thing, the Jack Kerouac thing: go "on the road."
So Peter and I set out on that famed American road, traveling from campgrounds to fast-food restaurants, carnival midways to Old Faithful, only to find ourselves trapped in what I called "the increasing corporate control not just of people on the job, but on their vacations, in their leisure hours." I found myself interviewing, and him photographing, what I came to think of as a "population of disoriented nomads" -- mostly lower-middle-class and working-class Americans, confused and angry, "pushed aside," as I wrote then, by "forces they feel are beyond their control." We were, it turned out, on someone else's road entirely.
In Milwaukee, we would be joined by Nancy, who later became my wife, and then would spend weeks following those all-too-unromantic highways (without a Jack Kerouac in sight), interviewing anyone who would talk to us. In the end, that attempt of a 29-year-old to break free from his own life, to figure out "where (or whether) I fit into American society" became my first book, Beyond Our Control: America in the Mid Seventies. In retrospect, that book about our strange journey into a country being reorganized for eternal consumption and the wellbeing of giant corporations became my own -- as I would then call it -- "dream-document excavated from our recent past."
And yes, even so long ago, it was already a troubled moment in a troubled land. I must admit, though, that I hadn't looked at Beyond Our Control in years, not until a friend recently found a copy, read it, and emailed, quoting my own ancient text back to me to point out how eerily relevant it still was, how -- in a sense -- Trumpian parts of that 1973 America already were.
He highlighted, in particular, an interview near the end of that book with "Frank Nelson" -- I changed all the names, so who knows now what his real one was -- about which more in a moment. That missive startled me. I had forgotten all those Frank Nelsons and perhaps as well the Tom Engelhardt who interviewed them so long ago.
So, curious about that long-lost self of mine and the world I then inhabited, I picked up that old book and reread it in order to meet the young Tom Engelhardt on the road in another American universe. And how strange that journey back into my own -- and our -- past proved to be.
The Right Wind Sweeping In Off the Plain
So, if you have the patience for a little time travel, return with me to July 1973 and let me tell you about Frank Nelson, whom I met at a trailhead in Yellowstone National Park with his wife and three children. He was "a responsible, likeable family man" with -- regardless of how hard I pressed him -- "no vision of a better future." A plumber and union shop steward from Cleveland, as well as the chairman of the union bargaining committee in his factory, he proudly told me: "I have really dedicated myself to the labor movement all my life and I believe in it."
Yet he was already talking back then about the growing "conservative approach" of the trade union movement and the possibility that it would be destroyed, he believed, by "the race issue." He was clearly both anti-Semitic and racist. ("Being white, I would prefer the continued supremacy of the white race instead of this homogenization that's coming.") And while discussing what he felt was a growing American crisis with me, he also told me that "your liberals believe in one world government... and your conservatives" -- which he clearly believed himself to be -- "believe in America first, American domination."
And remember, this was July 1973, not July 2019. It was Richard Nixon's America, not Donald Trump's.
Frank and his wife Helen were open, chatty, and so pleased with the interview experience that she gave me their address and asked me to send them a copy of anything I wrote. In other words, he said nothing he felt was out of the range of propriety. My reaction, on leaving him, was: "For me, this interview seemed like the crescendo towards which the bits and pieces of our trip have been building."
As I had discovered in those weeks of interviewing, Nelson, like so many others on that vacation loop, was filled to the brim with half-spoken and unspoken fears about a future in which, as I put it then, "the [corporate] pushers will survive, maybe even profit. It's these people we've talked with, the vast mass of middle people who have barely eked out a toehold in the system, who will be cut off at the knees. And, being hooked [on that system], they don't know what to do."
Then, thinking about Nelson (and others like him we had met), I added,
"The next step for Frank Nelson, however, may be out of this passivity and into the streets... The motivation, the frustration, the anger is there. Even a new ideology, the ideology of race and nationalism is emerging. All that's missing is the right wind sweeping in off the plain, a combination of forces at the top of the society willing to mobilize Frank Nelson.
"...Sinking people don't usually have a trenchant analysis of reality. All they require is the promise that their hard-won sense of status will not go down the drain; and an explanation, any explanation, on which to hang their hopes. American society leaves people so confused and reality so disjointed that almost any formula which pretends to put the pieces together and appeals to what people think of as their self-interest may prove acceptable."
In those pages, I had already brought up Weimar-era Germany -- the moment, that is, before Hitler rose to power -- and then I added:
"In Germany in the thirties, the formula that worked was anti-Semitism, anti-communism, and a rabid nationalism combined with full employment and a return to domestic stability. If Frank Nelson's any criterion, the formula may not be that much different here... Nationalism could well be the banner under which the struggle and the inevitable sacrifices will come, and race the bogeyman just as Jews were in Germany. The identifiable (Black) poor are the symbol for Frank Nelson of what he has to lose, what could be ripped out of his hands. And he'll defend himself against that even if he has to ally himself with 'the Jews and rich Gentiles' to do it.
"Frank Nelson and millions of other Americans are set up for the picking, if a group at the top sees profit in the crop."
Welcome to a More Extreme World
In the age of Donald Trump, the Proud Boys, and the Wolverine Watchmen, much of this should feel strangely familiar. If, however, my reporting was in any way prophetic, I have to admit that I didn't realize it all these years -- not until my friend wrote me. Still, it should be obvious, in retrospect, that, bizarre as the present moment may seem, it didn't come out of the blue, not faintly. How could it have?
For that matter, Donald Trump didn't exactly arrive out of the blue either. As a start, just a couple of months after I got back to San Francisco from that cross-country jaunt of ours, he made his first appearance on the front page of the New York Times. He was 27, two years younger than me, and already the president of the Trump Management Corporation. The headline, shades of the future Donald and the white nationalism that's accompanied him, was: "Major Landlord Accused of Antiblack Bias in City." The Justice Department was then charging his father Fred and him with refusing "to rent or negotiate rentals 'because of race and color'" in the buildings they then owned and managed. And his first words quoted in that paper about those charges were, appropriately enough: "They are absolutely ridiculous... We never have discriminated and we never would." Of course not! And what hasn't been increasingly, ridiculously Trumpian about our all-American world ever since?
When you think about it, with that moment in 1973 in mind, Trump himself might be reimagined as some extreme combination of Richard Nixon (a man with his own revealing tapes just like The Donald) and George Wallace. The racist governor of Alabama and a third party candidate the year Nixon slipped by Democrat Hubert Humphrey to first win the White House, Wallace was a man best known for the formulation "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
Nixon took the presidency in 1968 and again in 1972 with his own form of racism, the "southern strategy," first pioneered by Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964 (and then called, far more redolently, "Operation Dixie"). In a racially coded and distinctly nationalist fashion, Nixon brought southern whites in the formerly Democratic bastions of the South definitively into the Republican fold. By 1980, Ronald Reagan wouldn't think twice about launching his own presidential election campaign with a "states' rights" speech (then still a code phrase for segregation) near Philadelphia, Mississippi, just miles from the earthen dam where three murdered civil rights workers had been found buried in 1964. And in the intervening years, the Republican Party, too, has gone south (so to speak) big time and into a form of illiberality that was, even in the Nixon era, striking enough.
By 2016, of course, that southern strategy had become something more like a national strategy in the (pussy-grabbing) hands of Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, the corporatization -- I might, then, have thought of it as the fast-foodization -- of the country that Peter, Nancy, and I were traveling across was already well underway. At the same time, a new kind of all-American inequality was, in those years, just beginning to make itself felt. Today, with the first billionaire in the White House and other billionaires, even in the midst of a pandemic, continuing to make an absolute mint while so many Americans suffer, the inequality that left Frank Nelson and his peers so desperately uneasy has never stopped rising to truly staggering levels.
Believe me, even if Donald Trump has to leave the Oval Office on January 20, 2021, we'll still be in his America. And 47 years after my long, strange trip, I think I can guarantee you one thing: if it weren't for the pandemic that has this country in its grasp and has swept so many of us off any path whatsoever, some young reporter, stir crazy and unhappy, would still be able to head out onto a twenty-first-century "road" and find updated versions of Frank Nelson galore (a surprising number of whom might be well-armed and angry).
Welcome to America! There's no question that, so long after Peter, Nancy, and I travelled that not-so-open road, our lives and this country are way beyond our control.
Writing about the people I had interviewed then (about whom -- with the single inspirational exception of a museum director I met in Twin Falls, Idaho -- I knew nothing more), I said: "I don't doubt that they, like me, are still heading reluctantly toward a future that will make the summer of 1973 seem truly unreal and leave us all wondering: Could life ever have really been that way?"
In Covid-19 America, with the West Coast still burning, Colorado in historic flames, a record 11 storms hitting the Gulf Coast and elsewhere this hurricane season, and heat of every sort rising everywhere, don't for a second believe that the phrase "beyond our control" couldn't gain new meaning in the decades to come.
Welcome to a more extreme version of the world Frank Nelson and I already inhabited in 1973.
Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture. He runs TomDispatch and is a fellow of the Type Media Center. His sixth and latest book is A Nation Unmade by War.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Books, John Feffer's new dystopian novel (the second in the Splinterlands series) Frostlands, Beverly Gologorsky's novel Every Body Has a Story, and Tom Engelhardt's A Nation Unmade by War, as well as Alfred McCoy's In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power and John Dower's The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II.
Copyright 2020 Tom Engelhardt


alternet--2020-11-02--Caravan of Trump supporters blocks people from voting in Southern California

Supporters of President Donald Trump have found another way to suppress votes that are likely to favor Democrats : using caravans of motorists to make it harder to get to a polling place .
On Sunday — two days before Election Day — one such caravan of pro-Trump motorists , according to the Independent , caused voters in Temecula , California to call the police .
`` The supporters paraded for 60 miles through Riverside County on Sunday afternoon before gathering at the city 's ( Ronald Reagan ) Sports Park , '' The Independent 's Stuti Mishra reports .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ vehicles also ended up obstructing the access to the site , which included a voting center . ''
Brooke Federico , spokesperson for Riverside County — which is east of Los Angeles — told the Los Angeles Times , `` Law enforcement was contacted to ensure that access to the parking lot and voter assistance center was clear .
The Sheriff 's Department responded and cleared access to the parking lot and voter assistance center . ''
Captain Zach Hall of the Riverside County Sheriff 's Department was aware of the complaint but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Around 4000 Trump supporters , according to Mishra , gathered at Temecula 's Ronald Reagan Sports Park for a pro-Trump event on Sunday .
But California , which has 55 electoral votes , is one state that Trump is almost certain to lose .
Although California was a red state as recently as the 1980s , it is deep blue these days .
The last Republican to carry California in a presidential election was the late George H.W .
Bush in 1988 , and a University of California at Berkeley poll released @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by 36 % in the Golden State .

Supporters of President Donald Trump have found another way to suppress votes that are likely to favor Democrats: using caravans of motorists to make it harder to get to a polling place. On Sunday — two days before Election Day — one such caravan of pro-Trump motorists, according to the Independent, caused voters in Temecula, California to call the police.
"The supporters paraded for 60 miles through Riverside County on Sunday afternoon before gathering at the city's (Ronald Reagan) Sports Park," The Independent's Stuti Mishra reports. "However, the crowd and their vehicles also ended up obstructing the access to the site, which included a voting center."
Brooke Federico, spokesperson for Riverside County — which is east of Los Angeles — told the Los Angeles Times, "Law enforcement was contacted to ensure that access to the parking lot and voter assistance center was clear. The Sheriff's Department responded and cleared access to the parking lot and voter assistance center."
Captain Zach Hall of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department was aware of the complaint but said that no arrests had been made.
Around 4000 Trump supporters, according to Mishra, gathered at Temecula's Ronald Reagan Sports Park for a pro-Trump event on Sunday. But California, which has 55 electoral votes, is one state that Trump is almost certain to lose.
Although California was a red state as recently as the 1980s, it is deep blue these days. The last Republican to carry California in a presidential election was the late George H.W. Bush in 1988, and a University of California at Berkeley poll released in late October found Trump trailing Biden by 36% in the Golden State.


alternet--2020-11-02--Political consultant predicts a blowout: ‘We’re going to know the winner of this election by 10pm to

Political consultant predicts a blowout: ‘We’re going to know the winner of this election by 10pm tomorrow night’

Former top adviser to former President Bill Clinton , James Carville , anticipates that Election Night will be a short night for everyone .
Speaking to MSNBC on Monday with former campaign manager for President Barack Obama David Plouffe , Carville said that he expects the election to be called by 10 p.m. that night .
`` What people are doing is unnecessarily scaring people and making them unnecessarily nervous , '' said Carville .
`` That event he had — David Plouffe is exactly right , that event in North Carolina , a state if he loses , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In North Carolina , he 's going to lose .
That event was literally insane .
You 're in eastern North Carolina , a state that you 've got to win and you 're talking about some pollster at Fox News ?
It is literally insane that anybody — any politician would use that as a closing argument .
I am not the least bit concerned about the outcome tomorrow night , and I 'm not the least bit concerned that we 're going to have to wait weeks or months to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We 'll know and we 'll know early . ''
Even when it comes to voter suppression efforts and legal challenges like the Texas Biden bus assault and the police pepper-spraying Black voters , Carville said that it 's only going to turn people away from Trump and motivate more Biden supporters to come to the polls .
`` Look , that bus thing in Texas , yes , I 'm mortified , '' continued Carville .
`` I 'm not mortified by the outcome of the election , I 'm mortified by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote .
People waiting in line for 11 hours to vote .
10,000 people in line in Harris County , Texas , in the middle of the night .
When you tell people you ca n't do something or you try to make it harder for them to do , it aggravates the dickens out of them and makes them want to do it more .
In all these courts , I think this stuff is backfiring magnificently .
I really do .
Particularly Black people .
The right to vote is inherent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ try to keep them from voting , the more they are going to want to vote .
You 're going to see enormous turnout , and it 's going to be driven a lot by , 'You tell me I ca n't do something ?
Watch me .
I 'm going to go do it . '
I see that happening in the early vote , and I think it will carry through to Election Day . ''
Plouffe noted that the majority of Trump 's support is going to come in on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his supporters not to vote by mail .
`` We have COVID cases on the rise .
He looks like a lunatic loser .
So , everything they have is riding on Election Day , '' said Plouffe .
`` So , from a Biden stand-point and Democratic Senate standpoint , and other Democrats , organizationally , so many votes cast .
You have a smaller pool of people that have n't voted yet that you need to work tonight and tomorrow .
So , listen , there 's still a lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you want Joe Biden to win , democrats to win back the Senate , there 's a lot of door-knocking in battleground states .
You can — you make phone calls , text . ''
But that puts all of the pressure on Trump for Election Day , he explained .
`` When he 's out there , he 's trying to suppress the vote .
I think it 's going to backfire , I really do , '' Plouffe continued , agreeing with Carville .
`` I think people are going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet .
We see in early voting strong numbers among young voters , first-time voters .
The other thing , in the early votes , we see Democrats versus Republicans .
I think Joe Biden will convincingly win Independents and nonaffiliated voters .
At the end of the day Donald Trump now has everything riding on tomorrow .
At the end of the day the only way he wins , and it could happen , but the polls have to be off five , six , seven points , the most we 've @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to win Election Day decisively .
Historic turnout for him and historically bad turnout for Biden .
I do n't think that 's going to happen .
I think Democrats are going to have a strong Election Day .
You 've got to work .
That 's the job of everybody who wants to see a new president . ''
There are still many more votes that must be cast , so these predictions only come to fruition if those voters come to the polls and those votes are counted as they are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We ’ re going to know the winner of this election by 10pm tomorrow night

Former top adviser to former President Bill Clinton, James Carville, anticipates that Election Night will be a short night for everyone.
Speaking to MSNBC on Monday with former campaign manager for President Barack Obama David Plouffe, Carville said that he expects the election to be called by 10 p.m. that night.
"What people are doing is unnecessarily scaring people and making them unnecessarily nervous," said Carville. "That event he had — David Plouffe is exactly right, that event in North Carolina, a state if he loses, I don't want to wait on Pennsylvania. In North Carolina, he's going to lose. That event was literally insane. You're in eastern North Carolina, a state that you've got to win and you're talking about some pollster at Fox News? It is literally insane that anybody — any politician would use that as a closing argument. I am not the least bit concerned about the outcome tomorrow night, and I'm not the least bit concerned that we're going to have to wait weeks or months to find out what the result is. We'll know and we'll know early."
Even when it comes to voter suppression efforts and legal challenges like the Texas Biden bus assault and the police pepper-spraying Black voters, Carville said that it's only going to turn people away from Trump and motivate more Biden supporters to come to the polls.
"Look, that bus thing in Texas, yes, I'm mortified," continued Carville. "I'm not mortified by the outcome of the election, I'm mortified by potential violence. Look at the early vote. People waiting in line for 11 hours to vote. 10,000 people in line in Harris County, Texas, in the middle of the night. When you tell people you can't do something or you try to make it harder for them to do, it aggravates the dickens out of them and makes them want to do it more. In all these courts, I think this stuff is backfiring magnificently. I really do. Particularly Black people. The right to vote is inherent in their history. The more you try to keep them from voting, the more they are going to want to vote. You're going to see enormous turnout, and it's going to be driven a lot by, 'You tell me I can't do something? Watch me. I'm going to go do it.' I see that happening in the early vote, and I think it will carry through to Election Day."
Plouffe noted that the majority of Trump's support is going to come in on Election Day, because he's told his supporters not to vote by mail.
"We have COVID cases on the rise. He looks like a lunatic loser. So, everything they have is riding on Election Day," said Plouffe. "So, from a Biden stand-point and Democratic Senate standpoint, and other Democrats, organizationally, so many votes cast. You have a smaller pool of people that haven't voted yet that you need to work tonight and tomorrow. So, listen, there's still a lot of hard work to be done. If you want Joe Biden to win, democrats to win back the Senate, there's a lot of door-knocking in battleground states. You can — you make phone calls, text."
But that puts all of the pressure on Trump for Election Day, he explained.
"When he's out there, he's trying to suppress the vote. I think it's going to backfire, I really do," Plouffe continued, agreeing with Carville. "I think people are going to show up tomorrow who haven't voted yet. We see in early voting strong numbers among young voters, first-time voters. The other thing, in the early votes, we see Democrats versus Republicans. I think Joe Biden will convincingly win Independents and nonaffiliated voters. At the end of the day Donald Trump now has everything riding on tomorrow. At the end of the day the only way he wins, and it could happen, but the polls have to be off five, six, seven points, the most we've seen in history, and he has to win Election Day decisively. Historic turnout for him and historically bad turnout for Biden. I don't think that's going to happen. I think Democrats are going to have a strong Election Day. You've got to work. That's the job of everybody who wants to see a new president."
There are still many more votes that must be cast, so these predictions only come to fruition if those voters come to the polls and those votes are counted as they are cast.
See the video below:


alternet--2020-11-02--Republicans are trying to invalidate absentee ballots that have already been cast: report

Critics of President Donald Trump have been describing the many ways in which he could try to steal the election in Pennsylvania , Florida and other swing states if he does n't like the results .
One of the ways is trying to use the courts to throw out perfectly legitimate mail-in ballots .
And journalist Charlotte Klein , in an article for Vanity Fair , describes GOP efforts to invalidate absentee ballots that have already been cast — from Nevada to Texas to Florida .
`` Now that more than 85 million people have already voted , many using @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their political strategy to challenging individual absentee votes and , in some cases , attempting to invalidate ballots already cast , '' Klein explains .
Not surprisingly , the counties where Republicans have been attacking mail-in ballots lean Democratic .
One of them is Clark County , Nevada , which includes Las Vegas .
Klein notes that according to the Washington Post , Trump 's campaign has filed a lawsuit in Nevada `` seeking images of the signature of every registered voter in Democratic-leaning Clark County — a potential first step toward challenging @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ballots do n't match the signatures on file . ''
Another Trumpian voter suppression move that Klein describes is in Texas ' Harris County , which includes Houston .
Although Texas is a light red state , its major urban centers lean Democratic — and that includes Houston , where a GOP petition has been trying to invalidate almost 127,000 drive-through votes .
The Texas Supreme Court has rejected that petition , but a federal court in Houston was scheduled to hear the plaintiffs ' arguments in a hearing on Monday , November @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2020 .
Klein explains , `` The strategy is a pivot away from broader GOP efforts to limit expanded access to voting , a campaign that began months ago with President Donald Trump 's incessant and false claims linking mail-in voting to fraud — misinformation that Republican officials have embraced in trying to adjust election rules at the last minute .
In Texas , for example , Gov .
Greg Abbott issued an order that required multiple drop-off locations across the state , opened to try to make voting easier during the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ counties to a single drop-off site would 'stop attempts at illegal voting ' despite there being no evidence of large-scale voter fraud . ''
The Vanity Fair reporter also describes GOP voter suppression efforts in Florida , writing , `` another effort apparently laying the groundwork for challenging individual votes took place in Florida last month , when an attorney acting for the Trump campaign requested permission to observe the signature-matching process in the Democrat-heavy Broward County . ''
Wisconsin and Minnesota are other states where Republicans are obviously hoping to invalidate ballots @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vice President Joe Biden .
According to Klein , `` Republican efforts to contest ballots already cast could , if successful , offer the party an electoral advantage given partisan differences in voting preferences… .
Decisions made in Minnesota and Pennsylvania this week will require election officials to set aside absentee ballots that arrive after Election Day . ''

Critics of President Donald Trump have been describing the many ways in which he could try to steal the election in Pennsylvania, Florida and other swing states if he doesn't like the results. One of the ways is trying to use the courts to throw out perfectly legitimate mail-in ballots. And journalist Charlotte Klein, in an article for Vanity Fair, describes GOP efforts to invalidate absentee ballots that have already been cast — from Nevada to Texas to Florida.
"Now that more than 85 million people have already voted, many using mail-in ballots, Republicans have reportedly shifted their political strategy to challenging individual absentee votes and, in some cases, attempting to invalidate ballots already cast," Klein explains.
Not surprisingly, the counties where Republicans have been attacking mail-in ballots lean Democratic. One of them is Clark County, Nevada, which includes Las Vegas.
Klein notes that according to the Washington Post, Trump's campaign has filed a lawsuit in Nevada "seeking images of the signature of every registered voter in Democratic-leaning Clark County — a potential first step toward challenging individual votes on grounds that the signed ballots don't match the signatures on file."
Another Trumpian voter suppression move that Klein describes is in Texas' Harris County, which includes Houston. Although Texas is a light red state, its major urban centers lean Democratic — and that includes Houston, where a GOP petition has been trying to invalidate almost 127,000 drive-through votes. The Texas Supreme Court has rejected that petition, but a federal court in Houston was scheduled to hear the plaintiffs' arguments in a hearing on Monday, November 2 — the day before Election Day 2020.
Klein explains, "The strategy is a pivot away from broader GOP efforts to limit expanded access to voting, a campaign that began months ago with President Donald Trump's incessant and false claims linking mail-in voting to fraud — misinformation that Republican officials have embraced in trying to adjust election rules at the last minute. In Texas, for example, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order that required multiple drop-off locations across the state, opened to try to make voting easier during the pandemic, to close, claiming that limiting counties to a single drop-off site would 'stop attempts at illegal voting' despite there being no evidence of large-scale voter fraud."
The Vanity Fair reporter also describes GOP voter suppression efforts in Florida, writing, "another effort apparently laying the groundwork for challenging individual votes took place in Florida last month, when an attorney acting for the Trump campaign requested permission to observe the signature-matching process in the Democrat-heavy Broward County."
Wisconsin and Minnesota are other states where Republicans are obviously hoping to invalidate ballots that are more likely to favor former Vice President Joe Biden.
According to Klein, "Republican efforts to contest ballots already cast could, if successful, offer the party an electoral advantage given partisan differences in voting preferences…. Decisions made in Minnesota and Pennsylvania this week will require election officials to set aside absentee ballots that arrive after Election Day."


alternet--2020-11-02--Trump leaves his supporters stranded in the cold for hours after Georgia rally — again

President Donald Trump 's niece , Mary Trump , has slammed her uncle for using his supporters `` as props '' at his recent MAGA rallies — arguing that he could n't care less about exposing them to COVID-19 or leaving them stranded in harsh weather conditions for hours .
Trump supporters have recently been left stranded at MAGA events in Nebraska and Pennsylvania — and the same thing has happened again in Rome , Georgia .
Daily Beast reporter Jamie Ross notes , `` Last week , several Trump supporters were hospitalized after being stranded in freezing temperatures in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ away from a campaign rally on Air Force One .
The exact same thing happened after a Saturday night Trump event in Pennsylvania .
Unbelievably , the campaign still has n't learned from its mistakes . ''
NBC News ' Julie Tsirkin tweeted video of the stranded Trump supporters in Georgia , posting , `` Hours after the President departed for Florida , this was the scene in Georgia as people were left for hours waiting for buses to take them to their cars . ''
The temperatures in Georgia were n't as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supporters endured in Nebraska , but they were cold enough : around 46F/7C .
And Ross notes that they were left stranded `` for hours '' because of what `` appeared to be an issue with transporting people back to their parked cars . ''

President Donald Trump's niece, Mary Trump, has slammed her uncle for using his supporters "as props" at his recent MAGA rallies — arguing that he couldn't care less about exposing them to COVID-19 or leaving them stranded in harsh weather conditions for hours. Trump supporters have recently been left stranded at MAGA events in Nebraska and Pennsylvania — and the same thing has happened again in Rome, Georgia.
Daily Beast reporter Jamie Ross notes, "Last week, several Trump supporters were hospitalized after being stranded in freezing temperatures in Nebraska for hours after the president jetted away from a campaign rally on Air Force One. The exact same thing happened after a Saturday night Trump event in Pennsylvania. Unbelievably, the campaign still hasn't learned from its mistakes."
NBC News' Julie Tsirkin tweeted video of the stranded Trump supporters in Georgia, posting, "Hours after the President departed for Florida, this was the scene in Georgia as people were left for hours waiting for buses to take them to their cars."
The temperatures in Georgia weren't as cold as the temperatures that stranded Trump supporters endured in Nebraska, but they were cold enough: around 46F/7C. And Ross notes that they were left stranded "for hours" because of what "appeared to be an issue with transporting people back to their parked cars."