alternet--2020-11-11--Want to flip a state blue? Stacey Abrams drops major key

When Vice President-elect Kamala Harris—oh , how I love the sound of that—thanked Black women Monday for their support in her history-making election win , I have to imagine that she was at least in part thinking of Stacey Abrams .
The former congresswoman and Georgia gubernatorial candidate could have wallowed in 2018 when she lost the state governor 's race by just less than 55,000 votes to the very person tasked with overseeing the election , then-secretary of state Brian Kemp .
But instead , she picked herself up , refused to concede amid widespread allegations of voter suppression @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doing for more than a decade to register voters in Georgia , this time launching the voting rights organization Fair Fight .
`` Very often when someone runs for office , if they do n't win the office , we forget about that person pretty quickly , '' The New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb told the magazine .
`` And with Abrams one of the things that made me interested in writing about her was that the opposite happened .
That the election concluded , her opponent was inaugurated , and generally speaking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ probably has a higher name recognition than the person who actually went on to become governor . ''
Abrams ' name trended on Twitter when President-elect Joe Biden inched ahead of President Donald Trump in Georgia , flipping a state that has n't backed a Democrat for president since Bill Clinton in 1992 .
And when Biden went on to be declared the next U.S. president Saturday , a crowd outside of the White House shouted `` Stacey Abrams . ''
Not for nothing .
In a state riddled with allegations of vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Georgia Project nonprofit to register an estimated 800,000 new voters , mostly people of color and young people often overlooked in the state .
She formed Fair Fight Action just days after her gubernatorial loss , launched a federal lawsuit seeking an overhaul of Georgia 's voting system , and vehemently fought against Kemp 's heartbeat legislation prohibiting abortions after a heartbeat can be detected .
`` I live my life with an assumption that I have the right to do the things I think I should do , and that my gender @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , '' Abrams told Cobb .
Why Stacey Abrams is Leading The Fight Against Voter Suppression | The Backstory | The New Yorker The former Georgia congresswoman and House minority leader told comedian and political commentator Stephen Colbert Monday on The Late Show that she put together a 21-page deck 10 years ago and traveled with it to garner support from Democratic donors .
`` And my argument was 1 .
We had a demographic shift that was happening that we had to harness .
2 .
We had an inchoate message for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refined .
We had to know what we stood for , '' she said .
`` And 3. we had to build an infrastructure that did n't rely on every single election but really sought to win no matter who was on the ticket .
`` And so we built it from the ground up .
We ran state ( legislator ) races , but we also invested in city council races and ( district attorney ) races , all the way up to the presidential race . ''
Abrams said consistency was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` So many groups have been doing this work for a long time , but it 's feast or famine , '' she said .
`` When there 's a candidate who wants to invest , you 'll get the resources , and then you 're just struggling to get by .
And we were able to create a bit of sustainability in the infrastructure , which meant we could win again and again and build up to this big victory in November.
`` Sen. Doug Jones , who lost his recent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told Politico Democrats should be using Abrams ' work in Georgia as a model for the entire party .
Jones said the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee `` spend too much time investing in candidates and not the electorate . ''
`` They do n't invest in House districts , they do n't invest in states , '' he said .
Abrams and the grassroots organizers she works with invested in Georgians .
Sen. Nikema Williams , the first Black woman to serve as chairwoman of the Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Joy Reid it 's important to show the people their power .
She 's slated to fill the congressional seat of the late civil rights leader John Lewis .
`` People talk about Stacey Abrams .
She absolutely deserves the credit , but what Stacey has said time and time again , this is not about one person , one candidate , or one election cycle , '' Williams said .
`` It 's about giving the power back to people who felt unheard and unseen for far too long . ''
Abrams @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Georgia 's Senate runoffs when Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock could unseat Republican senators and win the party a Senate majority .
`` We have raised $ 6 million ( ! )
so far to help jumpstart the Jan 5 Senate runoff elections , '' Abrams tweeted Monday .
When asked about her confidence in the two runoff elections , Williams said : `` We 're breaking norms this cycle . ''
`` We 're going to continue to build upon what Stacey Abrams made possible in the state , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democrats , '' Williams added .

When Vice President-elect Kamala Harris—oh, how I love the sound of that—thanked Black women Monday for their support in her history-making election win, I have to imagine that she was at least in part thinking of Stacey Abrams. The former congresswoman and Georgia gubernatorial candidate could have wallowed in 2018 when she lost the state governor's race by just less than 55,000 votes to the very person tasked with overseeing the election, then-secretary of state Brian Kemp. But instead, she picked herself up, refused to concede amid widespread allegations of voter suppression, and continued work she had been doing for more than a decade to register voters in Georgia, this time launching the voting rights organization Fair Fight.
"Very often when someone runs for office, if they don't win the office, we forget about that person pretty quickly," The New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb told the magazine. "And with Abrams one of the things that made me interested in writing about her was that the opposite happened. That the election concluded, her opponent was inaugurated, and generally speaking in the United States, Stacey Abrams probably has a higher name recognition than the person who actually went on to become governor."
Abrams' name trended on Twitter when President-elect Joe Biden inched ahead of President Donald Trump in Georgia, flipping a state that hasn't backed a Democrat for president since Bill Clinton in 1992. And when Biden went on to be declared the next U.S. president Saturday, a crowd outside of the White House shouted "Stacey Abrams."
Not for nothing. In a state riddled with allegations of vote suppression, Abrams worked with the New Georgia Project nonprofit to register an estimated 800,000 new voters, mostly people of color and young people often overlooked in the state. She formed Fair Fight Action just days after her gubernatorial loss, launched a federal lawsuit seeking an overhaul of Georgia's voting system, and vehemently fought against Kemp's heartbeat legislation prohibiting abortions after a heartbeat can be detected. "I live my life with an assumption that I have the right to do the things I think I should do, and that my gender and my race should not be limitations," Abrams told Cobb.
Why Stacey Abrams is Leading The Fight Against Voter Suppression | The Backstory | The New Yorker www.youtube.com
The former Georgia congresswoman and House minority leader told comedian and political commentator Stephen Colbert Monday on The Late Show that she put together a 21-page deck 10 years ago and traveled with it to garner support from Democratic donors. "And my argument was 1. We had a demographic shift that was happening that we had to harness. 2. We had an inchoate message for 21st century Democrats that needed to be refined. We had to know what we stood for," she said. "And 3. we had to build an infrastructure that didn't rely on every single election but really sought to win no matter who was on the ticket.
"And so we built it from the ground up. We ran state (legislator) races, but we also invested in city council races and (district attorney) races, all the way up to the presidential race." Abrams said consistency was key to the success of her efforts.
"So many groups have been doing this work for a long time, but it's feast or famine," she said. "When there's a candidate who wants to invest, you'll get the resources, and then you're just struggling to get by. And we were able to create a bit of sustainability in the infrastructure, which meant we could win again and again and build up to this big victory in November. "
Sen. Doug Jones, who lost his recent reelection bid to Republican Tommy Tuberville, told Politico Democrats should be using Abrams' work in Georgia as a model for the entire party. Jones said the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee "spend too much time investing in candidates and not the electorate."
"They don't invest in House districts, they don't invest in states," he said.
Abrams and the grassroots organizers she works with invested in Georgians. Sen. Nikema Williams, the first Black woman to serve as chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, told MSNBC's Joy Reid it's important to show the people their power. She's slated to fill the congressional seat of the late civil rights leader John Lewis. "People talk about Stacey Abrams. She absolutely deserves the credit, but what Stacey has said time and time again, this is not about one person, one candidate, or one election cycle," Williams said. "It's about giving the power back to people who felt unheard and unseen for far too long."
Abrams and Williams alike are turning their attention to Georgia's Senate runoffs when Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock could unseat Republican senators and win the party a Senate majority. "We have raised $6million (!) so far to help jumpstart the Jan 5 Senate runoff elections," Abrams tweeted Monday.
When asked about her confidence in the two runoff elections, Williams said: "We're breaking norms this cycle." "We're going to continue to build upon what Stacey Abrams made possible in the state, and we know that we can win for Democrats," Williams added.


alternet--2020-11-11--The Republicans' so-called 'evidence' of voter fraud is already crumbling before our eyes

President Donald Trump and much of the Republican Party has wedded itself to the idea that the 2020 election was tainted with a massive wave of voter fraud .
For this to be true , and for it to result in the kind of changes that would flip the result of the presidential election — which Trump is clearly trying to steal from Joe Biden — it would have had to have happened on a scale unprecedented in American history .
To credibly suggest that such a scheme took place , you need some evidence .
But there is no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ theories are filled with holes .
The examples of impropriety they cite keep falling apart .
Most prominently on Tuesday , the House Oversight Committee — currently controlled by Democrats — reported that a supposed Eerie , Pennsylvania , whistleblower in the U.S .
Postal Service has recanted allegations of illegal tampering in the election .
Republicans such as Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had latched on to the person 's claims , made in an affidavit , that a supervisor had been directing postal workers to stamp mail-in ballots with false @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mailed on or before Election Day , as is legally required in order for them to count .
But according to the committee , the whistleblower has recanted .
He `` completely RECANTED his allegations of a supervisor tampering with mail-in ballots after being questioned by investigators , according to IG , '' the committee 's Twitter account explained .
`` Here are the facts : Richard Hopkins is a USPS employee in Erie , Pa , '' it continued .
`` He signed a sworn affidavit with allegations of ballot tampering/fraud and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But when Hopkins spoke to the service 's inspector general , the story did n't hold up .
`` IG investigators informed Committee staff today that they interviewed Hopkins on Friday , but that Hopkins RECANTED HIS ALLEGATIONS yesterday and did not explain why he signed a false affidavit , '' the committee explained .
The Washington Post confirmed the committee 's account in a story citing three additional anonymous sources .
A report from the New York Times indicated that Attorney General Bill Barr , who released a controversial memo authorizing prosecutors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of longstanding Justice Department policy , had green-lit a probe of the Pennsylvania `` backdating '' issue .
Unless more evidence arrives in the case , the question appears moot .
The Times also reported that the department is pursuing a GOP complaint about 3,000 Nevada voters who supposedly cast ballots without being eligible .
But even if all those votes were thrown out , and even if every single one went for Biden — two extremely unlikely scenarios — they would n't change the result in the state .
One judge has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the allegations .
Other allegations that have taken off in conservative circles — such as the claim that Trump voters in Arizona were given Sharpies to fill in ballots , rendering them uncountable — have been thoroughly debunked .
And even while the Trump campaign and GOP lawsuits alleging fraud in the election continue to get thrown out , the actual claims and evidence in them are paltry compared to the party 's rhetoric .
Even if the strained claims were accurate , they would n't affect the result of the election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported , a lawsuit the president 's team filed in Pennsylvania : Before the lawsuit landed in the Middle District of Pennsylvania , Trump and his loyalists invoked the specter of mass voter fraud—a phenomenon international experts report does not exist in the United States—as a reason to challenge their emphatic electoral defeat .
Variations of the word `` fraud '' appear in the lawsuit 33 times , mostly in the context of rare prosecutions related to other elections .
The only suspected instances of voter fraud cited in the complaint occurred in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump : Fayette , where Trump is winning by a 34-point margin , and Luzerne , where his lead is 14 points .
[ emphasis added ] There 's no substance to the grand claims — they fall apart under examination .
As anyone who has studied the matter can tell you , voter fraud is very rare , and election tampering on a massive scale in the way necessary to overturn the election is almost impossible to pull off .
The New York Times reported on Tuesday night that officials across the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Election officials in dozens of states representing both political parties said that there was no evidence that fraud or other irregularities played a role in the outcome of the presidential race , amounting to a forceful rebuke of President Trump 's portrait of a fraudulent election .
Over the last several days , the president , members of his administration , congressional Republicans and right wing allies have put forth the false claim that the election was stolen from President Trump and have refused to accept results that showed Joseph R. Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election officials across the country said in interviews and statements that the process had been a remarkable success despite record turnout and the complications of a dangerous pandemic .
The president and his allies are lying to the country , abusing the court system , and trying to steal back a presidential election they lost .
In the process , they 're severely undermining faith in the electoral process and in the incoming adminsitration .
They 're not serious about having concerns about voter fraud , because they 're not questioning the results @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the state level or in the House or Senate .
All they care about is furthering Trump 's narrative , and undermining President-elect Biden .

President Donald Trump and much of the Republican Party has wedded itself to the idea that the 2020 election was tainted with a massive wave of voter fraud. For this to be true, and for it to result in the kind of changes that would flip the result of the presidential election — which Trump is clearly trying to steal from Joe Biden — it would have had to have happened on a scale unprecedented in American history.
To credibly suggest that such a scheme took place, you need some evidence. But there is no such evidence, and the GOP's theories are filled with holes. The examples of impropriety they cite keep falling apart.
Most prominently on Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee — currently controlled by Democrats — reported that a supposed Eerie, Pennsylvania, whistleblower in the U.S. Postal Service has recanted allegations of illegal tampering in the election.
Republicans such as Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had latched on to the person's claims, made in an affidavit, that a supervisor had been directing postal workers to stamp mail-in ballots with false dates, incorrectly indicating that they were mailed on or before Election Day, as is legally required in order for them to count.
But according to the committee, the whistleblower has recanted.
He "completely RECANTED his allegations of a supervisor tampering with mail-in ballots after being questioned by investigators, according to IG," the committee's Twitter account explained.
"Here are the facts: Richard Hopkins is a USPS employee in Erie, Pa," it continued. "He signed a sworn affidavit with allegations of ballot tampering/fraud and went public through Project Veritas."
But when Hopkins spoke to the service's inspector general, the story didn't hold up.
"IG investigators informed Committee staff today that they interviewed Hopkins on Friday, but that Hopkins RECANTED HIS ALLEGATIONS yesterday and did not explain why he signed a false affidavit," the committee explained.
The Washington Post confirmed the committee's account in a story citing three additional anonymous sources.
A report from the New York Times indicated that Attorney General Bill Barr, who released a controversial memo authorizing prosecutors to pursue election crimes cases in contradiction of longstanding Justice Department policy, had green-lit a probe of the Pennsylvania "backdating" issue. Unless more evidence arrives in the case, the question appears moot. The Times also reported that the department is pursuing a GOP complaint about 3,000 Nevada voters who supposedly cast ballots without being eligible. But even if all those votes were thrown out, and even if every single one went for Biden — two extremely unlikely scenarios — they wouldn't change the result in the state. One judge has already tossed out a legal complaint based on the allegations.
Other allegations that have taken off in conservative circles — such as the claim that Trump voters in Arizona were given Sharpies to fill in ballots, rendering them uncountable — have been thoroughly debunked.
And even while the Trump campaign and GOP lawsuits alleging fraud in the election continue to get thrown out, the actual claims and evidence in them are paltry compared to the party's rhetoric. Even if the strained claims were accurate, they wouldn't affect the result of the election. Consider, as Law & Crime reported, a lawsuit the president's team filed in Pennsylvania:
Before the lawsuit landed in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Trump and his loyalists invoked the specter of mass voter fraud—a phenomenon international experts report does not exist in the United States—as a reason to challenge their emphatic electoral defeat. Variations of the word "fraud" appear in the lawsuit 33 times, mostly in the context of rare prosecutions related to other elections. The only suspected instances of voter fraud cited in the complaint occurred in two Keystone State counties that voted for Trump: Fayette, where Trump is winning by a 34-point margin, and Luzerne, where his lead is 14 points. [emphasis added]
There's no substance to the grand claims — they fall apart under examination. As anyone who has studied the matter can tell you, voter fraud is very rare, and election tampering on a massive scale in the way necessary to overturn the election is almost impossible to pull off.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday night that officials across the political spectrum at the state level agree:
Election officials in dozens of states representing both political parties said that there was no evidence that fraud or other irregularities played a role in the outcome of the presidential race, amounting to a forceful rebuke of President Trump's portrait of a fraudulent election.
Over the last several days, the president, members of his administration, congressional Republicans and right wing allies have put forth the false claim that the election was stolen from President Trump and have refused to accept results that showed Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the winner.
But top election officials across the country said in interviews and statements that the process had been a remarkable success despite record turnout and the complications of a dangerous pandemic.
The president and his allies are lying to the country, abusing the court system, and trying to steal back a presidential election they lost. In the process, they're severely undermining faith in the electoral process and in the incoming adminsitration. They're not serious about having concerns about voter fraud, because they're not questioning the results in any of the elections they lost at the state level or in the House or Senate. All they care about is furthering Trump's narrative, and undermining President-elect Biden.


alternet--2020-11-12--How far will Trump go to burn the place down before he leaves?

I do n't think anyone who has been following Donald Trump 's administration for the past four years can say they 're surprised that he is refusing to concede defeat after the election , or that nearly all Republican elected officials are either backing him to the hilt or quivering in the corner like a bunch of cold chihuahuas .
I predicted this puerile reaction some time ago , which was n't exactly a great feat of prognostication since Trump was doing everything but running full-page ads in every newspaper in the country announcing his intentions .
Two days before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , `` As soon as that election is over , we 're going in with our lawyers . ''
This was after months of nonstop attacks on mail-in voting , accusations of cheating in states run by Democrats and declarations that the only way he could lose the election is if it were rigged .
How could anyone be surprised that he is doing exactly what he told us he would do ?
There 's a lot of speculation about what Republicans have to gain by doing this .
As I 've hypothesized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has good reasons to keep Trump voters engaged in the state of Georgia , so keeping all this going for a while may be useful there .
It 's certainly possible that Republicans are afraid if they buck Trump publicly he will turn on the party , calling them traitors to the cause , and his fervent followers will stay home for the two Georgia Senate runoff elections in January .
And there 's always the financial incentive — the cash Trump is raking in for his `` legal defense fund '' can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campaign debt .
And , needless to say , Trump has his own incentives .
He needs to be able to say that he is n't a loser which , to his mind , is the worst thing you can say about anyone .
But in the end , unless the courts throw out entire state elections and disenfranchise 75 million people on his behalf , he will have no choice .
Since he loves campaigning more than anything , I have long assumed that Trump would be happy to start a new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tease his ecstatic followers with the idea that he 'll be back in four years .
( He can certainly drive all other potential GOP contenders nuts for a while anyway . )
He 's already considered how to make money while doing that .
The Washington Post reported last summer that the Trump Organization had applied to trademark the word `` telerally '' for `` organizing events in the field of politics and political campaigning '' — the first time Trump 's business operation has explicitly tied itself to political activity .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ how to monetize a political campaign for a while .
Anyway , this whole chaotic post-election mess was long anticipated , and Trump has more than fulfilled everyone 's expectations .
It 's a clown show of epic proportions that will only be exceeded if he starts taking the advice of the hardcore right-wingers who are agitating for him to burn the place down on his way out the door .
The Federalist , for instance , suggests that Trump should lay metaphorical landmines throughout the government , set to explode on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as to actually allow him to become president .
Among other helpful ideas , that article suggests that that Trump should release all `` Spygate '' documents immediately , fire FBI Director Christopher Wray and Dr. Anthony Fauci , have every political appointee start taking the names of disloyal and `` corrupt '' federal employees , publicly release all government documents regarding potential Biden appointees and staff , along with all alleged information about `` Planned Parenthood trafficking in human body parts , '' and `` accelerate the wall and prepare for caravans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overseas troops home by Christmas , which would be nice .
As absurd as nearly all of that is , there actually is some activity taking place , a bit more under the radar , whose purpose is not clear .
We know the administration is withholding all money and cooperation from the Biden transition and that Trump has ordered his budget staff to keep working on next year 's budget , even though it will be thrown in the trash as soon as the new president is sworn in .
That sort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Trump wanting to maintain the illusion that he has won , and also to fulfill his vengeful promise not to have what he calls `` a friendly transition '' because , as he claims , the Obama administration spied on his campaign `` and got caught . ''
But what 's he doing with the intelligence services and the Pentagon ?
The Washington Post reported on Monday that the administration had installed Michael Ellis , a hardcore right-wing operative best known as one of California Rep. Devin Nunes ' top henchmen , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( You may remember Ellis as one of those involved in the infamous `` midnight run . ''
) This job is not a political appointment , which means Ellis will now have career government employee protections and be more difficult to move out .
This is a practice known as `` burrowing , '' in which an outgoing administration moves some of their cronies into permanent jobs .
In Trump 's case this is particularly concerning because his cronies are such overwhelmingly unethical loyalists and partisan hacks .
Considering their characters and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they do n't have a hidden agenda .
And we have no idea how many of these people are being placed within the government at lower levels .
Even more concerning than Ellis at NSA is what Trump is doing at the Pentagon .
We knew he had a short list of people he wanted to fire after the election and Defense Secretary Mark Esper was at the top of this list .
They had apparently clashed repeatedly and Trump could n't stand him , even giving him a nickname of `` Yesper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump 's principal complaint was that Esper did n't lick his boots with quite the enthusiasm required .
He 's been replaced with Christopher Miller , a counterterrorism specialist who Trump likes for whatever reason .
But Esper was n't the only one canned .
Trump also fired three other highly regarded civilian leaders and replaced them with notorious Trump loyalists , two of whom were also Nunes acolytes .
The third is this fine fellow : That nut is now in a high-level position at the Pentagon .
CNN reports that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ steady hands .
Esper delivered a scathing parting interview , denying that he 's a yes man and warning against what might happen if Trump got a defense secretary who would actually carry out his wishes .
His last words were , `` And then God help us , '' no doubt prompting many , especially in the rest of the world , to wonder what exactly he meant .
If you saw all this happening during a fierce election dispute in another country , one run by a man who had repeatedly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in office for many years beyond his legal term , what would you think was likely to happen ?

I don't think anyone who has been following Donald Trump's administration for the past four years can say they're surprised that he is refusing to concede defeat after the election, or that nearly all Republican elected officials are either backing him to the hilt or quivering in the corner like a bunch of cold chihuahuas. I predicted this puerile reaction some time ago, which wasn't exactly a great feat of prognostication since Trump was doing everything but running full-page ads in every newspaper in the country announcing his intentions.
Two days before the election, he said on camera, "As soon as that election is over, we're going in with our lawyers." This was after months of nonstop attacks on mail-in voting, accusations of cheating in states run by Democrats and declarations that the only way he could lose the election is if it were rigged. How could anyone be surprised that he is doing exactly what he told us he would do?
There's a lot of speculation about what Republicans have to gain by doing this. As I've hypothesized earlier, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has good reasons to keep Trump voters engaged in the state of Georgia, so keeping all this going for a while may be useful there. It's certainly possible that Republicans are afraid if they buck Trump publicly he will turn on the party, calling them traitors to the cause, and his fervent followers will stay home for the two Georgia Senate runoff elections in January. And there's always the financial incentive — the cash Trump is raking in for his "legal defense fund" can be spent to retire some of his campaign debt.
And, needless to say, Trump has his own incentives. He needs to be able to say that he isn't a loser which, to his mind, is the worst thing you can say about anyone. But in the end, unless the courts throw out entire state elections and disenfranchise 75 million people on his behalf, he will have no choice.
Since he loves campaigning more than anything, I have long assumed that Trump would be happy to start a new campaign revenge tour, and at least tease his ecstatic followers with the idea that he'll be back in four years. (He can certainly drive all other potential GOP contenders nuts for a while anyway.) He's already considered how to make money while doing that. The Washington Post reported last summer that the Trump Organization had applied to trademark the word "telerally" for "organizing events in the field of politics and political campaigning" — the first time Trump's business operation has explicitly tied itself to political activity. This suggests they've been thinking about how to monetize a political campaign for a while.
Anyway, this whole chaotic post-election mess was long anticipated, and Trump has more than fulfilled everyone's expectations. It's a clown show of epic proportions that will only be exceeded if he starts taking the advice of the hardcore right-wingers who are agitating for him to burn the place down on his way out the door. The Federalist, for instance, suggests that Trump should lay metaphorical landmines throughout the government, set to explode on the Biden administration should America be so craven as to actually allow him to become president.
Among other helpful ideas, that article suggests that that Trump should release all "Spygate" documents immediately, fire FBI Director Christopher Wray and Dr. Anthony Fauci, have every political appointee start taking the names of disloyal and "corrupt" federal employees, publicly release all government documents regarding potential Biden appointees and staff, along with all alleged information about "Planned Parenthood trafficking in human body parts," and "accelerate the wall and prepare for caravans." Oh, and bring all overseas troops home by Christmas, which would be nice.
As absurd as nearly all of that is, there actually is some activity taking place, a bit more under the radar, whose purpose is not clear. We know the administration is withholding all money and cooperation from the Biden transition and that Trump has ordered his budget staff to keep working on next year's budget, even though it will be thrown in the trash as soon as the new president is sworn in. That sort of thing can probably be chalked up to Trump wanting to maintain the illusion that he has won, and also to fulfill his vengeful promise not to have what he calls "a friendly transition" because, as he claims, the Obama administration spied on his campaign "and got caught."
But what's he doing with the intelligence services and the Pentagon? The Washington Post reported on Monday that the administration had installed Michael Ellis, a hardcore right-wing operative best known as one of California Rep. Devin Nunes' top henchmen, as head lawyer at the NSA. (You may remember Ellis as one of those involved in the infamous "midnight run.") This job is not a political appointment, which means Ellis will now have career government employee protections and be more difficult to move out.
This is a practice known as "burrowing," in which an outgoing administration moves some of their cronies into permanent jobs. In Trump's case this is particularly concerning because his cronies are such overwhelmingly unethical loyalists and partisan hacks. Considering their characters and vocation, it's hard to believe they don't have a hidden agenda. And we have no idea how many of these people are being placed within the government at lower levels.
Even more concerning than Ellis at NSA is what Trump is doing at the Pentagon. We knew he had a short list of people he wanted to fire after the election and Defense Secretary Mark Esper was at the top of this list. They had apparently clashed repeatedly and Trump couldn't stand him, even giving him a nickname of "Yesper," which is somewhat baffling since Trump's principal complaint was that Esper didn't lick his boots with quite the enthusiasm required. He's been replaced with Christopher Miller, a counterterrorism specialist who Trump likes for whatever reason.
But Esper wasn't the only one canned. Trump also fired three other highly regarded civilian leaders and replaced them with notorious Trump loyalists, two of whom were also Nunes acolytes. The third is this fine fellow:
That nut is now in a high-level position at the Pentagon.
CNN reports that the Pentagon in turmoil over the loss of steady hands. Esper delivered a scathing parting interview, denying that he's a yes man and warning against what might happen if Trump got a defense secretary who would actually carry out his wishes. His last words were, "And then God help us," no doubt prompting many, especially in the rest of the world, to wonder what exactly he meant.
If you saw all this happening during a fierce election dispute in another country, one run by a man who had repeatedly said the should be allowed to remain in office for many years beyond his legal term, what would you think was likely to happen?


alternet--2020-11-12--World leaders urged to refuse to meet with Mike Pompeo after he denies Biden's win

Responding to alarming remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denying the results of the 2020 presidential election , the head of an international health organization on Wednesday urged world leaders to refuse to meet with Pompeo until he acknowledges President-elect Joe Biden 's legitimate victory .
A day after the White House directed federal agencies to refuse cooperation with Biden 's transition team , Pompeo raised eyebrows and ire on Tuesday after asserting that `` there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration . ''
In response , Serra Sippel , president of the Washington @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Equity ( CHANGE ) , issued a statement accusing the secretary of state of `` undermining the democratic legitimacy of the United States , ignoring [ Biden 's ] decisive victory in the 2020 general election , and encouraging political violence by spreading disinformation . ''
`` Across the globe , world leaders , many of whom have congratulated President-elect Biden , must find Pompeo 's actions and words reprehensible and more indicative of a dictatorship than a republic , '' Sippel continued .
`` With democracy on the line , we can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump administration bluster .
We can not normalize Pompeo 's threats to democratic legitimacy and the principles of a peaceful transition of power . ''
`` Foreign leaders and diplomats must stand up for democracy and refuse to meet with Secretary Pompeo until he publicly recognizes [ Biden 's ] victory in the 2020 election , facilitates a smooth transition to the incoming administration , and removes himself from partisan politics , '' added Sippel .
CHANGE 's statement came as Pompeo prepared to embark Friday on a seven-nation trip to France , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United Arab Emirates , Qatar , and Saudi Arabia—the last tour of his tenure .
The leaders of all seven countries have congratulated Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their win .
Republican and Democratic state election officials across the U.S. queried by the New York Times this week unanimously reported no widespread electoral improprieties , contradicting false claims of fraud by an increasingly desperate President Donald Trump and his supporters .
`` There 's a great human capacity for inventing things that are n't true about elections , '' Ohio Secretary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , told the Times .
`` The conspiracy theories and rumors and all those things run rampant .
For some reason , elections breed that type of mythology . ''
Veteran diplomats and other observers panned Pompeo 's Tuesday remarks—which came one day after the U.S. State Department sanctioned former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán for having `` undermined democracy '' —as hypocritical .
`` Foreign leaders appear to have greater respect for America 's norms than it appears the secretary of state does , '' Wendy Sherman , a former State Department official @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told NBC News .
`` It was an outrageous statement [ that ] puts our national security at risk because it undermines our democratic transition . ''
Former Undersecretary of State James Glassman , who served during the George W. Bush administration , told NBC News that Pompeo 's behavior provided ammunition to authoritarian regimes such as the Chinese Communist Party .
`` That 's a pretty strong argument the Chinese will be able to make , that you do n't need democracy , it produces some really bad results , '' Glassman @ @

Responding to alarming remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denying the results of the 2020 presidential election, the head of an international health organization on Wednesday urged world leaders to refuse to meet with Pompeo until he acknowledges President-elect Joe Biden's legitimate victory.
A day after the White House directed federal agencies to refuse cooperation with Biden's transition team, Pompeo raised eyebrows and ire on Tuesday after asserting that "there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration."
In response, Serra Sippel, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), issued a statement accusing the secretary of state of "undermining the democratic legitimacy of the United States, ignoring [Biden's] decisive victory in the 2020 general election, and encouraging political violence by spreading disinformation."
"Across the globe, world leaders, many of whom have congratulated President-elect Biden, must find Pompeo's actions and words reprehensible and more indicative of a dictatorship than a republic," Sippel continued. "With democracy on the line, we cannot just pass this off as more Trump administration bluster. We cannot normalize Pompeo's threats to democratic legitimacy and the principles of a peaceful transition of power."
"Foreign leaders and diplomats must stand up for democracy and refuse to meet with Secretary Pompeo until he publicly recognizes [Biden's] victory in the 2020 election, facilitates a smooth transition to the incoming administration, and removes himself from partisan politics," added Sippel.
CHANGE's statement came as Pompeo prepared to embark Friday on a seven-nation trip to France, Turkey, Georgia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia—the last tour of his tenure. The leaders of all seven countries have congratulated Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their win.
Republican and Democratic state election officials across the U.S. queried by the New York Times this week unanimously reported no widespread electoral improprieties, contradicting false claims of fraud by an increasingly desperate President Donald Trump and his supporters.
"There's a great human capacity for inventing things that aren't true about elections," Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, told the Times. "The conspiracy theories and rumors and all those things run rampant. For some reason, elections breed that type of mythology."
Veteran diplomats and other observers panned Pompeo's Tuesday remarks—which came one day after the U.S. State Department sanctioned former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán for having "undermined democracy"—as hypocritical.
"Foreign leaders appear to have greater respect for America's norms than it appears the secretary of state does," Wendy Sherman, a former State Department official during the Clinton and Obama administrations, toldNBC News. "It was an outrageous statement [that] puts our national security at risk because it undermines our democratic transition."
Former Undersecretary of State James Glassman, who served during the George W. Bush administration, told NBC News that Pompeo's behavior provided ammunition to authoritarian regimes such as the Chinese Communist Party.
"That's a pretty strong argument the Chinese will be able to make, that you don't need democracy, it produces some really bad results," Glassman said.


alternet--2020-11-12--Trump's purge at the Pentagon is increasing fears of a coup-in-progress

Fears that a possible slow-motion coup is in progress in the United States continued to grow on Wednesday , as observers sounded the alarm over President Donald Trump 's decision to install `` extreme Republican partisans '' at the Pentagon after his firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper resulted in resignations by numerous top officials at the department earlier this week .
The stacking of the Pentagon with Trump loyalists—combined with the president 's ongoing refusal to accept his electoral defeat and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo 's Tuesday comment that `` there will be a smooth transition to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the Republican Party 's authoritarianism and left experts and lawmakers warning that the country is in the midst of an extremely dangerous moment .
The Guardian reported that defense experts believe `` there was little the new Trump appointees could do to use their positions to the president 's advantage '' given that high-ranking military leaders , including General Mark Milley , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , have vowed to keep the armed forces out of the political process .
Nevertheless , others view this week 's personnel changes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pro-Trump officials to key national security roles during the interregnum , as more evidence that Trump intends to use what one current defense official called `` dictator moves '' to cling to power despite receiving more than five million fewer votes than President-elect Joe Biden , who—based on current results reported by the Associated Press and other outlets—won the Electoral College by a margin of 290 to 217 .
Appearing on CNN Tuesday night , William Cohen , former Secretary of Defense and Republican senator , told network host Don Lemon the president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a dictatorship than a democracy . ''
`` It is hard to overstate just how dangerous high-level turnover at the Department of Defense is during a period of presidential transition , '' wrote Rep. Adam Smith ( D-Wash. ) , the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee , on Tuesday .
The development , he said , `` should alarm all Americans . ''
`` If this is the beginning of a trend—the president either firing or forcing out national security professionals in order to replace them with people perceived as more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be precarious at best and downright dangerous at worst , '' Smith added .
`` Defense Secretary Mark Esper ... was just the beginning , '' wrote Spencer Ackerman , senior national security correspondent at The Daily Beast , on Tuesday night .
`` Also out are Esper 's chief of staff Jen Stewart and the Pentagon 's top officials for policy and intelligence [ James Anderson and Joseph Kernan ] . ''
Ackerman explained that Trump is rushing to fill the recently `` purged Pentagon '' with `` infamous MAGA figures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Esper was replaced by Chris Miller , previously the director of the National Counterterrorism Center , even though , as Ackerman reported , the `` law unambiguously mandates '' that David Norquist , the deputy secretary of defense , should have been named acting secretary .
Ackerman reported that Miller 's chief of staff is Kash Patel , who—as a senior aide to Rep. Devin Nunes ( R-Calif. ) — '' crafted a dubious memo , denounced by the FBI , to discredit the origins of the investigation into the Trump team @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The new acting undersecretary for policy , '' Ackerman noted , `` is Anthony Tata , who called Barack Obama a 'terrorist leader ' in 2018 and claimed Obama is secretly Muslim . ''
In response to the appointment of Tata , Scott Simpson , public advocacy director at the civil rights organization Muslim Advocates , said in a statement that `` every day that he serves as undersecretary of Defense is a day where all Americans are in danger . ''
Finally , `` the top Pentagon official for intelligence is now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Council ( NSC ) aide to the convicted Mike Flynn . ''
Sen. Chris Murphy ( D-Conn. ) described Cohen-Watnick as a `` 34 year-old who ... advocated for the CIA to orchestrate an overthrow [ of ] the Iranian regime ... [ and ] was promptly fired from his job as soon as Gen. McMasters took over . ''
`` That Ezra Cohen-Watnick is the acting undersecretary of defense for intelligence would be comical if it were n't so terrifying , '' a former NSC official in the Trump White House told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tuesday night , tweeting that `` the purge happening at the Department of Defense , in the middle of a messy transition , should worry us all . ''
`` This is the making of a coup , '' warned author Keith Boykin , pointing not only to Trump 's reshuffling of the Pentagon but also to the president 's refusal to concede following his election loss as well as the dishonesty and complicity of Pompeo and Attorney General Barr .
According to The Guardian , former defense officials and `` military analysts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ highly unusual , were not a reason to fear that the Pentagon would be weaponized in Trump 's desperate efforts to hold on to power . ''
Regardless of whether or not a military coup is on the table , The Daily Poster 's David Sirota argued on Tuesday night that Americans ought to be equally concerned by Trump 's attempts to stage a judicial coup , which he said has not received sufficient attention from the Democratic Party .
According to Sirota , the president 's strategy is to create enough `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legislatures in key states can `` try to invoke their constitutional power to ignore their states ' popular votes , reject certified election results , and appoint slates of Trump electors . ''
`` Even if the GOP fails to pull this off in 2020 , the shit they 're pulling right now is a test run of a plan they will use in the future to try to steal a presidential election and end whatever 's left of American democracy , '' Sirota tweeted on Wednesday morning .
`` And the next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it may work . ''

Fears that a possible slow-motion coup is in progress in the United States continued to grow on Wednesday, as observers sounded the alarm over President Donald Trump's decision to install "extreme Republican partisans" at the Pentagon after his firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper resulted in resignations by numerous top officials at the department earlier this week.
The stacking of the Pentagon with Trump loyalists—combined with the president's ongoing refusal to accept his electoral defeat and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's Tuesday comment that "there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration"—has heightened concerns about the Republican Party's authoritarianism and left experts and lawmakers warning that the country is in the midst of an extremely dangerous moment.
The Guardianreported that defense experts believe "there was little the new Trump appointees could do to use their positions to the president's advantage" given that high-ranking military leaders, including General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have vowed to keep the armed forces out of the political process.
Nevertheless, others view this week's personnel changes, which amount to the appointment of pro-Trump officials to key national security roles during the interregnum, as more evidence that Trump intends to use what one current defense official called "dictator moves" to cling to power despite receiving more than five million fewer votes than President-elect Joe Biden, who—based on current results reported by the Associated Press and other outlets—won the Electoral College by a margin of 290 to 217.
Appearing on CNN Tuesday night, William Cohen, former Secretary of Defense and Republican senator, told network host Don Lemon the president's conduct is "more akin to a dictatorship than a democracy."
"It is hard to overstate just how dangerous high-level turnover at the Department of Defense is during a period of presidential transition," wrote Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, on Tuesday.
The development, he said, "should alarm all Americans."
"If this is the beginning of a trend—the president either firing or forcing out national security professionals in order to replace them with people perceived as more loyal to him—then the next 70 days will be precarious at best and downright dangerous at worst," Smith added.
"Defense Secretary Mark Esper... was just the beginning," wrote Spencer Ackerman, senior national security correspondent at The Daily Beast, on Tuesday night. "Also out are Esper's chief of staff Jen Stewart and the Pentagon's top officials for policy and intelligence [James Anderson and Joseph Kernan]."
Ackerman explained that Trump is rushing to fill the recently "purged Pentagon" with "infamous MAGA figures" who are faithful to the president.
Esper was replaced by Chris Miller, previously the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, even though, as Ackerman reported, the "law unambiguously mandates" that David Norquist, the deputy secretary of defense, should have been named acting secretary.
Ackerman reported that Miller's chief of staff is Kash Patel, who—as a senior aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)—"crafted a dubious memo, denounced by the FBI, to discredit the origins of the investigation into the Trump team's contacts with Russia."
"The new acting undersecretary for policy," Ackerman noted, "is Anthony Tata, who called Barack Obama a 'terrorist leader' in 2018 and claimed Obama is secretly Muslim."
In response to the appointment of Tata, Scott Simpson, public advocacy director at the civil rights organization Muslim Advocates, said in a statement that "every day that he serves as undersecretary of Defense is a day where all Americans are in danger."
Finally, "the top Pentagon official for intelligence is now Ezra Cohen-Watnick, a former National Security Council (NSC) aide to the convicted Mike Flynn."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) described Cohen-Watnick as a "34 year-old who... advocated for the CIA to orchestrate an overthrow [of] the Iranian regime...[and] was promptly fired from his job as soon as Gen. McMasters took over."
"That Ezra Cohen-Watnick is the acting undersecretary of defense for intelligence would be comical if it weren't so terrifying," a former NSC official in the Trump White House told Ackerman.
Murphy sounded the alarm on Tuesday night, tweeting that "the purge happening at the Department of Defense, in the middle of a messy transition, should worry us all."
"This is the making of a coup," warned author Keith Boykin, pointing not only to Trump's reshuffling of the Pentagon but also to the president's refusal to concede following his election loss as well as the dishonesty and complicity of Pompeo and Attorney General Barr.
According toThe Guardian, former defense officials and "military analysts argued that the post-election changes, while highly unusual, were not a reason to fear that the Pentagon would be weaponized in Trump's desperate efforts to hold on to power."
Regardless of whether or not a military coup is on the table, The Daily Poster's David Sirota argued on Tuesday night that Americans ought to be equally concerned by Trump's attempts to stage a judicial coup, which he said has not received sufficient attention from the Democratic Party.
According to Sirota, the president's strategy is to create enough "public perception of fraud" that Republican-dominated legislatures in key states can "try to invoke their constitutional power to ignore their states' popular votes, reject certified election results, and appoint slates of Trump electors."
"Even if the GOP fails to pull this off in 2020, the shit they're pulling right now is a test run of a plan they will use in the future to try to steal a presidential election and end whatever's left of American democracy," Sirota tweeted on Wednesday morning.
"And the next time," he added, "it may work."


alternet--2020-11-11--Here's why Georgia's presidential race is going to a recount — though Biden appears ahead

Georgia 's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Wednesday that the state 's 159 counties would do a full manual recount of its 2020 presidential ballots , where former Vice President Joe Biden was ahead of President Trump by 14,101 votes as of November 11 .
`` This race has national significance , national importance , '' said Raffensperger , surrounded by a dozen county election officials .
`` We follow the process and we understand the significance of this — for not just Georgia , but for every single American .
At the end of the day , when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we can answer the question of what was the final margin in this race . ''
Raffensperger 's announcement diverged from what state election officials and their advisers were discussing earlier this week , when they were preparing for the next step in Georgia 's vote-counting process .
That step was a statewide statistical-based audit of a down-ballot race — such as public service commissioner — based on retrieving and counting randomly sampled ballots across Georgia to assess their new voting system 's accuracy before certifying winners .
The full hand count would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Raffensperger said , and continue until the state 's certification deadline on November 20 .
After certifying the results of all 2020 contests , the Republican secretary of state said that any candidate who was behind by less than 0.5 percent could then file for a recount under Georgia election law .
That statewide recount , should it occur , would be done by scanning all of the paper ballots .
`` We 're doing this because it is really what makes the most sense , '' he said .
`` With the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the closeness of this race , we have to run a statewide audit .
This is the race that makes the most sense ... We 'll be following the process on that . ''
Georgia 's election system has come under the national spotlight since 2020 's Election Day due to Biden 's surprising unofficial victory over Trump and because its two U.S. Senate races did not have a winner with more than 50 percent of the vote , which triggered runoffs to be held on Jan.5 , 2021 .
If the Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ majority will revert to Democratic control , giving Biden a path to pass laws instead of issuing executive orders .
But before looking to who assumes power in 2021 , Georgia—like most states—has to wrap up its 2020 election .
That process involves several little-known steps , where local election officials reconcile vote totals and approve or reject problematic ballots to finalize their results .
( That 's called the canvass ) Local results are reported to state officials , who certify the winners .
In 2019 , Raffensperger — in part pushed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his state 's old voting system that was increasingly criticized for being unreliable because it left no paper record of votes cast apart from its electronic memory .
( The state 's new in-person voting system relies on touch-screen computers that print out a paper summary card of a voter 's choices as text and QR ( dot matrix ) codes , which an electronic scanner then reads to count votes .
The state also uses hand-marked paper ballots for its absentee voters .
In 2020 's general election , three-fourths of Georgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ computer-printed cards . )
At the same time that Raffensperger replaced Georgia 's voting machinery , he pushed the GOP-controlled state legislature to update its election laws to add another step between the canvass and certification by county election boards .
That additional step was counties must conduct a specific type of audit of their voting system to assess its vote-counting accuracy ( called a risk-limiting audit or RLA ) .
The audit must occur before finalizing the county 's results .
In races with wide margins , an RLA is a streamlined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of randomly selected ballots because it relies on a probability-based formula to assess the tally 's accuracy .
RLAs typically look for 90 or 95 percent confidence levels in the reported results .
But in races with very close margins , the volume of sampled ballots skyrockets , requiring what is essentially a full manual recount .
That is the scenario that has unfolded in Georgia .
To date , Georgia has conducted four RLA pilots — small-scale test runs to fine-tune the process .
One RLA was after the 2020 Democratic Party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a metro Atlanta suburb where Biden had 84 percent of the vote and his top challenger , Bernie Sanders , had 10 percent .
Thus , the math involved only required examining 27 ballots in a race with 160,000 votes to achieve a 90 percent confidence level in the reported results .
But when the margins are close , such as Georgia 's presidential election where , as of Thursday , Biden was ahead of Trump by 14,101 votes out of 4.9 million cast statewide , the audit becomes a manual recount—even though @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the process regulated by state election law .
On Wednesday , Raffensperger said that Georgia 's RLA law meant that a complete hand count was required in the race drawing the most scrutiny — the presidential election .
`` It is actually an audit , '' he said , responding to a reporter 's question .
`` It 's all in one .
It an audit , a recanvass and a recount , all in one , because it will be just really be a process that gets it all . ''
Georgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other states , Raffensperger said , but was under the media 's glare because of Trump 's apparent loss and the U.S. Senate runoffs .
`` We 're in the same place that Florida is , North Carolina [ is ] , Texas [ is ] , '' he said .
`` The thing is , in those races , it 's [ the initially reported results are ] not real close .
In our case , there 's 14,101 votes right now that separate the top [ candidate ] from number two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ focused on that… but the other states are out there tabulating their absentee ballots . ''
Election experts said that hand count would fall along two lines : counting the presidential choice printed on 3.75 million ballot summary cards from in-person voting locations and counting 1.1 million hand-marked absentee ballots that were sent to voters via the mail .
On the ballot summary cards , the voter 's choices are printed in dot-matrix QR codes and human-readable text .
The human-readable text on the cards will not be ambiguous — although anti-computer voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possible for hackers to change what 's counted after a voter uses a touchscreen voting station and eyes their printed ballot .
In contrast , local canvass boards would assess absentee ballots with problematic marks—such as crossed out votes or ovals that that had been sloppily filled out to determine voter intent .
While Trump 's campaign is expected to deploy observers to possibly challenge some of the canvass board determinations , it was very unlikely that a manual hand count would result in changing the state 's presidential election outcome — even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between the hand counts and previous computer counts , said David Becker , executive director of the non-profit Center for Election Innovation and Research .
`` A 14,000-vote margin has never been overcome in a recount in American history , '' he said .
`` In fact , I do n't think a 1,400-vote margin has been overturned in a recount in American history .
'Unprecedented ' would be a kind was of talking about it [ overturning the results ] , but it 's well within the rights of the secretary of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump campaign , to request [ a full manual recount ] , and it can be very valuable from a transparency perspective . ''

Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Wednesday that the state's 159 counties would do a full manual recount of its 2020 presidential ballots, where former Vice President Joe Biden was ahead of President Trump by 14,101 votes as of November 11.
"This race has national significance, national importance," said Raffensperger, surrounded by a dozen county election officials. "We follow the process and we understand the significance of this — for not just Georgia, but for every single American. At the end of the day, when we do a hand count, then we can answer the question of what was the final margin in this race."
Raffensperger's announcement diverged from what state election officials and their advisers were discussing earlier this week, when they were preparing for the next step in Georgia's vote-counting process. That step was a statewide statistical-based audit of a down-ballot race — such as public service commissioner — based on retrieving and counting randomly sampled ballots across Georgia to assess their new voting system's accuracy before certifying winners.
The full hand count would begin as soon as this weekend, Raffensperger said, and continue until the state's certification deadline on November 20. After certifying the results of all 2020 contests, the Republican secretary of state said that any candidate who was behind by less than 0.5 percent could then file for a recount under Georgia election law. That statewide recount, should it occur, would be done by scanning all of the paper ballots.
"We're doing this because it is really what makes the most sense," he said. "With the national significance of this race, and the closeness of this race, we have to run a statewide audit. This is the race that makes the most sense... We'll be following the process on that."
Georgia's election system has come under the national spotlight since 2020's Election Day due to Biden's surprising unofficial victory over Trump and because its two U.S. Senate races did not have a winner with more than 50 percent of the vote, which triggered runoffs to be held on Jan.5, 2021. If the Democratic candidates win, the U.S. Senate's majority will revert to Democratic control, giving Biden a path to pass laws instead of issuing executive orders.
But before looking to who assumes power in 2021, Georgia—like most states—has to wrap up its 2020 election. That process involves several little-known steps, where local election officials reconcile vote totals and approve or reject problematic ballots to finalize their results. (That's called the canvass) Local results are reported to state officials, who certify the winners.
In 2019, Raffensperger — in part pushed by a federal court order — replaced his state's old voting system that was increasingly criticized for being unreliable because it left no paper record of votes cast apart from its electronic memory. (The state's new in-person voting system relies on touch-screen computers that print out a paper summary card of a voter's choices as text and QR (dot matrix) codes, which an electronic scanner then reads to count votes. The state also uses hand-marked paper ballots for its absentee voters. In 2020's general election, three-fourths of Georgia's 4.9 million presidential ballots were the computer-printed cards.)
At the same time that Raffensperger replaced Georgia's voting machinery, he pushed the GOP-controlled state legislature to update its election laws to add another step between the canvass and certification by county election boards. That additional step was counties must conduct a specific type of audit of their voting system to assess its vote-counting accuracy (called a risk-limiting audit or RLA). The audit must occur before finalizing the county's results.
In races with wide margins, an RLA is a streamlined process that can review a small number of randomly selected ballots because it relies on a probability-based formula to assess the tally's accuracy. RLAs typically look for 90 or 95 percent confidence levels in the reported results. But in races with very close margins, the volume of sampled ballots skyrockets, requiring what is essentially a full manual recount. That is the scenario that has unfolded in Georgia.
To date, Georgia has conducted four RLA pilots — small-scale test runs to fine-tune the process. One RLA was after the 2020 Democratic Party's presidential primary in Fulton County, a metro Atlanta suburb where Biden had 84 percent of the vote and his top challenger, Bernie Sanders, had 10 percent. Thus, the math involved only required examining 27 ballots in a race with 160,000 votes to achieve a 90 percent confidence level in the reported results.
But when the margins are close, such as Georgia's presidential election where, as of Thursday, Biden was ahead of Trump by 14,101 votes out of 4.9 million cast statewide, the audit becomes a manual recount—even though a recount is another legal stage in the process regulated by state election law. On Wednesday, Raffensperger said that Georgia's RLA law meant that a complete hand count was required in the race drawing the most scrutiny — the presidential election.
"It is actually an audit," he said, responding to a reporter's question. "It's all in one. It an audit, a recanvass and a recount, all in one, because it will be just really be a process that gets it all."
Georgia was moving through its post-election process like other states, Raffensperger said, but was under the media's glare because of Trump's apparent loss and the U.S. Senate runoffs.
"We're in the same place that Florida is, North Carolina [is], Texas [is]," he said. "The thing is, in those races, it's [the initially reported results are] not real close. In our case, there's 14,101 votes right now that separate the top [candidate] from number two. So therefore, all eyes are focused on that… but the other states are out there tabulating their absentee ballots."
Election experts said that hand count would fall along two lines: counting the presidential choice printed on 3.75 million ballot summary cards from in-person voting locations and counting 1.1 million hand-marked absentee ballots that were sent to voters via the mail.
On the ballot summary cards, the voter's choices are printed in dot-matrix QR codes and human-readable text. The human-readable text on the cards will not be ambiguous — although anti-computer voting activists have said that it is theoretically possible for hackers to change what's counted after a voter uses a touchscreen voting station and eyes their printed ballot. In contrast, local canvass boards would assess absentee ballots with problematic marks—such as crossed out votes or ovals that that had been sloppily filled out to determine voter intent.
While Trump's campaign is expected to deploy observers to possibly challenge some of the canvass board determinations, it was very unlikely that a manual hand count would result in changing the state's presidential election outcome — even though some discrepancies were likely to occur between the hand counts and previous computer counts, said David Becker, executive director of the non-profit Center for Election Innovation and Research.
"A 14,000-vote margin has never been overcome in a recount in American history," he said. "In fact, I don't think a 1,400-vote margin has been overturned in a recount in American history. 'Unprecedented' would be a kind was of talking about it [overturning the results], but it's well within the rights of the secretary of state, and the rights of the Trump campaign, to request [a full manual recount], and it can be very valuable from a transparency perspective."


alternet--2020-11-11--The strange story behind the Democrats' failure to flip Florida

One day after Florida election officials announced that President Trump and Republican candidates had so badly beaten Democrats up and down the ballot that pundits were asking if Florida had become an irreversible red state , Joe Biden 's Florida campaign held a statewide conference call .
`` There was a Florida campaign call today that said Florida allowed us [ Biden ] to win the Midwest , '' said Ion Sancho , a retired longtime Florida Democratic county official , who cringed at the explanation .
`` It felt like a setup . ''
`` Biden did n't go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who ran elections in the state 's capital county for nearly three decades .
`` It was a feint to draw Trump 's eyes off of the real prize , which was the three rust-belt states .
He never planned to do it [ win Florida ] from day one .
The Midwest was the prize all along . ''
Biden 's feint was helped by ex-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg , who in mid-September announced that he would spend $ 100 million for late-breaking media and voter-contact efforts in Florida @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campaign was cash-poor , to concentrate its spending and rallies in Pennsylvania and Florida , especially in South Florida 's metro areas where a vast electorate including diverse Latino voting blocs lived .
`` The way I look at this [ result ] is that the effort here in Florida caused the Trump campaign to spend time , money and resources that could have made a difference in states closely won by Biden , '' said Larry S. Davis , a Hollywood , Florida , attorney who this summer helped litigate a Florida @ @ @ @ @ @ @ records , in case the state 's 2020 results were contested .
`` This was a battle we lost , but it helped win the war—a war this country could not afford to lose , '' Davis said .
Nobody likes to hear their hard work campaigning was not a priority .
But Sancho 's observations underscore what Democrats must do to win in big and complex states like Florida .
His experience also contrasts with neighboring Georgia , where he has seen Democrats and voting rights activists steadily organize for years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a vote that will be recounted ) and where two U.S. Senate runoffs will decide control of that body and much of Biden 's agenda .
`` In Georgia , the community of color groups have been active , '' said Andrea Miller , executive director of the nonprofit Center for Common Ground , whose volunteers sent 873,000 postcards to non-white Georgia voters , followed up by 316,000 texts and 228,000 phone calls .
`` Black Voters Matter was going in its direction .
I was going in mine .
Stacey Abrams @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fair Fight , ] was there in Atlanta , and I was out in the rural Black Belt . ''
While many pundits have placed Florida in the red state column , there were some highlights suggesting , as was the case in Texas ( where Biden was briefly leading on election night ) , that Florida 's Democrats are not permanently exiled .
The state adopted a $ 15-an-hour minimum wage , a union-backed campaign .
Miami-Dade County elected its first female mayor , Democrat Daniella Levine Cava .
In 2018 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which Republican legislators subverted before 2020 's election .
But the observations by Sancho , the longtime supervisor of elections in Leon County , where Florida 's capital Tallahassee is located , underscored that the task of turning a demographically purple state blue can not rely on top-down or last-minute campaigning , but takes ongoing organizing that meets voters where they are .
In every election , there are always voting blocs that become the fulcrum even in states with millions of voters .
In 2020 in Florida , the various Latino @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and South America , were targeted early on by Trump 's campaign .
Most visibly , Trump started with Spanish radio ads in June that accused Democrats of being `` radical socialists . ''
The smears went unanswered for weeks , which , in retrospect , showed that the Biden campaign and the national party were not staking out Florida 's tipping-point communities .
`` They had no idea what they were doing—there was no Latin campaign at all , '' said Sancho , who believed that South Florida 's Latino communities could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and had coattails that would have broken the GOP 's lock on statewide power .
Sancho listed a series of big lapses , starting with not responding to Trump 's Spanish ads .
A lack of support continued throughout Florida 's August primary , whose late date makes it hard for winners to launch a fall campaign unless a vast field campaign is waiting in the wings .
But Biden 's campaign did not want Florida volunteers talking to voters in person due to COVID-19 , Sancho said , and did not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
When Biden finally visited , Sancho said that he did not invite enough local leaders and did not mention local issues—such as raising the minimum wage or restoring remittances and travel to Cuba .
Post-election media analyses echoed these points .
`` You ca n't replace hard work with anything else , '' Sancho said .
`` You need a message .
I saw nothing that they did in South Florida with Latinos . ''
What unfolded in Georgia , Florida 's neighbor to the north , is a different story .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ populous Southern state , but it still has half as many voters as Florida .
Unlike Florida , Georgia has seen some of the nation 's most aggressive grassroots voting rights organizing in recent years .
These efforts are not just a counterpoint to Biden 's 2020 efforts in South Florida but could make the difference with the two impending U.S. Senate runoffs on January 5 , 2021 .
From a national perspective , the figurehead leading Georgia 's voting rights movement is Stacey Abrams , a Black woman and lawyer who was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's Democratic gubernatorial candidate .
Abrams ' opponent in what became the closest governor 's race in a quarter-century was Brian Kemp , a Republican and at the time Georgia 's top statewide election official .
Kemp was accused by Abrams of doubling down on voter suppression tactics that had gone on for years .
After the election , a federal court ordered Georgia to install a new voting system for 2020 , which , in part , is why its 2020 election results have so far withstood attacks by Trump supporters .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ progressive message and focused on reaching and turning out voters , especially from Georgia 's cities .
( Thirty-eight percent of Georgia 's voters are from communities of color , according to voting rights activists . )
Abrams ' New Georgia Project registered hundreds of thousands of voters and inspired many young activists—much like Bernie Sanders ' presidential campaign .
Though she lost the 2018 governor 's race by fewer than 55,000 votes , Abrams continued her voting rights campaign by creating Fair Fight , filing a major federal lawsuit to overturn voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to other states .
( Her efforts were helped by a $ 5 million donation from Bloomberg , Fair Fight 's biggest donor . )
But Abrams ' new group , Fair Fight , was not the only voting rights group active in Georgia in 2020 .
The Black Voters Matter Fund is also headquartered in Atlanta and working with the state 's activists .
People Demanding Action , led by Miller , enlisted thousands of volunteers across the country to reach non-white voters in rural regions—what she calls `` the Black Belt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also had active chapters of many older-line civil rights organizations .
`` We work on voter registration all over the state , '' Miller said .
`` But when we do GOTV [ get out the vote ] , we go straight to the Georgia Black Belt .
Why ?
There 's no Democratic Party out there .
If the party exists , it 's small .
They do n't have any money .
They do n't have VAN [ voter activation network—the party 's national voter database ] access .
They do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' Unlike South Florida 's Latino Democrats who were frustrated by the Biden campaign , Georgia 's civil rights groups—and new allies such as the Lincoln Project run by anti-Trump Republicans—pushed ahead .
While the national media has made much of Biden 's debt owed to Black voters in South Carolina , whose 2020 primary victory revitalized his campaign , Miller said that organizers from communities of color in non-battleground states were not treated `` that great . ''
During the next two weeks , Georgia will conduct a statewide audit to affirm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and then a presidential recount , both of which are likely to be controversial .
But behind those headline-grabbing exercises , a bigger political battle will be taking shape .
The state 's voters will decide on January 5 who their next two U.S. senators will be .
If Democrats win both of those races , the Senate will be split evenly between Democrats and Republicans , and a tie-breaking vote will be cast by Vice President Kamala Harris , giving Democrats control and new power to pass reforms .
In short , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soon as its 2020 recount ends .
In the past , the governing class in Georgia , like many Southern states , used voting barriers to preserve their power .
But Georgia now has a new , far more transparent and reliable voting system , compared to 2018 .
And it has some of the nation 's most experienced voting rights activists , including organizations that have built up their infrastructure for years and are n't waiting for directions from Washington .
`` We 're in the process of sending 2.7 million postcards @ @ @ @ @ @ @ color in Georgia , '' Miller said .
`` We have already distributed 1.5 million addresses—this was as of last Friday [ November 6 ] … We are doing phone banks of unregistered voters first , because December 7 is the [ runoff 's voter registration ] deadline .
Then we help people go early vote [ starting on ] December 14 . ''
Steven Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth , a project of the Independent Media Institute .
He has reported for National Public Radio , Marketplace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as well as a wide range of progressive publications including Salon , AlterNet , the American Prospect , and many others .
This article was produced by Voting Booth , a project of the Independent Media Institute .

One day after Florida election officials announced that President Trump and Republican candidates had so badly beaten Democrats up and down the ballot that pundits were asking if Florida had become an irreversible red state, Joe Biden's Florida campaign held a statewide conference call.
"There was a Florida campaign call today that said Florida allowed us [Biden] to win the Midwest," said Ion Sancho, a retired longtime Florida Democratic county official, who cringed at the explanation. "It felt like a setup."
"Biden didn't go all-in—in South Florida," said Sancho, who ran elections in the state's capital county for nearly three decades. "It was a feint to draw Trump's eyes off of the real prize, which was the three rust-belt states. He never planned to do it [win Florida] from day one. The Midwest was the prize all along."
Biden's feint was helped by ex-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who in mid-September announced that he would spend $100 million for late-breaking media and voter-contact efforts in Florida. The feint led Trump, whose campaign was cash-poor, to concentrate its spending and rallies in Pennsylvania and Florida, especially in South Florida's metro areas where a vast electorate including diverse Latino voting blocs lived.
"The way I look at this [result] is that the effort here in Florida caused the Trump campaign to spend time, money and resources that could have made a difference in states closely won by Biden," said Larry S. Davis, a Hollywood, Florida, attorney who this summer helped litigate a Florida Democratic Party lawsuit to preserve digital voting records, in case the state's 2020 results were contested.
"This was a battle we lost, but it helped win the war—a war this country could not afford to lose," Davis said.
Nobody likes to hear their hard work campaigning was not a priority. But Sancho's observations underscore what Democrats must do to win in big and complex states like Florida. His experience also contrasts with neighboring Georgia, where he has seen Democrats and voting rights activists steadily organize for years, and where Biden narrowly beat Trump (in a vote that will be recounted) and where two U.S. Senate runoffs will decide control of that body and much of Biden's agenda.
"In Georgia, the community of color groups have been active," said Andrea Miller, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Common Ground, whose volunteers sent 873,000 postcards to non-white Georgia voters, followed up by 316,000 texts and 228,000 phone calls. "Black Voters Matter was going in its direction. I was going in mine. Stacey Abrams [as well as her group, Fair Fight,] was there in Atlanta, and I was out in the rural Black Belt."
Permanently Red Florida?
While many pundits have placed Florida in the red state column, there were some highlights suggesting, as was the case in Texas (where Biden was briefly leading on election night), that Florida's Democrats are not permanently exiled. The state adopted a $15-an-hour minimum wage, a union-backed campaign. Miami-Dade County elected its first female mayor, Democrat Daniella Levine Cava. In 2018, voters re-enfranchised more than a million ex-felons, which Republican legislators subverted before 2020's election.
But the observations by Sancho, the longtime supervisor of elections in Leon County, where Florida's capital Tallahassee is located, underscored that the task of turning a demographically purple state blue cannot rely on top-down or last-minute campaigning, but takes ongoing organizing that meets voters where they are.
In every election, there are always voting blocs that become the fulcrum even in states with millions of voters. In 2020 in Florida, the various Latino communities, led by refugees from Cuba and South America, were targeted early on by Trump's campaign. Most visibly, Trump started with Spanish radio ads in June that accused Democrats of being "radical socialists." The smears went unanswered for weeks, which, in retrospect, showed that the Biden campaign and the national party were not staking out Florida's tipping-point communities.
"They had no idea what they were doing—there was no Latin campaign at all," said Sancho, who believed that South Florida's Latino communities could have been persuaded to vote for Democrats, and had coattails that would have broken the GOP's lock on statewide power.
Sancho listed a series of big lapses, starting with not responding to Trump's Spanish ads. A lack of support continued throughout Florida's August primary, whose late date makes it hard for winners to launch a fall campaign unless a vast field campaign is waiting in the wings. But Biden's campaign did not want Florida volunteers talking to voters in person due to COVID-19, Sancho said, and did not support alternatives suggested by Latino Democratic officials. When Biden finally visited, Sancho said that he did not invite enough local leaders and did not mention local issues—such as raising the minimum wage or restoring remittances and travel to Cuba. Post-election media analyses echoed these points.
"You can't replace hard work with anything else," Sancho said. "You need a message. I saw nothing that they did in South Florida with Latinos."
In Contrast, Georgia
What unfolded in Georgia, Florida's neighbor to the north, is a different story.
Georgia is a regional hub and a populous Southern state, but it still has half as many voters as Florida. Unlike Florida, Georgia has seen some of the nation's most aggressive grassroots voting rights organizing in recent years. These efforts are not just a counterpoint to Biden's 2020 efforts in South Florida but could make the difference with the two impending U.S. Senate runoffs on January 5, 2021.
From a national perspective, the figurehead leading Georgia's voting rights movement is Stacey Abrams, a Black woman and lawyer who was the Georgia House minority leader and 2018's Democratic gubernatorial candidate. Abrams' opponent in what became the closest governor's race in a quarter-century was Brian Kemp, a Republican and at the time Georgia's top statewide election official. Kemp was accused by Abrams of doubling down on voter suppression tactics that had gone on for years. After the election, a federal court ordered Georgia to install a new voting system for 2020, which, in part, is why its 2020 election results have so far withstood attacks by Trump supporters.
In 2018, Abrams had an unapologetic progressive message and focused on reaching and turning out voters, especially from Georgia's cities. (Thirty-eight percent of Georgia's voters are from communities of color, according to voting rights activists.) Abrams' New Georgia Project registered hundreds of thousands of voters and inspired many young activists—much like Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. Though she lost the 2018 governor's race by fewer than 55,000 votes, Abrams continued her voting rights campaign by creating Fair Fight, filing a major federal lawsuit to overturn voting barriers, and branching out from Georgia to other states. (Her efforts were helped by a $5 million donation from Bloomberg, Fair Fight's biggest donor.)
But Abrams' new group, Fair Fight, was not the only voting rights group active in Georgia in 2020. The Black Voters Matter Fund is also headquartered in Atlanta and working with the state's activists. People Demanding Action, led by Miller, enlisted thousands of volunteers across the country to reach non-white voters in rural regions—what she calls "the Black Belt"—of eight Southern states. Georgia also had active chapters of many older-line civil rights organizations.
"We work on voter registration all over the state," Miller said. "But when we do GOTV [get out the vote], we go straight to the Georgia Black Belt. Why? There's no Democratic Party out there. If the party exists, it's small. They don't have any money. They don't have VAN [voter activation network—the party's national voter database] access. They don't know how to use VAN."
Unlike South Florida's Latino Democrats who were frustrated by the Biden campaign, Georgia's civil rights groups—and new allies such as the Lincoln Project run by anti-Trump Republicans—pushed ahead. While the national media has made much of Biden's debt owed to Black voters in South Carolina, whose 2020 primary victory revitalized his campaign, Miller said that organizers from communities of color in non-battleground states were not treated "that great."
The Senate Runoffs
During the next two weeks, Georgia will conduct a statewide audit to affirm the accuracy of its new voting system and then a presidential recount, both of which are likely to be controversial. But behind those headline-grabbing exercises, a bigger political battle will be taking shape.
The state's voters will decide on January 5 who their next two U.S. senators will be. If Democrats win both of those races, the Senate will be split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, and a tie-breaking vote will be cast by Vice President Kamala Harris, giving Democrats control and new power to pass reforms.
In short, a compressed presidential-scale election will emerge as soon as its 2020 recount ends. In the past, the governing class in Georgia, like many Southern states, used voting barriers to preserve their power. But Georgia now has a new, far more transparent and reliable voting system, compared to 2018. And it has some of the nation's most experienced voting rights activists, including organizations that have built up their infrastructure for years and aren't waiting for directions from Washington.
"We're in the process of sending 2.7 million postcards to every active and inactive voter of color in Georgia," Miller said. "We have already distributed 1.5 million addresses—this was as of last Friday [November 6]… We are doing phone banks of unregistered voters first, because December 7 is the [runoff's voter registration] deadline. Then we help people go early vote [starting on] December 14."
Steven Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He has reported for National Public Radio, Marketplace, and Christian Science Monitor Radio, as well as a wide range of progressive publications including Salon, AlterNet, the American Prospect, and many others.
This article was produced by Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute.


alternet--2020-11-11--Here's why Ron DeSantis' new stand-your-ground proposal is so disturbing

Like many other states in the U.S. , Florida experienced civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 .
And this month , the Miami Herald reports , Republican Gov .
Ron DeSantis is pushing for an expansion of the state 's stand-your-ground law as part of `` anti-mob '' legislation .
But critics of the proposal are expressing concerns that it could lead to acts of vigilante justice .
Denise Georges , a former prosecutor for Miami-Dade County , told the Herald : `` It allows for vigilantes to justify their actions .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ punishment for a property crime — and that is cruel and unusual punishment .
We can not live in a lawless society where taking a life is done so casually and recklessly . ''
The debate over what constitutes vigilante justice and what constitutes self-defense is not a new one in Florida .
Sanford , Florida is where , on February 26 , 2012 , 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was fatally shot during an altercation with Sanford resident George Zimmerman — and Martin 's death was followed by many heated debates over whether Zimmerman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a vigilante .
In July 2013 , a jury acquitted Zimmerman of manslaughter and second-degree murder charges .
Eight years after Martin 's death , Floridians are debating DeSantis ' proposed expansion of Florida 's stand-your-ground law .
Miami Herald reporters Ana Ceballos and David Ovalle explain : `` The draft legislation put specifics behind DeSantis ' pledge , in September , to crack down on 'violent and disorderly assemblies ' after he pointed to 'reports of unrest ' in other parts of the country after the high-profile death of George Floyd , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Minneapolis police officer .
The proposal would expand the list of 'forcible felonies ' under Florida 's self-defense law to justify the use of force against people who engage in criminal mischief that results in the 'interruption or impairment ' of a business , and looting — which the draft defines as a burglary within 500 feet of a 'violent or disorderly assembly . '
'' According to Ceballos and Ovalle , `` Other key elements of DeSantis ' proposal would enhance criminal penalties for people involved in 'violent or disorderly assemblies , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ block traffic during a protest , offer immunity to drivers who claim to have unintentionally killed or injured protesters who block traffic , and withhold state funds from local governments that cut law enforcement budgets . ''
The far-right DeSantis has been a major ally of President Donald Trump , who carried Florida by 4 % in the United States ' 2020 presidential election but was voted out of office when President-elect Joe Biden received more than 270 electoral votes .
Biden lost Florida but won the election , and Miami Beach Mayor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump supporters with his stand-your-ground proposal .

Like many other states in the U.S., Florida experienced civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. And this month, the Miami Herald reports, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing for an expansion of the state's stand-your-ground law as part of "anti-mob" legislation.
But critics of the proposal are expressing concerns that it could lead to acts of vigilante justice.
Denise Georges, a former prosecutor for Miami-Dade County, told the Herald: "It allows for vigilantes to justify their actions. It also allows for death to be the punishment for a property crime — and that is cruel and unusual punishment. We cannot live in a lawless society where taking a life is done so casually and recklessly."
The debate over what constitutes vigilante justice and what constitutes self-defense is not a new one in Florida. Sanford, Florida is where, on February 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was fatally shot during an altercation with Sanford resident George Zimmerman — and Martin's death was followed by many heated debates over whether Zimmerman acted in self-defense or conducted himself like a vigilante. In July 2013, a jury acquitted Zimmerman of manslaughter and second-degree murder charges.
Eight years after Martin's death, Floridians are debating DeSantis' proposed expansion of Florida's stand-your-ground law.
Miami Herald reporters Ana Ceballos and David Ovalle explain: "The draft legislation put specifics behind DeSantis' pledge, in September, to crack down on 'violent and disorderly assemblies' after he pointed to 'reports of unrest' in other parts of the country after the high-profile death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a White Minneapolis police officer. The proposal would expand the list of 'forcible felonies' under Florida's self-defense law to justify the use of force against people who engage in criminal mischief that results in the 'interruption or impairment' of a business, and looting — which the draft defines as a burglary within 500 feet of a 'violent or disorderly assembly.'"
According to Ceballos and Ovalle, "Other key elements of DeSantis' proposal would enhance criminal penalties for people involved in 'violent or disorderly assemblies,' make it a third-degree felony to block traffic during a protest, offer immunity to drivers who claim to have unintentionally killed or injured protesters who block traffic, and withhold state funds from local governments that cut law enforcement budgets."
The far-right DeSantis has been a major ally of President Donald Trump, who carried Florida by 4% in the United States' 2020 presidential election but was voted out of office when President-elect Joe Biden received more than 270 electoral votes. Biden lost Florida but won the election, and Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber criticized DeSantis for pandering to Trump supporters with his stand-your-ground proposal.