alternet--2020-11-05--Election law expert unpacks 'Trump's endgame' in his legal fight against the vote count

As of Thursday afternoon , the final result of the United States ' nail-biter of a presidential election is still up in the air .
Former Vice President Joe Biden has won 253 electoral votes , according to the Washington Post , but votes are still being counted in Pennsylvania , Georgia and other battleground states .
Election law expert Richard L. Hasen , in an article published on the Election Law Blog and republished by Slate on Thursday afternoon , contemplates `` Trump 's endgame '' is if the election is called for Biden .
`` Although things remain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it appears that Joe Biden could soon be declared by news organizations as the winner of the presidential race .
This depends upon finishing the count in a number of key states , including states where Trump is at the moment behind — Arizona , Nevada — and places where he is ahead : Georgia , Pennsylvania . ''
Hasen notes that Trump and his allies `` have been promoting baseless and dangerous conspiracy theories that Democratic elected officials are somehow 'stealing ' the vote when all they are doing is counting the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many of us feared and warned about : using the fact that there is a 'blue shift ' in votes in some places as evidence of fraud .
It is nonsense , and the shift comes from the order in which ballots are processed . ''
Hasen , in his article , is dismissive of the lawsuits that Trump has filed in various states .
`` None of Trump 's small-bore lawsuits have been able to stop the count , and of course , there is no basis to do so , '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strategy is not created to lead to a difference in results unless Pennsylvania is the decisive Electoral College state and the vote count is so close that the result would depend upon those segregated ballots arriving during the three days after Election Day .
Indeed , one could imagine just as easily Trump being behind in Pennsylvania and wanting to have those ballots counted ( and they should be counted , regardless of who is ahead or behind ) . ''
Many Trump critics fear that if Biden gets to 270 electoral votes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refuse to concede .
According to Hasen , `` If Trump loses , he may grumble and the country may move on — or he can try to keep yelling fraud baselessly .
If he does , it will be up to responsible voices in society , including Republican leaders , to tell him to accept defeat even if he will not formally concede .
This is what happened when Matt Bevin lost the Kentucky governor 's race , yelling fraud on the way out but unable to convince Republicans in the state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the voters . ''
The Washington Post reports 214 electoral votes for Trump , as of Thursday afternoon .
Nonetheless , Trump still has a path to victory if he wins most of the remaining states .
The math is increasingly difficult for Trump , but not inconceivable .
Hasen concludes his article by saying that Biden would concede if he were certain he lost , but laments that he can not say the same thing about Trump .
`` I have no doubt that if Biden loses , he will concede @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the vote , '' Hasen writes .
`` I have less confidence Trump would do so if he loses .
The question is how the country moves on if Trump continues to rail baselessly against the vote count . ''

As of Thursday afternoon, the final result of the United States' nail-biter of a presidential election is still up in the air. Former Vice President Joe Biden has won 253 electoral votes, according to the Washington Post, but votes are still being counted in Pennsylvania, Georgia and other battleground states. Election law expert Richard L. Hasen, in an article published on the Election Law Blog and republished by Slate on Thursday afternoon, contemplates "Trump's endgame" is if the election is called for Biden.
"Although things remain uncertain," Hasen explains, "it appears that Joe Biden could soon be declared by news organizations as the winner of the presidential race. This depends upon finishing the count in a number of key states, including states where Trump is at the moment behind — Arizona, Nevada — and places where he is ahead: Georgia, Pennsylvania."
Hasen notes that Trump and his allies "have been promoting baseless and dangerous conspiracy theories that Democratic elected officials are somehow 'stealing' the vote when all they are doing is counting the ballots. Trump is doing exactly what many of us feared and warned about: using the fact that there is a 'blue shift' in votes in some places as evidence of fraud. It is nonsense, and the shift comes from the order in which ballots are processed."
Hasen, in his article, is dismissive of the lawsuits that Trump has filed in various states.
"None of Trump's small-bore lawsuits have been able to stop the count, and of course, there is no basis to do so," Hasen argues. "Trump's litigation strategy is not created to lead to a difference in results unless Pennsylvania is the decisive Electoral College state and the vote count is so close that the result would depend upon those segregated ballots arriving during the three days after Election Day. Indeed, one could imagine just as easily Trump being behind in Pennsylvania and wanting to have those ballots counted (and they should be counted, regardless of who is ahead or behind)."
Many Trump critics fear that if Biden gets to 270 electoral votes and wins the election, Trump will refuse to concede.
According to Hasen, "If Trump loses, he may grumble and the country may move on — or he can try to keep yelling fraud baselessly. If he does, it will be up to responsible voices in society, including Republican leaders, to tell him to accept defeat even if he will not formally concede. This is what happened when Matt Bevin lost the Kentucky governor's race, yelling fraud on the way out but unable to convince Republicans in the state Legislature to take the vote count away from the voters."
The Washington Post reports 214 electoral votes for Trump, as of Thursday afternoon. Nonetheless, Trump still has a path to victory if he wins most of the remaining states. The math is increasingly difficult for Trump, but not inconceivable.
Hasen concludes his article by saying that Biden would concede if he were certain he lost, but laments that he cannot say the same thing about Trump.
"I have no doubt that if Biden loses, he will concede after exhausting any legal avenues for contesting the vote," Hasen writes. "I have less confidence Trump would do so if he loses. The question is how the country moves on if Trump continues to rail baselessly against the vote count."


alternet--2020-11-05--Resurfaced video shows Bernie Sanders' dire prediction about the election that's now coming true

Trump is seething because after lying on Election Night that he had already won—rejecting the legitimacy of yet-to-be-counted absentee votes that he vowed to invalidate through GOP-friendly courts—the president 's early lead in states like Michigan , Wisconsin , and possibly others is being negated as the ongoing counting of mail-in ballots continues to shift the race in Democratic nominee Joe Biden 's favor .
The aftermath of November 3 is , in short , unfolding almost exactly as Sanders said that it would .
Now that Trump is acting exactly as many progressives warned , renewed attention is being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interview with Sanders on October 23 , where the senator issued a warning that has since been vindicated .
When Fallon asked the senator when he thought Americans would know the election results , Sanders shared a prediction on `` The Tonight Show '' last month .
After jumping out to a temporary lead thanks to a higher rate of in-person voting among Republicans , Trump would try to prematurely claim an Election Night victory , Sanders explained .
As election officials counted millions of mail-in ballots , more likely to be cast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and overtake Trump in key battleground states , he continued .
`` At which point Trump says , 'See ?
I told you the whole thing was fraudulent .
I told you those mail-in ballots were crooked and we 're not going to leave office , ' '' Sanders said .
That 's almost precisely what happened , as Common Dreams reported Wednesday .
`` Bernie called it , '' said actor Mark Ruffalo on social media , while another person pointed out that Sanders `` called it WORD for WORD . ''
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Twitter , '' where the video has been viewed more than 29 million times as of Thursday .
As prescient as Sanders was in that clip , he and many others had been working tirelessly , well before late October , to warn Americans that Trump posed an existential threat to U.S. democracy .
Many analysts were especially concerned that the president would provoke post-election chaos by accusing the Democratic Party of rigging the election when the delayed counting of absentee votes eroded his early lead .
As Common Dreams reported , Sanders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the authoritarian nature of Trump 's frequent , baseless attacks on the legitimacy of mail-in ballots and preemptive claims that if he were to fall short in his bid for reelection , it could be attributed solely to electoral fraud .
Trump , Sanders warned in an interview with Politico , was laying the groundwork for a `` nightmarish scenario '' in which the president would bombard the public with `` lies and misinformation to sow confusion and chaos in the election process and undermine American democracy . ''
In a late-September speech @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his urgent message about the `` unprecedented and dangerous moment '' in which Americans find themselves as a result of Trump 's willingness to maintain his grip on power by attacking the integrity of the election or by refusing to accept the results and leave office voluntarily if voted out .
Sanders was adamant that the country must be prepared to counter any attempt by Trump to stage a coup .
`` Now , in this unprecedented moment , '' the senator said on Wednesday afternoon , `` is the time to reaffirm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ states the time they need to count every ballot so that the will of the American people is heard . ''

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont called it.
Trump is seething because after lying on Election Night that he had already won—rejecting the legitimacy of yet-to-be-counted absentee votes that he vowed to invalidate through GOP-friendly courts—the president's early lead in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and possibly others is being negated as the ongoing counting of mail-in ballots continues to shift the race in Democratic nominee Joe Biden's favor.
The aftermath of November 3 is, in short, unfolding almost exactly as Sanders said that it would.
Now that Trump is acting exactly as many progressives warned, renewed attention is being paid this week to Jimmy Fallon's interview with Sanders on October 23, where the senator issued a warning that has since been vindicated.
When Fallon asked the senator when he thought Americans would know the election results, Sanders shared a prediction on "The Tonight Show" last month.
After jumping out to a temporary lead thanks to a higher rate of in-person voting among Republicans, Trump would try to prematurely claim an Election Night victory, Sanders explained.
As election officials counted millions of mail-in ballots, more likely to be cast by Democrats, Biden would gain ground and overtake Trump in key battleground states, he continued.
"At which point Trump says, 'See? I told you the whole thing was fraudulent. I told you those mail-in ballots were crooked and we're not going to leave office,'" Sanders said.
That's almost precisely what happened, as Common Dreamsreported Wednesday.
"Bernie called it," said actor Mark Ruffalo on social media, while another person pointed out that Sanders "called it WORD for WORD."
The following clip "went viral on Twitter," where the video has been viewed more than 29 million times as of Thursday.
As prescient as Sanders was in that clip, he and many others had been working tirelessly, well before late October, to warn Americans that Trump posed an existential threat to U.S. democracy.
Many analysts were especially concerned that the president would provoke post-election chaos by accusing the Democratic Party of rigging the election when the delayed counting of absentee votes eroded his early lead.
As Common Dreamsreported, Sanders sounded the alarm in early September about the authoritarian nature of Trump's frequent, baseless attacks on the legitimacy of mail-in ballots and preemptive claims that if he were to fall short in his bid for reelection, it could be attributed solely to electoral fraud.
Trump, Sanders warned in an interview with Politico, was laying the groundwork for a "nightmarish scenario" in which the president would bombard the public with "lies and misinformation to sow confusion and chaos in the election process and undermine American democracy."
In a late-September speech at Georgetown University, the senator reiterated his urgent message about the "unprecedented and dangerous moment" in which Americans find themselves as a result of Trump's willingness to maintain his grip on power by attacking the integrity of the election or by refusing to accept the results and leave office voluntarily if voted out.
Sanders was adamant that the country must be prepared to counter any attempt by Trump to stage a coup.
"Now, in this unprecedented moment," the senator said on Wednesday afternoon, "is the time to reaffirm our belief in democracy and to give states the time they need to count every ballot so that the will of the American people is heard."


alternet--2020-11-05--Trump's through-the-looking-glass presidency has turned the country inside out

In the chaos of this moment , it seems likely that Joe Biden will just squeeze into the presidency and that he 'll certainly win the popular vote , Donald Trump 's Mussolini-like behavior and election night false claim of victory notwithstanding .
Somehow , it all brings another moment in my life to mind .
Back in October 2016 , my friends and I frequently discussed the challenges progressives would face if the candidate we expected to win actually entered the Oval Office .
There were so many issues to worry about back then .
The Democratic candidate was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forces and believed in projecting American power through its military presence around the world .
Then there was that long record of promoting harsh sentencing laws and the disturbing talk about `` the kinds of kids that are called superpredators -- no conscience , no empathy . ''
In 2016 , the country was already riven by deep economic inequality .
While Hillary Clinton promised `` good-paying jobs '' for those struggling to stay housed and buy food , we did n't believe it .
We 'd heard the same promises so many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minimum wage was still stuck where it had been ever since 2009 , at $ 7.25 an hour .
Would a Clinton presidency really make a difference for working people ?
Not if we did n't push her -- and hard .
The candidate we were worried about was never Donald Trump , but Hillary Clinton .
And the challenge we expected to confront was how to shove that quintessential centrist a few notches to the left .
We were strategizing on how we might organize to get a new administration to shift @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needs at home and around the world .
We wondered how people in this country might finally secure the `` peace dividend '' that had been promised to us in the period just after the Cold War , back when her husband Bill became president .
In those first ( and , as it turned out , only ) Clinton years , what we got instead was so-called welfare reform whose consequences are still being felt today , as layoffs drive millions into poverty .
We doubted Hillary Clinton 's commitment to addressing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : mass incarceration and police violence , structural racism , economic inequality , and most urgent of all ( though some of us were just beginning to realize it ) , the climate emergency .
In fact , nationwide , people like us were preparing to spend a day or two celebrating the election of the first woman president and then get down to work opposing many of her anticipated policies .
In the peace and justice movements , in organized labor , in community-based organizations , in the two-year-old Black Lives Matter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And then the unthinkable happened .
The woman we might have loved to hate lost that election and the white-supremacist , woman-hating monster we would grow to detest entered the Oval Office .
For the last four years , progressives have been fighting largely to hold onto what we managed to gain during Barack Obama 's presidency : an imperfect healthcare plan that nonetheless insured millions of Americans for the first time ; a signature on the Paris climate accord and another on a six-nation agreement to prevent Iran from pursuing nuclear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lands ; the opportunity for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals -- DACA -- status to keep on working and studying in the U.S. For those same four years , we 've been fighting to hold onto our battered capacity for outrage in the face of continual attacks on simple decency and human dignity .
There 's no need to recite here the catalogue of horrors Donald Trump and his spineless Republican lackeys visited on this country and the world .
Suffice it to say that we 've been living like Alice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as hard as we can just to stand still .
That fantasy world 's Red Queen observes to a panting Alice that she must come from '' A slow sort of country !
Now , here , you see , it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place .
If you want to get somewhere else , you must run at least twice as fast as that ! ''
It was n't simply the need to run faster than full speed just in order to stay put @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Looking-Glass Land .
It 's that , just as in Lewis Carroll 's fictional world , reality has been turned inside out in the United States .
As new Covid-19 infections reached an all-time high of more than 100,000 in a single day and the cumulative death toll surpassed 230,000 , the president in the mirror kept insisting that `` we 're rounding the corner '' ( and a surprising number of Americans seemed to believe him ) .
He neglected to mention that , around that very corner , a coronaviral bus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as it comes .
In a year when , as NPR reported , `` Nearly 1 in 4 households have experienced food insecurity , '' Trump just kept bragging about the stock market and reminding Americans of how well their 401k 's were doing -- as if most people even had such retirement accounts in the first place .
After four years of running in place , November 2016 seems like a lifetime ago .
The United States of 2020 is a very different place , at once more devastated and more hopeful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ four years ago .
On the one hand , pandemic unemployment has hit women , especially women of color , much harder than men , driving millions out of the workforce , many permanently .
On the other , we 've witnessed the birth of the # MeToo movement against sexual harassment and of the Time 's Up Legal Defense Fund , which has provided millions of dollars for working-class women to fight harassment on the job .
In a few brief years , physical and psychological attacks on women have ceased to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Harassment certainly continues every day , but the country 's collective view of it has shifted .
Black and Latino communities still face daily confrontations with police forces that act more like occupying armies than public servants .
The role of the police as enforcers of white supremacy has n't changed in most parts of the country .
Nonetheless , the efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement and of the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated this summer in cities nationwide have changed the conversation about the police in ways @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Suddenly , the mainstream media are talking about more than body cams and sensitivity training .
In June 2020 , the New York Times ran an op-ed entitled , `` Yes , We Mean Literally Abolish the Police , '' by Miramne Kaba , an organizer working against the criminalization of people of color .
Such a thing was unthinkable four years ago .
In the Trumpian pandemic moment , gun purchases have soared in a country that already topped the world by far in armed citizens .
And yet young people -- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ roused themselves to passionate and organized action to get guns off the streets of Trump Land .
After a gunman shot up Emma Gonzalez 's school in Parkland , Florida , she famously announced , `` We call BS '' on the claims of adults who insisted that changing the gun laws was unnecessary and impossible .
She led the March for Our Lives , which brought millions onto the streets in this country to denounce politicians ' inaction on gun violence .
While Donald Trump took the U.S. out of the Paris @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 17-year-old Swedish environmental activist , crossed the Atlantic in a carbon-neutral sailing vessel to address the United Nations , demanding of the adult world `` How dare you '' leave it to your children to save an increasingly warming planet : '' You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words .
And yet I 'm one of the lucky ones .
People are suffering .
People are dying .
Entire ecosystems are collapsing .
We are in the beginning of a mass extinction , and all you can talk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eternal economic growth .
How dare you ! ''
`` How dare you ? ''
is a question I ask myself every time , as a teacher , I face a classroom of college students who , each semester , seem both more anxious about the future and more determined to make it better than the present .
Public attention is a strange beast .
Communities of color have known for endless years that the police can kill them with impunity , and it 's not as if people have n't been saying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incidents made it into the largely white mainstream media , they were routinely treated as isolated events -- the actions of a few bad apples -- and never as evidence of a systemic problem .
Suddenly , in May 2020 , with the release of a hideous video of George Floyd 's eight-minute murder in Minneapolis , Minnesota , systematic police violence against Blacks became a legitimate topic of mainstream discussion .
The young have been at the forefront of the response to Floyd 's murder and the demands for systemic change that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city of San Francisco , where police have killed at least five unarmed people of color in the last few years , high school students planned and led tens of thousands of protesters in a peaceful march against police violence .
Now that the election season has reached its drawn-out crescendo , there is so much work ahead of us .
With the pandemic spreading out of control , it 's time to begin demanding concerted federal action , even from this most malevolent president in history .
There 's no waiting for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the oath of office on January 20th .
Many thousands more will die before then .
And is n't it time to turn our attention to the millions who have lost their jobs and face the possibility of losing their housing , too , as emergency anti-eviction decrees expire ?
Is n't it time for a genuine congressional response to hunger , not by shoring up emergency food distribution systems like food pantries , but by putting dollars in the hands of desperate Americans so they can buy their own food ?
Congress @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 's `` Temporary Halt in Residential Evictions To Prevent the Further Spread of Covid-19 '' only lasts until December 31st and it does n't cover tenants who do n't have a lease or written rental agreement .
It 's crucial , even with Donald Trump still in the White House as the year begins , that it be extended in both time and scope .
And now Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said that he wo n't even entertain a new stimulus bill until @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attention is pushing Congress to increase federal funding to state and local governments , which so often are major economic drivers for their regions .
The Trump administration and McConnell not only abandoned states and cities , leaving them to confront the pandemic on their own just as a deep recession drastically reduced tax revenues , but -- in true looking-glass fashion -- treated their genuine and desperate calls for help as mere Democratic Party campaign rhetoric .
`` In Short , There Is Still Much to Do '' My favorite scene in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Battle of Algiers takes place at night on a rooftop in the Arab quarter of that city .
Ali La Pointe , a passionate recruit to the cause of the National Liberation Front ( NLF ) , which is fighting to throw the French colonizers out of Algeria , is speaking with Ben M'Hidi , a high-ranking NLF official .
Ali is unhappy that the movement has called a general strike in order to demonstrate its power and reach to the United Nations .
He resents the seven-day restriction on the use of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't win wars , '' Ben M'Hidi tells Ali .
`` Finally , the people themselves must act . ''
For the last four years , Donald Trump has made war on the people of this country and indeed on the people of the entire world .
He 's attacked so many of us , from immigrant children at the U.S. border to anyone who tries to breathe in the fire-choked states of California , Oregon , Washington , and most recently Colorado .
He 's allowed those 230,000 Americans to die in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and thrown millions into poverty , to mention just a few of his `` war '' crimes .
Finally , the people themselves must act .
On that darkened rooftop in an eerie silence , Ben M'Hidi continues his conversation with La Pointe .
`` You know , Ali , '' he says .
`` It 's hard enough to start a revolution , even harder to sustain it , and hardest of all to win it . ''
He pauses , then continues , `` But it 's only afterwards , once @ @ @ @ @ @ @ difficulties begin .
In short , there is still much to do . ''
It 's hard enough to vote out a looking-glass president .
But it 's only once we 've won , whether that 's now or four years from now , that the real work begins .
There is , indeed , still much to do .
Rebecca Gordon , a TomDispatch regular , teaches at the University of San Francisco .
She is the author of American Nuremberg : The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a new Dispatch book on the history of torture in the United States .
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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Terror Since World War II .

In the chaos of this moment, it seems likely that Joe Biden will just squeeze into the presidency and that he'll certainly win the popular vote, Donald Trump's Mussolini-like behavior and election night false claim of victory notwithstanding. Somehow, it all brings another moment in my life to mind.
Back in October 2016, my friends and I frequently discussed the challenges progressives would face if the candidate we expected to win actually entered the Oval Office. There were so many issues to worry about back then. The Democratic candidate was an enthusiastic booster of the U.S. armed forces and believed in projecting American power through its military presence around the world. Then there was that long record of promoting harsh sentencing laws and the disturbing talk about "the kinds of kids that are called superpredators -- no conscience, no empathy."
In 2016, the country was already riven by deep economic inequality. While Hillary Clinton promised "good-paying jobs" for those struggling to stay housed and buy food, we didn't believe it. We'd heard the same promises so many times before, and yet the federal minimum wage was still stuck where it had been ever since 2009, at $7.25 an hour. Would a Clinton presidency really make a difference for working people? Not if we didn't push her -- and hard.
The candidate we were worried about was never Donald Trump, but Hillary Clinton. And the challenge we expected to confront was how to shove that quintessential centrist a few notches to the left. We were strategizing on how we might organize to get a new administration to shift government spending from foreign wars to human needs at home and around the world. We wondered how people in this country might finally secure the "peace dividend" that had been promised to us in the period just after the Cold War, back when her husband Bill became president. In those first (and, as it turned out, only) Clinton years, what we got instead was so-called welfare reform whose consequences are still being felt today, as layoffs drive millions into poverty.
We doubted Hillary Clinton's commitment to addressing most of our other concerns as well: mass incarceration and police violence, structural racism, economic inequality, and most urgent of all (though some of us were just beginning to realize it), the climate emergency. In fact, nationwide, people like us were preparing to spend a day or two celebrating the election of the first woman president and then get down to work opposing many of her anticipated policies. In the peace and justice movements, in organized labor, in community-based organizations, in the two-year-old Black Lives Matter movement, people were ready to roll.
And then the unthinkable happened. The woman we might have loved to hate lost that election and the white-supremacist, woman-hating monster we would grow to detest entered the Oval Office.
For the last four years, progressives have been fighting largely to hold onto what we managed to gain during Barack Obama's presidency: an imperfect healthcare plan that nonetheless insured millions of Americans for the first time; a signature on the Paris climate accord and another on a six-nation agreement to prevent Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons; expanded environmental protections for public lands; the opportunity for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals -- DACA -- status to keep on working and studying in the U.S.
For those same four years, we've been fighting to hold onto our battered capacity for outrage in the face of continual attacks on simple decency and human dignity. There's no need to recite here the catalogue of horrors Donald Trump and his spineless Republican lackeys visited on this country and the world. Suffice it to say that we've been living like Alice in Through the Looking Glass, running as hard as we can just to stand still. That fantasy world's Red Queen observes to a panting Alice that she must come from
"A slow sort of country! Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
It wasn't simply the need to run faster than full speed just in order to stay put that made Trump World so much like Looking-Glass Land. It's that, just as in Lewis Carroll's fictional world, reality has been turned inside out in the United States. As new Covid-19 infections reached an all-time high of more than 100,000 in a single day and the cumulative death toll surpassed 230,000, the president in the mirror kept insisting that "we're rounding the corner" (and a surprising number of Americans seemed to believe him). He neglected to mention that, around that very corner, a coronaviral bus is heading straight toward us, accelerating as it comes. In a year when, as NPR reported, "Nearly 1 in 4 households have experienced food insecurity," Trump just kept bragging about the stock market and reminding Americans of how well their 401k's were doing -- as if most people even had such retirement accounts in the first place.
Trump World, Biden Nation, or Something Better?
After four years of running in place, November 2016 seems like a lifetime ago. The United States of 2020 is a very different place, at once more devastated and more hopeful than at least we were a mere four years ago. On the one hand, pandemic unemployment has hit women, especially women of color, much harder than men, driving millions out of the workforce, many permanently. On the other, we've witnessed the birth of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and of the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund, which has provided millions of dollars for working-class women to fight harassment on the job. In a few brief years, physical and psychological attacks on women have ceased to be an accepted norm in the workplace. Harassment certainly continues every day, but the country's collective view of it has shifted.
Black and Latino communities still face daily confrontations with police forces that act more like occupying armies than public servants. The role of the police as enforcers of white supremacy hasn't changed in most parts of the country. Nonetheless, the efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement and of the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated this summer in cities nationwide have changed the conversation about the police in ways no one anticipated four years ago. Suddenly, the mainstream media are talking about more than body cams and sensitivity training. In June 2020, the New York Timesran an op-ed entitled, "Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police," by Miramne Kaba, an organizer working against the criminalization of people of color. Such a thing was unthinkable four years ago.
In the Trumpian pandemic moment, gun purchases have soared in a country that already topped the world by far in armed citizens. And yet young people -- often led by young women -- have roused themselves to passionate and organized action to get guns off the streets of Trump Land. After a gunman shot up Emma Gonzalez's school in Parkland, Florida, she famously announced, "We call BS" on the claims of adults who insisted that changing the gun laws was unnecessary and impossible. She led the March for Our Lives, which brought millions onto the streets in this country to denounce politicians' inaction on gun violence.
While Donald Trump took the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old Swedish environmental activist, crossed the Atlantic in a carbon-neutral sailing vessel to address the United Nations, demanding of the adult world "How dare you" leave it to your children to save an increasingly warming planet:
"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!"
"How dare you?" is a question I ask myself every time, as a teacher, I face a classroom of college students who, each semester, seem both more anxious about the future and more determined to make it better than the present.
Public attention is a strange beast. Communities of color have known for endless years that the police can kill them with impunity, and it's not as if people haven't been saying so for decades. But when such incidents made it into the largely white mainstream media, they were routinely treated as isolated events -- the actions of a few bad apples -- and never as evidence of a systemic problem. Suddenly, in May 2020, with the release of a hideous video of George Floyd's eight-minute murder in Minneapolis, Minnesota, systematic police violence against Blacks became a legitimate topic of mainstream discussion.
The young have been at the forefront of the response to Floyd's murder and the demands for systemic change that have followed. This June in my city of San Francisco, where police have killed at least five unarmed people of color in the last few years, high school students planned and led tens of thousands of protesters in a peaceful march against police violence.
Now that the election season has reached its drawn-out crescendo, there is so much work ahead of us. With the pandemic spreading out of control, it's time to begin demanding concerted federal action, even from this most malevolent president in history. There's no waiting for Inauguration Day, no matter who takes the oath of office on January 20th. Many thousands more will die before then.
And isn't it time to turn our attention to the millions who have lost their jobs and face the possibility of losing their housing, too, as emergency anti-eviction decrees expire? Isn't it time for a genuine congressional response to hunger, not by shoring up emergency food distribution systems like food pantries, but by putting dollars in the hands of desperate Americans so they can buy their own food? Congress must also act on the housing emergency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Temporary Halt in Residential Evictions To Prevent the Further Spread of Covid-19" only lasts until December 31st and it doesn't cover tenants who don't have a lease or written rental agreement. It's crucial, even with Donald Trump still in the White House as the year begins, that it be extended in both time and scope. And now Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said that he won't even entertain a new stimulus bill until January.
Another crucial subject that needs attention is pushing Congress to increase federal funding to state and local governments, which so often are major economic drivers for their regions. The Trump administration and McConnell not only abandoned states and cities, leaving them to confront the pandemic on their own just as a deep recession drastically reduced tax revenues, but -- in true looking-glass fashion -- treated their genuine and desperate calls for help as mere Democratic Party campaign rhetoric.
"In Short, There Is Still Much to Do"
My favorite scene in Gillo Pontecorvo's classic 1966 film The Battle of Algiers takes place at night on a rooftop in the Arab quarter of that city. Ali La Pointe, a passionate recruit to the cause of the National Liberation Front (NLF), which is fighting to throw the French colonizers out of Algeria, is speaking with Ben M'Hidi, a high-ranking NLF official. Ali is unhappy that the movement has called a general strike in order to demonstrate its power and reach to the United Nations. He resents the seven-day restriction on the use of firearms. "Acts of violence don't win wars," Ben M'Hidi tells Ali. "Finally, the people themselves must act."
For the last four years, Donald Trump has made war on the people of this country and indeed on the people of the entire world. He's attacked so many of us, from immigrant children at the U.S. border to anyone who tries to breathe in the fire-choked states of California, Oregon, Washington, and most recently Colorado. He's allowed those 230,000 Americans to die in a pandemic that could have been controlled and thrown millions into poverty, to mention just a few of his "war" crimes. Finally, the people themselves must act.
On that darkened rooftop in an eerie silence, Ben M'Hidi continues his conversation with La Pointe. "You know, Ali," he says. "It's hard enough to start a revolution, even harder to sustain it, and hardest of all to win it." He pauses, then continues, "But it's only afterwards, once we've won, that the real difficulties begin. In short, there is still much to do."
It's hard enough to vote out a looking-glass president. But it's only once we've won, whether that's now or four years from now, that the real work begins. There is, indeed, still much to do.
Rebecca Gordon, a TomDispatch regular, teaches at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimesand is now at work on a new Dispatch book on the history of torture in the United States.
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 Rebecca Gordon


alternet--2020-11-05--Michigan judge dismisses Trump’s push to stop counting votes

After the election , President Donald Trump 's campaign filed a lawsuit to stop the vote-counting in Michigan — a state that the Associated Press called for former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday .
But a Michigan judge , Axios reports , has announced that she will deny the Trump campaign 's request .
Judge Cynthia Stephens , according to Axios reporter Sam Baker , announced her decision at an oral briefing on Thursday .
But Baker notes that Stephens `` has not yet issued a written order . ''
The lawsuit is simply one of many that Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ states — which legal experts argue are largely meritless and unlikely to succeed .
Baker reports of the Michigan judge 's decision : `` This is a significant loss for the Trump campaign 's effort to slow or stop vote-counting in critical states that Joe Biden is projected to win . ''
Michigan , like Wisconsin , is among the states that Trump won in 2016 but has been flipped by Biden , according to AP .
On Election Night , AP and Fox News called Arizona for Biden , but other media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are still being counted in Arizona .

After the election, President Donald Trump's campaign filed a lawsuit to stop the vote-counting in Michigan — a state that the Associated Press called for former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday. But a Michigan judge, Axios reports, has announced that she will deny the Trump campaign's request.
Judge Cynthia Stephens, according to Axios reporter Sam Baker, announced her decision at an oral briefing on Thursday. But Baker notes that Stephens "has not yet issued a written order."
The lawsuit is simply one of many that Trump team has launched in the remaining swing states — which legal experts argue are largely meritless and unlikely to succeed.
Baker reports of the Michigan judge's decision: "This is a significant loss for the Trump campaign's effort to slow or stop vote-counting in critical states that Joe Biden is projected to win."
Michigan, like Wisconsin, is among the states that Trump won in 2016 but has been flipped by Biden, according to AP. On Election Night, AP and Fox News called Arizona for Biden, but other media outlets did not — as some votes are still being counted in Arizona.


alternet--2020-11-05--Joe Biden's popular vote lead is now larger than the populations of these 22 states

As of the writing of this story , Joe Biden is still waiting on the precipice of ending one giant orange aspect of our collective national nightmare .
Once that happens will be when the work really begins and the fight to save our country from becoming a total autocracy starts .
Regardless of what shenanigans continue to take place over the next few days and possibly weeks regarding Trump 's baseless lawsuits and attempts to thwart the most basic of democratic processes , one thing is clear : When all the votes are counted , Joe Biden will have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any presidential candidate ever , Donald Trump will have lost by the most votes ever in the history of our country .
As I write this , Joe Biden has received 72,415,439 votes , or 50.5 % of the electorate , and Donald Trump has received 68,622,787 votes ( 47.8 % ) .
That number is larger than the populations of 22 American states .
That means that 3,796,982 more registered voters would like Joe Biden to bring us into 2021 .
There are 22 U.S. states with smaller populations than that number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between Biden and Trump 's popular vote totals will be larger than all but the largest 14 states in the union .
As of right now , the list includes in descending or from largest population to smallest : Connecticut , Utah , Iowa , Nevada , Arkansas , Mississippi , Kansas , New Mexico , Nebraska , Idaho , West Virginia , Hawaii , New Hampshire , Maine , Montana , Rhode Island , Delaware , South Dakota , North Dakota , Alaska , Vermont , and Wyoming .
Connecticut 's population @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around 567,025 .
In fact , you could take the populations of South Dakota , North Dakota , Alaska , Vermont , and Wyoming , add them up and still not reach the difference in people who have preferred Joe Biden to Donald Trump .
If ( and when ) Joe Biden becomes the 46th president of the United States of America , the Republican Party will predictably do what they have always done for the last 40-odd years or so , and pretend that new rules of compromise exist and , most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Joe Biden does not have a mandate .
However , this lie , while repeated often by GOP operatives , is still a lie .
The numbers and the facts are in .
The majority of the country wants new leadership and it is the Republican Party that needs to find compromises it can live with or we will be forced to go it alone .

As of the writing of this story, Joe Biden is still waiting on the precipice of ending one giant orange aspect of our collective national nightmare. Once that happens will be when the work really begins and the fight to save our country from becoming a total autocracy starts. Regardless of what shenanigans continue to take place over the next few days and possibly weeks regarding Trump's baseless lawsuits and attempts to thwart the most basic of democratic processes, one thing is clear: When all the votes are counted, Joe Biden will have received not only the most votes of any presidential candidate ever, Donald Trump will have lost by the most votes ever in the history of our country.
As I write this, Joe Biden has received 72,415,439 votes, or 50.5% of the electorate, and Donald Trump has received 68,622,787 votes (47.8%). That number is larger than the populations of 22 American states. That means that 3,796,982 more registered voters would like Joe Biden to bring us into 2021. There are 22 U.S. states with smaller populations than that number. And predictions are that the difference between Biden and Trump's popular vote totals will be larger than all but the largest 14 states in the union.
As of right now, the list includes in descending or from largest population to smallest:Connecticut, Utah, Iowa, Nevada, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Idaho, West Virginia, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Montana, Rhode Island, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming. Connecticut's population is around 3,563,080 and Wyoming's is around 567,025. In fact, you could take the populations of South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming, add them up and still not reach the difference in people who have preferred Joe Biden to Donald Trump.
If (and when) Joe Biden becomes the 46th president of the United States of America, the Republican Party will predictably do what they have always done for the last 40-odd years or so, and pretend that new rules of compromise exist and, most importantly, that the Democratic Party and Joe Biden does not have a mandate. However, this lie, while repeated often by GOP operatives, is still a lie. The numbers and the facts are in. The majority of the country wants new leadership and it is the Republican Party that needs to find compromises it can live with or we will be forced to go it alone.


alternet--2020-11-05--Fox News ‘propagandists’ keep echoing ludicrous claim that election is ‘being stolen’ from Trump: co

Fox News ‘propagandists’ keep echoing ludicrous claim that election is ‘being stolen’ from Trump: columnist

As of early Thursday afternoon , November 5 , former Vice President Joe Biden — according to the Washington Post — has won 253 electoral votes , and the vote-counting continues in key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Georgia .
Liberal Post opinion writer Greg Sargent , in his November 5 column , discusses Fox News ' coverage of the election and is vehemently critical of the Fox opinion hosts who continue to carry Trump 's water after Election Day .
`` With President Trump mounting a frantic , last-ditch effort to stop the counting of votes that could doom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` his Fox News propagandists are wheeling into action .
One after another , they are raging that the election is being stolen from Trump by all manner of chicanery and fraud . ''
Trump has repeatedly made the baseless claim that mail-in voting promotes voter fraud and that Biden will use voting by mail to steal the election .
And Sargent slams Sean Hannity and other Fox News opinion hosts who have reflexively echoed Trump 's claims .
Sargent notes that on Wednesday night , November 4 , Hannity declared , `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , outraged and worried and concerned about what happened in the election and the lead-up to the election .
Do you trust what happened in this election ?
Do you believe these election results are accurate ? ''
Fox News ' Tucker Carlson , Sargent notes , claimed that the `` outcome of our presidential election was seized from the hands of voters '' — and Carlson 's colleague , Laura Ingraham , asked , `` Is the fix already in ? ''
Such nonsense , Sargent writes , is `` best understood @ @ @ @ @ @ @ covering fog of lies for Trump campaign efforts to halt the vote count wherever possible . ''
At 9:12 a.m. eastern time on November 5 , Trump tweeted , `` STOP THE COUNT ! ''
And Trump 's campaign , Sargent argues , was trying to `` make that a reality '' with its lawsuits .
Trump posted that tweet at a time when 8 % of the vote in Pennsylvania , according to the Post , still had n't been counted .
Sargent notes , `` In Pennsylvania , where many elections @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump once final absentee ballots are counted , the campaign is mounting various legal challenges .
But it 's not clear how effective they 'll be : one seeks to invalidate ballots that arrived after Election Day , but there may be very few of those . ''
Sargent concludes his column by stressing that Trump 's sycophants at Fox News have done everything they can to convince viewers that Biden 's Electoral College wins are illegitimate .
`` In the closing days of the campaign , '' Sargent observes , `` Fox @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he was on track to a glorious victory , and that he could only lose if the election were stolen from him .
As Matthew Gertz ( of Media Matters ) points out , this was all designed to lay the groundwork for Trump to try to invalidate countless votes against him .
We 're seeing that effort unfold right now , egged on by those same Fox personalities .
But it 's failing , and the very fact that it 's deemed necessary to save him in the first place is in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ''

As of early Thursday afternoon, November 5, former Vice President Joe Biden — according to the Washington Post — has won 253 electoral votes, and the vote-counting continues in key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Georgia. Liberal Post opinion writer Greg Sargent, in his November 5 column, discusses Fox News' coverage of the election and is vehemently critical of the Fox opinion hosts who continue to carry Trump's water after Election Day.
"With President Trump mounting a frantic, last-ditch effort to stop the counting of votes that could doom his reelection," Sargent writes, "his Fox News propagandists are wheeling into action. One after another, they are raging that the election is being stolen from Trump by all manner of chicanery and fraud."
Trump has repeatedly made the baseless claim that mail-in voting promotes voter fraud and that Biden will use voting by mail to steal the election. And Sargent slams Sean Hannity and other Fox News opinion hosts who have reflexively echoed Trump's claims.
Sargent notes that on Wednesday night, November 4, Hannity declared, "Tonight, every American should be angry, outraged and worried and concerned about what happened in the election and the lead-up to the election. Do you trust what happened in this election? Do you believe these election results are accurate?"
Fox News' Tucker Carlson, Sargent notes, claimed that the "outcome of our presidential election was seized from the hands of voters" — and Carlson's colleague, Laura Ingraham, asked, "Is the fix already in?" Such nonsense, Sargent writes, is "best understood as an effort to lay down a covering fog of lies for Trump campaign efforts to halt the vote count wherever possible."
At 9:12 a.m. eastern time on November 5, Trump tweeted, "STOP THE COUNT!" And Trump's campaign, Sargent argues, was trying to "make that a reality" with its lawsuits.
Trump posted that tweet at a time when 8% of the vote in Pennsylvania, according to the Post, still hadn't been counted. Sargent notes, "In Pennsylvania, where many elections analysts expect that Joe Biden will surpass Trump once final absentee ballots are counted, the campaign is mounting various legal challenges. But it's not clear how effective they'll be: one seeks to invalidate ballots that arrived after Election Day, but there may be very few of those."
Sargent concludes his column by stressing that Trump's sycophants at Fox News have done everything they can to convince viewers that Biden's Electoral College wins are illegitimate.
"In the closing days of the campaign," Sargent observes, "Fox personalities and programming pushed the idea that he was on track to a glorious victory, and that he could only lose if the election were stolen from him. As Matthew Gertz (of Media Matters) points out, this was all designed to lay the groundwork for Trump to try to invalidate countless votes against him. We're seeing that effort unfold right now, egged on by those same Fox personalities. But it's failing, and the very fact that it's deemed necessary to save him in the first place is in no small part their own doing."


alternet--2020-11-05--Kushner's apartment management company moves to evict hundreds of families as COVID moratoriums expi

Kushner's apartment management company moves to evict hundreds of families as COVID moratoriums expire

Westminster Management , a residential management company owned by White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner , has quickly moved in to file for evictions against hundreds of families with past due rental balances amid the coronavirus pandemic as moratoriums approach expiration , the Washington Post reports .
Residents at the Westminster-owned properties Bonnie Ridge and Owings Run in Maryland have shared details about their experiences with the property management company .
From threatening letters regarding additional late fees and the cost of eviction court filing fees , residents have received a barrage of legal notices as rental costs and additional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a tenant at the company 's Bonnie Ridge apartment complex in Pikesville , Md.
, shared details about her experiences with Westminster .
`` If you do n't pay before the fifth of the month , they still send out an eviction notice , '' Coates said .
Despite the criticism , bad press and tenant complaints , Westminster Management has defended its handling of evictions .
The company released a statement in response to the latest reports , insisting they have followed proper protocol under federal , state and local law .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ comprehensively abided by all federal , state , and local orders regarding residential tenancies during the Covid-19 pandemic … and will faithfully continue to do so . ''
The latest report on Westminster Management comes months after housing and economy experts warned `` that as Americans ' stimulus benefits run dry and eviction moratoriums expire , backlogs in eviction cases may be leading to a surge in renters being forced from their homes , particularly at the end of the year when the CDC moratorium ends , '' per the publication .
Westminster @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 20,000 residents , according to its website .
A large percentage of Kushner 's tenants are also Black .
According to the Princeton University 's Eviction Lab , a total of 92,619 evictions were filed in 24 cities across the country during the pandemic .
The lab 's data also revealed `` evictions have a disproportionate impact on racial minorities .
From 2012 to 2016 , Black renters had evictions filed against them by landlords at nearly twice the rate of White renters . ''
Last week , Kushner also faced backlash for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At the time , Kushner said : `` President Trump 's policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they 're complaining about , but he ca n't want them to be successful more than they want to be successful . ''

Westminster Management, a residential management company owned by White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, has quickly moved in to file for evictions against hundreds of families with past due rental balances amid the coronavirus pandemic as moratoriums approach expiration, the Washington Post reports.
Residents at the Westminster-owned properties Bonnie Ridge and Owings Run in Maryland have shared details about their experiences with the property management company. From threatening letters regarding additional late fees and the cost of eviction court filing fees, residents have received a barrage of legal notices as rental costs and additional fees pile up.
Yolanda Coates, a tenant at the company's Bonnie Ridge apartment complex in Pikesville, Md., shared details about her experiences with Westminster.
"If you don't pay before the fifth of the month, they still send out an eviction notice," Coates said.
Despite the criticism, bad press and tenant complaints, Westminster Management has defended its handling of evictions. The company released a statement in response to the latest reports, insisting they have followed proper protocol under federal, state and local law.
The statement said, "Westminster has comprehensively abided by all federal, state, and local orders regarding residential tenancies during the Covid-19 pandemic … and will faithfully continue to do so."
The latest report on Westminster Management comes months after housing and economy experts warned "that as Americans' stimulus benefits run dry and eviction moratoriums expire, backlogs in eviction cases may be leading to a surge in renters being forced from their homes, particularly at the end of the year when the CDC moratorium ends," per the publication.
Westminster Management oversees apartment homes for more than 20,000 residents, according to its website. A large percentage of Kushner's tenants are also Black. According to the Princeton University's Eviction Lab, a total of 92,619 evictions were filed in 24 cities across the country during the pandemic.
The lab's data also revealed "evictions have a disproportionate impact on racial minorities. From 2012 to 2016, Black renters had evictions filed against them by landlords at nearly twice the rate of White renters."
Last week, Kushner also faced backlash for his disparaging remarks toward Black Americans.
At the time, Kushner said: "President Trump's policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they're complaining about, but he can't want them to be successful more than they want to be successful."


alternet--2020-11-05--International election monitors slam Trump's ‘deliberate attempts’ to ‘weaken confidence in the elec

International election monitors slam Trump's ‘deliberate attempts’ to ‘weaken confidence in the election process’

All over the world , President Donald Trump drew widespread criticism on Wednesday , November 4 for demanding the vote-count cease in the 2020 presidential election even though thousands of votes had yet to be counted in key battleground states .
Some of the criticism of Trump 's behavior has come from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe .
For almost two decades , the 57-member organization has been monitoring U.S. elections at the invitation of the U.S. Department of State .
But in 2020 , the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has been troubled by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The Week 's Catherine Garcia reports this year , participants accused Trump of making `` deliberate attempts '' to `` weaken confidence in the election process . ''
German politician Michael Georg Link , according to Garcia , complained , `` Baseless allegations of systematic deficiencies , notably by the incumbent president — including on Election Night — harm public trust in democratic institutions . ''
And Link stressed that every vote needed to be counted in the presidential election .
Trump has baselessly claimed , time and time again , that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that former Vice President Joe Biden and his allies would use voting by mail to steal the election .
But former Polish diplomat Ursula Gacek , who now oversees the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe , said that election monitors found nothing to support Trump 's voter fraud claims .
On November 4 , the day after the election , Gacek told reporters , `` The system held up well .
Given the extreme stress test the system was exposed to ... .
The American electoral process appears to have passed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. election workers for their `` enormous effort '' during the election — and that effort , she said , `` ensured that voters could cast their votes despite legal and technical challenges and deliberate attempts by the incumbent president to weaken confidence in the election process . ''

All over the world, President Donald Trump drew widespread criticism on Wednesday, November 4 for demanding the vote-count cease in the 2020 presidential election even though thousands of votes had yet to be counted in key battleground states. Some of the criticism of Trump's behavior has come from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
For almost two decades, the 57-member organization has been monitoring U.S. elections at the invitation of the U.S. Department of State. But in 2020, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has been troubled by what it observed in the United States.
The Week's Catherine Garcia reports this year, participants accused Trump of making "deliberate attempts" to "weaken confidence in the election process."
German politician Michael Georg Link, according to Garcia, complained, "Baseless allegations of systematic deficiencies, notably by the incumbent president — including on Election Night — harm public trust in democratic institutions." And Link stressed that every vote needed to be counted in the presidential election.
Trump has baselessly claimed, time and time again, that mail-in voting would encourage voter fraud and that former Vice President Joe Biden and his allies would use voting by mail to steal the election. But former Polish diplomat Ursula Gacek, who now oversees the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said that election monitors found nothing to support Trump's voter fraud claims. On November 4, the day after the election, Gacek told reporters, "The system held up well. Given the extreme stress test the system was exposed to.... The American electoral process appears to have passed that test."
Gacek also praised U.S. election workers for their "enormous effort" during the election — and that effort, she said, "ensured that voters could cast their votes despite legal and technical challenges and deliberate attempts by the incumbent president to weaken confidence in the election process."


alternet--2020-11-05--Even if Biden wins, millions of Americans voted to reelect a ‘dangerous sociopath’: conservative

As of Thursday morning , November 5 , a winner has not been called in the United States ' 2020 presidential election — and the vote-counting continues in Pennsylvania , Georgia and other states .
Former Vice President Joe Biden is ahead in the electoral vote count .
President Donald Trump has a narrow 2 % lead in Pennsylvania , but that lead could disappear if an abundance of uncounted votes in heavily Democratic Philadelphia go to Biden .
Whatever the ultimate outcome , it has been a close nail-biter of an election .
And Never Trump conservative Tom Nichols @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , laments that even if Biden wins the disturbing part is that millions of Americans voted to reelect an authoritarian `` sociopath . ''
`` The moment every Donald Trump opponent has been waiting for is at hand : Joe Biden seems to be taking the lead , '' Nichols writes .
`` So , why am I not happy ?
… .
No matter how this election concludes , America is now a different country . ''
In 2020 , Nichols explains , millions of Americans have seen how much of an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to reelect him anyway .
`` Nearly half of the voters have seen Trump in all of his splendor — his infantile tirades , his disastrous and lethal policies , his contempt for democracy in all its forms — and they decided that they wanted more of it , '' Nichols writes .
`` His voters can no longer hide behind excuses about the corruption of Hillary Clinton or their willingness to take a chance on an unproven political novice .
They can not feign ignorance about how Trump would rule .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . ''
Nichols adds , `` Sadly , the voters who said , in 2016 , that they chose Trump because they thought he was 'just like them ' turned out to be right .
Now , by picking him again , those voters are showing that they are just like him : angry , spoiled , racially resentful , aggrieved , and willing to die rather than ever admit that they were wrong . ''
By `` willing to die , '' Nichols is obviously referring to Trump 's response to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distancing measures .
Trump 's crowded MAGA rallies have been giant Petri dishes , and countless supporters showed up without masks anyway .
In his article , Nichols points out that he is a conservative .
But he argues that millions of Trump supporters are not motivated by traditional conservative policies — they are motivated by anger and white grievance .
Nichols stresses , `` It 's clear now that far too many of Trump 's voters do n't care about policy , decency , or saving our democracy .
They care about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ received a small uptick in votes from Black men and Latinos , the overwhelming share of his supporters are White .
The politics of cultural resentment , the obsessions of White anxiety , are so intense that his voters are determined not only to preserve minority rule , but to leave a dangerous sociopath in the Oval Office .
Even the candidacy of a man who was both a political centrist and a decent human being could not overcome this sullen commitment to authoritarianism . ''
Nichols concludes his article by lamenting that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ divisions in the United States .
`` If Biden wins , we will have a second chance to keep our democracy intact , '' Nichols writes .
`` Some of us will have a moment of clarity .
Most of us will just want to go home , throw up , change our clothes , and hope for the best .
But many millions , eyes dimming and livers failing , are still reaching for the bottle . ''

As of Thursday morning, November 5, a winner has not been called in the United States' 2020 presidential election — and the vote-counting continues in Pennsylvania, Georgia and other states. Former Vice President Joe Biden is ahead in the electoral vote count. President Donald Trump has a narrow 2% lead in Pennsylvania, but that lead could disappear if an abundance of uncounted votes in heavily Democratic Philadelphia go to Biden. Whatever the ultimate outcome, it has been a close nail-biter of an election. And Never Trump conservative Tom Nichols, in an article for The Atlantic, laments that even if Biden wins the disturbing part is that millions of Americans voted to reelect an authoritarian "sociopath."
"The moment every Donald Trump opponent has been waiting for is at hand: Joe Biden seems to be taking the lead," Nichols writes. "So, why am I not happy?…. No matter how this election concludes, America is now a different country."
In 2020, Nichols explains, millions of Americans have seen how much of an authoritarian Trump is — and they wanted to reelect him anyway.
"Nearly half of the voters have seen Trump in all of his splendor — his infantile tirades, his disastrous and lethal policies, his contempt for democracy in all its forms — and they decided that they wanted more of it," Nichols writes. "His voters can no longer hide behind excuses about the corruption of Hillary Clinton or their willingness to take a chance on an unproven political novice. They cannot feign ignorance about how Trump would rule. They know, and they have embraced him."
Nichols adds, "Sadly, the voters who said, in 2016, that they chose Trump because they thought he was 'just like them' turned out to be right. Now, by picking him again, those voters are showing that they are just like him: angry, spoiled, racially resentful, aggrieved, and willing to die rather than ever admit that they were wrong."
By "willing to die," Nichols is obviously referring to Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic and his disdain for social distancing measures. Trump's crowded MAGA rallies have been giant Petri dishes, and countless supporters showed up without masks anyway.
In his article, Nichols points out that he is a conservative. But he argues that millions of Trump supporters are not motivated by traditional conservative policies — they are motivated by anger and white grievance.
Nichols stresses, "It's clear now that far too many of Trump's voters don't care about policy, decency, or saving our democracy. They care about power. Although Trump appears to have received a small uptick in votes from Black men and Latinos, the overwhelming share of his supporters are White. The politics of cultural resentment, the obsessions of White anxiety, are so intense that his voters are determined not only to preserve minority rule, but to leave a dangerous sociopath in the Oval Office. Even the candidacy of a man who was both a political centrist and a decent human being could not overcome this sullen commitment to authoritarianism."
Nichols concludes his article by lamenting that the 2020 election underscores the ugly political divisions in the United States.
"If Biden wins, we will have a second chance to keep our democracy intact," Nichols writes. "Some of us will have a moment of clarity. Most of us will just want to go home, throw up, change our clothes, and hope for the best. But many millions, eyes dimming and livers failing, are still reaching for the bottle."