alternet--2020-11-19--Here are 10 foreign policy fiascos Biden can fix on day one

Donald Trump loves executive orders as a tool of dictatorial power , avoiding the need to work through Congress .
But that works both ways , making it relatively easy for President Biden to reverse many of Trump 's most disastrous decisions .
Here are ten things Biden can do as soon as he takes office .
Each one can set the stage for broader progressive foreign policy initiatives , which we have also outlined .
1 ) End the U.S. role in the Saudi-led war on Yemen and restore U.S. humanitarian aid to Yemen .
Congress already passed a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ role in the Yemen war , but Trump vetoed it , prioritizing war machine profits and a cozy relationship with the horrific Saudi dictatorship .
Biden should immediately issue an executive order to end every aspect of the U.S. role in the war , based on the resolution that Trump vetoed .
The U.S. should also accept its share of responsibility for what many have called the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today , and provide Yemen with funding to feed its people , restore its healthcare system and eventually rebuild this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expand USAID funding and recommit U.S. financial support to the UN , the WHO , and to World Food Program relief programs in Yemen .
2 ) Suspend all U.S. arms sales and transfers to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) .
Both countries are responsible for massacring civilians in Yemen , and the UAE is reportedly the largest arms supplier to General Haftar 's rebel forces in Libya .
Congress passed bills to suspend arms sales to both of them , but Trump vetoed them too .
Then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ billion with the UAE as part of an obscene military and commercial ménage à trois between the U.S. , the UAE and Israel , which he absurdly tried to pass off as a peace agreement .
While mostly ignored at the behest of the weapons companies , there are actually U.S. laws that require the suspension of arms transfers to countries that use them to violate U.S. and international law .
They include the Leahy Law that prohibits the U.S. from providing military assistance to foreign security forces that commit gross violations of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Control Act , which states that countries must use imported U.S. weapons only for legitimate self defense .
Once these suspensions are in place , the Biden administration should seriously review the legality of Trump 's arms sales to both countries , with a view to canceling them and banning future sales .
Biden should commit to applying these laws consistently and uniformly to all U.S. military aid and arms sales , without making exceptions for Israel , Egypt or other U.S. allies .
3 ) Rejoin the Iran Nuclear Agreement ( JCPOA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ After reneging on the JCPOA , Trump slapped draconian sanctions on Iran , brought us to the brink of war by killing its top general , and is even trying to order up illegal , aggressive war plans in his last days as president .
The Biden administration will face an uphill battle undoing this web of hostile actions and the deep mistrust they have caused , so Biden must act decisively to restore mutual trust : immediately rejoin the JCPOA , lift the sanctions , and stop blocking the $ 5 billion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deal with the COVID crisis .
In the longer term , the U.S. should give up the idea of regime change in Iran -- this is for the people of Iran to decide -- and instead restore diplomatic relations and start working with Iran to deescalate other Middle East conflicts , from Lebanon to Syria to Afghanistan , where cooperation with Iran is essential .
4 ) End U.S. threats and sanctions against officials of the International Criminal Court ( ICC ) .
Nothing so brazenly embodies the U.S. government 's enduring , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failure to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ( ICC ) .
If President Biden is serious about recommitting the U.S. to the rule of law , he should submit the Rome Statute to the U.S. Senate for ratification to join 120 other countries as members of the ICC .
The Biden administration should also accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice ( ICJ ) , which the U.S. rejected after the Court convicted the U.S. of aggression and ordered it to pay reparations to Nicaragua in 1986 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meet South Korea 's President Moon Jae-in soon after he is sworn in .
Trump 's failure to provide sanctions relief and explicit security guarantees to North Korea doomed his diplomacy and became an obstacle to the diplomatic process under way between Korean presidents Moon and Kim .
The Biden administration must start negotiating a peace agreement to formally end the Korean war , and initiate confidence-building measures such as opening liaison offices , easing sanctions , facilitating reunions between Korean-American and North Korean families and halting U.S.-South Korea military exercises .
Negotiations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. side to pave the way for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and the reconciliation that so many Koreans desire -- and deserve .
6 ) Renew New START with Russia and freeze the U.S. 's trillion-dollar new nuke plan .
Biden can end Trump 's dangerous game of brinksmanship on Day One and commit to renewing Obama 's New START Treaty with Russia , which freezes both countries ' nuclear arsenals at 1,550 deployed warheads each .
He can also freeze Obama and Trump 's plan to spend more than a trillion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nuclear weapons .
Biden should also adopt a long overdue `` no first use '' nuclear weapons policy , but most of the world is ready to go much further .
In 2017 , 122 countries voted for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons ( TPNW ) at the UN General Assembly .
None of the current nuclear weapons states voted for or against the treaty , essentially pretending to ignore it .
On October 24 , 2020 , Honduras became the 50th country to ratify the treaty , which will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 2021 .
So , here is a visionary challenge for President Biden for that day , his second full day in office : Invite the leaders of each of the other eight nuclear weapons states to a conference to negotiate how all nine nuclear weapons states will sign onto the TPNW , eliminate their nuclear weapons and remove this existential danger hanging over every human being on Earth .
7 ) Lift illegal unilateral U.S. sanctions against other countries .
Economic sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council are generally considered legal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the Security Council to impose or lift them .
But unilateral economic sanctions that deprive ordinary people of necessities like food and medicine are illegal and cause grave harm to innocent citizens .
U.S. sanctions on countries like Iran , Venezuela , Cuba , Nicaragua , North Korea and Syria are a form of economic warfare .
UN special rapporteurs have condemned them as crimes against humanity and compared them to medieval sieges .
Since most of these sanctions were imposed by executive order , President Biden can lift them the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ longer term , unilateral sanctions that affect an entire population are a form of coercion , like military intervention , coups and covert operations , that have no place in a legitimate foreign policy based on diplomacy , the rule of law and the peaceful resolution of disputes .
8 ) Roll back Trump policies on Cuba and move to normalize relations Over the past four years , the Trump administration overturned the progress towards normal relations made by President Obama , sanctioning Cuba 's tourism and energy industries , blocking coronavirus aid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and sabotaging Cuba 's international medical missions , which are a major source of income for its health system .
President Biden should start working with the Cuban government to allow the return of diplomats to their respective embassies , lift all restrictions on remittances , remove Cuba from the list of countries that are not U.S. partners against terrorism , cancel the portion of the Helms Burton Act ( Title III ) that allows Americans to sue companies that use property seized by the Cuban government 60 years ago , and collaborate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against COVID-19 .
These measures would mark a down payment on a new era of diplomacy and cooperation , as long as they do n't fall victim to crass attempts to gain conservative Cuban-American votes in the next election , which Biden and politicians of both parties should commit to resisting .
In the fall of 2015 , as U.S. forces escalated their bombing of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria to over 100 bomb and missile strikes per day , the Obama administration loosened military rules of engagement to let U.S. commanders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were expected to kill up to 10 civilians without prior approval from Washington .
Trump reportedly loosened the rules even further , but details were not made public .
Iraqi Kurdish intelligence reports counted 40,000 civilians killed in the assault on Mosul alone .
Biden can reset these rules and start killing fewer civilians on Day One .
But we can avoid these tragic civilian deaths altogether by ending these wars .
Democrats have been critical of Trump 's often ad hoc pronouncements about withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan , Syria , Iraq @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the chance to truly end these wars .
He should set a date , no later than the end of December 2021 , by when all U.S. troops will come home from all these combat zones .
This policy may not be popular among war profiteers , but it would certainly be popular among Americans across the ideological spectrum .
10 ) Freeze U.S. military spending , and launch a major initiative to reduce it .
At the end of the Cold War , former senior Pentagon officials told the Senate Budget Committee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cut by half over the next ten years .
That goal was never achieved , and the promised peace dividend gave way to a triumphalist `` power dividend . ''
The military-industrial complex exploited the crimes of September 11th to justify an extraordinary one-sided arms race in which the U.S. accounted for 45 % of global military spending from 2003 to 2011 , far outstripping its peak Cold War military spending .
The military-industrial complex is counting on Biden to escalate a renewed Cold War with Russia and China as the only plausible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Biden must dial back the conflicts with China and Russia , and instead begin the critical task of moving money from the Pentagon to urgent domestic needs .
He should start with the 10 percent cut supported this year by 93 representatives and 23 senators .
In the longer term , Biden should look for deeper cuts in Pentagon spending , as in Representative Barbara Lee 's bill to cut $ 350 billion per year from the U.S. military budget , approximating the 50 % peace dividend we were promised after the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sorely need to invest in healthcare , education , clean energy and modern infrastructure .
Medea Benjamin is the cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace , and the author of several books , including Kingdom of the Unjust : Behind the US-Saudi Connection and Inside Iran : the Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran .
Nicolas J. S. Davies is an independent journalist , a researcher with CODEPINK , and the author of Blood On Our Hands : the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq .

Donald Trump loves executive orders as a tool of dictatorial power, avoiding the need to work through Congress. But that works both ways, making it relatively easy for President Biden to reverse many of Trump's most disastrous decisions. Here are ten things Biden can do as soon as he takes office. Each one can set the stage for broader progressive foreign policy initiatives, which we have also outlined.
1) End the U.S. role in the Saudi-led war on Yemen and restore U.S. humanitarian aid to Yemen.
Congress already passed a War Powers Resolution to end the U.S. role in the Yemen war, but Trump vetoed it, prioritizing war machine profits and a cozy relationship with the horrific Saudi dictatorship. Biden should immediately issue an executive order to end every aspect of the U.S. role in the war, based on the resolution that Trump vetoed.
The U.S. should also accept its share of responsibility for what many have called the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today, and provide Yemen with funding to feed its people, restore its healthcare system and eventually rebuild this devastated country. Biden should restore and expand USAID funding and recommit U.S. financial support to the UN, the WHO, and to World Food Program relief programs in Yemen.
2) Suspend all U.S. arms sales and transfers to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Both countries are responsible for massacring civilians in Yemen, and the UAE is reportedly the largest arms supplier to General Haftar's rebel forces in Libya. Congress passed bills to suspend arms sales to both of them, but Trump vetoed them too. Then he struck arms deals worth $24 billion with the UAE as part of an obscene military and commercial ménage à trois between the U.S., the UAE and Israel, which he absurdly tried to pass off as a peace agreement.
While mostly ignored at the behest of the weapons companies, there are actually U.S. laws that require the suspension of arms transfers to countries that use them to violate U.S. and international law. They include the Leahy Law that prohibits the U.S. from providing military assistance to foreign security forces that commit gross violations of human rights; and the Arms Export Control Act, which states that countries must use imported U.S. weapons only for legitimate self defense.
Once these suspensions are in place, the Biden administration should seriously review the legality of Trump's arms sales to both countries, with a view to canceling them and banning future sales. Biden should commit to applying these laws consistently and uniformly to all U.S. military aid and arms sales, without making exceptions for Israel, Egypt or other U.S. allies.
3) Rejoin the Iran Nuclear Agreement (JCPOA) and lift sanctions on Iran.
After reneging on the JCPOA, Trump slapped draconian sanctions on Iran, brought us to the brink of war by killing its top general, and is even trying to order up illegal, aggressive war plans in his last days as president. The Biden administration will face an uphill battle undoing this web of hostile actions and the deep mistrust they have caused, so Biden must act decisively to restore mutual trust: immediately rejoin the JCPOA, lift the sanctions, and stop blocking the $5 billion IMF loan that Iran desperately needs to deal with the COVID crisis.
In the longer term, the U.S. should give up the idea of regime change in Iran--this is for the people of Iran to decide--and instead restore diplomatic relations and start working with Iran to deescalate other Middle East conflicts, from Lebanon to Syria to Afghanistan, where cooperation with Iran is essential.
4) End U.S. threats and sanctions against officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Nothing so brazenly embodies the U.S. government's enduring, bipartisan disdain for international law as its failure to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). If President Biden is serious about recommitting the U.S. to the rule of law, he should submit the Rome Statute to the U.S. Senate for ratification to join 120 other countries as members of the ICC. The Biden administration should also accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which the U.S. rejected after the Court convicted the U.S. of aggression and ordered it to pay reparations to Nicaragua in 1986.
5) Back President Moon's diplomacy for a "permanent peace regime" in Korea.
President-elect Biden has reportedly agreed to meet South Korea's President Moon Jae-in soon after he is sworn in. Trump's failure to provide sanctions relief and explicit security guarantees to North Korea doomed his diplomacy and became an obstacle to the diplomatic process under way between Korean presidents Moon and Kim. The Biden administration must start negotiating a peace agreement to formally end the Korean war, and initiate confidence-building measures such as opening liaison offices, easing sanctions, facilitating reunions between Korean-American and North Korean families and halting U.S.-South Korea military exercises. Negotiations must involve concrete commitments to non-aggression from the U.S. side to pave the way for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and the reconciliation that so many Koreans desire--and deserve.
6) Renew New START with Russia and freeze the U.S.'s trillion-dollar new nuke plan.
Biden can end Trump's dangerous game of brinksmanship on Day One and commit to renewing Obama's New START Treaty with Russia, which freezes both countries' nuclear arsenals at 1,550 deployed warheads each. He can also freeze Obama and Trump's plan to spend more than a trillion dollars on a new generation of U.S. nuclear weapons.
Biden should also adopt a long overdue "no first use" nuclear weapons policy, but most of the world is ready to go much further. In 2017, 122 countries voted for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) at the UN General Assembly. None of the current nuclear weapons states voted for or against the treaty, essentially pretending to ignore it. On October 24, 2020, Honduras became the 50th country to ratify the treaty, which will now go into effect on January 22, 2021.
So, here is a visionary challenge for President Biden for that day, his second full day in office: Invite the leaders of each of the other eight nuclear weapons states to a conference to negotiate how all nine nuclear weapons states will sign onto the TPNW, eliminate their nuclear weapons and remove this existential danger hanging over every human being on Earth.
7) Lift illegal unilateral U.S. sanctions against other countries.
Economic sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council are generally considered legal under international law, and require action by the Security Council to impose or lift them. But unilateral economic sanctions that deprive ordinary people of necessities like food and medicine are illegal and cause grave harm to innocent citizens.
U.S. sanctions on countries like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea and Syria are a form of economic warfare. UN special rapporteurs have condemned them as crimes against humanity and compared them to medieval sieges. Since most of these sanctions were imposed by executive order, President Biden can lift them the same way on Day One.
In the longer term, unilateral sanctions that affect an entire population are a form of coercion, like military intervention, coups and covert operations, that have no place in a legitimate foreign policy based on diplomacy, the rule of law and the peaceful resolution of disputes.
8) Roll back Trump policies on Cuba and move to normalize relations
Over the past four years, the Trump administration overturned the progress towards normal relations made by President Obama, sanctioning Cuba's tourism and energy industries, blocking coronavirus aid shipments, restricting remittances to family members and sabotaging Cuba's international medical missions, which are a major source of income for its health system.
President Biden should start working with the Cuban government to allow the return of diplomats to their respective embassies, lift all restrictions on remittances, remove Cuba from the list of countries that are not U.S. partners against terrorism, cancel the portion of the Helms Burton Act (Title III) that allows Americans to sue companies that use property seized by the Cuban government 60 years ago, and collaborate with Cuban health professionals in the fight against COVID-19.
These measures would mark a down payment on a new era of diplomacy and cooperation, as long as they don't fall victim to crass attempts to gain conservative Cuban-American votes in the next election, which Biden and politicians of both parties should commit to resisting.
9) Restore pre-2015 rules of engagement to spare civilian lives.
In the fall of 2015, as U.S. forces escalated their bombing of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria to over 100 bomb and missile strikes per day, the Obama administration loosened military rules of engagement to let U.S. commanders in the Middle East order airstrikes that were expected to kill up to 10 civilians without prior approval from Washington. Trump reportedly loosened the rules even further, but details were not made public. Iraqi Kurdish intelligence reports counted 40,000 civilians killed in the assault on Mosul alone. Biden can reset these rules and start killing fewer civilians on Day One.
But we can avoid these tragic civilian deaths altogether by ending these wars. Democrats have been critical of Trump's often ad hoc pronouncements about withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Somalia. President Biden now has the chance to truly end these wars. He should set a date, no later than the end of December 2021, by when all U.S. troops will come home from all these combat zones. This policy may not be popular among war profiteers, but it would certainly be popular among Americans across the ideological spectrum.
10) Freeze U.S. military spending, and launch a major initiative to reduce it.
At the end of the Cold War, former senior Pentagon officials told the Senate Budget Committee that U.S. military spending could safely be cut by half over the next ten years. That goal was never achieved, and the promised peace dividend gave way to a triumphalist "power dividend."
The military-industrial complex exploited the crimes of September 11th to justify an extraordinary one-sided arms race in which the U.S. accounted for 45% of global military spending from 2003 to 2011, far outstripping its peak Cold War military spending. The military-industrial complex is counting on Biden to escalate a renewed Cold War with Russia and China as the only plausible pretext for continuing these record military budgets.
Biden must dial back the conflicts with China and Russia, and instead begin the critical task of moving money from the Pentagon to urgent domestic needs. He should start with the 10 percent cut supported this year by 93 representatives and 23 senators.
In the longer term, Biden should look for deeper cuts in Pentagon spending, as in Representative Barbara Lee's bill to cut $350 billion per year from the U.S. military budget, approximating the 50% peace dividend we were promised after the Cold War and freeing up resources we sorely need to invest in healthcare, education, clean energy and modern infrastructure.
Medea Benjamin is the cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and the author of several books, including Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the US-Saudi Connection andInside Iran: the Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Nicolas J. S. Davies is an independent journalist, a researcher with CODEPINK, and the author of Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq.


alternet--2020-11-19--A world being made for war: Behind the push for an era of great-power competition with China

War : what is it good for ?
Apparently , in Washington 's world of think tanks , the answer is : the bottom line .
In fact , as the Bide presidency approaches , an era of great-power competition between the United States and China is already taken for granted inside the Washington Beltway .
Much less well known are the financial incentives that lurk behind so many of the voices clamoring for an ever-more-militarized response to China in the Pacific .
We 're talking about groups that carefully avoid the problems such an approach will provoke when it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States or the planet .
A new cold war is likely to be dangerous and costly in an America gripped by a pandemic , its infrastructure weakened , and so many of its citizens in dire economic straits .
Still , for foreign lobbyists , Pentagon contractors , and Washington 's many influential think tanks , a `` rising China '' means only one thing : rising profits .
Defense contractors and foreign governments are spending millions of dollars annually funding establishment think tanks ( sometimes in secret ) in ways that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Biden years .
In doing so , they gain a distinctly unfair advantage when it comes to influencing that policy , especially which future tools of war this country should invest in and how it should use them .
Not surprisingly , many of the top think-tank recipients of foreign funding are also top recipients of funding from this country 's major weapons makers .
The result : an ecosystem in which those giant outfits and some of the countries that will use their weaponry now play major roles in bankrolling the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ future sales .
It 's a remarkably closed system that works like a dream if you happen to be a giant weapons firm or a major think tank .
Right now , that system is helping accelerate the further militarization of the whole Indo-Pacific region .
In the Pacific , Japan finds itself facing an increasingly tough set of choices when it comes to its most significant military alliance ( with the United States ) and its most important economic partnership ( with China ) .
A growing U.S. presence in the region @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to remain officially neutral , even as it reaps the benefits of both partnerships .
To walk that tightrope ( along with the defense contractors that will benefit financially from the further militarization of the region ) , Japan spends heavily to influence thinking in Washington .
Recent reports from the Center for International Policy 's Foreign Influence Initiative ( FITI ) , where the authors of this piece work , reveal just how countries like Japan and giant arms firms like Lockheed Martin and Boeing functionally purchase an inside track on a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ creating future foreign-policy options for this country 's elite .
How to Make a Think Tank Think Take the prominent think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies ( CSIS ) , which houses programs focused on the `` China threat '' and East Asian `` security . ''
Its Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative , which gets funding from the governments of Japan and the Philippines , welcomes contributions `` from all governments in Asia , as well as corporate and foundation support . ''
Unsurprisingly , the program also paints a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ preserving the liberal international order '' in the face of the dangers of an `` increasingly assertive China . ''
It also highlights that country 's role as Washington 's maritime security partner in the region .
There 's no question that Japan is indeed an important ally of Washington .
Still , positioning its government as a lynchpin in the international peace ( or war ) process seems a dubious proposition at best .
CSIS is anything but alone when it comes to the moneyed interests pushing Washington to invest ever more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' in the Pacific region .
A FITI report on Japanese operations in the U.S. , for instance , reveals at least 3,209 lobbying activities in 2019 alone , as various lobbyists hired by that country and registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act targeted both Congress and think tanks like CSIS on behalf of the Japanese government .
Such firms , in fact , raked in more than $ 30 million from that government last year alone .
From 2014 to 2019 , Japan was also the largest East Asian donor to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tanks .
The results of such investments have been obvious when it comes to both the products of those think tanks and congressional policies .
Think-tank recipients of Japanese funding are numerous and , because that country is such a staunch ally of Washington , its government can be more open about its activities than is typical .
Projects like the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 's `` China Risk and China Opportunity for the U.S.-Japan Alliance , '' funded by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs , are now the norm inside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surprised to learn that the think-tank scholars working on such projects almost inevitably end up highlighting Japan 's integral role in countering `` the China threat '' in the influential studies they produce .
That threat itself , of course , is rarely questioned .
Instead , its dangers and the need to confront them are invariably reinforced .
Another Carnegie Endowment study , `` Bolstering the Alliance Amid China 's Military Resurgence , '' is typical in that regard .
It 's filled with warnings about China 's growing military power -- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the United States spent nearly triple what China did on its military , according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute .
Like so many similarly funded projects inside the Beltway , this one recommended further growth in military cooperation between the U.S. and Japan .
Important as well , it claimed , was developing `` the capability to wage combined multidomain joint operations '' which `` would require accelerating operational response times to enhance firepower . ''
The Carnegie project lists its funding and , as it turns out , that foundation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Japan and approximately the same amount from defense contractors and U.S. government sources over the past six years .
And Carnegie 's recommendations recently came to fruition when the Trump administration announced the second-largest sale of U.S. weaponry to Japan , worth more than $ 23 billion worth .
If the Japanese government has a stake in funding such think tanks to get what it wants , so does the defense industry .
The top 50 think tanks have received more than $ 1 billion from the U.S. government and defense contractors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contractors alone lobby Congress to the tune of more than $ 20 million each election cycle .
Combine such sums with Japanese funding ( not to speak of the money spent by other governments that desire policy influence in Washington ) and you have a confluence of interests that propels U.S. military expenditures and the sale of weapons globally on a mind-boggling scale .
A Defense Build-Up Is the Order of the Day An April 2020 report on the `` Future of US-Japan Defense Collaboration '' by the Atlantic Council 's Scowcroft Center @ @ @ @ @ @ @ example of how such pro-militarization interests are promoted .
That report , produced in partnership with the Japanese embassy , begins with the premise that `` the United States and Japan must accelerate and intensify their long-standing military and defense-focused coordination and collaboration . ''
Specifically , it urges the United States to `` take measures to incentivize Japan to work with Lockheed Martin on the F-2 replacement program , '' known as the F-3 .
( The F-2 Support Fighter is the jet Lockheed developed and produced in partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) While the report does acknowledge its partnership with the embassy of Japan , it fails to acknowledge that Lockheed donated three quarters of a million dollars to the influential Atlantic Council between 2014 and 2019 and that Japan generally prefers to produce its own military equipment domestically .
The Atlantic Council report continues to recommend the F-3 as the proper replacement for the F-2 , `` despite political challenges , technology-transfer concerns , '' and `` frustration from all parties '' involved .
This recommendation comes at a time when Japan has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ industry .
Generally speaking , no matter the Japanese embassy 's support for the Atlantic Council , that country 's military is eager to develop a new stealth fighter of its own without the help of either Lockheed Martin or Boeing .
While both companies wish to stay involved in the behemoth project , the Atlantic Council specifically advocates only for Lockheed , which just happens to have contributed more than three times what Boeing did to that think tank 's coffers .
A 2019 report by the Hudson Institute on the Japan-U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ security context in which Japan and the United States should focus continually on deterring `` aggression by China . ''
To do so , the report suggested , American-made ground-launched missiles ( GCLMs ) were one of several potential weapons Japan would need in order to prepare a robust `` defense '' strategy against China .
Notably , the first American GCLM test since the United States withdrew from the Cold War era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019 used a Lockheed Martin Mark 41 Launch System and Raytheon 's Tomahawk Land Attack @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not only received at least $ 270,000 from Japan between 2014 and 2018 , but also a minimum of $ 100,000 from Lockheed Martin .
In 2020 , CSIS organized an unofficial working group for industry professionals and government officials that it called the CSIS Alliance Interoperability Series to discuss the development of the future F-3 fighter jet .
While Japanese and American defense contractors fight for the revenue that will come from its production , the think tank claims that American , Japanese , and Australian industry representatives and officials will `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the F-3 debate raises . ''
Such working groups are far from rare and offer think tanks incredible access to key decision-makers who often happen to be their benefactors as well .
All told , between 2014 and 2019 , CSIS received at least $ 5 million from the U.S. government and Pentagon contractors , including at least $ 400,000 from Lockheed Martin and more than $ 200,000 from Boeing .
In this fashion , a privileged think-tank elite has cajoled its way into the inner circles of policy formation ( and it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Trump administration or the future Biden one ) .
Think about it for a moment : possibly the most crucial relationship on the planet between what looks like a rising and a falling great power ( in a world that desperately needs their cooperation ) is being significantly influenced by experts and officials invested in the industry guaranteed to militarize that very relationship and create a twenty-first-century version of the Cold War .
Any administration , in other words , lives in something like an echo chamber that continually affirms the need @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by those who would gain most from it .
Japan is singled out in this analysis because the Center for International Policy 's Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative , where we work , had striking access to its influence data .
There are , however , many other nations with defense agendas in the Indo-Pacific region who act similarly .
As a Norwegian think-tank document put it , `` Funding powerful think tanks is one way to gain such access , and some think tanks in Washington are openly conveying that they can service @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . ''
A Japanese official publicly noted that such funding of U.S. think tanks `` is an investment . ''
You ca n't put it much more bluntly or accurately than that .
Foreign governments and the defense industry debate the nitty-gritty of how best to arm a region whose continued militarization is accepted as a given .
The need to stand up to the Chinese `` aggressor '' is a foregone conclusion of most thought leaders in Washington .
They ought , of course , to be weighing and debating the entire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ devastation of climate change , rather than simply piling yet more weaponry atop the outdated tools of war .
To be sure , think tanks do n't make U.S. foreign policy , nor do foreign lobbyists and defense contractors .
But their money , distributed in copious amounts , does buy them crucial seats at that policymaking table , while dissenters are generally left out in the cold .
What 's the solution ?
For starters , a little transparency in Washington foreign-policy-making circles would be useful so that the public can be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interest that rule the roost when it comes to China policy .
All think tanks should be required to publicly disclose their donors and funders .
At least the Atlantic Council and CSIS report their funders by levels of donations and note certain sponsors of events or reports ( a basic level of transparency that makes a piece like this possible ) .
Such a standard of transparency should minimally be practiced by all think tanks , including prominent organizations like the American Enterprise Institute and the Earth Institute , neither of which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to highlight potential conflicts of interests .
Without transparency , the defense contractors and foreign governments that donate to think tanks help create foreign-policy thinking in which this world is , above all , in constant need of more weapons systems .
This only increases military tensions globally , while helping to perpetuate the interests and profits of a defense industry that is , in truth , antithetical to the interests of most Americans , so many of whom would prefer diplomatic , peaceful , and coordinated solutions to the challenges of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy is now made , a rising China is also guaranteed to lift all boats ( submarines , aircraft carriers , and surface ships ) as well as fighter planes aiding the military-industrial complex on a planet increasingly at war with itself .
Cassandra Stimpson is a research project director with the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative ( FITI ) at the Center for International Policy ( CIP ) .
Holly Zhang is a researcher with FITI at CIP .
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook .
Check out the newest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dystopian novel ( the second in the Splinterlands series ) Frostlands , Beverly Gologorsky 's novel Every Body Has a Story , and Tom Engelhardt 's A Nation Unmade by War , as well as Alfred McCoy 's In the Shadows of the American Century : The Rise and Decline of U.S .
Global Power and John Dower 's The Violent American Century : War and Terror Since World War II .

by Cassandra Stimpson and Holly Zhang
War: what is it good for? Apparently, in Washington's world of think tanks, the answer is: the bottom line.
In fact, as the Bide presidency approaches, an era of great-power competition between the United States and China is already taken for granted inside the Washington Beltway. Much less well known are the financial incentives that lurk behind so many of the voices clamoring for an ever-more-militarized response to China in the Pacific. We're talking about groups that carefully avoid the problems such an approach will provoke when it comes to the real security of the United States or the planet. A new cold war is likely to be dangerous and costly in an America gripped by a pandemic, its infrastructure weakened, and so many of its citizens in dire economic straits. Still, for foreign lobbyists, Pentagon contractors, and Washington's many influential think tanks, a "rising China" means only one thing: rising profits.
Defense contractors and foreign governments are spending millions of dollars annually funding establishment think tanks (sometimes in secret) in ways that will help set the foreign-policy agenda in the Biden years. In doing so, they gain a distinctly unfair advantage when it comes to influencing that policy, especially which future tools of war this country should invest in and how it should use them.
Not surprisingly, many of the top think-tank recipients of foreign funding are also top recipients of funding from this country's major weapons makers. The result: an ecosystem in which those giant outfits and some of the countries that will use their weaponry now play major roles in bankrolling the creation of the very rationales for those future sales. It's a remarkably closed system that works like a dream if you happen to be a giant weapons firm or a major think tank. Right now, that system is helping accelerate the further militarization of the whole Indo-Pacific region.
In the Pacific, Japan finds itself facing an increasingly tough set of choices when it comes to its most significant military alliance (with the United States) and its most important economic partnership (with China). A growing U.S. presence in the region aimed at counterbalancing China will allow Japan to remain officially neutral, even as it reaps the benefits of both partnerships.
To walk that tightrope (along with the defense contractors that will benefit financially from the further militarization of the region), Japan spends heavily to influence thinking in Washington. Recentreports from the Center for International Policy's Foreign Influence Initiative (FITI), where the authors of this piece work, reveal just how countries like Japan and giant arms firms like Lockheed Martin and Boeing functionally purchase an inside track on a think-tank market that's hard at work creating future foreign-policy options for this country's elite.
How to Make a Think Tank Think
Take the prominent think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which houses programs focused on the "China threat" and East Asian "security." Its Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, which gets funding from the governments of Japan and the Philippines, welcomes contributions "from all governments in Asia, as well as corporate and foundation support."
Unsurprisingly, the program also paints a picture of Japan as central "to preserving the liberal international order" in the face of the dangers of an "increasingly assertive China." It also highlights that country's role as Washington's maritime security partner in the region. There's no question that Japan is indeed an important ally of Washington. Still, positioning its government as a lynchpin in the international peace (or war) process seems a dubious proposition at best.
CSIS is anything but alone when it comes to the moneyed interests pushing Washington to invest ever more in what now passes for "security" in the Pacific region. A FITI report on Japanese operations in the U.S., for instance, reveals at least 3,209 lobbying activities in 2019 alone, as various lobbyists hired by that country and registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Acttargeted both Congress and think tanks like CSIS on behalf of the Japanese government. Such firms, in fact, raked in more than $30 million from that government last year alone. From 2014 to 2019, Japan was also the largest East Asian donor to the top 50 most influential U.S. think tanks. The results of such investments have been obvious when it comes to both the products of those think tanks and congressional policies.
Think-tank recipients of Japanese funding are numerous and, because that country is such a staunch ally of Washington, its government can be more open about its activities than is typical. Projects like the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's "China Risk and China Opportunity for the U.S.-Japan Alliance," funded by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are now the norm inside the Beltway. You won't be surprised to learn that the think-tank scholars working on such projects almost inevitably end up highlighting Japan's integral role in countering "the China threat" in the influential studies they produce. That threat itself, of course, is rarely questioned. Instead, its dangers and the need to confront them are invariably reinforced.
Another Carnegie Endowment study, "Bolstering the Alliance Amid China's Military Resurgence," is typical in that regard. It's filled with warnings about China's growing military power -- never mind that, in 2019, the United States spent nearly triple what China did on its military, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Like so many similarly funded projects inside the Beltway, this one recommended further growth in military cooperation between the U.S. and Japan. Important as well, it claimed, was developing "the capability to wage combined multidomain joint operations" which "would require accelerating operational response times to enhance firepower."
The Carnegie project lists its funding and, as it turns out, that foundation has taken in at least $825,000 from Japan and approximately the same amount from defense contractors and U.S. government sources over the past six years. And Carnegie's recommendations recently came to fruition when the Trump administration announced the second-largest sale of U.S. weaponry to Japan, worth more than $23 billion worth.
If the Japanese government has a stake in funding such think tanks to get what it wants, so does the defense industry. The top 50 think tanks have received more than $1 billion from the U.S. government and defense contractors over those same six years. Such contractors alone lobby Congress to the tune of more than $20 million each election cycle. Combine such sums with Japanese funding (not to speak of the money spent by other governments that desire policy influence in Washington) and you have a confluence of interests that propels U.S. military expenditures and the sale of weapons globally on a mind-boggling scale.
A Defense Build-Up Is the Order of the Day
An April 2020 report on the "Future of US-Japan Defense Collaboration" by the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security offers a typical example of how such pro-militarization interests are promoted. That report, produced in partnership with the Japanese embassy, begins with the premise that "the United States and Japan must accelerate and intensify their long-standing military and defense-focused coordination and collaboration."
Specifically, it urges the United States to "take measures to incentivize Japan to work with Lockheed Martin on the F-2 replacement program," known as the F-3. (The F-2 Support Fighter is the jet Lockheed developed and produced in partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the Japanese Defense Forces.) While the report does acknowledge its partnership with the embassy of Japan, it fails to acknowledge that Lockheed donated three quarters of a million dollars to the influential Atlantic Council between 2014 and 2019 and that Japan generally prefers to produce its own military equipment domestically.
The Atlantic Council report continues to recommend the F-3 as the proper replacement for the F-2, "despite political challenges, technology-transfer concerns," and "frustration from all parties" involved. This recommendation comes at a time when Japan has increasingly sought to develop its own defense industry. Generally speaking, no matter the Japanese embassy's support for the Atlantic Council, that country's military is eager to develop a new stealth fighter of its own without the help of either Lockheed Martin or Boeing. While both companies wish to stay involved in the behemoth project, the Atlantic Council specifically advocates only for Lockheed, which just happens to have contributed more thanthree times what Boeing did to that think tank's coffers.
A 2019 report by the Hudson Institute on the Japan-U.S. alliance echoed similar sentiments, outlining a security context in which Japan and the United States should focus continually on deterring "aggression by China." To do so, the report suggested, American-made ground-launched missiles (GCLMs) were one of several potential weapons Japan would need in order to prepare a robust "defense" strategy against China. Notably, the first American GCLM test since the United States withdrewfrom the Cold War era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019 used a Lockheed Martin Mark 41 Launch System and Raytheon's Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missile. The Hudson Institute had not only received at least $270,000 from Japan between 2014 and 2018, but also a minimum of $100,000 from Lockheed Martin.
In 2020, CSIS organized an unofficial working group for industry professionals and government officials that it called the CSIS Alliance Interoperability Series to discuss the development of the future F-3 fighter jet. While Japanese and American defense contractors fight for the revenue that will come from its production, the think tank claims that American, Japanese, and Australian industry representatives and officials will "consider the political-military and technical issues that the F-3 debate raises." Such working groups are far from rare and offer think tanks incredible access to key decision-makers who often happen to be their benefactors as well.
All told, between 2014 and 2019, CSIS received at least $5 million from the U.S. government and Pentagon contractors, including at least $400,000 from Lockheed Martin and more than $200,000 from Boeing. In this fashion, a privileged think-tank elite has cajoled its way into the inner circles of policy formation (and it matters little whether we're talking about the Trump administration or the future Biden one). Think about it for a moment: possibly the most crucial relationship on the planet between what looks like a rising and a falling great power (in a world that desperately needs their cooperation) is being significantly influenced by experts and officials invested in the industry guaranteed to militarize that very relationship and create a twenty-first-century version of the Cold War.
Any administration, in other words, lives in something like an echo chamber that continually affirms the need for a yet greater defense build-up led by those who would gain most from it.
Profiting from Great Power Competition
Japan is singled out in this analysis because the Center for International Policy's Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative, where we work, had striking access to its influence data. There are, however, many other nations with defense agendas in the Indo-Pacific region who act similarly. As a Norwegian think-tank document put it, "Funding powerful think tanks is one way to gain such access, and some think tanks in Washington are openly conveying that they can service only those foreign governments that provide funding." A Japanese official publicly noted that such funding of U.S. think tanks "is an investment." You can't put it much more bluntly or accurately than that.
Foreign governments and the defense industry debate the nitty-gritty of how best to arm a region whose continued militarization is accepted as a given. The need to stand up to the Chinese "aggressor" is a foregone conclusion of most thought leaders in Washington. They ought, of course, to be weighing and debating the entire security picture, including the potential future devastation of climate change, rather than simply piling yet more weaponry atop the outdated tools of war.
To be sure, think tanks don't make U.S. foreign policy, nor do foreign lobbyists and defense contractors. But their money, distributed in copious amounts, does buy them crucial seats at that policymaking table, while dissenters are generally left out in the cold.
What's the solution? For starters, a little transparency in Washington foreign-policy-making circles would be useful so that the public can be made more aware of the conflicts of interest that rule the roost when it comes to China policy. All think tanks should be required to publicly disclose their donors and funders. At least the Atlantic Council and CSIS report their funders by levels of donations and note certain sponsors of events or reports (a basic level of transparency that makes a piece like this possible). Such a standard of transparency should minimally be practiced by all think tanks, including prominent organizations like the American Enterprise Institute and the Earth Institute, neither of which releases any information about its funders, to highlight potential conflicts of interests.
Without transparency, the defense contractors and foreign governments that donate to think tanks help create foreign-policy thinking in which this world is, above all, in constant need of more weapons systems. This only increases military tensions globally, while helping to perpetuate the interests and profits of a defense industry that is, in truth, antithetical to the interests of most Americans, so many of whom would prefer diplomatic, peaceful, and coordinated solutions to the challenges of a rising China.
Unfortunately, as foreign policy is now made, a rising China is also guaranteed to lift all boats (submarines, aircraft carriers, and surface ships) as well as fighter planes aiding the military-industrial complex on a planet increasingly at war with itself.
Cassandra Stimpson is a research project director with the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative (FITI) at the Center for International Policy (CIP). Holly Zhang is a researcher with FITI at CIP.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Books, John Feffer's new dystopian novel (the second in the Splinterlands series) Frostlands, Beverly Gologorsky's novel Every Body Has a Story, and Tom Engelhardt's A Nation Unmade by War, as well as Alfred McCoy's In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power and John Dower's The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II.
Copyright 2020 Cassandra Stimpson and Holly Zhang


alternet--2020-11-19--Constitutional scholar warns that Republicans are a threat to democracy

Although President-elect Joe Biden has won 306 electoral votes and leads by over 5.8 million in the popular vote , President Donald Trump has yet to concede — vowing to keep fighting the election results in court and claiming , without evidence , that he was the victim of widespread voter fraud .
Most Republicans in Congress have yet to publicly acknowledge that Biden won the race .
And Washington Post columnist and constitutional scholar Edward B. Foley argues that if Republicans in Congress can not accept perfectly legitimate election results , U.S. democracy is in seriously trouble .
`` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defeat , the whole enterprise of electoral democracy is finished , '' Foley warns in his column this week .
`` Two-party competition means each party taking turns , depending on what the voters want in any given election .
President Trump himself will never acknowledge this .
But the Republican Party institutionally must . ''
Foley adds , `` That is the critical challenge facing Senate Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ( R-KY. ) : When and how decisively will they pull the plug on Trump 's desperate effort to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that he did not earn from the electorate ? ''
The GOP , Foley stresses , `` must get to the point where it publicly congratulates Biden on being the one the voters wanted . ''
He argued , too , that Democrats have n't been perfect on this front .
Even though Hillary Clinton promptly conceded to Trump in 2016 , she and others subsequently cast doubt on the reality of his Electoral College win .
`` And what Trump is doing now is much more wrong , because an outgoing president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an immediate successor is inherently more corrosive , '' he said .
`` Even the most conservative of election law commentators have joined the chorus to observe that courts do n't overturn elections without adequate evidence of invalid votes that actually made a difference in the outcome , '' he continued .
`` The Trump campaign has provided no proof of that kind in any state , much less the three necessary to deny Biden an electoral college majority . ''
Some Republicans in Congress have publicly acknowledged Biden 's victory and described @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's Mitt Romney , Maine 's Susan Collins and Alaska 's Lisa Murkowski .
But Foley warns that unless the GOP on the whole accepts Biden 's victory , democracy will suffer in the U.S. '' The longer McConnell and his colleagues allow this unnecessary uncertainty about the election 's outcome to fester , '' Foley laments , `` the worse off our democracy will be . ''

Although President-elect Joe Biden has won 306 electoral votes and leads by over 5.8 million in the popular vote, President Donald Trump has yet to concede — vowing to keep fighting the election results in court and claiming, without evidence, that he was the victim of widespread voter fraud. Most Republicans in Congress have yet to publicly acknowledge that Biden won the race. And Washington Post columnist and constitutional scholar Edward B. Foley argues that if Republicans in Congress cannot accept perfectly legitimate election results, U.S. democracy is in seriously trouble.
"If the losing party can't accept defeat, the whole enterprise of electoral democracy is finished," Foley warns in his column this week. "Two-party competition means each party taking turns, depending on what the voters want in any given election. President Trump himself will never acknowledge this. But the Republican Party institutionally must."
Foley adds, "That is the critical challenge facing Senate Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY.): When and how decisively will they pull the plug on Trump's desperate effort to force upon the nation a second term that he did not earn from the electorate?"
The GOP, Foley stresses, "must get to the point where it publicly congratulates Biden on being the one the voters wanted."
He argued, too, that Democrats haven't been perfect on this front. Even though Hillary Clinton promptly conceded to Trump in 2016, she and others subsequently cast doubt on the reality of his Electoral College win.
"And what Trump is doing now is much more wrong, because an outgoing president's attempt to delegitimate the mandate of an immediate successor is inherently more corrosive," he said.
"Even the most conservative of election law commentators have joined the chorus to observe that courts don't overturn elections without adequate evidence of invalid votes that actually made a difference in the outcome," he continued. "The Trump campaign has provided no proof of that kind in any state, much less the three necessary to deny Biden an electoral college majority."
Some Republicans in Congress have publicly acknowledged Biden's victory and described him as the president-elect, including Utah's Mitt Romney, Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski. But Foley warns that unless the GOP on the whole accepts Biden's victory, democracy will suffer in the U.S.
"The longer McConnell and his colleagues allow this unnecessary uncertainty about the election's outcome to fester," Foley laments, "the worse off our democracy will be."


alternet--2020-11-19--Fox News reporter expertly debunks Rudy Giuliani's nonsensical election claims: 'Simply not true'

On Thursday , President Donald Trump 's personal attorney , former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani , held a press conference to discuss the Trump campaign 's legal battle against the 2020 presidential election results .
Giuliani has claimed that Trump , not President-elect Joe Biden , is the real winner and that his client was the victim of widespread voter fraud .
But when Fox News correspondent Kristin Fisher reported on the press conference , she slammed Giuliani as being `` light on facts . ''
Fisher , speaking from the White House , told her colleague Dana @ @ @ @ @ @ @ colorful news conference from Rudy Giuliani , but it was light on facts .
So much of what he said was simply not true or has already been thrown out in court . ''
The Fox anchor added that Giuliani opened the press conference by making a `` really bold and baseless claim '' and saying that `` a lot of this alleged nationwide voter fraud he 's referring to all came from one centralized place . ''
Fisher explained , `` He called it a nationwide conspiracy .
And yet , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back up that one specific claim —especially when you 're dealing with a claim that really cuts to the core of our democratic process .
Now , in Pennsylvania , Giuliani continued to claim widespread voter fraud in Philadelphia — even though he has already said in court , and I quote : 'This is not a fraud case . '
So what he 's saying in public , not under oath , is different from what he said in court . ''
Fisher went on to debunk Giuliani 's false claims about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of its lawsuits .
`` Two Republican canvassers in Wayne County say they now want to rescind their votes to certify the election , '' Fisher told Perrino `` Giuliani says they dropped the lawsuit because the state did decertify , but that is not true .
The results were certified in Michigan on Tuesday , and Biden won . ''
Fisher added , `` Up on that stage with Giuliani was a poster with the headline 'Multiple paths to victory . '
But Giuliani never credibly explained a single path — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fact remains that the Trump campaign has yet to provide , at least in court , hard evidence of voter fraud and irregularities widespread enough to overturn the outcome of the election and to effectively challenge President-elect Joe Biden 's stance as the president-elect . ''
Fisher 's reporting will not sit well with Trump , who has recently been furious with the right-wing Fox News over its election reporting .
On Election Night , much to Trump 's chagrin , Fox News ' decision desk called Arizona for Biden — and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But Fox stood by its reporting even when MSBNC and CNN had yet to call Arizona for Biden , who now has 306 electoral votes and leads Trump by at least 5.8 million in the popular vote .

On Thursday, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, held a press conference to discuss the Trump campaign's legal battle against the 2020 presidential election results. Giuliani has claimed that Trump, not President-elect Joe Biden, is the real winner and that his client was the victim of widespread voter fraud. But when Fox News correspondent Kristin Fisher reported on the press conference, she slammed Giuliani as being "light on facts."
Fisher, speaking from the White House, told her colleague Dana Perino: "That was certainly a colorful news conference from Rudy Giuliani, but it was light on facts. So much of what he said was simply not true or has already been thrown out in court."
The Fox anchor added that Giuliani opened the press conference by making a "really bold and baseless claim" and saying that "a lot of this alleged nationwide voter fraud he's referring to all came from one centralized place."
Fisher explained, "He called it a nationwide conspiracy. And yet, he failed to provide any hard evidence to back up that one specific claim —especially when you're dealing with a claim that really cuts to the core of our democratic process. Now, in Pennsylvania, Giuliani continued to claim widespread voter fraud in Philadelphia — even though he has already said in court, and I quote: 'This is not a fraud case.' So what he's saying in public, not under oath, is different from what he said in court."
Fisher went on to debunk Giuliani's false claims about Michigan, where the Trump campaign dropped one of its lawsuits.
"Two Republican canvassers in Wayne County say they now want to rescind their votes to certify the election," Fisher told Perrino "Giuliani says they dropped the lawsuit because the state did decertify, but that is not true. The results were certified in Michigan on Tuesday, and Biden won."
Fisher added, "Up on that stage with Giuliani was a poster with the headline 'Multiple paths to victory.' But Giuliani never credibly explained a single path — let alone multiple ones. Dana, the fact remains that the Trump campaign has yet to provide, at least in court, hard evidence of voter fraud and irregularities widespread enough to overturn the outcome of the election and to effectively challenge President-elect Joe Biden's stance as the president-elect."
Fisher's reporting will not sit well with Trump, who has recently been furious with the right-wing Fox News over its election reporting. On Election Night, much to Trump's chagrin, Fox News' decision desk called Arizona for Biden — and Trump's campaign angrily demanded a retraction. But Fox stood by its reporting even when MSBNC and CNN had yet to call Arizona for Biden, who now has 306 electoral votes and leads Trump by at least 5.8 million in the popular vote.


alternet--2020-11-19--Trump's own livestream hot mic catches open mockery of Rudy Giuliani’s dripping hair dye

Rudy Giuliani , President Donald Trump 's personal attorney and the former mayor of New York City , has been @ @ @ @ @ in Pennsylvania and other battleground states that President-elect Joe Biden won .
On Thursday , @ @ @ @ @ Trump campaign press update on the campaign 's increasingly absurd and reckless efforts to challenge @ @ @ @ @ a sign of just how slapdash disorganized these efforts are , the campaign 's YouTube @ @ @ @ @ of the Trump team on a hot mic making an insulting comment about Giuliani 's @ @ @ @ @ that the audio had been left on , the person can be heard laughing and @ @ @ @ @ fucking Rudy 's hair dye dripping down his face . ''
Biden presently has 306 @ @ @ @ @ and leads Trump by more than 5.8 million in the popular vote .
However , @ @ @ @ @ claiming , without evidence , that the election results were tainted by widespread voter fraud @ @ @ @ @ a prominent role in Trump 's legal efforts .

Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal attorney and the former mayor of New York City, has been aggressively fighting the election results in Pennsylvania and other battleground states that President-elect Joe Biden won. On Thursday, Giuliani was present during a Trump campaign press update on the campaign's increasingly absurd and reckless efforts to challenge the results. But in a sign of just how slapdash disorganized these efforts are, the campaign's YouTube stream seemed to catch member of the Trump team on a hot mic making an insulting comment about Giuliani's hair.
Obviously not realizing that the audio had been left on, the person can be heard laughing and saying, "You see fucking Rudy's hair dye dripping down his face."
Biden presently has 306 votes in the Electoral College and leads Trump by more than 5.8 million in the popular vote. However, Trump's campaign has been claiming, without evidence, that the election results were tainted by widespread voter fraud — and Giuliani has played a prominent role in Trump's legal efforts.


alternet--2020-11-19--This lawsuit actually says a state's votes for Biden should just be flipped to Trump

When it became obvious that Joe Biden had an insurmountable lead over President Donald Trump in the Pennsylvania vote count , the Associated Press called the Keystone State for Biden on Saturday , November 7 — thus giving the former vice president the 270 electoral votes he needed to become president-elect of the United States .
Biden 's lead in Pennsylvania has only grown since then , but that has n't stopped Trump 's campaign and Rudy Giuliani from claiming that the president really won the state .
And on Wednesday , the Trump campaign made a strikingly anti-democratic demand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to make that fantasy a reality .
In the suit , according to Politico , Trump 's campaign argues that his campaign 's constitutional rights were violated in Pennsylvania and that the state 's 20 electoral votes should be given to him by the GOP-control state legislature because he is the real winner .
The lawsuit , which names Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and seven counties as defendants , complains that Republican election observers had insufficient access to the counting of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania .
Earlier this week , however @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election observers had adequate access to the vote-counting process in Pennsylvania — and rejected the Trump campaign 's claim that they did n't .
Experts widely agree that the new lawsuit attempting to overturn the the Pennsylvania is preposterous and doomed to fail .
The Trump campaign 's latest Pennsylvania lawsuit also claims that 1.5 million votes in the state `` should not have been counted '' and that they led to `` returns indicating Biden won Pennsylvania . ''
The Trump 's campaign argues , `` In contrast to the 2002 International @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Court has struck out in a unique direction among democracies and declared that meaningful observers are not part of verification and votes may be counted without any review by political campaigns and parties . ''
After winning Pennsylvania and other battleground states — including Arizona , Nevada and Georgia — Biden had a total of 306 electoral votes .
In the popular vote , Biden has defeated Trump by at least 5.8 million votes nationwide .

When it became obvious that Joe Biden had an insurmountable lead over President Donald Trump in the Pennsylvania vote count, the Associated Press called the Keystone State for Biden on Saturday, November 7 — thus giving the former vice president the 270 electoral votes he needed to become president-elect of the United States. Biden's lead in Pennsylvania has only grown since then, but that hasn't stopped Trump's campaign and Rudy Giuliani from claiming that the president really won the state. And on Wednesday, the Trump campaign made a strikingly anti-democratic demand in a Pennsylvania lawsuit in an attempt to make that fantasy a reality.
In the suit, according to Politico, Trump's campaign argues that his campaign's constitutional rights were violated in Pennsylvania and that the state's 20 electoral votes should be given to him by the GOP-control state legislature because he is the real winner. The lawsuit, which names Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and seven counties as defendants, complains that Republican election observers had insufficient access to the counting of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.
Earlier this week, however, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that election observers had adequate access to the vote-counting process in Pennsylvania — and rejected the Trump campaign's claim that they didn't. Experts widely agree that the new lawsuit attempting to overturn the the Pennsylvania is preposterous and doomed to fail.
The Trump campaign's latest Pennsylvania lawsuit also claims that 1.5 million votes in the state "should not have been counted" and that they led to "returns indicating Biden won Pennsylvania."
The Trump's campaign argues, "In contrast to the 2002 International Electoral Standards.... the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has struck out in a unique direction among democracies and declared that meaningful observers are not part of verification and votes may be counted without any review by political campaigns and parties."
After winning Pennsylvania and other battleground states — including Arizona, Nevada and Georgia — Biden had a total of 306 electoral votes. In the popular vote, Biden has defeated Trump by at least 5.8 million votes nationwide.


alternet--2020-11-19--'Raise the alarm': Experts warn of 'sedition' and 'coup' as Michigan GOP leaders plan meeting with T

'Raise the alarm': Experts warn of 'sedition' and 'coup' as Michigan GOP leaders plan meeting with Trump

Experts are clearly on edge as news breaks that the two top Republican officials from the state of Michigan are flying to DC to meet with President Donald Trump `` at his request , '' according to a Washington Post reporter , and local Michigan news outlets .
And some are warning of a possible `` coup . ''
Even The New York Times is reporting : `` Trump tries to subvert the election , inviting Michigan G.O.P .
lawmakers to the White House . ''
`` After failing repeatedly in court to overturn election results , President Trump is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ directly to Republican state legislators as he tries to subvert the Electoral College process , '' the Times says .
Michigan by law is required to certify its election results Monday , November 23 .
President-elect Joe Biden won the state by 3 percentage points and over 150,000 votes .
There are no credible reports of fraud and yet Trump has declared himself the winner .
Experts are clearly on edge as news breaks that the two top Republican officials from the state of Michigan are flying to DC to meet with President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' according to a Washington Post reporter , and local Michigan news outlets .
And some are warning of a possible `` coup . ''
Former Senior Advisor to Speaker Pelosi , and former Special Assistant to President Obama : Yale Law School Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy :

Experts are clearly on edge as news breaks that the two top Republican officials from the state of Michigan are flying to DC to meet with President Donald Trump "at his request," according to a Washington Post reporter, and local Michigan news outlets.
And some are warning of a possible "coup."
Even The New York Times is reporting: "Trump tries to subvert the election, inviting Michigan G.O.P. lawmakers to the White House."
"After failing repeatedly in court to overturn election results, President Trump is taking the extraordinary step of reaching out directly to Republican state legislators as he tries to subvert the Electoral College process," the Times says.
Michigan by law is required to certify its election results Monday, November 23. President-elect Joe Biden won the state by 3 percentage points and over 150,000 votes. There are no credible reports of fraud and yet Trump has declared himself the winner.
Experts are clearly on edge as news breaks that the two top Republican officials from the state of Michigan are flying to DC to meet with President Donald Trump "at his request," according to a Washington Post reporter, and local Michigan news outlets.
And some are warning of a possible "coup."
Professor of political science:
Award-winning MSNBC host:
Writer, editor, and historian:
Editor at The Nation:
Former Senior Advisor to Speaker Pelosi, and former Special Assistant to President Obama:
NYT columnist:
Bloomberg Opinion writer:
Former Elizabeth Warren staffer:
Writer at Daily Kos Elections:
Yale Law School Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy:
Think tank:
Former Editor-in-Chief of LIFE magazine:


alternet--2020-11-19--Rudy Giuliani acts out scene from ‘My Cousin Vinny’ at wild press conference to claim Biden stole el

Rudy Giuliani acts out scene from ‘My Cousin Vinny’ at wild press conference to claim Biden stole election

Rudy Giuliani resorted to acting out a scene from the movie `` My Cousin Vinny '' on Thursday in an @ @ @ @ @ President-elect Joe Biden had illegally won the election .
`` Did you all watch 'My @ @ @ @ @ Giuliani asked a group of reporters in Washington , D.C. `` You know , the @ @ @ @ @ of my favorite law movies because he comes from Brooklyn .
And the nice lady @ @ @ @ @ the crime ] and then he says to her , 'How many fingers do I @ @ @ @ @ she says , 'Three . '
'' `` Well , she was too far away @ @ @ @ @ comparing the witness in the movie to Republican poll watchers .
`` These people were @ @ @ @ @ Vinny ' was from the witness .
They could n't see a thing . ''
@ @ @ @ @ from Fox News and read some of the responses from Twitter .
Rudy Giuliani acts @ @ @ @ @ at election press conference

Rudy Giuliani resorted to acting out a scene from the movie "My Cousin Vinny" on Thursday in an effort to convince reporters that President-elect Joe Biden had illegally won the election.
"Did you all watch 'My Cousin Vinny?'" Giuliani asked a group of reporters in Washington, D.C. "You know, the movie? It's one of my favorite law movies because he comes from Brooklyn. And the nice lady who said she saw [the crime] and then he says to her, 'How many fingers do I got up?' and she says, 'Three.'"
"Well, she was too far away," he continued, comparing the witness in the movie to Republican poll watchers. "These people were further away than 'My Cousin Vinny' was from the witness. They couldn't see a thing."
Watch the video clip below from Fox News and read some of the responses from Twitter.
Rudy Giuliani acts out 'My Cousin Vinny' at election press conference youtu.be


alternet--2020-11-19--Top health experts urge GSA administrator to immediately begin presidential transition

With the coronavirus pandemic surging , over 140 leading U.S. health experts sent a message Thursday to the head of the General Services Administration , who is holding up the presidential transition despite President-elect Joe Biden 's decisive defeat of President Donald Trump : Sign off on the election results to save American lives .
Under the Presidential Transition Act , GSA Administrator Emily Murphy—a Trump appointee—must `` ascertain '' that Biden won so that his team can access necessary resources .
The new letter ( pdf ) to Murphy is signed by public health and medical school deans as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and former officials .
`` A seamless transition is necessary to ensure that the incoming administration is prepared to confront the Covid-19 pandemic from day one , '' said Dr. Peter G. Lurie , president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest ( CSPI ) , which helped organize the letter .
`` Administrator Murphy must fulfill this responsibility immediately , as every extra day of delay can only add to the death toll . ''
As of Thursday afternoon , the U.S. continued to lead the world in Covid-19 cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million and over 250,700 , respectively .
Echoing Lurie , Dr. Michael Carome , director of Public Citizen 's Health Research Group , warned , `` The costs are clear : delays mean more Americans will suffer and die . ''
`` Refusing to ascertain Biden as president-elect , '' he explained , `` means the transition team must plan for a crisis response without access to essential information about vaccine development , the nation 's supply chains for protective equipment and testing supplies , and coordination with federal , state , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's groups joined with the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School and Protect Democracy in organizing the letter , which also raises alarm about the `` rapidly worsening '' pandemic and makes clear to Murphy that American lives are on the line .
As the letter puts it : '' With the pandemic worsening nationwide and only two months until the transition of power , every day the transition is delayed is a day the country can not afford , '' the letter adds .
`` Ensuring a rapid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We urge the GSA to make an ascertainment immediately and permit the formal transition process to begin . ''
Since election-callers and major news networks declared Biden the victor nearly two weeks ago—with a projected 306-232 Electoral College win over the current president—Trump has taken to Twitter and the nation 's courts to spread baseless allegations of voter fraud and a `` rigged election . ''
In the face of the president 's lies and lawsuits , Murphy has refused to sign off on the results .
Citing unnamed sources who know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that `` Murphy is struggling with the weight of the presidential election being dropped on her shoulders , feeling like she 's been put in a no-win situation . ''
In response , Charlie Pierce wrote in a column for Esquire that `` there is no better illustration of how deeply perverse is the Republican denial of the reality of the 2020 presidential election than this inexcusable whitewashing from CNN of the performance of Emily Murphy . ''
Pierce blasted Murphy for `` single-handedly gumming up the transition , as well as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hit the ground running on any issue , most notably the pandemic . ''
Referencing the GOP secretary of state who earlier this week revealed Sen. Lindsey Graham 's ( R-S.C. ) apparent election interference , Pierce added that `` if Murphy needs inspiration , she can call Brad Raffensperger down in Georgia , who 's taking unspeakable heat because he insists on Doing His Job . ''

With the coronavirus pandemic surging, over 140 leading U.S. health experts sent a message Thursday to the head of the General Services Administration, who is holding up the presidential transition despite President-elect Joe Biden's decisive defeat of President Donald Trump: Sign off on the election results to save American lives.
Under the Presidential Transition Act, GSA Administrator Emily Murphy—a Trump appointee—must "ascertain" that Biden won so that his team can access necessary resources. The new letter (pdf) to Murphy is signed by public health and medical school deans as well as other experts, researchers, and former officials.
"A seamless transition is necessary to ensure that the incoming administration is prepared to confront the Covid-19 pandemic from day one," said Dr. Peter G. Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which helped organize the letter. "Administrator Murphy must fulfill this responsibility immediately, as every extra day of delay can only add to the death toll."
As of Thursday afternoon, the U.S. continued to lead the world in Covid-19 cases and deaths, with more than 11.5 million and over 250,700, respectively.
Echoing Lurie, Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, warned, "The costs are clear: delays mean more Americans will suffer and die."
"Refusing to ascertain Biden as president-elect," he explained, "means the transition team must plan for a crisis response without access to essential information about vaccine development, the nation's supply chains for protective equipment and testing supplies, and coordination with federal, state, and local authorities."
Lurie and Carome's groups joined with the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School and Protect Democracy in organizing the letter, which also raises alarm about the "rapidly worsening" pandemic and makes clear to Murphy that American lives are on the line. As the letter puts it:
In light of the public health crisis facing the nation, it is imperative that you ascertain Joe Biden as president-elect immediately under the Presidential Transition Act. Doing so will enable the incoming Biden team to liaise with key health officials in the Trump administration and prepare a robust, coordinated response to the pandemic. That coordination is critical to the Biden team's ability to evaluate vaccine development and prepare plans for vaccine distribution and deployment; fully understand state and local capacity to test for, trace, and treat Covid-19; develop specific mitigation strategies for businesses, schools, and other gathering spots; assess the national production capacity and supply chains for essential medications, personal protective equipment, and other needed medical supplies and equipment; gauge hospital bed and intensive care unit capacity and staffing; and much more.
"With the pandemic worsening nationwide and only two months until the transition of power, every day the transition is delayed is a day the country cannot afford," the letter adds. "Ensuring a rapid and smooth transition will save American lives. We urge the GSA to make an ascertainment immediately and permit the formal transition process to begin."
Since election-callers and major news networks declared Biden the victor nearly two weeks ago—with a projected 306-232 Electoral College win over the current president—Trump has taken to Twitter and the nation's courts to spread baseless allegations of voter fraud and a "rigged election." In the face of the president's lies and lawsuits, Murphy has refused to sign off on the results.
Citing unnamed sources who know the GSA chief, CNNreported Wednesday that "Murphy is struggling with the weight of the presidential election being dropped on her shoulders, feeling like she's been put in a no-win situation." In response, Charlie Pierce wrote in a column for Esquire that "there is no better illustration of how deeply perverse is the Republican denial of the reality of the 2020 presidential election than this inexcusable whitewashing from CNN of the performance of Emily Murphy."
Pierce blasted Murphy for "single-handedly gumming up the transition, as well as the efforts by the gathering Biden administration to hit the ground running on any issue, most notably the pandemic." Referencing the GOP secretary of state who earlier this week revealed Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-S.C.) apparent election interference, Pierce added that "if Murphy needs inspiration, she can call Brad Raffensperger down in Georgia, who's taking unspeakable heat because he insists on Doing His Job."


alternet--2020-11-19--Survivor of the Jonestown Massacre compares Trump to Jim Jones: 'The rhetoric is so similar'

It was 42 years ago , on November 18 , 1978 , that cult leader Jim Jones encouraged a mass suicide in Guyana — where more than 900 of his followers died after drinking Flavor-Aid ( a drink similar to Kool-Aid ) that had been laced with poison .
KRON-TV in Northern California , on the 42nd anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre , discussed the tragedy with some of the survivors — and one of them compared Jones to President Donald Trump .
Jones ' cult , the People 's Temple , was founded in San Francisco , where he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him in a settlement he set up in the South American country of Guyana — and he named that settlement , Jonestown , after himself .
Yulanda Williams , a People 's Temple member , went to Jonestown with her husband and her one-year-old daughter .
Williams , who avoided the Jonestown Massacre , explained to KRON why Trump reminds her so much of Jones .
Williams told KRON , `` I sometimes listen to our commander in chief — he sounds so much ( like him ) , and the rhetoric is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But it is absolutely eerie for me , and I think that over 240,000 people have lost their lives due to COVID .
When we say Jonestown is the most tragic incident of a massacre of people , I say do n't forget about the commander in chief who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people . ''
Williams believes that Trump has a cult-like appeal — and she compares deaths from COVID-19 in the United States to the Jonestown Massacre .
Williams is n't the only one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Attorney Paul Morantz , reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic , made a Trump/Jones comparison in a scathing op-ed posted on his blog in July .
Morantz has first-hand experience with cult members : in 1978 , members of Synanon tried to kill the anti-cult attorney by placing a rattlesnake in his mailbox .
During the KRON interview , Williams recalled that after she arrived at Jonestown with members of her family , they were told to hand over their passports and their money .
`` My husband looked at me , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't say anything to each other but ( realized ) that a grave , grave mistake had been made , '' Williams recalled .
In 1977 , about a year before the Jonestown Massacre , Williams managed to convince Jones to let her family leave Jonestown .
Williams remembered , `` People are being malnourished .
People are being physically punished , verbally abused .
There was consistent brainwashing going on because all day long and all night long when you try to sleep , all you would hear was him on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Another People 's Temple member who lived to talk about the Jonestown Massacre was Pastor Hue Fortson .
About two months before the Massacre , Fortson was ordered to leave Jonestown and return to San Francisco .
But his wife and four-year-old son were not allowed to leave and died on November 18 , 1978 .
Fortson , 42 years later , told KRON , `` I felt like I was less than two cents .
I gave up on my parenting rights , I gave up on my husband rights .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person because I believe this man had a better plan than myself — and it took time , it took prayer .
It took me coming to a place of recognizing and realizing that I , like everybody else , I 'm important in this world .
I 'm not an accident . ''
Reports of abuses at Jonestown inspired the late Democratic Rep. Leo Ryan of California to fly to Guyana to investigate .
Ryan was killed on November 18 , 1978 , but not by drinking poisoned Flavor-Aid .
Rather , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a People 's Temple member — was gunned down by Jones ' followers at an airstrip in Port Kaituma , Guyana .
A Ryan aide , Democrat Jackie Speier , was shot five times during that ambush but survived .
Speier , who is now 70 , has been serving in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2008 and was reelected on November 3 .
The Jonestown Massacre was so horrifying that the expression `` drinking the Kool-Aid '' has come to mean blindly accepting bad information and not questioning it .

It was 42 years ago, on November 18, 1978, that cult leader Jim Jones encouraged a mass suicide in Guyana — where more than 900 of his followers died after drinking Flavor-Aid (a drink similar to Kool-Aid) that had been laced with poison. KRON-TV in Northern California, on the 42nd anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre, discussed the tragedy with some of the survivors — and one of them compared Jones to President Donald Trump.
Jones' cult, the People's Temple, was founded in San Francisco, where he persuaded hundreds of his followers to join him in a settlement he set up in the South American country of Guyana — and he named that settlement, Jonestown, after himself. Yulanda Williams, a People's Temple member, went to Jonestown with her husband and her one-year-old daughter. Williams, who avoided the Jonestown Massacre, explained to KRON why Trump reminds her so much of Jones.
Williams told KRON, "I sometimes listen to our commander in chief — he sounds so much (like him), and the rhetoric is so similar to that of Jim Jones. But it is absolutely eerie for me, and I think that over 240,000 people have lost their lives due to COVID. When we say Jonestown is the most tragic incident of a massacre of people, I say don't forget about the commander in chief who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people."
Williams believes that Trump has a cult-like appeal — and she compares deaths from COVID-19 in the United States to the Jonestown Massacre. Williams isn't the only one who has compared Trump to Jim Jones. Attorney Paul Morantz, reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic, made a Trump/Jones comparison in a scathing op-ed posted on his blog in July. Morantz has first-hand experience with cult members: in 1978, members of Synanon tried to kill the anti-cult attorney by placing a rattlesnake in his mailbox.
During the KRON interview, Williams recalled that after she arrived at Jonestown with members of her family, they were told to hand over their passports and their money.
"My husband looked at me, and I looked at him — we couldn't say anything to each other but (realized) that a grave, grave mistake had been made," Williams recalled.
In 1977, about a year before the Jonestown Massacre, Williams managed to convince Jones to let her family leave Jonestown.
Williams remembered, "People are being malnourished. People are being physically punished, verbally abused. There was consistent brainwashing going on because all day long and all night long when you try to sleep, all you would hear was him on the PA system yelling and screaming."
Another People's Temple member who lived to talk about the Jonestown Massacre was Pastor Hue Fortson. About two months before the Massacre, Fortson was ordered to leave Jonestown and return to San Francisco. But his wife and four-year-old son were not allowed to leave and died on November 18, 1978.
Fortson, 42 years later, told KRON, "I felt like I was less than two cents. I gave up on my parenting rights, I gave up on my husband rights. I gave up my rights just as a person because I believe this man had a better plan than myself — and it took time, it took prayer. It took me coming to a place of recognizing and realizing that I, like everybody else, I'm important in this world. I'm not an accident."
Reports of abuses at Jonestown inspired the late Democratic Rep. Leo Ryan of California to fly to Guyana to investigate. Ryan was killed on November 18, 1978, but not by drinking poisoned Flavor-Aid. Rather, Ryan — along with three journalists and a People's Temple member — was gunned down by Jones' followers at an airstrip in Port Kaituma, Guyana. A Ryan aide, Democrat Jackie Speier, was shot five times during that ambush but survived. Speier, who is now 70, has been serving in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2008 and was reelected on November 3.
The Jonestown Massacre was so horrifying that the expression "drinking the Kool-Aid" has come to mean blindly accepting bad information and not questioning it.


alternet--2020-11-19--Leaked White House docs reveal officials know the country is failing to manage the virus: report

With United States reporting more than 100,000 cases each day and the country 's death toll steadily approaching 2,000 a day , an internal White House task force report confirmed that there is an `` aggressive , unrelenting , broad community spread across the country , without evidence of improvement but , rather , further deterioration , '' according to The Guardian .
The report published notes that the White House task force documentation deemed current mitigation efforts `` inadequate . ''
The report also stresses the need for `` increased '' mitigation efforts .
In addition to the rising @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also confirmed that the United States reached an all-time pandemic peak of 79,000 hospitalizations .
The latest news about the internal White House report comes just days after Dr. Anthony Fauci , spoke at the Stat Summit healthcare conference where he expressed regret over not being more vocal about the dangerous of an accelerated spread of the coronavirus .
`` Deep down , perhaps I should 've been much more vocal about saying , 'We really absolutely got ta do that , ' '' Fauci said at the conference .
`` I said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I should have kept pushing the envelope on that .
`` It never became a reality because we never really had enough tests to do the tests that you had to do . ''
Fauci also said : `` Community spread does n't stop spontaneously unless you do something about it .
It is easier to stop when the level is relatively low .
The only way that you can get at community spread is that you need to test people who are without symptoms , in order to show what the degree @ @ @ @ @ @ @

With United States reporting more than 100,000 cases each day and the country's death toll steadily approaching 2,000 a day, an internal White House task force report confirmed that there is an "aggressive, unrelenting, broad community spread across the country, without evidence of improvement but, rather, further deterioration," according to The Guardian.
The report published notes that the White House task force documentation deemed current mitigation efforts "inadequate." The report also stresses the need for "increased" mitigation efforts.
In addition to the rising case numbers, the COVID Tracking Project also confirmed that the United States reached an all-time pandemic peak of 79,000 hospitalizations.
The latest news about the internal White House report comes just days after Dr. Anthony Fauci, spoke at the Stat Summit healthcare conference where he expressed regret over not being more vocal about the dangerous of an accelerated spread of the coronavirus.
"Deep down, perhaps I should've been much more vocal about saying, 'We really absolutely gotta do that,'" Fauci said at the conference. "I said it, it went nowhere and maybe I should have kept pushing the envelope on that.
"It never became a reality because we never really had enough tests to do the tests that you had to do."
Fauci also said: "Community spread doesn't stop spontaneously unless you do something about it. It is easier to stop when the level is relatively low. The only way that you can get at community spread is that you need to test people who are without symptoms, in order to show what the degree of penetrance of infection is."